Two and a half weeks later, on a crisp, clear December morning, Alex picked Addison up at her house bright and early. She passed him a mug of cocoa before climbing in. "Ready?" she asked, her excitement palpable.

"Yeah, I guess so. Let's go find that perfect tree." At first he'd assumed they'd pick one up from some super store parking lot, but she informed him that that was cheating. "No, no, no! You have to drive out to some Christmas tree farm in the middle of nowhere, walk up and down rows and rows of trees in the bitter cold until you find the perfect one, and cut it down," she had said, and so that was was they did.

Alex was starting to get annoyed - it didn't help that he'd forgotten his gloves at home - but then her face lit up and suddenly all the trouble was worth it. "That one! Oh, it's perfect! Isn't it just perfect?"

He chuckled. "If you say so." Growing up, he was lucky if his mom dragged their dusty old artificial tree up from the basement, so his standards weren't exactly high. "You're sure this is the one?" She nodded enthusiastically, and he cut it down. They dragged it back to the car, and were back home before noon.

He lugged the tree inside and had to laugh - she'd turned the house into a winter wonderland since his last visit. "You really do love Christmas, don't you?"

"I do. Don't you?"

He stared at the floor. "It's not so great when your father can't bother to come home and there are no presents under the tree."

She reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. There was no shortage of gifts under the Montgomery tree, and even the Captain managed to be home for that - there were no guarantees for any other holidays or events, but he never missed Christmas with his children. "I'm sorry."

"Hey, I'm over it." He straightened up and pulled away, no longer the disappointed little boy she'd allowed her to see for a split second. "This thing isn't gonna set itself up. Where's it going?"

She led him to the living room, where there was a tree stand by the front window. "Right here." While he set the tree up she went to the kitchen, returning shortly with more cocoa and a plate of cookies.

He smirked. "These are store-bought. You can't fool me," he teased before biting the head off a gingerbread man. "What happened to baking?"

"I've been busy! Come over tomorrow after work and we'll have a go at it," she said with a giggle, still not entirely convinced it was a good idea. "But now it's time to decorate." She dragged a large bin over to the tree and opened it up. He reached for an ornament, but she stopped him. "Not yet. The lights go on first," she instructed him as she opened another bin and pulled out some white lights. She showed him how to wind them between the branches.

"Ornaments now?"

"No, next is the garland." She dug around until she found the long strands of gold beads she was looking for, then showed him how to wrap them around the tree, carefully spacing them and draping them between branches.

"Okay, now ornaments?"

"No, now the bows. See all the branches the garland is draped over? That's where the bows go." She pulled out a pile of red plaid bows and got to work. He joined her, and pretended not to notice when she straightened out the ones he put on.

"Okay, now?"

She grinned at his impatience. "Now!"

He started digging through the ornaments, amused by her selection. There were a few keepsakes from her childhood, baby's first Christmas and such, and a lot of red and gold balls, but the rest were a mismatched assortment of Christmas classics - Santas, snowmen, nutcrackers - and souvenirs from places she'd been. "You know, I had you pegged as one of those people with all the fancy, matchy-matchy ornaments on a tree that belongs in some interior decorating magazine," he admitted as he carefully hung a roly-poly blown glass Santa Claus.

She wrinkled her nose. "Nah. That's what we had when I was a kid. I never even got to decorate it - Bizzy would hire someone to do it, and I'd come home from school one day and it would be all done. It was always beautiful, but...it wasn't much fun. And it didn't mean anything. This...I could look at every ornament and tell you where I got it, or who gave it to me. It kind of...tells a story. Of who I am, and where I've been." Suddenly she blushed and turned away. "That sounds kind of silly, doesn't it?"

"Nah. It's nice. Definitely better than a matchy-matchy magazine tree."

They finished hanging the ornaments, pausing every now and then when he'd ask her about a particular one just to see the sparkle in her eyes as she told its story, and she pulled out a gold tree topper. "Last but not least, the star. Here, you do it."

