A/N: Once again, I am so pleased with the responses to this story. Most of the events have actually happened, for those who are asking, although I have squished several stories into one holiday to make it more entertaining. I wrote this story on a very long plane ride home after spending Christmas in Boston, so it is finished. However, with four children all younger at this point than they appear in this story, finding time even to transfer and upload is tricky. Luckily, my husband is still on holiday, so I do have more spare time than usual. Thank you for your patience and continued interest in my story.

Ch 9: Wakey wakey

A loud, very annoying beeping sound woke him up. He groaned; he was exhausted. The beeping continued. "Carter! Turn off your alarm!" he called.

The beeping continued, and there was a suspicious lack of movement from her bed. Grumbling, he rolled off the couch, onto his feet, and stumbled over to her, rubbing his eyes. As he had figured, she was sleeping right through her alarm, even though it was right by her head on the cluttered night stand.

He inspected the clock, but he couldn't find the button to turn it off. Granted, he only spent a couple of seconds looking for it before making a command decision, but still. He unplugged it. It kept beeping.

"What the..."

He turned it over, found the battery compartment, and pulled those out as well. The beeping, mercifully, stopped. "Ha!" he said triumphantly to the offensive clock, setting it back down on the night stand.

He looked at Carter. In the field, she snapped awake instantly, yet here she was still completely zonked. And curled up in a ball with really, really messy hair. Shaking his head, smiling and yawning at the same time, he shook her shoulder gently. "Hey, Carter, wake up."

"Get Daniel first," she mumbled, burrowing deeper under her covers.

He chuckled and said, "Daniel's not here. Come on. It's Christmas. Your alarm was going off."

"What time is it?" she asked, refusing to open her eyes.

"About five minutes after the time you set your alarm for. Come on. You gotta go watch all those kids open their presents."

When she still refused to move, he pulled the covers off of her. "All right, all right," she grumbled, finally getting up, pushing past him on a straight path to the coffee pot.

"Merry Christmas to you too!" he called, laughing.

He made the mistake of glancing back down at the bed. It was soooo early. Before he had thought twice about it, he was curled up in the warm, soft bed, fast on his way back to sleep. An insistent, "No way!" from his 2IC woke him up partially. "You have to get up too."

"I did get up. I got up and woke you up. Now I'm going back to sleep. You're welcome, by the way. Nighty-night."

"Come on, do you really think my nieces and nephews are going to let you sleep through Christmas?"

"If they're smart they will," he grumbled, clutching his pillow tightly as she tried to grab it out from underneath his head.

"The coffee will be ready in a few minutes. It's Daniel-strength," she tried.

"All right," he grumbled. "But you owe me."

He heard her walking away and heard the bathroom door close. He was awake enough now, but he wanted to see what she'd do, so when she came out of the bathroom, he was still in the exact same position.

"All right, you've left me no choice," she said quietly, a second before he was covered in something very cold and wet.

"Carter, what the hell!" he demanded, jumping up and looking down at himself. She was holding an empty cup that had obviously contained the ice-cold water she had poured all over him. She was laughing.

"Sorry."

"No you're not," he accused, pulling his tee-shirt away from his skin and getting to his feet to go to the bathroom. "For the record, I can think of a lot nicer ways you could have woken me up!" he called before shutting the bathroom door much harder than necessary.

Hoping he had given her something to think about, he went to the bathroom and brushed his teeth. There were two toothbrushes next to the sink. Neither was his, but he shrugged and used the dry one, deciding not to mention it to his 2IC.

Trying not to shiver in his wet shirt, he groaned as he realized his bag of clothes was still in Carter's bedroom. Peeling the wet shirt off, he grabbed a hand towel, dried himself off, and went back into the other room. "Tell me you've got a dry shirt up here I can wear," he said as Carter handed him a cup of coffee, suspiciously not meeting his eyes.

"Umm... I didn't think about that," she admitted, biting her lip.

"So... that one's big," he said, indicating the large Air Force shirt she had been sleeping in.

"Yeah, but... we don't usually get dressed for Christmas morning."

"Oh come on. You're not going to make me tramp through the snow without a shirt on."

"You have your coat," she said fairly. He looked at her in surprise. "I'm kidding. Of course I'm not. I'll ah... put my sweater from last night back on. Unless you'd like to wear that," she said with a smile as she grabbed it.

"Ah, no thanks," he said. Nodding, she headed back to the bathroom. "If I remember correctly, it was snug on you, so I doubt it would fit me!" he called through the closed door.

