Si Cela Est Noël
AnniKay

Sam/Mercedes/Puck

Disclaimer: I own Nothing…Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennen along with Fox and others own this fandom and all the characters there in…Anything you recognize obviously belongs to them

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Summary: Winter Break for the College Sophomores of the Learning French Series.
A time to reconnect with family and friends.

Hark The Herald, Angels Sing (Judy Garland)

Antwan Berry PoV

I was amazed by how quickly the surrogacy and in vitro process went when one had significantly more money. Then again maybe the process had just been regulated and streamlined since the last time Hiram and I had had a child. But no matter the reason, when Hiram and I had started the process that would bring Rachel into the world, I'd been twenty-eight years old. When I held my newborn daughter for the first time, I'd been thirty-one. But the second go round, the triplets were born less than a year after our first meeting with Compassionate Beginnings. We'd very much lucked out with our surrogate. Phoebe was a seasoned veteran of the process. She helped us by setting limits that made it easier for her trust that we'd be good parents, to the children she carried and yet maintain her own distance so that she wouldn't be more than a little tempted to keep the babies herself.

She did let us come and see her to help with things like figuring out which homeopathic remedy worked best to relieve her morning sickness. Phoebe's was far more aggressive than Shelby's had been. She suffered with at least mild nausea every morning for several hours and then she would have vomiting spells depending on what scents she encountered over the course of the day. Thankfully, we found that a combination of candied ginger consumed as soon as she got up and ginger and peppermint teas sipped throughout the day worked to keep her from revisiting every meal she ate. Thankfully, about halfway through the second trimester her morning sickness finally fully abated. It was so strange to both Hiram and I that while she was only four and half months along she really looked closer to eight. The fetal screenings were undertaken at that time and we held our breaths. Phoebe understood and agreed with our desire for amniocentesis and thankfully the babies didn't have any of the genetic markers we were worried about. Since we'd had our DNA mapped at the facility where Rachel's had been tested and marked, we were able to find out early that while the girl was Hiram's and the twin boys were mine, she only carried the trait for NPD, which meant that the chance of her manifesting the disorder were reduced to almost zero.

During the time immediately after the testing, we started looking for a contractor to do renovations on our new home and create a nursery as well as making sure that Rachel had a space that would encourage her to feel welcome. We hoped that she might visit more often if the space was lovely enough. We asked George for his recommendation. He'd been in Lima long enough to know which of the available general contractors would be worth the money and which ones would be comfortable working for us. He had already built up the reputation of being honest and more than good at his job. People had begun to call him the Mike Holmes of Allen County and call him in to fix other contractor's messes. Hiram and I were both surprised when George took on the job himself. He and his crew were perfect, professional, efficient and they gave advice when we asked for it…but at no time did they try and convince us that we had to take it. They didn't even mind that Hiram was handling the decorating aspect on his own. We worked together with George and his crew and by the time Phoebe went on bed rest at thirty-one weeks, we were ready for the babies to come home. By the time the babies were ready to come home six weeks later, Rachel's space was ready and waiting on her.

Phoebe confided in us that she was pretty sure that our pregnancy would be her last surrogacy. She'd built up a really nice nest egg, she had helped four families, and as she got older each pregnancy was harder on her body. She'd carried multiples before and had not needed to go on bed rest. Triplets meant that she would have to have a C-Section…that plus the fact that she'd almost had to be hospitalized had sealed the deal for her. We did help her as much as possible. We hired a care nurse for her and a maid service to clean her home while she was laid up. She went into labor on a Saturday afternoon. We were there with and took her to the hospital. Phoebe was so well prepare. She already had her 'go bag' and everything else she would want or need ready. So it was a matter of helping her to get cleaned up and dressed and taking her to St. Ritas. We were very grateful that our surrogate was willing to deliver the babies in Lima rather than near her home in Dayton. It meant so much to us that we'd be able to be close to the babies no matter how long they needed to be in the hospital after they were born. While neither Hiram nor I were catholic, it was the best hospital in Lima, besides Becah, Carole and Santiago all worked there.

I could not even believe how quickly things happened. We called Carole on the way to the ER just to see if she was working. It was a blessing that she was. Carole had us through the admitting process and up to the maternity floor or 'The Birth Place' in a matter of what seemed like minutes. The doctor and nurses checked Phoebe out very soon after she was hooked up to the monitors. We were as nervous as we'd been with Rachel. Everything in the room other than the bed and the pregnant lady on it seemed completely different than things had been twenty-years before. While the contractions were regular and less than ten minutes apart, the doctor, hers and the attending physician decided to let her progress a little further before preparing her for surgery. They recommended one course of antenatal steroids to help the babies lungs develop to lower the risk of any of them having serious breathing problems.

After the first shot was delivered, the nurses concentrated on pain management. Everyone was hopeful that Phoebe would make it the twenty four hours needed before they could give her the second half of the course of meds. There was a lot of TV watching and Hiram and I took turns reading to her when the TV was too boring. In an effort to keep her from progressing, she was only allowed to walk as far as her bathroom, and even then they asked her to keep the number of trips as low as possible. They didn't want to use drugs to delay the progress, but Phoebe was adamant that if push came to shove she would sit with her legs crossed to buy the babies the time they needed to be healthy. But the doctors were just as adamant that the progesterone supplementation was a last resort they wanted to avoid at all cost. I will never know what worked; the prayers of our friends, many of whom dropped by to see us and see if we needed anything, the stubborn determination of Phoebe, or the grace of God…but Phoebe made it to the second push of the steroids and it was four hours after that when she finally allowed them to start prepping her for the C-section.

They took her into the OR at around twelve thirty. Ramantha Bette was born at one-twelve, Rephael Channing was born at a quarter after one and Rezin Terrence was born before one twenty. Phoebe had asked if she could have her tubes tied at the same time and while that didn't actually affect us, there was no way we were going to cause her to schedule and have another surgery later when the cost, according to our insurance agent, was negligible as a part of the C-section and was covered for her under our insurance policy. Thankfully, St. Rita's actually would perform the surgery…or she'd have had to deliver at Lima Memorial. Since she had the 'tubal ligation' she didn't make it to recovery until twenty minutes after two…then coming down from the spinal block made her sick…so that was even longer before she was returned to her room. Hiram had stuck things out with her, while I followed our bundles of joy to the NICU. Because the heaviest baby weighed just four pounds ten ounces, they had to spend time in the NICU. I called Rachel with the announcement of the babies' arrival. She didn't fake enthusiasm as well as she believed she did. But she tried and she really did make a good suggestion of calling the boys by their more common sounding middle names. I hoped that once she met her brothers and sister, she would find it in herself to see them as just that, her siblings…part of our family.

