Chapter 20:

A/N: Good gosh, I have not updated anything forever, and I apologize. I am in a musical thing and we have performances all the time, and when we don't I'm sleeping pretty much haha. It's fun, but unbelievably tiring for me as I usually do nothing but this.

Here we go. Christmas IS coming, I do promise hahaha.

--&

After another forty-five minutes of skiing, and several more successful attempts at the bigger hills, Calleigh was too cold to continue.

"Eric, can we go inside?" She asked. She didn't want to ruin all of his skiing fun, but he wasn't the one that had melting snow all in their snowsuit.

"Sure." He nodded. "You didn't wipe out again did you?" He checked. She shook her head. "And you sure you aren't hurting from before?"

"Not hurting, just cold!" Her teeth were starting to chatter as she spoke.

"Awh, Cal, you're shivering. Let's get you inside quick before you catch a cold." Or worse, he added, but only to himself.

"Okay." She nodded as they quickly headed towards the ski shop. Depositing their skis, they headed for the lodge. Without the skis to make things awkward, Eric slid his arm around Calleigh's shoulder as they walked to provide an extra source of heat to her freezing body, and well, needless to say he didn't mind at all.

"Let's get you inside and warm." He told her, and she just nodded again. She was feeling a heck of a lot better since he had wrapped his arms around her. She didn't know if she was warm, probably not, but at least she felt like it now. They walked in through the lobby, completely oblivious to everything, specifically who was working in reception. Once they had made their way into their room, Calleigh immediately began pulling off her snow clothes, and Eric was in the bathroom running a hot bath. Walking back to where Calleigh was standing, he noticed a rather large puddle of water dripping off of her snow clothes as well as her.

"Gosh Cal, if I would have known how much snow you actually got in your snowsuit after that fall, we would have never stayed skiing so long." Eric shook his head.

"Well, it wasn't that cold after a few minutes, I got used to it. And besides, the vacation is for skiing, and I already made you teach me how to ski…" She explained.

"Calleigh, you didn't make me teach you how to ski, I willingly volunteered. And I would choose you over a sport any day." Eric smiled, and Calleigh did the same, though hers was a shivery one. "Now you get out of those clothes in the bathroom, I started a warm bath for you, that should warm you up before dinner, I bet."

"Thanks Eric." She told him as she headed for the bathroom. As she shut the door, he, almost silently, answered.

"Anything for you."

--&

Calleigh got out of her bath, and got dressed in the warm clothes Eric had placed just inside of the door fifteen minutes earlier. Eric. Just the thought of him made her warmer than the bath had managed to, and it had certainly done the trick. She felt as warm as ever, the sting of the snow gone.

"Cal, you almost done in there? Dinner's nearly halfway over, and we need to get there before it finishes…" Eric called through the door.

"Yeah, I'll be out in a second." She called back. Quickly running the brush through her hair and pulling it back into a messy ponytail, she threw open the bathroom door. "It's all yours."

"Okay. You feeling better?" Eric checked.

"Superb." Calleigh smiled brightly as she went to find some more appropriate dinner attire Eric shut the bathroom door behind him. "Be ready in fifteen minutes." She mock called him.

"I think it's you we have to be worried about." He answered.

Fifteen minutes later, right on time, they were both ready to head out to the dining room. "Did I mention how wonderful you look?" Eric smiled.

"At least three times now." Calleigh rolled her eyes. "But thank you, again."

"Let's go." Eric opened the door, and Calleigh followed him out. "So do you think we'll meet anyone new tonight at dinner?"

"I don't know. But I really enjoyed meeting Lena and Eli and their kids." Calleigh answered.

"Yeah. Do any of your brothers have kids? You seem so natural around them." Eric wondered.

"Chris has two girls." Calleigh nodded. "Olivia will be turning thirteen this January, and Janelle will be turning eight two weeks after that."

"Do you see them often?" Eric was curious to hear more about Calleigh's family. He'd only heard the negative things, but he knew that there had to be some good things about her family life. It sounded as if this might be it.

"Not as often as I like. I suppose that Olivia will probably be able to come down and see me soon, as she's going to be a teenager now. The last time I saw them was at least a year and a half ago."

"We should go visit them sometime." Eric suggested, and then inwardly cringed. We? He wasn't sure if there was a 'we' yet, but he guessed that her response would determine the likeliness of there ever being one. Calleigh was also taken slightly aback at his use of the word we, but only momentarily before she smiled.

"That sounds great!" She answered with a big smile. "I'd really like that."

"Me too." Eric smiled. This trip was working out far better than he'd ever expected it too. By this time they had reached the dining hall, and entered quickly. They were both starving from their skiing adventures that day.

"Calleigh! Eric! Over here!" They heard Lena's voice calling them, and they turned and approached the table that their new friends were sitting at.

"Hey!" Calleigh waved as they arrived next to the table. "Are you guys feeling better?"

"Much. Listen, thank you so much for looking after Teah then the girls and Paul for us. You don't know how much we appreciated it." Lena told them.

"It was no problem, really." Eric assured them.

"Yes, I enjoyed it!" Calleigh nodded enthusiastically.

"Would you like to join us for dinner?" Eli invited.

"Sounds great." Calleigh accepted as they sat down. As Calleigh fell into casual conversation with Lena and Eli, Eric couldn't help but watch her animated face as she talked, and think how beautiful she was, and especially, how lucky he was to be here with him. And there was now a 'we'.

A/N: So I wasn't quite sure how to end that chapter hah but that'd seemed to work okay I think. Christmas Eve next chapter I'm MOST sure.. Well almost most haha. With me, nothing is ever certain haha. Then I'm going to probably do separate stories. One about Christmas with the Delko's, and another about a trip to Louisiana to visit Chris? And more family angst? Yes. Well that is, if you're interested? Please let me know!