For notes and disclaimer, please see part one.

Because I have things to do this evening, candlelit services and whatnot, figured I'd go ahead and give this first present. Merry Christmas, everybody! I hope that your holidays are bright and wonderful. ~K

Here's a couple things you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: Casey goes on a mission but not before Ellie nearly worries herself to death over a series of what if questions.

There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays...

It was way past time for a long winter's nap, but he just couldn't sleep. Sarah and Chuck had long since drifted off to dreamland. No doubt with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads.

He rubbed at his tired eyes. He was exhausted but it didn't matter how often he closed his eyes or how badly he wanted sleep to come, it was evading him.

It probably didn't help that his brain wouldn't shut down.

Even with his eyes closed, his mind kept racing. He did the math, calculating and recalculating the flight speed versus the wind drag, trying to figure out when they would make it back to Burbank. He kept annoying the crap out of the pilot, too, getting updates on their GPS coordinates, on the weather patterns. He was a man on a mission! While he appreciated that Uncle Sam was flying them home on a private plane, it just wasn't fast enough.

He wanted to get home for Christmas. He hadn't promised Ellie, because, as a spy, he knew he would break more promises than he'd ever be able to keep, but he wanted to get there, to to surprise her for the holiday. More than anything, he wanted to make her spirits bright.

She'd managed to make him look forward to Christmas, even from a half a world away.

He looked at the small wrapped package that rested on his knee. Reverently, he lifted it, feeling the weight of it. He turned it over, noting well the meticulous care she had clearly taken in wrapping it, so that the art deco Santa Claus was completely visible and centered on the front. It had been the very last thing he'd expected to see on the mission.

Chuck and Sarah had been sitting on the couch in his suite, going over mission specs as he searched his suitcase, looking for the extra ammo he remembered packing. He'd froze when he saw the green and red paper, with the smiling North Pole elf looking up at him.

Only Sarah had seen the look of shock on his face followed by the quick movement, putting something into his back pocket.

He'd tried to play it off, like nothing had happened, like nothing was different, but he should've known better than to try to put something past his partner. The only good thing had been that Sarah waited until Chuck had gone back to their room before she confronted him about it.

He'd shown it to her, too shocked to even put words to the fact that he had a Christmas present. The first one. The first one from Ellie to him.

While he was dying to know what it was, he couldn't bring himself to open it, not without her. He wanted to see her bite her lower lip as he slowly removed the paper. He wanted to see the nervousness tug at her smiling eyes as she wondered if he'd like it.

He wanted to see her as he opened it even more than he wanted to know what it was.

He wished he had been smart enough to have a contingency plan in place, in case they didn't make it home on time. He should've left detailed instructions for Morgan on how to access the safe in his apartment. There were several layers of security the bearded one would've had to cut through, but Casey was mostly confident that Morgan would've been able to figure it out.

If not, Morgan would've been in lock-down within the apartment, but the security measures themselves weren't fatal, generally speaking.

Of course, really, he should've just left the wrapped present with Alex. She would've taken good care of it.

He sighed, setting the present in his lap again and trying to rest. He didn't want to be exhausted by the time he got home.

Home.

His whole adult life, he'd been shuttled about, from one base to another, one assignment to the next. Home was always the more generic (but grand) United States of America. But, now, home was different. Home was California. Home was Burbank. Home was Ellie and Alex and Downy. Home was, God help him, extended family, too,that included Chuck, Sarah and even Morgan.

He was antsy to get back, to the point where the pilot asked if Casey would kindly let him do his job. To the point where Casey, a ball of nervous energy, finished all his reports and even the ones for Sarah and Chuck as well.

Even keeping himself busy, he wasn't busy enough. He kept coming back to the package.

Whatever was inside didn't really matter, not at that particular moment. The package was proof that Ellie cared. That was why he couldn't leave it alone. It was a tangible reminder of what they were to each other now, of how he was important to more than just his country.

