Thank you so much for the reviews on the last chapter! There is still quite a bit left for you all, so I hope you enjoy :)
It was Christmas Eve. The first Christmas Eve that Dani, Jamie, Miles, and Flora had together as a family, and certainly not their last. Flora reminded Jamie that she had once been the master of Christmas. She told Dani that Christmas at Bly would not be Christmas without Jamie. Every year the morning after Thanksgiving, Jamie would show up early and spend the entire day hanging lights, wrapping tinsel around banisters, hanging wreaths from almost every door– except for Miles's and Flora's doors which were covered in wrapping paper and modeled into a present. "Because you're the gifts of Bly Manor," Jamie would say to them every year. Then, Jamie would leave around six and return around eight with a massive Christmas tree. Flora and Miles would help her bring it in and the three of them, along with Charlotte Wingrave, Hannah and Owen when he started, would drink hot chocolate while hanging ornaments.
Upon their return from England, Owen happily escorted them home, with promises that he would not be leaving until his professional opinion determined that Jamie was well recovered. That really just meant he spent a lot of time cooking good food and following Jamie's orders around the house. She took full advantage of that and, from her resting position on the couch, directed him in breathing Christmas spirit into the house. It did anger her that she couldn't do it herself and she found herself barking at Owen for miniscule things.
"No, you have to wrap it around, Owen. Don't just drape it," Jamie said. He stood in the entranceway attempting to understand her instructions for hanging up the tinsel. His arms were fully spread, holding tinsel in each hand and he searched the ceiling in front of him trying to decipher Jamie's instructions.
He brought it back down to chest height and held it out to better see. "Oh, you mean like this." Owen looped the tinsel around the back of his neck. "And a little of this, too, right?" He flipped one side over his shoulder so it resembled a scarf.
Jamie laughed so hard her head fell back onto the pillow behind her. "We wrap a hook around the other end, you would be a very dashing ornament."
"Oh, yeah, the kind you stash away in a box for a year to collect dust," Owen shot back and removed the tinsel to wrap around the pillar.
"No," Jamie insisted. "You'll be wrapped up in a ten year old newspaper so you don't break."
Owen laughed, "Yes, that's more like it."
The hospital staff that checked in Jamie had called the police at the sight of the bruises on her neck. She could barely talk, so Dani and Owen created a story about a squatter who had attacked Jamie. When Jamie nodded fervently to confirm the story to police, they accepted it without question and left. The nurses kept Jamie overnight. Owen, Flora, and Miles slept in the chairs in the corner. Dani pulled a chair up beside Jamie's bed and fell asleep hunched over onto the mattress, holding her girlfriend's hand.
Damage to Jamie's throat was minimal, thankfully. It was mainly bruising to her throat muscles and vocal chords. Talking got easier, but her voice was still raspy. The doctor prescribed a soft food diet until her throat healed. Owen feigned a salute and told Dani to take that as his official notice for temporarily moving in with them. But, it was actually the bruised ribs that caused the most pain for Jamie. She spent most of her time with ice over them to ease the pain.
Dani refused to leave Jamie's side for a while after that. It wasn't until the day before their Christmas Eve party that she finally went out for a significant period of time. Owen sent her and the kids off with a large shopping list, since he self-assumed the role of preparing the food.
"The only decent chef here is down for the count so I have to step up to the plate," Owen quipped.
"Ow," Dani cried, through a chuckle.
"Don't worry, mum," Flora said. "You're good at other things."
Dani raised an eyebrow, "Yeah? Like what?"
Miles's eyebrows pressed together in thought. He snapped his fingers, "You're great at hosting parties."
Flora nodded emphatically, "Yes. You are the epitome of a hostess. We would know, you know. Mummy was a great hostess."
"Nice save," Dani said. She waved them out of the door to the garage. With them safely gone, Jamie and Owen took to decorating the house so it would be a surprise when the others got home.
