"So..." Emily said slowly over breakfast, almost as if she needed to sneak up on the question, "I assume you'll be heading back to Kansas City to spend the holidays with your family?" It was phrased like a question, but she had already assumed the answer. She was trying not to let the preparation for disappointment wash across her face prematurely, not wanting to taint the answer.

Alex looked up from her oatmeal looking almost surprised by the question. She opened her mouth as if to reply, but Emily rushed to fill the silence before she could say anything.

"I mean, I just assumed," she said. She shrugged, awkward and shy, a hint of vulnerability in her eyes. "It's fine, I'll just be watching Netflix and sleeping. Never been much for the holidays anyway..."

Alex reached across the table, rested a hand on Emily's to stem the verbal tide. "Emily," she said gently. "Do you want me to stay?"

She shook her head. "I can't ask you to..." she started.

"Do you want me to stay?" she asked again. Her expression was soft, but begged for the truth.

She didn't answer right away, remaining silent briefly, then admitting, "I don't want to be alone at Christmas."

Alex leaned across the table to kiss her softly. "I'm not to going to Kansas City," she said.

"What? Really?" She was trying not to act too hopeful, lest she be disappointed as was a predominant trend in her life (at least, until she'd met Alex).

She nodded. "I have no interest in a week of dodging uncomfortable questions and pointed criticisms of my life choices. I'd much rather spend it here, preferably with you."

A brilliant smile lit up Emily's face.

"Actually," she continued, "I have a little early gift for you..." She passed Emily a nondescript envelope, her name written on it in her elegant handwriting.

Pulling the contents from the envelope, it took a few moments for realization to dawn on her. "Is this...?"

Alex nodded. "I thought we could get away together. Go somewhere we don't have to hide, where we can just be together without fear." She smiled hopefully. "Besides, I've heard Quebec is beautiful this time of year."

Emily flung herself into Alex's arms, nuzzling into her neck and kissing her repeatedly.


"This place is incredible!" Emily said, turning in a slow circle to survey the accommodations. "I can't believe you did this..."

Alex shrugged. "I'm just happy I have you all to myself for an entire week." The words caused a wicked grin spread across Emily's face, making Alex laugh and shake her head. "We won't be spending the entire week in bed, you know?"

She pouted, crossed the room to play with the buttons on Alex's blouse. "But..." she husked, looking up at her through her lashes.

Alex halted her movements with a hand on her wrist, brought the back of her hand up to kiss her knuckles. "Emily, you know you don't have to make me like you, right?"

She shrugged slightly. "I have to keep you interested somehow," she mumbled, embarrassed.

"Oh, Emily, no," Alex breathed, cupping Emily's cheeks, forcing her to meet her gaze. "You have so much more to offer than just...that."

Emily raised a brow, clearly unsure if she believed her.

Alex brushed a thumb along her cheekbone, pulled her in for a soft kiss, then another. "Emily Elizabeth Prentiss, you are so incredibly valuable. For more than just your body. I hope you know that."

She smiled softly, nodded.

"I'm serious, Emily," Alex insisted. "I know I've told you I love you, but it's more than just that. It's... God, Em, you're so incredibly important to me. You're...you're everything to me."

"Alex..." she breathed, eyes filling with tears even as a soft smile crossed her lips. She leaned in for another kiss, saying everything with her lips that she couldn't say with words. "I, umm, I really wasn't sure if... If this was, well, just a fling for you," she admitted.

Tenderly stroking the hair away from Emily's face, Alex responded, "A fling?"

"It's okay if it is," she insisted, "I just want to know...so I can prepare myself for...for the end." She wouldn't have blamed her if it was fling, if the idea of breaking the rules, even just once, was the excitement, the draw. She couldn't have blamed her for anything really, even if it meant she ended up heartbroken in the end.

"Emily..."

She shrugged, meek, almost shy.

Alex squeezed her hand, tugged her to sit next to her on the couch, then wrapped her into her chest and dropped a kiss to the top of her head. "Do you want this to end?" she asked.

A beat.

"Tell me honestly," she begged.

"How could it not end?" she mumbled. "You have...a life and I just don't see how I fit into it. I mean, I'm still your student..."

Alex nuzzled into her hair. "Only until exams are over," she said.

Emily raised a brow. "And then?"

She sighed. "Well, I suppose we can do whatever makes you happy."

"And what if that means becoming official?" she asked.

"Is that what you really want?"

She shrugged. "If it's what you want." Another beat. "And only if it won't cost you your job."

Still running a hand up and down her back, Alex said softly, "We don't have to decide anything right now...but I have something for you. A gift."

"You didn't have to get me anything else – you've already done so much..."

Alex just shook her head, pulling from her pocket a small jeweller's box.

Emily took it with reverent fingers, opening it to find a ring – a small opal with two amethysts beside it. "Alex...this is too much," she said, shaking her head.

"I want you to have it," she insisted. "Even if we can't be together, it's something you can remember me by."

With a raised brow, Emily said, "That sounds an awful lot like you're breaking up with me..."

She shook her head. "Emily, I don't want to live without you, okay? And that's all you need to know right now."