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Violet crawled into bed with him before dawn. At first he was startled by the additional person in his bed, calling for lights from a ship's computer that couldn't hear him from orbit, when she reached for his hand, he knew her by touch. Violet considered herself too grown up for her mothers' bed, but his was a different story. She curled up next to him, settling down once his arm was around her. He kissed her head and she slipped back into sleep.
Her hair was the darkest of Beverly and Kathryn's children. Elsa's was still too red to be auburn and Felix's was nearly orange in the right light. His schoolmates would have called him ginger. Violet didn't share his DNA, but she loved music, even his amateur flute. Jean-Luc settled his arm around her; the bed creaked as Rufus, Marie's huge barn cat settled on the foot. The dogs would be downstairs by the fire. Rufus was too big to be his little Miranda, but Jean-Luc was accustomed to a feline presence. Stella, Rufus' sister, would be around somewhere.
The weak light of dawn crept grey over the horizon outside his window. In the northern hemisphere, morning came late in the winter. The solstice was just past and darkness still reigned. Some fresh snow had fallen overnight, dusting the rough older snow with a new softness.
When they'd arrived yesterday, Miral and Gavin were both fearless and immediate started looking for the best place for a fort. Elsa was just old enough to be just like Miral, so the older children had headed off, leaving the little ones to run about with their parents nearby. Felix delighted in Will scooping up handfuls of snow and letting them fall back to the earth.
Deanna retreated in first. The balmy winter in France was cold for her and Kathryn followed, mentioning something about dinner. Tom and B'Elanna were both still on Voyager, but they'd arrive that evening, with Seven, who still wasn't wholly comfortable with being known as Annika. The house would be full to the brim. If any more of their shared families arrived, Violet wouldn't need to sneak into his bed because there wouldn't be enough to go around. They'd make do. One of Marie's more modern additions in the rebuilding was that the barn was had been remodeled for more sleeping space. Even if Harry Kim, Chakotay, Tuvok and T'Pel all arrived as rumoured, they'd fit.
It would be tight, but they'd fit.
It was another world away from his childhood Christmases. They'd been so neat then, orderly and beautiful. This Christmas celebration had been his foolish suggestion. Though he'd meant it as a whim, Beverly and Kathryn had taken the time off, the Titan was in the sector, Tom and B'Elanna jumped at the excuse to bring their kids and Christmas, the whimsical old holiday, had exploded into a menagerie of overlapping families and traditions.
Yesterday they'd bundled up the older children and headed out for a tree. He and Will had dragged it back, with the little Kathryn had had a real tree when she was young, but they'd never cut it down themselves. Will had Christmas trees in his childhood, but few of his memories had been that rosy. Beverly'd had a tree every year on Caldos and insisted they get a real one, even if the needles did make a mess.
Jean-Luc still had some of his mother's ornaments, and more importantly, her créche. The tiny figures were over a century old. They'd been his grandmother's and her mother's before that. They'd been in storage and escaped the fire. He wouldn't have had the will to take them all out and look at them, one at a time as they went up, but the children made it cheerful instead of melancholy.
Felix had tried sucking on one of the glass icicles and Gavin had nearly gnawed the hat off a nutcracker. The older children had been more helpful. Elsa had arranged some of the ornaments and Miral had come up with a plan for the lights. He'd been torn on the idea of candles, but lights were safer with so many children around.
The grey faded into pink, then pale peach as the sun crept higher and finally broke over the far white hills. He drifted off again, watching the sun, and he wasn't fully awake until Elsa joined them in bed.
"It's Christmas Eve, Papa."
"Did you leave out your shoes?"
"I did, Papa."
"I did too!" Violet said, rubbing her eyes. "Did he come?"
"Mom said I couldn't look until everyone else was awake."
"We're awake."
Jean-Luc sat up, reaching for his dressing gown. "Go see if Miral and Gavin are awake. I'll make coffee for your mothers."
"Did he really come?" Violet asked her sister, following her out the hallway. Felix was in Beverly and Kathryn's room. Miral and Gavin were in his old bedroom, now full of bunks for when the children visited.