Owen secured the tinsel to the pillar with a piece of tape and placed his hands on his hips as he looked around the place. "I must say, Jamie. We've done a magnificent job." It was true. The tree had already been decorated from before the excursion to England. Now, lights hung around the main wall of the living room. Stockings were placed on hooks over the fireplace. A Nutcracker or two were put on display atop open surfaces. The short shelves under the window displayed a nativity scene. Owen had started a small fire in the fireplace and turned on a nice selection of Christmas music. Even the house smelled like peppermint and vanilla.
"Not quite," Jamie said. "I have to do their doors."
"You sure you can do it?" Owen asked, incredulous. With the pain in her chest and whatever was left in her throat, Jamie struggled to do much beyond walking and talking.
"Yes, it's my thing. It wouldn't be the same if it wasn't done by me."
Owen nodded, "Okay. But, I'm following behind to hand you scissors and such."
"Sounds like a deal, then," Jamie answered.
When Dani and the kids returned home, they were surprised by the transformation of the house. Flora danced from room to room and Miles found a bag of walnuts to try and crack with the nutcrackers. Dani sat on the couch next to Jamie.
"Look at this place," Dani whispered. She followed the Christmas lights around the living room. "Flora was right. You are the master at this."
"I've got another trick up my sleeve, you know." Jamie's eyes glinted and she pulled out a piece of mistletoe which she held above Dani's head. "Oh, would you look at that. Guess I have to kiss the hot au pair. Sorry, Poppins, I don't make the rules."
Dani cast her a smile for the cheesy joke then slipped her hand around the back of Jamie's neck and kissed her. She pulled back and looked Jamie up and down. "There's just one issue. I'm not the au pair."
"No, I suppose you're not," Jamie said and went in for another kiss.
The party was loud. The best kind of loud a party could be– not loud from the sound of speakers blasting eardrums, but loud from the existence of chatter and laughter. Their house burst at the seams with more people than had ever been there at one time. Flora and Miles had each invited their friends from school over. Parents talked amongst themselves while kids darted through and around legs of adults. Sometimes one would fall over or a toy would go flying and a parent would pull away from a conversation to quietly scold. Mrs. Clayton had come, completely oblivious to what Dani and Jamie were really celebrating, and brought along some of her friends to whom she gladly, and on multiple occasions, showed off her grandkids. Jamie and Dani didn't have too many friends themselves, but the ones they did have were invited, including Ellie who showed up with the girl from the boutique across the street from their shops.
The first thing Ellie noticed was the remaining bruises around Jamie's neck. Most of it was gone, and the few spots that were left were fairly well covered by makeup, but Ellie was always good at seeing through those kinds of things. Jessica, the woman from the boutique, stepped aside to talk to someone else for a while and Ellie took it as an opportunity to ask what the hell happened to Jamie.
Ellie had been asking questions about Bly for a while and the way Jamie and Dani dodged them had only increased her suspicion so the two thought it was worth it to answer some questions. Except, you can't answer a few questions about Bly without divulging the whole story. When they did, Ellie stared at them with wide eyes and gulped down the last of her drink.
"Owen? We're gonna need a refill over here," Jamie called over her shoulder. The makeshift bar, really just a folding table pitched close to the island which held an array of snacks, was only a few feet from where Jamie and Dani stood. Owen nodded and grabbed a fresh glass, but Jamie shook her head. "Just pass me the whole bottle. We told her about Bly."
"Right." Owen set the glass down and handed her the bottle of scotch. "One good or are you going to need two for that?"
"We'll start with one for now and see where it gets us." Jamie tilted the bottle over Ellie's glass. Once it was filled, Ellie again downed it and held out for another one.
The woman pointed at Dani. "You're telling me that, this whole time I've known you, you've been possessed by a ghost?"
Dani bobbed her head back and forth a bit. "More like 50% possessed."
Jamie raised her glass toward her girlfriend, "Except for the other day at Bly when you tried to kill me."
"Oh, yeah," Dani nodded. "Then I was 100% possessed."
Ellie sighed and finished her glass again. "So what are you going to do with it now?"
"I don't know, it's got kind of a charm to it now that all the ghosts are gone, doesn't it?" Dani looked at Jamie as she said it.
"It's true, I get an adrenaline rush every time I think about going back," Jamie added. "Honestly, I think Dani and I are going to have to start adding some choking–." Dani playfully hit Jamie's arm with the back of her hand.
