"I think it's time to tuck you two in and read you your bedtime story," Lee announced closing the paper he had been reading.

Bridget and Ivy, who were sprawled out on the floor drawing, both let out a groan. However, both girls started to gather the color pencils that were scattered between them.

Lee found himself smiling at the sight. Bridget and Ivy had sure changed their home. They had made it feel more alive. Lee knew that if they left, the house would feel empty however, he also knew that he would not stop Brian from taking them with him. Family was meant to stay close. He had found out the hard way the truth of that. He had missed out on a lot by not talking to Susannah for so long.

Lee also realized what a big responsibility it was to take on these two little girls. It was a responsibility that he realized Brian might not want and that was okay. It was better that he realized that now then resent taking them in later. The one thing that Lee knew he would insist on in that situation, was that Brian stay in touch with Bridget and Ivy. He didn't want to see the rift he had with his own sister for so many years, develop between the Peterson siblings.

For now though, he and Rosie had agreed not to offer their own opinions into the situation. They would care for Bridget and Ivy as they had been the last few weeks and be as welcoming as possible to Brian while he stayed with them. Unless asked, they would not offer their advice to the young man who had a huge decision to make.

"Go get changed and I'll be up to read to you," Lee told them, when they had the colored pencils gathered back in the can they were stored in.

"We were hoping to show our drawings to Brian," Bridget commented.

"Perhaps it would be best to let him rest tonight," Lee suggested, thinking about how tired the young man had looked at dinner. "You can show him the pictures at breakfast."

"Okay," Bridget replied reluctantly. Reaching out, the girl took her little sister's hand and headed toward the stairs.

Finishing wrapping the little box containing Elizabeth's gift from Nathan, Rosemary rose from the table. "I'm going to take this over to Nathan," she told Lee.

"Can't it wait until tomorrow?" Lee asked, not really wanting his wife walking even that short distance alone at this time of nice.

"I'll be fine," Rosemary replied, picking up on her husband's concern. "As for waiting, I'm surprised Nathan hasn't asked me about it already. That man has the patience of a saint. I hadn't expected it to take this long to accomplish what he asked, but things have just been such a whirlwind this year, that it took me longer than I thought it would."

"You got it done, that's the important thing," Lee told his wife as he walked toward the coat rack. He knew Rosie wouldn't be able to rest tonight until she had fulfilled her promise.

Lee took down Rosemary's jacket as his wife made her way toward him. As Lee held her coat for her, Rosemary slipped her arms in.

"Thank-you," Rosemary told him, the small box held in her hand. Turning around, she gave Lee a quick kiss. "I won't be long," she assured him.

"Be careful," Lee told her, opening the door for her.

"I will," Rosemary assured him, putting on her hat before heading outside.

Lee stood for a moment, watching his wife as she headed down the path in front of the row houses. When she turned and waved to him, Lee smiled, waved back and closed the door.

Turning from the door, Lee headed upstairs to see if Bridget and Ivy were ready for their story. As he approached the door to Brian's room, it opened.

"Hello," Lee said, pausing in the hallway.

Brian stood in the doorway. The young man looked better than he had at dinner time.

"Feeling better?" Lee asked.

"Yes," Brian replied. "I may have pushed myself a bit too far today."

"Well, now you're a bit more aware of your limits," Lee said diplomatically. Rosie had made sure he hadn't pushed himself too much following his own head injury. Lee had a feeling if it hadn't been for his hovering wife he may have done the same thing. "I was going to go read your sister's a bed time story, but as Bridget had a drawing she wanted to show you, I don't think they'd mind you doing it instead if you feel up to it."

Brian nodded. "I do. Thank-you."

"Tell them Rosie and I will be up to say goodnight when she gets back. She had a quick errand to run."

"Okay," Brian said.

As the young man crossed over to the room his sister's were occupying, Lee turned and headed back downstairs. Figuring that Rosie might enjoy something warm to drink when she came back from her errand, Lee went to the kitchen. Quietly, he started getting the things needed to make some hot chocolate.


