Thanks for the reads and reviews, they are much appreciated. Here's my second holiday-themed conversation, starring the lovely and always entertaining Fran Morgan.
Happy reading =)
"The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other." – William E. Vaughan
"You waiting on any bags?" Derek asks as he steps out of the tight hug we shared upon my arrival.
"Just one," I say with a nod. "The presents wouldn't all fit into my carry-on."
"I should have known. Between you, Sarah and Desi, I just know Emily'll be spoiled rotten."
"Hey, it's not my fault we have all these years to make up for!"
"What do you mean 'all these years to make up for'? You guys haven't missed a birthday or Christmas since we got together!"
"Well yeah, but what about all those years when you were ignoring her?"
"Mama, I wasn't ignoring her. She was my partner!"
"Oh sweetheart, you two were destined from the moment you met. I could tell you liked her from the moment I met her."
"But I barely knew her when you met her," he says in confusion.
"Never doubt a mother's intuition, dear."
He opens his mouth to respond but closes it quickly and instead shakes his head in disbelief. "Just let me know when you see your bag and I'll grab it for you."
"Oh, such a gentleman. Emily's keeping you in line I see," I quip, another smile tugging at my lips.
He chuckles. "Yeah, I guess she is."
"Speaking of my favourite daughter-in-law, I thought she was picking me up..."
"Ah, yes. She got called in for a case a couple days ago with Cooper's team."
"This close to Christmas?"
"What is it they say? Evil never sleeps?"
"I guess not. She's being careful though, right?" I say worriedly.
"She better be," he says quickly, a concerned expression flashing ever so briefly on his face.
A thought occurs to me. "Hang on, I thought she was full-time at the Academy now..."
"She is, but Cooper needed someone fluent in German and trained in human behaviour..." he trails off.
"And Emily couldn't say no," I finish for him. She and him are very alike in that regard – they have a weakness (or, I suppose it could be considered a strength) for helping others. They always put others before themselves.
"Of course not. I made her promise to be careful, and she swears she isn't going to do any takedowns, so hopefully no injuries this time around," he says with a small smile, but I see that familiar flash of worry on his face again. It's rather adorable, actually. Emily had certainly wormed her way into his heart, and now she was everything to him. I always knew it would take a strong woman to get Derek settled.
"She's not doing any field work?" I ask in surprise. Emily had, on more than one occasion, conveyed her utter disdain for paperwork and desk duty, so her agreeing to stay out of the field when given the opportunity speaks volumes to me. Even if she'd transferred out of Derek's team and shifted into her career as an instructor, we'd chatted a few times about how she still hadn't gotten used to sitting behind a desk more often than not, and usually jumped at the chance to be out in the field again.
He chuckles. "She said something about not wanting to deal with the obscenely large mountain of paperwork over the Christmas break if she had to fire her weapon or knock an unsub on his or her ass."
"You profilers have a very strange sense of humour, you know that?" I say with a shake of my head. "She'll be home for Christmas though, right?
"Not to worry, Ma. They're making good progress and she's expecting to hopefully wrap it up soon," he says, noting my expression. "At least, that's what she told me a couple hours ago when we spoke on the phone."
"Good. Christmas certainly wouldn't be the same without her. Oh, there's my bag there," I say, pointing out my large black suitcase.
"Definitely not," he says with a wink while grabbing the handle of my bag and lifting it off the conveyor. "Now let's hit the road. Traffic isn't the greatest thanks to the so-called "snowmageddon" that's started up, so it might take a little while to get back to the house."
A few days later it's late on Christmas Eve, and Emily still isn't home. I can tell her absence is wearing on Derek because he's started to retreat into himself a little bit, so it's no surprise when his phone begins ringing and her name and picture pop up on the screen that he scrambles to answer the call.
"Hey Em, you okay?" he asks worriedly right off the bat. "Oh, good," he says with a sigh. "You guys headed back yet?"
I hear her muffled response but can't quite make it out so I instead turn my attention to their new puppy, Campbell who has plopped down beside me on the couch. I rub behind his ears affectionately and he groans in pleasure, leaning into my hand before flipping over onto his back.
"No, no, I'll come grab you from the plane," Derek says into the phone. "When are you scheduled to land?" I chuckle lightly at her obvious stubborn streak making itself known. "It's no problem, Em. She won't mind, and she'll have Campbell here to keep her company-"
"I don't mind, Emily!" I call out loudly.
"See? She doesn't- Fine. Drive carefully though please. The roads are a mess thanks to all the snow," he says with a glance out the window at the still falling snow. "Yeah, I love you too. See you in a couple hours."
