A/N Here's my story for the christmas challenge on CCOAC! I got the pairing Reid/Emily

The prompts used are 'Silent Night', Gingerbread men and mistletoe

Written for Slasherrgirl... I hope you enjoy this:)

Chapter 1

It was beautiful. All the lights were shining in the most perfect way, making you feel warm and in some points loved. The outsides of every house were decorated with them in different colors and people could only imagine what the insides looked like. 7 people with their spouses and kids were having happy conversations inside one of these houses, celebrating christmas as if there were no troubles in the world. Though, they all knew the truth about the evil lurking in the shadows, but for just one night they wanted to forget and have a great night. It worked. They were gathered in the house of the oldest of them and all of them had contributed to the amazing food. The christmas tree had already been amazingly decorated and the two kids in the house had been staring longingly at the presents beneath it. While clearing the table and making their trips to one of the bathrooms they were careful to avoid stepping under the mistletoe, almost dancing around it. Sometimes they failed and the most colorful of them would cheer the most. All in all they were enjoying the peacefulness, praying to whatever God there was that someone wouldn't call them in to hunt another serial killer down. Nothing could go wrong this perfect evening. Though, whoever thought like that should've been shot. This night would soon turn out to be their next nightmare.

"Ooh! Present time!" Garcia squealed all of the sudden, making the other ones laugh.

"Can someone tell me why we didn't place Pen at the children's table?" Emily joked, earning a glare from their very own technical analyst.

"Stop mocking my girl. I like her just the way she is." Kevin said, putting a protective arm around her shoulder.

Emily raised her glass and took a sip, effectively ending that conversation. They still decided to move over to the sofa in front of the christmas tree to open all the presents. It was obvious which presents were for the kids and which were for the adults. Both Jack's and Henry's were big, wrapped in paper with Cars or Winnie the pooh. Garcia, who was most excited about the presents, and probably had bought the majority of them, got to play Santa and hand out the presents. They let the kids open their gifts first and watched joyfully the happy expressions they got whenever they got a toy and the less happy expressions when they got clothes.

"More drinks anyone?" Emily suddenly asked as she got up from the couch. She got four 'Yes' and walked over to the kitchen to get the wine. On her way back she suddenly heard someone shouting.

"Mistletoe!"

She looked towards Garcia who had been the source of the voice, then up where the mistletoe hung and last to the person standing next to her. Fuck. The whole night she'd been trying to avoid walking under it, yet now she was standing right under it together with Derek Morgan. She hadn't even noticed it, being so busy with her task of getting the wine.

Emily narrowed her eyes at her partner. "You planned this!" She accused and was met by a shrug.

"What can I say, you are the only single woman in the house."

The people in the living room laughed while Emily huffed. "Ugh, make this quick."

Morgan leaned in and their lips met, tongues only brushing slightly before Emily pulled back. "Gotta hand it to you, you are a good kisser." She said and patted Morgan on his chest before continuing to the others.

They had all turned back to watch the kids as Emily had left Morgan alone. Morgan also went back to sit down, earning an approving glance from Garcia. Emily didn't miss the look and narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the colorful blonde.

When the kids were finally done and were playing with their toys, the grown-ups got to open their presents. For them the whole point was to just be together, even if the kids' loud toys made it hard for the others to at least try and have an intelligent conversation. They would just have to sit in silence, drinking their eggnog and think about the monumental task of cleaning up while the kids played, but it could probably wait for a couple of more minutes.

The doorbell rang just when they were finished with dessert. Reid volunteered to open the door seeing how everyone else was really into the conversation around the table. He excused himself and walked over to the door, avoiding the mistletoe on his way. Though, he wouldn't have been too sad to be under the mistletoe with Emily either.

He opened the door and was immediately met by five children singing 'Silent Night' in a perfect harmony. Reid was in awe of the children.

"Who was that?" Emily asked behind him, but stopped next to him, also struck by their harmony.

