Washington DC, USA...

It had been 3 months since 9 year-old Isabella had seen her half-brother for the last time.
She remembered that weekend he spent with her after her school choir performance. They had so much fun together.
She had talked to him on the phone a lot but he was very busy working in the hospital and at the practice and couldn't go visit her again till that Christmas Eve morning.

She was sitting on the couch with Penelope Garcia, waiting for his arrival.

"They should be here anytime." Emily Prentiss, Bella's Mom, said walking in the living room and handing a cupcake to Bella and one to Penelope.

"Mom, who's coming exactly?" Bella asked and took a bite of her cupcake. The petit brunette was really excited to have people over.

"Hilary with Chloe and Millie, Your brother and Marley... And the team" Emily smiled.

Suddenly the buzzer rang. Bella smiled and ran to answer.
"Who is it?" She asked.

"Santa Claus" Jeremy said and she laughed.
Losing her dad was not easy and it was made worse by what her brother had tried to do, that custody battle broke her, but she was glad she was with her mother now and she was happy to see him. She really loved him.

"Come on up Jeremy" she said smiling and buzzed him in.
It wasn't long till he knocked on the door. Bella opened it and gave him a big hug. He lifted her up. "I missed you" Bella said.

"I missed you too" Jeremy smiled and put her down.

"Hi Marley" Bella said and hugged her brother's girlfriend.
They said hello to Emily and Penelope and started helping in the kitchen.
They had a great day cooking together.

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Around 5:30, they all went to get ready since dinner was meant to start at 7:45.
Bella showered and got dressed.
She walked downstairs and everyone smiled at how cute she looked. She had black tights, black Mary Janes and an adorable red dress on. Her hair was down with just a red ribbon tied on the top of her head, just like Matilda's in the movie.

"What?" She asked as she noticed everybody smiling.

"You look gorgeous, honey" Emily told her with a big proud smile.

"Thanks" Bella said with a shy smile and walked to her mother.
They sat to watch tv while waiting for the guests. Everyone was concentrated on the Christmas special they were watching but Emily couldn't take her eyes away from the Christmas tree that stood in the corner of the living room.
Bella had chosen the place and they had so much fun decorating it.
It was the first Christmas tree she ever had in her own house.
Emily smiled as she remembered the day they put it up.

Suddenly she heard Isabella laughing and she remembered the girl's first Christmas.

**** 9 years ago... New York City.

It had been a month since Emily had left Bella for the first time. It was a hard decision to leave the girl in America with John, Bella's dad, so she could work for Interpol and her daughter would be safe.
She tried focusing on her work other than the fact her daughter was so far away from her. She had to go back undercover. She tried calling John whenever she could using a disposable phone and mostly at night. She said she was going to try to see them around Christmas. She really didn't want to miss Isabella's first Christmas.
John always told her that Isabella was doing fine but the truth was that the child was missing her mother. She would get fussy when she was hungry and refused the bottle sometimes and just cried.
For John, in the first few weeks the crying was the worst part. He would have to walk around the house bouncing and almost dancing to be able to calm Isabella down. While with Emily all she needed to do was hold the baby close.
For John's luck one day He had a friend over, Shepherd, and Isabella started crying. John was cooking dinner so Shepherd went to get the girl. He placed her head on the left side of his chest and just walked downstairs. When he got to the kitchen she was barely making a sound.

"How in the world did you do that?" John asked surprised.

"I don't know. I just held her" Shepherd said laughing and sitting down on the couch. Once he laid her on his leg the crying started again.
"What did I do wrong?" He asked confused and worried.
Suddenly John realized. Emily was always carrying the girl close to her chest and that was what Shepherd had done.

"Let her listen to your heart" John said as he realized.

"What?" Shepherd asked even more confused.

"Put her head on your chest again" John said and Shepherd did and the crying started going down and in 2 minutes she was asleep.

"How did you know that?" Shepherd asked.

"Emily used to do it" he said smiling.
He never loved Emily as a man loves his wife, hint the reason they never got married. But he loved her as a friend, she was his best friend and he missed her. He wished she didn't need to hide the family part of her life. He wished she could stay with Bella.

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Christmas came by fast and with a little lie Emily managed to travel to America.
Shepherd had invited John to spend Christmas with him and Addison and since Emily was coming he thought it was perfect. If anything happened they could say Isabella was His and Addison's daughter.

Emily flew to New Jersey on December 23 and arrived the next day, Christmas Eve. Shepherd went to Newark's airport to pick her up. She was happy to see him and was beyond excited to see her baby again.
Everyone was already in Addison's house when Shepherd and Emily arrived.
Emily ran to the front door.

