A/N: Aaaand... here we go with the second part! And um... are you still with me, guys? Also... mac still hasn't succeeded in making Evan admit that he's apparently living in Egypt (that is... the land of Denial...) :D

Two

Yeah, right… stay until it's finished. The things he does for his Buttercup. As if it hadn't been enough that he hadn't gotten anything; no, he'd also had to watch all the other people getting presents.

Okay.

Right.

That sounds weird and really not what he'd call mature and absolutely not what you'd expect from a 36 year old Major of the United States Air Force. But yeah, that thing is still gnawing at him, even though he refuses to give it much thought. And anyway, it's over now and he can finally retreat to the quarters he shares with Laura – that is, provided that the universe will let him and not push another minor or major catastrophe in his way – and shut all the other stuff out.

However, he's not quite sure what exactly he should tell her. There's a lot but… some of that would only serve to make her unnecessarily smug and he's not sure if he's in the mood for that. The whole Team Kemp thing for example… he shakes his head.

What the hell had Laura been thinking? He's pretty sure that whatever Kemp got – a compass, wasn't it? – he got it from Wells and he's positive that Kemp wasn't her original gift receiver. Because, you know, he has it on good authority that last year Wells already drew Kemp and the odds of that happening twice in direct succession are… okay, they aren't nil but it's not like they're 100% either.

Someone was meddling in this and something tells him Wells didn't look actively for someone who would trade her Kemp because Wells never would do that. She just wouldn't. So maybe… someone used her authority as the outranking officer to make Wells trade and… and he's such an idiot.

Yeah, he should have seen that one coming… and he should never have told Laura that he'd drawn Wells of all people. She'd rolled her eyes and said that she's a little fed up with everyone being intimidated by Wells simply because she's a General's daughter and jeez, couldn't anyone just see her for herself? He'd actually felt a little ashamed at that but still had felt compelled to trade her, even though trading had been absolutely forbidden. But damn, she's the daughter of his boss… and besides she's even more volatile than Laura and a lot more grumpy and… and spikier than any one of all the perpetually bad tempered people he knows.

So… he'd wanted to trade her with the first person crossing his path… and that had been Captain Matthew Kemp, commanding officer of SGA-6 and Lieutenant Jenna Wells' boss. For just a moment, the rational part of his brain had told him that he should go and find someone else but the rest had been glad to find someone who actually knew Wells and who could be persuaded to trade with him by the magic his oak leaves lend him sometimes.

Granted, Kemp hadn't been exactly overjoyed at the prospect of having to find something for Wells – he's pretty sure he actually saw something akin to apprehension or maybe concern cross Kemp's face for a moment or two – but he hadn't even needed to remind the Captain of who was responsible for his team's leave rotation, the kind of missions they got and just basically everything else that could make their lives hell for the Captain to comply.

He hadn't even had to remind the Captain that it wouldn't be the first time he got to give something to Wells for Christmas. Of course he's not supposed to know that last year, it might have been Rodney who drew Wells but it had been Kemp who'd found the gift – an exceptionally pretty one at that, if his sources are correct, and John Sheppard usually gets those kind of things right – but… he wouldn't be doing his job right if he didn't know.

So yeah, he'd been stupid enough to trade Wells for Mehra to Kemp – he's still not sure who got the better end of this bargain in the end – and now Laura undoubtedly feels proven in her assumptions that there's something going on between Wells and Kemp… or maybe that there could be something going on if they decided to see what Laura believes is already there. But there isn't anything. There really isn't.

No, really. There isn't. Despite Wells blushing at Kemp and Kemp not being able to just leave the compass she gave him – was that the one he saw Kemp slipping into her hand before Wells had to leave them temporarily because daddy thought she couldn't cut it? – be and Kemp sneaking Wells weird glances when she wasn't looking… No, there isn't.

And Laura would know that if she'd seen how Wells had reacted to what Kemp gave her. He still feels like rolling his eyes at himself but he actually complied with what Laura asked of him and stayed close enough to Team Kemp that he could notice what was going on. When it had finally been Wells' turn, she'd received… what had she received? Oh, right, a little kind of voucher for fighting lessons with Teyla.

To be honest, last year's gift from Kemp to Wells had been a little more… conventional, even if it fitted Wells. Sheppard had told him that Rodney had given Wells a geode that Kemp had found for her on some alien marketplace. The geologist in him had actually wanted to see it but the superior in him had wondered what exactly Kemp had been thinking. The thing had been pretty average and maybe even a little ugly on the outside… but if alien geodes are anything like Earth geodes, it must have been really pretty, if a little spiky on the inside.

When he'd told Laura about that in preparation for this year's Secret Santa… she'd just grinned and said something like "He really does know her well, doesn't he?" and he'd wondered what she had meant… only to realize that from what he'd gotten to see of Wells in the three years she'd been in Atlantis… Laura is probably right and he'd even agree if it weren't for the fact that he rarely got to see a different side of Wells than the hedgehog personality.

