Merry Christmas Everyone!!

This is a special chap! See you at the end to see why.

Chapter 29

In front of them, the main room of the cabin had been transformed in a kind of dance floor, there were big white balloons hung, and soft lights that created an intimate atmosphere, that went perfectly with the music playing.

'Wow!' Mel let out. 'This is so pretty.'

'Hey! Don't stay by the doorway, come on in.'

It was the nice girl from the register counter, who's name -now known thanks to Katie- was Grace, she was a few feet away welcoming everyone. She had a big smile and was obviously enjoying this special evening.

There was already a dozens of people in the room, and some were already at the restaurant.

'Are you ok?' Grace asked them.

'Yeah, yeah we are.' Mel started. 'We're just...'

'Surprised.' finished Jim after they looked at each other. 'We didn't know... this would be happening.' he said taking a large look at the room.

'But we made an announce during lunch about... five days ago.' Grace said surprised.

Mel and Jim looked at each other with a soft smile.

'Which is the very same day you came to ask me for the nearest hospital...' Grace said slightly sad, pointing her finger at Jim, as the memory came back to her. 'So you weren't there... I'm sorry I should have make sure you had been updated when you came back.'

'It's ok, don't worry. It's not a problem at all, just, a surprise.' Mel said smiling nicely.

'Good.' grace said relieved. 'So, we're proposing a little drink before dinner, would you like something?'

'No, thanks we can't drink alcohol.' Jim said seeing only alcohol bottles on the table.

Mel look at him strangely.

'What?' Jim asked.

'I can't drink; doesn't mean you can't either.' Mel said frowning her eyebrows.

'Oh, right... I just... don't want a drink.' Jim said embarrassed.

'Ok...' Grace said shyly. 'I let you go to the dinner room then.'

Mel and Jim took the restaurant direction.

'What was that?' Mel asked softly while taking Jim's hand in hers.

'I really can't tell. It just came out before I realized it. I shouldn't have spoken for you by the way, I'm sorry.' Jim said.

'Hey, it's ok. I love how you take care of me, you know that. The only thing bothering me a little is that you put me first, you didn't think about what you wanted but about what I needed.' Mel said looking at him softly.

'Ah, yeah. Well I said I'll try but looks like I can't help putting you first.' Jim admitted smiling shyly.

Mel smile back at him and kissed him softly on the cheek.

They arrived at the restaurant desk to ask for a table.

'Melinda! Jim!'

'Hey Katie! Vince.' Mel said smiling at the couple that had just arrived behind she and Jim.

'Good evening.' Vince said politely.

'Hi.' Jim said nicely shaking Katie's hand.

Then Mel and Jim both greeted Lily softly. The little girl was holding her mom's hand and she smiled shyly at them, more particularly at Jim, since she had a good time with him last time.

After a few awkward seconds, Vince broke the silence.

'Melinda could I have a minute to talk to you.' he asked sounding slightly embarrassed.

'Sure.' Mel answered.

Jim squeezed her hand gently before letting her go.

Katie and Jim watched them going back to the main room, in an empty corner so they could talk privately. Mel smiled when she heard how excited Lily got when Jim asked her how went her day with archery and all.

'Well I'm sure your husband talked to you about it, but I want to tell you I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for all the pain I caused you, I've been terrible to you and you really didn't deserve it.' Vince said as soon as Mel had turned to face him, as he thought it would be easier for him to get it all out quickly. 'I really don't know what happened to me- well actually I do but-'

'Hey, slow down.' Mel cut him. 'Jim explained why you acted like this and I understand. You can't imagine what I've faced over the years when I tell people what I can do. And not everyone has the courage to apologize to me, so, I forgive you.' Mel said smiling.

'Thanks, but you know it's your husband that asked me to do it.' Vince confessed.

'Yeah, but you apologized to him, which is even more courageous!' Mel said laughing. 'Besides, something tells me you would have done it anyway, am I wrong?'

'You're right, the guy I am in normal conditions would have done that b-'

'You're that guy now, I can see it. And feel it.' Mel added as her strong empathy made her feel Vince guilt and remorse. 'Let's put those last few days behind us.' Mel decided.

