Merry Christmas to all! Hope your Holiday Season has been going well and I am sorry that I haven't updated in a while, but I promise to change that really soon. Onto this story:
Note 1: This is dedicated to SSA Cuteass for the Christmas Fic Exchange at Chit Chat on the Author's corner. My prompts from her were: Song: Silver Bells, other: cutting down a tree, decorating the outside of the house, and a snowball fight. Hope this works, SSA Cuteass!
Note 2: This story takes place in Season 5 after Haley died. Also, pretend that Hotch and Jack have moved into an actual house.
Note 3: Disclaimer: Don't own anything that you recognize. Unfortunately, I didn't get it for Christmas.
Enjoy!
Through the windows of the car, it could be seen that the city sidewalks were busy as people tried to get their shopping done. The shoppers wore a wide assortment of different holiday garb, which included scarves in different arrangements of red and green and multiple Santa hats. The outfits of the shoppers only added to the holiday glee that was already being adorned by the stores with their tinsel, lights, and overall Christmas spirit. Smile was met with smile after smile and even the nastiest Scrooge had enough cheer to light up an entire block with light. At every street corner, there were jolly St. Nick's ringing their silver bells for all shoppers to hear. In the holiday spirit, nearly everyone was taking a moment of his or her time to help spread the happiness a bit farther. Silver bells, plus the effect of all the holiday decorations, must have made everyone less reluctant to give, and more willing to help.
Along the streets that wound out of the city, homes were decorated like gingerbread houses. The pristine, ivory snow was the perfect frosting that coated the ground while the lights that outlined the house's frame were like the gumdrops that added that sweet punch to the house. The lights draped over snow-covered bushes were like sprinkles or fairies caught and then placed in the maze of twigs to create a more magical glow to the house. Children ran around in the yards, happy to be off of school and happier that Christmas was only a week away. Their shrieks could be heard echoing all over the normally quiet neighborhood.
With everyone's houses aglow, it wasn't hard to feel the Christmas spirit rise inside of you. It was Christmas time in the city, and soon it would be Christmas day.
At least that spirit lasted until the driver laid her eyes on the house of Aaron Hotchner, and Emily Prentiss quickly realized why here boss had called her and nearly begged her to come over.
"Hey," she called stepping out of the car to Hotch who was carrying a ladder out of the garage.
After a startled look around, Hotch spotted her walking towards him and nodded, "Hey, thanks for coming."
"No problem. What do you need me to do?"
"Uh," he set the ladder down in the snow and scanned the yard. "You could help Jack bring out some of the boxes of lights from the back garage. I'm going to bring out the other ladder and then start putting up some of the wreaths."
"Cool." Emily started trudging her way through the snow to the garage. Just as she reached the entrance, a pile of box with two feet sticking out beneath them rounded the corner. "Oomph," came a little voice from behind the tower as it gently bounced into Emily. "Here, let me help you with those, Jack," she offered.
"Okay," came the voice again. Emily grabbed some of the boxes off of the top leaving only one box for Jack to carry. Together they made their way into the yard.
"Thank you, Miss Em-lee," Jack said in his adorable five-year old way. Emily couldn't help but smile at his innocence. The two made their way back into the garage, and as they came out, their arms each carrying more boxes of lights and decorations, Hotch could be seen setting the two ladders against the house siding.
"Thank you so much for your help," he praised as he strolled up to his son and his subordinate. Glancing between Jack and Emily, he suggested, "Jack, why don't you go and start building a snowman to complete the gingerbread look that you wanted?"
"Okay." Jack scurried off in his snow pants and coat to the middle of the yard to start his work.
Hotch turned back to Emily who was standing patiently on the slightly snowy driveway. His thoughts immediately leaped to thinking about how beautiful she looked with a scattering of snowflakes in her raven hair and how she was all bundled up in her jacket and scarf. He was so glad that she had been able to come and help his this afternoon. There was nothing he wanted more than to spend the day with the woman that he was secretly crushing on. He was like an elementary child, having to be sneaky to get the girl he likes to talk to him. And he was the leader of one of the most elite teams in the FBI!
Emily's breath hitched as Hotch scooted a fraction of an inch closer to her. If Reid were there, he would've been able to ramble dozens of signs showing her nervousness, but since he wasn't, Emily couldn't notice and couldn't stop those signs from showing. Her crush on Hotch had come about though years of working with the serious man, but also getting the chance to see the sensitive and emotional side of him. Her stupid crush had grown and that's why when Hotch had called asking her to come over, she couldn't have said yes fast enough. Now, standing in the freezing snow, the blush couldn't be making her face any hotter.
"You are completely amazing, Emily." Hotch cleared his throat. "I mean, thank you so much for coming to help. I just couldn't say no when Jack asked me to make the outside of the house like the gingerbread house that he had made in school, and I can't do this by myself. And then-"
"Stop, Hotch. You're starting to ramble on like Reid." A fit of kindergarten giggles erupted from the two of them and it took a few moments before either one of them could calm down enough to talk like regular adults again.
"Why don't you start draping some lights in the trees while I hang some others off of the house?"
"Sounds like a plan," Emily said before she picked up one of the boxes she knew contained read and blue lights and made her way over to a tree standing in the middle of the yard. After she plucked one end of the long strand from the box, she stood up and started stringing the lights through the barren branches of the tree. She was standing on her tiptoes when something hard crashed into her back before she felt the icy cold slip past her coat. She spun around looking for the thrower of the snowball.
Hotch was hanging onto a ladder ten feet in the air, so it couldn't have been him. There were no little kids out playing around except… a little piece of shoe stuck out from behind the other tree in the yard. Emily wasn't one to usually engage in payback, but…
Gathering up a bundle of snow in her hands and forming it in her hands, she snuck around as quietly as she could to the tree. She paused for a second before she launched her attack on Jack. Spinning around the trunk of the tree, she tossed the snowball right into the back of Jack.
"Hey!" he exclaimed. Eyeing payback, he immediately scooped up some more snow before launching it at Emily. Shrieking at the sudden impact, Emily threw some more snow at Jack. Before either of them could register what they were doing, the simple snow tossing turned into a battle to see who get could more snow on their opponent.
"Hold on," came Hotch's voice as he approached the childish pair. "What are you two doing?"
"Miss Em-lee started it, Daddy. She came around the tree and threw a snowball at me!"
"What! No, that is not what happened, Hotch!" Emily quickly defended. "Jack threw a snowball at me first!"
"Are you suggesting that my son started this fight, Agent Prentiss?" Hotch's voice suddenly turned stone cold, and Emily wish she could've swallowed her words. With a slight nod of her head, she wondered why Hotch would suddenly turn from playful to stern in a matter of seconds. "This will have consequences," he continued.
"Yes, sir." Emily saw not point in arguing with her boss when his mind was so very set.
"Well then, you better prepare yourself." Hotch's stoic face suddenly turned into an evil grin right before he whipped his hand out from behind his back and catapulted a snowball right into Emily's face. Seeing her shock expression on her face and the melting snow that was slowly dripping down her face, he remarked, "Consider yourself punished."
"Aaron Hotchner… you are so dead!" Emily quickly scooped up snow and flung it on him. Jack cheered and quickly made more snowballs as Aaron to revenge on Emily. Jack started pelting both of the adults with his snowballs. War broke out next with soldiers hiding behind trees and hastily scooping together snowballs to pelt their enemies with.
Eventually the house did look like a gingerbread house, but it wasn't until Aaron, Emily, and Jack were all covered in snow, laughing about their childish antics, and that the Christmas spirit had wormed their way past their exteriors and reached their hearts.