~*~ Epilogue ~*~
It was Christmas Eve and the whole town was bustling with the Christmas spirit. Strings of lights could be seen up and down every street as the snow gently floated to the ground. At the firehouse, Serena was sitting on the sofa bopping her head along with the tune that was playing on her cd player as she stared at the half decorated tree in the middle of the living room. She took her eyes away from the tree only when she noticed the front door open and Karen step inside. She had a diaper bag hanging on her shoulder and a bundled baby in her arms. Serena jumped up and ran to her sister to help.
"Merry Christmas, Sis" Karen said greeting Serena.
"Merry Christmas…" she replied "Where's Chris?"
"Oh he is outside getting everything out of the car…do you have shoes on? Can you run out and help him while I get Nikki settled?"
Serena reached out for the baby, plucking her from Karen's arms, "How about…I get Nikki settled and you go back out into the cold and help Chris…" she said with a sly grin.
Karen cocked her head to the side and smirked, "thanks, Scott junior…"
"No problem…" Serena said taking Nikki and the Diaper bag toward the kitchen as Scott entered the living room.
"Hey, I thought I heard voices out here…Merry Christmas, Honey!" as he approached Karen and gave her a peck on the cheek.
"Merry Christmas, Dad! What's going on around here?" she finally asked looking at the half decorated tree.
"Well, I am decorating the tree and your mother is in the kitchen baking cookies."
Karen jerked her head back in shock, "Mom? Is baking?"
"She was baking…but now it smells more like burning…" Serena joked.
Their attention was drawn to the kitchen for a minute when they heard loud cursing and a pan crash down on the countertop.
"Yeah…well…it was Serena's idea and the two of them got started but Serena quit halfway through…" he said shooting Serena a look.
"I forgot I had an important phone call to make." Serena tried to explain but no one accepted the excuse.
Karen threw a skeptical look at Serena and then at Scott, just as Chris fumbled his way through the door and dropped all the packages that he carried in. "Karen, dear, it is snowing in the trunk. I thought you were going to come out and help me…"
"I am, I just wanted to take care of Nikki first," she said.
"She looks like she's in good hands to me," Chris said.
"Okay, Chris…I'm coming…"
"Karen," Scott interjected, "Take care of the baby, I'll help Chris" he said as he grabbed his coat and walked out to the car.
Karen moved over to Serena and took Nikki from her arms, "come on, kiddo…let's go see what Grandma's burning in the kitchen."
Serena picked up the diaper bag and followed Karen into the kitchen. "Merry Christmas, mom," Karen greeted as she entered.
"Oh, honey, Merry Christmas," she said pulling the baby out of Karen's arms and turned toward Serena. "And look who finally decided to come back to the kitchen." Serena just shrugged her shoulders as she took the diaper bag into the nursery.
Karen laughed at Serena's reaction as she tried to scrape one of the burnt cookies off of the pan. "Mom, do you need help with something in here?"
"No, I'm all done," she replied while she played with Nikki. "Your sister is going to clean up the mess, since it was her idea to make the cookies."
Karen joined her mother at the table while she began to explain all of Nikki's quirky habits. In the background, Serena began to clean up the kitchen starting with the sheets of cookies. She dumped the burnt cookies in the garbage, cookie sheets and all. She then placed the rest of the dirty dishes in the dishwasher.
"Oh, so here is where everyone disappeared to," Gail said when she entered the kitchen. "And there's my cute little great granddaughter." Gail tickled under her chin making her laugh.
"Hi Grandma," Karen said giving her a hug. "Where's grandpa?"
"Oh, he is outside with your father and Chris. Two lawyers and a doctor arguing over bringing in Christmas presents."
"Sounds like they could use a woman's influence to get things moving out there…." Karen said laughing as she made her way to the front door as the other woman followed her into the living room.
Karen and Serena stood just outside the doorway laughing at the men argue. "You know, if you guys would spend less time arguing and more time carrying, you could all be in the house by now." Karen yelled to them as she began to walk toward them to help.
"Yeah, well, maybe some women that I know should have spent less time shopping and more time doing…ah…woman things!" Chris retorted. The men finally grabbed what was left of the bags and brought them into the house. As they passed Karen on the snow covered sidewalk, she just smirked at them "shopping is a woman thing."
