Luke was wide awake by five a.m. on Christmas morning. The party the night before had actually gone pretty well. Everyone showed up, had a great time, and even Reid seemed to enjoy himself, of course the promise of all the Christmas cookies he could eat and amazing sex in their gigantic shower if he behaved was enough. He spent the entire night in a corner with Carly and Lucinda doing who knows what, all Luke heard was cackling laughter and a gigantic shit eating grin on Reid's face the entire night. Truth be told, he didn't want to know, he was just happy and content.
This was his first Christmas morning not spent at the farm and it was strange not to be up early sitting in the kitchen drinking cinnamon coffee and talking to his Grandmother who was busy putting the turkey in the oven.
He looked over at the sleeping Reid who was clearly content as he was curled up into a ball and had stolen all the covers in the night. Luke couldn't help the smile that stole across his face. He would not trade a Christmas morning in bed with his boyfriend for anything in the world. He'd had twenty five plus years of Christmas mornings with his family, and he cherished them all, but he looked forward to the many he knew he would spend with Reid.
Reid finally stirred and stared blearily up at Luke,
"Has anyone ever told you how incredibly creepy it is to watch someone else sleep?"
"I can't help it, Reid. You're so adorable."
"Uhh, what time is it?"
"It is five thirteen a.m."
"Why are you awake?"
"I think it's habit. Usually on the farm, Ethan has everyone up by five a.m. to open stockings and presents."
"Oh, crap. I completely forgot about your family. Do you want to go over there? I don't mind. I know how much you love spending holidays with your family."
"No, Reid. I want to spend this Christmas morning in bed with the man I love, you are my family now too, and besides my parents completely understand and we're going over there this afternoon for dinner and to celebrate with extended family and this evening we'll have Christmas with my parents and siblings. It's time to start some new traditions."
"You didn't have to do that you know."
"Yes I did. This is our first Christmas together and we are going to do it right."
"Yes master."
"Shut up."
"So does this mean I can go back to bed?"
"If you insist, but I'm gonna watch A Christmas Story. It always airs all day long on Christmas."
"A Christmas Story? What's that?"
"Are you freaking kidding me right now, Reid? You have never heard of A Christmas Story?"
"No, should I have?"
"It's like the most classic Christmas movie ever."
"I didn't celebrate Christmas before you, Luke."
"That is seriously beyond sad."
Luke turned the TV on and settled back in bed.
The movie was just starting and he snuggled further into the bed and yanked part of the loose blankets over to his side.
Reid moved and pulled Luke to him and covered them both.
It wasn't long before Reid was laughing at the movie and was clearly enjoying himself.
Luke got up and went into the kitchen and made some coffee, grabbed a hidden plate of cookies he had made just for that morning, and grabbed the stockings from the fireplace mantle.
He walked back in put the stockings and plate on the bed, handed Reid a mug of coffee and put his own on the night stand.
He climbed back in bed and grabbed the plate of cookies and handed it to Reid.
Reid stared at it for a few seconds and finally spoke,
"This is probably the best gift I've ever received."
Luke just laughed and stole a cookie from the plate.
They watched in silence for the rest of the movie with only the sound of laughter and munching of cookies heard.
Finally the movie was over. Luke turned it off and turned to Reid,
"So what'd you think?"
"Funny movie. I can see why you like it so much."
"Yeah, my dad always let me stay up late on Christmas Eve when I was little and watch it with him. It was so much fun."
Reid picked up the stockings in the bed,
"So I should warn you, I've never filled one of these before, so I hope I did alright. I should admit that your mom and Faith helped me pick out some of this stuff."
"I am not worried. I am honestly excited to see what you bought for me."
Reid opened his first because Luke kept bouncing up and down on the bed and telling him to.
He pulled out a stethoscope and realized the back of it was engraved with a R.
"You bought me an engraved stethoscope?"
"Yeah, is that cheesy or stupid? I'm sorry, Reid. I thought it was nice you know in case you misplace it, so you know it's yours."
"No, it's not stupid, Luke. Calm down. I adore this gift. In fact it's probably the nicest and most thoughtful gift anyone has ever given me."
Reid leaned over and grabbed Luke's face and kissed him swiftly.
Luke nearly swooned and fell off the bed.
Reid then insisted Luke remove something from his stocking.
He pulled out an envelope.
In it were two tickets to Wicked, which he had been telling Faith for years he'd love to see.
"Okay, I definitely know you didn't pick these out on your own."
"Yeah, Faith told me you'd been telling her constantly for the last three years how much you'd love to see Wicked in Chicago. So we're going."
"Wait, you're going with me?"
"Unless you wanted to take someone else?"
Reid looked uncertain.
"No, that's not what I meant. I meant more like, YOU want to go with me to a Broadway show where there will be dancing and singing and a girl in green makeup?"
"Yeah, I'll suffer through it, Luke." Reid rolled his eyes.
"Believe it or not, I'm not against all culture. I just have no desire to watch High School Musical, like you."
"Come on! Natalie and Ethan love it when I sing those songs with them."
"Natalie also loves Justin Bieber, which is sort of weird considering she's one of the smartest kids I've ever seen and Ethan loves anything you do."
"Whatever. You're just an old fart. Open the rest of your stocking."
Reid pulled out a box of golf balls. They were his favorite brand and he grinned.
"I love how well you know me. I will definitely be putting these to good use in a few months."
"Yeah, Steve is the one who begged me to get those for you, because he said they are damn expensive and you can afford them."
Reid laughed heartily at that and motioned for Luke to continue opening his stocking.
They went back and forth opening small trinkets to each other, and then Luke stood up.
He grabbed Reid's hand and pulled him with him to the living room.
