A/N: So, it hasn't taken me long to fall behind! My aim is to catch up over the weekend and maybe have a few shorter scenes in future! Anyway, here's the next chapter. Thank you for reading and reviewing and I hope you like it.

3rd December

"Remind me why we need to get the decorations out now?" Will asked, as he carried a dusty cardboard box into the living room.

After setting the box down, he rubbed his hands together and blew on them to try to combat the bitter cold from his trip outside to the garage.

"Do you remember what happened the year the tree lights didn't work on Christmas Eve?" JJ asked, widening her eyes.

Will nodded slowly, withdrawing any further argument.

"And are you not a little bit more excited to get everything organised this year?" JJ continued, already delving into the box and pulling out a santa hat and placing it on her head with a grin.

Will smiled, both at the thought of how Georgia would react to all the tinsel, baubles and lights, and also to the joy it brought JJ.

"I can't wait," he agreed.

/
/

After several trips to the garage, and a couple into the attic, Will and JJ were finally satisfied that everything had been located. In the years since Henry was born, they had accumulated more decorations and holiday themed trinkets than they knew what to do with. The array of brightly coloured baubles and garlands of artificial evergreens now spilled across the living room.

Will was taking Georgia and Toby for a walk, to keep them from making the scene any more chaotic, while Henry had taken over his role of assisting JJ.

"Momma?" he asked quietly, sidling up beside JJ, where she was untangling a string of lights in the middle of the floor.

"Just a second," JJ replied, her concentration focussed on a particularly tough knot.

Henry waited patiently, still a little uncertain if he should be showing his mother what he had found. He ran his thumb over the ceramic reindeer that edged the object in his hands.

"What is it?" JJ asked, giving up on the lights and turning her attention to her son.

"I found this," he told her, hesitantly handing the novelty frame over to her.

JJ was taken by surprise at the image before her. She hadn't even been aware that the photograph was among their Christmas decorations. It had been given to her the first year she had her own apartment to decorate for the holidays but she hadn't seen it in such a long time.

"Is that your sister?" Henry asked, as his mother stared thoughtfully at the faces in the frame.

JJ nodded, but didn't say a word. She was remembering the moment the photograph had been taken. She could feel the scratchy tinsel she held in her hands as Rosaline directed her where to hang it on the tree and hear her sister's disapproval as she got it wrong. Their parents had pulled out the camera and insisted on taking a picture to try to stop any argument blooming, and the image showed two smiling, blonde girls. What they didn't know was that the distraction was completely unnecessary. JJ had been at an age where she idolised her big sister and would have done anything to please her. Even if that meant giving her complete control of all the tinsel.

"Sorry for making you sad," Henry apologised, noticing his mother's changed expression. He wished he'd hidden the frame back in the box. He didn't fully understand his mother's reactions when her sister was mentioned, but he knew that he had to be careful and worried that he had done something he shouldn't.

"You didn't make me sad," JJ responded, shaking off the nostalgia for Christmasses she could only revisit in memory, and handing the frame back to her son. "Put it back where you found it for now," she instructed. "And then we can take a break for some hot chocolate."

Henry did as he was told, giving JJ a further moment to gather her thoughts, and by the time he returned, a smile was fixed on her face, even if there was a deep ache that wouldn't quite leave her alone.

/
/

"Henry's askin' for a story before bed and Georgia's fussin'," Will announced, coming downstairs from where he'd been trying to settle the children for the night. "Do you want to read to them tonight?" he asked, knowing that JJ liked to make the most of the nights that she was home for bedtime stories.

JJ jumped, startled by his presence. She had been so far in her own head that she hadn't heard him come into the living room.

"Sorry, what did you say?" she apologised, immediately dropping what had been in her hands back into the nearest box. The room was now more ordered, with the decorations organised and the lights tested, ready to adorn the house when she and Will both had a weekend free from work.

"What you got there?" Will asked, frowning at her odd demeanour and nodding towards the box.

Slowly, JJ retrieved the frame and held it up for Will to see. She felt silly to be so affected by something so trivial.

"Henry found it earlier," she explained.

"So that's why you've been so quiet," he replied, crossing the room and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

Pressing a kiss to his wife's head, Will smiled slightly as he took in the image in her hands.

"You both look happy," he remarked, as JJ leaned her head closer against his chest.

"We were," she agreed, with a sad smile. "I miss her at Christmas. And my dad."

"Me too," Will sighed, memories of his own childhood flooding his mind. Even years later, and particularly during the holidays, he experienced waves of grief for his father. "I wish they could've met Henry and Georgia."

It was JJ's turn to press a soft, comforting kiss to Will's temple.

"How about we share storytime tonight?" she suggested. "And tell them something a little less fictional than normal?"

He nodded and gave her a small smile, as he took the frame from her hands and placed it on a side table, no longer hidden from view.

They might have been living in the present but that didn't mean there was no place for the ghosts of Christmas past.