Ok, this goes with Christmas Eve. It tells how they got to that point and it will contain language. It is rated M because I do plan on going past the point for Christmas Eve, and so eventually will contain adult themes. If you don't like it, don't read it. Stick with Christmas Eve. And this story was over 4000 words. I think that's the longest chapter I have ever written. But fan fiction requires I do a disclaimer so...

Disclaimer: If you think I owned any of the characters besides Megan, do you think I would be on this site writing fanfictions about them? Nope, me either. I picture myself laying in a pool of money if I did. So no, I do not own Altair Ibn-La'had, Malik A'Sayf, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, Leonardo Da Vinci, Desmond Miles, Shaun Hastings, and Alex J. Mercer. The first 6 belong to Ubisoft Montreal and Alex belongs to Activision.

Now, I do enjoy hearing from anyone who reads this so please review.

"'Quietly she comes upon….'"

A young woman types away on a keyboard, black and green glasses perched upon a small pert nose, blue-green eyes fixed on the glowing screen of her laptop as her eyebrows are pulled together over her eyes. Her Cupid's bow mouth was drawn in a tight pale line, her slender face was framed by chestnut ringlets that had fallen from the lazy bun she had made with a pencil. She pauses in her typing to lace her fingers together and stretch, the green long sleeve flannel pajama shirt lifting off her stomach as she does showing a pale belly button, and she yawns widely and covers it with her hands. She pops her back, leaning into the computer chair she was in, and stands; closing the screen as she does. Her black and gray plaid flannel pajama bottoms clung to her hips, held in place by the tied string.

She quietly walks out of the room, closing the door behind her, and heading to her kitchen. She stops in the living room long enough to feed the dyeing fire in the large fireplace and to get some feeling back into her feet and hands which had gone numb from the cold. She removes her glasses, placing them on her head, and rubs her eyes to continue on to her kitchen. She turns on the tap, filling a coffee mug with water before popping it into the microwave for a few minutes. She then pulls out coco mix and marshmallows, leaning against the counter to wait on the water. She looks at the clock on her wall finds it to tell her it was getting close to midnight. She sighs, calling it a day on her manuscript and pulling off her glasses to set them on the counter.

The microwave beeps, alerting her to the water being done. Carefully she pulls out the mug, pouring in the mix and then the marshmallows, and then goes into the living room once more. She sets the mug down on an end table and pulls the warm fleece blanket off the back of the couch curling up under it. She watches the fire, sipping at her hot coco and eating the melted marshmallows. She relaxes, allowing her mind to roam on things she had been avoiding all day. It had yet to snow in this area of the states and she was happy. She had enough food to last the winter, stocking up in early fall, but it was nice to be able to go to town and eat out every once in a while. She takes a deep breath, curling her arm under her head on the arm of the couch, and curls up in a tighter ball under the blanket to keep the cold at bay. While it hadn't snowed, it was still in freezing temperatures if the weatherman was right. And she had a sinking suspicion he was. The glen behind her house was frosted over, what leaves that were left on the trees having a sparkling quality she associated with crystals.

She shivers as the fire crackles and collapses. Her large 8 bed/ 4 ½ bathroom house was silent, echoing with the pops and crackles spoken by the fire. She groans lightly before getting up and throwing a few more logs on the fire then returns to her place on the couch. She grabs the pillow that was at the other end of the couch and makes herself comfortable, falling asleep in moments.

The woman awakens her eyes hazy with sleep. She focuses on the long dead fire and shivers. She knew she needed to start it once more but she was just… exhausted. She had been running on empty for a while, her emotions spent. Even her work was beginning to suffer and she just wanted a break, a real one. Four months of not writing wasn't enough and she had been dealing with lawyers, selling lands, taking care of unfinished business that her family hadn't done yet. She had inherited all of the money from life insurances but had spent it all on the funerals. She was the sole survivor in her family, single living member. Her family name would die if and when she got married and she didn't know if she could handle that. They were a loving family, always together for major holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. But she refused to acknowledge them anymore.