Thankfully the steroid course had worked. All three babies were breathing on their own, but they had to spend some time in the incubators, under a phototherapy light to bring their bilirubin levels down. The nurses assured me that they were small, but very well developed. They were even able to suckle and swallow…that meant they wouldn't need the feeding tubes or ventilators that had scared us so much. Phoebe spent three days in the hospital recovering from her surgery. Then she went home and per our agreement, Hiram and I paid for her to have the care nurse and maid service for six more weeks. We spent the next week alternating our time in the NICU with them as we fed them and nurtured them to get them to the five pound mark and keep them under the light treatment as much as possible. After the babies were moved to the 'care' nursery…where they were given a lot more parental interaction as the hospital staff and the parents worked together to get them to the six pounds the hospital determined that they had to be to leave. Terrence got there pretty quickly, but St. Rita's policy was that multiples left at the same time. So he was stuck while his brother's fluctuating weight made us all crazy. It took patience and to be honest, we had to try several different formulas to find one that didn't make Channing's finicky system rebel. But ultimately he was able to put on and keep on the needed weight.

It was rather stupid of us, but we hadn't actually thought about the fact that three infant car seats did not fit in either of our cars. If it weren't for the nurses asking us about the types of car seats we'd gotten and asking us if we'd gone and had them installed professionally or at the fire station during a discussion about the babies probably being released at the end of that week, we'd have been very unprepared. We did have the car seats already. We had purchased Sloane and the twins' infant car seats from the Evanses and the Jones. New seat covers and they were perfect for our triplets. Thank God, KAMA and Danica Jones full on saved us. KAMA because they paid me not very long before the babies were born. I'd finally talked them down to two percent since I was only working on their anti-Faux News and TMZ law suits not their day to day career needs. Still that was quite a lot of money for one quarter. Danica, because I'd called Benton frantically trying to figure out what on earth we could do…we were three days from taking our babies home and we had no way to get them from point A to point B. Danica popped up an hour later and drove me to Allan Nott Honda and Toyota.

"Okay, now, I did some research for you currently Honda's are the best of the best for mini-van safety. They tested better than the Sienna and leaps and bounds better than the Town and Country and the Grand Caravan. I hope that you don't mind but Gwen sent me a copy of your tax return for this quarter. Thank God that you and Hiram file jointly. He won't need to physically be here; I know that right now you two are not comfortable having the babies at the hospital without one of you there."

"Have mercy, Dani-Girl…you are a God send." I thanked her profusely. She quietly asked me if we needed any help with a down payment since we weren't really able to trade in either of our cars at that point. I chuckled and reassured her that thanks to her daughter and sons-in-law, we were good. I told her again though that she was definitely a blessing.

She threw me a smile and laughed. "I hope you think so after I tell you that Benton, George and Sander all say that you should test drive at least the Sequoia, the Pilot the Sienna and the Odyssey and then make the sales guy work his ass off for the sale."

I couldn't help but laugh myself because I was sure that they had said exactly that. Still, it was sound advice. We spent three hours driving several classes of SUV and mini-van. Then I settled on the Odyssey. Those back up and side view camera were what had been missing from my life and I'd not even known it. It took them no time to come back with an offer. Then I hit them with the fact that I was paying for it myself, not financing it and I was able to get them to upgrade me from a fully loaded base model to a fully loaded premium model without raising the cost. Best of all it came with a five year maintenance package the other hadn't. While they were going over a few last minute details that Danica could easily handle, I ran…literally, it wasn't even a block away…to the bank that housed my solo account. Hiram still wouldn't let me put the KAMA money into the joint account because we often used that one to take care of things for Rachel. I'd called my account manager there and he'd had the cashier's check for the cost of the vehicle, plus tax, tag and title ready for me when I got there. He went to church with us at Ada, so he knew about the triplets and they had been actively praying for us for weeks.

Least than ten minutes after I'd left, I walked back in and fifteen minutes after that, all the Is were dotted and the Ts were crossed. It still took another almost thirty before I could drive off the lot. As she was getting into her car, Danica made the suggestion that I stop by the house and get the car seats and swing by Burt's and get him to install them. "You are always thinking. Thank you Dani…if you need anything. You are now my official sister from another mister."

We shared a laugh and I made my way happily back to the hospital. A short, I swear, Burt Hummel was a god of all things mechanical, stop by Burt's shop and another to grab some food for myself and Hiram and I arrived back at the hospital six and a half hours after I'd left. Three days later we were finally able to take them home to their 'Little Mermaid/Under the Sea' nursery. The cribs rested against a wall that displayed a mural of the scene from the Disney movie where Sebastian was leading his orchestra in the song. The wall across from the three cribs showed the rainbow scene when right before King Tritan gave Ariel her legs. The cribs were certainly the focal point of the room. All three were identical except their finishes. Reba's white four in one convertible crib sat between Channing and Terrence's cherry stained cribs. Her crib bedding highlighted Ariel while Channing and Terry's highlighted Prince Eric and King Tritan. The Ariel had been easy to find. We'd had to get a friend who specialized in making interesting infant and toddler bedding and clothes make the other two sets.

The rug on the floor was soft for the days when crawling became an issue. The rooms two, large windows had light colored sheers and thick ocean colored blackout curtains. In the corner near them, rested a stone gray, tufted glider rocker with a large stuffed Flounder for a pillow. The wall that held the 'rainbow Tritan' mural had the three changing table/dressers in the same order to the cribs that were parallel to them. Two, three shelf cherry and white bookshelves flanked the door to what had once been the room's good sized walk in closet. The closet was now a small, three piece, bathroom. We'd kept things rather simple in there. The floors were tiled in a natural stone tile in a color that the production company called ostrich grey. The walls were tiled two thirds the way up in a dove gray, ceramic subway tile with pure white tile cap border at the top and at the base where the floor and wall tiles met. Hiram had found a beautiful cherry stained furniture looking vanity with a white sink, counter top and silver fixtures. The toilet and shower, tub combo were also white porcelain with silver fixtures. Above the toilet a cabinet that matched vanity exactly, since it had been one in its previous life, held washcloths, towels and atop it sat the yellow and green baby bath tub. The cabinet of the twenty-four inch wide vanity was filled with Johnson & Johnson baby washes and the medicine cabinet above the sink held the whole host of other necessities, from alcohol to Q-tips. The bathroom had been waiting for its little charges. They had finally arrived.

That first night at home, it was tiring and exhausting and a little frustrating, but we'd actually already gotten over the worst of the sleepless nights in the hospital. Their cords had fallen off and their navels were almost completely healed. Hell, we'd even gotten Channing and Terry's first diaper changes after their circumcisions out of the way there. Every father of sons who I spoke to admitted that, like Hiram and I, they too had cried with their sons that first change. So we gave them their first baths in their new homes, lotioned them with a combination of Aveeno's unscented baby lotion and the iconic, 'just smells like a baby' Johnson & Johnson baby lotion, then dressed them in the outfits, we'd gotten just for their first night home. Reba was soon dressed in pretty, red and white stripped, footsie pajamas with a darling picture of Minnie Mouse was staring dreaming at the words 'Simply Adorable' above the mouse's iconic ears on her little tummy. Channing and Terry had been corralled into matching Thing 1 & Thing 2 footsie pajamas. We settled the three of them in their cribs, reclining against boppy pillows, teal for all three. We took several pictures. Rachel could testify that we were evil parents who always had gads of pictures to embarrass our kids with when they were older. Goodness knew that Finn saw all of Rachel's baby pictures. That was a good young man…no matter what Rachel had convinced herself to believe since they broke up.

