Disclaimer: I don't own CSI:NY. If I had, this would have been part of the seasonal episode this season. Or last season.
Series: None.
Spoilers: None.

This is a response to Runner043's Flangell Christmas Challenge:

"It's time to deck the season with lots and lots of Flangell Christmas stories. No rules, just ideas:
What will Flack and Angell do for Christmas Eve? What will Flack and Angell do for Christmas day? What will Flack and Angell do if they have to work? What will Flack and Angell exchange for gifts? How will Flack and Angell resolve an artificial vs. real tree dilema?

(I don't want to brag, but I've answered all of those …)

A Very Flangell Christmas

It had taken a lot of planning, but Don Flack and Jessica Angell hadn't left anything to chance. They had both rearranged their shifts several times before they both wound up with the three holiday days off and weren't on-call.

They both 'accidentally' turned their phones off the day before Christmas Eve, before making the drive to Jersey.

Jess's parents, of course, welcomed them with open arms, accepting their explanation that they planned to spend Christmas Day with Don's family in Long Island.

However, what they didn't know was that Don and Jess had no plans to visit Don's family until December 26th, and would tell them that they had spent Christmas Day in Jersey.

It would be a while before people realised that neither cop had spent Christmas Day with their own family, which left only one other option.

Christmas morning started lazily for Don and Jess. They were woken, for once, by sunlight streaming through the gap in the curtains and Jess groaned quietly, turning over to bury her face in his chest.

Don chuckled tiredly and ran a hand through her hair. "Morning, sweetheart."

As always, a soft smile crossed her face when he called her that. "Morning." She murmured. "Do we have to get up?"

"For once, no." Don grazed a kiss across her forehead.

Jess sighed contentedly and nestled closer to him, frowning slightly as her stomach growled. "Yeah, but one of us needs to get up and make breakfast."

Don shifted. "Gimme five minutes." He murmured, kissing her cheek and sitting up.

"Where are you going?" Jess asked sleepily.

Don smirked at her. "Well, while you were fast asleep, I got up and got breakfast ready and then came back."

Jess frowned. "No, you didn't."

"I did." Don slipped out of bed. "Now stay there."

"Yes, Detective." Jess grinned, settling back against the pillows.

Sure enough, he was back in five minutes, carrying a tray bearing two mugs, a bowl of strawberries and two plates of pancakes.

"Kept them warm in the oven." He explained.

Jess accepted the mug he handed her, taking a sip. "Hot chocolate?"

"Some mornings call for coffee." Don shrugged. "Christmas morning calls for my mom's hot chocolate."

Jess took another sip, closing her eyes as the warm liquid trickled down her throat. "Mmm, you've got a point." She carefully placed her mug on the nightstand and he handed her a plate. "Have I told you how much I love you this morning?"

"No, but I haven't said it either." Don leaned across and kissed her softly. "I love you."

"I love you too." Jess whispered as they parted.

Ten minutes later, the plates lay empty on the nightstand and Jess was nestled in Don's arms, both of them cradling their mugs of hot chocolate as they picked at the bowl of strawberries between them.

"Do you think we should get up?" Don asked, eventually.

Jess sighed. "We probably should. I don't want to move though."

"I got an idea." Don said, slipping out of bed. Somehow, he managed to pick her up – duvet and all – and she started laughing.

"I can walk, you know."

"I know." Don set her down on the couch. "But this way we don't have to try to carry the duvet through."

Jess chuckled and disentangled herself from her warm cocoon, shivering slightly as the cold air made contact with her skin. Not unusually, she was wearing nothing more than one of Don's shirts and, as she bent over to search under the Christmas tree, she could feel his eyes on her and smirked.

"See something you like, Detective?"

"You know I do." Don responded, an equal smirk in his voice. "It's a nice tree."

Jess sniggered, straightening up. "Sure. You were looking at the tree."

"I am." Don insisted. "I'll admit, I was a little … sceptical when you suggested getting a real one, but it's nice."

"I just think it's more Christmassy." Jess shrugged. "I don't know why you were so hell-bent on getting a fake one."

Don cleared his throat. "I'll tell you later." He nodded to the parcels in her hand. "Playing Santa? I thought we weren't going anywhere."

"We're not." Jess settled back under the duvet and into his arms. "These are both for you. This one," she handed him the flatter of the two gifts, "is from the CSIs. You weren't there when we did the gift-exchange."

Don tore the paper off and chuckled, showing her a box of ties. "Do you think they're implying something?"

"Well, for some reason, you've stopped wearing them." Jess shrugged. "It doesn't look right. I actually miss the old, strange, cat-sick ties." She hesitated. "Why did you stop?"

Don didn't look at her, but his hand found the scar on her abdomen and covered it protectively. "When you were shot," he answered quietly, "and you fell into a coma, I used to talk to you. I promised you anything if you'd just come back to me. And every morning, when I got dressed, I'd hear your voice telling me how God-awful those ties were and I promised that I'd stop wearing them."

