Angel
Pairing: Garcia/Rossi friendship

Everyone was standing around Emily's desk, discussing their plans for their upcoming weekend away from work.

JJ smiled. "We're taking Henry to see Santa at the mall, then a day of baking."

"...The mall on a Saturday before Christmas? Do you have a death wish?" Derek asked.

She mock laughed. "It's part of parenthood. You'd know if you could hold onto a girlfriend for more than a night or two."

He put a hand over his heart, faking pain, before turning to Spencer. "What about you, kid?"

He shrugged. "Catch up on some reading, I guess." He turned to Garcia. "You?"

"Starting my decorating considering I've had NO time to do it since this insane serial killer month started." She looked up as Rossi walked by. "What about you, Italian stallion?"

He paused in his tracks. "What about me?"

"Any plans for the BAU-free weekend?"

"Just putting up my tree and enjoying some scotch I suppose."

"Nothing too exciting then?" Emily asked.

"Plenty exciting for me, myself, and I. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to finish before I start said BAU-free weekend, and I believe you do too." He gave them a nod before taking off to his office.

"Somebody's in a mood," JJ said, raising her eyebrows before going back to her own desk.

"...Do you really think he starts the holiday season alone?" Garcia asked, turning to Derek.

"Probably. It wouldn't surprise me." He shrugged it off before sitting back at his desk.

The following morning, Garcia had succeeded in decorating her entire apartment in a mere few hours. Because of this, she decided to spend the rest of her morning and part of her afternoon baking. Looking at the baked goods she'd made, she thought about bringing them all to work on Monday, but then remembered that Rossi was spending his entire weekend himself. She could understand that he was a loner, but nobody should start the holidays all alone. She even had Kevin come over to help her for a while before he had plans with some of his tech friends. Instead of bringing them all to work, she put some into a container to take to work, and packed up the rest to go into her car.

When there was a knock on his door, Rossi thought for sure he'd imagined it. It was his weekend off and he hadn't made plans with everybody, and he'd be content spending the entire 48 hours alone. He set down his glass, walking to the front door and opening, surprised to find Garcia standing there.

"...Can I help you, Penelope?"

She handed him the boxes before stepping inside. "I baked, and as always, I overdid it, so rather than them going to waste, I decided to share the sweet wealth," she explained, pulling her scarf off.

"Call it a hunch, but would you like to come in?" he asked as she shed her coat.

"Certainly." She hung it by the door and turned to him as he shut the front door. "What's up?"

"...Nothing much?" he explained, walking over and sitting beside his Christmas tree, which was completely empty.

"Is this how you normally decorate for the holidays?" she asked, motioning toward it.

"I like things simple," he explained, taking a sip of his scotch.

She scoffed. "That is absolutely no way to live." She walked over, opening up a tote by the tree and taking out an angel. "Come on, this deserves to be on top at least."

He jumped out of his seat, carefully taking it from her as if it was an infant. "Be careful with that," he growled, placing it gingerly on the table.

"...Sentimental value?" she guessed.

"You won't leave it alone until I tell you, will you?"

She shrugged slightly, sitting across from him. "Sorry, it's a gift and a curse."

He sighed. "If you must know, it was a gift from Carolyn our first Christmas. It was way too expensive and I told her it was a ridiculous idea, but she fell in love with it and bought it right on the spot. I somehow ended up with it in the divorce and every year it would go on top. This year, I was hoping we'd be celebrating together… but obviously, that's not going to happen."

She paused, eyeing it. "Well, she had great taste, it's beautiful. And what would she think if you stopped with a tradition she started because she was no longer around?"

He laughed softly. "She'd verbally kick my ass into next week for moping."

"As well she should." She stopped, chewing on her cheek, before speaking up again. "I lost my parents when I was 18, and obviously I got pretty much everything of theirs. They were… hippies, at their finest, and total pack rats. Everything had sentimental value and they kept it. I couldn't bring myself to throw any of it away, so it was all put in a storage unit here. So I get having stuff that you can't look at because it's painful, I do. But eventually? I realized that those random little trinkets and the crap all meant something, so I put a lot of it into ornaments for my tree or decorations in my apartment or even some of the stuff in my office."

He chuckled. "That explains so much."

She grinned. "I have a game plan. I'm going to go out, and you're going to start decorating the tree. When I get back, we'll finish, you'll put on Carolyn's angel where it belongs, then we're going to spend the night watching Christmas movies and drinking red wine."

He looked at her, confused. "I don't drink red wine."

She smiled at him. "You'll learn," she said, winking, before picking up her purse and putting on her jacket, walking out.