This past week was insane and today was not a good day but it gave me the opportunity to escape into something lovely and happy. I can't decide if I want Danny or Steve for Christmas this year. I would like to met a man who is even a shadow of the ones I write about though...that was melancoly. Enjoy this Christmas...in August offering.

/ / / Christmas \ \ \

Danny woke first on Christmas morning. Steve was plastered to his side and snoring softly. Danny smiled at his partner and gently ran his fingers through the grey hair on the side of his head. He wasn't sure why but there was something about that little patch of hair that Danny loved. Then he remembered, it was Christmas day, and while he knew when he went downstairs his family would be there, the family he hadn't seen at Christmas in years, but that didn't really make up for not being able to see Grace. He had given Rachel a little present to take to Vegas with her that Grace could open in Christmas morning but he wouldn't see her. He had spent, at least part of, every Christmas Day with his daughter since she had been born. Every year, even the few he had had to work because he was the newest detective and that was just how it worked. This year, the first time in a long time, he wouldn't see her. He wouldn't wear the Santa Claus suit and the first year that wouldn't be them making Christmas memories.

Steve shifted next to Danny, his nose nuzzling into the skin of Danny's neck. Danny sighed, the worst part was that this year would have been so amazing – his first Christmas with Steve and he had been looking forward to it. He had spent months finding the right gift – the one that was at home in the spare bedroom cupboard, and he had his Santa suit again. He was going to have the gang over and they would have dressed the tree and Grace would have told them all where to put each piece because she might not be able to reach all of the branches but she knew where things should go.

Danny missed Grace, even though he was so happy to be with his family, and he loved Steve. Steve, who was the reason his Christmas was salvaged in any way when Grace had gone off to Vegas. He wanted to simply be happy with what he had but at the same time he wished he could have had it all. He wanted Grace here. She would have run into the room by now, jumped onto the bed…he wondered if she would hesitate given Steve would have been next to him but the way she treated Steve told him it would have been the same as normal. She would have bounced on the bed until Danny had sighed and dragged himself out of bed. They would have opened a single present each before Danny made pancakes. Christmas morning was always his time with Grace. Rachel's family had a dinner tradition that she had insisted on continuing with Grace. Even when they had divorced mornings were still his time with Grace – the time that was even more precious than dressing up as Santa and opening the rest of the presents and eating the biscuits he would make using his mother's recipe.

Danny allowed himself to wallow for a few minutes, turned his body into Steve's and thought about what Christmas might have been. Then, he pushed the thought aside and decided not to miss Gracie again until he called her before breakfast. This was still his first Christmas with Steve. Danny knew he had woken up earlier than most of the people in his house though he suspected that his Nana and Ma would be down in the kitchen already. Danny smirked and slithered down beneath the sheets to wake Steve up right.

/ \ / \ / \ / \

Danny called Grace as soon as he and Steve had come downstairs. They were still waiting for some of the others to come down but Danny wasn't going to wait to talk to his baby.

"Danno!" Grace said loudly, after only one ring. "Merry Christmas."

Danny felt his chest loosen. "Hey, Gracie, Merry Christmas."

"I miss you, Daddy," Grace said sadly. "The pancakes here aren't as good as yours."

Danny refused to be stupidly pleased about that. He knew the pancakes she ate would have been a lot more expensive than the ones he made a probably had been created in a kitchen with a star rating. "We haven't had breakfast yet. Did you open some presents?"

"I did," Grace launched into the rundown of all the things that Rachel and Stan had bought for her. Danny kept a list – they always discussed what to buy Grace but things were tense between them this year and Stan had a tendency to buy extra things just to make Grace like him. There were at least two things on the list that he had already bought for her that he would have to take back to the shop but he promised himself that he wouldn't say anything to Rachel about it. He didn't want to make things even worse between them. Not today. Not with Vegas still looming over them.

"Did you get something from Steve, Daddy?"

Danny smiled into the phone. "We are having Christmas when we get back to Hawaii so we haven't given each other anything yet. We will have some things from Nana and Pop today."

Grace sighed down the phone. "You still should have gotten something for Steve. That's how Christmas works."

The phone was plucked out of Danny's hand. "Don't worry, Gracie, I got Danno something that he can open today."

Danny could hear Grace's delighted squeal through the phone. "Merry Christmas, Uncle Steve! You got Daddy a gift. That's good."

"Of course I did," Steve said. "But, I think it can be from both of us."

"That's even better," Grace said. "Thank you, Uncle Steve."

"Not a problem, Gracie. Merry Christmas. I'll see you in a couple of days."

"Okay, Uncle Steve. Love you, Merry Christmas."

"Love you too, Gracie," Steve said, his face bright, before he handed the phone back to Danny.