Will was in the kitchen when he came down, pulling pain au chocolat, sweet rolls that smelt of cinnamon and croissants from the oven.
"Merry Christmas, captain. If you want to help, you could start coffee."
"Joyeux Noel, Will." Jean-Luc stopped, debated with himself then hugged his first officer.
Will patted his back and grinned. "I thought if we wanted to see Kathryn, Beverly or Deanna, before ten, we'd need coffee, if you're confidant in your skills with the contraptions over there."
"My sister is nothing if not traditional."
"I hadn't seen a coffee grinder since Alaska."
"I have no idea where she found it. Perhaps it is of Alaskan design."
Will slid pastries off the baking sheet into a basket and beamed. Morning didn't seem to have bothered him in the slightest and Jean-Luc almost envied him. "Did the kids wake you?"
"Violet crawled in around dawn, but she seemed more interested in company than in how awake that company was."
"She likes you."
"She's a lovely little girl. They all are." Jean-Luc picked up an orange from the basket and turned it over in his hands. Coffee first, then the fruit. Pouring beans into the hand grinder, he watched Will lay out the good china.
"My father would have worried about such young children having the good china and my mother would have tisked and told him that the good china was nothing but dust catchers if it wasn't used."
"Sounds like they were a good match."
The coffee crunched and turned to dust as he cranked the handle. Catching Miral lurking in the doorway, he waved her over. "Would you like a turn?"
"What is it?"
"A coffee grinder: it breaks the beans up so hot water can get the good stuff out of them. If we want real coffee for the admiral, Beverly and Deanna, we'll need a good deal of beans."
"Just go around? Like this?" The grinder crunched as the beans broke up inside between the burrs.
"The faster you go, the sooner we can check what Papa Noel brought you."
Miral's smirk suggested she was old enough to know Papa Noel was some combination of the adults present, but wise enough to keep the secret. "I will grind, captain."
"Thank you." Asking the anyone else's children to call him anything other than captain was a long lost cause. Violet had trouble with Jean-Luc and defaulted to captain or Papa, as Elsa had called him all of her life and Felix used whatever pleased him at the moment which was often some kind of mish-mash like 'Paptain'.
"Is your brother up?"
Miral shook her head. "No, he's with mom and dad still."
"So they're up," Will said, taking the last round out of the oven. He wiped his hands on teatowel, then headed to the cold storage for milk. "Are we ready for water yet?"
Studying the pile of coffee grounds, Miral looked up to Jean-Luc. "Admiral Janeway will need more."
"You are wise."
Tuvok and T'Pel came in from the front room, faces flushed green from the cold. "Captain, captain, Miral. Festive greetings to you."
"Good morning!" Jean-Luc took their mittens and hats, leaving them on the heating rails around the kitchen. "Braving the snow?"
"Snow is only found on Vulcan on the highest of mountains. Instead of being damp, it is cold enough to be pleasantly dry. We had an invigorating walk around the vineyard," Tuvok said, shrugging off his coat. He wore a thick sweater underneath to protect him from the cold of outside.
T'Pel nodded her agreement. "Your family farm is very beautiful, captain. We found a frozen river down past the trees. It was peaceful to walk on the surface through the trees. "
"Tea?" Jean-Luc asked as they sat at the long table.
"Please."
"More hot water coming right up," Will said, putting the kettle on the stove. "Good thing you have such a large stove here."
"My mother insisted."
"I'm growing more fond of her by the minute," Will said, grinning.
Violet and Felix rushed around the corner, with Gavin close behind.
"We got candy in our shoes!" Gavin announced, running up to his sister. "I never got candy in my shoe before."
Felix headed for Jean-Luc and extended his arms to be picked up. Coming all the way down the stairs by himself was enough independence for him. His eyes were bright, but the marks of sleep were still on his face. Jean-Luc settled him on his hip and turned to Violet.
"Any sign of your mothers and Tom and B'Elanna?"
"Tom's in the shower. B'Elanna went in moms' room."
"Without coffee? That's brave of her."
Felix had stopped sleeping and become a squirming terror after he heard the people moving in the house downstairs. Kathryn finally gave up and released him, telling him to go find Papa. He bustled off on legs that seemed to grow every day.
