Christmas Eve rears its head before she knows it; she blinks and suddenly she's spending the day decorating the tree with Eli. She stretches, unsuccessfully with the hindrance of the sling still holding her left arm, to put a few ornaments on lower branches.

Though her shoulder is healing nicely there's still pain, and she doesn't have full range of motion yet. The sling has to stay on for a couple more days at least (Kate's sure she has herself to blame for the extended assistance; so she takes it off sometimes or tries to push the injury too much—she can't help it!) and it's driving her insane.

She managed to go out this past week while Eli was at school, and while the boys were (thankfully) covering for her as she ditched desk duty, to get her Christmas shopping done. It's later than she would normally get it all out of the way, but she's giving herself a pass because of the whole "getting shot" thing. Rick had offered to come with and help her with the trip but because she also wanted to get him something, she'd politely declined.

Since she and Eli are spending Christmas and New Years with her dad at his cabin, Rick is coming over later today so they'll be able to see each other before the holidays are over. Rick's mother is staying with him apparently, having finally returned from her short stint with a Broadway show. Kate has yet to meet the woman, but she sounds... eccentric, from what Rick has told her.

They should be leaving sometime late tonight, after Rick has visited and she manages to get the car packed.

"Why are we decorating the tree if we're not even gonna be here?" Eli asks, delicately pulling at one of the branches to slide an ornament on it.

Kate peeks around the tree to look at him. "Because it's Christmas and decorating the tree is a tradition. Besides, it'll look festive when we return."

Her son shrugs, disinterested but accepting of her answer.

Truthfully, she does this all for him. It took a few years after her mother died to get back into the spirit of the holidays, her father even longer, but she's always tried for Eli. Even if she had to fake the happiness that Christmas brings, she didn't want her son to grow up disliking it just because of her own issues.

She's learned to enjoy the holiday season in doing so, and now she finds herself pleasantly joyful when it comes around each year.

Once Eli's put the final ornament on his side he walks around to her, observes. "Do you need help?"

Just as she's about to decline, she has an idea. "Sure. Why don't you finish this side, and I'll go make us some hot chocolate?"

He nods, sliding the box to an emptier area of the tree with his foot instead of just bending to pick it up. She rolls her eyes, shakes her head. Kids.

"Marshmallows?"

She chuckles. "Is there any other way to drink it?"

"Only the wrong way," he calls after her.

How right he is.

She makes a pit stop in her bedroom first, decides to change into a pair of leggings instead of the jeans she's currently wearing. Sometimes she forgets that she has nowhere to be, not really, and she can opt for comfort. She does put on a wine colored sweater to balance it out, though, dress up the casualness of the bottoms.

On her way back she stops at the window. It finally started to snow last night, and while it's not a blizzard, it does well to cover the city in a nice coat of white. Somehow it feels less like Christmas when there's no snow and so this brings a soft, grateful smile to her lips. She does hope it stays a light dusting until they make it out of the city, though.

Eli's nearly done with the tree by the time she gets the hot chocolate going and he joins her in the kitchen, props his elbows on the counter.

"I can get the marshmallows," he announces, moving to reach for the cabinet. If he stands on his tiptoes, he can just grasp at the bag with his fingertips. He's growing far too quickly for her liking. "Got it!"

"Good job, kid. Throw a few into each mug." Sliding over to the fridge, she twists her back. "Whipped cream?"

Eli makes a face. "Obviously, Mom."

"Sorry, however could I ask such a question," she drawls with a playful roll of her eyes.

She sprays some into each mug, and Eli moves to place a few extra marshmallows on top, because they're supposed to go on the whipped cream too, she's told.

Once all of their decorations are up, she enlists the help of her son to pack the remaining boxes and stuff them into the hall closet. She knows they'll have to drag them back out soon enough when they put everything Christmas related back, but for now she doesn't worry about it.

There are a handful of Christmas movies she has in mind, because what is a holiday without a hot chocolate and movie combo, but so many of them aren't exactly what an eight year old boy would want to watch. So, instead, she makes a list of the ones that aren't too romantic or mushy, adds in some more comedic ones, and tells Eli to choose.

Home Alone, Elf, The Santa Clause, and Unaccompanied Minors are the final four he has it narrowed down to, and he hands them over.

"You can pick."

She settles on Home Alone and says they can always watch more than one—they usually do.

Kate curls herself into one side of the couch and opens her arm, pats it against the back cushion. "Come 'ere."

With his mug of hot chocolate in hand he obliges easily, slides into the space beside her and gets comfortable. Once he's situated she rests her palm on his shoulder, gently pulls him closer.

"Would you forget me at home while you went on vacation?"

She huffs. "Never. It's kind of hard to forget the only kid you have, you know."

Eli laughs, shaking his head, and turns his attention back to the start of the movie.

