Before this year, Skye had only ever had one Christmas that wasn't at St. Agnes. When she was nine, she stayed with the Brody family for almost six months before they'd gone on vacation and left her behind, and one of those months had been December. Christmas with the Brodys had certainly been better than Christmas at St. Agnes, which had extra mass and very little in the way of Christmas cheer, but Christmas with the Brodys, Skye was coming to learn, was nothing compared to Christmas with May and Phil.

With school out, the last few days leading up to the actual holiday were filled with all kinds of fun things – more decorating, baking, and last-minute gift shopping than Skye could have ever imagined a single family managing to fit into such a short amount of time. A part of her wondered if May and Phil were going out of their way to make Christmas as big and extravagant as they could, since they knew it was the first time in a long time she, Jemma, or Bobbi had gotten to celebrate, but a different part of her suspected that Phil, at least, would have been happy for any excuse to be as jolly and festive as he possibly could.

The night before, they'd all gotten to stay up late, nursing mugs of hot chocolate that Phil had lovingly prepared with extra marshmallows and candy canes hanging over the brims, and listening as he and May told them story after story of their childhood Christmases and early years of marriage. They laughed at May's story about her father getting himself stuck in the unlit fireplace of their home, trying to be Santa Claus for her when she was a little girl, and took comfort in Phil's story about all the things he and his mother did together after his father had died to try and make Christmas still feel special when it was just the two of them. There was one story, an especially lovely one from when May and Phil were young newlyweds without very much money, that Skye found almost sweet and sad at the same time.

"So we were both pretty broke, but we'd had a hard year and I really wanted to get Phil something special," May told them. "He was missing this one particular Captain America comic from his collection, and I finally found it in a rundown hobby shop that was off the highway, practically halfway to Green Bay. It was a little out of my price range, but I knew that's what I wanted to give him, so I asked the man who ran the shop to please hold it for me for a few days while I got the money together."

"Meanwhile, I'm scrambling like crazy trying to find a teapot that matches the pattern on the teacups that Melinda's got saved from her grandmother. Heirloom teacups, all super delicate china, with this fancy decorative pattern on them. And I just know there has to be a teapot that goes with them out there somewhere. I finally track down this little old lady who's been running an antique store since practically the Great Depression she's so old, and wouldn't you know it, she's got the perfect teapot. But it's more expensive than I was expecting."

"I feel like I know where this is going," Bobbi winced. "I read that Gift of the Magi story last year and this setup is sounding pretty familiar." Phil flashed her a wink.

"Don't spoil it," Skye protested. She'd never heard of whatever story Bobbi was talking about, and she wanted to know how May and Phil's story ended.

"Well, I needed money to buy Phil's comic book," May continued, "so I found a little old lady who ran an antique shop and sold her my teacups so I'd have enough to buy the comic book."

"And I found a hobby shop halfway to Green Bay that would pay me good money for my almost-complete Captain America comic collection," Phil said. "I sold my comics and bought the teapot the very next day."

"You sold your favorite things so you could buy the other's favorite thing," Jemma breathed, totally enraptured by the story. "But then, when you opened your gifts on Christmas—"

"We realized what we'd both done," May smiled. "I had a new teapot but no teacups to go with it anymore."

"And I had Captain America Issue #17, the one with the killer gorilla zombies—"

"The one with the what?"

"Killer gorilla zombies," Phil repeated with a grin. "I had that one, but not any other numbers 1 through 100."

"So what did you do then?" Skye wanted to know.

"Well, first we just had to sit back and laugh about it," Phil smiled. He reached over and scooped up May's free hand in his own and gave it a little squeeze. "It's pretty ridiculous when you think about it."

"And of course we were both deeply touched that the other person had given up something important to them just to try and make it a merry Christmas," May said. "But we went back to the stores as soon as we could to try and get our stuff back. It took some haggling, some IOUs—"

"I had to agree to give the little old lady two of my mother's old vases, which I really didn't mind, since I had been trying to rehome them for a few years at that point anyway," Phil cut in.

"And eventually we were able to get the comic books and the teacups back," finished May. "We could have been perfectly happy without them, of course. It was the thought that really mattered. But Phil really does love his comic collection…"

"And your mother would have had a fit if she found out you'd sold your grandmother's teacups to buy a comic book about gorilla zombies," laughed Phil.

"A fact she will never know about," said May solemnly. She arched an eyebrow and looked from girl to girl, as if asking for silent confirmation that they'd keep her secret. They all nodded, deeply serious.

