Disclaimer: The characters contained in this work belong to Marvel. Gee, who knew? The story is mine. As I'm making no money off of this harmless little bit of work and it is the holiday season, I'm sure Marvel (and their forgiving lawyers) won't sue. Good will towards man and all the rest, right guys?

BTW: I don't know who wrote the lyrics to Kurt's little song, but it wasn't me.

(*That's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" to the world outside of Muir)

Muir Island: 11:27 am. 12/21/97

"Sefton! I know yer in there! Open up!"

Pete Wisdom took a step back as the bathroom door creaked open and the head of a very annoyed sorceress emerged. "Look, Pete, I've been trying to find a nice, quiet, well-lit place to sit and wrap Christmas gifts. If you have to go so badly, use the bathroom attached to your bedroom!"

"I don't need the bog. I need you t'run me into London again."

A frustrated screech greeting the perfectly reasonable (from Pete's POV) request. "I've teleported you into London every day for a week! What do you need now?" Pete tried to contain a triumphant little grin as Amanda Sefton stepped out of the bathroom and closed the door behind her. He had her interested; he'd probably be able to convince her to make another trip.

"The same thing I needed the other six times. A present for Kitty."

"For the love of-!" Amanda lowered her voice, but the level of exasperation in her voice stayed the same: high. "We leave for Westchester in two days and you're JUST doing your Christmas shopping?"

"Well, no actually. You lot weren't no problem to shop for..."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

Pete continued as if he hadn't heard. "...but Kitty's special. I've gotten her stuff for the other days o' Chanukah an' all, but I haven't found nothin' really special for the last, ya know?" He could see Amanda's resolve wavering. "Oh, have a heart, will ya? I'll bet it took you a right long while to pick out Wagner's loot."

"Well, yes... it did. And I do have some errands to run." He had her. "One hour, Pete. You get one hour to scrabble around and then I leave, with or without you."

Knowing that he was going to get another chance to extend his life past the twenty-fifth of the month, Pete Wisdom became his usual nonchalant self. "Right," he said, lighting a cigarette. "I owe you one."

"I'm going to remember that," Amanda warned him, retreating back into the bathroom to teleport her presents and wrapping material back into their hiding places.

London, England: 12:57 PM

By the time Pete emerged from the computer store, Amanda was waiting outside, impatiently tapping her foot. Bad sign. "Just one more shop, a'right?"

Pete's transport blew air through her bangs and fixed an impatient set of green eyes on his face. "That's what you said fifteen minutes ago."

"I just need a little more time t'look around."

Amanda smirked, folding her arms over her chest. "This is something I've waited my entire life to see: a man unable to be pulled away from shopping."

Pete's extremely limited patience was at its end (which put him in only a slightly worse mood than his companion). "Look, ya flippin'--!"

"Pete, do you want to swim home?"

Muir Island, Scotland: 1:02pm

It had been a good morning as far as Kurt Wagner was concerned. He'd managed to get presents for both his own team-mates and their X-Men counterparts wrapped without a single mishap. As a reward for a job well-done, he was seated outside of Muir's research center enjoying hot cocoa and the momentary peace. The intense chill in Muir's air didn't bother Excalibur's leader all that much.

His relaxation ground to wary halt as Amanda appeared a few paces away. It wasn't that he didn't love his girlfriend dearly, it was just that every time she wore the look currently chiseled on her features it meant that her temper was somewhat out of sorts. At least, he noted with some relief, the Look wasn't directed at him. No, Amanda was intensely focused on some point far off-shore.

"OK," she muttered, "I guess that's far enough."

Amanda turned and marched herself inside, pausing just long enough to give Kurt a quick kiss. Then there was another burst of teleport magic and a sodden, trenchcoat-wrapped bundle landed before him. The stream of profanity emerging from the salt-smelling mass identified the person within.

"What in the world happened to you, Wisdom?"

The Englishman finally managed to get to his feet and re-arrange his drenched clothing back to its usual position (more or less). "I hate yer damn girlfriend an' I hope she starts hackin' up hairballs," he snapped, keying his personal code into the door and marching in, muttering oaths of vengeance.

Kurt blinked once and went back to his beverage. It had occurred to him some time ago that sometimes it simply didn't pay to ask about such matters.

