I don't expect anything elaborate, I just hope I have enough points accumulated to get one thing this year.

Justin -

~~~~~~

"Paddy." The whisper resonated from the darkness.

The announcement hadn't been necessary. Choate had come wide awake the moment Justin'd entered his room.

"Go back to your own bed, brat!" Choate growled, turning in bed until he faced the shadowy figure hovering nervously by the door. "I've got a 7:00 a.m. conference to attend with your father that I'd like to be coherent for."

He looked down at his feet and said softly, "I just want to cuddle."

Choate chuckled despite himself. "I bought that bridge already, little boy."

"Just sleep, Paddy," Justin responded as he looked up sharply in denial. "I'll be good, honest!"

Choate knew it didn't help the argument, but he couldn't stop himself. "You're always good, dulce. That's the problem."

There it was again. That voice, guaranteed to make his heart skip beats and bring his dick to the ready.

"Just to make sure, I wore these."

Choate sat up to switch on the nightstand lamp. Justin had moved to three feet from his bed, his hands clasped in front of his body. His hair was braided so loosely it could hardly be called a braid at all. His feet were bare. The black, silk pajamas he wore covered him from neck to toe. The sleeves swallowed his hands. The pant legs so long they pooled at his feet, naked toes peeking from the hem.

The top threatened to fall off his right shoulder with the next deep breath. "So that's where they went," Choate said as he eyed his missing pair of pajamas. He knew the drawstring was the only reason the bottoms stayed up on his slender hips.

Not only did the imp look adorable, he looked positively edible. 'No!' Choate fiercely banished that thought from his mind. "It won't work, little boy! Your own bed!" he ordered again.

Justin pushed the lock of hair that covered one eye away with a black silk covered hand. "Please."

"Justin. . ." Choate worked hard to sound angry.

"I'll keep my hands to myself," Justin promised solemnly.

"If I remember correctly, little boy, that wasn't the part that caused the problem last time."

At least his brat had the grace to blush. He turned great, dark pleading eyes on the Marine, who fought a mighty fight to resist the alluring gaze. Justin's shoulders slumped and he'd turned away when Choate held back the covers and said, "Alright, amadito. . ." His sentence ended in an, "Oooof," as he caught Justin when he raced back and launched himself into the bed.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Each exclamation point accented with a kiss.

With effort, Choate contained the wiggling mass and anchored it to his side. "Fine! Great! Okay, now go to sleep."

Justin squirmed out of his grasp long enough to raise himself by a hand on Choate's chest until he was eye level. "But I wanted to 'spoon'," he said softly.

Choate shook his head. "It's this, or your own bed."

Justin watched his lover's face closely for signs of weakening. Finding none, he settled back down on Choate's chest with a grumble that sounded suspiciously like a curse.

"And, if you touch any 'trigger', you're out of here. Clear?"

"What if it's by accident?" Justin asked, the image of innocence.

"Clear?" his lover repeated more forcefully.

"Grinch."

"That better mean 'yes' in some obscure dialect you learned from Professor Sandburg."

Justin squirmed under the pretense of getting more comfortable.

Choate clamped a hand to the small of his young lover's back. "Wiggle that butt again and I'll decorate it Christmas red before I send it back, with its owner, to their room."

With a heavy sigh of defeat, Justin seriously settled down.

~~~~~~

Choate startled. Something woke him from a sound sleep. Visually scanning the room, he found it dark and quiet in the predawn hours.

Justin was wrapped tightly around him, his head tucked under Choate's chin, his leg thrown across the older man's lower body, one arm curved around his broad chest.

"If my guys could see me now," Choate said in a soft, highly amused voice. "From a Viper to a teddy bear," he laughed, then kissed the top of the tousled head.

Then he saw the flashing light. Reluctantly sliding from Justin's embrace, he padded over to the desk to perform the ritual required to answer the cellular Justin 'lovingly' called 'The Bat Phone.'

"Choate."

"I need you."

Fighting down the caustic remark that flew into his head at that statement, Choate asked, "When?"

"There's a car waiting downstairs. Don't bother packing. You've got things on the plane, along with your team."

