Jesus Christ, school is kicking my ass. BUT I'm almost done. I have the next five mapped out. Joys for finally finishing this to my ever faithful readers, DerekRiffchynsAssistant and My Good Little Jewish Wife. I was extremely inspired by "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon for this piece. I would think of something clever to say, but I don't want to. Oh and uh, My Good Little Jewish Wife and I are going to do wardrobe for Togo this upcoming season. WTF wardrobe crew, WTF?! xM.

Maxine Valera was definitely surprised to see him standing there, nervously fiddling with his tie. She knew he'd gotten his job back just two weeks ago, but she wasn't sure that her co-worker would willingly submit himself to the awkwardness of a holiday party. Ryan had gotten himself into one hell of a mess, that was for sure, but Valera was never one to pass judgment, even when she heard about how deeply in debt Ryan was. Even though she was the resident gossip, Valera didn't feel right whispering about his debt, his TV appearances, Erica Sykes or his job at the gun range. Ryan had always been nice to the DNA tech and she figured she at the very least, owed him that much.

He had no clue why he was here and from the looks and the very obvious whispers in his direction, neither did his coworkers. Ryan Wolfe fidgeted with his tie again. He wanted to go home and sleep, but he knew that if he did, the whispers would be just as bad, if not worse, on Monday. Ryan scanned the crowd, looking for a friendly face. Eric was standing close to Calleigh, talking to the blonde CSI and Alexx, his back to Ryan. Calleigh had offered Ryan a polite smile earlier that evening, but had yet said anything to him and Eric refused to acknowledge his presence. But he wasn't expecting a warm welcome anyway, so his friends' distant behavior was anticipated. Despite this, the snubbing still hurt. Not only was Ryan Wolfe broke for the holidays, but he was alone and needed a drink as well.

She watched Ryan make his way toward her and smiled brightly at him when he noticed her standing at the bar. The poor man looked so defeated, Valera would have felt ashamed of herself if she didn't smile. He smiled back tentatively, looking relieved. She couldn't help but notice how exhausted and underfed he looked. Working at the gun range clearly hadn't done him any good. Valera was glad to have him back at the lab, even if he was a smug asshole half of the time and dressed like he was the body double for Crockett on Miami Vice. Despite his lack of fashion sense and pretentious behavior, Ryan was a good guy who was great at his job. And even though he would badger her incessantly for lab results, he was always quick to crack a smile, ask her about her day or offer her a juicy piece of gossip or a brain twisting riddle.

xXx

"Hey, do you have those results from the Miller case?" Ryan asked hopefully, pulling open the glass door to the DNA lab. This was the seventh time today he'd badgered Valera about the samples.

"Ryan, there are fifty-seven samples I have to run through three different databases, not to mention the fact that I have to compare each of the swabs to the elimination samples. Don't get your panties in a bunch, but it's going to take some time." Valera responded, not looking up from her centrifuge.

Ryan sighed. "I know, I know. I just can't wait to get this guy. So, since you've been working so diligently in the lab all day, you missed an Eric-Calleigh moment." Ryan was now sounding smug.
Valera tore her eyes away from the troublesome lab equipment. "What?" Ryan was standing there, watching her with his arms folded across his chest and a smirk on his face.

"They're getting together for drinks tonight." He said, nodding. "I'm not sure if that qualifies as a date though…"

"They've been tangoing around for god knows how long, it's a date. I'm happy for them. Maybe they'll get drunk and hook up and the mountain of unresolved sexual tension will finally disappear!" Valera grinned devilishly.

"Wouldn't that just make it worse? I mean, y'know Calleigh would avoid him like the plague and Eric would wander around like a lost and injured puppy." Ryan logically noted.

Valera's grin faded. "Do you have to ruin everything Wolfe?"

"But you know I'm right." He reasoned.

Valera rolled her eyes. "Whatever. It was just a nice thought. Now go so some of us can get back to fighting crime." She focused her attention on the centrifuge again, waiting for him to leave.

"I didn't mean to burst your bubble, Valera, I was just saying…"

"I know." She looked up again and gave him a smile to show him there was no harm done and was more than pleased when he smiled back. "Thanks for the heads up, though. You know how much I love Eric and Calleigh news."

Ryan seemed slightly flustered as he nodded curtly, smiling at her again. "I, uh, I'll let you know if I hear anything else."
"And I'll let you know the second I've finished processing all of this." She nodded.
With that he turned to leave, but turned back to her as he pushed the lab door open. "Thanks, Valera. You're the best."