Muir Island, Scotland: 10:00 am 12/23/97

Pete Wisdom was not an early-riser by nature, but he'd stayed in bed a long time even for him. He'd been having nightmares of Kitty's disappointed face and night terrors of what MacTaggert, Wagner, and Braddock would to him when THEY saw Kitty's disappointed face. All he wanted was to slouch down to the kitchen and drown his woes in a cup of scotch and coffee (a distinctly different drink from the Scot's coffee that Moira kept on hand and which Brian had put to good use cleaning engine parts). He walked into the kitchen and was instantly enveloped in a cloud of white powder.

"GAH!" Even lungs conditioned by countless packs of cigarettes couldn't stand up to this. Pete hacked and coughed his way into the kitchen proper to be greeted by the sight of two white-streaked figures. "What the BLOODY hell-?!?" Another few seconds of observation revealed the forms of Katherine Pryde and Rahne Sinclair wrists-deep in flour and miscellaneous baking supplies. "Christ, I thought the damn mother-in-law from hell 'ad shown up an' started it snowin' in-doors." Needless to say, Pete's few run-ins with Storm, member of the X-Men and old friend of Kitty's, had been less than pleasant (actually, the first visit had been worse than disastrous, but Pete was trying not to dwell on that).

Kitty looked up from her work, brushed a lock of hair out of her face, and smiled her wonderful smile at her lover. She had enough flour on her face to pass for a misplaced mime. "Oh, hi, Pete. Meggan and Brian are flying out to the manor this evening and... well... you know how Meggan is in the kitchen."

"Yeah." Visions of eggplant gelatin, a concoction that even he had not dared sample, danced before Pete's eyes. "So what does that have t'do with all o' this muck?"

Kitty tossed a scrap of cookie dough at Pete for his early-morning denseness. "We're baking Christmas cookies for them so they'll be assured that at least something will be edible."

Pete snorted and popped the dough in his mouth, earning grimaces of disgust from both girls. "Like Braddock'll even notice."

"Tha's hardly in the Christmas spirit, Mister Wisdom," Rahne scolded, putting her hands on her hips. She had a smudge of flour on her upturned nose. The effect was adorable; absolutely heart-melting. It passed right over Pete's head.

"Bah humbug."

Kitty walked over and gave him an exaggerated cheek-pinch, inducting him into the bakers' society with that floury christening. "That's my little Ebeneezer. C'mon, Pete. You can put those magic fingers to work and chop nuts."

Pete got ready to go into a lengthy objection when his guilt caught up to him. "Yeah, sure, luv," he gave in with a sigh, "whatever ya want."

2:19 PM

Kitty and Pete were standing side-by-side on one of Muir's cliffs, watching the Midnight Runner carry their team-mate, Colossus, towards the United States. The original plan had been for the entire team to head off at the same time, but Colossus had insisted on leaving a day ahead of schedule, claiming that he had made plans to that effect. He'd been unwilling to compromise in this, and so it had finally been decided that he could go and that the Midnight Runner would fly back to Muir on auto-pilot the next day.

"Ya know," Pete commented, "it's not that I'm sorry the git's gone, but I'd rather he didn't get to leave before us."

"Oh really? And why is that?"

"'Cuz it seems like every time the two of us are around that great wanker with the rest of your ol' mates, they seem t'be expectin' us to be silently apologizin' that he never got into your knickers. Probably by the time he's 'ad a few hours hangin' 'round that lot, he'll be feelin' all nice an' sorry for 'imself, meanin' we'll have to mince around the entire bleedin' visit tryin' not to look like we're enjoyin' ourselves too much... OW!" He yelped as a pebble struck the back of his head. The Englishman whirled angrily, just in time to see a blur of purple disappear around the corner of a building. "YOU ROTTEN LITTLE BUGGER! I dare you t'come out here and do that again!" Lockheed, Kitty's dragon companion and Pete's arch nemesis, didn't bother answering the challenge. Pete scowled and rubbed his offended skull. "He's out t'kill me, ya know."

Kitty smiled and squeezed his hand. "Have I told you you're cute when you're paranoid?"

"I'm always cute," he objected. "That's how I've kept in one piece so long."

"I'll bet. Just as all those hardened villains got ready to pull the trigger on you, they'd get a good long look at those baby blues and melt like butter on a hot stove."

"See? You'd make a great spy."

