A Perfect Kind of Christmas
Chapter 5

Garcia spun round on her chair in her office and marvelled in its Christmassy goodness. There was tinsel outlining each of her many monitors as well as fairy lights around her door and on the back wall. It was the morning of 22nd December, only three days to go. The team officially finished for Christmas at 8pm that evening, every other year they had not finished until late on Christmas Eve much to the disappointment of the team but this year their new boss Mateo Cruz was granting them an extended holiday. This suited Hotch and J.J. who for once could spend Christmas Eve with their sons and also Morgan and Reid who were catching the morning flight out of Virginia. It was the same time she was supposed to be gone as well. As far as anyone knew, she was still jetting across the country to California. For her, she wished she was working until 24th December, it meant she didn't have to spend extra days alone trying to fill up her time doing menial activities and wishing that she had someone to spend her holiday with.

She took a deep breath and looked over to the sack she had brought in earlier that morning, it was filled with the gifts that she had bought the team and their families. J.J. had named her the BAU's Mrs Santa Claus several years ago when she could no longer carry the presents in her arms so resorted to bringing them in a sack she had purchased. Garcia didn't expect presents in return, she didn't even want presents in return, just to see the happiness on her friends' faces which is rarely shown was enough for her. She turned back away from her bag of presents and faced her computer screen again, she knew that in the bullpen little or no work would be getting done by any of her colleagues and it seemed pointless to be scouring for new cases when the team would not be able to go for at least another three days. So to bide her time she began doing what she did best, updating her software, it had occurred to her if she began writing new software now that she could continue working on it for the next few days and forget about Christmas all together, which seemed her best option right now.

Penelope had not had a phone call or a visit from any of her friends all day and she knew she needed to get out of her office but by the time she looked up at the clock beneath her green shining glasses she realised it was already 7pm. Hurriedly she grabbed her sack and teetered along the corridor towards the bullpen to distribute her gifts, she smiled solemnly, at least she knew that her plan would work and she could discard Christmas Day all together if she continued working on her software.

As she expected, as she saw her friends there was little work being completed. Reid was shuffling a deck of cards with a large book open in front of him while Blake had out her book of 5000 crossword puzzles which she was already halfway through and J.J. was making what looked like a list of things to do over her time off. The other three men were tucked away in their offices but apart from Hotch she expected the same level of work to be done.

"Merry Christmas my lovelies" Garcia chirped as she skipped over to their desks with her sack over her shoulder.

J.J. grinned broadly, "I've been waiting all day for Mrs Santa Claus to arrive!"

"As have I!" Reid exclaimed abandoning his book turning to face them, "I'll go and see if the others are free" he added heading towards the row of offices.

"Garcia I felt bad last year and I feel bad again this year, you have gone to so much effort" Blake cried.

Penelope placed a finger to her lips, "Alex Blake, as the newest member of our family you still have much to learn and one of those things is that I am the Mrs Santa Claus of the BAU and with little family of my own I wish to cherish the family I have here and I shall do that by buying you all gifts at Christmastime"

She stopped as she watched Reid return followed by Rossi, Morgan and even Hotch who seemed relieved to have left the confinement of his office. Morgan stood behind her and squeezed her shoulder, "is it present time Baby Girl?"

"It certainly is oh beautiful one" she smiled opening her sack, "now the rule is the same as always, no gift must be opened before the 25th December" she stuck her hand in and shuffled through the wrapped gifts, "right…" she pulled the first beautifully wrapped package out and read the tag, "this is for Mr David Rossi" she grinned handing it over to him.

"Thank you Penelope" he called feeling the present for some indication of what might be hidden underneath the shiny paper.

The gift giving celebration continued as Garcia pulled out gifts for each of her teammates as well as one for Jack, Henry, Will, James, Beth and even the smallest present for Savannah. By the time they had finished the clock had chimed 8pm and the team began to bustle around collecting their belongings so to make a swift exit from the building and get home to spend more time with their families. Garcia did not partake in the fast movement and after lots of hugs, kisses and Merry Christmas' amongst her friends she picked up her sack and returned to her lair. Last year they had had a BAU Christmas party because they hadn't been on a case the weekend before Christmas this year they had only got back from a case the day before and therefore they had had to come in on the Sunday to finish the paperwork.

After picking up everything she wished to take home for the holidays at 8.30pm she made her way downstairs to the car park. Garcia had entered the elevator and the doors were about to close when a large hand wedged itself between them to prevent their closure. The doors slowly opened to reveal Derek Morgan standing there, "what happened to 'I'll meet you in your office and we'll walk out together'?" he asked folding his arms as he entered the lift.

"Sorry I must've forgotten" she said distantly, no matter how hard she tried to keep up the pretence she was so tired of everything that it began to seep into her demeanour.

Derek frowned and put his hand on her cheek, "hey hey hey, what's the matter with you?" he asked knowing something was obviously wrong.

Garcia gave a small smile and shook her head, "nothing I'm just tired"

Morgan didn't look entirely convinced but he shrugged it off, "yeah, I bet you've got loads of packing to do tonight, I'm nowhere near finished and I have about a tenth of the amount of clothes you have"

"Yeah" she gave a small laugh through the lie. Penelope was saved by the elevator reaching the ground floor, she only had to pretend for a few moments longer and then she was free to express her emotional exhaustion.

They walked in silence until they reached Esther, "I suppose this is you" Morgan smiled, he took her hand and ran his thumb over the back of it, "Merry Christmas Baby Girl" he whispered softly before kissing her cheek.

The chemistry between them was so fierce that you could light a match in the air and there would be the biggest explosion. Penelope swallowed nervously, her heart was beating out of her chest, there had been many moments like this before but never had one seemed so intense, "Merry Christmas Hot Stuff" she replied in barely an audible whisper as her mouth was as dry as sandpaper. Their eyes were locked. Neither of them moved or said a word for what seemed like an eternity but in reality was only several minutes. There was a voice in her heart screaming for her to kiss him and she was almost swayed, she leaned a little closer until the voice of reason pushed her heart's voice aside.

'He has a girlfriend Penelope' the voice cried, 'don't ruin that for him'

With that she pulled away and turned towards Esther, "have a great time in Chicago my love, and wish the Morgans a Merry Christmas from me" she blabbered hastily before she rushed into her car with fiery red cheeks both from embarrassment and the from the heat between her and Morgan.

Morgan was unsure what had happened but stood their shock to her sudden reaction, "I will do", he managed to stutter. He continued to stand in the snow-covered car park until he could no longer see the glare of her tail lights.

'You almost had her' Derek's heart called to him, 'you almost had her'