A/N: So much for letting the The Runaways 'verse rest, huh? ;)

4. Baby's 1st Christmas
'Verse: The Runaways 'Verse
Timeline: Our Little Corner of the World
Date: December 2005

"Rory he's nine months old," said Jess, watching as Rory tied the ribbon on another gift for Jack. "He's not going to care about the gift wrap. He barely even knows it's Christmas, and he sure as hell isn't going to remember any of this."

"Shh!" she turned around and shushed him, with an exaggerated gesture. "Daddy's just being a grumpy pants, isn't he, Jack?" she asked the baby with a grin.

"No, Daddy's being a realist in a sea of fantasists." Jess rolled his eyes, handing their son to Rory with a smirk he couldn't help. "I had your mom in the diner earlier telling me how she'd got Jack all these gifts and that she'd been telling him about Santa and everything. Kids of nine months do not understand that."

"You don't know what he understands," Rory argued, though neither of them were really getting mad about it. "You know Mommy and Daddy and Grandpa Luke and Grandpa Lorelai," she said to Jack, bouncing him in her arms and laughing when he giggled. "Why can't you know who Santa is?"

Jess rolled his eyes. "You're cracked."

"Maybe, but you love me anyway."

"Very true," he agreed, leaning over to kiss Rory's lips and then Jack's head. "I'm just glad we can afford to buy him gifts. Can you imagine Christmas in that crappy apartment in New York?"

"I liked our crappy apartment in New York," Rory countered. "But I have to admit, I think we would've been pretty cold by now," she considered. "That was no place for our baby boy," she said definitely, hugging Jack close.

He immediately reached over her shoulder to bat at the ornaments on the pint-sized tree up on the corner cabinet.

"Nope, hands off," said Jess, getting in between his son and the decorations. "No smashing your Mommy's ornaments. She'll cry," he said definitely, serious for all of a second, before he started playing at biting off Jack's fingers, making the kid crack up.

"I would not cry!" she said, rolling her eyes and turning to look at him. "Well, maybe if it was the special one," she admitted, seeing the look on Jess' face.

There in front was a large round ornament, almost too big for the size of the tree, that had 'Baby's 1st Christmas' written on it in script. Jess looked at it and then at Rory and Jack cuddled together. For all his making fun, he wasn't at all sorry to be spending Christmas like this, with the woman he loved and their beautiful son.

"It's going to be great, Ror," he promised her, wrapping an arm around his family. "Jack's going to love it."

Rory smiled and kissed his cheek, knowing he still thought she was a little crazy, but touched that he was letting her do it without too much argument. It was just another reason to love Jess. They were going to have such a great Christmas.