'I would love this.' Vince said happily.

Mel shook his hand and smiled at him, happy to see him looking so different from the man she had faced a few days ago.

They then joined Katie and Jim who were in a conversation about the near area that Katie knew pretty well since she and Vince had been coming here for years.

Vince walked towards Katie and Lily, as Mel walked towards Jim. She put her arm around his back and he put his on her shoulder.

'So?' Jim whispered in her ear.

'Everything's fine.' she replied, looking sweetly at him. 'Like we decided with Vince, let's just forget about what happened the past few days and start afresh.' Mel said to everyone.

As they all agreed, they decided to have dinner together. They followed the waiter who lead them to a five seats table. Here too the atmosphere was very soft as candles had been installed in each tables, but unlike in the main room, the music playing here was only piano, to simply make a background sound while people were eating.

'What is all this for?' Mel asked curiously before smiling at Jim who was pulling her chair in a polite but automatic gesture for him, before seating down next to her.

'They didn't make the announce?' Katie, asked Vince.

She was still up waiting for the waiter who was getting a kid chair for Lily.

'They did.' Jim said before Vince could answer. 'But we weren't there at the time.' he explained.

'Oh, ok.' Katie replied smiling. 'Well it's just a little party they make each week before people leave, as they usually do it on Sundays.' Katie explained while settling Lily at the table.

'Oh my god we're already Sunday?!' Mel said pretty loud.

'Only tomorrow.' Vince replied as he and Katie were smiling at Melinda and Jim's faces. 'What's wrong with that?'

'I'm sorry.' Mel started. 'I guess I kind of lost track of time. I can't believe we've already been here for a week.' she said looking at Jim, her eyes wide open in surprise.

'I haven't noticed, either.' Jim admitted shaking his head. 'Time went by really fast.'

'Is it that bad? You're leaving soon?' Katie asked.

'Well I have a shift scheduled Monday night, and since I already took a week off I don't think they will let me change it.' Jim said looking at Mel. 'But you can-'

'I can't leave my store to Delia longer, even if she says it's ok, I know we're in a busy time of year, she'll need my help, besides I won't stay here without you.' Mel said, looking back at him.

'So you'll be leaving tomorrow?' Katie said.

Mel looked at Katie and Vince who had both worried look on their faces.

'Oh, god! Timothy...' Mel let out when it hit her. How could she have forgotten him. 'I can't leave without helping him. Nor you.' Mel said looking from Katie to Vince.

'But we can't make you stay just for us. You have obligations, we understand.' Vince said with a badly hidden disappointed tone in his voice.

'This is one of my obligations.' Mel started. 'I'm not going to let you all down. I promised Timothy I would help him and I will. Question is how?' Mel said in a low voice.

'Well there is still tomorrow we can stay all day, we'll make the way back home by night.'

Mel turned slightly to face him. She had a look on her face saying 'You'll be exhausted for work.', she knew that even if Jim let her drive he would be very tired from spending the night in the car and since Melinda wouldn't be going to work on Monday, there was not a chance he would rest on Monday.

'Don't worry about me, I'll be fine.' Jim said, knowing perfectly what Mel was thinking. 'If he still hasn't showed up by tomorrow night, then we'll see.' Jim added, looking at Vince and Katie.

'Thanks, it's very nice of you.' Katie replied, smiling as this little hope comforted her.

'So, what kind of party are we going to have?' Katie asked her husband, after a few quiet minutes, knowing that they usually had a theme for the parties.

'Well, this week they didn't say what it will be about,' Vince told her, he looked at Mel and Jim as he continued, 'but anyway, it doesn't change the main thing, they're going to put some soft music, then rock and other grown-up music and then they go on with teen's music, when most of the adults are gone. The usual parties organized in this kind of camp.' Vince concluded as Mel and Jim nodded, smiling.

They then started to talk about random things; holidays, Lily starting school soon, Mel's store...

About an hour later, they went in the main room, Melinda, Jim and Vince sat on chairs against the wall, while Katie took Lily to dance with her. The little girl was obviously having fun, although she had been slightly disappointed when she tried to make her dad get up to dance with her and her mom, as he refused to go with her.

