Jamie Reagan and Eddie Janko were currently patrolling the city park in the middle of a freezing winter, walking along The Lake in Central Park on Christmas Eve. Eddie was grumbling about how cold it was and Jamie was trying to get her mind off of it by asking her what she planned on doing for the Christmas tomorrow.
"Jamie you know that I have nothing to do. I know my relationship with my father is slowly getting better, but I can't help but feel it's going to come crashing down around me. And I'm definitely not going to see my mother." Eddie said as she pulled her hat down to cover more of her ears.
"Maybe you can go see him for Christmas. I'm sure he'd like to see you." Jamie stated.
"Yeah, maybe. You and the family having your big Christmas dinner tomorrow?"
"Of course. You should come after you visit your father. We don't start to eat till 4 or 5. I'm sure Nikki would be thrilled to see you."
"You really want to me to come to Christmas dinner at your house?"
"Yeah, it'd be fun with you there. I'm sure no one would mind if you can."
"Okay. I'll come, but do you mind if you come with me to see my father?"
"Are you sure you want me to come?"
"Yeah, it would help me if it wasn't just me there with him."
"Okay. I'm there."
"Thanks."
"Do hear that?" Jamie said as he stopped near the tree line by the lake there was sounds coming from inside the bushes and trees.
"Oh my God." Eddie said as she took off toward the sound.
"Eddie." Jamie said as he ran after her, by time he caught up she was kneeling on the ground and picking something up. "What do you have?" Jamie asked as he approached her.
"Who would do this?" Eddie said as she turned around with a young child about three years old in her arms.
"I don't know. I'm calling a bus." Jamie said as he called it in and watched Eddie unzip her coat and wrap herself and the three-year-old inside.
"Hi honey. Can you tell me your name?" Eddie asked the three year old who was clinging to her.
"E…Em…Em…Emma. It's cold." Emma said as she cuddled against Eddie to get warm.
"I know, honey. Just hold on to me. We're going to get you somewhere warm. How old are you?"
"Th…three, al..alm…almost four."
"Can you tell me where your parents are?"
"Mommy said that she didn't want me and told me to stay here."
Jamie, who was listening as they headed toward their squad car, couldn't believe that a mother would leave their child in the middle of winter the night before Christmas in the woods of Central Park. He was upset and wanted to put that mother in jail, but he didn't know if they'd be able to find where Emma was from. And he knew that child services wouldn't be able to come for the child until a few days after Christmas which meant the child would be stuck at the hospital until arrangements could be made. And he was having none of that, a child left on Christmas Eve deserved better than hospital food and a toy from good will on Christmas.
Jamie could tell that Eddie was thinking the same thing as she just held the child close to her and whispered that everything was going to be alright. Seeing her holding Emma, whispering to her to make her feel comfortable, he saw a different side of her a side that he liked to see. He knew that Eddie wasn't going to let the little girl stay at the hospital any more than he was. But that would be sorted out later, right now the ambulance was pulling up next to their squad car.
Eddie and Emma were put in the back of the ambulance and taken to the local hospital, while Jamie followed behind in the squad car. Emma didn't want to let Eddie go and Eddie didn't want Emma to get scared on the way to the hospital. Jamie agreed with Eddie that Emma would need someone she felt comfortable with to be with her and told the EMT that Eddie was going to ride with them to the hospital.
Once they got to the hospital, Emma and Eddie were taken to an exam room, where a doctor was going over Emma to check her for any frostbite or any other illness from being outside in the cold for so long. Jamie was outside talking with dispatch letting them know that they were at the hospital with the little girl and would be taking care of her until child services were able to meet up with them to have Emma placed in foster care until they could figure out if she was going to be in the foster care system or given back to her parents, which Jamie didn't agree with but let it go for the moment.
"All right Emma. I'm going to talk to Officer Janko for a moment outside and we'll be right back." The doctor said knowing that Eddie and Jamie would want a full detailed exam done.
"Okay." Emma said as she cuddled into the three warmed blankets the nurse had brought in to warm her.
"Officer."
Eddie and the doctor then went out in to the hall where Jamie was waiting.
"So how is she?" Jamie asked once the door was closed.
"Her temperature is below normal, but it's coming up so that shouldn't be a problem. She does have the symptoms of a cold, we'll be giving her some antibiotics and she'll be good to go as soon as her temp comes up enough that we would feel comfortable releasing her into your custody until child services can place her." The doctor stated.
