14. Christmas

"Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart... filled it, too, with a melody that would last forever. Even though you grew up and found you could never quite bring back the magic feeling of this night, the melody would stay in your heart always - a song for all the years." ― Bess Streeter Aldrich

Spencer POV

5 months later

The credits for "Miracle on 34th street" rolled across our small bedroom television while an automated voice announced that "It's a wonderful life" was commencing after the break. It truly was a Christmas movie marathon although I sincerely doubted we'd make it to the end of that movie. It must be passed midnight by now; we'd been curled up in bed for hours. It was the night before Christmas Eve, hell I guess it was Christmas Eve now and Marley's family would be arriving in a few hours. We'd decided to head to bed early, created a mountain of pillows and curled up to watch movies together. Although about ten minutes into the first movie Marley had given up on her mountain of pillows and had curled up against my chest, her head rested under my neck with her arm wrapped languidly about my waist. I'd wrapped one hand around her and had spent the entire time lazily running my fingers up and down her bare arm. On our wedding day, nearly six months ago now, this was how I'd pictured married life; lounging around with my wife doing nothing much and yet feeling extraordinarily happy. Marley moved against my chest; raising her head up so her eyes met mine. They were glassy with unshed tears but she smiled at me and I knew she'd been thinking the same thing.

"You know when I was little I used to curl up with my Dad and watch all these movies, and I always used to tell him how I wanted one of these fairy tale romances. He always used to laugh and tell me that life wasn't a fairy tale. Guess I proved him wrong. Guess you proved him wrong." She leaned forward and kissed me, her soft lips pressed gently against mine as she shifted round so she was pressed even closer to my chest. As we pulled away she buried her head against my shoulder and my skin grew damp from the tears I'd noticed sparkling earlier in her eyes. I laced my fingers through her hair and leaned close to her ear.

"I love you." I whispered before kissing the tip of her earlobe, feeling wetness begin to overflow my eyelids. Marley suddenly began laughing quietly, the vibrations tickling my bare skin and making me shiver.

"I can't believe I'm crying because I love you. This is seriously hormonal." I laughed and wiped away her tears as she kissed me again. We rearranged our tangled bodies until Marley was as close as physically possible; one leg entwined with mine, her head buried in the space between my neck and shoulder with one arm stretched across my chest while the other was folded against my side, her shaking fingers lightly rubbing against my rib cage. I'd encircled her thin frame in my arms with my head resting against her bouncing curls. I closed my eyes as I felt peace wash over me, I could feel Marley's heartbeat against my chest. It beat in sync with mine.

"I never want to get up." I whispered as I held her close. It hadn't taken long after Lila for us to get back to this, to the happy couple we'd always been. Marley had started her teacher training in September and was loving it; not that I was shocked, what with raising Jack and her brothers she just had a way with children. She'd make a great teacher. A great Mother. It had been almost five months since we'd started trying for a baby although we didn't mention it. We didn't want to become obsessive over it so we'd decided to try for a year and if nothing happened then we'd review it. I knew that was easier said than done but we were both keeping ourselves occupied. I had to admit while I wanted to start a family just as badly as Marley it had been nice having some time together. On the weekend's I wasn't working a case (although we'd had a ridiculously high caseload recently) we'd go out together either for a walk in a park or to a museum. Doing things with Marley was so… simple. I guess it came from being married to the right person; we enjoyed the same things and were more than willing to compromise when I wanted to go to a book signing or she wanted to watch a new movie. Then there were the evenings like this one where we curled up in one another's arms and fell asleep; neither of us ever complained about that.

I leaned across to the bedside table; careful not to move Marley too much as her heavy breathing told me she was starting to slip into unconsciousness. I grasped the remote and flicked the television off leaving the room in a sudden silence. While I was reaching over I grasped the dimmer switch, my hand slipping off as I stretched as far as I could without moving from the comforting warmth of Marley sprawled against me. Eventually I managed to turn it right down until there was only a dim glow from my bedside light. I hesitated, hand still grasping the switch before taking a deep breath and switching it all the way off. I instantly closed my eyes against the darkness, a slightly ironic reaction perhaps but it helped. As did Marley tightening her grip around me and placing a light kiss against my neck.