Hey, if she was going to make him get up this early in the morning, he was going to be as annoying as possible.

When she emerged from the bathroom, still in her pajama pants, with the sweater she had worn the day before back on, and threw the tee-shirt she had been wearing at his face on her way back to the coffee pot, he knew he was succeeding.

He pulled the shirt on, looked down at himself, and shrugged. It was a little tight, but it would do. "So Christmas morning means pajama party?" he asked as Carter sat down by the door and started pulling on her boots over her pajama pants.

"Yes," she answered, looking at the clock. Or at least, where the clock had always been. "Um, Colonel, why does my clock seem to be no longer functioning?" she asked curiously.

"It resisted when I tried to turn it off," he said defensively, sticking his feet into his boots and grabbing his coat. "Ah, Carter, this may be a dumb question, but isn't your family going to wonder why we're coming in from outside in our jammies?"

"Umm... maybe. Yeah. Good point. Well, it's pretty early. Most of them probably aren't downstairs yet... still. Maybe we should, um, go in separately," she suggested, blushing slightly. "So they don't, you know, think anything... happened."

He shrugged. "Whatever you say, Carter. Go right ahead." He stepped away from the door and waved her past him.

She looked at him suspiciously. "You're not going to go back to sleep once I leave, are you?" she asked.

"What? No, of course not! Does that sound like something I would do?"

She looked at him pointedly.

"All right, good point. But I'm not." She was still trying to figure out if he was telling the truth or not. He sighed. "Fine. I'll go first. Happy?"

She smiled and took the coffee cup he handed her. He left, grumbling. The snow had finally stopped falling, but it was still freezing outside. He hurried to Carter's back door and let himself in, stamping the snow off his feet as he closed the door. He turned around, expecting to be facing an empty kitchen, but found himself the subject of several surprised stares.

Karen, Anne, and Emily were all in the kitchen.

"Uh, hi," he said, shrugging off his coat. "It's ah... stopped snowing," he offered.

"Merry Christmas, Jack," Emily finally said.

"Merry Christmas. Uh... everyone up already?"

"Mostly. The kids are sorting the presents by name," she told him.

"Oh. Good. Glad I ah... didn't miss anything."

"Have you seen Sam this morning, Jack?" Anne asked curiously.

"Sam? Uh... hey, is that coffee?" he asked quickly, going over to the pot and pouring himself a cup. He wasn't even sure if they knew about that room over the garage, but judging by those looks he was still getting, he figured they not only knew about it, but knew that both of them had spent the night there.

"Well, wherever she is," Karen said innocently. "She better get over here soon or the kids will be asking about her."

These women were good, Jack had to give him credit. He had no idea whether they knew everything or knew nothing but were trying to make him think they knew everything, therefore tricking him into some type of confession. Either way, he figured he should get them out of the kitchen so Carter could make her entrance unobserved.

"Ah..." He smiled as the loud sounds coming from the living room gave him an idea. "Maybe we should all go in the living room. Try to help control the... chaos," he suggested with a grin.

They nodded and everyone started filing out of the kitchen.

"Very smooth," Emily said to him under her breath as she passed him.

Rolling his eyes, he stepped from the nice, quiet kitchen into one of the craziest messes he had ever seen. The room was full of people and presents, and the kids were unable to contain their excitement, and growing impatient the longer they were made to wait for their gifts.

He spotted a spare bit of space on one of the couches and waded through the crowd for it. He had just sat down when Chris flopped down next to him with a big grin. "Merry Christmas, Jack. You look exhausted."

"Thanks. You look entirely too awake for a college student at this hour."

"Oh, you know. Once a year," he said vaguely, waving his hand at the chaos.

"They don't bring most of the kids' presents... Santa drops those off at their houses for when they get home, but still. That many kids, a couple of gifts each, plus all the family exchange..."

"Yeah. Looks like the North Pole," Jack commented.

Chris laughed and said, "Since it's Christmas, I'm not even going to ask where you and my sister ended up last night."

Jack laughed and said, "Ah, thanks. I guess. I mean, not that there's anything to hide..."

"No, no, of course not," Chris agreed sarcastically. A chorus of greetings directed their attention to Carter, who had just entered with her own coffee cup in hand. "Speak of the devil," Chris commented.

"Auntie's here, let's start!" Matty yelled above the crowd.

The other kids, rather than waiting for the adults to come up with some guidelines for the proceedings, took that as their cue to start ripping through wrapping paper. Jack watched them, amused at the sheer enthusiasm and delight they were capable of displaying so early in the morning. Chris slid down the couch and Carter sat down next to him, smiling at the children that was wreaking havoc on her living room.

