Emily was awoken late at night by a timid little knock on her bedroom door. She expected – and hoped – that it was Alex...but was rather surprised to find Ethan instead. "Ethan? Is everything okay?" she asked upon opening the door to find her pint-sized awakening.

He nodded, then shook his head. He flung himself at her leg then, sending her stumbling backwards a few steps as she struggled to maintain her balance. "I don't want you to leave!" he wailed.

"Oh, Ethan..." she started to soothe him, but then thought better of it. "Who told you I was leaving?"

"I heard you talking to Derek," he said, breath hitching in a way that threatened tears. "You said after Christmas you gotta go home..."

She sighed, internally cursing little ears and their apparent hawk-like hearing. "Well," she started, struggling with what to tell him, but knowing she didn't want to lie, "I have to go back to London because that's where my job is."

"But why?" he challenged. "Why can't you work here like Mom and Derek?"

Once again, she struggled to come up with a response that would satisfy him without being an outright lie.

Then, he asked the penultimate question, "Are you really gonna sell the ranch?" Because, of course, he knew more than he really should...

For a few moments, she babbled nonsense, unable to make any kind of logical sentence materialize in her brain. Then, an idea struck her... She moved to the dresser and pulled a sheet of paper from her notebook and grabbed a pen, scrawling out a quick note on it. "Here," she said, turning and passing the paper to a curious Ethan.

Brows furrowed, he read the paper aloud, "I, Emily Prentiss, do hereby declare Ethan Miller to be the legal rightful owner of the Prentiss Christmas Tree Farm from this day forth." He glanced up at Emily with confusion. "What does that mean?"

"It means that you own the ranch," she said. "So, I can't sell it to anyone without your approval." (It was hardly a legally-binding document, considering that she hadn't signed it and it wasn't notarized, but she figured it would be enough to placate the seven year old.)

"Oh." A beat. Then, he puffed out his little chest in pride. "I like it."

She laughed softly. "I thought you might. But it's our little secret, okay? I don't want everyone to know because they might try to convince you to sell the ranch to them and that wouldn't be fair, right?"

He nodded seriously. "Right." Then, he mimed zipping his lips.

"Now, you should go back to bed before I get in trouble with your mom," Emily pointed out.

"But I'm not tired," he insisted, pouting.

Rolling her eyes, Emily suggested, "How about we have some tea?"

"How 'bout cocoa?" he bargained.

"Nice try, kid, but I'm not giving you sugar in the middle of the night. I wasn't born yesterday..."

Alex came downstairs early that morning, made herself some coffee, then went into the living room to turn on the TV to watch the news...only, when she emerged into the living room, she found Emily and Ethan curled up together on the couch, both fast asleep.

Ethan had his head leaning against Emily's shoulder and was drooling on her sleeve. Emily's head lolled back at what had to be an uncomfortable angle and a copy of The Hobbit lay open on her lap.

Smiling softly to herself at the scene, Alex set down her coffee and grabbed a blanket off the back of the couch and draped it over the two. The blanket, though, was enough to wake Emily from her slumber.

Cracking one eye open, Emily looked up to see Alex and offered her a sleepy smile.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," Alex whispered.

"Morning," she echoed, voice gravelly from sleep. Slowly and carefully, she disentangled herself from Ethan's limbs, somehow managing not to wake him. After she tucked him back in, she stood, stole a kiss from Alex, then stole her coffee.

Alex simply rolled her eyes, following Emily into the kitchen to make herself another cup. "Did Ethan wake you?" she asked as she stirred sugar into her coffee.

She nodded. "He overheard me talking to Derek about going back to London and it upset him," she admitted quietly, suddenly feeling a great deal of shame.

Alex looked like she would have liked to make a pointed remark, but instead, she simply said, "I'm sorry, I'll tell him not to wake you in the future."

"It's okay," Emily insisted, "I don't mind." Much as she hated to admit it to herself, she cared far more about Ethan than was altogether wise.

Alex raised a brow, but didn't comment on that. Instead, she said, "So, I suppose you'll be flying out on Boxing Day?"

She shrugged, but said nothing.

"You haven't made an escape plan?" Alex remarked with surprise. "I thought you were itching to get out of here ASAP..."

"I am," she said. "I was... I don't know."

"Huh..."

"What?" Emily said, raising a brow then.

She shook her head, said nothing.

"Are you judging me?" she asked, part teasing, part genuinely curious.

She shook her head again. "I'm merely surprised is all..."

There was a moment of silence as Emily struggled to find an appropriate response to that, coming up empty-handed.

She was saved the trouble, though, by Ethan shuffling into the kitchen, yawning and stretching. "Mom, Emily and I had tea," he informed her as if it were a very serious matter.

"Really?" Alex said. "And do you like tea?"

He shook his head rapidly. "It tastes like wet leaves."

Alex laughed. "Well, that's what tea is, more or less. The question, though, is how do you know what wet leaves taste like?" she teased.

He shrugged. "A salad is leaves," he pointed out.

Alex laughed even harder. "You've got a point there."

"Smart kid," Emily said in agreement.

"Can I have cocoa for breakfast?" Ethan interrupted their laughter to ask.