Taking a slow breath, he looked out the window. For a moment, just a moment, he could've sworn he saw a red light, kind of like...

No.

Goofy folk-story critters didn't exist. Absolutely not. Rankin and Bass may have become famous thanks to the blinking nose of the antlered creature, singing songs, meeting abominable snowmen, but no. That wasn't at all real.

It was probably just another plane, off in the distance, or a helicopter... or even a tower.

Except, he looked again, just in case.

...If Only in My Dreams...

She stopped piping smiling faces onto gingerbread men and women when the song on the radio became more than just background noise.

Christmas Eve will find me... where the love lights gleam...

Except, Christmas Eve found her alone in her kitchen, surrounded by more cookies, cakes and pies than she would ever be able to eat in a lifetime. With John gone, with Chuck and Sarah out of town, too, it was quiet. Too quiet.

Morgan was still around, sure, and they usually saw each other passing in the courtyard, on their way to work or home from it, but it wasn't the same.

And Downy... Even Downy had taken to sitting in the window, watching the courtyard longingly.

Not that Ellie blamed the little darling at all. She missed him, too.

She sighed, brushing her hair away from her face with the back of her hand, leaving a smudge of flour across her forehead. She'd done her best to keep busy, as evidenced by the fact that she'd turned her apartment into a Sugar Plum Fairy factory. But, after she prepared a small Christmas Eve dinner that evening-just enough for her, Morgan and Alex-she had a whole evening planned, filled with delivering all of her baked goods across town.

Her first stop would be the hospital, followed by the local police and fire stations. She knew exactly what it was like, to have to work a holiday. She'd been at the ER more than once on Christmas or Christmas Eve. She'd even been there at Thanksgiving, ready, wishing, and hoping to go home. If a red velvet cupcake with luscious cream cheese frosting or a lacy, light snowflake sugar cookie brought a smile to someone working hard on one of the most difficult nights to be away from family, then it would be worth it.

As she finished piping the buttons on a gingerbread man's vest, she paused, wondering if anyone had ever done anything like that for John. She looked at the veritable edible village she had made, a collection of ten different gingerbread houses, thinking.

With that tray of cookies finally decorated, she set the piping bag aside and moved the tray to the dining room table, so that the icing could set, before beginning on dinner. Since there were only three of them, she had opted for a simple, toned down version of what she might've made had everyone been home.

By the time Morgan and Alex arrived, the living room had four large storage boxes filled to the brim with the prepared goodies, each individually wrapped and ready to go. The dining room table was set with a rich red table cloth, sparkling china and crystal water goblets, and lit with the soft glow of white, unscented candles.

Dinner smelled absolutely divine. The roasted chicken was a golden brown at the center of the table, surrounded by homemade rolls, Morgan's favorite sweet potatoes, broccoli and a tossed salad.

While Ellie kept saying it wasn't much, Alex and Morgan were both impressed with the spread along with the treats that were everywhere along the kitchen counters. The gingerbread village had been wrapped in cellophane bags, tied with a green or red ribbon. Each pie was covered in plastic wrap, as were the fruitcakes.

Alex realized that Ellie's collection rivaled the daily selection at the Pie Shack.

Morgan tried to keep Ellie occupied and smiling, talking about crazy things that had happened in the final shopping rush at theBuy More. Alex talked about being finally finished with the semester, about enjoying the weeks off before starting it all again after the new year.

They could both tell, however, that it hadn't quite worked, not as well as they had hoped.

Alex had to head to her mother's for their Christmas traditions, and Morgan had to go back to the Buy More to make sure that everything was progressing smoothly during the last few shopping hours before finally getting to close the store for a whole whopping day.

Ellie watched as they left before looking at Downy, who was still sitting in the window, her amber eyes looking out. "You'll let me know, won't you, if your Daddy comes home before I get back, right?"

She meowed sadly.

"That's what I thought," Ellie said, reaching over and petting her head affectionately before pulling on her coat.

Those cookies weren't going to deliver themselves, after all.

