Okay, thank y'all (as Nick would say) for your reviews. I hope this chapter is up to scratch. A little partly fluffy build up chapter here, but next chapter will reveal a couple of major plot details. Again, sorry for mistakes, super quick update.
Also, anyone whose read my other stories my recognise some of Nick's family. If I invent new siblings for every story I get confused so I recycle a little, lol!
Read, Enjoy, Review.
Chapter Eleven # And So This is Christmas #
Gil Grissom had never imagined himself as a father. It wasn't high on his ultimate goals list, and by the time he got together with Sara he felt it would be unfair to conceive a child at his age. Now, however he was a legal guardian. He was a parent, to Warrick's child.
And at six am on Christmas morning when the excited five year old ran squealing into the room, he couldn't be happier.
"It's Christmas! Sara, Grissom wake up Santa came, Santa came, Santa came!" Eli cried, leaping onto the bed. Sara groaned when his arm landed in her stomach but she opened her eyes and smiled.
"Well then, what did Santa bring?"
Eli ran out of the room and dragged his full stocking into the room. "All of these presents! Look, Sara! Can I open 'em, please, please can I open them?"
"Um..." Sara hesitated before grinning. "Of course. Can you hold on until I grab the camera?"
Eli nodded eagerly. He loved it when Sara took photos. Her work was all over the house, older shots of buildings, animals, rainforests, the team all along with newer shots of Eli, Kristy and the twins. Sara swung herself out of bed and went to fetch the camera, whilst Grissom needed to use the bathroom. Ten minutes later Eli began ripping the paper off his presents.
Among them were a brand new pack of cards - the kid loved card games - and some colouring tools, along with his own kid safe camera.
"Wow!" He cried, staring at the box. "Thank you Santa!" He yelled.
"Y'know, this is what Santa brought you, but we got you a couple of things too." Sara hinted.
Grissom winked. "Under the Christmas tree!"
Eli eagerly rushed down the stairs and tumbled into the living room. He peered under the Christmas tree and pulled out a single white envelope with his name on in big letters. He opened it and looked at the picture of a bag of flour.
"What's this?"
"You have a choice, Eli." Sara smiled. "What do you wanna be when you grow up?"
Without hesitating the boy gave his answer, one he had had since his mom told him about his dad's job. "A CSI."
"Well, if you want, we can do a treasure hunt and you can be a CSI. Or we can tell you where your present is."
"CSI!" Eli squeaked happily.
"Okay. What do you think this picture means?" Grissom asked.
"Flour...the footprint!" Eli gasped. He ran to the front door and jiggled impatiently while Sara opened it.
Outside was a single boot print in the flour. He gasped.
"We caught Santa! Now what?"
"Have a look." Sara hinted.
Eli looked around and ran back inside. Next to the chimney were the tray and a small pot of green fingerprint dust.
"Wow..." he gasped. He fell to his knees with a soft thud and carefully unscrewed the lid. He looked up at Sara and she nodded. There was newspaper underneath to protect the carpet as Eli gingerly dusted the glance, doing remarkably well for a five year old who had only watched it in passing a few times. The powder revealed a smiley face and a fork.
His eyes lit up. "Kitchen?"
"Have a look and see." Sara smiled.
Eli climbed up and ran back into the kitchen. He peered around and then gasped. Glitter was all over the floor.
There were two arrows drawn into it pointing to the living room. Eli followed eagerly and stopped short when he got into the living room. A colourfully wrapped box sat on the coffee table.
He looked at Sara and Grissom who nodded. He carefully ripped off the paper, revealing a large photo album. Eli cocked his head and ran his hands over the words imprinted on the cover.
"Eli Brown." He read out loud. "My p-h...p-h...f! Photo...A...al...alb...alboom? Album! Eli Brown, My Photo Album!" he called triumphantly.
"Well done." Sara murmured.
Eli opened it up. It was sectioned into different parts. He opened the first part and gasped softly, running his little fingers over the pictures of his mom that they'd collected off friends and family. Minutes later he turned to the next section and smiled. There were pictures of him through all his little life. The next section showed pictures of the team and the other kids, Eli's new family. And finally the last section showed him pictures of his dad. He touched a picture of his dad's smiling face. He had Greg caught in a headlock.
"What's dis writing?" he asked quietly.