"Is there anything else wrong? You seem to be hesitating in telling us something." Eddie said noticing that the doctor seemed like he wanted to continue.
"Yes, there are some marks of abuse, physical not sexual."
"Would please have them documented and filed? We'll take a copy back to the precinct to file with our police report." Jamie said he noticed Eddie had a look in her eyes, one that he probably was currently having, one of anger that someone could hurt a child.
"Of course Officers. I'll get a nurse to come in and we'll get those done while she's warming back up." The doctor said as he headed to go find a nurse.
"Let's go in and sit with her." Eddie said a tightness in her voice.
"Okay. I bought her this panda do you think she'll like it?" Jamie asked as they headed for the door to the exam room.
"Little girls love stuffed animals. I'm sure she'll love it."
"Good."
Jamie and Eddie then entered the room, Emma immediately held out her arms for Eddie to hold her, Eddie of course did just that. Eddie sat on the bed and held Emma with all the warm blankets wrapped around them.
"I got you this." Jamie said to Emma as he handed her the panda, which she took and cuddled it next to her as she laid against Eddie's chest.
"Thank you. I love it." Emma said as she held it close.
"I'm glad."
"So Jamie and I are going to take you home with us, until we can find a new home for you. Is that okay?" Eddie asked.
"I get to spend Christmas with you?" Emma said softly. "Mommy never wanted me at Christmas."
"Yes you get to spend Christmas with us." Jamie said hating Emma's mother just a little more.
"I would really like that." Emma said with a smile.
"Good. So I'm going to go pick you up some clothes and Eddie's going to stay with you while I do that. Okay?"
"Okay."
Jamie then left for the nearest children's clothing store hoping they were still open and he had the sense to call Nikki to meet him there. He knew what size Emma was, but had no clue what to get her.
"Hey Uncle Jamie." Nikki said as Jamie entered the store.
"Hi Nikki." Jamie said giving her a quick hug.
"So what exactly are we doing here?"
"Eddie and I found a little girl in Central Park, Emma, she said her Mom didn't want her and told her to stay there."
"That's just wrong."
"I know that and Eddie was pissed that Emma had been out there alone for so long. So I'm picking her up some clothes and toys for Christmas. She'll be staying with Eddie and I until child services can find a home for her."
"That's sweet of you Uncle Jamie. Does that mean you're going to bring her and Eddie to dinner tomorrow?"
"Yep. And we're going to be at mass."
"Awesome. Come on I'll help you pick some stuff out."
"We should get her a coat. She doesn't have one."
"You mean her Mom left her out there in the woods with no coat?!"
"Yes. Eddie and I both are furious about it."
Nikki and Jamie spent the next hour choosing some different clothes and a few toys to get Emma; Nikki also had the smart idea to tell the rest of the Reagan family so that they too could get something for Emma, which they all agreed too even though it was the night before Christmas.
By time Jamie got back to the hospital, Eddie had called him to let him know that Emma was finally at a temp that the doctors said she could go. He took out the coat, hat, and little mittens he had bought for her to keep warm and headed inside to the exam room Emma and Eddie were in.
"Jamie!" Emma shouted from the bed.
"Hi Emma. I brought you some things to wear outside. A coat…hat…and some mittens." Jamie said as he pulled those items out of a bag.
"Cool! I love pink!"
Emma started to put those items on, while Eddie and Jamie discussed what they were going to do next, they needed to figure out what apartment they were going to stay at and what exactly they were going to do next.
"We can stay at my place I have an extra room. I also bought her some gifts and the rest of the family will have gifts for her too tomorrow." Jamie said.
"I'll pay for half of all of it, just let me know how much." Eddie said as she grabbed her coat and hat that she had set down on the chair next to the bed.
"May we get some food? I'm hungry." Emma said as she stood by the door.
"Sure honey." Eddie said as she put her coat on and headed for the door with Jamie following closely behind.
"Sounds like you, Eddie." Jamie said jokingly.
"Hush Reagan" Eddie said as she punched him in the arm before picking Emma up and heading to their squad car.
"Alright we'll get some food, but first we need to make a quick stop at the precinct to fill out the report then change and punch out." Jamie said as he followed behind.