"Come on, we're surrounded by kids," Dani said. Jamie held her hands up in surrender.
"You should turn it into one of those haunted hotels," Ellie suggested. "I bet you could make a killing off the story."
At that moment, Flora, Miles, and all their friends announced that there was going to be a show and the adults would be the audience. While Flora lined up the other kids, Jamie slipped an arm around Dani's lower back.
"I dunno," Jamie said to Ellie. "I think they've been through enough. They don't need it following them anymore than it already will."
Everyone watched the ten minute story-time about a woman with a sleep walking problem who couldn't wake up in time for Christmas. Santa Claus with his two child assistants had to rush to find the right magic dress to wake her just in time to experience Christmas with her family. Once it was over, Flora (who naturally played the girl who found the magic dress) bowed and credited herself as the writer, director, and producer.
"That's a good sign, right?" Dani asked Jamie as she clapped.
"Always was before," Jamie said. All around them, people were congratulating Flora and the others on a job well done then started to return to the company of the other adults. The hum of conversations pushing against each other for space picked up again in the house and so did Jamie's nervous energy. She took Dani's hand and whispered into her ear, "Let's just get out of here for a second, Blue Eyes."
Dani looked around at all the people in their house. "And go where, exactly?"
Jamie took her hand and pulled her to the backdoor. She grabbed their coats and the two quietly slipped outside and scurried around to the gate on the side of their yard. They each slipped their thick winter jackets on over their dresses. Jamie's was a long sleeve, form fitting, emerald dress in velvet completed with black tights and black boots. Dani's was a simple gold, flowy dress with puffy long sleeves. She wore nylons under it that matched her skin and a cream colored boot that went half way up her calf. Flora said the two of them together looked like a Christmas tree.
They huddled together, holding hands, as they walked through the falling snow. Old snow crunched under their feet and every once in a while they would find a small ice patch and have to hold each other up.
"When I thought you were gone," Dani started, "was that what it's been like for you since the beginning? Just waiting to see if we could get more time?"
"At times, yeah," Jamie said. In the five days since they faced Bly Manor head on, they hadn't talked about it almost at all. Their days had been spent enjoying every moment with each other and their family, Owen included. "It was always worth it, though. I would do it over again even if I knew it wouldn't end up like this."
Dani stopped walking and turned so her body was pressed up against Jamie's. "It finally hit me today, you know. It's just us. No curse, no wondering if there's going to be a tomorrow, or if I'm going to hurt the people I love." She dipped her head and stared at their hands. "And then I couldn't help but wonder, if that's what you want? You knew when we left England there was going to be an expiration date. Now that it's gone, we can have a life together without writing in a contingency plan for everything. Do you still want that?"
"Oh, Dani," Jamie said. "That's all I've ever wanted. Jodie Foster could walk into our house right now and I would tell her, 'sorry, already got the woman of my dreams'."
"Sounds pretty serious," Dani laughed.
Jamie exaggerated a nod, "Oh, it is. I've got big plans, you know."
Dani's eyes glinted as a smile flashed over her face. "Like what?"
"Can't ruin the surprise, now can I, Blue Eyes?" Jamie quipped.
Dani leaned forward and kissed Jamie. The warmth of their lips touching each other reverberated down into her toes and through her hands. A little giggle behind them followed by the crunching of snow caught their attention. Jamie pulled away to look over her shoulder, but Dani pressed a bare palm against Jamie's face to hold her there. "As it turns out, I've got some plans, too." The small figure, the source of the giggle, dashed into the darkness of the backyard of their house only a few yards away from them. "We should head back before we get hypothermia."
The pair turned around and began the short trek back to their front door. On the curb beside their driveway, a medium-sized plant spilled over the sides of a terracotta pot and dipped into the snow beneath it.
"What's this?" Jaime asked.
"Someone must have heard of your gardening skills and abandoned a lost cause at your door for you to save," Dani joked. Jamie narrowed her eyes at her girlfriend in a slightly interrogatory way. She was never much of a joker, Dani. She always felt bad or too excited and gave it up before it had time to fully hit. "Okay, okay. It was an abandoned plant, though. Miles and Flora found it while we were grocery shopping yesterday and begged to bring it home for you to save."
