DISCLAIMER: I do not own 'D.E.B.S.', Angela Robinson does. Though if I had my way, there would have been a sequel or two by now. ;) The lyrics are All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.

Home for Christmas
By Obsidian

There were a lot of places Amy Bradshaw would have liked to be on Christmas Eve. At home, with the family that she saw so rarely these days. With her friends and teammates in the DEBS. Even relaxing on a beach somewhere, ignoring the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

Trudging through a seemingly endless series of one- or two-foot high snowdrifts in the middle of a raging blizzard was not anywhere on the list.

And yet, there she was, doing just that. She hadn't really told anyone where she was going, though she suspected Janet probably had a fair idea. She was the one who had gotten the information Amy had needed, after all. In another time and place, she might have felt bad about lying to them, but this was something she simply had to do. And they never would have let her go if they knew why she was going.

She'd hated to leave things between them as they were, but Lucy had vanished. There had been new crimes, of course, but somehow the DEBS never quite seemed to catch up with their arch-enemy. Amy had decided at the time that it was just as well, since she'd had no idea how she would have felt if confronted with Lucy again, but...

It really wasn't fair. Through no real fault of hers or Lucy's, things had just gone wrong. Personally, she blamed Max, but she seemed to do that for a lot of things lately, whether it was true or not. It was so easy to do so, after all.

She pulled her PDA out of her pocket and consulted the map. The blizzard made the GPS worthless, of course, but her PDA knew where she'd started and how far she'd gone, and thus was able to tell her she was getting close.

Which was good. Because if she didn't get there soon, she'd turn into a DEB-sicle.

Lucy stared sightlessly into the fire blazing on the hearth, and sighed.

She didn't much like this place, which was why she only went there when she was feeling miserable. Or to feel miserable. It was smaller then any of her lairs, especially the LA one, and would never have accommodated her crew.

It wasn't meant to. It was a retreat from the world, and that was exactly how it was designed. Somewhere between the size of a large house and a small mansion, it was tastefully decorated in warm, calming colors, and was heavily insulated and well-carpeted. This was important, given its location.

Honestly, she'd hoped to see the last of it after the two years she'd spent there recovering after the breakup (fine, after she was dumped), especially once Amy had come along...

No. No thinking of her, especially not now. Not tonight.

She snuggled up tighter on the comfortable couch, pulling the blanket closer around her. She did have the heat up, but the pervasive cold carried by the omni-present wind tended to penetrate even the best insulation money could buy. Besides, sitting in front of a roaring fire was all she felt like doing.

So maybe she was wallowing. What of it?

She honestly had no idea why things hadn't worked out with Amy. The hell of it was that the blonde hadn't seemed to, either, which had made getting mad at her very hard. And without someone to be mad at, Lucy was left feeling... empty. Lonely. Miserable.

Thus her current location.

The wind outside and the fire inside were the only sounds, which might have gotten to her if she'd been in a better mood, but also made it easy enough to tell when someone began trying to break into her house. Or almost-lair. Or whatever. She'd never really bothered to come up with a name for it.

She was on her feet in an instant, dashing for her gun. There was no way anyone should have been able to get that close without her knowing it. The laser trip sensors in the woods-

She stopped and slapped a hand over her face, groaning.

-were currently buried under about two-plus feet of snow. And the security cameras were likewise snowed over, or at least blinded by the wind and snow to the point of uselessness. But who'd be insane enough to approach her under these conditions?

As she approached the hallway leading to the door, gun in hand, she heard it open. Following this were the sounds of someone stumbling inside, the unfiltered fury of the driving blizzard (which was accompanied by a blast of freezing air that she felt even from around the corner where she'd paused), and grumbled cursing as the door was quickly shut.

Very familiar-sounding grumbled cursing.

Lucy froze. No, it can't be...

"Iceland, Lucy? Iceland?! You know, most people would have gone to the Bahamas, or Fiji, or something, not freaking Reykjavík!"

It couldn't be. But somehow it was. Lucy's gun dropped from suddenly nerveless fingers to the floor with a clatter, but she didn't notice. All she could see as she took that last step around the corner was a snow-coated figure shaking herself off. She had a duffel bag that had been wrapped in something to keep its contents dry, and was wearing several layers. After she'd discarded the topmost one, any lingering doubts Lucy might have had about her identity vanished. "Amy? What... What are you...?" She tried to summon up some kind of anger, but all she got was more shock. "What are you doing here?"

"At the moment? Freezing." Without another word, Amy swept by her and headed for the fire, dropping her bag on the coffee table in front of the couch.

Lucy followed her, still stunned, but finally managing to work through it. "What the hell, Amy?"

