A/N: All cannon characters and settings belong to the brilliant mind of Patricia Briggs. The rest comes solely from my imagination. This is written merely for my own pleasure and the pleasure of others. Also, I tend to get long-winded, so some of my chapters may be long, no, not may be, will be.

P.S. My muse is in overdrive right now and as such I have three fics going at once. I have this one plus another with Asil that will be posted in the Alpha and Omega series section, as well as one over in the Mercy Thompson series called Finding Home, which features Ben and an OC. If updating gets slow, that is the reason why. I am working on each one daily so bear with me.

You have been warned. Now, without further ado, on with the story!

It took a few days before Aria felt ready to call Winston. She knew she needed to call him or he'd just worry about her. Given the time difference, she called when it was still quite early on her end, so that Kara wouldn't be up and overhear the conversation.

"Hello Aria, dear," Sarah said when she answered the phone. The luxury of caller ID, it made it so much easier to know who was calling before you answered. "I'm guessing you want to speak with Winston, since he informed me you would call if and when there was news about Nicholas."

"Hello Sarah. I am, but if he's not free I can call back," Aria replied.

"No no, he's free, I just got to the phone first. Here he is dear." She handed the phone to her husband and they shared a look. Aria sounded... off to them both.

"Aria, is everything alright?" Winston asked as soon as he had the phone.

"Everything's fine Winston. I just wanted you to know you don't need to worry about Nicholas, ever again. He's gone."

Winston sighed. "He brought it on himself. He was a good man, once. But that was a long time ago. I'm glad you're alright." She still sounded off but Winston couldn't put his finger on why.

"Yes, well, I should let you go, I know you're a busy man. Say hello to everyone for me. Merry Christmas, both of you," Aria said and managed to get off the phone with them before he could ask any more questions.

Christmas morning arrived and Aria was up early cooking. She'd gotten some advice from Anna and Sage on traditional Christmas foods in the US and combined it with things she'd always fixed back in England, like bread pudding. That way it would be a blending of traditions to make both her and Kara feel comfortable. For both of them it was their first Christmas in a new place, a new home.

Presents were exchanged and Aria saved the best two she had for Kara for last. "I have two more things for you, and then I promise I will leave you be," she said and placed a fairly large box in front of Kara.

The young wolf eyed the box before she opened it and when she did her face lit up. "Oh my god, how did you know?" Inside the box she found a ton of art supplies, including several sketch pads in varying sizes.

"Because I'm observant, silly goose," Aria replied with a warm smile. "I've seen you drawing in those spiral notebooks, now you have real sketch pads to draw in. This last one is actually from me and your parents," Aria said and set the last gift in Kara's lap.

Kara gave her a confused look but when she opened the last gift she gasped in surprise. It was a top of the line gaming laptop from Alienware that she'd told her parents about months ago. Her eyes filled with tears and she sniffled. "They remembered... but how did you...?"

"I called them because I wanted you to have something here from them, since they couldn't be here today. They told me about it but they didn't know if they could get the computer before they sold the house so I offered to pay for it. Your father insisted that, if I did that, I had to make it from me too. I tried to decline but then he said he'd pay me back for it and I relented. I don't want, or need, them to do that. He's a good man, your father."

Kara set the computer aside and hugged her. "Thank you so much. I was worried I'd be all sad with mom and dad not being able to be here and you made this a good day instead."

Aria hugged her back. "You're welcome poppet. I'm glad I could make it better for you." She watched Kara rush upstairs with the laptop and shook her head. It was good she was happy. She deserved it with how bad things had been for her since her attack.

She'd debated between a Christmas goose or ham and decided to go with the latter because it had more meat and she didn't know if Kara liked goose. She checked to make sure it was cooking evenly and then went to her phone. Her hand shook briefly when she punched the number in and she waited for the other end to be picked up.

Bran was headed to his front door when his cellphone rang. A glance at the number had him answering immediately. "Aria? Is everything alright?" She'd kept to herself since the day after Nick's attack and he was instantly concerned for her.

"Everything's fine," she replied. Since he hadn't asked about her she hadn't lied. "Kara and I were thinking, if you didn't already have plans, we'd be honored to have you over for Christmas dinner."

Bran hesitated. He did have plans and he almost decided to cancel them but then he didn't want to cause any hurt feelings with his daughter-in-law. "I'm sorry, Anna invited me to have dinner with her and Charles," he finally said.

"Oh. No, its okay. I'm sorry, I should have thought of that. Merry Christmas," she said and hung up. Of course he would already have plans. It took her several minutes to get her emotions under control and she went back to work on dinner.

There'd been something in her voice, a note of... defeat, when she'd apologized for not thinking he'd already have plans. Bran almost called her back but in the end he put his phone away and headed over to have dinner with his son and daughter-in-law. He'd make a note to check in with Aria later.

