"Daddy," a sweet and small little voice brought Roman Reigns out of yet another painful memory of a life long gone now.
It was startling to see how much Joelle looked like her mother Gina. Gina Reigns, Roman's former wife. It was enough to bring up the ache in his chest again.
"Daddy," she tugged on his hand again. "Come on, Nanna says it's time for the Thanksgiving Dinner."
For a moment Roman hadn't realized that with her hair in those pigtails and where that red and white dress, Joelle really did look like a younger version of Gina. She looked up at him with her big brown eyes, she looked at his gray eyes and the small smile she had on her mouth was enough to make him look away. What he was looking at was the one picture still left out for everyone to see. It was the last remaining picture of Gina with Roman and Joelle.
"Daddy, Momma wouldn't want you to be sad." She said reaching up to pull down the hand that was holding the silver framed picture. "See, she's happy. She's happy in Heaven now, Daddy."
"Yeah, I'm sure she is." He said and then put the picture back up on the mantle. "Come on, Princess, let's go see what sorts of goodies Nanna has made."
He did not see Joelle watch him leave. In fact his mind was on other things, other things that had been gone for a time now. Things like the love of his life gone for good.
Joelle stood in the middle of her father's living room, hands grasping at the velvety red color of her dress. Her face was flush, a small blush forming across her cheeks as she tried not to cry.
"It's not fair." She said looking up at the picture of her mother. "Momma, it's just not fair. I miss you, too, but I don't act like Daddy."
Her mother's face was in a permanent smile, hugging Roman around the shoulders with her hair up in a long black ponytail while she wore a bright red bikini since they were out at the beach together. That was shortly before she had gotten sick.
Shaking her head, Joelle headed for the kitchen where one of the two turkeys was coming out of the oven just in time for the other Samoan members.
"Nanna," Joelle said looking at her father's mother.
Her grandmother had blue eyes, much like Roman's. They were the kind of eyes that could make anyone happy again.
"Yes Babygirl. What do you need?"
"I want Daddy to be happy again."
"I want him to be happy too, but I don't really know what to do about it." Patricia Reigns rubbed at Joelle's cheek slightly.
"Neither do I. Do you think Santa might know?"
"Santa?" Patricia Reigns jerked her head back slightly at that thought. "You know maybe you're on to something, sweetie. But right now it is time for our Thanksgiving meal. Go on outside and find a spot to eat. I'm sure Cousin Dwayne has a spot at his table for your to sit."
"Okay." Joelle sighed and headed for the back door. "I'm going to sit with Daddy and Uncle Seth."
Patricia watched her youngest granddaughter leave the kitchen. Then she watched Joelle go and sit down at a picnic table where Roman and Roman's co-owner partner Seth Rollins were sitting. Uncle Seth welcomed Joelle but Roman was otherwise preoccupied with something going on with his phone to notice Joelle.
"Santa just might be the only person to help my son now." Patricia said before getting the last minute feast underway.
The Thanksgiving meal was over and people were starting to leave after the last of the pie was finished. Cousins and aunties and uncles started leaving in droves, mostly cousins had been there though. Since her home was the largest and could fit just about everyone in this large Samoan family, Joelle watched most of them leave. The next ones to leave were Cousins Jimmy and Jey Uso, with Jimmy's kids and his new wife Naomi.
"How are you doing, kid?" Cousin Dwayne Johnson asked when he came into the front room with his daughter Simone.
"I guess okay. Just thinking." She turned her head and continued watching people get in their vehicles and drive away.
"Have you written your letter to Santa Claus yet? Maybe he can help you out." Simone suggested.
"I don't know." Joelle answered.
"You don't know?"
"I don't know if he'll answer what I want."
"What do you want?" Cousin Dwayne asked.
"I want my Daddy to be happy again."
Without much care, Joelle got up off the couch and walked towards the stairs where Joelle found her parents' room and went to sit on the large bed she had always liked so much.
The bed was black, but she remembered it being a light blue color when her Mommy had been around. Joelle ran her fingers across the black fabric, remembering later in her mother's sickness she would climb into bed with her and they'd read her princess books together.
"Joelle!" Roman called as he got upstairs. "Joelle, what are you doing in here? Nanna and Grandpa are about ready to leave."
Joelle fell back on her mother's side of the bed, arms stretched out wide and landed with a huff.
"Joelle?" Roman came forward and looked down at his daughter.
"Why aren't you happy, Daddy?" She asked.
"I'm happy, Princess. What makes you think otherwise?"
"Because you don't smile."
He sat down next to her. "Of course I smile."
Joelle looked away from him. She reached up and pulled her mother's pillow down and hugged it to her, not resisting the urge to inhale the sweet smell of the perfume she always seemed to have.
Joelle heard her father sigh. "All right, you can stay up here until bedtime. Then you have to take your bath and then get into bed." He patted her back and then stood up.
As he got to the door, Joelle spoke up. "I love you, Daddy."
"I love you too, Princess." And then he left.
This quietness gave Joelle time to think. It made her think about everything going on. What more could she do. Everyone kept saying she should talk to Santa about this, whatever this was.
Hugging her mother's pillow one more time, Joelle slid off the bed and headed across the hall to her room.
Her mom's old drawing table had been moved into the room, with all her papers and pencils and markers and stuff. In the middle drawer Joelle pulled out some nice white paper and she found a pretty purple pencil.
At first Joelle didn't know what to say, to write. She sat there on the drawing stool looking at that white piece of paper. She just couldn't put into words what she wanted from Santa. But she could tell him what she didn't want.
"Dear Santa," Joelle wrote. "This year I don't want anything for Christmas. This year will be two years since Mommy died and Daddy lost all his happiness. So, this year, all I want for Christmas is to see my Daddy happy again. And I want to be happy again."
Then she signed the very short letter with her name in a red pencil she found, folded the piece of paper up and left it on the drawing table so that she could get ready for bed.
Maybe, just maybe, Santa could help with this problem. After all it was the time of year for miracles.
Hi. Okay guys, I'm back. Honestly I had other things going on and I sort of lost interest in writing with the wrestling fandom for some reason or another. But I wanted to keep up with my tradition of writing holiday theme fiction during the month of December. And after watching Help for the Holidays, I decided that I was going to give this theme a go and this is the first thing that popped into my head. So I hope you liked it and I'll have more coming soon.