It was shortly after that that Jamie, Eddie, and Emma were sitting at a restaurant ordering their food and asking Emma questions about her Mom or what her home looked like in hopes that they would be able to figure out where she was from.
"My house has a blue door and the building is made out of red bricks." Emma replied to them.
"Okay. How many floors are there?" Eddie asked.
"Two. My bedroom was on the top floor."
"Were there houses right next to yours? Connected on each side? Or was there space between the houses?" Jamie asked they needed to narrow down if she was in the city or out.
"They were connected like one big building."
"All right, do you want mac and cheese or chicken nuggets?" Eddie asked.
"Mac and cheese please." Emma said with a big smile.
"Mac and cheese it is."
The rest of dinner Eddie and Jamie just spent time asking Emma little things about herself from what her favorite color was to what she wanted to be when she grew up. After dinner they all headed back to Eddie's apartment so that she could pick up some clothes and get ready for mass that was happening that night.
"You two don't have to go if you don't want." Jamie said not wanting Eddie to feel obligated to go to church if she didn't want to go.
"Well we're going, it's your family's tradition, don't break that tradition for us. We'll go get ready to go. Right Emma?" Eddie said as she picked Emma up and carried her to the spare bedroom.
"Yep." Emma said as she giggled while Jamie watched them leave.
"Okay." Jamie said and then headed to his room with the presents that he had bought for Emma to get them wrapped or put in to a bag, so that he could take them to his Dad's place for Christmas day. They were going to go over there a little later in the morning, but with the whole family being there Frank had told them to stay the night there that way Emma could open her presents in the morning. So after Jamie had told Eddie that information they packed some overnight bags to go with them, including a pink 'my little pony' backpack with all the clothes that Jamie had bought for her.
"Are you girls ready to go?" Jamie asked as he stood at the bedroom door it almost time for them to leave.
"One second." Eddie called out.
"What's taking you guys so long?"
"We're getting ready." Emma said giggling.
"Okay." Jamie mumbled as went over to his couch and plopped down. He closed his eyes for a moment and leaned back.
"Okay we're ready." Emma said as she jumped on to Jamie's lap.
"I see that. You look really pretty." Jamie said to Emma pulling her into a hug.
"Thank you."
"Really Reagan? We take a few minutes to get ready and your falling asleep." Eddie said as she entered the room.
Jamie looked up to see Eddie in a nice red dress that came down to her knees, he had never really seen her in a dress and it was making it hard for him to think. He had always thought she was beautiful, but the dress made her more so.
"You...um…look really good Janko." Jamie said as he stood up with Emma in his arms.
"Thanks Jamie. You're looking pretty good yourself." Eddie said with a wide smile.
"Come on let's go I want to meet Nikki." Emma said as she motioned toward the door.
"Okay. Okay." Jamie said with a smile, "But first you should put on your coat, hat, and mittens."
"Okay."
Jamie set Emma down for a second and she went to go get her stuff on, while Jamie helped Eddie put on her coat and put on his own.
"I took the bags downstairs already." Jamie said once everyone had their coats on. "All right let's go."
When Jamie, Eddie, and Emma reached the church, the whole Reagan family were waiting out front for them to arrive. Jamie was the first out and helped Eddie out, then Eddie went to the back of the car and helped Emma out before picking her up and walking toward the rest of the Reagans.
"Sir." Eddie said as she approached everyone with Emma.
"It's Frank when off duty Eddie." Frank said knowing that might be the hardest part of Eddie, remembering to not call him sir or commissioner.
"Yes, sir…Frank."
"Hi everyone." Jamie said as he joined them, then he introduced Emma, "Everyone this is Emma." Emma shyly looked up from the crook of Eddie's neck to see everyone with smiles saying hello to her.
"It's very nice to meet you Emma. I'm Linda." Linda said.
"Nice to meet you too." Emma said softly.
"Boys say hello."
"Hi I'm Jack." Jack said with a wave.
"And I'm Sean. Hi." Sean said with a smile.
"Hi." Emma said sitting up a little from the crook of Eddie's neck. They were nice people and they wanted to know her, that was different from her Mom or her Mom's friends.
"You look very pretty Emma. I'm Danny." Danny said.
"Hi." Emma said coming more out of her shell.
"Hi Emma. My name is Henry, but you can call me Pop." Henry said holding out a hand for her to shake.