As they reached the door, Rhonda was there to take the packages from the men as they shook off the snow. Just as Karen had turned around to follow the men, from out of the blue, she was hit in the back of the head by snowball. She turned only to see Serena standing about 15 feet away from her laughing. "You little…" Karen groaned as she picked up a handful of snow and molded it into a ball. She threw it at Serena, but missed when Serena ducked out of the way. Serena jumped up and took off running through the snow when she saw Karen coming after her.
Scott's attention was finally drawn to his daughters when he heard them yelling. When he looked up and saw them chasing each other around the snow covered yard, he pulled Rhonda out onto the porch to watch the girls. Both started to laugh when Karen finally pelted Serena in the back causing her to trip. "Gotcha!" Karen said plopping down in the snow next to Serena. Serena sat up next to her sister and smiled, "let's go in, I'm cold." Karen nodded and began to get up out of the snow just as Serena picked up a handful of snow and dropped down the back of Karen's shirt. Serena took of running toward the house when Karen screamed, "SERENA, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"
Serena jetted past Scott and Rhonda, who were still standing on the porch laughing. Through the living room, she whizzed right past Lee, Gail, and Chris. All three spun around quickly to see Karen run in right behind her and stop in the middle of the living room. She looked up toward the balcony "when you least expect it, little sister. If I were you I wouldn't go to sleep tonight," she shouted.
"Karen, don't kill your sister before dinner," Scott chuckled as he and Rhonda came back into the house.
Karen quickly turned around and shot a look at Scott. "I'm going to get out of these wet clothes," she mumbled choosing to ignore her father.
"What has gotten into those two?" Gail asked.
Scott moved over to the Christmas tree and began to put more decorations on. "Oh, they're just having fun. I rather enjoy seeing them goof around like that together. Reminds me of me and Brooke, when we were young," he said with a half smile as he remembered his older sister in their youth.
"Karen and Serena are nothing like what you and Brooke were," Lee interjected. "You would torment Brooke every chance that you got. I don't think I ever saw you two give each other a hug…unless you want to count the headlocks that you put on each other."
"Headlocks count…" Scott defended as he watched Rhonda and Karen begin to set the food on the table. "Besides, Brooke had most of them coming to her."
"Who's Brooke?" Karen asked setting the mashed potatoes down on the table the calling for Serena to help.
"Brooke was my older sister..."
"Sister?" Karen questioned in shock "I didn't know that you had an older sister."
"Who has an older sister?" Serena asked clumping down the stairs.
"Dad, does…"
"Since when?" Serena asked looking to Karen.
Karen shrugged and Lee shook his head and slapped Scott's shoulder. "Son, have you ever told these kids anything about their family?"
"Sure I have, Dad…" Scott started pointing to Lee and then Gail, "they know that your grandpa, she's grandma, and I'm Dad. That's all they need to know. Now if nobody objects, I'm going to turn the news on to get some information about this storm," he stated before sitting down at the head of the table.
As they ate dinner, the sound of the news caster rang behind them in a report about Janelle's trial. "So what ever happened to her?" Karen finally asked Scott.
"Who Janelle?...she was convicted and sentenced life in prison without the possibility of parole."
"No, not Janelle…Brooke…whatever happened to Aunt Brooke?"
"Aunt Brooke," Scott repeated smiling at Lee. "Wouldn't she have liked to have heard those words…" he stated. Lee nodded in agreement. "She died, honey….before you were born."
Both Karen and Serena wanted to hear more about Scott's sister, but the subject was quickly changed when the weatherman announced that Port Charles was going to get hit with 18 more inches of snow before morning.
"18 inches?" Chris shouted. "we already have 10 out there."
"Well, it looks like everyone should make themselves comfortable..." Scott said as a smile crept across his face at the realization that his entire family was going to spend Christmas together. No one could have planned it better.
"But Scotty, where is everyone going to sleep?" Gail asked
"It's a big house, we'll figure something out," he replied continuing to eat his dinner.
As the night pressed on, the Baldwin family enjoyed a traditional Christmas Eve. Complete with presents, decorating and singing carols. Until one by one, they all made their way off to bed. All except for Scott, who had just turned off all of the lights and stood in front of the window watching the snow fall down through the moonlight. Suddenly he heard a voice behind him, "I thought you were going to bed?" He turned around to see Rhonda silhouetted by the moon.
