Family.

Chapter six: (Warning for sappiness, sorry I just couldn't resist it!)

It was Christmas morning, Millie had been up for hours along with a slightly reluctant Nina and was testing all of the presents to see if she could work out who had bought what for who, it had been explained to her what Christmas was all about but she was far more interested in the present part of the celebration. Lizzie had been the second one up, she was excited too, just like the kids, but her favorite part was the food (see she is a little like Phil!). She had promised the ducks that she would make them a home cooked breakfast lunch that she assured would be divine. So she had gotten up early to start the cooking.

At around nine o' clock a blonde head popped through the door to the kitchen and looked about, he could smell something really good cooking and wanted to see what it was, he walked up to a pot that had some kind of stew in it and peered in, inside were vegetables boiling in what looked like herbs. He scrunched up his beak and went to the oven where the Turkey was already well underway and opened the door to get a good look.

"Nosedive Flashblade! Get out of this kitchen now before I put you in there with that Turkey!"

"Aw come on Liz, I was just taking a peek don't get you knickers in a twist, geese!" Lizzie glared at her boyfriend's younger brother with one hand on her hip she stamped on the floor and pointed to the door.

"Now." She said dangerously quietly. Wildwing chuckled as he heard the two's little dispute and snuck in whilst Lizzie was checking that Dive hadn't done any lasting damage to her precious meal. He silently walked up to her and as she straightened up;

"Merry Christmas Baby," he said as he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and nuzzled her neck, finishing off with a small peck on the cheek. Lizzie, surprised at first, leaned into him leaning her head onto the side of his, holding his arms.

"Merry Christmas honey, your going to keep people out of here right?"

"What about breakfast?"

"On the table, unless the girls have eaten it all already, which they shouldn't have because, I made enough to feed a small army."

"Oh well, that'll cover Mallory!" Chuckled Phoenix leaning on the door frame.

"I heard that Flashblade!" Yelled an exhausted Mallory, who'd been out clubbing the night before.

"Oh I'm sorry I forgot it was your time of the month!"

"I hate you!"

"The feeling's mutual!"

"Good!"

"Glad you're happy!"

"I am!"

"Are you done?" Wildwing asked his sister raising an eyebrow, though still keeping his arms around Lizzie, "Cause you know this is supposed to be a peaceful day."

"Yeah yeah whatever," Phoenix waved her hands in the air and went to make sure that Millie and Nina hadn't eaten all of the chocolates on the tree, muttering on the way, "sheesh, when have I ever been quiet, god you can tell we haven't been around each other for a while." Wildwing just shook his head at his hopeless sister and continued on with pestering his girlfriend.

Lunchtime came and went and Lizzie had to go to her mother's the next day so she went to pack before they opened their presents, knowing full well that it was annoying the hell out of not only Millie but Nosedive as well. Nina still wasn't all that sure she wanted to be around everybody at once, she was still very jumpy if she did anything wrong. Two days before she had dropped a cup and it smashed on the floor she ran to her room and hid in the closet for two hours before anybody found her and when they did she was hyperventilating and rocking back and forth with tear streaming down her face. It had been Wildwing who had found her and despite the fact he was almost three times her size he managed to not only comfort her but get hr smiling again too.

At around four o'clock in the evening they all sat around the huge Christmas tree they all helped decorate and began giving the presents. The majority of the gifts were cloths, jewelry or books. Lizzie had been donned the gift queen by Dive when she gave him a game that wouldn't be released for another three months telling him that they would keep him quiet for at least a few hours, she gave Wildwing a beautiful oil painting for his wall of a landscape in Alaska (as for some unknown reason she was unable to obtain one of a landscape on Puckworld, I wonder why?), either way Wing loved it. When all of the presents had been given out, which took quite a while as it seemed Nina had never received a gift before and was unsure as to what to do, Wildwing took Lizzie to one side and asked her if they could go somewhere a little more private. So they each grabbed a coat and snuck upstairs to the roof, for a long while they just stared up at the stars.

"Um Wildwing, as much as I love freezing my but off so we can have a little privacy, "she turned to him, "why did you bring up here?"

"Well," Wildwing took a deep breath, his hands were in his pockets and unknown to her he was squeezing a small velvet covered box, "I. . . I uh. . . " 'oh man I don't believe this, I wrote this all out and everything and now I can't say it!' He sighed and turned to face her he looked into her eyes, took a deep breath, removed the box from his pocket and got down on one knee like he'd seen in the movies (yes I know it's corny but I'm a hopeless romantic), cleared his throat and said, "Lizzie, would you marry me?"

Lizzie stood there gaping, for once she was totally speechless. She hadn't expected this or even thought about it, but recently their relationship had become more intense and she had to admit that something in her was telling her that this was right, that it would all fit. Wildwing looked at her and inwardly panicked at her silence thinking that any minute she'd laugh in his face telling him that he was ridiculous to think that she'd actually marry an alien.

"Lizzie?" He questioned nervously, "Baby, honey, don't keep a guy waiting." All she did was smile and lunge at him falling into his arms and they kissed, "Do I take that as a yes?" a small 'uh-huh' was heard and he smiled as he slipped the ring onto the finger. Of course then Nosedive, who was behind the door leaning over Duke, Phoenix and the girls slipped and fell through the door in a heap, the rest of the team standing behind looking sheepish. Wildwing looked at his new fiancé to see she was bright red, after many congratulations form the rest of the team they went back downstairs to finish off the Christmas celebrations.