"Hi Pop." Emma said as she shook his hand.
"I'm Frank, it's a pleasure to meet you." Frank said with a smile.
"Hi." Emma said softly again, she looked a little afraid of Frank, but she remembered they were all being nice to her so she shouldn't be afraid.
"Hello Emma, I'm Erin." Erin said with a small smile, she knew the circumstances in why Emma was with Eddie and Jamie. Nikki had told her after coming home from shopping with Jamie. She also knew that Jamie had told the other adults about how they found Emma, but Nikki would be the only young adult that knew the whole story along with her.
"Hi. So does that mean your Nikki?" Emma asked as she turned to Nikki.
"Yes, that's me. Would you like to sit next to me during church?" Nikki said as she held out her arms for Emma.
"Yes please. Eddie told me all about you."
"You did?" Jamie asked.
"She did?" Nikki said taking Emma from Eddie and heading inside the church, leaving Eddie and the others following behind them as they listened to Emma and Nikki go back and forth.
"Yeah. She said you'd be really nice and fun to play with."
"Well I think it's going to be a lot of fun."
"I've never been to church."
"Don't worry about it. I brought a little game you and I can play if you get bored."
"Cool."
Right before Jamie and Eddie entered Frank stopped them at the doors and said, "I know that you two wanted to give her a good Christmas, but I want you to remember it will be hard to give her to child services when they find her a place to stay."
"We know Dad. But she deserves a good Christmas, all children do." Jamie said as his Dad clasped his shoulder.
"I know son. Just remember that okay."
"Yeah."
"It's going to be hard to let her go. Do you think they'll let her keep her presents?" Eddie asked as she watched Nikki and Emma sit down in one of the pews.
"I'll make sure that she gets to keep them and that she's put in a good home." Frank said knowing that Eddie was really becoming attached to Emma and would hate for her to worry about Emma after she left them.
"Thanks."
"Come on let's go inside." Frank said as he then motioned and then followed Jamie and Eddie inside.
After church everyone piled back in to their cars and drove to Frank's house, where Nikki, with the help of Emma made hot chocolate for themselves, Jack, and Sean and then went to play in the family room. While all the adults sat down together to talk about what they had been up to the past couple of days and to get more information on how Jamie and Eddie came to be watching over Emma.
"So how long do you have Emma for?" Linda asked.
"Until child services find her a good home. Dad said that he'd make sure it was a good home and that she would be able to keep the toys that we picked up for her for Christmas." Jamie said as he glanced in the direction of the younger ones laughing as they played.
"So what exactly is her story?" Danny asked.
"Eddie and I were patrolling Central Park, when we heard some noises in the woods. Eddie, you must have known it was a child because you took off toward the sound."
"I babysat a lot when I was younger, I remember the sound of a child crying." Eddie said softly.
"So we found Emma out there with no coat or anything. We don't know how long she was out there, but it was long enough that she was too low temperature and was kept at the hospital till she was a good temp." Jamie added.
"That's awful. I can't believe a mother would do that." Linda said.
"She told her that she didn't want her and to stay there. So Emma did as her mother asked and stayed there until Jamie and I found her. She said that her mother never wanted her around during Christmas." Eddie said the anger toward that Mom clear in her voice.
"Well I'm glad that the two of you are giving her a good Christmas. She deserves that." Linda said strongly, though she did notice that Jamie and Eddie looked like there was something more but neither wanted to mention it. "What aren't you tell us? You both look like you're going to be sick. I don't want to know do I?"
"No you really don't. I don't." Eddie said with a look of anger.
"The doctor at the hospital said that there was abuse, physical not sexual." Jamie said knowing that Eddie wasn't going to say it.
There was a pause of silence, deafening to Jamie as he wanted for what he knew was coming, no one in this family were okay with child abusers. Frank took a long drink of his brandy before sighing and then said, "I will make sure she's in good home."
"Thank you sir…Frank." Eddie said knowing that this family was just as upset about it as she was.
"I'm glad you two found her. She has a good place to stay until they find her a good home." Erin said knowing that if anyone were to hurt Nikki or well anyone in the family they would have to deal with her. She also knew that Danny, who had hard cases that dealt with abused children, was going to make sure just like her father was that Emma ended up in a good home.
"Eddie?" Emma said as she slowly walked into the room and straight to Eddie.
