Jay loved Christmas. He wasn't over the top or in-your-face about it, but he made sure lights were on the house and that a real tree was in the living room and always insisted on making a big ham for dinner.

So when Hailey's period didn't come in April and she took a pregnancy test, she started getting nervous as she did the math for the possible due date. After her first OB/GYN appointment when her doctor confirmed she was pregnant and said she should be expecting a baby on December 22, Hailey really started to panic.

"First babies always cook a little longer," her mom had warned when Hailey first told her, "We might be looking at a Christmas baby."

Jay didn't say anything though; he just jumped into full-on dad mode. Hailey wasn't sure how she felt at first when she found out she was pregnant, but watching Jay so seamlessly jump into the role was heartwarming and she found herself craving motherhood.

Listening to Jay talk about throwing a baseball with his son or daughter made Hailey imagine having a beach day with her little family. Some nights she dreamed of a baby girl with soft auburn hair and others she could so clearly picture a blonde boy with big green eyes. They didn't want to find out if the baby was a boy or girl, instead choosing to be surprised. It wasn't until Kim called it their "Christmas surprise" at Thanksgiving that Jay even acknowledged the due date.

"Huh, yeah, I guess the baby is a little Christmas gift," Jay said.

Hailey rolled her eyes and rubbed her hand over her stretched out shirt, "Better be little, I don't want to push a nine pound baby monster out of me."

"She won't be a monster," Vanessa smiled, "She's going to be the cutest little bunny."

Adam shook his head, "I'm still on Team Boy. Look at her face."

"Oh," Hailey crossed her arms, "Is there something wrong with my face?"

Everyone fell silent as Adam froze in his seat. He weakly laughed and slowly set his fork down, "Of course not, I was saying-"

"Is my face fat?" Hailey snapped.

Adam looked to Jay who sank in his seat and kept his mouth shut. He'd heard Hailey go off at her mom on the phone just the week before over her ankles; he wanted nothing to do with this conversation.

"You're beautiful, darling," Adam said, "I was thinking you looked like my sister when she was pregnant. That's all."

"Mhmm," Hailey pushed away from the table.

"Need something?" Jay asked.

"I need a glass of whiskey," Hailey breathed as she waddled to the bathroom.

Her final month was tougher on her than the previous eight combined. Her back was sore, she was tired, and her stress was starting to skyrocket. When she wasn't working desk duty, she was making sure the nursery was perfect. They had painted it a soft blue with bubble and fish decals spread throughout. Hailey was obsessed. She just needed to make sure that every blanket was washed and that every outfit was sorted by size in the closet. She became so engrossed in final preparations for the baby that Christmas slipped her mind.

Jay still bought a Christmas tree though and wrapped the spindles on their porch with white lights. He waited until Hailey was off desk duty to suggest putting the ornaments up and was understanding when she only put twelve on the tree before laying down on the couch to watch him do the rest. Together, they baked and frosted a variety of sugar cookies...that Hailey then devoured over the course of a week at 2am on the dot each night.

Hailey could tell Jay missed their usual Christmas traditions and she really did try to put on a happy face, but all she could think about was the little baby playing soccer with her bladder at all hours of the night. He never said a word, though, and put all his typical Christmas spirit into taking care of Hailey.

He stayed up late telling her stories about their baby: "She's going to be the most badass middle-schooler out there. I can see it now, she's going to get in fights, but only because she's super passionate about standing up for people who can't stand up for themselves."

He did endless research on labor positions: "I wouldn't mind sitting behind you during some contractions."

He made a list of baby names that weren't so on-the-dot that it was clear they were family names, but still sentimental enough to be special: "Bill wouldn't be the worst name, right? Baby Billy. Could be cute. Will would like it."

He was already the perfect father.

Hailey had never felt more attracted to him and she knew no present would ever be enough to repay him.

Unless she gave him Christmas.

The only thing she could give him was his favorite holiday. She could either get this baby out of her before December 24th or hold it in until December 26th. It didn't seem impossible.

At her last doctor's appointment, Hailey was given the all-clear and she began her plan - if she went into labor, everything was set to go perfectly fine, so it was time to naturally induce herself.

"Hailey Anne, I love you, I would lay my life down for you-"

"Shut up, don't say that," Hailey interrupted Jay as they walked around the block.

Jay sighed and tightened his coat around himself, "But I am freezing my ass off right now. Why are we walking outside on December 19th?"

"It might move things around," Hailey said.

"What things?" Jay breathed in them coughed, "Is it worth hypothermia?"

"I'm having this baby within four days," Hailey tried quickening her pace, but didn't get very far.

"What?" Jay laughed and easily caught up with her, "Let's just let this happen naturally."

