A Perfect Kind of Christmas
Chapter 7
Morgan drove steadily back the way he had come to his house, he turned to his right to see that Garcia had already began dozing beside him with her eyes still red from crying. His heart broke once more at the sight, he wished he hadn't been so blind, he should have seen how upset she was, he should have seen through her act, how was he supposed to ensure her happiness if he couldn't even do that, what was he good for?
Dawn was vast approaching as the sun peaked over the houses, his flight to Chicago would be high in the sky by then but he had all he needed in the car beside him. He pulled into his drive and placed his hand on her shoulder, "morning baby" he whispered.
Penelope's eyes flickered open, "I wasn't sleeping, I was merely resting my eyes. You need to get on the next flight to Chicago" she yawned as she sat up straight.
"Well that's not happening, now come on let's get your things" he smiled already beginning to exit the car.
She sighed, this was exactly what she didn't want to happen. She didn't want anyone to know about her situation so they didn't feel sorry for her and cancel their plans. She just wanted everyone to be happy, she didn't matter. Garcia followed him out of the car where he was pulling her quickly packed suitcase out of the boot, she placed her hand on his shoulder, "no really Derek, you should be with your family at Christmas, you have been looking forward to going home for weeks, your Mom-"
"-My Mom said that if I didn't stay here and look after you then I was never welcome back in her house again, so that told me, now will you be quiet and get in the house hardhead?" he asked leaning towards her.
Penelope took a deep breath, "fine!" she said exasperatedly, she turned towards the house and frowned, "Derek there's no wreath on your door or any lights, I sincerely hope that's not a sign of what's to come"
Morgan opened his mouth to answer as he pushed open the door when a horrified gasp stopped him, "Derek Morgan! Why the figgy pudding is your house so plain?! It is Christmas Eve Eve!"
He shut the door and placed her bag on the floor and just stared at her as Garcia paced from room to room in disbelief upon realising each room was so bare and ordinary, "excuse me little Miss Picky if you hadn't forgotten I wasn't supposed to be here!" he cried but then he smirked and raised his eyebrows, "'why the figgy pudding'?"
Garcia's cheeks went pink with both frustration and embarrassment, "that is irrelevant! What about the build up? Did you not want to feel Christmassy?"
"Penelope, I'm never here, it would be pointless!" he protested.
"Irrelevant!" she repeated, "If I had a house I would not be misusing the opportunity to put lights up outside and have a proper mantelpiece to place a garland and up the stairs! You don't realise how many decorating opportunities you are neglecting!" she paused and looked at him, "that settles it, I simply can't leave your house now until it's decorated! Just because you are Scrooge doesn't mean your house can't look pretty"
Morgan smiled, he loved how adorable she looked when she was angry but then talked herself down from being angry because she didn't like being angry. It was little things that made Penelope Garcia, Penelope Garcia and what made him love her. He nodded, "ok, we'll go out and get some decorations-"
"-Yes!" she began pacing again listing the things they would need to buy off on her fingers, "we'll need tinsel, lights, garlands, baubles and other decorations for the tree-" she turned back, "you don't have a tree" she said slowly.
He shook his head, "ok that will be first on our agenda"
Garcia's face lit up, "right, off we go!" she cried and headed back out of the door. Morgan simply looked back at her in disbelief, having not stepped three steps into the house he just shook his head and turned on his heel and went back to make Penelope happy and hopefully to find his inner Christmas.
Morgan leant on the handlebar of the overly-packed shopping trolley which he was pushing slowly behind Garcia as she paced ahead of him analysing each of the trees which were left. She had already collected metres of sparkling gold and red tinsel, as she decided that would be the colour scheme of the decorations, as well as baubles, garlands, lights for indoors and outdoors and anything else that had caught her eye. They were in Garcia's favourite Christmas emporium which she had discovered several years ago and since then all of her decorations had been purchased there and she was eager to introduce Derek to its wonders.
Penelope sighed and tapped her black heeled boot impatiently, "all these trees are rather pathetic looking! Where are the perfect, tall pine trees? You have a high ceiling in your living room which is ideal for one of those types of trees!"
"Garcia as you have stated several times, it is Christmas Eve Eve, all the 'perfect' trees will have been sold by now" Morgan replied.
Penelope twitched her nose, she knew he was right but she had never had a real Christmas tree before, California had never been the right climate for Christmas trees which had adapted for cold conditions and she had not been able to fit one in her apartment. Of course she had marvelled in the beautiful smell of them but never had her living room been filled with pine so she wasn't going to pass up the opportunity.
Before they were both about to give up a young sales assistant had noticed their distress, "excuse me" he offered timidly, "are you looking for a Christmas tree?" he was shivering in the cold air, wishing he could have been chosen to work on the checkouts or in Santa's grotto rather than the frosty garden centre.
"Yes we are" Garcia smiled warmly leaning into Morgan as despite being wrapped up a lot more than the young man who's name tag read 'Steve' she too was feeling the cold.
He nodded, "there are a few really nice trees that I am supposed to put on sale later on today but I don't see the harm in letting you have one now, would you like to see?"
"Yes please!" she cried eagerly squeezing Morgan's hand in excitement as they followed Steve behind the wooden sheds where three tall, full, perfect Christmas trees stood. "Oh!" Garcia gasped at the sight of them, "Derek they're perfect, can we get one?"