I give him a quick smile when his eyes land on me. He looks very relieved that she's on her way home. Though I suppose I shouldn't really be surprised, given how much of a protector he is for those he loves. "Emily safe and sound?" I ask.
He nods. "Yeah, they caught the guy before he could cause any more havoc and they're taking off in an hour or so. She'll be home in a few hours."
"Good. Poor girl will probably be exhausted," I say glancing quickly at my watch and noticing that she'd probably not get home until well after midnight.
"Probably. I expect she'll fall right into bed," he explains, apology in his tone.
"Oh, it's fine, Derek. I understand. I imagine I'll head to bed pretty soon anyway – have to be well rested for tomorrow's festivities," I say with a smile. "You're sure Emily doesn't need me to start anything for tomorrow's dinner?"
"She made me promise to make sure you don't lift a finger. This is your holiday, after all."
"Well, yes, but-"
"But nothing, Mama. Emily'll have my head if she has any inkling that you've been in the kitchen. So keep your butt planted on that couch and keep spoiling Campbell."
"All right. But only if you'll sit down and have a chat with me about giving me some grandbabies."
"Just once I'd like to spend time with you without being harassed to procreate. Just once," he grumbles half-heartedly. I arch an eyebrow in response. "Not gonna happen is it?"
"Not until there are a few little ones crawling around here, no," I say with a grin.
My eyes open sluggishly as my mind processes the scratching noise coming from the door to my room. I get up slowly and wrap a blanket around myself to ward off the chill that always accompanies the dreaded exit from your warm and comfortable bed during the winter. I hear more scratching and soft, somewhat pathetic whining accompanies it this time. I check the clock on the bedside table and see that it's still early – 4:39am. I sigh and move toward the door, intending to open it and let the no doubt highly energized Campbell into my room. But just as I'm about to open it, I hear a voice on the other side of the door.
"Campbell, no," Emily says firmly in a very sleepy voice. "C'mon, leave Fran alone, she needs to sleep," she implores him.
"Not more than you do, Emily," I say as I open the door.
"Oh god, I'm so sorry, Fran," she begins to apologize, her words tumbling out of her mouth quickly. "I'll bring him into our room-"
"Emily, don't worry about it," I say, waving off her apology. "He can come in with me, it's no problem. I wouldn't mind the company," I finish with a smile.
She smiles tiredly in reply. "Are you sure?"
"Very. Now go get some more sleep, dear. You look absolutely exhausted," I say, noting the bags under her eyes.
"Thanks, Fran. If he gets to be a bother, just put him in the hallway. He usually gives up the scratching routine after a little while and falls back asleep."
"Will do. Now go. And give that boy of mine a punch for making you get up instead of him when you've been on a case this past week and got home so late."
She offers a weak chuckle. "You know Derek, he could sleep through a freight train passing next to his bed."
I smile knowingly. To say Derek was a deep sleeper was the understatement of the year. "Still, give him a whack tomorrow for it."
"Feel free to do so yourself," she says with a small grin. "See you in a few hours."
"Not before 9," I say firmly, taking on a decidedly mothering type of tone. "You need to sleep, Christmas or not."
"Sounds good," she says sleepily and turns to re-enter her bedroom.
"C'mon you troublemaker," I say to Campbell who had curled up beside my feet. "Let's give her a few more hours of sleep, okay? She needs it, she works too hard." His ears perk up and he trots alongside me as I head back into my room, closing the door tightly behind me.
Hours later, I watch as Emily curls up in her favourite oversized leather armchair, wrapping a blanket around herself for warmth and sighing as Campbell jumps up and lies down next to her. He puts his head on her stomach and lets out a content sigh as her fingers absently scratch behind his ears. Derek is puttering around in the kitchen, fetching our warm beverages before we begin opening the presents sitting underneath the large Christmas tree in the corner of the room.
"Hey Princess, you want some toast?" Derek calls from the kitchen, looking over the counter and into the great room where we're ensconced in front of the tree, enjoying the heat from the warm fire burning brightly in the fireplace.
"No!" she says quickly. "I'm good, thanks," she adds with a sheepish smile when I shoot her a concerned look.
"You want something to eat, Mama?"
"I'm fine with just the tea for now, thanks."
"You got it. I'll just be a sec," he calls out before I hear the whistling of the kettle.
I shoot my daughter-in-law a look of concern. She looks like she's going to fall back asleep at any given moment. "Emily, are you sure you don't want to sleep for a few more hours? I don't mind waiting..."
