The family had expanded so much that there wasn't really enough room in what was now Bozer's cottage for the Yule celebration, even though Jill and Alex were in Chicago visiting his family, James MacGyver and Matty had had to turn down their invitations as the capital was simply too far, and Elwood Davis had stopped by the day before to see Riley and give her (and Jack, for some reason) a Yule gift, but had declined to stay for the party.
Thus, it was being held in a chamber in the castle.
(Bozer wasn't exactly sure what its intended purpose was. The castle was really big.)
In one corner, Jack, Diane, Michael and Caitlyn were drinking egg-nog. Jack and Michael seemed to be taking turns telling stories, while Diane and Caitlyn listened with looks that were long-suffering, yet indulgent.
Next to the Yule tree, Nessa was showing the bolt of very beautiful cloth she'd gotten for Yule to Bozer, who was smiling at the girl and offering suggestions of what could be made from it. (His great loves were cooking and writing plays, but Bozer was also really good at making clothes.) Mac was teaching Nate some cool tricks he could do with the yo-yo he'd gotten. Hope was eyeing the yo-yo with interest.
Sitting next to the tree and nibbling on fruit mince pies, Nicole and Sidney (who were holding hands), watched her children, both with fond, parental smiles on their faces.
Billy, who had indeed gotten home for Yule, sat at the table with his arm around Riley, while Riley and Leanna chatted over mulled wine.
Frank and Jessie Colton, sitting on Billy and Leanna's other sides respectively, were having a contest to see who could build the tallest fruit cake tower.
Meanwhile, Beth and Mama Colton packed up the many leftovers, watching the fruit cake tower contest out of the corner of their eyes.
Mama Colton looked exasperated (though ultimately affectionate), muttering about how she'd taught them better table manners than that. Beth seemed to be both analysing the physics and engineering of the towers, as well as wondering when her husband would join in and how tall he'd get his.
The answer, if you're interested, is three and a half feet.
I ran out of fruit cake.
In February, Leanna rubbed at her temple, having had a very long day in Court, as she walked home.
Reaching it, she saw that the lights were on, and there was a delicious smell drifting through the slightly-ajar window.
Smiling, Leanna opened the front door, to find Bozer, wearing an apron that said Kiss the Cook, setting up dinner for her on the table.
She leaned over the table to kiss him, and then took a seat at the table and let him ply her with the delicious morsels he'd brought over from the restaurant.
She bit into a miniature burger, and was surprised to find some cheese ooze out of the centre of the patty.
Leanna licked some of the cheese off her fingers, glad that she'd put a napkin over her skirt.
'Thisis the best surprise I've had all day.'
Bozer preened exaggeratedly, making her laugh, pushing the worries and exhaustion of the day to the back of her mind.
'You gotta go?'
Billy, sitting opposite Riley at her kitchen table, the two of them having indulged in a bit of a sleep-in and a leisurely breakfast, sounded disappointed, though also understanding.
Riley nodded, feeling disappointed herself, though she knew she really had to get going.
She'd taken the dinner shift off two days ago, and yesterday had left Abina in charge for the lunch service. She was coming in late today, too.
She knocked back the last of her coffee, then got up and leaned down to give her suitor a proper kiss goodbye.
'I'll see you tonight?'
Billy grinned. He was in town for the next few days, required to testify in Court due to the most recent criminal he'd brought in.
'I'll be right here waiting for you, lady.'
A couple of months later, Billy had been away for two weeks running, and Riley was spending a late night at the restaurant finishing the books.
Abina, who was helping her close up (Bozer had left after service to see Leanna, with their blessing), knocked on the door of the little office.
'The cleaning is all done, Riley.'
She looked up and managed to smile at the younger woman.
'That's great, Abina. Thanks. Tell the staff they can go, and take the leftovers home with you.'
She went back to her books, but Abina didn't leave, just leaned on the doorway and crossed her arms.
'You could always say yes to his offer.'
Billy had relayed a job offer to her from Mama Colton.
Riley was tough, strong, confident, clever and capable of defending herself. She'd be a great bounty hunter, and she and Billy could be partners in every way, travel Phoenix chasing bounties together.
But as appealing as being close to him practically all the time was, she didn't want to take it up.
She loved the restaurant that she and Bozer had built together, loved what she did now.
And in all honesty, Riley loved being near the rest of her family, loved being settled in one place. Loved the steadiness, the reliability.
She'd built a business and a family and a home here in Lafayette, from patches and scraps, and she couldn't give it up. She just couldn't.
Billy had a home, and valued his family very much,but at the same time, there was something itinerant about him too. He was happy to travel Phoenix, chasing skips, stopping in Lafayette to visit his loved ones regularly. It helped – probably helped a lot – that his brother and sister often went with him.
So, this missing one another, this distance, was just something they had to put up with, was just part of the cost of their relationship, a compromise that had to be made, as there were in any relationship.