"Exactly," Hailey nodded, "Going for a walk is a natural way to induce labor."

Jay raised an eyebrow, "Hailey, you do not have to induce your labor."

"I'm not having this baby on Christmas," Hailey put her hands on her back, "God, how much longer is this walk?" She looked around then walked up to someone's house and slowly lowered herself to sit on their porch step.

Jay watched with wide eyes then ran up to her, "Hailey, you can't just sit at someone's house."

"I'm a detective in Intelligence," Hailey rolled her neck around, "And it'll just be a couple minutes. My feet hurt."

"And I will rub them back at the house, I promise you," Jay looked around, "And then we can talk about this inducing labor thing."

"Not much to talk about," Hailey stretched her arms out, "I'm having this baby ASAP."

"I really don't think it'll work," Jay crossed his arms, "Come on, you're just going to tire yourself out and get sick if we keep taking these asinine walks."

Hailey held up a finger, "I can also eat spicy food and dates, I'm going to go get acupuncture-"

"No, you're not," Jay shook his head.

Hailey glared at him then continued, "Apparently red raspberry leaf tea helps and we're going to have sex at least three times a day."

Jay's jaw dropped slightly, "You're kidding."

"Nope," Hailey put her hand out, "Help me up and then we can go get started."

Jay stared at her with a soft laugh of disbelief, "We're not having sex."

"Yeah, we are," Hailey stopped waiting for Jay and tried pushing herself off the stoop, "We didn't plan on getting pregnant, so we might as well plan on having the baby."

Jay gave in and helped her up, "That doesn't make sense."

"Just think about it," Hailey panted while rubbing her stomach, "All right, let's go home; we have things to do."

Jay stared after her as she made her way back to the sidewalk. If he wasn't so in shock at what she wanted, he would have been thinking she was cute.

Much to Hailey's dismay, she didn't go into labor before Christmas Eve. She had eaten more buffalo wings and jalapeños than the rest of her life combined, so she was actually glad that once December 24th hit, she could stop that experiment.

The start of Christmas was peaceful and everything it should be. They had an early dinner with the rest of the unit where they played games and watched A Christmas Story like every year before returning home to exchange one gift before bed - Jay gave Hailey a new leather holster for her gun and she gave him an engraved growler for his newest obsession.

As Hailey drifted off to sleep with Jay rubbing slow, gentle circles on her stomach, she was confident she could give him Christmas. If the baby hadn't come yet, it wasn't going to come within the next twenty-four hours.

At least, that's what she thought until a stabbing sensation in her lower stomach just after 2am.

Hailey gasped for breath and her eyes shot open. She'd experienced braxton-hicks contractions a month before and this felt deeper than that.

"Oh," she groaned quietly, "No, please, baby, please don't do this."

She pushed away from her body pillow and reached for her phone. After a quick search on Google, she decided this wasn't an emergency. The baby could still come twenty-four hours later or more. She was in early labor. It wasn't a big deal.

But she couldn't sleep. She tossed around trying to get comfortable while counting the contractions in her head - they only lasted thirty seconds and were between eighteen and twenty minutes apart. It wasn't until a contraction lasted forty-six seconds that Jay woke up to Hailey's soft groaning.

"Hey," he mumbled and rubbed his eyes, "Merry Christmas."

Hailey turned her head to look at him with a weak smile, "Merry Christmas."

Jay pushed himself up with his elbow, "It's early."

"Yeah," Hailey huffed, "Uh it's like 5:30."

"Then why are we awake?" Jay tugged Hailey closer to him, "I want to sleep more, sound good? And then we can give each other the rest of our gifts and eat pancakes. I was thinking of making hot chocolate." He brushed her hair from her neck and pressed a soft kiss under her ear, "Would you like that?"

Hailey tried to laugh, "Mhmm."

"You okay?" Jay say up and raised an eyebrow. He set a hand on her stomach, "How's the baby doing?"

"Oh, just...building a snowman," Hailey joked, "Been pretty active this morning. It's been hard to sleep."

Jay smiled, "Well," he pushed the blankets away and bent down, "Little baby, can you please calm down so your mom can sleep? It's a big holiday and we have some special plans."

Hailey closed her eyes and asked herself why he'd have to say that. It made keeping this baby in her even more important.

"Next year, you'll get to join us," Jay whispered, "Lunch with Uncle Will and then we'll visit Grandma and Grandpa and then we'll eat cookies and drive around to look at Christmas lights. It's a lot of fun, but you just have to hold on a little longer. Next year, we'll have a blast."

"Yes, please hold on," Hailey breathed.

Jay looked up, "Hmm?"

