Delays, work, lack of sleep, fanfiction deleting my chapter 3 times. I could provide more excuses, but I'm just glad to finally be able to get back to writing this story. Hope you enjoy!

Sue was having a lovely dream. Jack was holding her, twining his hand in hers. Their rings glinted together. He caressed her lips with his, drawing her from their bedroom into a land of white mist. Then she became aware that she was laying in bed in the Hudson house, Jack gently bringing her to wakefulness through soft kisses. He grinned when he found she was still playing at being asleep, and deepened the kiss, sliding his hand along her side and caressing her neck. When she abandoned pretending to be asleep and sighed in pleasure, returning the kiss, he poked her in the sides causing her to jump with a squeak. "I can kiss you even if you are awake, darling, so you don't need to pretend." He said after tickling her.

She giggled. "Well, I like waking to your kisses. It's much like when I roused you in the hospital."

"Yup!" Jack said cheerfully. "It's how I got the idea. By the way, Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas. Though what time is it?" Sue yawned. Light was filtering through her window, but it did not look to be very late in the morning.

"Eight. I was sent with a request from my siblings to see if you were awake." Jack said with an apologetic grin.

"Well, you could see that I was asleep." Sue said.

"But you looked so...appealing." Jack said, waggling his eyebrows, causing Sue to blush. "I couldn't help myself."

Sue giggled and pulled Jack back down into a slow, easy kiss. When she finally let him go, she grinned. "Feel free any time you like. Now, since I'm awake, you can let me up and we can go down to join your family."

Jack made no move to let her out of bed. "Do I have to? I kinda like the view here." He teasingly pouted.

Sue giggled. "You are goofy. Believe me, one day I will wake in your arms and we won't have to go anywhere. But until then…" She patted his arm and sat up.

As he backed away he caught her attention. "Take your time, dearest. We went to mass last night, so there's no big hurry."

She grinned back at him. "Yeah, and that's why you woke me after…6 hours of sleep? I claim a nap sometime this afternoon."

"Don't get your hopes up." Jack said, but Sue was looking away from him, so he shrugged and let it drop. Maybe she had forgotten about the fact that the Hudson side was coming over for Christmas dinner? That was the real reason he had woken her, so that they all could help get it ready.

He bumbled down the stairs and grabbed his second cup of coffee. Dom called to him. "Sue getting up?"

Jack laughed. "Don't worry, she's waking up and will be down shortly. I just need to make sure there's coffee for her."

"Boy, she's got you trained well." Francis laughed.

"As it should be. And Jack learned well from daddy serving mom." Cecilia said with a laugh.

"And this, good Francis, is why I am engaged." Jack said in a superior tone, winking at his brother. "Speaking of, when's Kelly showing up? I haven't gotten to meet this young lady yet."

"She'll be showing up around 11:30." Francis said, slightly nervous.

"Easy there, bro. You don't need to be too worried. We'll only run her through the ringer to make sure she's worthy of you." Jack said with a grin.

"Don't you dare!" Cecilia said gesturing at her brothers, still sitting in the middle of her presents from 'Santa' with a mug of coffee in her hand. "I like Kelly, and I'm not having you brutes scare her off."

Jack held up his hands laughing. "Easy there sis, I'm not going to do anything, especially with how well you all treated Sue. Of course, she gave as good as she got when you teased her, so..."

"Well, I do have siblings too." Jack's eyes flicked up to see Sue standing in the doorway. His eyes brightened and he held out a hand to her.

"Come, my darling, into the midst of yet another Hudson tradition." Jack said, bowing over her hand as she placed it in his.

"Ah, yes, I have heard of this one. Did Santa treat you well this year, Jack?" Sue said, straight-faced but eyes twinkling.

"Oh, quite well. However, you have not yet seen your gift from the fine saint in question." Jack said, directing her attention to her gift. He was gleeful, as he hadn't told her about his parents plans to get her anything for this. Sam had been working on her gift for several weeks now, and it was just finished last week.

