Disclaimers: as before.

Pure New Year fluff, as that seems to be the only thing I can write right now. I'm struggling a bit here, and I can hear the bindweeds growing around me (and have been wandering, sinfully, into a new fandom!) Please, oh dear, sweet quiet people, review, post, help me out!!! In cyberspace, can nobody hear me scream???

Thanks so much for the reviews - big Happy New Year hugs to Tanya Reed, Ivoryrose, Aryea and Lulu

Chapter 6

Sydney's hands were still cold and shaking when she clambered back into the car and laid them on the steering wheel. The storm had died down, and a crescent moon was peeping from behind nebulous, night clouds. A single, misted star had also pierced through the gloom.

'You want me to drive?' asked Nigel quietly, settling into the seat next to her.

'No,' replied Syd. 'I'm fine, I'm just…adjusting back, I guess. It's great to be able to touch again, to feel. It's just wonderful to be alive.' She paused, taking a deep breath. 'And with you.'

She turned to him, the ghost of a smile flickering on her lips. 'I'm sort of glad, you know. That this all happened. I wonder how long it would have taken to, uh, see through each other, without all that?'

'I don't know, and I'm glad we found out…but, it, um…' Nigel shifted awkwardly, pressing himself into the far-side of the seat. 'It doesn't have to change things. In fact, in some ways, I'd rather it didn't.'

'Why ever not?' Syd frowned slightly. 'I love you, you love me. We did before; we just hadn't, uh, come clean about it. Now we have. So nothing's changed…except maybe that we get to do this.'

Sydney leaned towards him, gleaming, dark-chocolate eyes saying more than words ever could. Then slender fingers reached out and cupped the back of her neck, pulling her closer, urging on that subliminal moment where their lips sealed together.

Nigel's mouth brushed against hers, parted slightly, bringing with it that same cherished warmth, that same feeling of one-ness she had experienced as a spirit…and so much more! She grasped the back of his hair, willing the kiss ever deeper. A tidal-wave of pleasure tingled through her frame; she relished that inevitable kick of excitement in the pit of her stomach.

It was wonderful, strangely familiar. And so much better with a body!

She was disappointed when they broke away. It was done purely through the need for oxygen.

'That was amazing,' she murmured.

'Sensational,' agreed Nigel, and then winced slightly, torn between his desire to return for more, and a niggling worry.

'Err, Syd. What are we going to do about leaving that house with our fingerprints all over it, and a dead-body? Well, a couple of dead-bodies, actually, though how the police missed the skeleton under the bed before, God only knows!'

'Don't worry, we'll sort it out. I'll call Derek or Cate: somebody who knows what we deal with, and who can clear up. And won't it be great that we can get Banasidol's scroll back to the temple where it belongs?'

'Yes, but what are we going to do with King Ethelbert's horrific book?' Nigel shot a wary glance towards where the volume rested on the backseat, wrapped in a decaying bed-sheet. On the other side, the little black cat, which had followed them to the car, was curled up fast asleep - Mafdet was going to have to learn to get along with a new companion!

'I don't know yet,' confessed Syd. 'But I'll think of something…maybe that's one relic that shouldn't be passed on any further through the ages – at least not out of a high-security museum!'

Nigel started as Syd's fingertips, cool yet silly-soft, skimmed across his cheek. 'But right now, I've got far more pressing matters. We've got a Christmas to celebrate, remember?'

He captured her fingers in his own and, feeling rather audacious, pressed them against his lips. It was more than enough of an answer.

Syd turned the keys in the ignition and drove off into the night.

They didn't say much. They listened to tacky Christmas songs. Yet neither of them had a doubt in their minds that this would turn in to the most wonderful Christmas ever – and the most exciting New Year.

Thanks for reading. There might be more of this, if I am inspired to write New Years Day fluff! Anyone interested?