Disclaimer: me no own Sammy and Hazel and Leo and Esperanza and that's about it.


December 25th 1962

Maria and Javier were running around the backyard in their pyjamas. Thor was giving chase or getting chased depending on when you looked- except, as Rodrigue had said, the dog was a big softie and he never hurt the kids. He knocked them over every now and then fault of not knowing his own strength… but he was mostly cool.

"And you're sure the dog doesn't got rabies or such?" Beca said.

"Yeah Beca," Rodrigue said. "It's seen a vet, like, three times. It's got all of its shots."

"So you know what breed it is?"

"The guy called it a lurcher. Mix between a greyhound and something else. Probably a terrier for Thor."

"But terriers are so small…" Steve said. "How does that work?"

"Use your imagination?" Sammy suggested.

Beca slapped him in the shoulder.

Steve wondered off at some point and came back holding three water guns.

"No," Beca said.

"Oh yes," Steve said. "Sammy? Rodrigue?"

They each took a water gun (as uncles it was their job). Beca just leaned in the doorway and watched as they started shooting on the kids. Maria and Javier squealed and Thor started barking and jumping around like a maniac, bouncing off the fence and running in circles. Maria and Javier tried to duck behind the shed but as three fully grown adults, they managed to corner them. Somehow the kids got out and started finding other places to duck. They settled on behind their mother.

"Steve Valdez don't you-" She shrieked and laughed at the same time when Steve nailed her on the stomach.

"You aren't eating tonight," she said.

"I think your face was worth it," Steve grinned. His smile made Beca smiled and for some reason Sammy was smiling too. He had no business in his brother's relationships, but he was happy for Steve. See, he'd done something right.

The two kids had gone on the move again after seeing that even their mother wasn't sacred.

Sammy gave chase, and soon Steve and Rodrigue were with him too. It didn't take long for the water guns to run out, and so they went back to sit on the patio porch. Maria and Javier were drawing on the fence with chalk, and Thor had decided to go dig in the sandbox again.

"Greyhounds are hunters," Rodrigue said.

"He's not hunting he's dig- AH!" Steve screamed.

Beca was standing behind them holding a pitcher of water. Sammy tripped over himself trying to back off.

"You can eat again," she said.

Maria and Javier were killing themselves.

Thank God Steve had earned that privilege back because Beca's food was like godsend. The kids gobbled it up and it would be a lie to say that the others didn't too- they were just slightly classier about it. Sammy and Rodrigue weren't really used to quality food, so it was super fantastic.

Javier was pretty new with cutlery so his face got more food than his mouth did. Beca or Steve had to stop eating and wash him off every few minutes- thus creating a small pile of used napkins. After supper the kids went in the living room to play amongst the ripped-up wrapping paper that had yet to be picked up. Rodrigue and Beca played chess, and Steve and Sammy played cards with a short intermission when Maria asked Steve for a New Orleans story. Then they played some more until Javier yawned, Beca started mentioning bedtime and Maria clamoured for a story.

The two kids argued over what book to read and when they finally did, Steve sat down with them in the wrapping paper. He had a kid on each lap as he read out loud, making voices to match the characters.

It made Sammy sad.

He loved Christmas, he really did. But it was on days like these that he really felt like the worst father ever. It felt so wrong to spend an eternity picking a present, wrapping it up so it looked at least a bit like presents did in the movies, and then dropping them off at a house during the day and never seeing his kids open them...

He wished that he, like Steve, was currently telling a story- that he could have Mia sitting on one lap, Felipe on the other, and Gabriel on piggy-back (this was how Sammy usually transported all the kids at once). That he could solve little spats about who got to play with which toy and play jokes on them and clean up after them and tell them stories and watch their giddy it's-Christmas-let's-be-happy faces last through the entire day. His memory plunged back to all the little things- Felipe's twitches and how to tell if they were getting worst or better or just out of excitement, Gabriel's attitude and how to manoeuvre around it and make him listen to sense, Mia's bossiness when you played make-believe with her... The way each of them giggled, how the twins ganged up against their little sister all the time, Felipe's habit to pick at his food forever and separate it all before he ate it, the contrast between the boys, how Mia danced around instead of walking…

Yeah. He missed them.

Steve touched his arm after Beca walked the kids upstairs.

"It's not that late," he said. "And we have a phone…"

Sammy smiled.