Author's Note: Okay, I know Christmas-stories, when it's not Christmas, can be annoying but...well you just have to try and deal with it, I still hope you'll enjoy the fluff a little bit.
I want to thank you again for sticking with this story and with me for all this time, I feel so great to have all you guys and I can't thank you enough, everyone who reviews and puts this on alerts and favorites...it makes my day, every day.
And, if, maybe, you are a bit interested in me by now...well, you can always follow me on twitter. It's /Ellie_rants and because I just started tweeting about a week or so ago...I don't have any followers yet, so if you happen to have twitter and happen to be curious just follow and I'll follow you back :)
Thank you guys, again! Love to you all!
9 Months
Chapter Twenty-One
The Best Gift Ever
-Month Eight, Week One-
"So what's the deal with Penny and Derek?", came Harper's amused voice tinny and muffled from the speaker of Spencer's phone. He could practically see her with the phone pinched between her shoulder and her cheeks, walking across the living room, decorating it like a Christmas-tornado.
"Penny and Derek?", he repeated and chuckled.
"Oh, you know what I mean, what's with all the 'baby-girl'- talk and the flirting and the cuddling up, there's like so much UST in the room it makes me almost uncomfortable", she blabbered and he could hear glass hit glass and twigs break.
"UST?", he asked curiously, walking down Wisconsin Avenue suppressing the underlying feeling of nervousness now that the turquoise store-label came in view.
"Unsolved Sexual Tension", Harper clarified smiley, "the way they hover around each other but never ever get it on, it makes me crazy...I just wanna shake them and go: Get a room! Get it over with!"
"You think? Garcia and Morgan?", Spencer asked, for the first time really thinking about their relationship involving something more sexual tension than simply the steamy conversations they had, that he always took as more jokey than anything.
"Spence, don't you ever get anything?", Harper laughed on the other end of the line.
"No, I mean...I do get it...I just never thought that there was more to it than some joke", he defended himself approaching the glittery display window and feeling his throat tighten slightly while Harper went all thoughtful.
"Baby, it might look all friendly and funny but there's definitely more to it, I can smell it, I can see it, the way Pen always glares at him and the way he's so protective of her...it's so obvious and I'm not even a profiler", Harper lectured but the last bit of her sentence was almost drowned by a metallic bang, "Oh my"
"What did you do?", Spencer asked alert.
"Nothing...just the pan and a pot, they fell...okay, I accidentally dropped them but...no harm done as far as I can see", she answered sheepishly, "That's probably a sign that I should stop multi-tasking and get my work done here properly"
"I wish I could leave you alone knowing that you won't kill yourself", he sounded all light but deep down, under his good mood there were still those nagging fears she'd woken in him a few weeks ago that something bad could happen to her, especially with her clumsiness.
"Well, forgive me if you have to pull me from beneath the tree but I'll at least try not to get hurt while I wait for you", her voice remained as brisk as always. She was just so happy with Christmas coming.
"And it's really okay with you that we're celebrating tonight?", Spencer needed the reassurement that she was really in a good mood, even if they would celebrate Christmas like the Europeans on the Christmas Eve, not in the morning as Spencer had agreed to go to work, so JJ and Hotch could be with their kids on the 25th .
"I told you, as long as we celebrate at all, it's fine with me", she nodded, he could hear her hair brush the speakers, "oh remember the ice-cream"
"I will", he smiled at her wish for ice-cream in winter but he supposed it was alright as she ate it out of a glass of warm orange juice, "and about the early Christmas...I'll make it up to you"
"I'm sure you will", she said quietly, "bye, genius"
"Bye, perfect", as he hung up the phone he glanced over at the display again, he'd spotted something he thought just great to serve its purpose.
He let the phone slide into his pants pockets and, with his heart beating up to his throat, entered the shop he'd been strolling around in front of for the last two minutes. He couldn't believe that he, Spencer Reid, was actually doing this, that this was really happening to him. To him...of all people.
He took a couple hesitant steps inside, overwhelmed by the mass of light and sparkle, almost right into the arm of a lanky but small sales-man that smiled brightly at him.
"Welcome to Tiffany's, sir, how can I be of service?"
--
When the key turned in the lock and the door gave way to Spencer his nostrils were immediately filled with the delicate scent of au gratin potatoes and chicken and peas and followed it, with his stomach growling in approval to the living room.
"Where's my ice-cream?", demanded Harper first thing, finishing the decorations on the dining table.
"Oh shoot", Spencer hit his own head with his hands that had flown on their own accord above his eyes, he'd totally forgotten about everything else when he'd went into the jewelry shop.
Harper sighed and tilted her head, pursed her lips and looked at him for a while.
"No...it doesn't work", she finally said defeated.
"What doesn't work?", he asked, putting his bag and coat on the couch, hoping she wasn't too disappointed.