"Oh my...Thank you!" Sue said, her hand running along the beautifully made cherry end table. "Sam, it's beautiful! Oh my goodness, thank you!" Sam looked on proudly as Sue examined the end table carefully, looking over the joining mechanisms.

"Well, you and Jack are setting up house soon, so you can use that." He said, beaming at her.

She pulled out the drawer located in the center of the end table and got another pleasant surprise; a bag of chocolate covered espresso beans and another book, The Spirit of the Liturgy by Cardinal Ratzinger. "Thank you so much." Sue said as she gave Sam and Rose a hug. "You shouldn't have."

"Humbug, girl. You're our future daughter-in-law. By the way, what did Jack get you? You two didn't trade gifts last night." Rose said.

Sue grinned. "I don't know yet. We decided to blend the two traditions of our families, and he and I would trade gifts this morning."

Jack looked at her and grinned. "I gave you a ring already yesterday!" He claimed, then laughed and handed her two small wrapped boxes. "I'll give Levi his gift when we're back." He said with a wink. Sue opened her gifts and found a small velvet box containing two lovely pearl earrings and another box containing a miraculous medal on a fine golden chain.

"Jack, these are lovely!" She said, and threw her arms around him and kissed him. "These are wonderful." She said, thinking about all of the different places she could wear them. She knew that Jack would love to see her wear them, and she really did like them. Jack smiled broadly at her reaction, excited to see them adorning her ears at mass on Sunday.

Sue almost skipped over to the last package that she had set aside the previous evening. "Well, Jack, open yours!" Sue said excitedly. Jack laughed and sauntered over, seeing a larger box, a smaller box, and (obviously) a book. Hudson tradition was alive and well in Sue, where books made up almost half of all of the presents at Christmas. He reached for the book, but Sue stopped him. "The big one first." She said.

Jack raised an eyebrow, but did as she bid him with a grin. When he opened it, he let out a laugh and showed it to his brothers. "And I ain't sharing!" He said amongst the laughter of his siblings. The package was a brewing kit with several batches worth of material to make porter. "Thank you dearheart!" Jack said, and kissed Sue.

Her grin simply grew wider. "Check the book now." Tearing through the wrapping paper, he found a book that he had wanted to purchase for a while and begin working through with Bobby. "Drinking with the Saints! See, Dom, there's a drink for each day, and then there's an excerpt from or about the saint that day! Sue, this too is great! I'll even get to try some different drinks too." Jack was smiling as broadly as Sue was. "Thank you."

She giggled as she pulled out one more gift. "Not done yet. One more."

Jack looked at it, trying to figure out what it was. When he gave it a slight shake, he thought he had it figured out and laughed again. "Let's see if it's what I think it is." He tossed the paper aside and raised an eyebrow. "You make me look like a drunk, Sue." He said with a wink, brandishing the liter bottle of Makers Mark bourbon.

"That's alright, Jackey, we'll help!" Francis said, Jerry offering his agreement.

"Keep your grubby hands off, thieves!" Jack said to them. Then he smiled gently at Sue. "Thank you, sweetheart. These are fantastic." And he pulled her close to give her a brief, loving kiss. "Now, would you like some coffee?"

"Yes please!" Sue said quickly, drawing a laugh.

"You FBI folks are all addicted to coffee." Jerry said, shaking his head sadly drinking the last of his third cup of coffee and leaving to get his fourth.

"You're one to talk." Rose called after him. "I happen to know just how much coffee you drink on a daily basis."

"I never claimed that I wasn't addicted to coffee, just that the FBI'ers are." Jerry said with a show of wounded dignity. He turned back to the kitchen. "So Jack, I- terribly sorry." He turned back to the living room quickly, laughing quietly as Jack jumped back from Sue, who he was kissing thoroughly in the kitchen after Jerry had left.

"My gosh, it's like having Myles everywhere." Jack said to Sue, his cheerful smile covering his irritation.

Sue saw it and winked at him. When we get back to DC, you can have me for the last three days of our vacation all to yourself. She signed to him as she backed into the living room with a saucy smile. It turned into a cheerful one when she turned back to the rest of Jack's family.

