A/N: Okay, I know Christmas is pretty much well and truly over for everyone, but here is my belated offering of CM Christmas cheer.
Thanks so, soooooooooooo much to x-MJ-x who answered my plea for a prompt. Hopefully this will fulfil the loveliness of what you came up with: HP, Jack, candy canes, a Christmas wish, a kiss. This one is dedicated to you. Love you sweetie. Xoxox
This piece is NOT linked to my NPH series, but hopefully you will enjoy it anyway.
This is a re-post of the original with this little note added; this piece is now the first story of a series I am writing titled Life's Wishes (LW1).
Rated family friendly with only a touch of naughtiness at the end.
When You Wish Upon A Star
"Prentiss."
She sighed internally but looked up with a polite, enquiring smile at the man now standing at her side.
One of these days, he's going to call me by my first name and I won't know what to do with it. Then again, it's been five years; so maybe not.
"Yes Hotch?"
Of course, you could always choose to be the one to break the ice. And wouldn't it be entertaining to see the look of shock that is sure to appear on his face if you did call him Aaron.
She fought to keep her giggles to herself and keep only polite interest on her face as he shifted the bowl in his hand.
He shook it slightly and held it out to her. "Secret Santa. Jack's idea originally but now backed up by Garcia. I did point out that we would have less than a day to shop for it, but both were adamant that it could be done. You and I are the last two to select a name out of the bowl."
"I must admit, I did wonder why you had a bowl in hand with pink fuzz on the rim and a Tinkerbell motif on it."
Please, please, please let me get anyone but him.
She reached her hand into the bowl as a slight smile tugged at his lips. She was really glad to see he was relaxing more; smiling, joking and laughing with everyone. It meant they could all do the same without worrying about possibly excluding him from their fun.
She pulled the little square of paper out of the bowl and he pulled it back towards him as he pulled out the last bit. He opened it up, smiled just slightly and with a nod of his head to her, turned back towards his office.
Once he was safely out of sight, she opened her bit of paper and sighed for real this time.
Why couldn't lady-luck run my way for once?
Taking another look at the paper in the hopes that it had changed, she sighed again and put the little square in her bag, fetched her keys, wallet and phone from the draw and stood to leave as she shut down her computer.
So what does one get a grown man who doesn't even like you all that much when you really like him?
New Section
Emily walked up to the family-friendly Italian restaurant JJ and Will had recommended as a great place for the team's Christmas Eve dinner and smiled at the man waiting near the door.
"I know, I'm late," she admitted with a little laugh. She gestured down at what she was wearing. "This took a bit longer than I thought it would."
Derek grinned as he looked her over from the top of her head, with her curled hair, down her body with its fire engine red, scoop-necked dress that clung to all of her curves and ending at her feet, with the strappy red sandals to match.
"Well it was definitely worth waiting for, but aren't you cold?."
"A little, but I figured I wouldn't be outside for very long and that the restaurant would be appropriately heated so it wouldn't matter. And besides, this dress was not made to be covered up."
Nodding his head in agreement, he lifted his head to look up at the sky and blinked. "Do you know; I've been watching the clouds mass today in preparation for the snow that is meant to fall overnight but I totally wasn't expecting to see that."
She turned to look where he was pointing and blinked in surprise as well to see a shooting star through a break in the clouds.
Derek grinned at her. "I don't know about you, but I'm making a wish before we go inside." She returned his grin and looked back up at the sky.
A wish. Such a silly idea, but why not? Apart from the fact that the last time I made a wish I got my heart broken instead when my father left. Okay, um...
She thought about the years since her father had left her and her mother. Her mother had turned into the hard, slightly bitter woman she now knew and she'd lost all contact with her father two years later when he remarried to a woman who didn't want anything to do with the daughter he already had.
Christmas's had always been a terrible time of year for her. An endless round of parties kept her mother away from her for most of the season and on the actual day, it was rare to have her mother spend any time with her at all because there was always something else that someone else in whatever embassy they were at would need her for. Then she would flit off to save the day and Emily would be left with the staff to spend her Christmas day alone.
And unfortunately those habits had continued on into her adult life. The friends around her had family's and lives of their own to spend the day with, though they were generous with their party invitations. And though she'd had a few boyfriends in the past, none had lasted long enough for her to score an invite to spend Christmas day with his family, whoever he was.
So the last Christmas day she'd actually spent with anyone special to her was when she was 8; 3 days before her father walked out. And she suddenly realised she was sick and tired of the loneliness of it all.
