Sara fell on the couch and closed her eyes. At least a dozen bags, if not more. Christmas Eve, the shops were filled with people, way too many people and she made her way through them with the groceries for the next days. Why didn't she go shopping earlier? Before everybody else went there to buy things they didn't need. Okay, she was shopping for a huge family, she needed a lot of things, but when all the other people were also cooking for a dozen people, all the other shops should be empty now.

"You look tired."

Sara didn't open her eyes. "I am. There are too many people in Los Angeles. And they all were in the same store I was in. To make the scenario worse, they were all in front of me in the check-out line; except for an annoying little boy, who screamed his lungs out, because his mother refused to buy him a chocolate bar."

"Christmas shopping?" She felt a warm body next to hers, relaxed more.

"Christmas food shopping. Everything for tomorrow, my dad-in-law will turn the kitchen into food heaven, he already has." She took the arm of the other woman, snuggled into it. The warmth was the best way to relax. "Will you come too?"

"No, the family wants me."

"Aren't we your family too?"

"My blood family wants me around."

"You can't choose your blood family, but you can choose your family by heart and that are we. We're the chosen ones."

"Boxing day?"

"Tomorrow too?" If you don't fight for what's important to you, you won't get it.

"We're here tonight. Doesn't that count?"

"I'll miss you tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow in case you change your mind."

"Oh Honey, come here." Jules pulled Sara in her arms, which wasn't that easy anymore since her belly grew a lot within the last months. "You have Sofia here, your son, your in-laws, Don, all your housemates, you're not alone."

"I want you."

"Too late for that, your best friend was faster. As you can see, I love him, even when he makes me fat all the time, you can't have me."

"Not this way…although you're damn sexy."

"You love your blonde pregnant fiancé."

"I do. Nevertheless, you're worth a sin, Jules. Greg is such a lucky man."

"Stop hitting on me, your pregnant fiancé will be back any second."

"Two pregnant women? Nice idea. They're both really sexy. I think I developed a soft spot for pregnant women within the last weeks. Months."

"When did you become this…not like you?"

"You're the shrink, you tell me. As your former patient, I should be an open book for you." Sara grinned and placed a huge sloppy kiss on Jules's cheek. "I love you, Jules."

"Honey, are you drunk?"

"No, we don't drink anymore."

"Any drugs?"

"You know me better."

"Right. Can I help you with something?"

"After you don't want an affair with me, I did all the shopping, Mark takes care of the kitchen, everything is prepared, that leaves …nothing for you. Only me to please and entertain."

"Any other friend would not stay this calm."

"You mean, one of your homophobic doctor friends?"

"Who were quite nice to you on the twins' birthday two weeks ago and they're not homophobic."

"Yeah, for them they were quite nice. And my baby boy ran into my arms when I came into the room, ignored them all." Sara smiled. When she came into the living room and Eric saw her, he got away from one of Jules's friends and ran straight into her arms, placing a lot of kisses on her. Her godchild really loved her, just the way she always hoped it would be. All the time she spent with him, carried him, talked to him, he gave it back with his love. And made her sigh with happiness whenever she saw him. Hopefully her relationship to her daughter would be as good as it was with Eric.

"He wants to stay here tonight, do you have some space for him?"

"A room for him, his sister and his parents. Available for a couple of nights. While he and his mother can sleep in my bed if they want."

"Nice try." Jules laughed and kissed Sara.

"I didn't see it." A woman walked through the living room, deliberately looking away from the other two women.

"Hi Kim, how are you?" Sara asked. The woman from the Netherlands, who shared her pizza with Sara in summer, booked the room downstairs for two weeks and was here since the day before yesterday. Her first time at their place and Sara was glad, they met months ago. Kim was a good guest and she hoped, she'd come here next year again.

"Too busy seeing how somebody else than Sofia kisses you. And I'm in my room, use my headphones, you can do whatever you want, you don't have to worry about me being a witness, I can swear, I didn't hear anything."

"It's rude not to say hello to guests. She's a shrink, she'll make whatever out of it. Kim, this is Jules, my wonderful friend and mother of my gorgeous godchild Eric. Jules, this is Kim, who shared her pizza with me in summer and likes our room. I hope you booked it already for another two times next year, we want you back."

"Hey Jules, nice to meet you. Actually, I booked it until next Christmas. Another five times, another ten weeks with you, a lot of money for you and Sofia. Maybe you can pimp my room a little bit or give me discount."

"Hi Kim."

Sara laughed. "What do you want in there? A TV?"

"How about some nice photos on the wall? Of the best places in and around Los Angeles. And a curtain, that makes the room completely dark."

