Season's Greetings dear readers and fellow Owen/Abby fans. This chapter concludes their Christmas story. I do hope everyone has enjoyed it.

The final segment is my fiendish cliffhanger to lead into the next story. evil laugh :-D

As everyone knows, I simply love to get reviews.

Thanks for reading and a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2011 everyone. :-)

On This Winter's Night With You, Part V

Sunday, December 25, 1983

Abby rolled over in her bed and smiled to herself. Sleeping next to her was Owen. He'd said he might come down to her room sometime in the afternoon. When Abby had asked why, he'd just smiled in that way she loved so much and said that it would be so she could wake up next to him on Christmas.

Of course, technically, she'd already gone to bed on Christmas Day. The two of them had –to simplify things- decided that the night of December 24th/25th was regarded as Christmas Eve, and their Christmas Day would begin at dusk on December 25th and stretch until dawn on Boxing Day, December the 26th.

The previous night had been a fine one. The small family had eaten dinner –well, Owen and Oscar had eaten their meal. Abby drank her meal out of a Santa Claus mug that was kept in a back cupboard for eleven months out of the year.

Afterwards, Owen and Abby had settled onto the couch to watch the annual Christmas Eve shows. Oscar had announced that the Lawsons had invited him to accompany them to a church service in town. Atypically for him –as he'd refused similar offers in previous years- he'd accepted. His reasoning was that he had much to be thankful for in the year now ending.

After Oscar drove over to the neighbour's where they would all go together in their car, Abby surprised Oscar with her musing.

"I almost wish I could go with him. He's right. There's a lot to be thankful for now."

"Can you do that? I mean…", Owen asked as he was wondering about the concept of vampires and holy ground.

"Oh yeah, I've honestly never found that religious icons ever did anything to me. They don't repel me. But…Do you remember how I said that I have encountered other vampires from time to time?"

"Yeah."

"It's funny but a couple of them suggested that they were affected by crosses or holy water. I didn't let on that I didn't have that problem. I was afraid they might decide I was useful to them somehow. But, at any rate, I don't think entering a church would be any sort of problem –aside from the fact I don't have proper clothes for it.", Abby said with a gentle smile.

"But you said you still can't go."

"But not for that reason. It's a small town church. Everyone there knows everyone. People might wonder who I am."

"Yeah, I see what you mean. To be honest, if it wasn't for that, I think I'd go too.", Owen had mused. He was still worried about people recognizing him, especially in lieu of the Time article from a week prior. He was privately thinking that sometime in the future, he'd be able to go out in public again. Once he was a vampire, and would not age, he could do that. People would look for someone older in appearance and never guess he would look the same age in four or five years time.

"Did your parents go on Christmas Eve?"

"My mom always did, and she took me with her; on Sundays as well. My dad didn't go as much."

"My family went at Christmas. Well, we actually went every Sunday as well. Of course, it was a time when everyone did that."

"My dad kind of preferred to stay home and watch the game on Sundays.", Owen said quietly. He wondered what type of arrangements his parents would have since their reconciliation. He sighed softly at the frustration the thought still carried for him.

Abby noted his momentary downturn in mood. She snuggled close to Owen on the couch and took his hand in her own while, at the same time, tickling his leg with her bare toes. It was something she'd learned over their months together, never failed to draw a laugh from him and this time was no exception.

"It's Christmas Eve, Owen. We're here and together.", she said with a smile.

"Yeah, as always," he said with faked dramatic sigh, "you're right. I'm not going to let anything get me down."

With that, the two settled down in front of the television to watch a Christmas movie marathon. At the stroke of midnight they kissed and wished each other a Merry Christmas.

That had been the night before. Abby had gone to her room as dawn approached. Owen had suggested that he might come downstairs that afternoon, as he wasn't going to sleep at his normal time. Abby had been fine with that, as she knew that there was no chance of light entering. She did worry a bit about the temperature, as her room wasn't heated. She didn't need it, but she was afraid Owen would be cold. Owen assured her he would take care of it.

Now, when Abby awoke, she found that there were about three blankets piled on top of her normal covers. She smiled at the fact that Owen had indeed taken care of the problem.

She snuggled into him and spooned her nude body against his. In truth, Abby didn't need covers at all. However, for some reason she simply liked to use them. She enjoyed snuggling under them when she went to bed. She liked the feeling of the soft and clean sheets against her bare skin. She loved it when she and Owen snuggled together under the covers after they made love. For all too many years, she had not had any real use for such human comforts. Now, she truly enjoyed them. Of course, she wouldn't really have enjoyed them as much –or at all- if it wasn't for Owen.

