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Story: The Elf Beside Himself

I had definitelynotbeen up since four-thirty, and I was tired enough that Elliot took the towel away from me when I almost dropped a glass.

“Can you make it up there yourself?” he asked me, giving me a critical stare that told me he wasn’t going to take any arguing about continuing to dry dishes.

“Yes, thank you,mother,” I grumbled.

He swatted me in the ass with the towel, and I heard Taavi chuckling as I slowly made my way up the stairs.

I was still awake—barely—when Taavi came back into the room.

I didn’t bother opening my eyes, the lids too heavy to obey me, anyway. I heard him moving around, the soft brush of fabric as he undressed followed by the dip of the mattress as he climbed into bed and the click of the light as he shut it off.

The familiar warmth of his palm settled on my chest, and I could feel the ghost of his breath against my ear. “Did you take your meds tonight?” he asked softly, clearly knowing I wasn’t quite asleep yet.

“Mmhmm.”

He shifted, and then warm lips pressed against my temple.

“Merry Christmas, Val.”

I made a noise that didn’t sound anything like that back, and I both felt and heard him chuckle softly. “Love you,” I managed.

“Te amo, corazón,” he whispered back, gave me another kiss, then settled in beside me, the warmth of his palm letting me relax into a thankfully dreamless sleep.

23

“How doyou feel about coming with me to Green Bay?” Detective Smith asked me in his rough, deep voice when I grumbled a greeting into my phone at the inappropriately early hour of six-forty-three two days later.

“Why?” I wanted to know.

“Because your FBI friend got somebody interested in Crane’s case,” came the response. “And you and I are going to collect some snot and take it to the federal lab in Green Bay.”

I was awake now, even though Taavi—who was blinking at me in confusion—definitely wasn’t. I sat up, wincing as my stitches pulled, and Taavi rolled his legs out of bed with a grunt so I could scoot past him in search of pants.

“You and I are?”

“Yup. There aren’t enough CSI’s in this one-horse town because some doofus wrapped his truck around a tree at about four this morning,” came the reply. “Van Buren’s busy and officially off this case, so you’re my new CSI tech.”

I wondered if Mays was awake this early. Sure, it was an hour later in Richmond, but seven-forty-three—well, forty-four now—still wasn’t exactly a sane time of day. Especially on a Saturday.

“Are they evenopentoday?” I asked Smith, tucking the phone against my jaw to pull on a pair of jeans. I’d normally go for something more business-y for a visit to the FBI, but my pants from Christmas Dinner were still in the wash, and the only other non-jeans I had were my suit from the funeral, and it was both thin and thematically inappropriate. So I’d go for jeans and try to pull off the blue-jean-chic detective look. Fortunately for me, I can make most looks work for me—I’m an elf. I can make almost anything look good.

“They will be for us. They want us there by ten.”

If we had to go collect evidence, do some paperwork, and then drive to Green Bay, no wonder he wanted me moving this early. “Are you buying breakfast?” I asked him.

“Whatever will get you out the door.”

I’d offer to buy lunch on the way back.

“Fine.” Mom would not be happy about me missing family breakfast, but at least I wasn’t also skipping out on Elliot, who had gone back home yesterday, claiming he just needed to not be around people for at least thirty-six hours. Unfortunately, we were about to invade his house after only about twenty-two.

“Perfect.”

“I’ll call Elliot.”

“Tell him about seven-thirty. I’ll be at your folks’ place in fifteen.”

“Okay.”