Christmas Throughout The Ages-Chapter 1

~This story isn't going to be too long, just nine or ten chapters. Enjoy!

2 months old...

It was one in the morning on Christmas Eve and David Rossi was exhausted; all he could think about was getting home to his brand new bottle of twenty year old scotch, courtesy of Jason Gideon. As he signed his name to the last piece of paperwork, he was dreaming of how smoothly the scotch would go down. He had all of Christmas Eve day to himself, since he wasn't required to be at his parent's house until Christmas morning, and he planned to use the time to unwind from the horrific case he had just helped solve.

In the small town of Magdalena, a guy dressed as Santa Claus had been breaking into homes and kidnapping young children while the families slept. He kept the kids for a day and did unspeakable things to them before killing them and dropping the bodies down the chimneys of their own homes. To say the parents of the victims had been inconsolable was an understatement, and the demented Santa had killed six kids before Dave and the local LEO's had apprehended him. For Dave, it was one of those cases that was fueling his desire to take early retirement.

He was pulled from his thoughts when the front door to the small police station opened. He watched as a young girl, no more than sixteen years old, walked in carrying a blanket wrapped baby. The mother was thin and her pale skin had a bluish tinge from the cold but, from what he could see, the baby looked healthy. Since no one else was around, he stepped up to the front desk.

"Can I help you?" He asked.

"I…I can't take care of her anymore," the teen said sadly as she handed the baby to him. "It's just…it's just too much."

"Hang on," Dave started, but the girl backed away from the desk.

"My mom told me about the Safe Haven law; she said I could drop her off at any police station without getting into trouble."

"Yeah, but-"

"Well that's what I'm doing," the girl said as tears coursed down her face. "I love her but I can't give her any kind of decent life…she deserves better." The teen took a deep breath and handed a plastic grocery bag across the desk. "Here, I put a can of her formula in there, along with a couple of diapers and some onesies. Oh, and her favorite toy is in there; make sure that whoever takes her keeps that toy near her, or else she'll never fall asleep."

"Don't you want to talk to someone before you do this?" Dave asked as he glanced down at the sleeping baby. "I can arrange for-"

"No! I just want to give her up! You don't understand; my parents don't want her in the house, my boyfriend doesn't want to help take care of her and I can't do it by myself. With me, she'll grow up unloved by the rest of our family but she might have a chance with someone else." In the distance a car horn honked. "That's my boyfriend, I've gotta go."

The girl turned to leave and was almost at the door when Dave called out a question. "What's her name?"

"Whatever you want it to be," she replied as she opened the door. "She was born on October 19th of this year." And with that, the girl walked out into the night and out of her daughter's life forever.

As Dave watched the teenager leave, the baby began to stir in his arms. "Shhhh," he soothed. "It'll be alright." He looked down at the small baby and lost himself in her bright blue eyes. As he bounced her lightly, she gripped his finger and fell back to sleep. He held her for a little while longer before calling CPS.

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Two hours later, a social worker had arrived and was drinking a cup of coffee in the break room before taking custody of the abandoned baby. Dave continued to hold her as she slept.

"So what'll happen to her?" He asked quietly.

The social worker sighed. "Who knows? She'll probably either end up in a state-run facility or an overcrowded foster home."

"What?" He exclaimed and his loud voice startled the baby. She began to fuss, but Dave soothed her by rubbing circles on her back. "I thought there were waiting lists for baby adoptions?"

"In most places there are," the social worker agreed as she poured herself another cup of coffee. "But you're in New Mexico; we're one of the poorest states in the nation and this is one of the poorest counties in the state. There's not much demand for babies here, especially ones as white as this one." Dave gave her a look, so the social worker explained. "We have a large Hispanic population and, like most people, they prefer to have children that look like them so we have a much harder time placing white babies."

He shook his head and stared at the infant for a moment. "What about me? What if I take her?"

"What do you mean?" The social worker asked, confused by the turn the conversation had taken.

"I don't want her bouncing around from one foster home to another or, God forbid, being raised in a modern day orphanage, so I'll take her."

"Agent Rossi, do you know how to take care of a baby? Of a young child? What happens when this little baby girl turns into a teenager; do you know how you'll handle her then?" The social worker asked, somewhat amused by the profiler's offer but she was also mulling it over in her mind.

