Notes:

This is for Fishbone76 -thanks for putting up with me even as my brain goes from divine to deranged!

Commander Shepard's countryside house, Christmas eve, 05:30 in the morning. Samantha snuggled closer to the sleeping Commander, wrapping the blanket around the two of them tighter as large flakes of snow kept falling slowly outside. It had been snowing the entire night and the day before it, everything was covered in a thick layer of snow, the sounds of the world muffled by the soft fluff.

Shepard had invited the entire crew to come over for dinner on Christmas eve, knowing most of the people who celebrated Christmas would want to spend the actual holiday with their families. She also knew they were aware of the fact that they were her family; having grown up orphaned, normally family dinners had been a luxury reserved for those better off than her. Frankly Shepard had never really cared much for holidays, not until now... and even now she didn't care much about the holiday itself as much as she just enjoyed having her crew... her family... with her. Even if it were just for a while.

Shepard wrapped her arms around Samantha tighter and nuzzled into the back of the other woman's neck, smiling sleepily as she did that. She had absolutely no desire to get out of bed yet, but having spent almost her entire life living on a military schedule, she rarely slept past six in the morning even when she had nowhere to rush off to.

Sensing her spouse's usual restlessness, Samantha turned to face her and was already leaning closer to kiss her good morning when Shepard yawned. Samantha pulled back, her nose crinkling as she made a face in disgust and pinched her nostrils shut.

"Your morning breath is lethal!" she gasped.

"You wouldn't happen to know anyone who has a toothbrush I could borrow?" the redhead inquired playfully, her smile reaching all the way to the deep green eyes that were sparkling with mirth.

"You still owe me six thousand credits for the last one you borrowed!"

"I thought it was a donation for a very good cause!" Shepard grinned, and Samantha rolled her eyes at her before holding her breath and kissing Shepard good morning despite the offensive breath.

Shepard turned to lie on her back, Samantha settling to rest her head on the other woman's shoulder, snuggling into the sweetheart's cradle smoothly. They stayed still like that for a long moment in comfortable silence, both awake but not willing to move just yet. Samantha tilted her head back a little and reached to trace her fingertips along the scars on Shepard's face. Sometimes she wondered if they hurt, they looked like they did. Shepard always insisted they didn't... but considering how much punishment Shepard's poor body was used to taking on a daily basis, Samantha was certain any average person would've crumbled underneath the pains Shepard would just shrug off. So Shepard saying it didn't hurt didn't necessarily mean it was completely painless.

"Like what you see?" Shepard inquired, the corner of her mouth rising as a smile took over the full lips.

Doctor Chakwas had offered Shepard the chance to get rid of the scars permanently, but she'd chosen not to; they were a part of who she was, and she'd learned to love them to the point of actually missing the original ones... the ones she'd gotten on Akuze way back when. The ones that were gone now, Miranda and her Lazarus team having done a practically flawless job at rebuilding her. A bit too flawless if she was honest.

The procedure had left her with new scars, and her encounter with the Reapers barely a year ago had left her with a plethora of new scars, not just on her face. She'd welcomed them, and left them alone. Besides, as Garrus had once told her, some women found facial scars attractive... and not all of them were Krogan like he'd suspected.

"I love what I see," Samantha responded sincerely and reached to kiss Shepard's cheek gently.

They stayed snuggling in bed for another hour before Shepard finally began to get up. She shivered a little, the floor was cold and the house cool, she'd kept the temperature low on purpose to have an excuse to use the fireplace later today.

"Sam, have you seen my hoody?" Shepard began to ask and turned around sharply when she heard a noise when Samantha zipped up the N7-hoody that Shepard was talking about.

"I have, and it is lovely," she answered, snickering a little. Shepard took a moment to pretend being upset, but let Samantha wear the hoody, honestly she quite enjoyed it when Sam wore it; it meant that afterward it would have her scent on it, and frankly, it looked quite good on her.

Shepard went to feed the fish (because Samantha still adamantly refused to do it for her even now) before turning her attention to the space hamster that was leaning against the wall of his cage.

"Good morning mister Janeway," she greeted the tiny animal and reached to pick him up. He nimbly climbed up along her arm and went to take a seat on her shoulder as she headed into the kitchen to make scambled eggs. When the food was done, Shepard took a few pieces of egg into her palm, blew on them to cool them down before handing the treats to the hamster. Mister Janeway chewed on them eagerly, filling his tiny cheeks, small crumbs of egg scattering over the Commander's shoulder as he ate.

"Ooh, lovely," Samantha commented when she emerged from the bathroom after having brushed her teeth and found breakfast waiting for her at the table. Her eyebrow quirked at the sight of the space hamster as he scuttled down the sleeve of Shepard's red and black plaid shirt and paused to sit on the table by Samantha's plate of eggs. He stared at the woman for a moment before boldly stealing a piece of egg and running back to Shepard.