"I was, but the snow caught my eye when I turned out the lights…Beautiful isn't it?" Scott went over to the CD player to softly play some music. He then stepped beside Rhonda and held out his hand in a manner that asked her to dance. Graciously, she accepted. Both were unaware that Karen was standing in the doorway between the living room and kitchen. Karen stood there for a minute with a slight smile on her face.
She only made her presence known when she realized that she was about to witness her father gently kiss her mother.
"So is this was the dance was like?" she asked as she approached her parents.
Rhonda began to blush, but Scott held out his hand to Karen pulling her close to him. He stepped far enough away from Rhonda to begin dancing with Karen. "Ah…A Night of Magic…Wasn't that the theme of the dance, Rhonda? You want to know what the best part of that dance was?" he asked as he slowly led his daughter through the room in a tight box step.
"What's that?" she asked with a smile thinking that she already knew that answer.
Scott smiled a bright smile and hugged her tightly, "Seeing my daughter for the first time…" Scott wiped away a tear that rolled down her cheek and gently kissed her forehead. "I love you, baby," He whispered.
"I thought I heard voices and music down here," Serena said as she descended the stairway. "What's going on?"
"Nothing…" Scott said motioning for Serena, "Come on, let's watch a late night showing of a Christmas Story. I'm sure that there is some channel playing it in a 24 hour marathon."
They all settled down on the couch to watch the movie, which sure enough, was just starting. Rhonda and Scott sat next to each other in the middle while Serena sat next to Rhonda and Karen next to Scott. As if reading each other minds, both Karen and Serena laid their heads on the laps of the parent that they sat next too, as the opening monologue to the movie began. After covering the girls with a blanket, he put his arm around Rhonda and leaned over to give her a kiss. "How did we get so lucky, Rhonda? I mean, we ended up with the two most beautiful, wonderful and perfect girls, a gorgeous granddaughter, and each other. With all of our mixed up misgivings, somewhere along the line we did something right."
"I think it all started with 'A Nigh of Magic' back in 1973." Rhonda answered as she laid her head on Scott's shoulder.
Scott looked down at his daughters who had both fallen asleep, "We have become a perfect family," he said as he finally settled in on watching the movie.
THE END.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I would like to thank everyone who ready this story, I hoped you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Hopefully, I will begin posting a new one shortly. Thank you, again.
It was Christmas Eve and the whole town was bustling with the Christmas spirit. Strings of lights could be seen up and down every street as the snow gently floated to the ground. At the firehouse, Serena was sitting on the sofa bopping her head along with the tune that was playing on her cd player as she stared at the half decorated tree in the middle of the living room. She took her eyes away from the tree only when she noticed the front door open and Karen step inside. She had a diaper bag hanging on her shoulder and a bundled baby in her arms. Serena jumped up and ran to her sister to help.
"Merry Christmas, Sis" Karen said greeting Serena.
"Merry Christmas…" she replied "Where's Chris?"
"Oh he is outside getting everything out of the car…do you have shoes on? Can you run out and help him while I get Nikki settled?"
Serena reached out for the baby, plucking her from Karen's arms, "How about…I get Nikki settled and you go back out into the cold and help Chris…" she said with a sly grin.
Karen cocked her head to the side and smirked, "thanks, Scott junior…"
"No problem…" Serena said taking Nikki and the Diaper bag toward the kitchen as Scott entered the living room.
"Hey, I thought I heard voices out here…Merry Christmas, Honey!" as he approached Karen and gave her a peck on the cheek.
"Merry Christmas, Dad! What's going on around here?" she finally asked looking at the half decorated tree.
"Well, I am decorating the tree and your mother is in the kitchen baking cookies."
Karen jerked her head back in shock, "Mom? Is baking?"
"She was baking…but now it smells more like burning…" Serena joked.
Their attention was drawn to the kitchen for a minute when they heard loud cursing and a pan crash down on the countertop.
"Yeah…well…it was Serena's idea and the two of them got started but Serena quit halfway through…" he said shooting Serena a look.
"I forgot I had an important phone call to make." Serena tried to explain but no one accepted the excuse.
Karen threw a skeptical look at Serena and then at Scott, just as Chris fumbled his way through the door and dropped all the packages that he carried in. "Karen, dear, it is snowing in the trunk. I thought you were going to come out and help me…"
"I am, I just wanted to take care of Nikki first," she said.
"She looks like she's in good hands to me," Chris said.
