The tree had been set up in the main family room in preparation for the Granger Family Christmas Eve gathering that was a yearly tradition at Maple Grove. It had been carefully chosen and left to be decorated by those who shared the big house with Old Man Humphrey, which currently consisted of Jon and Vicki. The floor was strewn with various boxes filled with all kinds of lights and ornaments and decorations to turn the bare tree into a glittery, shining symbol of the season.

Jon had taken it upon himself to string the lights, which everyone knew was the hardest part of decorating the tree. He had managed to get about half the tree strung before running into a snag, having to find that one annoying bulb that was loose and caused the entire string not to light. There he sat, crosslegged on the floor, tangled in a string of lights while he checked each bulb one by one. Thankfully, Humphrey had charge of Cosmo, or tree decorating might have been a total disaster. Despire his annoyance, Jon felt happy. It was his third Christmas since returning home to Rhy'din, but by far the happiest.

Vicki had been press-ganged into sorting the decorations, outright refused the opportunity to help cut the tree or bring it inside, with everyone - staff included - making pointed gestures toward her ever expanding waistline. She had managed, however, not to snap at anyone but Humphrey, who had just happened to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. The Old Man had just patted her patronisingly on the head and dragged Cosmo into the study, as far away from the hormonal bag of irritation as they could get. Left alone with Jon, the redhead's temper simmered down, and she settled herself to the one task assigned to her with only a faint hint of a pout, sorting the baubles and tinsels into piles by color as she watched Jon wrestle with the lights. "You know, it'll be the last one you look at," she offered up unhelpfully, smirking a little behind a handful of gold tinsel as she watched him search along the string of unblinking lights.

"And if I start at the other end, it will be the one I leave off on," he reasoned, grumbling a little, only slightly annoyed. Jon held up a handful of wire upon which were strung tiny lights that were currently unlit. "These are as old as the hills. Why doesn't he buy some new ones?" Jon asked, not realizing that it wasn't about the money but the traditional. The lights, though old, held a certain sentimental value to them, as did some of the ornaments, and would more than likely never be replaced unless and until they no longer worked. "How'd we get wrangled into doing this anyway?" he asked, not really annoyed with the task, only with the string of lights he was ready to toss in the trash.

Not making much of an effort not to laugh at her increasingly disgruntled husband flailing through pine needles, Vicki grinned, actually pleased for once that her pregnancy had earned her a place well out of the action. "As I recall," she smiled cheerfully, "you volunteered us this morning. Besides, Humphrey obviously loves those lights. Did you see the names on the tape holding the plug together?" She'd noticed that as soon as the lights had been taken out - childish scrawls of names written over masking tape; Caroline, Oliver, Sterling, Jon, Helena, Cian, Frank, Gabi, and many others. Jon's own generation had left their mark on those lights when they were just children.

The reminder of his less than happy childhood only made him frown, not because it was unhappy, but because he didn't remember it. He glanced to the masking tape and the names scrawled there, recognizing his own and even somehow knowing it was his childish handwriting, but not remembering having written it there. "I saw," he replied, simply, gaze focused on his task. He was more interested in making new memories than remembering old ones, wondering if any of them were even worth remembering. There were several of those names who weren't with them anymore - Sterling, Frank, Cian, Ollie, among a few others, but Jon didn't really remember much about them or how close they might have been. "Gigi's name is there," he remarked, idly.

"Well, she must have been here when she was a child," Vicki reasoned, carefully keeping her less than charitable opinion of that particular cousin to herself. They'd only met once, and Gigi seemed to have gone out of her way to try and scare her off, which hadn't made Vicki particularly fond of the woman. "There's another name next to hers ....Theodore, I think," she added mildly, stretching to reach another box and pull it into her lap. "Isn't that her brother?"

"Was," Jon replied, frowning sadly. Another name he didn't remember. Sure, he had his journals, which helped fill in some of the blanks, but it still wasn't the same thing as having his own memories to rely on. "He died in a fire. She was never the same after that." He had gleaned that much from his journal and from what Caroline had told him to help him fill in some of the holes in his memory.

Vicki winced, wishing she hadn't asked. "I'm sorry," she said softly. "I shouldn't have pried." She fell silent for a long moment, dilligently returning to her sorting of the various baubles and tinsels and strange homemade decorations that Humphrey seemed to have several tonnes of.

"It's okay. I mean....obviously it's not okay to Gigi, but..." Jon broke off, glancing toward that piece of masking tape that seemed to tell a tale in and of itself but it was one he couldn't remember. He wondered if he should ask Humphrey or if it would only stir up bad memories for the old man. "I know we were close once, but I don't remember."

"You still seem close," his wife offered quietly, setting her box aside and heaving herself to her feet. Heave was the right word these days; she'd started to waddle, too, much to her embarrassment. She moved over to him, gently stroking her fingers into the curls that brushed his collar. "She'll do anything you ask her to, after all. And I'm fairly sure you're the same way, aren't you?" Her hand travelled down to rest, palm flat, between his shoulderblades. A faint smirk touched her lips. "Should we name our daughter after her, do you think" Or ask her to be godmother?"

