The Telling of Christmas 2005
Elle Greenaway drove JJ's small blue sports car north for exactly six minutes and fifty three seconds before pulling into a parking lot lit by spotlights. The profiler parked the car in one of the free parking spaces, glad to see that the lights inside the store were still on. The Christmas Depot was always open late the day before Christmas Eve.
She got out of the car and closed the door behind her, swinging her pocketbook onto her shoulder. She'd come across the store earlier that year by accident – it was open year round, and he'd been looking for a home depot.
Elle grinned as she opened the door. There was nothing like a bit of Christmas revenge to lift her holiday spirits. Maybe she was being a bit vindictive, but she couldn't find it in her to care. The bell above the door chimed her entrance into the large store – it smelled like the Christmases she'd always dreamed of when growing up. Evergreens, gingerbread, peppermint, eggnog – all of it swarmed around her. She felt her heart jump at the remembrance of once high spirits she'd had when she was young.
Most of those feelings had ended the year her father had died.
Elle stepped deeper into the store, heading into the decorations area. Rows upon rows of Christmas cheer stood before her, but she only needed one small thing. The profiler ran a hand over the head of a plastic reindeer who didn't look like Rudolph, but rather like he'd contracted a nasty head cold. It was funny – but it wasn't what she was looking for.
Leaving the poor sick Reindeer, Elle made her way to the next aisle. If she'd paused for only a moment, she would have realized that the first part of JJ's mission was going well – she was enjoying herself. Elle knew not, however, of JJ's hidden agenda. Her main concern at the moment was the fact that the aisle before her looked promising.
Christmas wreaths filled the aisle – plastic, evergreen, twinkling fiber optic wreaths. She wasn't looking for a wreath, but this was where her item would be if she were to find it.
"I spy with my little eye …. something devious." She murmured a twinkle in her eye. Her hand reached out and snatched up the object she'd been searching for.
The dark haired woman held the bag before her eyes, and smiled. No Christmas party was really complete without it, after all. Elle could already imagine all the awkward situations this would create … and if some people realized some things in the process, she'd consider the day all the merrier.
And, if the mistletoe in her hand never got used, it still made a pretty decoration.
Elle left the aisle with the mistletoe, but she wasn't done yet.
When she'd entered the store, she'd only had plans for the one item – but as she'd found the mistletoe, Elle couldn't help but feel more of the holiday spirit seep into her bones.
She hadn't had this much Christmas cheer in over fifteen years.
--
Jennifer Jareau was pretty sure that she'd been abandoned. It wasn't the fact that Elle had left – it was that she'd left over two hours ago. The liaison mentally berated herself for not having seen this coming when Elle had left in the first place.
She was also fairly certain she was going to have to walk home, over ten miles, in the dark, in the middle of winter, in heels.
She was going to kill Elle Greenaway.
JJ had been decorating by herself for the past two hours – hanging wreaths, greenery, setting the table … she'd made sure that everything for the next day was in order.
JJ touched her cell phone, gritting her teeth. She knew perfectly well that walking home was not an option. It was the middle of the night, and even though she was scared, she knew too much about the abduction factors of blonde woman to even truly consider it.
She couldn't believe it. She was going to have to call Garcia to come pick her up at one in the morning.
As her finger hovered on the button, she heard the door to the now decorated ballroom slam. JJ's hand almost went to her gun, but when Elle Greenaway stepped in, holding two bags and a plastic reindeer under one arm, she relaxed.
For a moment.
"Elle!" She exclaimed. "I have been decorating all night. By myself. Where in the world did you go?" She couldn't stay mad for long, because there was something very nearly merry about Elle Greenaway.
"This is Benadryl the Reideer." Elle stated, placing down the reindeer.
Laughter exploded from JJ's lips. "Why the name?"
"He looks like he could use some Benadryl." Elle said simply. "And look at his eyes – doesn't he remind you of a certain young genius?" She fished around in one of the bags. "Close your eyes."
JJ balked. "Why?" She asked, suspiciously.
"So I can disappear and steal the karaoke machine." Elle teased. "C'mon, chica, close 'em! You've got trust issues."
"Only when I'm trying to trust the Brooklyn girl who went out and bought a plastic reindeer at one am." JJ said, but closed her eyes. She heard more fishing before something that felt like a headband was placed on her head.
"They came in pairs." Elle said as JJ opened her eyes, reached up, and took off the headband. With wide eyes, she held it before her. "I was thinking of having Hotch wear the other one, but I like keeping my head attached to my neck."
It was indeed a headband … with antlers. Felt reindeer antlers were wrapped with light up Christmas tree lights that blinked.
JJ grinned. "I got you into the spirit, didn't I?' She put the antlers back on.
"Maybe." Elle said, reaching into the bag again. "There's a matching one of those, and Reid's so wearing it. " The Brooklyn native pulled out another hat – this one was a Santa's hat with plastic elf ears attached. "For Garcia."
"She'll love that." JJ paused. "Though Reid isn't going to be happy about the antlers."
Elle kept the mistletoe in the bag. "He'll learn to deal." She said definitively.
Author's Note: I'm sorry this chapter took so long. I hope that you enjoyed it – please review. I wish I could give every reviewer their own Reideer. If that was possible, I would. :)