As she looked over at her lover, she could see that he was still sound asleep. At least, she mused, he wasn't snoring. She'd learned that when Owen was very tired, or sometimes ill, he tended to snore –really snore. On the trip to Missoula, inside the trunk, Abby had awoken to a noise that for an instant made her think that lion's cage had been placed in the baggage car next to the trunk. Luckily for her, the sleep instinct could generally overpower any distracting noises.

She glanced over at the clock on the bedside table and saw that it was past 5pm. The sun was down and their Christmas Day had begun. It was time to wake Owen up.

"Owen? It's time to get up.", she said softly. A nonsensical mumble that sounded like he was asking for five more minutes was her only response. She decided to try a new tactic. "Come on…It's Christmas.", Abby said. This time she rubbed her nude body slowly up and down his. Well, she thought as she felt a familiar pressure against her body, it feels like he's waking up. Should any second…

"Morning.", Owen said with a salacious grin as his eyes popped open. He gently pulled her towards him and gave her a kiss. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas to you too.", Abby said back. "It's time to get up.", she said as she turned on the light and sat up.

"Aw, you were teasing? That's mean.", Owen pretended to pout.

"Sorry, but you weren't responding to anything else so I was left with little choice. I promise to make it up to you later on.", she laughed.

"Alright.", Owen responded with a chuckle of his own. "Yow, it's cold down here when you're getting out of bed."

"Is it now? I don't notice."

"I do."

"Alright, I'll take pity on you.", Abby laughed. She slipped out of bed and padded over to the chair where Owen had left his clothing folded a few hours prior. She brought them back to the bed. "Here, you can pull them on under the covers."

"Thanks.", Owen smiled at her.

"Anytime.", she replied as she set about getting her own clothes on.

Five minutes later, the two entered the house through the side door. The house was empty. Oscar, as was his habit when not visiting Lyle in San Francisco, was taking his dinner at the Lawton house. Owen checked inside the oven momentarily and turned it on. A small turkey breast was in a pan in the oven, placed there by Oscar prior to departing. He and Owen had done all the preparations that afternoon before Owen went to bed. The turkey breast with stove-top dressing, a couple of mashed potatoes (to be turned on later), a green bean casserole done with bacon and sour cream (brought as a leftover from the Lawton table), and cranberry sauce was to be Owen's Christmas dinner.

Abby emerged from the cellar with a bottle of blood –as it was Christmas and thus a special occasion, it was an IV bag of human blood 'donated' by St. Patrick's hospital in Missoula. She left it out so the contents would warm up a little more before she added the bag into a pan of warm water to complete the warming cycle.

She entered the living room and noted that the VHS machine was recording one of the day's football games.

"Grandpa's taping something."

"Is he?"

"Yup, looks like a ballgame. He's really gotten used to the VCR."

"It was an awesome birthday gift for him."

"It was your idea."

"You provided the money."

"No, those two jerks in Billings did that.", Abby said as she recalled the events that led to them buying Oscar the VCR for his birthday the previous August.

Abby had gone to Billings one night in late July to take advantage of the local hospital's blood bank. (She tended to go to various hospitals so the absences from the blood bank wouldn't be too severe in one place.) A block from the local hospital, she cut through an alley to come face to face with a pair of men in what seemed to be a drug buy. One of them, had promptly decided to eliminate this witness and pulled a gun. The man would not remember much else. The two were found forty minutes later by the police –who'd received a mysterious anonymous phone call- in the same alley unconscious. Both had concussions, lacerations and broken bones. Among the injuries were arm lacerations that looked like they'd bled somewhat (Abby had used her fingernails to open the skin and collected a pint from each into an empty bottle she found.). Even more mysterious was the fact that along with the drugs, two handguns were found. Amazingly, the barrels of both weapons had been bent back completely. The prospective buyer complained that the more than fifteen hundred dollars in cash he'd had was completely gone from his pockets. Abby had been listening from a rooftop and thought the guy should be grateful for the fact that six months earlier, both of them would be on their way to the morgue if they'd encountered her like that.

Upon returning home with the money, Owen and Abby decided to get Oscar a VCR for his birthday. All it took was them to send away to Sears & Roebuck and a metal, top-loading Panasonic VHS player arrived by late August for Oscar's birthday. After a few sessions of trial and error in programming, Oscar soon loved being able to tape ballgames and movies. Now, he was making use of their birthday present to him. Abby was duly pleased since she was –for once- able to do some good with the superhuman abilities she had.

Owen came into the living room after tending to chores in the kitchen.

"How's your dinner coming along?", Abby asked.

"I think it's ok. I'm really looking forward to it."

"I'll bet."

"It'll be a nice change."

"What did you have last Christmas?"

"We actually had turkey. But, the potatoes my mom got turned out to be bad. So, she made macaroni to go with the turkey, stuffing and vegetables instead."