"You said that you wanted to know more about your daddy and the others. We've put in some stories for you. True stories, about your mommy, your daddy and the rest of us. And even some about you." Grissom ran a hand through Eli's hair.
Eli sniffed, a little trailing down his face. He didn't say anything but he stood up and wrapped his arms around Grissom's waist.
"Thank you." He murmured tearfully. "It's the best present ever."
"I'm glad you think so." Sara smiled. She went off into the kitchen to make some breakfast. "We're going to Uncle Nick's in a couple of hours, okay?"
"Okay..." Eli mumbled, sitting back down on the sofa with his book.
Sara started to get things out for breakfast while Grissom was in the shower.
A few minutes later the doorbell rang. Eli scampered to the door, closely followed by Hank and Sara. He reached up and opened the door.
"Hello Mrs. Lonagon." Eli greeted his social worker happily.
"Hello Eli." She smiled. "How are you doing?"
"Good thank you. Do you remember Sara?"
"Yes, I do." Mrs. Lonagon smiled. "How are you Ms. Sidle?"
"I'm very good, how are you?"
"Fine, thank you."
"Would you like to come in?"
"No, no thank you. I'm just doing a quick check up; this is on the way to my son's house. How do you like life here, Eli?"
"I miss my mommy but I like it here." He said honestly.
"So they're nice to you?"
"Uh huh! They made me search for my presents!"
She raised an eyebrow. Sara opened her mouth to explain but Eli beat her to it.
"I wanna be a CSI and they let me and it was so cool! Santa came too, and we're gonna go to Uncle Nick's soon!" he cried excitedly.
"What's your Uncle Nick like?" Mrs. Lonagon asked.
"He's da best! Well, not the best but defiantly one of the best." He justified with adorable honesty. "He teaches me baseball and football and soccer and he's even taken me horse riding! He's really cool."
"Does Uncle Nick have any children?"
"Uh huh. Kristina but we all call her Kristy and she's just a baby. She's um...she's um eight months old." Eli nodded.
"That's lovely. Does her mommy live with her daddy?"
"Uh uh." Eli shook her head. "Her mommy's..." he turned to Sara. "Where is Kristy's mommy?"
"She's in heaven." Sara said softly.
Eli turned back to Mrs. Lonagon as if she hadn't heard. "Um, she's in heaven."
"Oh no, that's sad." The social worker frowned.
"Uh huh."
"Who else is going to Uncle Nick's?"
Sara shuffled uncomfortably as the chill started to get to her and Eli noticed. He turned to Mrs. Lonagon, taking Sara's hand.
"Um, Sara's getting cold now so can you please either come in or go away?"
Both women raised their eyebrows.
"I sorry but Sara's cold." Eli said sincerely. "She gets cold easily and she doesn't like it!" he added as a whisper to Mrs. Lonagon who smiled.
"Okay!" she whispered. "Eli, can I speak to Sara for a minute? I promise I won't keep her in the cold long?"
He looked up at Sara who crouched down. "Why don't you take Hank out to the back yard for a minute?"
"Okay..." Eli whistled to Hank and ran through the house.
"Don't run through the kitchen, Eli!" She called.
"Sorry Sara!" he called back.
She shook her head. "What would you like to talk to me about?"
"How is he settling in? He seems to be going okay..."
"Yeah, he's going great. He still gets upset sometimes, to be expected but he's a good kid. He behaves – he does what he's asked, he doesn't have tantrums – well, not big ones anyway. Nothing unusual for a kid his age." Sara nodded.
"You were a foster kid yourself, no?"
"Yes, I was." Sara nodded. "But I don't count this as a foster home, we're not strangers and he's not going anywhere."
Mrs. Lonagon looked pleased. "Okay, that's good. Just a couple more things... Eli seemed very protective over you."
Sara smiled wryly. "I guess."
"I'm glad. I'm sorry for disturbing you on Christmas day, but there are too many children to check up on and not all of them are as lucky as Eli is. This really is on route to my son's and I felt that if I could at least check up on Eli then I could convince myself that I'm doing my job right."
"I think you're doing just fine. A hell of a lot better than my social worker." Sara smiled and nodded.
"Thank you. Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas." Sara nodded, closing the door as the social worker walked away.
"Eli, we're going!"
CSIVCSIVCSIV
Catherine frowned as Greg turned to drive out of Vegas.
"I thought we were going to Nick's house."
