It wasn't the dim glow of the overhead light going out or the sudden chill that settled over the car that caused Shawn to wake up. It was the creaking groan of metal shifting against wood.

"Jules!" His hand shot out, flailing as he tried to reach his girlfriend in the front seat.

"I'm here, Shawn," she whispered, grabbing his hand, trying to listen to see if the car had stopped moving.

"How far did we shift?" Gus asked from Shawn's right, his voice just as quiet.

"It felt like two inches." Lassiter tried in vain to see out the windshield in the darkness.

"Why did the light go out?" Shawn wrapped his arms around himself, trying to keep warm in his thin jacket.

"I turned it out to conserve battery," Lassiter told him. "Who knows how long we'll be here."

Shawn glanced out the window, forgetting it was pitch black out. Then he was thankful for the darkness as he remembered that all he had to look at was a tree dotted hill with a swollen creek at the bottom. Lassiter's Ford Fusion was currently wedged between two of the trees. The highway was somewhere high above them. A passing car should notice the broken guard rail, but it was after ten on Christmas Eve; no one would be out this late.

"How's your head, Gus?" Juliet brought Shawn out of his thoughts.

Gus gingerly tested the makeshift bandage made from a handkerchief secured to the top of his head using Lassiter's tie. "I think it's stopped bleeding." He winced.

"Any cell phone reception?" Lassiter asked them all, pulling out his own cell phone to check.

"None," Shawn said glumly. "Whose idea was it to be out here anyway?"

"Yours," Gus said pointedly.

"Lassiter's." Juliet glared across the car in the darkness.

Lassiter harrumphed and mumbled something under his breath.

"The stakeout might have been Lassie's idea, but I could be at my parents' enjoying a mug of hot chocolate and picking Joy up tomorrow morning if it weren't for Shawn's insistence I come along." Gus crossed his arms.

"I wasn't planning on spending my night in a ravine either," Shawn protested. "How was I to know we'd spin out on some loose gravel and end up down here?"

"Aren't you psychic?" Lassiter grumbled.

"Carlton," Juliet scolded him. "You're the one who begged me to go all the way out to Goleta for a stakeout. I was planning on making pies tonight. Ewan is going to be home tomorrow." She sat back in her seat, willing herself not to tear up. Crying wouldn't solve anything.

Lassiter shot a glare into the backseat, not that Spencer could see him. This whole mess was Spencer's fault in the first place. Carlton had been all set to perform a routine stakeout for a few hours and then he'd bring O'Hara back to the station. He had planned on visiting Marlowe that night, but an impromptu brawl in the chow line had led to another week of solitary for his girlfriend. That meant another Christmas of haunting the station, glaring at everyone who asked him why he didn't have better things to do with himself.

It had been years since Lassiter had spent a Christmas away from the station. This year had been shaping up to be no different. The suspect he'd been staking out was a regular offender about this time of year. Bill Gentsch liked to scam people out of their Christmas layaways. He traded low quality drugs for their gifts and then resold the gifts for profit. That was enough to warrant a stakeout, right? He glanced over at O'Hara, thinking back to her reluctance that afternoon.

OoO OoO OoO

"Carlton, no! I'm not going on a stakeout with you." Juliet was holding her jacket, her purse was slung over her shoulder and her keys were in her hand. "I need to stop by the store for a few things and then I'm going home to make pie."

"It's your duty to be my partner and investigate this, O'Hara." Lassiter put on his 'It's your civic duty' voice, the same tone of voice he used when he wanted to get McNab to do things. "Plus, it's not like I can visit Marlowe..." He raised his coffee mug to take a sip, giving her a meaningful look over the rim.

Juliet gave a frustrated sigh and glanced at her watch. "How far away is it?"

"Only thirty miles." Lassiter immediately put the coffee back on his desk and grabbed his jacket. "I'll brief you on the way."

OoO OoO OoO

The coffee was still on his desk, Lassiter thought to himself. It would be stone cold at this point, much like the detective's hands. He cupped them together and blew into them, trying to encourage circulation.

"Spencer, I don't know how safe it is, but there's an emergency kit in my trunk." Lassiter broke the silence that had settled over the car. "There should be blankets and hand warmers in it."

"One problemo, Lassiface, I can't reach your trunk." Shawn's teeth were chattering now.

"There's a pull tab on the seat; it'll flip forward to give you access to the trunk." Lassiter had shoved his hands inside his overcoat, trying to warm them in his jacket.

