Merry Christmas lovies!

Here we are, the twenty-chapter mark. This is officially the longest multi-chapter fic I have ever written (well, it has been for a few chapters, but twenty is more impressive, wouldn't you say?). I'm pretty proud. Thank you so much for sticking with me. Here's to the next twenty!

Disclaimer: History things are from my general knowledge (if I research it might come across that way rather than general knowledge, so …)

Chapter Twenty

"What is Christmas?" asked Sky, on the twenty-first of December, as she, Jenny, Luke, Gwen, Rhys and Jack sat down to start the third season of How I Met Your Mother, an early Christmas gift to her from Gwen.

Gwen, Rhys and Jack exchanged brief looks, before Gwen announced that she was making hot chocolate, and Rhys that he had to check on Anwen.

"Just because I've lived longer," Jack grumbled.

"Hey, it's not our fault," Jenny replied, as Sky leaned into her shoulder. "How are we supposed to know this stuff?"

"Books? The internet? Asking anyone else but me."

Sky looked at Jack with an exaggerated pout. "Please?"

"Fine," Jack sighed heavily, though he smiled. "It started as a Pagan tradition, I think. The Winter Solstice. They prayed for the sun to return. Then Christianity became popular, and to try and get Pagans to join their religion, they pegged it as Jesus' birthday."

"What's Christmas nowadays, then?" asked Luke.

A sly grin spread across Jack's face. "A party."

"Think you've got enough tinsel?" asked Gwen, with an amused smile, from where she observed Jenny and Sky's work. They were turning the hub into a bright, cheery, Christmas-y place.

Jenny shot the Welshwoman a sardonic look from the top of the step-ladder. "After Halloween, are you really surprised?"

"To be honest, no," she replied. "If you want to come down from your perch, there's coffee."

"Where's Jack?" asked Sky, selecting her drink, and noticing that there were only three.

"Looking for a Christmas tree."

"Seriously?" Jenny had reached the ground, and was now gaping at Gwen. "I was joking."

"Tell him that."

"Have we got baubles?"

Gwen sighed heavily. "There's some in the attic. We won't use them all on our tree."

"When are we getting our tree?" Jenny frowned.

"I gave Jack a few quid, so hopefully that's sorted it," said Gwen, taking a measured sip of her coffee. She grimaced.

"What's wrong?" asked Sky, ever observant.

"It tastes … awful."

"Maybe they gave you the wrong order," Jenny suggested, thought it seemed unlikely. They had been visiting that same coffee shop for months; their orders were known well.

"Maybe." Gwen didn't sound convinced. "I'll go home, get them baubles, and make myself a proper brew. Think you two can manage not to do any serious damage?"

Jenny smiled cheerily. "No promises!"

Gwen rolled her eyes and made her retreat.

Sky frowned at her coffee cup. "Mine tastes all right."

"Think there's something wrong with Gwen?"

"I hope not," Sky's brown eyes were earnest. "It must be awful to be sick at Christmas."

"Yeah," Jenny murmured absently, glancing around the hub. "It must be."

"What's wrong?" Sky pulled herself onto the table where their coffee cups rested.

"People are supposed to spend Christmas with their families, right? Well … I don't have a family. Not a proper one, at least. I never have."

Sky wrapped her arms around her from where she was sitting. "You've got us."

"Thanks, kiddo," Jenny murmured into her hair. They broke apart. "Now, where are we gonna put the tree?"

Sky's face was thoughtful. "The corner?"

"Gwen?" Jenny asked cautiously, as she approached the woman. Gwen, in the middle of something that involved lots of pieces of paper and a calculator (Christmas budgeting, she would later find out), looked up, an amused look on her face.

"What's wrong? I don't look that formidable in reading glasses, do I?"

Jenny laughed. "I was wondering if we could have a Christmas party."

"In the house?"

"Or the hub?"

"The hub?" Gwen repeated. "How many people are you planning on inviting?"

"Martha, Mickey, Amy and Rory, and River," she added as an almost afterthought. "If she's in the country … or on the planet. It's not an issue of space. I just thought it might be nicer."

Another twinkle of amusement shined in Gwen's eyes. "Are you saying the house isn't nice?"

This time, Jenny was prepared for the teasing. She folded her arms. "So what if I am?"

Gwen sighed, shaking her head. "It's because of the Christmas tree, isn't it? I shouldn't have let Jack buy it."

"We may have also decorated the hub just a little bit better."

"I'm sure Jack would be fine with it," she offered a smile, pulling her glasses back down. "Now, shoo, I have to figure out how much I have to spend on a turkey."

"So," said Jenny, unwrapping a candy cane as she leaned over Luke's shoulder. He side-eyed her. "What are you doing?"

"Coursework," he replied, deadpan, typing on his laptop at the kitchen table.

She plopped down on the chair beside him. "At Christmas?"

"It's the twenty-fourth of December."

"Otherwise known as Christmas Eve," Jenny frowned. "C'mon. Take a break, at least."

He ignored her.

"Please? Do it for Sky, if not me. She doesn't have you for long before you have to go back and be swamped in work. And the last while hasn't exactly been a picnic for her."

