Christmas Eve was just 2 days away. Callen had been gone for nearly 3 weeks on an undercover mission. His wife Maura, who was almost 9 months pregnant, was at home with the 2 kids they already had. A boy, Finley, who was 5 and a girl, Amy, who was 3.

Maura was a computer tech for the office of naval intelligence in LA. She and Callen had met on a joined operation about 8 years ago.

….

Three weeks ago….

Callen and Maura had just put the kids to bed and they were cleaning up in the kitchen and Callen was staring out of the window.

"Everything okay G?" Maura said.

"Yeah, it's just something has come up at work. I have to go undercover," Callen said.

"Undercover? For how long?"

"I don't know yet. Could be a couple of weeks. Sam and I have to go to Afghanistan."

"Afghanistan? Really? Can't someone else go? I need you here."

"I know honey, but I have to go. Sam and I are the best for the op. But don't worry, we'll be fine. I'll be back before you know it."

"Just promise me you'll be careful. I can't stand losing you."

"I promise. Come here," Callen said as he pulled Maura in for a hug. "Everything will be fine. You're not going to lose me."

"When are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow already? Will you be home in time for Christmas?"

"I don't know how long we'll be away but I will definitely will do my very best to make it home for Christmas."

"Okay good. Cus Christmas without you would not be the same. And I also hope you won't miss our new baby being born."

"Of course not. There's no way on earth I would miss that."

That night Maura lay close to Callen. She didn't want him to go. The next morning Callen had to go away on his undercover mission.

"Can daddy get a hug from you two? Daddy has to go away for work for a while," Callen said and Amy and Finley came to give him a hug.

"Will you be home for Christmas daddy?" Amy said.

"I will definitely try my very best to be home for Christmas okay."

"I love you daddy."

"I love you too sweety. And you take care of mommy while I'm gone okay. You're the man of the house now."

"I'll miss you daddy. I don't want you to go," Finley said.

"I know pall. I'll miss you too. I'll be back before you know it. Now go get ready for school."

"Do you really have to go?" Maura said.

"Yes unfortunately. I'm gonna miss you so much," Callen said and he gave her a hug.

"You stay safe okay. Be careful."

"I will."

Callen gave her a very passionate kiss. Maura held on tight to him, not wanting to let him go.

"I have to go honey," Callen said.

"I know," Maura said.

"Be good to mommy while daddy's gone okay," Callen said and he kissed her stomach. "I love you."

"I love you too. Come back soon," Maura said and gave him another kiss.

"I will. See ya."

"See ya. Be careful," Maura said as Callen walked to his car and Callen waved her goodbye and drove off.

….

Maura had no idea when Callen was going to return from his latest mission. She hoped, since it was Christmas Eve in just 2 days, that he would be coming home soon. So he could join them for the Christmas dinner. Since he had been gone she had only heard from him once, but she understood that it was too risky for him to contact her when he was undercover. And if something had gone wrong she would have probably heard about it.

Maura had just put Finley to bed and was tucking him in.

"Mommy, when is daddy gonna be home?" Finley asked.

"I don't know sweety," Maura said.

"Is he gonna be here for Christmas?"

"I'm sure he's gonna do his very best to make it home for Christmas."

"Santa will bring him home for Christmas right?"

"I'm sure Santa will do everything he can to get your daddy home for Christmas okay. Goodnight honey."

"Goodnight mommy."

Maura had been on maternity leave since last week and because Callen was away Maura's mother, Kate, had come to help her around the house and with the kids.

"Did you tuck Amy in?" Maura asked.

"Yes I did. She's almost asleep already. She was really tired," Kate said.

"Okay good. And thank you again for coming over to help me. I really appreciate it."

"It's my pleasure. Have you heard anything from G, like when he's coming home?"

"No, not yet. He told me he could be away for a couple of weeks. He would try to make it home for Christmas but he wasn't sure if he could make it."

"Then why don't you call him to see when he'll be home."

"I would if I could, but I can't reach him. He's unreachable."

"Unreachable? What is he doing exactly and where is he?"

"He's in Washington, they had a new project there. Top secret so no electronic devices aloud."

"And what about when he's not working? I'm sure he's not working 24 hours."

"No, he's not. But like I said top secret. He can't have contact with anyone outside the team he's working with."

"He's not doing anything illegal right?"

"Mom."

"I know you love him and I know he takes good care of you and the kids but after 8 years I still don't know what he does exactly."

"I told you. He's working for the government."

"Yes I know. But what does he do exactly?

"I can't tell you. It's classified. But I can assure you it's nothing illegal. It's just like that I can't tell you everything I do at the naval intelligence. It's classified and so is his job. But trust me mom he's a good man."

"Okay."