"Nothing," Hailey shook her head, "I'm good." She smiled, "I can't wait till the baby's here. I'm thinking tomorrow will be the day."

"Fingers crossed. I can't wait to meet him or her," Jay kissed next to Hailey's bellybutton before going back to the top of the bed to hold her close. "Think you can sleep a few more hours?" he asked.

Hailey nodded and pressed her face up into his throat, "I'll try."

"Perfect," Jay slipped his hand under her shirt. His fingers lightly traced each bone of her spine up and down soothing her into what she knew would be the last bit of sleep she'd have for the next couple days.

Lunch for three really wasn't a big deal, but Hailey was happy Will offered to host. She mostly just wanted to get out of the house after Jay limited her to only one walk a day once her due date hit. Jay agreed to lunch outside of their house since Will was a doctor if anything were to happen and because his house was a couple blocks closer to the cemetery.

Hailey's contractions were becoming more consistent at sixteen minutes apart. Google told her it was still early labor and she could hold off before going to the doctor, so she remained as calm as possible.

Watching Jay laugh and share stories with his brother on his favorite holiday made her smile and distracted her from any pain she was experiencing. It really only happened once a year, so she was going to soak it in as much as possible.

"So," Will clapped his hands, "Want to head out? Those roses are for her by the door."

Jay nodded, "We have poinsettias in the car." He stood and helped Hailey off the couch, "Are you sure you can make it? I'm okay if we head back and just have a quiet day in bed."

Hailey shook her head, "No, I'm good, really. This is more important."

"I think my parents would understand if we skipped a year because their pregnant daughter-in-law was tired," Jay said with a soft smile.

"And said daughter-in-law has passed her due date," Will pointed out, "Seriously, if you don't want-"

"I'm going, okay?" Hailey snapped. She was about to defend herself again when a hard cramp surged through her. She sucked in a breath and turned away.

"Hailey," Jay placed his hand on her back, "What's going on?"

She closed her eyes and took a long deep breath before lying and saying, "The baby just got me in the ribs. I'm fine."

Jay's nose scrunched slightly, "If you say so, that sounds painful."

Will rolled his eyes.

"What?" Jay whispered, "Why do you have to be like this? I'm just saying-"

"That sounds painful," Will repeated, "Don't say that to a pregnant lady."

"But it does," Jay shrugged, "I don't know how she's doing it."

Hailey laughed quietly and started walking toward the bathroom as the contraction was still happening. She didn't know how she was doing it either.

Hailey didn't think she was going to be able to sit on the ground next to Jay and Will at their parents' graves, so she stood behind them and gently carded her fingers through Jay's hair. She had hoped that listening to their soft words while standing in a bitter Chicago cold would distract her from the pain of her contractions, but she was wrong. If anything, the cold wind made the pain worse. She was having a hard time standing through it and was honestly terrified of when they became closer together and would last longer.

But she needed to give Jay Christmas. She couldn't take it away from him. This day was about his family and remembering all their traditions together. He had said it was the one day where his dad wasn't as rough and they'd all get along. She didn't want to ruin that for him. He hated hospitals; she didn't want him to spend this day in one.

Jay and Will were finally standing up to say goodbye, both of them wiping the remnants of frozen tears from the corners of their eyes, when it happened.

Hailey let out an audible gasp when her water broke. At first, she thought she had just wet herself, but the trickle that lasted two seconds turned into a rush of liquid falling from her. The harsh cold almost instantly froze her pants to her skin and she was left feeling uncomfortable and stiff.

Jay turned at her soft noise, "What happened?"

Hailey just stared at him with wide eyes and her mouth slightly open in shock.

Will scanned her and noticed the wet spot growing on her dark green leggings that were just barely visible between the bottom of her big winter coat and the tops of her boots. "Did your water break?" he asked.

Hailey shakily pulled her phone out to look at the time. She had about two minutes before her next contraction.

"Hailey, did your water break?" Will asked again.

"Hailey, you're scaring me," Jay whispered, "Talk to us, please."

Hailey looked up to meet his wide eyes. She swallowed and nodded. "Yes," she breathed barely audible over the wind, "My water broke."

"All right," Will stepped forward and started gently leading her back to the car, "We'll get you to Med."

"No, no, it's early labor, I can wait," Hailey stopped, "My contractions are sixteen minutes apart. Everything is fine."

"What?" Jay asked, "How...when did this happen?"

Hailey chewed her lip and shifted uncomfortably, "Since this morning."

"Since this morning?" Jay repeated.

"We have to get her to a hospital," Will said quietly and grabbed Jay's arm, "We can talk in the car."

"I'm not going," Hailey shook her head.

"And why not?" Jay asked, "Hailey, what the hell is happening?"

