He woke early the next morning, as early morning light beamed through the window. He lay there for a minute enjoying it. He loved being on SeaQuest, but he missed the natural light. He looked over at Dagwood, who lay straight and neat, even in deep sleep.

He felt good this morning, his headache from the night before completely gone. He even felt more positive. He was somewhere new and different, he liked Tony's family, and they seemed to like him, and even though he needed special accommodations, wasn't it wonderful that they had them? He could have been stuck on his own on SeaQuest, or sitting alone in a hotel room. This was definitely better.

He quietly pulled himself up and into his chair. Dagwood started to wake up, but he told him to carry on sleeping, he was fine.

And he was. He showered and dressed, and felt better than he had for a long time.

He felt awkward wandering around someone else's house, but he was restless and wanted to move about. He listened carefully and thought he heard someone in the kitchen.

He made his way there and found Angie.

"Well, good morning! You're up early."

"I usually am these days. I seem to make up for it by sleeping all day!"

"I had surgery once, just a minor thing, but my sleep patterns were off for ages afterwards. They got back to normal eventually."

"It's been two months, I wish it would just hurry up."

"Sorry, Sweetheart, it's going to take longer than that. But don't worry so much! Time passes quickly enough, you'll soon be feeling better, mark my words!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to complain."

"You're allowed, you've been through a lot. But maybe you're just feeling down because you're hungry, you didn't eat much last night. What would you like for breakfast?"

"May I have some toast?"

"I have a better idea!" She reached into the oven and pulled out a pan. A strong scent hit his nostrils, and he found that he did feel hungry. "Cinnamon rolls! Would you like one?"

He nodded and she smiled. She put them on the kitchen table and they ate companionably together.

"These are delicious...may I have another?"

"Yes! Eat as many as you'd like, there are plenty more where they came from. And you really need fattening up."

"Everyone keeps telling me that."

"Maybe because it's true?" She teased.

He found himself telling her about his problems with food.

"The pain meds. They either make me nauseous, or I can't taste anything, or both. It's really hard to have an appetite when everything tastes like cardboard!"

"Is it all the time?"

"No, sometimes everything tastes normal...like now! These are really good!"

"Then eat as many as you can while you can taste them! I'm going to start breakfast for the rest of them, they should be moving about soon."

"Can I help?"

"You want to set the table, now that you've mastered the art?"

"No problem!"

They talked about inconsequential things as they worked. He found her very easy to talk to. The others came down to breakfast, and they all gathered around the table and talked.

Nick cleared his throat.

"Now don't all go crazy - even though it was a very generous thing for me to do, especially for this many people - but I have tickets for today's football game. Thought it would be a fun thing to do! And by the way, this is my Christmas present to everyone, so don't expect anything else!"

Tony looked up. "You win a bet, or did someone owe you money?"

"You see the thanks I get when I try to do something nice for you and your friends!"

"You really got enough for everyone?"

"Oh, you're doubting me? You wanna see them?"

"Don't mind if I do!"

Nick pulled an envelope out of his pocket and tossed it across the table to Tony.

"Hey, he's telling the truth! Must be Christmas!"

Lucas leaned over and looked at the tickets. "That sounds great, I've never been to a football game."

They all stared at him open mouthed. Tony couldn't believe his ears.

"You have got to be kidding!"

"Nope, never been to one! I've always wanted to go." He turned to Nick, "Thank you. I bet Dagwood will love it too!"

Dagwood looked up briefly from his food to smile at them. "Yes! Thank you!"

Tony was torn between his constant hostility towards his father and the knowledge that this was actually a really great thing that he had done. He knew that Lucas would like him to give his father another chance, so he gave in.

"Yeah, thanks Dad!"

The excitement in the stadium was palpable. Lucas had never felt anything like it. The aromas of hot dogs and onions wafted in the air, and there was a low murmur of sound all about him. He'd been a little worried about maneuvering his chair through the throngs of people, but found that people gave him enough room to move through the crowd. He liked to think this was because people were basically nice, and not because of Ricky, Eddie, Tony and Dagwood standing menacingly behind him.

Gina walked beside him and talked excitedly the whole time. Nick led them to their seats, and had even remembered to make sure there was room for Lucas' chair. Tony had been sure that he would forget.

It was one of the best days of Lucas' life. Once the game began, he forgot everything that had happened over the past year, and he yelled, cheered, booed and ate his hot dog (vegetarian, much to the disgust of the rest of the guys). Gina choose a vegetarian dog too, and Angie smiled at her attempt to like what Lucas liked, and also at her attempt to disguise her dislike of it. When Lucas was distracted, she leaned over and exchanged her own hot dog for Gina's, to the girl's everlasting gratitude.

The home team won, which put everyone in a good mood, and it started to snow, which added to the excitement of the day. Seeing Dagwood's reaction to the snow made everyone smile.

Tony pulled him along to the van, "Come on, Dagwood, maybe we can build a snowman when we get home." He turned to Lucas, "You've done that at least, right?"

Lucas laughed. "When? When I was at Stanford? The opportunity never came up!"

"Okay then, last one to the van is a rotten egg!"

All the younger members of the group started to run, and Lucas joined the race with the rest of them, pushing his chair to the limits. He reached the van just before Gina and Eddie, and honestly couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed so hard.

Tony saw him laughing, and realized that he'd never seen him laugh like that before, not even before the accident. He felt happy that Lucas was having a good time, and he couldn't help but smile at his father.

"Thanks, Dad, this was really great."

His father looked at him in surprise for a moment, and then pulled him into a hug. For once, Tony returned it.

When they got back, Angie, of course, went straight into the kitchen and made hot cocoa for everyone and brought out plates of cookies. Lucas noticed that for once, he wasn't the only one yawning. He excused himself and went to his room to lie down. Dagwood followed him in.

"Everyone's falling asleep on the chairs," he said wonderingly.

"It's the warmth of the house after the cold air, it makes everyone sleepy, we all just want to take a nap. Why don't you lie down for a moment and try it?

Lucas pulled off his shoes, decided he was too tired to remove anything else, and promptly fell asleep.

Dagwood obediently lay down as well, but to no avail. He was as excited as a child about the snowfall, and went back into the kitchen to watch it through the windows as he ate more cookies.

Everyone else woke up in time for dinner, but Lucas was sleeping soundly when Tony went in to get him. He debated letting him sleep, but realized that he needed to eat and take his meds. Even after he shook him awake, his friend seemed half asleep.

"C'mon, Lucas, wake up."

"'M tired, wanna sleep..."

Tony pulled down the bedsheets.

"Hey, that's cold!"

"Come on, it's time for dinner!"

Lucas was surprised to realize that once again he was hungry. He pushed himself up and wiped his hands across his face.

"Do I have time to wash my face? I feel half asleep..."

"Sure, but don't be too long, we're all hungry."

Lucas smiled at him. "Me too!"

"Really? Hey, that's great! We'll have to tell Tim, it's a Christmas miracle!"