And the line went dead.

~~~~~~

Ten minutes later, a fully-clothed Choate knelt by the side of the bed, leaning in close enough for his lover to feel the word, "Dulce."

Justin groaned and stirred, turning over on his back, one arm across his eyes, the other clutched to his chest. Choate's pajamas twisted and bunched around the smaller body. The shirt rode up revealing a broad expanse of stomach and dark, fine pubic hairs trailing down beneath a tightly-cinched drawstring.

Choate leaned forward to lick the little bump of Justin's navel.

Justin gasped softly in his sleep and whispered, "Paddy," accompanied by a tiny smile and the Marine watched as his young lover's cock slowly began to fill.

"Ah, amante! Even in your sleep, are you hot for me?" He smiled as he smoothed his hands into the mass of hair and brought the face closer for a hard kiss.

Half-asleep, Justin murmured, "Paddy?"

"Sí. Remonteste sueño, dulce."

"Is it morning?"

"No, amadito." He kissed him again. "Go back to sleep. We'll see what I can do to take care of this," he said, as he gave the semi-erection tenting the silken trousers a gentle squeeze, "when I get back."

~~~~~~

December 13

Justin bounced into the foyer as the front door opened. "How was the meeting?" he asked cheerfully.

"Fine," his father answered as he shrugged from his coat, handing it to Vincent. "It would've gone better if Paddy'd been there. Lindell's good, but he's no --"

"Paddy left the meeting early?" Justin said hopefully.

Loren shook his head. "He was gone when I got up."

"So, he didn't go with you this morning?"

Loren glanced up at his son from the mail in his hands. "No, Justin. He got one of 'those' calls."

"When is he coming back?"

"You know the drill, Justin. The phone rings, he's gone. He's back when he's back."

"But it's almost Christmas!"

"Well, if he's not back before I leave, you're welcome to come to Vermont with me."

The Councilor suddenly found himself talking to thin air.

~~~~~~

December 16

Three men huddled in a semicircle at one end of the kitchen and watched the mansion's comm wink furiously. Wisely, no one moved to answer it.

Vincent gave Yuan a shove. "Answer it."

Yuan pushed back. "It's not the kitchen comm! I put up with him all day yesterday! You answer it!"

"All he can complain to you is about food! That's what? Once, twice a day? I've had to listen to him off and on for nearly twelve hours a day! You answer it!"

Both men turned to the third man who stared back, horrified, and moved towards the door. "Hey, don't look at me! I'm just the chauffeur," Ralph said. "I only came in here for a cup of coffee."

"You live here, too."

"But it's not in my job description to deal with his majesty in a high terror every day! I drive him, when he lets me. But he mostly drives himself."

The comm light had gone out while they argued, now it began to flash again.

Yuan said, "Do something before he comes down!"

"Where's Mr. Patrick?" Ralph asked Vincent.

"Yes," Yuan readily agreed, "he wouldn't act like this if Mr. Patrick was here!"

"That's the problem. He isn't." Warily, Vincent advanced on the comm panel like it was a rabid animal. He pressed the respond button. "Mr. Justin?"

"Vincent!" the waspish voice blasted through the tiny speakers. "Where were you? I've been buzzing for hours!"

"Sorry, Mr. Justin."

"I'm looking for that small leather case I used to carry. You remember the one?"

Vincent remembered it quite clearly. No lock in the mansion had been safe. "Yes, Mr. Justin."

"Have you seen it?"

"No, Mr. Justin, not for months."

"Neither have I. Come up and help me look for it."

And Justin clicked off.

Vincent turned to the two men behind him, both obviously relieved to be released from the potential ordeal of having to deal with Justin in his present state of temperament.

"What leather case is he talking about?" Ralph asked.

"A small lock-picking kit one of his friends gave him." Vincent started wearily for the door.

Ralph looked at him curiously. "Why would he need that?"

"If I had to guess, it's probably to try to open something of Mr. Patrick's."

"Do you know where it is?" Yuan asked.

"Yes, Mr. Patrick found it and put it away."

Later that evening, a frazzled Vincent informed the Councilor he would take his vacation time three days earlier than scheduled and fled the scene.

Yuan managed to survive the siege a little longer, but left the residence two days later.

Ralph kept close to his quarters and the garage and avoided the main house altogether.

~~~~~~

December 22

The meeting had barely started when Lindell informed the Councilor his son was on the line and insisted he talk to him.

"Justin?" Loren Evers said when he picked up the phone. "What is it?"

"You have an emergency number for Paddy, don't you?"

"Emergency? What emergency? Are you all right?"

"It's been over a week since we've heard from him! Something's wrong."

"Justin, if something was wrong, somebody would've gotten in touch with us."

"Call the 'Bat Phone Guy.' He could tell us."

"Justin, Paddy's fine. Calm down, you'll make yourself ill."

"Please."

"Justin. . ." the Councilor paused. Dammit, where was Paddy, he could handle this better. "We'll talk about this when I get home."