Riley looked over at Abina, and the younger woman saw the answer on her face, and just nodded in understanding.
Abina and the rag-tag bunch of teens she was the leader of had found a home in Lafayette Town. After travelling for so long and not having anywhere to belong (even in the Southern Kingdom they'd been born in), none of them had any interest in leaving.
Early in the evening on a lazy Saturday, just a few days before Midsummer, Jack got up from where he and Diane had been curled in the loveseat in her living room, savouring the lazy day.
He stretched, and grabbed his boots, put them on, and leaned over to kiss her goodbye, very careful not to stand on the rug, as his boots were somewhat muddy.
'Anything you want me to tell him?'
Jack was having dinner with Elwood Davis, as he was back in town for Midsummer to visit Riley.
Diane just shook her head, and Jack nodded easily, like it was inconsequential.
Diane accepted that her ex was a better man now than he'd been all those years ago. She trusted her daughter's judgement.
She accepted that Riley was building a relationship with him, and supported that, happy for her baby girl.
She even accepted Elwood and Jack's strange, sort-of friendship. Jack was a good influence on him, and since that'd help keep him on the straight and narrow and keep him from hurting Riley, of course she'd support that. He needed more friends who weren't crooks and conmen.
Anyway, she wasn't Jack's keeper. They'd found each other again in their forties, when they had their own, independent lives, something which they'd agreed to respect as they wove their lives together again.
But she could never, ever be friends with Elwood, not after what he'd done to her.
For his part, he seemed to understand that, never asked Jack to pass along anything to her except the standard, polite greetings.
Jack opened the front door, waved goodbye, and headed out with a silly little salute that made her smile and shake her head fondly, before she went back to her book.
A couple of weeks after Midsummer, Beth woke up suddenly in the middle of the night, for no discernible reason, to find that she was alone in bed, and that Mac was standing out on the balcony, staring into the distance. Hope was lying there beside him, occasionally nudging him with her nose in a way that seemed concerned.
Beth got out of bed, and walked across to the balcony, being sure to make sure her footsteps were loud and clear.
'Mac?'
He turned his head, and managed a little smile, but there was clearly something very substantial and likely more than a little dark and worried on his mind.
By now used to this, Beth just walked out onto the balcony, and wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning against him.
Mac took a deep breath, relaxing a little, letting go of some of the tension. He found the warm weight of her to be soothing, comforting.
They both knew that she wouldn't be able to get so close in this way for all that much longer. The still-small, firm swell of her belly was obvious to them now, though not yet obvious under her dresses.
Beth had a sneaking suspicion that whatever was keeping her husband up had a lot to do with his impending fatherhood.
She pressed a kiss to his shoulder, then raised her hands, running them through his hair a few times, before finding those spots that were always particularly tense and digging her thumbs into them.
Mac relaxed a little more under her touch, and Hope gave a happy little yip, nudging them both, which got a fond little smile down at the dog from Beth.
'A dollar for your thoughts?'
Mac gave a half-snort at that that was almost a laugh. A couple of seconds later, she felt as much as heard the deep breath he took, and felt him tense a little more again.
'Unfortunately, I share many traits with my father.' The way their brains worked, the way that they were scientists and inventors and Engineers through and through. The fact that they forgot about things like manners and politeness and asking for permission when they were caught up in an idea. A tendency towards obsession, and one towards being arrogant and condescending, though Mac knew he wasn't as bad as his dad, probably because he tried much harder not to be. He sighed, voice growing small and vulnerable and a little scared. 'What if…what if I'm like him?'
What if I'm a terrible father?
Beth sighed, let her hands drop and hugged him again, before moving to stand beside him, leaning against the railing, reaching out to put her hand over his.
The relationship between the MacGyvers had improved drastically. But that did not change the fact that James MacGyver had been a terrible father for most of Mac's life, which had left its marks on her husband.
Beth gathered her thoughts, then spoke, her voice firm, like she really wanted to impress something on him.
'Firstly, Mac, you also have many differences from your father. The most relevant one is the fact that you have a much better sense of priorities.' Mac valued family greatly (and not just his family, but the whole concept of family, other people's families). It was reflected even in his obsessions. Beth squeezed his hand, a little smile appearing on her face. 'Recently, you've been obsessed with seeing to my every need and want, reading every book on pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing we can get our hands on, and building a self-rocking cradle.' Mac felt helpless in the process of gestating and birthing their child, and he didn't deal so well with that, leading to a slightly manic level of being a doting, attentive and protective husband and father-to-be. He'd held her hair out of the way and rubbed her back through all of the nausea that was thankfully mostly gone, become famous for running through the castle or town at all hours to obtain foodstuffs, sometimes odd, and at least 10% of his brainpower now seemed to be devoted to baby-related inventions and engineering. 'Secondly, you've had excellent examples of both what not to do, and what to do.' His dad was in the former category, Jack and his grandfather in the latter. That got a wry little smile out of him, and a nod of firm agreement. 'Thirdly, should something happen to trigger what I think would have to be a substantial shift in personality, do you really think any member of this family would let you make your father's mistakes?'