This caused Luke to look up, for the first time. His lip quirked. An almost-smile. "Emotional blackmail. Very human."

She beamed. "I try."

Christmas dinner was a grand affair of turkey, stuffing, and vegetables that reminded Jenny of cabbages.

("Brussel sprouts," said Rhys, almost gently, as Sky squinted at the vegetable, attempting to describe them as "weird green things".)

Jack joined them, with quite a lot of persuasion, and just the right amount of blackmail, on Gwen's part. So they had a party of seven for dinner (including Anwen, who had nothing but distaste towards the Brussel sprouts.)

After dinner, they opened the pile of gifts that had accumulated under the Christmas tree. Jenny was gifted a novel, a paper maché TARDIS (I made it when I was a little girl – Amy, read the note that was attached to it), a woolly hat (which she pulled over her ears with a grin) a lab coat (she glared at Jack, and he laughed. "But you made such a good scientist!"), a computer game that she could plug into her laptop, and a dress.

"Not a bad Christmas, huh?" asked Luke, sitting next to her on the sofa. The day had wound down, with Anwen in bed, and everyone else watching It's a Wonderful Life.

"I don't have any to compare it to," Jenny replied, hugging the cushion a little closer to her chest. "But I liked it. What about you?"

He nodded, glancing unsurreptitiously at Sky. Jenny understood. The last time Luke had celebrated Christmas, his sister hadn't been there, and his mother had.

"Luke," she murmured softly. His head snapped around to meet her eyes. She didn't say anything about Sarah Jane or Sky; instead, she smiled. "Merry Christmas."

"What is this?" asked Jenny, squinting at the tiny glass – that reminded her too much of a shot glass for her own liking – in her hand.

"Eggnog," Amy replied, as she breezed past, tinsel flying after her. "You drink it."

"Is it alcoholic?"

"Very," Martha grinned. Jenny placed the glass in her hands, with a muttered, "Never doing that again." Jack, who must have heard, laughed. Martha narrowed her eyes at him.

"What?"

"You got her drunk."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Martha placed a protective arm around Jenny's shoulders. The latter laughed, but provided an explanation. "I got myself drunk."

"Hmm." She didn't seem convinced. "And Jack had nothing to do with it, I suppose."

"It was her idea," Gwen defended, as she, too, passed by. She was organising food, while Amy 'fixed' the decorations (Sky still looked scandalised). "I did warn her against it."

"Apparently, most human twenty-one year olds drink a lot. I wanted to see what it was like."

Martha scoffed. "I could've told you that. But here," she handed her back the eggnog. "It's good; promise. And we'll keep an eye on you."

She left, with a smile, to aid Gwen. Jenny took a measured sip of the drink, pleasantly surprised that Martha's promise was true. She set down the empty glass, and promised herself she wouldn't get drunk on Boxing Day.

She kept it.

Mostly.

Well, she'd never have agreed to Martha's most blatant blackmail if she hadn't been the slightest bit tipsy. She held a mistletoe branch over Jenny and Luke's heads, and Gwen took pictures.

It wasn't a bad kiss, as they went. Then again, she'd only ever kissed one other person, and that had been to break her, her father and Donna out of prison.

"Make sure Maria isn't jealous of me, all right?" she said, grinning.

"We're not together," he replied, somewhat sheepishly. She sighed a long-suffering sigh.

"For God's sake, Luke! That would be a much better use of mistletoe."

Luke's sheepishness was immediately replaced by defensiveness. "Hey! I take offence!"

Jenny patted his head (she had to stand on her tiptoes to reach it). "You were an amazing kisser, how's that?"

"Better."

She watched from a slight distance as the, wondering where her father was, and what danger he was celebrating Christmas with. She fiddled with her mobile phone, wondering if it was worth her while to leave another message on top of the pile of others.

"Hey."

Jenny jumped, shoving her phone into her pocket as though the blank screen were something to be hidden. Jack looked at her for a few seconds.

"I'm sure he's all right." He paused, smiling. "Well, I can't promise he's not currently running for his life, but I'm sure he's all right."

"I hope so," she murmured. "Having no companions is dangerous for him, right?"

Jack sighed. "Rose was – she was special. He loved her. And losing her – it affected him. Life as long as ours are, you get to lose a lot of people."

She smiled wryly. "I'm not looking forward to it."

"Merry Christmas," said Jack, after a brief lapse of silence. She refrained from correcting him. It was the Christmas party, after all. He held something out to her. A present. She raised her eyebrows.

"I'm not that bad," he offered in explanation. She took the box from him, unwrapping it. Another arched eyebrow.

"In the spirit of the season."

She touched a finger to the ornate snowflake attached to the necklace. If she wasn't mistaken – and she rarely ever was – those were real diamonds. But it was Christmas, and she was ever so slightly drunk, so she didn't argue; merely allowed him to fasten it around her neck.

"Merry Christmas," she replied, turning her gaze to the Christmas tree, and staring until the lights blurred before her eyes.

It's a little more melancholic than I'd intended. But I am a mere slave to the wishes of this crazy lot *pats head*

See if you can spot a little hint I left behind this chapter. You'll find out what exactly it is in a little while, but it'd be so much more fun if you guessed.

Enjoy the Christmas Special tonight!