Jaime looked down at it skeptically. "So what's it doing out here then?"
"Well, I was kind of dying, too. When I first met you," Dani said. "You fed me and took care of me and because of that I got to grow into a better version of myself. I don't know, it sounds cheesy, but I just thought this plant is kind of like us. It feels like it represents who we are and where we're going."
A smile softened all of Jamie's features right then. Her eyes were so bright they almost lit up the world around her better than the street lamp above their head. She crouched down to get a better look at the plant. "The biggest issue is that its roots are probably much too big for this small of a pot. No worries, though, I've got just the thing at the shop." Jamie gently pulled the plant up from the pot to determine if her theory was correct. "Oh, there's something in here." She pushed her fingers into the dirt and the roots and pulled out a golden claddagh ring. The plant fell back into the pot and she stood up. "Dani, why is there a ring–."
"Here's the thing," Dani said. "You're my best friend and the love of my life. I don't know how much time is left, no one does really, I guess. But, now, we've got a shot at forever and I want to spend it with you. And I know we can't technically get married, but I also don't really care. We can wear the rings and we'll know, okay? That's enough for me, if it's enough for you."
Jamie nodded and blinked tears of joy. "I reckon that's enough for me, yeah." She threw her arms around Dani's neck and kissed her. "I love you so much."
"I love you, too," Dani whispered back.
The giggles picked up again from the shadows by the house. Jamie pulled her head back, still holding Dani close. "Where are those two little gremlins?"
Flora ran out from the shadows with Miles close behind. "We're right here," she giggled and ran straight up to the couple.
"Right here?" Jamie asked and leaned down to tickle Flora. The girl screamed out and tried to escape Jamie's clutches, but it didn't work until she could barely breathe from laughing. "And I suppose the two of you helped mum scheme this, huh?"
"I did, Miles wasn't much of a help," Flora said. "Yesterday, I told Dani 'you know what Jamie would like for Christmas?' and she said, 'what?', and I said 'a ring'. So we went into a ring shop and we helped her pick one out."
Jamie examined the ring now on her left hand ring finger. "I'd say you have good taste then."
"I think so," Flora continued. "The rest was Dani. Miles found the plant, but she decided to put the ring in it and have us leave it out here when you came out."
"I have a question," Jamie said. She glanced at the kids, but ended up looking at Dani. "How did you know I was going to want to go for a walk?"
"Easy," Dani shrugged. "You're you. You're a good sport for these kinds of parties, but everyone knows it's not your cup of tea."
Jamie nodded, "You've got me figured out, Blue Eyes." She kissed Dani again which elicited a gagging sound from Miles and another giggle from Flora. "We should probably get back in and kick them all out."
"We can't do that," Flora cried. "It's much too early, it would be bad manners. That's what Mrs. Grose used to tell me."
"Can you imagine the ragers she'll throw in high school?" Jamie asked. Dani laughed and shook her head.
"What's a rager?" Miles asked
Dani raised her eyebrows at Jamie. "Yeah, mom. What's a rager?"
Jamie's face went a bit red. She managed to get herself into these corners during conversations with the kids all the time. "It's what kids do when they break the rules."
The four began to climb the front steps to the house. Jamie held the pot in her hand, cradled against her waist. Flora's hand rested on the doorknob, but she turned back before she opened the door.
"Can I put something on my Christmas list?" She asked.
"Sure, you can, but I don't know if Santa can make it happen on such short notice," Dani said. Neither of the kids still believed in Santa but it was fun to include him, if only in spirit.
Flora tilted her head and flashed a humorous smile. "Not for this year, silly. It wouldn't be possible."
"Spit it out, little miss," Jamie said. "It's getting cold."
"I want a baby sister," Flora stated. "I'm tired of being the youngest."
Jamie's eyebrows raised, "A baby sister, huh?" She looked at Dani who, with round eyes and an open mouth, looked panicked trying to find an answer. "Not sure about that one. Storks are a bit hard to come by these days."
