Jamie

"Hey Jamie I've got company. You have a good night of movies, wine and chocolate and I'll call you tomorrow night," Dave said quickly ending the call, I could tell that his 'company' was one of his daughters and it was important that he spend time with her. I momentarily resented the fact that he would drop everything, including me, to be with one his girls but I got over it and knew that at this time his daughters were more important than me. Besides what sort of man would ignore his daughter to talk to his girlfriend?

Alex was still on the phone to Jim yet I resisted the temptation to rip it out of her hand and shit stir the man. Instead I headed back to Eli's room to check on him. He'd had an emotion filled day and it had carried on through the night causing him to wake up earlier crying for Dave. My son's heart broke every time we said goodbye to the man but the fact we wouldn't see him for over a week and we wouldn't have Christmas together was the end of the world to Eli. My young son spent much of the plane trip home in tears; at three he didn't have much concept of time so a week might as well have been forever to him. It broke my heart to see Eli so upset I never wanted him to feel pain and seeing him in tears was just a painful reminder that I couldn't protect him from everything.

I had however found some consolation knowing that he'd be a lot better once we got home and he saw Dave's real Christmas present. Dave seriously spoilt the boy and usually I wouldn't allow it however Christmas was Christmas and I couldn't stop the man doing something for my son if he wanted to. Eli couldn't reach the door handle in his bedroom so I reached over him and turned the knob. It was a usual ritual but my son's reaction was far from normal; his jaw hit the ground and I thought he would faint. Instead he looked up at me as if to say, 'is this really my room? What happened to it?' I simply smirked and encouraged Eli to go in. The boy was dumbfounded he didn't know what to look at first. He was still standing at the door way shocked when Alex's voice echoed throughout the house she always showed up moments after I walked in the door. Jimmy managed to pull Eli out of his trance and the two ran around the room looking at everything eventually Eli found the note sitting on his bed and bought it over for me to read.

"Eli, Merry Christmas I hope you like your room. No more sleeping in your mom's bed okay? Miss you already – Love Davie."

"Davie?" Eli asked in shock,

"Yep, he wanted to do something special for you."

"Can I call him?"

"No he won't be home yet; you can call him and thank him tomorrow. Why don't you and Jimmy play while Aunt Alex and I catch up?"
"Okay mommy!" Eli muttered already having found something else to play with.

"Dave did that for Eli?" Alex asked in shock as we headed downstairs and into the kitchen.

"Yea"

"All Jim did for Jimmy was get him a bunch of wrestling merchandise."

"Well Dave got Eli some of that too…" I trailed off pretending to be embarrassed but gloating instead.

"How come we both have wrestler boyfriends but yours goes all out and mine does shit all?"

"Because my wrestler boyfriend is the world heavyweight champion and your wrestler boyfriend is nothing more than a glorified jobber on the shit brand." I smirked handing my friend a cup of coffee.

"Hey what's in here?" Alex asked opening a Tupperware container on the bench, "oh your mom made cookies!" She announced handing me an m&m's cookie, my parents were away for the night and as she wasn't home when I got back my mom had made me my favourite cookies.

"Hey there's more… They're the weird looking ones that Eli likes." Alex stated opening another container,

"ANZAC biscuits; my mom is good to us." My friend and I sat down with our cookies and caught up. She, of course, was only interested in what I knew about her boyfriend.

That evening after putting Eli and Jimmy to bed we prepared for a night of movies, wine and chocolate. Unfortunately just as we began to settle down Eli woke from a bad dream. While attempting to get my son back to sleep I faintly heard my cell, the ring was Dave's entrance theme but it didn't click that it was him who was ringing. I returned to the lounge to find my boyfriend and best friend shit stirring each other. I was stoked that two of the most important people in my life got along so well and had their own special friendship, as confusing as it may be.

After the somewhat short call and Alex's conversation with her own boyfriend, who she was also spending Christmas away from however their relationship was nothing like mine and Dave's, we were finally able to sit down for our movie, wine and chocolate night. Starting with an all time favourite – the X-Men Trilogy we were both suckers for Hugh Jackman.

We were all still asleep when my parents arrived home the next morning and that parents had organised for us to go out for a belated birthday dinner. We went into the Mall of America and ate at one of my favourite restaurants, The Rainforest Café, where some of my other friends as well as my step siblings met us. I felt extremely lucky to be getting two extremely special birthday parties except I was already missing Dave as was Eli.

Without Dave I felt as though something was missing. This was the longest time we'd spent away from each other since we started dating and each day dragged on. The Animal was quickly becoming one of my best friends and like a high school girl waiting to see her crush I was counting the days and hours until I saw, or at least heard from, the man again.

Christmas was a few days after my belated birthday party and despite my age I could not help being excited, especially with Eli so pumped. I remembered the first year that I got to help my mum do the presents once everyone had gone to bed. I was 21 and my sister was visiting. My mom, sister and I had gone to late night mass at church and my step dad was sound asleep. It took so much magic away but I felt so important and grown up. Five years on and I was 'Santa', staying up late to sort out the presents myself with Alex watching on and giving crude, unhelpful advice. My step-siblings were coming around late morning for a traditional English Christmas dinner so their stockings didn't have to be sorted. I only had to worry about the stockings for my mom, step-dad, Eli, Jimmy, Alex and myself. Since Eli's first Christmas it became a tradition that Alex and Jimmy spent Christmas Eve with us so that the boys could open their presents together.

