CHAPTER 3

Christmas

They had waited a few minutes after Zamora had left, until Hardison gave them the all-clear, before Eliot retrieved their coats and they made their way out of the building.

Twining his fingers with Gemma's they strolled down the block. The wind blew snow past them, and Eliot tilted his head back enjoying the cold air in his hair and across the nape of his neck. Gemma's hand tightened in his as the wind picked up again. He let go of her hand and shrugged out of his coat, draping it over her shoulders.

"Aren't you cold?" Gemma looked at him as she snuggled deeper into his coat.

"Nah." He took her hand again but held his arms out a little as the wind blew past. "Even if I wasn't hotter 'n the hubs of hell from the party, I'm a werewolf and the cold doesn't bother us much."

"I do think you're pretty hot." Gemma smiled and bumped him with her shoulder.

Eliot snorted but could feel a flush of color creeping up from his neck into his cheeks.

"Uhh-huum." Hardison cleared his throat loudly. "Lucille is parked at the end of the block and we're waiting on you."

Gemma's eyes went wide, and she covered her smile with her hand. She'd forgotten about the earbud.

Eliot curled his fingers under her chin and rubbed her cheek with a thumb. He kissed her temple. "So pretty."

The side door of the van slid open, and Eliot held a hand out to help Gemma into the van.

~~o0o~~

"Goodnight." Eliot closed his bedroom door with a smile. He turned leaning against the door with a pleased sigh.

Gemma turned making her dress swish around her as she worked on taking off earrings. She smiled, and swished, and laughed, until she was leaning into his chest. "That was so much fun!"

Eliot wrapped his arms around Gemma kissing her hair. "You were amazing tonight."

"So were you, Eli." She pushed up on her toes and kissed him.

Eliot smiled. "Hardison wanted to make sure it was a name similar to mine."

"Where did he get the last name from? Blessmann?" She asked while she unbuttoned the top two buttons on his shirt.

Eliot grasped her fingers and kissed them. "That was my idea." He slid his hands around the back of her neck to unfasten the necklace. "It was a play on your last name."

"My last name is Segen." She gathered her hair up out of the way. "I don't get it."

"Segen is German for blessing, and I've been feeling like a pretty blessed man." He smiled as his fingers slid along the fur stole. "Does this just…?"

"Lifts off." She smiled.

"This looked wonderful on you tonight, but I was surprised that you didn't take it off with your coat when we got to the party." He lifted the stole, careful not to catch her hair.

"This dress had a boxy neckline that Sophie thought was too severe in the front, and I knew it was too low in the back." She grimaced as she reached behind her, trying to grasp the zipper pull.

"Here, let me." Eliot placed a warm hand on her shoulder.

She looked into his face for a moment before she nodded and turned around.

When she turned around, he could see what she meant about the neckline of the dress being too low. Raised white scars showed above the neckline of the dress. Some were thin white lines, straight and neat as a knife blade. Some were twisted and puckered.

Eliot slid the zipper down and pulled the dress open a little. Most of the scars slashed from the upper left side of her back to the lower right side of her ribs. There were a few that crossed in the other direction and a scattering of scars that crisscrossed over kidneys and disappeared further down.

With deft fingers, Eliot unhooked her bra. He wrapped his arms around her on the outside of her dress and pulled her back to his front. He curled around her a little so that his chin rested on her shoulder.

"You know what one of my favorite parts of this evening was?" He let a purr start to rumble in his chest.

"What?" Gemma knew that Eliot had said he'd be okay with her scars but seeing them might change things and she couldn't help the tension in her shoulders.

"When you cut Sophie off and you told her 'I got this.'" He smiled and nipped at her ear. "And you did. Sophie couldn't have done any better."

"It was fun." She smiled and felt some of the tension leave her. "It was just a dance."

Eliot squeezed her a little more firmly. "I'm sorry," He could feel the tension reassert itself in her shoulders. "for earlier today. When I talked with you I…"

Gemma turned in his arms so that she could face him. "You talked with me like I was a child." She frowned. "Like I wouldn't understand that you and Sophie were acting. Did you really think I would get jealous or believe that you have something going with Sophie?"