Anyway… this year, it had been fighting lessons and Wells hadn't been particularly thrilled, to say the least. She'd pretended not to know who gave them to her – or maybe she really had been that blind, seeing as this is Wells – and she had gone on grumbling and mumbling about whoever had that idea would soon realize that she certainly didn't need any lessons in hand to hand combat, thank you very much.

He'd been pretty amazed, though, at how calm Kemp had been. But yeah, okay, maybe he wouldn't have, hadn't it been for the other two members of his team. It's always astonishing, he thinks, how much of a balancing influence Ferrier and Faraday seem to have on Wells and Kemp, especially easy going Ferrier… if he remembers it correctly, he'd been one of Wells' classmates at the Academy and is probably the one person that can manage her as well as Anthony Wayne used to be able to. It's probably only to his credit that Wells and Kemp haven't killed each other yet.

Okay, and maybe to that of Faraday as well. The guy is the only NCO and Marine in the team and something – probably what he knows about the two Marine NCOs he has on his team – tells him that there's more to Faraday than just the almost serene impression he seems to take great pains to hold up. He'd once tried to get it out of Laura if Faraday really is like that or if it's just an act to put those pesky Zoomie officers on his team off his back but she'd just given him a kind of enigmatic smile and said "What happens at Marine poker night, stays at Marine poker night" and that had been it.

So yeah… Ferrier and Faraday keep Kemp and Wells from killing each other and he thinks they probably did it tonight as well. Because after having received those fighting lessons… Wells really hadn't been in a good mood… it had been almost fouler than the mood she usually is in. It had only been because of Ferrier casually pointing out that not everyone got fighting lessons from Teyla that Wells had seemed to lighten up a bit again. He thinks he saw her sneaking Teyla a glance or two before being almost pushed in her direction by the guys – again, the two Fs most of all – and walking up to Teyla.

When she had reached her and they started talking… he'd looked back at the team for a moment and… it had been weird but Kemp had looked apprehensive again, as if being really concerned how Wells would behave when talking to Teyla and… what had been even weirder had been the… look on his face when Wells had come back, a full grown grin – something he practically never got to see from that particular Lieutenant – on her face for a short moment before carefully schooling it back to her usual half-scowl. Kemp had looked… no, that's nonsense. Kemp had not looked like a fully lit Christmas tree. No. Really, he hadn't.

Anyway… it's so not his business, whatever is going on between them – and he's really convinced that the only thing that is going on is a still very difficult CO/XO relationship that only works because they're lucky to have Ferrier and Faraday on their team – and he'll also not tell Laura anything about it. Or, okay, he will tell her what Wells got from Kemp but not much about her reaction. Yeah, that should work.

Now he also finally reached his quarters. With a heavy sigh he opens the door… and is a little bit surprised because Laura… isn't there. She said she had something to do but she never said anything about pulling an all-nighter, right? So… why isn't she sitting in the living room and… and why is there candle light coming from the bedroom? Okay, this is weird…

But what's even weirder is the sight that greets him when he opens the bedroom door. That… yeah, that's Laura alright, half sitting on the bed, wrapped in… green, red and gold Christmas ribbons. As in… practically from head to toe. There's a moment of stunned silence between the two of them – he even completely forgets about whatever he had wanted to tell her about Kemp and Wells – until he hears something coming from Laura that sounds very much like… laughter.

He can't help grinning. She's desperately trying to be serious and look at least a little sultry at him but all she can manage is barely hidden giggle and waving a slip of paper in her hand. Jesus fucking… Laura is his Secret Santa. Because he's still a little too stunned to speak, Laura sees her chance and tries to say casually, "You know, I figured you'd not be very partial to having your wife sitting in plain sight of everyone… like this."

Smirking, he takes a few steps toward her, until he's close enough that he can touch her. "You bet I'm not," he says and it sounds a little like growling because fuck, she's naked under those ribbons and she spent half the evening for dressing like this and she did it just for him.

Very carefully, she manages to get up and closes the last bit of distance between them. "I hope you like what I got you."

"Yeah," he says and tugs a little at the ribbon covering her neck, "after all, my favorite part of the whole gift thing was always the unwrapping."

"Thought so," she replies and then leans in close to him and he can smell the cinnamon scented shampoo she only uses for special occasions and then she whispers, "Merry Christmas, farm boy."

Well… there's only one thing left to do for him now, so he moves to bring his lips close to her ear and whispers back, "Merry Christmas, Buttercup," and that's really the only thing he's able to say and so he finally starts to unwrap her. Damn, it's good to be married, is the last thought he has before indulging in things that… require less thinking and a lot more acting and well… it's definitely going to be one of the best Christmas Days ever.