"It's snowing. Be careful" Shepherd said laughing. "She's not going anywhere" he said and rang the bell. He had forgotten his key.

Addison opened the door.
"Hi. Come on in" she told Emily.

"Where is she?" Emily asked, trying to look inside, before even talking properly to Addison.

"Living room" Addison smiled and Emily walked inside.
She hurried to the living room to find Jeremy and John sitting watching tv. John had Isabella in his arms dressed in an adorable red dress with white snowflakes on it.
Emily let out a big breath of relieve once she saw her daughter and her eyes filled with tears.
John walked to her and handed Bella over.

"She looks so big" Emily said with tears in her eyes as she held the little girl.

"Hi" Emily said smiling at the baby who just stared at her.

"She's looking more and more like you every day" Jeremy said smiling and Emily smiled at him.

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Emily spent the entire day with her daughter. She had to go to the bathroom one time so she handed Bella to John and the little girl started crying.

"Oh it's okay. Shuuu shuuu daddy's here" he said trying to calm the child down but with no success. Emily used the bathroom as fast as she could and John handed the girl back to her.

"Shuuu it's okay. It's alright Bella" Emily whispered on the girl's ear and sat down on the couch. Shortly after the baby stopped crying and was happily staring at her mother as Emily made funny faces to her.
Emily loved seeing the girl's sparkly eyes as she stared at the Christmas tree. She was loving it.

.

The rest of the night went great.
Emily decided to take a cab to her apartment and not ride with John, just in case. So they did that and met again inside their building. She was glad she bought an apartment there to stay closer to the girl whenever she was in town.

"Hey. I talked to dad and you can have my room while you're here" Jeremy said. "She would love if you spent the night" he added and Emily smiled.

"Thank you Jeremy. And you can have my place for the night. It doesn't have that many things in it yet but" she said and everyone laughed.

"John. Can I?" Emily asked wanting to hold her daughter and John handed Isabella to her. The girl was fast asleep and it was almost midnight so they went up to the apartment.

"I'm gonna put her in her room, okay?" Emily asked as they walked inside.

"Sure" John said and Emily headed to Isabella's bedroom.
She looked around the room and smiled as she saw the picture they had taken at the hospital, when Bella was born, right at the top of the dresser. She got close to it and picked it up. Her heart ached a bit for the fact she wouldn't always be there for her daughter but she knew she was doing everything she could at the time.
She placed the photo back and put Isabella on the crib, who stayed fast asleep. She kissed the girl's forehead and headed to the living room.

John and Emily stayed up a while longer talking about how her work had been and how Isabella was doing.
It was almost 2am when they decided to go to bed. John headed to his bedroom and Emily went to Jeremy's. She took a shower, got dressed and laid on the bed.
But she couldn't sleep. She just couldn't stop thinking about baby Bella.
After a lot of debating with herself she decided to go get the girl. She went to Isabella's bedroom, picked the girl up and sat on the rocking chair and just held the sleeping baby in her arms.

"Hi" she said as Bella opened her eyes. "Mommy is here" she said and the baby closed her eyes again.
She stayed there for almost 2 hours, just staring at her daughter. Then she decided she should get some sleep so she placed Isabella back on the crib and headed to Jeremy's room.
It took some time for her to fall asleep. She kept telling herself the little girl was fine and was just sleeping in the bedroom next door.
After a while her brain finally believed it and she fell asleep.

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The next morning Emily woke up early and went to Isabella's room. The girl was still fast asleep. She picked the girl up and sat on the rocking chair. Sometime after, John walked in with a bottle for the girl.

"You're up" John smiled and walked to them.

"Good morning" Emily said.

"Merry Christmas" John smiled and handed her the girl's bottle.

"Merry Christmas" Emily smiled and gave Bella the bottle.

"I'll make breakfast." John said smiling at the scene and went to the kitchen.
He made French toast and coffee, and went to get Emily. Who followed him downstairs.
"How was your night?" John asked as Emily placed Bella on the bassinet in the living room and walked to the kitchen island.

"It was good" Emily smiled.

They started eating in silence.

After a while Emily said "she's amazing, isn't she?" as the girl kicked her little legs around.

John smiled "she is" he said.

They finished eating and Emily went to give Bella a bath which she felt so amazing doing. Once done she put a Christmas onesie on the girl and they went to Shepherd's house.

"Come on in" Shepherd said and they walked inside. Addison was waiting by the Christmas tree. They sat on the couch and started exchanging gifts.