After a few minutes Mel saw Grace talking to a good looking man, in his fifties. Mel noticed them 'cause they were looking in their direction insistingly. A couple of minutes later the music stopped and the man walked in the middle of the room.

'Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.' he said loudly, so that everyone could hear him. 'I'm the director of the camp. I have a short, but very important for me, speech to make. Tonight is the weekly party as you can see, but it's also a special evening.'

As if she had felt what it was about, Katie joined Vince, taking Lily in her arms. All the people in the room had stopped what they were doing (dancing, drinking, talking...) and even a few persons that were still eating in the restaurant got up and approached the main room to listen to him.

'As some of you might already know, a tragedy happened here a year ago.' the man said in a solemn and respectful voice. 'A little boy died at the waterfall lake, it will be a year tomorrow. We feel very sad about this and we don't want to forget him, nor his family that is here with us tonight, that's why the party is softer than usually as we decided to dedicate this evening to Timothy.' finished the man, looking towards the McCoys

Almost everyone in the room clapped their hands softly, appreciating that they honored the boy's memory and the respect shown by the director. Shortly after, the music started to play again.

Melinda wasn't far from crying, her eyes were full of tears and so were Vince's. Katie, her, was crying, holding Lily tighter. The little girl, other than the fact that the man had talked about Timothy, hadn't really understood the situation, but she could see that her parents were sad.

'What's wrong, Mom?' she asked.

Before Katie could answer, they all saw Vince suddenly getting up and leaving the cabin, almost running, just when the director was approaching them.

'Oh, is he mad?' the man asked, kind of worried. 'I'm sorry I should have asked your permission before doing something like this.' he said, keeping his head down.

'It's ok, I don't think he's mad.' Katie said in a low voice, sobbing slightly. 'And this was very nice of you, what you did and said. I, no; we, really appreciate. It's comforting to know people haven't forgotten him. Thanks.' Katie said with a shy smile.

'You're welcome. We will never forgot him, Ma'am.' the director said shaking Katie's hand before leaving them.

Katie slowly turned around to face Mel and Jim, who were up, standing side by side, holding each other's hand.

'I better go talk to my husband.' she told them in a sad voice.

First Mel and Jim only nodded silently, then, seeing how bad Katie looked, Mel asked.

'Will you be ok?'

'Yeah, don't worry. I've learned to deal with this; when people start talking about him like this.' Katie said trying to put her best smile on. 'Vince hasn't, so far. It's still very difficult for him, as you experienced.'

'Can we do anything? Do you want us to... maybe mind Lily while you go talk to him?' Jim asked softly.

'No, it's ok. Thank you, but I think it's time for her to go to bed. Right, sweetie?' Katie said looking at her daughter.

Lily had buried her head in her mom's neck and she only nodded softly to answer to her. It was obvious that she was tired.

'Good night, then. If you need to talk about all this, you can always come to me, ok? Anytime.' Mel said warmly.

'Thanks.' Katie replied nodding. 'Thanks for everything. Good night.'

Mel and Jim watched her walking towards the door. After a few step she came back to them.

'One last thing, could you tell the director to make the party as they used to? Timothy loved them, he had a lot of fun and I think that's what he would have wanted tonight.

'Sure. Will do.' Jim replied, smiling.

Katie walked back towards the door, leaving the room this time, after a last wave at them.

Jim kissed Mel's cheek softly before letting go of her hand as he walked towards the director to repeat him what Katie jut said. Mel saw them talking and while Jim was coming back to her, she watched the director going to talk to this one-night DJ, who simply nodded.

They sat down next each other, Mel resting her head in his shoulder as they watched people that had starting to dance again. After a few more minutes Jim got up.

'May I have this dance?' he asked Mel, faking a serious-formal tone, handing her his hand.

'I would love too.' Mel said laughing, slipping her hand in his, while getting up.

After fifteen minutes of soft rock, the music slowed down and they ended up getting closer, until they literally hugged each other. Mel had her cheek leaned against Jim's chest and her arms wrapped around him.

'How do you feel?' Jim asked caressing her hair gently.

