A/N: I promised I wouldn't leave this unfinished, and I'm living up to my word. We're skipping ahead, but I'd never have gotten this story done with what I had going before.

Hope y'all enjoy this- it's been great sharing this story with you.

Chapter 22: Epilogue

Monday, December 22, 2042
6:03 a.m.
Penthouse

"Waaaaaaaake up!" A little voice pulled Lex out of a deep sleep. Groaning without opening her eyes, Lex pulled the blankets further up over her face as she rolled over. "Lex!" The voice persisted, its source climbing on the bed, "You gotta get up now!"

"What time is it?" Lex yawned, opening her eyes to see 4-year-old Lauren Cale hovering above her.

"Six," Lauren giggled, her big brown eyes showing how pleased with herself she was for waking her sister. "I got up at five," she proudly added.

"Wonderful," Lex sat up, knowing she'd never get back to sleep now. Feeling the chill of the chill of the morning air meet her bare arms, Lex shot back under the covers, "Laur, go get me my sweatshirt, then I'll get up."

Scurrying across the room in her white bunny slippers, Lauren waited for Lex to bundle up before holding up her arms, a silent demand to be carried, "I missed you," Lauren tightened her arms around Lex's neck.

Lex had just flown the red-eye in from L.A., where she was a junior at UCLA. Rebuilding itself since the Pulse, the university had been regaining its old notoriety over the past decade. Lex was loving her time there studying psychology, but Lauren openly protested her leaving. And Lex had to admit, had it not been for her best friend Kayla Bennett also going to UCLA, she would have been homesick as a freshman. It was strange, she thought, because she never considered herself to be someone who wanted kinds around her all the time, but she missed Lauren most of all when she was at school, "I missed you, too," Lex kissed her temple as she rounded the corner to the kitchen, where Max sat at a stool by the counter, sipping coffee as she read the paper.

"She wanted to wake you the minute she got up," Max laughed at the expression on Lex's face. "I could only distract her for so long."

"Oh, two hours is enough sleep for me," poured herself a cup of coffee as she looked through the bagels, Lauren still hanging on her neck.

"Now we can decorate the tree," Lauren started checking off her lists on her fingers, "and help Mommy wrap presents, and go sledding with Daddy in the park, and make cookies with Aunt Cindy, and-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, don't get ahead of yourself," Max felt her own head spinning from the day Lauren had planned. "Why don't you go see if there are any cartoons on TV?" she plucked Lauren off Lex and turned her towards the living room, "Lex will still be here when you get back, I promise."

"I'm surprised you get her to sleep at all," Lex smiled once Lauren was out of sight.

"Well, I felt kinda bad about it, but I told her she had to got o sleep if she wanted Santa to come."

"Manipulating an innocent child's belief in Santa Claus to get her to obey you," Lex mused, "It's actually a classic move."

"I know," Max said with a smug smile, "I used it on you, too."

Laughing, Lex sipped her coffee and gestured towards the living room, "Any other plans I should be aware of?"

"Yes, we've been invited to sit at the head of Margo's table as her guests of honor at the Cale Christmas dinner," Max said with a serious expression.

"Liar."

Max laughed, "Yeah, but Brittany said she did say, "Tell Logan and the rest that I extend my best for the holidays"," she added a snooty voice to impersonate Margo. "And apparently she said it with considerably less disgust than last year."

"I knew we'd grow on her," Lex smiled, thinking back the first and only time she'd met Margo. What was the word Margo had used upon learning about she and Max joining the family? 'Oh yeah,' Lex thought, '"Atrocity", amongst a few choice others.'

Logan walked in, rubbing his eyes, "Don't take it personally," he paused to kiss Max on the cheek, "Margo's got something against everyone." Heading towards Lex, and the coffee pot, he gave his grown daughter a warm hug, "How as your semester?"

"Easy. How's raising a transgenic pre-schooler?"

"Oh, it's great," Logan shook his head. "I've always wanted a rabid spider monkey of my own."

"Nuh-uh!" Lauren stamped her foot in the doorway, hands perched on her hips. "I am not a rabbit spider monkey, duh, Daddy," she rolled her eyes, having already perfected her pronunciation of 'duh.' "I'm a people," she asserted with enough attitude for a teenager.

"Person," Max corrected her, "You're a person."

"Can I go sledding now?" Lauren crossed her arms, running right back over to Lex.

Tuesday, December 23, 2042
4:50 p.m.
Jam Pony

Standing outside the converted warehouse, Lex laughed inwardly at herself as she spotted Max and Sketchy sitting on a bench, laughing at some story Original Cindy was telling. This was the life she had wanted all along. She a name and a story for everything that used to be just mementos in been in a shoebox. She had a 'whole family;' not to say she hadn't been happy growing up with Max and Jondy, but she had always felt like there was something missing. Now that she knew Max had felt that along, too, she wondered if maybe it was something she heard as a baby or in her sleep from the way it sat in the back of her mind. She ever got the sister she had wished for when she was a kid. Granted, Lauren was about 15 years overdue, but truthfully, Lex wouldn't want her any other way. She had never guessed that these would be the pieces that made up that life- a crummy city, an old warehouse, a graffiti-encrusted relic of tower, extra members of what could be called a 'broken family,' and a penthouse. But for Lex, it was everything she could have asked for.

Walking into the building, she caught Normal's eye and waved, getting an oddly friendly smile from in response.

"Home for Christmas?" He asked, lowering his ever-present headset, sign the day was winding down.

"Yup, just got back. I just couldn't stay away from this Seattle cold," she joked, earning a small laugh from Normal. Max was right; he did kind of grow on you.

"Well, it's good to see you. Max is around here somewhere- I assume you're here to further deplete my supply of messengers."

