Hi there readers, we thought you might like another Christmas story, this one is a little different from Christmas Miracles. Jules xx

Chapter One

Renee

"Will we see daddy for Christmas?"

It was a question I was equal parts sad and annoyed to hear, seeing as how I'd heard it so many times over the years. Our first Christmas before she was even born I had everything ready for Christmas. Our first Christmas as a family, Charlie and I, with a child already on the way. I had done it all, we didn't have much money, but I had begged or made what I couldn't afford to buy. There was a small tree filling the air with the scent of pine, red and green candles on the small table I had found in a thrift shop and painted red and white with scavenged paint. I even went foraging in the woods although the dark trees scared me, and brought back armfuls of holly full of red berries and ivy to make a mantel decoration and I went back for three baskets of logs to keep our little hearth alight for the three days of Christmas. Three precious days my husband had managed to get off work. Three days I knew he would be with me, home and safe from the dangers that lay in his job. His present, a sweater I had almost cried myself to sleep trying to finish, was wrapped in silver foil left over from the Christmas Ham wrapping. I had saved every penny I could from the housekeeping to make Christmas special for us.

Of course, things never worked out as planned, Charlie was called back just as he was about to leave the station, there had been a serious road traffic accident between Forks and Port Angeles. A bus and a semi-trailer had collided leaving four dead and eight injured. I waited up until midnight then exhausted I went alone to bed hoping by morning he would be here, in time for dinner at least. I guess I should have considered myself lucky that he got home about 3 p.m, cold, hungry, and shattered, eating his meal which was just about still edible although he didn't seem to notice and then grabbed a quick shower and crashed out for the next ten hours. We had the next day together but it wasn't the same somehow although he made all the right noises about his gift and agreed to watch a movie with me in front of the fire but then he fell asleep once more and I was left with "One Magic Christmas" to the accompaniment of Charlie's ear-piercing snores!

The next year was hard, we both worked all the hours we could preparing for our baby's arrival and when she came along it was like a miracle. We couldn't take our eyes off her and spent every second we could as a family. His mother was surprisingly good, helping out when she could and never trying to tell me she knew best, something of a surprise coming from the woman who had vowed her son would never marry the "Southern tramp!" I guess we got that out of our systems before Megan was born. I went back to work part-time in July hoping to save some money to make this Christmas all that the last had failed to be although through no one's fault. I'd come to expect Charlie when I saw him, that was, after all, the lot of a cop's wife.

This year there would be a little more glamour, a little less of the homespun Christmas feel in our house and I no longer needed to scavenge for logs, Charlie's parents having cut down two trees which they had chopped and delivered to our house in the summer so they could dry out ready for winter in a log store Charlie and his dad built together. His mom and I went to evening classes to make table decorations and baby toys in felt and suddenly I knew everything would be OK. They were going to spend Christmas with us and, of course, his mom made all the little extras and supplied some spiced punch and pastries for Christmas Eve.

Megan wasn't really old enough to understand, but she caught the atmosphere of excitement and when Charlie left on Christmas Eve morning for his shift, praying it would be over by mid-afternoon, he picked his daughter up and promised her that he would be "Home for Christmas." I guess we should have expected something to go wrong but when he rang to say he would be leaving soon I really thought this was it, our first family Christmas. I was wrong of course...his dad had a heart attack as he drove over from the store where he'd gone to pick up some cream we had forgotten and Charlie and his mom spent Christmas sitting at his bedside instead. I wasn't angry or anything, just sad that another Christmas had passed us by.

Pop survived for a week before dying just before the New Year and instead of celebrating a New Year we grieved the loss of a much-loved husband, father, and grandfather. Someone who had loved Megan but would never see her grow up. The rest of that year didn't get any better, mom became depressed and spent her time crying or going on long walks to sit beside pop's grave. I worried about her, but Charlie said she was coping in her own way so I left her pretty much alone, I got the feeling she didn't really want my company anyhow.

I guess he must have been right because that June she announced she was going to stay with her sister in Kansas and before we knew it she had put the house on the market. She came back at the beginning of July for Megan's birthday and then disappeared once more and went very quiet. She would ring from time to time but she sounded different and in December hit us with the news that she had found someone new and was moving to Canada with him. It was something of a shock and Charlie insisted on flying to Kansas to meet Bert in person while I stayed behind in Forks with Megan.

I was pregnant again and feeling a little sick so I didn't want to fly, I just wanted to be home with my family. Of course, Charlie promised Megan he would be home in time for Christmas but the flights were grounded because of a ferocious snow storm so once again Megan and I spent Christmas alone. All Megan kept saying was "Da, Da" as if calling for her dad, before crying herself to sleep and I vowed that next year Charlie would be home for all the holidays if I had to hog tie him. Our daughter deserved that much surely?

Still by the following Christmas, she would have a little brother or sister which would be wonderful. It was like Christmas loomed ever larger year on year because the fates conspired to keep us apart at that most magical time of the year. Charlie was home for Easter, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving, as well as getting time off when Bella, our second daughter, was born. This Christmas his Chief had promised me that short of alien invasion Charlie would be home for Christmas and like a fool I chose to believe that everything would be right because of that.

I guess I should have known better because on the 20th December Megan was rushed into hospital with a virus or so they said, but I knew it was worse, a mother always knows. Sue Clearwater came to look after Bella while I sat with our eldest daughter, alone at first, then with Charlie when he got to the hospital. Christmas in a hospital with a critically ill child is a terrible time and we sat dreading the next doctor's rounds as our precious little girl became weaker and weaker. I really thought we were going to lose her but somehow there was a miracle and on New Year's Eve we finally brought her home again. Her daddy had kept his promise to spend Christmas with her, but she had known nothing about it and Bella had been alone instead, something I felt very guilty about although I knew Sue and the family had spoiled her rotten.