Part VII

Rose wished that she had her camera to capture the priceless look on her son's face, not to mention the bright looking flush that was on Marissa. She knew that DJ would give her endless shit about this later, but she couldn't help herself, she loved putting her children on the spot. And she watched in avid curiosity as the two teenagers hesitated and looked around to the other people in the room for any kind of leadership, pointedly ignoring Rose. They would find none. As far as she knew Jackie thought the idea of DJ and Marissa was cute, Johnny laughed at it every time he mentioned it and she was fairly sure that Erin shared her mother's opinion on it, the grin and the watery eyes were a clear indication anyway.

Putting her hands on her hips, Rose leaned against the door frame and watched her son do his thing. It was the first time that she had ever seen him kiss a girl. She knew that he had gotten drunk before, she knew that he had smoked, what exactly was a mystery to her and she also knew the one thing that mothers really hated to know, she knew that he had become sexually active with girls. Rose was fairly sure that he was under the impression that she was blind to that, but she knew all that went down with children, after all she was a spy and she gathered knowledge.

It was like one of those moments out of really romantic movies, when the camera would zoom in on the picture of the two people kissing and soft music would play and the sun would be setting in the background. It stayed like that for precisely twenty seconds before DJ broke off from the kiss with a nervous chuckle. Rose actually had to clamp her hand above her mouth to keep from bursting out with laughter. There were so many memories running through her head that were trigged by the adorable look of DJ's face, it reminded her of so many time when Jake had kissed her at that age, including the very first time. It wasn't long before all the eyes in the room were turned to the sight of the former Huntsgirl with her hands covering her face and the stream of laughter that was escaping her mouth, "Oh my god Mom, I can't believe you did that?"

"R-Relax," Rose took several deep breaths in to calm her diaphragm, "I've been kissed pretty badly by people, so have Jackie and Erin."

"But you're all old," DJ snapped back, feeling the heat rushing to his cheeks when he felt Marissa's eyes look onto his, "I'd expect that."

Rose held up a finger and that effectively silenced DJ, like it or not, argumentative or not, he always obeyed his mother. His mouth shut as she plastered a teasing grin on her face and pointed to Erin and Jackie, "Correction, my dear, soon to be late son, they're both old, I'm not."

"You're four months younger than I am Rose," Erin protested from the other side of the Marissa and DJ.

"I know that," Rose nodded, "And your still older than me honey, either way. But at least you're not old as your Mom."

Jackie, who was standing next to Rose on the right side of the still very shocked and confused Marissa and DJ, scowled at the younger woman and brought her hand up to and flashed her a certain finger, "Bite me you little brat."

"Rain check," Rose said with a slight laugh before turning back to the two teenagers, "Well unless you're going to kiss again, let's all go sit dow-…"

She stopped in her tracks, caught in the sight of watching Marissa use those genetic Hutchinson reflexes to throw her arms around DJ's neck and pull him in for a larger kiss this time. Ok, this was slowly crossing a line that Rose wanted to avoid with her little amusing action.

While she did want to see what Marissa and DJ would do in situation like this, she didn't want to be a first hand witness to her son and the youngest of the Hutchinson Brood suck face. It had been hard enough to stomach Alyssa and Johnny and their public displays of affection. She hissed and clapped her hands loudly, "Alright, enough!"

Marissa and DJ broke off from each other. The sight would have been almost comical for Rose if it weren't her son who had been on the receiving end of that kiss. She felt that familiar rip of motherly protectiveness through her and hers was indeed a special kind of protectiveness, when she protected her children, it usually worked. When Rose threatened someone, they listened and she excelled in the art of getting the point across, "Sorry Rose, I got caught up in the moment…"

"Oh yeah, I can relate," Rose nodded, trying her best to lower her anger with the girl, and it was working, "Just pick my sons jaw up off the floor."

With that she turned and walked into the living room. The conversation would just be between her, Johnny, Jackie and Erin. She knew teenagers well enough to know that they'd be silently obsessing in their head over what just happened in the hall. Rose honestly knew that she had made her bed with that mistletoe thing. But when she thought about it afterwards, she was sure that she wasn't prepared to give DJ up yet.

Allowing Rachel to come out of exile from her bedroom, he had ushered her into the living room. This was the part that he loved. He looked to see his children's faces light up at the sight of the elaborately decorated room that could only be described as some gaudy fire hazard. As he expected, Rachel's face broke out in the small childlike joy that most people seemed to fall into during this holiday. It was clear that she was enraptured by the way she ran to the tree and fiddled through the mountain of gifts.

"I don't know how you do it Jake," said Haley as she walked to her brother's side and watched her nieces, one being two times older than the other, sort through the gifts, "That's a sight I love to see right there."

"It only happens during Christmas," Jake smiled as he put on arm over her shoulder and pulled her closer to him, "Now to your present little sister."

"Oh God," Haley rolled her eyes, "What in the hell is it?"

