Just to start off, I know James in reality is Jewish, but I guess on the show he's Christian/Catholic, considering he was celebrating Christmas, so I'm gonna go ahead and have him be Catholic in my story.


December 24, 2000

Carlos was antsy during the Christmas Eve mass that he went to with his dad and brother. For weeks he's been hyped up and excited about getting a puppy on Christmas morning. And now Christmas was only a few hours away! He was an excited little ball of energy.

"Papi, Daddy, is church almost over yet?" Carlos asked as he tugged on his daddy's sleeve.

"Shhh, yes, Carlos, it's almost over. Just be patient, Son."

"Okay, Daddy," Carlos whispered. Carlos sat for a long while. He fidgeted a lot and crawled around on the pew. He also took a few of his crayons and colored in the church kids' activity. The church activities, people at the front doors gave him, always kept him entertained for at least ten minutes. It would've kept him busy longer if he wouldn't skip the puzzles. He only colored in the pictures and on the back it usually said to draw a picture.

"Miguel," Carlos whispered "What does this say?" he asked when he finally got around to the back.

"Draw something you really want for Christmas," Miguel read. Carlos smiled and picked up a green crayon. He took his time on his picture. Carlos wanted it to be perfect. He worked so hard on it he almost didn't hear when the preacher called all the little kids to sit in the front with him for the usual Christmas story.

"Can I go up?" Carlos asked his dad.

"Yes, go up quickly before all the spots are taken," Mr. Garcia said.

Carlos did so and went up to the front where all the little kids in his Sunday school class and other classes. He looked all over the sea of kids sitting on the floor and tried to find James. Carlos knew James went to the same church and was hoping to see him. Finally he found him at the very front. Carefully he made his way up front and sat down next to James.

"Hi, James," Carlos said with a smile.

"Hi!" James said happily.

"Merry Christmas,"

"Merry Christmas to you too. Are you going to stay in your pjs all day tomorrow?" James asked.

"Yeah, I think I'll die if I don't, or something. Will you stay in your jammies tomorrow?" Carlos asked.

"Yup," James said "My mommy bought me blue, shiny, pjs and a robe and fuzzy slippers and I'm going to st-"

"Shhh," Carlos shushed suddenly "The priest is about to tell us a story,"

"Yay," James whispered and turned his attention to the priest.

As soon as every little kid in the church was gathered around the priest, he began the Christmas story he told every single Christmas Eve. He told the story of how Jesus was born. The priest told the story from the beginning and asked a few questions to the kids as he went on. Carlos smiled big when the priest started to tell about the three wise men giving presents to Baby Jesus, even though he could never remember what they gave Jesus.

"Who knows what gifts the wise men gave to Jesus?" the priest asked all the children. Hands went up in their air, including Carlos's hand. The priest looked around and saw that Carlos was the most enthusiastic of all the kids and pointed to him.

"Did Baby Jesus get a dog?" Carlos asked the priest. The priest couldn't help but laugh a little bit at the cute answer.

"No, but that's a good guess. The three wise men gave Jesus gold, frankincense, and myrrh." The priest said and continued on with the story. After the priest finished telling the wonderful Christmas story, all the kids returned to their parents, and James and Carlos said their good-byes. Carlos climbed on top of the pew, between Miguel and his dad, and continued to color his picture.

Finally the service ended and Carlos picked up all his crayons and activity booklet. "Papi, want to see what I drew?" the little boy asked his dad while they made their way to the exit.

"Sure, what did you draw, Carlitos?" Mr. Garcia asked.

Carlos held up the picture. "It asked what I want for Christmas, so I drew a puppy, and then Mama because she likes puppies," Carlos said.

As they walked out the door and stepped into the bitter cold, Mr. Garcia gently grabbed the activity booklet and tried to make out Sylvia and a dog through the colorful scribbles. Even though he didn't see it, he smiled anyway. "That looks really good, Carlos. You did a good job." He praised.

"Thank you, Daddy," Carlos said and grabbed his hand and his brother's hand before they crossed the street to their car. "I hope I get a puppy tomorrow," Carlos said to his dad.

"You'll have to wait and see," Mr. Garcia said.


That night, at around midnight, Mr. Garcia grabbed his coat from the coat rack by the door, and buttoned it up while he talked to his oldest son. "Just make sure Carlos stays asleep, Miguel, I have to go to the station really quickly to get his present. If he wakes up, keep him your your boys' room. I won't be gone long, while I'm gone put the package under my bed under the tree for Carlos. It's the one with golden wrapping paper and says it's from Santa."

"Okay, I'll do that… wait-" Miguel said suddenly "does this count as babysitting?" he asked.

"Not on Christmas, Junior," Mr. Garcia said then shut the door.

Mr. Garcia left through the garage and got into his car. He drove down to the police station as fast as he could, while minding the ice and speed limit. It was dark, and starting to snow too, but he had to get there quickly. Mr. Knight was waiting for Mr. Garcia at the station with the dog. Mr. Garcia went in quickly and met Mr. Knight in the break room.

"Hey Mike," Mr. Knight greeted.

"Evening, Dave," Mr. Garcia said, even though it wasn't exactly evening. Mr. Garcia looked around the room for the little German Shepard puppy and saw him sleeping under the table with little Kendall

"I see Kendall is pretty attached to that dog, maybe I should get Carlos one of the other dogs,"

"Nah," Mr. Knight said. He carefully slipped the sleeping dog out from under Kendall's arm and handed it Mr. Garcia. "Kendall can't tell the difference from any of the dogs. He won't mind this one going to someone else, especially Carlos. For the past two weeks, all he's been talking about his Carlos being happy on Christmas morning. This dog will to the trick, just fine."

