Chapter 16: "Christmas with the Family"

"It's not too late to turn around," Kate said as she and her family pulled up to the ornate gates outside of her sister's home. Susan had emailed her out of the blue with an honest-to-goodness attempt at reconciliation, and Kate had a horrible, sinking feeling that it was going to go like the last time, and she just didn't want to ruin the holidays.

"Kate," Kurt said in a gentle tone. "You said you wanted to give her a chance. How long has it been?"

She let her shoulders drop. "Since we only had two elflings," she said quietly. "I just … we have a bad record with holidays. Last time it was Thanksgiving; the time before, she was drunk at Christmas Eve…"

"You have to try," Kurt pointed out.

She let out another breath and then leaned over to kiss his cheek. "You're right, of course," she said.

"Naturally."

She shook her head at that and then stole another quick kiss. "I'll go first," she said. "And if I don't come marching back out in five minutes, you can assume it's safe to try the whole... Meet the family thing. Again." She tipped her head to the kids in the back. "If it ends up being horrible, we're all going somewhere with Swiss chocolate."

She slipped out of the car after that and headed inside, though she was a bit surprised when the woman who met her at the door had the unmistakable uniform of a nurse — and just like that, all of her earlier worry about ruining the holidays melted away into a different kind of worry for her big sister.

She had a sinking feeling as she followed the sweet older lady all the way back to where Susan was laid out in a very nice king-size bed.

"Susie," Kate breathed out when she saw how pale her sister looked.

Susan smiled lightly. "Hi, Kate."

"Susie, why didn't you tell me?" she asked, her eyes wide as she pulled up a seat next to her sister. "What's going on — what do you need?"

"Kate, I've got my own doctors and money and—"

"No, seriously, I'll find you something. We've got Lifeguard — he's kind of brilliant, and if it's something he can heal, then he can fix you right up," Kate blurted out.

Susan shook her head and sat up. "Well, unless you know how to cure thirty years of drugs and drinking…"

Kate frowned, biting her bottom lip as she looked her sister over. When she'd been a PI in LA, she'd seen this exact kind of thing often enough — it was just… something else entirely when it was her big sister.

But when Kate had trailed off, Susan reached over and rested her hand on Kate's. "I'm not asking for anything, as hard as that is to believe."

"That's not what I was—"

"I wouldn't blame you if you were," Susan said.

Kate let out a breath. "I don't know, Susie. If I'd known…"

"To be honest, Kate, I didn't want to tell you," Susan said, sitting up a little straighter.

"So what changed your mind?"

Susan was quiet for a long time and then let out a breath. "I got a number."

"What?"

"You know… the number of months they're expecting me to make it," Susan said without looking up at Kate. "Really puts things in perspective."

Kate stared at her sister for a long time. "How long?"

"Not enough time to do another Christmas," Susan admitted.

"Susie…."

"It's fine," Susan said. She leaned forward with a small smile. "I know we left things off on a bad foot, Katie, but this is my last Christmas, and I want to spend it with my sister, if that's okay."

"Of course it is," Kate said without even thinking about it before she simply started to climb in to sit next to Susan and wrapped her up in a hug, her lip quivering for a moment, though when Susan just clutched her tightly, Kate started to cry. "Susie, you should have told me."

"You have your own stuff to deal with," Susan said.

"Yeah, but you're my sister," Kate said.

Susan hugged her again. "I'm really glad you came, Katie."

Kate bit her lip. "Well, I have a good husband. He reminded me that it's more important to mend bridges."

Susan frowned for a moment. "Kate…"

Kate matched her sister's frown. "Susie, you have two nephews and two nieces, and you haven't even met my boys."

"Can we not talk about this right now?"

"Krissy's sixteen now, Susan."

"Which one is Krissy?"

"My oldest," Kate said. "She's a romantic. Actually, she's a lot like you."

"Except the color—"

"Susan." Kate glared at her sister. "You're not going to make it to next Christmas, and you're seriously going to sit here and argue with me on this instead of meeting the family you still have left?"

"Did you really come here to lecture me?"

"No, I came to spend Christmas with my sister — and I'd really like to be able to bring my kids to meet their only aunt before she dies, Susan!" Kate said.

For a long time, the two Bishop sisters watched each other before Susan finally nodded. "Fine," she said. "I will do this — this one time—"

"Not like there's going to be another one. Seriously, Susan. We're grown women. Can't we act like family for a little while?" Kate asked. She put on her best puppy dog pout and cuddled up so that her head was on Susan's shoulder. "Please?"

