A/N: Thank you so much to my fabulous reviewers! You've given me some much-needed encouragement to continue this story. At least I know that a few people are enjoying it!

This chapter's even longer than the last two (woohoo!) and it revolves around Christmas. Ben's out of college and Rachel's a spunky thirteen-year-old. ("spunky"…really? I never use that word…ah well) On with the story!!

Disclaimer: Only own Rachel and any other characters you don't recognize.


Rachel slicked on a fresh coat of lip-gloss and gave her best smile in the mirror, frowning slightly at the sight of her new braces. Emily appeared in the mirror, standing in the doorway behind her.

"Rachel, we have to get going. You don't want to be late for your father," she said. Rachel looked at herself once more in the mirror and flipped her hair over her shoulders.

"One sec, Mom," she replied, putting her lip-gloss in her pocket and putting her parka over her new outfit for this Christmas dinner – a simple black skirt and a red and white sweater. Rachel spent every Christmas Eve with her dad and Ben and would go home afterwards to spend Christmas Day with her mother.

She gathered her make-up and other clothes from her dance recital, the last one she would have at this studio until the new year. After this school year ends, she would switch to the higher level studio for high school-age students. Rachel scanned the floor to make sure she didn't forget anything as Emily listed off some items. "Both pairs of shoes? Leotards? Tights? Ribbons?" she said.

"Yes, Mom," Rachel said, rolling her eyes.

"Don't roll your eyes at me, young lady," Emily said. "Just because you're a teenager now doesn't mean you get to cop an attitude with me."

Rachel sighed. "I didn't mean to, I just…I don't know, I don't really want to go to this dinner."

"What, why? You love seeing Ben and your father."

"I know, but Ben has that new girlfriend and I don't want him to bring her. It'd just be kinda weird."

"Oh I don't think she'll come. They've only been seeing each other for a couple of months. And she lives in Vermont, so she might just be spending the holidays with her family up north."

When they got outside to the car, Rachel put her bag in the back seat and climbed into the passenger side beside her mother.

"And if your father knows how important this night is to you and Ben, then he should do everything he can to make sure you both enjoy yourselves. But you know, he's not always as considerate as he should be." Emily was speaking faster as she found herself getting upset. But she would be livid if her daughter came home upset from Patrick's house.

"Mom," Rachel said warningly.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," Emily said. "Don't listen to me."

Rachel shifted in her seat and looked out the frosted window beside her, watching as the cars passed them on the way to other holiday festivities. She hoped that Ben wouldn't bring his girlfriend. As selfish as it might be, Rachel didn't want to have to share her time with Ben. Ever since he went to college, she hadn't seen as much of her brother as she wished. He would call from time to time but Rachel missed spending time with him. The only times she saw him were for special occasions like her birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. His visits were almost as sporadic as the ones she had with her father.

After a long commute, they pulled up in front of Patrick's large white house in Philadelphia. Every time she visited, Rachel felt like the house got bigger and bigger. She kissed Emily goodbye and got out of the car, walking to the front door. Upon ringing the doorbell, she heard several voices inside. When the door opened, Rachel found herself face-to-face with her dad.

"Hi Dad!" Rachel said, smiling happily.

Patrick embraced her and said, "Merry Christmas, Rachel! Good to see you!" He led her inside into the living room where there was a small Christmas tree sitting on the table by the window. Its lights twinkled and reflected on all the colorful balls and ornaments adorning its branches. Rachel threw her jacket onto the couch and looked at the pictures on the mantel above the fireplace. There were only a few, but they were all of Ben and her. She smiled to herself when she heard her dad turn on his favorite cassette tape of Christmas songs.

"Mom says hi," Rachel said. She always told her father this, even if it wasn't true.

Patrick nodded and smiled a little and then took a deep breath, putting on a real smile for his daughter. "So…how chocolate or hot cider?" he asked.

"Hot chocolate, please," she replied. Just as Patrick went to walk into the kitchen, the doorbell rang. Rachel's eyes lit up when her father opened the door and she saw her brother. She ran out of the living room and into the hallway, but stopped when she noticed that Ben was not alone.

"Hey, Dad, Merry Christmas," Ben said happily.

"Hi son," Patrick said, but he eyed the young woman who was with him.

"This is my girlfriend Christine," Ben said, wrapping his arm around her waist. Christine had dark curly hair cut in a bob above her shoulders and dark brown eyes. She smiled happily as she shook hands with Patrick. Rachel wiggled her toes in her shoes, looking up at her brother.

"Hi Ben," she said quietly. Ben turned to her and laughed.

"Rachel!" he exclaimed, holding his arms open to her. Rachel gave him a small smile and leapt into his arms, hugging him tightly.

"How've you been, metal mouth?" Ben teased. Rachel smiled and quietly replied "Okay."

"Rach, this is Christine," he continued, gesturing to his current girlfriend. Christine leaned over and said sweetly, "Hello, sweety. It's so nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you, too," Rachel said, glancing at her low-cut dress. "All of you."

Christine realized that her dress was falling down, and she pulled it up quickly, laughing awkwardly. Patrick invited the both of them into the living room and asked them if they wanted some of his traditional eggnog. Christine refused, saying she was on a no-sugar diet. Rachel rolled her eyes and sat down in the arm chair next to the fire, watching as Ben wooed his girlfriend with his witty jokes about his father's house. He gave her a kiss on the cheek by the tree and Rachel watched her laugh at every little word Ben said. This was not how she envisioned her Christmas Eve.

