Chapter twelve
December 24th 2016
The sound of Christmas carols was in the air and Christmas joy was being spread around the hospital. And rightfully so, it was Christmas Eve after all. Magic, snow and laughter filled the air.
Jo and Steph walk along the festive halls of the Paeds floor before stopping at the nurses station. Both girls were on Paeds case, Jo was on Arizona's service while Steph was on Amelia's service and had a tumour case involving a nine year old.
"What are you doing for Christmas?" Steph asks as she picks up a tablet.
"Annabelle and I are spending it together. Just opening presents and having a special Christmas lunch. Nothing too much apart from quality mother and daughter bonding really. I think Annie wants to watch the Christmas Barbie movie too," Jo smiles.
"I bet you never thought you'd be spending Christmas with your daughter this year did you?" Steph asks curiously.
"No I never expected that. And I've never really done Christmas before," Jo admits. She picks up a tablet from the nurses station and enters in her Code.
"Not even when you and Paul were married?" Steph asks shocked.
"No," Jo says shaking her head, "he was always working. Christmas a good money, not that we really needed it anyway," Jo adds. "I want to make this year something really special for Annabelle, but I have no idea what I'm doing," Jo laughs.
"I'm sure it'll all fall into place. Maybe you could start a Christmas tradition?" Steph suggests.
"That's not a bad idea," Jo replies with a smile. "What did your family do?" She asks.
"Well, my parents would always let us open one Christmas present on Christmas Eve," Steph replies.
"Annabelle loves is always begging to stay up past 8. What if on Christmas Eve we stay up late and eat junk?" Jo asks.
"That sounds like something I would of loved," Steph replies.
"I'm going to clock off and go get Annie. I'll see you later," Jo replies with a smile.
The next day
December 25th 2016
Jo look at the clock in her kitchen, 7am it read. That was unusual, Annabelle never slept past 6:30am. Given it was Christmas Jo expected her daughter to be up extremely early and egger to open presents. That was why Jo had got up at 6:15am to make Christmas breakfast. It was a hard decision, however after looking on Pinterest the night before Jo had settled on pancakes decorated like Santa. Jo takes off her apron and hangs it off her kitchen breakfast stool and quietly creeps up the stairs and heads to her daughter room. She quietly opens up the door to see her fast asleep.
The next question to cross Jo's mind was if she should wake her up. The 4 year old looked so peaceful sleeping, however on the other hand Jo knew that her daughter wanted to wake up early. That she had learnt and had been told every day in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
Decking to wake her daughter up, Jo walks over to the bed and gently rocks her back and forth, "Wakey, Wakey Eggs and Bakey," Jo says with a smile.
Jo watches Annabelle's eyes gently flutter open, "Merry Christmas sweet girl," Jo says with a smile.
Annabelle's face lights up and she smiles as she remembers what day it is, "Merry Christmas mummy!" She says excitedly. She quickly jumps up out of her bed and rushes to the end of it, where she sees her Christmas stocking full of things from Santa. "Woah! Santa came Mummy!" She says with big eyes.
"Let's see what he got you," Jo says with a smile.
Jo picks up the stocking and tips everything out onto Annabelle's bed to allow everything to be seen.
"Wow! Look at it all mummy! Santa knows me very well!" Annabelle says with excitement as she looks at all the little toys she got.
When Jo had been looking for things for Annabelle's Santa stocking she looked in the dollar store. She after all didn't want Santa to get the credit for getting all the good things.
"Okay darling girl, how about we head down stairs and get some food in that tummy of yours so we can open what's under the tree?" Jo asks.
"Yeah! I can't wait until you see what Aunty Steph help me pick out for you," Annabelle smiles.
scene break
It was later that evening when Jo received a knock at the door. Jo looks at Annabelle, who was engrossed in the Barbie movie they were watching and then proceeds to head to the door and opens it to see Paul's sister.
"Amy?" Jo questions surprised.
"Hi," Amy says.
"What are you doing here?" Jo asks shocked.
"I wanted to check on you and Annabelle. You know, Make sure that you're doing okay and enjoying your first Christmas together," Amy asks.
Jo looks at Amy and then steps forward and pulls her in for a hug, "thank you," Jo says as tears of happiness begin to fall out of her eyes.
Amy smiles and Jo breaks the hug, "I really don't know what else to say, or how to say it. You gave me my daughter back. I never thought I'd see her again. So just, thank you," Jo says with a smile.
"Thank you is more then enough. You deserved to know your own daughter Jo," Amy replies.
"How did you do it? How did you know where to send the address to?" Jo asks. "That's the one thing I couldn't figure out," Jo states.
"I'm ADA. I have access to lots and lots of records," Amy replies.
"I tried to find you so I could say thank you, but I couldn't," Jo says.
"Baltimore is a big place. And I'm married now, you would of had to search for Amy Marsden. And besides being an ADA my records aren't public," Amy adds.
"Would you like to see her? We're watching Barbie the Princess and the Pauper," Jo offers.
"I'd love to," Amy says. Jo smiles and leads Amy into the house and closes the door behind her. She leads Amy into the living room.
"Annie Pie, we have a visitor," Jo says. Annabelle turns to Jo and sees Amy.
"Aunty Amy!" She exclaims. Annabelle flies off her seat and rushes over to Amy and gives her a hug. "Thank you for sending mummy my address. I love living with mummy," Annabelle says to Amy as she hugs her.
"You're welcome," Amy replies.