A/N - ok, maybe I wasn't too fair when I finished last chapter like that, but it felt so right! c'mon! well, here's Liz's reaction. BTW, here Ressler's dad is alive because I had mentioned before that his parents lived in Florida, so now with the new info from the last episode it's kinda AU, but this whole thing is AU anyway so.. xD

Ah, also, there's a bit of smut in this chapter so be warned, although I think it's very subtle.

Let me know what you think!

Liz stood there with no reaction for longer than he expected. His knee was hurting and he was almost losing balance. He was also fighting the thoughts that she was taking this time to think of a polite and cute way to say no.

That's when she kneeled in front of him, a big smile on her face, and took the ring from his hand.

"Of course I will, Donald Ressler" and she cupped his face on her hands, pulling him in for a big kiss. They stood up together as they kissed, and he felt a tear drop on his face.

"Liz, baby, what's wrong?" He touched her cheeks as she let more tears flow.

"Nothing, I'm just... So happy. I didn't think I was entitled to this anymore. After all that happened..." she smiled again, it seemed as if nothing in the world could make her stop smiling. He smiled back, giving her a hug. She places small kisses on his neck and they just stood like this for a few more precious minutes.

"Honey, of course you are. All that happened is in the past. Just let it go. Don't think that your life should be ruled by what they accused you of. You are not that person, and you proved it. you're clean; and you deserve to be happy."

"You make me happy" he wiped the tears on her face and kissed her lips softly and slowly.

Finally, she looked at the ring. It was formed of two bands; one golden, one silver, intertwined with heart-shapped diamond placed where the bands connected.

"It's beautiful!" She said, and he took the ring from the box and put it on her finger, then took it and gave it a kiss.

"Now it's even more beautiful"

She captured his lips and they both fell onto the couch. She started taking off his shirt and kissing his chest when he stopped her.

"Liz, I'm still wet from the rain! Let me take a shower first"

"I don't care" she said, and kissed him passionately again.

"Wow! They say that women go crazy for a ring, i didn't think it would be this wild!" He laughed as she pinched his arm.

"Idiot!" She laughed too, kissing his belly and opening the buttons on his pants.

"Well, you're gonna be Mrs. Idiot, then"

She went back up and kissed him in the mouth again.

"Shut up and make love to me, Mr idiot"

"Right away, Mrs idiot!"

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He woke up with the sun on his face. The window remained open last night, and now the bright light from the outside blinded him. He stood up and closed the curtains, and the room went from bright lit to a comfortable dimmed light, and the only thing glistening was the diamond on her finger. She was sleeping on her belly, her hand above her head.

He went back to bed and kissed her bare back, slowly waking her up.

She grunted and turned her head to him, and smiled as he tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Hey" she said, sleepy.

"Hi. Time to wake up"

"Oh, no! Already?"

He laughed "yep. It's 6:20"

"Can't we go in later? We've just become engaged."

"That's not a reason to have a free morning, Liz"

"Let's elope then. That will be a reason, right?"

He could hardly bare how cute she was sleepy. "Good to know you would elope with me just to sleep in" she giggled.

He leaned down to kiss her face, placing small kisses on her forehead, eyes, nose and cheek before getting to the lips. When he got there she pulled him closer, and they entwined their bodies in a way he knew she would win.

"Hey" she said again, laughing at her victory.

"You're wicked" he said, caressing her back and kissing her neck.

"And you'll marry me" He loved the thought of her as his wife. They already lived together, and they were good at it, with a good synchronicity, accepting each other's flaws and habits and pet peeves. She took a long time in the bathroom, He left dishes around in the living room, she was a bit messy in her closet, he forgot the lights on sometimes. Now, he would have her as his wife. Not much would change in their dynamics. Just the legal part, he presumed, and the weight. My wife, this is Liz, my wife. He liked the sound of that.

"How do you want to do it?" He rested his head on his folded arm, looking at her. She bit her lip and looked up, thinking.

