She watched as he grew ever more frustrated with the decorations, strips of tinsel in his hands reflecting off of the lights.

"Ugh…ARGH!" He threw his hands in the air, the tinsel falling on him like rain.

She looked fondly at his grumpy face and moved to hold him in her arms. "Aww." She held him for a while as he buried his face in her hair. "You're going to have to clean all this up." She whispered in his ear as she tried to brush the silvery decoration off of his clothes. He responded by pushing his nose further into her head.

"There's no point to it though, it just…hangs off the tree and makes it look messy." He mumbled into her hair as he began to loosen his grip on her.

"Well, it doesn't have to look messy. Not if you do it right." She said as she finally pulled away from him.

He just sighed as he began to pick the strips up from the floor. Lily was not helping as she pranced around him, dressed in her special holiday collar that jingled every time she moved. Hardy looked up at her, annoyance displayed across his entire face, and she gave out a sympathetic chuckle.

"Come on Lily, Daddy doesn't seem too happy right now." She cooed as she picked Lily up and held her in her arms. At the same time, Fred came toddling in holding a glittering piece of green and red paper held together with copious amounts of glue. Tom was following right behind him, holding a cleaner, neater version of the same materials, trying not to step on the glitter that was falling off of Fred's work.

"Oh, that's lovely darling. Why don't you guys go put them on the tree?" Tom obliged, helping his brother put the ornament on a higher branch next to his own.

"I'm going to take a break." Alec declared as he threw the pieces of tinsel in the bin.

"Okay. I'll come check on you later." Ellie said as she put Lily back on the ground and gently ran her hand down his arm. He nodded with his back turned toward her and sulked off to his room in a way that served as a fleeting reminder of the past. She turned back around before she could watch him leave the room and began helping her boys with decorating the tree.

….

"Alec?" She said quietly as she knocked on his closed door. When no response came, she lightly knocked once more. "Alec, can I come in?" She was about to walk away before she heard a weak, almost indiscernible 'yes' come from his room and she carefully opened the door.

He was on his bed over the covers, clutching his phone to his chest, his wallet out in front of him open to the picture of his daughter. As she moved closer, she could see his wet eyes and tear-stained cheeks, and she gently took his phone out of his hands and placed it on the nightstand. Her arms found their way around him and she just held him in silence.

"I thought…" He drifted off as his voice cracked and he laid his head on her shoulder, burying his face into her neck to try to conceal the fresh tears that were forming in his eyes. She shifted a bit so his head was lying on her chest as she started threading her fingers through his hair in an effort to soothe him.

"Sorry I didn't help much with decorating. I hope you left something for me to do." He mumbled into her blouse.

"We still need to put the star on the top of the tree. Tom and I tried, but we weren't tall enough. I suspect we'll both have some nasty bruises come morning."

He chuckled against her and she smiled. She felt his hands start moving in small circles on her side through her blouse, then making their way underneath to touch skin as they continued their movements toward her front. Just as she was relaxing into his touch, they heard a knock at the door.

"Mum?" Tom's voice came from the other side. Alec removed himself from their entanglement, albeit very slowly and reluctantly, and sat himself on the opposite side of the bed.

"Yes, sweetie, you can come in." She said, after fixing her blouse and trying to smoothen out Alec's hair.

He cracked open the door so only a fraction of his body could be seen in the door frame. "I was just wondering if we're going to put the star up."

"Yeah, let's go right now." Alec replied, getting up from the bed.

"Are you sure, Alec? Because you don't have-"

"Yes, I'm sure." He flashed a small smile to her. "Come on Tom." He guided Tom out of the room and she followed soon after.

"There you go, grab the thing and on you get." He told Tom, squatting down so he could easily climb on his shoulders.

"Careful! I don't want to have to be rushing anyone to the emergency room in this weather." Ellie exclaimed as she hovered over the both of them, supervising the action.

"Ah, we'll be fine." Hardy replied as Tom finally got into position, star in hand. "You ready?" Tom nodded while she shook her head and held her breath.

"One… two… three." He grunted as he rose from the ground, Tom on his shoulders, and wobbled a bit which caused her to stand directly in front of them and she put her hands on his waist as a means of steadiness.

Once the initial moment of panic wore off, their eyes found their way back to each other and she could swear that she could see everything that he was thinking. His eyes told her that she was his rock, his support, his constant. She was someone to pick him up when he fell down, someone to prevent him from falling in the first place. She could see all of that, hear all of that, read all of that in his eyes because she knew exactly how it felt. He was just as much hers.

"Can I get down now?"

They both blushed as he lowered himself again, her hands staying close to the both of them in case of disaster. Once down, Tom grabbed his hot chocolate from the kitchen and retreated back to his bedroom.

"I'm gonna go put Fred to sleep." She said as she picked her baby up from the garland he was wrapping himself in. "Feel free to help yourself to hot chocolate, there's plenty left."

"Will do." He grinned at her as she turned around to the hallway.

….

Fred went down relatively quickly due to all of the excitement from the day, and she gave one last look to his sleeping form before turning off the lights.

"El!" She heard Alec exclaim from the living room.

"Yeah?" She whisper-yelled as she tried to quietly close the door.

"I think you forgot a decoration and I don't know where to put it."

"Well what is it?" She replied, finally turning to leave the bedroom. She heard no response. "Alec?"

When she arrived back in the living room she saw him holding a branch of mistletoe above his head. She slightly rolled her eyes and tried to hide her enormous grin as she moved toward him. "Where'd you get that?"

"I don't think the tradition is asking a bunch of questions when you happen to find yourself under some mistletoe."

"No? What's the tradition then?" She challenged.

"This." He tossed the mistletoe aside in favor of putting his hands on both sides of her face and kissed her deeply.

When he pulled away, she grinned. "Good tradition, I think we can keep that one going."

He smiled and then kissed her again.