Creaking from the cold she gets up and restarts the fire before taking her cold mug back into the kitchen and sets it in the sink, pouring hot water into it to break up the stuck on marshmallow. Yawning she gets into the fridge and pulls out eggs and bacon, milk and creamer. She sets them down by the oven and then pulls out salt and pepper. She glances outside for a second then begins to head for the skillet when she stops, turning back to the window by the oven. There was several people outside in the glen behind her house. Terrified she takes off to her wall of windows and throws open the sliding door. Ignoring that she was bare foot and the ground was not only frozen but covered in cold dew, she reaches the first person who happened to be a ginger haired man lying face first on the ground. He wore a gray sweater with a white shirt underneath, black slacks and shoes. There was a pair of glasses lying not to far from him so she assumed they belonged to him. There was- dirt and grass stains on his clothes she noticed when she turned him over.

"Hello? Are you ok?" She questions somewhat loudly. Just turning him over had been a problem and she knew it would be impossible for her to drag him or the others inside her house. The man groans, his face screwing up in discomfort, before he cracks one eye open. She releases her held breath but then squeaks as a hand wraps around her throat from behind, it wasn't a tight grip but it held her in place and wouldn't allow her to look behind. She heard some mumbling in a foreign language before one of the other men, a dark haired man wearing blue jeans and a white hoodie, clambers onto his hands and knees to glare at whoever was behind her.

"Altair let her go!" He commands, eyes wanting to scrunch up and getting on his feet. One of his hands goes to his head to hold it, and he slowly makes it over to her and the other man she was beside. It takes a few moments before the hand releases her but when it does she jumps up and away, hands flying to her throat and her eyes widen. She backs up slowly before running into a tree…

'Wait, that's not a… tree...' She thinks and looks up to find a man wearing a gray colored hoodie under a black leather biker's jacket, the white button up underneath had the collar popped up around his face. All she could really see at that moment was his icy blue eyes glaring down at her. Her heart drops when he grabs hold of right arm, just below her wrist, and squeezes. She felt her bones creak before they actually broke. She sucks in a breath before screaming, dropping to the ground in pain. He still had a hold of her arm but was no longer squeezing. The other men, 4 out of 6, around her suddenly pull out weapons; swords, knives, and other blades. They all glare at the man, switching between her and him. She with holds her sobs, taking deep shuddering breaths, gripping her right elbow.

"Who are you?" The man who just broke her arm questions, his voice deep and gravely to her, as he glares down at her. His eyes bore into her when she doesn't answer and his grip tightens a little more causing her to cry out in pain. "Do you work for Gentek?"

"G-gentek, wha-what the hell is that?" She questions him, tears leaking from her eyes. He frowns at her for a moment before releasing her arm. She pulls the appendage against her chest, cradling the broken bones gently. His attention switches to the 6 other men and then his arms kind of become fuzzy, something red and black shifting and sliding over the appendages before they become claws; wicked sharp and deadly.

"Do any of you work for Gentek?" He then questions them, a dark glint coming to his eyes. Somehow, through the haze of pain, her brain began to script out the scene and she could only hope she lived long enough to put it to paper. She was only 22 dammit; she had a full life ahead of her.

It was the six men on one side, all eyeing the other man warily, with the other man eyeing them and her stuck in the middle. Finally one of the six men dares to speak.

"What is this Gentek you speak of?" Questions the man, she guessed his name had to be Altair, who had grabbed her by the throat, his voice conveying his confusion to the other man with the dangerous claws and the rest nod to show they didn't know either. Her heart skips a beat as she looks at the man wearing the black jacket when his arms shift again becoming normal arms once more. She shivers, jarring the broken bones which cause her to hiss in pain and curl into a ball. The noise she makes snaps them out of whatever trance they seemed to be in and the only blonde in the group rushes to her and helps her stand, cradling her arm carefully whilst helping her inside her own home. He helps her to the couch, looking around when he spots one of her drying towels in the kitchen. He runs and grabs it, tying it tightly around her arm.