"What were you just saying about being grown women?"

"I threw that out the window," Kate said. "Come on; I just want to be with my big sister."

Susan sighed. "You're not playing fair."

"Not trying to."

"Fine."

Kate smiled lightly and hugged her sister again. "I'll bring the boys first. You haven't met them at all."

"Whatever. You're running the show," Susan said, shaking her head — though to Kate's immense relief, she at least managed a little smile when she met Kaleb and Kade and even looked between Kaleb and Kate for a moment before she had to say, "He looks just like his father."

"Acts like him too," Kate said with a little smile.

"And you look just like Mom," Kade sang out with a wide smile.

Susan stared at the red-furred little boy and then shook her head lightly and even managed a tight smile. "No, she looks like me. I got here first."

"Oh, okay," Kade said, nodding along, and Kate couldn't help but smile.

This...was actually going better than she had expected.

As usual, Christmas was set to be a big day — with big plans for everyone that was still at Xavier's, but as was tradition at this point, K was setting up breakfast before Annie could get up a little later than usual. It was more than just a simple time thing … once Mrs. Summers got up, she'd take enough time for her sweet tea before she launched into an epic cooking marathon, and K liked to make sure that Annie had a chance to eat before she started on big efforts like that.

Which was why K and Elin had been drinking coffee since five while they made several large pans of cinnamon rolls before they got started on K's swedish pancakes.

They were on their second pot between the two of them before Logan swept through to kiss both of them and steal a cup of coffee. As was part of the holiday morning cooking, he was covering the chores in the barn, and Elin smiled as she watched her father head out into the gently falling snow, whistling to himself.

And as was also traditional, Chance managed to find his way down ahead of the rest of the family. Since they were kids, he'd always made it a point to give Elin the first present every year — at this point, it was just as traditional as the Christmas dinner.

"Merry Christmas!" he sang out with a little grin.

"Yours is in the tree," Elin said as soon as she saw him. "And Merry Christmas to you too, Sweet Summers."

His grin widened as he sat down beside her. "We'll go find it later, then," he said as he handed her the envelope with her card in it. "The rest is under the tree, but you know how it is. Gotta make sure you get the card."

She gave him a little smile for that. "Gotta be first," she said, then set her mug down and stepped around the counter to give him a quick hug. "Are you going to have coffee or just go back to bed now that you've accomplished your 'firsties' mission?"

"Well, at least open it first and then I'll decide."

She looked over her shoulder at her mother then grabbed her coffee to head into the living room. "Only if you get yours out of the tree, too."

He grinned at that and headed over to the tree, coming back with two wrapped boxes — one for her and one for him. He leaned over as she opened up the card, which was, as always, hand-printed, though this one had a picture of Chance in the suit in the clouds along with a written promise to take her flying.

"Oh, that's pretty much framing quality," she said with a crooked smile. "Thank you."

"It's still not allowed to leave Canada until I'm officially all signed and squared away, but as soon as that happens, we should find a weekend and go flying. It's amazing." He grinned even wider. "We'll fly over the ocean and get some Spanish food… I really want to fly."

She shook her head but kept smiling at him. "You making plans to drop me in open water?"

"Hey, I thought we agreed I could at least raise the bar a few inches. I'm making plans to really fly."

"You'd probably get tired pretty fast though if you have to deal with me just hanging on to you, though," Elin pointed out.

"You have no faith in me," he laughed as he started to unwrap his present, then grinned when he saw the new bridle, his eyebrows high on his head as he let out a low whistle.

"I ordered it months ago," Elin told him. "So I hope you can still find time to ride with me. I know it's not flying."

He grinned and leaned over to wrap her up in a hug. "We should go riding as soon as the snow lets up," he said.

"But it's more fun when it's coming down," Elin pointed out. "Just can't run as fast."

"Yeah, but it's supposed to pick up, and some of us don't have enhanced senses and get lost in the woods," he teased her.

"Well, you know what mom says, right?" Elin said with a grin. "She used to get lost all the time. You drop the reins and they'll take you to the barn." She shrugged. "And if you're scared, you can ride with me."

"I dunno, El, kinda sounds fun," he teased.

"Of course it is," she said, shaking her head before she opened up the wrapped, overly large package to reveal the leather jacket inside. "Oh, that's cute — and I like the little 'x's on the shoulders. Nice touch."

"Hey, you're entitled," he said with a grin. "Out there leading the charge. Fledgling fearless leader," he teased.

