I just realized I haven't written a Christmas chapter to this story so far… that had to be changed!
It's a couple of years later by now, Jamie's about 19 (and coming home from Harvard), making Danny 31, Linda 30, Jack about 1, Erin 29, Jack Boyle 33, Nicky almost 7, Joe 28 and Angela 27.

Jamie's hand halted in the air, the key almost touching the lock, and slightly shaking. Driving home for Christmas – he had known there would be much traffic on the streets, but… not that much.
Eleven hours instead five had given him time to think but not to sleep – and he felt like he had thought about things and problems and laws and everything enough for a lifetime. It didn't help. If endless weeks of rehearsing laws and cases – sometimes plainly conning them for he couldn't understand them all – had shown him one thing, then that total justice wasn't reachable by mankind. Not with the system they had, not with the established rules. And not with anything else he could imagine right now.
Key still in hand Jamie rubbed his tired eyes. He had planned on coming home earlier, to have time to sleep and listen to cheesy music, maybe call his niece and go ice-skating with her (she already was faster than he was)… anything to bring him into the mood for Christmas.
True, Harvard and Boston had looked wonderful in the snow. A really beautiful winter-wonderland, the perfect setting for the White Christmas Bing Crosby was so dreaming of, but… couldn't compare with the intensity of Syd's angry eyes.

Angrily, Jamie hit the wall next to the door, watching the skin on his knuckles rip. It wasn't their first fight, and he knew it would be okay again, they were already too strong to let it get into their way for real, but still… it was Christmas. And he wouldn't get to talk to her before next year.

"You know you're supposed to put the key in the lock that's already there, not making a new one?"
Jamie opened his mouth to a retort but was suddenly hit by a snowball.
"Deep-six!" A voice from the garden triumphantly bellowed, "Joey's in for chopping the tree!"
"In your dreams, Danny!" Joe yelled back, laughing as he now made his way up to Jamie and without another word, took him in a bear hug.
Suddenly Jamie felt tears burning in his eyes. "Where's Angela?" he murmured to distract himself.
Joe chuckled. "Home with her parents. They still go to mass together in their church in the afternoon so she can be here in the evening."
"Oh yeah…" Jamie slowly broke free from the hug. Joe let him but rested his hands on his little brother's shoulders.
"Want to talk about it?"
Jamie knew better than to pretend everything was good. He maybe would have if it was Danny, but Joe somehow always knew how everyone was. There was no fooling around with him, which most of the times was quite annoying. Now, though Jamie realized how much he had missed it – missed people who knew him so well that he didn't have to explain and represent himself. People whom he had not to play a role for.
"No, but thanks."
Joe nodded understandingly. "Mom's in the theatre with Erin and Nicki so she won't get too impatient for Christmas" he said, "you still got time to step into Christmas."
"Good." For the first time today, Jamie smiled.
"But you got no time to lose to chop that tree."

Hacking away the lower branches of the Christmas tree was a task nobody was really fond of. It was not so much exhausting but it made your back ache like you were seventy, as Danny had put it after his first time, and you couldn't help getting coated with saw mill dust and fir needles.
Jamie found his back hurting after one minute, and his mood, cheered up at seeing Joe and then his father sank down again.
He hadn't seen Danny so far though he clearly was at home, and that didn't help getting Christmassy either. Had they fought, too? He didn't remember.

"You're hacking like a girl."
Too tired to get angry, Jamie smiled. Danny was not angry with him – not too much, in any case. "Then show me how it's done properly."
Danny laughed. "Oh no, kid. My job is to help you doing it on your own, right. I'm the guiding spirit."
"Guiding spirit? I thought you were more Ebenezer Scrooge himself!"
"Hey! That's not fair!" Danny protested, still laughing. "I've almost turned into a Christmas elf lately." He bit his tongue as Jamie started to laugh. "Forget that."
"Never!"

"Thanks" Danny shook his head as Jamie, still laughing, continued hacking. It was good to see Jamie laugh again. Hell, it was good to see him again at all. Expect from his and later Joe's deployment, Danny had never been apart from his siblings for more than a week – well, after the honeymoon.
At least every Sunday they would meet at their father's house.
The past few months had shown Danny how much he was used to seeing his family regularly. How much he needed seeing them. He knew they were all grown-ups by now, but that didn't change the fact that he was their big brother. He still felt responsible for them, and especially of course for Jamie. As much as Danny was glad his little brother wouldn't join the ranks of the NYPD and live a life of danger (not that he'd ever change his life, not for the world), he hated to have Jamie so far away. The kid had a tendency to pretend he was doing fine with everything, and he was a natural at learning and talking to people, but… he was so sensitive. He felt with everyone, he never even tried to shield himself from other people's problems. He always tried to help, and Danny was afraid that one day he would simply collapse under the weight of the world's pain. Either that, or he would stop feeling and turn to stone.
And Danny would be miles away and unable to save him.

"Danny? You're quiet." Jamie turned around.
Danny managed a grin. "Don't try sidetracking, kid, you're still got a lot of work to do till that tree fits in the frame."
"Why did you need to bring such a huge tree? Come on!"
"We let Jack decide, and he pointed at that one."
"Really?" Jamie's face lit up at the mentioning of his nephew. "Where is he now?"
"Away with Linda and grandpa, don't ask me where they are. I suppose somewhere last-minute-shopping."
"With grandpa? Really?"
"Whatever." Danny shrugged, still lost in worries about his brother.
Jamie frowned. "Danny, are you okay? Is Jack alright?"
"Wha… yeah, yes of course. Do you really think I'd let anything happen to him?" Or to you, he added silently. But obviously, Jamie didn't want to be protected anymore. He wanted to live on his own… he didn't need him anymore.

The wrinkles on Jamie's forehead deepened. "Danny?"
He quickly shook his head, wanted to shake the topic again but a look from his little brother's eyes told him it was useless. True, Joe was the best mind-reader in the family, but Jamie was next. Alright, maybe their mom was better but that didn't count. Mothers always knew best, he was long enough a father to understand that.
"It's just…" Danny sighed. "It's been a long time, kid. I mean you're just… gone."
"I'm five hours away, that's not out of the world. Except you're stupid enough to drive home two days before Christmas."
"I could've driven you."
"That wouldn't have made it faster."
"No, but… Jamie, I've known you since you were born. And now you're grown up and live away from home and… I just don't know how I'm gonna survive when Jack's moving out. I mean… I'm happy when you are, Jamie, but… don't forget about me, right? Us. We're still your family, and we're still there for you."

"I know." Jamie swallowed down the lump that had wandered up his throat. I'm happy when you are… no. Not now. This was not the right moment to tell Danny how hard it was. How much he had to learn, how little sleep he got, how much he wished to come home and become a cop, just like his brothers.
Not now.
"Thanks for being here, Danny. And trust me, no matter how old Jack is he will always need you. Could you imagine us without dad?"
Danny thought about that for a moment and then smiled. "Good point, kid."
"So… will you do the hacking? As a sign for your being there for me?"