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“Hey.”
Scola turned around at the sound, slightly surprised that Nina had somehow managed to sneak up on him, even though he really should’ve known better by now.
“Hey. Merry Christmas.” He smiled at the sight of her, with her fuzzy snowflake socks, Christmas plaid pajama shorts, and oversized red sweatshirt, her curls still a mess from sleeping. He thought she looked adorable- although he knew she’d kill him if he told her so. The Christmas lights beside her added an extra sparkle to the excitement that was already brightening her face, and he was once again glad she’d convinced him to decorate at least a little for the holiday.
She’d decorated his apartment a couple weekends earlier, on a Saturday when he’d had to go in for a case and she hadn’t had anything better to do, as she’d explained it. But in reality he knew Christmas was her favorite holiday, and she was glad for any excuse to make his- their - place a little more festive. He didn’t particularly like the holiday- too many memories, most of them bittersweet- but he certainly liked her, so he didn’t mind sacrificing some decor if it meant he got to see her smile.
She hadn’t gone too overboard, carefully keeping in mind his mixed feelings about the holiday. Just some string lights wrapped on the staircase and stockings for them hung by the fireplace. He smiled at the memory of the first time he’d seen what she’d done.
Walking in the front door, unsurprisingly the first thing he’d noticed was the lights. Next, his gaze fell on Nina, wrapped in a blanket on the couch watching whatever Christmas movie happened to have been on at the time. He smiled at how at home she looked. They were taking things slow but had decided to at least try moving in together so it’d be easier once the baby was born. So far it seemed to be going well, and Scola didn’t think he’d ever grow tired of getting to see her every day outside work. She was still the same badass agent the rest of the world got to see her as, but more and more he was getting to see glimpses of the sides of her that she rarely let anyone see.
“Hey, I like the lights,” he’d said as he came to sit next to her on the couch, stopping first to quickly kiss her on the head as he passed.
“Thanks,” she replied, watching him closely. After a few beats passed and he didn’t say anything else, she added, “Notice anything else?”
He quickly scanned the apartment trying to see anything else out of place. His gaze froze on the mantle, seeing three stocking hooks and two stockings. The one on the left- the one with ‘Nina’ stitched across the top- looked well worn, and he couldn’t help but wonder if it was her childhood stocking. The thought made him smile. On the far right was an almost matching stocking with ‘Stuart’ stitched in almost the same cursive as hers.
“You got me a stocking?” He couldn’t fully hide the emotion in his voice. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had one, but he was pretty sure it was back when his family was still whole.
“Yeah, I- uh, I hope that’s okay.”
He just nodded, swallowing hard. After a minute, he asked, “Why is there an empty hook?”
She laughed. “I figured I’d go ahead and get a matching set since I know how you feel about mismatched decor.” It was a running joke between the two of them about how everything in his apartment looked liked it went together whereas hers was a mess of mismatched furniture and decor.
“That and, uh…” She paused, causing him to look away from the stockings and back at her. She nervously tucked her hair behind her ear. “Here,” she said, passing him a small box that had been sitting on the coffee table.
He looked at her quizzically, but she just gestured at him to open it. Pulling off the lid, he froze at what was inside.
When he didn’t say anything, Nina hurriedly spoke. “It was a dumb idea. I just- I don’t know, I thought maybe we could hang it up this year. And I mean obviously next year, we’d have to get him a new one, but…” She trailed off.
He was listening to her- really, he was- but all he could think about even as she was talking was the mini stocking in the box she’d just handed him.
The one that was embroidered with ‘Baby Chase-Scola.’
Realizing that she was nervously waiting to see his reaction, he finally managed to speak.
“It’s perfect,” he choked out.
“Yeah?”
He nodded, once again looking at the little stocking.
“We don’t have to do stockings,” she offered. “I know Christmas is hard for you.”
“No,” he replied, shaking his head. “I actually think these make it slightly better.”
“You sure?”
He didn’t know how to put into words how much her gesture with the stockings meant to him. That they made him really feel a part of a family for the first time in twenty years.
“C’mere,” he said, pulling her into a hug. “Thank you.”
He snapped back to the present as she replied, “Thanks, you too” to his “Merry Christmas,” making her way into the kitchen as she spoke. “So, what’re you making? It smells good.”
“Uh, French toast.” He watched as she stopped to lean against the counter across from him. “It was gonna be breakfast in bed, except-“
“Except I wake up half an hour earlier than you.”
“No, that’s not- wait, you’ve been awake this entire time?”
She shrugged, a mischievous look on her face.
He shook his head in mock annoyance, but his laugh gave him away. “And you didn’t bother to come help me?”
Now it was her turn to laugh. “We both know that would not have ended well.” She wasn’t a completely terrible cook. Not totally. But after an unfortunate incident in which she’d somehow managed to set off the smoke detector with just a pot of boiling water- and no, neither of them knew how that was even possible- her lack of culinary skills was a frequent topic of teasing. Not that she minded, since it meant she rarely, if ever, had to cook for the two of them.
