The days between Thanksgiving and Christmas flash by your eyes and you're barely home with the extreme caseload that had been dumped onto the BAU. You missed the first snowfall of the year. A sad smile creeping onto your face when you finally trudged home to find the partially melted snowman wearing one of your scarfs. When you enter the house tonight it's to find all of the lights dimmed, a movie softly playing in the background, and Luke and Lex curled up under a blanket with Roxy and Sergio. Each of them fast asleep under the lights you had strung up weeks ago. Pausing you take the time to watch your family doze on the couch as the minutes tick down from December 23rd to the 24th. Sighing you walk over and press your lips to Luke's forehead, rousing him from his sleep. Sergio, noticing the movement of the person he was laying on opens one eyes, and yawns. Lazily stretching out his front paws before closing his eyes and resting his head back on Luke's lap.
"What time is it?" Luke reaches up to run his fingers through the thick tuft of hair on the top of his head. Smiling down at him, you reach out to remove Sergio from his lap.
"Midnight," you reply. "Let's get Lex into bed." He yawns, shaking his head and pulling you onto his lap and nuzzling his face into your neck.
"I missed you," Luke whispers, pressing a kiss to your collarbone. Relaxing into his embrace, you smile.
"I missed you, too." Standing, you walk over to Lex's bedroom door and turn on the light. Her bed was left unmade this morning, you notice as you straighten out the sheets in preparation for Luke to place her gently on the mattress. "I'm going to take a shower, I've been in these clothes for two days straight."
When you step under the stream, the water is warm against your skin as it cascades down your body. You let the constant rhythm of the droplets beat the frustrations of the past case from your body. The cases with children had always hit you hard, but now that there was a little girl depending on you, calling you mom like it was her job… This case had been terrible. You don't realize that you're sobbing until Luke is wrapping his arms around your naked frame underneath the stream of water. Trying, and failing miserably, to muffle your sobs as he consoles you. He doesn't ask what's wrong, instead reaching up to your shampoo and begins massaging your strands while whispering soothing words to you.
He uses your favorite towel to dry you off before slipping one of his t-shirts onto your shoulders and running a brush through your tangled mass of hair. He's still silent as you stare off at the wall. Telling yourself over and over again that you should talk about what has you so catatonic in his arms, pulling gently away from the fabric you had woven together over the course of the past two years.
"We couldn't save her," you whisper while wrapping your arms around your stomach. "We caught the guy, but she was already gone." He leans you back against his chest, running his fingers through your hair as you continue to cry softly before letting exhaustion drag you from the nightmares you experience while you're awake.
Small hands petting your hair pull you from slumber hours later, her voice whispering that it's almost Christmas and Santa will be bringing you whatever it was that you needed to stop making you so sad. Opening your eyes you smile up at Lex, wrapping your arms around her waist and pulling her underneath the blankets with you. You look over at Luke, noticing his eyes watching the pair of you softly.
"You and your father are all I need to keep the sadness away, my precious girl," you tell her, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Resting your head back on the pillow and smiling over at Luke. He sits up on the bed, reaching down to ruffle Lex's wild mass of curls.
"Mom, what about Roxy and Sergio?" Lex's small voice asks.
"Obviously them too, how could I ever forget?" Sliding out of the bed, you walk over to the closet and pull a pair of yoga pants from the depths, grateful as you pull them up your body that Luke's shirt was long enough to cover your bare bottom half. "How about we spend the morning singing Christmas carols and making breakfast for grumpy over there?" Lex nods, her tiny legs bouncing on the bed a few times before climbing over her father.
"Don't worry grumpy Daddy, Mama and I will make your favorite!" She races out of the room before you can blink and you find her happy laughter contagious as it filters into the bedroom after her. The sound of her voice calling you mom will never get old you realize, and it fills you with a warmth you hadn't know that you were missing your entire life.
"Are you okay?" Luke's voice pulls your attention away from the relaxing Christmas Eve day you had planned out.
"Never better," you reply. Leaning down you press your lips to him, moving them slowly against his mouth with a soft sigh. "This is all I'll ever need in life." You leave him in bed, telling him to get some more sleep since he's been pulling double duty these past few weeks. He nods, pulling the blankets over his shoulders and letting his eyes close gently.
"Mooooooom," Lex's voice follows you into the kitchen, her little hands yanking on your dress as you empty the bag of popcorn into the large bowl, sprinkling some Parmesan cheese onto it and giving the bowl a large shake. You glance down at her, your eyes expressing a question that she won't answer. "I want to watch the movie with you and Abuela and Daddy."
"Alright, let's go..." you tell her. She grasps your hand, dragging you into the living room. You notice that the lights have been turned off, the tree is the only source. Maria is standing in your line of sight, her hands gently taking the bowl of popcorn from you and going to sit with Lex on the couch.
"I forgot to give this to you before," Luke begins, handing you a bag. "You were supposed to open it with your other present." You glance at him in confusion, your other present being a new journal set picked out for you by Lex.
"Is it the new jelly pens?" You ask, looking over at Lex who quickly shakes her head, urging you to open the present faster with her hands. Laughing you pull the tissue from the bag, your eyes immediately falling onto a blue box. With trembling fingers you pull the box into your hands, letting the bag tumble to the floor. You gasp when you lift the lid, taking in the ring that is nestled between a slit in a blue cushion. The white gold band is made entirely of small diamonds, coming to a stop with two large stones. There are six smaller glittering stones that curve around a large oval diamond in the center of the ring. Lifting the fingers of your right hand to your mouth you let out a soft gasp, a sob escaping your lips as you stare at the ring. You can hear his voice filtering to your ears but the words he is speaking don't quite reach you. You blink rapidly as he bends, landing on one knee in front of you.
"Will you marry me?" Luke stares up at you, his eyes never leaving your face as you continue looking at the ring. A thousand thoughts run through your mind, each of them different from the previous as he presents the single most gorgeous ring you've ever seen. He clears his throat, and you realize that you've been silent for too long, you sigh and reach up to wipe the tears from your face.
"Mom..." Lex prods, coming to stand by you. You tear your eyes from the ring and look at her face with a large smile and nod.
"Yes, mhm, yes." Luke slides the ring onto your shaking hand before pulling you into his arms and pressing a slow kiss to your lips. You can hear the excited clapping of your daughter, and your future mother-in-law, and Roxy's barking. They all die down when the doorbell rings, but you ignore it, continuing to kiss the man who had captured your heart years ago.