At least Reba, Channing and Terry had all been born with heads fully of silky curls. Unlike Rachel who'd been bald as a billiard ball until after her first birthday. but the hair wasn't the only differences in the babies and their elder sister. It was to be expected that their skin was significantly darker, though still many, many shades lighter than my own. Their personalities were as different from Rachel's as they were from each other. Rachel had been a quiet baby. She'd startled very easily, often jumping herself awake. She didn't like to be put down and self-soothing was not something she ever really mastered. On the other hand, Terry loved to sleep. He slept longer than either of his siblings and was always the last to wake up even for food or to be changed. He was also extremely laid back. nothing seemed to bother him…ever. Reba smiled unexpectedly early and all the time. She loved to giggle and grin and I could have sworn she was already trying to talk. She woke for food and changing, but she didn't startle herself awake, even when she wasn't well swaddled. Channing was somewhere in between his wombmates on the sleep spectrum. He slept deeply, but would startle himself awake and was always the first one up. When he was up he wanted Reba and Terry up too.

They were all adorable, but Reba, she looked like a little doll. She was, and I would never let my eldest child hear me say such a thing, but she was the prettiest baby I'd ever seen. She was long and plump and perfect as were her brothers. Channing was probably going to grow up to at least my height with Terry only a little behind. They were very, very cute as well, but Reba had a darling little face with the most adorable little bow lips. Terry's are more like mine and Channing had my bottom lip and looking back at the pictures, his upper lip was shaped like his mother's but full like mine. He and Terry also had her rounder, fuller face. All three of our younger babies ate easily, burped easily and to be honest, they were better sleepers than I'd ever expected. Rachel had been a difficult baby to get to eat…no that wasn't right…she would take two or three ounces each feeding, never more…that meant that she had to be fed a lot more often to keep her weight up. It had been quite trying, waking every two hours to feed her. but we'd managed.

To be honest, I felt like I was being a little hard on the baby that Rachel had been. Yes, she'd been a little fussy and her colic had almost done me in... But we'd been first time fathers with no real support system. Shelby had left as soon as possible. Before she really should have really, to avoid getting too attached to Rachel and to us. Even meeting Danica and Benton, when our girls were in Gymboree together…I'd accepted the overture to friendship with Benton, mostly, but I hadn't realized how much it would have helped to have a mother to talk to. With the triplets we'd had all the support in the world, from the nurses and Carole at the hospital to all our friends who dropped by to visit to Will and Analyn who'd found us an amazing nanny…who happened to be a man. Things were far easier the second go round for almost all parents. We weren't different in that regard. Still once again, we found ourselves without the support of the person it would have meant the most coming from. I truly hoped and prayed that that would change once our children were all under the same roof at the same time.

Hiram Berry PoV

Antwan and I were ecstatic to have all our children under the same roof for the first time since the triplets had been born. However, we both had to confess to being a little but anxious about how Rachel would interact with the triplets. She wasn't very comfortable with change or with sharing. Something her three younger siblings fully embodied. Unfortunately, Rachel hadn't been able to come home for Thanksgiving after all. she had a huge project that she needed to work on and we'd been so tired from the six weeks in the hospital with the triplets that being able to spend our days off having a nice, quiet time in our tension free home…that felt like heaven. Especially, since we were able to get the babies routine, and ours, really well established during that quiet time. Since Rachel was flying in on a Saturday, Antwan and I talked it over and we decided to make a full day out of it. So we woke up early and got all three of our little miracles washed, dressed and into their car seats in our brand new Honda Odyssey. It had the best safety ratings on the market and enough safety features to make even my more than a little OCD husband comfortable. The drive to Dayton International went by quickly and we were able to find a great spot for me and the babies to wait for Antwan and Rachel. It had been almost a full year since Rachel had been home and the last time hadn't had the best start.

As Antwan and Rachel walked towards our obsidian blue pearl mini-van, they were talking animatedly and I couldn't help but notice that Rachel had lost weight…weight she really couldn't afford to lose. They put Rachel's rolling carry-on bag and her backpack into the back. "Oh you shouldn't have brought the babies out in this cold. They are only two months old." Her voice struck me as strange. I wondered if I was paranoid, or if it was really that she was trying to say the right thing but the sentiment behind the words just wasn't there.

Antwan laughed. "Well they were anxious to meet their big sister. Besides, we still have five nights of Hanukkah and Christmas itself left…so your father and I felt like doing a little shopping."

"Oh well that's fortuitous. I have to take a PE class next semester and I was only able to get into a silly mock triathlon class. Twice a week they will force me to run a mile on a track, swim a mile in a lap pool and do a mile on a stationary bike every day. I don't have any physical education type of clothing other than my dance apparel." Rachel laughed endearingly. "Plus, you two can help me pick out Hanukkah and Christmas presents for Reba, Channing and Terrance. I had no idea what to get for them."

"Anything from their big sister will be both treasured and greatly appreciated." Twan said with a grin. He and Rachel took front seats and we were soon underway.

The drive to the Jeffersonville Tanger Outlet Mall was filled with Rachel telling us everything about her first semester. Her mid-term grades had been far, far better than those of her first year's first term though still not as good as Antwan or I felt they should be. We'd also been very worried about the week delay in their availability, but that situation had rectified itself without our intervention. The simple truth was that her core curriculum classes were the problem. She did well, for the most part, in her performance classes. But the classes where she was expected to learn to think, rather than learning certain dates or facts…her grades suffered greatly. Antwan and I had a plan to help with that. We had gotten several logic building board games and our hope was that in playing them we might help her to see how to reason through her course work better.

"You look like you've lost weight. Are you eating alright?" I asked her when she finally stopped speaking.

She sighed and I watched her in the mirror Antwan kept down so the driver could see the babies in the back. I watched as she decided on the lie she was going to tell me. "I did lose almost twenty pounds when I was ill. But it was just a urinary tract infection. I've finished the antibiotics but have a course of cranberry tablets that I have to take for another week or so. But I should be fine again soon."

Antwan and I locked eyes in the larger rearview mirror. Rachel was doing better with using the truth to lie. She'd been sick and that was why she'd lost weight. I was fairly certain that she was still taking something, but not the cranberry tablets. Still I just decided to roll with it. "Oh…okay, we'll just have to feed you back up and we'll hit Whole Foods and get you some one hundred percent natural, organic cranberry juice. That is better than those tablets. You'll be right as rain in no time."

