Prompt: Elizabeth is worried about one of her staff, and invites them to stay for a while.

Elizabeth was much more in touch with her staff than she was expected to be, and often even more than they realized. That was why, with the Christmas season approaching, it had not escaped her notice that something was going on with Blake.

He'd been a little distracted; his performance as her assistant remained flawless, but it wasn't enough to convince her. She wasn't an ex-CIA analyst for nothing, after all. One evening as the two of them were getting ready for bed, she raised her concerns to Henry.

"I'm worried about Blake," she announced. He looked over at her.

"Blake?" he repeated. "Why?"

"I don't know," Elizabeth hedged. "He's just acting odd. I sort of think it might be, you know, the Christmas holidays…" she trailed off and glanced sideways at him.

"Elizabeth, what did you do?" he asked.

"What makes you think I did something?" she asked, but withered under the look he gave her.

"Okay," she relented. "I may have looked into it a little bit."

"Of course," Henry scoffed, but he was smiling as he pulled his glasses off of his face and tossed them casually on the bed.

"Well?" he prompted. "What did you find out?"

"He's not speaking to his parents. Or rather, they're not speaking to him," Elizabeth said. Henry frowned. "And," Elizabeth continued, "I don't have 100% confirmation on this one, but I have suspicions that there has been a recent break-up as well."

"He's got nowhere to go for Christmas?" Henry surmised. Elizabeth half-shrugged her shoulders.

"It looks that way," she said.

"Well," Henry began, wrapping his arm around Elizabeth with a small smile. "I think that one is a no-brainer."

"Hey, Blake!" Elizabeth called, hurrying to catch up with him as he headed toward the elevator. Blake turned around to look at her.

"Madam Secretary," he said. "Something I can do for you?" She shook her head, falling into step beside him and gesturing for him to continue walking alongside her. They boarded the elevator together and Elizabeth turned to him.

"Blake, I want to invite you to stay with my family over Christmas," she said. Blake's eyebrows shot up at her words.

"What?" he asked.

"Look, I- nobody should be alone on Christmas," she said, her tone softened. Blake opened his mouth, then closed it again as the elevator doors slid open once more and they walked side-by-side out into the lobby on the first floor. Blake sighed, meeting her gaze.

"Ma'am, you really don't have to do that," he said, and she found his voice uncharacteristically soft.

"I know," Elizabeth assured him. "But you know I'm a mother before anything, and it kills me to think about you, alone in that apartment across town, especially at Christmas. Look-" she broke off, meeting his eyes. "If you already have something to do for Christmas, something that involves family or friends, then feel free to decline my invitation and we won't even talk about it again."

Blake hesitated and Elizabeth smiled slightly.

"That's what I thought," she said gently. "Listen, just...show up around dinnertime on Friday and bring an overnight bag, okay?"

Blake watched her walk away, unsure exactly what to say in response to this invitation, but feeling vaguely warm nonetheless.

"Mom, can you grab the phone?" Alison was calling. Elizabeth leaned reluctantly away from Henry's embrace to reach for the squalling device, pressing the button and holding it to her ear. The home phone only ever rang when security was calling to let them know someone was at the door, and Elizabeth was pretty sure she knew who it was.

"Yep," she said into the phone. "Thanks, Matt, let him in." She hung up and Henry smiled at her.

"Blake's here?" he asked, and she grinned back at him as she kissed him quickly and headed for the front door.

"Blake's here," she confirmed. In the hallway, Blake Moran was standing awkwardly, wearing a sweater instead of his usual jacket and tie. He held a duffle bag in his right hand. Elizabeth smiled brightly at him, reaching out to take the bag out of his hand. He stared, shock the only think enabling him to relinquish it to her.

"I- ma'am, what are you doing?" he sputtered. Elizabeth laughed.

"Alright, Blake, first of all," she began, "while you're here this weekend, it's Elizabeth. Not 'ma'am', and definitely not 'Madam Secretary', okay?"

Blake nodded silently.

"And secondly," she continued, holding the bag up as she moved toward the stairs, "you're not my assistant while you're here. While you're here, you're family. That's how we do it in the McCord house."

Blake nodded slowly, and Elizabeth laughed as she clapped him lightly on the shoulder.

"Come on, I'll show you where you're sleeping."

When the two of them descended the stairs again a few minutes later, they found the rest of the McCords in the living room around the Christmas tree; all of them were laughing uncontrollably at something.

"What's so funny?" Elizabeth asked, running a hand over Alison's dark hair.