"Okay, Chris…I'm coming…"
"Karen," Scott interjected, "Take care of the baby, I'll help Chris" he said as he grabbed his coat and walked out to the car.
Karen moved over to Serena and took Nikki from her arms, "come on, kiddo…let's go see what Grandma's burning in the kitchen."
Serena picked up the diaper bag and followed Karen into the kitchen. "Merry Christmas, mom," Karen greeted as she entered.
"Oh, honey, Merry Christmas," she said pulling the baby out of Karen's arms and turned toward Serena. "And look who finally decided to come back to the kitchen." Serena just shrugged her shoulders as she took the diaper bag into the nursery.
Karen laughed at Serena's reaction as she tried to scrape one of the burnt cookies off of the pan. "Mom, do you need help with something in here?"
"No, I'm all done," she replied while she played with Nikki. "Your sister is going to clean up the mess, since it was her idea to make the cookies."
Karen joined her mother at the table while she began to explain all of Nikki's quirky habits. In the background, Serena began to clean up the kitchen starting with the sheets of cookies. She dumped the burnt cookies in the garbage, cookie sheets and all. She then placed the rest of the dirty dishes in the dishwasher.
"Oh, so here is where everyone disappeared to," Gail said when she entered the kitchen. "And there's my cute little great granddaughter." Gail tickled under her chin making her laugh.
"Hi Grandma," Karen said giving her a hug. "Where's grandpa?"
"Oh, he is outside with your father and Chris. Two lawyers and a doctor arguing over bringing in Christmas presents."
"Sounds like they could use a woman's influence to get things moving out there…." Karen said laughing as she made her way to the front door as the other woman followed her into the living room.
Karen and Serena stood just outside the doorway laughing at the men argue. "You know, if you guys would spend less time arguing and more time carrying, you could all be in the house by now." Karen yelled to them as she began to walk toward them to help.
"Yeah, well, maybe some women that I know should have spent less time shopping and more time doing…ah…woman things!" Chris retorted. The men finally grabbed what was left of the bags and brought them into the house. As they passed Karen on the snow covered sidewalk, she just smirked at them "shopping is a woman thing."
As they reached the door, Rhonda was there to take the packages from the men as they shook off the snow. Just as Karen had turned around to follow the men, from out of the blue, she was hit in the back of the head by snowball. She turned only to see Serena standing about 15 feet away from her laughing. "You little…" Karen groaned as she picked up a handful of snow and molded it into a ball. She threw it at Serena, but missed when Serena ducked out of the way. Serena jumped up and took off running through the snow when she saw Karen coming after her.
Scott's attention was finally drawn to his daughters when he heard them yelling. When he looked up and saw them chasing each other around the snow covered yard, he pulled Rhonda out onto the porch to watch the girls. Both started to laugh when Karen finally pelted Serena in the back causing her to trip. "Gotcha!" Karen said plopping down in the snow next to Serena. Serena sat up next to her sister and smiled, "let's go in, I'm cold." Karen nodded and began to get up out of the snow just as Serena picked up a handful of snow and dropped down the back of Karen's shirt. Serena took of running toward the house when Karen screamed, "SERENA, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"
Serena jetted past Scott and Rhonda, who were still standing on the porch laughing. Through the living room, she whizzed right past Lee, Gail, and Chris. All three spun around quickly to see Karen run in right behind her and stop in the middle of the living room. She looked up toward the balcony "when you least expect it, little sister. If I were you I wouldn't go to sleep tonight," she shouted.
"Karen, don't kill your sister before dinner," Scott chuckled as he and Rhonda came back into the house.
Karen quickly turned around and shot a look at Scott. "I'm going to get out of these wet clothes," she mumbled choosing to ignore her father.
"What has gotten into those two?" Gail asked.
Scott moved over to the Christmas tree and began to put more decorations on. "Oh, they're just having fun. I rather enjoy seeing them goof around like that together. Reminds me of me and Brooke, when we were young," he said with a half smile as he remembered his older sister in their youth.
"Karen and Serena are nothing like what you and Brooke were," Lee interjected. "You would torment Brooke every chance that you got. I don't think I ever saw you two give each other a hug…unless you want to count the headlocks that you put on each other."
"Headlocks count…" Scott defended as he watched Rhonda and Karen begin to set the food on the table. "Besides, Brooke had most of them coming to her."
"Who's Brooke?" Karen asked setting the mashed potatoes down on the table the calling for Serena to help.