By the time they sat down to dinner Aria was once again faking a smile for Kara's benefit. They both shared some stories about past Christmases and soon Kara had Aria talking about the past. She liked hearing about Aria's life in England, especially before all the luxuries they had now.

"Do you miss London?" Kara asked. "I mean, you lived there for so long, I can't imagine what it must be like to live here now."

"Sometimes. I did, I lived there my entire life until I came here, but this is home now, for however long. As odd as it probably sounds to you, I like that things are quieter here than they were in London. It's very calming."

They put away leftovers, washed up the dishes, and were in the middle of singing Christmas carols when a car pulled into the drive.

"Hello hello," Sage said when she knocked and stepped inside. "I come baring gifts," she added and handed a package to both of them. "It's nothing major but I wanted to get you girls something."

"Thank you Sage. You're in luck, because we have something for you too," Aria replied.

For Kara, Sage had gotten her the extended version of the Hobbit trilogy and for Aria she'd gotten some classical music cd's. They, in turn, had gotten Sage a gift box set of the scented body glitter she liked so much.

"Aw, you girls are awesome," Sage said. "Gotta run, I have a few more stops to make," she added and when Aria walked to the front door with her she lowered her voice to a whisper. "If you ever want to talk," she said and Aria cut her off.

"I know. It's fine. Merry Christmas Sage." She didn't want to think about what happened, much less talk about it.

Sage left and one of the stops she had to make was at Charles and Anna's house. When she got there she took her friend aside. "I'm worried about Aria. I stopped by to give her and Kara the gifts I had for them. I'm sure she has Kara fooled into thinking she's okay, but she's not. I tried to tell her if she ever wanted to talk I was here for her and she cut me off."

"She did the same thing to me," Anna said with a soft sigh. "What can we do though? We can't make her talk."

Sage arched a brow. "You could, you or Thea either one."

"And then she'd be angry at us for it and resent us. No thanks, I don't want to make a friend mad. All we can really do is keep trying to reach out to her and hope she eventually opens up and lets us help her."

"I guess you're right," Sage replied. She didn't like it but they really didn't have much choice.

The next morning, right in the middle of breakfast, an unfamiliar vehicle pulled up in front of Aria's house. She heard it and went to see who it was, with Kara right behind her.

As soon as the driver stepped out of the SUV Kara was pushing past Aria to get outside. "Daddy!" She'd missed her parents and she had no idea they were on their way.

James Beckworth caught his daughter when she flung herself at him and hugged her tightly. "Surprise," he said with a laugh. The passenger side door opened and her mother joined them.

Aria watched from the porch. The SUV was towing a small u-haul trailer and she knew what that meant. Her young charge would be moving back home with her parents now that they'd relocated to Aspen Creek. "We were in the middle of breakfast, would you like to come in for a bite and a cup of tea or coffee?" Aria offered.

"That would be great, thanks," James said as he ushered his wife and daughter up to the house.

Kara was practically bouncing she was so happy. "Did you know about this?" she asked Aria.

"Nope, I sure didn't. I'm as surprised as you are poppet," she replied. She got Kara's parents some coffee and plates for them to help themselves.

Aspen Creek, much like any other small town, had some empty houses from people moving away for whatever reason and it was one of those houses that Kara and her parents would be moving into. After breakfast Aria took care of the dishes while Kara's mother helped her to pack.

"Thank you, Ms. Kinsley, for looking after Kara the last few months," James said.

Ara turned and gave him a smile that another wolf would know was fake. "You don't have to thank me for that," she said honestly. "She's a very sweet girl. If you guys have any problems or questions, feel free to call me."

"We will, thank you." When Kara came downstairs he took her bags and carried them out to the SUV.

Kara approached Aria with her bottom lip caught between her teeth. "Thank you, for letting me stay here," she said and sniffled a little.

Aria reached out and hugged her. "You're welcome here any time Kara. Go on now, your parents are waiting," she said gently and let her go. She stood on the porch until they pulled out of the drive and then she went inside. The house felt very empty without Kara there. She wiped a few tears from her eyes and sighed softly. On the bright side, she didn't have to pretend to be happy all the time now.

She spent the day cleaning the bedroom Kara had used and getting things in order before she crawled into bed with the hopes of untroubled sleep.

Aria awoke in the middle of the night drenched in sweat. She'd been having a variation of the nightmare she'd had that first night after the attack and she was starting to think she was going crazy. She could almost feel him watching, waiting for her to fall asleep again.

She knew sleep would evade her now so she got up and went downstairs to have some tea and read. The reading would keep her mind occupied and help keep sleep at bay. She'd spent so many years depending on just herself that she felt she needed to deal with this on her own. It was the only way to prove she wasn't weak, to prove she was worthy of someone like Bran Cornick.

Once again Anna stopped by to check on her and once again Aria evaded the question of how she was doing. She knew a little about Anna's past and she didn't want to burden her friend or risk dredging up unpleasant memories for Anna. So she kept the pain, the shame, tucked away inside to face when she was alone.