I'm out the door for a long overdue girl's day out, but I thought I'd put this up first since I've made you all wait!

Holiday Spirit

Chapter 26

It was late. They'd stayed longer at the Christmas Festival than they probably should have, but they'd all been having so much fun. Ben had woken up after a rowdy game of chase had broken out amongst the children, and they'd kept him awake for the remainder of the party, hoping he'd grow tired again before bed.

They'd stayed nearly to the very end – one of the last families – and Regina didn't even mind. She was just grateful to be enjoying the time with her children before they were gone from her.

Of course, Ben hadn't been tired out by the time they'd arrived home. The twins and Isabella had all begged to stay longer, claiming not to be tired either, then had all promptly fallen asleep in the car. Even Henry was dragging his feet as he carried the very awake Ben into the house.

Regina stayed in the car with the twins while David carried Isabella in. There was still so much to do before they themselves could go to bed, but she couldn't regret the evening they'd all spent together.

She made a mental checklist of everything as she sat in the chilling car. There were the presents to put out, along with the treats that had to appear partially eaten, and she wanted a shower, but she could put that off until the next afternoon. She didn't really need it, but her shoulders were tense from the recent stress and a good soak under a stream of hot water sounded positively heavenly.

David was out again in less than two minutes, opening the side door as Regina unbuckled her seat belt.

"Henry's off to bed," he told her as they worked to lift the twins from their seats. "Izzy's in her room, but we'll have to change her into her pajamas. Ben's in his playpen in the living room." Adjusting Ellie on his hip, he waved the baby monitor he'd had tucked into his pocket. "I figured we could leave him for a few minutes while we get everyone tucked in."

She smiled and shut the door as softly as she could manage. Oliver shifted a bit in her arms, but didn't wake, instead nuzzling his face deeper into her shoulder.

They made their way up the path side by side, shoulders brushing occasionally, sleeping children not stirring again until they were being set on their beds. They made quick work of changing them and tucking them under their blankets, kissing their foreheads and turning on the nightlight in the corner before stepping out into the hallway.

"I'll take care of Isabella if you wouldn't mind checking on Henry?" Regina asked, and he nodded.

"I'll meet you back downstairs."

She carefully pulled Isabella's treasured Christmas nightgown from the drawer, laying it on the end of the bed while she worked on getting her daughter out of her many layers of winter clothes. She pulled her shoes off carefully, setting them off to the side before unzipping the heavy down vest Izzy had been wearing.

"Mommy?" Izzy stirred as Regina moved her arms to pull the vest off.

"Yes, sweetheart, it's me."

Izzy moved lazily as her mother continued to pull layers from her.

"Is Santa here yet?" she asked sleepily.

"No, not yet, but I'm sure it won't be long now. We should get you to sleep before he comes."

"But I want to see him."

"You know Santa only comes when you're sleeping, darling," Regina said smiling. "Otherwise the reindeer are too afraid to stay on the roof. They're scaredy-cats, so they always wait until everyone's asleep."

"But what if you stay up all night?" she asked worriedly.

"Well that would be silly, wouldn't it? But if people are still awake, he has to hide the presents somewhere else in the house. Somewhere he can hide without being seen but so that children will still find them in the morning. But that makes extra work for him, because then he has to come down from the neighbor's roof. We don't want to do that to him, do we?"

Isabella shook her head. "No."

Regina tugged the nightgown down over her head and said, "There. All ready for bed. Think you can go back to sleep?"

She nodded, tucking her teddy bear under her arm. She climbed under the covers and snuggled into her pillow as Regina pulled the comforter up over her, smoothing out the wrinkles.

"Today was fun, mommy."

"I had a lot of fun, too," Regina told her, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Did daddy have fun, too?"

"He definitely did," Regina told her with a smile.

"Good," Izzy nodded, now fighting to keep her eyes open. She yawned widely. "Love you, mommy."

"I love you, too, my darling." She leaned in to kiss her daughter's forehead. "And so does daddy, very much. We'll see you in the morning. Sleep tight."

Izzy smiled as she nodded almost imperceptibly, and then she was asleep.