"Like I said, I'm sorry." He leaned a little away from her so that his hands rested on her hips, and he could clearly see her face. "I underestimated you and…"

She placed a hand on his cheek. "Quinn talked with me this afternoon too and I think I understand you a little better now."

"He talked with you about me?" Eliot raised an eyebrow.

"He explained that as the Alpha of your pack you feel this need to protect and care for the people that you consider yours. He said that sometimes it means you get overprotective and feel like you are responsible for everything." She smiled at him. "He said that usually you do a better job about letting everyone do what they do but I seem to trigger those Alpha instincts."

Eliot sighed and gave her a crooked grin. "Smart man."

"So I'll do my best not to hold it against you when you try to wrap me in cotton wool."

"I really don't mean to. You'll probably have to tell me when I'm crossing that line. Quinn is right that I don't always see it."

She pushed up on her toes wrapping her arms around his neck as she kissed him.

As he slid his arms around her to hold her close, one hand slipped inside the open back of her dress. His calloused hand slid across skin that was soft in patches and slick with scar tissue in others. He let his thumb rub lightly back and forth over the thin ridge of a scar. She tensed a little but didn't pull away and he let a purr rumble in his chest.

Her hands slid from around his neck and down to the buttons of his shirt. She'd managed two more buttons before Eliot broke the kiss.

"Gemma." Eliot gripped her fingers.

"I want to try." She bit her lip. "I think I can. I want you and…"

He kissed her and started walking them, in a tangle of legs, toward the bed. When their legs bumped into the side of the bed, he stopped and tangled his fingers into her hair. She'd finished unbuttoning his shirt and slid her hands in only to discover that he still had one more layer.

He smiled when he caught the change in her scent, and he stepped away from her just a little. He shrugged out of his dress shirt and pulled his undershirt off in one smooth motion leaving him bare to the waist. He watched as her gaze moved slowly up and he saw the quick shift in her expression when her eyes met his. He realized that his eyes had gone to the yellow of his wolf and he started to close them when she stepped forward sliding one hand around his waist and another up onto his cheek.

"Leave them yellow if you want to." She smiled. "Either way it's you, and it's perfect."

Something between a growl and a purr rumbled in his chest as he pulled her close kissing her again. He felt her fingers playing with the edge of his waistband and he tilted his hips away from her to give himself enough room to unbuckle his belt and pull it free.

At the hush of sound that the belt made as it slid loose, Gemma tensed just a little. Eliot wondered how many of her scars had been made with a belt. He dropped the belt to the side, and she flinched at the sound the buckle made when it hit the floor.

He pulled back from the kiss. "Gemma…"

"It's okay." She rubbed her hands soothingly up and down his sides. "I'm okay."

"Yah? I'm really enjoying this but..." He placed a quick kiss to the tip of her nose. "Let's not go too fast though." He was glad that his wolf senses were letting him in on more than what his human senses alone could have picked up. He could tell from her scent that while she was enjoying it there was a tension bordering on fear that was also building. Rather than push things to a breaking point he decided to slow down. The more times she had a positive experience with him the more she would trust him and the less likely she was to have a panic attack or flashback.

He kissed her softly and rested his forehead against hers. He turned her and guided her to sit on the bed. Sinking down onto his knees in front of her and gave her a smile that, while sweet, was in no way innocent.

He slid his hands down over her dress, along her legs. Sliding both hands down the back of her right calf he slipped her shoe off and rubbed his thumbs into the arch of her foot for a moment. When he could smell a shift in her scent that told him how relaxed she was he slid his hands up her leg and smiled as her scent changed again when his hands disappeared under her skirt.

