~December 25, 2002~

Katie rolled over in her sleeping, reaching for AJ as she often did.  Nothing.  The sleep slowly subsided as Katie felt around without opening her eyes.  She grumbled as she slowly opened her eyes to see if she could locate him.  Again, nothing.  He'd left her alone in their bed on Christmas morning.  Men.

Katie slowly threw her legs over the side of the bed and sat up.  After taking a moment to consider her current clothing situation, AJ's t-shirt, she decided to just go find him.  It's not like anyone could see anything anyways.

It was their first Christmas and Katie had intended on waking up in AJ's arms.  She went off in search, coming to an abrupt halt at the top landing of the stairs.

"Bacon?" Katie whispered to herself.  She squinted her eyes and took in a deep breath through her nose to smell again.  That was definitely bacon.  What was it doing in this house at this hour?

Katie thought again of only the t-shirt that she wore, wondering if there could be someone else here cooking breakfast.  The loud crashes and wonderfully foul language put her at ease.  It was definitely AJ.

She quietly made her way down the stairs, smiling at the amazingly decorated house.  AJ had gone all out the previous week.  Katie and Beth returned home to a Winter Wonderland of sorts.  There was no snow, but that wasn't needed to know that it was definitely Christmas in this house.  The ginormous tree was perfectly decorated.  There was a wreath on the front door.  Elegant white icicle lights hung from the roof outside.  And the mistletoe.  As if he'd needed an extra excuse to kiss her, AJ had strategically placed sprigs of mistletoe around the house.  Instead of getting him kissed, though, it got him smacked...

"Mistletoe?  Really?" Beth laughed, eyebrows raised, as she checked out the finely decorated house.

"Hey, mistletoe is fun!" Katie protested.  She had a grin from ear to ear.  Christmas had been a huge deal with her family growing up, so having the house all decorated like this was amazing.

The girls kept walking through the house, looking at the decorations.  They'd stopped together to look at the Christmas Cards sitting on a small table and AJ starting giggling.

"What the hell is your problem?" Beth turned towards him, rolling her eyes.

AJ looking up over the girls' heads and tried to hold back a mischievous grin.  Beth looked up and immediately stepped towards AJ.

"What?" Katie turned around, now curious.

"Your boyfriend is a dumbass."

"Hey, I'm not a dumbass."

Katie looked up and noticed the sprig of mistletoe that was hanging over their heads and glared at AJ.

"If you thought that was going to work...you're lucky I like the rest of the decorations.  The mistletoe is coming down."

Katie and AJ had a long discussion about the mistletoe.  Most of it came down.  Katie laughed at the memory of the look on AJ's face when Beth lunged toward him.

The noise in the kitchen brought Katie back to the present and she continued into the kitchen.  She fingered the decorations as she passed them.  This was going to be Katie's first amazing Christmas in a long time, she just had that feeling.

"Looks like someone is busy in here," Katie smiled, standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

AJ jumped, startled, and turned towards her, "Shit babe, you scared me!"

"Sorry.  I was just trying to figure out what it was that was ruining my dream of waking up in the arms of my wonderful boyfriend on our first Christmas together?"

"I'm making you breakfast."

"Are you sure about that?" Katie teased.  She noticed the stack of dishes already in the sink and smiled.

"Hey, I'm trying.  It's the thought that counts, right?"

Katie moved into the kitchen, coming up behind AJ, "You're right.  Something smells good."

She wrapped her arms around his waist, laying her head on his t-shirt covered back and inhaled.  He always smelled so good.  Squeezing him tight, she pressed a kiss to the center of his back before stepping back to let him resume cooking.

"Would you like some help?"

"You're supposed to be in bed.  I had this all planned out, and you weren't supposed to be up yet."

"Mighta helped if you weren't so loud in here," Katie giggled.

AJ turned around to face her, a spatula in his hand, "Hey, I don't cook.  I think I'm doing a damn fine job."

Katie sat herself on the bar stool on the other side of the kitchen and grinned, "You are.  I'm just giving you a hard time."

"I'm almost done anyways.  Just have to put it on plates."

AJ shoed Katie back up to bed so he could bring her breakfast in bed, even though it wasn't the same since she'd gotten up already.  Nonetheless, the couple enjoyed the breakfast, talking and laughing at each other the entire time.

No sooner had the two finished their breakfast, then Katie had bolted up, excited to give AJ his Christmas present.

"I've been waiting to give you this for weeks.  I was so excited!" Katie exclaimed, trying to coax AJ out of bed and down to the tree.

AJ played it up, trying to convince her they had all morning.  He was trying to prepare himself, running over his words in his mind, trying to stay cool.  He eventually followed her downstairs, letting her lead-or drag, whatever-him to the living room where the large tree stood.

Stopping once in the room, AJ went over to a chair and plopped down.  He watched Katie excitedly look under the present-filled tree for the hidden gift she sought.  He waited for her to notice it.

There were so many gifts under the tree for all the various people they would be seeing later that afternoon that Katie was having trouble locating the gift.  Standing up to move to the other side of the tree, something caught her eye.  AJ knew she'd spotted it and got into position without her noticing.

Katie stopped and did a double take.  The morning light had reflected off of something.  A new ornament?  Stepping closer, Katie saw what it was.  A small ring hung from a string on a branch at her eye level.  That wasn't there when she'd come down earlier.

Katie reached up to take the ring off of the branch and turned to AJ.

"What..." her words caught in her throat when she saw him on his knee in front of her.

AJ took her hands in his, the ring hanging from the string between their hands.  He looked up at her face, looking in her eyes, trying to keep himself calm.  His heart felt like it would beat right out of his chest, he was so nervous.

"Babe...you know I love you with everything I am.  These few weeks have been amazing, waking up with you every morning, going to sleep with you every night.  I want to do that for the rest of my life.  I want to share everything with you, I want you to share everything with me.  I want to spend my life with you and have babies with you...will you make me the happiest man ever and be my wife?"

Katie stood before him, her eyes watering, trying to take it all in.  She'd had no idea that this was coming.  She'd thought about marrying AJ, and of course she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, but she just wasn't sure.  Katie didn't know if he was asking her because he truly wanted to marry her, or if it was just because of everything they'd gone through.

They hadn't even known each other for a whole year yet.  Four months.  Sure it was the best four months of her life, but still, it was only four months.  If she said yes...would it work?  Katie only wanted to be married once, so she had to make sure it was absolutely right.