Many thanks go to out to shadesofnope on Tumblr for worming this particular idea into my head! This'll only be three short chapters and I'll try to get them all out before Christmas! Now that I've done Fall and started Winter, I'll probably come out with a Spring and Summer around their respective seasons to flesh this out into a "Seasons" series. Hope y'all like this! Let me know what y'all think!

"Come on, Compadre! I could use some help here."

Jesse's mind was coming up blank and he was running out of time. If they both didn't have so much scheduled for the day itself he would have a whole other week to worry. As it stood, though, he had about seven hours to come up with something.

Maybe you could convince Jack to postpone the party a day?

Are you kidding? She'd sniff that out in a second. You know how mad she'd get, she's been looking forward to this!

Maddern' that bull you decided to ride on that drunken bet back with Deadlock.

Exactly, now let's figure this out. It's just a gift, dammit! You're Jesse "BAMF" McCree!

"Why, Mr. McCree, you know I've been bound by my word to Lena to not help you at all," the Gorilla flashed a toothy grin and made an effort to clean is glasses as nonchalantly as possible.

"Come on now, Partner! We both know Gabriel already gave her advice! You're her best friend! All I want is a hint!"

He's enjoying this.

Guaran-damned-teed, Amigo.

"It's not my fault that your mentor thought it was hilarious to not listen to you about giving Lena Christmas gift advice," said Winston, clearly enjoying himself.

"Well, what did you get her?"

With that, Winston let out a beastly laugh, "No sir! No hints, no suggestions, no ideas, no clues. You will get nothing from me."

"Fine! I don't need any help from you, ya big… Gorilla!" McCree pointed at the sky in defiance, something that he clearly didn't feel.

The Cowboy's eyebrows furled into just the slightest hint of consternation as he turned around and started to walk out of Winston's lab. As he reached the door, Winston cleared his throat.

"She won't want anything big, she'll want something that's meaningful."

Jesse turned around, a big grin plastered on his face.

Winston sighed, "I'm a Gorilla, not a monster."

Does this warrant a hug?

I think so.

What if he rips your good arm off?

Angela'll just have to make you a new one. You and Genji will be robot amigos together.

"Winston, you are a fine gentleman and don't let anyone tell you differently!" Jesse crossed the space between them quickly and wrapped Lena's best, and definitely largest, friend in as good an approximation of a bear hug as he could manage.

"That's most definitely not necessary, Mr. McCree," said an increasingly flustered Winston, reluctantly returning the smaller man's hug. "Now, don't you have lunch with a certain someone you need to be headed to?"

Jesse's eyes darted to the clock on the wall, he had about 15 minutes to cross the compound and make it to the mess hall for his and Lena's best approximation of a "lunch date".

"Ah shit, Partner, you're right!"

Winston didn't even have time to respond before Jesse was out the door and stepping out into the snowy courtyard.

Something small. Something that's meaningful. Okay. We can do this.

A tiny horse!

A tiny horse? Idiot. How does that have any meaning to it?

Shit. Has she ever said anything about owning a pony?

No!

This argument continued in his head as Jesse walked towards the mess hall against the snow. The snowfall was only supposed to get heavier as the day went on, but there wasn't a chance Jack would cancel the Holiday Party. If Jack wanted to dish out eggnog and sing carols awfully, by god, Jack was going to dish out eggnog and sing awfully for all to hear.

Jesse fixed his hat a little further down his head and wrapped his sarape a little tighter around himself. He was going to be late for their lunch date and he kicked himself for getting too distracted at Winston's lab. He didn't get too many chances to see Lena during the day, what with his working in Blackwatch and her being one of the poster children for their parent organization.

Since they had started dating, they had developed a multitude of little ways to keep connected regardless of how busy they got, including these mini lunch "dates". McCree's personal favorite were the notes they left for each other at a drop location when they were leaving on missions. Jesse smiled to himself thinking of how excited Lena had gotten when she had thought of that one, she had said it made her feel like a spy, "All secret agent like."

Then Christmas came up. It looked increasingly likely that one, if not both, of them would be busy on the actual day, so they both agreed to exchange gifts at Commander Morrison's Christmas Party. Lena had been so giddy when they were talking about it that Jesse figured he would've agreed to just about anything.

It's a good thing she was talking about Christmas presents and not robbing a bank.

Doubt Gabe would be very forgiving if you got caught.

It was only afterward that the panic had set in. It had been ages since McCree had gotten a gift from anyone. Gabriel wasn't really the gift giving or receiving type and that kind of behavior was likely to get your ass kicked in the Deadlock Gang. To make matters worse, Lena was well-known as one of the best gift givers on the base. There were plenty of folks on the support staff who still went out of their way to thank Lena for the gifts she had gotten them.

McCree made his way through the doors to the mess hall and shook the snow off of him, shaking what was left off his hat before looking for his girlfriend. It wasn't long before he spotted the spritely Brit hopping up and down trying to get his attention next to a table in the back. Jesse smiled as he headed that way, placing his hat down on the table before picking up Lena in a big hug.