"Macaroni at Christmas?"

"Yup. She did hold off the cheese that one time. When we said grace, that was what I really thankful for."

"Just out of curiosity, how often did she serve you that?"

"Um, more like how often did she not serve it? She kind of got the idea it was my favourite, so she served it…a lot."

Abby left it at that, sensing that Owen didn't want to rehash the monotony of his diet to add to his unpleasant memories of Los Alamos. The two sat down to watch some television while the food cooked.

Oscar returned around 8pm, after an enjoyable dinner with his friends. He'd left on the pretext of planning to call his son Lyle in California, as well as his grandchildren out there. He did make the calls as he'd said. Owen and Abby heard him talking for a while and laughing with his distant family.

Once off the phone, he turned his attention to the family he had living with him now. Owen and Abby had both eaten their respective meals by this time, so it was time to open presents.

Abby could scarcely contain her excitement. In that, she felt just like the young girl she appeared to be. At Owen and Abby's behest, Oscar opened his gifts first. From Abby, he'd received some new fly fishing line and a series of new trout flies that he couldn't wait to try when the season began in May. From Owen, he received a new fishing vest with a hat. As well, there was a warm cotton union suit that he planned to wear in January when he and Joe Lawton began their regular ice-fishing trips. From both of them, he also got some blank VHS tapes to record sports events –with the Sarajevo Olympic Winter Games less than two months off, he expected to get great use out of them.

Owen's gifts consisted of some clothing from his grandfather, as well as some books. Abby had gotten him some Star Wars action figures. She'd noticed that he'd had several in his room in Los Alamos. They had –of course- been left behind. Somehow, Abby had managed to find all the ones that he'd left there, along with some new ones. She also had given him some books. There were a couple of Gordon Korman's popular young adult series, as well as a couple of Shakespeare plays. (Abby had been slowly working to elevate Owen's taste in reading material over the preceding months.)

Abby's hands were steady when she opened her gifts only by a severe display of her willpower. Oscar had gotten her some clothes. Since arriving, she'd mostly worn older clothes that Oscar's own children had worn once. Now, she had clothes that fit her perfectly, as well as were more current in style. Owen had gotten her some books as well. He'd figured out that Abby loved romances, especially the classical ones. To that end, he'd gotten her paperbacks of Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and Pride & Prejudice. Another package puzzled her. It felt solid, but nothing she could easily discern through the paper. She tore it open and smiled, inside was Rubik's Revenge, a far more difficult variation of the Rubik's Cube. Abby couldn't wait to try it out.

Oscar stood up and walked to the closet.

"Now, earlier this month, I was talking to your Uncle Lyle. It appears, Owen, that your mother hasn't spoken to him about anything either. When we spoke, this was at Thanksgiving, he asked about sending your usual present to you at Christmas. I suggested he send it here and I'd see you got it. I didn't offer any more information and he didn't ask. I think he might suspect there's more to what I was saying, but your mother won't talk to him anymore than she would to me, so she won't listen to him even if he were to talk to her. Your Uncle Lyle sent this."

He removed a box from the closet. It was a ColecoVision gaming system. Owen and Abby's jaws dropped as they saw this. Oscar smiled at their reaction.

"And, this was my contribution", he grinned as he revealed the Expansion Pack 1 that would allow them to use the Atari 2600 games on the system. Near pandemonium resulted at that. Oscar smiled to himself. It was definitely a brilliant idea of Lyle's. He suspected Lyle knew more than he was letting on. Perhaps Lyle should be brought into the full secret, including the truth about Abby, he pondered. At any rate, even Oscar admitted to himself that he was looking forward to trying some of the games himself.

Afterwards, when they'd cleaned up the wrapping papers, Owen announced loudly, "Grandpa, we forgot the stockings!", as he gestured towards the two stockings hanging on the mantle. They were of the same size, set at the ends of the mantle. One was inscribed with 'Oscar', the other with 'Owen'.

"Why, so we did. Well, let's rectify that right now. Owen, would you…?", he asked as he shot his grandson a knowing nod of his head.

"Sure.", Owen responded with a nod of his own. Abby watched as Oscar removed Owen's stocking and placed it on the sofa where Owen had been sitting. He carried the other one to his own chair. Abby, thus, didn't see Owen reach down under the sofa and remove a third stocking that they'd put there earlier that day. Before she could process the scene, Owen had placed it in her lap. Abby gasped in surprise as she looked at it.

It was bright red, since it was far newer than the other two. Across the white band at the top, embroidered in old-fashioned lettering was the name 'Abby'. She looked, her eyes wide at Owen and his grandfather.