"Do you think we should be moving that much back here?" Gus asked worriedly.

"I'm willing to risk it." Lassiter flipped on the overhead light again.

"If it means getting warmer I'm in, too." Juliet blinked against the sudden light.

Shawn looked over at Gus; his friend was looking pale and Shawn suddenly was all too aware of the blood-stained tie Lassiter would be complaining about for months.

The tab wasn't hard to find; the tricky part was climbing out of the way of the seat. Shawn moved slowly, pausing after each step, waiting for the tell tale sound of the car shifting. Finally he was standing awkwardly between the two front seats, hunched over as he pulled on the tab.

The seat flipped forward and Shawn inched forward to rummage around in Lassiter's trunk. He grabbed the first thing his hands came in contact with and pulled out a tupperware container.

"What's this?" He passed it to Lassiter in the front seat.

Lassiter frowned at the box and then realization hit him. "My neighbor gave me a thing of cookies to take to work and share last week. I guess I forgot them in there."

Juliet's stomach growled as food was mentioned. "I guess it's lucky you forgot them." She took the container from her partner but waited to open it as Shawn continued to look through the trunk.

"Aha!" Shawn pulled two emergency blankets out of the truck and a small first aid kit. He gently put the seat back in place and sat back down. He handed one blanket up to the front seat. The other blanket he spread over his legs and Gus'.

"Uh, Shawn," Gus murmured. "What are you doing? Grown men don't share blankets."

"They do when there's only two. How do you think I feel about the fact Juliet is sharing a blanket with Lassie?" Shawn started looking for a band-aid in the first aid kit. He glanced up to the front seat. "Hand check, you two."

"Cut the crap, Spencer," Lassiter snapped. He took the cookies back from Juliet and opened them up.

"Merry Christmas," Juliet said sadly, biting the head off a gingerbread man.

"Hey!" Shawn exclaimed.

"It's just a cookie, Spencer." Lassiter rolled his eyes.

"No, not that." Shawn held out the contents of the emergency kit. The box contained not only a first aid kit, but also a small flare gun.

"Why do you have a flare gun?" Juliet frowned at her partner.

"I'm not relying on some trucker with two names to give me a lift. You can see those puppies for miles," Lassiter defended himself.

"Flares are flares," Shawn was excited. "If we can light these up, maybe we can signal for help."

"One problem," Gus sighed. "It's a long hike up to the road and your side of the car is blocked."

Shawn glared out the window at the trees pressed against it. "What about your side?"

Gus tried to open the his door. It wouldn't open, despite being unlocked. "What gives, Lassiter?"

Lassiter glanced up from the piece of fudge he was examining for nuts. "Child locks," he shrugged.

"You don't drive any children around..." Shawn gave him a confused look.

"That is open to debate." Lassiter grumbled, earning himself a punch to the arm from his partner.

"Hand the cookies back this way." Gus reached his hand out for the food.

Shawn let Gus choose first. It was only fair since it had been mostly Shawn's fault his friend was stuck in this predicament.

Gus took a couple of the gingerbread men, meeting Shawn's gaze and accepting the apology that his friend wasn't saying. His head was starting to hurt again. He leaned back against the seat, wishing he could have put his foot down about not coming.

OoO OoO OoO OoO

Gus had driven Shawn to the station, because his friend insisted that he was supposed to help Juliet make pie that night.

"You know you just want to eat whipped cream and watch Charlie Brown on Juliet's super comfy couch," Gus reminded his friend as they waited in the station's entryway.

"I know," Shawn said indignantly.

Juliet came down the stairs, Lassiter trailing behind her with a casefile in his hands.

"Shawn, I have to run out on this stakeout with Carlton, then we can go home." Juliet gave Shawn a kiss on the cheek.

"You're going on a Christmas Eve stakeout?" Shawn gave Lassiter a disgusted look. "Christmas Eve is time to stretch your stomach in preparation for the next day's dinner."

"It's also the busiest shopping day of the year for men between the ages of 18-35," Gus chimed in.

"Nobody asked you, Encyclopedia Brown," Lassiter growled at Guster.

"That makes you Sally," Gus snickered at Shawn.

"Better than Bugs Meany over there." Shawn crossed his arms.

Lassiter rolled his eyes. "Out of the way, Spencer." He started to push past the duo.

"Hang on there, Lassie-grinch." Shawn held his ground. "If you're taking my sweet, awesome girlfriend away from me on Christmas Eve, then you have to take me along for the ride."

