Unsettled, a heavily pregnant Ronan Ross turned over in her bed and pressed a hand against the bump housing her very wriggly third child. It was Christmas Eve and it would be third consecutive (and here's praying final!) Christmas without her husband by her side on this joyous occasion. He was on tour once more in Iraq and as much as she was proud of him there were some days - like today - when she wanted to kick him in the ass for being so god damned rude for being away.

Sighing, she looked over at the alarm clock and saw that it was 0200. She realised that her two little monsters would be up at the crack of dawn so she best attempt to get a little more sleep. Rolling over, she punched her pillow once to try and make it more comfortable before freezing when she heard a sound downstairs.

Reaching under her bed, she grabbed hold of the baseball bat that her father-in-law had gifted her when her husband had first signed up. It had laid under her bed neglected for five years but now it seemed that it would come in handy.

Climbing out of bed, she started towards the stairs and prayed to anyone that was listening that it was a peaceful burglar. She was eight months pregnant and the last thing she needed was any excitement...

"Hello," she called tentatively before cursing herself. Were they really going to answer? Really. Talk about a stupid American horror flick move.

"Fuck," she heard a familiar voice curse and rounded the corner to see Santa in the middle of the lounge with a sack of presents at his feet. Uncle Burke. "Is that a baseball bat in your hand?" He asked shocked that his sweet little Ronan would think to have a baseball bat at hand.

"Yeah, Robbie bought me it. Jamie gave me pepper spray and Dad gave me a gun that apparently couldn't be..."

"Enough." He said holding up his hand realising that he really didn't need to know about a gun that Ewan McIntyre had managed to retrieve for his daughter. "I knew this was a stupid idea the minute Jamie emailed me."

"Jamie emailed you?"

"Yeah with a list of presents that he wanted me to sneak into the house dressed as Santa in case any of the kids woke up. I think he'd have rang his Dad but I have more of the physical imaging of Santa," Burke laughed clapping his hands against his belly. "I'm sorry, Princess. I should have said no what with your state and all that..."

Without even knowing she was going to, Ronan burst into tears and was quickly enveloped into the warm embrace of one of her favourite uncles as he pressed a kiss to her temple. Even all the way in his warzone, Jamie had been spontaneous enough to think about their children and only twenty minutes ago she was cursing him for not being here.

"I have a spare room, Uncle Burke. Do you want to stay over and surprise the kids in the morning with the Santa suit. You're coming for Dinner anyway, right?"

"I'll get Karen to bring me a change of clothes over so I'm not stuck as Santa all day," he chuckled before pressing a final kiss to her temple. "Merry Christmas, sunshine."

"Merry Christmas, Uncle Burke," she said before smiling as she remembered how much she loved Christmas and her amazing family for doing this for her today.

AUTHORS NOTE: Merry Christmas everyone! Here's a little something that I typed up before I went to work. Hope you're having an amazing time with your family x