She shakes her head. "No, it'll throw off my sleep schedule if I do. I'll just make sure to go to bed on time tonight."
"Well, think about taking a nap this afternoon – I can help out with dinner-"
"Absolutely not. This is your vacation. There's no way I'm putting you to work."
"I honestly don't mind, Emily," I protest.
"Fran, please. Let us spoil you for once?"
"You spoil me plenty, Emily. Besides-" I say, but quickly cease my efforts when I see her expression. It's one I'm intimately familiar with – I've sent it Derek's way a few times over the years. It screams, "Don't even bother arguing with me" and tells me that she means every word of what she's saying. "Is he always that affectionate?" I ask instead, nodding toward Campbell.
"He wasn't at first, but I think he's gotten used to us finally and is settling in."
"He seems to really like you."
"Only recently – before then he was all practically attached to Derek's ankles and wouldn't even look at me."
"And now I could be holding fresh steak and he wouldn't give me the time of day," Derek says with a laugh as he walks into the room. "Merry Christmas, Mama," he says cheerfully as he hands me a mug of steeped tea over the back of the couch and gives me a kiss on the cheek.
"Merry Christmas, Derek," I reply with a smile.
He makes his way over to Emily and presses a mug containing peppermint tea into her hands. "Merry Christmas, Em," he says, giving her a quick kiss.
"You too, babe," she says, returning the sentiment. "Now, let's get going on these presents."
"Anxious, are we?" Derek teases.
She shoots him an unimpressed glare and his expression immediately softens. "Right, okay. You get to be first then, Princess. This one's from Mama," he says as he hands her a neatly wrapped gift.
She begins to neatly slip off the wrapping paper when Derek begins to groan. She halts her action and swings her gaze to him once more, her unimpressed glare making yet another appearance this morning. "What?"
"You're not ripping the paper off..." he explains simply.
"Not all of us are cavemen when it comes to opening gifts, Derek." I hold back at a laugh at her comment, but feel a smirk creep into my otherwise neutral expression.
"But where's the fun in pulling apart the ends where it's taped? You gotta rip it off!"
"Derek, would you let the poor girl open her gift, please?" I say with a shake of my head. "Go ahead, Emily. Ignore my son."
She continues to gently pull off the wrapping paper to reveal a tightly bound book. She opens it up and a smile sneaks onto her face. "Oh, this is lovely. Thank you so much, Fran," she says, meeting my gaze and smiling warmly.
"What is it?" Derek asks.
"No way. Why should I share with you? You made fun of how I open my presents," she says, sticking her tongue out at him.
"Aw, c'mon Em. I wanna know," he whines.
She groans and hands over the book. "It's too early to deal with your whining," she grouses.
"Oh, it's your recipes, Mama? Cool! Em, now you can-"
"I swear to God, Derek, if you finish that sentence with anything remotely relating to me making anything for you, I will never cook anything for you ever again," she warns. His eyes widen in surprise and then his expression turns to a small frown before he shoots her yet another concerned look. "Sorry. I'm a little tired," she says apologetically. "How about you open one up, Mr. I-Can't-Wait," she finishes with a small smile.
"We've got one more for you, Mama," Derek says, handing me a neatly wrapped gift with a large bow on the top before sliding into the spot beside Emily that Campbell had only recently vacated in favour of curling up next to my feet. She immediately nestles closer to him as he wraps an arm around her and pulls her body into his tightly. Her eyes close wearily and a tired but content sigh escapes her lips. He presses a kiss to the top of her head and then turns his gaze to me.
I smile at their small moment of affection before turning my attention to the gift in my hands, sliding a finger through the paper and ripping it up the side. I pull the object out of the paper and find myself looking at the back of a picture frame. I flip it over and frown in confusion for just a moment before letting out a gasp. I stare at the blurry black and white image for just a moment before lifting my gaze to Derek and Emily and smiling widely. I look down at the picture frame once more and I feel tears form in my eyes and I bring a hand to my mouth in a mixture of shock and happiness.
"Mama," Derek says softly, rising to his feet. "How do you feel about being a Grandma?"
I gently place the frame on the couch beside me and jump to my feet to engulf him in a tight hug. "Oh, Derek," I whisper.
When I finally let go, I turn my attention to Emily, who despite her rather significant role in this particular gift, I'd forgotten about during my moment with Derek. I smile widely and open my arms, inviting her in for a hug. She steps forward and wraps her arms around me, and I feel a surge of pride and happiness. We break apart and I take a moment to really look at her. Suddenly her exhaustion and aversion to breakfast make a lot more sense.
