"Christmas Present"

4. For Us

There had been some debate as to when to open their presents, same as they'd had the year before. Will would insist on how he and his parents would open theirs on the night of the twenty-fourth, while Emma said they would do it on the morning of the twenty-fifth. In the end, they'd decided to do the same thing they'd done the year before, which was to open them at midnight.

In the hours leading up to 'the moment of gifts,' they had watched one movie, and then another, although Emma had fallen asleep on the second one. Will had let her sleep, putting his arm around her. He would wake her when the time was right, but until then he could do just fine, sitting on a calm Christmas Eve, with snow in the windows, Miracle on 34th Street on television, and the woman he loved snug in his arms.

At ten to midnight, he'd started whispering at her ear, getting her to slowly but surely wake again.

"What time is it?" she asked, blinking and yawning.

"Almost midnight," he announced.

"Oh," she sat up, fixing up her hair and looking back to him. "How long have I been…"

"Just over an hour," he looked at his watch. "You know we can wait until morning if you'd rather go to bed," he offered.

"No," she shook her head. "No, no, presents first, then bed."

"Alright, sounds good to me," he got up and went to find her first present under the tree. "You first," he insisted. She smiled, taking the small box.

"Thank you."

"You haven't even opened it yet," he laughed.

"Right, I should do that," she started unwrapping it, the same way she unwrapped any present, very cautiously undoing the paper, almost in reverse from when it had been wrapped. With such a small box taking so long, he wondered how much time she would take with the second present, which was well the width of her arms and had required for Will to bind two lengths of wrapping paper together. But finally she had the small box opened, and when she did, she gasped. "Will, they're beautiful," she touched the pair of matching pins.

"I thought they would look great on you, and I know how much you…" The end of his sentence had been forgotten when she'd leaned forward to kiss him.

"I love them, thank you," she bowed her head, as though to say 'now is the time to say it.' "Your turn," she put the box down and went to retrieve a cylinder from under the tree. "I saw this and I couldn't help myself," she explained with a proud sort of smirk.

"Okay?" he chuckled, taking the object, trying to figure it out. He had more of a 'tear it all away' approach to unwrapping, but after he'd seen her cringe the first time she'd ever given him a present, he had always made it a point of being more careful about it.

Soon he understood the shape: the cylinder was to hold a poster, and when he unrolled it, he laughed and nodded. Now he could see what she'd meant by not being able to resist. It was a signed poster of the band Journey.

"I thought since it's always had such a special place with you…"

"You know if I wasn't sure Sue wouldn't make it disappear one day, I'd hang this in my office," he told her, carefully rolling the poster back and putting it into its cylinder, to keep it safe. "Thank you," he kissed her again. "My turn?" he asked, and she nodded, sitting up anxiously.

He knew she'd been wondering what would be under all that paper ever since he'd placed the thing under the tree. He'd lost count of how many times she'd stopped and looked at it on her way past the tree, and it had more or less become his favorite memory of this holiday season.

"Here, let me just put it down here, it might be easier," he placed the large thing on the coffee table. For a minute or so, she just stared at it, like she was trying to figure out how she would unwrap it. Will had taken his camera, discreetly filming her as she did this, knowing if he ever needed a smile, that would do it.

Eventually, after much consideration, she had found her way in, and when she pulled the paper away, in a giant flourish no less, she was properly stunned. "How did you… Wait a second, you were the one who went into my office, I- oh…" she looked like she'd gotten a headache for a moment, but then she laughed.

"What?" he asked.

"I thought Sue must have been in there, and I… I yelled at her, and…" she let out a breath, but then shook the worry away, because she was genuinely amazed, in a good way at the thing now laid out on the coffee table. "I don't think I should bring it in to work either."

He'd gotten the frame from the mall, along with another thing or two. The star of the piece would be all those pamphlets she was so proud of making. He had selected some of those he knew she was particularly proud of, and a few of his personal favorites, too, and he had arranged them like a display. As a whole, it actually looked very nice.

"So you like it?"

"More than like, I just… It's amazing, I love it… Love you," she turned back to him. "Now your turn again, or my turn for you, I…" she got up, picking out the next present and bringing it to him. "I've heard you say so many times about how you wanted to replace something, and well…" she sat back down, handing him the wrapped box. "I hope you like it." He shook his head with a smile. As special Christmases went, it might not have looked that way to most people, but to him, it had been exactly that. And the next one would be, too, and the one after that, and every Christmas he got to spend with her.

"I know I will."

THE END

Up next, check out "Christmas Future", a Trinity series story starting tomorrow