Gus watched as Lassiter turned three shades of red and then the detective growled out a "fine," before stalking past them.

"So... I'll see you on the 26th," Gus tried to make a quick exit.

"Not so fast!" Shawn threw an arm around Gus' shoulders. "Lassie can't separate you and me either. You're coming with us. You never know when we might need the super sniffer."

OoO OoO OoO OoO

Gus never seemed to be able to say no to Shawn. That's what had led to him sitting in the backseat of Lassiter's car, eating gingerbread men on Christmas Eve instead of being at home, drinking hot cider with his parents.

"What about Juliet's door?" Gus asked after a moment, realizing he wasn't the only one on that side of the car.

Juliet tried to open her own door and only managed to get it open a few inches. She instinctively kicked against it. The door didn't open any farther and everyone heard the telltale sound of metal against wood as the front end of the car moved farther down the hill.

Shawn and Gus chorused in a girly scream.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Lassiter yelled, bracing himself against the headrest of his seat and the steering wheel as if it would stop the car from moving.

"No more kicking!" Shawn shouted back.

"Relax!" Juliet was trying to will her adrenaline to slow down. Her heart was pounding. "We'll have to figure something out. The door must have gotten bent on the way down."

"I can shoot out the glass." Lassiter reached under his coat for his sidearm.

"Are you stupid?" Gus snapped. "None of us have the correct protection for you shooting that thing."

"This is a matter of survival, Guster; it isn't about having the correct protection," Lassiter snapped back, checking the safety on his gun.

"Gus, we can't just sit here and wait for help to come," Juliet pointed out.

"I know, but that doesn't mean we need to be shooting things." Gus crossed his arms.

Lassiter didn't like to admit it, but Guster was right. The glass would make a mess and with the luck they were having that night, a bullet would probably bounce off the door frame and hit someone.

Shawn took another cookie from the tin and munched on it. "I could climb out the window," he said after swallowing. "We can roll down the window back here and I can climb out. I'll take the road flares and my phone to the road and find help."

"Why are you going?" Lassiter immediately snatched up the flare gun. "I should go. I was driving; it's my responsibility."

"Lassie, please, we both know I'm the most flexible."

"I have videographic evidence of me being flexible!" Lassiter retorted. Everyone else in the car made a face. Lassiter gave a frustrated sigh and rolled his eyes. "From the night we were all drugged. I climbed out of the window of Guster's car."

"That's assuming we can even get the windows open," Juliet reminded him.

Lassiter turned the key in the ignition and rolled down the window beside her. "They open," he replied with a smug look on his face. He started to crawl over to her side of the car.

"Hey!" Juliet protested as he put an arm on the dashboard to steady himself. "Carlton, this is stupid."

"It'll be a tight fit, but you can move over to the driver's seat," he told her.

"Just don't touch the mirrors or move the seat forward. Lassie's picky about that." Shawn winked at her.

"I am not!" Lassiter protested.

"Are too," Shawn shot back. "Your front seat is five inches from the steering wheel."

Lassiter gave him a wary look and then sat back in his seat. He held out his hand to measure the distance. "It's actually seven," he said after a moment.

"It doesn't matter how far away it is," Gus snapped.

"Guster's right." Lassiter focused back on the matter at hand. "O'Hara, trade places with me."

"Carlton!" Juliet protested again as the detective once again tried to climb into her seat. Finally she resigned herself to moving across the car, both of them moving carefully so the car wouldn't move any further down the hill than it already had.

"Just hurry up; the window is letting cold air in." Shawn huddled back in the corner of his seat.

"I'll work on that." Lassiter put his hand on the door to steady himself.

Lassiter wasn't sure if it was the cold or the lack of food that made him slip, but slip he did. He landed face first in O'Hara's lap. The flare gun fired. Thankfully it went out the window, but not nearly as upward as everyone had been hoping.

In the sudden burst of light, Shawn saw that the car was resting against more trees. They probably weren't in danger of sliding any further.

Juliet helped Lassiter extricate himself from his awkward position and they all sat for a moment, trying to assess the situation.

"Spencer, look what you made me do," Lassiter growled.

"Me?" Shawn raised his eyebrows and gave a small laugh. "What, did I psychically push you?"

"Can we just stop it!" Gus had been silent for a very long time in the backseat. He had been trying to ignore the throbbing headache he had and ignore the fact his stomach was growling. "Christmas is supposed to be time to spend with friends and family and be merry. All we've done since we left the station is bicker and jab at each other."