"You'll call?" Justin said hopefully.

"When I get home, Justin."

Later, Loren's refusal to make the call caused Justin to explode in a fit of rage the elder Evers hadn't seen since his son and Aide'd become an item. Although Justin stormed from the room before doing anything damaging, he had said a few hurtful things. One of them being the accusation that his father didn't care.

"Wherever you are, Paddy, you need to come home. I don't know how much more of this I can take." Loren whispered into the empty air.

~~~~~~

December 24

Finally, at the end of his rope, the Councilor shoved an elaborately wrapped package into his son's hands and had Ralph drive him to the airport to catch a plane for Vermont.

Once alone, Justin stormed through the house, considering, for a moment, taking his anger and frustrations out on everything in his lover's room. Quickly discarding that idea, he ended in the den.

Justin snatched the phone off the hook and began to dial. "I'll be damned if I'll spend Christmas alone! I'll show you, Mr. Off-to-Save-the-World! There're still people who want me!" Before the third ring cycled, Justin slammed the receiver back in the cradle and threw himself angrily down on the couch. "Damn you, Patrick Choate!"

A disembodied voice seemed to come out of the darkness of the foyer. "Exactly what are you damning me to, little boy?"

Justin jumped, looking up. Choate stood in the doorway. "Paddy!"

"Yes, Justin."

"Where'd you come from?"

Choate smiled. "Originally from--"

"This is not funny!"

He sobered. "The airport."

"How long --"

"I just arrived."

"It's Christmas eve!"

"Yes, dulce."

"You've been gone almost two weeks!"

"Thirteen days, fifteen hours, seventeen minutes, give or take a few seconds." He set down the bag he carried. "Do I get a hug?"

Justin crossed his arms tightly against his chest. "Hug whoever you've been with the past two weeks!"

"I did, all of them, and we toasted our health and wished each other well." He leaned down to rummage in the larger of the two bags he'd brought in with him. "They all got you presents. Although I reserve the right to open the Aussie's gift myself before giving it to you."

"You've been with your team?"

Choate stopped, looking up at Justin. "Yes."

"Off playing soldier?"

Abandoning his search, he straightened. "I assure you," Choate said wryly, "we weren't playing."

"You could've called."

"You know better than that, Justin," Choate admonished gently.

Justin, infuriated, ignored him. "Now you come back and everything's supposed to be all right."

"No," Choate said carefully. "I know you're angry."

"I'm not angry! I'm furious!" Justin screamed as he picked up the closest thing to his hand.

"If you throw that, little boy, you're going to feel a helluva lot different emotion."

Wisdom won out over the heat of the moment. Justin dropped the paper weight.

"How hard are you going to make me work at this?" Choate recognized the look that settled on Justin's face. The imp would make it really hard. Choate sighed, time to fall back on his ops training. "This isn't going to happen every time I go away, Justin," he said, more of a declaration as he advanced on the smaller man.

"If you stop going away it'll stop," Justin retorted nastily, backing up.

Choate shook his head cheerlessly. "Won't happen."

"Quit."

"I can't, Justin." Choate took another step forward.

"Even if I ask you?"

"If it was that simple, yes," Choate said as he came within arm's reach of his prize.

Justin paused, forgetting his next sentence as Choate's softly-spoken concession sank in. What was his lover saying? Stubbornly refusing to give in to a new emotion, Justin desperately clung to his waning anger. "You could, you just don't want to."

"It isn't a matter of whether I want to or not."

The older man looked so forlorn, Justin almost gave in. In a self-defense move, the younger man decided to fight dirty. "If you loved me--"

Choate went still. "Don't you dare, little boy!" He spoke each word separate and concisely.

Justin's mulish look intensified.

And Choate realized what his brat hoped to accomplish. "No! Not this time! You're not going to make me angry. I couldn't help this, Justin! I finished my assignment, then broke my neck to get back here to you. Now get over this right now and come here."

Throwing all caution to the winds, Justin snapped, "No!"

Choate hung his head a moment as he drew a deep breath. He'd hoped this little scene would've played out differently.

When he looked up again, Justin was gone. "Don't make me chase you, Justin!" Choate cleared the den threshold in one step. "Justin!" Choate knew he couldn't have gotten far. Stepping out into the foyer, he stood still and listened for the sound of running feet.

Nothing.

Justin hadn't had time to run up the stairs. He had to still be on this floor. Checking the doors leading outside, Choate found them still locked. He was in the house, still. The kitchen was too far, even on a dead run. Choate scanned all doorways leading like the spokes of a wheel from the foyer.