"She needs to go to a doctor." Another of the men says after she hisses once more when the blonde ties one of the knots just a little too tight.

"Doctor's office is an… hour away." She says wincing when she once more cradles her arm to her chest. She was fighting the tears that once more wanted to escape her eyes but she stands, hissing in pain every time the bones in her arms moved, and walks to the foyer and grabs her keys along with the jacket. She struggles to put it on but gives up, dropping it on the ground and just opening the door and exiting her home. She hears three sets of feet coming out behind her when a larger hand removes the dangling keys from her left hand. Looking up she finds the ginger haired man beside her with a frown on his face.

"Trying to get yourself killed, are we?" He questions with a British accent, nodding to another man who steers her to the other side of her car. She pulls open the passenger door after the ginger unlocks the vehicle and slides in. "Bloody American cars…" She hears him mumble when he puts the key in and turns it on. She looks into the back seat and finds that the man wearing the gray hoodie was behind the driver while a man with brown hair and golden-brown eyes was behind her. She realizes, with a start, that he was wearing clothing reminiscent of the Renaissance period of Italy. She only remembered because she had done research for a book she had planned on basing in that period but eventually didn't.

"Fucking watch where you're going!" She says when the ginger nearly hits the only tree in her front yard. 400 feet from her house to the tree line with one rather large spruce tree in between and he manages to almost make it topple over on her Ford Taurus. He grumbles for a split second before putting it in drive and taking off down her drive way. Vaguely she hopes her car would be alright without having warmed in the cold weather.

"Madonna?"

"Sorry." She apologizes, still looking at him.

"Do not worry. I am Ezio Auditore da Firenze." He says with a little bow of his head, a Casanova smile playing with his scarred lips. He had an Italian accent that she was sure made girls weak in the knees but she was in just too much pain.

"Megan Ryan." She nods back to him with a pain laced smile on her own lips. She turns back around in her seat, pulling on her seat belt after the ginger hits a rather nasty hole in the road. "Do you even know where you're going?"

"Oh well of course, I know everything after all." He snarkaly remarks, shooting her a quick glare. "Of course not you bloody girl."

"Take the next left up the road otherwise it'll be four hours to the next town." He slows only momentarily to make the turn before gunning it once more. "Please try not to, oof!, to blow my engine up. That wouldn't be a good thing Gingie."

He slows down some. "It's Shaun you twit."

"Well, Shaun, it's a pleasure Limey." He gives a slight twitch, eyes narrowing some. She hisses in pain when he hits another pothole. "I'm actually glad you're driving cause I think I would have wrecked by now. I just hope my house is going to still be standing when we get back."

"You're more worried about your house and not how you're going to explain your arm?" Gray Hoodie questions, raising a single brown eyebrow at her and her lack of caring. She blinks a moment before grinning.

"I'm a writer. I can come up with stuff on a dime. Moreover, I'm curious as to how all of you made it to my place. With what I just saw and, well, felt; none of you are from around here are you?"

"Senora Megan, where is here?" Ezio questions her.

"Uh, you're in Washington State, near Oregon and Idaho." She answers him, wincing with each pothole Shaun hit. "Dammit man, are you hitting them on purpose?!" She asks with Shaun giving her a little grin in response.

"I can start if you want." He responds.

"Wait, that's not possible. I was in New York…"

"And I in Italia." The men in the back respond to her answer surprised. She turns back to them and blinks several times.

"New York and Italy? No way, that's not possible. New York would take a couple days by car alone. And Italy you would have to fly to get here. What's going on?" She questions to herself at the end. She looks over at gray hoodie. "What's your name?"

"Alex."

