Jack and Hamish sat down on the couch having given up on trying to get everything ready because Vera was an unstoppable force who had sort of just pushed them out of the kitchen and Alyssa was persistent in trying to just keep Vera from wanting to murder her. Both the boys sat there in silence watching them as they sipped on some cranberry and vodka mixed drinks. "Should we maybe step in and help out?" Jack asked, noticing that everything the girls were doing was slightly on a verge of aggression.

"No, I think they are kind of working through this pent up hate they have for each other." Hamish answered and took another sip. "Plus I don't want to sleep down here tonight." Hamish waved his hand a little. "Plus they are doing fine, nobody is dead yet. This is good for them." Another knock came at the door, Hamish looked down at his watch. "That would be the others."

"Thank god." Jack got up to go answer the door but remembered this wasn't his place so he couldn't just go letting people into the house even if they had been invited. Instead Hamish walked ahead of him. Wait, this wasn't his place either. Ah hell, he was sleeping with Vera so it sort of counted.

Opening the door he was greeted by Randal and Gabrielle, Gabrielle the first to make her way into the house and pushing Hamish aside. "I have some stuff for my niece so I don't know who you want to have open it but regardless the spoiling starts now." She handed Hamish the three boxes of gifts and headed into the living room.

Randal followed in patting Hamish on the shoulder like 'I know man, I know'. "I brought the vodka too."

Hamish raised his still empty hand. "I told you to bring mashed potatoes not vodka."

"I mean, it's pretty much the same thing." He put the bottle in Hamish's empty hand following Gabs into the living room.

Gabrielle walked over to Vera looking her over in her nice red dress. "You look great Vera." She complimented the Grand Magus. "And hi Fluffy, I'm your aunt Gabrielle." She walked towards Vera only to have the woman reach and arm out towards her and stop her.

"Don't touch me." Vera replied without missing a beat. Nobody was going to be touching her just because she was pregnant. That didn't relinquish her rights to bodily anonymity. Hamish only had a free pass because it would be pointless to push him away from his own baby. "I'm still Grand Magnus and so long as that remains true you'll give me the same respect you always have." Don't ever forget it either.

Hamish set down the gifts under the tree with the others and went back to Vera's side. Damage control, at least that's what he was feeling like. Vera had woken up pissy today, he knew she hated the holidays but she was making it a point to hate it even despite his attempts to make her happy. "Hey, food ready Vera, Gabrielle go keep Randal from drinking that bottle by himself." Once Gabrielle was out of whispering range he leaned closer to Vera, "And you, stop being hangry."

"You, stop telling me what to do." She sassed back at him.

"Vera, be nice and calm down."

"I am calm."

"No, you aren't." He grabbed her chin and looked her in the eye. "You know the baby's powers are giving you some fun side effects. Put those silver eyes away Vera, aggressive werewolf isn't a good color on you."

Her face went a little pale a moment before she walked quickly to the downstairs bathroom to catch the fading flicker of a silver tint to her eyes. "Oh." Shit. She needed her own powers back soon rather than later. As fun as some aspects of her baby's abilities were a lot of them were also problematic. Not being able to keep a good poker face was one of those downfalls. "Dammit Theo, you just had to go and let yourself become a wolf." Talk about being her father's daughter.

Walking back out of the bathroom Hamish pulled out the chair next to him with a smile. "Everything alright?"

"Yes, it's great." She put on a fake smile for him until he'd taken his seat and then like that she went back to stone cold Vera. She really didn't have the opportunity to let her guard down with her acolyte's sitting in the room with them. Of course that wasn't how Hamish saw it, rather his friends, his wolves, his family. There was no family here for Vera. Did she care about them all? She'd kill for every last one of them, even Alyssa despite everything but she wouldn't let them know that. It would excuse them from their very valid fear in her and they might even get lazy.

"I'd like to thank you guys for coming today. People like to say the holidays are a time to enjoy friends and family and I couldn't have…"

Randal interrupted Hamish and his about to be long winded Vera type speech. Since when did Hamish try to make heartfelt speeches? He was going to be a very boring dude once he became a dad. "Yeah, that's great Ham-ster but lets eat."

Vera perked up a little pointing to Randal, "I don't normally say this but I agree with him." She smiled at Hamish. "Besides, I do speeches better."

