Two days later, Blake was trying to have a cup of tea while Sergio decided this was the perfect moment to sit on her shoulder. To avoid getting scratched when he got these ideas, she had switched from the blouses she usually wore, to a soft and very comfy hoodie. And this hoodie, along with a pair of old jeans that could take a scratching without leaving her bleeding afterwards, was what she was wearing when she answered the door.

Garcia and Morgan stared at her as if she was a completely different person. In a way, Blake supposed that she was.

"Uh… hi," Garcia said, her eyes darting from the hoodie, to the sloppy ponytail, to the pawing cat on the brunette's shoulder. She had never seen Blake look more… comfortable. Not unkempt, but comfortable. Relaxed.

"Hey guys, you're early," Blake said and put the tea cup down on a table so she'd get both hands free to untangle Sergio's claws from her hair. "Ow, Serge, we've been over this already. If you're going to sit on my shoulder you have to be still."

"Looks like you two get along nicely," Morgan said, chuckling. "Penelope was worried you'd be at war by now."

"I wasn't worried, I was just… not really expecting this," Garcia admitted when Sergio slid down Blake's shoulder and came to rest in her arms. The older woman looked at Garcia's hand, the one with the fingers laced together with Morgan's, and nodded.

"And I didn't expect that," she said pointedly, and smiled as Garcia's cheeks flushed. "After all these years, it only took a mistletoe to set things straight."

Garcia ignored her comment, but her flush deepened, and Morgan chuckled a little, at a loss of what to say. That was probably a first, Blake thought and hugged Sergio a little bit tighter, then sighed.

"I'll go get his stuff."

It was possible that her voice sounded a bit thick, and it was also possible that Garcia heard it, or perhaps she just read Blake's sad body language, because the tech analyst said;

"No, Alex."

Blake turned back, trying to look at Garcia over Sergio, who was nuzzling her with all his might, not to mention his whiskers.

"What?"

"I think we should make an arrangement. He stays with you. And when you go away on cases, I'll take him."

"But… aren't you going to miss him?"

"Of course, my sweet lady, but if you haven't noticed, this 'going away on cases' thing is a pretty frequent part of your job description," Garcia joked, and then grew serious. "You need him, Alex. That was the first thing Emily said after you spoke on the phone the other day. And, well…" she chuckled as Sergio hooked his front claws into Blake's collar. "He's pretty attached to you. Literally."

"I'm very attached to him too," Blake said, and found that it wasn't so hard to admit after all. "Thank you Garcia. It really… it means a lot to me."

"I could tell."

By now Sergio felt that he had gotten his point across and showed everyone where he preferred to stay, so he didn't have to keep rubbing it in. He jumped down from his newest human's arms and strolled up to greet his other human and her mate. He liked them okay too, and it was nice of them to come and visit him. The least he could to was say a proper hello before he went to toast himself by the open fireplace and wait for his new human to sit down so he could grace her with his cuddles. Only because she needed them. He hadn't yet managed to shed enough fur on her pants to shelter her from the chilly weather, in case she was crazy enough to go outside. But it was hard to donate enough fur, because every time he got close, she got up and rolled those sticky things on her clothes to remove it, so he had to start all over again. He wasn't one to give up, however. He didn't want her to freeze, and even more importantly, he didn't want any other cat to believe they could have her.

He allowed the others to pet him for a brief moment and then scurried back inside. There was snow out, still! Why didn't these humans do anything about that abomination?

"Paws getting cold?" Blake asked, amused. He shot her a contemptuous glare and walked away with his tail in the air. All the way out to the kitchen.

Meoooow!

Blake exchanged looks with Garcia and they both burst out laughing.

"Yeah, I know that meow," Garcia said. "You'd better go serve His Royal Highness some food."

"Would you like to come in and have something to eat too? I'm not going to serve you cat food, I promise. I'm not that much of a cat lady," Blake said. "It's just that I made so much food for Christmas, there's no way I'll be able to eat all of it myself. Even if the little guy out there is having his share of the turkey…"

"We'd love to," Morgan said before Garcia had a chance to reply. He gave her an apologetic glance. "You know I love you baby girl, but I'm tired of the vegetarian stuff, and Emily cannot cook if her life depended on it."

"Don't worry, Penelope," Blake assured her, "there is plenty of food sans meat as well, you're not going to leave the table hungry, I promise."

"If it's not too much trouble," Garcia said, sounding uncharacteristically shy.

"No trouble at all. Come on in," Blake said and stepped aside to let them in.

So they went inside, and as they took off their coats Blake realised this was the first time she had ever invited anyone from the team into her home. She had always thought that it would be a line between personal and professional life that she didn't want to cross, but instead she found that having them there made the house seem more like a home. More lively. It was a strange, but satisfying feeling.

As she went into the kitchen to feed Sergio and prepare the promised meal, she made eye contact with the cat.

"Are you my Christmas miracle?" she murmured. She could have sworn he winked at her.

Then he went back to eating.

A/N

I'm going to slap the "complete" tag on this story now, but I liked the idea of Blake taking over Sergio so I might write more on that premise in the future. Garcia got Morgan and Blake got to keep the cat, without having to worry about where to leave him when she leaves on a case. And Garcia get Sergio to keep her company when Morgan is away on those cases. Win/win. ^^