"Gee, I'm so glad we spent such a long time cleaning your house up," he commented quietly.

She laughed and said, "Oh, come on, they're having fun. Umm, Colonel, I was wondering if you wanted me to give you your present now, or save it for New Year's when we exchange with everyone else."

"I've got yours in my truck too, but... let's just stick with the original plan. If that's okay with you."

"Of course."

"Hey, I don't need this, thank you very much, I do just fine on my own!" Chris objected from Carter's other side, holding up the gift he had just opened.

All the adults started laughing. "Who's this from anyway," Chris asked, looking at the tag. "Jamie! You asshole!"

"UNCLE CHARLIE SAID A BAD WORD!" A chorus of voices started, while Chris's brothers started punching at him halfheartedly for "swearing in front of innocent ears," as Mark put it.

Chris snorted. "If they live with you I doubt they still have innocent ears," he said, shoving his brother off of him.

"What's the gift anyway?" Carter asked. He showed it to them both. It was a hat with a fake sprig of mistletoe on a giant springy thing above it.

Carter laughed and hugged her little brother, glaring at Jamie. "Of course you don't need it, Chris. Jamie was obviously reliving his own college experiences."

"Thank you, Sam," Chris said, tossing the hat at his brother. "Jack, thanks for all the backup on that one," he said, leaning around Sam and poking him.

Jack laughed. "I wouldn't dare get in the middle of your family squabbles."

"Uncle Chris, come help me put this together!" somebody called.

Sighing, Chris said, "Duty calls." He got up, ruffling Carter's hair. She swatted his hand away as he went over to whoever had been calling for his help.

Jack watched the kids continuing to open their presents, stifling a yawn. He was still tired. Which explained why he didn't sense Conor sneaking up behind him and putting Chris's mistletoe hat on him until it was too late. He made a half-hearted grab at the kid over the back of the couch, but he was already scampering away, giggling and calling, "I did it, Auntie!"

Jack looked around for the offending 'auntie,' but realized there were so many of them in the room it could have been any of them. Or all of them.

He glanced at Carter nervously. She too was looking at all the women suspiciously. She knew them better than he did, she'd probably be able to figure out who it was. She was also blushing bright red already.

"Come on, Uncle Jack, it's tradition," Chris called.

He shrugged, grinning at Carter, his eyes twinkling. She got a slightly scared look on her face that he really liked. She actually thought he was going to... it was Christmas and he was having a blast, but he wasn't stupid. There was no way he was going to really, really kiss her. At least not in front of her whole family. Or when they weren't caught in a time loop.

He had been harboring the suspicion that if he ever did, they would both be in big trouble. Still, the longer he put it off, the longer all the adults and the few children who found them more entertaining than unwrapped boxes were going to be watching them expectantly. He wrapped his arms around Carter's shoulders, pulled her slightly closer to him, and kissed her on the cheek. From the way she squirmed slightly, he figured he probably needed to shave.

"Well, that was lame," Chris said, plucking the hat off his head. "You are not worthy of the hat," he declared.

Jack shrugged, glancing sideways at Carter to make sure she was okay. She wasn't looking at him, but from the profile he was getting, he thought she looked relieved. And she hadn't complained that he hadn't moved the arm he had around her yet.

Luckily, the room was full of so many excited children, the attention that had been focused on them didn't last long. They watched the rest of the proceedings in comfortable silence, and Jack was even starting to fall asleep again when Sydney came over to them, holding something behind her back.

She stopped in front of him.

"Hey. Merry Christmas," Jack said, smiling at her. She smiled at him and started to say something, but Julia, Gwen, and Lily ran past her in the small space between the couch and coffee table, bumping into her and throwing her off balance.

Carter leaned forward quickly and steadied her. "You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah. Umm, Uncle Jack, I made you this," she said, handing him a folded piece of construction paper.

"You did? Wow!" he said, looking at it appreciatively. The cover had a picture of a Christmas tree on it and said, "Merry Christmas Uncle Jack."

"Did I spell it right?" she asked nervously.

"You spelled it perfectly," he said with a smile, opening it up. She had drawn a picture inside that was a bit hard to make out. "Wow, this is great!" he said.

She climbed into Carter's lap so she could lean over and point at the card. "That's a snowman, that's you flying in a plane, that's Auntie flying in her plane, that's a bear cuz I like to draw bears, and that's me," she explained.

