Title: Something to Celebrate
Author: Banana Tooth
Rating: K
Classification: Mac/Stella
Disclaimer: I am in no way connected with CBS, the CSI Franchise, or its writers, producers, or directors.
I note with relief that the pile of garments needing to be processed is almost gone as I take the victim's shirt and spread it out. The lab is eerily quiet. Mac and I are the only ones here, late at night on New Year's Eve.
"It was sweet of you to let Danny and Lindsay go," I say as Mac comes back into the room, and immediately wonder why I said "sweet." I might as well have called him a sweetie-pie. Which he is, but I don't usually say so.
"They're young. They deserve to have a life," he answers, bent over the big magnifying glass.
I laugh. "And we don't?" I tease him, and he grins.
"You do. Thanks for staying, Stella."
"No problem," I say, because spending New Year's Eve with Mac is never a problem. Even if we're in the lab processing evidence.
"Did you have plans tonight?" he asks from the microscope, his back to me.
I look up at him and grin, and look back down. "Sort of," I say.
"I'm sorry," he says, and means it.
"It's okay, Mac. I was going to ask you to come over."
He turns around in surprise. "Really?" he asks.
"Really."
"Maybe…you'd take a rain check on that?"
I bite my cheek to keep from smiling too much. "Sure."
He finishes inspecting the suspect's shoes while I label the last of my tape lifts. "Okay, everything else will have to wait until the techs get back," I say.
He stretches and looks at his watch. It's almost twelve. "Come on," he says. I follow him to his office and he takes out two champagne glasses and a bottle of sparkling grape juice. "I thought we needed something to celebrate with since we were going to be stuck here," he says with his half-embarrassed smile.
He gives me a glass and our eyes meet over the rims as we sip slowly. We lean against his desk, our shoulders brushing, watching his clock together until it reaches midnight. "Happy new year, Stella," he says gently.
I had made up my mind to do this way back before Christmas when I had decided to ask him over, and just because we're at the lab instead of my place, I'm not going to back down. I turn to him and kiss him softly on the lips, and pull back and whisper, "Happy new year."
My heart is pounding wildly. I've been working up my nerve for two weeks and I still can't believe I did that. I don't think he can either, but he recovers and sets an arm around me and kisses me back, gently. When he breaks it off, I clasp my arms around his neck and this time I kiss him long and hard, feeling his arms tighten convulsively around me, one hand at the back of my head, pulling me deeper into the kiss until we both have to stop for air. I lean against him, breathing hard. To my surprise, he's shaking with silent laughter.
"What's so funny?" I demand, failing to sound mad.
"If all I had to do was keep you up late and get some grape juice in you…I should have done that a long time ago."
I'm laughing too. I can't help it. "So why didn't you?"
He grins broadly and kisses me again. "You know what?"
"What?"
"I think this is going to be a great year."
Author's Note: I have no idea why I'm writing New Year's fic in July, except that it came to me early on a Friday morning while trying to make myself get up. Happy middle of the year!