xp_logs | Sunday Morning, 8 am

It's thier first Christmas together in the three years they have been dating, and Alex has something very special to ask Lorna, as well as introduce her to two new additions to thier family.

Still grinning, despite that his hands would be shaking with nerves if he wasn't holding hers, Alex lead Lorna outside onto the spacious front porch. The sky was dark, despite it being mid morning, but it was Alaska after all. The Christmas lights wrapped around the porch gave off enough light, reflected in the snow. And yes, it was cold but he needed to do this outside.

Taking a deep breath he turned to her and motioned to the porch steps. "Wait here for me. I will just be a second!" Alex said with a kiss to her cheek before he dashed off to one of the hangers.

Lorna blinked after him and would have protested--it was cold!--but he was gone too quickly. She shivered and tightened her scarf, looking out over the snow, lit only by moonlight once beyond the cheery colored lighting of the house. It was pretty up here, serene in a way only the hush of wilderness could really be. The sky was clear and full of more stars than she'd seen anywhere outside of a science fiction film. It was nearly worth the freezing temperatures just to see it.

It took about five minutes, as Alex had had to double check everything, but then he returned, traveling through the snow with a large picnic type basket. Once he arrived at the stoop, he took her hand and helped her sit on the second to last stair, so they were even when he kneeled down next to the basket.

Lorna leaned forward, confused, "Alex, isn't it a bit cold for a picnic?" She smiled, bewildered, though charmed by the effort he'd obviously gone to. She reached forward to the basket and lifted on flap, curious to see what was inside.

Swatting at her hand to drop the lid, he was too late as a brown and white head popped out. Taking a deep breath, Alex didn't think his smile couldn't get any better. "I wanted to give you two things for Christmas. Unconditional love and everlasting support. But those aren't things you can buy at the mall...obviously. So I had to find ways to represent it." He lifted the flap and pulled out a small brown and white Cavalier King Charles puppy, with a red locket on it's collar. "Unconditional love." He said softly as he placed the small dog in her lap.

"Oh! Oh, aren't you precious! Oh, Alex, he's...she's? It's so cute!" Her hands fluttered uselessly until the puppy gave a tiny yelp and nearly jumped off into the snow and she had to gather it up against her. The puppy gave another yelp and licked her face enthusiastically. "Hello, oh you sweet thing. I can't believe you bought me a puppy!" She kissed the soft fur and cuddled the little squirming dog, "Alex, this is...I have a puppy." Coherence had vacated the premises rather abruptly under the onslaught of cute.

He couldn't help but sit back on his heels and watch her with a grin for a moment. Alex hadn't seen her smile like that since the summer, before they had left for Hawaii and been separated. As the puppy licked her nose, Lorna gave a small squeal of delight, music to his ears. He had had a long speech planned out, about this being their first Christmas together, about getting through everything they had...but in this moment, he couldn't wait any longer. "It's a she. And she holds another surprise for you...Everlasting support," Now, kneeling down on one knee, he reached forward and opened the locket on the puppy's collar. "Lorna....will you marry me?"

The puppy nearly got away again as Lorna stared open mouthed at the ring in Alex's hand. She was jolted out of her shock by the scrabbling of paws on her jacket and the indignant whimper when the little puppy attacked her scarf and got stuck. She looked down, disentangling the puppy then back up at Alex, hardly able to believe what she was seeing. "Oh my God." She stretched out her hand and then stopped and pulled her glove off with her teeth and reached out again. "Alex, I didn't...oh. Oh, wow."

Taking her hand in his, Alex made sure the ring was warm with a tiny increase in his power before slipping it on her finger where it belonged. "It doesn't have to be soon...we can wait until after college like we planned. But..." His smile turned sheepish. "I wanted you to know that there would always be someone there for you. Who wanted and loved you, so much, nothing could change it." They both knew what he was referring too, but he couldn't bear to ruin the moment with the name.

Lorna deposited her puppy back in the picnic basket, shushing it when it whimpered complaints then threw herself at Alex, kissing him exuberantly. "Alex, you didn't have to," she whispered, quite overcome. "Are you sure?" Her grip on him was much less tentative than her words, giving the 'yes' that she'd yet to say.

Alex just grinned as he held her around the waist. "I have never been more sure of anything in my life. I even asked your father and Scott first." After another kiss, Alex blushed as his voice got soft, and slightly insecure. "You know...you have yet to say yes or no..."