"We actually have quite a number of good Christmas stories," remarked Phil. He glanced down at his watch, then at the softly falling snow against the navy sky outside the window. "But maybe we ought to save some of them for next year. It's nearly midnight. Time for bed, I think."

"One more story, Phil?" Skye wheedled, batting her eyes at him sweetly. Her puppy dog act was unfortunately disrupted by the big yawn that escaped her as she was trying to work her magic.

"How about the story of the three girls who had to go to bed so Christmas would come?" teased Phil. "Come on, Jemma's half asleep in her mug already. We've got a big day tomorrow; you need at least a little sleep."

"Big day?"

"Lots of fun things," he promised, as he helped them all get to their feet and began steering them towards the stairs. "Goodnight, you three. We love you."

They all slept in a little later than normal on Christmas morning, having stayed up so much later than usual, but once they were all awake and dressed, they wasted no time in jumping into Christmas festivities. Phil, with eager assistance from Skye, made a big batch of pancakes for breakfast. They tried to make them in Christmassy shapes, but the only ones that turned out okay and didn't look like mutant blobs were the snowmen. Still, they tasted just as good as Phil's pancakes always did, and May, Jemma, and Bobbi had fun trying to guess whether the lumpy shape on their plate was supposed to be a reindeer or a candy cane.

They dallied the morning away in the den, playing board games and making paper snowflakes to put up in the windows, until eventually Phil couldn't contain himself anymore.

"Okay, are you three ready to hear the plan for the day?" he asked, as excited as… well, as a kid on Christmas, Skye decided with a chuckle.

"Plans are good," Jemma nodded, with a happy, resolute tap. "Even holidays need plans."

"In a few hours, we're going to get in the car and drive into downtown," Phil began. "We'll be sure to drive by the big Christmas tree down at city hall, so you can see it all set up, and then we'll head to the soup kitchen on Front Street. Melinda and I have been going there to help serve Christmas lunch for, gosh, it's been at least ten years now, hasn't it?"

"Close to fifteen, I think," she nodded. "The woman who runs it is an old colleague who decided to do some good after she retired, and we try to get down there to help out when we can. The Christmas lunch is always a day they need lots of help."

"We're meeting Victoria and Izzy there," Phil added, "and probably Andrew, too. And once we've finished up there, we'll all come back here for some dinner and company, how's that sound?"

"Miss Hand and Izzy and Dr. Garner, too?" Skye asked.

"Them too," nodded May. "If that's okay with you all, of course. Phil and I have spent a lot of our holidays with them… they're kind of like our family."

"The more the merrier, right?" Bobbi shrugged, smiling.

"That's the spirit," grinned Phil. He paused and scrunched his face up, like he was thinking hard. "Hmm. Gosh, Mel, I keep getting this feeling like I'm forgetting something."

"I wonder what that could be?" May asked. Skye cut her eyes back and forth between the two of them, and she realized they were both trying hard not to laugh. They were messing with them.

"What?" she pressed. "What are you forgetting? You're hiding something."

"I just wish I could remember," Phil teased. "Something important that people do on Christmas…"

"Keep thinking about it, Phil," May encouraged. "Maybe I'll just clean up some of those random boxes from the living room while you think, and hopefully it'll come to you." She stood up then and started walking towards the door.

"Boxes?" Skye asked, excitement starting to set in and make her arms and legs feel buzzy with unbridled hope and anticipation. "You mean, like… presents?"

"Presents!" Phil exclaimed. He made a big dramatic show of clapping himself on the forehead. "That's what I was forgetting. Silly me!"

"You guys are such dorks," Bobbi snorted, but she was wearing a lopsided grin, and Jemma was so excited that her hands were practically flapping at her sides with joy.

"We're doing Christmas with presents?" she squeaked happily, looking from Phil to May and back again. "Even though we didn't tell you what we wanted?"

"We managed to come up with a few guesses," May smiled. "Hopefully you'll like them."

'Like them' turned out to be quite an understatement. There was a big tube of the kind of toothpaste that Jemma liked best, and new socks for Bobbi, and a new backpack for Skye, to replace the one she'd lost in Cal's warehouse. Jemma got a book on Amphibians of the Amazon Rainforest, Bobbi got a little wind-up R2-D2, which she said was just like one she'd had to leave behind at her old house, and Skye got her own purple mat for practicing tai chi on. They got some new school supplies to restock the things they'd used up already, and Phil told them that he was having a man come to the house in a couple of weeks to see about getting a dishwasher installed in the kitchen.