Regina stayed to watch her for a moment, smiling down at how peaceful she looked. One smooth stroke of her thumb across Izzy's cheek, and she finally stood.

She made her way quickly down the stairs, eager to go to bed as well. David came out of the kitchen just as she was reaching the bottom of the stairs.

"The food's all ready to go. Is she asleep?" he asked, and she nodded, relieved he already had a head start.

They checked in on Ben again before moving upstairs to grab all of the presents. Regina stood braced up against the doorway, a grimace on her face as she surveyed the heap of presents David had pulled out. "This is another disadvantage to spoiling your children. This is going to take a while."

"Why don't you start getting ready for bed? I can take care of this," he told her sincerely, taking in her exhausted expression.

"No," she told him, placing a hand on his arm as she finally moved forward and passed him. "I'm not going to leave you with all of this. Thank you for the offer, but we're both tired and need sleep, and it will be finished more quickly if we both work on it."

They managed to move all of it in just two trips using bags to carry them all in, and soon, they were just left with Ben, who'd started to grow fussy.

"At least we know he's getting tired," David said, picking the baby up to rock him in his arms.

Regina hummed tiredly and came up behind him, leaning partially against him in her exhaustion as she looked at Ben. "Come on, sweetheart," she said softly, reaching out to brush her hand against his head. "Mommy and daddy want to go to bed very badly."

Ben turned his head on David's shoulder to look at her. Her voice and the circles David was rubbing on his back were finally having an effect and the baby's blinks slowed, growing longer as he finally started to fall asleep.

"That's it," Regina coaxed. She allowed her eyes to close as well as David swayed. "We're all sleepy."

Another few minutes and Ben was finally asleep. They carried him up to his crib and by the time they finally made it to the master bedroom, it was pushing two in the morning.

David brushed his teeth while Regina changed into her pajamas and then they switched. Regina took a little extra time to wash her makeup off and rinse her face with warm water. It was going to have to do in place of a shower for now, and she tried to let the feel of the water relax her. She patted her face dry and rolled her shoulders as she exited the bathroom tiredly.

"Does it hurt?"

She looked up to find David studying her as she rolled her head on her neck a bit, one hand up to rub at the tense muscles there.

"A little," she admitted.

"Come here." He beckoned her over to the bed where he had her sit on the edge before he climbed up behind her.

She tensed even more, not sure what he was going to do before he placed his hands gently on her shoulders. He gave them a light squeeze before asking, "Is this okay?"

Swallowing heavily, she nodded.

"You have to relax if this is going to do any good," he told her, and she made a concentrated effort to drop the rigid posture as he started working slow circles into her shoulder blades with his thumbs.

"This is more than a little, Regina. I can feel the knots," he admonished, moving to brace her with one hand while he used his palm to work out one of the smaller ones in her upper back.

She made a noise and his hand stilled, but she shook her head. "Keep going."

As he resumed the motion, she tilted her head slightly. "Where did you learn to do this?"

"I've had practice."

"Right." Snow probably had a few tense shoulders during their time together in the Enchanted Forest. Not really something she wanted to think about. "You don't have to do this," she said instead. "It's late."

"Yes, but you'll sleep better if I do."

She couldn't argue that, so she sat silently as he worked out all the knots.

"There," he said finally. "How's that?"

His hands remained lightly on her shoulders as she rolled them to test for pain. "Much better, thank you," she said quietly.

Regina stood and crossed the room to flip out the light, leaving only the small lamp by the bed. A she walked back toward the bed, David settled under the covers.

"I really did have fun today," she told him. "Thank you."

He smiled and watched as she stood unsurely by the edge of the bed. When she bit her lip, but didn't say anything, he guessed at what she was debating so hard in her head and flipped the covers back on her side of the bed before opening an arm to her and waving her in next to him.

He'd guessed correctly and after another few seconds of hesitation, Regina climbed in next to him, settling into his waiting arms and curling herself up against him.

"Merry Christmas," he whispered, and she smiled, tucking her head against his shoulder.

"Merry Christmas."