"December." Greg looked up. They were seated at their favorite diner, waiting for Nick to arrive so they could order. Natalie's nose was in a menu, absentmindedly fingering the delicate gold ring on her left hand.

"What's December?"

"Well, it's the twelfth month of the year, and also when I'm getting married." She set the menu aside and beamed at him. "December twenty-first. The winter solstice, at sunset."

"You realize that that's only a little over a month away, right?" She nodded and lifted a hand to signal Nick as he walked in the door. He kissed her forehead before sliding in beside Greg, kissing him eagerly on the mouth.

"I am starved. Are you guys ready to order?" A frazzled waitress appeared to take their orders. "Ahh coffee." The Texan gulped down several grateful mouthfuls. "So what did I miss? Ya'll were talking when I got here."

"We set a date." Natalie said, her expression softening. "December twenty-first."

"That's like a month away."

"I know, but we're both ready to be married, and well… December has traditionally been a month of good things in my life. I think it's perfect." Nick looked at the sapphire that twinkled under the lights, and tried to imagine the wedding of the woman sitting across from him to the uptight lab tech he had hardly been able to tolerate only months before. Things certainly didn't turn out the way people would expect.

"Do you think you could call your parents Greg? And let them know? I plan on sending a formal invitation to them, but the sooner they know the date, the better."

"My parents?" Greg blinked. "You want my parents there?"

"Of course! I think of them as my family." Greg flushed with pleasure.

"Sure, I can call them."

"Thank you." She pushed her hot chocolate aside and got a sudden serious look on her face. "Now I have something to ask the two of you."

"Alright, go ahead." Nick took Greg's hand and looked at her patiently.

"Well, you see, I don't really have a…" she trailed off and cleared her throat before squaring her shoulders and beginning again. "I don't have a father anymore." Greg shifted uncomfortably. "But that fact aside, he wasn't the kind of father that I would have wanted around, as he would have only ruined the day for everyone." She took a deep breath. "What I'm trying to say is, well… You two mean the world to me, if Dave were sitting here with us I'd say that all of my favorite men were in this room." She stopped and laughed. "Wow, why can't I just ask? Will you guys give me away at the wedding?" They sat in surprised silence.

"Of course." Nick said after a few moments. He looked at Greg, who had a huge smile on his face.

"Of course we will." Greg said, agreeing. "Did you think we would say no?"

"Well, no, but you never can be too sure." She brightened. "So you guys don't mind wearing the violet tuxedos I picked out?" Nick cringed and Greg choked on a sip of coffee. "Just kidding! But I do need you guys to get some nice dress pants. Black, I'm going with the two of you to get shirts."

"Why? Don't you trust us to dress ourselves? We are gay you know." Greg teased.

"Oh shut up you big moe. I'm going with you because I'm being a terrible control freak when it comes to this wedding. I don't want anything too dressy, nothing black tie, and I also don't want it to feel like a backyard barbeque." She eyed them seriously. "No jeans. You can inform anyone that thinks they plan on attending in jeans." She said it so fiercely that Nick felt the need to defend himself.

"Why do you think anyone would show up in jeans? It's a wedding!"

"My parents had a shotgun wedding in front of a judge wearing jeans and tee shirts." She paused when the waitress arrived with their food. "I don't want it to be anything like that."

"I've known people that have had weddings like that, and they're just as nice."

"I'm not trying to sound like a bitch, I just don't want my wedding to been anything like the wedding my parents were forced into having. Dave's mother has found a very nice minister that is more than happy to perform the ceremony."

"What are you wearing?" Greg asked the question with a mouthful of chicken fingers. Natalie just smiled and took a dainty bite of chili.

"I have no idea. Sara, Catherine and I are going to look on Saturday."

She never would have admitted it, but Sara was terrified at the prospect of helping someone pick out their wedding dress. But Natalie was confident that between the three of them, they would find something beautiful.

"Shouldn't we be in a bridal shop?" She asked. Natalie shook her head.

"I don't believe in paying a college tuition for a dress. I know that we can find something totally great."