At the Grant home, Nathan was playing some Christmas Carols on his guitar at Ally's request. Ally was sitting next to him on the settee, finishing up the Christmas present she had gotten for Elizabeth. She had bought three handkerchiefs for Elizabeth, and with Mrs. Weise's help had embroidered Elizabeth's initials on two of them and a flower on the third. After the events of the last few days, Ally had decided to attempt to embroider 'mama' on the third along with the flower.

The sound of a knock on the door, brought all activity to a stop.

"Who is it?" Nathan called out, as he placed the guitar against the side of the settee.

"It's Rosemary," came the reply through the door.

Beside him, Ally let out a sigh of relief as Nathan got to his feet. Reaching the door, he opened it.

"Is everything okay?" Nathan asked, surprised to see Rosemary at his door at this time of night.

"It is," Rosemary replied easily. She held up the wrapped package she had. "I finished that task you asked me to do for you."

Nathan reached out and took the box from her. "Thank-you, Rosemary," he told her. "Do you want to come in?"

Rosemary shook her head. "I told Lee I would only be a few minutes."

"I can walk you home if you'd like," Nathan said, reaching for his coat.

Rosemary laughed. "You men are all alike, afraid to let a woman walk five feet at night on our own. I'll be fine and I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Rosemary," Nathan said.

Despite her assurances, Nathan still stepped out onto the steps as Rosemary went down the steps, and headed down the path. Despite not having a coat on, Nathan pulled the door shut to keep the cold air out as he stood on the top step. As not all the houses had lights on out front, Nathan knew she would soon disappear into the shadows, he intended to keep an eye on her for as long as possible. Anticipating his actions, Rosemary turned and gave a final wave just before she walked out of the light cast by a lantern outside of one of the houses.

Turning, Nathan headed back inside. Closing the door behind him, he found Ally staring at him, an annoyed expression on her face.

"What?"

"You're always telling me not to go out in the winter without a coat because I'll get sick," Ally said. "You should listen to your own advice."

"It's different."

"Why? Because you're an adult?"

"Exactly," Nathan told her. "What song was I playing?"

Ally shook her head. "Silent Night," she told him as she went back to her needle work.

Setting down next to her again, Nathan picked up his guitar and started the song from the beginning.


Christmas Eve dawned with little bits of sun peeking out through grey clouds. It wasn't the prettiest of days, but even the weather couldn't dampen Elizabeth's spirits. Today was her son's birthday. She wanted it to be a happy day.

After getting dressed, Elizabeth made her way to her son's room. The little boy was still sleeping peacefully. Knowing that it was going to be a long day, she let Little Jack sleep, tiptoeing out of the room.

Downstairs, Elizabeth put on coffee and started a batch of oatmeal for breakfast. Already her mind was going through all the things that she needed to do before people came for Little Jack's birthday party. She had decided to have everyone over for lunch and cake this year. With the community dinner following the concert, Pastor Zeke had elected to have a Christmas Morning service this year. That would allow them to have the Christmas Eve Concert early with the dinner at the saloon to follow. Right before dinner started, Lucas planned on announcing the winners of the gingerbread house contest.

Elizabeth wasn't sure how Ally felt, but Elizabeth found that she didn't care if their house had won a ribbon or not. She had enjoyed the act of building their creation with Nathan and Ally. It had felt like a family activity, though Little Jack had been too young to participate. She knew that would change though as he got older, because the diamond on her left hand told Elizabeth that there would be more family activities in their future.

As she finished the oatmeal, Elizabeth heard babbling from upstairs. Placing the oatmeal off the burner, she headed upstairs. Little Jack was standing up in his crib when she walked in. Seeing her, the toddler let go of the rails and reached into the air saying, "Mama."

Elizabeth smiled. A year ago, she had been waiting for him to say his first word. That first word had been said on Christmas morning and had been Mama. It had been her son's first Christmas gift to her.

"Happy Birthday, my sweet boy," Elizabeth told her son, lifting him from the crib and placing a kiss on his forehead.