Dave rang me on Christmas Eve but our phone call was once again cut short. I had a feeling his daughters would hear him on the phone and purposely interrupt him. Our Christmas Eve phone call was slightly different than usual when he ended the call he began to stutter,

"I… I… Jamie… Jamie I…" Eventually he gave up trying to get out whatever he wanted to say,

"I'll call you tomorrow," he finally sighed. It seemed as though he wanted to say more than just 'I'll call you tomorrow'. Naturally, I couldn't help but toil with the idea that he was about to say that he loved me. The concept totally petrified me, besides I wasn't prepared to deal with such lies. I was way too close to completely falling in love with the man to deal with lies and false promises. I didn't tell Alex about how Dave ended the call after all I probably just imagined it. If I could perhaps convince myself that I had imagined the stutter I could stop my thoughts running wild. However no matter what I told myself my dreams controlled themselves. And after playing Santa on Christmas Eve I experienced a series of dreams revolving completely around possible meanings of Dave's stutter.

Within an hour of being awake Christmas morning the living room was completely covered in paper; Eli and Jimmy had wasted no time digging into their presents and anyone else's. By the time the last present was opened there was a paper pile higher than both boys and enough Lego, Cars, Bob the Builder, Go Diego Go and Spiderman toys to last them a life time. However the two most noteworthy would have to be the Go Diego Go Rescue Water gun and Go Diego Go 3-Wheel Scooter that Eli received from 'Santa'. He had already made me promise take them to the next show so that he could show off to Dave and the guys. However I did get the feeling that everybody would end up getting soaked during the 'demonstration'. I could see it now, Eli riding around on his scooter 'shooting' the 'bad guys'. I had no doubt that there would be a few very wet and pissed off wrestlers to photograph the first show back. Luckily Eli was so cute and could just about get away with anything.

"Can we ride?" Jimmy and Eli looked up at us with pleading eyes. When Santa was handing out the wheels he hadn't forgotten Eli's best friend and had given him a Spiderman Bike – with training wheels of course, Santa wasn't a silly man.

"Not in the house. Once everybody is dressed we'll make space in the garage and you can race around there until your aunt and uncle arrive."

"Alight, let's get dwessed!"

"After breakfast," I gave a stern look which meant there was to be no more discussion. Tradition was very important in my family and one of our traditions was that Christmas morning was presents and breakfast in our pyjamas.

"Have I ever mentioned I love Christmas mornings at your place?" Alex commented to my mom,

"Every year and I'm glad. We love having you and Jimmy to share it with." Gah, old people can be so corny at times.

"Good because even if Jamie had spent Christmas with Dave we were still coming!"

"And you would have been more than welcome. You are like family to each and everyone one of us." Gag, alright it was definitely time for a topic change, this conversation was quickly becoming a tradition and one that I would be more than happy to discontinue.

"Alex hurry up and eat you've got to give Jimmy a chance to try his new bike before you go to your parents."

"Yea mommy, hurry up! I wanna ride!" Ah, the perfect distraction; a four year old wanting to try out his new toy.

Luckily for the boys breakfast was soon finished and after we all got dressed, in our new Christmas clothes, Alex and I drove the three cars in the garage down the driveway creating a race way for the boys. They were able to ride for an hour until my step-siblings arrived and Alex and Jimmy had to head to Alex's parent's place. The rest of the day was a fairly typical Christmas day with Eli showing off his new toys, everybody exchanging even more presents and everyone stuffing themselves stupid on the Christmas ham.

That evening I was tucking Eli into bed and reading his Christmas Tree book, the book that was on the Christmas Tree only to be received right before bedtime, when my phone rang,

"That's Davie," Eli piped up excitedly recognising Dave's entrance theme.

"Yep"

"Answer it?" He asked causing me to pull it out of my pocket and answer the call,

"Its on speaker so say 'Merry Christmas'" I whispered putting the phone next to Eli,

"MERRY CWISMIS DAVIE!!"

"Merry Christmas Eli and Merry Christmas to your Mom."

"Merry Christmas Dave, you're on speaker," I replied.

"I gathered. Did you have a good day Eli?"

"YEA!"

"And did Santa remember to come to your house?"

"Yep, I got a Diego Stooter!"

"Oh cool you're lucky! Santa didn't bring me anything this year he said I had to wait until I got back to work," I could hear the pout in Dave's voice and couldn't help laugh at the innuendo of the comment.

"That's not very nice"

"No, its not but at least he bought you presents. It must be very late there Eli shouldn't you be asleep?"
Dave asked moments after Eli yawned.

"I was going to but you rang."

"Oh I'm sorry. How about you lie down and try to sleep while I talk to your mom for a little bit?"
"But I have to have my new story!"

"Oh I forgot. Your mom told me about the Christmas Tree book. Well I'll go so you can read. Night night Eli love you my little man"

"Love You Davie!"

"Jamie, can you take me off speaker a minute?" Dave asked and I quickly followed his request holding the phone to my ear so that I could have a private moment with my boyfriend.

"When can I call you back?"

"About 45 minutes? He's pretty tired, should go straight off to sleep."

"Yea the girl's were asleep the second their heads hit the pillows."

"Christmas is great for wearing people out."

"Yep, I'll let you get back to Eli. I miss you"

"Miss you too, talk to you soon." I replied ending the call.

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A/N: Well I finished that earlier than expected. Hope you enjoyed it.

Mega thanks for the reviews!! This story has now reached over 100.

I've decided that this story will become a trilogy which you will all definitely want to keep reading and reviewing… If you would rather have one really big story as opposed to 3 decent length ones let me know and I'll take it into consideration.