a/n: Christmas in…March? Oh well! Actually, I wrote this oneshot in September and it was supposed to be posted for the holidays. But my USB was lost. Thankfully I found it and decided to post this story now instead of waiting for the next holiday season. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this little piece of winter wonderland cuteness. Thanks for reading and please review!

Disclaimer: I don't own Covert Affairs. I do, however, own Ari and Ally and Catie.

Merry Christmas

Moonlight streamed into the room. It glimmered through the cream, gauss curtains and danced across the vaulted ceiling. It wasn't much past midnight, and not much past Wednesday. But even though this room, cast in this light, should never be experienced this early on a Thursday morning, he was awake.

And with good reason. Because, from down the hall in his eldest daughter's room, he heard quiet laughter. Tinkling, childish laughter. The same laughter that had filled the day before in a whirlwind of Christmas Eve activities and three tiny tykes that were so excited for Santa's arrival.

The children were inseparable. They had been raised together through their parents' work—through friendly dinner parties and neighborhood block barbeques and quietly playing together in an empty conference room at the DPD.

The parents of these three children were used to hosting all of them at the same time for an overnight stay, or a birthday party, or a summer outing at the beach. What they had not expected was children's proposal of spending Christmas together. 'That way Santa would only have to make one stop.' No parent could argue with the logic of turning multiple errands into one errand, after all.

So, when the children all piled into little Catie Anderson's room for the night, the parents spent the next three hours filling the living room with bag after bag of presents from Santa. It looked like a toy store had exploded under the tree, which had to be moved back against the wall to accommodate for all the presents.

But now, those three small children (who had slept peacefully through several loud crashes, a few broken Christmas bulbs, and a little bit of colorful language from both fathers) were wide awake and giggling in the moonlight.

Auggie sat up in bed and listened to the sound of his wife asleep next to him. She seemed to be immune to the children's laughter, he realized. There was a small thump followed by a gasp. The house went silent again. The laughter stopped abruptly.

And then Auggie heard the distinct sound of Catie's bedroom door as it slowly creaked open. The blind man sighed quietly. He dragged himself from the warmth of his bed and headed for the hall to intercept the kids before they could get downstairs.

"Do you see him, Ally?"

The smallest of the bunch, little curly light brown-haired Ally Anderson, was on her tip toes. She was trying to see over the railing. Her flowery pink nightgown swished around her knees when Ari Wilcox accidently bumped into her as he too tried to see Santa.

"Nope," Ally shook her head wildly which sent her loose curls bouncing around her face as she continued, "I think he's invisible, Ari."

"He is not invisible," the little boy answered with an eye roll at his best friend. He had dark hair and lightly tanned skin (a shade somewhere between those of his mother and father) and was dressed in a matching set of green Hulk pajamas, "But we're supposed to be asleep. What if he leaves?"

"I don't want him to leave!" Ally looked startled and worried. Her tiny hands gripped the railing.

"Me either," Ari nodded in agreement.

"Catie, stop moving!" The smallest of the bunch whispered, "I'm going to fall!"

"Ally, you're heavy!" The blonde girl whose back her younger sister was standing on protested, "You saw the presents already. Now, get off me so I can see too!"

"Just, stop moving—wow! Look!"

"Shhh!" Catie insisted.

"Look at all the presents, Ari!"

Ari grinned and tugged Ally off of her older sister's back, "See? I told you. He's knows we are all here!"

Catie brushed herself off and grinned in excitement at the two children younger than her, "I wonder who got the biggest one!"

Ally gasped happily, "Let's go down and see!"

Catie swayed for a moment. She looked down at her younger sister and Ari, "But Mommy said we had to wait for her and Daddy in the morning…"

"Catie, we promise we won't touch or anything," Ari reasoned with her. He gently grasped Ally's hand and tugged her towards the steps. He then turned back to shoot Catie a very sneaky grin that he clearly inherited from his father's side of the family, "You're not…chicken, are you, Catie?"

Ally gasped, "Ari called you chicken, Catie."

"I'm not a chicken," Catie defended. She crossed her arms across her teal nightgown in protest.

"Are too," Ari teased. He edged backwards down the first step.

Catie's face turned pink and she balled up her tiny fist and hit the boy in the shoulder, "I am not!"

"Ouch! She hit me! You can't hit! Santa will bring you coal."

"Santa's already been here, dummy," Catie informed him with a gesture towards the living room.

Ari pouted and turned around to go down the stairs, "Well, I want to see if the big one is mine.

Ally eyed her older sister for a moment, "Pweese, Catie."

"Oh, okay," Catie shrugged.

The three children made their way slowly and clumsily down the stairs to the living room, just in time for Catie and Ally's father to catch them.

"Hey! Kids!" Auggie hissed from the top of the stairs, "It's not time for presents yet!"

His sudden voice halted all movement from the children as they crept towards the pile of gifts.

"But, Daddy," Ally whined softly, her expert puppy-dog pout already formed on her pale features, "We couldn't sleep."

Auggie didn't budge. His sightless eyes narrowed as he pointed back toward Catie's bedroom.

"Aww, man," Ari sighed. He followed Catie as the girl quickly trudged up the stairs. Ally continued to pout as she followed her sister and Ari into the bedroom. She closing the door softly behind them.

Many hours later, after hundreds of feet of wrapping paper, dozens and dozens of toys, and thousands of pictures, Christmas morning had slowly started to wind down. The Andersons and Wilcoxes were all gathered in the kitchen for a late breakfast.

The parents, that is. Their children had fallen asleep in various spots on the living floor, exhausted from being awake since way after midnight and from running around the living room for the past couple of hours. They had torn into their presents with an excitement only children could carry on Christmas morning.

So their parents, after plucking their sleeping children from the mounds wrapping paper, moved them back up to Catie's room to sleep off their excitement.

"Shh, do you hear that?" Auggie asked suddenly. The kitchen fell silent as the four adults listened intently for what Auggie heard.

"I don't hear anything," Jai said over his coffee.

Both Annie and Reva shrugged.

The blind man grinned, "Exactly. They're quiet."

No one said anything for a moment. The rarity was not lost on the parents as they enjoyed their moment of peace and quiet.

"Well," Auggie sighed happily. He raised his coffee mug as a toast, "Merry Christmas, everyone."

"Merry Christmas."