'I'm ok.' she said holding her head up to look at him. 'I just wonder what will I do if Timothy don't show up tomorrow, I so want to help this family, they're obviously still very hurt, they need closure.' Mel finished putting her head back on Jim's chest.

'Yeah, you're right. I know you can help them, if only Timothy could come.' Jim said slowly, rubbing her back.

A little while later, they were sat down as they started to get tired. Mel was almost lied down on Jim as he hold her close.

'Is she ok?' Grace asked as she was passing by. 'She hasn't move for a while' she added.

Indeed, Mel was standing like this for about ten minutes and it could look like she wasn't ok.

'Yeah, she is.' Jim said very softly, almost whispering. 'She's just asleep.' he added with a smile.

Yes, Mel had fallen asleep, just here, safe in Jim's arms. He could tell by the sound and rhythm of her breathing. When Grace left, Jim decided logically that it was time for them to go but couldn't decide whether he should wake her up or not. He figured he would probably have difficulties to make it through the -closed- doors if carrying her and she would end up waking up anyway so he decided the best was to wake her up now.

'Mel? Babe wake up.' he whispered softly in her ear.

'Hmm..?'

'Honey, come on let's go to bed.'

'Aren't we in bed?' she asked in a sleepy voice.

'Who knew I was that comfortable!' Jim said laughing. 'You're sleeping sweetie, but no, we're not in bed.' Jim explained.

Mel finally opened her eyes to see that, yeah, they were far from being in bed. She slowly got up, rubbing her eyes in an attempt to see more clearly. Jim smiled at how sweet she was when she was waking up.

They quickly went back to their cabin and went straight to bed, only taking time to change into their pajamas.

The next morning Jim woke up in bed alone, again. He couldn't hear any sound so, after a few minutes, he got up to search for Mel. He found her sound asleep in the living room couch. He frowned his eyebrows as he muttered 'What is she doing here?' . He knelt down and planted a soft kiss on her head, before sitting down in the chair. He watched her sleeping for what seemed seconds to him, although he was doing so for about an hour when she started to wake up. He let her all the time she needed, without saying a word.

'Morning.' he said smiling happily, when she finally sat up, stretching her arms.

'Hey... How long have you been here?' she asked smiling back.

'About an hour.' he said looking at the clock. 'How long have you been here?' he asked curiously while getting up to sit near her.

'I have no idea. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep. I didn't wanted to wake you up so I came here. I guess I finally managed to fall asleep.' Mel explained taking one of his hand in hers.

'I thought you were supposed to wake me up.' Jim said with an interrogating look, squeezing her hand.

'I know... but there was really no point to wake you up this time, I didn't have any bad dreams -spirit related or not- or anything.' she said smiling. 'I just couldn't sleep.'

'Ok... How are you this morning?'

'I'm fine. You?'

'I'm good too, thanks.' Jim said putting an arm around her.

They started to kiss. Softly first, more passionately then. They were making out for a few minutes when Mel suddenly pulled away, her eyes opened widely.

'What's wrong?' Jim asked surprised to see her react like this during such a moment.

'No! Please, Timothy come back! It's important!' he heard Mel saying while she got up to run after... nothing, to him, but he knew Timothy was there, probably ashamed by what he had seen.

Mel was standing by the kitchen, as Timothy stopped running. She would never understand why sometimes ghosts would run to get away from something when they could simply vanished. But well in this case it was a good thing for her.

'I'm sorry I bothered you during... this.' the boy said embarrassed.

'You don't have to apologize. It's ok.' said Mel, who was pretty much as embarrassed as he was. 'Where have you been? We've been hoping to see you for the past few days.' Mel asked.

'I was at a carnival that I saw passing on the road, not far.' Timothy said, holding his thumb over his shoulder to show the direction. 'They settled in the next town. I was having a lot of fun there, I could see all the magician's tricks, go in the haunted house for free, I even managed to scare a few kids there.' Timothy said excited with a mischievous look.

Mel could see his eyes shining, it was obvious he had a good time while they were all worrying about him. She went back to sit on the couch where Jim was still standing, he had an understanding look and seemed happy about what was going on. Timothy had followed her and was standing by the coffee table, sounding embarrassed.