"What's wrong honey?" Eddie asked as noticing that Emma was rubbing her eyes and thought she must be tired.
"I'm sleepy."
"Okay. Come on let's go get your PJs on and we'll go lay down."
"I'll show you what room you two will be in." Nikki said as she entered the room, she had followed after Emma when she noticed she was tired.
"Thanks Nikki." Eddie said as she picked Emma up, followed Nikki out of the room and up the stairs.
"I'm going to take the overnight bags upstairs." Jamie said as he grabbed the bags and follow them.
Erin looked at Danny as Jamie was getting the overnight bags and noticed that he had a smile on his face of when he was about to give Jamie a hard time, but Linda had grabbed hold of his arm giving him a look that said don't.
Once Jamie was heading up the stairs, Danny turned to Linda and said, "What was that look for?"
"Don't give him a hard time. He's doing a good thing and he doesn't need you picking on him for caring about Eddie and Emma." Linda said knowing that Danny liked to give Jamie a hard time.
"I'm not going to give him a hard time, I was just going to say that it was nice of him to take care of them."
"Sure, I know that look Danny." Erin said.
"Okay maybe I was going to give him a little bit of a hard time. Have you seen him so happy as when he's around Eddie? Or how good he is with Emma?"
"Those are both true, but he doesn't need you to remind him of the choice he could be making. He and Eddie like working together and I don't think that Jamie would want to change partners, because that would mean that he couldn't be there to protect her." Henry said knowing Jamie and Eddie's relationship was a different.
"She's a NYPD officer, if she wasn't able to protect herself I wouldn't want her out there." Danny said.
"That's not what Pops is saying. Eddie can take care of herself. What he's saying is that Jamie would never forgive himself if something happened to Eddie and he wasn't with her." Linda said knowing that Danny knew that feeling, "Like when I was shot, you wished that you had been there to prevent it, and for the next few days you didn't want me out of your sight. Jamie would feel the same way if something was to happen to Eddie."
"He spends his day in a squad car with her yet he continues to spend more time with her when their off duty. I just don't see why he doesn't tell her how he feels." Erin said knowing that Jamie was in love with Eddie from the way that they interacted with one another.
"It's because it's against regulations for partners to date. And like Pops and Linda said he would never forgive himself if he wasn't there to protect her." Frank said, he too knew that Jamie and Eddie would end up together, but he didn't know what it would take for that to happen.
"Well Jamie's doing so well and is going to take the Sergeant's exam, so maybe it will happen sooner than later." Danny said now understanding the position Jamie was in.
During that conversation upstairs Jamie was giving Eddie the two overnight bags that they had for her and Emma, while Jamie only had a little pack since some of his clothes were still here.
"So if you need anything I'm across the hall." Jamie said as he stood in the doorway.
"Okay." Eddie said as she grabbed her t-shirt and sweatpants. "Could you unzip me? I had Emma zip me up and since she's asleep I need help."
"Yeah, I can do that." Jamie said moving into the room to unzip Eddie's dress.
"Thanks." Eddie said as Jamie unzipped her dress for her.
"No problem. Do you want me to help you get Emma changed in to PJs? It looks like she's fast asleep."
"That would be great. But could you step out for a second."
"Yeah. Just let me know when I can come back in."
Jamie then left the room closing the door behind him and stood next to the door leaning against the wall. He knew that his feelings toward Eddie only got stronger the more time that they spent together and he knew that she felt the same way toward him, but they had agreed to stay partners which meant not acting on those feelings.
"Okay." Eddie called out letting Jamie know that she was done.
"Okay so how are we going to do this?" Jamie said as he re-entered the room.
"You lift her up and I'll get her changed." Eddie said as she grabbed the PJs they were going to put on Emma.
"Okay."
Jamie then lifted a sleeping Emma up so that Eddie would be able to take of her clothes and put the pajama's on. Soon they were done and a sleeping Emma was put back down, Emma was cuddling with the panda that Jamie had gotten her from the hospital.
"That was easier than I thought it would be." Jamie said softly to make sure that they didn't wake Emma up.
"Yeah. So I'm going to go to bed." Eddie said softly.
"Yeah, okay. Night Eddie."
"Night Jamie."
Jamie then left the room closing the door behind him and headed back downstairs, he knew that the rest of the adults would still be up.
"Emma asleep?" Linda asked when Jamie entered the room.