As great as it felt, seeing the thankful, smiling faces of the officers and firemen, the nurses, doctors and even patients, nothing had felt quite as good as delivering the last two gingerbread houses to the Buy More with another half hour to go before they closed.

The store had been packed, but Jeff and Lester had taken one to the Nerd Herd desk and Ellie had been sure to give the other to Greta with a meaningful look, reminding the blonde-haired Amazonian beauty that she was Chuck's sister, and that she wanted both sides of the Buy More to have something... in honor of their hard work and dedication.

Greta had been the most taken aback of the whole night by the gesture.

But, once her car was empty, once every last dessert had been delivered, all that was left to do was go home.

There was no familiar black Ford Crown Victoria in the parking spot just down from hers. There were no lights on in Casey's apartment or Chuck and Morgan's. There was just Downy, still sitting in the window.

Ellie let herself into her apartment, dropping her keys by the door and kicking out of her shoes. She mindlessly walked into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of milk and selected three cookies from the tray she had left for family... whenever they would make it home.

Carrying her snack back into the living room, she set them on the coffee table before pulling the blanket down from the back of the couch, wrapping herself up in it.

For a little while, she watched television. She'd hoped Ralphie and his deep desire for a Red Ryder BB gun would keep her amused, but it didn't. She hadn't even touched the cookies.

Before sleep threatened to take over, however, she snagged the notepad off the side table. She looked at the lined pages and couldn't quite believe she was seriously considering it, but when she grabbed the pen, the words seemed to write themselves.

Dear Santa,

Please bring John, Chuck and Sarah home safe tonight.

Ellie

...On Christmas Day in the Morning.

The sun was just lightening the sky when the plane finally landed. Casey disembarked first, barely having time to shake the pilot's hand and wish him a Merry Christmas before throwing his gear into the trunk of the Vic, parked just inside the private hangar.

Chuck and Sarah were moving decidedly too slow.

"A little speed, Bartowski?"

"Somebody woke up on the grinchy side of the tree, huh?" Chuck asked, yawning and stretching.

Casey merely grunted.

"C'mon, Chuck, it's been a long mission," Sarah said softly, loading her things in the back before Chuck added his bag in on top.

Casey only gave Chuck and Sarah time to close the back doors before he sped out, bound and determined to get home before Ellie woke. Blissfully, traffic in L.A. on Christmas morning wasn't like any other day. The drive to Echo Park was direct and pretty swift, all things considered.

He had never been so happy in all his life to see the apartment complex, or his parking spot when he finally pulled in. Just as Chuck opened the back door, Casey hit the lock on the car, grabbing his gear out of the open trunk and leaving it so that Chuck and Sarah could retrieve their suitcases.

When Casey was almost to the entrance to the courtyard, Chuck called out to him.

"Hey, Casey?"

The Marine inhaled slowly, glancing back.

Wordlessly, Chuck tossed the spare key he had to Ellie's apartment.

Casey caught it easily, looking at the younger man curiously.

"In case she's not up yet," Chuck said simply with a shrug.

Casey nodded slowly. "Thanks."

Sarah smiled to herself as Chuck just nodded.

While he wanted to go directly to Ellie's, Casey stopped at his apartment first, leaving his suitcase by the front door and retrieving her present from his safe. It was small, wrapped in silver paper with snowflakes on it thanks to the kind woman at the store.

Of all the jobs he'd had at the Buy More, manning the wrapping table at Christmas had been one of the worst experiences of his adult life and if he ever wrapped another present, it would be entirely too soon.

Armed with her gift and his as well as the keys, he locked up his apartment before crossing to hers. He stood on her stoop for a moment. While he could hear the TV on in the background, he didn't hear her moving about, didn't hear her talking or anything. Plus, it was insanely early.

Just in case, he cautiously tried the door, which was, thankfully, locked. He set about remedying that with the key from Chuck and silently let himself in.

Ellie was asleep on the couch, wrapped in the blanket, still dressed from the day before, with Downy snuggled close against her.

