Starting my Christmas series "A Baby Changes Everything". Three stories with three pairings. This one finds Garcia receiving a gift she never asked for from the last person she expected. Because there is a no refund/no exchange policy attached, she's going to have to decide what to do since Santa is busy else where at the moment.

I don't own Criminal Minds.

Song prompt: "All I Want For Christmas (Is You)" by Vince Vance & The Valiants

All I Want For Christmas (Is You)

Penelope Garcia had faced a lot of things in her life. The loss of her parents, the estrangement of her brothers, living underground off the grid, and working at the BAU for the FBI. All of those moments had touched her, shaped her, and made her who she was now. The woman she had become. But not one of those could or would ever have the effect on her life as the little white stick she was holding in her hand.

Two blue lines.

Three simple words that had changed her life like nothing else.

Bowing her head into her hands, she felt the tears slip out of her eyes. She was pregnant. Oh God! What had she done? What had she been thinking? Oh God! It had just been one night. One wonderful, glorious, enjoyable, sensual night of pure unadulterated pleasure in the arms of a man she had loved unconditionally from hello.

Derek Morgan.

Her friend. Her partner. Her one time lover. And now they were going to be parents to a child who could not only have their best qualities, but their worst too. Shaking her head, Pen groaned. This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not ever.

It wasn't as though she didn't want kids, but she wasn't putting her request in any time soon. She liked them well enough…in fact, she loved babies. She adored Jack Hotchner to death and lived for the moments when she was asked to baby sit. But it wasn't the greatest feat in the world since at six he was pretty self reliant. Play time, reading, snacks, tickle torture battles, and a video with Japanese anime and he was entertained. And usually passed out cold.

And then there was Henry La Montange-Jareau. The most adorable little boy on planet earth. And not because he was the son of her buttercup or that he was her godson…he was the epitome of what every little child should be. And if it was possible, she would request a hundred Henry's in a minute. But it wasn't that simple.

Children weren't computers. They weren't manufactured on an assembly line from a blueprint and interchangeable; they were unique and there was no telling what exactly what you were going to get- sometimes you got lucky. Other times…you didn't. And she probably knew better than anyone.

Well, now there was no going back. No second chances. No do-over. No wiping the hard drive and rebooting this error. And now she was going to have to tell him….after she swore off drinking the water at the BAU. First JJ, then Prentiss, now her. Had terrorists slipped fertility pills into the water supply? Was that the method to their madness- getting all the women pregnant so they would be out on maternity leave?

Laying the stick on the bathroom counter, she stood up and rinsed her hands and face. She knew what she had to do, and the faster she approached it, the faster she could make a decision as to where her life was heading.

She would write him a note. A simple note telling him she needed to talk to him. Easy. Simple. And vague. But it had to be. She couldn't let the cat out of the bag before seeing him face to face. And even though she knew she loved him more than anything on planet earth, what he felt for her was still pretty indecipherable. She could leave no room for error.

Walking to the living room, she rifled thru her desk drawer for any piece of paper. It didn't have to be pretty or even smooth- just something she could jot a note on.

So was it irony or fate that she would find a Christmas card with a picture of a mother holding a baby on the front flap? Sighing, she grabbed the pen and wrote quickly. It had to be quick. Too much thinking and over preparing could ruin everything. Scribbling his name on the envelope, she inserted the card and sealed it shut.

Done. Finished. Complete. There was no turning back. Now all she had to do was wait until tomorrow when she got to work and leave it on his desk. What ever happened afterward was out of her hands. At least with Christmas being in a couple days away and the team being on stand down, if things didn't turn out the way she planned, there were two weeks to make new ones. Even if it meant leaving Quantico. She was adaptable and her child would be too.

She ran her hands over her tummy. It was official: Penelope Garcia was going to be a mommy. A mommy. The tears that filled her eyes were not of self-pity but of love for someone she had yet to meet. Someone she knew she would love until the day she died. And if life could afford her one more request, she wanted to share that love for the unknown with the person who had helped make one dream come true.

Maybe it was too much too soon but life was too short. She should know since she was there in the waiting room with the team as they waited on news about Emily. No surgery was without risk and hers was no exception. But it wasn't everyday an agent took a bullet for a colleague. It was less than everyday an agent took a devastator bullet to the gut.

They had almost lost her. Touch and go was an understatement when it came to her condition. And the mood in the waiting room matched the seriousness of the moment. It wasn't supposed to end like that; young and beautiful and on the verge of forever with a one in a million man. Okay, so Em and Rossi had broken up a couple weeks earlier, but that didn't stop him from caring.

She had watched the one time Lothario pace the waiting room- his clothes askew, hair standing on end; his eyes wild and red from tears of anger and frustration. But it was the look of loss written on his features that had stayed with her. Rossi loved Em. She had overheard him telling Hotch when they thought there was no one around.

She hadn't meant to eavesdrop- she had gone for a cup of coffee and to call JJ with an update when she walked up and heard voices. His voice was strained from unshed tears, but Rossi didn't let that get in the way of confessing to Hotch that he had screwed up royally. He had had a chance to make it right with Emily but crapped out because he wasn't sure if he was ready to gamble on love a fourth time.

Her heart broke as she heard the strongest man she knew break down and weep on the shoulder of his best friend. His sobs filled the empty room and brought tears to her eyes. Unashamed, she had cried along with him.

And when they got word that Em had pulled thru and was going to make it, there wasn't a happier group of people. Of course you could have heard a pin drop when the doctor revealed that Em was pregnant. Talk about getting a bonus along with a second chance. Right then and there she decided that if she ever got the chance to tell Derek how she felt, she would take it.

Okay, who knew that life was going to throw in a HUGE monkey wrench into her plans? But she was going to tell him. It was only fair to their child. Then she could let the chips fall where they may.

Sitting on the couch, she turned out the lamp and watched the twinkling lights on her Christmas tree. Not much to look at: she called it her Charlie Brown Christmas tree- a pathetic last minute find at the Goodwill on Christmas Eve last year, she had paid more for the ornaments to make it look presentable than what it cost her. But she loved it. It was hers. As was her baby. She was never going to part with either one.

Looking at the beautifully decorated star a top the crooked branch, she wondered if she was tempting fate by making a wish on a fake star. What the hell, every little bit could only help, right?

Closing her eyes, she made her wish.