"Nope." Greg shook his head and turned to look back at Catherine. His mom, who was riding shotgun in the eight seater car, pushed his arm.
"Eyes on the road, Greg!"
"Sorry mom." Greg rolled his eyes. "Nick's rented a house up in the hills for everyone. He's invited some of his family too, I think, so there're a lot of us. He said his house would be too small."
"Ah gah ba ba!" Lola waved her arms up and down.
Reuben laughed. Greg smiled into the mirror at Catherine, Lindsey, his grandparents, and his kids.
"This is gonna be a great Christmas."
Just over an hour later, Greg turned up a small road through the forested hills. There was a light covering of snow over the hills.
"Dada ite!" Reuben called.
"Yes, it is white. It's called snow."
"ow..." Reuben repeated. " 'now..."
"Yeah, snow."
"Ssssnow!" he smiled.
"Dada wanna ged ow!" Loeila protested, not at all happy with the long, boring trip. Like her dad at that age, she wasn't good with long car journeys.
"We're nearly there." Greg assured his daughter.
"Wanna ged ow!" She protested, kicking her legs.
"Uh oh..." Greg groaned, watching Loeila's legs start to kick.
"WANNA GED OW!" she wailed, starting to cry, thrashing her limbs about.
"Loeila, please be quiet." Greg moaned.
"WANNA GED OW!" she repeated, until Lindsey reached across.
"It's okay, Lola, we're gonna get out soon, but we gotta wait until we get to Uncle Nick's, okay?"
The soothing voice calmed the baby more than the words but she continued to cry, albeit slightly quieter.
"Lola dop!" Reuben cried. "Dop!"
"Guys, you're both really advanced intelligent toddlers so please just let me concentrate, I gotta try and find this place, so-"
"Dada mada!" Loeila giggled.
"Dada kay-zee!" Reuben giggled back.
"Mom! They're ganging up on me!" Greg cried and both twins' giggles increased.
"Dada silly!" Reuben thrashed his legs happily.
"Well, at least they're happy now." Catherine smiled. "Your daddy's very silly."
"Vewy!" Loeila laughed.
A couple of minutes later, Greg pulled up into a driveway in front of a large hunting lodge.
"Wow. Nicky's gone up in the world." Catherine remarked.
"Let's go!" Greg grinned, plucking Lola out from her car seat. His mom grabbed Reuben and Catherine and Papa Olaf helped to carry the presents they, and Greg, had brought with them in large sacks to the door.
They knocked on the door.
Nick opened it a couple of seconds later. "Hey, everyone, come on in! Sara and Griss got here about half an hour ago."
"I told you we were gonna be late." Lindsey rolled her eyes at her mom.
"It's Christmas, it's all cool!" Nick grinned. Eli came running out from one of the rooms with a huge smile on his face.
"Auntie Cath! Uncle Greg!" he cried happily, running to give both of the adults a big hug. He hugged Lindsey, who he knew and Papa Olaf who he recognised vaguely but he danced behind Greg's legs until they explained who Greg's mom and grandmother were.
"Rosa's cooking and it smells so good!" he cried happily.
A little boy about the same age as Eli with scruffy brown hair and war paint smeared across his face.
"Eli, come on! The aliens are getting away!" he cried.
"Okay!" Eli turned to the adults looking at him with light humour. "We're playing cowboys and aliens!"
"Wasn't that a Harrison Ford movie?" Greg frowned as Eli ran after the other little boy.
"Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig." Lindsey corrected.
"What a team." She said at the exact same time as her mother.
"That's cute." Nick grinned.
"That kid was cute." Lindsey corrected. "He was adorable, who is he?"
"That would be Jayden, he's my nephew, one of the biological ones. Come on, this is the living room..." he led the adults into a large living area with a massive Christmas tree. "Here, let me take those for ya." He smiled, taking the present bags and placing them under the tree.
On the sofas in the room there were a group of people. Sara and Grissom were sitting next to a man who looked just like Nick but with bigger muscles and a crooked nose. He and Sara were laughing hysterically at a woman with curly red hair and a pretty face who had a toddler on her lap with strawberry blonde curls and bright blue eyes. Next to her was another woman, this one with long dark brown hair and dark brown eyes who looked about ten years older than Nick who was also laughing. She was right next to a woman who looked about the same age as Nick, with dark blonde hair. Both were laughing Grissom was just shaking his head, a smile on his face.