'Okay, so I have Shaun, Altair, Ezio, Alex. Now I need to find out the other three.' She thinks, becoming quiet. She needed to think about all of this. If what they were telling her was true, and sadly she knew they were seeing as she had the broken arm to prove it, then they needed someone they could trust and somewhere they could stay.

7 hours later the four finally walked in the front door of her home. The rest of the car ride had turned rather quiet after the admittance of where they had been prior to waking up outside of her home. Alex had managed to break both bones in her arm but thankfully they had been broken really cleanly and would heal really quick. She was still thinking of the situation for the 7 men, of where they could stay and what she was obligated to do. But she knew what she was going to do.

The ride home had been more enlightening than the ride to town. They had ended up going and buying clothes for them because she didn't know if they had any other clothing or not. She went with the general size and style, even buying a couple hoodies and jackets. She knew the weather and while it was unseasonable for there not to be snow, it still felt like the weather for snow. The clouds were dark and heavy, darkening an already dark sky.

"Desmond where are you, you git?" Shaun calls out, dropping the bags he was holding and then the keys. Megan had made sure to stop at the grocery store because the way Shaun talked, she would run out of food quick. So all of them were carrying bags, be it food or clothing, with Alex carrying the most. Megan leads the way to the kitchen, dropping the food bags on the counter. Ezio, Shaun, and Alex follow her example. Her right arm was heavy with the cast, which was neon green just because everyone frowned about it and she really didn't mind the color, and now she was wondering if she would even be able to type her stories for a while.

'Well, vacation time here I come.' She thought, thinking of her agent and publicist. They were not going to be happy but they would survive. She separates the clothes and food, taking hold of Ezio, who was now in modern clothing consisting of a red button up shirt with the top 3 buttons undone, brown leather jacket left unzipped, black slacks, and black loafers. She could already feel her bank account crying just looking at him. "You can take that jacket off ya know."

"Si, but I am comfortable right now with it on." He responds, that smile back on his face. She blinks a few times.

'Thank god they gave me pain killers or else I would have killed all those stupid girls.' She thinks pulling out food and telling him were to put it. When they finish she notices that the things she had pulled out to make food this morning were put away. When she finally looks back at Shaun she realizes that the three that were left behind were staring at her. "Oh, um, Hi."

Blondie and one of the dark haired guys, who was wearing normal clothing like Shaun which clues her into him being this Desmond guy, smile at her. The other two frown. In fact, Shaun and Alex were doing the same. She clears her throat. "Um, ok. Well first off, my name is Megan." She pauses, thinking over what next she needed to say. "So I kinda get what's going on with all of you. You guys are in Washington state, far away from wherever you had been prior, and I think you may have also…"

She stops, running her left hand through her hair. To her it even sounded crazy, like some sort of plot from a book. "I think you may have also changed worlds. From what I've gathered, which isn't much, all of you are from different frames of time and planes of existence." She relaxes against the counter looking down at it in thought. "What you may have known could be different here. If, well I guess it really isn't an if, if the worlds are as different as what scientist say then who knows." She looks back up at them. "I will say that all of you are welcome here to stay as long as you want. I've got plenty of rooms for each of you and there are plenty of things to do around here. I have internet, food, and; possibly the best thing of all, the security of knowing. I won't ask anything of any of you save names and if you would help around the house. If ever you feel like telling me anything, I'm willing to listen.

"People generally don't come here and if they do, they call ahead. It's a long drive to any town around here which is how I like to live. I think the only person who would be coming would be my agent and that will be because of me having to call him tomorrow to tell him that my manuscript won't be done by deadline. I have 6 to 8 weeks of recuperation from having my arm broken." She finishes, taking a rather deep breath afterwards. This was why she was under a writing alias, talking in public or to people she didn't know just causes her unneeded stress. "Now, my doctor gave me a rather powerful painkiller and I just want to turn into a toasted marshmallow on my couch for a few hours." She goes around the counter, heading to her comfy couch. Someone had started a fire and it was burning strong. She grabs her blanket from the back of the couch and bundles up under it, relaxing into her corner. A few seconds later all of the men come into the living room. Blondie sits with her on the couch, as does Ezio, and clears his throat.