"That one's going to be for all of us, I think," he chuckled. "Just think about how much time we're going to save in the mornings now that we don't have to wash cereal bowls and tea mugs."

Phil got a new Captain America t-shirt from May, and May got a brown bottle of something called Haig from Phil, which made her smirk at him when she opened it.

"There's a few more things here, I think," Phil said, rummaging around the back of the Christmas tree. "This big one looks like it's for you, Jemma." He emerged with a sizable box in his arms, which he deposited in front of Jemma. When she hesitated, tapping nervously on the arm of the couch, Phil smiled and gave her a little nudge. "Go on, you can open it. I promise it won't bite."

"It's too big," Jemma blushed.

"You don't even know what's inside," May pointed out.

"But we've already gotten a lot of presents," Jemma tried again. "It's too much."

"Consider it a make-up for all the other years where you didn't get many things," Phil offered. "Just open it up and see what's in there. I think you're really going to like it."

Not one to ignore directions, Jemma relented and began to pull the wrapping paper off the box, revealing underneath—

"A telescope?" Jemma's eyes were the size of the pancakes they'd eaten that morning. "You… you got me a telescope?"

"Astronomers need to be able to see the stars clearly if they're going to study them," smiled May. "It's no Hubble, of course, but you should be able to set it up in the backyard or your room and see plenty of stars with it."

Jemma looked like she was about to cry she was so overcome with gratitude. Skye leaned over to press her arm against Jemma and offered a few gentle taps on her knee. Jemma tapped back, and she just kept shaking her head, like she couldn't believe this was happening. "Thank you," she said, her voice a little quivery.

"You're very welcome," beamed Phil. "Bobbi, this is yours." He handed her an envelope, and Bobbi's eyebrows crept up her forehead. Skye couldn't possibly imagine what might be in there, especially after they had just watched Jemma get an entire telescope.

As Bobbi opened the envelope and studied what was in there, her cheeks flushed pink.

"What is it?" Skye asked, craning her neck. "What's in there?"

"Tickets," Bobbi said in almost disbelief. "To go see the US women's national soccer team when they play an exhibition game in Chicago this summer."

"There's enough in there for you and all your friends, plus an adult chaperone for good measure," Phil explained. "We thought you and your friends might enjoy taking a little trip this summer."

"This is… amazing, thank you," Bobbi breathed. "I… I've always wanted to see the national team play."

"We thought since you and your friends got so close going to all the soccer games this fall, it might be a fun thing for you all to do together," May said.

"Hunter's going to flip when I tell him," smiled Bobbi. She thanked May and Phil again, repeating herself a couple of times, which only made May and Phil's smiles deepen.

"We're glad you like it," Phil said. "Skye? Your turn, kiddo. This one's for you."

He passed her a heavy box and grinned. Skye took it eagerly and wasting no time in opening it, and what she saw made her jaw fall open. Inside, there was a piece of metal hardware, full of circuits and knobs, and with an unbroken, no-spokes-bent fan on one side.

"It's a motherboard," she said, awed. "A brand new one."

"There's a book under there, too," May mentioned, nodding back towards the box. Setting down the motherboard like it was made of gold, Skye looked back to the box and pulled out a thick book. She squinted at the cover and focused hard on the letters. Everyone waited patiently while she worked out the words.

"Build Your Own PC: An Ill… Illustrated Manual," she read. She looked up at May and Phil, completely shocked. "This book says how to build a computer? From scratch?"

"From scratch," Phil nodded. "And we found one with excellent diagrams, so you can really see what everything is supposed to look like."

"We know you've already got lots of pieces of your own that you've been saving," May said, "but we thought you could use a good, working motherboard to get you started. Then you can pick and choose what pieces you'll add on as you go. I asked my mother about it, since she's good with computers, and she said the motherboard was the best place to start."

"A good motherboard is super important," Skye agreed. "That's where all the communications happen. It connects all the parts together, so the CPU can talk to the memory and the graphics card can talk to the network interface controller and all that."

"Lian was very excited when we told her you wanted to build your own computer," Phil chuckled. "I wouldn't be surprised if she wants to call you every now and then to talk about your progress."

"I… thank you," Skye said, finally remembering her manners. "It's perfect."

"Good," smiled May. "You three deserved some nice things this year. We're so happy you like everything."

"You guys really didn't have to go to all this trouble," Bobbi shook her head. "This is way nicer than…"

"It wasn't any trouble," Phil assured her. "And like Melinda said, you three are more than worth it. Merry Christmas, girls."

"Merry Christmas."