With the little boy gone, Kathryn curled up against Beverly, only half-awake.
"Merry Christmas," Beverly whispered, kissing her head.
Pulling up the thick blankets, Kathryn patted in the direction of Beverly's chest and mumbled a reply. Tucking her arms around her wife, Beverly shut her eyes. Dawn was too early to leave the warmth of bed. She'd heard Will get up to cook and she knew Jean-Luc would be up with the kids. They didn't have to get up yet. Kathryn probably wouldn't get up at all until someone brought them coffee. She could count on her to smell it.
"I think Violet crawled in with Jean-Luc again last night."
Kathryn moved her head and muttered something vaguely like agreement.
"She's going to miss him when we go home and make her sleep in her own bed." Beverly stroked Kathryn's hair, letting her fingers wander through the thick strands. "I suppose she can always sleep with Elsa. Phoebe used to sleep with you when she was afraid, didn't she?"
"Phoebe- not that-" Kathryn yawned, eyes still shut, "close."
"I like our girls being close."
"They have enough in common so far. Violet's odd humour is a good match for Elsa's seriousness."
"Nothing wrong with-" Kathryn swallowed another yawn and reluctantly opened her eyes. "Being serious."
"You don't think she's too serious?"
"She's an incredible girl, even if she doesn't like science yet."
"Science isn't the best track for everyone."
"There's always professional velocity player."
Beverly tapped Kathryn's nose. "She's too young for a phaser."
"We could play with training weapons."
"Perhaps we should let her learn algebra before we give her a training phaser?"
"I suppose when Wesley was her age, he was building training phasers."
"Not quite," Beverly said, folding her hands over her chest. "Violet wants to build castles and Elsa's been reading."
"I think she's read everything she can get her hands on."
"You should leave out one of those Romulan novels, let her get a little culture."
Kathryn laughed, tracing her hand lazily across Beverly's breast. "You don't think they're too risque?"
"Okay, not that one about the Empress. There are those children's stories."
"You don't think they're too simple? Maybe she needs a challenge."
Kathryn kissed her cheek. "She's five."
Beverly sighed, trying not to think about how fast Elsa had gotten to five and how fast she was going to keep growing. "Maybe we need to explore Romulan literature for teenagers."
"Or Klingon stories! Tom knows most of them."
"Not B'Elanna?"
"B'Elanna knows them, but Tom actually telling them. He'll know a good book."
"We should have talked about this before Papa Noel brought our oldest her gifts."
"He'd never fit a book in her shoe."
Laughing even though she yawned again, Kathryn wriggled her leg over Beverly's. "We can get her more books for Betazoid Nightflower Festival. I'm sure Lwaxana will insist we bring the kids."
"They had such a good time last year."
Kathryn mounted her, resting on her belly. "So did we."
"There is something to be said for a whole planet full of people who know when not to interrupt you and keep your children happy so you can finish."
Kathryn murmured her agreement and started kissing her way down Beverly's neck.
"This is not a good idea."
"I think it's a brilliant idea," Kathryn argued, undoing the top button of Beverly's pyjamas.
Beverly kissed her, wishing they had the time. "Someone is going to be up to bribe us awake with coffee any moment now."
"I don't want-" Kathryn started, then stopped, rolling her eyes. "I do want coffee. I also want to slip you out of these pyjamas."
"I definitely wouldn't fit in your shoe."
"Too bad," Kathryn slipped off of her, then returned for a lingering kiss.
The door rattled as a tiny hand knocked.
"Mommy, coffee!"
Beverly mouthed 'Violet' to her wife and sat up, kissing her apologetically. "We're up. Come in sweetheart."
"Mommy there's coffee. Miral made it."
"She did? That's so kind of her."
B'Elanna followed Violet in, holding her dressing gown around her pyjamas. She yawned into her hand. "Morning. My daughter's been pressed into service, but Tom says she's enjoying it."
"Will's a great head chef," Beverly said. "I'm sure she's an able assistant."
Violet bounced where she stood. "Papa said you wouldn't come downstairs if there wasn't coffee and then Uncle Will said we'd have to make coffee and Miral did."