He ushered Haley over to the tree, and stepping away from her for a moment, he kneeled down. Tucked near the base of the tree was a tan envelope and Haley's breath caught in her throat when she saw the elaborate writing that was on the envelope itself. The high sweeping letters belonged to that over her mother. "Jake, w-what is that?"

"M-mom," Jake choked on his own breath before opening the tan envelope and it took him a moment to actually place his hand in the envelope, "She wrote us all letters before she died one for me, you, Alyssa and Dad."

At hearing this, Alyssa left her sister's side and got up to join her Father and Aunt. She had seen that envelope before. Yes, she remembered her Grandmother's funeral, and she remembered her Grandmother's Lawyer giving her father that folder. She hadn't asked him what it was at the time and as time passed, she simply forgot about it, "I remember that Daddy."

"I know," Jake nodded pulling the first paper out and examining the first individual white envelope and the name inscribed on it, which was his sisters, handing it to her, he smiled at Alyssa, "I-I didn't want to even touch them after she died, so I stuck them in a box in my closet and forgot about them. I found them the other day and I figured it was time."

By the time he had finished explaining the situation. All three of them had their letters that Susan had written them nearly twenty five years prior. It had taken Jake a great deal of strength to even look at the folder again after such a long time. It was perhaps his last connection to his mother that he had left and at the time he wasn't willing to acknowledge that she was indeed dead, and apart of him wasn't even to accept it now.

But Jake had pulled the envelope down and he had to force himself to actually give these letters to his sister and daughter. Jake didn't know how he was going to handle his father's letter. Perhaps he could mail it to him, or leave it outside of his apartment with a burning sack of dog crap. It didn't matter anyway, as far as Jake and Haley was concerned, the Jonathan Long that had raised them was dead and never coming back.

"Oh, I have had cried enough today," Alyssa whispered as her eyes drifted over her Grandmother's elegant writing. He smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. Jake didn't know how much Alyssa remembered her Grandmother, but back in those days, she was practically in love with her.

"Ok," Rose said, "I've bought enough food for thirty people and I am about to pull my hair out if I have cook all of that in forty eight hours."

Erin smiled sympathetically, "I'll stop by tomorrow and give you a hand with that. Natalia and Brant called me and said they were excited, though between you and me, Nat said that she wasn't thrilled to see Alyssa."

From the moment that Natalia –Erin's only daughter- and Alyssa met each other, they didn't like each other. It was terribly amusing for Rose to watch that, and she wouldn't mind a little entertainment when all of the families gathered in her home. Alyssa's relationship with Brant –Erin's youngest Son- was least to say chummy, you could almost call them friends. They got along very well, and Brant was arguably responsible for Erin and Alyssa repairing their relationship, "I can already see it."

"What, your daughter and mine glaring holes at each other?" Erin offered.

"And Johnny trying to bridge the divide," Rose answered with a snort.

Erin smiled brightly at the thought, "Oh honey, he's tried to get his sister to get along with Alyssa. But either Nat slaps him in the face or Alyssa make's him sleep on the couch. Face it, Lyss and Nat will never happen."

"You did make the point very clear to Natalia to watch her mouth while she's in my home and around my kids, didn't you?" Rose raised an eyebrow.

The look that came over Erin's face was something of a motherly protectiveness and an amused understanding, "Yeah. Normally I wouldn't have even humored the idea of you kicking my daughter's ass, but we're guests in your home and she's a big girl. Just don't beat her too bad."

"You know how protective I am over my kids, I'm serious Erin if she opens her mouth and insults one of kids then she's gonna get it," Rose warned her. They all knew of her protectiveness and how serious she took it. It was often a joke among the Long, Hutchinson and Sindacco Families that Rose would run off the deep end one day and end up in a Mental Health Clinic. But on the other side of things, they all understood her reasoning and lived with it.

Erin nodded, "I'll keep a tight rein on her, you're not the only one who knows how to be control and torture their children, though you are the master."

"And that's why you're an amateur," Rose smirked before turning back to the other part of the house, where DJ and Marissa were 'Talking' and cleared her throat, "DJ, grab your coat, I have some things to pick up before we get home."

"You're leaving already?" Johnny asked as he walked out from the hall.

Rose nodded with a smirk and walked forward to embrace her son in-law, "I'm afraid so Johnny, I'll see you tomorrow. And I'll be sure to send your wife home at a godly hour for her to get a good night sleep. You be sure to tell those Grandbabies of mine that I love them and I've got presents for them."

"Will do," Johnny smiled, "And by the way, Lyss just called me and said that they have the apartment set up and it looks so cheery it's almost cliché."

"Oh my god," Rose sighed, "I wonder what it'll be this year."

Authors Note:/ Sorry for the few days of no updates. I work for a politician in Arizona (I won't say who) but in case you've been under a rock for the past week, a member of our House of Representatives Delegation was shot and we've been put into a tail spin. I know you don't have to do this, but even if you are religious or not religious, American or an International, I would ask you to keep Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in your thoughts and prayers.

To the story, there should be two more chapters after this one. Jake, Rose and their kids will all get home. And the epilogue will be huge, funny, and wild after that. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this installment.