We walked through the open air outlet mall for four hours and by the time we left, we had so many bags that there was barely room for the five of us and the strollers to go back into the car. Thankfully the triplets had gone through all twelve of the two ounce premixed, sterile, just add the nipple bottles of Enfamil that we'd brought with us, so we were able to fold down the formula cooler, which left us with a little more room. As we loaded ourselves into the van, I couldn't help but rather proud of how helpful Rachel had proven to be as we'd walked and shopped. She had helped us to feed both Channing and Terrance. She'd managed to avoid changing any of the babies, but still, she helped more than I'd thought she would.

As soon as we got home, we gave Rachel the key to the external entrance to her basement level 'apartment'. Neither of her fathers could wait to see her reaction to all the work we'd had done and all that we'd done ourselves. So when we pulled the van back into its space in the garage, next to Rachel's car which sat awaiting her visits, inside out of the elements. We left all the clothes, shoes and various other evidence of our little shopping spree locked in the van while we each carried one of the babies to tour Rachel's new digs. I noticed that Rachel seemed to gravitate towards Channing and he found her just as fascinating. She seemed a little indifferent to Terrance, but the infant fully returned the favor. It worried me a little that Rachel didn't seem to want to interact with Reba at all. But our eldest daughter had two sessions with Dr. Watson, before she returned to New York, so hopefully she could grow past that.

We walked out the side entrance to the garage into the side yard where we kept the large trash receptacle and recycling bins that had to be rolled to the street every week. Then it was through the locked fence that protected our backyard from random intrusions. The yard was gently sloped down to from the side to the actual back yard, where the basement walkout opened on to the patio. However, Rachel's private entrance was nearer the side than the back so there were a few steps to go down to get to the landing outside her door. George had found an incredible looking steel core exterior door that was both modern and very safe. He'd hung it so that it opened out rather than in which made it harder to kick open and he'd used three inch, galvanized steel screws to hang the door and to secure the plate that covered the latch and deadbolt holes. We'd originally picked something pretty with glass and he'd said no it wasn't safe for a young lady living so far away from the rest of us in the house. Rather than giving her a glass pane to look out and see who'd arrived, she had a simple peephole. It may not have been as aesthetically pleasing as it could have been but we definitely valued her safety more than the 'cuteness' of the door.

Whether one entered Rachel's rooms from her reinforced external entrance, or her inner door, they entered into her living room. The living room was a nice, cozy fourteen foot by eighteen-foot area. We'd decorated it as two differing but cohesive zones. The room's walls had been painted a soft, very light-almost white-gray from Sherwin Williams called white duck. The baseboards and all the wooden frames of the pictures around the room were painted a much, much darker gray called black fox. The floor was a great bamboo flooring that George found for us in a light natural color. The main part of the room was dedicated to entertainment with an adorable rose colored Laura Ashley love seat with geometric and chevron patterned rose and ivory throw pillows. Rectangular end tables sat on either side of the love seat looking contemporary and chic painted a medium gray and the same dark gray as the frames on the walls. In front of it, between the two ivory armchairs that flanked the couch, a matching coffee table rested decorated with a rose colored glass bowl holding the remotes for the entertainment center across the room.

The entertainment center was a darker gray wood and housed a mid-sized TV, a nice Bose audio system and a small, ventless, electric fireplace insert. The other area of the room was set up with a nice desk of a lighter gray painted wood flanked on either side by tall bookcases that matched the darker grays in the room. We'd carefully unpacked the contents of the bookshelves from Rachel's old bedroom on the bottom two shelves and arrayed the trophies she'd won when she was younger on the middle shelves. All around the room were the many awards and evidence of all her other childhood achievements. On either side of the entertainment center were two doors painted a shade of white in the same family as the other colors in the room. The left door went into her bathroom…a beautiful room done in a very light shade of gold with ivory tiles and wood and brushed nickel fixtures. The right door stepped into her bedroom.

We'd taken great care to update her room but keep it true to the same taste and color pallet as the room from our old home. We had gotten her white furniture with clean, modern lines. Except her bed. It was a queen sized platform bed with a glaring white upholstered head board and dark wood accents. As she walked through the room, she actually smiled and pointed out different things that been brought over from her old room to Channing. Finally, she turned back and smiled at Antwan and I and it reached her eyes and everything. "I love it…the entire suite of rooms is perfect. There is almost nothing I would change, well other than the location…but there's nothing to be done about that…Channing and Terrance and yes, Ramantha need space too."

That concession was way more than we actually hoped for, so we took it happily. We let ourselves out through the interior door, showing Rachel the new laundry room as we went. The tour of the main part of the house was begun with a stop in the kitchen to feed the triplets, then we walked as we burped them. By the time we finished the first floor, it was time to change their diapers. When we decided that given their usual bedtimes, we'd dispose of the soiled diapers and give them a bath. The second floor held a guest room and bathroom, the triplet's nursery and a room that would become Channing and Terrance's bedroom when they were old enough to no longer need to all live together. We showed Rachel the route to our well-appointed master suite. Giving her a quick peep into our sanctuary, she got a chance to see the new furniture we'd gotten since the bedroom was much larger than our previous bedroom and it had a private sitting room the other house hadn't. Once the triplets were bathed and down for the next four to five hours, we returned downstairs to light the menorah in our living room. We each opened a small gift. We'd gotten Rachel a sandwich press for her kitchen. Rachel and I had gotten Antwan a new decorative statue for his office and the two of them had gifted me with a new winter scarf and hat set in a beautiful shade of gun metal gray. We'd just added the gelt to the triplet's college funds and made donations to charities in their names.

After the lighting and blessings, we all three brought in everything from the car and left it all on the dining room table. We showered and I managed to feed and change Reba, who I believed was about to undergo a growth spurt, without her awakening her brothers. Then we three adults found our way back to the living room to watch 'The Wizard of Oz'. It was a wonderful family evening. In fact, the whole night was perfectly wonderful. Despite being rather tired from the day, Twan and I were able to make love, and we only had to get up with the triplets who only awakened once during the course of the night.

The next morning after feeding the babies, we dressed and dressed them. We asked Rachel if she would like to go to church with us, but she declined the invitation, so we left her to her own devices and went to the Methodist church. I'd learned during our couple counseling that Antwan had felt as if his faith wasn't as important to me as mine was to him. So we decided to fully raise the babies in both religions, not just until they made the decision for themselves, but simply as a way of life. Until a few months previously, it had been a very long time since I'd attended church with Antwan. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the choir there. When I was having a moment of pure honesty, I admitted to myself, if no one else, that I was more than a little sure that Rachel had made her decision that she was only Jewish after a Christmas program where Mercedes Jones had debuted in the kids' choir. That was also around the time that Rachel had discovered vegetarianism. I had never realized that the rivalry had started that long ago. If only I'd seen the signs then. After a beautiful service, we picked Rachel up and we went to the Christmas tree lot. Antwan and I had agreed that we'd also place just as much import on Christian holidays as we'd always placed on the Jewish ones. So we were going to start having a tree and decorations and just enjoy the chance to spoil each other and our children.

