"Hi, Jack," Aaron opens the front door and throws his arms around the doctor when he finds him on the other side.
"Hey, buddy. You all ready to go?" he crouches down to the boy's level and gives him a proper hug.
"Mommy say we go see snow!"
"Yes."
"We make Frosty?"
"Frosty?" Jack frowns.
"Frosty the snowman," Aaron starts singing.
"Oh, sure, buddy. We can build a snowman," he tells the boy, looking around for his mother.
Kate comes down the stairs then, looking somewhat frazzled, and she doesn't even notice that he's here.
"Hi, Kate," he calls, standing up.
Halfway to the kitchen, she turns back around, "Oh, hey, Jack."
"Is everything okay?" he asks, worried that she is stressed about having to spend three days with him.
She glances down at Aaron, who is watching them closely, "Honey, why don't you put your snow boots on? Jack and I will be right back."
When Aaron plops down on the ground by the floor and starts to pull the shoes on, Jack follows Kate through the kitchen to the garage. "You okay?" he repeats now that they are alone.
"I was just going to leave the presents here for him to open when we came home… or most of them anyway… but he was asking me about how Santa would know where we are if we're not at home. And I was stupid and told him that Santa always knows where you are and brings the presents to you. So…" she gestures to the bags of wrapped presents behind her car. "Is there enough room for them?"
Jack smiles at how adorable she looks all worried about being a good mother, "Yeah, of course. I bought a tree for us to put up later and some decorations. I, uh… I got him a couple things, figured you would also want to bring at least a few things for him to open on Christmas day. But yeah, I've got plenty of room in the trunk."
She looks up at him, surprised he had bought gifts for Aaron too. After a moment, she says, "Thanks for the book by the way. He's made me read every day since you came over."
"It's no problem, Kate. I grabbed a couple more Christmas books for him while I was out shopping for the tree."
"At this rate, he's going to have his own library."
Jack chuckles, "Well, there are worse things he could like."
"Mommy! I stuck!" Aaron calls.
"You go help him, I'll get these in the car."
"Thanks, Jack," she smiles. "His car seat is there too."
"I've got it."
When Kate goes back inside, Aaron is on the floor halfway from the front door to the kitchen, his bootlaces having knotted together as he tried to come after them. "What did you do, goober?" she asks, tickling his side before setting to work unknotting the laces.
"Suitcases ready to go?" Jack asks, coming back in the front door.
"Yep," she replies, tying the snow boot laces up properly. Aaron stands up, then takes her hands to help her up. She doesn't have the heart to tell him he's not actually all that helpful. "Can you hold on to your coat?" she asks, pulling their coats and the bag of other winter weather wear out of the closet. He nods eagerly, and she gives the new bright blue coat to him. "Where is your bag of toys?"
"Upstairs."
She goes to get it while Jack enters again and picks up the coat and bag she had left behind. "That everything?"
"Coats, suitcases, Aaron's stuff, Christmas…" she trails off, realizing he is there. "Yeah, I think so."
~Lost~
"I have to potty!" Aaron announces as they park at the grocery store, having decided to stop for supplies before heading up the mountain.
"I'll take him," Kate says, opening up the back door to help Aaron out of his car seat.
"I'll try to figure out what we can have on Christmas then," Jack says, grabbing a cart on the way into the store.
Once he has used the bathroom, Aaron and Kate wander the store in search of Jack, the boy trying to pick up different foods he wants on the way. "Sweetie, it's only going to be three days, and there are places to eat. Do you really need so many snacks?" she asks gently.
He reluctantly sets the box of goldfish back on the shelf, deciding to stick with the animal crackers and peanut butter crunch cereal he already has in his hands. "Juice box?" he looks up at her hopefully.
"Sure," she agrees, leading him in that direction, sure they will eventually run into Jack.
"Hey," Jack calls as Aaron is trying to make up his mind on juice box flavors. "I've got stuff for breakfast and Christmas dinner as well as some other things. Anything else we need?"
As she puts Aaron's animal crackers and cereal in the cart, she notes that Jack has grabbed a box of goldfish as well as many other things that they probably don't need. "I thought you said there were some restaurants," she says, glancing up at him.
