A/N As promised, here's the next chapter. PS, Merry Christmas! :o)
Chapter 11
"How about that one?" Emma pointed to the large spruce that bordered the clearing they had just walked through.
Jane sized up the tall tree towering over them. "We'd need to cut a hole in your grandparent's ceiling to fit that in your living room."
"We have about seven feet to work with so the tree can't be much taller than Jane." Lisbon explained, always thinking practically.
"Trick, we're never going to find one." The girl grumbled.
"Nonsense, of course we will."
"But we've been looking forever."
"The perfect tree is here somewhere, we just have to find it." Jane insisted, picking up the pace down the snow-covered path.
Lisbon bent down to whisper something into Emma's ear.
Apparently, she wasn't quiet enough. "Hey, no girl secrets."
"Girl secrets are appropriate if they're about Christmas surprises." Lisbon insisted.
She had a point. He, himself had picked out a special gift for Emma that he had only recently told Lisbon about. He was trying to figure out what kind of surprise the girls could possibly be chatting on about when the first freezing ball of snow hit him square in the back of the head.
Emma shrieked as Lisbon's snowball hit its mark. She threw her own moments later, managing to clip the blonde in the shoulder.
Jane ran for cover behind the trunk of a large tree as Lisbon and Emma reloaded. Jane, bent down to scoop some snow of his own. It was perfect snowball snow and he quickly had his own ammunition. He came out from behind the tree just long enough to throw the ball in Lisbon's direction. It missed and they laughed. The next snowball met its mark just above Lisbon's knee. After launching that snowball, Jane turned tail and sprinted towards another tree for cover with the girls chasing not far behind. He turned to see if they were gaining on him only to be hit square in the chest with not one snowball but two.
Realizing he was totally outnumbered, Jane made a dramatic scene out of falling to the snow covered ground.
"We got ya Trick!" Emma squealed as she reached the consultant sprawled in the snow. She plopped down right next to him.
"Let's make snow angels!" Emma brushed her arms and legs against the snow in what looked like horizontal jumping jacks until she had herself a petite snow angel. Jane mimicked the girl's actions as did Lisbon once she had stopped laughing at their antics and joined them in the powdery groundcover.
They sat up carefully, as to ruin their snow angels. All three of them were now covered in snow. Clumps of it clung to Jane's now drenched curls.
"Look!" Emma exclaimed.
Jane and Lisbon's gaze followed to where Emma was pointing. In the bustle of the snowball war, none of them had paid any attention to the change in scenery and there, not very far from where the trio was sitting was a smaller, perfect tree sitting all by its lonesome.
"It's perfect." Lisbon said, in a half whisper.
Jane smiled. "I told you we'd find one."
The sun was setting by the time the three of them made it back to Emma's grandparent's house with the tree. Jane untied it from the top of their SUV, glad Lisbon had chose the larger vehicle although he would never admit to such a thing even under torture. He carried the tree to the back porch and then leaned it against the railing. They all needed a shower and a change of clothes before any tree prepping and decorating could be accomplished.
Mr. Brooks managed to dig out the tree stand as well as all the decorations they had from the attic by the time everyone was finally showered and warm in dry clothes. He and Jane managed to get the tree inside and into the stand. Lisbon, ever the practical one, busied herself with untangling the lights and then testing each set before deeming them acceptable for the tree.
A team effort between Jane and Emma got the lights hung on the tree itself with Jane doing most of the work. Everyone hung decorations and it wasn't until they were almost done with the ornaments when Lisbon noticed there was only tinsel on the bottom half of the tree.
She chuckled. "Need a hand with that Emma?"
The girl nodded and Lisbon lifted her up so she could add the streaming silver tinsel to the top-half of the tree.
When it looked like the tree couldn't possibly take another decoration, Jane asked "Should we plug it in?"
"Wait!" Emma went to one of the boxes piled on the floor and pulled out their angel tree topper. This time, Jane gave Emma the necessary boost so she could place the angel on the top branch of the tree.
Mrs. Brooks turned off the lights as Jane plugged in the tree. The glow from the lights filled the room blanketing it in silence as everyone took in the magical sight.