“Besides,” she continued. “Why would I ever want to get out from under the blankets if I didn’t have to?”
“Fair enough,” he ceded, the sound of the timer on the oven preventing him from coming up with a better response. He pulled the tray out to cool before turning back to face her again. “Well, breakfast is almost done so we can either stay down here or you can go back under the blankets and I can bring it up.”
She considered for a second. “You got a preference?”
“No. But your present is in the bedroom so-“ She raised an eyebrow, and her amused smirk made him realize how that sounded. “Not like that!” He quickly corrected, making her laugh. “There’s a red and white box in the nightstand on my side of the bed, so I have to go up anyways if you want breakfast in bed.”
“How about I go grab the presents and a blanket, and you can finish with the food and then we can celebrate down here?” She pushed off the counter and started to head back towards the stairs, stopping to give him a kiss on the cheek as she passed.
A little while later, they were settled on the couch, their now empty plates placed on the coffee table. Scola sat on one end of the sofa with Nina sitting cross-legged opposite him, wrapped in a blanket of course. On the table halfway between each of them sat a red and white snowflake gift bag and a small neatly-wrapped box.
They’d never exchanged gifts before and for some reason, Nina couldn’t stop herself from feeling nervous. She knew it was silly. Their relationship was so far past that stage that she shouldn’t have been worried about something as trivial as Christmas presents. But even still, she couldn’t help but feel that somehow there was a lot of pressure on this.
“So how do you- do you want to open yours first or we can go at the same time or…?”
“How about you open yours?”
“You sure?”
“Yeah,” he replied, handing her her present. He was excited for her to open it, even if he was secretly a bit nervous that maybe she might not like it.
She carefully tore open the wrapping paper, placing it off to the side. Opening the box, she inhaled sharply. Inside was a simple silver necklace with a single stone in the center, but she could tell it was probably now the most expensive piece of jewelry she owned, if you excluded her Rolex. “This is- you didn’t have to-“
“Hey, I wanted to, okay? I wanted to ‘cause you deserve it.” He watched as she smiled slightly, slowly allowing herself to actually appreciate the present. “Do you like it?”
“I love it. Thank you.” She carefully took it out of its box and went to put it on. After a second of her fumbling with the clasp, Scola leaned over to help her with it. Her mind jumped back to that first case they’d worked together, when he’d tried to help her with that necklace in the back of the van.
They’d come so far since then.
“And, um, so obviously it has your birthstone, but they said they can add another one next to it, too, so I was thinking once the baby is born we could add his.”
Her smile grew to her real smile, no longer nervous about accepting such a nice gift but touched by the sweet sentiment. She fidgeted with the necklace for a minute, considering something before she spoke again. “Do you think they could add a third one?”
“Um, I mean probably. Why?”
She gave him a funny look. “To add your birthstone, too.” The look of surprise on his face made her laugh. “We’re a family, dummy, I’m not gonna leave you out,” she said teasingly.
He tried to figure out what to say back to that, but before he could, she was handing him his gift.
“It’s not much,” she said apologetically. “But here you go.”
He pulled the red and green tissue paper out of the gift bag, watching out of the corner of his eye as she nervously chewed on her lip.
At the bottom of the bag was a tiny folded pile of navy fabric with just the edges of gold text visible. He immediately recognized the font as the one used on their FBI raid jackets, and he gave her a confused look as he pulled it out of the bag.
Unfolding the fabric, he froze. It was a little onesie, not that that was all that surprising. They’d started buying a few items of baby clothes here and there.
No, what caused him to freeze were the words on it.
My dad is my hero
“Nina,” he whispered, tears quickly building in his eyes.
“Um, yeah, I know it’s not much,” she said, although they both knew that wasn’t why he was tearing up. She was just giving him the option of avoiding addressing the touchy-feely nature of the gift, if that was the way he wanted to go. “But before you complain, don’t forget I am making you a whole human- or well, I guess he’s half yours half mine- so I’m making you half of a human, which I think wins in the gift department.” He laughed, wiping away a few tears. She smiled.
“I love it. It’s my second favorite gift I’ve ever gotten, first if you don’t count the half a human,” he teased back. He also couldn’t help but think that he now knew exactly what he was going to be getting her for either Mother’s Day or her birthday.
He leaned over to pull her in for a hug before kissing her lightly on the forehead. They stayed there for a while longer, content to just lay there together and watch the fire crackle in the fireplace and the snow fall outside the windows.
He glanced at Nina as she was snuggled up against him and he couldn’t help but think that he’d lied. The onesie wasn’t his favorite gift he’d ever gotten.
No, his favorite gift was getting to spend Christmas- and hopefully the rest of his life- with her.