Chapter 25:

A/N: It is SNOWING. SNOWING! Hah! This makes me so much happier to write this now! Yay! Snow! Hah. I am happy, and extremely cold. I need to go shopping now. But snow equals Christmas (even though it isn't even Halloween yet!) and this is a Christmas story so now I am much more in the mood! And thank you for the reviews they were appreciated!

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"Wow!" Calleigh exclaimed as they walked into the dining room. "Everything was so nice before, but this is just so…"

"Christmas-esque." Eric filled in with a smile, for it was beautifully elegant décor, and he loved seeing Calleigh excited.

"I love it!" Calleigh declared as they made their way to a table. Tonight, instead of sitting with Lena and Eli, who waved but were far too busy with their children since kids did tend to get extremely wound up, well more so than usual, on Christmas Eve, they made their way over to a table beside Hanna and Daryl who smiled as they approached.

"You two look fabulous!" Hanna exclaimed, standing up to give Calleigh a hug.

"Thanks!" Calleigh beamed. This was the first Christmas in a long time she could remember where she was this happy. It was the first time period in a while, actually. "You look great too!"

"Thanks." Hanna smiled. "You remember Daryl, right?"

"Of course." Eric nodded. "How's your weekend been going?" He asked as Calleigh and him sit down at the table, pulling out the menus to decide what to order.

"It's been wonderful." Hanna answered, the huge smile never leaving her face.

"Yeah." Daryl nodded, "The dance couldn't have worked out better for us."

"That's great!" Calleigh smiled, Eric nodding in agreement.

"What about you?" Hanna asked. "How's your weekend been going?" Calleigh glanced over at Eric before answering with a bright smile,

"Perfect. We're officially a couple." Eric smile matched hers in brightness now.

"Wow." Hanna laughed. "I'm happy for you guys… I still don't believe you weren't a couple before this weekend though."

"We would have been if we were better with communicating our feelings." Eric shrugged, the smile never leaving his face.

"Yeah. Good thing Daryl and I are good at doing that." Hanna smiled, giving Daryl a peck on the cheek.

"And good thing you had lots of alcohol in your system." Calleigh gave them an over exaggerated wink.

"Shut up." Hanna laughed playfully.

"All right girls," Eric smiled. He loved seeing this side of Calleigh. "Let's order."

"May I get you drinks to start?" The waiter asked. "Or perhaps an entrée?" The four ordered drinks and decided to save their hunger for the actual meal, and of course, dessert.

"So are you two ballroom dancing tonight?" Eric asked.

"We're going to try." Daryl answered. "I was forced to ballroom dance once by an ex-girlfriend… but for Hanna, I'll try again."

"So charming." Hanna rolled her eyes with a light smile. "And I haven't ballroom danced since,"

"Cotillion." Calleigh sighed. Hanna winced slightly, and Daryl just looked lost.

"Don't ask." Eric mouthed across to him, not wanting Calleigh to have to endure the pain she'd already endured once that weekend. Daryl just nodded slightly smiled uneasily writing it off as a girl thing.

"We'll have fun tonight." Hanna smiled brightly again. "Make new memories to forget the old ones."

"Right." Eric nodded eagerly. Anything to make Calleigh feel better.

"We can make ballroom dancing fun." Daryl nodded confidently.

"You so don't want to do this." Hanna laughed.

"But I'm trying. I have to get credit for that right?" He replied with a laugh of his own.

"I have to go to the bathroom." Calleigh declared, standing up.

"I'm coming with you." Hanna stood up quickly, grabbing her purse. The two girls headed off towards the bathrooms.

"Girls." Daryl shook his head. Eric just smiled in agreement.

"They're something." He laughed.

"Yeah. I can't believe how lucky I am to have met Hanna." Daryl sighed. "At first, I thought I'd really hit it off with Calleigh… but she was obviously in love with you."

"I can't believe my luck." Eric smiled in agreement. "It's kind of funny, if you think about it, how I was dancing with Hanna and you were dancing with Calleigh to begin with."

"Yeah. That's how things work, I guess." Daryl shrugged. "But it is funny."

"Yeah." Eric nodded. "So what kind of work do you do?"

"I'm an architect." Daryl answered. "You and Calleigh are cops, right?"

"Being an architect would be cool." Eric commented. "We're CSIs, so we're not really cops, but more scientist cops."

"That's really cool." Daryl replied. "Do you get to use guns?"

"That's what everyone asks." Eric laughed. "Yeah, well we carry. Sometimes we use them. Guns are Calleigh's specialty. I'm pretty sure the ballistics lab is her second home. She's probably there more than her apartment."

"That's hot." Daryl smirked. "Sorry."

"It is." Eric agreed with a chuckle. "So it's fine. What does Hanna do?"

"She's actually a fashion designer." Daryl answered with a faraway look. "Since her works so adaptive, and she's her own boss, she's actually coming down to stay with me for a few days at least after we leave here."

"Wow. So you two really hit it off then." Eric didn't realize how serious the newfound couple was.

"Yeah. It's amazing, really." Daryl continued, still with his dreamy expression. "You and Calleigh should come visit me sometime. Hopefully Hanna will like it there and stay for a long while."

"Where is there?" Eric wondered.

"Southern California." Daryl answered.

"Nice." Eric commented. "We're in Miami."

"Must be difficult to be CSIs there." Daryl noted.

"Yeah. We see some strange things." Eric shrugged. "But I love my job."

"Yeah. Me too." Daryl nodded.

"We're back." Calleigh smiled, sitting back down at the table, followed by Hanna.

"Did you have a good girl talk?" Eric asked.

"Yeah." Hanna nodded, "Did you have good guy talk?"

"Guy talk?" Daryl raised an eyebrow.

"Well you had to have talked about something!" Calleigh shrugged.

"Yeah." Eric nodded.

"Girls." Daryl shook his head, making Eric chuckle, and Calleigh and Hanna glance at each other with slightly puzzled expressions.

"Boys." Hanna shook her head. It was going to be an interesting night.

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A/N: I don't care for this chapter much. But I wanted to post something hah. But that's okay. Yup! Oh! Halloween IN NINE DAYS. I actually am fairly excited. Which is funny cause I don't even know what I'm doing. Okay. Please review!!