"Brooke was my older sister..."
"Sister?" Karen questioned in shock "I didn't know that you had an older sister."
"Who has an older sister?" Serena asked clumping down the stairs.
"Dad, does…"
"Since when?" Serena asked looking to Karen.
Karen shrugged and Lee shook his head and slapped Scott's shoulder. "Son, have you ever told these kids anything about their family?"
"Sure I have, Dad…" Scott started pointing to Lee and then Gail, "they know that your grandpa, she's grandma, and I'm Dad. That's all they need to know. Now if nobody objects, I'm going to turn the news on to get some information about this storm," he stated before sitting down at the head of the table.
As they ate dinner, the sound of the news caster rang behind them in a report about Janelle's trial. "So what ever happened to her?" Karen finally asked Scott.
"Who Janelle?...she was convicted and sentenced life in prison without the possibility of parole."
"No, not Janelle…Brooke…whatever happened to Aunt Brooke?"
"Aunt Brooke," Scott repeated smiling at Lee. "Wouldn't she have liked to have heard those words…" he stated. Lee nodded in agreement. "She died, honey….before you were born."
Both Karen and Serena wanted to hear more about Scott's sister, but the subject was quickly changed when the weatherman announced that Port Charles was going to get hit with 18 more inches of snow before morning.
"18 inches?" Chris shouted. "we already have 10 out there."
"Well, it looks like everyone should make themselves comfortable..." Scott said as a smile crept across his face at the realization that his entire family was going to spend Christmas together. No one could have planned it better.
"But Scotty, where is everyone going to sleep?" Gail asked
"It's a big house, we'll figure something out," he replied continuing to eat his dinner.
As the night pressed on, the Baldwin family enjoyed a traditional Christmas Eve. Complete with presents, decorating and singing carols. Until one by one, they all made their way off to bed. All except for Scott, who had just turned off all of the lights and stood in front of the window watching the snow fall down through the moonlight. Suddenly he heard a voice behind him, "I thought you were going to bed?" He turned around to see Rhonda silhouetted by the moon.
"I was, but the snow caught my eye when I turned out the lights…Beautiful isn't it?" Scott went over to the CD player to softly play some music. He then stepped beside Rhonda and held out his hand in a manner that asked her to dance. Graciously, she accepted. Both were unaware that Karen was standing in the doorway between the living room and kitchen. Karen stood there for a minute with a slight smile on her face.
She only made her presence known when she realized that she was about to witness her father gently kiss her mother.
"So is this was the dance was like?" she asked as she approached her parents.
Rhonda began to blush, but Scott held out his hand to Karen pulling her close to him. He stepped far enough away from Rhonda to begin dancing with Karen. "Ah…A Night of Magic…Wasn't that the theme of the dance, Rhonda? You want to know what the best part of that dance was?" he asked as he slowly led his daughter through the room in a tight box step.
"What's that?" she asked with a smile thinking that she already knew that answer.
Scott smiled a bright smile and hugged her tightly, "Seeing my daughter for the first time…" Scott wiped away a tear that rolled down her cheek and gently kissed her forehead. "I love you, baby," He whispered.
"I thought I heard voices and music down here," Serena said as she descended the stairway. "What's going on?"
"Nothing…" Scott said motioning for Serena, "Come on, let's watch a late night showing of a Christmas Story. I'm sure that there is some channel playing it in a 24 hour marathon."
They all settled down on the couch to watch the movie, which sure enough, was just starting. Rhonda and Scott sat next to each other in the middle while Serena sat next to Rhonda and Karen next to Scott. As if reading each other minds, both Karen and Serena laid their heads on the laps of the parent that they sat next too, as the opening monologue to the movie began. After covering the girls with a blanket, he put his arm around Rhonda and leaned over to give her a kiss. "How did we get so lucky, Rhonda? I mean, we ended up with the two most beautiful, wonderful and perfect girls, a gorgeous granddaughter, and each other. With all of our mixed up misgivings, somewhere along the line we did something right."
"I think it all started with 'A Nigh of Magic' back in 1973." Rhonda answered as she laid her head on Scott's shoulder.
Scott looked down at his daughters who had both fallen asleep, "We have become a perfect family," he said as he finally settled in on watching the movie.
THE END.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I would like to thank everyone who ready this story, I hoped you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Hopefully, I will begin posting a new one shortly. Thank you, again.