"Should we start getting ready to leave soon?" Jemma asked after a little while, once the excitement over the Christmas presents had settled somewhat. "We're still going to the soup kitchen, right? That's the next step in the plan for the day?"

"It is," Phil acknowledged. "But before we do that, there's actually one more thing Melinda and I wanted to give you."

"You've already given us way too—"

"This is something a little different," May interrupted gently. "And a little more important. It's for all of you, and it's also something that you each get to decide if you want or not."

Skye was confused, but her curiosity was piqued, so she forced herself to sit quietly and wait for May and Phil to explain. She could see Jemma's taps start to move a little faster out of the corner of her eye, and she snaked her hand over to loop into Jemma's as they waited. Bobbi crossed over to where they were both sitting on the couch and joined them, taking Skye's other hand in her own.

May pulled out a stack of papers from a folder she'd been keeping on the coffee table. Skye hadn't even noticed it was there in all the earlier hubbub. May handed the stack of papers to Bobbi, who held them where all three of them could see, then she crossed over to Phil, who wrapped an arm around her waist. They watched as Bobbi, Skye, and Jemma looked at the papers.

"What is it?" Skye asked, scrunching up her nose at the pages. The font was hard for her to read, but it looked like something official. There was a big fancy seal on one corner, at least.

"They're from the Department of Social Services," Jemma said slowly. "They're…"

"They're adoption papers," Bobbi whispered. "And they have our names on them." Using her free hand, she indicated the place where, indeed, all three of their full, legal names were typed.

"You don't have to decide anything right now," May said carefully, "and whatever you do end up deciding is okay, no matter what. But Phil and I, well… we've been thinking a lot, especially after everything we've been through these last few months."

"We realized a while ago that you three are something really special," Phil explained. "And special things don't just come into your life every day. So when they do… well, you have to do what you can to try and hold onto them. You three make our family better. You make it stronger, more loving, more interesting. Melinda and I love you all so much, and we can't imagine our lives without you, so we wanted to know… if you might consider making it official."

"We'd like to adopt you," May finished, and to Skye's surprise, both she and Phil had tears in their eyes. "If that's something you want, we'd like to adopt you and make you all an official, legally recognized part of our family."

"It's a bit of a long process," Phil warned. "These papers are just the first part of the application paperwork, but we've already talked to Miss Hand, and she thinks she shouldn't have much trouble with the rest of it. We'd get a lawyer, and we'd have to go in front of a judge at some point, but… it seems like something that's worth it, at least to me and Melinda."

"So, what do you think?" May asked, a little nervously. "How does something like that sound?"

Jemma's hand was trembling in Skye's and she was tapping up a storm on her own knee with her other hand, but when Skye looked at her face, it wasn't pinched or nervous or fretful at all. It was open, and earnest, and so full of love and wonder. On her other side, Bobbi was crying silently, tears streaming down her face, but she didn't look the least bit sad. Bobbi's smiles sometimes looked a little odd, like she hadn't quite practiced where all the muscles in her mouth and cheek were supposed to move, but right now there was no denying the joy that was shining through the pearly tears that clung to her cheeks and eyelashes.

"Yes," Bobbi choked out, and slowly, she started to nod her head, like she was processing everything bit by bit. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."

Jemma stood up suddenly then, her hand falling out of Skye's, and she barreled forward into May and Phil, burrowing deep into their arms. She tapped distinctly on their wrists – first May, then Phil – 1-2-3, 1-2-3. I-love-you. I-love-you. She nodded into their chests, and Skye watched as they wrapped her in a tight embrace, which Bobbi quickly got up to join.

Skye sat there, staring at the papers in her lap, staring at the people in front of her, the people who were so full of love and happiness and excitement. The people who loved her, in spite of all her shortcomings. The people who fought for her, who protected her, who came looking and found her every single time she was lost. The people who felt like something Skye had never really felt before. The people who felt like home.

Skye had always assumed that when she found her birthparents, she'd feel something, some kind of clicking as everything fell neatly into the place where it had always been meant to fit, but she hadn't felt that with Cal, not even close. She had never felt it in a foster home, never felt it at St. Agnes. There had always been something missing, some piece of the puzzle that wasn't connecting the way Skye thought it was supposed to. For a long time she thought maybe the problem was her, that she was a defective puzzle piece that wasn't designed to fit in anywhere. But now, bit by bit, as she had found her footing here, found parts of herself that she didn't know were in there, found people who she could trust and take the risk of loving as deeply as she loved Jemma, she started to feel like maybe nothing else had fit before, had felt right before, because she had been waiting. Waiting for this moment, this family, this home. This was where she belonged; of that, Skye was now certain. She couldn't imagine ever feeling this safe, this secure, this loved, this happy, anywhere else, with anyone else. This was her family.

