Thanks to a ZPM, a generous offer from Teyla to mind the store, and a last-minute, shyly issued invitation, John finally gets to see the Weir family Christmas.
Elizabeth has been absent without official family leave for five years, and she is consequently almost smothered to death with hugs and questions and compliments on having let her hair grow out. John stands awkwardly in the doorway of their kitchen for only about fifteen minutes before he's absorbed into the family as one of their own.
She introduces him as a colleague, but her mother still arranges for them to sleep together on the fold-out couch and her brothers still give him threats that are at least half (he hopes) in jest. Her father forgives him for sleeping with his grown daughter after John rattles off as many Michigan State statistics as he can come up with (all of them, of course, before the 2004 season). He spends hours listening to Andrew Weir's stories of being a State benchwarmer in the glory days of Bubba Smith and George Webster and Harold Lucas. Elizabeth watches from the doorway for a few minutes, and she smiles at him in a way he's never quite seen before.
She is different on Earth, more alive, like the part of her energy that's always devoted to waiting for the next incoming wormhole has been freed up for other things. He likes her like this, likes the way she stares at him in bed and doesn't have to be thinking about anything else. He watches her with her mother, with her brothers, with the nieces and nephews she hasn't seen in far too long, and wants to be part of this.
"I'll go with you," she offers on Christmas Eve, after the rest of the house is asleep. The twinkling light from the tree in the corner dances across her face. "To see your family. If you want."
He hasn't wanted that, doesn't want her to see the parts of his life he has happily avoided in the Pegasus galaxy, can't risk her seeing something in his mother and father that's also in him. "We could just stay here," he offers instead. "I like your family."
One corner of her mouth twitches in a smile, and she nods, slowly. "Okay." She squeezes his hand beneath the covers, and he knows he'll change his mind. Going home might be different with her in tow. He might be different.
He kisses her, wants to be closer to her, but she breaks away by shaking her head. "We can't. The kids might sneak in to check out the presents."
Another kiss. "Want to sneak into the garage and make out in your dad's car?"
She has told him stories.
Elizabeth gives his shoulder a playful shove before she turns around and snuggles under the covers. "Go to sleep, John. Presents at six in the morning, remember?"
John grumbles a bit in feigned protest, but finally settles down. Elizabeth slides willingly into his arms and he holds her as she falls asleep.
The traditional Christmas snowball fight -- boys against girls -- gets everyone outside while the turkey is in the oven. Elizabeth is already covered with snow after a calculated attack from her brothers and nephews when John chases her away from the main field of battle and tackles her into a snowdrift.
She's laughing in his ear even as she shrieks about the cold, beaming and red-cheeked and easily the most beautiful thing he's ever seen.
"I win," he declares, threatening her with a fistful of snow.
Elizabeth knocks his hand away defiantly. "I'm just setting you up," she declares. "Watch your back, Colonel." Her cold lips practically attack his for a kiss.
"Lizzie!" Her brother is yelling for her -- her whole family calls her Lizzie -- but John ignores the commotion.
"I love you," he says, feeling his whole body somehow both tense and relax with that admission.
Her eyes widen for a moment, but it isn't with surprise. She has to have known this, even if he's never said it sober before. For an instant he thinks she's going to cry, but instead she wraps her arms around him through layers of winter coat and kisses him like she's never going to let go.
"HA!" There's a chorus of triumphant screams, one or two "ew!"s from the younger generation, and he and Elizabeth are summarily blitzkrieged with snowballs.
She's laughing, hiding behind him when they jump up to retaliate, and he's happy.
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