Star light, star bright. First star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight...please let me find someone to spend my Christmas day with; I don't want to be lonely any longer. Please.
She opened the eyes she hadn't realised she'd closed and found Derek watching her. He raised an eyebrow at her and she raised an eyebrow in reply.
He nodded and gestured at the restaurant. "Shall we? You were all we were waiting for."
She inclined her head gracefully and proceeded him into the restaurant.
"Has everyone been waiting long?"
"Some of us longer than others. No one minded though. Jack and Henry have been entertaining everyone with what mischief they have been up to this week."
She laughed at that. "Well then, I imagine we shall be well and truly entertained for the rest of the meal."
He laughingly agreed and led her into a private room at the back, where everyone called greetings and jokes about her lateness. Jack and Henry bounced up out of their seats to welcome her before she took the only seat left to her; the one right beside him.
They'd just barely settled when Jack asked excitedly, "So when do we get to open the Secret Santa's?" He was fairly bouncing on his seat.
Aaron placed a calming hand on his son's shoulder and said gently but firmly, "After dinner and then only if you eat all of it."
Jack looked crestfallen for a moment and then he smiled and nodded. "Okay daddy."
The next few minutes were spent in discussion of what they were all going to eat but once they'd ordered, the talk then turned to the one discussion she'd hoped they wouldn't actually have.
"So, now that the food is all sorted, what is everyone doing for Christmas tomorrow?" Garcia asked with a gleam of determination in her eyes. Emily groaned internally; her friend had that look that said that if she had her way, the conversation wouldn't change until she'd had an answer from all of them.
"Em, you first. I'm just dying to know how a Prentiss spends her Christmas day."
She raised an eyebrow at Garcia. "You don't think a Prentiss spends the day the same way the rest of the world does?"
Garcia slowly shook her head. "You have money, your mother has status and getting information out of you is sometimes like pulling teeth. So give; what's cooking for you for tomorrow?"
She sighed aloud and propped her head up on her hand as her elbow came to rest on the edge of the table.
"My day isn't really that exciting. I'll go to church in the morning, go home and open presents, have a quiet lunch and a quieter afternoon and then in the evening I'll probably go across to my mother's for dinner before going home to bed."
Everyone stared at her in silence, making her shift back in her chair and wish that she wasn't sitting so far from the entrance.
"I'm a little confused so I'm going to ask for clarification," JJ said slowly, looking around at everyone as if for support or agreement. When she got several nods, she continued, "Except for dinner, which didn't actually sound like a set plan, you aren't actually spending tomorrow with anyone?"
Hoping to divert a lecture, Emily pointed out, "I won't be alone at church. I have a lot of friends there."
"But none of them are going home with you or have invited you to their place to spend Christmas with them; do I have that right?"
Why'd I have to have a little terrier for a friend?
"I'll take your silence to mean I have understood you correctly, that you are pretty much spending the day by yourself."
They all looked pretty shocked as she looked around the table at all their faces so she decided she just wouldn't look. This was achieved when the waiters returned with their food; she hoped that they would have forgotten what she had said by the time they were done.
Why she'd hoped that she had no idea.
"Will and I are leaving straight from here for the country estate we are staying at, so we aren't local for Christmas."
"The kid and I are flying out at midnight for our respective families," Derek said, gesturing between him and Reid."
"Kevin and I have been ordered to his parents place for the day...apparently I need to get myself ready for torture, so I certainly won't subject you to that."
Emily frowned. "I'm not looking for a pity invitation to spend the day with anyone...this Christmas will be like all the others I've had as an adult. I'm not upset or worried about how I will spend the day..."
She might as well have not spoken for all the good it did her as Penelope continued speaking, "So this leaves Hotch and Rossi as the only two who might be able to keep you from being alone."
Rossi cleared his throat and when he had everyone's attention, he proclaimed, "I am actually spending the day with a friend of mine..."
"Male or female?" JJ demanded to know.
Rossi's smile was answer enough and suddenly he had JJ, Garcia and Derek all pressing him for information. Emily just sat back with a smile of relief to know that the spotlight was off her.
Turning her head, she caught Aaron's amused look and raised an eyebrow.
"You do realise they'll be straight back onto you, and now me and Jack, as soon as they get all the relevant information out of Rossi."
She sighed even as a reluctant smile curved her lips. "I know; I guess I'm just hoping they'll leave me alone."