"Yeah. Fast asleep. It was easier putting PJs on a sleeping child than I thought it would be." Jamie answered.
"That is when it's the easiest. Putting them on children who are awake and want to move around is definitely a harder task."
"I bet."
"Where's Eddie?" Erin asked.
"She was going to sleep." Jamie replied before sitting down at the table.
"So we all picked something up for Emma." Danny stated knowing that choosing a gift for a girl was definitely different from what he was use too. "Even the boys wanted to pick something out."
"That's great. I'll be sure to thank them tomorrow."
"Nikki said you picked out some toys too, while you were clothes shopping." Erin said.
"Yeah I figured she deserved to have some presents to open on Christmas. Especially since her Mom left her." Jamie replied softly.
"I'm proud of you, son." Frank said knowing that Jamie always had a good heart.
"You're giving that little girl just what she needs during this holiday." Henry said.
"I have to go get those presents out of my car. I'll be right back." Jamie said as he got up and went to get the presents.
During the night Eddie woke up to screaming next to her, she flicked on the light to find a scared Emma thrashing in the bed next to her, Jamie entered the room to see if everything was okay.
"Emma…Emma it's okay. It's okay wake up honey." Eddie said as she pulled Emma into a hug.
"Ahhh!" Emma shouted as she woke up crying.
"Hey it's okay." Jamie said sitting down on the bed next to them.
"I want my Mommy." Emma said crying.
"Oh honey. I'm sorry, but I don't know where your Mom is." Eddie said as she brushed away the tears that were falling.
"Why doesn't she want me?"
"I don't know, but we're going to find you a new home and they are going to love you."
"I had a bad dream."
"It's going to be okay." Jamie said rubbing circles on Emma's back.
"Everything okay?" Frank asked from the doorway.
"Yeah. Emma just had a bad dream." Jamie said.
"Okay. Let me know if you guys need anything."
"We will. Night Dad." Jamie said to Frank who then motioned for all of the others to go back to bed.
"Can you tell us about the dream that you had?" Eddie asked once Frank had left.
"I was alone in the woods again and nobody came. It was so cold." Emma sobbed.
"It's okay honey. You're safe. It's okay." Eddie said as she held Emma close as Jamie continued to rub circles on Emma's back.
"We won't let anything happen to you." Jamie said softly.
It took Emma a few minutes to stop crying and almost fall back to sleep when she felt Jamie get up to go back to bed she grabbed his hand and said, "Please don't leave."
"It's okay. I'm right here." Jamie said as he got in to a more comfortable position and laid down next to them, Emma immediately cuddled against his side and pulled on Eddie's hand to pull her closer. They all quickly feel back to sleep.
Christmas morning, Frank and Henry were already up and were drinking coffee at the table, when Nikki came in and poured herself some coffee.
"Is Emma okay?" Nikki asked Frank.
"She just had a bad dream." Frank stated.
"I walked by a few minutes ago Emma must have been scared because Uncle Jamie stayed with them the rest of the night."
"He did?"
"Yeah you can go see for yourself."
"Can someone tell me why Uncle Jamie is sleeping with Eddie and Emma?" Sean said when he entered the kitchen, he and Jack were the only two that didn't end up in the hall last night.
"Emma had a bad dream last night." Nikki replied.
"Oh okay."
"Nikki, go tell your Uncle Danny and Mom not to bother them when they walk by." Henry said knowing that they would give him a hard time about it.
"Sure Pop." Nikki said quickly and ran upstairs to her Mom first, but found Uncle Danny and Aunt Linda already standing in the doorway of the room Uncle Jamie, Eddie, and Emma were in. "Pop says to leave them alone." Nikki said as she continued her way to her Mom's room.
"They look so cute together." Linda said softly to not wake them, Jamie had an arm around Eddie who was cuddled against his side and Emma who was cuddled against his chest.
"Yeah I guess they do. Come on I want some coffee before everyone drinks it all." Danny said thinking that maybe he'd leave Jamie alone about this one. He knew that moving on from this Jamie would have trouble with what exactly he was going to do about his feelings toward Eddie and that Eddie would be having trouble too.
"All right." Linda said as she followed Danny down the stairs, followed by Nikki who had come out of her Mother's room.
