Merry Christmas everyone!

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Christmas.

For years, Alex had felt mixed emotions about that wonderful time of the year. When his uncle was there, it was perfect. When his uncle wasn't...well, it wasn't perfect. After all, no uncle meant no presents under the Christmas tree. And really, that was how Alex figured out that Santa wasn't real.

But then, they had met Jack Starbright.

With a temper to match her flaming red hair, quick wit to match Ian's MI6 trained ones, and a naturally loving nature, the over-enthusiastic housekeeper had quickly wormed her way into both Ian's and young Alex's hearts.

And she had brought the Christmas spirit back into the Rider household.

Currently, Jack Starbright was alone. It wasn't the first Christmas she had speant by herself, and she doubted that it would be the last. Ian Rider was gone. Murdered. And young Alex...well, he wasn't so young anymore. The eighteen year old was off in some other country, saving the world like he always did. But this time, neither Ben nor Rose were with him, which meant much more worry on Jack's part.

So here she was, celebrating Christmas by herself.

Jack sighed, looking around the lonely home. Pictures hung on each wall. Jack remembered each and every one.

There was a picture of Alex's first Christmas with her. The boy was so young, so innocent. He had just lost his front teeth. Jack smiled as she remembered that day. Young Alex had been complaining so much because he couldn't "chew anything, and it hurts!". But he had been totally fine when it came to the enormous cake Jack had gone out and bought for that special occasion. Well, she had kinda missed the boy's birthday that year, since she had only been hired several months afterwards.

There was cake smeared all over young Alex's face. It had been in her hair too, Jack remembered. It had taken almost an hour to get that mess out. But it had been worth it, just to see the boy smiling. He had woken up so sad when he realised that his uncle was on another "business" trip. God, she had been so...angry at Ian Rider that day.

Next to that picture was another, of the first Christmas the three had spent together. There was Alex, sitting amongst a pile of wrapping paper, almost drowning in their depths. If you looked closely enough, you would be able to see the faint figure of a Nintendo clutched tightly in his hands. Next to the young boy, trying frantically to dig his nephew out of the suffocating depths of the wrapping paper, was Ian Rider. Jack grinned as she remembered the scene - she had been rolling around on the ground in laughter.

Really, it was a miracle that the picture turned out the way it did, with all her shaking and trembling caused by her fits of laughter.

Jack sighed again as her gaze flickered through all the other photos. Alex's birthday, Alex's maths award, Ian and Alex hugging, a badly beaten ex-boyfriend of Jack's being evicted from the house by Alex and Ian (the last one brought another smile to her face, albeit a sad one).

The years had just flown by so fast.

At one point on the wall, the pictures of Ian disappeared. Jack bit her lip, blinking away the tears. For a year after that point, the pictures of Alex became very sparse. That was when the then fourteen year old boy had been taken advantage of. Though, there was a rather nice photo of the two standing in front of the Sydney Opera House.

Then the pictures returned en masse. Alex's fifteenth, once he'd gotten out of hospital; several of his bandages were still on. Alex with his best friend Tom Harris, their arms slung around each other's shoulder, grinning after their soccer victory. Alex, hiding under his bedcovers while Tom attempted to rouse the boy. The smile on Jack's face grew bigger with each photo. Truth was, after she had seen just how far a certain agency was willing to go in order to use someone for their purposes, she hadn't wasted another precious moment. Her camera, one which Ian had bought her ages ago, was constantly in her hands; she had become so adept at taking photos that people often didn't realise until she showed them the printed copy. It made for great blackmail material, as was evidenced by the photo of Alex midway through pulling a face a the back of a certain blonde haired, Aussie girl. The boy had gotten hell when Jack had shown Dessi the photo.

Jack laughed fondly as she remembered the girl chasing a terrified Alex throughout the house, demanding an explanation. It was one of the few times Jack had seen Dessi act her age. It was a nice change, and though she had been tempted to take a photo of the girl's expression, she had refrained from doing so. Alex had told her about Dessi's status amongst the Espionage world; she didn't want to give them any more info than they already had.

Loud banging on her door interrupted the onpour of memories. Shaking her head slightly, Jack went to open the the door, hoping that it wasn't frozen shut.

"Surprise!"

Jack let out a startled gasp when she took in the mass of people outisde the Rider residence.

A grinning eighteen year old Tom Harris stepped into the house, carefully wiping the snow off his shoes. "Thought we'd keep you company, Jack. It is Christmas after all, and we all know Alex ain't here to fulfill his duty."

"How - What - But - "

"Eloquent as ever," a new voice laughed. Ben Daniels entered, holding a rather large covered dish in his hands. "It's turkey," he said, in response to her questioning look.

"My special recipe!" Rose announced, making herself known. "Ben here, kindly offered to carry the heavy thing."

Ben frowned. "Er...no I didn't. You shoved it into my hands and made me carry it."

"Details, details," Rose dismissed, flapping her hand at him.

"Look, can we come in or not?"

Rose turned with a raised eyebrow, the annoyed look on her face causing the four men left outside to wince.

"Come in, and we'll set up," Ben said, relieving his former team mates from their awkward positions.

One by one, the four trailed in, each lugging with them a large sack of bulky items. The entire unit also carefully avoided Rose's eye.

"What's in those?" Jack asked, eyeing the heaving looking sacks.

"Presents, food, decorations," Rose said, "Everything we need to get a good Chrissy party started. You better put that on the table before you drop it," she added, staring at the dish balanced in Ben's hands.

"It's fine," he said, though his voice came out a bit strained, "Though, yeah, I'll go."

It was amusing how fast the man hurried away.

"Hey, where did we put the tree?" Tom asked, frowning.

"We've got it!" Eagle shouted, dragging a rather reluctant looking Wolf back outside. Shark and Snake both followed, looking rather amused at the pair.

"Should we tell Wolf that there's a misletoe attached to his back?" Jack asked, staring after them.

"Nope," both Rose and Tom answered cheerfully.

"What about the note that says "Kiss Me"?" Jack asked.

"Nope," both Rose and Tom answered gleefully.

"You two enjoy teasing the poor man, don't you?"

"Yep," both Rose and Tom answered with identical smirks.

And so it was, that although Alex was off saving the world, and risking his life in the process, Jack managed to actually enjoy that particular Christmas. Rose's special turkey recipe was delicious, the living room looked like a massive tinsle bomb had exploded in it, and the massive tree that had been dragged in sat dead centre in the rooom, blocking the TV and making it impossible for anyone to cross to the other side without being scratched.

Although that actually turned out to be a good thing, Jack thought as she sat on the couch with Rose and Tom, eating popcorn and watching Wolf tear after Eagle, Snake, Shark and Ben with vengence on his face, ignoring their shouts of "it wasn't us!".

At least the tree turned out to be an obstacle that allowed the victims some respite.

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Hope you've all found presents for your loved ones; I know I haven't,

Love Chariots99