"It's in my gene pool," Lex winked. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," Normal nodded. Turning his focus to a group of riders gathered on the couch, he reverted back to his usual self, "Let's move it! You want holiday pay, you do holiday work and these packages won't deliver themselves! Bip bip bip!"

"Do not tell me you're making nice with Normal," Cindy shook her head as Lex walked up. "And one of those had best be for yo aunt," she eyed the cups of cocoa Lex held, their festive paper mugs the trademark of a little café a few blocks away.

"Hey, you yourself he's not pure evil," Lex held up her free hand defensively. "And, yes, I brought you guys cocoa."

"I assume by "you guys" you're not including the only real guy in the group," Sketchy pointed the two cups left after Lex's.

"Female solidarity, my brother," Cindy grinned at the expression on Sketchy's face. "'Sides, last thing your crazy ass needs is a mix a caffeine and sugar."

"Gotta love service with a smile," Max took a cup appreciatively, savoring the choclatey concoction. "Lauren let you leave for this?" she asked, referring to the night of shopping the three woman had planned.

"Suffice it to say I'm glad I won't be there when she wakes up and finds me gone."

"She's napping?" Max's eyes went wide.

"Well, pelting literally over 1,000 snowballs at squirrels all afternoon would make you tired, too."

Sketchy nodded in agreement, "I had a day like that myself; it is tiring. Those little rats are much better at dodging snow than you'd think."

Cindy laughed at the thought, grabbing her coat, "C'mon ladies. Anyone who spent a day in the snow with the Wild Thang deserves to get somewhere where the heat actually works."

"Am I not invited?" Sketchy figured.

"Don't you need to work overtime now to make your rent?" Max remembered his constant complaining this week.

"Yeah, but that's what my landlord said last month, too. And besides, I can always go find new digs by shacking up with a fine lady," he waggled his eyebrows, as he stared off in thought.

"Yeah, good luck with that," Lex laughed as they headed out.

ToyWorld
6:30 p.m.

"So what do you think Lauren would want?" Lex felt her head start to spin with all the packed shelves of the toy store.

"To go live with you," Max quickly suggested.

"Just for that, I'm buying her a giant bag of Skittles," Lex pointed to the candy display by the register. "Has she been any better with dolls?"

"No, she found the last remaining whole Barbie about a month ago and found a way to make it explode."

"What was the cause of death this time?"

"Well, she tied it with a jump rope, tied the rope to a bar in her closet and swung the Barbie into the wall at full force, so I'd say blunt force trauma."

Lex shook her head, putting the box of Barbie clothes back on the shelf, "Maybe a set of army men would better."

"I wouldn't; she came around a few days ago asking if she could have a magnifying glass for Christmas," Max rubbed her eyes and groaned. "It took me hours to get all that melted plastic off the floor last time."

"How about a yoga video for kids? Or some sedatives?" Lex laughed.

"Hey, how 'bout somethin' that involves a lotta jumpin'?" Original Cindy called from the next isle. "She's advanced enough to give DDR a shot."

"DD-what?" Max and Lex looked at box in confusion.

"You never saw this before?" Cindy laughed. "My older sibs had the pads- it was awesome at birthday parties when I was a kid."

"Is it a video game? How do you play?" Lex scratched her head.

"It's kinda like one- you follow the arrows on the screen and jump to the places on the pad while dancing to techno versions of what were once decent songs. Trust me- it was the shit," Original Cindy smiled, "And they even have the game for your PS Nitro. That was the last system to come out before the Pulse."

"Since when are you gamer, girl?" Max couldn't help but be amused by her friend's newly revealed expertise.

"I had two brothas, so it came with the territory."

"Alright," Lex shrugged. "DDR it is."

Wednesday, December 24th
8:23 p.m.
Penthouse

Standing in the kitchen's threshold, Max looked out the scene before her. In front of the tree with all the wrapped presents, Logan sat on the floor with Lauren, clad in her favorite Grinch pajamas Lex had given her, playing a mini version of foosball. Lex sat in an armchair beside them, reffing the game as she ate from the plate of cookies in her lap. Lauren would stand up and do her own little victory dance every time she scored a goal and Logan would attempt to hide the fact that he wasn't letting her win, he was loosing to a four-year-old fair and square.

"You know, Santa won't come with all your new toys until you go to sleep," she heard Logan say.

"Yeah, but he'll still come later because I was good this year," Lauren put her hand on her hip, feeling smart as she corrected her father. "And we didn't even put out the cookies yet cuz Lex keeps eating them."

"I'll definitely save some for Santa. I heard he's bringing me a car this year," Lex angelically grinned down at Logan.

"Well, I think you need to get better sources," Logan shook his head and smiled back.

Sighing to herself as a small smile crossed her face, Max thought back on the Christmases she had experienced as a kid. The one she spent with Lucy certainly wasn't one she cared to remember much about. Then the rest were just cold, snowy days spent watching other kids waiting for Santa. She never understood what the whole experience was really like until she had Lex.

"Sight seeing?" Jondy came up beside Max, having finished putting away the rest of the dinner dishes.

"It's always a good time," Max cocked her head to the side. "Ya know, I think I did pretty good with this whole family thing. Even if I had a screwed up approach, still, it came out good for a genetically engineered killing machine."

"Yeah," Jondy wrapped an arm around her sister's shoulders. "Not bad at all for a born soldier."

With that, they waked in the living room to join the festivities. Jondy stretched out on the couch, while Max took a spot on the floor, next to Logan.

He immediately drew her in closer, kissing her on the cheek, "You certainly took your time getting in here," he said, not realizing what Max and Jondy had just been talking about.

"Yeah," smiled, "but I'm here now."

A/N: So there you have it- I'm done at last.

Merry Xmas to all… drop me a line as a present. ;-)