We'd actually taken a lunch break the previous week to go shopping for the needed decorations and we'd pulled a few ornaments Rachel had made in her youth that'd never before been utilized properly from the storage section of the attic. We had a late lunch before heading home and fighting to get the nine-foot-tall balsam fir into our living room. Thank Hashem that we had double doors. By the time I had dinner ready, Antwan had the tree in its wide, deep base which contained potting soil and a few feeding sticks the nursery consultant we'd spoken with had said might help us be able to plant the tree after the holiday. He even removed the burlap sack so that the roots wouldn't have even more trouble breathing in the Christmas tree base that was pretty much a potting planter. He had given Rachel the job of winding the lights around the entire tree. While the babies each lay on their 'kicky stations' playing with their baby gyms, Rachel was putting the lights on the tree so in a very meticulous fashion.

"I'm still not sure I understand why we need to celebrate Christmas any differently than we ever did before. It served us well for the last decade or more. What about what you two always said about the commercialism of Christmas having overshadowed any possible religious connotation? You've just spent almost two hundred dollars on the tree alone. Usually what was what we'd spend on one of the gifts we'd get for each other." She was lecturing Antwan as she carefully adjusted each rope of lights.

Antwan sighed. "Rachel, just as you feel that the traditions you grew up with were perfect, I too miss the Christmas traditions I was raised with. I would like to share those with my family. What is so difficult to understand about that? As to the cost…we can afford it. We could have chosen to get a fake tree which would have been cheaper, but instead we chose to get a tree that we could later plant in the yard. Next year we will do the same, and the year after and after that. Who knows by the time the babies graduate high school our entire back fence line will be made up of balsam fir trees that signify all the happy Christmases this family has had. We will still only get one major gift each, however, we will also get a few smaller gifts as well."

"So seven days of small gifts, then a few small gifts and our usual major gifts…that will be the new gift giving paradigm of this family. I'm going to need to get a better job by next Christmas." She returned with a smirk.

"Well, I guess you will." He stated with a wry smile.

I joined them and we sang and decorated the tree as a family. Antwan and I both took turns dancing with Rachel and the babies. I made sure that we took lots of pictures of us enjoying the Christmas rituals we'd so long eschewed. We had another simple Hanukkah ceremony in our living room after the tree was completed and Rachel had added the star, a Star of David, to the top. It was really nice. On Monday, we introduced Rachel to Landon, our manny. We'd found him through Will and Analyn Anderson and his Rangeman background check had come back clean as a whistle. He, himself was of both Mongolian and Tibetan descent, but his parents had been born and raised in America. He was an early childhood education major at UNOH, but he worked to avoid a massive student loan debt. Fortunately for us, he tended to prefer to take his classes online and in the evening, so he was available when we were at work.

As it was the holiday and he had no classes at all that week, he was only watching Reba, Channing and Terrance that Monday, when Antwan and I had to work. He would also be staying a little later as the three adult Berrys had an appointment with Dr. Watson that afternoon. My day at the office was one of the easiest of the year. We were there until noon, then we went out to a huge, joint lunch where we said our happy holidays and did our Secret Santa gift exchange. I lucked out and ended up with a digital picture frame from a coworker who also had children and knew how precious keeping their pictures with you during the day could really be. I had the challenge of buying a gift for a black woman of a certain age who'd chosen not to have children and had had a rather angry divorce just two years previously. I'd immediately gone to Danica for help and she's proven invaluable. We discussed everything I knew about the woman, and in doing so, I'd realized that she always had her hands and in the summer at least, feet well-manicured and moisturized. So I'd gone to Jewels, Danica's recommendation, and purchased her a gift certificate for two mani-pedis. It was actually a little above the fifty-dollar limit set by the Secret Santa gods, but both Danica and the woman at Jewels said getting the fifty-dollar gift card would leave her having to pay at least ten bucks for the second treatment and I didn't like that thought. Felicia had been as grateful for my gift as I'd been for my gift from Roger's in accounts payable. So it was a rather nice party after all.

Antwan's firm had held their Christmas event two weeks before the holiday. They preferred to have a more formal dinner event with dancing and it welcomed the spouses of their lawyers as well as their more affluent clients and their significant others. It was a usually a very nice event. That year had been no different until one of the junior partners got rip roaringly drunk and went on a long tirade against homosexuality, people of color, pretty much every color on the racial spectrum, and how he deserved to be a full partner basically just because he was a hetero-normative white male. He was sent to rehab rather than fired. It was not a good time for the senior partners to pull that 'oh he's a good man who said a bad thing because of the alcohol'. In point of fact, it was a really bad time. Antwan had been on the fence for several months about whether he should start subtly feeling out if any of his clients would be interested in following him in the event that he chose to strike out on his own like our friends had been trying to talk him into doing for quite a while. After seeing that display and learning of the lack of firing of the offending junior partner, more than a few others, both clients and fellow lawyers, were ready to jump ship.

With that information Antwan had undertaken two wildly different courses of actions. The first started with him approaching the 'naming partners', the senior partners who were so senior that the firm bore their names. He raised his concerns and those of his fellows and the partners dismissed it all again as a simple, though regrettable, case of over indulgence loosening a tongue. The confirmation that the 'naming partners' were not going to see to the offense beyond what they had, showed Antwan and the others their true natures. All of them were in complete agreement that if the senior partners refused to truly condemn the bad actions, it was probably because they secretly agreed with them. Hell even the asshole's wife had left him after his thirty minutes of Mel Gibson.

Antwan set up time to speak with George, Sander, Benton and Will Anderson to discuss the time line for the office park portion of the development. That evening after they got everything hashed out, Twan told me the plan for moving forward. He, his coworkers Carrie and Vivian, the ones I knew the best and whom traded favors with Twan back and forth so much they couldn't keep track of who owed who what anyway, would all begin the process of extricating themselves and any of their clients who were ready to jump ship by March when the office park would be ready for new tenants. "Remember way back when I'd just passed the bar and the plan was that as soon as I understood the inner workings of the firm I'd go out on my own." Antwan chuckled.

I nodded. "Yeah, but then we got comfortable. Because as I remember it, that was plan B. Plan A was for you to make partner and then you'd jump ship to a big firm in Columbus or Chicago…anything to get out of one horse Lima."

"Yeah, well, now the plan is to make Lima a hell of a lot more hip and trendy so that the kids will want to come home more. If it works, they may bring the best of fashion and Hollywood and Broadway with them, then we'll have the best of both worlds." He told me with a smile.