"You cheeky little creature! I can tell he's your pet," Samantha grinned and poured herself a cup of coffee.
"Hey, he was a renegade long before I came into his life, if anything he's a bad influence on me."
"Yes, I'm sure you'd be an absolute sweetheart if it weren't for the hamster."
"Are you implying I am not a sweetheart?" Shepard whimpered, her mouth turning into a pout as her eyes widening in exaggerated fake-sadness.
"I didn't mean to imply, I thought I was being quite frank," Samantha shrugged, taking a sip of her coffee, not falling for Shepard's innocent act at all.

Once they'd finished eating breakfast, Shepard took out the cookie dough from the fridge and rolled it onto the counter from the bowl. She'd made it herself from scratch last night, and in doing so she had taken Samantha by surprise. She'd had no idea Shepard would want to do something like that (it had taken some effort, she'd managed to mess up two batches of cookie dough before finally succeeding, but as was Shepard's way, she'd refused to give up), but then again, how could she have?

Meeting the woman behind the soldier was a rare thing even now when the war was over. She admitted that sometimes she forgot there was a civilian version of the Commander... but in her defense, the Commander seemed to often forget it herself too.

"Do you think these will offend someone?" Shepard then inquired, holding up the human-shaped cookie cutter.

"As in will they be upset there are no Krogan-shaped cookies for example?" she elaborated, and Samantha's eyebrows rose high in surprise. She didn't think the Krogan, or any other species for that matter, celebrated Christmas or were aware of the role gingerbread men had in the holiday.

"Since when do you care about possibly offending someone?" she inquired and Shepard paused for a moment before shrugging.

"Point taken."

"Besides, they'll get eaten before anyone will even notice their shape," Samantha comforted as she went to wrap her arms around the other woman from behind and rested her chin on Shepard's shoulder. Shepard nodded in agreement with Samantha's reasoning, but put the human-shape away and stuck to the spruce-, star-, and reindeer-shapes just to be on the safe side. Samantha chuckled softly at Shepard's uncharacteristic insecurity and kissed her cheek gently.

She then let go of her and went to get the box of Christmas decorations. The guests had been told to arrive around five in the afternoon, there was still plenty of time to get everything ready, even if the turkey would take at least three hours. They'd made most of the preparations last night, so all that was left today was to bake the cookies, set up the tree and get the turkey in the oven.

"Can I trust you to baste the breasts while I take a shower?" Samantha inquired grinning once the decorations were done and she'd moved onto cooking.

"Have I ever given you any reason to doubt my ability to handle breasts?" Shepard asked, firmly gripping her own to emphasize her point, managing to sound genuinely offended by such an outrageous suggestion.

"Jane. Jane? Jane!"
"Hm?"
"Are you seriously getting distracted by your own breasts right now?" Samantha frowned and Shepard shrugged.
"In my defense, this happens to be a very legendary pair."

"I'd better not find you standing there, still fondling yourself when I get back," Samantha rolled her eyes and turned to head for the bathroom.
"No need to be envious, you're more than welcome to fondle the legendary Shepard too!" she called out after her.
"Try handling the turkey's breasts for now!" Samantha laughed and shut the door.

"Heeheehee," Grunt chuckled as he bit the heads off the gingerbread men before proceeding to swallow the rest of them whole. Shepard caught Samantha's eyebrow quirking ever so slightly in a silent "I told you" as she glanced at Shepard. She smiled at her, shrugging her shoulders a little as a response, "Yes, and you were right."

Everyone was sitting at the table in the dining room, eating, laughing, chatting. The room was dim, lit only by the candles and the warm glow from the fireplace. Shepard leaned back in her chair and just watched and listened. She didn't know if she'd have a chance like this again anytime soon. Just because the war was over, everyone still had things to do, the odds of managing to schedule a get-together and actually have everyone show up were minimal.

Once they'd finished eating, they moved to the living room to enjoy some mulled wine, Irish coffee, and several other hot beverages Samantha knew how to make with confidence thanks to her experience as a bartender.

"Thanks for coming, everyone," Shepard began slowly after the chatter had quieted down a little. Her crew, her family, turned to look at her, giving their undivided attention her. Well, except for Grunt and Jack. He was busy trying to untangle himself from the hideous Christmas-themed sweater Jack had gotten him as a joke, she was busy laughing at him. The sweater was decorated with two snowmen, their carrot noses sticking out from where a person's nipples usually would've been. It looked even more ridiculous on Grunt in real life than what Jack had imagined it would.

"Honestly, Jack..." Miranda rolled her eyes.
"'Tis the season to be ugly!" Jack laughed.
"Yeah, you'd know."
"What did you say?" Jack growled, leaning closer to Miranda, her eyes narrowing and her hand tightening into a fist.
"Play nice, girls. No smearing the walls with blood, even if the color would suit the holiday," Shepard stepped in.