"Nice to see you again, too. I was starting to think you were avoiding me."

"I was." That, at least, seemed to get through to Amy, and the blonde winced a little. Lucy pushed down the impulse to apologize. "How did you find me?"

"Scud told me." She paused. "Well, really, he told Janet, but he knew she was asking for me."

"That little traitor," Lucy muttered, edging closer to the couch, though she still kept the length of it between them. Amy seemed to be thawing, judging by the way she took off the coat she'd had on underneath her other coat, leaving her in a cranberry turtleneck sweater, navy blue sweatpants, and woolen socks. With her hair mussed from having been confined in a hat (which had itself been under her jacket's hood), she looked...

Lucy swallowed hard and reminded herself to be strong.

She herself was just wearing gray sweats, not having been expecting company. Amy didn't seem to mind.

"Don't be mad at him," Amy chastised softly, turning away from the fire to give Lucy her full, undivided attention. "You know he only did it because he cares."

"What are you doing here?" Lucy asked again.

"No one should be alone on Christmas."

It was a simple statement, delivered with nothing but a sort of casual sincerity, but it still made Lucy stagger and drop down to sit on the arm of the couch. "Do your friends know where you are?" she asked a bit more harshly than she'd intended.

"Only Janet, and she promised not to say anything." Amy sat down at the far end of the couch, her fingers playing nervously with the edge of Lucy's blanket.

"What did you plan on doing if I hadn't been here?" Or if she hadn't let her in.

Amy shrugged. "Freeze to death, probably."

Lucy started. "I said 'plan to do', not 'think might happen'."

"Luce, Scud told me you were here. More than that, he told me you were here alone. Christmas is a time for family-"

"Then I'd be out of luck, wouldn't I?" Lucy interrupted bitterly.

"-which does include him," Amy continued without missing a beat. "And for being with the ones you love."

Lucy felt like she was being pressed into the couch by the crushing weight of the question she wanted to ask, but she couldn't. Not yet. She couldn't bear it if the answer was no, and she didn't want to break herself again just yet. Let me have the dream, if only for a little while longer, she silently pleaded of whoever might be listening.

Spurred onward by the tangible weight of the silence stretching between them, Amy reached for her bag and unzipped it. "Here," she said, pulling out a pair of small, wrapped presents. "These are from Scud and Janet."

"Thank you," Lucy said tentatively, moving off the arm and onto a cushion as she gingerly accepted them. "Did...?" She couldn't bring herself to actually ask the question.

She didn't need to, really. Looking very nervous, Amy slowly removed a third package from her bag. It was easy enough to tell which gift had come from whom. Scud's was wrapped - to use the term generously - in gaudy silver and red paper, while Janet's was red and green and covered with ribbons and (now somewhat crushed) bows of the same color. By contrast, Amy's had been painstakingly wrapped in a simple, shiny gold.

"Oh." Lucy wracked her brain for a suitable response to that. "I didn't... Wait." She'd just remembered something. Shooting up from the couch, she crossed the room until she got to a wooden chest snug up against the wall. It blended into the decorations so well Amy hadn't even noticed it upon entering.

Lucy opened it and carefully withdrew an addressed mailing box. She'd come close to sending it off to LA time and again, but had always managed to stop herself, believing it would be unwanted, and not wanting to embarrass herself further. But now...

She returned to her seat on the couch and placed the box on the cushion between them. Amy pulled it onto her lap but made no effort to open it, the message that she wanted Lucy to go first being received loud and clear.

Scud's gift didn't surprise her, though it did make her chuckle. Nestled within the tissue paper in the box was Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Get Real Meals. Amy caught sight of it and smirked. "Think he's trying to tell you something?"

"Maybe," Lucy agreed with a grin. It faded a bit when she blurted out, "You never said anything when I cooked something for you."

"Because you cooked it for me," Amy admitted with a shy smile.

Lucy froze as she processed that, then quickly turned her attention to Janet's gift. She and the DEB had never really been the best of friends, even if they had eventually found that they had several things in common. She opened the box and blinked. "I... think I have this sweater."

For some reason, this sent Amy into peals of laughter.

Lucy had to smile at the sound. God, I missed that. "All right, all right, I think it's your turn now," she said.

Amy's laughter stopped as if a switch had been thrown, and Lucy fought the impulse to curse at herself. There was no point in setting herself up for another heartbreak, after all. Amy opened the box, dumped a small mountain of packing peanuts onto the couch, and extracted her gift from it. She opened the second, much smaller jewelry box and inhaled sharply, and Lucy held her breath. She tried to tell herself it didn't matter what Amy thought of it... but it did. It really, really did. "Oh, Lucy..." Amy breathed. "It's gorgeous."

