It was Christmas Eve. It had been a glorious Christmas season so far for Lee and Amanda, their first as husband and wife. Lee had plunged into the preparations -- the decorating, the gifts, even the baking -- as wholeheartedly as Amanda. He drew the line at signing and addressing Christmas cards, but otherwise, entered fully into the spirit of the holiday for the first time in his life.

Given his years of avoiding Christmas celebrations at all costs, it wasn't surprising that some of his co-workers had marveled at his newfound enthusiasm. A week before Christmas, Francine had found herself jockeying for space in the entranceway to the "IFF" lobby with Lee and a rather good-sized fir tree. Francine eyed Lee and the tree critically. "Well, well, well, what's this, Stetson? Domesticity? I thought you were the original "Bah, Humbug" of the intelligence community."

"All right, all right, Francine. Maybe I've just gotten tired of spending my Christmases with killers and thieves, okay?" Lee looked slightly chagrined, but managed to keep his smile, and Francine smiled comfortably in return.

"I can see where that would get a bit old," she said. "I'll come up and see it when you and Amanda get it decorated, okay?" she promised, indicating the tree.

"You do that," Lee replied, beginning to wrestle his burden up the stairs. When he got to the Q Bureau with the tree, he complained to Amanda that Francine had given him a hard time about it.

"Well, I'm sure you did look pretty silly lugging that thing in here," she said with practicality. "It's huge! And can you really blame her for not being able to resist commenting? I'm the one who brought last year's little tree. You've never exactly been Mr. Christmas Spirit before."

"I never had you before," he said simply, and leaned over to kiss her lightly on the forehead. "Come on. Let's get these lights on before someone else comes in to comment on my sudden change of heart!" No one intruded on their decorating, and the tree was finished in record time. It brightened the office for the rest of the week.

Billy had noticed the tree on one of his visits, but said nothing all week. He finally remarked at the Christmas party, "Well, Scarecrow, it's nice to see somebody kept you off the duty roster for tonight." He smiled knowingly at Amanda, who was hard pressed not to blush. Billy's smile was kind, however, and she rallied to say, "No sir! Lee's spending Christmas with me and my family. I guess after last year's adventure he decided it was safer to get into the Christmas spirit." She beamed happily at Lee.

"Well, that sounds like a good idea to me, Amanda," Billy said, beginning to disengage. "Have a lovely holiday, you two," he added as he moved on to mingle with others from the department.

As Billy walked away, Lee watched her proudly, delighted at the exchange. Amanda watched their boss leave with a mixture of pleasure and concern on her face.

"Do you think he knows?" she asked quietly, as the party swirled around them.

"No, don't be silly," Lee whispered back. "Why wouldn't he say so if he knew?"

"Maybe he doesn't want to break up the best team he's got," Amanda said. Her lighthearted grin showed that she wasn't really concerned about their biggest secret being discovered.

"Nothing," Lee whispered intensely, "is going to break up this team!"

Amanda glanced around briefly, decided they were unobserved, and patted his cheek. "You're right there," she said. "But I think we'd better make a break from this party, if we're going to get home for church and dinner."

Lee looked at his watch and agreed with her assessment. They made they good-byes and worked their way out through the labyrinth of Agency security to get to the parking lot. From there it was home, to Amanda's house and the rest of the family: Phillip and Jamie, Dotty, Amanda's Aunt Lillian.... Joe, newly remarried himself, wasn't there this year; the boys would spend tomorrow afternoon with their father and his wife after the gift exchange at their own home Christmas morning.

That night after church and dinner, Phillip and Jamie were allowed to open a few presents, and Lee was flattered when they both included his gift among their chosen few. He had spent many long hours choosing a modest but versatile camera for Jamie and the beginnings of a set of fine automotive tools for Phillip, and was delighted with their reactions.

When at last the boys had been shooed off to bed, and Dotty and Lillian had followed them -- pointedly remarking that they would all have to be up early in the morning to finish their gift exchanges before the boys went to Joe's -- Lee and Amanda sat themselves down on the couch in front of the still-cozy fire, each holding a cup of coffee.

Lee was still on an emotional high from the spirit of the season and from the undeniable fact that he had been accepted into the tight-knit family, even without his marriage to Amanda being known. He couldn't really articulate it, but he was happier than he had ever been. Without ever having actually sipped any of the coffee, he suddenly reached over and set the cup down on the coffee table.

"You know," he said, now playing with his fingers in his lap and looking up almost shyly, "last Christmas, after we got here, was wonderful. But I still didn't really feel like I belonged, you know?" Amanda smiled to indicate that she knew. "But now --" Lee shook his head and sighed happily. "Now I think I really am part of the family."

He looked back over at the tree, and the gifts, both wrapped and unwrapped, still underneath it. "Did you see the look on Jamie's face when he saw the camera?"

"Um, I sure did, sweetheart, he was thrilled! And I think Phillip can't wait to try out those tools." Taking a drink of her coffee, she teased, "If I were you, I'd make sure your car isn't in too tempting a spot in the morning."

Lee looked at her with a wry smile, and began to chatter on in a most un-Lee-Stetson-like manner about all the joys of the season.

Amanda watched him lovingly, and told him his sparkle reminded her of Ebenezer Scrooge after that poor man's night with the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.

In a flash of insight, Lee realized at that moment that she was almost literally right. The feeling was so strong, he blurted it out without his usual self-censorship. It wasn't last year's frightening mission gone wrong, or the earlier one, either that had made the difference this year. "Maybe I did meet up with that Ghost of Christmas Future," he said, "back in California when you were shot."

"Hmm?" Amanda wasn't at all sure what he meant.

"I just kept thinking, what if you died? All I could think of was how empty my life would be without you. And maybe some part of me remembers that now."

Moved, Amanda said softly, "Well, I didn't die, and I'm here now, with you, and it's Christmas Eve."

Lee shook off his remembered melancholy. "Yes, it is, and yes, you are." He smiled again and held out his arms to her. "Come here," he said.

Amanda's cup of coffee joined Lee's on the table, and she leaned into his arms. They sat contentedly in front of the fire for some time, not speaking. The logs were burning down now, producing a deep glow with little flame.

Finally Amanda stirred slightly and said, "I guess we should get that bed made up for you." They never shared the bed in Amanda's room upstairs when the rest of the family was at home. Somehow it didn't seem right, when her mother and sons didn't know they were married. It was silly in this day and age, they supposed, but there it was.

"Uhmmmm," Lee agreed with the suggestion that it was time for sleep, but neither of them actually moved. After a while, Lee murmured, "It's Christmas Eve. And you're here. With me."

"And you're here with me," Amanda finished dreamily.

The fire died down even more, as Lee and Amanda slipped into slumber together, the perfect ending to a perfect day.

At the break of dawn, or perhaps even before, Jamie and Phillip King raced downstairs towards the family room and the Christmas tree. Their mother, had she seen them, would have mused that Christmas makes small boys of even the most determinedly "grown up" teenagers. As Phillip started poking at packages, his brother poked him in the ribs.

"Look," Jamie said, pointing to Lee and Amanda, still sleeping on the couch. "Do you think they've been there all night?"

"Looks like it," said Phillip, with a polished appraisal. He shrugged and turned back to the packages he'd been examining. "Do you think this might be those basketball shoes I wanted?" he asked.

Jamie gave one last look at the pair by the fireplace, and turned to aid Phillip.

So it was that their mother and stepfather awoke to find their family comfortably ignoring them. Lee and Amanda stretched achy bodies quietly, and beamed at each other. Had there been any doubt before, it was now clear, abundantly, that they were home. Together. With their family. And it was Christmas Day.

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