One swear word, in case that bothers you.

Christmas dinner went off without too much of a hitch. Yes J was sulking a bit after Jamie had told him off for the prank, yes Dan had refused to take his new hat off at the dinner table and yes, Penny's table manners still left a lot to be desired. Overall, not so chaotic.

It wasn't often that Christmas dinner was held at Jackie and Jamie's, usually there was a rotation, but this year had warranted the larger house, as Sophie had her own small bundle.

After dinner Penny found herself fascinated by the tiny baby swaddled in pink, constantly peppering Sophie with questions.

"How old is she? Why's she in a blanket? Can she see? Oh she's so cute!"

Dan pretended to throw up at all of these questions and instead tried to get his uncle, Sophie's partner, to arm wrestle with him. Meanwhile J was with his grandfather, Jackie's dad Gavin, who was teaching him card tricks.

Both Jack and Jamie used this time to talk to their mom's, but Jackie quickly caught Penny asking Sophie, "so where, did she come from?"

Sophie laughed, partly nervously, partly mischievous, but Jackie looked over.

"Ask me after everyone's gone home, okay Penny?"

The eight year old pouted, but didn't pester Sophie with that question anymore. Instead she tried to get Sophie's baby to grab her finger.

Everyone eventually filtered into the living room, with the adults talking and the three children being bored. J, who'd been quiet since the bucket incident that morning, suddenly tapped Jackie on the knee.

"Mom?" he asked quietly, so not to interrupt the story his uncle was telling.

"Yes J?" Jackie responded at the same volume level, lowering her head to his level to hear him properly.

"Wanna play chess?" the nine year old inclined his head to his new chess set, sitting on the sideboard.

Jackie was bored with the story Sophie's partner was telling, and she didn't like small talk anyway, so nodded.

J beamed and scampered off to retrieve the set, carefully pulling it down and making sure none of the pieces fell. He placed it on a clear spot on the floor and sat at the white piece end. Jackie got off the sofa and sat at the other end, then decided that she would get neck ache from this position, so changed to lie on her stomach.

As the two played, Dan and Penny decided it would be funny to jump over Jackie's legs repeatedly, giggling loudly.

Jackie really didn't feel like joining in the small talk again, so dragged out the game as long as possible. She could have won fairly early on, and she knew that J had noticed, but she ignored the obvious victory.

Charlotte Davies sighed when she saw what Jackie was doing.

"Jackie, would it kill you to socialise with the rest of us?"

"Most likely," Jackie knocked over one of J's pawns. "I also don't hear anyone else complaining."

"Don't worry about it Jackie," her dad assured, "her sister was over this morning."

"That explains it," Jackie smirked as J responded by knocking over one of her pawns.

"Why?" Penny asked mid jump, having naturally heard the conversation. "What's she like?"

Jackie thought for a moment how to explain tastefully. "She always thinks she has the best ideas."

"Oh, like Mackenzie in my class," Penny thought aloud, before charging off after her brother to play somewhere else.

Nothing exploded, so the conversation and chess game continued until the guests decided that it was time to leave. Minutes after they had left, there was a sudden scream from upstairs.

"IT'S SNOWING!"

Jackie jerked her head up to look out the window, and indeed, white specks were starting to fall, quickly getting thicker.

Jackie looked over at J, who had heard the shout and was also looking outside.

"Want to go out?" she asked, and smiled as her eldest nodded, enthusiasm obvious in his hazel eyes.

"Go get your coat on," she said as he ran off, and she could hear Jamie saying the same to the twins, as well as boots and gloves.

Jackie put on a pair of boots as well, pulling her hoodie on over her head, but that was as far as she went. In comparison, Jamie and the kids had thick winter coats, hats, gloves and boots. They had a learned resistance to the cold, but they weren't as immune to it as Jackie.

They all ran to catch the snow as it fell, the three children laughing and shrieking. As it settled they started throwing it at each other, and Jackie carefully made it settle a little faster, outright forming the snow on the ground.

Taboo jumped over the garden fence and went into a dog's play bow in front of the kids, growling in a playful way while her tail whipped behind her and sent snow flying. Dan was quick to retaliate, while J snuck behind Taboo and Penny climbed the tree in the garden. Between them they bombarded Taboo with snow, with the ice tiger shaking it off and roaring while the trio giggled.

Jamie glanced at Jackie, a little concerned at Taboo's roaring, but relaxed when he saw that Jackie wasn't reacting. Instead Jackie was scanning the sky, like she was waiting for something. Or someone.

Her patience was rewarded as a slim figure in a dark blue hoodie flew down from the sky and landed nimbly in the old oak tree. The two grinned at each while the kids hadn't appeared to have noticed him yet.

"Hey Icicle."

"Hey Snowman, North have a good night?"

"Same as usual," Jack yawned, still gripping his staff as he stretched. "Nothing big happened, so I heard."

"You didn't go with him?"

"Nah, waited for him to come back. What about you, did you see him?"

Jackie shrugged. "Didn't want to get in his way. Plus if the kids found out I knew Santa Claus I'd never hear the end of it."

"You don't want them to know what cool friends you have?"