This is always her favorite part of the holidays.


It's nearing 5:00 when Rick texts to ask if it'd be a good time for him to come. She responds within a few minutes, tells him they're just finishing Home Alone and he's welcome to come whenever.

"Rick's on his way," Kate says, standing as she moves to bring her mug into the kitchen. "Do you want to get his present from under the tree?"

Eli nods. "Yeah. Do you think he'll like it?"

"I think he will, kid," she affirms, rinsing out the mug quickly. "Bring me your cup."

He does as he's told and hands her his empty mug, which she rinses and leaves in the sink with hers. She'll wash them later. She'd smirked when she first realized that yes, she can wash dishes with one hand. It's not practical, but it's doable now that she's able to wiggle her hand free from the sling. Rick had sighed, called her stubborn, but she only responded with another proud grin.

About half an hour later there's a knock at the door, and Eli rushes to the front entrance to let Rick in.

"What did I tell you about opening the door on your own?" she calls, not too far behind.

Eli huffs. "We knew we were having company," he defends, turning to their guest. "Hi, Rick!"

Rick pats him on the back with a chuckle. "Hey, Eli. Listen to your mom."

"Sure," the boy grumbles, retreating past his mother and back into the living room.

"The teenage years are going to be so fun," she teases, watching her son leave. Laughing, she accepts Rick's gentle hug. "Hey."

"I'm sure you'll be able to handle him."

Kate nods. "Oh, I was much worse. I know this is karma for all of the suffering I put my parents through."

"Young Kate Beckett was a wild one, I gather?"

"You could say that, yes," she muses, locking the door behind them. "Every gray hair on their heads by 40? All me."

Rick laughs, following her to the counter. She eyes two neatly wrapped gifts in his arms and forces back a smile. She told him not to get them anything, but she supposes that is a bit unfair seeing as they did get him something. She just—didn't want him to feel obligated.

"I know you said not to get anything, but I don't follow instructions well," he shrugs with a crooked smile.

"Your attempt at a stuffed chicken was proof enough of that."

His mouth drops, a hand crashing into his chest in mock offense. "What? That was a delicious chicken, Kate. Probably some of my finest work!"

"It was raw," she deadpans.

"Okay, so maybe not some of my finest work. But the insides were cooked!"

"Correction: the insides were heated. Ham and cheese, which, by the way, was lunch meat and hardly needed to be cooked in the first place."

He waves his hands in dismissal, mutters something about how she doesn't appreciate his efforts and she just rolls her eyes, allows the laughter to bubble from her chest. Rick had come over to cook them all dinner during the week following her incident; cooking is much harder with one arm, which she had learned the hard way. Breakfast is easy, as everything is either cereal or microwavable, but meals requiring more technical abilities? Not so much. So, as much as she didn't want to accept help, she knew she had to—Eli, unlike Kate, cannot live off of take out.

"Are you guys done insulting each other?" Eli calls from a few feet away, Rick's present in his hands.

Kate scoffs. "We weren't insulting each other."

"You were insulting me," Rick amends, turning to the boy. "Your mom was most definitely insulting me. And my cooking."

"I know," Eli nods.

Kate gasps. "Hey! You're supposed to be on my side."

But Eli just gives a little chuckle, a knowing look. "I know you, Mom. You were probably insulting him."

"I can't believe my kid's turning on me," she groans, following Rick into the living room. "See what you've done?"

"Nuh uh, this isn't my fault. He's your kid—he knows you. Said so himself," Rick teases.

"Sure."

Eli clears his throat. "Now, present time."

"Yes, E, we can all exchange presents now. We apologize for insulting each other." She halts Rick's protest with a finger to his lips. "Don't we?"

He simply nods, hums an affirmative from behind her index finger. Her skin is soft, and it takes every ounce of self control to keep himself from pursing his lips, pressing a soft kiss to the appendage still resting on his face. They look at each other for a good 20 seconds, just staring into each other's eyes, before Kate finally breaks the spell, removes her finger quickly and turns back to her son.

"Okay."

Eli hands the wrapped gift to Rick, who in turn distributes his two presents, one to Eli and the other to Kate. Their fingers brush and her breath hitches.

There's a collective understanding that Eli will open his gift first and so Kate nods, encourages him to start. It appears, as Eli rips away at the wrapping paper, that whatever the gift is is in some kind of box. It's not a shoe box but fancier, more like some sort of collector's box.

Kate grabs at the crumpled wrapping paper her son discards and slides it to the side. Eli opens the box and pulls out a brand new baseball glove. She watches as her son's face lights up, genuinely happy with the gift, and it occurs to her that he doesn't actually have one. Each time he plays, he borrows someone else's.

She can't believe he hasn't said something before about needing his own.

"This is so cool," Eli says, looking up to Rick with a smile.