Jane broke the silence after a few minutes. "I'm going to put on some tea. Does anyone else want some?"
Lisbon and Mrs. Brooks said they'd like one.
"Can I have hot cocoa?" Emma asked.
"It's time for bed." Mrs. Brooks said. "You wouldn't want to be awake when Santa comes now would you?"
"Can I just have one cup? Please?"
The older woman sighed, giving in far too easily but then again, it was Christmas Eve after all. "Well, alright. One cup but then we're brushing our teeth and heading straight to bed missy."
Excitedly, Emma sprinted to follow Jane into the kitchen.
Lisbon yawned. "I don't know about her but I'm exhausted."
"Too bad we can't bottle her energy." Mr. Brooks agreed.
"Did you see him? Did you see him?" All Jane's half awake-brain could register was something bouncing at the foot of the couch he was snoozing on.
"Hmm?"
"Santa silly. Did you see him Trick?"
"Hmm…nope, can't say that I did Em."
"But the cookies, the milk…" She insisted. "You're slept here in the living room, right next to the tree. You just had to see him."
Those were some good cookies, thought Jane recalling the midnight snack he enjoyed. "I'm sorry pumpkin but I don't recall hearing anything last night."
"But the presents!" Emma looked at the mountain of wrapped gifts overflowing from underneath the tree. "Tree, can you believe it? Santa came and Trick didn't even wake up."
Lisbon had entered with a steaming cup of coffee. When she got closer, Jane moved his feet so that she could sit at the end of the couch.
"Jane doesn't wake up unless you give the couch a swift kick." Lisbon smirked.
"At least I don't talk in my sleep." Jane chided back.
Emma interrupted the childish banter as her grandparents joined them with their own steaming mugs of coffee.
"Can we open presents now?"
"As long as you bring them over this way so we can watch." Mrs. Brooks instructed.
Emily gleefully skipped over to the pile of presents. The first gift to her was a new snow tube since this was Emma's first winter in Connecticut. That was followed by a matching set of gloves, scarf and hat. All of them were pink with purple poka dots.
"Tree, this one's for you." Emma said, handing Lisbon a wrapped gift. The tag identified that it was from the brooks.
"You didn't have to get me anything." Lisbon insisted as she unwrapped the gift.
"Nonsense honey. I hope they fit but they should be your size. I checked." Mrs. Brooks said.
Inside was a new black leather pair of loafers, the kind Lisbon liked to wear at work but they looked much more comfortable than any of the pairs she currently owned.
"Wow, thank you. These are perfect."
"This one's for you Trick." Jane's gift was a new wallet, also leather with his name engraved on the front.
"Thank you."
"Look inside Trick!"
Jane did what he was told and found that there was already something inside, two somethings actually. The first was a school photo of Emma and the second was of the three of them: He, Emma and Lisbon in front of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. The Brooks must have had the photo printed while they were out looking for their own tree.
"We made more prints for the two of you from the trip." Mrs. Brooks explained.
Jane nodded, only half listening as he stared at the photo.
Emma, meanwhile had found another gift with her name on it. She shrieked when she saw what was inside.
"Butterscotch!"
Butterscotch was an interactive stuffed pony that was on many of the children's Christmas lists that year. The team had pooled their money together and then hunted down the evasive toy with the efficiency they used in catching criminals.
Lisbon knew the reaction would be worth the effort. "That's from the whole team. She was not easy to find."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Emma cheered as she hugged the plush animal who whinnied in response.
While Lisbon's attention was on Emma, Jane produced something hidden out of sight. "This is for you." He said, handing the small wrapped package to Lisbon.
Lisbon's first instinct was to protest but she had bought Jane a gift as well so arguing would be both pointless and unfair. Instead, she opened the package to reveal a simple charm bracelet. It held a single snowflake charm.
"Thank you Jane, It's beautiful." She kind of felt bad as her gift was more of a gag. She had purchased the items hoping to make the man smile which now seemed a bit deficient at the moment.
