DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters, except for the original ones, so please don't sue. I'm poor. Okay? Poor. Thank you and have a nice day.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

Their daughters left them for a while. Jack knows that they didn't want to disturb their (meaning Irina and him…) "together" time. He looked at Irina as they walked side by side. She is holding Jacob, who is sleeping.

"Do you want to sit down? Jacob's a bit heavy." He asked. Irina smiled at him as she shifted the baby's position in her arms.

"Yes, I'd appreciate that. Thank you."

They looked for a quiet place to sit so that Jacob can sleep without being disturbed. They finally settled in a quiet corner outside a bookshop cum coffee store.

Jack watched as Irina gently placed their son in the stroller with a soft smile in her lips. Her eyes speak of happiness only mothers seem to have. He had seen the same look on her face when she was Laura.

'God, she's more beautiful than before.' Jack thought and looked at her. He loves watching her do things. It mesmerizes him.

'I love her. I really, really do. And I want her back. But she's a terrorist. She can't just live here.' His heart began to beat faster. 'I love you, I love you, I love you. Why can't I say this to her?!'

You don't trust her, that's the problem.

A cold breeze passed them by. A concerned look appeared in Irina's face. The weather is slowly getting cold.

"Jack, does Jacob have a blanket?" She asked as she tucked strands of hair behind her ear. When she looked at him, she found Jack staring at her.

"Jack?"

Her voice penetrated his mind and his thoughts quickly blinked away. As he focused his eyes on Irina he realized that he didn't hear her question.

"Huh?"

Irina looked at him a bit amused. "I asked if you have a blanket for Jacob."

"Uh… yeah." Jack answered and rummaged inside the diaper bag. He took out a neatly folded, maroon colored blanket and handed it to Irina.

"Thank you." Irina covered the baby with the thick, warm, cotton blanket. But Jacob didn't seem to have noticed the change in the temperature.

Jacob is so adorable; both when asleep and when awake. And he looks so much like Jack. Irina sighed and looked up to the father of her son.

He's still staring at her.

"What, now?" Irina asked, a bit suspicious at Jack's attention.

Jack shook his head. "Nothing."

A waiter went by their table and asked if they are to order anything. Jack and Irina asked for coffee and some pastries for their daughters, knowing full well that when they find them, they will be hungry. Particularly Ana.

They sat in silence. They don't know what to talk about other than their children and that topic was totally exhausted during lunchtime. Irina certainly doesn't want to talk about her current activities since it concerns their family and Jack definitely will not want to talk about present CIA dealings since he's with a terrorist. And he doesn't want to talk about Rambaldi.

'I certainly can't talk about security matters involving the kids. She makes sure that everything where her children are concerned is well taken care of. God this is hard…' Jack thought as he stared at her. He wants to tell her everything, but he knows very well that he couldn't.

"You know, dad? Mom really likes books."

Ana's words popped in his head. 'Maybe we could talk about books.' Jack said to himself and tried to think about something about literature.

"Uh, did you really like Chaucer's Canterbury Tales?" He asked, looking at her and hoping that he doesn't sound desperate for something to talk about.

Irina raised a brow and slightly angled her head to the right. Jack sounds like he's desperate to get rid of the silence that is enveloping them. "Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Nothing. Uh… Ana mentioned something like… never mind. Uh, Christmas is approaching fast. Do you know what I can give Nadia?" Jack asked. He's practically rambling.

Irina thought for a while. She doesn't even know what to give her daughters this Christmas.

"Uh…" She was going to suggest something when she Nadia running towards them. It looks like there's an emergency.

"Nadia, what is it?" Irina asked when she reached their place.

"Uh, we need a little help." Nadia answered in between breaths. Sydney is with Ana, who was very, very angry the last time she saw her.

"What kind of help?" Jack asked, alarmed. He noticed that Sydney and Ana aren't with her.

"Uh…" Nadia blushed a bit. "We encountered the frat boys again."

Jack let out a sigh of relief. He thought that it was an emergency. He looked at Irina and shook his head a bit.

"But why were you running?" Irina inquired. Nadia's reason for assistance must not be as harmless as they think.

"Ana punched one of the guys."

