A/N: One more, because I can't quit these two no matter how hard I try. Y'all have areyouserial to thank for the picture that inspired this chapter, which wasn't going to exist, but here we are. Enjoy and have a lovely Christmas!

12 years and 6 days later

"Mommy. Daddy? Mommy!"

That's all the warning Jamie gets before he feels movement on the bed by his feet, and then all the air thuds out of his lungs when the weight of a small body drops suddenly onto him where he sleeps on his side.

"Ouch - who's - Alex-" he mumbles.

His six-year-old daughter's foot passes a little too close to his face as she clambers over him to the middle of the bed to get to her mommy. "Mommy!" she says again in a loud, strained whisper. "Santa came!"

Jamie hears the quiet noises of Eddie waking up behind his back. "Good, baby," she manages through a yawn. "But it's not time to wake up yet…"

"Yes it is, come on!" There's a thump against Jamie's spine as Alexis moves around some more and he shifts, groaning, onto his back.

"In a few minutes," Eddie says. "Come snuggle with me."

Cracking one eye open, Jamie sees Eddie untangle her arms from the comforter and reach for Alexis but Alexis crawls away, down and off the foot of the bed using the bench there. She scampers out of the room as Jamie calls behind her, his voice still raspy from sleep, "Don't open the gate yet, okay?"

"She can't open the gate," Eddie assures him.

"Today would be the day she figures it out."

"Or just climbs over it."

"She better not."

Shifting, Eddie squints towards her nightstand in the darkness before she adjusts closer and tucks herself against Jamie's side. "Alexis at 5:42," she murmurs, her breath warm against his neck. "I win."

Jamie looks at his own clock and groans wearily as he confirms that Eddie's right, she's won their little bet on which kid at what time would bring this morning's wakeup call. They got to bed earlier last night than past Christmas Eves thanks to Jamie's religious commitment to wrapping presents as they were purchased this year, but he'd still love another hour or two of sleep before they fully unleash the chaos of Christmas morning-

Footsteps, and he hardly has time to brace for impact as their bed is invaded once again. Alexis has brought reinforcements this time, her twin brother Leo and eight-year-old Joey, and they tip to hands and knees to crawl up near their parents' heads.

"Wake up wake up wake up!" they cry, abandoning the whispering-only-in-Mom-and-Dad's-bed rule in their excitement. Eddie hooks one arm around somebody's middle - Leo's - and flips him over herself onto his back on top of the covers where her body is against Jamie's underneath. Jamie inches closer to the edge of the king bed that felt much too big when they bought it but now, with three - no, four, as the youngest, Max, stretches her arms at him to be lifted up to the bed - extra bodies squished in between, he wonders how much it would cost to convert the entire bedroom floor into a mattress.

"Shh - snuggle, just for a minute, it's not wake up time yet," Eddie murmurs. But the kids want no part of a calm, relaxed morning and even once Jamie and Eddie manage to coax and wrestle everyone into lying down, the writhing bodies leave them hopeless for any more rest.

Jamie gives up first, literally kicked out of his own bed by the tiny cold feet that won't quit moving under the covers. He slides out of bed and smiles to himself when he sees the four small bodies squirming and shifting under the comforter next to the stillness of Eddie trying to postpone the inevitable as long as she can. But now that his dad has gotten up, Joey slinks out from under Eddie's arm and untangles himself from the covers and it's all over, everyone is up for good.

In the bathroom Jamie takes a minute to wake up and pulls plaid pajama pants over the boxers he slept in - Eddie's a sucker for cutesy stuff like matching Christmas pajamas - before returning to the bedroom. Eddie sits up in bed now, raking her shoulder-length blonde hair out of her face with one hand while she tries to wrangle Max with the other. Eddie manages to gather most of the two-year-old's bedhead tangles into a ponytail before she wriggles away and Jamie starts to herd the crowd out of the room to give Eddie a quick second to herself.

"I wanna see what's in my stocking!" Leo pipes up.

"Stop stepping on my foot!"

"Stop putting your foot where my foot is stepping!"

Jamie works his way through the elbows flying between Alexis and Joey, warning them to cut it out before he gets to the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs. He works it open and then Joey, Alexis and Leo fly past him to get a closer look at the haul beneath the tree in the front window.

"Don't touch anything!" Jamie says. "Remember, you can bring your stockings to the kitchen but you can't touch anything else. Let's go."