"Do you really not spend the day with anyone? I mean, I always had Haley before and then we had Jack together and except for a year there, I have always had at least one other person to share the day with."
She smiled wistfully. "That sounds so nice. The last time I spent Christmas with anyone truly important to me, I was 8 and my dad left us 3 days later for a woman who had more time and love for him. I wasn't welcome at their house and mother was always busy so I always ended up spending the day with the nanny or the house staff. Then I was an adult and I went off to uni and there were a couple of times there where I spent the day with fellow students, but they would always be drunk by lunch time and even at my most rebellious, that was never my scene."
He grinned. "You didn't strike me as a quiet drunk."
She returned the grin and snuck a look at Rossi, who was beginning to look just a little cornered.
"Don't worry about it too much Aaron. It really isn't a big deal."
His look of surprise confused her for a few seconds before she realised she'd finally done it and called him by his first name. She felt a blush start in her chest, spread up her neck and creep across her face.
"Sorry Hotch."
"So, back to Emily," Rossi said loudly from across the table; the desperation in his voice had her shooting him a look of sympathy, because they really were in the same boat.
"Actually," Aaron piped up from beside her, "Emily is spending the day with me and Jack."
Jack squealed with delight and jumped out of his chair to race around his father and give her a squeeze and the whole time he was doing that, she was staring at him as if he had two heads.
When Garcia regally deemed that it was an acceptable way to spend the day and turned her attentions on Reid and what he was doing with his mother, she leaned over and whispered, "Thanks for getting me out of that, but you don't have to let me disrupt your day. We can pretend tonight and then tomorrow I'll just spend the day as I always do."
He arched his brow and asked, "And disappoint Jack?"
She opened her mouth, caught sight of the happy smile Jack was beaming at her around his father, and closed her mouth.
New Section
Aaron nodded his approval and turned his attention to his son, his meal and the conversation. He wasn't fooled by her acceptance; he fully expected that her brain was even now trying to come up with an excuse his young son would accept and understand for why she couldn't actually join them. He would just need to be smarter than her.
He didn't know when he'd started liking her as a woman and not just as a fellow team member and subordinate; but he did know he'd been looking for an opportunity like this one for a while now. A chance to show her they could be friends outside of work and possibly even more down the track.
So there was no way he wasn't taking advantage of this opportunity Christmas had landed in his lap.
New Section
The meal was perfect and the conversation and laughter was light and fun and exactly what the day before Christmas called for. Then dessert was ordered and everyone pulled out their Secret Santa gifts. Jack was bouncing so much in his excitement he almost bounced out of his chair as he shouted, "Miss Emily first!"
Emily wasn't the only one to hide a smile as Aaron cautioned his son against shouting.
She shifted her bag with the gift in it closer. At least I know who my gift is from.
She pulled out the beautifully wrapped flat box inside followed by the card in the envelope. Pulling the card out, she smiled as she looked at the front. The front depicted a boy and a woman with dark hair next to a Christmas tree. Opening it up, she saw a message written in a little boys' hand. 'Dear Miss Emily, Merry Christmas, Love Jack'. He may not have figured out that 'Secret Santa's' should remain secret, but he definitely had the heart of Christmas down pat.
She turned the card out so everyone could see and murmur their approval before setting it beside her on the table and then she unwrapped the box and carefully opened the lid.
For several seconds, she was completely confused and then suddenly she giggled.
"Are these meant to be reindeer?" she asked Jack.
He nodded his head and asked anxiously, "Do you like them Miss Emily?"
She studied her 'reindeer' and thought it was an ingenious idea. He had taken a pair of candy canes and put little googly eyes on the short section after the curve. On the top of the curve, a little tuft of fur had been stuck there and a tiny section of brown pipe cleaner had been used to look like antlers. Then there were little bits of ribbon stuck on for bows.
Her heart melting, she shot him a warm, reassuring smile. "These are absolutely gorgeous and just about perfect. I could attach a little bit of string or ribbon to them and put them on my tree as ornaments. I love them. Did you make them at school?"
He beamed a smile at her and nodded as he came around to her when she beckoned to him for a cuddle. He ended up on her lap as he opened up his gift and stayed there when dessert was delivered, snuggled back into her.
Everyone else opened their presents in between bites of whatever tasty sweet they had and as voices around her softened she realised that not only was Henry asleep on his fathers' lap, but Jack had now fallen asleep on hers.