"You bet it will. Carlos will love this. Thanks, again, for all this. It means a lot to all of us." Mr. Garcia said then headed out of the station to quickly get the puppy home.


Carlos got out of bed barely after 7:00 am on Christmas morning. The morning felt bittersweet. He loved Christmas so much, but it felt strange waking up on Christmas morning knowing that his mom wouldn't be in bed next to his dad when he jumped on the bed. There wouldn't be a mom to stuff him in the first sweater vest sent from his grandparents that he unwrapped and then call it adorable" or a mom to play with his new toys with him. Carlos got himself out of bed anyway and ran across his room to wake up Miguel.

Carlos climbed on top of Miguel's bed and started to jump up and down. "Wake! Up! Wake! Up! It's Christmas, Miguel, wake up already!" he shouted then jumped down. He put his little hands on Miguel's big biceps and shook him "Waaaaaaake Uuuuuuuup!" he shouted.

"Okay! Okay, Carlos, I'm awake!" Miguel laughed. He tossed his covers over to the side then he and Carlos ran across the hall into their dad's room.

"Papi! Papi! Daddy! It's Christmas morning! Wake up so we can open presents!" Carlos shouted and burst through the door.

"Yeah Dad, don't keep the kid waiting," Miguel laughed. Miguel watched from the door frame as Carlos crawled on top of the bed and sat on his dad's legs.

"Papi, come on! Let's open presents! If you never get up, then you'll never see the gift I gave you!" Carlos said happily.

"You have to get off my legs first, mijo," Mr. Garcia said. Carlos got off the bed and let his dad get out of bed. Mr. Garcia watched as his sons ran off into the living room while he grabbed his video camera from the top of the chest of drawers in his room.

"Come on!" Carlos screamed and ran for the presents under the tree.

"Junior," Mr. Garcia called to Miguel. He handed Miguel the video camera "Record Carlos opening presents until I come back with Carlos's present."

"Okay Dad," Miguel said and pressed record as Carlos started to pick up the big present wrapped in gold wrapping paper.

"What does this say?" Carlos asked Miguel and held up the card.

"It says to: Little Carlos Garcia, From: Santa Clause. You gotta learn how to read kid." Miguel laughed.

"I can read this," Carlos lied "I was just testing you," Miguel laughed as Carlos tore into the shiny gold wrapping. Once it was fully unwrapped, it turned out to be a big red fire truck. "Santa gave me a fire truck!" Carlos screamed happily and held it above his head. "Look at it! Will you play with it with me Miguel?" Carlos asked excitedly.

"Sure, buddy," Miguel said. Carlos giggled gleefully and put down the fire truck. He picked up another present with snowmen scattered all over it. He looked the tag and only recognized his name and his grandma's name. "This one is from Grandma," Carlos said and unwrapped it slowly. He was cautious of it being more clothes. Sure enough it was.

"Aww…" Miguel sighed for Carlos "More clothes?"

"Yeah," Carlos pouted.

"Hey, give me my present from Grandma," Miguel said and pointed to the present. Carlos picked it up, gave the package to Miguel, and grabbed the video Camera. Miguel unwrapped it and sighed too. "Dios mío, Grandma should give us money next year," he said then took back the video camera.

"I hope I have more toys," Carlos said and picked another box. Right Before he even started to unwrap it his dad came into the living room… partly.

"Carlos, want to see you're present?" Mr. Garcia asked.

"Yeah! Where is it?" Carlos asked excitedly.

"Are you filming, Junior?" Mr. Garcia asked.

"Yeah, Dad," Miguel said. Mr. Garcia walked slowly into the room holding the little German Shepard puppy's collar.

Carlos's eyes widened big and he screamed happily. "OH MY GOSH! IT'S A PUPPY!" he screamed "YOU GOT ME A PUPPY! OH MY GOSH!" Mr. Garcia let go of the collar and the dog ran towards Carlos, yipping happily. It jumped on top of Carlos and started to lick his face while the little boy giggled uncontrollably.

"Did you get all that, Junior?" Mr. Garcia asked Miguel.

"Yeah, I got it all," Miguel said with a big smile. Mr. Garcia took the camera and filmed his sons playing with the puppy.

"OH MY GOSH, PAPI! HE'S SO AWESOME!" Carlos screamed as the puppy licked his face.

"What are you going to name it, Carlos?" Mr. Garcia asked.

Carlos thought while the dog continued to lick him. "Ummm… I wanna name him Sparky!" he said happily.

"Sparky it is then," Mr. Garcia said with a smile.

"He's gonna be my Christmas puppy! I love him sooooo much! Thank you Daddy!" Carlos giggled. Carlos broke away from his new dog for one second. He ran to his dad and wrapped his arms around Mr. Garcia's waist. "Thank you, Daddy, I love my new doggy," the little boy said sweetly then went back to playing with Sparky.

Mr. Garcia felt like that was the best Christmas moment he'd ever seen. His little boy was beaming more than he ever had after Sylvia's death. He knew the dog would be a good addition to their family. Sure he'd be expensive, but he was a police dog, and with the criminal that killed Sylvia still out there, he wouldn't want any other dog.


A/N: Just wait ^_^ It doesn't stop here. It's till beginning even. My goal is to finish this story by Christmas, if not by New Year's, but we all know how terrible I am at setting goals *cough* *cough* "Puzzle" ;)