Disclaimer: I don't own them, I didn't create them, and I don't profit from them, but as always, I'd love to buy a cup of coffee for George and Jorja, but seeing as how it's New Years, let's make it champagne!

Author's Note: This is a gift for all of my faithful readers out there. Thanks for taking the time to read my stories. I wish you all a Happy New Year and encourage you to be thankful for what you have as you lift up prayers and do what you can to tangibly help the people of Asia.

How I ended up there I'm not exactly sure, but here it was New Year's Eve and I was sitting outside of Nick Stokes' house in my car desperately needing a friend and hoping that he would be home and not at some party or club with his friends. I hadn't seen much of him outside of work since our team had been split up and lately for me things had gone from not great to even worse, at least on a personal level.

Professionally I seemed to be on an upswing, but I felt like I was dying inside. I had nothing outside of work and as I looked around at the people that I worked with I realized that I needed more. I couldn't afford to end up like Grissom; so absorbed in my work that I missed out on living a real life. It took being forced to see a counselor and some extended time off from work to see that the road I was headed down would slowly chip away at who I was until nothing remained. I could not change Grissom and I was ok with that now, but there was a still a pang of loneliness in me that wondered why I was still alone. And this night of all nights I felt it most keenly.

I slipped out of my car and made my way slowly to Nick's door and as I approached I heard music and reasoned that of course Nick would be up, it was New Year's Eve after all. What I hadn't counted on was one of his frat brothers answering the door and finding that it seemed everyone Nick knew within sixty miles was inside of his house. In fact the only face I recognized was Warrick's and I wondered to myself why he was there when I knew that he wanted to be with Catherine.

Part of me wanted to just bolt out of that house, I mean, I wasn't invited and the last thing I wanted was to crash a party where I wasn't wanted especially since I suddenly felt like I was on the verge of tears. Warrick, however, had other ideas. With a big grin on his face, he propelled me through the crowded living room and pushed me into the kitchen where Nick seemed to be chatting up some blond that I didn't recognize.

"Look who I found." Warrick's tone was playful as he broke into Nick's conversation with the aforementioned blond.

Nick looked up and I want to believe that his smile widened when he saw me, but then I noticed an imperceptible sag in his expression and I knew that he knew that I wasn't ok. "Sara, I thought you'd be working. I'm glad you're here."

I wasn't sure that I believed him. I wanted to believe him, but at that moment I just wanted to run back to the safety and solitude of my car.

Nick glanced at Warrick and then gestured with his eyes at the blond as he stepped towards me and smiled. "Come with me, I want to show you something."

Warrick seemed to pick up the conversation with the blond right where Nick left off and he and I walked down his hallway towards his back door. We stepped outside into his backyard, the stars in the cool desert night twinkling down at us. I could see that concern was evident on his face as he turned to face me in the moonlight. "Sara, what's going on?"

It was the touch on my arm and that look of genuine concern in his eyes that caused the tears to start falling. I didn't really have any words to say; I hadn't prepared a speech when I'd come over. I just needed my friend and seeing how many friends he had just made me feel that much more alone.

"Hey." His voice was a soft whisper; the sound of people laughing and music filtering from inside the house as he put his arms around me and held me against his chest. "It's ok."

I hadn't realized how much I missed seeing him every night at work and how much I missed the friendly competition we had that caused us to work harder to see which of us would break a case wide open. I missed grabbing breakfast after shift and listening to him sing along to the radio really badly in his Denali as we drove to a crime scene. And I hadn't counted on the fact that my heart missed him far more than my head cared to acknowledge.

I'm not sure how long we stood like that, but I finally pulled out of his embrace and looked up at him feeling a deep sadness. "I'm sorry." My voice was barely a whisper.

Nick reached out and brushed my hair away from my face looking at me in a way I don't think I'd ever seen him look at me before. "What do you have to be sorry for?"

"I didn't mean to crash your party." I let out what I hoped sounded like a laugh, but I think it was really more of a sniffle. "I just wanted, I needed..." I looked up in his eyes and I felt like he could see into my soul. "I just needed a friend; I needed you."

He smiled at me. "You have me." There was such acceptance in his expression that I couldn't doubt that he meant exactly what he said.

I was suddenly aware that there was still a party going on and he was the host. I nervously glanced away from him. "Your party."

He stepped towards me. "They probably don't even know I'm not in there." He reached out and touched my cheek. "Besides, I'd rather be with you."

I'm not sure why, but that started me crying all over again and I found myself in Nick's embrace again and I could feel him kissing the top of my head as he held me. There was just something about this that I didn't want to let go of and as I stood there in his arms I realized something that to me was a huge revelation. I needed Nick, but it wasn't just his friendship that I wanted any more.

When I pulled away and looked up at him again, I think he could tell what I was thinking and I was surprised to find the very same thing reflected in his eyes, so it really came as no surprise to me to feel his lips against mine as my eyes fluttered shut. Somewhere in all of that, I must have slid my arms around his neck because neither one of us seemed to want to stop kissing the other as we stood there holding each other in the middle of his backyard.

It wasn't until I heard Warrick's voice that Nick and I broke apart, both of us a bit breathless. "I guess we'll do the toast without you since you seem to be a little busy." There was a distinct smirk on his face as if he'd been privy to something that neither one of us had been.

Nick reached out and took my hand and it was then that I noticed the grin on his face as he looked at Warrick. "We'll be there in a couple of minutes." He glanced over at me and suddenly the pieces slid together; Nick had had a thing for me for a while, and it seemed that the only one that hadn't known this was me. "I don't want to miss that midnight kiss."

Warrick just laughed and shook his head as he went back inside. I could have sworn that he muttered something under his breath that sounded like 'it's about time'.

I turned to Nick with a curious expression. "Why didn't you ever tell me?" I knew that he knew what I was talking about.

His expression was sincere. "I wasn't sure you'd be receptive to the idea."

"Because of Grissom?" I knew that my holding onto my feelings for Grissom long after there was any reason to had cost me many things. It had almost cost me myself, and had colored my view of the world in many ways.

Nick nodded. "Yeah." He reached over and tucked my hair behind my ear in a nervous gesture. "He really missed out."

"I almost missed this." I felt a smile tugging at my lips. I didn't want Grissom. He was my supervisor and he had been my mentor and maybe again in the future, he might be my friend again. But right before me was a man that had always been real with me and had freely offered his friendship and now was offering me his heart.

"We should go inside." Nick gestured towards the house and I suddenly realized that it wasn't exactly warm outside. The desert in the winter could make you cold to the bone. He reached over and took my hand again leading me into his house.

I had expected that Nick's friends would regard me oddly; holding onto Nick's hand like that, but they were caught up in the celebration and champagne was being passed around for a midnight toast which was just moments away.

And then we were counting down the final minutes of the year, clinking glasses and then as shouts of 'Happy New Year!' resounded, Nick softly kissed me. And as he pulled away, his eyes looked into mine and he smiled as he whispered something only I could hear. "You wouldn't have missed this, Sara. I would have waited for you."

The End