"There goes my holiday spirit," Wrex commented as he leaned back in his chair, sipping his drink and looking up at the walls as if he was trying to imagine what it would look like if it were decorated with blood and gore.

"I believe Shepard was about to say something," Liara pointed out, bringing them back on topic, and Shepard nodded a silent "thank you" to her.

"I just wanted to tell you all..." Shepard trailed off. She wasn't sure how to word it. She could make a speech that would make people follow her to hell with a smile, but expressing gratitude when a simple thank you would not suffice was harder.

"I, uh... I guess... what I'm trying to say is... thank you for always sticking by me, even when I did crazy things," she finished in a chuckle.

"Well, in all fairness if you hadn't dragged us into your craziness, none of us would be here right now, so thanks for being nuts enough to take on the Reapers," Joker chuckled, raising his glass in a toast of a kind.

James had excused himself earlier to run an errand, and it was well past midnight when he returned just as everyone else was getting ready to leave. Shepard gave him a tiny nod, and he snuck upstairs while Samantha wasn't looking. For someone so big he sure could move fast and nimbly.

"Shepard, you do realize a wife is for life, and not just for Christmas?" Liara teased in a whisper as she slipped Shepard the ring she'd been holding onto for her.

"Life sentence is what I am going for," Shepard winked, and Liara chuckled. James returned from upstairs, sliding down along the railing and hopped off at the end of it just before Samantha emerged from the kitchen to say good night to the remaining guests.

"Smooth," Shepard mouthed at him and he gave her a thumbsup.

After everyone had left and the house was quiet again, Shepard paused to stand by the window and stared out. It was still snowing, large flakes floating effortlessly across the lights in the yard.

"What's on your mind?" Samantha inquired as she went to Shepard and wrapped her arms around her waist from behind.
"I was just wondering if we had any more trifle left," Shepard grinned.

"I think Grunt ate the entire bowl. Literally, as in he ate the bowl the food was in, too."
"Grunt's my baby, gotta love him."
"It wouldn't hurt to teach him some table manners though," Samantha quirked an eyebrow.
"I think it could, I don't see him taking such lessons without a fight," Shepard shrugged smiling and turned to face Samantha. She leaned in to kiss her softly, the touch light as a feather.

"Wanna go snuggle by the fire?" she grinned then.

"I thought you'd never ask," Samantha grinned back and entwined her fingers with Shepard's as they walked across the room. She sat down onto the floor on the thick, soft carpet and leaned her back against the couch, tugging on Shepard's hand expecting her to join her, but Shepard shook her head.

"I have something for you, I'm gonna go get it first," she said and Samantha's eyebrow quirked.
"I thought we agreed on no gifts."

"Well, it's not really a gift exactly as much as it's... Just... wait here," Shepard smiled and dashed upstairs. She returned shortly, holding a black labrador retriever puppy in her arms.

"Oh my..! That is so adorable, and so fluffy!" Samantha gasped excitedly as she reached her arms out to accept the puppy as Shepard handed him over. "When did you..? Ah, that errand you had James run!" she then caught on and Shepard nodded, smiling and looking rather smug at having managed to sneak the puppy past Samantha earlier.

"I believe a promise was made a while back, and since we already have the big house with the picket fence..." Shepard trailed off and sat next to Samantha, wrapping her arm around the other woman's shoulders and pulling her close.

"What do you wanna name him?" Samantha inquired, leaning to rest her head on Shepard's shoulder as she pet the sleepy puppy in her lap.

"Commander of course!"
"Of course, I don't know what I was expecting."

"He's your puppy, you decide," Shepard then smiled, reaching to kiss Samantha's temple softly.
"I think I'll name him Admiral just so he outranks you," Samantha teased and Shepard burst out laughing.
"I suppose I could learn to live with that," she commented. They sat silently for a long moment, the soft crackles and the hum of the flames coming from the fireplace being the only sounds in the house.

"Call me old-fashioned, but..." Shepard finally broke the silence, digging her hand into her pocket as Samantha turned to look at her curiously.
"Um... well, as I recall, there was also talk of having two kids... and I think..." Shepard trailed off awkwardly. Why is this so hard? she almost rolled her eyes at herself.

"Well, it would look better in the news if we were married before having kids," she blurted out, and Samantha's eyebrows rose at that.
"Did you just..?"
"Okay, let me rephrase..." Shepard said, cleared her throat theatrically and held up the ring.

"You challenge me, and I'm not just talking about chess," she began again, chuckling a little before continuing, "You never let me get away with anything, and you actually stand up to me if and when I say and do ridiculous things... I need that in my life, I need you in my life. Would you stay with me always, challenge and balance me for the rest of our lives?"

"Jane... Of course I will," she breathed, wrapped her arms around Shepard and held onto her tightly.

"I love you, Sam."
"I love you too."