Lucy finally remembered to breathe. "You like it?"

Amy nodded, mesmerized by the sparkling diamond necklace. "I love it." She cringed. "I didn't get you... I mean, my present isn't nearly this..."

"I'll be the judge of that," Lucy told her, smiling gently. Carefully peeling off the wrapping paper, she opened the box to find Amy had given her a sketch she'd clearly drawn herself of the two of them, and then had framed. It was more detailed then anything Lucy had ever seen, either from Amy or anyone else, and must have taken her days to make, at least. Possibly weeks. Initially at a loss for words, she forced her brain to start working again when Amy started looking distinctly nervous. "It's amazing," she said softly. "I've never... I've never gotten anything like this. It must have taken you forever to get this just right."

"I didn't spend nearly as much as you did, I'm sure," Amy said.

Lucy smirked. "Actually, I'm sure you spent a lot more than I did."

Amy blinked, then looked down, shaking her head and smiling to herself. Should have known. Lucy was no doubt expecting her to say something about how this was stolen property, and she couldn't possibly accept it, but she simply put it back in its box, and slid that into her bag without a word. "Merry Christmas, Lucy."

"Merry Christmas." They sat in comfortable silence for a while, until Lucy just couldn't stand it any longer, and the question burst forth before she could stop it. "What happened to us?"

Amy shrugged. "I've never really been sure. I mean, after my friends found out about us, I couldn't see you for a while, because if I didn't at least try to convince everyone that nothing had happened I would have been locked away, and then I never would have seen you again. Going back to the old 'you commit a crime, we come to stop you, and you and I steal a few moments' routine wasn't the best solution, perhaps, but if it was that or nothing, then there was no contest. But then you stopped showing up, didn't try to contact me again... I thought that maybe you'd just gotten tired of me, that it was just too difficult to try and maintain a relationship with me. Didn't really blame you, but..."

Lucy looked horrified. "'Gotten tired of-' No!" She scooted closer, sending Styrofoam peanuts to the floor. Neither noticed. "That isn't true, and don't ever think that it is!" she exclaimed, taking Amy's hands. The blonde's breath hitched, but when Lucy tried to let go, she held on tight. "I thought that... Well, you told me to go. I'd thought that maybe you were like all the others, like her, and that you really didn't want to be with me anymore. Seeing you again, even just for a few minutes during one of my crimes, would have been far too painful."

"That isn't true, though," Amy replied. "I meant what I told you, you know."

"What's that?" Lucy asked, no longer able to bury the hope that kept trying to bubble up.

"I really do love you," Amy said warmly, smiling.

Lucy felt that warmth, or at least its distant cousin, spreading through her chest. "I love you, too," she replied, nearly whispering. "I never stopped. I couldn't. Even when it hurt, when I knew that no matter what I couldn't have you..."

Amy moved closer and brushed her fingers along Lucy's jaw. "You've got me now," she said, leaning in for a tender kiss.

Lucy felt a tear slide down her cheek as the missing piece of her soul slid home.

"This is the best Christmas ever," Amy decided as she snuggled against Lucy under the blanket on the couch. The floor was now littered with items of clothing along with packing peanuts, and the fire was starting to dwindle, but doing something about that would have required moving, and neither woman felt any particular urge to do so.

"Mmm," Lucy agreed. She didn't want to think about it, but she had to ask, "When do you have to go back?"

Amy considered that. "Well, they're expecting me back after New Year's."

"A whole week together? Just the two of us? I think... I could live with that."

Amy smiled. "So could I."

Lucy paused as something occurred to her. "You said... that was when they were expecting you?"

"Yeah, it is."

Scarcely daring to hope, she asked, "And when are you actually going back?"

"Well," Amy began slowly. "That's kind of up to you."

"And if I said I wanted to kidnap you and whisk you off to Barcelona, or somewhere in the Caribbean, or some such place, forever?"

Wearing the same smile she'd had on the very first time Lucy had asked if she loved her, Amy replied, "Then I'd say let me grab my bag and I'm all yours, and yours alone."

Lucy felt tears threaten again, but Amy just wiped them away when they fell. She knew without needing any hints what Amy wanted now. She wanted Lucy to actually ask the question. "Will you come with me?"

Amy nodded, giving her a warm and tender smile. "I don't want to ever have to leave your side again. I love you."

"I love you, too." Smiling at her girlfriend, relishing the feeling of warmth against her that she'd been afraid she'd lost forever, Lucy kissed her, delighting in the sound of passionate contentment - something she wouldn't have considered a possible emotional state before Amy - that came from the blonde's throat, she knew Amy was right.

This really was the best Christmas ever.

The End

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