'You can sit on it.' Mel said understanding.

The little boy smiled at her and climbed on the little table.

'Why were you waiting for me? What is important?' Timothy asked referring to what Melinda had said earlier.

'Well, actually I wasn't the one waiting for you the most.' Mel said trying to chose the right words.

'Err...'

'I think you should see it by yourself. Maybe you should go see you dad at his cabin.' Mel said with a huge smile.

'I don't want to see my dad at the moment. I'm mad at how mean he was with you.' Timothy said a bit angrily.

'Aww sweetie don't worry about that.' Mel said softly. 'Trust me you want to go there.'

'Really? What's there?' Timothy asked curiously.

'You'll see.' Mel simply said with a sweet smile.

The boy seemed very intrigued so he got up and after an encouraging look from Mel when he looked at her, he vanished.

Mel turned herself to face Jim, so she was now sat cross-legged on the couch. Jim put one leg on the couch so he could face her completely.

'Where is he?' Jim asked, even though he was pretty sure about the answer.

'Gone to see that his whole family is here.' Mel said. 'I thought it would be better for him to see it than hear it coming from me.'

'He's going to be very happy, isn't he?' Jim said.

'Yeah, I hope they're up though. I can't wait to see his reaction.' Mel replied excited.

And as if he had heard her, Timothy popped up right in front of the couch.

'Oh my god! Lily's there! And Mom and- This is so cool!! And, and when Lily saw me and yelled 'Timothy's there!' my parents didn't get mad! They asked her if it was real and when she said yes, they all sounded relieved and happy!! What happened? What did you do to them?'

Timothy's reaction was just as Mel had imagined it. The little boy was really excited, practically jumping up and down. The questions he asked Mel sounded like a way to thank her.

'Well actually you and your sister made that happen.' Mel started to explain. 'You managed to make your mom think about all this and she decided to join your father and talk to me about it. The rest just happened with time, your father started to accept it and things went fine after that. We were just waiting for you to show up, so you could talk to them.' Mel finished.

'I'm here now! What are we waiting for?' Timothy said happily.

'Ok, ok.' Mel said laughing. 'Just let me time to get dress and I'll go see them.'

With that Timothy vanished again, probably to see what his family was going to do.

Mel got up and so did Jim.

'You ready to do this?' he asked, looking at her intensely.

'I think I am, yeah. Don't really have a choice anyway.' she added laughing. 'No, seriously like I told Katie, I think the harder has already been done.'

'Ok. You want me to go with you? You usually do this alone, but since I'm here...' Jim said caressing her cheeks gently.

'Yeah, actually I would love this.' Mel said smiling happily, turning her head sideway to keep her skin in contact with Jim's hand. 'Plus i think you can help me something there.'

Without Jim asking what it was -he will see soon enough- they got in their bedroom to put on clothes and walked by the entry door. Before opening it, Mel closed her eyes and unconsciously let out a big sigh before opening the door. Jim taking her hand in his put a soft smile on Mel's face.

Just when they got outside, Mel and Jim saw the McCoys walking towards them. Well Jim could only see Katie, Vince and Lily, but Mel was moved to see Timothy standing right next his little sister, almost holding her hand. They had both such a beautiful smile.

'He came to see you too?' Katie asked them, too excited and a bit worried in a way to even say hello.

'Yeah.' Mel replied. 'I sent him to you actually.'

'Oh I'm so happy! A bit scared too but it was such a relief when Lily told us he was here.'

'Is he here, now?' Vince asked cautiously.

'Yes. He's with Lily.' Mel said softly looking at the kids who were a few feet away, joking.

'Mommy! Can we go to the carnival?' Lily asked. 'Please?' she added quickly as Timothy whispered her to say it.

Katie looked interrogatively at Melinda, hoping for details.

'There's a carnival in a town not far from here, apparently, it's where Timothy was all this time.' Mel explained.

'A carnival! In Columbus?' Katie asked sounding surprised.

Mel looked at Timothy.

'Could be, I didn't pay attention at the town sign.' the boy answered.