"Brrrrrr, you're freezing Cowboy!" Lena said with a laugh, smiling as she buried herself in the mess of serape, facial hair, and musk that made up the majority of her boyfriend.

"I think you just might be too warm there, Puddin'."

"Pudding?" she said, pulling back and giving Jesse a rather dissatisfied look.

"Don't like that one, huh?"

"Not your best! Keep trying, Buckaroo." she gave Jesse a smile as he put her down and the two sat down at the table.

As they settled in, Lena grabbed Jesse's hat off the table and put it on, flashing a smile at her Cowboy as he picked up his fork. She knew just how much he loved that and he couldn't help but smile back. The two began to eat their lunch and catch up with each other's mornings before Jesse came to an abrupt halt when he got to his foray into Winston's lab.

Lena looked up from her lunch and gave Jesse an inquisitive eyebrow, "What were you doing in Winston's lab, McCree?"

"Well, ya know… It's been awhile since I've seen the big ape…"

"Uh huh…"

"And I wanted to say hi," Jesse said, giving Lena a sheepish smile.

She's got you dead to rights, amigo.

You see that smile of hers? She's like a mountain lion whose cornered a wounded deer.

Why are you turned on right now?

"Listen, Darlin, you got Gabe's help! I don't see why I can't get Winston's!"

"First off, I did not ask for Gabriel's help, he found me and offered it unsolicited. And as for you, we agreed that we wouldn't ask for help from anyone!" Lena stated, loving every second of it.

"But it's so haaaard," said Jesse, feigning being upset and throwing his head back.

Lena leaned across the table and clasped a tuft of hair on the back of his head, drawing his eye level with hers, "Not my problem, Love." She brought his lips to hers and the two shared a kiss, short but not lacking in passion.

"Fine, fine, I'll do it your way!" McCree said, standing up and grabbing their trays.

"Good to hear it!"

Lena accompanied Jesse as he took their trays to the return and the two enjoyed each other's company before they had to depart for their afternoon's filled with briefings, meetings and all sorts of official (and unofficial) Overwatch business.

"So… What did you get me?"

"No hints, McCree!"

"Fine, fine, just had to give it a shot, is all," Jesse flashed his most charming grin.

"Uh-huh," said Lena, rolling her eyes and smiling back.

"Well, this is where our trails part, Lil' Lady."

"Looks like it. I'll see you at Jack's around 1900, yeah?"

"You know it, Darlin'." The two shared another kiss, lingering perhaps a little too long for such a public place, enjoying the tastes of each other's mouths that they had grown so familiar with over the past month and a half.

Jesse held onto her hand until she had walked too far away from him, heading towards a briefing for an upcoming mission. McCree watched her as she turned the corner, out of sight, and sprinted off towards the Blackwatch hanger where he was supposed to meet Gabriel. He didn't have long before the afternoon exercise was supposed to begin.

He threw open the door to Gabriel's office overlooking the hanger and found his superior and mentor reviewing a file, likely one far above his pay grade. Upon seeing McCree in such a huff, the Blackwatch commander closed the file and took off his glasses, "What's up, hijo?"

"What'd you tell Lena to get me for Christmas?"

"I haven't any idea what you're talking about, Jesse," said Gabe, a sly grin turning at the corner of his mouth.

That smile'd be grounds for a bar fight with the Deadlocks.

Too bad this is Blackwatch. He'd probably kick your ass, too.

Ah, you could take him.

Do you not remember sparring this morning? He literally threw you off the mat.

That was before lunch.

"That's horseshit, Gabe! I'm running outta ideas and I've got," Jesse looked at his watch, "Six HOURS?!"

Gabe gave out a hearty laugh, "Alright, Vaquero, what do you got?"

"I've got, 'something small that means something.' That's it."

"That's not a lot," Gabe said, letting out a whistle.

"I know that, Jefe. It'd be a lot easier if I knew what she got me, though."

"Well, I only told her to not spend any money on you, told her you weren't worth it," Gabe said, he tapped his chin in thought as Jesse rolled his eyes. "What time is it?"

Jesse looked at his watch again, "1303, why?"

"Well, what say we go run a recon mission and find out what she got you?" suggested the Commander. "We can be a little late to today's exercise, with such an emergency on our hands."

"What, break into her quarters?" asked Jesse, feeling a little uncomfortable at the thought. "I don't really want to be going through her personal things like that."

"I'm not suggesting we go through her panty drawer, son," said Gabe, looking offended that Jesse would even think he was suggesting that. "Just saying, if the gift is just sitting at the top of her closet, what's the harm in giving it a look?"

Jesse considered the proposal for a moment before looking up at Gabe, "Alright, we don't touch anything or dig through anything. If we can't find it just by looking, we leave like we were never there."

Gabe held his hands up in feint surrender, "You make the rules, hijo. She'd probably kill you if you did, anyway. If I think the present might be in her fridge next to any leftovers, though, I'm gonna check."

"Alright, in and out in five minutes."

"Five minutes," Reyes confirmed.

Gabriel grabbed I hacking kit and the two were out on their most important operation of the holiday season, the op that kept Jesse off his girlfriend's naughty list.