A/N: The Christmas after 'Endings & Beginnings', nothing deep and meaningful here, just a bit of festive fluff. Hope you enjoy it and Happy Christmas/Holidays to everyone reading this!

Disclaimer: The characters, with the exception of those not in the original line-up, don't belong to me they remain the property of Paxson Entertainment and Pebblehut. I'm just having a bit of fun with them.

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Seven Days of Christmas

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Wednesday 21st December:

Jack leaned back in the driver's seat, forcing himself to relax and grudgingly accept there was no way short of abandoning his car and walking, that he was ever going to make it into work on time and even then it would be debatable. Not that he should have been going in at all he was supposed to be getting ready for his trip home to Wisconsin. Every other year it had been a last minute rush but he'd had so much unused vacation time left that, with D's help, he'd managed to wangle an entire week for Christmas and he needed it.

With Dimitrius finally having been given the job of Unit Supervisor and running here, there and everywhere for meetings and no replacement available until the New Year, the bulk of responsibility for the day-to-day running of the office had fallen squarely on his shoulders. In all honesty he didn't mind the additional challenge, thrived on it in fact, that was when he was out in the field, but the mountain of paperwork on his desk everyday was wearing him down. Although the rest of the Team were completely unaware of it, most nights he was in the bullpen until midnight trying to make inroads into the files and reports but the next day, the pile had always grown again and he hated it. He was effectively one man doing two jobs and he was exhausted both physically and mentally.

The traffic inched forward and then stopped; the unseasonably dry weather bringing the Christmas shoppers out in their droves as they tried to get everything done before the inevitable snow arrived. Frustrated he pulled out his cell and called to say he was going to be late which meant that there would be a backlog waiting for him and everything needing to be finished yesterday so it could be signed off for the year. This train of thought was too depressing and he forced his mind to more pleasant things… Log fires, Christmas with family and friends… His Mom's cinnamon buns…

When he finally made it in, he took one look at his desk and wanted to turn tail and run. How the hell he was going to get through everything and make it out early enough to do his personal stuff was totally beyond him. Greeting everyone somewhat grouchily, he sat down and grabbed a folder from the top of the pile.

"You okay, Sparky? For someone who'll be on his way home while we're all stuck here, you don't seem to be in a very festive mood."

Jack sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Have you seen this lot? I'll be lucky if I get out of here in time for next Christmas."

"Point taken but it comes with the territory, mate. Why do you think I'm happy to stay a lowly Special Agent instead of Team Leader?"

"I thought it was because they had far more brains than to give you the job in the first place," Myles interjected sarcastically. "Unfortunately though someone has to do it and Jack it appears, drew the short straw."

"You're always bragging about how good you are at paperwork, why don't you give him a hand?"

"Because, like you, I'm just a lowly employee… Overlooked and underestimated."

"Yeah, right… It couldn't be because…"

"Would you two shut up and let me get on with this, haven't you got any work of your own to do?" It came out far more sharply than he'd intended and the rest of the Team exchanged surprised glances.

"Must be December 21st syndrome…" The Harvard man muttered, "Shortest day of the year… shortest temper."

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Feeling he was making some headway at last, Jack looked around the room when everyone got up from their seats. "What's going on?"

"In case you hadn't noticed Sparky, its lunchtime and we all need refuelling."

"Already..?"

"Happens this time every day... You, coming..?"

He was just about to grab his jacket when someone appeared beside him to add more files to the pile and again he rubbed his eyes, stretching his back to straighten out some of the kinks. "No you go, seems like I'm destined to spend the day inside."

"Okay, see you later." Everyone said their goodbyes and left but Sue lingered in the doorway for a few minutes before following them.

Engrossed in what he was doing, Jack was startled when Levi appeared at his side. "Hi, Buddy." He looked up to see her standing in front of him, holding two Starbuck's coffees and two brown paper bags. "What's this?"

"I thought you could use a hand."

"You didn't need to do that."

"I know but I wanted to."

He gave her a grateful smile. "Thank you."

"Welcome. Where would you like me to start?"

"Could you finish off the manpower reports for Randy? He's called me three times today already."

"Sure."

Between them, they'd made it almost to the bottom of the pile and things were looking a lot more hopeful, that was until the Supervisor stuck his head round the door. "Sorry Jack, meeting upstairs in thirty minutes."

"D…"

"I know and I tried to get you out of it but they want us both."

Jack blew out a breath and Sue shrugged sympathetically. "Never mind, tomorrow you'll be back in Wisconsin and out of reach."

"That's the only thing keeping me going. You know, when I got stuck in traffic this morning, it took all my willpower to stop myself from turning round and going home."

"That's not like you." Her face was filled with concern and he took her hand and gave it a squeeze.

"Jack," D reappeared in the doorway. "Meeting's been postponed until 4pm."

The others were starting to file back in and Sue returned to her desk as Lucy came over. "You should have joined us. We went to that new place on M Street. It was excellent, really felt like Christmas. Where were you?"

"Levi and I stayed to help Jack."

"Oh, well you missed a great meal."

Sue looked up to see him talking on his cell and he didn't look particularly happy; three calls later he was downright miserable.

"Geez, cheer up Sparks, you're putting a dampener on everyone's Christmas spirit."

Instead of replying, he walked out of the bullpen, cell still in hand.

"Was it something, I said?"

"He's just tired," Sue explained.

"Well, at least his paperwork's almost done." The Aussie observed.

"Thanks to Sue," Lucy joined the conversation. "She stayed to help him."

"Maybe, we should have too." Tara sighed.

"Well, it's too late to worry about that now."

"Be quiet Harvard." Bobby snapped at him, feeling a little guilty at leaving his friend behind while he went out to enjoy himself. "So what's the problem? It looks just about done to me."

"D stopped by earlier, they've called a meeting upstairs for 4 o'clock and he has to be there."

"Aah…" Myles stopped abruptly when Jack reappeared, his face like thunder.

"Is everything okay?" Sue asked solicitously.

"Yeah, fine. Why wouldn't it be?"

"No reason, I…"

"I'm sorry… you're the last person I should be taking it out on."

"I'll forgive you, this time." She watched him sit down and pick up one of the last few remaining files. Something was definitely wrong and she was determined to find out what it was. She decided to tackle him when he came back from his meeting but she never got the chance.

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