Susan put her hands on her hips and gave her son a steely glare.
"The baby was hungry?" she repeated.
"Yeah. I'm sorry about that Susan." Calleigh drawled, appearing behind Tim, She slid an arm around his waist and gave her mother-in-law a sweet smile. "I was hungry and normally I don't eat cake. Too fattening you know but the baby was craving it. I asked Tim to cut a piece but it was so good that I ended up eating a lot of it."
"You ate a whole cake by yourself Calleigh?"
"Well no. Tim ate half of it."
"Can we please open presents?"
Tim expected that to come from one of the triplets, but to his surprise it was his little brother.
"Yes now that I've caught the culprits." Susan said, brushing past the couple. Calleigh winked at Tim and he smiled, pulling her into the living room. As they sat for the next few hours, distributing presents, no one saw the figure hiding behind the tree, watching the family intently.
--------S/C-------
Tim groaned as Nicky tripped him, forcing him to land in a large snowbank. Calleigh laughed loudly at him as he sat up and shook snow out of his hair.
"He was pretty upset last night huh?" Maggie said. Calleigh nodded.
"He was scared he could've hurt Danny."
"Well, he was just being cautious. What if it hadn't been Danny?"
"Yeah." Calleigh agreed. "You okay?"
"Yeah. I just... I would like to get out of here soon. All of this CSI stuff is freaking me out. How do you guys deal with that on a daily basis?" Maggie asked.
"You get used to it after a while. It's never easy but... we move on I guess."
"Oh. Well I guess it's not just the CSI aspect. I'm scared about everything. These people were our age and... I guess I just worry that we might be next."
"Do you and your brother share a brain?" Calleigh asked, making her sister-in-law laugh. "Or are all the Speedles this pessimistic?"
"Are you always this optimistic?"
"On my job Maggie, I learn that everyday could be my last so I don't let things bug me. But yes I am worried as well. But we'll both be gone tomorrow morning so it'll be okay."
"At least we think."
"You've been hanging around with Tim too much." Calleigh said, standing up as the triplets ran past her. She brushed her ass off and walked towards her husband. "What's on your mind Yankee?"
"Not much. Just how twenty-four hours ago, this was all insane with the blizzard. Now it's so calm."
"Mmm." Calleigh nodded, bending down slightly. Tim was so lost in thought he didn't see his wife grabbing a handful of snow, at least not until it was too late.
"Baby, you wouldn't."
"Do what?"
"Throw that at me."
"Well it hadn't crossed my mind." Calleigh said innocently, walking closer to Tim. He slowly backed up into a tree and realized he had nowhere to go. "Why would I do that?"
"Oh I don't know. Because you love torturing me."
"Darlin', if I wanted to torture you, I'd do something way worse than hitting you with snow."
Tim smiled and leaned over, kissing her softly. She sighed into his mouth and somehow, they ended up laying in the snow, Calleigh on top of Tim, their kisses slow and sensuous. Tim didn't care, nothing could ruin this right now, not even his mother's incessant yells, or the triplets' whining, nothing. But something did. And it wasn't him that pulled away, but Calleigh.
"Did you hear that?" she asked.
"Hear what?" Tim's mind was clouded at the moment and he was having trouble processing a lot.
"Sounded like someone walking or something."
Tim shook his head.
"I didn't hear anything baby."
"See, now you've got me all... jittery." Calleigh smiled.
"Sorry." Tim brushed a lock of hair out of Calleigh's face and squirmed under her.
"What?"
"Nothing. My ass is going to be a block of ice soon."
Calleigh laughed. Even in the most tense moments, Tim could always find someway to make her laugh.
"We can go inside." she said.
"Okay. I don't want you catching a cold anyway." Tim rubbed Calleigh's back through the warm fabric of her coat.
"Well I don't want your ass turning into a block of ice. That won't be good. I like your ass. It's cute."
"Yours ain't so bad either." Tim grinned, his hands moving off of Calleigh's back and going south. Calleigh smiled and stood up, then held a hand down to her husband. He accepted it and stood up. They walked towards the house and Calleigh entered, but stopped seeing Tim wasn't following her.
"You comin'?" she drawled.
"Yeah. In a minute." Tim replied. Calleigh shrugged and closed the door behind her. Tim turned around and headed towards the street. He looked around and shook his head. There was nothing there. Tim headed towards the door again but heard the gate slam shut. He narrowed his eyes and headed towards the gate, opening it quietly. Tim reached behind him and grabbed the gun out of the waistband of his jeans. He looked around and again, didn't see anything. Suddenly a fist flung out, hitting Tim in the jaw. He stumbled back, bringing a hand up to his now bruised face. He looked up and saw a man, around his age, standing a few feet away.
"What do you want?" he growled.
"What do I want?" Tim looked at him incredulously. "Dude, you're in my backyard."
His hand drifted to his hip, going to grab his cell phone when the man stopped him.
"Don't even think of calling that detective." he said.
"Okay. Why don't you tell me what your name is?"
"John."
"Okay John, tell me what you want."
He looked around, almost as though he were scared of Tim.
"You're the one that's been killing off my neighbors. Aren't you?"
"I didn't mean to. They're... they're just so... rich. I wanted their lives. I wanted their money, their power."
"Tim?"
He glanced behind him, hearing Calleigh calling him from the front of the house.
"That's your wife isn't it?" John asked. "She's pretty."
"Leave her alone." Tim warned, edging towards the gate.
"No! You have to stay here." John grabbed a gun from inside his jacket and Tim froze.
"They'll hear the shots go off." he said, trying to distract John. He had him distracted enough and quickly dialed 9-1-1. They'd trace the call and find him here, hopefully before he was dead.
---------S/C---------
Calleigh finally got fed up with waiting for Tim and started searching the yard for him.
"...it down." she heard Tim's voice from near the back of the house and, in curiosity, walked towards the gate.
"No." another voice said and Calleigh felt her heart begin to race. She fumbled for her cell phone in her pocket and pulled out Det. Harmon's card. She quickly dialed the number and waited.
"Hello?" a female voice laughed, a lot of noise in the background.
"Um. Hi. I'm so sorry to bug but is Sam Harmon there?"
"Sam? Yeah hold on."
Calleigh waited for a second, then another voice came on.
"Hello?"
"Det. Harmon! It's Calleigh Speedle. You've gotten to know my husband, Tim over these murders..."
"Yeah Mrs. Speedle... uh... it's Christmas."
"Yeah I know. I'm sorry to bug you but... a lot of weird things have been going and my husband is now being cornered by someone in our backyard. I think it's the murderer."
"Okay. I'll be there quickly. Don't go back there, whatever you hear."
----------S/C--------
"I'll be going to find that pretty wife of yours now." John said. "Have some fun, ya know. But I'll get rid of you first."
Tim dove out of the way as John fired the gun at him. Again, John shot the gun off, narrowly missing Tim's arm. Soon Tim knew that John only had one bullet left, so he dove behind a tree, getting himself composed and making sure the Smith and Wesson was loaded. Tim peeked out from behind the tree and headed towards the gate again. He aimed the gun in front of him, then froze.
"Now you're not supposed to shoot her. I am." John grinned evilly, holding Calleigh tightly.
--------S/C--------
A/N: Next chapter will be half the last chapter and half the epilogue.