As tacky and hackneyed as his compliment was, Valera couldn't help but be warmed by his sincerity. Maybe he'd like to go out for drinks with her sometime.

xXx

Ryan spotted Valera sitting at the bar and chuckled to himself and was instantly relieved when she smiled at him. Finally, someone that was happy to see him. He couldn't help it when he checked her out, deciding that the simple little black dress was the best thing he'd seen on her yet. Ryan knew how attractive Valera was, but those weeks away from the lab allowed him to further ruminate on her good looks, her sense of humor and her intelligence and he'd realized how much he missed her and hoped that maybe she missed him too.

"You made it!" she grinned and gestured with her drink that was garnished with a tiny neon colored umbrella. Ryan sat on the bar stool next to Valera and nodded. "I didn't expect to see you here." she remarked, peering at him over her glass, all the while fiddling with the paper garnish.

"I didn't either." He chuckled darkly to himself, "but I figured I'd better make, at the very least, a brief appearance."

"How have you been?" Valera said, not wanting to dwell on his uncomfortable situation.

"Do you really want to know?" he looked her dead in the eye, asking honestly.

"No, Wolfe, I want you to lie to me. Of course, I want to know. Now, spill."

"I, uh, I'm in a support group," Ryan said, unsure where to begin. "And in counseling."

"That's great!" Valera said, squeezing his hand gently. She was genuinely glad he had sought help, rather than denying it. She had been stunned when she heard about the gambling. He'd never given any hint that he had a problem; he had never asked to borrow money from her or anything like that. Granted, he looked more stressed out and preoccupied than normal, but she hadn't suspected anything.

"Yeah and I'm back to work at the lab, which is great, even though no one else seems to think so." He gestured around the room and sighed.

"Give them time, Ryan. You getting fired really shook everyone up. They are glad to have you back, they're just still really hurt, give them time." Both turned away from the crowd and back toward the bar, staring off into space.

Ryan nodded. "Yeah."

"I'm glad to have you back." Valera said, glancing at him for a reaction.

Ryan caught himself on her words. She had missed him? In what sense? Like a coworker or like the way you miss someone that you'd you want to kiss? He knew that he wasn't her type. Sure, he was tall, had all of his teeth and a degree, but that didn't exactly describe the type of men Valera dated. She dated tall and buff, the picture of stereotypical manliness, guys with mysterious pasts, guys with leather jackets and rap sheets. Ryan wasn't any of those and he knew it. And Valera was what his Bubbe called a "modern gal", the type of girl that went after what she wanted and flirted openly. She had never flirted with him, Ryan was sure of that. He knew he'd remember if she did and he'd probably still be grinning about it. Ryan was definitely glad to be back, there was no doubt about that, but he knew having his old job back wasn't the only reason.

Her stomach fluttered when she told Ryan that she missed him, but instantly regretted it when he nodded again and said that he was glad to be back. Not a word about her or if he missed or not. No indication, nothing. Valera hoped he would take it as one coworker being nice to another and not as a woman who was attracted to him Trying to recover as best she could, she said the first thing that popped into her head. "Wolfe, it's the Christmas, er, Chanukah season and you just got your job back, let me buy you a beer."

xXx

Five minutes later, Ryan and Valera were both facing the room of people again, who were mingling and laughing. Valera was still nursing the same drink and Ryan has barely touched his beer.

"Where's your date?" Ryan asked, taking a sip of his beer.

"Where's yours?" Valera responded, watching Eric stand almost a little too close to their blonde coworker as he told her a joke and Valera couldn't help but feel jealous as Calleigh, laughed and swatted his arm.

"Point taken." Ryan smirked into his beer.

"What happened to miss reporter bitch?" Valera asked casually.

"What?" Ryan looked up from his glass, confused.

"That blonde girl, used to show up at crime scenes, you broke her tape recorder?" Valera prodded. Hopefully he'd broken this girl's heart as well and dumped her, but Valera didn't say that out loud.

"Oh! Erica…What about her?" He turned to Valera with an arched eyebrow, his facial question mark.

"You guys aren't together anymore?" Valera sipped her drink, trying hard to make her question sound like small talk.

"No, thank God. She took a television job up in Chicago and we haven't spoken since." Ryan watched Alexx thread her fingers with her husband's and hoped Valera wouldn't ask what happened between him and Erica. She didn't want to help him sort out his gambling problem and so she simply stopped calling. This didn't bother him too much though; he couldn't stop thinking about the lab and his coworkers, namely one DNA analyst in particular. Ryan considered calling her, but then the free lance television work started and he figured nobody from the lab would speak to him. "What happened to Carlos the pool-boy?"
Valera wrinkled her nose. "Julio? He was a jerk."