Jamie felt something tickling his noise and went to rub it away, but found that he was unable to move his arm. He opened his eyes, suddenly wondering where he was, when he saw Eddie curled against his side preventing his arm from moving. Under his nose was a sleeping Emma, he realized he was in Joe's room with Eddie and Emma both curled up with him.
"Eddie?" Jamie whispered.
"Hmm?" Eddie mumbled back before he felt her stiffen with surprise.
"It's okay. Do you think we should get Emma up so she can open her presents?"
"Yeah that would be good. Emma?" Eddie said as she propped herself up on her arm and rubbed Emma's back while she called her name, it took a little coaxing, but Emma was awake and smiling.
"Merry Christmas Emma." Jamie said.
"Merry Christmas." Emma replied.
"Honey would you like to go open presents?" Eddie asked her.
"Presents?!" Emma said surprised and Eddie and Jamie both had a feeling that she didn't many when she was with her mother and that made them both upset, but they both replaced those thoughts with ones of giving her a good Christmas right now.
"Yes."
"I would love to."
"Good, let's get up then. And I'll get you some hot chocolate." Jamie said as Eddie got up and picked Emma up.
"Yay!" Emma yelled as Eddie carried her out of the bedroom with Jamie following behind after he had grabbed everyone some sweatshirts, he knew it got a little cold downstairs.
"Morning everyone." Eddie said as she and Emma entered the kitchen.
'Mornings' were called back and soon Eddie had a cup of coffee in her hands and Emma had a cup of hot chocolate, they were sitting at the table waiting for everyone to feel up to opening the presents that were under the tree.
"Do I really get presents?" Emma asked after she took a sip of her hot chocolate.
"Yep. Would you like to open them? Eddie asked her.
"Yes please."
"All right let's go open presents." Pops said as he held out a hand for Emma to take before leading her in to the family room where the tree and all the presents were.
"These ones here are yours." Jamie said as he pointed out a pile of about fifteen presents.
"I get all those?" Emma said surprised.
"Yes honey they're all yours." Eddie said as she grabbed one of the presents and gave it to Emma.
"Cool."
Eddie then took Emma by the hand and had her sit down on the floor next to the presents, so she was near them and didn't need to be passed all of her gifts.
Nikki sat down near her with a few presents of her own and said, "You can read who they're from and then tear in to them to see what you got."
"Cool." Emma said first trying to read who the gift was from. "Nikki can you tell me who it's from?"
"Sure. This one says it's from Santa."
"Whose Santa?"
"He's a magical old man who gives gifts to the children who are good." Jack said hoping that he explained it well for Emma to understand.
"My mommy said I was never good for presents." Emma said surprising the others.
"We'll Santa must think you've been a good girl. So what's in your first present?" Jamie said trying to change the subject it was to getting to sad. Emma quickly unwrapped her first gift, it was a coloring book with crayons.
"Yay! I get to color!" Emma shouted making everyone laugh softly knowing that she was going to love anything that they got her.
"That's awesome. I got a different coloring book too. We can color together later." Nikki said, her coloring book was one of the adult ones that was all mandalas and she received colored pencils instead of crayons.
"That would be so much fun."
"All right set that down, here's your next present." Jamie said picking up one of the other presents.
It was later that morning after all but three of the presents had been opened, left Jack, Sean, and Emma wondering who the gifts were for; after looking at the name on the presents they handed them to Eddie.
"What's this?" Eddie asked as she took the three gifts from Jack, Sean, and Emma.
"We wanted to get something for you too." Frank said knowing that one was from the family, one was from Jamie, and one was bought for Emma to give to Eddie.
"You guys didn't have to do that."
"But we wanted too." Nikki said with a smile she had helped pick out the family's gift.
"Jamie told us that you probably weren't going to do anything for Christmas and that he was going to invite you to come here. So we all picked that one out." Linda said knowing that Eddie didn't have a family to spend Christmas with from the way that Jamie had explained it to her, Erin, and Nikki.
"Thank you." Eddie said with a sad small smile.
"Open up your gifts." Emma said which made everyone laugh.
"Okay."
Eddie opened the one from the family and found a really nice digital photo frame with pictures already on the SIM card.
"I love it." Eddie exclaimed.
Everyone smiled at that, it was Nikki who said, "We thought we would take some pictures today and we'll be able to put them on there. We also took photos from other events that we've been at together and put them on there too."
"I really love it."
