Christmas had always been a source of mixed feelings in Jacob Stone. On one hand, he appreciated the feelings of nostalgia it brought on, the reminders of a simpler time when the whole family would get together for food, festivities, and—inevitably—fights. He liked to bring his nieces and nephews trinkets from his travels, and he liked the way they gathered around to hear him explain where they were from and how he got them. He liked that he didn't have to make things up for the kids. He told the truth, and they listened with rapt attention even after their parents said not to believe any of Uncle Jake's wild stories.

But there were plenty of bad memories surrounding the holiday, things Jake preferred not to dwell on. He knew he wasn't the only one—Baird was still irritable every December, despite Cassie's attempts to draw her into the holiday spirit, and Jones had a tendency to disappear from Christmas to New Year. Even Cassie, who openly loved the holidays, always had a little bit of wistfulness in her voice when she talked about her favorite traditions, and he often wondered how many of them she had made up as an adult.

This year, however, was going to be different. This year Jake would be spending Christmas with his entire family, including the two brothers who had been absent for two-thirds of his life. It had been about six months since Jake's unexpected reunion with Eliot and Alex, and so far they'd kept up communication like they'd said they would. Sometimes it was phone calls, at all hours of the day depending on when the others had time to call. Sometimes it was texts relaying something about a job that the sender thought his brothers would appreciate, or clarifying details for their upcoming visit. This would be the first time they'd seen each other in person again since their adventure in the Philippines.

Most of that was Jake's fault. He was the one with the magic door, after all; if he'd wanted to, he could have gotten them together in minutes. And it wasn't that he didn't want to. But they were busy, and he was busy, and it was okay to wait.

Jake blinked down at the book spread on the desk before him and sighed. This was part of the work that had kept him so busy. When Jake had gone to the Philippines six months ago, it was so he could retrieve an artifact known as the Ring of Harmony. He'd brought back much more than that. Flores, the man who had been using the Ring, also had a storage container filled with over two dozen previously assumed-to-be-lost artifacts. Jenkins had been so excited he threatened to kiss Jake "cowboy boots and all", a sentiment which Jake appreciated but declined. They'd spent the better part of three months just trying to categorize them all, and by the time Jake had time to look into the person Flores had supposedly stolen the artifacts from, there was another apocalypse to stop.

They'd gotten pretty good at preventing those over the years and so were able to solve the crisis in a little over two months ("Almost a record!" Cassie exclaimed as they dragged themselves back into the Library after the final battle), finally leaving Jake enough time to focus on his research.

Three weeks later, he still knew little more than the Curator's name. Jenkins had heard rumors of the title, but not much else, and Jake had only been able to find the word written as a proper noun in two texts. One dated back to the 1860s and mentioned a Curator working with the British Museum to collect artifacts from India, and the other was about a Vermeer painting stolen by a team of Nazis led by "der Kurator" during WWII.

Which meant the Curator had to be a title that passed from person to person—or else the Curator was immortal. He was leaning more toward the former, since it was unlikely that Jenkins didn't know about the existence of another immortal. But even after he expanded his research to include modern texts and news reports, information about the Curator was just... absent. It was as if the Curator ceased to exist after WWII.

But Flores had stolen a storage container full of artifacts from her, so she was obviously out there somewhere. Jake just had to figure out where.

"Whatcha doing?"

Jake jumped as Cassie leaned over his desk; he'd been so focused on the news article on his laptop that he hadn't heard her come in. "Just reading," he answered, trying to keep the sullenness out of his voice. He was no stranger to slow research, but almost a month of no answers was starting to get to him.

She peered at his screen and frowned. "The Curator again? Are you absolutely sure she's real?"

"If she's not, Flores seemed awful scared of a lady that doesn't exist."

"I just... how can there be someone this old, this involved in artifacts, that we don't know about?" She perched on the edge of the desk, legs swinging. "Maybe Flores was mistaken."

"I don't think so," Jake said. "My gut's telling me this is a real thing."

Cassie tilted her head. "Alright. Tell you what—I'll help you research after the holidays. If you take a break now."

"A break for what?" he asked warily.

"Don't make that face, I'm not going to ask you to decorate a gingerbread house or anything. I just need help hanging garland."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? Baird didn't exactly love the decorations last year."

Cassie jumped off the desk and grinned. "She'll love them this time! Flynn wasn't here last year, so she was crabby about everything. This year will be different."

Reluctantly, Jake closed his laptop—he had a hard time saying no when Cassie got this bouncy—and followed her to the main room of the annex. She'd already set up a tree tall enough to make use of the high ceilings, fully lit with white lights and colored glass ornaments.

"How'd you get the star on top?" Jake asked.

"Oh—Excalibur. It took a couple tries, but we made it work."

"Why not just ask Excalibur to help you with the garland?"

Cassie crossed her arms. "Because it took him half an hour to get the star right, and I can only scratch his pommel so many times before he decides it's not worth the effort. Besides, we should all decorate together!"

"I don't see Jones," Jake grumbled, already reaching for a box of decorations. "Or Jenkins or Baird or Flynn."

"They were all busy."

"I was busy!"

She picked a string of garland out of his box and started wrapping it around the bannister. "I really appreciate your help."

Jake sighed. He knew how important family time was to Cassie, especially around the holidays, so he couldn't begrudge her this one favor. Besides, he didn't really mind—he hadn't decorated his apartment in years, since he barely spent any time there, and it was nice to have a space that felt festive.

They worked in silence for a while, but tasks rarely stayed quiet when Cassie was a part of them. "You're spending Christmas at home this year?" she asked, a little too innocently.

Jake smiled. It was no secret that he'd had problems with his family—hell, she'd seen some of it in person—but her tone made it clear that she was trying to satisfy her curiosity while leaving him an out if he didn't want to talk. "Yeah," he answered. "Back in Oklahoma. My brothers are coming home too."

"The ones you met up with in the Philippines?" she asked.

"Yep."

"How long has it been since you've all gotten together?"

"With the whole family?" He paused as if he had to think about it, but he knew the answer immediately. "I was 16. Then Eliot left when he turned 18, and that's the last I saw of him. But my other siblings stuck around, so I've seen them every year."

For a moment Cassie was quiet, focusing on the silvery garland in her hands, and Jake wondered if she was thinking about her family. She didn't talk about them much, and when she did the memories she shared weren't exactly what he would call warm. "It'll be nice to all get together again," she said finally. She was smiling, but that distant sadness was back in her eyes, and Jake said the first thing he could think of to get rid of it.

"Do you want to meet them?"

She blinked at him. "Really?"

"Sure," Jake said. "Eliot and Alex are coming to town a few days early so we can catch up before the family events. We can all get dinner or something if you want."

"Really?" Her excited bounce was back, though now Jake had the sinking feeling he was going to come to regret his offer.

But he kept his smile warm as he tied off a string of garland. "Yeah. I'm sure they won't mind." Probably. As long as she didn't ask too many questions.

"Then—yes! Thank you!" She beamed at him and retrieved a tiny wreath from the box of decorations. "Where should we go? What kind of food do they like? We could take them anywhere! You know, somewhere nice. What were you thinking?"

He hadn't thought of anything in particular, and now seemed like a good chance to pass off the responsibility of the decision. "What do you think?"

"In Portland?"

"Anywhere."

Though he wouldn't have thought it possible, her expression got even brighter. "Okay! I'll start thinking about it. When are they coming?"

"Tomorrow."

"Perfect! Then we have plenty of time to finish decorating before they arrive!"

Jake sighed and accepted another wreath from her. He had a feeling he wasn't going to get any more research done today.