A/N: I actually wrote most this last year, but by the time I finished it, Christmas had already passed. So I thought I'd finally put it up in time for the holidays this year. Story is set sometime around after 1x05.
Graham stood in the station fiddling with the dart in his hand. It was a quiet and uneventful day in December, so he was enjoying the downtime with a game of darts. He sent his last dart flying directly into the bulls-eye just as Emma made her way into the office.
"Hey." Emma greeted casually, as she walked into the station and took a seat at her desk. There was something in her hand, Graham noticed. "What's that?" He asked, pointing to the object she was holding.
"Oh," She held it up for him to see, "Henry gave it to me. I think it's an ornament he made in class or something. Not that I have anywhere to put it." Emma explained as she crossed her arms and leaned further back against the chair. "Mary Margaret doesn't have a tree?" Graham asked curiously, as he collected his darts from off the board.
"Apparently it's a new rule that she can't, a possible fire hazard for her building. Gee, I wonder who came up with that rule." Rolling her eyes in annoyance, Graham knew exactly who she was talking about. And knowing Regina, it probably was her doing.
"I was thinking of getting one anyway just to spite her, but I didn't want to cause problems for Mary Margaret." The last thing she needed was to stir up trouble for the woman who was kind enough to let her stay there. Granted, Emma didn't have the best manners, but she knew better not to involve Mary Margaret in on her troubles with the Mayor.
Graham opened the drawer of the table just below the dart board and dropped the darts inside. "You never struck me as being the Christmasy type." He said looking over at her. "I'm not…" Her voice seemed hesitant as she answered. "But…?" Graham knew that there was more to this thing than she was letting on.
Emma sighed. "Look, I'm not looking for some quintessential Christmas family crap, all right? I just thought it be nice to have a tree is all." That didn't quite seem to be the whole truth, but he decided to not push it any further. "Understandable." The scruffy Sheriff answered with a slight nod.
She was starting to give of that 'I want to be alone' vibe, so Graham took the hint and headed into his office. As he sat behind his desk, he glanced up and saw Emma fiddling with the ornament. Watching her for a moment, he then picked up the phone and decided to make some calls around town.
—
"What's this?" Emma asked as she entered the station the next morning. Graham looked up from his paperwork at the question. "Hm?" The blonde gestured over to the pine tree laced with lights that now sat in the corner of the police station. "That."
Graham shrugged as if he had nothing to do with it. "Santa must have come early." He said simply. She then shot him a 'don't BS me' type of look in response, "What did you do?"
He sighed. "Well I just thought that this place could use some festive-ness. We may have a jail but it doesn't need to feel like one." It was clear that this wasn't the real reason for the tree's sudden appearance, Emma was well aware of that.
The ever distrustful blonde squinted her eyes at him a moment, searching for some ulterior motive. Had Regina forced him into this in order to get her fired or something? Internally, she shook off that idea. He had already gone against the mayor just by hiring her, it had been clear even since their first meeting that he had hoped she'd stick around town.
Realizing there was no hidden agenda, she let her expression soften slightly. She was far more used to people setting her up for failure than someone actually making a kind gesture towards her.
As Emma turned to walk out of his office, he added, "There's a box beside the tree by the way. Granny had a few left over ornaments if you wanted to decorate the tree for any reason." She looked over to where he was pointing and saw a small brown box with shiny objects peeking out, sitting beside the tree.
Walking over to her desk, she picked up some papers lying there and straighten out the pile, while every now and again letting her sight drift over to the box sitting beside the tree. After a few minutes passed, she finally caved and made her way over to it, trying to play it off as mere curiosity and not the eagerness that she had been secretly trying to suppress.
Graham went back to what he was doing as she slowly made her way over to the box. He stole a few glances over at her as she gently rummaged through its contents. Every now and again a small smile would creep across her face as she would stumble upon certain ornaments.
It was odd, but something seemed a bit different about her in that instance. She had this lightness that was exuding from her. Graham found himself smiling at the sight of it.
"I never had a tree growing up." Emma confessed as Graham came out of his office a few minutes later. She was just as surprised as he was that she had decided to share that information. Even more surprising, she elaborated on it further.
"Either because I was never there for very long or the family didn't celebrate it. Or that they just couldn't even bother with it for me." Emma cast her eyes down looking at the box. "I'd always hear the other kids in school talk about their Christmas with their families. Sometimes I'd wonder what it'd be like to have one like they talked about. Silly huh?" She said looking up at him, as he leaned up against her desk. Graham shook his head, "No. It isn't."
Feeling she was spilling far too much about herself, Emma quickly changed focus to Graham. "What about you?" She asked him. "How did you spend your Christmas growing up?"
Graham thought it over for a minute. He started to say something but stopped. What did he do for Christmas growing up? He couldn't remember. Surely he did something, didn't he? "I don't remember actually." Graham admitted awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.
"Oh." Emma had noticed a lot of people in this town couldn't remember much about their past, maybe it was something in the water. "Wanna help then?" She asked, holding out a red Christmas ball towards him. Graham smiled and grabbed it from her. "Sure."
The two spent the rest of the crime free morning decorating the tree. Henry's ornament was placed in the center, easily viewable from his height, should he decide to pay a visit. When they were done, the tree was filled with multi colored balls of varying shapes and sizes, along with a few oddball ornaments that had some how made their way into the box.
Bending down, Graham grabbed the plug for the lights and put it into the outlet. He stood back beside Emma as the tree lit up so that they could take in the full effect. As Graham turned to look beside him, he saw his Deputy's face light up at the sight before her. She turned to him and smiled cheerfully. It was a rare sight to get a genuine smile out of Emma Swan, that in itself was a present.
They both turned their attention back to the tree, but after a moment, the blonde cleared her throat. "I'd prefer you not tell anyone about what I told you before, okay?" He nodded. "Of course." Emma had her walls to keep up, she didn't want anyone to know that she had started to get some cracks in it. Quietly, she added "Thank you."
Glancing over at the clock on the wall, Graham informed her "It's just about the time I usually patrol town, I was thinking of stopping at Granny's on the way back to the station. Want me to bring you back a cocoa?" The Deputy gave a nod, "Sure. Thanks."
He grabbed his coat off the rack and just as he turned to leave she called out, "And don't forget the-!" "Cinnamon." Graham promptly finished. "I know." He added with a slight grin. Emma chuckled while shaking her head. She had to give him points for still remembering.