"Being mad at you", she stated straight-faced, "It's not working today"
"Well, I can't say I'm sad about that", Spencer smiled relieved and walked over her to kiss her hello.
"But you know, that means no desert for you too", she smiled when they broke apart.
"You're all the desert I need", he whispered into her ear and felt her shiver a little.
"When did you get so suave, Spencer?", she asked semi-serious and hugged him as tight as possible with Autumn in the way.
"Actually, I have no idea", he admitted and squeezed her while nibbling on her earlobe.
"Stop it, Spencer", she giggled, "it's dinner time, don't you make me spank you"
"You spent way too much time with Penelope", he said, reluctantly letting her go. Once in his arms it was hard to let her out of his embrace, it felt so much safer and so much more reassuring to have her there.
They sat down to eat and all the time they were smiling at each other, joking, holding hands when it was possible to only use the fork and talking about everything and anything.
It was such a nice thing to know that Spencer, who'd never been much of a talker had so much to say to Harper, that there was never silence between them, that, when he was out of words, she took over so swiftly, filling the rooms with her stories and her jokes, her giggles and sighs and laughter. Spencer was certain as seldom that this was the best Christmas he'd ever had, even when his family hadn't fallen apart yet. He'd never been really at home with his family, funny enough. He was at home only with Harper, finally.
"Fields Of Gold" by Sting was playing on the stereo and one line caught Spencer's attention when he was cutting the chicken and set it on their plates.
"I never made promises lightly", it said. No, Spencer had never made promises lightly and also the promise he was going to make her tonight – if she accepted him to do so – was thought through, played through in his head, weighed from side to side with the minimum of doubts. He'd never had less doubts over giving a promise. From his side, nothing had ever been clearer, nothing more logical. He worried if he was rushing things for her though, but...he remembered one of Harper's favorite movies "When Harry Met Sally" that they'd watched about two-quadzillion times.
"When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."
That was one of the most memorable quotes and also the one where Harper always started sobbing..if she hadn't started at the part where Harry tells Sally that he loves the fact that she's cold at seventy-something degrees...seventy-one degrees, yelled Spencer's eidetic memory. He would just tell her that, it was his best argument. Beside the one that he couldn't live without her and he wanted it to be official, forever set in stone, in letters, in vows.
"What's up with you?", her amused voice broke through the mist of thoughts in his head, "stop staring at the plates and put them on the table"
"I love how you order me around", he said breathless and did as she'd told him, sitting down beside her.
"I love how you let me", she smirked and started eating immediately. She'd turned out to be quite the eater, especially withing the last month she'd started shoveling, sometimes she looked like these girls in the documentaries, the ones with bulimia, except that she didn't throw up afterwards. She just glowed happily and just a couple hours later started to complain again that she looked like a planet. She was still active, though, she walked around the flat, went to see him, or mostly Penelope as he had to grudgingly admit, at the BAU and walked every short distance by foot. She said, so far, Autumn wasn't limiting her abilities but, if she grew on like that, it was only a matter of time.
"Are you done?", she asked him when he put his fork and knife on the plate, surrendering in the face of an half-finished plate, anxiety making his stomach protest. Things of such profanity as food didn't seem important to Spencer's body now, being ran mostly by adrenalin as he reached into his pants pocket to feel the little silk-covered box between his fingers.
"Yeah, I'm sorry, it's really delicious, I'm just full", he said apologetically, not wanting her to feel like he didn't like the way it tasted.
"It's fine", she smiled and squeezed his hand, "I know it's delicious and this way I get my presents way faster"
She stood up and dragged him along with her, pulling him towards the couch and placing him there before she walked towards the tree and turned the light string on that lit the fir in white light and made the red and yellow and blue and green Christmas baubles glow.
"Merry Christmas", she cooed, standing next to the tree she'd decorated while Spencer went shopping earlier that day.
"Okay, first the presents of our families?", she asked and when Spencer nodded went for Autumns nursery where she had put the box that came. Her mother said it held both her families and Spencer's families presents for them. Spencer was glad that their families got along so well, Adriana had visited Diane in the clinic and they had caught up on old times and – different from most people that had seen Diane in that facility – didn't seem to find it one bit awkward and Spencer's mothers illness one bit disturbing.
Harper returned with the box and sat down beside him, producing four smaller boxes, covered in Christmas-gift wrap.
"That one says Spencer, from your Mom and this letter is from your Dad, and this box right here is from my parents for you", Harper handled the square packages over to him and watched him fiddle around with the paper.
"Wait, let me give you mine, too, then you have them all at once", she said and got an envelope from underneath the tree, "But you have to open it last"
He nodded and worked his way through the gifts. His Dad had sent him money and a long letter that he decided to read later; he wasn't in the mood for that right now and went on to his mother's present. He stopped breathing for an instant as he noticed the small pair of Converse-shoes inside the box to be his first walking shoes and, attached to it, a note from his mother saying: "You never walk alone". He laughed quietly and showed them to Harper who squealed and examined them straight away. The card on Harper's parents present was signed by both her parents, Adrian, Kelly and their boys Kyle and Matt and it was a 51's baseball-cap and a ticket for a game in fall and he remembered that Adrian had asked him if he'd join his father and his sons on a day out the next time they visited. Guess that date is set now, he thought but smiled. He'd never been to a baseball-game, it would be a fun thing to do with his new family.