When the door opened and he stepped in, Downy lifted her head, spotting him.

Casey smiled a little. He noiselessly padded deeper into the apartment, setting his keys and both presents on the table, next to some note in Ellie's handwriting, along with a crumb-covered plate and a half-empty glass of milk.

He knelt in front of Ellie, who was breathing deeply, evenly. With a smile, he scratched at Downy's head, who then began to purr loudly.

"Not yet, Downy," Ellie murmured. "Sleepy time."

He grinned. "Ellie..."

"Shh," she murmured, her eyes never even fluttering.

"Ellie," he tried again, just a little louder.

"J..." Her eyes flew open. "John!"

"Hey, gorgeous," he said, watching as she struggled to get out from beneath the tangled blanket, trying to avoid upsetting Downy in the process.

As soon as she was free, she threw her arms around him, holding onto him tightly. "You made it."

"Yeah. And Chuck and Walker are home too, across the courtyard."

She closed her eyes, breathing his familiar cologne in deeply. "So, so, so glad," she whispered.

"Me, too," he promised.

She pulled back very reluctantly.

"I found your present."

She smiled bashfully. "Did you like it?"

"Haven't opened it yet," he said, gesturing toward where it sat on the table.

"You were supposed to. It might've come in handy."

"It wasn't a time machine, was it? Or a transporter? Because I could've used those things to come home a lot faster."

She smiled. "No, no, nothing like that."

Casey eased off the floor, lifting Downy and setting the cat in his lap as he sat beside Ellie. "So, we should open them now?"

"Well, it is Christmas morning... and Santa certainly came through with my wish list."

"Santa?"

Bashfully, she snagged the letter from the coffee table, offering it to him.

He wondered, for a moment, about that unexplained red light he saw only once. When he'd looked back again, it had been gone. "So he did..." Clearing his throat, he handed her the present he'd bought for her, as well as taking his package again.

"Are we opening at the same time, here, or what?" she asked. "Because I'm not sure I can wait..."

Casey laughed.

It was a warm, resonant sound she had missed.

"Go for it, Ellie."

Ellie excitedly tore off the wrapping paper, which Downy immediately pounced on before she'd even had a chance to put it down. The flocked box within was unmistakable-it was something jewelry-related. She glanced up at Casey, whose blue eyes were watching her intently, as she opened it, revealing a gorgeous round-shaped locket with her initials engraved on the front. "John," she breathed.

"On the inside, there's a picture of Downy for the moment. You can put in whoever you'd like."

She laughed a little, tears stinging her eyes as she opened it, seeing their cat looking up at her from within.

"And there's..." He cleared his throat. "There's more on the back."

Engraved on the back were three additional words, ones that made the tears spring from her eyes, rolling down her cheeks. Love you. John

He wasn't John to anyone else. He was Casey to the entire rest of the world. He was dad to Alex. But to her, forever to her, he was John.

She hugged him again, tightly. "It's perfect, John, thank you."

"I mean what it says. On the back. I love you, Ellie."

It was the first time he'd ever said those words out loud. To her. "I love you, too, John," she whispered, pulling back. She dried her eyes. "You should... you should open yours."

He balled up the paper as he removed it. Downy, who was on the floor batting at the silver snowflake paper, soon had more to play with as he tossed it to her, letting it roll across the carpet to her.

The weight he'd examined all night long on the plane proved to be that of a perfectly balanced knife. The craftsmanship was unparalleled. It was incredible and it, too, was engraved. There weren't names, just in case, but a meaningful message: For 'What If' Moments...

She bit her lower lip, just like he'd known she would, worriedly waiting for him to say something, anything, about it.

He took a moment to take that expression of hers in, to commit it to memory. "This is exactly what I need, to make sure that I will always be able to come home to you."

Her smile brightened. "Merry Christmas, John. Merry first Christmas."

"Merry first Christmas to you, too, Ellie."

Stay tuned...