Brass, Al Robbins and Judy, his wife, David and his wife Susie, Mandy, Wendy, Archie, Henry, Bobby, Finn, Hodges and Morgan were all also there, along with Ecklie and Olivia, Hodges' mom.
There were loud squeals coming from the adjoining room, where the kids were all playing.
"Hi guys." Sara laughed.
Loeila squealed happily. "Odges!"
Greg placed her on the floor and she ran up to her favourite lab tech who was quick to pull her onto his lap.
"I would have never ever thought that any kid of Greg's would do that in a million years." Catherine shook her head.
"Hey..." Hodges frowned.
"Do you need any help with anything?" Catherine asked.
"Uh, no thanks my parents and DB and his wife and kids are helping Rosa but we're well prepared, have been for a while. I've tried to help but I've been told to go away, so..."
A teenager walked into the room, Kristy on her hip. "Uncle Nick, where's the change mat?"
"I can do that if you want, Inessa." Nick smiled.
"It's cool."
"If you're sure, it's in the blue bathroom." Nick grinned.
"Thank you."
"So are these your brothers and sisters, Nick?" Lindsey asked.
"I'm Robert," the man next to Sara smiled. "But y'all can call me Robbie if you want. I'm the oldest son, kid number two and I have Brianna, Jayden, Samantha, Danny and Ava."
"I'm MJ." The red head smiled. "I'm the second youngest. This is Madi, and my other kids in there are Lara, Eve and Mickey."
Greg raised an eyebrow. "MJ as in...?"
"Mary-Jane? Yeah. The red hair is natural and has been since I was born when Robbie was told he could name me. He was a comic book freak." MJ nodded.
"Cool!" Greg grinned.
"Joanne, I'm the oldest." The woman with dark brown hair grinned. "Nessa is my youngest-"
"And I'm Hailee, her oldest. My other siblings, Jody and Rebecca are both travelling, and my kids Naomi, Jake and Tasha are in the other room." The blonde grinned.
"You're Nick's niece?" Greg's eyes widened.
"Yeah, a year older than him too." She nodded.
"Teen mom." Joanne admitted. "I was sixteen. I told mom I was pregnant seven months in, when Hails was three months mom got pregnant with Nicky."
"The little accident." Robert teased.
Nick just laughed. "Hey, I may of been an accident but I was still the favourite."
"Mom and dad didn't have favourites." Joanne protested.
"Nah, but you have to admit he was the golden boy."
"That was more to do with the fact that he was a little goody two shoes." MJ teased.
"I can believe that." Greg remarked.
"What, and you weren't?"
Greg's mom and grandparents laughed. "Uh, no."
"Did he ever tell you about how he made bombs?"
Nick looked at Greg and they grinned. "Little bombs."
"Jesus, Sara you were right, they are like brothers." Robbie shook his head.
"You were talking about me?" Greg frowned, before his eyes lit up. "Sara, you love me!"
Sara rolled her eyes. "If you mean as the irritating little brother, yeah I guess so. Anything else you're out of luck, buddy."
Greg grinned cheekily. "Better than nothing."
"Greg," Grissom warned with a slight smile.
"Sorry, Grissom." Greg grinned.
A girl of about fifteen ran into the room with Eli on her back. He hopped down and she walked boldly up to Greg.
"Hi, I'm Bri. Do your kids wanna come play with us? 'Cause they can if they wanna." She smiled.
"Pay!" Reuben laughed, clapping his hands together.
"I think that's a yes."
"The other room's already been childproofed." Nick added.
"Dow daddy, dow!"
"I don't think there's such a word as dow." Greg teased.
Reuben huffed. "Dow-nah! Down daddy!"
Greg kissed his son on the forehead and the eleven month old scampered down.
"Hello sweetie! What's your name?"
"Uban!" he smiled.
"Reuben." Greg corrected, though the little boy was busy taking Bri's hand and didn't notice.
"Dow Odges peese?" Loeila asked. "Wanna go pay!"
Hodges smiled and lifted Loeila down.
"And what's your name, beautiful?"
"Lola!" she smiled, flashing her small toothy grin.
"Lola, that's a nice name!" Bri smiled, taking the little girls hand. "Are you coming Madi?"
The little girl recoiled into her mom. "Don like ayens."