"I put it on the list. How was your day?"

"I went shopping, tripped over a million people, cursed a lot, got almost thrown out of the shop for it, bought too much chocolate and a huge bottle of whiskey. Your dad told me, he needs it for dessert."

"Whiskey for dessert? Great, nothing Jules, Sofia or me can eat. And he's my father-in-law, he should prepare something for us too."

"He's a genius in the kitchen. I haven't eaten any of his food, but only from watching him preparing all the stuff, you can tell it will taste great."

"Yeah, I know. So, is there anything for us pregnant women to eat as dessert?"

"You pregnant women? You're not pregnant or did I miss an important detail?"

"Sofia is and when my fiancé doesn't enjoy all the sins in life, neither can I. We want the baby, so we both have to sacrifice ourselves."

"Noble. Okay, I need to finish some writing business before dinner. Sofia should be here any second, you better stop making out with the shrink or she sees you."

"I'm not making out with the shrink, she rejects me all the time."

"Another thing you better not tell Sofia. Later girls."

The two women laughed.

"So, is she your regular roommate now?" Jules asked.

"Kind of, she comes every two months and likes our place so much that, as you heard, she wants to be here all the time. Who could blame her? We're so lovable."

"You're so crazy."

"No, I'm not, the best therapist in town told me I'm totally normal - except for the PTSD, which hasn't ruined a day for a while."

"Of course not, you had therapy, you succeeded there and when you have a backlash, you know what to do before it hits you and get you a bout."

"Can't remember the last time I had a bout." And she didn't want another one. The ones she had were bad enough.

"And we keep it this way."

"With you around, everything has to be good."

"You mean with Sofia around?"

"Didn't I say that?" Sara grinned.

"You thought it."

"I always think about her, I love her and soon she'll be back and so will your fiancé. Poor working people. Aren't we lucky to have the whole Christmas time off?"

"Don't mention it." Jules smiled. "They get cranky."

"Probably." Sara closed her eyes again. Time to get prepared for three days of Christmas celebration. Her first Christmas with two kids, one in her arms, one in her lover's womb. Since she was in Los Angeles, Christmas got better every year. One day she could be a huge fan of this holiday.


"Damn, bloody, fucking thing!"

Sara smirked. Sofia was home, the last couple of days, the first words she heard from her lover were swearwords. Anything pissed the blonde off all the time.

The bedroom door was opened. "This little fucker just fell out of my backpack." An annoyed Sofia kicked some walnuts into the room. "There are a couple of dozen more out there, watch your step when you go out until the kittens have taken care of them. They seemed to enjoy the walnuts."

"Of course they do." The brunette got up, hugged her lover. "Merry Christmas Eve to you. I love you, Grumpy Smurf."

"Merry Christmas Eve to you too. Sorry for my mood, I hope you know, I love you too. Shouldn't my mood swings be over?"

"Honey, I love you talking the nasty, Jamie's first words will be fucking, bloody, damn or anything like that. She'll be kicked out of kindergarten and your mother has to raise her until it's time for school…police school."

"Am I a bad mother?"

"No, you're a great mother, a cool mother."

"A swearing mother. Did Steve pick any of my words up?"

"Darling, he knew them all before he knew you." Sara's hands ran down Sofia's back, got them under the shirt, stroke the soft skin. It felt so good to feel her lover, feel her skin under her hands. "I love you and I look forward to spend Christmas with you."

"Lets hope we can spend some time together. You know Christmas time, you know what people do on Christmas to each other, I'm afraid my next days will be very busy. The good thing is, I can use Jamie as an excuse to go home earlier."

"You take Jamie as an excuse for everything. Like for the two bars of chocolate you slipped into your backpack on your way to work this morning."

The blonde looked surprise at her fiancé. "How do you know? You weren't in the room. Did you count the bars? And even if you did, somebody else could have taken them."

"I know my fiancé."

"She's pregnant and needs the extra…calcium for Jamie."

"Sugar, fat…"

"All energy. Energy we can use later to celebrate here, alone, when they're all asleep."

"A private celebration? Got something special on your minds?" The brunette kissed slowly down her way on the blonde's throat, sniffed in the rest of the smell of Sofia's perfume.

"I guess you're picking up my idea right now." Sofia savored the kiss, closed her eyes and pushed the brunette on the bed. "Maybe we should have a little…appetizer now before the big celebration and dinner starts. You know, start the evening together alone in here and end it here."

"A quickie?"

"Better than chocolate."

"True…lets burn some calories before we have a few more…or a lot of more, which means, we must have more sex later to burn more calories."