And it scared her a little, because she knew how fragile something like family could be. She knew there were a thousand different ways she could mess things up, could ruin things or make them difficult. But, she realized, as she sat there and watched them all cry and hug and celebrate the sheer fact of their newfound wholeness together, family could be strong, too. Jemma had proved that to her, over and over again, every time she stood up for Skye even when she was afraid, cared for Skye even when she was hurting. Bobbi had proved that, when she put herself in harm's way to defend Skye, when she used their last few seconds before getting split up to remind Skye that she was somebody's best thing. May and Phil had proved that. They hadn't given up on her, even after every screw up and stupid thing she did. Phil still smiled at her every morning, still believed she could do incredible things. May had come to find her, come to bring her home time and time again, had taught her to defend herself and to open herself up.

Families could be fragile, and she was sure to make mistakes, but families were strong too, because the love that was interwoven between them – love like gossamer spiderwebs, beautiful and tender, love like rapid-firing circuits, connecting and communicating, love like gravitational orbits, pulling and spinning and never letting go – that love was strong, stronger than any screw up, any bad thing, any dark day or force of nature, and Skye now knew she wanted nothing more.

"Skye?" May's voice cut through the thicket of her thoughts, drawing her back to the world, to Christmas morning, to the scene and the people before her. "Talk to us. What are you thinking about?"

"Family," Skye said softly. "I've wanted one for so long, and I just never… I never thought…"

"I always dreamed about having a sister," Bobbi smiled at her. "I'd really love to have two."

"You've been my family for as long as I've known you," Jemma said quietly. She pulled away from the tangle of bodies she was in and drew up to Skye on the couch. She slipped her hand into Skye's, tapped three times on the back of it, then pulled Skye to her feet. "Now our family gets to grow, Skye. We can be Beta Capricorni, five stellar bodies, all sharing one orbit."

"You know, you'll always be a part of this family, papers or no papers," Phil promised her. "Whether we make it legal or not is totally up to you. But what do you say, Skye? Do you think you'd like to give it a try?"

Skye paused for just a minute more, this time because she wanted to soak in the sight of all of them, to remember this moment for the rest of her life. She felt her face split into a grin, and she let Jemma guide her over to the others, let them all envelope her in their arms as she looked up into their faces and gave her answer. "Yeah. I'd like that. I'd like that a lot."

Maybe it wouldn't be perfect, and maybe it wouldn't be easy, but she knew in her heart that it would be right, and above all, it would be worth it; worth taking the chance, worth making the attempt.

After all, she thought with a smile, it was just like May and Phil always said: the important thing was to try.

And believe it or not, that's the end! It's definitely a surreal feeling for me to have actually reached this point... I started writing this story in November of 2019, and my life (like so many of yours, I'm sure) has changed in so many ways in the 2 years since then. I'm immensely proud to have worked on something for so long and to have seen it through to the end. I'm immensely grateful to you all for being here and being a part of this incredible journey with me. I've met so many remarkable people through this experience, and I very sincerely mean that I could not have done this without each and every one of you. To those who have become friends, those who have been my great cheerleaders and my sounding boards, to those who have left kind words in the reviews, to those who have clicked through and read 1 chapter or 97 chapters - thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I cannot express how much you mean to me.

On a less sappy note, here's what I've got tentatively planned for the future! I have a complete outline worked up for a sequel to this story, plus a handful of chapters already in the beginning stages. I'm hoping to take a bit of time and really build up a solid bunch of chapters before I start posting, just to make sure I have my ducks in a row and I've got the flow of the story as a whole moving the way I want it. There are some dangling plot threads left in this story that I've got plans to address moving forward! I don't yet have a specific date or timeline for when the sequel may be coming, but hopefully it won't be too long :)

Shameless plug, but if you haven't already and you're looking for something else of mine to read while you wait, I do have one other story I've written - it's kind of a prequel to this one, focused on Melinda and Phil and the start of their relationship. A bit different, since it's more of a romance-focused story, but hopefully it still sounds and feels cohesive to this little universe I've got here :)

I've talked a lot here, and I think I've said what needs to be said. So, for now, farewell my friends! It has been such a joy to share this with you. Hope you stay well, and hope to see you soon! And of course, happy New Year :) May the coming days be kinder and gentler than the ones we've left behind. Much love to you all - PocketMouse