"Are you wearing white?"

"Yes. I was thinking of wearing another color, but Dave's mother would have kittens if I didn't wear white."

"Ohhh, tough mother-in-law?" Catherine asked, taking a pretty yellow sun dress of a rack to look at it.

"She's softening up I think. She adores her son, so I'm hoping maybe that means she begin to adore me as well."

"You never told me what you want me to wear." Sara said nervously.

"Don't look like I'm about to force feed you liver, I'm completely open to pretty much anything. I don't have a specific color in mind really, and as long as you don't look better than me, any dress is fair game." Sara laughed.

"I would never try to upstage the bride."

"Look at these shoes!" Natalie rushed over and picked up a pair of elegant gold sandals. Catherine looked over her shoulder.

"They kind of look Greek."

"I don't think the gladiators would have worn a heel like that."

"They're perfect," Natalie breathed. "We have to find a dress that will go with these."

After four long hours of searching and trying on, Natalie had a dress, shoes, and Sara had successfully found a dress that both her and Natalie loved. Catherine was very pleased with a pair of earrings she was sure would go with the outfit she planned to wear for the wedding.

"Ugh, I really don't want to try and get these back to the car." Sara collapsed on a bench outside the mall. Natalie laughed and set the bags down next to her.

"Poor Sara, I'll go get the car, you can just sit here and rest for a few minutes." Catherine handed over the keys and sat down.

"I don't know what's in that water you drink, but your energy is sickening. I'm exhausted."

"Aw Cath, I'll get the car, and then I'll take you guys out for dinner. It's the least I can do since you shopped with me all day."

"I'm not going to argue that point." Natalie walked away into the hot sun of the afternoon. She vaguely remembered where Catherine had parked when they arrived kept her eyes open. When she found it, she climbed in and gunned the engine, starting the air conditioning to try and cool the car down. She found her sunglasses in her purse and slid them on, and started to pull out of the parking space. Before she could get all the way out, horns started to blast, and people started to yell. She turned just in time to see the driver of the red Ford truck start to scream, and then she heard the sickening sound of breaking glass. And then, nothing.

Nick walked into the DNA lab holding a bag containing a condom found at a murder scene.

"We found this in the motel room. Warrick hopes we can find a match so maybe we'll have a suspect."

"Did you get any prints?" Greg asked, preparing to run the sample.

"Mostly belonging to the victim, and a ton of useless partials."

"What kind of killer leaves behind the condom?" Nick shrugged.

"Nothing really surprises me anymore, G. All we can do right now is hope that this was a really stupid murderer. If that turns out to be a dead end, we'll have to look into different scenarios."

"Shouldn't you be doing that anyway?" Nick flushed.

"Yeah, Warrick is questioning the family with Brass right now. I didn't have the energy to deal with any hysterical mothers today, so I hightailed it out of there with the evidence." Greg laughed.

"Lazy, lazy, lazy."

"Eh, shut up. If you hadn't been so demanding last night, I'd be fresh as a daisy right now."

"Don't blame it on me buster. You were perfectly agreeable with my wants and needs last night. I believe you even initiated round three." Their playful banter was interrupted by Grissom.

"Hey boss, what's up?" Nick's smile disappeared when he saw the look on the older man's face. It was pale, his eyes anxious.

"There's been an accident." He said quietly, his voice strained. "Natalie was in a car accident." Greg felt his legs go weak.

"What? When?" Nick demanded.

"About forty-five minutes ago. Sara and Catherine called an ambulance, Sara rode over with her. Catherine followed with one of the police on the scene.

"I need to see her." Greg shrugged out of his lab coat.

"How bad is it?" Grissom shook his head.

"Catherine wasn't sure when she called. I think she's being examined now."

"I'm not going to sit here and discuss this any more!" Greg yelled. "We need to leave NOW."

"Nick, go ahead and take him to the hospital." Grissom told him. "Don't let him drive." He added in his ear as they passed.

"Don't worry." As they passed Trace, Nick noticed that Hodges was already gone.