Bobby was in the family room when Alex got home, sitting in his recliner and lightly dozing. He heard her come in and he forced himself awake. He sat up as she entered the room. Crossing to him with a smile on her face, she reached out to play with his hair. "How was your day?" she asked.

"Not bad. We have a suspect. He's supposed to come to talk to us in the morning."

"On Christmas?"

"To-Tomorrow is Christmas?"

He still wasn't used to the holidays enough to keep track of them. A mild panic gripped him. "Uh...Did you...?"

"Relax," she said softly. "Everything is set. Once they go to bed, Santa can put the presents under the tree."

He was quiet for a moment. "I...I would be lost without you, Alex."

She kissed him. "I know," she answered. Her fingers played with his curls again. "Your suspect...do you think he did it?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Is he going to show up?"

"He will, if he knows what's good for him. Otherwise his tiny 93-year-old grandmother will tear him apart."

She laughed, and the sound made him smile. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her into his lap. She smelled the pot on him, and she appreciated his good mood. "Let's take a shower before the kids come home."

He nuzzled her neck, which made her squirm and heated his blood. She tickled him and slid from his grasp. "Come on," she invited.

He got up and trotted after her.

She stroked his chest, over and over, following the same path around his scars, and he drifted in the twilight between sleep and wakefulness. When her fingers changed their rhythm and drifted down to his belly, he opened his eyes and looked at her. "I still like you this way," she whispered. "You're..." she trailed off, not quite sure which adjective she wanted to use.

"Not angry?" he offered.

"Not difficult," she amended.

He nodded, accepting her assessment and agreeing with it. She kissed his mouth, lingering so he could kiss her back. He sighed. "I'm trying to learn how to not be...difficult...when I'm sober. It's...It's hard."

"Of course it's hard. You're trying to change a life-long pattern of behavior. You have a lot of anger stored inside you. It has to go somewhere."

"I don't know why I can't just let it go."

"Maybe because it's been part of you for so long, you don't know how to be you without it."

He thought about that, and it made his head spin. He smiled, then softly laughed. "Then maybe I have to become another me."

"I don't think I'd like that," she answered. "I love the you you are."

"But you said you like me stoned, less difficult."

She smiled. "That's the easy part. I'm okay with the hard part, too."

He found that funny, and he laughed, turning over to pin her against the bed. She was more than okay with the hard part.

Alex was in the kitchen, making dinner, when the front door popped open, followed by the sounds of happy children. She turned the heat down on the burner so the potatoes wouldn't boil over, and she stepped into the living room to greet her children with hugs and kisses. "Where's Daddy?" Maggie asked from where she knelt with Harry, hugging Zeus.

"He'll be down shortly," Alex promised.

Mischief came into the room to greet the children, and Tommy picked her up, sitting in the middle of the floor with the cat in his lap. Mike took off Molly's snowsuit and set her down on the floor. She crawled over to Tommy. The little boy gently coached his baby sister. "Nice!"

He ran his hand along the cat's back to demonstrate. "See? Nice!"

Molly reached out and patted Mischief in the middle of her back. Tommy grasped her hand and eased it lightly along Mischief's back. "Nice," he repeated patiently.

Molly squealed, and the cat decided the lesson had gone on long enough. She squirmed out of Tommy's lap and walked off. Molly giggled and crawled over to Zeus. Tommy followed her and continued the lesson.

Alex smiled at her son's endless supply of kindness and patience before turning to Mike and Denise. "Thank you for watching them."

"It was a pleasure," Denise assured her, holding Sam in her arms. "I love your children."

Alex moved the edge of the blanket off Sam's face and smiled at his sweetness. "They weren't too much for you?"

"Not at all. And Maggie is a great help. We had a fun day."

"How are the roads?"

"Getting slick," Mike answered.

Alex thought for a moment. "You should spend the night. The roads are only going to get worse."

"Are you sure, Alex?" Denise asked. She was worried about how Bobby would react to dinner. Staying the night was a completely different matter...

"I'm positive. Mike has a room upstairs and we have a cradle you can use for Sam."

Denise looked at Mike who shrugged, leaving it up to her. "If you're sure..." Denise said.

With a smile, Alex said, "I'm positive. Now, dinner will be ready soon. Make yourself comfortable." She shifted her attention to Mike. "You, go see if Bobby is coming down."

"I've been reduced to a pronoun," Mike complained.

"Go," Alex repeated.

He trudged off for the stairs. Alex and Denise shared a smile and Alex returned to the kitchen. Denise took off her sleeping baby's snowsuit and laid him in the playpen. While Maggie and Harry joined the two little ones at the toy box to play, she joined Alex in the kitchen.

Mike knocked on the bedroom door and pushed it open. Bobby had just pulled on a shirt. "Hey," he greeted.

"How you feeling?" Mike asked.

"I'm okay. Good. Hungry."

Mike grinned. "Glad to hear it."

Bobby sat on the bed and pulled on his socks and a pair of sneakers. Mike shoved his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out a thin, rectangular box. He handed it to his friend. A dozen joints were nestled inside it.

"I trust the source," Mike said unnecessarily.

"Thanks," Bobby replied.

He tucked the box into his pocket. Mike clapped his shoulder. "Come on. The girls are waiting."

Bobby froze in place, mildly confused. "Girls?"

"Yeah."

"Uh, uhm, which girls?" he asked, hoping that Mike was referring to Maggie and Molly.