She asked Emma to bring over the wrapped box containing her gift to Jane and handed it to him. Lisbon blushed with embarrassment when Jane pulled out the brand new pair of ice skates. She had meant the gift to be both a joke and a possibly activity that he and Emma could learn together. She never expected to hear the words that came out of his mouth.
"I guess you're going to have to teach me how to use these properly."
Lisbon stammered for an answer before she lamely said, "There's a rink about twenty minutes away from the bureau." Then she added, "If we tell, the guys I may be able to make a profit selling them admission to watch you learn to skate."
Everyone chuckled, including Jane who broke out into a beaming grin which made the whole embarrassing ordeal worth it in the end.
"Would someone help me with this one?" Emma said from near the tree. She was struggling to pull a large present out from underneath. Jane got up to give her a hand.
"This one's from me." He said as the finally untangled the oddly shaped object from underneath the branches.
Everyone watched as Emma unwrapped a beautiful doll house that was nearly as tall as she was. Jane showed her how the house was hinged in the middle and opened up to reveal the inside, full of rooms, furniture, and even people. Each piece was intricate and looked hand crafted.
"Where did you find that Jane?" Lisbon asked, curiously.
"I saw it at an antique shop a while ago. It was in pretty bad shape but I know someone who fixes old things like this and he restored the whole thing for me."
"It's stunning." Mrs. Brooks agreed. "They don't make doll houses like this anymore."
Once the rest of the presents were opened, Mrs. Brooks started with the preparations for dinner. Lisbon helped with the chopping and any other small task the more experienced woman gave her.
Jane remained with Emma in the living room while she played with her new toys. She was playing with the stuffed pony but used one of the figurine people from the doll house as a rider for Butterscotch.
By the time things were finally cooking in the oven, Emma had moved on from playing horse and rider with the pony to exploring the intricacies of the doll house. The Brooks were washing up and getting dressed while Jane and Lisbon kept an eye on Emma who was chattering away in child-speak to her figurines.
"Trick?" She asked suddenly, in a hesitant voice.
"Do you think if I did better in school and was nicer to gram and gramps, then maybe I would be able to get a mommy and daddy?"
Jane swallowed, unsure of how to respond.
"Is it because I'm not good enough? I didn't get coal so at least I'm not on Santa's naughty list but I didn't get the one thing I really wanted."
"Oh no, honey it's nothing like that." Lisbon took over, placing a reassuring hand on Jane's shoulder as if telling him she understood and that it was okay that he was struggling with a response.
"Santa's a pretty powerful guy but even he has trouble with gifts sometimes."
"Like when they don't have something at the store?" Emma asked.
"Yeah, like that. Sweetheart, finding you parents isn't as easy as finding a toy in a store. They have to be special, just right."
Emma almost looked confused when Lisbon said this. "It's not that hard." She said looking down at the mommy and daddy figurines in her hands.
When Emma looked up, there were tears in the child's eyes. "He should have asked me. I could have told him where to look."
"Where would you have told him to look?"
"Right here."
Lisbon looked over at Jane who's eyes were wide with fear. The direction of this conversation was definitely headed into uncharted waters.
"Emma, you think Jane and I should be your parents?" Lisbon asked to clarify.
Emma nodded. "A bad man took my mommy and daddy away just like they took Trick's baby girl. You and Trick found me when I was all alone. Don't you see?"
Lisbon kneeled in front of the young girl. "Emma, honey, I wish it were that simple."
"It is!" She insisted, a steady flow of tears were now freely flowing down her face.
"Jane and I live all the way on the other side of the country. We work all day looking for dangerous people so that more little girls don't have to lose their parents like you have. We love you so very much but it's better for you to be here with your grandparents. "
"It's not better! I don't want this fake family," she said to the figurines in disgust. "I want a real family. I hate them!" Emma threw the wooden objects forcefully on the floor. "And I hate you!"
In a flash, she ran out of the living room and up the stairs to her bedroom. Lisbon looked over at Jane in time to see him startle as the door slammed loudly upstairs. He looked like he was in shock.
"I'll go talk to her." Lisbon said as Jane nodded slowly.
It wasn't until Lisbon too disappeared up the stairs that Jane looked down at his hands to find them trembling.
TBC