"And you're sure that lying to them won't be destructive?"
Chakotay lifted his head up from the wooden train track he was assembling. "Telling them about Santa Claus doesn't count as lying Seven!"
"But telling them that something fictional is real is clearly deceptive. What if they resent us when they realise?" Seven asked worriedly as she wrapped up Aylen's doll in fuchsia coloured paper and set it under the rather haphazardly decorated tree decorated by the twins the week before.
"Look, parents have been telling their kids about Santa for generations and it's never done them any harm. My parents did it, I'm sure yours did too…"
"It seems a great deal of effort to expend only to prolong a fantasy…"
"They're children they're allowed fantasies and it teaches them about being generous…" Chakotay was becoming slightly flustered as he struggled for words to explain the Christmas traditions he'd been brought up with.
Seven sat back, perhaps it was better to allow these human notions she didn't understand to go over her head, the children had enjoyed hearing their father's story and anticipating the day. "If you believe its right then everything will be fine I'm sure." She said with a smile, knowing she'd done the right thing as she saw Chakotay relax and lean over her to reach the plate of biscuits sitting on the coffee table. "The children made those for…" she began to admonish before halting as she realised she was taking the fiction too seriously. "How long are we going to have to do this for?"
Chakotay chewed the biscuit thoughtfully before answering. "I don't know, ten years maybe?"
"Ten years! Surely by the time they're eleven they'll know what we're doing…"
"You're forgetting someone very special." He reminded her.
Seven looked at him in confusion for a second before following his gaze down to her abdomen. "Oh, of course!" She gave a small laugh, how could she forget that they were going to be doing this all over again?
Chakotay kissed her tenderly. "It'll all be worth it when you see their faces in the morning, I promise."
"Yes, I know." She murmured seriously, before her sense of humour struck her and she arched an eyebrow. "Do we have to eat the carrot for Rudolf too?"
Chakotay laughed so hard he almost choked. "Whatever you want!"
The next morning Seven and Chakotay had difficulty holding the twins back from the living room door. "Are you sure you don't want breakfast first?" Seven asked, if they were this hyperactive now what were they going to be like if they filled up with chocolate?
"No bweakfas." Said Aylen pointedly, staring at the firmly shut door.
"Kistmas fiwst." Michael stated in a determined tone.
Chakotay felt himself start to give in and prepared to open the door but Seven spoke up firmly. "Say please first."
Chakotay stared at her in disbelief but Michael and Aylen quickly realised what was expected of them. "Pwease?" They said in unbelievably cute unison, Michael tacking on a pleading "Mama…" for extra effect.
Seven nodded at Chakotay and he opened the door, the twins running past straight at the tree. Chakotay whipped his head round to face Seven. "I can't believe that worked, why did you…"
Seven gave an unapologetic shrug as she walked in the room. "Even in times of high emotion, manners are still preferable." Chakotay couldn't argue with that.
Seven immediately saw that the work of the night before had been worth it, the twins were so surprised at the spectacle they weren't even chattering among themselves, just beaming childish smiles which warmed their parents' hearts. After the initial flurry of present opening was over, Michael left where he was playing trains with Chakotay and walked over to the empty plates on the coffee table. "Bikkets gone." He said loudly.
Aylen waded through the piles of torn paper and joined her brother. Her brow furrowed in thought before she muttered in disbelief, "Papa wight."
"Santa." Michael agreed decisively before turning back to his trains.
Chakotay exchanged glances with Seven who was visibly trying not to laugh. The family obviously had more than its share of sceptics!
Seven watched from the frosty window as Chakotay pulled the small blue sled around the garden, wincing as the twins toppled out into the room and smiling in relief as they laughingly got back up. There's more wet clothes to wash! She thought wryly. Ah well, perhaps this would be the last heavy snow they would get to enjoy, it was February after all, but with Flagstaff being a ski resort there probably would be more. Absentmindedly she grabbed another handful of chocolate covered nuts and had eaten them before she had time to reconsider, she certainly wasn't having any difficulty gaining the prescribed amount of weight this pregnancy, the strange cravings were becoming ridiculous and yet the baby kicked in satisfaction. It was nice to feel that again, it had given her a fright when it had first happened two days before but she was slowly getting used to it once more. Another soft thud outside caught her attention and a now headless snowman stood in the garden, it obviously wasn't very stable she would have to go out and help. Pulling her thick winter coat on and zipping it up over her eighteen week old bump, she stepped out the back door and heard the satisfying crunch of snow under her feet. Maybe it wasn't too bad after all; the thick blanket did give a pristine clarity to the landscape.
Suddenly a memory flashed through her brain, the soft cold thump of a snowball hitting her back, giggling so hard she was breathless, running so fast she tripped over her own feet, Papa picking her up and dangling her upside down, Mama throwing a snowball into his shoulder to free her…
When the vision cleared, she stared down at the snow surrounding her feet before determinedly scooping up a handful and sculpting it into a missile. Focusing her aim on Chakotay, his back turned as he worked on the snowman, it hit his back. Startled, for a moment he looked at the twins in front of him before slowly turning around. His expression turned to disbelief as he saw Seven, smiling at her own accuracy and the war began, snowballs were pelted across the garden, back and forth like a pair of children. The real children in the group just watched the spectacle, dumbfounded.
Another one of her snowballs hit Chakotay in the chest but he continued to advance, hands aloft. "I surrender!" he exclaimed laughingly. Obligingly Seven dropped her next snowball and allowed him to come close. "How are you?" he asked sweetly.
"Fine…ahhh!" she shrieked as snow was flung down her neck, the cold and deception coming as such a shock that she fell onto her backside in a snowdrift. "You…" she started, glaring at him.
He knelt down to help her up, grinning gleefully. "Don't try and beat me at my own game sweetheart."
"Next time I'll…"
"Next time?"
She smiled sheepishly, this past time was so pointless, but so fun! "Yes, next time." She said challengingly, a competitive glint in her eye. Chakotay beamed at that answer and kissed her deeply.
"Ucky!" exclaimed Aylen in disgust from her vantage point standing with her brother.
Chakotay pulled back from Seven and turned to look at them. "No kissing isn't yucky, eating snow is yucky." He corrected, casting a disapproving look at Michael who was doing just that.
"No Papa!" He cried, stubbornly clutching the snow before setting off round the garden at a run, Chakotay immediately giving chase. Seven lay back in the snow to watch with a laugh.
A few days later Seven lay on another cold surface, this time a biobed in the Doctor's office. "So do you want to know what you're having?" he asked as he ran the scans.
"Still sure it's not twins?" asked Chakotay jokingly.
"Yes, this one's definitely unaccompanied. Do you want to make a guess? You have a fifty-fifty chance."
"There are only two options Doctor, just tell us." Seven said impatiently, not having completely forgiven the Doctor for revealing the pregnancy before they were ready.
The Doctor's eyes flickered to Chakotay who nodded. "You heard her."
"Okay…" The Doctor began reluctantly. "Aylen's going to be outnumbered; do you think she'll handle it?"
"A boy?" asked Chakotay joyfully as the Doctor nodded in confirmation. "Oh Aylen will handle it fine, she'll probably be the boss!"
All three of them laughed before Seven wryly commented, "I should have known, only men have that big an appetite."
A/n: Hello, please review! I need help with names again, I was thinking something Scandinavian or Biblical like Michael but I'll happily take all suggestions. By the way does anyone know Chakotay's father's name? (For the middle name not the first, Native American boys' names are generally very hard to spell) Thanks!