"True. So the office complex will be ready in March…what about the shopping center? When will that farmers market be opening?" Ever since we'd checked out the Sprouts website, we'd been anxiously awaiting the day we could check out their organic produce.

"George said that they are working to have it and several other of the shops ready for the tenants to come in right after Valentine's Day. Will said that Sprouts is going to begin its advertising campaign here in Allen County after New Year's…create a buzz. They are actually getting interest from some really interesting shops for space there. You've seen the center…its built a little more like a shopping plaza than a traditional strip mall. Well, that gives them a total of six anchor store spaces than just the traditional two. Sprouts has one of the two biggest, Hummel International Car Service & Repair will have one of the two smallest. The Diamond Cellar is trying for the other of the small anchors. But the biggest surprise is that Pier 1 has contacted us to try for the other huge anchor space. The two medium sized anchor spaces were previously designed as restaurants. Well Sander and Will are in talks with Michael Symon to for one of them and Bone Fish Grill for the other. Best of all that still leaves twenty-four very nice sized store fronts. A Dayton bakery called Ashley's Pastry Shop is damn near desperate for one of them and the voicemail that we've set up for those expressing interest in renting one of them once everything is ready has been filled every day. If things keep going at the rate they are going the center will be filled when Sprouts launches its grand opening."

"That's really impressive." I replied honestly. "So what about your law office?"

He smiled. "Well, each of the seven office park buildings are two stories tall. Right now, one is slated for complete renovation to house Jewels Spa and Veronica & Lamar's Hair and Beauty. The beauty shop will be on the bottom, the spa on the top. Benton and Danica's dental office will take up another entire building, with all the extra space, they said they are going to find an orthodontist to complete their practice. They are going to be the biggest dentists in town after the move…Hi, they are planning to rent some of their space to a dental laboratory which means they would never have to send things all the way to Dayton again. That will cut people's waits down to almost nothing. You know people will flock to them when word gets out. Gwen and I will share a building that just needs basic updating and refreshing. She'll have the bottom floor and I'll have the top. She has some issues with heights. The way our building is designed, you enter a reception area and waiting room. When you go back to the offices there will be three corner offices a couple of meeting rooms, a break room, copy room and you know the other mischiva that goes with the running of an office. Now Geraldine is coming with me. I don't know about Carrie or Vivian's legal secretaries, but they will each have desks in an ante-chamber outside our offices. There is even room for two or three cubicles, in case we get big enough to take on some paralegals."

I laughed merrily. "Is Gwen's office going to be the same?"

"Yes and no. she will have more small offices and one really tricked out meeting room. We'll be moving the weekly KAMA meetings there once everything is all ready and we're all moved in."

I smiled to myself as I remembered how excited Antwan had gotten and really still was. I still couldn't believe how quickly things were moving. But the truth of the matter was the Lima-Allen County Chamber of Commerce was really behind the development. So much so that the acres of land Amicitiae Amore had been interested in behind the office park, had basically been given to them at auction and there was some part of the contract that negated any and all property taxes for them until the last of the houses were built. We'd used some of Antwan's payments from KAMA to buy into the 'corporation' which greatly reduced the cost of the rent on his new office and seemed to make the rest of our friends a lot happier than we'd have ever thought they be just from roping us in tighter to their 'family'. It made us and our manny happy too…with us in the corporation, we could then offer him a full benefits package. I'd attended a board meeting and I had to say I was really looking forward to being in on things with those wonderful, fun people.

I finished my line of thinking just as I pulled up to the house to pick up Rachel for the family therapy session. Now, that was something I wasn't looking forward to. Dragging Rachel in for counseling was less fun than taking her for shots when she was little. It was less fun than maintaining the fiction that the quarterly shots we had her getting from the moment she entered high school were B-12 shots not Depo Provera. It was no fun at all and little did I know that that session would be even more fun sucking than usual.

Rachel PoV

I truly hated visiting Lima for only one reason. Dr. Ophelia Watson was a boil on the backside of humanity. She constantly undermined my relationship with my fathers by informing them whether or not I was making my therapy visits in Manhattan as I was supposed to. She closely monitored me when I was home and she always found some ulterior motive to most of my actions. When we visited her for a family counseling session, she did so again. "Have you interacted with your younger siblings since you've returned home?" she asked after a very pleasant conversation about my new suite of rooms.

"Yes." I told her with a smile I could only hope was sincere enough. "I've managed to avoid changing diapers. But I've fed and played with them and even helped my fathers give them baths."

"Reba is a darling little girl. One of the cutest I've ever seen. How do you feel about that?" she quizzed me.

I smirked. "One of my former classmates used to say that biracial children were blessed with the best of both races and the worst of neither…granted the way she said that was a lot more crass…but the sentiment was easy to understand."

"I've heard that point made on more than one occasion…but you didn't answer the question. How does it feel that you now have to share your fathers with another little girl, your sister Reba?" Dr. Watson asked pointedly.

Something told me to throw her something of a bone. "I'm not yet comfortable with the idea of them having another daughter. I'm fairly certain that that doesn't come as a surprise to anyone. But my biological mother has replaced me…I suppose I should have expected my fathers to do so as well." I almost cursed. I said far too much.

"We are not, nor do we have any desire to replace you Rachel. We just…we wanted more children for a very long time. We have them now. Not different children…just more." Daddy said quietly.

Papa sighed. "Rachel, I know how much you hate it when we point out that the way you're feeling is your NPD causing you to feel paranoia and anxiety when changes happen that you feel are outside your control."

Dr. Watson actually nodded in support of that ridiculous assertion. "Given your age and the increased likelihood of extreme psychological side effects, I've been very reluctant to prescribe any of the usual anti-depressants, anti-anxiety meds or anti-psychotics that have demonstrated that they can provide relief to some parts of the NPD spectrum."

I was aghast and appalled…so much so that I spoke without thought. "I do not need anything else that I have to take every day for the rest of my life. Isn't it enough that I have to take that damn Valtrex every day? Now you're talking about giving me another string of who knows how many pills to pop. I refuse to become another example of the over medicated, under disciplined millennials. I refuse." I stated vehemently.

"Valtrex…you have herpes." Daddy sounded so shocked and maybe I was imagining the disappointment. "I thought you were determined to remain a virgin."

"How did that happen? Why didn't you tell us?" Papa's voice was filled with concern and censure as well.

"Gentlemen, please remember, Rachel is a young adult. The fact that she has a disease isn't something she has to share with you. You may ask her why she didn't feel comfortable sharing it with you so that you can modify your behaviors in the hopes of improving your relationship…that is perfectly acceptable. But demanding that she share everything with you, her parents, at this point in her life is more than a little unrealistic."