"So we're going to have to get up, won't we?"
Violet nodded enthusiastically, resting her hands on the bed and nodding until her whole body was part of the motion. "Please mommy. Papa said we can't look at our shoes until you get up and we have coffee."
"You have coffee," Kathryn repeated, tying on her robe over her pyjamas. "You have coffee, but you didn't come up with any coffee. I don't know If I can get up for this, I might have to eat you instead--"
Violet squealed and ran from the room as Kathryn chased her. Beverly grabbed her robe and stretched.
"Is Christmas always celebrated this early?" B'Elanna asked, waiting for Beverly to find her slippers.
Violet and Kathryn were already on the stairs down.
Jean-Luc met her at the bottom, his arms full of Felix. "Joyeux Noel, Beverly, B'Elanna."
Felix waved on hand and hid his smiling face against Jean-Luc's chest, sleepy and shy.
"Thank you, Captain," B'Elanna said, not quite comfortable with calling Jean-Luc by his first name. She slipped past them, looking for her family.
"Joyeux Noel to you, Papa," Beverly said, kissing his cheek and then Felix's head.
He indicated the kitchen, smiling. "Will has pastries and fruit."
"And coffee!" Kathryn called from the kitchen. "Lots and lots of coffee."
"I heard the coffee fairy's been hard at work."
"Miral has quite an arm for it," Jean-Luc said, following her into the kitchen.
Morning sun poured across the table, pale yellow and warm across the snow. B'Elanna had found Tom and Gavin; the little boy could barely hold still. Violet was scarcely better, eating her croissant in huge bites as she circled the table instead of sitting.
Deanna emerged from the other doorway, clutching a coffee cup like a lifeline. "I don't know how you get up with them every day."
"One of the many joys of parenthood," Kathryn muttered, shaking her head. "They're so cute when they're happy though, aren't they?"
Leaning on the counter between Kathryn and Beverly, Deanna beamed. "They are wonderful, even at dawn."
"It's once a year for you, might as well enjoy it while you can," Beverly said, rubbing her shoulder. Deanna and Will talked occasionally about having children, but the freedom of living without them was still something they wanted to maintain.
Jean-Luc caught her eyes and Beverly nodded to him. If the children got to check their shoes before breakfast, they might behave better.
"Shall we unleash the hounds?" Tom asked, leaning in to keep his voice low.
"I think they've been good enough. We'd be pushing our luck to have them behave through breakfast."
Deanna headed for the sitting room and the fireplace, eager to see the children's excitement. Will corralled Violet, Elsa and Gavin, Miral glanced to her parents and headed in after them. Jean-Luc took Felix, tickling him as they went.
Kathryn grabbed the pot of coffee and Beverly took her arm.
"It's good coffee, isn't it?"
"Jean-Luc has taste."
They lingered in the doorway together, watching everyone settle in around the children, the fireplace and the tree. Tuvok and T'Pel stood beside the tree, studying the decorations. Will demonstrated one of the more interesting holographic ornaments for Gavin and Violet, making both of them laugh. Miral and Elsa sat by B'Elanna's feet, waiting with patience beyond their years. Jean-Luc sat down with Felix still in his lap. The little boy ran forward, grabbing one of his little shoes, stuffed to the brim with a few tiny parcels, wrapped in bright paper surrounded by chocolates.
"Real chocolates," Deanna informed them, holding out her cup to Kathryn for more coffee. "Will and I found an amazing little shop the last time we were in Venezuela."
Felix dumped his shoe on the floor near Jean-Luc's lap, giggling as he stared at all the treasures Papa Noel had left in his shoe.
"Go ahead, Gavin," Tom said, letting his son go for his shoe. Violet followed, then Elsa and Miral. Elsa held up the wrapped parcels she'd found in her shoe.
"Mommy, can I open one?"
Kathryn gulped her coffee and let Beverly handle the question.
"One before breakfast. You may open the rest after you've eaten."
Elsa looked over her gifts, debating between one rectangle that was obviously a printed book and a tiny package that must have been that fantasy holonovel Will had mentioned. Something about dragons.
