This idea has been knocking around in my head for a few weeks. Didn't know what to do with it and then we went to church yesterday and the worship band played my favorite Christmas song, O Holy Night, and it clicked. It also has the added bonus of being sung by Raul in 2015 I think at a Christmas Eve mass. I found the video on YouTube this morning.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new glorious morn
Fall on your knees
O hear the angels' voices
O night divine

-O Holy Night

She quietly closed the door to her apartment, the only light emanating from the small tree in the corner. It was late. Later than she planned, but then when had anything over the two months gone as planned. Not Cassidy and the investigation, not Sheila appearing out of thin air, not Noah being taken and returned a day later, having no idea why or who had taken him. She knew she would have to tell him one day, but now was not the time.

She looked at her small tree, the gifts underneath. She touched them lightly, wondering for a moment who had done this for her. They had been sitting in her closet for a month. No time to wrap, not when the world kept throwing curve balls at her. Christmas was in a week and she had planned to just shove all of Noah's stuff in gift bags. The lazy way out. She would have to thank Lucy later. But then she remembered…

"You need to stay here till this is done, Liv. Let me go." She looked over at him, sitting on her couch. Lucy had the flu. A pretty awful version of it that kept her from getting out of bed. Olivia had just hung up the phone, trying to figure out what to do, how to get Noah from school when she had to stay here in the office.

"Barba, I can't…"

He held up his hand. "You aren't asking. I'm offering. You have to stay here and I'm spinning my wheels till Fin gets that guy to break. Let me go get him. Unless you don't trust…" She shook her head. Vehemently. Since Noah had come back, she had been hard to trust anyone to be alone with him. No one blamed her. It was just the nature of the situation. It took a week before Lucy basically pushed her out the door one morning so she could take Noah to school instead. There was this nagging fear in the back of her mind. It would probably be there forever. If she didn't have her eyes on him, he would disappear again. It was silly and she tried to beat it back, but it was there.

She pushed her glasses up into her hair. "Of course, I trust you." He smiled at her, nodding, standing up and putting on his suit jacket and overcoat. "Good, because I'm bored. Call the school and let them know I'm coming." She just nodded picking up her phone. It occurred to her after he left that she had never told him what school. But he knew. There was a picture about an hour later of the two of them in his favorite coffee shop, whipped cream on Noah's nose from a hot chocolate.

Lucy hadn't been here today and those weren't wrapped when they left this morning. She stood in the middle of her living room, just being. Normally there was noise from Noah or the television or her neighbors, but tonight, at this hour, there was quiet.

She slowly made her way through her home, looking into Noah's room and not seeing anyone there. She saw a dim light from her room and pushed it open, and the sight about took her knees out from underneath her.

There, under her covers, was Noah. But on top of the covers, in just his dress pants and shirt, was Rafael Barba. Both, asleep. Only the light from the lamp on her dresser lighting the room. She stared at them, at him with her son, and the images she started seeing in her mind were fast and furious and more intense than she had ever experienced. Seeing him, there, asleep under the covers, with no shirt on, her pressed up against him. His clothes hanging next to hers in the closet. The three of them making breakfast together. The two of them wrapping future Christmas gifts together in the quiet of the apartment, letting one thing lead to another until they were wrapped up together on the couch, gifts forgotten in their wake.

She watched his eyes slowly open as she continued to stare at him. He smiled and she wanted to cry at the slow and easy way he made his way off her bed, as not to wake up Noah. She was frozen in her doorway, unsure what to do with the thoughts and the feelings and the images that were engulfing her mind. He tiptoed his way across her small bedroom, pausing in front of her, leaning his head to one side and giving her a slight smile. She stepped back, pulling her door shut.

"Sorry about that, Liv. Noah convinced me that…" He trailed off as she ran her hand down his arm, lacing their fingers together. She pulled slightly and he followed her out to the living room. She stopped, turning toward the tree.

"You wrapped the gifts?" she asked quietly.

She felt him squeeze her hand. "Yeah, I saw the bag and the wrapping paper and I just knew you had been so overwhelmed that I wanted to…" What he wanted to tell her after that didn't matter as she swung back around, lacing her free hand into his hair and yanking his lips to hers. He ripped his hand out of hers, wrapping his arms around her waist as she held on to him like he was the only thing holding her to the ground. Tongues dueling, fingers grasping at shirt material, soft moans coming from both of them. When the need for air finally became a necessity, she pulled back, resting her forehead against his.

"Thank you" she sighed out, closing her eyes as he pulled her tighter against his body.

"I like the way you say thank you" he replied, eliciting a small laugh from her.

"And I like the sight of you in my bed. Maybe next time we could try it with me instead of Noah and less clothing." She pulled back to look at him, biting her lip as she watched his eyes darken with desire.

They stood there, together, in the silence, for a moment. He pressed a light kiss to her cheek. "I should go." She nodded, knowing she didn't want to let him leave but that he probably should. She watched him slip on his jacket and shoes.

"Wait" she said, moving toward him. He immediately opened his arms to her as she pressed his lips to his again. He slowly ended the kiss, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"I want to take you and Noah to dinner on Christmas Eve."

She nodded. "We would love that, Rafa." With one last bruising kiss, he bid her goodnight and she shut the door as she left, resting her forehead against it, being grateful for this holy night she had been blessed with after all the crap she and Noah had been through.