"Just think about it. I imagine you'll soon see it's a perfectly splendid idea," Flora said and then skipped back in the house.
Dani hung back on the front porch and watched Flora from afar. That was the first time she'd heard Flora say those words without a pushback from the Lady. It felt freeing to hear them now. It felt even more freeing to remember that her whole body was hers again.
"You coming?" Jamie called from inside. She had the door propped with one hand waiting for Dani. The other woman hurried in and closed the door behind her. As they hung up their coats, Jamie let her ring catch the light for Dani to see and then winked.
"Oh, thank God," Owen said dramatically. "I was about to send a search party. Your drinks are getting lonely." He pushed two crystal glasses into their hands and, in doing so noticed the ring on Jamie's finger. A genuine smile spread across his face.
Jamie was suddenly a bit uncomfortable with the attention on her, even if it was Owen. She blushed and glanced at Dani for help. Dani took pity and jumped in, "She was busy being proposed to."
"I think we should all drink to that. Don't move." He rushed to the counter and grabbed his drink then returned shortly. When he was back, he raised his cup for a toast just the three of them. "To Jamie and Dani."
All three clinked glasses and then all three took a sip.
When Jamie finally shut the door behind the final guests of the night, she groaned so loudly Dani scolded her for possibly waking up the kids. It was late and Flora and Miles had long since been in bed. The other parents trickled out slowly with their kids leaving only a few people behind, but at that point of the night any were too many for Jaime.
"The worst part is, we have to clean this up by the morning," Jamie complained. She kicked her shoes off and rubbed one of her heels.
Owen set his hands on his hips and surveyed the place. "It shouldn't take too long. Mainly just putting food away and picking up trash." He turned and looked at the cabinets behind him "Where do you keep your trash bags?"
"Under the sink," Dani called.
Owen was right, it only took them about thirty minutes to get the place presentable again and another thirty to lay out the presents under the tree. Then they all turned in for the night, Owen to his guest bedroom, and Jamie and Dani to their own.
The two stood in their bathroom together wiping makeup from their faces. Jamie watched herself in the mirror, trying to control a smile every time she caught a sight of the ring. When her makeup was sufficiently removed, she threw the cotton swab away and grabbed her toothbrush.
"I didn't expect that tonight," Jamie said. "I guess there's a lot of things I never really expected because I didn't know if we would have time."
"We should plan a trip," Dani said. "I know we travelled around for a while, but this is different. Let's plan a vacation. We'll take the kids, but we'll go to some kind of resort where we can dump them onto somebody else sometimes."
Jamie laughed, "I say Mexico."
"Mexico it is," Dani confirmed.
Dani turned around to leave the bathroom, but Jamie grabbed her waist and pulled her back. She kissed the back of her ear. "I've got a question, Blue Eyes. Are we wives or are we fiances? At what point do I get to call you my wife?"
"I guess it depends, do you want to have a wedding?" Dani asked.
Jamie wrinkled her nose a bit. "It's not exactly the direction I pictured my life going. Then again, you kind of took me by surprise from the get go." The two walked together into the room and climbed into their respective sides of the bed. "What about you? You were, what, weeks away from getting married? Did you always have a dream wedding you wanted to have?"
"It was fun at times. Like the cake tasting. But, it never felt right." Dani rested her head on the headboard. "I think with the right person, with you, it would be different. Besides, I don't think Flora would ever forgive us if we passed this up."
"Fine, we can have a wedding," Jamie agreed. She draped her legs around Dani's and scratched her cheek. "What do you think about Flora's Christmas wish?"
Dani laughed and shook her head. "I'll do a wedding for that girl, but a whole child?"
"Would you want to if it wasn't for her?" Jamie's eyes danced over the comforter as she thought about the question.
"I never really wanted more than two kids and we've already got two great ones." She rubbed lotion into her face and then reached over to turn the light off on her bedside table. With her back turned to Jamie, she didn't see the disappointment flash across her face.
Dani curled up against Jamie's back and kissed her head. Jamie reached over and pulled Dani's arm around her, lacing their fingers together. "We can have a party to celebrate, that's all fine and dandy, but you're still my wife. I don't want to wait."
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