Instead of opening one of his gifts, Felix had the wrapped parcel in his mouth, gnawing at it. Jean-Luc reached to save it, trying to trade the little boy by giving him a chocolate to gnaw instead of a gift.
"That one is our gift," T'Pel said, recognising the paper. "He will not be able to swallow it."
Tuvok sat serenely in his chair, watching Felix smear melted chocolate on his face as he devoured what had been a chocolate reindeer. "I believe he will enjoy his gift more free from the paper that encases it, though the paper itself is not toxic."
Kathryn smirked over her coffee. "Good choice for a toddler."
Reaching across to touch the first two fingers of his wife's hand, Tuvok nodded. "All of our children passed through the phase where they explore their surroundings through their mouths, we have learned from observation and experience."
Elsa chose to open the book, which was an illustrated copy of the fairy tales of Grilorden Six. Violet had a similar shape, which Beverly guessed was another book. Tom raised his hand subtly, acknowledging that he and B'Elanna had found that gift.
Miral opened a small wooden box that held a laser carving set. B'Elanna's expression remained slightly concerned until she read the PADD with it and agreed that Miral was old enough to use it carefully.
The great farmhouse table held all of them when Will called them to breakfast. The children ran laughing into the dining room, leaving their gifts behind at the promise of food and juice. Felix stayed with Jean-Luc, allowing him to clean some of the chocolate off his hands before he attacked a piece of pineapple with both hands.
Kissing Violet's head as she passed, Beverly hugged Elsa's shoulders. When she sat, Kathryn slipped her hand into the crook of Beverly's arms.
"This is Christmas."
Beverly passed her a croissant, nodding and watching Kathryn's glowing smile spread across her face. "With all the chocolate in their shoes, we'll have to send them out to run it off in the snow."
"Can we send them out with Jean-Luc long enough to finish what we tried to start?" Kathryn leaned close enough to Beverly's ear that her whisper was only for her. "I think I should get to unwrap my present too, eventually."
"Should have thought of that before you had children."
Kathryn smirked, buttering a sticky role for Elsa. "I must have missed the Academy lecture on the detrimental effect children have on your love life."
"It didn't have a lab, so you probably weren't interested," Beverly said. Across the table, Will picked up the line of conversations and engaged the other parents.
Tom and B'Elanna looked at each other, grinning as they sent their children back to their gifts in the other room. Elsa and Violet went with them, leaving Felix, content and sticky, on Jean-Luc's lap. The toddler's grasp of language was still limited to simple words and concepts, so it was safe to be a little less obscure.
"We take advantage of our captain as often as we can. Chakotay's a wonderful uncle for the kids and they'd rather be learning how to track a springbuck on the holodeck with him than be with us," B'Elanna said, sitting back with another cup of coffee.
Bells, whistles, chimes and something rather reminiscent of the red alert klaxxon screamed from the other room as the kids got into the toys that made noise. Remembering Wes' first model starship, Beverly reminded herself that the children's rooms had thick walls and small, noisy toys were often lost in transport. Funny how that was.
"I'm glad he has your children to keep him busy. Being a starship captain can be so isolating," Beverly said, her thought hanging in the air like a puff of frozen breath. Beverly knew captains, she'd fallen for two of them over long years.
Jean-Luc and Kathryn shared a look, sharing that mysterious place of leaders between themselves. There's no bitterness, no loser between them because Beverly married one and not the other. The three of them have an away team's worth of children in an unconventional family. Starfleet is full of such families: mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, and grandparents borrowed from all ranks and departments. A wide, extended-across-the-stars family that mirrors the nomads of old except in starships instead of tents.
Bored with Jean-Luc, Felix crawled across the long bench by the table towards Deanna, who grabbed him from the table and passed him off to Will when he grew frustrated at being denied the table as a place to explore. Tuvok caught his attention with the reflection from a spoon, dancing the light down the table.
"Reflected sunlight is fascinating to young children."
"He'll either have an excellent nap or he'll be a terror all day and fall asleep right after sunset."
Kathryn sighed, watching their son giggle and squirm after the point of light on the rich reddish wood of the table. "I bet it'll be the later. He's no good at naps."