"Well, finish your coffee and breakfast, children mine. Too much to do until the rest of the family gets here. Lists in the kitchen, so you know the drill." Rose said to them. A chorus of "yes mom" and "on it, mommy" came from the children sprawled across the floor.

It was a lovely dinner, but Sue was kind of lost among the crowd of people. About a half hour ago, Jack had wandered off to join a discussion on hunting and when she looked back to find him he, and several of the male cousins, had vanished. Sue shrugged; it wasn't like she couldn't talk to people, as the Hudson's were always willing to chat. Sometimes too much. Dinner had been...taxing...trying to keep up with everything. They tried to remember to face her, and even if they failed sometimes they got it most of the time.

But the hardest part of following conversations during dinner had been the Hudson tendency to participate in two, three, or sometimes even four different conversations at one time. It was incredibly confusing trying to figure out who was saying what to which conversation. "Don't worry Sue." Rachel, married to Jack's cousin, said to her when she saw the bewildered expression on her face. "It took me several years to learn how to do multi-conversations at once. But eventually you'll pick up the tendencies each and begin to guess who will speak next."

Sue had grinned at her and had continued striving to learn. It helped that she was new (and therefore a novelty in which everyone needed to learn as much as they could about as quickly as possible) and that she was newly engaged to Jack certainly drew attention to her.

And now as she sat, taking a breath and wondering where her darling had vanished to, a rotund middle-aged women walked up to her. "And where has that nephew of mine gone? Did he just leave you to go out and shoot? Typical."

Sue grinned, realizing that she shouldn't be surprised. Jack had mentioned that one of his cousins acquired many different types of guns and brought them to family gatherings so anyone who wanted to could come and shoot. Rifle, shotgun, pistol, it didn't matter, he had a few of each. "Ah, don't be too hard on him. He hasn't gotten to play for some time now. I'm sorry, I have forgotten your name."

The older woman waved her away. "Diane. Just like him though. Come with me, I'll introduce you to one in the same boat who I don't think you've met yet."

Sue followed, amused by the bustling attitude of the woman. She lead her over to where a young lady sat, appearing to just try to keep abreast of everything that was going on. Sue noted that Diane had just pointed her out and headed back to the kitchen to finish washing the dishes, and giggled to herself as she turned back to the young lady. Introduce apparently meant show-and-you-go-talk-to-them. "You look as bewildered as I feel." Sue said to the woman.

She got a laugh out of that. "It's my first time being in a main gathering of the Hudson's, and it's kind of..."

"Fast paced?" Sue provided. "Exhausting too?"

"Yes!" The woman said, gratefulness at being understood shining through causing Sue to laugh herself. "It's so different from my family. We are much more...subdued."

"Don't worry, we'll figure it out together. It's my first time here too, and as welcoming as they are, it takes a bit to get used to. I'm Sue, by the way."

"Kelly. I'm attached to Francis." Kelly said, shaking the hand proffered by Sue.

"Well, the brothers vanish to go play? I'm here with Jack." Sue said.

"Oh! Well, that makes much more sense. I was wondering whether you were family or not during dinner. You kept up with conversation very well; is that training from the FBI coming out?" Kelly asked, curiosity written all over her face. Sue also noted that she tried to face Sue squarely, and knew that Francis had told Kelly about her. This family bent over backward to accommodate her, and though she was grateful, it embarrassed her.

"In a way." Sue shrugged. "I've gotten a lot of experience."

Kelly tilted her head slightly, then fumblingly and with a few mistakes signed, I'm trying to learn to sign.

Sue looked at her with a bemused expression. "Do you know someone who's deaf?"

Kelly grinned. "Apart from you? No. But I'm trying to learn because it's a great opportunity. Deaf people exist in their own world, some by choice but some simply because no one gives them a chance. I want to bring the hearing and deaf world together. So I'm trying to learn. Umm...would you consider helping me? Not just learn sign, but learn the culture?"

Sue looked stunned. "Umm..." She said intelligently.