Everyone grabs their stockings. Jamie helps Max with hers and it feels like some sort of unfair arms length wrestling match to keep four very distracted kids away from the sprawl of gifts under the tree - but that's how every day of parenting four kids feels and he soon steers them all to the kitchen table without grabby hands tearing open any wrapping paper, so he considers that a success.

"Are we having cimanin rolls?"

"Cinnamon, stupid," Joey snaps.

"Yes but we have to bake them first," Jamie says. "Joey, come on…"

Max - definitely her mother's daughter - has crawled from her booster seat onto the table because the bowl of fruit there is more enticing than a giant fancy sock, no matter how enthusiastically her siblings dump and dig and shake to make sure there's nothing stuck at the bottom of theirs. Jamie catches her - "Margaret Marie, no climbing on the table!" - and sets her down, buckling her in this time before he sets a whole apple in her hands. Then he returns to his task of turning on the oven to bake the cinnamon rolls that were prepared from scratch in a great production after Christmas Eve mass then left to rise overnight.

"What did you get? Show me, guys!" Eddie sings, entering the kitchen in the same plaid flannel everyone else wears. A yawn gives away her lingering exhaustion but her eyes sparkle in anticipation of the day ahead, one of her favorites of the year.

"Joey said I was getting coal but I didn't!" Alexis says triumphantly.

"Joey was joking," Jamie assures her from across the kitchen.

"No I wasn't, Santa really gives you coal if you're on the-"

"Nobody here is on the naughty list except for boys who're mean to their brother and sisters," Eddie says. She verifies that Jamie has gotten coffee started and slides onto a chair. "Show me! What did Santa leave you?"

The kids excitedly show off the small random toys from their stockings and even Max is engaged now that she's caught up to what's going on. It's enough to occupy them for a few minutes so Eddie gets up to help Jamie - Christmas breakfast is a giant affair, bacon and eggs and fruit in addition to the cinnamon rolls and it's gotten harder to keep up each year as the kids have grown more impatient for presents, but it's such a highlight for Eddie that Jamie's determined to make it happen.

And, well, it's easier if everyone's fed so he won't have to listen to five cranky voices melting down in hunger the moment the last gift is unwrapped.

"Okay! Breakfast, coming up," he announces.

"Toast and peanut butter please!" Alexis yells.

"We're having Christmas breakfast, silly girl," Eddie tells her. She leans down to pull a frying pan from a lower cabinet and Jamie has to step around her on his way to the fridge.

"Hey," he teases. "You're in my way."

"Oh yeah? I'm in your way? How about now? Now? Now?"

Jamie's head ducks in laughter and he tries to defend his workspace as Eddie sidles up behind him, reaching arms around his body to grab for whatever she can reach. She comes up with milk and a random container of leftovers, which she waves in his face until he catches her wrist and pulls the leftovers away.

"Don't mess around in the kitchen, Mommy," he teases, and she offers a grinning wink over her shoulder as she tears open a pack of bacon.

The oven beeps to announce that it's up to temperature and Jamie slides the cinnamon rolls in. Within minutes their scent competes with the aromas of bacon and coffee in a delicious combination which reminds Jamie that his wife's never-ending appetite isn't the only reason breakfast happens before presents around here.

Joey's the first one to leave his stocking presents at the table and make his way over. "Are you making cheesy eggs?"

"Yep, grab some plates please," Eddie says, handing him half a piece of bacon from towel-lined plate of cooked strips.

"I want bacon!" Max screeches.

"Come get some," Eddie says. "And ask kindly."

"Please!" she cries, as Jamie leans close to Eddie to tell her that Max is strapped into her seat.

"What? Why?"

"She was climbing and I only have so many hands."

"Well here, find a hand for this." Eddie hands him the bacon tongs and he mans both skillets while she goes to release the toddler before her impatient whining escalates any further.

Alexis slides off her chair and heads for the stove, where she wraps one arm around Jamie's leg and says something that Jamie translates as Can I have some bacon?

"Ask like a big girl," he tells her. "Daddy can't understand when you talk like a baby."

"CanIhavesomebaconplease?" she almost growls, still in a goofy voice but at least she's annunciating better than Max again.

"Okay, yep, get a plate."

But the colorful plastic plates Joey produces are quickly forgotten on the kitchen island as everyone gathers near the stove. Leo and Alexis can't reach everything from the stepstool they share so they both climb onto the counter where they can gobble up fresh strips of bacon as soon as they come off the heat. Max takes their spot on the stool and scavenges, working that devilish little grin of hers that earn her just about anything she wants from her parents and siblings. And Joey stands, eating cheesy scrambled eggs straight out of the pan with a fork. Jamie would tell him that's a bad idea, except Eddie does the same thing.

