Chapter 55

Morgan didn't buy it, of course, but at least Laura tried. Besides, he was going to Chicago to make up for missing Thanksgiving.

After breakfast they went to work on the decorations, starting with dragging them down from the attic. Well, everyone else did the dragging. "How much longer are you in that thing?" Morgan asked.

Spencer looked at the cast on his hand and sighed. It was going to be perfect, the way it was healing, but for now it was an immense annoyance. "One more week."

Morgan sighed and went up for more boxes.

"Okay, so real tree or fake?" Penelope asked as she and Laura started unpacking the tree.

"Neither." Laura replied. "Either you kill a perfectly good tree and burn off all this carbon getting it to town or else you're talking petrochemicals and shoddy construction that has to be replaced every five years."

"Live then?"

"No. Live trees sound like a better option but they're really more like overgrown bonsai. They never develop a proper root system so in another twenty years they'll come down and take established trees with them." She sighed. "I had this iron tree I found on a trip to Arizona once; it was a good six foot tall with all these curly branches. You could wire evergreen garlands around then and tuck the ends into these pockets on the trunk designed to hold water. Took forever to set up but you'd have a tree that looked and smelled like a cut tree but only used the trimmed off branches so the tree would live on, and the iron frame would last forever." She looked over at Spencer. "When we get a house I'm getting another one."

"All right." Given that the miniature artificial one that once sat on his coffee table had been lost in the deluge he was not going to complain.

"So what else did you plan for the holidays?" Penelope asked.

"I don't…" Laura sighed. "I don't know. I…didn't…"

"Oh come on, not anything? Favorite music, favorite cookies, oh we must do a cookie swap…" Penelope started poking into boxes and pulling out ornaments as Dave stopped to turn on some holiday music.

As the first strains of White Christmas threaded around the room Laura lowered her head to her hands and started to weep. It took Spencer a moment to realize what was wrong. As soon as he did he dropped to the floor beside her and pulled her into his arms.

Morgan was down with more boxes. "What happened?" He asked.

"I brought something up by accident." Penelope told him. She got down on the floor on Laura's other side. "I'm sorry, sweetie." She said.

"What?"

Spencer looked over at him. "Maggie was due on or around the 23rd." Morgan winced as he got it, and nodded.

"First Christmas?" Penelope asked.

"No." Morgan replied. "We profiled that Rudger wouldn't need Reid around once the baby was born and healthy.

It took a moment but all of a sudden Penelope got it. "Oh my god," she breathed.

Spencer nodded, his chin rubbing lightly over Laura's hair. He was supposed to be dead for Christmas. Hell, he was supposed to have died on Christmas, no wonder she hadn't planned for a holiday. But she had been so strong and brave, for him and for Maggie all this time, savoring every moment, not wanting to think ahead…

Now that Penelope knew, though, she quickly understood and gently rubbed Laura's shoulder. "Oh, its okay sweetie, he's alive. You're here. Everyone is safe. You can fall apart now, it's okay."

That started Laura laughing through her tears. "It's…so…silly." She gasped. "It's…over…now…"

"Yeah, but you've been holding it in, what with everything else. Now that you're safe your body just needs to let it go. So have a good cry, its okay. You'll feel better when it's over."

Because it's not just the life of your child you can build in your head, Spencer thought as Laura soaked his shirt; it can be the life without the other half of your heart. She thought she was going to lose me, all that time. "I love you." He murmured into her hair as Penelope protected the other side and Morgan and Dave kept bringing down boxes and the dogs came over to see. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Good." She managed to sob out. "Don't."

Eventually her tears dried and they settled in to an orgy of decorating. Dave did not believe in skimping on the holidays, even when it was just him. "I never know if my nieces or nephews are going to drop by." He explained. "I want them to have good memories of Uncle Dave's place."

"Given that this is Christmas wonderland they'd better." Penelope explained.

Laura came and perched on the arm of a chair by where Spencer was helping Penelope untangle lights. "Gingerbread cookies?" She asked. "Frosted walnut cookies? Vanilla balls? Snowdrops?"

"All of the above." He replied. "Where are you getting this?"

She showed him the screen of her tablet. "Are those the cookbooks you liked?"

"Yeah."

"Those are my favorites too."

"Reid forgot something?" Penelope asked.

"Neither of us could remember the publisher." Laura replied. "It's not something you look at. Granted the design is distinctive, but that didn't help much in there."

"Does that mean we should make Christmas dinner potluck?" Dave asked.

Laura grinned at him. "Does that mean you'll let me cook?"

He gave her a mock sigh. "If you insist."

"So if you two are planning kids does that mean the second holiday tradition is potluck dinner at Grandpa Dave's?" Penelope asked, her eyes wide with mock innocence.

"Don't call me that!" Dave groaned in equally mock protest.

While they volleyed Laura leaned against Spencer's shoulder. "Family." She murmured.

Yes, Spencer thought, family. Alive and well.