"Oh, come on," she laughed before she leaned over to hug him back for the gift and then pinched his side. "That is an exclusively Summers name. Patented."

"I dunno, El. You're fearless, you're the team leader…"

She shook her head and let out a breath. "I can't even argue with you."

"It's because I'm right, isn't it?"

"No, that's ridiculous," she laughed.

"What, I can't be right ever?" he grinned. "You've carved out such a sad life for me, El."

"I didn't say 'ever', just … not for that." She was still grinning at him. "Besides … you've got the whole glamorous life of a snowbound hero thing going on. Not sad at all. And the suit is cute."

"You really think so?" he asked, perking up. "I mean… maple leaf and all?" he added, flushing a bit red.

She finally got up and picked up her mug. "There was a leaf?" She tipped her head to the side. "Huh."

His ears turned a brighter red at that. "Yeah. Well, Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas to you too — now come on … have some coffee before you try to avoid me for the bulk of the day."

"I'm not — come on, we were just making riding plans!"

She gave him a bright smile. "I'm picking. I'm sorry. I'll tone it down, I've just been up for a while with no one but mom …"

"Oh, is that what's going on here?" Chance shook his head with a little smile before he got to his feet. "I'll leave you two to it, then. I really do have to go with Mom, though. We're going to pick up Grandpa for Christmas."

"Let us know if you need us to kick in and help. We're going to be around."

"If you see me running in and out of the kitchen with a 'help me' sign on my back, it's because my mom and her sisters are working me to the bone, and you should step in," he teased.

"I have nothing going after the pancakes are finished," she pointed out. "So it's possible."

"Great. I'll make the sign on the drive out."

"Make sure you eat before you go or my mom will make you pay for it."

"And heaven forbid I have four of them all making me pay on Christmas Day," he said with a smile as they got back to the kitchen.

"No, no," Elin said. "You're a residential Canadian now — she'll get you tomorrow. Boxing Day. You know. With Boxing."

"Oh man, I didn't even consider that!" he laughed.

Before he could argue, K slid a plate in front of him and kissed his forehead. "God Jul."

"Merry Christmas to you too," he said with a smile.

He was just about done, too, when the others started to trickle in, including Annie, who couldn't help but give K a quick hug. "You are a godsend," she said with a smile.

"If I don't feed you, you won't make it through preparations," K said, sliding a plate to her.

Annie smiled warmly at her. "It should be a good day," she said. "Mom says Dad's already up and excited to see people."

K smiled at her and nodded. "Good. He's a sweetheart. He deserves more good days."

Annie nodded. "He won't remember anyone's name — not even mine. He recognizes everyone, but he doesn't have names. Just a warning."

"I'm not expecting anything," she said. "And I'll keep an eye out."

"Chloe's going to spend a lot of the day with him," Chance put in. "She looks like Mom, so he likes having her around."

"He'll be distracted when Mary Beth and her husband stop by and he can feel the baby kicks," Chloe pointed out.

"He's not the only one," K said, watching Annie with a sideways glance.

"My niece is having a baby; I will make absolutely no apologies about showering her with affection," Annie said with a sniff, though she was smiling around her bite of breakfast.

"Mmmhmm, and that's only for family, is it?" K challenged. "Not … just about every baby in the oven you come across?"

"It's worse when it's family," Cody said with a grin.

"Oh, hush," Annie said with a laugh, reaching over to ruffle his hair before she finished off the rest of her breakfast and then nodded toward Chance.

"Time to play chauffeur," Chance said with a grin and a wave as the two of them headed out.

From there, it was the usual whirlwind of activity around the mansion, even with the Wagners in the city and the Lee-Varr clan in Hala — though they had sent a few pictures from the planet that Kari was particularly excited about and wanted to paint with the new paints that James had given her for Christmas after she and her family got back from Susan Bishop's house.

"See this landscape?" she asked, showing James the picture of Jubilee and Noh and their family with Sinta and his two boys.

"Yeah, I can see why you'd pick that one," James agreed, nodding lightly as he peeked over at the picture, though he stayed sunk into the couch with his feet kicked up.

"The colors … it's not like anything we have here…"

"And the light …"

She grinned at him. "I'm totally going to give it to Noh for a birthday present. I should get it done in time."

"Oh, I'm sure you will. You're getting faster too," James agreed.

"Practice," Kari said, then leaned over to wrap him in a hug. "Thanks, James."

"I didn't even do anything," he argued, though he returned the hug. "I just agreed with you."

"Thanks for the paints, I meant," she said with a smile.