"So, Rachel," Christine said, sitting down on the couch beside Ben. "Your brother told me that you dance?"

"Yeah," Rachel replied, nodding. "I have for about ten years."

"Wow, that's fantastic. You know, I used to do ballet when I was little," said Christine. "But I bet you do other kinds of dance, based on your figure."

Rachel opened her mouth to retort, but Ben spoke first, "Uh, hun, I don't know if that's, um… appropriate." At that moment, Patrick came back from the kitchen with two cups of eggnog and one of hot chocolate for Rachel. Rachel picked up her hot chocolate, but as she stared at the whipped cream on top, she thought of what Christine had just said and put it back down on the coffee table. Patrick asked all kinds of questions about Christine, but Rachel zoned out of the conversation. Her only thoughts were about what her mom was doing, and how she wished she could go home and be as far away from Christine and Ben as possible.

"Rachel," Patrick said. She looked up at him and realized that she had had no idea how much time had passed until her said, "Dinner's ready."

As they all headed into the dining room, Ben held her back and asked her if she was okay. "I'm fine," she said, brushing past him.

In the middle of dinner, Rachel realized that the conversation had not once turned to her. The only questions Ben had inadvertently asked her were how her braces were and how she was after Christine criticized her weight. She quietly excused herself from the table and went down the hall towards the bathroom. Instead of going in there, she went outside through the back door. Her father had set up a tire swing from a large tree in the backyard when Ben was seven years old. All these years later, it was still there, and Rachel almost always ended up out there at some point when she visited her dad. Trudging through the snow, she glanced back at the house and admired all the lights from the little electric candles in the windows. She put her legs through the tire and pushed off from the ground, swinging back and forth until her back was facing the house.

"Rachel!" she heard Ben yell, but it sounded like he was in the front yard. She heard his footsteps growing closer as he ran around the side of the house to the backyard. He slowed until he stood no more than four feet from her. "Rachel, don't do that to me. I thought you were upstairs or in dad's study."

"You should know me well enough by now to know that I always end up out here when we visit Dad," Rachel said angrily. Ben sighed and walked over to her, putting his hand on her shoulder. She shoved him away and looked down at her feet.

"Come on, Rachel. I'm sorry," he said.

"For what?" she asked, curious to hear his answer to this one.

"I know…this probably wasn't the way you wanted to spend Christmas Eve" (at this, Rachel rolled her eyes a little) "but you have to understand. Christine is very important to me, and—"

Rachel cut him off. "More important than me?"

Ben frowned and looked at her confusedly. "No…never, Rach," he said. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, you barely talk to me anymore. We never hang out like we used to. Even when you were at college…at least for the first couple years you still came home and visited, and we would go to the movies, or go out for ice cream or…something. Now I feel like you just don't have time for me," she explained quietly.

Ben crouched down so that he was eye-level with his sister. "You are growing up so fast, Rachel, you know that? I'm glad you and I can talk about things like this now. And I never want you to feel like you don't matter to me. You are so important to me – more than you know." He reached out and squeezed Rachel's shoulders. "What do you say we go inside now?" he asked, nodding towards the house.

Rachel smiled and said, "Sounds good."

When they got into the house, they wiped off their feet by the backdoor and brushed the snow off their clothes. Suddenly, Christine rounded the corner, followed by Patrick.

"Baby, why are you all wet and cold? Were you outside this whole time?" she asked, hugging Ben tightly around his shoulders.

"No, we time-traveled and our machine sprung a leak," Rachel whispered sarcastically. Ben nudged her and she smirked a little to herself.

"Rachel?" her dad said quietly.

She looked up at him and said, "I'm fine Dad, don't worry." Looking up slyly at Ben, she saw the small clump of snow in his hand.

"Are you all warm now, Benny?" Christine asked sweetly.

Before Rachel could make another smart remark, Ben replied, "Yes…but I don't know how warm you'll be after I do this." And in the blink of an eye, Ben squashed the little clump of snow in her hair. Christine let out a shriek and her hands flew up to her once perfect hair. Both Patrick and Rachel looked at Ben with wide eyes and bit back their laughter.

"What was that for?" she asked angrily.

Ben shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Just a little holiday spirit from the Gates family. Now, why don't you leave before you insult another one of my family members again?"

"You drove me here, you idiot," she retorted hotly.

"Then I'll be happy to buy you a train ticket and send you home," he said. Christine looked up at him and said, "You're serious? On Christmas Eve?"

"Yep. I just have to get our coats from the living room." Rachel couldn't believe her brother was doing this. She watched Christine follow Ben to the living room and couldn't help but follow them, too. "You can't do this to me, Ben," she heard Christine say.

"Actually, I think I can. You can insult me all you want, but you have no right to come into my father's house and insult both him and my sister," he said.

"You know what? I'll call myself a cab. We're through," Christine said furiously, taking her new cell phone out of her purse. She threw on her jacket and stomped out of the house. After the door slammed shut, Rachel walked into the room with her mouth hanging open in disbelief. This may have turned out to be a good Christmas Eve after all.


A/N: That's all for chapter three! Hope you all like where this is going. I tried to give a little more Patrick/Emily. It's difficult since they don't speak to each other. I couldn't figure out another way to get rid of Christine. What a bitch! Who tells a thirteen year old girl that she's fat?!

COMING UP: BIG BIG DRAMA!!!!!!! stay tuned! (i'm so excited for that chapter, I might upload it very soon!)

Review please!! :-)