FYI:

~Personal Thoughts~

ESP

%The Written Word%

[Flashback]

"Normal Conversation (Duh)"

* Com Link or Telephone *

*Sound Effects (usually just Kurt's bamfing)

{Background noise--music, crowds, etc.}

HYDRA

Although she was three years my junior, Paige was fun to be around. She was as Sam said, your average teenage girl and had her share of magazines to flip through. It was almost like spending time with Kitty.

She pointed towards a picture of a hairstyle and grimaced. "Do people actually do that t' their hair?"

"You bet." I laughed as I recognized Shania Twain who had her hair standing on end.

"People would think Ah'd gone nuts." I nodded in agreement and was surprised she didn't ask why I'd gone to the extremity of dying my hair if I thought that hair-do was strange.

I practically jumped when I felt hands placed on my shoulders. I slowly leaned my head back to see Sam leaning over me. I could feel my cheeks reddening as I realized just how close my head was to his…

"Hey Sam."

"Time for bed." Paige pouted.

"Sam, Ah'm fourteen! Ah'm not like the others who are gonna try an' sneak downstairs t' look at the presents."

"Y' know the rules." I giggled forgetting the position I was in.

"You're talking with an accent."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Ah am not." I laughed as he did it again and he reddened realizing he'd just lost. "Look, Ah'll see y' two in the mornin'." I couldn't help but smile at the fact that it had taken him just a li'l over a day to get his accent back. I wondered how long he'd keep it once we went back to the institute--it was cute. He kissed the top of my head and left leaving Paige still pouting.

"This is stupid."

"Why's it a rule?"

"'Cause all the younger ones, they all try an' sneak downstairs so Momma has an early curfew for Christmas Eve." I nodded as I slowly pulled on my flannel pajamas and climbed into the top of the bunk bed. ~Christmas certainly is different when there's more than just two people.~

I laid in bed for prolly two hours before I gave up the fight. I could hear Paige already snoring softly as I crept down and touched down on the floor gently. I headed down the stairs and had to keep from laughing when I saw someone sitting on the couch in front of the Christmas tree half asleep with a Santa hat perched on his head. "Well if it isn't Santa." Sam turned around and grinned sleepily at me. "You guarding the tree?"

"Y' could say that." I leaned over the back of the couch at his shoulder and sighed. "What are y' doin' up?"

"Can't sleep and thought I'd get a glass of water. Don't know how you guys do this early to bed thing."

"Here." He handed me the glass of milk that his mother had set out earlier with a plate of cookies for 'Santa'.

So these really aren't for Santa, they're to keep you up." He laughed lightly. "What about you? Why are you still up?"

"Ah've been doing this since Ah was eleven. Someone's gotta play Santa an' keep the youngest ones from tryin' t' get down here in the middle of the night."

"You're kidding. They're all fast asleep."

"So y' think. Ah'm guessing at least four of 'em'll be down here." I walked around the couch and set the glass back down and sat down in his lap. "What are y' doin'?"

"Making a wish on Santa's lap. People tend to give you weird looks if you try it at the malls." I smiled as I wrapped my arms around his neck. "Santy, I'd like a new dolly…" I talked in a voice that was about an octave above my normal one giving me a childish sound. "…one that opens and shuts her eyes and a li'l courage for my boyfriend."

"Don' know 'bout that first wish, but consider the second one granted…" He leaned in and kissed me, wrapping his arms around my waist.

CANNONBALL

She pulled back suddenly with her eyes still squeezed shut and biting her lip. "Al…"

She reopened her eyes and sighed. "I'm really tired now. But I still want to give you your gift now." She stood up and got a large box from beneath the tree and handed it to me. "Go on, I'm really horrible at this waiting 'til Christmas morning stuff. I have horrible patience." She sat down next to me and watched expectantly as I tore the paper off and pulled out a new helmet to go with my dirt bike back at the institute.

"Thanks."

"No, thank you." She leaned over and kissed my cheek sighing as she rested her head on my shoulder and squeezing my arm like a small child would hug a stuffed animal. "Think I'll just sleep here if that's okay with you." She was out like a light before I could say otherwise, even though I wouldn't have.

It wasn't until she was asleep that it hit me that she'd been able to control her powers. It had taken a lot outta her, but she'd done it.

"Morning, Santa." My eyes snapped open and I blinked against the bright light streaming into the room. Al was sitting up next to me and smiling as I tried to shake the numbness outta my arm. I jerked the Santa's hat off my head sheepishly as I heard movement from upstairs. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me." She gave me a wink as she stood up and headed back up the stairs.