"So I'm cute, hmmm?"

"No." He pulled her close, his tone suddenly serious, "yer beautiful. An' smart. An' gorgeous. An'..."

"Isn't that the same as beautiful?" asked Kitty, toying with his tie.

Pete allowed himself a smile as he kissed the top of her head and stroked her thick hair. "Well, yer too wonderful to sum it all up in just one word, Pryde." Then Kitty's lips met his and neither of them needed words at all.

7:40pm

"Mein Gott! Look at that maelstrom!"

The remaining members of Excalibur were seated in various spots around the center's den, reading, watching the tube, contemplating the Christmas decorations, or (in Kurt's case) commenting on the horrible weather that had kicked up over the past few hours.

"You know, Fuzzy," Kitty remarked from the chair she was sharing with Pete, "the more you over-dramatize something, the longer it'll hang around."

Moira, not holed up in her lab for once, paused in her reading and looked at Kitty over the rims of her glasses. "That's nae quite a proven observation, lass. But I wouldnae worry too much, Kurt. Ye've seen enough of our squalls to know this one'll blow over."

"I certainly hope so."

Amanda reached over from the couch and pulled her furry blue boyfriend back down to serve as her pillow. "Personally, Kurt, I think this is kinda cozy. Everyone seated around the tree chugging eggnog and pfeffernuse..."

Pete couldn't resist. "Gesundheit."

Amanda's tongue flicked out at Kitty's beau. "Bite me hard, Pete."

"Children, do you need a time out?"

"Why have you two been snappin' at each other all day anyhoo?" asked Rahne, straightening the miniature Nativity scene and Kitty's menorah for the third time after Douglock's examinations.

"Pete..." Pete tensed as he waited for Amanda to blab out his over-sight in front of everyone. "Well, Pete's just being a jerk, that's why."

"You're just noticing this?" asked Kitty as Pete relaxed again.

There was a sudden crash and the entire room went dark.

"Oh, fuck."

Muir Island: 6:24 am 12/24/97

"What in the world are ye doin' up at his hour?"

The former spy looked up from his thoughts and scowled. "Piss off, MacTaggert. Me stomach's doin' half-gainers from that damn pfefen-whatsit an' I'm in no mood t'put up with yer shit."

Moira scowled down at her antagonist and slapped his legs. "Wisdom, get your heathen feet off of my verra old table an' tell me what's really on your mind before I drive ye out o' my kitchen."

Pete slammed his feet down on the floor and his coffee mug on the table. "Nothin's wrong an' even if there was hell'd have a hockey team 'fore I'd get buggered enough t'confide in the likes o' you!" There was a lengthy pause as Moira's sharp gaze bore down on his bleary one. "It's Pryde."

"Oh?"

"She didn't fall asleep until two hours ago."

"Well, she was up a long while patchin' the power system back together."

"Wasn't that. Between the damn com-system blowin' t'shit an' this fuckin' weather an' not bein' able t'get the bleedin' X-Mansion, she's been swingin' between worried an' depressed. An' her mood just gets worse when she tries t'put up a brave front." Pete sighed and ran his fingers through his black hair. "I ain't made no big secret about it; I hate goin' there. Fuckin' hate it. But it's worth puttin' up with the 'alf-dozen, over-bulked, eatin-steroids-fer-breakfast 'big brothers', that git Xavier, an' the rest of the lot just t'make her happy. But I can't even pretend t'be disappointed about maybe bein' stranded 'ere for Christmas."

"An' ye feel bad that ye're not disappointed about it?"

"I don't give a tinker's toot 'bout that. I just hate seein' Pryde s'upset as she is. As far as she's concerned, those wankers are her family an' she doesn't wanna spend th' holidays without 'em an' don't know what the hell t'do t'make her feel better."

"Well, ye might try showin' a bit more holiday cheer." She ignored the rude noise that Pete made at that suggestion. "Other than that, all I can say is be there for her. We've all had our share of Yuletides when we couldn't be with the ones we love." The owner of Muir looked outside at the storm raging around her island. "Besides, we don't know yet that we won't make it over to Westchester. We may just be a bit delayed."

10:09 am

"Pete Wisdom! Just the reprobate I wanted to see!"

