Leonard pulled the car down the block, parallel parked, and cut the engine. "That's it over there," he said, gesturing toward the white split-level house with the tidy lawn. He'd been forced to pass it before he parked because of all the cars that were lined up along its curb.

Lawrence looked back at the house. "Looks like there's a lot of people here."

"Seating for fourteen is what Jackie told me." They exited the vehicle and approached the house, Valerie trailing along behind them.

The door was opened before they reached it by a young woman who Leonard recognized as Jackie's daughter. "Hey. Welcome to the madhouse."

"Does that make you the mad one, or is that us?" Lawrence asked as they finished making their approach.

She laughed. "I think it's my mom, actually. She's the one who invited eleven people." She opened the door wider to let them pass. "I'm Ash. You're mom's boss, right?"

At their nods she turned to shout back toward the kitchen. "Mom, the Churches are here! Come on," she added, turning back toward them. "She's in the middle of stuff but she'll want to say hi."

They followed her through the entrance hall and the dining room to reach the kitchen. Ash immediately made her way back to the door while Jackie turned in their direction. "Hi, there," she greeted them with a smile. Instead of her usual French twist, her hair had been left to drape along her collarbones. She seemed shorter, too, wearing flats instead of her usual heels. "There are drinks and appetizers in the living room."

"Sounds good," Lawrence said. "I'm Larry, by the way, and this is Valerie."

"Jackie," she said, offering her hand for them each in turn to shake. "I hope this all isn't too overwhelming. I know you're used to it being just the three of you at holidays."

"It's different, but it's not bad," Leonard said. "Besides, you're a hell of a cook."

"Oh," she said dismissively. "Go ahead on in there," she added, waving toward the living room entrance.

Valerie wandered in that direction, but Leonard and Lawrence hung back.

"Need any help?" Lawrence asked.

"Yes, actually," she said. "I need someone to slice the turkey up while I make the gravy."

"I'll be right back," Leonard said, wanting to remain in their presence after he got some wine to drink. He walked out to the front and stopped at the refreshments table to pour himself a glass of the white, returned with his wine glass and stood by with it. "Lots of people here. Are your holidays usually this big?"

"I always have some friends over in addition to family," she replied.

"Good. I'd hate to be too much of an imposition on you." Jackie indicated the carving knife and let Lawrence start on the job of slicing the meat. After this she started pouring the additional drippings out of the pan and into a saucepan.

"I enjoy hosting," she said. This was something Leonard well knew with the number of times he'd been over. That was probably why he'd been over so many times in the first place. He enjoyed seeing that side of her, when she (literally and metaphorically) let her hair down and relaxed. It was like a light switch, it really was, when Jackie wanted to show that softer side of herself. Of course he wouldn't have wanted her to be that way at the office but it was nice, as her friend, to see the other side.

Slices of turkey dropped onto the platter as Lawrence worked.

"I don't know the last time I was at a large holiday gathering like this," Leonard said. "Probably when I was a little kid."

"It was," Lawrence said.

"Well, I certainly hope you two enjoy yourself today."

After a bit longer of muted conversation she pulled the saucepan of gravy off the heat and poured it into a gravy boat. Then she came over to inspect the job Lawrence was doing. "Why don't you go ahead and let everyone know I'm about to serve, Leonard?"

"All right." He went back out to the front room, called for everyone's attention, and made the announcement. Jackie had the seats marked, presumably in such an order that people would have the opportunity to converse with someone new, and he took his seat between Ash and her younger brother.

Ash appeared to be in her early twenties. The only time he'd ever met her before this was at her father's funeral. She was in the armed forces, he recalled, and it showed in her muscular physique. "So what do you do?" she asked, scooping up a forkful of stuffing.

He split his roll to butter it. "I do the research, mostly. Before I hired your mother on I was spending all my time writing grants and administering the office. She's been invaluable to me."

"Wait," she said. "You're Mom's boss? I thought it was…" She blew out a laugh. "Sorry, I just assumed—"

"You assumed I'd be older?" he guessed. He glanced down to the end of the table, where Jackie had situated herself in the seat nearest the kitchen. Lawrence was seated to her left and the two were obviously enjoying conversing with one another. Ash's assumption made sense. With Jackie being fifteen years his senior and his father only a few years older than that, appearance-wise they seemed more likely to be close business associates.