"This baby is not going to be born on Christmas," Hailey stated, "It's not happening. We can have the baby tomorrow."

"Hailey," Jay laughed weakly, "That's ridiculous. I know a Christmas birthday isn't ideal, but it'll be fine. We'll find a way to still make it special for him or her."

"But I want it special for you," Hailey whined quietly. It quickly shifted into a soft groan as she bent over with the start of another contraction.

"Hey, hey, I've got you," Will gripped her hand.

Jay stepped forward and grabbed her other hand, "Keep breathing, you've got this. Everything's going to be fine."

At that, Hailey choked out a sob. It was the first time she'd cried all day. She realized perhaps that her need to give Jay Christmas at some point had combined with her fear of what was to come. She didn't frequent hospitals like her husband, she wasn't used to being poked with needles or prodded by nurses. She didn't know what was going to happen and she really didn't want to find out.

"I know," Jay whispered as Hailey stuttered over her breath. He stroked his hand over her hair, "Maybe you don't believe me, but I'm not going anywhere. I promise you. Christmas might be special, but it's not nearly as special as you or this baby."

Hailey nodded and looked up with tears falling down her face as her contraction came to an end, "Okay."

Jay smiled and wiped her cheeks with his gloved hands, "Let's go have a baby."

Hailey sniffled and let out a quiet laugh, "We're gonna have a baby."

"And I'm gonna be an uncle," Will said, "But I'm also a doctor and I really think we need to head to Med."

Jay chuckled and they continued their walk to the car, "Always know how to ruin the mood."

Hailey laughed, "It's okay. I can use a distraction."

"Perfect," Will smiled, "I'm ready to be the best distraction you could want."

"Oh, no," Jay shook his head, "I've been preparing for this."

"Really?" Hailey squeezed his hand.

"I've seen like every single birth video on YouTube," Jay nodded, "I can probably catch this baby myself."

"That's horrifying," Will smirked. He unlocked the car once they approached it, "All right, here we go."

Hailey took a deep breath and looked at Jay.

He softened and set a hand on the side of her face, "We've got this, Hailey Anne."

She nodded and hugged him the best she could with the baby poking out. It wasn't exactly how she wanted this to happen, but she believed him.

On December 27th, Hailey carefully walked ahead of Jay up to their front door. She opened the front door for him and smiled wide as he entered carrying the baby seat.

"Looks like our friends did a little more than just grab some of our gifts the other day," Jay chuckled referring to the banner hanging from their mantle that said 'Welcome Baby Halstead!'

Hailey laughed softly and lowered herself onto the couch, "It's nice."

Jay shook his head setting the car seat on the coffee table, "They didn't know little miss's name yet, but that's okay."

By some miracle, at least that's what Hailey would eventually call it after she recovered from being in active labor at the hospital for just under twenty hours, Noelle Anne Halstead didn't make her appearance until December 26th.

Hailey and Jay spent Christmas thinking of names related to the holiday when they weren't doing laps around the maternity ward or blowing up hospital gloves for makeshift ornaments. Jay kept Hailey entertained throughout her entire labor. She was insistent on having the baby as naturally as possible which meant no epidural; Jay knew that was in part because of his typical reaction to needles, so he tried making it up to her. He had Vanessa go to their house to pick up a couple of their gifts for each other so they could still celebrate the holiday in a way that didn't involve just binge-watching endless Christmas movies on his phone.

It wasn't as awful as Hailey thought a Christmas birth would be.

Despite all of her tears throughout the process, nothing would compare to the crying she did upon watching Jay hold their baby girl for the first time. She knew then that it was all worth it.

Jay lifted Noelle from the car seat and gently hushed her when she let out a soft cry. "Oh, I know, I know, you were warm, but Mommy and I just want to snuggle you," he whispered.

Hailey smiled and put her hands out, "Come here, baby girl."

Jay set Noelle in Hailey's arms before laying a blanket over them.

Hailey glanced up when he walked away, "Hey, don't you want to sit with us?"

"One second," Jay said. He bent behind the Christmas tree to plug it in then shut off the overhead light.

The sunset had already begun outside, so the only light in the living room was coming from the twinkling white lights.

Jay looked up with a smile, "Merry Christmas."

Hailey laughed, "Come here."

Jay fit himself next to her on the couch and held her back to his chest as they watched the lights. Together, they lightly ran their fingers along Noelle's back and her soft auburn hair.

Hailey closed her eyes and tilted her head back against Jay's shoulder, "Thank you."

"For what?" Jay kissed the top of her hair.

"For giving me a family," Hailey whispered.

Let your heart be light. From now on, all our troubles will be out of sight.