That night Maura couldn't fall asleep. She kept thinking about Callen. She just wanted him to come home. Christmas would not be the same if he wasn't there and what if he was away longer then he could miss their new baby being born. About an hour later her mom found her sitting on the couch.

"Hey Maura, what are you doing up?" Kate asked.

"Hey mom, I couldn't sleep. I'm just looking at some photos," Maura said.

"You miss him don't you?"

"Yeah very much. He's been away on business before, but it's different right now. It's almost Christmas and our baby will be here in a couple of weeks. I just don't know what to do if he's not here for either one or both of them," Maura said and she started crying a bit.

"Hey honey, it's okay," Kate said as she put her arm around her and Maura put her head on Kate's shoulder. "I'm sure he will do his absolute best to make it home in time for both."

"I hope you're right."

"Come on. Let's go back to bed."

Tonight was Christmas Eve and still no sign of Callen. They were all in the kitchen preparing the Christmas dinner.

"Mommy, will dad be home tonight for Christmas dinner?" Finley asked.

"I don't know sweety. He said he would try, but if he can't make it I'm sure he'll be thinking about us," Maura said.

"I miss dad, Christmas is not the same without him."

"I know Finley. It's not. But I'm here, your sister is here and grandma is here and we're gonna have a very nice Christmas dinner together."

"I want dad!" Finley said and he ran to his room and slammed the door shut.

Maura sat down at the kitchen table not knowing what to do or say to him.

"I'll go talk to him," Kate said.

"Mommy, look what I made," Amy said as she handed Maura a drawing.

"That's beautiful honey. Is this us?"

"Yes, this I you and daddy and this is Finley."

"That's really beautiful. We'll put this with the Christmas tree."

Kate returned with Finley to the kitchen.

"I'm sorry mommy," Finley said and he gave her a hug.

"It's okay baby. It's okay to miss daddy. I miss him too," Maura said. "But the 4 of us are gonna have a nice Christmas dinner. I'm sure daddy would want us too."

About 5 hours later the Christmas dinner was ready and they sat at the dining room table.

"Mommy, where's daddy? I thought you said that Santa would bring him home for Christmas," Amy said.

"I'm sure Santa did his very best to bring daddy home for Christmas but sometimes even Santa can't make all the wishes come true," Maura said.

"Are you sure about that?" Callen said as he stepped through the door.

"Daddy," Finley and Amy said and they ran up to him. Callen had gone down on his knees and they flew into his arms.

"Daddy missed you," Callen said and gave them both a kiss on their cheek. "Have you two been good to mommy while I was away?"

"Yeah, we helped mommy put up the Christmas tree," Finley said.

"That's really good. It's really pretty. Go sit at the table, I'm just gonna say hello to mommy and then we can have a nice Christmas dinner," Callen said and the kids went back to the table.

"Hey you," Maura said.

"Hey yourself, come here. I missed you so much," Callen said as he took Maura into his arms.

"I was afraid that you couldn't make it home for Christmas."

"There's no way I would miss Christmas with my beautiful family," Callen said and he kissed Maura.

"I guess the baby is glad too that you're home," Maura said as they felt the baby kick and Callen kissed her stomach.

"I'm so glad to be home. I missed you all so much."

"Come on honey, let's go eat."

"Yeah, I'm starving. I'm just change into some fresh clothes and then I'll join you."

They enjoyed a very nice Christmas dinner. Callen was glad to be home again with his family. He had missed them when he was away and now they were enjoying a nice Christmas dinner. Callen sat next to Maura and he was happy to see that his wife and his kids were doing well and having a good time and he couldn't help but smile. Maura looked at him and saw that he was smiling and she put her hand on his leg and Callen placed his hand on top of hers.

"I'm glad you're home baby," Maura said and she gave him a kiss on his cheek.

"Me too," Callen said.

After dinner the kids could stay up for a little while before it was time for bed. Maura and Kate were in the kitchen cleaning up and Callen was in the living room with the kids.

"They're really happy he's home again," Kate said as she saw Maura looking at them.

"Yeah they are. They really missed him and so did I. I'm glad he was home in time for Christmas," Maura said.

"Go join them. I'll finish up here."

"You sure?"

"Yeah go," Kate said and Maura walk into the living room and sat down next to them.

"I'm glad you're home daddy," Amy said.

"I'm glad to be home too sweety, daddy missed all of you very much," Callen said.

"They told Santa they would be extra sweet if he brought you home in time for Christmas and they were so I guess Santa knew that they were very sweet," Maura said.

About an hour later Callen and Maura put the kids to bed and they went back to the living room and sat down on the couch.

"So how was Washington? Did the project go okay?" Kate asked.

"Mom!" Maura said.

"No it's okay honey. Yeah it went very well. We got the result we wanted so that's good," Callen said.

"Okay good. I'm gonna go to bed already. Leave you two love birds to catch up," Kate said.