Wow. I didn't realize that she knew how to be on my side. Of course then she ruined it by going into a bunch of statistics as to how many people contract STDs and STIs every year and how the stigma associated with them are often undeserved. Finally, Daddy chimed in. "It isn't that we are trying to stigmatize. We're gay and we lived through the AIDS crises of the eighties. We know better than to demonize someone because of an illness they contracted. We're asking her these questions because we're trying to understand how something so major happened in our daughter's life and she felt she had to hide it from us."

I tried my best to answer him truthfully but not too truthfully. "I just didn't want you to be disappointed in me."

Papa looked at me with a level of fear in his eyes I couldn't fathom. "Were…were you…did somebody rape you Rachel?"

"No." I blurted out. "I am in complete control of my body and my sexuality at every moment." I said dismissively. As if I would ever allow myself to be victimized in such a horrid fashion. I thought to myself. "I made a choice to engage in heavy petting with someone that went a little too far. I've still not engaged in intercourse…but I have contracted Herpes Simplex Virus, II. The doctor on campus told me that to manage the symptoms of the disease, I will need to take a daily dose of Valtrex for the rest of my life."

Dr. Watson then went on a long ramble about how people who are raped are not responsible for another's choices or actions and therefore they too are in control of their bodies and sexualities. I didn't agree, but I was well and truly sick of being there anyway so I didn't argue either. Finally she turned her attention to a question that I knew had to have come from my dads. "Rachel, you seem to be dealing well with the improved relationship between your two fathers, but how do you really feel when you see the increased intimacy and connection between them?"

Now that I could answer honestly and maybe even score some much needed bonus points after the earlier conversation. "I'm happy. They were so wrapped up in me, and I liked that, but I was worried that once I was gone they would have no reason to stay together and get divorced." I told them gladly. "I suppose that I was a little worried that having the babies was just a way to give them another bridge rather than them actually reinforcing the base of their relationship. I'm very glad to see that I was wrong about this. I do have something that has been bothering me about the Triplets. Why are you not using a vegan or at least vegetarian formula? We're vegans. It is very important to us."

Daddy and Papa exchanged a long look. "No Rachel, you were vegan. Your father and I had a steak or seafood or chicken or pork…every single day for lunch. We supported your efforts primarily because we didn't know that it was harming you more than it was helping." Daddy finally admitted.

"Wait, you guys didn't eat the vegan lunches I made for you?" I'd done so at least once or twice a week in high school.

Papa had the grace to look embarrassed. "They were always good for a midafternoon snack. But they weren't very filling." He told me with a smile. "So yes, we at the lunches you lovingly made for us. And we appreciated them. However, we also had lunch at a restaurant with our coworkers. As for why we aren't giving Reba, Channing and Terrance vegetarian or vegan formula was because neither of us believe that there are any greater health benefits to those formulas. They're still being vetted for certain side effects of the estrogen like compounds that are not present in the existing milk based formulas. There is still some concerns that babies need more supplements and such on them. Since none of the babies have any allergies or problems with lactose or milk…we decided to use the current 'best' of the same line of formulas that we used for you. Remember, you were ten before you decided on vegetarianism and fourteen before you moved to veganism. To be honest, we've wondered if you were ready from a developmental stand point for such a restrictive diet even then but you certainly would not have been as an infant."

I was still shocked that my fathers, whom I'd always held as superior people…not as superior as I myself, but still…much better than the average human being, were duplicitous and undisciplined and meat eaters. That was so gross. I found I couldn't keep that thought to myself and I blurted out how duplicitous and undisciplined they were. "Rachel, neither veganism nor vegetarianism is for everyone. It is not a matter of discipline. It is a matter of personal choice. As for their duplicity…all parents are to a certain extent. Is telling children that Santa Claus is a real person not a falsehood? Your fathers simply wanted to support you as you found your choice." Dr. Watson pointed out. "Well, we've come to the end of the hour. Rachel, please stop and schedule a time to meet one on one. After the holiday and before you go back to school. Hiram, Antwan, I will see the two of you on the twelfth of next month." We were dismissed and I was very glad.

But the conversations from the appointment were far from buried. We stopped by the Lima Bean and sat and talked through some of the issues that were raised, but not fully examined. I listened to their fears and reassured them about the incident that led to my unfortunate affliction, making sure to convince them that it was simply a moment of passion that went too far…not physical manipulation to achieve a desired end. My fathers would never demonize me for contracting an STD…or even for getting carried away in a minute of happy lust…but they really would be disappointed with me for using intimacy as a weapon or commodity. They explained that they had felt themselves drifting during my high school career and had immediately begun to work on it. We talked about my worries about being replaced. They expressed concern at my immediate love for Channing to the exclusion of Reba and Terrance. I promised to do better and to try and give Reba a chance. I said the right things even knowing that Channing was officially my favorite and nothing would change that.

When we got home, I helped Daddy make dinner while Papa gave Landon they gift my fathers had gotten for him. I helped with feeding Channing while Papa and Daddy feed the other two drooling, mewling infants…then the babies watched us recite the blessings and light the menorah. Our Hanukkah gifts traditionally were limited to around fifty dollars a gift. So sometimes, one of my fathers would give me a multitude of gift certificates or gift cards that added up to a whole large gift. Over the seven nights of Hanukkah, I'd received enough gift certificates to have an entire spa experience at Oasis Day Spa in Manhattan. I also ended up with a pair of very nice earrings. It was a very nice Hanukkah for all of us.

Christmas morning arrived the day after the last night of Hanukkah. My fathers woke me around eight and Papa told me to grab some coffee and one of the homemade blueberry-pecan muffins he had made and join them in the living room. Daddy and Papa must have been up for a while. The babies were all fed and changed and cleaned up. They had them dressed in adorable Christmas themed pajamas. The boys' pajamas were red with white trim that looked like little Santa suits. Reba's was white with red holly berry clusters and green Christmas trees. They looked really very cute. I put down my breakfast to pick up Channing and started dancing with my little brother while singing 'Santa Baby' for the room at large. I didn't make it all the way through the first verse when I stopped cold. "Wow, these lyrics are wildly inappropriate for children." I blurted, much to my fathers' amusement.

"Don't worry, you don't really have to worry about that for another few years." Papa reassured me.

"I didn't worry about it at all. When you were six, you would burst into 'Livin La Vida Loca' at the drop of a hat. I thought you were cute as a button. We used to have a video of it…wonder what ever happened to that." Daddy chuckled. I knew what happened to it. I accidentally left it out of the box of my performance tapes that he took in to have converted to DVD. It had made a beautiful sound as I drove over it with the lawnmower. "Now, why don't we get this show on the road?"