"I don't know. To be honest, it wasn't in my plans to marry twice." She thought of her wedding with Tom. It was a simple ceremony, with Sam giving her away. She sighed at the memory, wishing he could be here to give her away again, this time for good. She wondered if she would have to walk herself in.

"I was thinking maybe in the country. My family owns a very big country house and a cousin of mine married there, it was very beautiful."

She smiled at him, finding it extremely cute that he had wedding dreams.

'So you have plans for our wedding already?" she grinned, and he blushed a little. "Tell me!"

"Well, I was thinking of doing it in the fall, because the trees look beautiful yellow and orange and it would also give us nearly a year to prepare, which is good. no reason to rush, right?"

"Right"

"and we could have like a vintage country decoration, and a big party after that. It would be very intimate, few people, not too fancy, but beautiful. And you would be wearing a big white dress, and your hair would be decorated with flowers."

"I like that" she smiled. "I like your plan"

"Really?" he smiled back, surprised and happy that she liked his idea. "I'll call uncle Jerry, then, see if they agree to let me show you the house. and then we can decide if it's the right place or not." She nodded, happily. He was so excited with the idea. She had already been married. she had her wedding, big white dress and all, so she wasn't really expecting to have another. In a way, she was scared at all that. But now, looking at him so excited, she loved the idea. she wanted the big white dress and the flowers and the leaves falling and the light breeze of autumn just as he described. And she wanted him, oh, she wanted him.

"I don't know much about your family. " she said, and it was true. They never spoke much about it. She knew that he had 2 brothers and his parents lived in Florida, but not much else. "Tell me about them"

"Well, this house, it belongs to my uncle Jerry. He has 2 kids, Marjorie and Bill, both married now. He is my mom's brother, and he's kinda rich."

"What about on your father's side?"

"He was an only child, and I never met my grandparents. He was kind of adopted by my mom's side when they got married. He became a cop and lived his whole life doing the right thing. Now he is retired and they moved to Cocoa Beach." He puffed, remembering how much he hated that place.

"We must go there someday. I need to meet them."

"Yeah, you do. They will love you. They were convinced I was going to die alone and my mom was so devastated when Audrey died because she truly believed it was my only chance of tying the knot"

"You haven't told them about me?"

"Of course I have! She's dying to meet you. I'm the one who's not dying to go to Florida right now."

"Still, we need to go before the wedding"

"Yeah, ok" he opens a smile when hearing her say 'wedding'. It was so surreal. After all they went through, hin hunting her as she was accused of being a terrorist, he would never think then that now they would be sharing a bed, a house, a life. He suffered so much with her absence, it was so hard to see her on the opposite side, he never wanted to feel that way again. All of a sudden he pulls her in and giver her a passionate kiss, rolling them over so he's on top of her.

"Wow! What was that for?" She asks, while ruffling through his hair. Looking deeply into his eyes, she finds sadness, and takes his face between her hands, caressing his cheek.

"What is it, Donald?"

"I love you so much, you know?"

She smiles "I love you too, babe"

"No, you don't get it. I've love you for a long time. When I let you go that first time, I loved you then. I loved you throughout the entire hunt, it nearly killed me, Liz. I don't want to sound like a creeper here, but I don't ever want to lose you again"

"And what makes you think you will? You're stuck with me, Donald Ressler, you put me in shackles, remember?" He widened his eyes, thinking that she was talking about when he arrested her, but then she showed her finger with the ring to him.

"I don't think you get it, Ress. I missed you so much too, and when you took me in, I knew you would keep me safe. I wanted to hate you, wanted to want you to be wrong and fall at your feet, but I couldn't. I loved you, then. I trusted you when I knew I shouldn't, I put my life in your hands. I love you like I never loved anyone."

He smiled and caressed her face, taking the hair off her face and kissing her with all the love he got.