"I'm fine." I whispered, both to myself and Marley. I was a grown man whose day job involved hunting down serial killers. The dark should be the least of my worries. But it was; such a childish fear and yet it was enough to drive fear into my heart in the right situation. However I was safe here. With Marley pressed against me, I opened my eyes and let out a shaky breath from the darkness that surrounded me but closed my eyes again as I settled back down against the soft pillow and continued to stroke Marley's back; pushing her vest top down lower each time as I scrapped my nails down her vertebrate. She murmured "one track mind" against my chest but as she closed her mouth she deliberately scrapped her teeth against my chest eliciting a gasp from me. Despite the darkness engulfing us I could tell she was smirking up at me.

"Well the family will be here for the next few days; this is our last chance to be alone." I offered, feeling bold as she continued to kiss my body. She giggled quietly, her body shaking beside me as she moved to straddle me, obviously taking the hint from my suggestion. Her breathing had sped up as she leaned down to kiss me, suddenly wide awake. I slid both my hands up across her hips before grasping the material of her vest top and pulling it off her head although the yelp she let out told me I'd caught her ear in my hurry to rid her of the excessive material. As my eyes adjusted to the dark I could just make out the pale contours of her hour glass figure above me. I ran a hand across her flat stomach and up her ribs, feeling each crevice as I made my way up her body. Her shuddering breaths made me smirk; there was something incredibly powerful about knowing I could create such emotions in her. She leaned down so that her lips were mere millimetres from my ear and her soft skin against my cheek. I could smell her familiar scent; the faint remnants of the perfume she wore today, a whiff of apples and fruits that hadn't changed since the first time we met, mixed with the purely unique aroma of my wife. It was my favourite smell in the whole wide world.

"We have what, six hours till we have to be up? We better make the most of it." She whispered quietly, I could feel her mouth quirk up into a smirk against me. "Any ideas?"

"I have an IQ of 187, I think I can think of a few things."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Marley was sprawled across the bed when the shrill squawking of the alarm made me jolt awake. I was used to such intrusions into my sleep from life with the BAU where we often had to ready to leave within a moment's notice. Marley, however, who had never had to deal with Hotch screaming at her that another body had been found, was much more reluctant to open her eyes and start the day. I ran a hand along her arm and she grumbled but opened up one eye to glower at me.

"It's early." She grumbled as she turned towards me and offered a grimace. I couldn't help but smile and leaned closer to wipe the sleep from her eyes with my thumb.

"Happy Christmas Eve." I offered as recompense for dragging her from her dreamland. However it seemed to pay off as she returned a slightly more dimmed version of my smile. "Our first Christmas as a married couple, holding it in our home with our family…" I let the sentiment sink in, finding a grin tugging at my own mouth as I tried to make Marley, who had never really been a morning person, smile. It succeeded as she leaned up to kiss me.

"Best Christmas yet." She announced against my lips and I felt hers quirk upwards as she wound her fingers through my hair and pulled me close. If it wasn't for the snooze suddenly going off again I would have happily fallen back under the covers with her and carried on from where we left off last night but I knew Vince would be here soon. And I somehow doubted even though we were married finding me naked in bed with his daughter would go down well. Reluctantly I unwrapped her bare slender legs from my waist and pulled her up beside me; feeling bereft of her touch even though she was still stood next to me. She seemed to feel the same way as she laced her fingers through mine and pulled me towards the kitchen; her stomach growling in unison with mine making us both laugh.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