"We're not playing aliens anymore. We're playing princes and princesses." Bri edged.
The curly hair bobbed around her face as the toddler deliberated before nodding and skipping after her cousin, thumb in mouth.
"Oh, Greg, I almost forgot." Catherine fumbled in her purse. "Here. My new partner at the FBI, Alyssa, was looking up some Las Vegas hospital records and she stumbled upon these. She recognised them because I kinda talk about you a lot. She found their birth records."
Greg's eyes lit up. "Really? How?"
"Like I said, she was looking at other records to do with a suspect's daughter being born and she found them. She says merry Christmas." Catherine passed the paper over.
"Thanks!" Greg laughed, hugging Catherine. "Tell her she's amazing!"
"I will." Catherine laughed.
"Wow... January the first. They're new year babies." Greg smiled softly.
"Oh, about New Year..." Ecklie shuffled in his seat. "I...uh, I have to talk to you about that."
Everyone stiffened.
"Uh, Dad? It would kinda suck if you told us now that we didn't have the day off..." Morgan edged.
"Actually, I was going to say that you can have the whole week off, up to the first of January. The government are running a major introductory scheme for the New Year, involving nomad investigators who travel around every month or so. Day shift were willing to take part in the experiment which buys you guys a whole week off work."
"Are you kidding, all of us?" Nick's eyes widened.
"Nope. Not kidding." Ecklie shook his head.
"Okay, now that is awesome!" Morgan grinned.
"And that reminds me, Nick, I brought some drinks and some desserts, they're in the back of the car."
"Thanks, man, I'll give you a hand." Nick grinned, following Greg out to the car.
A short while later, Rosa emerged from the kitchen. "Food's up!"
A loud collection of squeals of delight came from the other room. Suddenly there was the unmistakable sound of someone bursting into tears and the little boy that had called Eli to play cowboys and aliens ran sobbing into the room, flinging himself into Robert's lap.
"Daaaaaaddyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" he wailed.
"I didn't do anyfing!" A little girl called from the other room.
"Yes you did you pushed me poo face!" Jayden yelled back.
"Jay, Jay, stop it, calm down kid... what happened, man?" Robbie asked.
"Sam pushed me and-"
"I didn't! I didn't do anyfing!" The same little girl called angrily.
"Sammy, come here please."
A female copy of Jayden huffed into the room, arms folded. "I didn't do anyfing." She sulked.
"Sam." Robert looked at both his kids, pulling Sam onto his other knee. "Okay, let Jayden talk for a minute. Jay, what happened?"
The little boy sighed. "Rosa called and Samantha pushed me and I hit my head and it hurts."
"Okay. Sammy, what did you want to say?"
"I didn't do anyfing at all!" Samantha pouted. "I didn't daddy, honest! We were all pushin' and Jayden just fell!"
"Okay, so it was all an accident?"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"Okay, Sam, apologise to your brother."
"Daaaddy!"
"Saaaamy!"
The girl rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry, Jayden."
"Right, Jayden you apologise to your sister for calling her poo face, that wasn't very nice, was it?"
"Sorry Sam."
"Okay, good kids, now go up to the table nicely."
They pushed off each other and raced out of the room. Robbie turned to Greg who had recently re-entered.
"Ah, the joys of having twins."
"Great, I look forward to it." Greg grinned. "Let's go before the kids get all the good food."
Nick grinned. "Aw, there's plenty to go round. Rosa is an experienced genius in the cooking department."
They all walked into the large dining room. There was a long table down the middle of the room and a smaller one to the side.
All of the kids over the age of three, including Russell's granddaughter Kaitlyn were sitting on the smaller table. Eli was talking to a little boy called Jake and smiled at Sara.
The younger kids were given high seats next to their parents.
"Today is officially nanny off duty day!" Nick declared and Lindsey and Rosa smiled. "Today you count as part of the family. The only reason Rosa cooked is because she begged me not too. Now I'm not the most religious man in the world but I do like a bit of tradition here and there, unlike some people..." he winked at Sara who laughed. "so I wanna say a couple of things. I wanna thank God this Christmas for the family I was born into, the family that's joined it, and the family that welcomed me into Vegas. I wanna thank god for my growing family both here in Vegas and, all over the world actually. I wanna thank god for this great food and this great place that we've been able to hire. I wanna thank god for all the stuff we've got, and for everything Santa's brought. And I wanna thank god for the people we love who can't be here for one reason or another." He took a breath. "Especially my brother and sisters, and in laws who can't be here, and for Tina and Warrick Brown, and for Cassie McBride."
