A/N Hey all! I've finally finished my sequel to "Sadie in the Snow". Needless to say, if you haven't read that one, you may want to give that a read before this one or else you will have no idea who Sadie is or where she came from ;o). This is a Christmas fic so, I'll try to get all the chapters up before Saturday.

**Dedicated to my good friend Laura (Jisbon4Ever) who generously volunteered her time to read through this and allowed me to bounce ideas off her. Thank you Laura!**

Disclaimer: I do not own TM or any of its characters, sadly.

Red Christmas Lights – A Sadie Story

Prologue – Winter Wonderland

It was officially two weeks until Christmas. Downtown Sacramento was filled with the hustle and bustle of shoppers trying to check off the items on their Christmas lists. Everywhere, people were juggling parcels, a good sign that their escapades had been successful. A chorus of cheerful holiday music filtered out of each shop entrance, setting the mood of the cheerful December evening. Christmas lights of every shape and color completed the scene as each store owner tried to out-decorate the other. It was nearly picturesque, everyone in a gleeful mood despite the chaos. That is, everyone besides Patrick Jane.

The grinch had nothing on the consultant as he made his way down the busy street. The man had one task in mind and he was focused on completing that task as soon as possible. The CBI Christmas party was only two days away and Jane had yet to pick up Christmas gifts for the team. Jane wasn't normally into exchanging Christmas presents but he knew the team would likely shower him with wrapped packages so it was only fair of him to at least make an effort to find something for them.

He hated everything about the holidays: the music, the lights, and especially the shoppers. It wasn't the sheer amount of people that bothered Jane so much but rather what those people represented: A man, trying to find the perfect gift for the woman he loved, parents searching high and low for the one item on their child's Christmas list that didn't seem to exist, the family browsing through the Christmas trees, one they would decorate together before cozying up by the fireplace.

There was a time in Jane's life when he enjoyed the holidays just like everyone else. He remembered always purchasing the largest Christmas tree on the lot every year since they had the room. It was such a project getting the tree up. Jane liked the colored lights but Annie always requested the white ones, insisting they made the tree look more elegant and less childish. Of course, Jane always complied. After all, she did most of the decorating around the house as his career (if that's what you want to call it) didn't leave him much free time.

Jane always spent Christmas at home with his wife since Annie's side never really warmed up to the idea of them being married. It was nice, just the two of them until Charlotte was born and with her brought new Christmas traditions like visiting Santa at the mall or watching Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer every Christmas eve before bed. Those were the happy years before everything changed, before Jane's arrogance angered a serial killer into taking away everything that mattered in life. After all, what was Christmas without Angels? Jane had lost both of his years ago.

Sighing, Jane realized his gaze was fixed on the decorated tree inside of the shop window he was currently standing in front of. With some effort, Jane managed to peel his eyes away from the object that would delight any other passerby and looked down at his companion.

"Come one Sadie. We have presents to shop for."

The chocolate lab looked up at Jane and then trotted behind him as they strolled the streets.

Sorry for the short prologue. The rest of the chapters are long. If you're all nice, I may just post Chapter 1 tonight... hint hint.