The cinnamon rolls cool for a moment before Eddie pours homemade frosting all over them and hands them out. Soon four small faces and two grownup ones, as well as all associated hands, are covered in sugary goodness and Grandma Betty would not approve of this big a mess occurring because of anything that comes from a recipe of hers, but washcloths and sinks exist for a reason and frosting tastes really good when licked from sticky fingers.

"Is it time for presents?" Alexis asks.

"Yes! Let's go!"

"Ah - wait!" Jamie lunges to catch Joey's arm before he can break free into the living room. "Wash your hands."

"And wipe your face!" Eddie adds. "Come here Maxie, let Mommy clean you up. I know, I know…"

Joey grabs the dishtowel that hangs over the oven handle and smears it once over his mouth. "Can I go?"

Jamie chuckles at his enthusiasm. "Nope, you've still got a little..."

He wets a cloth and goes down the line, cleaning the older three's faces despite their protests. Eddie guards their path away from the sink so she can check everyone's hands, and finally both parents are satisfied that everyone is sort of reasonably clean enough to head for the living room.

"Check the tags before you open anything!" Jamie shouts. "Be careful, okay? Don't be rough. Wait, wait-"

To keep the kids from tearing everything open in thirty seconds, Eddie turns handing out presents into a game. Joey sees through the ruse and pouts a little about the delays but Leo and Alexis love reading the labels and passing gifts to their recipients. Having them take turns playing Santa as everyone opens one or two gifts at a time manages the chaos just enough for Jamie and Eddie to enjoy everyone's delighted reactions - and make sure that Max doesn't get too much unsolicited help as she claws at wrapping paper a little slower than the big kids. They didn't go overboard with presents this year - eight years and four kids into this whole parenting gig there aren't many toys they don't already own - but it's not like the kids know that. They're too excited about more Legos and chapter books and stuffed animals as well as useful gifts like lunchboxes and water bottles featuring characters from each kid's favorite TV show. They're pretty easy to please.

"Mommy! This one says you," Alexis announces. She hops across the cluttered living room floor to deliver a small brown bag hand-decorated with stickers and glitter, sealed at the top with red and green ribbon through punched holes.

"Oh! Who's this from?" Eddie asks.

"Me!"

"I made one for you, Dad!" Leo says. Looking around, he finds an identical package under the tree and drops it on Jamie's lap.

"Can we open them?" Jamie wonders.

"Joey - let her open it by herself. She can do it," Eddie interrupts to stop Joey from ripping the paper off the noisy book on Max's lap.

"Open it!" Alexis urges, bouncing the same way her mom does when she's excited.

Jamie and Eddie share a quiet smile before gingerly untying the ribbons to open each bag. At the same time they reach their hands in and pull out the art project from the first grade Christmas party at St. Jude's last week - foam picture frame ornaments displaying two different photos of the twins wearing huge Christmas lightbulb necklaces in front of their classroom nativity bulletin board.

"Thank you so much, guys! I love it!" Eddie gushes. "We'll put both of them on the tree right now."

Jamie thanks them too and he gets up behind Eddie to follow once she finds a spot for the frame she opened. But he's slower to sit back down for the last few gifts, including three new bikes and the big kids' hand-me-down tricycle, repainted pink by a certain grandpa with too much time on his hands, that wait in the garage. He can't wait to work on the twins' two-wheeler skills but for the moment the thought is out of his mind as he places Leo's frame on the tree. He finds its spot near three other frame ornaments, all near the top of the tree where fascinated toddlers can't reach - one is Alexis's that Eddie just hung up, and next to it is a metal frame, not handmade by an elementary schooler, showing off last year's visit with Santa during Jamie's lieutenant promotion party at the precinct.

The third is one Jamie has teased Eddie about for twelve years now. She thinks he's joking when he tells her every year that it's his favorite thing on their tree, and maybe once upon a time he was. But now the sentimental attachment he feels for Eddie's faded second grade yearbook picture runs deep through his existence, so much so that he's repaired the thing with tape and hot glue more than once. He's never been sure exactly why he loves it so much - he's seen plenty of other pictures of his wife from the days before she was a badass NYPD detective, and most of those are better quality than this one on regular old printer paper. So no, as much as he loves the picture itself, that's not it.

It must have something to do with that first off-duty Christmas they sort of shared together, back when any future family was a distant figment of his imagination. But that day, that distant figment moved a little bit closer - like it was the first real step on this years-long journey of figuring out that reality is so much better than anything he could've dreamed.