"How can you say you will not ask questions of us? Isn't it human nature to be curious?"

"Yes. But if I try to force anything from any of you, what will that prove? I admit I have millions of questions floating around my head, beating against my skull in an attempt to break through and bombard all of you. As I've said, the only thing I really want to know right now is names. The rest will come when all of you feel ready to tell." She answers him with a small smile.

"Megan, you have not eaten. Would you like something?" Ezio questions leaning back into the couch. He was relaxing she guessed.

"Hmm… Hot chocolate sounds good." She answers him. The others begin to roam the living room, Altair having removed his hood and she could see the dark brown hair cropped about an inch from his head. He, Desmond, and Ezio all looked alike and if it really came down to it, she would call them triplets to anyone who asked. The only problem would be if they could talk without their accents.

Megan stands up, adjusting the blanket to be around her shoulders while her right arm hung at her side. The cast made her arm feel 20 pounds heavier and she was glad for the sling she had been given and also for the fact that she was naturally ambidextrous. Ezio stands with her as does Blondie.

"Don't worry 'bout it." She tells them with a shake of her head. Another of the men whose name she didn't know turns to her, a book held in his one hand. 'Oh my, he's an amputee?' She thinks quickly and then curses her brain as more questions burst out in her thoughts.

"Do you mind if I read this?" He questions, looking at the soft cover book in his hand. She pauses long enough to read the title, Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. Her favorite book.

"Sure, just be careful, um…" She stops, not knowing his name.

"Malik."

"Malik. It's my favorite and probably my most prized out of all of my books." She fought the memories wanting to surface, giving him a small nod.

"You must be rich to afford so many." He remarks to her, looking up at her face. She shakes her head no.

"Not really. Then again I don't spend too much money on frivolous things so I do have a pretty good savings. But read whatever you like." She answers him with a shrug of her shoulder. He nods at her and makes his way to one of the chairs scattered about the living room. She continues on to the kitchen, Blondie now right behind her. She pulls out two mugs then gets the coco mix and marshmallows. She carefully fills them with water and then pops them into the microwave. The beeping noise from her pushing the buttons draws him in, staring at the contraption in wonder.

"How does it work?" He questions her and she shrugs.

"I don't really know. It's just technology."

"Can I take it apart?" She blinks several times with wide eyes.

"I'll see if I can find a broken one somewhere…"She answers and the microwave dings to signal it was finished. Quickly she pulls out one mug then the other and scoops coco into them, mixing and adding the mallows. She pushes one towards Blondie who gets a gleeful, childlike smile on his face when he notices. "Be careful, its hot enough to burn your tongue."

"Of course. Thank you Megan." He responds blowing on the liquid to cool it down.

"Hey, that smells good. Care to make me some?" Desmond questions, walking up and leaning against the counter. He had a rather charming smile on his face that she could see would make plenty of girls weak in the knees.

"No, but the mugs are in that cabinet," she sets down her mug and points, "and everything else is here on the counter. Water is in the tap. Have fun." She picks her mug back up and re-enters the living room and gets in her spot. She could hear Desmond grumbling something in the kitchen. Ezio waves Blondie back into the living room.

"Leonardo, what is that?" Ezio questions as Leonardo gets closer.

"I'm not sure but it is benissimo." He answers as he sits between Megan and Ezio. Leo hands over the mug and Ezio looks at it funny, probably cause the marshmallows had begun to melt, sniffs and takes a swig before either had a chance to warn him. His eyes widen and he begins to cough. Leonardo takes the drink back with a laugh. "You should be more careful mio amico."

Megan shakes her head. If this was just the first day, what would every other day be like?