Shawn immediately pointed at Lassiter. "It's all his fault!"

"Zip it," Lassiter growled again.

Gus sighed. "This is what I mean, Shawn. Can we just focus on getting out of here without killing each other?"

Shawn looked down at his hands. "You're right." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Truce, Lassie?"

"Truce," Lassiter agreed. "I'm sorry I dragged us all out here."

"I'm sorry I snapped at all of you," Juliet spoke up. "I haven't been the brightest ray of sunshine either."

"We could be a lot worse off than being stuck in the car with each other," Gus reminded them.

"Spencer," Lassiter gave a sigh of resignation. "Let's get out of here and climb up to the road. Maybe one of us will have cell reception."

"I'll let you fire the flare gun," Shawn promised.

"You're so benevolent." Lassiter rolled his eyes.

This time trading seats with Juliet went much more smoothly. Lassiter used his cell phone to light the ground as he waited for Spencer to climb out the window.

Shawn was halfway out the window as well when a bright light flooded the car.

"Hello?" Buzz McNab's voice reached them moments before the tall cop came into view. Misha, the German Shepherd from the K-9 unit was leading him right to the car.

"Buzz!" Shawn shouted, crawling the rest of the way out of the window.

"Shawn?" Buzz came closer, squinting to see in the dark."Detective Lassiter! Oh man, have we been looking everywhere for you!" Misha gave an excited bark. "Is Detective O'Hara with you? Chief Vick has just about every officer in the county out looking for you."

"I'm here, Buzz!" Juliet called from the car. "Gus is hurt; we need to get up to the road as soon as possible."

"I'm not that hurt!" Gus tumbled out of the car as Shawn opened his door.

"Don't forget the cookies!" Shawn reached in the car to grab the container.

Buzz helped Juliet through the window. "Boy, you guys are in good spirits. If I'd been stuck down here for hours and hours, I'd be so mad."

"I didn't know Buzz could even get mad," Shawn whispered to Gus.

"Spencer, give me those! My neighbor gave them for me to share, not give away." Lassiter took the cookies from Shawn and started climbing up the hill.

Shawn stuck close to Gus, helping him maneuver over the rocky parts. Juliet stayed close to Buzz, with Misha leading the way.

The climb took about ten minutes. Shawn realized just how far Lassiter's car had fallen from the road. It was a miracle none of them were hurt worse.

Buzz's patrol car was parked along the broken guard rail, lights flashing. Dobson's department issue was there as well.

"How did you guys even find us?" Juliet looked around at all the people. Dobson was on the radio, probably alerting the chief they'd been found. Another officer, Juliet thought her name was Black, was calling for an ambulance.

"To be honest, we were going to look for you in Goleta. Bill Gentsch's address was on Detective Lassiter's desk, but then we were driving by and saw the broken railing, then a flare went off and we decided to stop. We didn't know it would be you guys." Buzz was all smiles.

"We're glad you did," Juliet smiled back at him.

"Hopefully you guys can still have Christmas tomorrow." Buzz headed off to talk with Dobson about something.

"Speaking of Christmas," Gus pulled out his cell phone. "I'd better let my parents know where I am." He stepped off to the side to make his call.

Shawn slid an arm around Juliet's waist. "You might need to let your parents know they'll need to get pie." He gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Lassiter cleared his throat at the display of affection and crossed his arms.

Juliet gave Shawn a look and then turned to her partner. "Carlton, if you'd like, I know my parents would be more than welcome to have you over for dinner. There's going to be enough food to feed an army."

"Except for pie," Shawn added.

Lassiter looked taken aback for a moment. "I thought they didn't like me."

"They like you just fine," Juliet gave him a smile. "Dinner is at three."

"I'll be there early to make sure all the snowglobes are hidden." Shawn winked at him.

Lassiter opened his mouth to tell Spencer exactly where he could put his snowglobes, when Buzz came back over.

"The chief wants to talk to you on the radio," he told Lassiter.

"You said three?" Lassiter raised an eyebrow at Juliet.

"Three," she nodded.

Without a word Lassiter headed to the radio.

"Merry Christmas, Shawn," Juliet sighed.

"Merry Christmas," Shawn echoed. "I can't think of three people I would have rather spent seven hours trapped in a car with except Gus, Lassie and you."

"Me neither," Juliet agreed. "Just... let's not make this a tradition."

"Deal," Shawn laughed. "Now, what are we going to do about the pie?"