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A perfect iridescent blue laid out before her eyes, sunshine glittering brilliantly through the clouds that were casting the Ocean hues over the white meadow. Tree's as tall as the California Redwoods stood unwavering, bent heavy with the weight of icicles and fresh snow. Emily Prentiss stopped in her tracks to catch her breath, hiking through three feet of snow had been slow going, to say the least. She'd started the journey like any sane person – with a car. But her destination could no longer be reached by vehicle, according to her satellite phone, the cabin she was searching for was still another three miles away, and the terrain looked to be uphill. She checked the battery on the sat phone for the hundredth time, she had about thirty percent left. "Christ, at this rate it'll be another five hours before I get there…" she said aloud to no one. She was hungry, cold, tired, and irritated. Her mother's voice rang in her head. "You can accomplish any unpleasant task far more efficiently without grumbling. Besides, it's unbecoming." Shaking her head, she continued trudging on.

This had been her idea of a surprise. Following David Rossi to Colorado. He was spending his Christmas alone and had said something about hunting. He had seemed sad when he had mentioned it to her a few weeks back. Ever since finding out he had a daughter and grandson, he'd been different. He didn't mention a reason why he wasn't spending it with his new family, and Emily suspected that was the reason for his bad mood the past month. She couldn't blame him, she hated the holidays for this exact reason – everyone else had a family and warm cozy houses with gingerbread cookies and a funny drunk uncle to look forward to. Her own mother had vanished with a new boyfriend to the island of St. Thomas without so much as a phone call to let Emily know. Not that she particularly relished Christmas dinner with her mother.

Turning off her satellite phone to conserve battery, Emily dug out a compass from her jacket, waited for it to settle on her desired direction and kept trudging. She'd come as prepared as she could – her snow boots weren't very warm but she was at least dry. Her meager back pack held only clothing and water, she hadn't thought it would take her an entire day to trek from the highway to David's unsurprisingly secluded vacation home.

"Who buys a vacation home in Colorado, anyways, Rossi?" She groaned to no one. "Why couldn't it have been someplace sunshiney and warm, like Cancun? You old hermit." She huffed as she battled through the snow that was almost up to her waist.

Her wrist watch read 1:45p.m., she'd been hiking for nearly five hours, and though exhausted, attempted to speed up her step, she'd have maybe three hours left of daylight before things became dire. You could just use the rest of the battery on the phone to call him… She thought it might be prudent that another human being know where she was. He probably doesn't have cell reception… Which had been the reason she needed the satellite phone, but knowing David Rossi he probably purposefully chose this location so no one could reach him.

"At least the view is pretty." And indeed it was.

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"Come on, boy, storm is supposed to settle in soon, we need to start a fire." David smiled at his four legged friend, the mutt wagged his tail and hopped after his master towards the cabin. Carrying his kill over his shoulders, Rossi thought he could hear the wind picking up, there wouldn't be much daylight left to clean his Pheasant with outdoors. He had been in a bad mood for a good month, knowing he wasn't able to see his daughter and grandson for Christmas. They were headed to London, to see Hayden. Hayden hadn't invited him to come along. Mostly he had been upset that he couldn't watch Kai's face when he opened the mass array of gifts Grandpa had sent. He didn't care if it was spoiling, he had 30 years to catch up on. The thought of his adorable boy made him smile widely. There would be other Christmases, and next year, he wouldn't be above giving a good guilt trip so he could spend time with them.

Mudgie stopped short of outdoor cleaning station, where Rossi set about dressing his meal, lost deep in thoughts about Hayden and all of his mistakes. He'd give his entire career away to have those years to be a father. The team knew of course, by now, but the first person he'd told was Emily. He'd called her immediately when he arrived in San Francisco to give her the news, and she was just as shocked as he was. She had given him what he considered to be very good advice on how to proceed getting to know his new family members. He all but bribed her to come and meet them, so excited he was to show off his perfect grandson. But, adding to his overall shit luck and abysmal moodiness, she couldn't get away from work. They'd been keeping up via email and texts non-stop for months. He missed her terribly, and even though Kate had been a wonderful addition to the team, no one could replace Emily Prentiss. She truly had become his best friend in all these months.

Thinking of Emily now, as the wind picked up and the temperature dropped made him feel a chill that didn't seem to have much to do with the weather.

"Alright boy, we'd better take some wood inside and hole up for the night. It's gonna get nasty."

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Thank you for reading my 2014 Christmas fic! Having a wonderful time with this. =)