"Open this one now." Emma said handing Eddie a present that was from her.
"Okay." Eddie said with a smile as she took the present from Emma. Eddie opened this present to find an oval shaped locket with a Celtic design on it, "This is beautiful."
"Jamie helped me pick it out when we had gone in to the mall to pick up that present for Nikki." Emma said, yesterday Jamie had said that he need to stop at the mall to pick up Nikki's present.
"That's really sweet of you. Thank you so much." Eddie said to both Jamie, who bought the gift and Emma, who had picked it out; Eddie pulled Emma in to a big hug.
"All right Eddie, this one is from Uncle Jamie." Nikki said handing Eddie a small box shaped present.
"Oh okay." Eddie took the present from Nikki and unwrapped it, she was left with a felt black box. She opened it to find a beautiful ring that had Celtic design on it similar to the one on the necklace. "I love it Jamie."
"I'm glad." Jamie replied giving Eddie a hug.
"I got you something too, hold on a second." Eddie left the room for a second before coming back in with an envelope in her hand, "I figured you'd like this." Eddie handed Jamie the envelope. Jamie took it from her to find something hard inside, the shape felt unusual in his hand, "Open it." Eddie exclaimed.
"Okay." Jamie said as he opened the envelope to find a set of keys inside, but they weren't just any set of keys they were the set of keys to Joe's car. The car that had been destroyed when Jamie had crashed it. "I don't understand. How did you get these?"
"I got it fixed for you. It's back at the station in the parking lot. You're Dad helped me get a hold of it. Do you like it?"
"Like! I love it! Thank you so much Eddie!" Jamie pulled Eddie into a hug practically jumping for joy with her in his arms.
"I had it restored to the same color and interior."
"This is amazing!"
Linda caught Danny's glance in her direction, she knew that he was thinking of all the things he could give Jamie a hard time about now that Eddie had given him such a thoughtful gift. But she quickly gave him a look of 'don't mess with him about this' that made him think twice, he knew that she would give him a hard time about giving Jamie a hard time. It was one of the reasons that he loved her, she loved his family.
Jamie and Eddie stood there in each other's arms; when Jamie suddenly noticed how close Eddie was to him, Eddie and he both stopped jumping and looked each other in the eyes. The smiles never fading, but Jamie leaned down and kissed Eddie. It wasn't there first kiss and they knew now that it wasn't going to be their last. Being with each other made everything better and neither one was going to let go of that, ever since Eddie and Jamie had confessed that they did each have feeling for the other it hadn't been awkward like they thought it would be. Each day that they spent together just made them want to spend more together.
"Wow." Eddie said when she and Jamie pulled apart.
"Ahem…" Frank cleared his throat, both Eddie and Jamie had completely forgot where they were.
"Sorry." Jamie said, but he didn't let Eddie go just yet.
"Jamie?" Eddie said unsure if Jamie wanted to change the status of what they were, because if he did she would be for it, but that would mean that they needed different partners and they both didn't want that.
"Eddie, I'm sorry. I know that we decided not to do this, but I don't want to not do it anymore. I know that we'll both need new partners, but I'm willing to do that so that I can be with you."
"You know that I've wanted that, but are you sure?"
"Yes I am. I know that I've pushed you away, but I don't want to anymore. Eddie you're my best friend and I want to spend as much time as I can with you."
"Then you know my answer is yes."
Jamie leaned down and kissed Eddie again, though this time everyone cheered when they did. The whole family had known that there was more between them then they would admit; now they knew that they weren't wrong and welcomed Eddie into the family.
"So I was thinking." Jamie said still facing Eddie.
"Thinking? That's dangerous." Eddie said jokingly as she watched Jamie pick Emma up. Once he had Emma in his arms and was looking at her she knew what he was thinking about. "Are you sure? This is a big step. Are we ready for that?"
"I think we are."
"If you think we are then so do I. Emma would like to be a permanent part of this family?"
"You'd be my Mom and Dad?" Emma asked.
"Yes." Jamie replied.
"Yes! Yes! This is the best Christmas!" Emma shouted as she hugged Eddie and Jamie.
Jamie's family was surprised by his sudden want for adopting Emma, but they knew that they would be great parents just from watching them the past day. And they all knew that it was one of the best Christmas's that they had had in a long time and now they would be able to continue having them in the future as a family.