It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, a criminal minds fanfic

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

A/N: Why? Because the universe needed to be corrected. Erin Strauss and David Rossi deserve to live Happily Ever After. By killing off Strauss, the powers to be at CM let a coward like Curtis win and to me, there is no justice in that... so it needed to be corrected and in my world, she survived and her death was faked until Curtis' co-conspirators had been apprehended. Yeah it was started before Christmas and I have been sitting on it for a few months since I finished it but it keeps insisting it has been done for ages so I am going to listen and post it.

Disclaimer: I don't own it. If I did, things would have turned out a lot differently. Rossi would be married to Strauss, not mourning her (although the show doesn't show much of it. Reid mourned Maeve whom he had never seen before more than Rossi mourned a woman he'd known for decades and was in a year plus relationship with) and Morgan and Garcia would be Mr. and Mrs. Morgan.

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

"Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight. And the all lived happily ever after." Said the tall, handsome, graying gentleman as he closed the book. He looked around at his family gathered in the room and couldn't help but smile at how much he had come to love these people.

There was a time, when he spent his Christmas Holidays alone. Yes, he had brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews who would have been happy to have him as a guest for the holidays but somehow seeing those families, knowing he would never have one of his own, that his last chance had passed him years ago, just brought an unbearable loneliness over him that was worse than if he just stayed home by the fire with a strong scotch and a good book.

Fortunately the winds of fate had changed that for him a couple years ago. It all resulted from one major decision he made in his life; that had nothing to do with the joy of Christmas, just the opposite actually, as he decided to come back and re-enter the dark world of the getting into the minds of Serial Killers. That faithful decisions brought him into the fold of the BAU's Alpha Team. The team that would teach him more about love than he had ever learned in all of his adult years. The Marines may have taught him the motto of 'No man left behind' but, time and distance, while not completely severing, weakened those bonds of fraternity.

With his BAU team, they had become a family, not by blood but by desire to love and be loved, and deep in his old, storm battered heart, David Rossi knew, no matter the time, nor the distance, these people would forevermore be someone he would gladly lay his life down for.

Coming back to Quantico and the FBI had not only given him a team that was more family than co-workers, it had also reunited him with the woman who would always be the love of his life. She had always been and probably would always be a burr under his backside professionally, but personally... ah that was a different story.

Erin Strauss, the name would always conjure up a ton of memories for him. Some not so good but, others, very pleasurable.

He thought back to the first time he met her. It was lust at first sight, but truthfully it was more than that. Although he was definitely not ready to settle down again, still smarting over his divorce from Carolyn after the heartbreaking loss of their son James, he David Rossi knew from the time he laid eyes on Erin Strauss that one day, he wanted to make her his wife. He just never thought this many years would pass between the time of that thought and the actuality of the event. But over the years, the timing was just never right. If their lives had been one of those Soap Operas Erin Strauss watched as one of her guilty pleasures, but would never publicly admit to, they would have been called Star Crossed Lovers, always wanting to be together but never getting the timing right and when they did, having others conspiring behind their backs to keep them apart. But life is not a TV show, even if they did have to fake Erin's death, like those old Daytime Serials were notorious for doing, and thankfully, after all they had been through, they had finally gotten it right and were bound and determined to never again, let anything keep them apart.

Being in a relationship with Erin again, brought him more joy than he every could have imagined. It wasn't just about their feelings and knowing that they were both in it for the rest of their lives; It wasn't just the reassurance that there was now somebody out there that would die Ten Thousand Deaths, if it meant that no sadness or pain would ever touch him and his life again; It wasn't just about knowing that no matter what it was, he could talk to her and she would do her best to always try to understand and not judge him; It wasn't just about knowing that when the world got to be to much, there was someone whose arms would be lovingly open, awaiting him to fall into them, who would hold him, rubbing his back while he broke down, reassuring him that everything would be okay, never belittling him as being weak for giving rein to his emotions. No it was all that and so much more.

When she came back into his life, Erin Strauss not only gave him her love but she entrusted him with a chance to get to know and love her children. He never knew how incomplete his life was, until he got to know and love the three Strauss Children.

Not every day had been easy, between him and Erin's offspring but, even the days that brought heartache were more than worth it.

At first they were reluctant to accept his friendship. Their mom had not dated many men since the divorce and the few she had, were evidently not interested in being around her kids. Knowing Erin like he did, that is why none of them lasted very long. Erin Strauss was a woman who gave her all when she was in a relationship, but no matter how much she loves you, her kids always had and always would come first.

Slowly but surely, he and the Strauss children were finding firm footing while navigating the minefield of a Step Parent and Step Children relationship. Okay so technically, he and their mother were not married yet, but in all ways that counted, he was stepping up to the plate and fulfilling the role of helping to raise Erin's kids.

Marriage, well that would just be the icing on an already delicious cake. He knew one day, they would say I do in front of God, their family and friends.

When? Well he was just waiting on Erin to give the word. After what her ex-husband had put her through, he couldn't blame her for being gun-shy. Yet, that didn't mean he would give up on her gaining the title of Mrs. David Rossi. Erin might be a very independent woman about a lot of things but when it comes to marriage, she is more for the traditional, tried and true ways, so he had no doubt that she would change her last name to his.

David thought about all the reasons that he wanted to marry the woman he loved: love, desire, affection and companionship were just a few of them. One of the major reasons he wanted to marry her was that he wanted to give her and her children the security and protection of his name. He had already changed his will, even before Erin moved in with him but as long as they were not married, he was worried about his biological family finding a way to break his will and knowing Erin and the children would have better legal standing if she was his wife and they were officially his stepchildren. Erin wasn't a gold-digger and she had resources of her own, she would always tell him whenever he brought the subject up, yet life was fickle, he couldn't take it with him and there was no one in this world he wanted to leave it to more than the people he considered family.

The End

CMGUYSGIRL