After another few minutes listening to what Grace had been doing in Las Vegas Danny handed the phone to his mother. It travelled around the family and then back to Danny.

"Grace, I love you." Danny took a deep breath and then felt Steve's hand on his back. "Enjoy Christmas Day."

"Okay, Daddy. I love you, too. I'll see you soon, right?"

"As soon as you get back to Hawaii," Danny promised. "Then we'll have our own Christmas."

"Good."

They said their goodbyes and Danny stayed on the phone only long enough to wish Rachel a Merry Christmas before he hung up and leaned back into Steve's side.

/ \ / \ / \ / \

Christmas morning at the Williams house was loud. Everyone was in their pyjamas while they ate breakfast.

"Damn shame your man doesn't sleep naked, Danny." Lily has said with a wink, while Steve was getting his breakfast. Danny blushed on his behalf – half thinking about what Steve really wore to bed and what they had been doing before they pulled on their pyjamas.

Danny's mother and grandmother had made a big breakfast, laid out on the kitchen table, but everyone grabbed their food and sat around the living room and on the chairs from the kitchen. Steve dropped down to the floor next to Danny's knee while they ate their breakfast.

When it was done, Chris slipped up the stairs to get into the Santa's costume, and came back down to deliver presents to the adults and children alike. Danny and Harvey had always been in charge of cleaning up the paper and rubbish from the gifts.

Danny sat down when it was all done and his mother started walking around the room handing out stockings. She stopped in front of Steve who looked up at her with shock.

"You didn't see it?" Danny asked.

"I…no."

Danny's mother smiled down at him. "You're family. Of course you have a stocking."

Steve took the stocking with a dumbfounded expression and when he turned to look at Danny the blonde couldn't help but drag Steve into a kiss. Steve pulled back with a smile and then looked down at the stocking in his hand.

"This is a Navy SEALs patch," Steve said, running his thumb along it. "From one of the units I was in."

Danny's Nana nodded. "I have my ways."

"Thank you," Steve climbed up from the floor and dropped a kiss onto her cheek and then presses on to Lizzie's as well.

"You're welcome," Lizzie said, cupping Steve's cheek. "You brought Danny home for Christmas."

Steve's head dropped and he nodded. He sunk back down next to Danny with his back pressed into Danny's leg a little more firmly than it had been before.

Danny peeked into his stocking and ran his fingers through Steve's hair. He tucked Grace's next to him and pulled some of the biscuits that his mother baked and put in the stockings every year.

/ \ / \ / \ / \

After the stockings were done everyone took their presents upstairs and had quick showers before dressing for the cold weather. Danny's parents were religious, if not overly, but Easter, Christmas, and once a month, they made sure to go to church. They lived close enough to the church that most of them walked down while Chris drove Molly and Lily there. Steve's hand slid into Danny's as they were walking.

"So sweet," Georgina said, power walking past them.

Danny stuck his tongue out behind her back.

"I saw that," she called back.

Danny laughed and Steve squeezed his hand tighter.

/ \ / \ / \ / \

After church, Elizabeth kicked everyone out of her kitchen so she could cook. The family lounged around, went out the back for a cold pick-up game while the kids watched something on the television watched over by Lily, Hannah, and Molly.

/ \ / \ / \ / \

The lunch that Danny's mother put on was something of a culinary wonder and everyone ate silently. By the end of it almost everyone was surreptitiously undoing the top button of their pants and finding a place in the lounge room or dining room to stretch out and slip into food comas. Steve stayed behind to help clean up and Danny wanted to but he had eaten so much he fully expected to explode at some point. Besides, between Ryan and Steve the non-kids were showing off quite spectacularly.

The rest of the afternoon was spent drinking, talking and telling stories until they had leftovers for dinner and the people who were not staying in the house slowly, reluctantly, began to slip from the house to go home and slide into their own beds.

When everyone who was leaving had, Danny sat down next to his mother.

"Tomorrow's our last day, Ma," he said.

"I know," she looked at him with something like a smile but she looked too sad for him to call it that. "I'm going to miss you."

"Me too."

"You should come home more often."

Danny nodded. "It's not easy."

"I know," she said, wrapping her hand around his. "I'm so pleased you came."

"Me too."

"And you did a good job of pretending you haven't been missing your daughter all day."

"It's our first Christmas apart," Danny said, the sadness sliding into his voice. "I knew it would be bad but it was worse than I thought."

"It's never easy," Lizzie said. "No matter how old your kids get."

"Being here, having Steve, made it easier."

"I like him," Lizzie said. "He loves you like the Dickens."

Danny smirked. "I don't know where you pick these sayings up from."

"They show some great British TV shows now. That ex-wife of yours, besides being a horrible person, suggested I give them a go."

"She's not a horrible person."

"She keeps trying to take Grace away from you," Lizzie said fiercely. "She is…well, I don't like to say that word."