'He doesn't know for sure.' Mel transmitted. 'Do you know it?'

'There was a carnival coming nearby the first year we came here, but the kids were too young for us to go at the time and then, since the year after, they stopped coming.' Vince explained.

Without any of them noticing they had walked the whole time and were now facing the waterfall...

'Well, I guess it's the best place to come.' Mel said softly.

Jim felt her tightening her hold on his hand as they stopped walking.

'How does it work?' Vince asked awkwardly.

'Well you probably have things to tell him and I know he has.' Mel said. 'I think it'll be easier if it was just with Timothy first.' she added, looking at Jim, who immediately understood.

He walked towards Lily and knelt down.

'Would you like to come and take a walk with me?' he asked the little girl.

Lily looked up at her parents who both nodded. So the little girl took Jim's hand as he got up and they started to walk. Mel couldn't help smiling to see him acting so sweetly.

'Not near the lake, please!' said Katie tensed.

'Oh, ok. Sorry.' Jim said before he changed their direction and started walking towards the forest instead.

When they were far enough, Mel looked at Timothy, who had understood he had to stay with his parents.

'So, Timothy?' Mel started. The little boy looked up at her. 'You told me before you had things to tell them.'

Timothy walked closer to his parents and took a little time to think before starting to talk.

'Well, first, they have to stop fighting. They have been fighting a lot since I died, I think they resent each other for what happened.' Timothy started.

'He says you have been fighting a lot?' Mel told them. 'And he thinks you resent each other.'

'We... well, yeah, we do fight more than we used too...' Vince said knowing they had nothing to hide, they only had things to fix. 'It's never that bad,' he said looking at Katie, who nodded, 'it usually starts 'cause I keep thinking ad feeling like this is all my fault! And it is! I should never have let him alone but-'

'Vince please stop!' Katie said loudly. 'You can keep saying this, it's literally consuming you. And it's not your fault, I should have been able to manage calming Lily and-'

'It is my fault!' Vince said his voice getting louder.'

'Hey! Break! Please.' Mel said holding a hand up. 'Thanks.' she added as they stopped, and looked down, like kids that had just been rumbled.

'See? This is what happens home, pretty often.' Vince said.

'I see.' Mel said smiling. After a minute or so she went on. 'He wants you to stop blaming yourselves, it's nobody's fault. You are good parents, what happened was an accident, a horrible accident, but still and accident. He told me that you did everything you could to save him but it was just too late. Blaming each other will only make things worse and harder for you to move on.' Mel said looking intensely at Katie and Vince.

'It's just too hard! We were responsible for him! We were supposed to take care of him. And now he's dead so I don't think we deserve to move on and forget about all this.' Vince said sharply.

'Hey, first; you will never forget about him, how could you? No one can ask you do to that. But you have to forgive yourselves. You still have to take care of him, he needs you just like any other kid. But what he needs from you now is to stop torturing yourselves so he can finally be at peace. He will never be able to go and cross over if he's not sure that his parents will be ok. This is the last thing you can do for him, help him find peace.' Mel said in a deep voice.

Both Katie and Vince were trying to take all this in, Mel's speech was slowly trying to make its effect on them as they were almost crying, realizing they will have to be very strong to accept what happened and let their son go.

'We love you so much, Timothy! And we miss you so bad!' Katie said sobbing, looking at the last place Mel had looked when she was speaking to him.

'I love them too, very much! And I will never forget them either! I will always be... watching over them? Is that how we say?' Timothy asked Mel.

'Yes.' she answered smiling.

As she repeated them what Timothy just said, Mel pointed that, once again, Timothy was using uncommon expression for a boy his age. Katie smiled before explaining.

'It's what we told them when my dad died, a few months before Timothy.'

'Oh, ok.' Mel said smiling.

'I wanna talk to Lily now.' Timothy said attracting Mel's attention.

'Sure.' Mel said softly before looking at Jim.

'What?' Vince asked.

