Christmas Love

A/N: I know, it's kinda late for a Christmas fic, but this actually came about because I wanted to do a romantic party in a pub for my beloved Sun Hill officers, a la Valentines Day. Yes, it's a bit late for that too, but hey, I'm a romantic at heart!

This features or implies numerous couples including Sam/Phil, Mickey/Mia, Zain/OC, Honey/Surprise!, Emma/Lewis and Terry/Ramani. AU, obviously. ;)

Disclaimer: Trust me, if I owned the Bill and was actually making some money from this fanfiction, then there would be a lot of changes to the show!! ;)

Opening the door to the pub, DC Zain Nadir walked in, a smirk quickly appearing on his face as he took in the scene before him. The usual band was belting out a rather festive tune (Jingle Bells Rock, if his ears weren't deceiving him) and officers from Sun Hill were everywhere. The uniform relief had taken over two tables and were quickly unwinding; the sound of their laughter was echoing through the entire building.

Zain was surprised that so many from Sun Hill had turned up, usually the only people who came to the Sun Hill Christmas Eve Party were those without family or friends nearby…which seemed to be most of Sun Hill this year.

Glancing over to the uniform tables as he walked in the door, Zain shook his head, smirking again. Lewis was talking rather heatedly to Emma, an arm around her shoulder. As the DC watched, he leant his head closer to her and whispered something in her ear, causing Emma to blush and then burst into peels of laughter. Meanwhile Dan and Will were giving a demonstration of some of their boxing moves, obviously trying to impress the ladies, and Honey and Yvonne were splitting their sides laughing.

Tony, June and Rodger were also looking on with raised eyebrows, June shaking her head while hiding a smile. Smithy and Gina were quickly returning with more drinks and Zain thought he hadn't seen the Inspector this happy for a long time. Adam leaned forward and muttered something to Gina and Zain's eyes widened, oh the things you could find out if you were silent! Words flew between the various officers and it was clear to the DC that this was shaping up to be one heck of a Christmas Eve.

"Zain, mate! Over here!" The shout came from across the pub and caught his attention. Zain looked up to see Mickey waving him over to the table that CID had claimed. Falling into the empty seat next to Mickey, Zain grabbed one of the drinks that Suzie has just brought to the table and muttered "Merry Christmas" to his fellow officers.

"Your late, mate. What kept you?" Mickey asked, accepting a drink from Jack Meadows with a grin, and Zain smiled, noting the obvious father-son relationship between the two.

"Paperwork." Zain replied, taking a sip of his drink, tuning out the music, which was now blaring rather loudly. He swallowed, feeling the warm liquid slide down his throat and looked over at Phil with amusement as the DS snarled at Sam for stealing his drink, before launching a tickle attack to reclaim it. The ticking soon moved to touching which progressed to kissing and Zain and the rest of CID cheered and laughed.

"After all, it's about time!" Mickey muttered to Zain, shaking his head. Terry merely frowned. "If I had known all it took was a little alcohol to get them together, I would taken CID down to the pub for a drink, ages ago! I lost so much money on that bet, who guessed that December was the month they got together?" Terry asked, mournfully, looking around the table. Jo turned red and another gale of laughter erupted from the table. Terry turned to look at her and Jo shrugged apologetically.

Taking another swig of his drink, Mickey smirked at Sam and Phil who were still making out. "Oh, and you two, get a room."

Phil shrugged and shot the DC a look. "You and Mia seemed to forget that a few weeks ago." He said, causing Jack to snort. Looking at his favourite officer, he shot him a knowing look. "I can vouch for that. He's got you there, Mickey."

Mickey blushed but Mia smiled sweetly at Phil and raised her eyebrows. "You want a repeat performance?" she asked innocently, before reaching over and pulling Mickey towards her and into a lingering and passionate kiss. The table erupted into laughter and cat calls once again, and Terry leapt up to buy more drinks, shooting a dirty look at Jo as he did. Breaking apart from Mia, Mickey shrugged his shoulders, a silly grin appearing on his face.