He climbed up on a step ladder and set it in place. "Like that?"

"Turn it a little...no, the other way. Okay. Tip it forward a little. A little more. Nope, too much. Back a little. Perfect!" She ran to the light switch and turned it off, leaving them bathed in the soft glow of the tree. "It's perfect," she declared with a content sigh as she leaned against him.

He draped an arm around her shoulders and smiled. "Yeah, it is."

OoOoOoO

The next night Alex arrived after work and found her in the kitchen surrounded by canisters of sugar and flour, spices, rolling pins, and cookie cutters. "Okay, I found recipes for sugar cookies, and gingerbread cookies. I already made the dough for the sugar cookies, but it needs to chill so we can make the dough for the gingerbread now, and that can chill while we make the sugar cookies. And if we mess those up, we can try good ol' chocolate chip. Sound good?"

"Sounds great," he chuckled as he wiped a smudge of flour off her cheek. "But we won't mess up. We're surgeons. We can follow directions, I'm sure."

Despite his confidence they managed to burn the first tray of cookies because they rolled the dough too thin, and the second tray turned into one giant cookie because they put them too close together, but the third time was the charm and before long they had a kitchen full of cookies cooling on racks. "See, I told you we could do it," he said proudly as he surveyed their work.

Addison laughed. "Yes, but now all those cookies need to be decorated. But Ella's hungry, so I guess we better eat first. I just picked up cold cuts and rolls for dinner, if that's okay with you."

"Fine by me," he confirmed. They gathered up cold cuts, rolls, condiments, chips, pickles, and drinks and headed to the dining room, since every surface in the kitchen was covered with cookies.

Once they had eaten Addison whipped up a big batch of icing. "I should make different colors, but I forgot to buy food coloring so we'll just have to do them all white," she admitted. "But I did remember the sprinkles!"

"Whatever. They all taste the same anyways, right?"

"Right."

Alex grabbed a knife and started frosting cookies, but didn't get too far before he popped one in his mouth. Addison pretended not to notice, but glared at him when she caught him eating his fourth. "Hey, cut it out or there won't be any left!" she scolded, trying to sound mad but stifling a giggle.

"What? They're good! Leave me alone," he grumbled, also trying unsuccessfully to sound angry. He waited until she'd turned her attention back to decorating and reached over to smear a blob of frosting across her cheek.

"Alex! You're such a child!" She reached over and smacked him before grabbing a napkin.

"Hold on, I got it." With no warning he pulled her to him and licked it off.

"Alex!"

"Oh, hush." He leaned in like he was going to lick her again, but kissed her instead. He kissed her over and over, moving closer to her mouth each time until finally their lips collided. She drew back and stared at him in shock, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, but just when he started to think he'd made a mistake she flashed a blinding smile, knotted her fingers in his hair, and thrust his face back towards hers. This time she let him go only once she was out of breath.

She cleared her throat and sat down. "Okay then. Back to work." He took his seat and tried to concentrate, but every few minutes one of them would glance up, catch the other staring, and they'd both turn away, red-cheeked and grinning. Somehow they managed to finish the task, though it was approaching eleven o'clock when they did.

"Okay, well, I...uh...I guess I better get going," Alex said once the mess in the kitchen was cleaned up. "I, uh, I had a lot of fun."

"Yeah, so did I," Addison agreed as she watched him put his coat on. "I'll, um, see you tomorrow."

"Yeah. Tomorrow." He turned to leave, but spun around, swooped in and kissed her again before dashing out to his car, leaving her standing in the doorway shaking her head.

Okay, more holiday fluff AND kissing! Are you about fluffed out, or should I cram in a few more chapters of Addex cuteness before I get into the important things? Not gonna lie, I have had some big (dark, twisty...hey, it is filed under drama/angst for a reason) things planned right from the start and this fluff just appeared out of nowhere but I kinda like it.