"Oh, well. Gotta keep my favorite artist in supplies."

"You're the best," she said, sneaking one more hug before she disappeared.

And in the meantime, while the Hale sisters were using their nephews as gophers in the kitchen, Douglas was shamelessly flirting with Evelyn whenever she would sit with him — and with a few of the other women when Evelyn wasn't around. Clearly, Evelyn was his favorite, and he even proposed going out on a few dates with her, so he was in fine form that day.

When he started telling stories, K gave the little reporter bamf a look, and an instant later, the little guy was recording every moment of the old war stories and tales from his youth, though for some of them, the little guy was having trouble not giggling.

"Thank you," Annie said, pulling K aside when she had taken a break from the crazy rush of dinner — which was almost ready anyway.

"You know, I can watch things in the kitchen if you want to take a little time with your father," K offered.

"We're starting dinner in fifteen minutes," Annie said. "And then I'm making the boys do the dishes."

"That sounds like a reasonable plan — and they'll all sleep like rocks tonight too."

"I'm sure," Annie said with a smile before slipping back into the kitchen — only to return a little later with half the Hale clan in her wake to set out the dinner for everyone to eat.

All of the Hale sisters and their husbands were at the head of the table spending time with their dad, though the others were all spread out. The Wagners were chatting amongst themselves, except for Kaleb, who was filling Sadie in about the aunt he'd only just met and how he wasn't sure how to feel about that. And Chance was talking to Elin about their riding plans close by the other Hales — which was probably what Douglas overheard when he leaned forward with a smile.

"You make sure you treat her right, son," he said with a twinkle in his eyes. "Pretty woman like that deserves to be treated like a lady."

"Yes, sir," Chance said, the tips of his ears burning red.

Elin looked surprised for just a moment, but when it was clear Douglas was entertained by Chance's blush, she tried to help out — or at least send his attention elsewhere. "He's a gentleman," Elin promised.

"He'd better be," Douglas said, still smiling at them both.

"We're just riding horses, Grandpa," Chance said.

"That does sound fun," he said, smiling even wider. "I hope you both enjoy yourselves."

"Dad," Theresa cut in, though she looked highly entertained herself, "what about that horse you had when we were stationed in Maine?"

And just like that, Douglas was grinning and laughing as he remembered the old mare — "She wasn't mine; she just followed me everywhere" — and by the time K brought out the warm wine, the whole family was in a good mood.

Scott leaned over to Annie with a smile. "Merry Christmas," he said quietly.

"Merry Christmas."

When Elin and Chance finally got away from the group after dinner, they barely made it to the barn before she turned to apologize. "I was trying to slow him down back there. Sorry."

"No, it's fine," he said quickly. "We all just run with whatever he says and… and I mean… I was raised a gentleman, so it's not like you were lying or anything…" he added with a crooked sort of smile.

"And I'm not about to lie for anyone, so …"

He grinned at that. "So let's break in this new bridle."

"Does that mean you're not afraid to get lost in the snow now?" she teased. "Or that you want to be the one steering?"

"Hey, it's my Christmas present. It's Christmas Day… don't I get to use it?"

"Of course you do," she agreed, nodding. "Pick your horse."

He grinned and went to his favorite mare, who had been a filly when he was still young enough to be serving all his groundings in the barn and consider that a punishment instead of some time with the horses. The snow was still coming down — though it wasn't as hard as it had been projected to be — so it was the perfect Christmas ride.

While Chance was setting up his new bridle, Elin took out her mother's gelding and just started brushing him out before she put a braid into his mane and then turned to watch Chance finish up. "Waiting on you."

"Yeah, yeah, hold your horses," he said with a little smirk.

"Holding pattern," Elin said as the gelding started to gently paw at the ground.

Chance shook his head at them both before he finally finished up and then mounted up. "Lead the way."

She took the gelding outside and asked him to bow so she could climb on then nosed him toward the trees. "What do you think? Nice and easy around the lake? That's probably the least icy trail."

"We who cannot heal thank you for your consideration," Chance said with a grin.

"Just because I can heal doesn't mean I want to have to," she pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's a great line anyway."

"If you say so," she sang out.

He just shook his head and grinned at her. "We need to do this more often, El."

"Yeah? Well … I'm here now all the time. So whenever it works on your schedule."

"I'm flying four days a week next semester, but I'll try and sneak down, fly over here in the suit or the ship, whatever works," he said.

"No, no," she said, shaking her head. "You need to not kill yourself on my account."

