A/N: Well, my love life's been rather not good these past weeks, so therefore there will be romance in this next chapter (lucky you!) nothing explicit or too developed, I promise, but something to take my mind off my current single state. Also, I seemed to have missed Thanksgiving, so I'm going to mention it in passing and go to Christmas (I'm listening to Now Christmas I right now :-D)

Disclaimer: If I owned 7th Heaven, I'd be in Paris shopping (and guy searching sigh) right now.

Exactly one week later, the girls heard from every place, 4 negative and 6 positive. Willow's Boutique accepted them, and they readily accepted. The job started the next day, and needless to say none of the three girls got much sleep that night. However, they had nothing to worry about. Christina treated them all like her own children, since, as they found out, she didn't have any.

The trio kept busy, and pretty soon Thanksgiving came and went. Ruthie didn't say anything, but Thanksgiving was tough for her. Kayla and Maria acted a little odd around that time too, but they didn't bring it up so she left the subject be. She spent the day helping out at the local homeless shelter, which she knew her family would have wanted her to do.

Before she new it, school was out for Christmas break, there was a prediction of snow on the radio, and Willow's Boutique was getting a new order of clothes (the first for the trio), as well as a new soundtrack of Christmas songs. It was about 9 o'clock that night when Christina announced her nephew, who offered to help restock the shelves, was there, and it was time to close up and reorganize the store. Ruthie yawned and stepped out from behind the cash register. Her eyes widened as a tall boy, maybe a year older than her, with dark hair, dark eyes, and tanned skin walked through the door, having to stoop a little because of his height.

"Hey Aunt Christina," the boy said, grinning. He didn't have time to continue, as Christina had rushed to him, crushed him in a huge hug, and bombarded him with a dozen questions about his health, grades, friends, nourishment, and general wellbeing, in true aunt fashion.

When Christina had finally released the boy, whose name they deduced from her questions to be Patrick, she finally realized there were three other people in the room, and introduced them to Patrick, who greeted each of them in turn. When he smiled at Ruthie, she swore her heart could be heard beating in Japan.

Christina ordered pizza and turned the radio on to a Christmas station, and the crew got to work. They all gasped, sighed, oohed, and aahed at various articles of clothing. Ruthie had more fun than she had for a long time. Kayla soon started lecturing them on the fact that no radio stations played Hanukkah music, which Ruthie had actually wondered about. Somehow, that developed into a good-natured debate on the moral value of Barbies. Ruthie, having never had a Barbie, fell silent. She noticed Patrick was silent as well, she assumed that it was because he had also never had a Barbie. He stood up and walked over to a display and motioned for her to follow him.

"Hey," he said, smiling.

Ruthie smiled back responding with "Hey."

"Want to take a walk?" Patrick asked.

"Sure, let me get my coat." Ruthie grinned, grabbing her coat as Patrick told his aunt where they were going. They stepped outside, a shock of air hitting them.

They made small talk for awhile, talking about little things. It turned out they knew more about each other than they thought, Christina had often mentioned them to the other in passing. This lasted about 15 minutes before they fell into a comfortable silence.

"How long have you been working there?" Patrick asked, snapping Ruthie out of her daydream.

"Sorry?" Ruthie asked, blushing.

Patrick grinned. "How long have you been working there?"

"Oh. About 5 weeks," Ruthie replied, "I've already fell in love with it though."

"It's a cute little place," Patrick agreed. "Aunt Christina apparently always wanted a little trendy boutique. I guess she got her wish. She's lucky."

"Yeah, she is. She seems to really love it."

"What about you? What's your story?" Patrick questioned.

"Not so good, but let's not get into that. What about you? Do you live near here?" Ruthie asked, brushing off the question.

Patrick frowned a little at Ruthie's evasion of the question, but replied quickly, "I live near Newbury Street. My dad's a pretty successful doctor, so we have a rather nice."

Ruthie grinned at the thought of living near so many wonderful shops. "You're so lucky! That must be so awesome! You must love that!"

"But right now, there's something I like even more," Patrick whispered, leaning down and lightly kissed her. Ruthie gasped, grinned, and kissed back. A/N: They did talk while stocking the shelves, so they did know each other. Patrick is not "fast" or taking advantage of her, and Ruthie is not rushing in to things. He knows a lot about her, just not her background, and vice-versa, except Ruthie knows his background. They soon realized just how cold it was to stand in one spot not moving, and decided to head back to the boutique, his arm draped around her shoulder.

"Ruthie?"

"Mmhm?"

"Would you like to go out with me, like as my girlfriend?"

Ruthie grinned. "Sure."

Patrick grinned. "Sweet. Well, we're here, I guess we should head in."

Ruthie nodded and they headed in.

Now, Christina is a smart woman, and wise beyond her years, at least when it comes to romance. So when her nephew arrives with his arm around her shoulder after being on a walk for about 45 minutes, you can bet she knew EXACTLY what happened during those 45 minutes. 5 squeals, 3 hugs, and 10 congratulations later, Kayla, Maria, and Christina had expressed their acceptance of this new romance. Giggling like mad, Maria, Kayla, and Maria headed home.

That night, Ruthie dreamed of tall men dangling winking at her and Christina crying because she had won the lottery, which turned out to be fake, with little pictures of mansions on the back and Patrick on the front, with "In Newbury Street We Trust" on it.

The Camden household was getting down-right morbid. Sure, a fake cheerful pretense was put on, but Mrs. Camden hadn't been cleaning as much, and Mr. Camden hadn't raked the leaves. The door needed to be fixed, and doorbell was jammed. Whenever a child walked by, Mrs. Camden would burst into tears, blaming it on allergies, while Mr. Camden would get deathly silent. Thanksgiving was awkward, no one wanted to blame anyone or even bring it up, so it was very stiff and formal. Without Ruthie, nothing was the same…

The police station was tense. Christmas bonus time. Officer Michaels knew what was coming—

"OFFICER MICHAELS!"

Yup, there it was. He trudged into the office, head down, feet dragging- actually he looked like the little kid sent to the principal's office. Ironic, huh? He's now fighting against a girl that did just that. Funny how life works out.

"Officer Michaels, how come you haven't gotten that ..er...Camden… girl back yet?"

"Well, you see sir, it turns out there's a few loop holes that mean she can stay in that housein Boston as long as she wants." Officer Michaels cringed.

"THEN FIND OTHER LOOPHOLES!!! HONESTLY MAN!! Is there ANY good news in the case?"

"Well, Officer Sasase is helping me with it…?" Officer Michael hoped…prayed. And—

"You've got Officer Sasase on it? There is a God! There is hope! All right. Oh yes. You have a…$100 dollar Christmas bonus. Merry Christmas!" Officer Michael's boss said cheerfully, "Officer Sasase! Ahh, what a good officer!"

Officer Michael's trudged back out of the office. He had a Christmas bonus, and he had kept his job. He sat down at his desk He dialed those 10 fateful numbers…

"Officer Sasase? It's Detective Michaels…"

A/N: There you have it! The next chapter! Please review. Constructive Criticism very much appreciated. Also: I was thinking of writing a Harry Potter story about Ron/Hermione. Anyone think I should/shouldn't? Merry Christmas! Happy (late) Hanukkah! Happy Kwanza! (Sorry if I spelled those wrongs, if I did, I'm extremely sorry and embarrassed, I should be more cultured)