'Which way, little boy? Which way? When I find you. . .' Choate stopped, all his mental alarms going off at once. Something about this didn't feel right.

It took Choate a moment, but he finally figured out what was wrong. No! No, he wasn't falling for that old chestnut!

Turning on his heel, he stalked back into the den to find a smug-faced Justin sitting behind the desk, a smirk on his face.

"You said not to make you chase me. I didn't."

Choate pulled Justin to his feet by the arm. Rolling his shoulder under the younger man's body, he tossed Justin angrily over his shoulder and strode purposefully from the room.

"This's your answer for everything! Grab it and carry it back to your lair!"

Choate had reached the staircase when Justin made his statement. Before he began his ascent, he took his hand from the railing and swatted Justin smartly on the rump.

That ended any further comments from Mr. Evers.

Reaching his room, the Marine opened the door with a sharp twist of the knob and closed it with an annoyed kick of his foot.

Justin expected to be unceremoniously tossed on the bed, or, at worst, across his lap. Instead, Choate stopped near the center of the room and eased him from his shoulder until they stood facing each other.

When Justin's feet touched the ground, Choate quickly pulled the sweater Justin wore from his body and tossed it aside.

"Paddy--" Anything further Justin had to say was smothered by Choate's mouth covering his in an all-consuming kiss.

Any struggle he would've made stopped when Choate's arms wrapped tightly around him.

When Choate released him, his T-shirt came away with his lover's hands.

"Paddy--"

Another smothering kiss and when Justin could breathe again, his slacks and underwear lay in a pool at his feet.

"Paddy--"

The third kiss masked Choate lifting his young lover off his feet and out of his clothes to carry him to the bed.

Justin found himself pinned under a fully-clothed Choate.

"Paddy--"

This time, his words were cut off by the warm grip around his cock. Justin released a strangled groan and arched into the grip.

Choate used a strong fist to milk him. A long, slow stroke designed to distract Justin as Choate slid down his body.

By the time young Evers gathered enough wits to say, "Paddy--" again, Choate killed that thought by closing his hot mouth around the weeping erection in his hand.

When Justin finally found the strength to say, "Paddy!" once more, it came out in a moan, as that heated pressure moved to cover him, and that tongue tormented every sensitive area on the flared head.

Now both of Choate's hands moved with purpose. His goal was to wring an orgasm from his little love, quick and devastating enough to give him time to free himself from his own clothing.

Justin moved restlessly, his feet flat on the bed, legs splayed wide, as he gently pumped himself in and out of his lover's mouth. Choate used the nail of his smallest finger to worry at his perineum just under Justin's scrotum, and increased the suction of his mouth.

Justin gasped sharply, his rhythmic movement faltering a second, before beginning again with more intensity. Choate curled his tongue around the moist and throbbing gland filling his mouth and worked the muscles of this throat as he moved his head with the meter of Justin's movement and Justin began to hum.

Yes, that was the sound he wanted. Pulling back, knowing it was the best and fastest way to achieve his ultimate goal, the older man concentrated his efforts on the sensitive head of Justin's erection.

Justin thrashed helplessly now. The younger man raised both knees, using his feet to push his hips frantically. As soon as Choate took one of Justin's balls into his free hand, Justin arched off the bed. Choate, barely ready for the move, pulled back in time enough to keep from being choked.

The thrum was louder now and Justin's movements more frenzied.

As it reached a crescendo, so did Justin. Choate felt the slight recession of his lover's testicles resting in his hands.

The rhythmic movements broken, Justin stiffened with an, "Oh!" And Choate's throat filled with the pungent essence of his lover.

Justin's next lucid moment began with Choate's hand's turning him to his side and the naked length of his lover against his back.

Justin jumped as Choate's mouth closed on his neck. And squirmed against the hard length of cock pressed intimately against him.

Justin's blood heated quickly as Choate stroked him, tracing patterns down his front to stop at his slowly filling cock.

The dance began again. This time with the Marine moving slowly up along Justin's back.

