Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me...

A/N: This is my contribution for the Christmas Fic Gift Exchange, written for hxchick.

Her prompts were "Carol of the Bells", snow, Christmas dinner, a roaring fire in a fireplace, the pairing is JJ/Rossi.

Please note that for the purpose of this story, I've aged Henry about a year so that he's three years old in it.

The story is seven chapters and I will post all of them until the 25th.

I hope you'll enjoy and have fun reading it!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year!

Feels Like A Change Is Gonna Come

Chapter 1

Whoever invented Christmas shopping must have been out of their minds, David Rossi thought annoyed as he made his way through the crowded mall. People everywhere, old and young, short and tall, laughing, yelling, pushing, combined with various kinds of Christmas songs playing in each store that together with all kinds of silly decorations were supposed to spread the Christmas spirit – it was almost too much for him.

And it seemed to get worse every year. And every year David Rossi vowed to have his Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving, but his job made him break his vows to himself again and again. Next year he was going to listen to Garcia and order all of his gifts online. Two days before Christmas, unfortunately, it was too late for that.

Three hours later he had found and bought a necklace and a pair of earrings for his mother, some fine cigars and a bottle of bourbon for his father, along with presents for every member on his team.

Clutching the bags, he found a free space on a bench and sat down to take a breath. There was only one person left he needed to find a gift for, and that was JJ.

And now he was sitting there, debating with himself if he should actually get her something, now that she wasn't on the team anymore.

It wasn't that he didn't like JJ. Quite the opposite actually. The young, blonde woman had captured his heart form the first moment he laid eyes on her, and there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for her. But she wasn't his. She belonged to another man with whom she had an adorable son, and the last thing he wanted was to overstep any boundaries by showing up at their doorstep with present for her. Especially since they had never been more than coworkers. Sure, the team had always been a tight-knit group, and he and JJ deeply respected each other, but at the end of the day, when work was done, everybody went home to their respective lives. That didn't change the fact that he dreamed about her almost every night, and that he missed her dearly on the job, missed seeing her bright and shining blue eyes and her beautiful smile.

He hadn't seen her for three months, not since her last day at the BAU, despite the mutual assurances to stay in touch. The most important reason for that was their job. Or rather his job, as he knew that JJ's work hours had actually changed to being described as reasonable. The team's schedule however was as packed and bustling as ever, and having lost one member had significantly expanded everyone else's work load.

Garcia and Reid were probably the only ones who kept in contact with JJ on a more regular basis, due to the fact that they were Henry's godparents, but even they didn't tell the rest of them as much about her and how she was doing as they did in the first few weeks after her leave.

Dave had tried to call her twice to say hello. The first time he'd had Will on the phone as JJ hadn't been home, and hearing the slight annoyance in the younger man's voice, he felt like he had invaded somewhere he didn't belong. The second time, JJ had sounded quite surprised to hear from him, pleasantly so, if he was asked, but she didn't have time to talk for long, because she'd had a doctor's appointment with Henry. They'd both agreed to hear from each other and JJ had promised to call him once she wouldn't be too busy, but the call never came. And Dave had realized that maybe it was true what they said: Out of sight, out of mind.

Not for him, though. She still found her way into his thoughts every time he was alone with enough time to think at hand. So much so that his parents had already caught up on it. A month back, at Thanksgiving, his mother had made him his favorite chocolate cake, which was something she usually reserved for his birthday. And after that, she and his father had shown up at his house every weekend he was home, just to make sure he was alright.

"I will at least send her a Christmas card," he concluded his contemplation. The weird look on the elderly woman sitting next to him told him that he had just said that out loud.

Ignoring her, he got up again, checking that he still had all of his bags with him and headed for the next exit.

~.~.~

He was almost by the elevators, when he saw a blond toddler emerging from them, running in his direction, and somehow the boy looked quite familiar to him. Wasn't it...?

The voice that promptly yelled after the boy confirmed his suspicions at once.

"Henry Jareau! I said stop!"

Dave broke into a huge grin as he saw JJ running out of the elevator and after her son, who didn't bother listening to his mother. Quickly bending down before young Henry could run past him, he dropped his bags and caught him.

Caught by surprise, Henry let out an ear-piercing scream and began to struggle instantly, hitting Dave in the stomach with one of his feet. Dave made a mental note to tell JJ to let Henry play soccer one day. For his three years, he certainly had one hell of a kick.

"Hey buddy, what are you doing, running away from your Mom?"

Hearing the vaguely familiar voice, the little boy went still and looked up to Dave. "Mr. Wossi?" He asked carefully.

"Yes, buddy, it's me," Dave confirmed, smiling at him. He was a bit surprised that Henry remembered him. If it was three months since he'd last seen JJ, it was double the time since he'd seen Henry.

In the meantime, JJ had caught up with them.

"Lost something? Or someone?" He grinned at her, but his amusement made place for a deep frown as soon as he had taken a good look at her.

She had dark circles under her eyes, which looked tired and had lost their shining sparkle that he loved so much, and it seemed as if she had lost some weight as well.

"Rossi!" JJ exclaimed. "That's a surprise!"

"I would say so! How are you?"

JJ didn't get a chance to answer Dave's question, because Henry began to draw their attention to him once more.

"Mommy, Santa! I wanna go see Santa!" He announced impatiently.

"Henry, you've already been to Santa twice this year," JJ tried to argue with her son.

"But Mommy, I need to see him again!" Henry cried, struggling even more on Dave's arm.

"Fine, we'll go see him again. But Mommy needs to buy a few things first," JJ gave in, quite obviously too tired for a longer discussion.

Dave watched the exchange between them closely.

Henry's excitement for Santa Claus wasn't unusual for a kid his age, but the fact that his normally calm and collected mother seemed to be on the verge of a breakdown made him frown even more. He needed to find out what was going on.

"Hey, why don't I take Henry to Santa Claus, and you can go and run your errands?" He offered.

"Yay, Santa!" Henry squealed. He was instantly in on the plan.

"Are you sure?" JJ asked hesitantly.

"Of course. I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't. Henry and I will have a lot of fun with Santa. Isn't that right, Henry?"

The little boy nodded eagerly. "Let's go, Mr. Wossi!"

"Fine," JJ agreed, looking quite relieved that she could get a few minutes to herself.

"How 'bout we meet upstairs at Starbucks later when we're done?" Dave suggested.

"Sounds good." JJ gave him a slight smile for the first time since they'd run into each other.

"Alright, Henry, you're going to listen to Mr. Rossi, okay?"

" 'kay Mommy."

"Fine." She turned back to Dave. "I was going to bring his stroller, but then he'd thrown such a tantrum that I decided to go without, or otherwise we'd never have made it here."

"It's okay, JJ, I promise to never let go of his hand. And if he tries to escape I can still carry him."

"You sure you don't mind? I can take your bags if you want to."

"Of course I don't. Henry and I are bringing them back to my car before we go to Santa." He winked at Henry, who started to object.

"But-"

"What did I just say Henry?" JJ promptly interrupted him.

"I'm gonna listen to Mr. Wossi."

"That's right. Now give me a kiss." She bent over and he smooched a wet peck on her cheek.

"See you later. Bye. And thank you, Rossi."

"You're welcome, JJ. See you later."

"Bye Mommy."