"Oh. That was his name?"
"Yeah." Valera took a sip of her drink. True, Julio had been self-centered and vaguely clingy, but was her constant thinking about Ryan that ate their relationship. She'd always fostered the smallest of crushes on her coworker, but after he'd been fired, she found herself spending more time trying to recall the curvature of his jaw or the slope of his nose and less time paying attention to her current boyfriend. She was definitely pleased to hear that Ryan was single.

xXx

After another ten minutes, they were standing there, bored and silent. Valera sipped her drink and Ryan fiddled with the label on his beer bottle. Valera considered taking her coworker by the hand and dragging him out to mingle with everyone else, but truth be told, she enjoyed him all to herself. What she didn't enjoy was the awkward silence that had washed over them.

"Wanna go out for a smoke?" she turned to him, setting her drink on the bar. Nobody would miss them if they ducked out for ten minutes.

"…You smoke?" Ryan asked her, turning to look at her. "Since when?"

"Since right now. Look, it's ridiculous to stand here the entire time. If not to go pretend smoke, come outside with me so you'll stop looking like the shunned little kid at the playground." Valera reasoned.

"Fine." Ryan stood up, putting the empty bottle on the bar.

Valera nodded, tipped her glass up, drinking the rest of the neon colored liquid and set it down on the bar resolutely. She stood up and glanced at her towering coworker. "Let's go, Wolfe."

She led the way across the room, moving quick enough that he had to take big strides to keep up with her. Valera flashed smiles as she went and Ryan, not wanting to look at the people who hadn't even said hi to him, trained his eyes on the base of her neck. When he finally caught up with her, just outside of the ballroom and welcome table, Ryan rested the tips of his fingers on Valera's lower back in a gentlemanly gesture. Valera swore that she stuck a fork in an electrical outlet the minute his hand made contact with the fabric of her dress. It's not that she'd never been touch before; it's that he had never touched her before and Ryan definitely wasn't the touchy-feely type. She fumbled slightly in her heels and prayed he didn't notice.

He didn't mean to touch her, but he found himself with his hand resting on her back. It seemed like the proper and chivalrous thing to do at the time, but now Ryan was worried how it might be misconstrued as a come-on. And he wanted to move his hand, honest, but he liked the way his hand fit there and the way the yellow of the dress contrasted with darkness of his suit coat. Ryan liked Valera as a coworker and as a friend, but he was more than certain he'd like her even more as his girlfriend. It surprised him though, when she stumbled slightly, he figured she'd probably swivel around on her high heels, stare disgustedly at him and tell him to fuck off. But she didn't. Instead, she regained her balance and blushed, still moving toward the glass exit door at the very end of the seemingly endless hallway they had entered. Then out of nowhere, she stopped.

To kiss him or not to kiss him? was the only thought pounding in Valera's brain. How could she begin to explain herself if she did and he freaked out? She could, potentially, blame it on the alcohol currently making its way to her bloodstream, but Ryan had seen her drink before and he would know that it was a downright lie. She wanted to kiss him, she knew that. She wanted to kiss him and make him smile and forget that his team members were ignoring him and that he was alone and broke for the holidays. She wanted to kiss him and make it better. More than that, she wanted to kiss him today and tomorrow and on Monday when they went back to work. Valera knew, however, that this would obviously change everything between them and maybe right now he wasn't willing to take that risk, his being new back at work and sorting out his gambling addiction and all. She knew he liked her. Valera could tell in the way Ryan would show up at the DNA lab at random interverals, not looking for evidence, but wanting to share a joke or an observation or in the way she caught him looking at her when he thought she wasn't looking. But that's the thing about working in a glass lab, you see everything. The feelings weren't the hard part, acting on them was. We can either do this now, or we can be like Calleigh and Eric for the next decade Valera told herself. That's when she made the decision to stop.

xXx

Ryan bumped into her, apologizing as he did so. "Shit, sorry…why'd we stop?" She could feel him looking at her confused.

"Ryan…" Valera took a deep breath. She turned to him and leaned in, kissing him squarely on the lips. Please, please, please don't freak. Please.

Ryan was surprised, but wrapped his arm around her waist. His coworker was kissing him. Valera was kissing him. Maxine Valera was making out with him in the middle of a dark hallway at a MDPD Christmas party and he almost forgot to kiss her back.

And with that, it began. She leaned into him. He nipped at her lip. Out of nowhere her hand found the back of his neck and began to fiddle with his hair. The minute her hands reached down to cup his ass, Ryan knew that this was the tipping point and after this, nothing would be the same.

For the first time in what felt like forever, Ryan Wolfe smiled. He was making out with his gorgeous coworker in a hallway with their closets friends less than a hundred feet away. All was not lost this holiday season.