Everyone nodded.
"So, thank you lord, now, let's dig in!"
People started talking immediately, dishing up spoonfuls of the delicious smelling food Rosa had cooked.
"Ba ga maka!" Kristy smiled as Nick put food on his plate. A few minutes later he opened a little tub of pureed fruit and started feeding Kristy. She smiled and gurgled happily. When Nick went for the second spoonful she pushed the spoon out of the way.
"What, you don't want it?" Nick raised his eyebrows, trying again but the baby turned her face away.
"Okay, then." Nick shook his head, putting the spoon down. Kristy instantly covered her eyes with her hands.
"Oh, you wanna play? Peeka..." she uncovered her eye and he grinned. "Boo!" he cried and she giggled in obvious excitement. Nick covered his own eyes. "Peeka...boo!"
Kristy laughed again and his smiled at him. She pushed his arm lightly. "You're a good dad."
"You're a good mom." He replied.
She smiled. "I thought I'd never get any grandkids from you."
"Well you're not exactly lacking in that department." Nick motioned towards the large table of children.
She smiled. "I know."
A few hours later, after a major present exchange, the children were all taken to various bedrooms, one bedroom per family roughly. Greg's grandparents and mom left to catch an early flight back to San Gabriel for boxing day to be with their other family, as did David and Susie, Russell's son and daughter, Wendy, Mandy, Archie, Henry, Bobby, Ecklie and Olivia Hodges but the others all stayed in the living room, each with a glass of some sort of alcohol.
Nick couldn't imagine a happier Christmas with both of his families as they laughed and joked around, loud enough to have fun but quite enough to let the kids sleep.
Hours after that they all hit the sack. There were so many of them that they all had to double up, or even triple up.
The next morning Nick's family left, having only expected to stay for a day. Rosa was also going back with them for a couple of weeks.
"Nick, your family seems to have shrunk." Greg remarked, looking around the room. Doc Robbins and Judy were taking to DB and Barbra. The others remaining were Sara, Grissom and Eli, Greg and the twins, Morgan, Hodges, Nick and Kristy, Catherine and Lindsey and Finn.
"Yeah? Well that's not too much of a problem." Nick grinned. "Can you believe it? A whole week off. God, I miss high school where you were guaranteed a long break every year and didn't lose any money for it."
"Me too." Catherine nodded.
"Sara, can I show Auntie Catherine my book? I left it in the car." Eli asked.
"Okay, let's go get it then." She smiled, taking Eli's hand and leading him outside. The snowfall had increased, completely covering Eli's little shoes, so Sara swung him onto her back. She opened the car door and took out the photo album. As she was turning back, she noticed something strange. Her tyres were slashed. Frowning, she quickly checked all of the other cars. All the tyres were slashed. Dread covered Sara as she noticed a pool of crimson on the other side of her car.
"Eli, close your eyes."
"Why?"
"Please, Eli, just close them."
"They're closed!"
Sara peered around and winced. A dead lamb lay on the ground, blood pouring from it's slit throat.
A fleece as white as snow.
Sara stood up and started to move back towards the house when something caught her eye. She put Eli down.
"Run, Eli, run inside, now!"
"Why?"
"Eli, run!" Sara yelled, pulling open her door once more and grabbing for her gun in the glove box. It was empty. She turned back towards the advancing armed man and screamed at Eli who was frozen in place.
"Run Eli! MOVE!"
Eli turned and started stumbling back towards the house. Sara sprinted behind him, seeing faces appear in the window. Something wrapped around the back of her leg and she fell to the floor with a startled cry. The first person to appear at the door was Nick, closely followed by the others with the exception of Greg, Morgan and Barbara who were holding the babies.
"SARA!" Nick yelled as she was dragged backwards through the snow.
What the hell was going on?
"Get of me!" Sara growled, ripping at the rope.
Suddenly a single gunshot rang through the night. The snow around her body blossomed red.
Eli's voice was the first to reach her shocked ears.
"S...Sara?"
Any good? Too long, too vague, too dull? Please tell me I wanna improve. And stick with me, we're getting into the good stuff I swear! =)