"You know, I dreamed of this," Choate whispered in the ear closest to his mouth as his hips pressed his groin against the soft flesh of Justin's rear. Then he rolled his erection into the dark cleft there, backed up slightly and started again. "When I closed my eyes to sleep, I'd feel your warmth against me." He rolled his hips again. "Like it is now." The Marine buried his face in Justin's hair and breathed in deeply. "I could smell your scent." Tangling his fingers in the dark cloud of hair, he pulled it back until he exposed the slender golden column of Justin's neck. Choate ran his tongue roughly over the pulse there, attaching his mouth to the reddened spot on Justin's neck he'd made earlier and sucked hard.

"Oh!" Justin sighed as his entire body convulsed.

"Taste you," Choate whispered, his voice deep and low, rough like sandpaper against Justin's nerve endings. "You keep me sane, mí pasión." He kissed the darkening mark, soothing it. "And drive me mad."

Justin wiggled his ass provocatively against Paddy's groin. "Please. . ." his voice whisper-soft.

Choate lightly pinched a nipple. "Please, what, corazón de mío?"

Justin answered with a hard grind against his lover's cock. "Paddy," he whined when Choate withdrew his hips, making Justin miss sliding the rock-hard erection where he wanted it most.

Choate moved Justin's hair out of the way, fanning it out on the pillows above them, "Please, what?"

"Inside. . .Paddy. . .arggggh!" Justin groaned his frustration as Choate's strategic move made him miss his mark again.

Choate closed his hand around Justin's erection. "Come for me again," he demanded softly as he began to stroke.

"Yes. . .inside. . ."

"Come for me first."

"Paddy, I came once!" Justin moaned, but his hips began to move despite his protests. "I want us to come together," he pleaded impotently.

"We will. Again, amadito. Same as before, then I'll slide inside you." Choate shifted his hips upon the welcoming warmth, teasing, enticing Justin towards senselessness. "Hurry, dulce."

His voice had dropped another notch and Justin felt it all the way into his heart.

"I'm so hard! Feel me?" Choate rocked his hips so that Justin could tell. "And you're so hot. Yes. It's been a while. Are you tighter since I left? Let me see."

Justin squirmed, then suddenly felt a slick finger touch the throbbing threshold to his body. He jumped and yelped and pushed backward. Choate's finger slid in to the last knuckle.

Justin sighed. "Paddy, oh! Paddy, oh! Paddy, oh!"

Choate moved his finger slowly in and out.

Justin's inner muscles began to relax, then contract, then relax again, and the Marine found himself fighting the urge to abandon his original plan of seduction.

Pulling his finger out, he dipped two in the jar of lubricant on the nightstand and quickly slid them back deep inside.

"Ahhhh! Paddy! More!" Justin demanded, as he pushed back hard.

Choate slid the two fingers out, quickly adding a third as he plunged them home. His right hand still in motion. The added stimulation of the third finger, along with the pumping hand on his cock proved more than Justin could stand.

"Oh!" he cried out loud. "Put it in, Paddy. Put it in noooowwww!" The last word caught on the crest of a monumental orgasm.

Just as the younger man began to shiver, Choate took his fingers from inside Justin and gripped his hip to steady himself as he placed his steely staff at Justin's anus and pushed.

Choate felt the ring of Justin's resistance and prepared to stop Justin's backward thrust, but then the muscle relaxed and his lover's inner muscles pulled him the rest of the way in.

Choate had been hard for so long, had been waiting for this moment for so long, all the stimuli that made up the trembling, much loved bundle in his arms washed over him in a crashing wave. Taking his reason and his sanity with it.

Pushing back on the apex of Justin's thighs as he plunged himself in deeper than he'd been in Justin in a while. He felt the heat, gave in to the pressure, wrapped his free arm around his lover and rolled them until Justin was facedown on the bed. Raising slightly to keep from suffocating his beloved, Choate thrust once, twice, three, four times savagely.

Justin's arm crooked backwards to snag Choate's neck as he met his lover's thrust to the best of his ability from the position he was in.

"No. . .more. . .Paddy," Justin panted. "Can't--"

Choate leaned him close, his hips still moving, rolling, thrusting. "¡Te quiero! ¡Te amo mucho! ¡Estas acabado para mi! ¡Hazlo ya! Por favor, dulce."

His thrusts became stronger, his voice deeper, his embrace tightened. And the words. . . palabras de amor. They were like a song in Justin's ears. A melody that beckoned. And he answered. "Oh, Paddy! Yes! Yes! I love you! Do you hear me! I love you so much! Oh! Oh! Ohhhhh!" Justin's hands covered his own erection and his cum filled his hands, escaping through his fingers to leave a dark stain on the sheets.

Choate gripped the slender hips tightly and put his mouth to Justin's neck to keep from crying out aloud. But the moan that rose inside him, along with his climax, escaped his lips.

"¡Mi querido! Ahhhhh." And, with one final, powerful thrust, he filled that dark, hot place inside his beloved with his own love.