-x-x-x-

(24 December, 10.30 pm)

Jack took the bags of gifts from his room and walked out to the corridor. Dante and Francis are coming to deliver Irina's Christmas present for their children.

He took a peek in Jacob's room and fixed his blanket before going to Ana's room. He was expecting that she is awake but when he took a peek, he saw that Ana is lying face down on the bed with her right arm and right leg dangling at the edge. She's asleep.

Jack smiled a bit and set down the bags on the floor. He quietly entered the room and picked up the bed cover that was probably kicked off by the rowdy sleeper.

'She sleeps like her mother.' He thought and gently fixed Ana's sleeping position. She didn't stir at all, even after he had covered her with a blanket.

'She also sleeps like a log.' Jack said to himself as he went out of the room. He can hear the doorbell ringing.

He hurriedly went down. When he opened the door, he found Dante and Francis grinning.

"Merry Christmas, Mr. Bristow." Francis said and showed him the bags. They have three in each hand, and it seems that each bag is very heavy. Jack motioned them to come in.

"You have a very beautiful home, Signor." Dante remarked as Jack ushered them inside the living room. The Christmas spirit is very alive inside the house.

"Thank you. Sydney, Nadia and Ana arranged everything." Jack answered. When they reached the living room, he motioned the two men to sit down. "Are all those gifts from Irina?" he asked. If everything inside the bags is from Irina alone, he could definitely conclude that Irina dotes on her children too much.

"Ah, no, signor. Katya, Yelena and Mr. Sark sent gifts too." Dante answered and smiled. "And you need not to worry about the gifts being used to compromise your children's safety. Irina personally checked everything."

Jack raised a brow. "I believe in the part where Irina checked everything. I just don't know if you two could be trusted." He said.

Francis laughed. "Mr. Bristow, if Irina didn't trust us, she wouldn't have given us this task. She would have sent it by Fed Ex… or something. Maybe even give it to you personally."

He assessed them. They're right. If Irina doesn't trust them, they wouldn't be standing in front of him.

"Do you want to have a drink?" Jack asked.

"Thank you for the offer, signor. But we have to get going. There are… things to do." Dante replied and looked around the living room once again. He saw pictures of Ana, Jack, Jacob, Nadia and Sydney throughout the room.

"Please tell the Bambina we were here." Dante said. The two men saluted to him and proceeded to go.

"Uh… wait." Jack said. They stopped and looked at him. Jack handed a big bag of gifts. "They're from the… children. There are… there are two gifts for Mr. Sark."

Francis smiled and then nodded his head. One does not have to guess to who was the giver of one of those present for the young man.

"Well, then. Happy Christmas, signor."

Jack closed the door after they left. Sighing, he looked at his watch. It's almost eleven thirty in the evening. Sydney and Nadia will be arriving soon, with Vaughn and Will. Ana will be waking up shortly. And then when the clock strikes twelve, it will be Christmas.

He walked around the hallway. He's been thinking about what Brill said about the Protector. For the past weeks, he has been looking for the answers. The monk Hector has vanished. There are no traces of him, no signs that says that he had existed before. But he can distinctly remember that the monk mentioned Protectors with an s, plural, and not Protector.

'Is Jacob a Protector too? But… no, it will never happen. I know it will never happen.' Jack sat down and leaned on the sofa. But if everything will indeed come true, all his children will die.

Trepidation, a word and feeling that he abhors to show and feel, started to cover him. 'Dammit, Jack! Get hold of yourself. It will never happen!' He said to himself.

"I will never let it happen." Jack said aloud.

But somewhere around the world, two people are planning to do just that. To find a way to fulfill Rambaldi's word.

-x-x-x-

"My dear, shall we go get your sister?"

Yelena looked at the man in front of her and smiled at him. They are in the veranda of one of Irina's glorious mansions. The attractive man paced around as she tipped the glass of wine to her soft, red lips and drank the remaining liquid.

"After she's done speaking to her children. It is, after all, Christmas."

He smiled at her. "Yes, but Mr. Sloane is not that patient."

Yelena gave a soft laugh and set down the glass on the table by her side. "Byron, I don't think Arvin would mind if we let Irisha say goodbye to her beloved children. And to her beloved husband."