"You didn't have to get me anything" Emily said as John handed her a box.
He smiled as she struggled to open it with Bella in her arms.

"Oh John, It's beautiful" Emily said taking a gold bracelet with a little heart charm on it.

"The heart means Bella. So you'll always have her with you" he said.

"Thank you" Emily said with tears in her eyes. She wished she didn't need a bracelet to "have" her daughter close. But she was thankful for the gift.

John held her hand. "This kid is lucky to have you as mother" he said and they both looked at Bella.

"Well, this one gets a gift too" John said and got a bag. He pulled a little reindeer plush out.

Everyone laughed.

"That's cute" Addison said and John handed it to the girl who swung it around.

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The day went on great.
Emily stayed with Bella and enjoyed the girl as much as she could. She had to go back the next morning so that night she gave Bella a bath, gave her the bottle and rocked her to sleep.

"I love you Bells" Emily said as she placed Bella down on her crib.
She stared at the baby for a while and then went to Jeremy's room to sleep.

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Around 4:30am, Emily woke up with the noise of Isabella crying. She ran to the girl's room as fast as she could and picked her up. Bella kept desperately crying.

John walked in. "What happened?" He asked.

"I don't know. I woke up with her crying" Emily said worried.

"It's probably colic, gas maybe" John said and took Bella from Emily. "Sit down" he said and Emily sat on the rocking chair. John put Bella down on Emily's lap. "Massage her tummy like this. It usually helps" he said showing her what to do.

"You can do it" Emily told him a bit scared. A sight John wasn't used to.

"No. You got this. It's alright" John said grabbing Emily's hand and showing her exactly what to do.

Bella started to calm down.

"You got it" he told her and let go of her hand.

Emily kept running her hand in a circle motion on the girl's tummy and eventually the crying stopped.

"I'm gonna get her bottle" John said. Emily nodded and he went to the kitchen.
Emily just stared at Bella who wouldn't take her eyes off her too.

"Glad daddy's here huh?" Emily said. She felt bad she didn't know how to help the girl. She felt like she should've known.

Suddenly John walked back in. He saw how she looked at Bella.
"Hey. She's okay" John told her and handed her the bottle.

"I just feel like I should've known what was wrong. I'm her mother" Emily said.

"Emily, I didn't know what was wrong. I just thought it was gas. We got lucky this time. You have no idea how long she takes to stop crying sometimes" John said. "You did good with her" he added.

Emily just stared at Bella who was starting to blink slowly.

"Hey. You're a good mom" John said.

Emily gave him a small smile. "And she's okay now, see?" He smiled big as he noticed Bella was back asleep.

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Around 8, Emily woke up to find John watching a movie with Bella in his arms.
She had to leave in 3 hours and she just hated it.

"Good morning" John smiled and she sat next to him.
"When is your flight?" He asked as she stared at the baby.

"One" Emily said.

"Here" John said and handed Bella to her. He went to the kitchen and grabbed her some coffee. He walked back to find Emily with tears rolling down her face. He didn't know what to do. He wasn't used to Emily crying. He sat next to her and said "everything's going to be okay".
Emily wiped her tears and handed him the baby. "I know" she said. "... It's just hard" she added and grabbed the coffee mug.
John nodded looking down at Bella.

They stayed there with the baby till it was time for Emily to leave. She kissed Bella and hugged John goodbye.

"I'll call you" she said. "And mommy will be back soon" she told Bella who just smiled. She kissed the girl again and headed to the airport.

As the plane took off she looked down on her wrist and smiled at the gold bracelet.
She held the heart charm and smiled as her eyes filled with tears.
She hated having to leave the girl.

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**** back on the "present" time...

Emily heard Isabella laughing and she remembered the girl's first Christmas, it was a very special one for her in particular. Bella was too little to be excited about presents but she could remember the child's sparkling eyes as she stared at the Christmas tree. It was magical for Emily to see.

Suddenly the guests started arriving.
First Hilary and her girls, Chloe and Millie; then JJ and Will with little Henry who was more than happy to see his best friend Bella. Then Rossi, Morgan and Reid.
They gathered in the living room and started chatting while the kids watched a Christmas movie on tv. A while later Hotch arrived with Jack, who fit right in with the other kids.
They sat to have dinner and they had a wonderful time. Everyone looked so happy celebrating together.
Bella was sitting between her friend Chloe and Emily, and as she looked around the table she saw her family.
And she absolutely loved every single one of them.

After dinner was done the kids went to play in Bella's room.

"She looks so happy, Em" JJ told Emily as Bella ran upstairs giggling with her friends.

Emily smiled.