She shrugged, one shoulder rising and falling as she concentrated on her knot. "I never knew my grandparents," she admitted softly, still leaning one shoulder against Jon's as they sat together. "He's a grumpy old man at times, but then, I'm no saint, either. I like him." Blue eyes flickered to him, catching the close inspection he had levelled on her. "What' Did you think I wouldn't' Even after he challenged me to strip poker?"

His brows burrowed as she continued to focus on the knots, though he had reached to take the ornaments from her, his hand coming to rest against hers. "I'm sorry about your grandparents," he said, frowning sympathetically. There was that familiar twinge of guilt about her mother's death, but it was slowly getting easier to bear. He snorted at the remark about poker. "I'm surprised you didn't accept. Might have given the old man a heart attack though." He climbed to his feet, offering her a hand. "Come on. Help with with these lights, before we get distracted."

She smiled gently, looking up at him. "They were gone before I was born," she assured him softly. "You can't miss what you don't remember, love, can you?" Her eyes sparkled lightly, reminding him that he knew that better than anyone else. Her lips brushed his cheek before he stood up, her hand folding into his. "All right. Heave-ho, captain, Moby Dick's long lost auntie would like to come on board!"

He would have argued about that, pointing out that you can miss the things you don't remember simply because you don't remember them, but he didn't want to dampen the mood anymore than he already had. Decorating the family Christmas tree was supposed to be festive event. He laughed at her remark as he helped her to her feet. "You're not a whale, Vicki! You're pregnant!"

"I'm huge and pasty white and I bet I could sink a ship if I tried," she laughed back, letting him pull her up onto her bare feet with a wide grin. "Pregnant or not, I feel beached half the time. Mind you, from what I hear, Gabi's almost the same size as me, and she's only just hit the halfway mark!" She grinned merrily at her husband, rubbing her belly against his hip impishly. "Now, what did you want me to do with these lights" Strip naked and go stand in the fountain wrapped in them?"

"Be glad you're not having twins," he remarked with a smile, as he pulled her to her feet and she rubbed her belly against his hip. He chuckled at her remark and reached over to tweak her nose. "Not unless you want to get electrocuted," he pointed out practically and started to unwind the strand from around his shoulders, reaching upwards to drape the lights across the trees' boughs. "Just make sure I don't get tangled up in them."

"You mean tangled, or more tangled?" she laughed, helping him unwind the long string from about himself as he twisted and turned. And, Vicki being Vicki, getting in a more than decent grope in the process. After all, she wasn't getting any less enthusiastic about her husband the bigger she got, outwardly refusing to even entertain the little demon of self-consciousness when it came to her own body and sexuality.

And finally there was laughter coming from the main room in the big house - laughter that the house had so needed for so long. It had taken a while for the laughter and love to find its way back there, but it was all worth it in the end. It was worth all the heartache, all the pain, at least in Jon's estimation. The two of them got tangled in lights and tangled in limbs, and Jon laughed as his arms went around her and he kissed her with all the love he felt for her burning in his heart.

Wrapped up in twinkling lights, in Christmas decorations, and most importantly, in Jon's arms, Vicki grinned into her husband's kiss, looping her own arms around him lovingly as the daughter resting in her womb made her views known about being squashed between mommy and daddy. "You know," Vicki chuckled, nuzzling fondly to Jon's lips, "I could have sworn we were supposed to be putting the lights on the tree."

"We'll get to it," he told her, leaning his head against hers, smiling as he felt their daughter making herself known between them. "Someone's lively today," he said, nuzzling another kiss to his wife's lips. He was confident they'd get the tree decorated in time for Christmas, but first things first.

Vicki laughed softly, looping her arms up and around Jon's neck, ignoring the warm twinkle of light against her cheek as her lips plied his with kiss after teasing kiss. It was probably just as well Cosmo had been pulled out of the room. He'd have had them both on the floor by now, hopelessly tangled and hoping they were going to play with him. "She's lively every day," she confessed cheerfully. "Especially today, though. We were wrapping your presents today, after all."

"You and the baby are all I need," he told her softly, blue eyes shining, even without the artificial gleam of Christmas tree lights. "And Cosmo," he added as an afterthought because he was a part of their family, too, and if he'd been there at the moment, he'd have added his two cents by barking. He brushed another soft kiss against her lips, lingering in the moment. "I suppose we should get this done before Uncle comes to check on our progress."

She sighed, pouting as winsomely as she could just to tease him. "You're right," she agreed reluctantly. A thought occurred to her as she began to untangle herself from him and the lights once again, and she laughed. "Of course, next year, we'll have a toddler to help us with this. No distracting ourselves at all, then."

He chuckled at the thought. "We'll have Liv and Johnny babysit. It'll be good practice for them." He unwound the lights from around her and began draping them across the tree again. Little by little the tree was starting to look a little more and more festive.