Byron looked at her. Allure and determination are one of the Derevko's assets. Katya's charm has mysterious mix while Irina has a seductive pull to her. But Yelena… Yelena's charm is that she's appealing and warm. It hides the fact that she's as manipulative and as fierce as her two sisters, maybe even more.

It also hides the fact that her obsession with Rambaldi is driving her to kill her younger sister and her sister's daughters just for the sake of seeing the prophet's visions.

"Are the lovers back?" Yelena asked.

"Dante and Francis called. They're stuck in the holiday rush."

Yelena smiled. "Good, good." She said and began to tap her perfectly manicured finger on the table. "Irina will most probably call them after thirty minutes. Be ready for Dante and Francis. They might return anytime."

"Of course, dear."

-x-x-x-

The whole house is filled with the beautiful, playful sound of the violin, the piano and the laughter of a young child who turned a year old just two days ago.

Nadia is standing by the doorway, smiling at Ana, who dancing around the living room, playing Vivaldi's Allegro Non Molto on her new violin with Sydney as her accompaniment and Vaughn, Will and Jacob as their audience.

"Did you like the picture frame?" Jack asked, standing beside her.

Nadia looked at him and smiled widely. Her father gave her an antique picture frame with the whole family's picture. The picture that was taken after Ana's little brawl with the frat men.

"Of course I loved it. It's one of the most wonderful gifts I've received." Nadia answered.

Jack smiled back at her. "Actually, your mother suggested it." He said. "When Dante and Francis came, they brought along twelve bags with them. Did she give you a car?" He asked jokingly.

Nadia laughed. "No, it's a watch." She answered and looked at him inquiringly. "What did she give you?"

"Yeah, dad. What did mom give you?" Sydney asked in the middle of the music. Vaughn and Will are also looking at him.

Jack cleared his throat. "Uh… a scrapbook of your baby pictures."

Nadia looked surprised. "All of our baby pictures?"

Jack nodded his head. He then felt his cell phone vibrating in his pocket.

"Excuse me, I think this is going to be your mother." Jack said and walked several feet away from the living room. He took the cell phone from his pocket and received the call.

"Merry Christmas, Jack."

"I was wondering when you'd call." Jack said, his tone automatically warming to the sound of Irina's voice.

"Is that the sound of the violin and piano I'm hearing?"

"Yes, Ana and Sydney are playing." He answered and looked at the direction of his daughters. God only knows how he wants this family to be complete for this holiday season.

"I'm assuming that you gave Ana a Stradivarius violin, Sydney several first edition books, while Nadia, the antique picture frame I told you about and Jacob, a rocking horse. What did your daughters give you?"

Jack was a bit taken aback at the accuracy of what he gave them. "How did you know that?" he asked, looking around the house. "Did you put bugs around my house?"

He heard her laughter at the other end of the line. When he heard her amusement, he felt that, that's the only thing he'd want her for her.

Happiness.

"You're too paranoid, Jack. Now, come on. Give your phone to your daughters so that I can talk to them."

Jack smiled and called Nadia. "By the way, Sydney gave me a brown leather belt, Ana, a leather briefcase and Nadia a shirt and tie set. The tie has Spongebob Squarepants as its design."

-x-x-x-

Irina was smiling when she ended the call to her children. Their voices, including Jack's, warmed her spirit.

She smiled at the stories her daughters (and son…) told her. Even if they are so far from her, hearing their happiness and glee made her feel that she's so near them.

Irina wants to kiss and hug all of them. Overwhelming sadness will fill her after this musings of Christmas with Jack and their children but right now, she wants to think of the time when everything will be okay and she can see them, hug them, care for them and kiss them. That time will be near, once Sloane is in the custody of the CIA, she will be free.

She heard footsteps coming her way. She didn't mind them since the only people inside the house are, Yelena, Byron, Katya and her.

"Irina?"

She recognized the voice as Yelena's. "I'm in the den."

Irina felt her sister's presence as she entered the room. She turned around to look at her and discovered that Yelena is pointing a gun at her.

"Sorry, Irisha. Rambaldi's calling."

Yelena wasted no time and shot her sister directly in the heart.

-z-z-z-

fin (joke…hehehehehehe :D)