All I Want for Christmas Is You

Saturday

Lucy looked down at the slip of paper she had just pulled from the Secret Santa jar and tried desperately not to look at Tim, who's name she now held. She had lain in bed so many nights recently and dreamed of this happening and of how she would use her Secret Santa presents to finally, finally, tell him how she felt. After she and Chris had broken up, she had been so sure something was going to happen with them but as more time passed and neither of them made any moves, she could feel their romantic potential slipping away. She knew it was now or never.

The station Secret Santa rules were as follows: The week before Christmas (which fell on a Saturday this year) they were supposed to give a small gift Monday, a small gift Wednesday, and their big gift Friday, Christmas Eve. Lucy wanted to show how well she knew Tim but she also didn't want him to figure out it was her until the very last minute, at which point she was finally going to tell him she was in love with him.

After everyone drew names, Lucy was able to retreat to her shop and head out on patrol. She did her job well but the back of her mind was trying to figure out the perfect things to get Tim.

She started to formulate a plan and decided when she got home, she would get it started.

Monday

The problem Lucy had was that if she gave Tim stuff she knew he would like, he would figure out it was her, because she was pretty sure she was the only one at the station who knew all of his favorite things. So, over the weekend she had decided to tease him with things that showed how she felt about him, but wouldn't necessarily betray that it was her sending them.

Monday morning, she was nervous when she arrived to the station. It was possible that her first gift to Tim might seem a little more like a prank instead of gift, but she at least knew it was sent from the heart.

She was early for the briefing so she swung by her desk before heading in. On it she found a wrapped present with "To Lucy" on it. This must be her first Secret Santa present! She had been thinking so much about what to give Tim that she had forgotten she would be getting stuff too. She eagerly unwrapped the present to find a book entitled: Tell Him How You Feel! – Getting the Man You Love.

She looked around the station in bewilderment. Who on Earth would have given her this book? And what could it be referring to? No one knew about how she felt about Tim.

Lucy pushed away her questions and headed into the briefing room, smiling at Tim as she went past him to sit at one of the tables. The captain began speaking but was interrupted after only a few minutes by a knock on the door. A group of five people dressed head to toe in red and green entered the briefing room. They apologized to the captain for interrupting and then faced the room, one of them saying "Is there a Tim Bradford here?" With a look of dawning horror, Tim raised his hand from the back of the room.

"Tim Bradford, this is for you from your Secret Santa!" and with that the group broke into the first strains of "All I Want for Christmas is You."

The singers, who Lucy had found through a local college's acapella page, were excellent, and the other cops in the room smiled and mouthed along the words. Tim looked like he was facing a knife wielding gang. At some point they began advancing on his with some gentle choreography and he pushed himself back into the wall behind him as if he were hoping he could disappear into it. Lucy couldn't help it, she laughed at the look on his face and congratulated herself on the perfect gift. Tim might not know it yet but every word they were singing was true. All she wanted this year was Tim Bradford and she was determined to get him.