'He has to talk to someone else, now.' Mel said as she looked over her shoulder to see that Jim had taken Lily in his arms to show her what must be some creepy bug on a tree, or something like this since the little girl was holding one of her hand in front of her and the other covering her eyes, showing her disgust. So Jim walked away from the tree. As he was checking on Mel very often, it didn't took him long to notice they were all looking at them. When Mel showed him he could come back, he put Lily down and they walk back towards her parents, Melinda and Timothy.

Jim stopped near Melinda, while she watched Lily going straight to her big brother.

'Before I say goodbye, I have something else to tell them.' Timothy said, as a couple of things hit him.

'Sure, go ahead.' Mel said.

'They have to be nicer to her. Not that they hurt her, or hit her or anything.' Timothy quickly added. 'But this last year, they have changed, especially Dad. He used to do so many great things with us, and now he's not doing anything with her anymore.' the boy said sadly.

Mel knew this, so did Jim, they had both noticed Vince's behavior with Lily. She repeated softly to Vince what his son had just said, careful not to hurt him.

'I think you blame her a little for what happened. Am I wrong?' Mel said, still careful.

'I.. No... I would never blame my daughter for this.' Vince started.

'It may not be consciously, but if you think about it you'll see that it makes sense.' Jim said softly.

'I'm sorry sweetie, I promise I will be a better dad to your sister. I don't blame her.' Vince said.

Both Timothy and Lily had big smiles, then Lily walked towards her dad and hugged him as he knelt down at her.

'And Mom, she has to let Lily be a little girl. I understand that what happened to me scare them, but it doesn't mean they can't let Lily do things like, she won't let her learn how to swim or go to a swimming pool with her preschool friends, she won't even let her take bathes at home.' Timothy said.

'Katie? I think he's saying that he wants you to stop overprotecting Lily.' Mel said with an interrogating look towards Timothy to see if she got it right. As the little boy nodded, Mel went on looking back at Katie. 'He says he knows how painful what happened was and that you're scared something will happen to her too, but he wants you to let her do normal kids stuff, like going at the pool with her friend at preschool, or take a bath home.'

'Oh... well, yeah, I can't bring myself to let her take any risks, I wouldn't survive if something happened to her now that we already lost our son.'

'Honey, Timothy's right. We have to let her live a little girl's life. If we stay with her, there's no risks to let her take a bath. And for the pool thing, maybe we could make her take lessons to learn how to swim. What do you think Lily?' Vince said.

'Really? I could go swimming?' Lily said pretty excited since it was something she wanted to do for a long time.

'Mom?' Timothy said.

'Timothy wants to know if you'll be ok with this, Katie.' Mel said.

'I... Yeah, I guess if we're very careful, we can let her do this.' Katie said, obviously making a huge effort to accept this.

'Yeah!! Thanks Mom! Thanks Dad! Thanks Timothy!' Lily said happily. 'I love you.' she said while hugging both her parents.

'I think they'll be ok now, right?' Timothy said softly, watching them with a sweet smile.

'Yeah, I think they will.' Melinda answered with the same tone, smiling too. 'I think he's ready now.' Mel told everyone.

'Go where?' Lily asked quickly, walking to him.

'You brother is ok now, he can go to the next place, where he will be waiting for you.' Mel started to explain. She knelt down so she could look at the little girl more easily. 'It's time to say goodbye to him.'

'And then I won't see him again?' the little girl asked sadly.

'You will see him again, but not now, now here anymore.' Mel said.

'I don't want him to go and leave me.'

'Lily, you'll be ok. I promise.' Timothy said comforting her. 'Mom and Dad will be there for you, I can't stay with you forever but you'll be fine.'

'Promise?' Lily asked him.

'Promise.' Timothy answered.

Timothy approached his sister and kissed her forehead softly.

'I love you, Lily.' he said. 'And I love you both too.' he added giving a hug at her mom and dad.

'He says he loves you both?' Mel said almost crying.

'We love you too sweetie.' Katie and Vince both said, putting their hands where they just felt their son.

'Thank you a lot, Melinda.' Timothy then said with a nice smile.

'You're welcome, Timothy.'

Suddenly, the boy turned his head towards the waterfall.

'Wow! So... this is the light, I guess. It's pretty amazing.' he told Mel, with an interrogating look.