He let his hands roam slowly until he found the edge of her stocking. He let his fingers play along the edge of the stocking for a moment. Any other time he'd have let his fingers move that final margin and start something much less innocent, but not tonight. Gemma was already pushing through some of her insecurities, but he didn't want to push her too far. He felt his body respond to the thought though, and the feel of her skin under his fingers, and he took a deep breath to regain control. He worked her stocking slowly down, over a web of scars on the back of her thigh and inch by inch, until the stocking lay carelessly on the floor.

He repeated the same process on her left leg. Removing her shoe and rubbing the arch of her foot before sliding his hands up to the top of the stocking and working it slowly down. His fingers rubbed gently over a ridge of scar above the bend of her knee on the back of her leg. He kissed her knee and slid the stocking off.

He rose to his feet, and she reached for the button on his pants. He grabbed her fingers in his and kissed the back of her hand. "Not yet."

He knew if she started something he'd be hard pressed to stop. He saw the small frown crease her brows. "You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to more, but not just yet. Okay?"

She nodded.

He slid back on the bed and moved the pillows around so that he'd be comfortable as he sat back against the headboard. He held a hand out to Gemma in invitation. He could smell her nerves as she reached for the shoulders of her dress. "Leave the dress. You look amazing in it."

She gave him a crooked smile but held up the front of her dress as she started to crawl onto the bed. Her knee caught on the skirt and started to tug the dress off of her. Eliot reached for her and sliding his hands down and around he scooped her up and settled her onto his lap.

She giggled and rested her forehead against his. "Thank you."

He would have loved to have let her ditch the dress, but his wolf was sure it was better to leave her with somewhere to hide. He settled his hands on her hips. "Are you comfortable?"

"Yes." Her cheeks colored as she felt the shift and bunch of his thighs under her as he settled.

"You are so pretty when you blush." He ran a thumb over her cheek. "I think we just need time to get comfortable with each other." He ran his hands up and down her sides in a soothing motion. "Besides, it's not like this hasn't been good, really good." He leaned forward and kissed her.

She leaned into him bracing herself with her hands splayed across his chest. She felt the rumble of his purr in her palms, and she smiled.

~~o0o~~

Eliot woke hours later with Gemma curled warm against his chest. They'd touched, and kissed, and talked, and at some point, drifted to sleep. With her head in the hollow of his chest she'd slid a little further down and he was able to see her back where the dress had fallen away. The scars told him a lot.

One person was responsible for most of the scars. Deep, bunched, and delivered by someone who was right-handed. But there was a second and probably a third person who had whipped Gemma repeatedly.

All the vampires he'd ever known seemed to have a kink for pain. And he could see that the second person, someone left-handed, hadn't been very skilled with the whip but knew how to maximize the pain they inflicted. The left-handed strokes were twisted and puckered and invariably crossed over the kidneys.

There was a scattering of scars that ran almost straight up and down. Those ones were thin and light, and Eliot imagined that there had been a lot more lash marks but most of them hadn't gone deep enough to scar.

"You're growling." Gemma mumbled into his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Eliot stopped the growl and smiled as he pressed a kiss into her hair. She hadn't flinched away from his growl or been upset, she was concerned about him, and that made something warm bloom in his chest. "Sorry darlin'." He held her for another moment. "Come on. Time for p-jays. We fell asleep and it's late now."

"Mmmmm." She snuggled deeper into his chest.

With a smile he flipped the comforter over to cover her and let a purr soothe them both back to sleep.

. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .

Eliot lounged back in the couch looking over the waves of wrapping paper and tissue paper that littered the living room. They'd all promised to keep Christmas small this year but unsurprisingly they had shown very little restraint.

Eliot watched as Parker demolished another package from Hardison and smiled as she triumphantly lifted several stacks of cash from the box.

He felt a finger tracing a pattern across his chest and looked down to see Gemma's finger running around the words printed on his pajama shirt.

~~o0o~~

Earlier that morning Parker had burst into his room and tossed two sets of pajamas at the bed before she ran from the room with a mad laugh. Eliot had wanted to yell at her but had been stopped when he felt Gemma shaking against him. At first, he thought she was scared but before he had a chance to check her scent or look at her face, he heard the laughter. She laughed until she cried.