"Congratulations you two! This is...just so wonderful," I say, unable to stop myself from smiling widely. "How far along are you?"
"Just over 8 weeks," she answers.
I'm about to ask another question when Campbell jumps up suddenly and sits in front of Emily, whining loudly as he puts a paw on her leg, a sign that I've learned means he needs to go out.
"I'll deal with the mongrel. You ladies stay here and chat," Derek says and then immediately beckons Campbell to follow him to the back door. He slips on his boots and coat and then exits through the back door to supervise Campbell's activities.
"How have you been feeling?" I ask, turning my attention back to Emily, who has curled up in her chair again and wrapped the blanket around herself tightly once more. I follow suit and sit back down on the couch.
"Okay, I guess. I've been pretty tired, and a bit queasy though," she says with a grimace.
"Ah, hence the peppermint tea?" I ask knowingly.
She nods. "Yeah. It's seemed to help. I can't wait for that whole morning-sickness thing to disappear. I love food way too much to put up with this much longer," she says with a smile.
"Found anything you absolutely can't stand now?"
"So far just ketchup. I'm hoping that's the extent of it," she says with a light laugh.
"I wouldn't hold your breath on that one."
"Oh, I know. Just a pipe dream, I suppose."
"Have you told your mother yet?"
"Nope, you're the first person we've told, actually. Poor Derek's wanted to tell the world since we found out, but I made him wait. My mother's flying back from France in a couple days, and we're seeing her on New Years."
"Ah, okay. I'm sure she'll be as excited as I am," I say honestly. "I can't begin to tell you how happy this makes me."
She smiles. "I guess this means you can quit bugging Derek for grandbabies now."
"Oh, well we'll see how I feel after this little one makes his or her entrance into the world. I might just have to bug the two of you for another one."
Emily laughs heartily. "Fran, you might want to take another look at that scan," she says pointedly.
"Why?" I ask, a confused expression settling onto my face as I reach for the frame. I look at the picture again and shake my head as I realize exactly what she means. "Twins?" I breathe. I'd gotten so wrapped up in the fact that I was going to be a grandmother, I hadn't stopped to ascertain a grandmother to how many grandchildren.
She nods. "See, that's a much better expression to have when you find out that it's twins. My eyes just about popped out of my head and my jaw actually dropped," she says with a laugh. "I'm pretty sure they were worried I was gonna pass out."
"I imagine that was just a bit of a shock."
"Oh, that's putting it lightly. The two of us couldn't string together any coherent words once we heard the word "twins" come out of the doctor's mouth."
"How do you feel about having twins?"
"Pretty much terrified," she admits. "But also pretty excited. I...I wasn't sure this was something that would ever happen to me, having a baby I mean, so to hear that it's twins was definitely shocking, but it's also a blessing. I'm pretty sure Derek was always set on having more than one kid, and I'm getting a bit old to be having babies, so having twins is pretty fortunate, actually."
"Sounds about right," I say with a smile. "How does Derek feel about it?"
She grins. "Oh, he's been on cloud 9."
"Really?"
"Oh yeah. He's had this huge grin on his face pretty much permanently since we found out."
"Sneaky little devil – we talked about the two of you having kids just last night and he didn't say anything."
"Ah, well, he was adamant on it being a surprise for you today."
"Well, I loved it."
"I'm glad," she says with a smile before closing her eyes and yawning widely.
"Emily," I say softly. Her eyes open quickly and she meets my gaze. "Thank you."
She frowns. "For what?"
"For giving my baby boy everything he ever wanted. He's so lucky to have found you and have you in his life."
"Thank you, Fran. For raising such a wonderful man. I'm the lucky one."
"I'm gonna be a grandmother," I say in disbelief. As much as I'd nagged Derek about settling down and giving me some grandbabies, I never thought he'd actually do it. I'd always hoped he would, and when Emily came into the picture I was that little bit more hopeful that it would happen, but there was still that bit of doubt in my mind. And now he's found his soul mate and is giving me not one, but two grandchildren in one go. Somebody pinch me – this has to be a dream.
Derek appears beside Emily once more and sits down on the arm of the chair while shooting me a ridiculously wide grin. "Merry Christmas, Grandma."
Feedback is always appreciated, so if you have the time, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I consider each review a Christmas gift for me. =)
Hopefully you enjoyed this one. And just as an FYI, I'm planning on one or two more holiday themed conversations to be posted in the next few days before jumping back into the regular ones. Cheers.