The Longest Five Years (Completed)

Luke

Present Day

"How much longer 'til she remembers it's Christmas morning?" Reagan asks, climbing on top of me. Her fingers raise my chin up until I meet her eyes.

It's early. 6 am. Honestly, it's a miracle she's not up already. Last year we'd torn through all the presents and were on to breakfast by now.

"An hour?" She kisses me. "Half an hour?" She whispers. "Ten minutes?" I smile against her lips. She's amazing this way – calm and happy from a good night's sleep beside me...shining as the sun filters through our window. I wish I could see this smile every single morning.

I roll her over and she smiles up at me, her fanned out on the pillow. I must have imagined her this way at least a dozen time since she left. And once I heard about the shit Benson's been pulling, I've been worried I'd never get this moment with her...never see her again. These moments are everything.

"I've got time for whatever you want..." I whisper in her ear and she smiles, but our plans are interrupted by Emmy's squeals from downstairs.

Reagan eyes light up under me, and she leans in to give me a quick kiss before flinging the covers off. She slips into a pair of cotton shorts and that same old red King t-shirt she's always loved. It seems as if she's just as excited as Emmy. And while I'd love to keep her in bed all day, I wouldn't miss this for the world. I step into a pair of navy blue track pants and toss on a white v-neck and we're on our way.

"Daddy! Reagan! Santa was here. He ate my cookies," she runs up to us with the plate of crumbs before we've even reached the bottom step.

"See, Em? I told you did a good job making them. Santa always loves chocolate chip," Reagan tells her as she jumps up and down. "I've never seen him take more than a few bites of them and go, but he finished the whole plate!"

"I know!" She smiles.

Reagan's on the step behind me, looking over my shoulder, and she squeezes my hand. We managed to get the presents out, but I nearly forgot to tiptoe back down to the kitchen last night to handle the cookies. Reagan startled awake at 2 am and shook me, telling me to get my ass up and eat them or else we'd be telling a sad little girl that Santa is on a new fad diet.

"Look at all those presents! Can we open them now, Daddy?" She asks, running to set the plate back on the table. "Pleeaasse! I turned on the coffee pot for you! There are your mugs. I couldn't pour the coffee because it's too hot..." she bites her lip. "But Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas, sweetie," Reagan says, but I'm still hung up on the whole coffee pot thing.

"You did what?" I ask, eyeing the orange light. It's an auto-brew. "That's...amazing, baby. But you gotta be careful," I laugh. Reagan smiles and walks to fill the two mugs with the fresh, dark coffee, doctoring hers up just the way she likes.

Emmy grabs my hand, tugging me to the pile of boxes under the tree as Reagan follows. She helped me set them all out last night. Due to the circumstances, we've managed to cram a lot of Christmas into just a few days, but I wouldn't have it any other way. The best Christmas present she could ever give me is a promise that one day, she'll stay forever.

"I can read this year, so I'm handing them out," Emmy announces as we sit on the floor around the tree. I lean back on my hands and set my mug down beside me on the wood floor.

"I'll bet they're mostly for you," I smile as she scans the gift tags. "Few in here for Reagan, too." I made sure to sneak them in when she wasn't looking last night.

Emmy tears through a few boxes of clothes and dolls before we reach a sparkly silver box. "This one's from Reagan," she smiles, looking over at her. "Can I open it now?"