'Only you can see it.' Mel said.

'Good bye everyone.'

'Bye Timo.' Lily replied.

All the grown-ups waved where Mel and Lily were looking, saying 'Bye.'

'Hey, I remember you!' Timothy suddenly said. 'I remember now. You're the one that told me Melinda could help me.'

'What's going on, Timothy?' Melinda asked, confused.

'There is a woman here, she's the one that lead me to you. She said she knew you could help me.' the little boy explained.

'Who is it?' Mel asked.

'She says she misses you and... that... she loves you. She says she's 'saving a little piece of the light for you' but she doesn't want you to join her before a long long time... She says congrats for the baby and... to remember she will always be watching over you.' Timothy finished.

'Oh my god... Andrea!' Mel said through the tears.

'Melinda, what's wrong?' Jim said seeing her breaking down, almost loosing her balance.

'It's Andrea, he sees her in the light...'

'Aw.. Honey. Come here.' Jim said taking her in his arms and holding her tightly to comfort her.

'Please, tell her that I love her too and miss her so much.' Mel told Timothy, who nodded.

Jim kept her close, while Katie and Vince didn't really understand what was going on but respected quietly what was obviously a hard time for Melinda.

'Hey! I see Grandpa! He's calling for me.' Timothy said happily.

'He sees your dad I think.' Mel said looking at Katie.

'Oh.. I hope he's ok there.' Katie said softly.

'He says he's great but to take you time to come here. He's laughing.' So were Timothy and Vince and Katie after Mel told them.

Then, Timothy started to walked towards the light and slowly reached the lake. As he finally crossed over, exactly a year after he died, little waves started to spread over the lake.

When she couldn't see her brother anymore, Lily run into her mom's arms saying 'He's gone.', while Melinda buried her face into Jim's jacket.

'Are you ok?' he asked after a few seconds.

'Yeah. Yeah I'm fine.' Mel said looking up at him.

He wiped away her tears, putting his hands on Mel's cheek, kissing her forehead.

They then turned towards the McCoys. They were hugging each other closely, and Mel and Jim could see that all of them were crying too.

After a moment, they walked towards Mel and Jim.

'Thank you so much. I can't find anything else to say.' Katie said in a soft, sobbing voice.

'You don't have anything to say. I'm glad if I could help.' Mel answered.

'You helped a lot, you're really amazing. This is a beautiful gift you have. I'm sorry I couldn't understand this earlier.' Vince said.

'It's ok.' Mel said, before hugging them.

'So what are you going to do now?' Jim asked while shaking Vince hand.

'I don't really know... I'm thinking about leaving tomorrow.' the man answered.

'Really? I thought you rented the cabin for two weeks?' Katie said surprised.

'Yeah, but I know how much you wanted to go visit your sister and I was selfish to always turned the invitation down. I think we should go see her.'

'Thanks. I means a lot.' Katie said, hugging him.

'But before that, we still have a beautiful day ahead of us. Anyone wants to go to the carnival?' Vince asked happily.

'Yeah!!!! I wanna go!!' yelled Lily, jumping in his father's arms. 'Thank you Dad'

'Thanks for everything again.' Katie said, hugging Mel one last time.

'You're very welcome.' Mel said watching them walking back to their cabin.

Mel and Jim stood there, hugging each other, both watching the waterfall as they were lost in thoughts. Thoughts about all that just happened, thoughts about their way back to Grandview, and mostly thoughts about what will happen as their new life, as a family and not just a couple anymore, was just starting.

The End...

So... this is how my first fanfic ends... hope you liked it... please don't hate me for not saying that it would be the last chap i just thought it would be better if you just find out while reading so you wouldn't be expecting too much...

I really wanna thank everyone that read it!! and esp all the people that reviewed. Couldn't imagine i would have more than 100 reviews. The comments made me so happy over the last months! I hope that since this is your last chance for me to know what you think about it, you will tell me what you think about this last chap and about the whole story even if you haven't reviewed before, cause it's really important for me to know. So thanks in advance.

Again i wish a merry christmas to everyone and hope you'll have a wonderfull time! :)