Mac really did have to agree with that. It was true.
Beth would scold him to high heavens. Jack would whoop his ass. Twice.
And that was just those two.
Heck, at this point, Mac suspected his own dad would give him a long, extremely didactic and probably condescending lecture about not making his mistakes.
Feeling as if those storm clouds in his mind that'd been keeping him awake had almost melted away, Mac reached out and put an arm around his wife, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
'Thanks, Beth.'
She shifted a little so she could smile up at him, tapping first her ring, then his, with a finger.
'We did promise to look after each other.' She yawned. Normally energetic, pregnancy had left her feeling far less so. 'And on that note, we both need to get some sleep.'
Hope seemed to agree with that, as she'd trotted over to her bed and started to doze.
Mac smiled, kissed the top of her head again, and after a quick detour to give Hope a scratch behind the ears, they got into bed, soon falling asleep.
The next morning, Mac woke up feeling surprisingly well-rested, curled protectively around his wife, a hand cradling the swell of her belly.
After breakfast with Beth (oatmeal with raisins, melted cheese and mustard for her, oatmeal with just raisins for him) and a meeting with some trade representatives from Washington, Mac made his way to the training grounds for a sparring match with Jack.
Almost two hours later, feeling physically tired, sweaty and knowing he'd have a few sore (in a good way) muscles the next day, Mac sank down next to the older man on a bench in the shade, both of them drinking water out of mugs.
Jack waited, with a patience that most wouldn't think he had.
(Between Riley – fiercely independent and with major trust issues – and Mac – who could be really close-lipped when he wanted to be and had a tendency to start executing the plan without explaining it – he had had to learn to be.)
There was definitely something on Mac's mind. It probably had to do with the bun he and Beth had in the oven.
(Mac was going to be a daddy before Yule. He had major Daddy Issues. It was a no-brainer.)
Eventually, the younger man spoke.
'Jack, how did you learn to be a father? I mean, how did you know what to do? Where to start?'
Jack gave a wry smile, clapping his surrogate son on the shoulder.
'Unfortunately, there's no manual I can tell you to go read. Trust me, you got no idea how much I wish there was a manual.' Mac nodded in agreement at that, as Jack continued. 'Still, I reckon I got a little bit of Jack wisdom for you, brother. You gotta be there for your kiddo, always, make sure they know that, make sure they trust you and know they can come to you for anything.' Mac gave a smile at that, and reached out and clapped Jack on the shoulder in response. Jack smiled back at him, then the expression shifted into something more wry. 'I can't really help you with all the baby and toddler stuff, you know how I skipped the diapers and tantrums and all…' Something hit Jack, and he pointed at Mac very, very firmly. 'Oh, I gotta tell you, man, Jack Dalton does not do diapers.'
Mac gave a little smirk.
'We'll see about that.'
Jack crossed his arms.
'There will be no seeing. I don't do diapers!'
Mac raised an eyebrow at him.
'Do you really want to bring the wrath of Beth, Diane and Riley and possibly Leanna onto yourself?'
Jack actually paled. He'd faced down bandits and supernatural monsters and a very evil wizard without quailing, but that trio (or quartet, if Bozer and Leanna wound up having children together), angry, was something else.
'Eh…good point, brother.' A realization hit Jack. 'Is that what you wanted that fake baby for? To practice doing diapers?'
The day after Midsummer, at which it'd been publically announced that Mac and Beth were expecting, Mac had borrowed a wooden baby from the Midwives, for reasons unknown.
'Among other things.'
Jack snorted.
'You're a real weird one, brother.'
Mac didn't miss a beat.
'As you've told me, many, many times.'
'You keep a count in that head of yours, don't you?'
'Oh, I tried, but I lost count years ago.'
Jack snorted and shook his head again.
'Yeah, weird.' He put an arm around Mac's shoulders. 'In all seriousness, son, you're a great man, great friend, great brother and great son. You're gonna be a great dad.'
Mac blinked, then smiled, soft and slow and heartfelt. He reached up to clap Jack on the back.
'Thanks, Jack.'
'Anytime, son, anytime.' He paused, then pointed at Mac. 'And you should really get 'round to writing a manual for fatherhood; trust me, it'd be a bestseller, you know how kids can get expensive…'
AN: Life goes on for the gang! I don't think we'll ever see Mac become a father in the show (nor will we get to see Jack talk to him about it, unfortunately), but that's what fanfic's for, right?
Teaser for next chapter: 'So this is it for us?'
