"Do you think that we have everything ready?" Erin asked as she wiped her hands on her apron.

"I should hope so," Dave replied as he looked around the kitchen. Every possible surface was covered in food, and there were still some things warming on the stovetop. "I did manage to buy out our local grocer of their supply of nonalcoholic wine, so that you can drink with us."

She smiled as she leaned in to kiss his cheek. "I love the way you love me," she said softly as her phone started to ring. Frowning a little, she fished it out of her pocket. "It's Alex." He nodded as he watched her answer, wondering what the woman could possibly want on the holiday. "Hey, Lexie. Uh huh. Oh my god, that's awful! Of course you can, we have more than enough food for everyone, one more won't matter. We'll see you in twenty, then."

"Is everything okay?" he asked as Erin set the phone down, and she turned troubled eyes on him as she shook her head. "What is it?"

"There was a major trauma incident, and they had to call James in to help cover it. This was supposed to be their first holiday together in a number of years, and now this happened. It is all right that I invited her over, isn't it? I hate to think of her spending the day alone."

"It's fine with me, I just hope that your kids don't mind."

She shrugged a little as she leaned back in her chair. "They seemed to get along well with Alex in the hospital. Hopefully that is still true today." Dave nodded as he came over to her side, giving her shoulders a deep massage, trying to work some of the kinks out of them. She purred beneath his touches, letting her head loll backwards so that she could stare up into his face. "Have I told you that I love you yet today?"

"No, but I always know that you do. Even when I am being an ass."

"But you're my ass." She puckered her lips and he took the invitation, kissing her softly as the doorbell rang. "It hasn't been twenty minutes. I wonder who that is?"

"I don't know, but I'll get it." She nodded and he kissed her once more before turning and making his way over to the front door. Peeping through the window, he saw Harriet and Greg standing there, and a wide smile split his face as he threw open the door. "Welcome! I'm so glad that you were able to make it! We're not going to eat for another twenty minutes, but if you want to join your mother in the kitchen, Harriet, I'm certain that Greg would be able to help me set the table and then bring the dishes out to the dining room."

For a moment, it looked like Greg would protest, but a look from Harriet had those words dying on his lips. "He would be happy to, Papa." That was all it took for his sunny façade to crack, and she shrugged a little before stepping forward and hugging him tightly. "I figure, since I'm the eldest, I need to set the example for Bruce and Karen." He nodded, relishing the feel of his daughter kissing his cheek before she scurried off to the kitchen.

"So, it appears that my wife is ready to fully bury the hatchet. I'm inclined to do so, too, as long as you promise to watch over Erin a little better. I know how much it hurt Harriet to see her mother hurting because it looked like you had rejected her."

"That was not my finest moment. And I know I was manipulated into that reaction, but I still could have done better." Greg nodded as they made their way into the dining room. "All right, we need to add a place for Alex, but I don't think that will be too much of a crush," he said as he looked at the table. Greg nodded as he moved the chairs around, adding the extra to the right side of the table as Dave got out the dishes. Having two of them working made the task go quickly, and then they were bringing the food into the dining room, Dave stealing kisses from Erin each time he went into the kitchen.

As he brought in the bottles of fake wine, the doorbell rang again, and he smiled a little freer as Erin welcomed Bruce, Karen, and Alex into their home. "I believe that we're ready to eat, if you just want to head into the dining room," he heard his lover say, and then they were all coming into the room.

"Thank you all for being here," he started, feeling his throat start to thicken with unshed tears. Erin came over to his side, her arm coming to rest low around his hips as she put her head on his chest. "This is our first Thanksgiving as a family, and while we have a good friend in the mix, too, I am so glad that we have this time to be with each other. I know, we've only had a few months to grow accustomed to the fact that our relationship has changed, but I hope that with time, we can grow to love each other as much as parents and children do."

Harriet burst into tears as she stepped forward and hugged them both tightly. "Mama, Papa, we'll do our best to accept this, I promise." Then she was taking Helena from Greg's hand and taking a seat next to the high chair he had bought specifically for occasions like this. "You're trying, and that's what matters the most."

Karen was the next to come up and hug them, though hers wasn't quite as exuberant as Harriet's. Still, it was progress, and Dave would take that for all it was worth. Bruce just nodded as he took a seat at the foot of the table, and Dave nodded back as he went to the head. Erin sat on his left side, with Alex on his right, and then they were looking at him expectantly. "I suppose that this is now my time to say a blessing over the food. If you'd all join hands." Erin and Alex did so automatically, and once they were all linked, he took a deep breath. "Father, at this time of taking stock of what we have and who we are, I give thanks for the fact that You have given me the one thing I always wanted most in this world, a family. Though I didn't know about them until a few months ago, I know that I love each of them for who they are. I have also been blessed with a sweet granddaughter, and I hope to be blessed with more grandchildren as the years go by. There is so much to be thankful for this year, and I pray that we can all find the little things that we can be grateful for in this world. Amen."

The amen was softly echoed around the table, and then they started to pass around the food, a feeling of deep love seeming to radiate from somewhere in the room, as if this was exactly what they had needed to start to come together as a family.