I shook my head and headed into the kitchen to help Momma with breakfast. Minutes later the kitchen was filled with eleven bodies total as everyone tried to eat as quickly as they could. I sat across from Al and she seemed to be slightly interested in something Lori was saying.

"Ah saw Santy last night!"

"Really?" Al took a bite of eggs as she tried to act surprised.

"Yeah, and you were kissing him!" She choked as everyone turned to stare at her. Momma, Paige and Josh all had known I'd sit up and were prolly more shocked then the rest. Momma turned to look from Al to me, Paige was in a fit of giggling and Josh looked sullen. I gulped slightly under Momma's look but she slowly smiled. "Sammy's upset now." Lori tilted her head to the side in confusion.

Al buried her reddening face into her hands and I was pretty sure that if we were at the institute she'd have just melted into the floor right then and there from embarrassment. But here, she was trying to play it low key. "Looks like Sam has some competition." I was surprised Paige could get anything out with as much as she was giggling. Lori just turned to watch everyone in awe. She was too young to understand fully what she'd just caused.

"Excuse me." Al stood up quickly and left the room. This caused everyone to grow quiet as the watched her retreat.

"Y' better follow her." I did as Momma said and quickly followed her outside.

I found her inside the barn and she was patting the neck of Thunder. "Ah had no clue…"

"It's okay. That was just a li'l embarrassing. You're li'l sister seeing us." She turned smiling slightly as she stopped the slow patting. "I've also been thinking."

"About…" She took my hand and led me back towards the barn door.

"You were singing White Christmas when we left the institute." I nodded not seeing where she was going. "It's just a guess, but that's what you really want."

"It'd be nice, but 's not gonna happen, Al." I looked up at the cloudless sky but she didn't follow my gaze.

"Sorry, hon. But you're wrong there." I looked back down at her as she sighed. She pressed my hand in hers and squeezed her eyes shut in concentration. When she reopened 'em, it was snowing. "Merry Christmas, Sam."

I placed a hand on her cheek and had to refrain from yanking back from the cold. ~How long have we been out here?~ "Yo' freezin'."

"I'm okay."

"No yo' not. 'S not like we have Amara 'round t' warm y' back up."

"No, but I've got you." She leaned forward and kissed me. I placed my other hand on her waist and could feel her slowly warming back up the longer I held her. "If I told you, you had a hot body, would you hold it against me?"

"Thought that was the guy's line."

"You know me…always changing the rules." I pulled her into me and she rested her head on my chest. "This is the best Christmas ever." I slowly pulled out the box I had in my pocket. She took it and looked up at me wide-eyed then opened it. She let out a low gasp as she pulled out the simple silver chain bracelet and hugged me.

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you."

"Ah guess y' like it."

"I love it." She pulled back and put it on before hugging me again. "But don't you tell anyone else that."

"Yeah, go figure, y' like jewelry." She placed a hand over my mouth and kissed me again.

"I take it back. Now this is the best Christmas ever. Thank you."

"Now let's get y' inside where 's warm." She nodded and allowed me to take her back inside the house where everyone was already opening their gifts.

HYDRA

I offered to help Mrs. Guthrie clean up the next day while ev'ryone went their separate ways to do chores and found her silence to be unnerving after what had occurred at the day before at breakfast. "I'm sorry about last night."

"Why dear? Teenagers will be teenagers. Ah remember what it was like t' be young an' happy." I could feel myself blushing again as she smiled at me. "Who am Ah t' tell my son not t' be happy either?"

"Speaking of Sam, where is he?"

"Ah believe he went outside." She smiled after me as I grabbed a sweater and pulled it down over my head as I ran outside. I went to the barn first but didn't see him there but rather found the twins carrying a pail of seed together.

"Louis, Lori, have you seen Sam?" Both of 'em shook their heads and went back to their chore as I left. Although the snow was patchy I could see footprints heading off away from the usual path between the house and barn and heading up towards the forest. Out of curiosity I followed 'em, occasionally having to double back to find the trail again.

I sucked in my breath as I came across a small family cemetery with a lone figure standing there. "Hi Daddy. 'S Christmas 'gain. We all really miss y' an' wish y' were here."

I stood there suddenly feeling extremely bad for interrupting. I took a step back to leave and tripped over a low gravestone and landed with an "Oomph." Sam turned and saw me lying there on my back as I tried to push myself back up. He crossed over to me and silently offered me a hand up and led me back to where he'd been standing.

I stared at the headstone in grave silence with Sam. Putting two and two together, I figured his dad's name was Thomas Zebulon Guthrie.