"Now mine, mine", said Harper, sitting cross-legged opposite him handing him the envelope with a bright smile.
He took it and opened it carefully. Curiously he took out another ticket and read...
"Paris", Harper said aloud, "You said you always wanted to go to France, so that's it, Paris, it's only for a week-end but it's in Summer, I already asked JJ to baby-sit and Aaron to put you in for vacation, it's all arranged, we'll have a little time for ourselves...what do you think?"
"I love it", he said truthfully. She was so right and spot on with that gift. It had been forever since he'd been on a real vacation trip and he'd never been to France, though he found the country so interesting, "Thank you, Harper, it's perfect"
He bowed over to hug and kiss her and when he felt her curls tingle his cheeks he felt a flush of happiness that it was her whom he'd finally found. She, who was in every way all that he ever needed.
She went on opening her presents; a dress for after the pregnancy from her brother and Kelly and a set of scrap-books from her parents to document Autumns childhood. Harper nearly cried unwrapping everything but kept it together until she finally looked at Spencer, big-eyed and, putting away the scrap-books asking him.
"So where's my present?", she smiled brightly.
"Uh...well", Spencer said on a whim, "it's not really much of a present, it's more a-"
"-If you bought me mismatched socks, I'll kill you, you know that, don't you?", she said with a little hint that she wasn't kidding all the way.
"No", he smiled and felt his heart thudding, why was he so nervous? He knew he wanted to do this, he was sure, why in hell where his knees shaking, "it's not mismatched socks, it's...uh...well...um"
"Spencer?", she pursed her lips and looked at him like he was going a bit nuts, what he couldn't blame her for.
"Look, Harper", he started after taking a few deep breaths, taking both her hands into one of his, while the other traveled into his pocket, his fingers closing around the box, "it's been crazy five months, not even half a year and I know I've been rough and an idiot at first but...I love you, I love you so much it's beyond words and...and...oh man...see I never thought I'd ever felt the urge to do this but I just need to, I...I will hate myself forever if I don't ask you and okay, maybe it's a bit rushed but..."
He finally took out the box and kept his eyes fixed on it as he didn't have the guts yet to look at her.
"Harper Hillman, will you make me the happiest man walking this earth and be my wife?", he said it quickly, with a lot of air and he hoped she'd understood but..if all else failed the ring that sparkled out of the now opened box would have spoken a clearer language than he could've ever provided.
It was a silver ring with an orange topaz stone, framed with white little diamonds. It had cost a fortune and Spencer would be spending a while paying the installments but now, as he saw her eyes for the first time after his proposal, he knew it was worth it.
Behind a misty curtain of freshly welled up tears, her eyes went up to the common half-moon shape and her cheeks were going up to his most favorite bright wide smile until finally her gaze, before stuck on the ring, met his eyes. Electricity sizzled between the two of them, enough to set the room on fire.
"Yes", she whispered, "yes, yes"
And then she flung herself around him and kissed his lips, his chin, his cheeks until she was tired and rested her head on his chest.
He held her tight, the ring still in his hand and after kissing her forehead he gently removed his arm from her back and brought the box level with her face.
"Do you want to put it on?", he asked, unable to put his raging thoughts in order.
She'd said yes, she'd actually said yes. She wanted to marry him, to spent the rest of her life with him. How did he deserve so much happiness? It was almost too much, it was like his heart was going to burst.
She nodded faintly and held out her delicate pale fingers.
"I asked JJ to guess your size, I hope it fits", he whispered, taking it out of the box.
"So JJ knew that you were going to propose and she didn't tell me?", Harper asked suddenly in an over-played surprised voice.
"I made her promise to not tell you a word", he soothed and then, gently, carefully let the ring slip on her finger and pushed it down.
It was a perfect fit.
She was actually going to marry him. Spencer still couldn't grasp the overwhelming reality. She was his, officially, completely, entirely, forever.
"All I want for Christmas is you", Harper sang quietly and snuggled closer reaching her arm out to look at the ring in a distance, "look how it sparkles...it's beautiful"
"I chose orange, because it reminded me of Autumn", Spencer said and stroked her back gently.
"It's the best gift ever", she cooed, "along with you giving it to me...but you do know that I consider this a binding contract..I'm not going to let you off the hook, my love, we are going to get married, come what may"
"Come what may", he repeated and lifted her up to kiss her, but no baby kiss, no brief kiss...no a real kiss, a kiss that would seal their engagement and it did.
Spencer Reid would marry Harper Hillman...who would have ever thought?