Kelly suddenly looked a little apprehensive. "If you don't want to, that's ok."

"No." Sue said. "I'm just...astonished. I would love to help you out. I only wish there were more people like you that care to help. Did you have any questions that I can answer now?"

Jack settled into his seat on the couch and sighed in contentment. He was stuffed, a beer in his hand, his parents and siblings around him, and his fiancé in his arms. The fact that it was a clear cold night and they had just got back in from some twilight sled riding only made it better.

"You look like a cat who landed on it's feet next to a bowl of cream and had a trout jump out of the water and land next to you." Francis said as he sat with his arm around Kelly.

"You could say that I have." Jack said with a wink at Sue. It had been the best Christmas he could remember. "So what do you all say? Can we watch Silent Night?"

"You want to watch that, Jack?" Sue asked, looking faintly disgusted. "I never took you for a horror film guy."

Jack looked thoroughly confused and Dominic came to his rescue. "No, Sue, you've got it wrong. We're talking about a movie that Jack and I got to watch a few years ago. It's set in 1944 during the Battle of Bastogne, where a German mother and her boy have fled to a family cabin. Three German soldiers and three American soldiers billet in her house over Christmas Eve to Christmas Day under an unwilling truce. It's a great movie."

"Yeah, I don't do horror movies. You should know that by now, darling." Jack said teasingly.

"Well, if the rest of your family is up to it, I'll watch it with you." Sue said.

It was an amused Jack who carried Sue up the stairs three hours later. She had made it through the first half hour of the movie and had sacked out hard. Unfortunately for him, his good intentions backfired slightly as he knocked her head off of the wall on the last turn, which obviously roused her. "Ouch! What- Where- Jack?" She said.

"Sorry love, half a tick." He said. He made it into her room and laid her down on her bed. Then he began to rub her head where it looked like she had hit it. "Sorry about that darling. I was trying to carry you up and I...hit your head off the wall..." Jack said, dropping his gaze when he said the last part.

"I'll take the intention for the deed." Sue said, shaking her head slightly to rid herself of the last cobwebs of sleep. "Thank you for carrying me up, though. That's really sweet." Sue said, blushing.

"Is that so?" Jack said, stretching out beside her on the bed, his eyes locking on hers. "I do try, you know." He caressed her cheek and she leaned into his touch.

"Yup. Even if you do whack my head off of walls." Sue said and winked at him.

Jack rolled his eyes, leaned over, and kissed her deeply. "Mmmmh. You taste good." He told her, enjoying the resulting blush. "So did you enjoy Christmas?"

"Yes, more than any other." She said, her eyes shining with happiness. "I got to meet your family, who even if they are a little overwhelming, they are fantastic. And I told you about Kelly's interests; I taught her some more sign, and I told her about my growing up and some of the challenges and joys." Sue blushed again and giggled. "We talked about you and Francis."

Jack raised his eyebrows, but had to laugh at her. "So much like a woman."

"I'm only typical, eh?" Sue asked him, eyebrows raised to match his.

Jack's eyes became piercing, and a slow smile crossed his features. "You are far from typical, my dear." And he leaned over her, pinning her back onto the bed and kissed her softly and repeatedly, drawing a quiet moan out of her. Fighting for self control, Jack backed away. "I seem to have overestimated my own control when I'm this tired." Jack told her with an embarrassed smile when she finally opened her eyes.

She blushed and ruefully smiled. "Well, I'll tell you that if you do that again, I'm not letting you up." She took a deep breath, then looked back at Jack. "Thank you for the best Christmas I've ever had. Thank you for being mine." She held up her left hand, the ring sparkling in the lamp light.

Jack grinned at her. "Believe me, you gave me the best Christmas gift I've ever received when you said yes to my proposal. Thank you." He kissed her again, then smiled at her. "Now, go back to bed, my dearest. Sleep well, and I will see you in the morning."

"Goodnight Jack. I love you." Sue said, pulling him in for a goodnight kiss.

"Goodnight Sue. I love you too." Jack said. With a small wave and a gentle smile, he left, and got ready for bed.