Chapter Four: Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

I awoke to my children playing in the hall, I rubbed my eyes and got out of bed reluctantly. I knew Julian was torturing his little sister again because I could hear her crying. I went into the hall and looked at each of them for a moment. "Julian, please give your sister back Mr. Snuffles, you know it's her favorite toy...and you have hundreds of other things to play with." I told him, trying to be reasonable.

Lila immeadiately clung to my leg. "Mommy!" she said bouncing up and down excited. "Santa come soon?" she asked, her eyes staring up at me with such wonder and excitement. I had the best children in the world, and I knew it.

I scooped her up into my arms. "Yes baby girl, Santa's coming really soon. I promise." I told her and took Mr. Snuffles from Julian who was offering him to me, I ticked Lila's face with him for a few seconds. "Okay guys you gotta get dressed, cuz we're going out to breakfast and later we're gonna see all the Christmas lights, okay?"

"I don't want to." Gabriel said stubbornly. I set Lila down and knelt next to him.

"Why not, sweetie?" I asked him, a bit concerned. "That's your favorite part, remember?"

"Only when daddy's here...it seems wrong to do it without him." He told me, and for a few minutes I could say nothing. Imagine that, me, Chloe Nicoletta Luthor...speechless.

"Oh honey, I know it may feel like that, but believe me Daddy would want you to have fun anyway..." I told him softly. "Will you please try?" I just wanted everyone to enjoy Christmas, no matter what. It was a joyful time of year, and so we should all be happy, thats what I wanted for us.

Gabriel nodded and dragged his brother down the hall with him to get dressed. I helped Lila get dressed as well, and then we all went out to breakfast with my dad, his new wife who'd arrived at the obscene hour of four AM, and the Kents.

Breakfast was enjoyable, we all shared tales of Christmas' in our past, and of course my father embarrassed me by telling everyone at the table how I tried to sleep under the tree one year to see if I could catch a glimpse of Santa. We all had a good laugh about that, and went home for awhile.

I watched from the window, sipping hot cocoa as the kids played outside in the snow, I think they were burying dad or something. Mr. Snuffles was at my feet looking at me...strangely for a stuffed animal, so I picked him up and brought him into Lila's room and put him on her bed. Sometimes it was so strange to think that I was married with three kids, but it was wonderful.

We had a late lunch, and then sung Christmas carols and had cocoa and cookies into the early evening and then it was time to go and look at the lights. We were about to leave but the phone rang suddenly and I answered it. "Hello?" I said into the phone.

"Hello Chloe" came the other voice, it was Lex...and it was so good to hear his voice. It was all I could do not to jump up and down like a joyous little kid, but I kept my cool.

"Hey Lex..." I said, pretty casually, but as soon as the kids heard Lex, they were all crowded around me screaming daddy. "Your kids miss you..." I told him.

"I miss them too" he said. "And you..." he had no problem with letting me know that he'd rather be here than where he was.

"And I miss you." I told him. Julian snatched the phone from me, he wanted to talk to his Daddy and I wanted all the kids to be able to, so I let Julian talk and then Gabriel, and then little Lila who told Lex all about the adventures she and Mr. Snuffles were having in Middle Earth. Apparently they were attacked by orcs but Mr. Snuffles was very brave and fought them off, I couldn't help but smile, I thought it was adorable.

I took the phone after a bit, I knew Lex had to get back to work. "Hey" I said quietly.

"Hey" He mirrored me. "It sounds like the kids are having quite the adventures...Middle Earth?" he asked, a bit stunned from the sound of his voice.

"Yeah, the boys are into Lord of the Rings so Lila sat in and watched Return of the King with them, she likes it even more than Star Wars. Now I can't get her to stop watching the dvd."

Lex chuckled. "That's our Lila, stubborn like her mom." he said, and there was a lot of truth to that. "I love you Chlo..." he told me. "I love all of you guys, but I have to go now."

"I love you too, we all do and I understand, try not to work too hard, okay?" I requested and we hung up.

They're singing deck the halls
But it's not like Christmas at all
I remember when you were here
And all the fun that we had last year