Author's note:This is what happens when someone plants the seed of a P/T Christmas story and Capt. Acorn has a 7+ hour drive home from Thanksgiving festivities. This little tale assumes that the show's episodes took place around roughly the same time of year the episode first ran. "Present Day" means about 7 months post-Endgame.

Some disclaimers: The normal one about not owning anything, blah, blah, blah. Next, this is (obviously) a Christmas themed story, so if you hate this particular holiday for whatever reason, keep that in mind before you start reading. Lastly - my head canon is that 24th century Earth Christmas has diminished in popularity and pervasiveness; in addition, it's considered more of a secular children's holiday vs. a religious one. So please keep that in mind, too, if that idea might upset you.

As always, many thanks to Sareki02 and Photogirl 1890 for their beta reading. I'll be posting chapters once a day for the next 12 days. (See what I did there?) Lastly, apologies to Lincoln Steffens for the title (although his story was about a pony - no Martians...)

Present Day

Not for the first time in their years together, Tom Paris' wife was looking at him like he was from another planet. He didn't mean one of those planets with your run-of-the-mill, lavender-skinned humanoids with funky cranial ridges, either. He meant one of the really weird ones - like a gas giant where the inhabitants have seventeen limbs, communicate through their sweat glands, and breathe argon.

"You want me to replicate all of this?" she asked, regarding the PADD in her hand.

B'Elanna was back on Mars with the baby. Tom grimaced at how tired she looked. He'd tried to get out of this stupid training course - how hard could it be to instruct a bunch of green cadets on how to keep a shuttle in space? - but Starfleet had rules (So many rules! He'd forgotten how many!) and if Tom wanted to keep his pips, he had to follow them. The relevant rule in this case said if he wanted to instruct cadets, he had to take a two week training course on Earth - away from his wife and baby daughter. They'd gotten a nanny to help out when he and B'Elanna had returned to duty last month, but she and Miral were alone at night and the seven-month-old was teething.

"I'm sorry," he said, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice. He was hoping his plan for their reunion would be fun, but the last thing he wanted was to create more work for her. "You're right. You've got enough on your plate. Forget it."

"No, it's fine," she said, frowning at the PADD. "It won't take long. I'm just a little confused. What's it all for?"

Tom grinned. Maybe this could work after all. "It's for Christmas," he explained.

She looked up at him, letting out a short huff of air. "I'm not that sleep deprived. I know it's for Christmas. I mean, what are we going to do with it all? We've only got so much shelf space here."

"It's for the tree! I'm going to get us a tree." He had to bite his cheek to keep from blurting out the rest of his plans. Tom wanted to do something nice for her - for all of them, after their first separation since Miral's birth. Christmas - the first one he'd looked forward to in well over a decade - seemed like the perfect opportunity. He'd been watching old holiday movies during his time away from his family and now had visions of caroling and snowmen and sledding. Of course, there was no snow on Mars. Maybe he could book some holodeck time...

B'Elanna's skeptical voice interrupted his sugarplum musings. "You're going to have to get a pretty big tree to hold all these decorations," she remarked, gesturing with the PADD.

"I'll take care it," he promised her.

"That's exactly what I'm worried about," she said, a smile taking the sting out of her words. "But really, Tom, where is this coming from? Christmas is a holiday for children, isn't it? You didn't celebrate it once when we were on Voyager." All of sudden her face froze. "You didn't… I mean, I know your mother wanted us at their house for the holiday, but… Tom, they aren't coming here, are they?"

Tom bit his lip to keep from laughing. B'Elanna and Julia hadn't quite hit it off yet. "No," he reassured her. "My parents and sisters are all staying here on Earth. But it's Miral's first Christmas. I want to make it something special. Just the three of us."

B'Elanna's shoulders relaxed and she shook her head. "She's seven months old. She's not going to remember any of it."

"Humor me?"

"You come home and let me get a good night's sleep, and you can do whatever you want," she said, resting her chin in her hand. "Your daughter is exhausting."

"Where is she?" Tom asked, missing Miral's chubby cheeks and arms and legs. It seemed incredible to him at times, that he and B'Elanna had created such a perfect little squash of a person. A little over a year ago, she didn't even exist. Now Tom sometimes felt such an ache to hold her in his arms, it was like part of his body was missing. "With Kiet?"

B'Elanna shook her head no. Tiredly. "He's left for the day. I'd just put her down for the night when you called."

"I keep forgetting the time difference. Can you wake her?" Tom asked. "I want to see her."

His wife just stared at him through the monitor.

He cleared his throat. "Right. Bad idea. I should go anyway. I'm meeting the Doc for breakfast."

"He doesn't eat."

Tom shrugged. "I didn't pick the activity. That's what he wanted to do." He touched the monitor where B'Elanna's cheek was. "I love you. I'll see you both soon."

B'Elanna smiled. "I love you, too. See you tomorrow."