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“Hey, you look like you could use this,” said Abby, and Breena looked up to see her holding out a red-and-white striped mug, full of steaming coffee instead of the bright red— and apparently alcoholic— punch.
“Thanks,” the other woman said, smiling through a yawn. “I can’t wait until she starts sleeping though the night, though.”
“Well, if you ever need a break, you’ll know exactly who to call,” Abby told her.
Breena smiled. “Oh, I know that. I haven’t held Victoria all night, except to feed her… in fact, I’m not even sure where she is, just now.”
She supposed that should make her feel like a bad parent, but she couldn’t imagine anywhere safer than Agent Gibbs’s house, full of the government agents. Breena had had several disappointed-sounding conversations with her mother, the latest just that morning, about celebrating Victoria’s first Christmas with Jimmy’s ‘co-workers’ instead of at Breena’s parents’ house, but she knew just how important her daughter was to all of these people, that they were a family as much as any other.
“Oh, Ducky has her,” said Abby. “I mean, everyone’s gotten to hold her, but once Ducky got ahold of her, he hasn’t given her up.”
Now that she said it, Breena could see Dr. Mallard sitting in the living room’s single armchair, beside the fire, with Victoria snug in his arms. McGee’s sister Sarah leaned in, smiling, to offer the baby her fingers, and although the two adults were clearly having a conversation, Dr. Mallard never looked up from her daughter’s face.
Jimmy was nearby, holding wires for McGee as he tried to wrangle Tony’s large TV onto Agent Gibbs’s fireplace mantle, while Tony offered clearly unhelpful advice. Bishop, the newest member of their team, was already pink-cheeked as though she’d had a few cups of punch and stringing lopsided garland on the tree. One of Director Vance’s children, the younger one, the boy, and Breena couldn’t remember his name, trailed behind her, tugging it a bit straighter, as his sister sorted through a box of ornaments.
Then, there was a brief disruption as Agent Fornell, an FBI agent who Breena hadn’t met before tonight, and Agent Gibbs lifted Fornell’s daughter, Emily, onto their shoulders so she could place the star on the top of the tree, and everyone cheered.
“This is great,” Breena said, with feeling, and Abby laughed.
“Yeah, it is.”
THE END