Tom rubbed Felix's head, straightening the baby-fluff of his hair. "Gavin took two a day when he was a toddler, but we had his Klingon DNA to thank for that. Klingon children grow so quickly they're either eating, running around like targs or asleep. They don't have the energy for much else."
"He also grew out of everything we had for him to wear. There were weeks where he only wore each outfit once before it was too small," B'Elanna added, glancing wistfully at her youngest through the doorway. Gavin was already taller than Violet, though they were only months apart. "I miss him being this small."
"I think you miss the babble," Tom said, waiting for her to turn, then kissing her cheek.
"Pre-verbal attempts at communication can be admirable. I have often wondered how difficult it must be for non-telepathic parents to traverse that stage of development," T'Pel said, using a second spoon to add another point of light and fascinate Felix even more. "When Vulcan children are unable to speak, they are still able to communicate their desires on a very basic level to their parents through telepathy. I have heard Betazoid children are similar."
Deanna nodded. "Most Betazoid parents can read their children's mental states before they are born, some can even predict the birth of their children based on the mental development of the foetus. My mother was especially skilled at knowing what I wanted before I could ask for it. It took some time for my father, who was human, and I to work out a system between us."
"He's the most difficult," Beverly said, trying to be fair to her son. "Elsa cried very little and we were so enamoured with her--"
"First baby," Tom said, grinning.
"First baby," Kathryn agreed. "Violet reserved crying for moments of great distress, and was often comforted by the cat when she was lonely before we got to her."
"So the monster likes the kids?" Tom asked, removing the last scraps of paper from a gift that Gavin had brought him before handing it back. The great grey cat had many nicknames, but Tom had always called him a monster.
"He's been very good with them. I'd love to get them a dog-" Kathryn began, then stopped, meeting Beverly's eyes. "If we're ever stationed somewhere planetside."
"Looking for a new assignment slightly closer to the rest of civilisation, Admiral?" B'Elanna asked.
Beverly found Kathryn's hand on the table and squeezed it, reminding her wife that Deep Space Six was their home, no longer a punishment.
"Someday," Kathryn said, leaving the idea vague. "I'd love to have a dog again, but a very large monster cat will have to do."
"I hope you found him some suitable accommodations while you're gone."
"Our science officer has him. I hope she remembered to put away all of her breakables."
Beverly sipped her coffee. "We did remind her."
"Several times," Kathryn said hopefully. She lifted the cafetier and sighed. Pouring the dregs into her cup, she glanced at the living room. "Oh coffee fairy, you're needed once more."
Miral poked her head in, part of the castle Violet and Gavin were putting together in her hands. "Elsa wanted a turn, Admiral."
"Well, send her in. We'll see if we have two coffee fairies," B'Elanna said,
"Two would be nice, wouldn't it?" Tom teased. "Seems we go through coffee at maximum warp."
Kathryn glared at him while Jean-Luc explained the coffee grinder to Elsa. She wasn't as strong as Miral but she determinedly kept at it until there was enough coffee for a another pot. Jean-Luc took the grinder back, passing it around the table until there was enough spare coffee for a few more pots.
"That might last us the morning," Beverly said, kissing the back of Kathryn's hand as they settled in on the sofa watching the chaos of Christmas presents. There was a large wooden castle, currently under siege by a twenty-second century starship, a dragon and a model pirate ship. The defenders were a set of wizards, two witches and a stuffed rabbit, though the rabbit may have been playing both sides.
Kathryn curled up against Beverly's shoulder, scented faintly with coffee. Running her fingers through her still-sleep-mussed hair, Beverly held her close. Felix brought them the now defeated rabbit, as if they could console the creature for its double-dealing ways. Beverly held it up, Kathryn kissed it and he toddled off with the toy, disappearing back into his fantasy.
"Love you," Kathryn said, pulling the blue quilt from the back of the sofa over their feet.
"Merry Christmas, Kathryn."
Kathryn dragged the quilt up to form a makeshift wall and kissed her behind it quick enough that the children didn't have time to stop playing and giggle. Beverly inhaled the crisp scent of coffee and the sweetness of Kathryn's hair.
"Love you too."