"Yeah, well…" He shrugged. "I want to. Not the killing myself part but the … I think … I need to get down here more. I miss… this." He gestured around to the grounds in general.

She turned to look at him for a moment. "You didn't miss it that much when you were overseas."

"Yeah, I did, but I didn't say it much because I was there for a different reason," Chance said. "I mean, can you imagine how much worse Dad would've felt if I even hinted I was homesick?"

She let out a sigh and nodded her head. "Yeah, he would have gotten himself into trouble."

"Charlie was worried about him for a while," Chance admitted.

"She was right to be," Elin agreed. "He was spending all of his free time looking for Mr. Creepy Lady."

Chance let out a breath of a laugh. "I've never heard that one before, but I think I'm going to have to keep it."

"It fits," she defended.

"It does," he agreed. He shook his head. "See… I don't know if I can call her that, though," he added, a bit more seriously.

"Not a lady, I get it," she said with a smirk.

He couldn't help but match her smirk. "No, I just — it's easier to call her 'Sinister.' I know Mom's got a thing about 'that woman' or whatever, but that feels too casual to me. If that makes sense."

"It does," she agreed. "Mom and Dad have more colorful names, but your mother wouldn't likely approve."

"Mom still doesn't know half of what Cody said to her," Chance said with a small smirk.

"That's probably for the best," Elin said a little quieter.

"I mean, I'm not ratting him out when he saved my life," Chance said, matching her soft tone.

"I know. I just mean … you say things around that particular creep that you wouldn't normally."

Chance nodded. "Yeah, she has a way of…" He shook his head. "You know what, it's Christmas. Let's not talk about her, huh?"

"Yes, please. Pick anything else, please."

"Well, how about — did you hear Charlie's applied to, like, ten different colleges because she can't decide where she wants to go?"

"That's not really news," Elin chuckled. "I'm surprised it wasn't more."

"She got an early acceptance letter from a school in Europe but I don't think she'll go," Chance admitted. "She liked the psychology department, but I think the idea of being that far away still bothers her."

"Yeah, she likes to be nearby," Elin agreed. "And she's still trying to figure out an angle to get James to look at Amy again. Which would be hard to do if she's across the globe."

"If she goes to NYU, Gerry's already promised to help — with Amy too," Chance admitted. "You know, because it's hard to say no to Sunshine."

"I just don't know what Gerry would do to help other than be there smiling to charge her up."

"Might be plenty," Chance said, then shook his head. "He's a good friend."

Elin smirked to herself and nodded. "He is."

"Actually, he's been great for advice," Chance said slowly.

"He likes to do that," she agreed.

"Yeah, and I've got him and 'Lottie' double-teaming me, and you know that's never fun," Chance said with a little smirk.

"I'm sure they think they have your best interests in mind — but that doesn't mean you have to listen to them."

"Yeah, well, they're right," Chance said. He shook his head. "Never mind. I'll sort it out when I get back to Canada."

"If you need time to think, we can just head back. Not like the horses are going anywhere," she offered.

"No," he said quickly. "No. If it's alright with you, I just really want to enjoy a Christmas ride with my best friend."

"That's fine. I just don't want to get in your way of whatever's on your mind."

"El, I'd much rather spend time with you than think about what an idiot I am," Chance smirked.

She gave him a crooked little smile. "Okay then. Lead on. Your turn."

Billy and Teddy were visiting the twins when they saw Elin and Chance laughing and joking around with each other — and Teddy let out a groan that seemed to come from his toes.

Billy smirked, knowing exactly what Teddy was groaning about. "They'll figure it out."

"At the rate they're going?"

"I know it seems pretty hopeless, but you can trust me, right, babe?"

Teddy shook his head and then leaned over to steal a kiss. "That's not fair. I'm not saying I don't trust your future vision. But right now?" He gestured toward Elin and Chance. "Not even you can say that what's happening right now is anything less than a trainwreck."

"Believe it or not, this is the best possible timeline." Billy tipped his head to the side as the galaxies in his eyes swirled more intensely. "As long as I keep them on the right path. Pretty soon here, there's going to be some major bumps. And that's the part where I need to interfere to keep things from crashing down."

"Oh, yeah, that makes me feel better."

"Wasn't going to lie to you," Billy teased, the galaxies settling out as he turned to Teddy with a teasing smirk at the corner of his mouth.

"You better not," Teddy shot back, only too happy to get wrapped up in Billy instead of thinking about the ridiculous drama the next generation of heroes had going on.

He remembered what that had been like, and he was so glad he'd grown out of it and married Billy.