Pete looked up from the couch, his face a thundercloud. Christmas Eve. No gift for Pryde. MacTaggert had a CD of pipers playing carols on continuous loop throughout the research center and he'd found himself actually wishing Storm was there to take care of the weather. He was in no mood to trade quips with anyone and about three seconds from going on a rampage. "Let it die already, Sefton."

Amanda remained annoyingly perky. "Cheer up! I've got something for you! Well, it's really for Kitty, but I figure you'll see her sooner or later and save me the trouble of finding her." She handed a thick envelope over to the sullen specimen on the living-room couch.

"What is it?" he asked, flipping idly through the envelope's contents.

"That is the errand I had to run the other day."

Pete's interest perked considerably as he continued to shuffle through the photographs Amanda had just handed him. Most of the images were grainy and a few had white streaks framing the borders of the picture. "Christ, when were these taken? 'Round the turn of the century?"

"Close enough to it," the sorceress admitted. "The camera was just a point-and-click cheap-o. I didn't really expect it to last very long. If you throw in the fact that the film had just been sitting around collecting dust in a box until last week, I'd say it's pretty good luck that those came out as good as they did."

A little idea came wiggling into Pete's consciousness as he put the photos back in order and closed the envelope.

"You mind if I hold off on giving these t'Pryde?"

Amanda shrugged. "It's fine with me. I took them with her in mind, but if she's gone for this long without asking-"

Pete stuffed the envelope into the pocket of his trenchcoat before Amanda could change her mind. "Thanks." He got to his feet and headed to his room to put his plan in action. "I owe ya one..."

"No, now you owe me two."

Muir Island: 7:00pm

"Anyone home? I'm bloody well knockin' already."

Rahne peeped out of her room. "Mister Wisdom? Is there somthin' I can help ye with?"

"Well... er... yeah." Pete held out a wide, flat box and a mess or wrapping materials. "Can you give me a hand with this friggin' thing?"

Muir Island: 7:33pm

"Nae! Ye fold here an' put the ribbon THERE." Rahne ran her hands through her short red hair in uncharacteristic frustration. "Mister Wisdom, ye're older than I am, how can ye not know how tae wrap a simple gift?"

"Well, it weren't exactly a valued skill 'round most places I've been."

Rahne sighed. "Let's try it again, then."

Muir Island: 9:30pm

"Douglock mein freund, I do hate to disillusion you but, no matter what Meggan may have said, the life of an X-Man is nothing remotely like 'Days Of Our Lives.'"

The pale techno-organic being known as Douglock scratched his head, a mannerism he had picked up from observing his team-mates (usually when he posed them with questions they couldn't answer). "Are you certain? I have compared many instances from said program with the archives in the computer and they have many similarities."

Kitty looked over from the present she was wrapping for Professor Xavier. She'd decided not to give up hope on getting to Westchester until the eleventh hour had used up it's last second. After all, the storm had died down and could clear up at any minute, which meant that someone could go outside and repair the islands main antenna, which meant that they could get word to the X-Men to send the Runner back, meaning that they could spend Christmas morning together, at least. "He does have a point, Kurt."

"She speaks the truth, Fuzzy," agreed Amanda. Rahne, who didn't watch soap-operas, simply observed the exchange.

"I think you're all crackers."

"Is that so? All right, Pete, what do you think it's like?"

"South Park."

"What?"

"Five words, Pryde: Jean! The bastards killed Jean!"

"Pete Wisdom, that was horrible!"

"But you're laughin' at least." He looked over to where Rahne had been sitting and started to speak. "I'm sorry about the language... Rahne?" The Scottish werewolf was rolling on the floor laughing. Embarrassed and trying to hold it in, but laughing nonetheless.

And while Rahne tried to regain her composure, the weather outside grew frightful.

Muir Island: 11:24 PM

"Deck us all with boughs of folly! Walla-walla-wash an' kalamazoo! Nora's freezin' on the trolley..."

"Pete," Amanda groaned, "I'm NEVER going to forgive you for this."

"Look, I said I was sorry a'ready," came the voice of the justly accused. "How was I supposed to know Wagner'd grab my eggnog?"

"You couldn't, but did you have be so liberal with Moira's whiskey?"

"...Luisville Loo! Holly Molly don't love Harold..."

"You mean that could be you dancing on the sideboard, you horrible git?"