Rossi shrugged, "No, but I have a mother who would love nothing more than to show me how to take care of a child. I also have more brothers and sisters than I can count and each of them have kids. Plus, have a steady job and a decent income, so I'll be able to provide for her." He could tell that the woman was weighing the pros and cons to his offer in her head, so he continued. "I also have extensive background checks and psychological assessments performed regularly as part of my employment and I have been deemed fit after each one."

"I don't know," the woman murmured.

"Living with me has to be better than the alternative for her, right?" Dave asked softly as he stared down at the baby whom he'd already fallen in love with.

"You're right," she said as she stood up to leave. "You can keep her for the night and I'll see what kind of strings I can pull so you can leave with her tomorrow, but I can't promise anything."

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Eighteen hours later, Dave was waiting to board his plane in a small airport terminal. Not only did he have his carry on luggage, but he also had his brand-new daughter in his arms…well, technically she was his foster daughter, since there was a waiting period before he could outright adopt her, but he had thought of her as his daughter for the past seventeen hours.

After he'd left the police precinct the previous night, he'd gone to an all-night Wal-Mart and had purchased the basics for the baby. Basic items such as more diapers, a car seat, a jacket, a pacifier, bottles and a ton of other things. As a result, he felt fully prepared to take a cross-country flight with the infant. But as he sat in the uncomfortable chairs, doubts began to creep into his mind.

What the hell had he been thinking? He wasn't father material; hell, he could barely remember to water his plants in the summer, how in the hell was he going to take care of a living, breathing person? And how was he going to support her? He barely made enough to cover his own living expenses, and now he was adding another person to the equation? Another person who was going to need food, water, schooling, medicine, clothes and hundreds of other things? Not to mention that he didn't know the first thing about actually raising a child! He was about to call the social worker to tell her he'd made a horrible mistake, when the baby, who had been sleeping in his arms, opened her brilliant blue eyes and smiled at him. It was then that he was reminded why he was doing all of this and it calmed him down.

"Oh, what an adorable little baby!" An older woman remarked as she sat down next to him. "How old is she?" The woman could tell the baby was a girl by the pink onesie she was wearing.

Dave quickly did the math in his head. "She's two months old."

"And what's her name?" She asked as she played with the baby's finger.

What was her name? The girl's mother never told him; in fact she said to name her whatever he wanted to. He looked down at the baby and quickly racked his brain to think of a name when one finally came to him.

"Salvatoria," he said. "She's named after my father but I call her Sally." And in that one brief moment, he'd given his soon-to-be daughter a name that seemed to suit her perfectly.

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The next day was Christmas Day and, like most fathers, Dave was up early but he wasn't watching his child open her gifts. No, his brand-new daughter had decided to wake him up by screaming at the top of her lungs at three in the morning. After he tried everything from a bottle, to a diaper change, to singing and dancing around the nursery, he had finally conceded defeat and had taken her into the living room of his small apartment. Once there, he had plugged in the Christmas tree lights and she had become transfixed by them. Happy that she was finally quiet, Dave lay down on the sofa and held her against his chest. It was during the moment of calmness where he'd had his first serious discussion with the girl.

He told her all of his hopes and dreams for her, he revealed his fears about being a father, namely that he wouldn't be a good one, and he promised her that he would always be there for her. As she had fallen asleep, he'd watched the sunrise and he realized what he had been missing in his life.

He was just starting to doze when the loud ringing of a telephone woke him up. Glancing at his daughter as he answered the phone, he prayed she would stay asleep. God was listening to him that morning and he breathed a sigh of relief as she stirred and then fell back to sleep.

"Hello?" He said softly. He knew only someone from work or his mother would call him that early in the morning.

"Davie? You are back in town?" His mother said happily. She liked having all of her children together during the holidays and she had been worried that his latest case would keep him away from the festivities.

"Yeah, I'm home ma, but I'm not going to be able to make it for Christmas today."

"Why not?" His mother demanded. "Why is it so hard for you to attend family functions? You live less than five miles from me, so why can't you ever come for Sunday dinner, or Thanksgiving, or Christmas?"

"Ma, I promise I'll see you soon, I just have a few things to take care of today," he told her as he mentally planned the day with his daughter.

"But Davie, we have presents for you," his mother said, trying to entice him into coming for a little while. Unfortunately for her, it didn't work.

"Trust me, ma," he said as he looked tenderly at the baby lying on his chest, "I've already gotten the best gift of all."