"They already know about you," Jackie smirked and Jack put a hand on his heart.

"You flatter me," he smirked right back, before dropping out of the tree and landing with a soft flumph in the swiftly settling snow. "Speaking of cool friends," he peered around the tree at the trio barraging Taboo, "I'd better go so hi."

"Oh, I'm not good enough anymore?" Jackie's smirk grew wider, making it clear she was joking.

"Well, hard to say if you can still keep up with me," Jack did a back flip, just because he could. "You're getting old Icicle."

"Says you," Jackie folded her arms and leant against the tree, "and 40 isn't old."

Jack smirked at her as he stayed on one hand, mid way through a second back flip. "If you say so," he winked and tumbled to his feet as Jackie shook her head, still amused.

Jack grinned and charged into the fray against Taboo, and the tiger roared in indignation.

"Oh come on! Frost as well!"

Jack laughed, which caught the attention of the three kids, who all stopped and stared at him, before breaking into even broader grins.

"JACK!" they cried, and Jack's smile got wider.

"Hey guys, miss me?"

Jackie smiled as she watched them crowd around her ancestor, laughing and chattering about their Christmas. Taboo stalked over to Jackie, shaking off the snow and snaking her tail on the ground.

"I swear, your brats..." Taboo shook her head.

They were having fun, and you love it really.

"Tch, I almost miss the days where all they'd do was pull my tail." Taboo yawned and lay down, which is when Jackie noticed there was still blood on the fangs.

Good hunting? She asked as she froze the blood and remotely picked it off.

"Got a couple of rabbits."

Don't tell Bunnymund.

"I won't if you won't."

Without warning a snowball hit Jackie in the face. She blinked in surprise and looked over at Jack suspiciously, but he was still messing around with the kids. Then he got a shot to the face.

Jack immediately looked at Jackie, even though he knew that wasn't where the snowball had come from. It was rare for both of them to be taken off guard like that. Both of their gazes then turned to Jamie, who was standing a little away from everyone else with a pile of snowballs at his feet and throwing one up and down in his gloved hand.

"So, I don't count unless snow's involved?" he asked.

"Sorry Jamie," Jack shrugged. "You know what I'm like with kids."

Jamie chuckled. "Yeah, I know," the snowball stilled in his hand. "Thank fast!" he flung the snowball at Jack, hitting him full in the face. He tumbled back acrobatically and rolled to his feet, still grinning.

"Free for all!" he yelled, but was cut short by another snowball hit in the side. He looked over at the where it had come from, but Jackie had disappeared from her spot by the tree, Taboo was still lying down, and the snow was now thick enough for Jackie to be hiding under it.

The three kids scattered, each bending down to shove together rough snowballs, even the quiet J was as enthusiastic as his siblings at snow being flung at him.

Jack laughed and with a swish of his staff there were piles of perfectly formed snowballs scattered around the back garden. He then smirked as he spotted a hand appear from beneath the snow and pull some of the balls down.

Jack had no doubt that Jackie had mapped the position of everyone in the garden and was preparing some sneak attacks.

To counteract this Jack took to the air, so at least someone will have the edge over her.

Dan, Penny, J, Jamie and even Taboo all got a sneak attack this way, but even with Jackie commando crawling through the snow and using her snow sense, she couldn't find Jack.

Sneaky sod, he's in the air isn't he?

"I'm not telling you. Not after that sneak attack." Taboo sulked as she rolled snowballs with her tail and dodged every one bound for her. An impressive feat given that she was at her normal tiger size and the easiest target.

Well, he's either on the house or in the air. He'd never leave a snowball fight.

Jackie rolled onto her back and poked a hole for her to try and see through. This hole only gave a view of what was directly above her however, and Jack was almost guaranteed to be moving.

He'll come by here eventually. Jackie rationalised, snow primed and ready. Just got to wait.

Taboo shook her head as she listened to Jackie's thought process. "Hey Jack! Jackie's taking this way too seriously!"

"And you're surprised?" Jack called back, artfully dodging snowballs flung his way by the kids, who had teamed up against Jack and the adults.

From her sniper position, Jackie grinned as she spotted him fly over. She didn't bother with a witty line, she just fired.

Jack cried out in surprise as he was hit from below and tumbled into the snow. He started to get up, but he was pelted with snowball from the kids.

"Alright alright!" he called out, laughing as she tried to shield himself with his hands. "New game, your mom is hiding under the snow, let's find her!"

You little shit.

Jackie rolled back over and started crawling as fast as she could through the snow, creating new tunnels and falling back on ones she had already made. Unfortunately so many tunnels meant that the snow would eventually collapse on top of her.

With a 'whumpf' the snow fell on top of her, as she'd forgotten to hold it up. She let out a loud sigh as some of it got between her glasses and face. It was removed with a thought, but something grabbed her by the bottom of her jeans and she was pulled into the air with a cry of surprise.

Before she could react to this attack her mind clocked that it was just Taboo, and that she was now dangling upside down from her mouth.

"Taboo, put me down," Jackie folded her arms and looked disapprovingly at her, but Taboo wasn't fazed.