"I didn't think about it at all, I just assumed." She took a bite of her food before continuing. "Hey, y'know, take it as a compliment. I don't even know anything about business and I thought you were too young to own one."

Thirty-nine didn't feel young to him. He'd pressed forward so hard and focused on his ambitions so laboriously that he felt twice his age in some ways. "What about you?" he asked, allowing that subject to drop.

"I'm a Falcon pilot in the Army," she said. "Damn good at my job, too. Apparently I have a natural aptitude for it."

Leonard didn't really believe in natural talent. He'd gone into AI engineering knowing barely anything about it and had graduated at the top of his graduating year. "Not without effort, I'm sure."

"I work harder than everybody," she said proudly. "My enlistment period is almost up, but I think I'm going to reenlist. My mom wants me to go commercial and cash in on all this raw talent of mine, but…"

He wiped his mouth with his napkin before responding. "You don't feel you've made your contribution to the war effort?"

"Well, no. I mean, listen, I know four years is a long time. But it's not like that's all I owe them."

"Certainly." He wondered how the death of her father factored into her decision, but decided that was too personal a question to pose when they were simply engaging in small talk. "How long does that give you to decide, then?"

"'Bout six months," she said. "I think I'm going to see about joining a spacefaring unit, though, next time."

"So you're interested in space travel?" he asked. "Why didn't you enlist in the Marines?"

"Are you kidding?" She gave him a wry smile. "My dad was Army."

"Ah, of course," he said.

"It's been a lot of fun, but I'm a lot more interested in space flight, that's all. The whole time we're hopping between planets I'm thinking about how I could be the person at the helm. It's an exciting thought."

That drew a chuckle. "So flying for the Army doesn't make you excited?"

"In a different way," she said. "I'm air support, y'know. Troops on the ground have to count on me to watch their backs. That takes some real chops. First time out solo I had a squad I was supposed to be keeping my eye on and there was a horrible cloud cover. Really low clouds. The only way I could do anything for 'em was to fly under the clouds and watch their backs from there. Good thing I made that choice 'cause they got pinned down by a squad of Covvies. Used up all my ammo helping them get out of that position."

"Sounds pretty dangerous."

"Hell, yeah—sorry. Yes, it was dangerous."

He snickered. "You can swear—don't worry, I won't tell your mother."

She grinned. "Didn't want to offend you. You being so important and all."

"I wouldn't fire your mother over that, believe me. She's saved my ass too many times to count." Jackie had gone to bat for him over and over, even when he'd pulled that stupid stunt when he'd gotten drunk at the office. She could have lost respect for him at that point, but instead the situation seemed to build solidarity between the two. It was the best possible outcome as far as he was concerned.

At that point most of the guests had finished their meals. Leonard pulled the platter over to serve himself another slice of turkey.

"Give me a piece of that too, would ya?" Ash asked. He pushed the platter in her direction. "Mom says you're working on a really big thing in your field. Something you're going to end up publishing something about, I guess?"

His brow drew together slightly. Jackie had been making that assumption and he hadn't disabused her of it. "I may," he said. "The circumstances would have to be just right.

"Sounds exciting, anyway. She thinks it is. She said you had one setback but she thinks you're going to get it right on your next try."

He rubbed his forehead. "Did she share any details with you, or she just talked about 'a thing'?"

She shrugged. "Just a thing. She talked like it was some kind of secret."

"That was wise of her." If only he'd been able to avoid sharing his creation of Texas with Jackie. It was all water under the bridge now, though, especially with Texas deleted.

"Really is a big secret, huh?" she said. "You act like you're afraid I'd tell somebody, and I don't even know anything."

"Mmh," he grunted. "I suppose you just took me by surprise."

"Big surprise." She talked past him then, addressing her brother, further down the table. "Hey, Jake. Jake. Come on, we need to clear the dishes."