"Ma," Danny said with a sigh. "I am trying very hard not to hate her for doing this to me again."

Lizzie pulled him into a hug. "We are going to have to think of something to do tomorrow. Has Steve been to New Jersey before?"

"Only the military bases and the Shore." Steve said behind them.

Danny turned and rolled his eyes at Steve. "You eavesdropping on us?"

"I came to tell you I'm going for a quick run."

"Quick?" Danny asked, remembering the marathon from yesterday.

"No longer than an hour," Steve said. "Promise. But I need to work some of that amazing food off."

Danny rolled his eyes. "That's not the fun part of pigging out at Christmas."

Steve smirked at him. "I need to keep my figure. I'm getting married next year."

Danny reached behind him and threw the cushion at Steve's head.

"Daniel!" Lizzie reprimanded.

"Sorry, Ma."

Steve stepped in, kissed him, and then walked up the stairs.

Danny turned back to his mother and she was smiling at him.

"Stop looking at me like that, Ma."

"I can look at you all I want, I gave birth to you."

Danny sighed and they settled into talking about the general everyday things they didn't always get a chance to discuss when they talked.

/ \ / \ / \ / \

Steve came back from his run and went upstairs to shower. When he came down Lily pulled 'You Can't Take It With You' from the DVD shelf and slipped it into the player.

"I've never seen this Christmas movie," Steve said, settling more tightly into Danny's side.

"It's not a Christmas movie," Danny said. "It's Nana's favourite movie. We watch it every Christmas."

"Okay," Steve said, slinging his arm around Danny's shoulders.

"You want to snuggle?" Danny whispered.

"Yes," Steve said. "Just like the day we went and tried out the bed."

Danny smiled. "Two days and we will be back on our bed."

Steve leaned very close and whispered something very dirty into Danny's ear. Then he pulled back, got comfortable – his body seeming to turn to jelly next to Danny and the blonde couldn't help but smile and match the posture so they could watch the movie.

When it was done everyone went up to bed and Danny put a pillow over his head while Steve followed through on his suggestion from earlier.

"Merry Christmas," Danny said later when they were curled together in bed.

"Merry Christmas," Steve yawned into Danny's neck. "Oh!" He jumped up and slipped out of bed. He dug around in his bag and then came back a few minutes later with an envelope.

"What's this?"

"A Christmas present from Grace and I."

Danny frowned. "You were serious?"

"Of course," Steve said, looking at Danny like he was being ridiculous.

"I haven't got anything for you."

Steve shrugged. "You've got things for me at home."

"But I don't have anything for you today," Danny said, refusing to take the envelope.

"I don't care." Steve grabbed Danny's hand and forced the envelope into it before he slipped back into bed. He curled himself around Danny so that he could watch Danny open the gift. "Open it."

Danny sighed at him and then opened the envelope. Inside were a few pieces of printer paper. Danny turned to frown at Steve only to find him smiling encouragingly. Danny pulled the paper loose and unfolded it. The first thing Danny noticed was the airline insignia.

"Steve?"

"Danny."

"These are airplane tickets."

"Really?"

Danny rolled his eyes. "You bought airplane tickets?"

"I did."

"Why did you buy airplane tickets to…New Zealand?"

"We were talking about places you'd always wanted to go and you said you'd always wanted to go to New Zealand or Australia. I thought you would enjoy going for our honeymoon."

Danny gaped at Steve.

"I've organised the holidays with your boss, though these are only tentative bookings in case you don't like the date, time, or place. Or, if we have to leave from Las Vegas."

"You're taking me to New Zealand?"

Steve shrugged. "I was thinking about it."

"That is utterly ridiculous. You can't fly us both to New Zealand, something like that should be a mutual cost and-" Steve twisted up and kissed Danny. "What?"

"I love you, and I want to give you everything."

Danny gaped at Steve. "You are…I love you, too."

"Good."

"I would love to go to New Zealand with you."

Steve's eyes darted down.

"What?"

"If you can square it with Rachel, it is in the Summer, when Grace won't be at school. So…if you were to want to take her as well I would be okay with that."

Danny twisted, threw the tickets over Steve to the floor and wrestled Steve onto his back. He laid half on top of Steve and folded his arms on his partner's chest. "You would take my daughter on our honeymoon? The honeymoon that is designed to basically just be about us having so much sex we end up dehydrated and incapable of walking and sightseeing?"

Steve's eyes darkened. "That much sex?"

"Oh yeah," Danny said with a lusty smile.

"I…" Steve yanked him down for a kiss. Then shook his head and glared at Danny. "She's never been, has she?"

"No."

"Then it can be a holiday and we can have sex like that all the rest of the year."

Danny laughed loudly and then kissed Steve again.

/ / /