~~~~~~

December 25

"Thank you, Yuan!" Choate had said, softly, discovering the refrigerator filled with food. He made a tray and went back up to wake his lover. Placing the tray on the floor nearest to Justin's sprawled body, Choate placed a tiny, spiced shrimp against Justin's lips and pushed until the younger man opened his mouth and took it inside.

"Paddy," Justin groaned, as he turned onto his back. "I am soo sore!" He chewed the morsel then swallowed and opened his mouth again, like a bird.

"Serves you right," Choate laughed as he put another shrimp to his lover's lips and watched in helpless amusement as Justin sucked it into his mouth, "greedy imp!"

"I would've been happy with once," Justin grinned as he opened one eye to gauge his lover's reaction. At the jaundiced look Choate gave him, the younger man hurriedly commented, "But you've been gone so long! We had to make up for lost time." He paused. "When I find that damn phone I swear..." young Evers said as he worked himself over to the edge of the bed and reached for more food.

"I thought of that too, dulce," Choate said, playfully slapping the hands away so he could bring the tray up into the bed. "Brown'd just send someone, along with another phone. And knowing you, you'd raise a stink." He leaned in to kiss the sauce from Justin's lips. "You think I light you up? I love you. Brown would dispatch you with extreme prejudice. No mercy."

"I don't think I like this Brown very much."

"Sometimes, neither do I."

They were both so hungry, the food on the tray disappeared quickly.

"It's Christmas!" Justin squealed as he threw himself on Choate's back as he leaned over the bed to slide the tray underneath.

Choate laughed. "Yes, dulce."

Justin bounded off the bed and headed towards the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To get your gift." Justin's voice drifted back into the room from the hall.

When he returned, Choate had pulled the covers around him and was sitting up in the bed, his back propped up with pillows. On his lap sat a wide, flat box wrapped in shiny white paper, an elaborate, white iridescent bow adorning it.

"What's this?" Justin asked, as he crawled into his lover's arms.

Once Justin curled under the covers, Choate placed the box in his lap. "Merry Christmas."

Justin impatiently tore open the paper, tossing the ribbon aside. Inside the box was a small photo album. Justin looked up at Choate.

He smiled a small, nervous smile. "It's all the pictures I have of my family. Mother, father, baby pictures, pictures of my home in Mexico, my estate in Britain. And if you show the baby pictures to anyone, and I mean anyone, brat, I swear I'll bring out Sadie."

"Oh, Paddy. . ." Justin said, his eyes suddenly suspiciously bright.

"There's more," Paddy said, trying to avert the tears.

Justin looked into the box again and found a ribbon-wrapped parchment. He slid the binding from the paper and slowly unrolled it. Inside, written in Choate's elaborate hand was a short paragraph. It read: 'I, Patrick Edward Choate, promise one story of my life, Justin's choice, on demand. The only stipulation for this is, it must be told in our bed.'

"Our bed?" Now the tears started in a flood as Justin threw his arms around his love and held on for dear life.

It took a long time and many softly spoken words to calm his young lover enough to pull him from his chest.

"You okay?" Choate asked, concern etched deeply in his face.

Justin smiled, nodded and handed Choate a small, velvet box.

"What's this?"

"Open it," Justin said, smiling a shy smile. "It's not as great as your gift to me. . ."

With slightly trembling hands, Choate opened the box. Inside, nestled snugly in the soft, dark cloth, were two circles of white gold. One large, one smaller. Choate looked up, startled. "Justin. . .I don't know what to say."

Justin blinked, hurt fogging his features. "There're only two things you can say, one's yes, the other's no."

Choate frowned. "Are you sure of this?"

Without a moment's hesitation, Justin answered emphatically, "Very."

Slowly, the Marine's features softened. "If we put these on, little boy, it's serious, it means forever."

Now, understanding his lover's reticence, Justin smiled. "Read the inside."

Choate held the larger ring up to the light.

Inside the engraving read: PEC + JCHE Always and Forever

Justin cocked an eyebrow in a perfect imitation of his lover. "Well?" he said sternly.

Solemnly, Choate took the smaller ring from the box and took Justin's left hand. "Always and forever, dulce," he said softly as he slipped the ring on Justin's third finger. Then he brought the hand to his lips and kissed it gently.

Justin took the larger ring from Choate and slipped it on the third finger of his left hand. "Always and forever, Paddy. Always and forever." And then he smiled and Choate thought it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

~~~~~~

December 26

Dear Santa

Thanks.

Justin