The days that followed were some of the best times in my life to date. As I said before, I've always enjoyed Yule, but somehow it was even more special now, and not just because I really felt like myself for the first time in months. With a newly-minted step-father, two pseudo-sisters and a boyfriend to share it with (in addition to Mom, of course), it was somehow more than it ever had been before. A wise man once said that sharing love causes it to grow rather than diminish and he was right.

Jonathan and my mom had gone all-out to decorate the house for the festival, especially considering they were still moving in. The house was filled with fairy lights (that appeared to be real fairies, but which Jonathan admitted were just a very detailed illusion), and Mom had somehow convinced real mistletoe to grow around the house's lintels without digging its roots into the house itself. Somewhere - perhaps in the woods on their new property - they had found a Yule log that took up a huge part of the kitchen hearth and looked like it might take the whole twelve days to burn completely.

Ben, who had never really had anyone to celebrate the holiday with before and who had come with me - as he had admitted - just to make me happy, quickly discovered how much fun it could be with people you cared about. After the first couple of days, he relaxed and threw himself whole-heartedly into it. I knew he was fitting in when I found him staggering down the hallway behind mom, covered in an enormous pile of evergreen garlands as she strung them along the walls and singing an old Gaelic song with her.

Ben knew old Gaelic folk songs. Who knew?

On the fourth morning, a snowball fight erupted when Artemis tackled Athena into a snowbank (I was beginning to see a pattern there). Ben and my mom quickly got involved, but I had to beg off after only a few minutes because my knee was still causing me too much trouble in the deep snow. Jonathan came out then, handed me a steaming mug of cocoa, and proceeded to give me a fresh lesson in the use of telekinetic magic in snow. He'd showed me a trick the previous winter for shifting large amounts of snow with kinetic magic...now he showed me the trick he'd used to pelt me with a seemingly endless stream of snowballs.

Mom noticed us conferring and quickly detached herself from the mock-battle, getting out of the way just before the first wave of snowballs hit.

Ben, Athena and Artemis spent the next few minutes frantically trying to escape the deluge of snowballs Jonathan and I sent at them. Snowmen were made, and some crafty Wizard-in-training who shall remain nameless contrived to add an exquisitely detailed and curiously familiar-looking ice sculpture of a large cat beside the snowman her boyfriend had jokingly given a tree-branch cane.

And so it went. We ate too much every night at dinner (Mom is a fabulous cook, a talent which I fear I didn't inherit), resulting in Ben, Athena and I going out for a walk every day right after breakfast, after which Jonathan would challenge me to another bruising practice duel. Almost every room in the house had a fireplace, so Ben and I resolved to spend time snuggled cozily in front of each one (except the one in the master bedroom - too weird and kind of intrusive) and made a good start on it. Artemis could almost always be found sprawled on the floor in front of the kitchen's enormous hearth, and we all took turns sitting with her...it was a nice place to just sit and be for a while.

On our sixth day there, I was thrown for a loop when a package was delivered for me. It was book-sized and wrapped in simple brown paper with a very artistic sketch of a lacy bow drawn on the front of it near my name, and my mother and Jonathan's new address in Swindon, in Brenna's distinctive spidery script. There was nothing attached to the outside of it, but I could sense a vague and diffuse feeling of magic from it.

After some mildly panicked consultation, Jonathan, Ben and I went over it with a fine-toothed magical comb, sweeping it for any enchantments that might be hostile, destructive or in any way damaging. Nothing in our recent correspondence suggested that Brenna had any desire to cause me or my family any more harm than she already had, but it never hurts to be careful.

What is it they say in Rus? 'Trust, but verify.' Words to live by…or at least words to keep from being letterbombed by.

What we found was confusing…preservative magic, designed to protect and maintain the integrity of whatever was contained within. The spells themselves were old, not cast any time in the last fifty years or more. So I carefully unwrapped it, keeping my senses finely tuned to the faint magic I could feel in it.

It turned out to be a first-edition copy of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in perfect condition. Someone had managed to get it autographed - the title page had "Charles Lutwidge Dodgson" scrawled on it in a slanted hand that I immediately wanted to get validated. I had no reason to believe it wasn't his, I just wanted to be sure.

"Can we be sure who sent it?" Ben asked, leaning over my shoulder, as fascinated as I was.