"It is now time to open presents."
"Wait, you mean the cookies and things in my stocking weren't my presents?"
Luke felt his heart constrict. He hated how much Reid had missed out on all these years.
"That was just a preview. Your real presents are under the tree."
Luke handed him a box and told him to open it.
In it was a clearly first edition book. It was a vintage edition of Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body. He was blown away. It was clearly very expensive and he knew that Luke had gone to great lengths to acquire it.
Then an envelope was handed to him, he opened it to discover a lifetime membership to the country club where he and the other doctors played.
Then Luke pushed another box toward him, he opened it to find every season of Grey's Anatomy on DVD, and he immediately started laughing,
"You're a prick, Luke."
"Hey, you're the one who said you liked the show. I'm just trying to help you get caught up. Plus, I cannot wait for someone else to come over and ask whose DVDs those are and I get to tell them that they are yours."
"Right, but at least I can't claim the Glee DVDs or the Desperate Housewives episodes cluttering up the DVR."
Reid finally went to the drawer of his desk and opened it.
He pulled out an envelope and handed it to Luke.
"Here, this is part of your gift."
Luke opened it and started reading the letter.
At first he was extremely confused, and then he realized what it basically said.
It was Reid's living will and in it he named Luke his power of attorney and executor of it.
"Does this mean what I think it does?"
"Pretty much. It means that we have to go get it notarized, but yes, you will be effectively my power of attorney and executor. So in case anything happens to me, you can legally be there for it all. I know it's not a grand, romantic gift, but I felt it needed to be done. And I know it's sort of strange seeing as how we're not married and probably will never be, but it can still provide some assurance or something."
"You're babbling, Reid."
"I know, I can't help it."
"I love this. Honestly, Reid. I never even thought about doing something like this, but I do think it's necessary to have papers like this in place. I'll talk to Lucinda after the New Year and get all this stuff taken care of on my end too."
"You don't have to do that, Luke."
"Yes, I do. This is a huge commitment from both of us, and I know that you have told me repeatedly you don't see yourself ever getting married, but that doesn't mean we won't be together. I love you and I'm not going anywhere. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, even if that means we are lovers and friends and not husbands."
"How can you be sure? I know you want kids and a family and a wedding."
"I want you more than all those things, Reid. I don't want any of those things if it means I can't have them with you. "
"Okay. So talk to your grandmother, and we'll get it taken care of."
Then Reid handed him another envelope,
"And this is the second part of your gift and I promise it's far more romantic."
Luke opened it up and started grinning as he read,
"Welcome to Vermont. Are we going to Vermont?"
"Yeah. I figured you never got to come visit me in college and I have so many places to show you, and it's quite beautiful there. So I booked us for a four day trip to Vermont. We can go skiing, or just stay in the resort and have sex all day. Whatever you want."
"When are we going?"
"We leave tomorrow and get back on the 30th."
"Seriously? What about work?"
"I am being given a much deserved and needed mini vacation, so I can take the love of my life on a relaxing trip and get our minds off the chaos of the past few months. The board agreed with me, and your grandmother has her jet ready for us to fly out tomorrow afternoon."
"I. Love. You."
"Do you now?"
"Yes. I really have no other words right now. So, instead I'll just show you how much."
An hour and a half later, and a few rounds later, Reid lay in bed panting.
"That was pretty much the best Christmas present so far. THAT is definitely going to be part of the tradition."
"Whatever you say."
Reid looked over at Luke who was lying flat on his back in a spread eagle position and glazed look in his eyes.
"You going to make it, Luke?"
"Just give me a few seconds to recover."
A few seconds turned into another hour as both fell asleep and catnapped.
Then Reid heard a strange sound coming from down the hall and went to investigate.
Just as he was about to open the door he saw Luke rush by him and stand in front.
"Go back to bed."
"Why? What do you have in there?"
"Nothing, just go back to bed, I'll be there in a minute. I don't want you to ruin the surprise, okay?"
Reid looked warily at Luke, but turned around and trudged back into the bedroom.
He sat against the headboard and flipped through the TV stations to see what was on.
A few minutes later, Luke was back with a box in his hands.
"Okay, this is your final Christmas gift, I was going to wait until after the other Christmases were over, but this little guy couldn't wait anymore.
He handed the box to Reid who almost dropped it as he felt the contents of the box start to move.
He put it on the bed and lifted the lid, then he laughed out loud at what was in it.
It was a bulldog puppy. He immediately recalled the conversation he and Luke had in the hospital as he came out of the coma.
"Brutus the bulldog, huh?"
"Yeah, that's what the B on his collar stands for."
"I love that you remembered our conversation."
"I will do anything for you, Reid, especially the thing you asked for after I almost lost you."
Luke started crying,
Reid put the puppy on the floor and stood up. He walked over to Luke and pulled him to him,
"I love you, now and forever, I don't care about any damn dog or any material thing. I only care about you. You are all I need, you're all I want."
Luke started crying harder,
"You're going to have to stop that, Luke, because I want to kiss you and you're a really ugly crier."
Luke started laughing then and he hit Reid on the shoulder,
"You're a bastard."
"You love me and you know it."
"Heaven help me, I really do."
They spent the rest of the morning playing with their new puppy and Reid learning how difficult it is to train one. It was Reid's first real Christmas and the best holiday he had ever spent.
Later that night as his boyfriend was sleeping on the bed with the tiny puppy snuggled on his chest, he sighed. He was happy and content and in that moment he knew what he must do.
He texted Steve,
Hey can you meet me at Java's tomorrow? We need to discuss the situation with Luke.
He tossed and turned the rest of the night wondering if he was making the biggest mistake of his life.