"We were going to hang it up on the mantle, between the other two. But we thought it might be more fun to give it to you as a surprise.", Owen said as he could scarcely contain his own pleasure as he saw Abby's expression.

This was perhaps the most touching thing of all to her. As Abby looked at the stocking with her name attached, she realized that she now really was a part of the family here.

The contents of the stockings were fine if standard. Oscar got a few sports magazines, some shaving soap, and a jar of maraschino cherries –a particular favourite of his. Owen received a few Batman comics, soap on a rope, and a bottle each of Hai Karate and English Leather colognes. Abby received some soap and shampoo that had a definitively more feminine scent than the ones she had been using. She also noted a brush that she could use on her feet in the shower –since her feet did tend to need special care when she showered since she didn't wear shoes, as well as some foot lotion –again something she could use. Overall, it was a perfect collection for her needs.

The evening concluded with Oscar settling in to watch some of the game that he'd taped earlier, while Owen and Abby read the instructions for the ColecoVision.

Later that night, Owen and Abby lay together in his bed. Abby had made up to Owen what she'd promised him earlier –not that it had taken much prompting on his part. She was resting her head on his shoulder while he randomly ran his fingers through her hair.

"Did you have a nice Christmas, Abby?"

"Are you serious? I really hate to sound like a cliché, but I think it was the best Christmas ever."

"Really?"

"I honestly can't remember anything nicer."

"I'm glad it was a special one for you. I can see you liked the stocking."

"I almost cried when I saw it, I was so overwhelmed."

"I noticed. Do you know what makes me happiest?"

"What's that?"

"That we're here, together. You know, when I turned around that night in the courtyard, and saw you there, I thought it might be cool if you wanted to be my friend. I never thought that we'd be like this at Christmas, or…", he looked at her with a warm intensity, "or that I could possibly love you as much as I do."

Abby smiled at her lover and gave him a kiss. "I have to admit that when we first met, I just wanted to be alone on the jungle gym. You started to win me over when you lent me the Rubik's Cube.", she grinned. "But, I know what you mean. I've seen a lot of winter's nights. But I don't think I've ever been this happy than this winter's night with you. And do you know what makes me even happier?"

"What?"

"That we're going to have many, many more of them together.", Abby said with a smile as she kissed him.

Owen responded to her kiss and the passion built again as the two welcomed in Boxing Day by making love again. Outside their window, the snow began to fall again as Montana settled into the early morning hours of December the 26th.

South America

The night air was hot and steamy. A pale face with a prominent nose looked up at the night sky. A smile spread across the pallid face, a smile that revealed very white teeth with deadly looking incisors. A sliver of moonlight revealed smears of blood on the lips and chin of the figure. The blood stood out in stark contrast to the pale skin of the face.

From a distant village came screams of horror as the results of the pale figures' feeding was discovered.

These small primitive villages, he thought. They reminded him so much like the ones in the backwoods of the Virginia that he had once known and loved so well. He raised one of his ring strewn fingers to his chin and stroked it. The memories came flooding back to him, Virginia, the family's plantation along the James River, discussions with other gentlemen of Virginia society about what the new King, George III, was going to do about taxation in the colonies here. He thought about his now long dead brother (who had been so conveniently understanding of his then new nighttime condition…until a point, that is) and his equally long dead –save, likely, for one- family. And, he thought about his niece. Oh yes, his sweet little niece Abigail.

He had wanted to be closer to her. Oh yes, he had wanted to be SO much closer to her. He remembered how she looked. He remembered her scent. He remembered how she had screamed when he'd lured her into that old building on the plantation. In hindsight, he thought, he should not have been so hasty back then. If he'd done his work in a slower manner, he might have actually been able to sample the flesh he'd so badly wanted. Instead, she'd gotten scared and begun to panic and he'd been forced to settle for her blood instead. Ah, the agony of his lost chances.

But still, his pretty little niece ought to still be little and still be pretty to this day; unless she'd run afoul of someone with a wooden stake or gotten careless when it came to invitations or sunlight. He doubted that, though. She was always a smart child, what with her inquisitive nature and fondness for puzzles. He wondered idly what the last eleven-score years had been like for her.

Perhaps, he thought, it was time to return to America. He'd been down here amongst the primitives since when? He believed he'd overheard word at the time of some sort of war between Spain and the United States. Oh yes, his return was overdue.

And, he thought lustfully, his reunion with his sweet little niece Abigail was far, far overdue. There was no rush, or course, he should enjoy his journey back up South and Central America. He thought he might be back in the United States by spring or so. Ah spring, it heralded a reunion with his pretty little Abigail. He could scarcely contain his glee at the thought. He wondered how she'd react at seeing her old Uncle Jebediah again. They'd both find that out soon enough.