"It's her handwriting on the wrapping paper. There's nothing in the book," I added, carefully flipping through the perfectly preserved pages. With it directly in my hands, I could sense the magic in it and understood what it meant...someone had gone to the trouble of carefully layering preservation spells on it.

"Here," Athena said, slipping a thin sheet of folded paper out of the brown wrapper. "This was taped to the inside."

I took it from her and unfolded it. The elegant handwriting on it read simply:

With love, happy Yule.

Brenna, Hecate and Hathor

I handed the paper back to Athena, who blinked in surprise. "And here we didn't send them anything…"

I'd been corresponding irregularly with my half-sister since the end of June, but little had come of it other than uncomfortable attempts to get to know one another a bit. It had never occurred to me to send her a Yule present, and I felt a bit bad about it. She was very lonely and had only her familiars for company, with whom she was struggling to rebuild a relationship that wasn't defined by them being afraid of her.

I looked up at Ben, who shrugged. "Don't look at me, I've never actually met her."

"But how did she know where to send it?" I asked.

Ben shrugged again.

Jonathan shook his head slowly, then shrugged. "It's not like our move was done confidentially, and the records of our purchasing the house are a matter of public record," he pointed out. "It wouldn't be hard to figure out where to find you this time of year."

Artemis propped her paws on my leg and peered curiously at the book and paper. > She loved being read to.

"It's one of my favorites, actually," I said, petting her ears gently. "When I was a little girl, I always pretended that it was about me."

"Alys's Adventures?" Ben asked, smiling in amusement.

"Something like that." I brushed my fingers over the cover of the book. "This must have been amazingly hard to find."

"Do you want me to check with the office and see if a copy was stolen from somewhere?" Ben asked quietly.

I thought about it for a moment, then sighed and nodded. "I think you'd better, just in case."

"I'll call the Yard." He kissed me and went to find Jonathan's telephone. (It remained "Jonathan's telephone" because my mother hated the things and had no use for them.)

"Should we send her something?" Athena asked when he was gone.

I shrugged. "All we have for her is a post office box in London. I suppose we could try...but what?"

We were all silent for a moment, then Athena sighed. "I have no clue."

> Artemis suggested. She was slow to let go of her grudge against Brenna and her familiars. I suppose I couldn't blame her, really. After all, I hadn't completely let go of my own anger just yet.

"I don't think the postal service would appreciate that, love," I ruffled her ears. "Well, let's make sure that there's no magic on this for tracking it, just in case, then I'll start reading it to you, hmm?" I stroked her ears again.

She purred and licked my fingers. >

Ben returned not long after to report that as far as anyone knew, no original copies of the book had been stolen from anywhere. And so, the next day we had an epic reading of Alice's Adventures, with Ben, Athena and I trading the book around and Artemis listening in rapt fascination. She did, of course, adore the Cheshire Cat. My mother took a turn reading at lunchtime, and Jonathan - whose occasionally intimidating baritone turned out to be a surprisingly gentle reading voice - did the reading through tea time.

In the early evening of our eighth day there, real life finally intruded, as we'd feared it would. Frankly, I was amazed it had waited that long.

Ben and I were...relaxing...in front of the fireplace in the den when we felt the approaching energy of a Sending. I sat up, tugged my tunic back into place and frowned. "Call for you, I think."

Ben sighed and sat up, quickly doing up the top three buttons on his shirt. "Probably. I was afraid something would come up that they'd need me for."

I curled my left leg under me, once again admiring the basic utility of the leggings Ben had bought me. Comfortable, flexible, and completely out of the way. I really needed to add more of them to my wardrobe. "Well, we knew it was likely," I said, smoothing my hair back into place. "We'll take whatever comes and roll with it."

He smiled and leaned in to kiss me. "As always."

We felt the Sending grow closer, and a few moments later a spectral basset hound trundled in through the wall and stopped in front of us. There was a brief flash and an image of an older man stood in front of us. He had close-cropped iron-colored hair and a matching full beard, and wore a neat three-piece business suit. Something about his bearing - the way he held himself - suggested that he'd been in the military at one time and had never completely shed the habits of those days.

Ben's boss, Superintendent John Reid. It must've been important for him to be Sending Ben directly.

"Donovan," the image of Reid said in his rough tones, "I hate to bother you while you're on vacation, but we need you back in London as soon as Yule is over. There's a cold case we need your special talent to help with."