They all had santa hats on their heads and were dressed in the colors of Christmas. They only sang one song, but it was enough to have the two agents spellbound and longing for children. It was amazing how five children could have this power over them, but the magic was soon over when the youngest girl said with a voice much too dark for her:

"He is coming for you." And then the door closed right in their faces. Reid was quick to open the door again, but no one was there.

"Did you just see that?" Reid asked Emily, confused and worried.

"Prank?" Emily said with a shrug and walked away. "I come with cookies. Gingerbread men!" Reid heard her in the other room.

Reid walked in seconds behind her. Something told him that whatever it was at the door wasn't a prank, but then again, what else could it have been? He watched Emily closely to see if she really had believed in her own words and by the looks of it, she did. Though, she was the queen of compartmentalizing.

"These gingerbread men are amazing." Garcia squeaked. "I had no idea you could bake. You need to tell me these stuff."

And just like that scary carols were forgotten.

"I'm sorry, PG." Emily smiled. "Next time I discover a talent you'll be the first to know."

"I'll cheer for that." Rossi chirped in and raised his glass, the rest of the crowd following his gesture.

Everybody emptied their glasses before Hotch and Beth decided that they should go home since they had Jack. JJ and Will followed suit. The two families walked towards the door together with Rossi. They had said their goodbyes to the remaining agents in the living room. Morgan and Garcia started to clear the glasses from the table and since it was crystal and didn't do well in the dishwasher Garcia washed them while Morgan dried them off. Kevin and Reid started talking about Dr Who in the living room and Emily hurried off to the bathroom. It was pretty much the end of the night. That was what they were hoping at least. To go home, putting children to bed and enjoy the rest of the evening with their loved ones, by themselves or with a friend. Reid, Emily, Morgan and Rossi were the ones without someone to cuddle up with later that night so they would probably stay longer. Until the oldest one decided that he needed some sleep, but the night would probably not end there for the other three.

Before anyone had time to open the doors, still talking about nothing in front it, the women holding one child each, the lights flickered. Once, it didn't catch anyone's attention. Twice, some of the people looked up at the lamp in their room, thinking that it was just the lamp above them that might have been a little broken. The third time, everybody's attention was on the lamps, praying that it would remain on. The fourth time left the whole house in darkness.

"The power." Rossi sighed. "Guess the weather is worse out there than I thought."

But the weather wasn't that bad. Sure it was a little windy and rainy, but not enough for the lights to go out or to keep everybody there. So it was decided that the two families were safe to go. Only they couldn't. They twisted the doorknob, but nothing happened. They locked, unlocked, locked, unlocked, trying the doorknob in between. Still nothing happened.

Garcia and Morgan decided that they couldn't continue with the dishes since the darkness didn't let them see.

Reid and Kevin looked up towards the ceiling where they knew the lamp was sitting. Their conversation about Dr Who was completely forgotten. Reid didn't like the dark that much. He was afraid of the unknown that could possibly hide there. This time he knew he wasn't alone, though. His family was beside him and that was the only thing he had to think about to not freak himself out. Of course he'd faced the dark on plenty of occasions on the job, but that had always come with a flashlight and a gun. Something to protect himself with. Right now he didn't need protection, it was only him and his friends here.

Emily was halfway to the bathroom on the second floor when the lights went out. She was in a big corridor that was completely dark now. Damn Rossi for having a big house. She tried to put a hand out to the wall to orient herself, but she had wandered too far away from it. For once she wished she was a smoker, then she would have a lighter or a pack of matches, something to alleviate this neverending darkness that was smothering her. She no longer knew if she had passed the bathroom and that pressure on her bladder was really taking a toll on her thanks to all the alcohol she'd consumed. Should she stay still and wait for the lights to go back on, because it really had to, or should she continue to search through the dark for the bathroom? She decided on the latter and walked sideways until she found the wall and then a door. She opened it. It was too dark for the bathroom. Rossi had lit candles by the sink to make it smell better and this wasn't it. She was just about to open another door when a loud voice echoed through the house.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk... What a predicament we find ourselves in. Alone in the dark. Such a shame. It's time to play a game."

A/N Thank you for reading. Please review:)