Chuckling, Zain opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by an explosion of noise from where uniform was sitting. Even Suzie and Neil looked up from their discussion. Zain idly wondered if someone had actually managed to beat Inspector Gold in a drinking contest but closer inspection revealed the cause of the celebration was one Gary Best who had just walked in the door of the pub and was now disappearing under a pile of people hugging him.

Suzie's eyes widened and Jo laughed delightedly, shouting a "Welcome back, Gary" over the noise before leaping to her feet and hurrying over to him. Honey was grinning like a loon, throwing an arm around Gary's shoulders before pulling him down to kiss her. Gary stumbled in shock before wrapping his arms around her waist and drawing the PC closer to him.

The relief were the ones who cheered this time, though Dan and Will both looked ready to either faint, or murder Gary, Zain couldn't tell which was more likely. Over the noise, he heard Honey explaining about long distance relationships to the two astounded men.

Laughing into his drink, Zain barely heard Terry rise and leave, muttering something about meeting Ramani for dinner.

Turning surprised eyes to Zain, Mickey shot him a bewildered look. "Wow…I thought this was Christmas Eve, not Valentines Day! Speaking of which, Zain, you're an okay bloke, why don't I ever see you with a girlfrien-" Mickey broke off and glanced at the door that led back out to the street, which had just opened.

"Hey, who's she?" Mickey asked, gazing at the blonde haired woman who had walked in, dressed in a casual white and blue outfit. "She's …" Mickey paused and glanced at Mia who was glaring at him. "Sorry, but I was just saying…Yeah, I really put my foot in it, didn't I?" Laughing nervously, Mickey gulped and looked at Mia, obviously fearing for whatever revenge she might dole out for the unfortunate DC.

"I was going to give this to you tomorrow, but it seems now is the opportune time." Fishing in his pocket, Mickey pulled out a thin jewellery box and, placing it on the table, pushed it towards Mia. With a gasp, the press officer opened it before enveloping Mickey in a hug, apparently forgiving him, when she saw the sparkling necklace inside.

With a sigh of relief, the DC turned back to Zain, only to find his seat empty. Frowning, Mickey quickly preceded to do a search of the pub with his eyes, his frown deepening when he found his mate talking quietly to the blonde haired woman. Raising his eyebrows, Mickey's surprised expression turned to a suspicious one when Zain led her back to the table.

Settling back into his seat, Zain pulled a chair up to the table for the women, skilfully ignoring the eyes of everyone in CID on him.

"Who's this, Zain?" Phil finally asked after a moment, voicing the question of everyone at the table.

"'This' is Rahasia," the woman answered, giving Phil a steely glance. 'And for future reference, officer, the way to impress women it not to refer to them as 'this', it kinda puts a damper on things." She added, words accented with something European.

Zain hid his grin and reached over taking Rahasia's hand. Phil looked shocked and Sam laughed, whacking Phil lightly on the arm. "Phillip, wind might change." She cautioned him, launching into fresh giggles as he turned his shocked face towards her.

"Rahasia here works as a Dutch translator in the Netherlands Embassy in London. We met during one of my undercover gigs." Zain shot Rahasia a look and both dissolved into soft smiles, causing Mia to coo "Awwww."

'Zain, you know what I was saying before? You know, about why you didn't have a girlfriend, just…just ignore me, okay?" Mickey eyed his friend, wary of any more surprises he might dish out at him.

"Oh, don't worry, Mickey." Zain smiled at Mickey, the kind of smile that made you want to run into the bushes and hide. "We will. Merry Christmas mate." With a final wink, Zain placed his arm around Rahasia's waist and within seconds the pair where lip locked, Zain's hand coming up to curl into her golden locks and her hand landing on Zain's cheek to caress his face. One of the pair moaned softly and Mickey could feel his face burn red.

Sensing that his friend was going to be occupied for awhile, the DC rolled his eyes. "If you can't beat 'em, you might as well join 'em," he pronounced after a moment before taking his own advice and kissing Mia quite soundly as shouts of "Merry Christmas" rang through the air.

Finis