"I just wanted to make sure we don't starve if they happen to be closed for the holidays. Or if we get snowed in. Oh, I couldn't remember what kind of milk he likes," he explains.
"I can go grab it. You'll watch him? He might need you to read through the juice box options again."
While Kate goes off to get milk, he picks the boy up, helping him to make a decision.
An hour later they are unloading the car at their cabin, Aaron staring out the window in wonder at the snow while Jack gets the suitcases and decorations out and Kate puts groceries away. She freezes when she pulls a bottle of wine out of one of the bags, unsure how she hadn't noticed it before.
"What's this?" Kate asks, setting it on the counter when Jack finishes unloading the car and comes to help her.
"I thought you might want it with dinner on Christmas," he replies.
She glares and folds her arms over her chest, "Jack."
"Kate, I swear I have intention of drinking any of it."
"Jack, I wouldn't put you in that position. I support you in this, and I wouldn't drink around you."
"You shouldn't have to suffer because of me," he argues.
"It's not suffering. I don't really drink much."
"Because of me?"
"Because of Wayne," she replies with a sigh, not wanting to think about him when they are supposed to be having fun.
"Well…" he puts the bottle into the fridge. "It will stay right there unopened if you change your mind. And if you don't want it, I guess the next occupants will get a present."
She looks down at the ground, and he once again wishes he could go back and fix things.
"I put your suitcases in the main room, thought you two could share. Or he can sleep with me, it doesn't matter," he changes the subject. "And I left the… you know what in the car for now."
"Thanks," she says, eyeing her son but he is still looking out at the snow.
"So I was thinking we could decorate so Santa can come tomorrow night and then maybe go grab dinner somewhere?" Jack suggests.
"Christmas tree!" the boys yells, finally turning his attention to them.
Jack and Aaron get started putting the tree together while she finishes with the groceries. The tree he had bought it fairly simple, only three pieces needing to be attached to form the skinny six foot Christmas decoration. She watches as the doctor shows the three year old how to spread out the branches to make the tree look bigger and have more room for ornaments. Jack picks the boy up so he can reaches some of the higher branches, and before he sets him back down, he whispers something in his ear.
Aaron comes running over to her then as Jack gets out the box of lights. "Mommy, Jack say you come help," he grabs onto her hand and tugs her over to their tree.
"You trying to get out of this?" Jack teases, plugging the lights in. "Thought you might be more useful than Aaron as putting the lights on."
"Probably," she agrees, accepting the strand of lights from him as together they wrap them around the tree.
Aaron pulls the box of ornaments out of the bag, looking at them with wide eyes as he sits on the floor. There is a set of red, green, and silver bulbs and another with different Christmas themed items.
Jack glances down at the boy and smiles, and as he accepts the lights from her, he quietly asks, "Didn't you celebrate last year?"
"We just did a small tree like half this size. And I'm not sure he remembers it all that much."
"Any special Christmas traditions in your family?" he asks. When she fails to meet his eyes around the side of the tree and instead continues to study the lights, he realizes his mistake. "We didn't do anything special really either."
She hesitates for another moment before speaking, "Christmas was good when Dad was there. I mean, they split up when I was five so I don't really remember a lot, but… well, everything was better then. Then Wayne came and I don't think we even really celebrated after I turned ten. Ma always worked down at the diner on Christmas Day, and for Wayne, it was an excuse to get even more drunk than usual."
"I'm sorry, Kate."
She gives a sort of half-shrug, "He was usually too drunk on Christmas for any of his other… activities so I guess it was better than every other day of the year."
Jack watches as she hangs the last of the lights around the top of the tree, wondering yet again about her childhood. She had told him what she had done and why when they were on Penny's boat, and while he is sure that she hadn't lied, he feels like she had probably omitted some of the truth about her stepfather. Deciding that now really isn't the time to push her for more information, he bends down next to Aaron and opens the boxes of ornaments.
They watch as Aaron decorates the tree, taking turns lifting him up to reach higher branches after he has the bottom of the tree filled up.