"Don, I complained, because it was funny how defensive you were of them." Jess admitted, tilting her head back. "They're … you. It's like seeing you without your badge; it's weird."

"Careful, Jessie; it sounds like you're about to eat your words." Don teased.

"I want the ties back, alright?" Jess sighed. "Now be nice, or you won't get your other present."

"Jess, I've got everything I need." Don told her, kissing her head. "You didn't have to get me anything."

Jess rolled her eyes. "I thought we decided we weren't going to do that?"

"We did." Don grinned, accepting the gift she shoved into his hands. "Fair enough." He opened it to find the Doctor Who box-set. "How'd you guess?"

"I can take a small hint." Jess smiled. "And what you were dropping was closer to boulder-sized suggestions."

Don chuckled. "That's true." He kissed her forehead. "Thank you." He handed her a small present. "Merry Christmas."

Beneath the wrapping paper was a soft box. Inside was a charm bracelet bearing an angel, a heart and a miniscule version of the NYPD shield.

"Don, it's beautiful." She whispered, touching each one gently.

"That last one wasn't easy." Don admitted, helping her fasten it around her wrist. "But there's one for every year we've been together."

"Any particular order?" Jess asked curiously.

"Well, NYPD brought us together." Don answered slowly. "So it would make sense for that one to come first, but the other two are interchangeable. The angel," he smiled, "has nothing to do with your name, by the way."

"I'd hoped not." Jess laughed. "So what is it for?"

"You are my angel." Don told her simply. "I can just never tell you that without making a pun." He kissed her softly and, when they parted, he was holding another small box in his hand.

"Don, we had an agreement; one present only." Jess reminded him warily.

"This is more for both of us." Don told her, shifting so they were facing each other. "You asked me why I was so set on getting a fake tree. It's because the real ones are great, but there was something special about a fake tree. Every year, at home, Dad goes into the attic and finds the same tree that he and Mom decorated years ago, before Sam was born, before I was born, before they were even married. It's tradition. I was just thinking it'd be nice for us to have one of those. But you know what?"

"What?" Jess asked quietly, slightly taken-aback by his answer.

"It doesn't matter." Don smiled at her. "It doesn't matter what traditions we make or break. Nothing I did this Christmas meant anything without you. Nothing I do in life means anything without you. But there's something I want to change for next year."

"What's that?" Jess asked.

"I want everyone to know." Don told her. "I'm tired of having to hide the fact that I love you. I want us to be able to stop worrying about what time we arrive in the morning in case people figure out we were together. I want you to be mine."

Jess touched his face. "I am yours."

"No." Don caught her hand – her left hand – as it drew back and kissed it tenderly. "Forever mine." With his other hand, he flipped the box open. "Marry me."

Jess stared at him for a few seconds, her eyes flickering between his face and the stunning ring he held out. Speechless, she silently pleaded with him not to lose hope.

Though she knew he couldn't read her mind, he seemed to understand, because the soft smile never left his face.

"I've experienced life without you, Jess; and it was hell. It took all of my willpower not to just ask you the day you woke up, but I know you. I know you'd say that I was doing it because of shock; that it was a knee-jerk reaction. And maybe it was. But this isn't." Don released her hand to cup her face. "I want you to be my wife. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

Finally Jess managed to muster a response. "I should warn you," she began shakily, "that once I say yes, you're never getting rid of me."

"I don't want to." Don told her.

"We'd be spending a lot of time together." Jess cautioned. "Working together as well – no escape there."

"Why would I want to?" Don asked rhetorically. "Besides, that's already true."

Jess bit her lip, knowing they hadn't really talked about the future. "I want children."

"So do I." Don kissed her. "What do you think?"

Jess raised an eyebrow, her heart thudding, wondering why he was even questioning her response, but could resist getting one last dig in. "I'm thinking, if you're such a traditionalist, you should be down on one knee."

Don chuckled. "Touché." He slipped down to kneel beside her, taking her hand again and looking up into her dark brown eyes. "Jessica Marie Angell, will you marry me?"

Jess closed her eyes for a second, before deciding that it didn't matter if she lost the battle with tears. She opened them again to meet his and smiled. "Yes."

She supposed she could have given just as long, just as passionate, just as real a speech as he had, but she didn't need to.

The smile Don gave her then could have lit up Time Square and he swept her into his arms, kissing her until her head span.

That Christmas Day, Don Flack and Jessica Angell didn't have a Christmas dinner, saving their appetites for the next day with his family, they didn't exchange any more gifts and they didn't see anyone else.

Instead, they stayed on the couch, wrapped in a duvet, exchanging kisses and whispered words of love, as they watched cheesy Christmas movies. His hand rested on her scar, caressing the skin tenderly, both in a protective gesture and in a silent promise that they wouldn't be alone next year.

Maybe it wasn't traditional.

But it was the perfect Christmas.

AN: Oh, the fluff … Can't work out if I'm proud or slightly sickened. Oh, well, let me know either way – and everyone have a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!