"Well," Ben sighed, "That could be worse. At least it's not an immediate problem. But I hate cold cases."

"Special talent?" I asked curiously.

"When you come back," Reid continued, his tone just a bit teasing even if his expression was serious, "Please leave your satellite at aphelion. No offense to Mage Kinnear, but after your reports about the incident in Swindon and the mess with the trolls, we'd like to keep her limited to research consulting until she's been checked out by a Yard psychologist and has spent some time with a Yard S.M.R. trainer."

I winced, but I couldn't honestly argue with him. Reid was right to want to make sure I was psychologically sound enough for field work, especially after the way I lost control back in June (losing control of a fire spell in London would be the end of my career as a Yard consultant, at best). And the idea of training with a Scotland Yard Special Magical Response officer was kind of exciting. I was probably going to get the tar beaten out of me, but I'd learn an awful lot about magical combat in the process.

"Call in as soon as you get this so I can brief you," Reid went on, "and so you can let me know when you'll be back."

As Reid's Sending faded away, Ben sighed. "I guess I'd better go call in."

"Special talent?" I asked again.

"I'll tell you later," he said as he rose and offered me his hand. I took it and let him pull me to my feet...and then, to my pleasure, he gathered me close and into a kiss. I returned it warmly, smiling against his lips and meeting his eyes as he pulled away.

"What was that for?" I asked teasingly.

"I need a reason now?" He retorted with a smile. "I'll have to have Athena help me work up a list." His smile faded and he gave me a serious look. "Are you okay with what he said?"

I almost blew the question off…but this was Ben. Not just my boyfriend, but also my partner when I worked for the Yard. He deserved the complete, unvarnished truth. I sighed a little. "Yes…and no. I mean, he's right to do it. I've come a long way, and getting some help to go the rest of the way won't kill me. But…"

He picked up right away when I trailed off. "But it still hurts to hear it said."

I nodded.

Ben smiled gently and brushed my cheek with his fingertips, making my skin tingle. "A wise man once said 'Getting knocked down is a small hurt. Getting up again can be a big one.'"

I looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. "What does that even mean?"

Ben's smile grew a little. "I've never been completely sure. Sounds profound though, doesn't it? But seriously, sometimes recovery's the hard part, yeah?"

I thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah."

He grinned. "Good thing you've got such patient helpers."

I smiled. "Yeah."

***

On the morning of our last full day there, we all went out for one last walk together. Another few inches of snow had fallen the night before, and it was flurrying lightly from clouds that seemed to threaten a fresh blizzard. But the air was peaceful, with no wind, so I had a feeling that we wouldn't be stuck there when it was time to head back to London.

Ben and I held hands as we walked, not talking, just enjoying the peaceful atmosphere that fresh snow seems to bring to the world. I often felt that winter was my favorite time of year, and Ben seemed as comfortable with it as I felt.

Jonathan and my mom were out in front of us, also walking hand in hand, and I could feel Athena and Artemis close behind us. The roads were well plowed and we were far enough out on the edge of town that we didn't see anyone else as we walked. My cane tapped rhythmically on the pavement, though I was barely putting any weight on it by then. Jonathan's daily beatings…practice duels, rather…had improved my confidence in my physical recovery by leaps and bounds.

The snow-covered silence was broken by a fearsome yowl from behind us. Athena was suddenly driven past us, face-first into the snowbank beside the road with Artemis on her back. Artemis quickly hopped back and looked smug as Athena lay there for a moment, then pushed herself up, sputtering and spitting out bits of snow. "Why you…"

Artemis made a distinctly laugh-like sound and bolted away down the street, past my parents, who had turned to see what was going on. Athena struggled to her feet, scooped up a double handful of snow and started packing it into a snowball as she chased after her sister, calling, "You are in so much trouble!"

Ben started laughing, and my own laughter mingled with his a moment later. They say laughter is the best medicine. I have empirical evidence that it's true.

By the time we reached home, the snow was getting heavier and the cold had finally stiffened my right knee up to the point that I was almost reduced to hobbling up the front steps. Ben looked like he was about to scoop me into his arms until Athena swatted the back of his head, apparently having spotted it too, resulting in the eruption of a fresh snowball fight between the two of them, probably just for the sake of lifting my drooping spirits.

Mom shook her head and headed inside. "I'm going to put on water for tea, soup and cocoa. Get your wet things off and warm up."