Presents included books, make-up and chocolate. Emily had decided to err on the safe side and had gotten Aaron a book filled with funny anecdotes as told by law enforcement officers across the country; the way his eyes lit up as he looked at it, she could tell he liked it at least.
When Aaron got up, she didn't realise what he was about until he aimed a camera in their direction and snapped a couple of shots. She blushed and ducked her head with a small smile, taking a deep breath of the sweet scent of the little boy in her arms. She decided to ignore the clicking she could still hear going on across the room and turned to talk softly with Dave as everyone finished up and the argument over who was going to pay began.
Of course, while everyone was arguing, Aaron snuck out of the room and came back with the receipt from having paid the whole bill. She smiled her approval of his sneakiness as everyone made some comment or other about it.
When she stood from the table, he came to her and took Jack from her arms and though she immediately missed his warmth against her, she hid it by collecting her clutch bag and turning towards the door.
As a group they walked outside, though they all stopped just under the overhang to watch the light snow fall around them. Realising she had to walk to her car without a jacket and that it would be better to just get it over and done with, she went around and wished everyone a Merry Christmas.
When she got to Aaron, she blinked in surprise. Jack was missing from his arms and he had slipped his suit jacket off his shoulders and had slipped it onto hers before she could stop him. He turned to take Jack back from Derek, who smirked and shot her a wink before walking off with the rest of the group.
"Morgan said you parked across the road instead of in the guest parking."
She shrugged and pulled the jacket closer; a deep breath in had made her head spin as his scent soaked into her nostrils. "There wasn't any parking left here. At least I'm not a block away."
"We'll walk you over before we go."
She could see she wasn't going to win any arguments with him, so she nodded and stepped out towards her car. He fell into step beside her but said nothing as he walked, ever vigilant as he watched those around them. But there was nothing to be concerned about and before she was ready, they reached her car and she unlocked it before placing her clutch on the passenger seat.
Turning to him, she found him far too close for comfort, considering the child sleeping between them.
"So tomorrow; what time does your church service finish?"
She shook her head. "Look, it was really, really nice of you to say that I would spend the day with the two of you to get everyone to stop grilling me, but it isn't necessary to say I can join you when you don't really want an outsider at your family Christmas."
He tipped his head to the side, a look of confusion on his face. "When did you learn to read minds Emily?"
She looked at him in shock to hear her first name roll off his lips for the first time since she'd met him. While she was still silent, immobile and trying to wrap her head around the connotations of the way he'd said her name, he leaned in and kissed her gently.
Her brain shut down entirely as a roaring began in her head and a warm heat spread softly throughout her body. He pulled back before she was ready; the removal of his lips leaving hers cold and tingly. Before she could stop herself, she hooked her hand around his neck and urged him to come back to her. She didn't have to pull hard at all before he was back where she wanted him to be. For several long minutes they exchanged slow, lazy kisses. The distance between them caused by Jack still sleeping between them kept things light, but that could also have been because he didn't want either of them to go up in flames. It may have been cold and snowing, but it was so hot between them.
He finally pulled away, pressing a finger to her lips when she whimpered a denial.
"I need to get Jack home. Will you continue to argue against coming to spend tomorrow with us?"
She shook her head slowly. Nothing would stop her from spending as much time with him as she could now that she knew how things could be between them.
He smiled and gently brushed her cheek. "Keep my jacket and bring it with you tomorrow. Does twelve suit you? Or is that too early?"
She half thought that leaving him now was leaving it too late to see him, but she also didn't want to scare him away now that she had him where she had desperately wanted him to be all year.
"Church will finish at eleven so I will have time to go home and change before coming over. Do you want me to bring anything with me?"
"No; I have everything we'll need for the day. You just need to bring your gorgeous self."
She blushed at the compliment she'd just been handed and nodded agreement.
He nodded with a pleased smile that became something soft and tender as he tugged a curl, leaned in to steal another sweet kiss and then walked off with a last wave and confirmation of the time of her arrival the next day.
She watched him go until he was out of sight before she climbed into her car. She went to start it but stopped as her fingers came up to touch her lips as they continued to tingle pleasantly. Her entire outlook on the day to come had changed completely and she found she wasn't even slightly annoyed at how he'd taken the decision out of her hands.
The realisation that, for the first time since she was eight that she was going to be spending Christmas day with someone that she wanted to spend the day with, filled her with a sense of nervous anticipation and joy.
Suddenly wishing upon a star doesn't seem like such a silly idea after all.
End
A/N: Please feel free to review with the button conveniently located below this plea. The author would really like to know what you think.