As she got him ready, Elizabeth started telling Little Jack about all the plans for the day. Once he was clean and dressed she headed downstairs. Placing him in his high chair, Elizabeth got breakfast ready. Without thinking about it, she started signing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing".

"That was your daddy's favorite Christmas carol," Elizabeth told Little Jack as she placed a small bowl of oatmeal in front of him.

Elizabeth paused for a moment, surprised that remembering Jack's favorite song hadn't created a pang in her heart as it would have a year ago. Not only that, but she had managed to sing the song. Last year she had gotten choked up when she tried to sing it during a church service.

Then again, last year she had thought quite a bit about all that Jack was missing. Most thoughts of Jack had made her sad. Her realization from last night came back to her. Once again she was hit by the difference a year had made. Her broken heart had healed more this year than it had the previous year. Perhaps it still had some healing to do, but she could see the progress. She hoped from here on out that things would continue to get easier. Though Little Jack would never meet his birth father, she wanted to be able to tell their son about Jack. She knew that Bill, Rosemary and Lee would help her with that, but she knew most of the responsibility would fall on her. Not that she didn't want Little Jack to come to think of Nathan as a father figure as well. She hoped one day Little Jack, like Ally, would call Nathan 'Dad' instead of by his name. Like Ally would have two mothers, her son would have two fathers, and Elizabeth new that it was important that he knew them both.

A year had changed a lot and she knew there would be more changes in the near future. It was a future that seemed full of promise once again and for that Elizabeth was thankful.


"Oh, that is so cute," Elizabeth exclaimed as she took the gift that Bill had gotten for Little Jack's birthday out of the box. It was a toddler size Mountie hat.

The Coulters, Bridget, Ivy, Bill, Nathan and Ally were all gathered around the Christmas tree. Though invited, Rosemary had informed Elizabeth that Brian had elected to stay at the house and take a nap. He had decided that after the previous evening he didn't want to take the chance of missing the concert or dinner as his sister's were counting on him. Elizabeth was actually glad that he put his sisters before other things.

Sitting in her lap, Little Jack squealed and grabbed for the hat. Placing it on his head, he looked around at the gathered crowd.

"I think he likes it," Bill commented.

"Maybe now my hat is safe," Nathan added, getting chuckles from the others gathered.

"Do you like your hat, Jack?" Elizabeth asked, as she sat the box down on the floor next to her chair.

"Like Na'tan." Jack replied, looking over at Nathan.

"Yes, you have a hat just like Nathan's now," Elizabeth said.

Picking up the last gift, Rosemary handed it to Little Jack. "You have one more gift, Jack," she told the little boy.

Jack looked at the wrapped gift. Reaching out, he took it from Rosemary and then looked up at Elizabeth. Though more into the activity than last year, Little Jack still hadn't quite got the concept of opening the gift by himself. With Elizabeth doing most of the work, the last gift, from Ally and Nathan, was opened. As the paper was pulled away, Elizabeth recognized the well loved, faded bear that Ally had let Jack play with when Nathan had been hurt.

As Jack hugged the bear, Elizabeth looked over at Nathan, an unspoken question in her eyes.

"It was Ally's idea," Nathan told her.

Elizabeth let her gaze fall to Ally.

Shrugging, the girl replied, "Jack's going to eventually be my brother. Siblings are supposed to share things. Passing the bear that Uncle Nathan gave me when I was little seemed like a good way to start."

"Ally bear," Jack said, hugging the stuffed animal close.

"Yes, Jack. Ally gave you her bear," Elizabeth said. "Wasn't that nice of her?"

Little Jack squirmed off of Elizabeth's lap. Placing the bear in Elizabeth's lap, the toddler took unsteady steps toward Ally who was sitting on the settee. Reaching Ally, Jack hugged her legs.

"T'ank you," Little Jack said.

Leaning forward, Ally put her arms around Jack. "You're welcome," she told him.

Elizabeth looked from the two children to Nathan who was sitting next to Ally. He met her gaze, and Elizabeth could tell that like her, he was happy to see the two children being so accepting of each other. Ally was going to make a wonderful big sister.