Daddy played Santa, of course. He started with the babies, each 'opened' one gift then it was my turn. My first Christmas gift was a beautiful red cashmere blend fringed stole. It was warm enough to wear in the winter and yet light enough to carry me through early spring. I loved it. I had gotten each of my fathers a Clarisonic cleansing device from Neiman Marcus. I knew how important their appearance was to each of them, and Lima didn't really have any spas that catered to men. I'd also found each of them a 'four elements of the perfect shave' kit; sandalwood for Daddy and unscented for Papa. They liked them so much I knew exactly what I was getting them for their birthdays. The babies, I wasn't sure what to get for them, so all I'd gotten them was a small stuffed animal for each of them. A teddy bear for Ramantha, a stuffed dinosaur for Terrance and a stuffed elephant for Channing. I'd also gotten them each an onesie that read 'if you think I'm cute you should see my big sister'; a manly navy for Channing, a pretty pink for Ramantha, and a strong red for Terrance. Finally it was back to me. I was shocked when I was handed a big rectangular box. Rather than one father or the other, the tag said it was from both. I opened it to find an Acer Aspire E5 laptop.

"We know that your current laptop is almost four years old, so we thought it was about time for a new one." Papa said with a big smile.

"Thank you. I needed this so much." I told them happily. I really did. I knew a guy in my building who was willing to pay me two hundred for my old one. The only thing that had stopped me from selling it to him then was that I'd needed it for school.

There were only a few more gifts under the tree. The CD of me singing traditional lullabies and some Broadway favorites that I'd made for the babies. The new, laptop friendly, backpack and a set of my favorite Clinique facial cleanser, exfoliator and moisturizers and a golden Star of David necklace for me. A pair of Opera tickets for Papa, a pair of tickets to see Kinky Boots on Broadway for Daddy. All in all I really enjoyed the double holiday experience. The week following the holiday not so much. Mercedes and her paramours were back in the news. Despite the uproar at her older brothers' and their wives graduation, an uproar that I had happily helped stoke the fires of, they were back being heralded as paragons of charity and all the other virtues. Apparently when they were home at Thanksgiving they'd helped more than a few down and out Limans by basically buying them all nice Christmases. It had been kept pretty quiet until those people all posted pictures of their happy families on Christmas morning with more than enough gifts on twitter, Instagram and Facebook, all with the tag, #KAMACares or #KAMA=SANTA. Then the administrators at the homeless shelter Sam built and endowed got on board. Not only had the shelter been able to provide the underprivileged families who lived there with both Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, but through their 'anonymous' benefactors, the residents had all gotten coats, scarves and gloves. From there it seemed to snowball. The Toys for Tots people and the Trevor Project people got in on the action too. As for Mercedes, Sam and Noah…they just tweeted out that they were happy everyone had such a great holiday and wished them all a Happy New Year. It was enough to make one ill.

Looking at Twitter and Instagram and Facebook the next day may have been even worse. The first thing to hit was a picture of Mercedes Jones, her face completely devoid of makeup and her hair back in a braid, wearing what looked like a beautiful pair of blush colored silk pajama pants, with a matching camisole and long sleeved top doing what could only be called petting a purple Mercedes with a completely oversized and amazingly wasteful silver bow on top. Noah and Sam stood off to the side, in front of a bank of white cabinets and pegboard storage that looked to be awaiting tools and other garage accoutrements. They were clearly still in their pajamas as well and it was easy to tell that the ridiculously gauche gift of the luxury sedan was from them. A few mouse clicks told me that the car had a custom paint job as well. That was just a completely unsound investment.

The next picture was a split screen of Mercedes standing next to a very large blue truck with her hand on the front end above the tire. In that she was much more put together. Her makeup looked professionally done, though even I could admit that she had always had a deft had with the tool of modern beauty. She was wearing an old-fashioned looking off the shoulder, oversized sweater, pink sweater…drawing attention to the wide burgundy lace bra strap that was exposed on one shoulder. She paired it with a pair of skinny jeans and brown mid-calf walking boots. In the next picture Sam was wearing the same pajamas from the Mercedes picture standing next to the same truck with another stupid silver bow on top. I wanted to scream to the heavens at the unfairness of it all. It wasn't bad enough that Mercedes Jones had received a brand new luxury car for Christmas, while I'd only received a stupid laptop…but the backwater bumpkin got a country boy's dream vehicle, at least according to one tweet I read, that was untenable to me.

I almost wept in indignation when I saw the last picture. Mercedes, in what even I had to admit was a cute and appropriate shopping outfit, stood inside the open door of a shiny, McKinley Red, Dodge sports car. That was then joined by a picture of Noah Puckerman receiving the car on Christmas morning. Never mind that he was JEWISH. How dare he set aside his own religion to cater to the vagaries of his 'mates'. Credit for the pictures of Mercedes purchasing the gifts was given to Reza Marsini at Reineke Ford and Jason Wofford at Tom Ahl Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge. She gave each sales person quite a glowing review. I clicked the links to the dealerships Facebook pages and the sales people were just as complimentary about how kind and gracious Mercedes had been. Sam and Noah's contact at the Mercedes dealership in Columbus was also given a mention that would certainly see to him being called upon by a whole new clientele thus increasing his bottom line as well as that of the dealerships. Those three were far too nice for the industry they had chosen to become a part of. I couldn't wait until it bit them on their collective posteriors.

It all quieted down until New Year's Eve when they tweeted out a picture of almost all the original New Directions, KAMA's entourage, that damn traitor Jesse, and their significant, or not so significant others all decked out in their finery about to hit some trendy VIP New Year's bash at Provocateur …a club so expensive and exclusive that it was pretty much a legend on every campus in the city. Of course, they invited anyone who wanted to join them to arrive before eleven and say they wanted to party with KAMA to gain free admittance. I'd have made the attempt, after all, getting in there would surely cement me as a person to know. But no, I was stuck in Lima…watching Channing while Landon watched the other two as my fathers partied the night away at the country club. The babies went down for good at around ten, after which even Landon abandoned me. It seemed that twenty-fifteen would start just as twenty-fourteen had and as all future years were bound to…me alone but never lonely…I refused to wallow in such a plebian emotion. Instead I would evolve and grow…I didn't need anyone to make me successful. I would double down and really begin my rise to greatness in the coming year. Like a phoenix, I would rise from the ashes of the duplicity and treachery to become even greater than those who had betrayed me. But first…I'd have my revenge.

I have no political rant. I am tired. I have also determined that I may have to move to Canada come December/January.

Don't commit cruelty to mythological animals. Take a moment and feed the plot bunnies.
Oh and HC...you are toats working the 'make Annikay happy and keep her writing thang' with your reviews of the older stories that you hadn't reviewed yet. You will never know how much that has helped me keep writing when I feel a little unappreciated.

I'm going to take a little break after this Christmas story is complete so that I can work on Illy's works. I've been neglecting them and for me that is kind of shyesty since I promised her that I wouldn't let them remain unfinished.

So I'm gonna go before this becomes as long as the actual story.

Let me know what you liked or didn't.
Up next will either be Vince-Finn-Lauren-Darcy...or Mercedes-Sam-Puck.

TTFN,
Anni