"Well then, we may need to alter course to these Northlands."  Jenny picked her way over the corpses and wiped the grime from her sword on the clothes of a fallen--well she couldn't rightly call it a<i>man</i>--before sheathing it.  "Calypso is fickle as all hell and no common bad egg will do; believe me, we've tried.  If common slave traders and owners were enough, we'd have gone home centuries ago.  She wants the truly wicked, the ones the likes of which Hell is too good for."  She wiped the sweat from her palms and looked over the two appraisingly.  "So...coming?"<br/><br/>~*~<br/><br/>Jackie laughed at the tweedy man's surprise that they were married.  "My tribe married us.<i>Someone</i>had to make an honest woman outta me, and I sure as hell wasn't gonna let it be a<i>man.</i>I mean, Jack's daddy is nice enough but I wouldn't marry him for nothin'."<br/><br/>"So you don't...but then..."  Erik gestured at the baby, confused.  Jackie had implied that he was hers, but also that she didn't like men, and she laughed again.<br/><br/>"There was a lot of whiskey involved, and it's mostly Sam's fault for talkin' me into it," she assured him before gazing down with awe and admiration at the little boy in her arms.  "But I wouldn't take him back for all the world.  I'm just glad he finally got to sleep.  Been up for damn near three days straight...the cold seems to agree with him."  She tore her eyes away from her son to look back at other Sam's other choice, unsure whether to be pleased or offended that she'd chosen a skinny bookworm.  "So y'all got any yet? Kids, I mean."<br/><br/>"Gideon," Erik said, remembering his manners and crossing to the sidebar to pour them drinks, "is three weeks old and the light of our lives, but we feel your pain for the lack of sleep."<br/><br/>"<i>Gideon</i>?" Jackie crinkled her nose in confusion and took the proffered drink.  It didn't sound like the sort of name Sam would pick for her kid: they'd been throwing back and forth names like Samuel and Eli before settling on a family name for their son.  It was then she spotted the menorah on the mantle and raised her eyebrows in surprise.  "Damn woman, you just can't make nothin' easy for yerself, can you?" she laughed, nudging her Sam and pointing out the menorah, recognizing it from them political cartoons she'd seen in the paper talking about how Jews were destroying America.  She didn't pay those any mind, though; a Jew had once taken her in during a tornado and led her down to his cellar to shelter with his family.<br/><br/>"Yes, well, we get on just fine," Erik replied stiffly, not sure what exactly she had meant by that but not greatly appreciating her tone.  The Apache, realizing how it must have sounded, shook her head.<br/><br/>"Oh no, I didn't mean--"  But Erik excused himself to answer the door as there was a rather more polite knock.  Jackie watched him go then leaned in to the other Sam.  "Yer man got a broomstick up his ass or somethin'?" she whispered.<br/><br/>Madame LaMonte and Professor Swift were rather close together under the mistletoe which hung over the front door, but when Erik answered Anne Marie looked from her companion to her host, cheeks flushed with the cold and grinning.  There were enthusiastic words of welcome all around as they stepped in from the snow and shed their coats.