First Real Christmas

You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

Jennifer always loved Christmas. Even here, far away from her home and the Earth, Christmas had a magical influence on her. She was silently singing with the cd, feeling the lovely atmosphere. This song was one of her favorites and she was really glad that she brought the cd with her. This was her second Christmas without her father and she missed him, but this year she didn't regret so much that she couldn't be with him.

She didn't notice that Ronon entered her room, standing now at the door and watching her with amusement. She looked even more beautiful when she was happy, he thought. But the song she was listening to was crazy. Although he's already learnt something about Christmas during the last years, he never heard something similar and it made him smile wider.

When she realized that he is standing there, she blushed and stopped humming immediately. They'd been together for some time now, but she was blushing from time to time and he couldn't say he didn't like it.

"Ronon, why don't you say anything?" she asked, shaking her head. "You can't just sneak around." She really looked adorable when she was embarrassed.

"Sorry," he mumbled, but the sparkles in his eyes were saying that he wasn't being honest.

„It's ok," she sighed. "You know I don't like someone watching me when I don't know about it."

„I am not just someone," he replied, still smiling.

She rolled her eyes. "No, you're not. I didn't mean to… Forget it."

„What is that?" He asked, pointing at the player.

"Christmas song, you know. I think John was telling you something about Christmas on the Earth. It's one of the traditions. We have Christmas songs."

"It's silly," he said. „Do children on the Earth really believe the story about a fat man in a fur red coat?"

She couldn't help herself and laughed. "If you say that this way, well… It doesn't sound very believable. What if we leave the song topic? I really don't want to argue on Christmas."

"Fine," he agreed with a little smile. "What are you doing? Another Christmas thing I suppose." He looked at the decorations she had hanged up around.

"Yeah, it belongs to that. It is a tradition. You told me about some traditions you had on Sateda. This is similar. For me it's not just about the religion. This is time when the family is together. I used to do all these things with my mum when I was small."

She smiled, but he saw the sadness in her eyes. He automatically took her hand and hugged her. She felt much better when he was here with her; she felt safe and protected from the whole world.

„Actually I know some traditions," he grinned suddenly. "I should kiss you under the mistletoe."

She grinned back. „I don't have any mistletoe," she said. „But I don't think it matters if we have it or not. You can kiss me anyway."

„It wouldn't count," he said firmly.

"So?" She looked at him.

"I have one."

"What?"

He was really holding mistletoe in his hand and tried to hang it up immediately. She shook her head in disbelief. He never stopped surprising her.

He kissed her, but it wasn't just an innocent kiss and she felt the same as any time. She wanted him. She couldn't get out of her head a thought of how inappropriate it would be to do something more under the mistletoe. Something more than just a kiss. She couldn't help but chuckled at this idea of new Sateda – Earth tradition. Ronon leaned back a bit and looked at her.

„What?" He asked suspiciously.

„Nothing, I'm sorry," but she couldn't stop giggling, while he looked confused.

„I think I don't wanna know," he said and tried not to pay attention to that.

Suddenly, they heard some noise from the corridor. Jennifer opened the door and Ronon followed her. They stopped, looked at each other and started to laugh. In the corridor there were John and Rodney. They were wearing big red Santa hats and were singing some unrecognizable song. They were obviously drunk and their singing was getting louder.

„Preparation for the Christmas celebrating," John explained to the laughing pair, while he tried to keep the hat on. Rodney didn't care about them and kept on singing.

„Of course," she said. "You are doing well."

John nodded. „Yeah. I know," he said quite proudly. „Have fun. We need to... go on."

Jennifer just shook her head. The doctor in her was reminding her how bad they will feel tomorrow and that Rodney will show up in the infirmary on a hundred percent.

„You will have to treat McKay tomorrow," Ronon noticed. He was reading her thoughts again.

"I know, he will suffer from a life threatening hangover."

"As I say," Ronon smiled. He took her hand, pulled her back to the room and closed the door.

"Sorry, Jennifer, but it's difficult to believe in the magic of Christmas with these two around."

"Tell me, they're are making it quite difficult," she sighed. "But it would be boring without these moments, don't you think?"

"Yeah, you are right." She was right. He really started to like this whole Christmas idea because it had a positive influence on her obviously. But he wasn't sure if he should admit it.

"I am always right," she teased him.

"If you think that," he replied. Then he looked into her eyes and knew that he would agree with anything she would say or do.

She was happy. She didn't remember if she'd ever felt so happy in her whole life.

"This is my first real Christmas," he said after a moment of silence.

She was a bit puzzled. "Actually it's your fourth, if I remember."

"Yeah, but you said that during Christmas you should be with people you love. So this is my first."

She turned to him, her eyes open wide. He never used the word love before and they both were very well aware of that. She looked into his eyes and saw there the confirmation of his words. He loved her. She leaned to kiss him and he didn't protest. After a while she put her head on his chest.

"I love you too," she whispered.

No one of them noticed that the silly Santa song was playing again, but even if they did, they wouldn't care. It was Christmas after all.