"Vera, not everything has to be a competition." Hamish reminded her.

"It's not, it's just facts." Oh that woman, she was as devious and had as much sass as she had the power to look at him and make him feel melty.

The group started eating, having idle conversations and small talk which normally Vera was the master of but today she just seemed quiet and distant. Try as he might he couldn't get her to crack a genuine smile and Christmas was feeling more and more like a bust. Still Hamish wouldn't give up. After they ate everyone exchanged their gifts. Vera gave perhaps the best gift of all, claiming her gift to them all was deciding to not kill them the next time they did something stupid because eventually they would. Hamish on the other hand had gotten everyone something useful but mostly alcohol. Finally Gabrielle reminded them all she had gifts for Fluffy and they were actually addressed to Fluffy which made Vera groan. Despite Hamish insisting that Vera open all three boxes she pushed one of them on him to open for her.

Vera had expected silly or stupid gifts but she was a bit surprised when the first thing she opened was a few outfits for Theo. "I figured you needed to start filling out a whole closet for her now and considering she's destined for greatness she needs a fierce wardrobe. I kind of tried to take some inspiration from your style but then I saw they had some more vintage looking dresses and I knew she needed them." Vera had to admit they were actually pretty cute, especially the little red headband with the classic 50's styled bow on it. She wouldn't say it now but Theo would probably wear one of those outfits for her first baby pictures.

Hamish opened the other box pulling out a nice looking blanket and noticing it was soft, really soft. "Is this cashmere?"

"You bet it is, Fluffy isn't going to be wrapped in some cheap cotton blankets. She's too good for that."

Vera squinted her eyes a bit, a little unnecessary but again not totally useless. Probably wouldn't be used a whole lot however because she had cashmere and she knew the power of baby drool and the likelihood of them spitting up on everything. "Um, the last one is kind of really more from Midnight." She shrugged. There was a sort of guilt from Midnight over past events though Gabrielle couldn't really place a finger on what it was. He was very determined to protect this new wolf with his life though.

Vera opened the gift up pulling out a little knit hat that looked like a cute golden colored wolf head to which Hamish instantly took it. "Awww, it's Theo's hide."

Vera didn't have to know it but Theo was coming home in that hat, it was her official Knight hat until she could figure out how to wear her real hide. It dawned on Hamish then, was she going to be able to shift as a baby? Were they going to get to see a baby werewolf? What would that even look like? "There is more though." Gabrielle confirmed. Vera pulled back more wrapping before revealing a very beautiful and very realistic black wolf stuffed animal with a little scar mark across the nose. It was actually pretty accurate to Midnight if Midnight was an actual wolf. "It's possible too, the legs and tail move. Actually the pictures they sent me after making it were pretty cool. They had it laying down, rolling over, play bowing."

Hamish grabbed the stuffed wolf and started bending it's legs before Randal grabbed it. "Cool, I want one of these." Randal bent the legs before putting it on Hamish making it look like the wolf was trying to hump him. "Oh no, Hamish I think it likes you."

"Not cool." Hamish took the wolf back and fixed his legs so he was standing again. "Not going to lie, this is pretty cool stuff Gabrielle. Theo is going to love it."

Vera had to be honest as well, they were good gifts. "I'm more excited about this." She placed one of the vintage dresses down on the coffee table. Gabrielle totally had pegged Vera for the sort of mom who would actually enjoy dressing her daughter up to be cute and girly. She was also secretly happy that Vera agreed with that since it was pretty much the foundation for making Theo the future powerhorse of the order. "Thank you so much Gabrielle it is very sweet of you. Unnecessary but sweet."

"No worries Grand Magus, it's strictly me just trying to make her life better. Not that there is a competition over who her favorite wolf will be but if there was one i'm pretty sure I'd be winning."

Hamish raised his hand slowly, "Actually, to be fair that would be me." After all Gabby got her some cool stuff but he was still her dad and it seemed like in general dad's won out over stuff.

"Well, other favorite wolf."

"Just wait until she realizes how much cooler I am then, both of you will be a thing of the past." Randal added.

Vera sighed and took a sip from her water like it had the alcohol to keep her calm so her eyes didn't start flashing silver again. She spoke just under her breath but Hamish had still caught it. "Over my dead body."