"Our girls," Mike answered.

"The kids?"

"And the wives."

"Wives? D-Denise is here?"

"Yeah. Is that a problem?"

"Uh, not for me."

"Well, Alex invited her, so I assume it's not for her either."

"Al-Alex invited her?"

"Yeah, as a thank you for watching the kids, who had a blast today, by the way."

"I don't doubt that," Bobby answered, still puzzled by his wife's invitation.

He grabbed a lighter from the dresser and tucked it into his pocket, then followed Mike out of the room. If he tried for a thousand centuries, he would never understand his wife. Maybe that was because he was never meant to understand her. He knew she harbored strong feelings of resentment and jealousy for Denise, but it seemed that access to those negative feelings fluctuated, and he didn't understand that. He had a feeling he never would.

When Bobby and Mike stepped into the living room, Maggie was the first to see them. Her face lit up when she saw her father and she happily squeaked his name, jumping to her feet to run to him. The other children followed suit and Bobby knelt on the floor to greet all four children. Harry was quickly forgetting his shy reserve in favor of his siblings' enthusiasm for the adults they loved. Harry's little heart was expanding to gather more people than Maggie and Alex.

Once the kids went back to their play, Mike and Bobby went into the kitchen, where Alex and Denise were putting the finishing touches on dinner and laughing together. Mike stepped up behind Denise and hugged her from behind, but Bobby hesitated in the doorway, just watching. Alex looked over at him. "What's wrong?"

"This," he said, waving his hand at her and Denise. "I...I don't know what to do with...with this."

The two women exchanged looks. They had just been discussing how Bobby would react to their new-found friendship, and they had both been right on the money. Denise leaned back into Mike's arms as Alex rinsed off her hands and, drying them on a towel, walked over to took his hands in hers and said, "It's okay, Bobby. Honestly, it is."

Despite her reassurance, he wasn't sure what to make of her sudden friendliness with Denise, and he was even less sure of how to behave when the women were together. He didn't want to exacerbate Alex's jealousy, so he didn't feel free to be at ease when Denise was around. One wrong move—a look, a word, anything—and he would be back in the doghouse. He hated fighting with his wife.

He touched her waist and drew her against him, kissing her forehead. "I, uhm, I..."

"Eloquent," she teased when he said nothing more.

He drew a deep breath and finally said, "I'm gonna go outside for a minute. It's...really hot in here."

Kissing her forehead again, he looked at Mike and Denise before leaving the room. Mike stepped away from his wife and addressed both women. "You realize that he still expects some degree of animosity between you, don't you? He wants you girls to get along, but he doesn't think you can, or he doesn't understand how you can, or something like that. He's really uncomfortable, and he will be until he figures you two out. He's just not used to getting what he wants...ever."

He walked to the kitchen doorway. In the living room, he watched the sliding door slowly close. He looked around the room, and then he smiled. Maggie had gone outside to see her daddy.

Bobby walked to the end of the deck, where the wind picked up and swirled around him. The snow they had been promising for the past three days had finally materialized. His hands were shaking as he lit the hand-rolled joint and he had only taken two deep draws on it when he heard the door behind him slide open, then closed. He expected Mike, so he was caught completely by surprise when a little voice asked, "Is Santa coming tonight, Daddy?"

He almost dropped the smoke. Quickly, he extinguished the end and stowed the joint back in its case, slipping it into his pocket. He turned to face his little girl. "Santa? Uh...yes...yes, he is, baby."

Maggie stepped to the edge of the deck and looked up into the falling snow. "It's a good thing it's snowin', then. Santa's reindeer likes snow." She walked back to her father and rested her hand on his thigh. "Can I talk to you, Daddy? Not about Santa. About other stuff...like when Grampa died...and...when I see'd D'nise last time."

His stomach clenched as he brushed off a chair and sat down, lifting Maggie onto his knee. "What other stuff, mouse?"

"'Member when I see'd the angels? The ones that taked Grampa to heaven?"

How could he forget the icy fear that gripped him when he thought that maybe his beloved little girl had inherited her grandmother's schizophrenia? Even now, he felt that fear return. "I remember."

"'Member that the angels were waitin' for D'nise?"

He remembered the sick feeling he'd gotten in his gut when she'd told him that. "Yes."

He wanted to hurry the conversation along so it would be over, but he didn't want to appear disinterested. He wasn't. He was afraid.

"The angels are gone, Daddy. It's not her time to go with them."

"Do you still see them?"

"Sometimes. They..." She looked down at the snow that swirled around on the deck. "Sometimes..."

He thought he heard a little sob. "Sometimes what, honey?"

"They're watchin' you, Daddy."

He pulled her closer and held her against his chest. "Try not to worry, baby. I'm gonna be just fine. It's gonna be a long while yet before they're ready to take me."

"They aren't so sure about you, Daddy. Sometimes, they go away, but they al'ays come back. When are they gonna be able to stay away?"

He kissed her head. "Soon. Dr. Bergman is trying to make me better. He just needs a chance."

"What kinda chance?"

"He needs time."

Maggie looked at her hands. "The angels can't wait f'rever,"

He nodded. "I'll see if I can put 'em off just long enough. Okay?"

She rested her head against him and played with his shirt, not sure the angels were going to let him put them off. Tonight, there was time. The angels had gone away. But they wouldn't stay gone, and Maggie didn't know when they would be back or if they would go away again empty-handed.