"Hmmm, nah. Jack, catch!"

"No no no no no no no!" Jackie was tossed into the air by Taboo. Before she could catch herself in midair she felt her hood snag on something and her descent was halted , leaving her level with the second floor of the house. A laugh told her who had caught her and she looked over her shoulder at Jack, as she was hanging from the crook of his staff.

"Jack, Snowman, we can talk about this."

"Aww, you didn't say that you were just 'hanging around'." Jack grinned, looking like he was very tempted to flick his staff up.

"Just put me down, please."

Jack had that grin on his face, the one that spelt trouble.

"You can fly, can't you?"

"Jack."

"Hey, do you want see your mom fly?" Jack innocently asked the kids. J had the decency to look concerned, but Dan and Penny seemed to be all for it.

"Well, I now know who out of you three I can rely on in a crisis!" Jackie called down jokingly. She wasn't happy about this, but the chances of someone seeing them was pretty low.

Jack flicked his staff up and Jackie sailed into the air. For the sake of a show she did indeed form her wings. Ice wings 3 or 4 times her height unfurled either side of her and with a hard flap she went even higher. She grinned and folded her wings in, allowing herself to plummet feet first towards the ground.

She felt a shock in her stomach when she heard Penny scream and she knew that she'd messed up. Her wings shot out again and she flew back down safely before being tackled by her daughter.

"Alright, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." Jackie murmured to her, on her knees and hugging Penny. "Shush, shush."

"Oh come on! She wasn't gonna die! You're such a wimp!" Dan laughed, but his giggles slowly stopped under the glare of both his parents.

"Apologise. Now." Jamie said sternly, as Jackie was comforting was Penny.

"Admit it," J said as he walked past Dan, "You were scared too."

"I was not!" Dan's dark brown eyes glared at his older brother, who smirked right back.

"You keep telling yourself that. I heard you shriek."

"Oh, like you didn't freak out either."

J dropped the smirk and went over to Jackie and Penny, hugging his little sister as well.

"You've been listening to how I talk I little too much." Jackie commented, causing Penny to giggle.

Jack landed nearby and knelt next to Penny.

"Sorry I scared you," he said, completely sincere.

Jackie could feel Penny calming down, so smiled at Jack. "You just got a little caught up in it all," she said. "We just forgot that these guys aren't as aware of my limits as you are."

"Yeah..."

Jackie saw that Dan was looking at the hug, trying very hard to not look jealous and failing miserably.

Jackie opened her arm up, and he tried not to look too happy as he came over to join in the hug. Jack pretended to look shocked at this level of hugging from Jackie, who rolled her eyes.

"Everyone, get for a hug, come on. Or you can take a picture, it'll probably last longer."

Jamie laughed and came over, wrapping one arm around Jackie's shoulder and the other around his children, but Jack stayed where he was.

"Really need a camera right now," he said, grinning a little to himself.

"Jack, are you going to get in here or what?" Jackie asked. When Jack continued to dither Penny broke away and grabbed by the hand to drag him over, smiling.

The group hug lasted a good minute before J muttered, "So, how long are we going to stand like this?"

This got chuckles out of everyone and they drew apart, then Jamie clapped his hands together.

"How about we all go inside for something to drink, you too Jack," he pointed at the Guardian.

"Well, er, they might want me back at the Pole..." he said awkwardly.

"I'll lend you a Smoke," Jackie said. "It's Christmas, and you're part of this family too. Come on. Do you want fruit juice or milk?" she turned to go back into the house.

"Hot chocolate?" Penny asked hopefully, and Jamie nodded.

"Sure!"

"Last one in's a broken candy cane!" Dan suddenly yelled and they all charged for the door, Jamie and Taboo included.

Jackie chuckled, but then noticed that Jack hadn't moved. "Jack?" she turned to face him. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong Icicle."

Normally Jackie would contest that, but there was something about how he said it that made her think that he wasn't lying.

"Then why are you still standing there?"

Jack rocked back and forth on his feet. "I don't know, I'm surprised? I guess?"

"Just because I see the other Guardians as work doesn't mean that applies to you. You've been in both mine and Jamie's life too much for that to be the case." Jackie walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. "Plus, the kids love you, that scare just now aside. Final point, you're rarely around on Christmas Day, let's make the most of it."

Jack was smiling by now. "All good points there Icicle. Alright, alright, I'm coming."

Jackie smiled and walked back to the house, Jack following beside her. This was going to be a good Christmas.

First point to be made, I have not put that much thought into Sophie's family. All I thought is that she's eight years younger than Jamie, and this story is about ten years after Jackie and Jamie got married, so I think it's reasonable for her to be starting her own family.
I wouldn't expect them to show up much though, as I said, haven't thought much about it.
Second point, in my mind Jack's usually busy on Christmas, either being at the Pole of making sure somewhere has a white Christmas, plus, I do think he might think that Jackie and Jamie are moving on from him. This will pop up again in the next couple of wedding parts, but now they've got kids of their own, Jack worries that they're not interested anymore.
Understandable, but ill founded, since Jackie and Jamie are a bit too stubborn to let that happen.

Happy New Year!