"You should see your face!" She gasped as the laughter started to die down.

Eliot rolled his eyes and kissed her forehead. "Come on. Looks like there's a dress code today."

~~o0o~~

Quinn looked up from his new set of throwing knives and watched the by play on the couch. He smiled as he looked around at his pack. Parker and Hardison. Nate and Sophie. Eliot and Gemma. He knew that he could have felt left out since everyone else was a part of a couple, but he just felt so content that he couldn't.

His last pack had left him feeling lonely at best and miserable, to the point of regretting life, at worst. The people that made up his new pack were grifters and thieves and had zero understanding of boundaries, personal space, or normalcy, and he loved it. He loved them.

"What's making you smile over there?" Eliot asked Quinn as he threw a ball of wrapping paper at Quinn's head.

Quinn dodged it and threw one at Hardison bouncing the ball of paper off the hacker's head. He looked back at Eliot. "Just the sight of a hitter with a serious reputation decked out in matching p-jays and a Santa hat." Quinn smirked.

"Says the man that's wearing a matched set of his own." Eliot rolled his eyes before he tossed a ball of paper at Parker. "Was it your idea or Sophie's to have the whole pack wear matching pajamas?"

Parker caught the wrapping paper ball and threw it at Nate. "I saw it in a movie." She frowned. "I thought normal people did that." She looked at Hardison.

"Sure, babe." Hardison smiled. "Matching p-jays are fun."

"You'd be on board if she wanted to dress everyone in clown costumes." Quinn threw another paper ball at Hardison.

"Abso-fricken-lutely." He pulled Parker close kissing her cheek.

Quinn rolled his eyes and threw a paper ball at Eliot. "Looks like there's another package under here for you." Quinn pulled a wide flat package from under the tree.

Gemma smiled and leaned forward to take the present from Quinn. She settled back on the couch and handed the present to Eliot. "This one is from me." She smiled and waited for him to open it.

He looked the package over and with a gleam in his eyes, he sniffed it. "Paper, cardboard, wood, wool…" He started listing what he could smell.

Gemma swatted at his shoulder. "Don't be such a wolfy."

Eliot laughed and pulled the paper off. He looked over the framed art piece. It wasn't an expensive piece by a famous artist, but it held his attention like iron to a magnet.

Gemma leaned into him, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I'm sure you already know this stuff, but I saw it and it made me think of you and me." She traced her finger across the edge of the frame.

Inside was a drawing of two hands reaching toward each other. The line work was simple but effective and made it clear that one hand was a man's and the other was a woman's. A red string had been sewn through the paper in loops and swirls, from the man's thumb to the woman's pinky, and was tied in a bow around the thumb and pinky. Printed in light letters between the hands and around the string were two quotes.

'I have a strange feeling with regard to you. As if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly knotted to a similar string in you.' Jayne Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

'We are tied to our soulmate by a red string of fate. The string may tangle, it may stretch… But it will never break. And that regardless of time, place, or circumstances, we will always be together.' An East Asian Belief

Eliot stared.

Gemma looked at him a little nervously when he didn't say anything, didn't move. "I hope you like it." She looked at his face. "I thought about what you said about your pack bonds and feeling connected to me even though I'm not a part of the pack and I just thought…"

Eliot set the picture carefully to the side and pulled Gemma into a kiss. "It's perfect. I love it." He held her against his chest and purred quietly.

Sophie leaned over and picked up the picture. "Oh Gemma, dear, this is lovely." She showed it to Nate, who handed it to Quinn when he noticed Quinn looking over his shoulder. Quinn handed it to Hardison and Parker.

"Did you steal it, or buy it?" Parker asked.

"Parker." Eliot groaned.

"Is that a thing? Do you guys normally steal your Christmas presents?" Gemma looked from face to face.

"No. It isn't necessary to steal it." Eliot rolled his eyes. "Thank you. It really is perfect."