"Oh, hey!" Stevie said, leaning her head back to look at Blake upside-down. She grinned.

"Welcome to casa de McCord," Jason said. Blake smiled at him.

"Thank you," he replied.

"And look at you!" Stevie said. "Dressed down for once."

Blake nodded in acquiescence.

"I do, on occasion," he admitted.

"Welcome, Blake," Henry said with a smile. "We're glad to have you."

"Thank you, Dr. McCord," Blake said, and Henry immediately waved him off.

"Oh, please- Henry," he insisted. Blake nodded.

"Hey, Blake, Mom says you play piano," Alison remarked, turning around on the couch to face him. Surprised, Blake nodded, glancing between Elizabeth and her middle child.

"I do," he confirmed.

"Wanna play us something?" Stevie asked.

"Oh-" Blake replied, but Elizabeth interjected.

"We have a little bit before those cookies you guys made are ready," she chimed in. "Come on Blake, I think we have a songbook of carols in the bench."

Blake nodded, trying very hard to adjust to this new side of his boss. He'd seen glimpses of it before, but always from afar in a way; he'd seen Elizabeth mother, but he'd never been on the receiving end. He had to admit, as he sat down in front of the piano, it felt good. It was certainly better than the lonely Christmas he'd been planning before he'd been ambushed by the Secretary's good intentions.

The McCord kids, unsurprisingly, were very good at sweeping him up in their antics. There wasn't a lot of time that evening to be awkward, because one song bled into another, and as Alison and Jason bantered playfully and Stevie rolled her eyes with one hand resting casually on Blake's shoulder, Blake found himself smiling.

"He seems okay, right?" elizabeth murmured to Henry. The two of them had excused themselves to the kitchen to check on the cookies, but Elizabeth couldn't resist leaning around the door facing to peer back into the entry hall where Blake was sitting at the piano. Henry smiled as he wrapped his arms around her from behind, drawing her into his chest and away from the door.

"He seems okay," Henry assured her. "Come on, these cookies are going to burn. This is why you can't bake anything."

"I'm just too distracted," she said imploringly, and Henry laughed.

"That's what they made oven timers for."

Late that night, Blake sat in the den with the McCord family, three of whom were fast asleep in a tangle of siblings as their annual showing of Miracle on 34th Street drew to a close. Elizabeth and Henry were even more tangled up than their children, and Blake couldn't resist taking a glance at the way Elizabeth rested her head so casually and lovingly on her husband's shoulder, or the way Henry's thumb had been drawing small, slow circles on her hip for nearly the entire movie. It was a kind of quiet intimacy that Blake was admittedly unfamiliar with, but watching the two of them, he was filled with a certain longing for it. Now, with the credits rolling, Henry pressed a kiss to Elizabeth's hair and then carefully pulled away from her. She moved aside and Henry stood, moving to the couch to wake the kids. The three of them all began to stir and stretch, standing up and each of them leaning over to hug Elizabeth, even as they blinked sleepily.

"Goodnight, guys," Elizabeth said softly.

Henry let his hand brush over his wife's shoulder as he walked by her after the kids, silent understanding passing effortlessly between them as he left Blake and Elizabeth alone in the den.

Blake watched her turn the television off, and then he sighed. She glanced back at him, understanding in her eyes.

"Hope they're not too much for you," she said softly as she sat back down, closer to him this time. He smiled slightly, shaking his head.

"Not at all," he assured her. "They're wonderful."

Elizabeth nodded her head, leaning back and watching him.

"Madam-" he began, and caught himself. "Elizabeth," he corrected, the name sounding and feeling foreign on his tongue. She didn't bat an eye, just waited for him to go on. His dark eyes met hers and he smiled a little sadly.

"Thank you for doing this," he said quietly. Elizabeth shook her head.

"Blake," she began, "you don't need to thank me. No one should be alone at Christmas."

"Well, thank you nonetheless," he said. Elizabeth smiled at him as they both stood. Then, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. Blake hesitated, but then relaxed and hugged her back. They stood there like that for a moment, and Blake closed his eyes, trying desperately not to cry as he took in the way she held him; warm and somehow familiar, like a mother.

"I'm glad you're here, Blake," she said softly.

"Me too," he replied, and she smiled as she pulled away from him, patting his shoulder affectionately before she turned to head upstairs.

"Get some sleep, Blake," she called with a grin. "McCords start Christmas morning early."

Blake watched her go and smiled to himself, feeling for the first time in a long time like he was right where he was supposed to be.