"I'm going to call in and tell Cooper we'll be home today. I want to stay with you." He said, as he intertwined his fingers in hers and raised her arm above her head. Her other hand was still ruffling his hair, while she closed her eyes and breathed in, gasping for air as he moved.

They found their rhythm, and moved together until they both reached the edge. He came off of her, rolling to his side of the bed and opening his arm to take her in, her head resting on his chest.

"I'd like that" she replied, panting, as he reached his phone on the side of the bed.

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He hung up knowing that it was the worst excuse he could've ever created, and that Cooper knew that also, but the director was nice enough to give them that, and said they would be called in case any emergency happened.

He turned to face Liz, who was grinning from ear to ear.

"What?" He smiled.

"You know what we could do? We could go get some Christmas decorations!"

"Christmas? Really? It's november!"

"It's already time for christmas. It should always be time for Christmas."

"I didn't know you were that excited about Christmas!"

"Well, I am, so we're gonna go get a tree and ornaments and a wreath and lights, lots of lights!"

He laughed and then pulled her in for a kiss.

"You're too cute, Mrs claus. ok then, that's the plan."

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She entered the house excited, carrying lots of bags while he came behind trying to drag inside a very big pine tree.

"Why did we have to have it this big, Liz? Why not a fake one? We could save it for next year!"

"Are you insane? no! c'mon, just bring it in."

"I think my fingers are numb" he complained, and she dropped the bags with the decoration on the floor, then went to help him. They dragged the tree inside and then put it up on a corner next to the window in the living room. Hudson just observe, quietly.

"Don't even think about it" she pointed a finger at the dog "this tree is supposed to be up and untouched throughout the holiday season, do you hear?" the dog whimpered and then went to sit on the armchair.

"So what should I do now?" he asked as she untied the branches of the tree and arranged them so they would go back to their original place. She then stepped aside and looked at it, analysing where to start setting the decorations. "Take the bags for me, hon. I think we should start with the red ones, use them mostly on the bottom."

He opened the box with the red ornaments, and gave her one by one carefully as she tied them to the branches. Next it was a set of golden balls, then little presents, snow flakes and stars. She finished with a long string of white lights, and a big star on the top. She turned the lights on, and it looked beautiful.

"Yes, that's the thing" she said to herself, and he couldn't help laughing.

"You really love it, don't you?"

"c'mon, don't mock me! I'm sure there's a holiday you're over excited about." he stopped to think about it, and then remembered how much he loved halloween. It had been very hard to hold his excitment this past one, because he didn't know how she would react if he revealed that he liked to decorate the whole house and create a little play to entertain the trick or treaters. Next one, though, he would compensate for all the christmas mania.

"Ok, now what?"

"Pass me that long garland, I'll put it here on the mantelpiece." she hang the green garland over the entire fireplace, and then remembered something and ran upstairs without explaining to Don. He stood there puzzled as she returned with a box in her hands.

"Me and Sam used to have this tradition. Instead of stockings, we would put up little boxes with our names" she opened the box and revealed two small boxes decorated with the colors of christmas, and they had a tag written in a child's handwriting "Lizzie" and "Dad"."It's a very silly thing, I think that year he didn't have money to buy these fancy stocking that you can engrave your names on. But it became our thing. Do you mind?" she asked, and he took the boxes from her and put them up on the mantel, hers next to her dad's.

"I made one for you" she said, and then went to the cupboard next to the tv and took a brand new box written Don on it. "thank you. I never told anyone about this. Not even Tom. we used to decorate the fireplace only with garlands and wreath. Thanks for allowing me to bring this back."

He felt honored as she put his box next to hers. "It's an honor, Liz, really."

They finished it with more lights, and then went outside to hang a big and beautiful wreath on the door.

Then, they turned off the lights of the living room and sat down on the couch, observing the christmas light turn on and off in a beautiful dance, as they snuggled in and had hot cocoa.

"I might be starting to love Christmas too" he said, giving her a kiss on the head.