I was picking up the mail almost a week after Christmas, after coming home with all the snacks and drinks for our private New Years Eve celebration, when I saw what looked like a late holiday card. Thinking it was probably for Harvey or from one of my students, I added it to one of the shopping bags and drove down our driveway careful of the slippery snow that kept coming.

"Here, let me grab those," Harvey was holding Abi in his arms at the front door as I started to get out of the car. Handing her to me, giving me a kiss on my forehead, he started pulling the shopping out. "Get inside before you catch cold," he ordered playfully, but I held Abi and the door for him so we could head in together.

I sat my little one down, and smiled as she chased after him to the kitchen. Taking off my coat, scarf, and gloves before kicking off my boots, I listened to him talking to her as he put things away.

"Look at this, Abi-boo," he was saying as I followed his voice. "Mommy got you the gummy fruits that you love," I listened as I heard him ripping open the box and then another little tearing sound as he opened a pouch for her. "Here, before she gets in here and tells me-"

"That you're ruining her dinner?" I offered, making him jump dramatically to earn the giggles of our little girl. I leaned against the doorway and watched him take a gummy from the pouch and wiggle his nose at Abi. "I'm not sure about having another baby, raising the two of you might be enough."

He grinned and rushed to me to wrap me in his arms, making me squeak and getting more giggles from Abigail. He buried his head in my neck and growled, her giggles hitting a fever pitch as I smacked his shoulder. "You love us, Tali."

I felt his lips curving against my skin and melted into his touch. "Maybe a little." A nip to my neck and I nearly moaned, but remembered we had a small audience. "A lot," I corrected in a breath.

I'd forgotten the mail, the card that had come, as I sat reading Abi a story after her gummy snack and dinner. As I read to her about a good witch, a book that was clearly a gift from her Auntie Ro, Harvey came in with a piping cup of tea for me and a beer for himself. He also had the stack of mail tucked under his arm.

Abi had started nodding off as I read, and Harvey was flicking through the mail, sorting it into his, mine, ours, and trash. Seeing our little one pouting in her sleep, he came over quietly and took her from me.

"I'll be right back, sweetheart, let me put her in her crib." I felt a harsh tug on my heart as I watched her tiny body cradled in his arms as he kept rocking slightly as he took her upstairs.

I was nursing my tea, smiling at the logs ready to be lit in the fireplace, when I heard him come back to the living room. Harvey saw where my eyes were focused and went to work building up a fire that was unnecessary for warmth, but completely wanted for the crackle and scent. Once the fire was built, he sat beside me, and tugged so my back was snuggled into his chest.

"This has been the best fucking year of my life," he whispered into my hair. "Meeting you, hearing Abi call me da-da, convincing you to marry my sorry ass, and now-" his hand touched the slight curve that housed our tiny one, "knowing that I get to experience it from the very beginning? I don't think next year stands a fucking chance of topping this year."

I bit my lip and let my hand cover his. "I know." I was watching the flames, my tea forgotten, and just enjoying the feeling of his heart beating against my back. "I didn't think, coming back after-" I'd told Harvey the truth, about my death and my resurrection. I never wanted us to have secrets, and with his background, the shadowy agency he worked for, he took the knowledge in stride. As he did Cas' identity, Rowena and Crowley's truth, all of it. He just listened and said that knowing about the darkness of the world made his job make a hell of a lot more sense. "I only thought I'd have my family, but then I crashed into you."

Harvey's arms tightened around me. "Best fucking crash of my life, Tali."

We rang in the New Year on the soft rug in front of the fire. Taking our time, feeling every inch of skin covering one another, and savoring every second. Harvey made my name sound like a prayer and I worshipped him just as easily. He finally carried me to our bed, and we started over. If whomever you spend New Year's Eve with is who you spend the new year with, then we wanted to make damn sure that we cemented it.

The next morning, as Harvey made pancakes, I picked up our discarded clothes off the living room floor and noticed the mail still waiting to be opened. After I tossed the dirty laundry in the hamper, I grabbed up the piles and brought them into the kitchen in time to see him making silly faces and noises while Abi laughed from her high chair.

"One day," I offered, sitting down at the table and cutting up Abi's pancake into small bites, "I'm going to record you entertaining her and send it to EVERYONE on your email list."

He snorted and set our plates down on the table. "Like everyone on my list doesn't already know I'm wrapped around Abi-boo's tiny little finger." Noticing the mail he separated the piles again and as we ate, and took turns feeding our hungry daughter, started going through the stack.

I saw that the Christmas card was in my pile, which surprised me a little. Everyone I loved had already shared the holidays and presents, but again, it could be a student trying to a little last minute or early sucking up.

"I swear," Harvey offered, as I was reading over a letter from the college, "even my 'good' mail is trash." I grinned and picked up the heavy envelope.

I didn't recognize the handwriting or the postmark. Ripping into it, I saw a rather generic card, Santa standing in front of a tree, but realized that it was holding something inside. A folded letter and a photo. Confused, I flipped open the paper, ignoring the card, and saw my own handwriting staring back at me.

"Tali?" Harvey's voice sounded far away and concerned. "Sweetheart, you're white as a sheet."

My hand shook as I read words that I didn't remember writing, to people named John and Mary. Swallowing hard, I tried to make myself remember who these people could be, from my own hand he was supposedly Abi's father, but why-

"Tali, honey, please." I finally looked up, and realized that both Harvey and Abi looked scared. I let out a long breath and shook my head. "What is it, Tali?"

Handing him the letter, I reached out and stroked Abi's soft curls, wanting to soothe her. Handing her her cup of juice, I noticed the photo that I'd ignored before. Picking it up, I felt like I was on a roller coaster. It showed me, younger, looking like I had during my earliest years teaching, sitting on the lap of a man who looked far too similar to Harvey than I expected. On the back, in the same scrawl as the envelope, was the caption, "John and Tali" along with the year that I'd celebrated my third year of teaching.

The card, I saw, when I felt calm enough to read also bore a message. "Please, Tali, let me explain-" followed by a phone number and the same name signed. "John."

Harvey waited until we cleaned up our syrup covered little girl and had her occupied on the living room floor before asking me all the same questions that were circling my head. Who was John? Who was Mary? Why would he make contact now?

"I have to-" I took a deep breath and let him pull me onto his lap. "I need to talk to Rowena." Feeling his lips touch my temple along with his sigh. "I need to know what the hell is going on."

"We both do," he added, and I hoped that whatever was coming wouldn't cost me the happiness I'd found.