Rick grins. "I figured you could use your own for when we go to the park." The two of them share a knowing, meaningful look, one Kate doesn't understand but feels her heart leap at witnessing. "Look at the thumb."

Eli's brow furrows but he obliges, twists the glove around to look along the side of the thumb. His mouth opens, an even wider smile taking its place, and he scoots forward, excitedly turning it so Kate can see.

"Mom, look," he beams. "It has my name on it! It's..."

"Embroidered," Rick offers.

Kate grins. "That's beautiful," she says. It's stitched horizontally into the side of the thumb, Eli written in neat script. "That's—that must have cost so much."

"I kind of do have money."

She huffs. "I know, but still. I—" She looks to her son, who's already sliding it onto his hand, his entire face illuminated. "Thank you."

Eli struggles to stand quickly from his spot and makes a beeline for Rick, throws his arms around him in a thankful hug. "Thanks, Rick! This is so awesome," he says, standing back once more to look up at him. "It'll be perfect when we play baseball and catch and stuff!"

Rick nods, smiling. "That's the idea!"

Kate watches on, her stomach doing flips in the best way possible as she watches her son interact with Rick. It's been a while since there's been any sort of male figure in his life, and while she's only recently come to terms with the realization she wants something more with this man, that she really does want to see where they could take things, she really is glad he's the one Eli's taken to. She's dated a little, sure, but none of them ever got too close to Eli. Both because she guards him too fiercely, and because they always take a step back when they learn she's a single parent.

But Rick hasn't—maybe it's because he met Eli first, because her son found him, but it's almost as if her son is part of the reason he's taken steps forward. She's not sure of the exact reason, but she's grateful. Happy.

It's Kate's turn next, and she opens the smaller gift-wrapped present to reveal a jewelry box. She pauses for a few seconds before she lifts the lid, but her breath is taken away when she does.

It's a tennis bracelet, but much like Eli's glove, it's personalized. On the outside it's stunning—and simple, much like her personal style. On the underside, it has engravings; two dates, and it takes no time at all for her to realize it's her and Eli's birthdays, with a heart in between them.

"Rick, it's gorgeous," she breathes, turning to him.

"I'm glad you like it."

"Like it? I love it." Pausing, she slides it onto her wrist, admires it. "How did you know our birthdays?"

Rick shrugs. "I asked Eli his birthday."

Well, okay, that's easy enough.

"I never told you mine."

"No, but it was your birthday when Eli came to my book signing, so I already knew the month and day." That's right. "And you did tell me that Eli was born when you were a sophomore in college, which means you would have been around 19 or 20. And Eli is 8 years old, going on 9, so I kind of just did the math and hoped for the best."

Kate laughs. "What would you have done if you had engraved the wrong year?"

"Apologize and take it to get it fixed?" he muses, and she grins, shaking her head. "Glad I don't have to, though."

"Me too."

Rick moves next, unwraps the gift delicately, his face breaking into a smile when he reveals its contents. It's one of those combo frames, two connected by a joint between them. On one side sits one of the developed photos Kate took of Rick and Eli from the zoo. On the other side, a photo of Rick and Kate in the kitchen; they're tag teaming a dinner, and it shows Rick laughing and Kate making a face, clearly amused.

"Where did you..."

"Turns out Eli took it," Kate says, pointing to her son.

Eli nods. "Yup. I was doing another art project and it had to be photos this time, so I just kept taking them of everything to maximize my chances of getting something good. That was one of the ones in the pack when mom took them to get developed!"

"This is—I love them, Kate, Eli, thank you. And I must say, excellent photography skills."

"You're welcome," Eli smiles, thrilled with his contribution.

Rick smiles, looking down at the photos. "It's perfect."


After presents are distributed and opened, the three decide to hang out for a little while before Rick has to leave and they hit the road. The snow continues to whirl outside, casting everything in a blanket of fluff, and Kate watches as the snowflakes fall beneath the street lights. She loves how they seem to sparkle when the florescent lights hit them.

"What's your favorite part about the holidays?" Rick asks. "You know, besides spending it with Eli and your dad."

Kate thinks for a moment, a number of possible answers popping into her head. If someone had asked her this question years ago, she wouldn't have had an answer. She didn't really enjoy them enough to know, but now she has a list.

Her lips curl into a smile. "I can show you," she says in lieu of an actual reply, reaching for his hand to pull him from the couch. "E, will you be okay for ten minutes while I go show Rick something?"

Eli's too preoccupied with the beginning of Elf to really care, but he nods. "Uh huh!"

"I'm locking you in," she tells him, to which he gives another absent nod. "And you won't step foot outside of this apartment?"

Eli groans, finally twisting to look at her. "Promise, Mom."

She smiles at him, lets out a soft laugh. At least he knows better. Grabbing her keys, she leads Rick from the apartment, closes the door and locks it as she said she would.