Morgan chuckled, there was no way he was going to say no after spending most of the day looking for the 'perfect' tree upon finding it, "of course baby"
"Yay!" she squealed and she quickly told Steve which of the three trees she would prefer and then waited beside Morgan until their tree was wrapped and ready to be paid for. When Steve told them the total of all the decorations Garcia saw Morgan wince slightly, "I've got this Hot Stuff" she smiled pulling out her purse.
He shook his head, "don't be ridiculous, it's my house, my decorations-"
"-Yes but I'm making you buy them, you would be in Chicago if it wasn't for me, I owe you!" she protested.
Derek raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips adopting his macho pretence, "Penelope" he warned, "you don't owe me anything, I want to buy the damn decorations!"
Garcia equally screwed up her face in annoyance, "you can buy food or something else, the decorations are mine and if you don't let me then I'm going to call a taxi and I am going back to my apartment and staying there until I need to return to work" she said seriously. Morgan looked slightly taken back but she simply raised her eyebrow at him as to say 'I mean it Derek Morgan, don't mess with me'.
He held his hands out to the card machine to her, "it's all yours"
Steve laughed from behind the counter as Penelope paid, "I've seen some married couple tiffs since working here but I think you two win!"
Garcia looked up from beneath her blonde hair unsure whether to correct the young man or not, she opened her mouth when Morgan interrupted her, "maybe we should get a trophy or something Baby Girl?" he laughed putting his hand on her back. Penelope tensed slightly, why was he acting in front of this man? All he had to do was tell him the truth but instead he was pretending they were a couple? Maybe it was just a joke to him, it probably was.
"There!" Garcia cried happily as she stood proudly up the step ladder looking around at the result of her evening of decorating. Derek Morgan's house could no longer be called plain as the decorations were not over the top but instead beautiful and sophisticated.
Morgan poked his head around the front door, "you think you've done a good job in here, come and see outside!" he smiled before ducking outside again. Penelope grinned and quickly pulled her coat over her Christmas jumper and pulled on her fluffy slippers before following him into the cold evening.
When she got outside she saw that Morgan was stood in the garage as she moved back along the paved driveway to get a better view of the whole house, "you couldn't have been doing this the whole time I've been decorating inside" she stated.
"I had go out earlier anyway that doesn't matter now, are you ready?" he cried.
"Yes! Now hurry up, it's freezing!" she called through chattering teeth.
He beamed from within the shadows, "ok! Here is the Morgan and Garcia's Christmas light switch on extravaganza 2013, 3-2-1!"
Penelope laughed whilst Morgan flicked the switch in front of him and the whole house lit up, it was simply strings of white lights that lined the house but it added that extra bit of magic. Everything was dressed to perfect except one thing, the tree.
Once they had retreated back into the house, they both looked at the bare tree which stood tall in front of them as they sipped their hot chocolates, "where do we start?" Morgan asked.
Garcia glanced at the packet of multi-coloured lights on the floor, "there" she smirked knowing it would be him that spent a minimum of half an hour untangling the ball of lights as he had done with the lights outside.
Morgan closed his eyes in despair, "you are kidding me?!"
She smiled, knelt down and began opening the box, "we'll do it together"
The two grown adults sat on the floor and began to untangle the lights which incidentally meant the lights ending up being wrapped around themselves, both had tears in their eyes as they couldn't stop laughing at the fact they had managed to tangle them up even worse than before. Once she had composed herself Penelope sent Derek away as she believed she could do it herself with all her experience untangling balls of wool when she was knitting, sure enough when Morgan returned with a fresh mug of hot chocolate Garcia had already began to weave the string of lights around the tree. Once the lights reached the top of the tree, from the top of the ladder again Garcia began instructing a clueless Morgan of which decorations he should put on first.
"I haven't decorated a tree for years" Morgan admitted, "my Mom and sisters always do it before I get home. I haven't even got any sentimental decorations, they're all at home". Garcia suddenly felt her heart go out to Derek, all those years she had teased him about not having the spirit of Christmas when in fact he'd never had the chance to experience it properly.
Penelope clambered down from the ladder and opened her suitcase which was still sitting in the entrance hall, she pulled out a plastic bag and returned to the tree, "these are the only decorations I brought from home, we didn't really have any other sentimental ones, I think they were all thrown away after my Mom died anyway" inside the bag Morgan could see that they were the drawings of five year old Penelope on that sunny Californian Christmas morning. They had string attached to them so they could be hung on the tree and when he picked one up to place delicately on a branch he saw scrawled on the back was 'Penelope & Mom, 1980'. Morgan smiled, he was glad that Garcia was able to share that with him, he was about to put the drawing of Sunshine the bear on when he had an idea.
"Wait there, don't put anything else apart from your decorations on the tree" he called exiting the room momentarily. Garcia frowned in confusion but stopped after she placed her last drawing on the tree until Morgan returned his arms full of white card and pens, "we don't need all these fancy baubles, I'll take them back in the morning, this year we're making our own!"
Penelope was so touched by Morgan's gesture she wanted to cry, "thank you" she whispered, they both spent the rest of their Christmas Eve Eve creating their own Christmas tree decorations including cartoon drawings of each BAU member. Their tree was soon filled with colourful drawings that would always remind them of Christmas 2013 and neither of them got a chance to admire their work that evening as they both fell asleep on the couch with Garcia lying lazily against Morgan's chest to the soft sound of Christmas music playing in the background and the fire roaring to keep them cosy on the cold night.