Christmas Time Is Here: Academy Exclusives

Waiting...

"Why aren't they here yet...?" Gabriel practically whined. "I want to open presents and play with what we got."

Kota pushed his glasses up and peered at his brother. "You know we have to wait. It's tradition."

"We were doing Christmas at the Lee's for years before we joined up with them." Luke said, reaching for a cookie.

Silas and North glanced at each other and shrugged. They didn't see any reason to fuss about the fact that it was already 1 pm. Sure, it would be nice to be opening presents but compared to the Christmas' they'd each experienced before coming to the states, it wasn't a bad thing to have to wait. They'd each been around for 3 Christmas at the Lee's total. "Still nice." Silas grunted and reached for a cookie of his own, his hand hovering over the plate before he chose a pecan tassie. They reminded him a bit of his mother's baklava.

Victor shrugged as well. "There's still plenty to do." He said. "We can watch a movie while we wait." He suggested as Jessica slid into the room in her socks, Max barking slightly at her as he ran in after her.

"Movie sounds good." She said brightly. She pushed her glasses up and looked at them. "Mom said we could give Max his stocking and she'd make a new batch of cocoa if we want it while we watch a movie. She also said we can eat the rest of last night's pizza."

Nathan reached out and gently tugged on one of her pigtails. "Sounds good, squirt." He said. "We can go watch the Home Alone movies again. Those are always good for a laugh."

Jessica reached for a candy cane cookie. "If you want." She said. She looked at Kota. "When are Owen and Sean getting here?" she asked, taking a bite.

"Mom said soon. Sean was sick all night, I guess." Kota said.

"Oh, that's too bad. It's never fun to be sick for Christmas." She said before looking at Luke. "If they're too late in the day, maybe your Uncle will be here with dinner before we open presents." She said. "I always feel bad that he gets here after we've opened them all." She commented before whistling for Max and going into the living room.

Gabriel ran his hands through his hair. "Guess we've been told by the 10 year old." He said. "Damn if she wasn't right though. It does suck to be sick at Christmas and Uncle DOES always miss out on present opening."

Luke nodded. "I hadn't thought about it that way." He said, getting up to pull out the pizza that Erica had said they could eat. "We might as well warm this up and take it as a tray into the living room while we watch movies." He said.

"For what it's worth..." Victor started before running his hand over his hair. They all looked at him before he continued. "My favorite memories are here at Christmas. Christmas here is way better than staying at my house and dealing with my parents. They've never cared what I did on Christmas so I'm grateful that your mom came up with the idea all those years ago."

Kota smiled. "Me too. Although if we ask her, she'll probably say that she got the idea when we were 3."

Erica came through the kitchen with her coffee mug. "I got what idea when you were 3?" she asked, setting her mug down before filling it with coffee and adding eggnog to it instead of creamer.

"Christmas at the Lee's" Nathan said, getting up and stretching.

She smiled. "Oh yes. One of my more brilliant ideas actually and yes, I should give credit where credit is due." She said, turning her smile up a notch brighter and looking at all of them.

"What do you mean?" Silas finally asked.

"It's Kota's idea." She said.

"He was three." North said, puzzled as his brows drew inward and he frowned.

"Yes." Erica nodded, moving next to Luke as she put an arm around his shoulders. "And he told me that he asked Santa to make sure his friend Luke had a good Christmas because he didn't want Luke to be lonely." She gave Luke's shoulder a squeeze. "Luke only had Uncle and he was staying at our house a lot of the time anyway. That first Christmas, he was the only one that stayed overnight but the rest of you, were brought over by your parents on Christmas day and they were here too and we all opened presents together after Uncle got off work and brought a Christmas feast over."

"Oh." Gabriel nodded. "I don't remember that one exactly but we used to wait, didn't we?"

Victor smiled. "That's right. I don't think we cared that much about having to wait for the longest time."

"We'd have breakfast and then you always had a game or movie for us to play or watch while the adults had breakfast and coffee. Well, our mom's I guess." Nathan mused.

"And Victor's nanny." Erica smiled and drank some coffee. "So cheer up, fellas. It won't be long now, Owen just called to say that Sean woke up and they're going to be here soon. I bet you won't get to the second movie before we're opening presents."

Gabriel hooted and did a little dance move before he, Nathan and Victor headed into the living room to find the movie and to settle in with Jessica. Kota, Silas and North followed slower, and not before North grabbed the pizza tray from Luke and Kota filled up his and Silas' arms with bottles of water.

"Erica..." Luke said softly and she turned to look at him.

"Yes, monkey boy?"

He smiled at the nickname. "Thank you." He said. "For always looking out for us and having Christmas here so that we'd have something to look forward to."

"Oh Luke." She smiled and pulled him into a hug. "It's always been my pleasure, sweetie. I love all my cubs." She said before ruffling his hair.

His face lit up at her words. "I just wanted you to know that it means a lot." He said, giving her an exuberant hug before he took off for the living room.

Erica sipped her coffee and found herself lost in thought of Christmas past and the friends she used to be able to share the day with.

(Fade...)