"It's okay mom, you don't have to go," Maura said.

"No it's fine. You two spend some time alone. I'm tired actually anyway so goodnight."

"Goodnight."

"So how are you doing? Is everything okay with you and our little baby?" Callen said.

"Yeah everything is fine. Little bit tired sometimes, but the doctor checked me over last week and everything was fine and since last week I've been on maternity leave."

"That's good to hear. I was really worried about you two. At night I couldn't help but think about you and our kids. I missed you all so much," Callen said and he gave Maura a kiss and pulled her towards him.

"Yeah me too. Did it really go okay?

"Yeah, we got the result we wanted so that's good. And no one really got hurt."

They spent some time on the couch just cuddling and kissing. Around 12 they went to bed.

"I'm pretty tired, didn't get much sleep," Callen said.

"Yeah me neither. Let me get that out of the way, don't need it now that you're back," Maura said as she threw her pregnancy pillow on the floor and she crawled into bed and snuggled into Callen's arms. "You sure everything went fine? I see you've got some new bruises."

"Yeah, it's fine. It's nothing. Just had a run in with someone."

"Okay, just don't let my mom see those. She's already suspicious enough about what you do."

"She is?"

"Yeah. The other day we were talking and she ask when you would be coming home and I said I didn't know and that I couldn't reach you, so she was like why I couldn't reach you and I told her it was a top secret project, no electronic devices aloud. And then she said if you were doing something illegal cus she didn't know what it exactly is that you're doing."

"Really? Something illegal? What did you say then?"

"I told her that it was definitely not something illegal. She knows you're working for the government. She just doesn't you what exactly and I explained to her that it was like with me, that I can't share everything cus it's classified and neither can you."

"Okay. She believed you?"

"Yeah I think she did. It's just hard having to lie to my mom. Why can't we just tell her you're a federal Agent? She knows I'm in the navy and my dad was a navy SEAL so I'm sure she'll be able to handle it."

"I know honey, I know it must be hard for you. But technically we don't exist."

"Yeah I know. But she doesn't have to know you're a NCIS Agent, federal Agent would be enough."

"Alright, we'll see about that. Right now I just wanna hold you cus it feels good to hold you in my arms again and to be in my own house again and sleep in my own bed again."

"Okay. Yeah it feels good to be in your arms again. I'm glad you're back home safe and sound," Maura said and she gave Callen a kiss. "Goodnight honey."

"Goodnight honey."

They both fell asleep very soon, but around 2am Maura woke up again and she tried to wake up Callen.

"G, wake up," Maura said as she shook him.

"Huh, what?" Callen said still half asleep.

"I believe my water just broke," Maura said and Callen shook up.

"What?! You're water broke?"

"Yes."

"Alright, stay calm. I'll take you to the hospital," Callen said as he was getting dressed. "I'm just gonna go tell your mom what's going on."

20 minutes later Maura was checked in at the hospital and brought to her room.

"It's a good thing that you came home tonight. Otherwise you would have missed this and I don't think I could do this without you," Maura said.

"It's okay honey. I'm right here and I'm nothing going anywhere. I'll be right here holding your hand," Callen said and he grabbed her hand.

"I love you honey."

"I love you too. Everything is gonna be fine. You're doing great so far."

About 5 hours later their new little baby was born.

"Congratulations, you have a little girl," the doctor said.

Callen cut the umbilical cord and the doctor checked her out and cleaned her up and brought her to Callen and Maura.

"Here you go, merry Christmas."

"Thank you doctor. Merry Christmas to you too," Maura said. "Look what we got honey."

"Yeah, she's adorable. Merry Christmas honey," Callen said and gave her a kiss.

"Merry Christmas."

"This is really the best Christmas gift I've ever had."

"Yeah it really is. Look at her. She's so cute."

About an hour later Callen called Maura's mom to tell her that she had a new granddaughter and if she wanted to bring the kids over and also bring the presents that were under the tree. They would have Christmas morning in the hospital.

"Hey guys, I'd like you to meet your new little sister," Maura said as Kate put Finley on the bed and Callen picked up Amy.

"She's really cute. Congratulations," Kate said.

"Thank you."

"Look Amy, that's your little sister," Callen said.

"She's so little," Finley said.

"You were once this little too," Maura said.

"Can I hold her?"

"Come here, we can hold her together," Maura said and Finley crawled onto her lap and they held her together.

"What's her name?" Kate asked.

"Lily, Lily Christine Callen."

"That's a beautiful name."

"And I see that Santa brought a lot of gifts for you. Shall we open them?"

Finley went to grab the gifts and sat on his grandma's lap as he opened them or he handed them to the person who the gift was for. Callen sat down on the bed next to Maura with Amy on his lap and he was so happy that they had a new, beautiful, healthy baby girl and that he could spend Christmas morning with his beautiful family.