He grinned. "Of course it is. Thank you, Sydney." He leaned in and hugged her, then sat back and continued to admire the card.

"Syddo, you've got one more over here, sweetheart!" Emily called from over by the tree.

"Yes!" Sydney exclaimed, scrambling off Carter and picking her way through the mess of people and wrapping paper.

Jack watched her go and laughed, turning to Carter. He froze. She was giving him the look. The really, really unguarded one. He used to get it sometimes, but it had been a long time. He'd gotten a similar look when she was trapped on the other end of that damn force field after their armbands came off, but that wasn't the same. That was the unguarded but still really scared and/or sad look. This one was unguarded and happy. It always took him by surprise, and he had no defense for it, except to stare back at her until one of them snapped out of it.

It was her. Clearing her throat and looking away, she said, "You've got a new fan."

"Ah, yeah. Apparently," he agreed. Unable to resist, he added, "Well, it's good to see she's not exactly like you."

She looked at him in surprise. He grinned. "Her artistic capabilities are vastly superior."

She rolled her eyes and looked away, trying hard not to smile.

One of the little girls Jack hadn't seen very much came over, carrying a book. Both were grateful for the distraction. "Auntie will you wead me this?" she asked, handing her the book.

"Of course, sweetie," Carter said quickly, pulling the tiny girl up into her lap. "Did you just get this?"

"Yeah."

"Whatcha got there?" Jack asked curiously, looking at the cover. "If you give a mouse a cookie," he read out loud.

"I like mouses," she told him.

"Mice, Piper, Mice," Carter corrected quietly. Piper, that was it, Jack thought.

"Mice I mean," she said, pointing to the cover. "Read," she instructed, looking up at Carter. Carter cleared her throat and opened the book.

"Hey, I can't hear," Jack objected halfway through the book. Carter looked at him with that 'I'm worried about the Colonel' look. "What? It's an interesting story but I can't hear," he repeated, scooting closer to them. Since the room was so loud, Carter had been reading with her head very close to Piper's, speaking almost directly into the little girl's ear so she could hear over all the noise.

"Keep weading!" Piper insisted. Carter started reading again, loud enough for him to hear as well this time. He smiled in satisfaction.

After all the kids had opened their gifts and started to play with them, the adults all exchanged gifts. Apparently they had all drawn names. As soon as it was done, John and Nigel got to their feet and said, "All right, let's get started, guys."

The rest of Carter's brothers got up much less enthusiastically. Chris clapped Jack on the back and said, "If you want to help, come on."

"Help with what?" he asked.

"Oh, guess Sam didn't tell you. Another tradition. Christmas morning, the men make breakfast. But you don't have to help, you're welcome to stay here."

"No, no, I'll help," he said quickly, taking the hand Chris offered him up.

"Good. And in honor of the fact that this is your first year here, we won't even make you wear a frilly apron," Chris said with a grin.

"Thanks." Jack started to follow him into the kitchen but turned to look at Carter suspiciously. "So wait a second, you don't have to help with any of the cooking?"

"I'm helping for dinner today, if you must know."

"And we've got the fire department on hold!" Jamie added.

Chuckling, Jack went into the kitchen with Carter's brothers. Breakfast was easy, he thought. Anybody could do breakfast. He was put in charge of eggs. He set about making a giant batch of scrambled eggs, half with cheddar cheese, half plain.

Chris and Mark were working on the counter next to him, making lots and lots of toast and bacon.

"So... is it like an X-Files thing with you guys or what?" Chris asked after several minutes of silent working.

"Huh? You talking to me?" Jack asked.

"Yes, Robert DeNiro, I'm talking to you," Chris said, laughing.

"What do you mean, an X-Files thing?"

"You've never seen X-Files?" Mark asked, looking shocked.

"Ah, I'm not really into sci-fi," he said absently.

"Oh. Okay. Well, you know. Mulder and Scully, man," Chris said. Jack still looked confused. "The last name thing. This house is full of Carters. How come you don't call her Sam?"

"Uh... I don't know."

"How could you not know?"

"I don't know... we don't usually see each other outside of work. Except with other people we work with. So... I don't know, it doesn't usually matter. She's usually the only Carter around."

"Yeah, but..."

"I used to sometimes. Call her Sam, I mean. But she always calls me 'sir' or 'Colonel,' so I figured I should call her Carter all the time."

Chris shrugged. "You guys are weird," he finally concluded, patting Jack on the back.

"Thanks," Jack said. "I'll be sure to leave some eggshells in your batch."