"I ain't quite THAT agile, luv. An' don't look at me like that! I didn't get him soused on purpose!"

"...soda-hollah Pensicola hullibulloo!"

"Verra nice, Kurt. Don't ye think ye should come down now?"

"But I know another verse. Just let me think a minute and it'll come to me..."

"Amanda..."

"Kurt, get down here. It's time for bed."

Muir Island: 5:25 am, Christmas morning

In spite of the awful weather outside, Katherine "Kitty" Pryde knew that it was ridiculous to feel so let down on Christmas morning. Her friends were probably missing her as much as she missed them. She also knew that she was too old to believe in Santa Claus... even aside from the fact that she was Jewish... or to hope that there was something under the tree that would miraculously make everything all better. But she crept out of bed at the crack of dawn anyway.

"'Ello, little girl. An' just what are you doin' up so early?" Pete's usual cocksure grin seemed a little wavery, but Kitty was sure it was a trick of the flickering candles on her menorah and the dim tree lights. She noted that he only had six of the seven candles lit and smiled.

"I might ask you the same thing, you cantankerous old scrooge," she jibed back, walking into his arms and giving him a hug. Both of them sank down the floor, still embracing. "I thought you'd gotten up to go to the bathroom."

"No, I've been right here just waitin' for you." Pete settled himself on the rug, lifted Kitty onto his lap, and reached down into the pile of presents by the tree. It took him only a second to pick the right box and hand it to her. "I know this is supposed to wait for tonight... but I guess I'm just the impatient sort."

Kitty took the box from his hands and laughed. The entire thing was wrapped in duct tape and "Pryde" was scribbled across the top. "Duct tape, Pete?"

"Yeah, I couldn't get the damn paper to do right, so I just decided t'do a rush job."

"But duct tape? Oh, geez..."

"Go ahead, yuk it up." But his voice held amusement as well as a touch of anxiety. "Least this way you don't have to worry about saving the paper."

"I do NOT do that."

"Whatever you say."

"Watch and be amazed." Kitty picked at the tape until she could grasp one corner and then phased the entire mess through the box and onto the floor. "Tah-dah!"

"I'm dazzled, really." Unspoken were the words: 'Open the bloody thing before I lose my mind!'

With deliberate slowness, Kitty lifted the lid off of the box... and nearly dropped it. "Oh, Pete..." Nestled among the packing tissue in the box was a frosted lead-crystal picture frame. The picture it contained was of Kitty's first holiday season with the X-Men, taken just a few hours after a demon-beast had tried to kill her. Pete recognized Storm, the Professor, Nightcrawler, and Colossus, but drew a blank at the happy-looking couple standing next to a substantially younger Kitty. "I remember this. Kurt forgot something at the mansion and Amanda teleported him in to grab it. Then she insisted on snapping pictures, even if the Professor was glaring at her the entire time."

Her finger trailed down to the glass and traced around the image of a man and woman that her younger self was standing between. Pete suddenly placed them. Her parents. "This was the last holiday I spent with both my Mom and my Dad. I was only thirteen. They dropped by the school as a surprise, even put on their polite faces too, so there wasn't even any bickering." She looked from the picture to Pete. "Sort of a sending off, I guess. 'Enjoy this while it lasts, kid, you're an X-Man now.' In a way, that was a really good thing. My folks still split up, but at least I wasn't there to watch the final skirmishes. I didn't have to remember them being at each other's throats before the divorce."

She set the box aside and hugged Pete again. "I'd say this is the next best thing to walking down memory lane with the old team, but I'd be lying." Kitty smiled at Pete's puzzled expression. "This way I don't have to make excuses for wrecking the Danger Room way back when." In spite of her jesting, Kitty's lover noticed the shine in her eyes.

Wisdom returned the embrace enthusiastically. "Merry Christmas, Kitty," he murmured against her neck.

Kitty squirmed away, unable to sit still with his usual stubble ticking her so. "Merry Christmas, Pete." They sat there holding each other for a long time. Kitty finally broke the silence. "So are we going to wake up the rest of the team or not?"

"Wot? An' ruin perfectly good quality time? C'mere an' I'll demonstrate some useful things t'do with ribbon..." But Kitty had already slipped away and was heading back towards the living quarters. Pete sighed, leaned back, and waited for the inevitable ruination of his peace and quiet.