Right Within Your Heart - Chapter Twenty-five

December 2026

Any other day, the commotion from the other room might be cause for serious concern, but she has years of experience in this kind of thing now. Nobody untoward is in her house this early on Christmas Day. No, her children are simply slinking (less than gracefully) down the stairs to see what goodies Santa has left for them.

"Lexi, look!" Lily's is the first voice she hears, though the boys are doing plenty of noise-making too. "We gotta show Mommy and Daddy," Lily adds before her sister can respond.

Kate huffs a laugh, pressing her cheek to her husband's arm.

"Shh, we're sleeping," he instructs, nuzzling his nose into her neck.

"Yeah, like they're going to believe that," Beckett drawls, hoping Alexis will be able to stall long enough for her to fall asleep again, even if it's just for a few more minutes.

No such luck. The doors to their room burst open and small (and not so small) bodies swarm the bed.

"Mommy! Daddy! Wake up!" Lily calls, hopping up. Reece and Jake join her, bouncing their way toward the head of the bed.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up! It's Chris'mas!" the twins yell, though their unison could use some work.

Even Alexis – the traitor – joins the chorus. "Dad, Kate, get up! It's Christmas!"

Beside her, Rick groans. "Et tu, Alexis?"

"Not sorry at all, Dad," Alexis says, the grin obvious in her voice even with their eyes closed. "Come on, get up. Ezra's making coffee."

Kate exhales. "Oh, thank god."

"I like him a great deal more now," Rick rumbles.

The boys giggle, bouncing on their knees beside Kate. "Mommy, Mommy, there's so many presents. Come see!"

Kate's arm shoots out, drawing Reece down to her. "What if I'm still sleepy, huh?" she asks, tickling his side. "What if Daddy and I are so tired, we just want to sleep a little bit longer?"

She blows a raspberry on his neck, delighting in his happy squeal.

"Mommy, nooo. It's Chris'mas!"

"It's Christmas?" Rick jokes. "Since when?"

"Since now," Lily insists, tugging on his arm. "Come on, Daddy, come on."

They aren't able to resist much longer, allowing all four of the Christmas elves to pull them from bed. Alexis grins, standing on her toes to kiss Rick's cheek, then Kate's.

"Come on, let's do presents," she says, crinkling her nose.

Kate tilts her head, allowing a sly smile to touch her lips. "Should we make breakfast first?" she asks as the kids yank them through the office toward the Christmas spread.

"No, Mommy," Jake insists. "Presents first! We gotta do presents first, or I'll die."

A snort falls from her lips. "Or you'll die?" she repeats, drawing him in. "You'll just wither and die if I do the unthinkable and feed you breakfast first?"

He cackles. "Ya!"

"Well, we don't want that," she muses, lifting him off his feet and flipping him upside down, blowing a raspberry on his belly when his pajama shirt rides up. He squawks, giggling harder. "Okay, fine. Presents first and then we'll eat. Is your Gram awake?" she asks, glancing over to find Martha waiting on the couch with a champagne glass in her hand. With Alexis and Ezra in Alexis's old room, Martha had taken Lily's room for the night while the girl had bunked in with her brothers.

"Morning, darlings," Martha greets. "I helped myself to a mimosa when I came downstairs; I had a feeling you wouldn't mind."

Kate laughs. "Morning, Martha. Well, since we're all present and accounted for, dive in, monsters."

The kids whoop with glee, scrambling to find the pile of gifts with their names on them. Kate shakes her head, moving to sit beside her mother-in-law.

"Merry Christmas," she murmurs, kissing the older woman on the cheek. "How'd you sleep? Was Lily's room okay last night?"

"Merry Christmas, dear. It was perfect."

Kate smiles around a yawn. "Good."

Martha chuckles. "I take it you weren't awake when they made their grand entrance?"

She wipes the sleep from her eyes. "No, we were, but just barely."

"Trying to fake sleep never works," Martha says, offering her a sage grin. "Not even for me, and they almost gave me a Tony."

Kate laughs, leaning her head on Martha's shoulder briefly. She sits up as Ezra and Rick approach, taking the coffee her husband offers with grateful fingers.

Rick settles on the floor at her feet, resting his head on her knee as the kids cackle and squeal and generally go nuts over every little thing.

"What'd you guys get?" she asks, looking over to see Alexis and Ezra settle into the arm chair. Despite Alexis's part in their wake up, she seems to have faded back, sitting half on the arm of the chair, talking in low tones with her fiancé.

The boys show them every individual gift, talking over one another. Lily fills in the gaps (what few there are) with her own reports, hugging some of the more elaborate gifts to her chest.

"I love them," she announces.

"I'm glad, baby," Kate says, brushing gentle fingers through her husband's hair as their daughter runs back to her pile to see what's left to discover.

They'd spoiled them this year – every year, really, but Lily especially this year – knowing it's going to be harder from here on out to keep the same magic attached to everything. Kate hopes her daughter will continue to see the world and Christmas the way she does now, the way Rick tries so hard to make possible, but who knows what will happen when she hits ten.

Rick turns his head, kissing her knee gently. She hums around the rim of her coffee mug, thumbing his ear. His eyes slip shut.

"Hey, if I can't fall asleep again yet, you can't either," she teases. "We've still got presents to open."

Rick nods, but his eyes stay closed. "M'wake."

"Uh huh, sure you are. Why don't we do our stocking now?" she suggests, looking over at Alexis and Ezra. There are still the wrapped gifts, too, but stockings seem like the best place to start. They nod but seem rather content to watch the little ones' chaos instead of moving.

Kate pats her husband's shoulder. "Up. I'll get everything."

She grins when he perks up at that, making sure to give him his stocking last just to tease him a little.

Everyone 'ooo's and 'ahh's and chuckles over the gift cards and trinkets in their stockings. She's pleased to see Ezra's good humor over some of the prank gifts she hadn't been able to stop Rick from slipping into his things.

Finally, the stockings are empty, save for the slip of paper she'd put into Rick's when he'd been distracted with the new race track toy last night. She bites her lip quickly as he goes to put his stocking aside, motioning for him to check it again.

"Hmm?" he looks up.

She lifts a shoulder. "I ah, I asked Santa to deliver a message for me. See if it's there?"

Rick's hand disappears into the stocking once more, emerging with the folded sheet of computer paper that contains one of her favorite gifts to him this year.

He opens it carefully, skimming the words she'd written while sitting at her desk at the Twelfth the day before. Kate grins at the way his brow furrows, then relaxes, before his entire face breaks into a smile.

"Kate."

She nods. "I was talking to Gates at the party a couple weeks ago, and she made me think. I don't want to take her job at 1PP in a couple of years, and with Ryan and Espo both at their own precincts now… It's time to do something else for a little while."

He grins, looking back at the sheet in his hand.

"So my gift to you is the promise that by the end of next year, I'm retiring from the force. After which, I'll stay home and annoy you for a change."

He laughs, shaking his head. "Never. You could never."

She matches his grin, dipping her head to kiss him. "Guess we'll have to see. Merry Christmas, Rick."

Her husband's hand slips into her hair, holding her close as he takes another kiss from her mouth.

"Merry Christmas, Kate," he whispers, waiting a beat before he adds, "It's going to be great."

She shakes her head, resting her forehead against his, her eyes slipping shut as the sounds of their family's joy swirl around them.

"It already is, Babe. It already is."

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Soon the bells will start
And the thing that will make them ring is the carol that you sing
Right within your heart

A/N: Thank you, thank you, thank you, to each and every one of you. Thank you for taking your time to read, to review, to favorite, and to follow this story. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to tell this tale.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, one full of peace and light. Merry Christmas.