Leonard wasn't finished eating and he stayed in his place while the two gathered the other dirty items from the table. By the time he arose he was ready for another glass of wine. It was amazing how stressed he felt now. Jackie's words had been innocent enough, but he'd need to emphasize to her that she shouldn't share more than what she had, not even with her own children.

Acquiring another glass of wine meant getting into a conversation with someone else he'd never met, an elderly man who turned out to be Jackie's uncle. Leonard scanned the crowd as they conversed. Valerie was now helping Ash and Jake clear the table. The rest of the guests were clustered in the dining room and den in groups of three or four, talking and laughing. Jackie's uncle was named Carl, and he had owned a business as well, before retiring. His expertise had been in the self-driving mechanism in cars, as well as their computer systems, a topic in which Leonard was well-versed enough to hold his own in the other half of the conversation.

By the time that was over he felt he'd had his fill of this crowd. A few people had already chosen to leave and he decided to seek out his father and daughter. Valerie was standing nearby in the den, laughing with Ash. It appeared the two had become fast friends. Leonard slowly sipped his wine and listened in for a time. But eventually, he wandered into the kitchen. There was Lawrence, standing alongside Jackie, helping her wash whatever dishes hadn't fit into the dishwasher.

"Dad?"

"Oh, Leonard," Lawrence said. He was smiling.

"About ready to head out, Dad?" Leonard said. "We don't want to overstay our welcome."

"You couldn't," Jackie assured him. "We're just about finished here, though."

As if on cue, Lawrence finished drying the last of the dishes Jackie had washed by hand and dried his hands on the towel. "It was a pleasure being here," Lawrence told her. "Leonard had always given me a good impression of you."

"I'm glad he was accurate," she said with a chuckle.

"Are you sure you don't want to stick around for dessert, Len?" Lawrence asked.

"I kind of don't," Leonard replied. "No offense, Jackie. I'm just tired."

"It's fine," she said. "I can just pack up some pie for you."

She did so, and Leonard wandered back to the living room to find Valerie. She was still having her animated conversation with Ash, and Leonard gestured at her from across the room that they were leaving. Valerie took that time to ask Ash for her contact details, and she punched it into her COM pad before disengaging and following him.

Jackie bid them farewell as they made their way out the door. "We'll have to do this again sometime," she called after them.

"Definitely," Lawrence said over his shoulder.

The three made their way back to the car and Leonard got into the passenger seat, gesturing at his father to drive. "Turns out you were right. That was a lot of people."

"It was nice," Lawrence said. "I see why you've kept Jackie on so long. If she runs things in your office as well as she runs Thanksgiving dinner I imagine you never have any problems with administration."

"She's never messed up once," Leonard said. "She's made a lot of things possible for us that wouldn't have happened otherwise."

"In that case she's worth her weight in gold." Lawrence pulled the car away from the curb and started for home.

"She is," Leonard said. Of all the things he was thankful for, her wisdom was high on his list.

"She has some good kids, too," Lawrence said. "Looked like you and Ash really hit it off, Val."

"We did," Valerie said, breaking a reverie of staring out the window to reply. "Hope that's okay, Dad."

"Of course it is," he said. "Hopefully it won't be too hard to keep in touch."

"I doubt it," she said. "We're already texting."

The two men laughed. "I remember the days when I messaged my friends that much," Lawrence remarked. "It kind of changes when you're an adult."

"I am an adult," Valerie protested.

"We know," Leonard said. "That doesn't change his point."

"Yes, it does," Valerie said. "I'm an adult, and I'm messaging my friends like this."

Her COM pad chimed again and she paused to begin a response to the new message that had come in.

"See?" she asked.

Lawrence chuckled again. "I do," he said. "And I stand corrected."

"Yes, you do," she said.

Leonard lost the thread of the conversation then. He looked out the window and let himself drift away on his thoughts. Instead of thinking about Allison, his failed attempts to recreate her, and his further upcoming attempts, he thought about Jackie—her invaluable contributions to his business, the support she'd given that had made his project possible, and her unwavering loyalty and encouragement.

Something warm filled his heart then. He ought to give her a raise, he decided. And maybe he'd bring her some flowers or another gift on Monday.

It was the least he could do to show his appreciation.