He stretched over across the bed expecting to find his wife's warm body, but instead all he felt was cold sheets. He pushed himself up and blearily looked around for her in the dark, but she was not there. Reluctantly he pushed himself up and out of bed knowing the one place she could be. He walked out of their room and into the nursery. Sure enough she was sitting there in the rocking chair, their daughter in her arms.

"Did she wake up?" He whispered.

She shook her head no. "It was me."

"You?" He asked walking closer to his family.

"I woke up disoriented thinking all of this was a dream and I had to make sure she was real."

"So you decided to take the sleeping baby out of her crib, very risky."

"I'm CIA trained, I've had to handle things that could blow up if I moved the wrong way."

"Good point."

He sat down on the floor next to his wife and daughter. He took her hand and brought it to his lips.

"How do you feel now?" He asked.

"Better, I just needed to hold her in my arms."

"How long have you been here?"

She shrugged, "once I sat down I didn't want to let her go. What time is it?"

He looked over at the wall where the white and black clock hung. "12:01. Do you know what that means?"

"What?"

"It's officially Miss Eloise's first birthday."

Her eyes grew wide and looked down at the baby in her arms. "I can't believe she's one."

"Me neither. It's so weird to think exactly one year ago we were in labor and delivery."

"Well technically I didn't deliver her until that night."

"True, but you might have been having contractions at this time."

She nodded her head agreement, "I was in a lot of pain all morning and very uncomfortable."

"Yet you wouldn't allow me to work from home."

"In my defense we had a big case."

"Which Morgan handled quiet well on his own and it wasn't that big."

"It felt big at that time."

He shrugged, "it might have been, but you and Elle are the two most important things in my life, everything else is small in comparison."

She grabbed tightly onto his hands at his words. It was still hard to believe that he could still bring a hardened CIA agent to tears with such simple sentences. She hopes to never get used to this, the way he made her feel so special.

"So what are we going to do to celebrate the big one?"

"Well we are having our big party later tonight, I don't think there is much else we can do at this point since she doesn't fully understand what's happening."

"I know, but I feel we need to do something right now! Our first child is one, that's a huge milestone."

"Hey if you want to wake her up for a mini party now be my guest, just remember you'll be stuck with a cranky baby all day long. And we don't want to make those kinds of memories do we."

He sighed in defeat, "I guess not."

"Once we are all properly awake we'll make it special." She promised.

"I know."

They sat in silence for a moment, the only sound was the gentle rocking on the chair and their baby's breaths.

"It's crazy how much things change in a year." He suddenly said.

"Yeah." She agreed.

A year ago on this day she was a woman who was still struggling to get her memories back. A year ago on this day they had just fully built back the relationship they'd almost lost. And a year ago today she was sitting at home alone terrified about the biggest change that would ever happen in her life. Now she couldn't imagine what her life would be like without her daughter. Yes motherhood was still terrifying at times, but every moment with the baby brought her so much joy she could easily forget the what ifs and fears.

This past year had been one of the best in her life. Along side her husband they got to watch their daughter grow. They saw her go from a tiny infant who relied completely on them to a mobile baby with little to no fears of her surrounding world. They too had changed, their bond had grown even closer as they figured out parenthood together.

"We should go back to bed." He whispered.

"I know." She said, but made no move to get up.

This year too was going to go by quickly and her daughter would once again change. She wasn't ready to let go of the newly turned one year old. She wanted to engrave this moment into her memory, her husband sitting beside the chair as their daughter rested on her chest sleeping soundly.

Taking a cue from her he didn't get up either. So the three of them sat in the darkness of the nursery with only a faint glow of the nightlight, savoring the moment. Things might have changed in big ways over the year and would continue to, but what they had right here in this nursery never would.