A familiar knock on the door, several hours later, made Marley squeal in happiness and she bounded off to pull the door open. We hadn't seen her Father in over three months and while we saw him a lot more than when she was first a student, it had still been enough time for her to miss him. Vince couldn't even make it through the door before Marley, like her adorable Labrador namesake, bounded into his arms. A let out a familiar gravely laugh that I'd grown to associate with my Father-in-law, perhaps oddly when you considered the circumstances under which we'd met. The first time I saw Vince he'd barely been able to stand, his entire body crushed under the devastating loss of his eldest daughter. Thank God we'd got her back and as she'd started putting her life together I was finally introduced to the happy Father figure Marley had promised me as well as the boisterous brothers she'd mentioned when we first started going out, although honestly as I looked at Jesse, smiling as he waited for his chance to hug his Father, I thought maybe he'd been changed more permanently. While there were brief flashes of the bad boy persona most notably, I remembered with a shudder, when he attacked me over the whole Lila Archer debacle, I'd never seen the truant, smoking, drinking, nuisance Marley had often complained about. I guess nearly losing the only Mother figure you ever had made you re-evaluate your life.

Marley finally released her Father and moved onto her brothers, while Vince grabbed Jesse who looked set to squirm but instead wrapped his arms around his Father and accepted the hug. Nick had ducked through the door and instantly made a beeline towards me; the two of us were close, he'd been emailing me since he'd started his course at CalTech and I loved it, hearing news of my old college, Nick's thoughts on his professors and courses and his plans for the future. Before he had a chance to launch into a long diatribe about his latest paper Vince turned his attention to me and pulled me in for a bear hug.

"Merry Christmas son." He beamed as he pulled away from me and held me at arm's length; the Fatherly gesture harkened both pleasant and painful thoughts. I was glad that I had found acceptance in the middle of a loving family but standing here with Vince checking up on me made me wonder what my own Father was doing for the holiday. I wondered if he'd be thinking about me. I knew there was going to be a celebration at Bennington that my Mother would attend, causing a pang in my gut, we were going out to visit her two days after Christmas and we'd celebrate then. I hoped she'd be lucid enough to remember this time; the first time I'd taken Marley to visit my Mother she'd been having one of her episodes and had thought Marley was a student. I'd waited for Marley to freak out, to run from the room and realise she didn't want to risk loving me when I could end up in a sanitarian too. But instead she smiled and apologised for not reading the suggested books while listening to my Mother's lecture. I'd spent the rest of our trip feeling hideously guilty for ever doubting my beloved girl.

We spent the next few hours lazily lounging around, catching up on each other lives, regaling each other with funny stories and personal triumphs. I'd missed this. No one mentioned Marley's Mother, despite the fact they'd all received Christmas cards from her; she hadn't quite given up on stage nine, despite the muted response she'd gotten. Only Jesse had replied and his response had made his anger towards me seem mild. I guess today was a day to focus on the good kind of family; the kind that stuck by you no matter what. The rest of our ragtag family would join us tomorrow; Aaron, Jack, Jess and Rossi, who'd, decided he couldn't stand another Christmas day with his warring family and wanted to join ours. It was a complete juxtaposition to the Christmases I'd had when I was younger, it was the type I'd always dreamed of and exactly what I wanted for my children. Thoughts of children made me subconsciously grasp Marley's waist. Marley followed my lead and curled herself around me on the love seat, which Milo was finding excruciating to watch. He and Jack would have a field day tomorrow.

"I should go and make a start on dinner." Marley eventually announced, pulling herself out of my embrace and ignoring any offers of help. As she moved towards the kitchen the bell rang, the unfamiliar noise making Milo jump by my feet. Maggie, our neighbour, was stood on our porch bearing cookies and what looked to be a Christmas card. I smiled, one of the positives of our building was the copious friendly elderly neighbours that often appeared at our door with various baked goods. Maggie had decided on the day we moved in that both of us were too thin and had made it her mission to fatten us up. Needless to say we were huge fans.

"The mailman delivered some of our mail to her. Not that it is our mail. It's for a W. Parker who apparently lives with us. You know this has happened a couple of times over at Aaron's. Oh well, there's a return address in Boston, I'll post it back when I get a chance." She kept mumbling all the way to the kitchen but was drowned out by Milo who'd run after her to see what cookies we had.

"So what are the plans for the rest of the festive season?" Vince asked, turning my thoughts away from the letter and back towards my first Christmas with my wife and her family. It was going to be the best Christmas yet.