"Where are we going?"

Kate smirks. "That's the surprise, isn't it?"

He follows wordlessly as she guides him to one of the back stairwells and motions for him to join her. They go up a few flights, and Rick makes a joke about how she could very easily be leading him somewhere to dismember his body. She snorts, rolls her eyes.

When they reach the top she pushes the door open, and suddenly they're on the roof.

"Wow," he breathes.

"I know."

Everything's covered up here, the snow untouched by shoe prints and still perfectly smooth. It's so much more peaceful up here than he would have imagined, though he hasn't really spent much time on roofs to compare.

"You come here a lot?" he asks, following to where she's stopped near the edge.

She leans against the concrete barrier. "Sometimes. When I need to think. But mostly during the winter," she tells him. "It's only a few flights up from my apartment, but it seems like another world when I'm out here. Especially when it's snowing."

He watches as the snow connects with her hair, the flakes condensing and getting caught in her curls.

"It really is nice."

"Yeah," she exhales, letting her head fall back. The snow crashes against her face but she just smiles, sticks her tongue out and lets a snowflake crash against her tongue. "It's not pitch dark but it's not as bright since it's so high up and some nights you can see the stars. I mean, I'm not sure what are flurries and what are stars tonight, but you get it."

Following her gaze, he tilts his head back. The dark of night and lack of city lights this high allow them to be visible, more so than they would be standing on the ground or looking from the vantage point of a lower window. Hindered by the snow as they may be, he understands what she means.

"It's beautiful, the way they fill the sky. It may sound strange, but I just—it helps me relax. Sometimes... with my job, with Eli, sometimes everything adds up and it just becomes a lot to deal with. I'll stress and feel like I'm in over my head, but then I'll come up here late at night and just look at the stars. I know it's an illusion, but from way down here they appear to be so close together, leaving few spots of the sky untouched. There's an entire galaxy out there, and it makes me realize how... tiny I am in comparison. That I may be having a hard time, that something may seem like the end of the world, but in the grand scheme of things? It's such a small problem."

Rick just stands beside her, gaze trained on her profile as she looks out at the tops of buildings, the sky in the distance.

"That doesn't sound silly at all," he promises, and she turns her head to him, a soft smile on her face. "I think it's really beautiful."

Giving a little lift of her shoulder, she exhales against the cold. "It helps. And one day maybe I'll bring Eli up here, show him."

"I think he'd like that. And—thank you. For showing me this. For telling me." He takes a breath, shifts his weight and she eyes him, tilts her head in question. "Kate, these past two months have been... insane. Incredible, really. Meeting you and Eli has been one of the best things to ever happen to me." Her heart pulses in her chest, thrashes against her ribs with each word he says. "I don't want you to think this is just a reflex because you got hurt and I realized how much I really care about you, but..." His voice trails off as he pauses.

Her right hand brushes against his arm, encourages him. "But?"

"But I've known I cared about you since the day I met you. It scared me, just how intense the emotions were that hit me that night, watching you cry as you held Eli, talking to you over coffee afterwards. It's something I haven't experienced before, but I'm so—I'm so lucky to be able to feel like this, so I don't want to waste it."

She can't seem to rip her gaze from his, can't move; her feet feel rooted in place, a cocktail of emotions rushing through her system. Excitement, apprehension, desire. Her entire body lights on fire, her eyes burning bright beneath the subdued light.

He looks at her for a moment, revels in how stunning she is. Her hair is damp now from the accumulation of snowflakes, and her cheeks are flushed, whether from the cold or his words he's unsure.

"What I'm trying to get at is... after the holidays, when you guys are back in Manhattan, would you like to go out to dinner?"

Her teeth pin her bottom lip between her teeth as she attempts to hide her grin. "Rick, are you asking me out on a date?"

"What would you say if I was?"

She hums, forces herself to digest any butterflies remaining in her stomach. "I'd say that I'd like that a lot."

Kate smiles, casts one last glance at the sky before she closes the gap between them. She stretches on her toes, braces herself with one palm on his shoulder, and dusts a soft, lingering kiss to his lips.

"Merry Christmas, Rick."


Later that night, after they've arrived at her father's cabin and Eli is resting comfortably beneath the covers, Kate goes outside. She sits on the porch, settled contently on the swing as she stares out at the night sky. The stars are even more visible out here, where there are no lights at all to cast a shadow on the night's creations.

A surge of warmth rises to her cheeks once more, a soft smile painted on her lips as she thinks about the possibilities that await her, offered by the beauty of tonight's sky and the wonderful man who's walked into their lives.

Back in SoHo, Rick stands on the roof his own building for the first time, an identical smile on his face as he looks out at the tops of buildings in the distance.


A/N: I'll save the sappy author's note for the epilogue, but thank you all for your continued loveliness.