Artemis followed her inside towards the promise of a blazing hearth as Jonathan and I stood in the doorway to watch my sister chasing my boyfriend up the driveway with a bread loaf-sized snowball held over her head. Jonathan smiled warmly. "It's nice to have a family."

I glanced at him, realizing that I didn't know much about his life before we met. "You don't have any other family, do you?"

He shook his head. "Just yours," he said, sounding introspective. Then his expression lightened. "Ben and I have a lot in common, actually." He elbowed my shoulder gently. "You know what they say about girls marrying boys who're like their fathers…"

"That's creepy as all heck," I shot back, but I smiled too. "I could do worse, though."

"Much," Jonathan chuckled softly.

I smiled a bit more, watching as Ben - now covered in snow - walked back up the drive toward us with Athena beside him.

Ben reached the top of the stairs and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

I chuckled softly. "I think you've paid sufficiently for something you almost but didn't quite do."

By the time we'd all changed into dry clothes, had some lunch and were settled comfortably around the kitchen table, the snow was coming down hard enough to qualify for storm conditions.

"At this rate, we're going to have another foot by morning," mom said, turning away from the window and picking up her mug of cocoa. "This is the heaviest snowfall I've seen in years."

Jonathan made a thoughtful sound, idly toying with his mug of tea on the table. "You think the Winter Court - the Unseelie Court - is moving?"

Beside me, Ben shifted and for a moment I thought he was going to say something. When he didn't, I gave him a curious look and he shook his head.

Mom's eyes turned towards us for a moment. "I suppose it could be," she said slowly. "There's some weird things going on back in Éire, now that the Druid Council there is fractured and unable to uphold parts of the ancient agreement." Then smiled. "More likely, it's just a really bad winter. They do happen."

"We might get stuck here for another day or two if this keeps up. Two feet of snow in a week is pretty brutal," Ben said. "I'm glad I'm not in London right now. The city's probably paralyzed. Also, I hate working cold cases…I'm not looking forward to going back."

"Have you thought about leaving the force?" Jonathan asked curiously. "You've got the talent to become a practicing Wizard, with a bit of application."

Ben looked surprised. "You think so?" Surprise faded into a thoughtful expression, then he smiled and shook his head. "No, I like working for the Yard. Maybe in a few more years I'll think about it, but for now I'm pretty happy where I am."

I turned my own mug in slow circles on the table. The idea of working with Ben all the time appealed to me, but it was his decision, not mine. Besides, once I finished getting my act back together and passed whatever qualification tests Scotland Yard wanted to give me, we'd probably be working together pretty frequently anyway. 'Leave the future to sort itself out,' Jonathan had said to me once, 'But don't be afraid to nudge it in the right direction once in a while.' Well, I'd put a bug in Ben's ear later and let him know I liked the idea. Eventually. There was still the potential for travel in my future, too…

"Last day of Yule tomorrow," Jonathan said, interrupting my musings. "Are you sure you won't stay for New Year's?"

I exchanged a look with Ben, then another with Athena. Artemis was mostly asleep on the floor in front of the fire, but I knew she'd go along with whatever we decided. Finally, I shook my head, "No, I think we'd better head back tomorrow as planned. Ben has to get back to work, and so do I. And I have Yard-mandated therapy and training to arrange. The sooner I get that rolling, the sooner I can go back to doing more than running Hollis's errands."

Mom smiled. "You'll get both licked in no time, I'm sure."

Ben and Athena murmured their encouragement as well.

I nodded. "Now that I'm feeling more like my old self, anyway."

Jonathan smiled. "It's very good to have you back."

"It's very good to be back," I said emphatically. I eyed Ben thoughtfully for a moment, then smiled to myself.

Sensing my thoughts, Artemis yawned ostentatiously from by the fire and flopped over on her side. > she muttered. >

Athena smiled and stood up, stretching. >

I rolled my eyes, then stretched and yawned. "Well, I think it's time for bed." I elbowed Ben gently. "First though, you have one more Yule present to open."

"Oh?" He looked interested. "What's that?"

I rose, Athena already halfway to the door. "If you want to unwrap it, you'll have to come to our room in about…oh…twenty minutes."

Ben blinked in confusion, then blushed and gulped. Jonathan choked on his tea and Mom gave me a thumbs-up. It was, I felt, the perfect way to end the day.

It was indeed good to be back.