"Yes or...yes! Of course, yes!" Lorna laughed and kissed him again, "Yes. Yes. Yes." She suddenly stopped, her eyes growing huge, "You talked to my dad? When? How? What did he say? You don't look like you've been shot." She pulled back and surveyed him like she was afraid he was going to start bleeding at any moment.

She said yes! Alex was speechless for a moment after the kiss before giving her another, then answered her questions. "Thanksgiving, when Alison dragged you off. He was actually receptive to the idea. Ironically, it was Scott who took more convincing..."Alex was grinning as he was interrupted by a small bark, that was soon joined by a slightly deeper one. As they both turned to look at the basket, a golden head had joined the white and brown one.

Lorna had a half-second to be blindly panicked about the idea that Scott wouldn't support this and why that might be. Her arms tightened around Alex even at her head swivelled to follow the sound of the barks. "Alex...my puppy just cloned itself into a totally different puppy."

"Well, it was suggested to me that since we both are going to have classes during the day...your puppy would need a playmate." He grinned bashfully again. "Meet Crush."

Lorna reached over and pulled her smaller puppy out of the basket again and settled it on her lap, then reached out to the little golden fluff. "Hello, Crush." He licked her hand and nibbled at her fingers. She giggled, "Does mine have a name yet?"

Alex picked up the golden pup and settled onto the step next her. "I've been calling her Ulani when talking with the breeder. It's Hawaiian for gift. But she's yours to name as you please." Crush had his paws on his owner's chest, trying lick at Alex's face.

Lorna made a small gleeful noise and cuddled the puppy to her cheek. "Well, we'll just have to talk about that, won't we, sweetie? Look at you, so sweet," she crooned to the dog. "What kind of dog, is she? She's from a breeder?"

Fighting off the golden, who was then content to bat at his hair, Alex nodded. "I wanted only the best, being part of my proposing and all. She's a Cavalier King Charles." He hadn't been sure about the puppy considering Lorna's previous stance on pets at the mansion, but now he knew he'd made the perfect decision.

Obviously Lorna's aversion to pets only extended so far as to ones that didn't belong to her. "So she's royalty? Well, we'll just have to keep that in mind when we name you, precious. Can't name a queen something unregal." Lorna snuggled a bit closer to Alex, leeching his body heat to combat the chill settling in. "What's Crush?"

Alex noticed the snuggling closer and between that and his grumbling tummy, he realized it was probably time to go in and have breakfast. Plus he knew without turning around that his grandparents were at the window watching them. "He's a full blooded Golden Retriever. A blonde, water dog, couldn't be better huh?" Yes they should go in...but Alex wanted this moment to last forever.

Lorna rested her head on his shoulder and let her unnamed puppy pounce Crush. "We're being watched, aren't we?" she said quietly, amused. Inside it would be warmer. They could get the puppies something to eat and feed themselves as well. But inside it wouldn't be just them anymore. Inside was..."our family," she whispered, testing out the words.

He nodded as he watched the two little ones tumble out of their laps and into the snow. Using the freedom, he wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. "My grandmother has been practically bursting at the seams since I told her. Then she gave me a long lecture on how much she loved you and how I should never let you go." Alex heard her whisper and just smiled...

Lorna tilted her head to kiss his cheek and extricated her left hand, lifting in the air just high enough that the ring on it caught light, winking at their audience. "Have I mentioned how much your grandmother rocks?"

Alex turned to give her cheek a kiss of its own. "Now she gets to officially mother you, so it gets better." He sighed happily before leaning into her ear to whisper softly. "Thank you for saying yes."

Lorna smiled and tucked her hand back into her lap so that it wouldn't freeze. "I couldn't have said anything else. I love you." She sat quietly, watching the puppies tussle then laughed, "I have to call Alison. She'll flip."

"Tell her you like the ring then, since she helped pick it out." Alex winked at her before reaching forward to grab the two puppies, depositing the smaller one in Lorna's lap. "Shall we go in and share the good news with the rest of our family?" He stressed the 'our' because it was true now, not that it hadn't been before, but now officially.

Lorna didn't think she could smile more broadly, "We definitely should. Before they come out here after us."

Before standing up, Alex reached in for one more kiss. "Merry Christmas, love."