It seemed kinda odd to me to be talking to dead people but there was no way I was gonna tell him that. "This is Al. She ain't got a dad, at least not a good one." I turned to watch Sam as he spoke. His voice was cracking with sadness but there was no reflection of it in his face with his stoic features. "Ah guess Ah'm lucky Ah got t' spend eleven years with y'. Ah feel bad the twins hardly had any." I couldn't tear my eyes off of him as I stood there in solemnity. I took his hand in my own and gently squeezed it in a reassuring way. He finally looked up from the grave and smiled at me.

"I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"I didn't mean to come up her and bother you." I looked down at my feet suddenly feeling even worse for my interruption.

"Yo' not a bother." He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, gently rubbing my arm as we simply stood up there in comfortable silence.

After a few minutes he spoke again. "Come on, before y' get cold 'gain." I nodded as I allowed him to lead me back towards the house in silence.

This trip had definitely let me see a different side to the person I'd grown so close to in the past few months.

CANNONBALL

We left early in the morning so that we could get to Pennsylvania before it got too late. They were calling for a blizzard around Al's hometown and we were going to try and out run it. Of course leaving home was a lot like coming home with everyone going for hugs and so forth.

Al was tapping the steering wheel agitatedly as we attempted to cross the Wilson bridge outside Washington D.C. Traffic was jammed up for miles and in the past hour we'd only moved a mile or two. "Didn' y' used t' live 'round here?"

"Uh huh."

"Where?"

"Oxen Hill. It's just off this bridge, if we ever get off." She was definitely irritated but I was getting bored with listening to the static on the radio. We were in one of those annoying areas where it doesn't matter what you listen to the radio doesn't work.

"We're right outside a major city an' the radio doesn' work."

"It's the curse."

"What?"

She sighed as if I shoulda known what she was talking about. "Look out the window. Do you see those three pretty big rocks out there in the Potomac?"

"Yeah, sure."

"They're supposedly all that's left of three Indian sisters who died trying to cross the river. Supposedly their curse messes with the radios as well as not allowing anybody to cross the Potomac here by boat."

"That's messed up."

"I know. When I was really little, a plane crashed right into this bridge."

"It really is cursed." She nodded as she finally shut the radio off in defeat and propped her elbow on the wheel and placed her head in her hand. "So what was it like livin' here?"

"It was pretty cool. My mom worked for the Senate and I met a whole bunch of politicians. I even knew Gore when he was Republican."

"Gore was Republican? I thought he was a Demorat." She frowned at my slander and I realized she must be Democratic. "Sorry."

"It's cool. I'm used to it by now. In the cove, ev'ryone's Republican except for my mom and I."

"What was school like?"

"Scary as hell." I raised an eyebrow at her comment.

"How scary can elementary school be?"

"When you're one of three white kids and most of the other kids have older siblings in gangs, it's scary. You didn't cross anyone for fear of what might happen to you. I remember there was this kid who always beat up on me but I didn't dare tell the teacher because he had an older brother who was a gang leader. It wouldn't have mattered if I had, 'cause the teacher woulda been too scared to do anything either."

"Oh."

"Yeah, that's why I got to be so determined to not let anyone push me around once we moved. Besides, most kids in my new school in Pennsylvania thought I was a gangster. I called ev'ryone, hommie, brother, or sister for the longest time." I laughed trying to imagine Al sounding ghetto. "If that wasn't bad enough, I had an iron stomach. We went on a school field trip to D.C. and my teacher nearly geeked out when she caught me and another kid buying a hot dog from a street vendor. I ate it with no problem and the other kid was puking his guts out later on." She smiled at the memory. "On the same trip, I wheeled and dealed with one of those Foakley guys and got ev'ryone in my class a pair for a buck. I was the teacher's worse nightmare."

"Ah bet."

"But as weird as ev'ryone thought I was, they were even weirder to me. My gram tried to serve me shit and shingles and I nearly went ballistic. I didn't even know what riviled potatoes were." I smiled trying to imagine what it would be like not knowing all of a sudden what was going on anymore. "To make things worse, no one could manage a decent glass of sweet tea. I had to figure out a substitute on my own. And then, there was no grits or anything I was used to."

There was a resounding honk from behind us and she looked up and frowned. Traffic was moving steadily now and we'd been so wrapped up in our talk to notice. There were a few more honks and she rolled down her window, flashed the middle finger, rolled up the window, and started driving again. "People honestly need to get some patience." I was a li'l surprised to say the least as she picked up the speed to around seventy again. She turned to look at me. "What?"

"Y' jus' gave a complete stranger the middle finger…f' no reason."

"I had reason. It's the expected response to too much honking." I shook my head realizing she'd know what she was doing after all having lived here before.