Chapter Six

The First Christmas

As Mrs. Olson had predicted, Evy did do great at school. She was a straight A student, loved learning, and made a few friends. One friend in particular, Lillian Summers, who lived three doors from them, started to spend as much time at Evy, Sam, and Dean's as she did at her own home. Evy's only friend before had been Squish, a stuffed, beat up, raggedy black cat who was missing an eye. Lillian, who preferred to be called Lily, was a sweet kid. She was more outgoing than Evy, and helped Evy make more friends at school by introducing her to different students. She had even stuck up for Evy on more than one occasion against bullies. Whereas Evy was more like Sam, Lily reminded Sam a lot of Dean.

On this particular day, Sam was in the kitchen making the girls a snack. Lily's mom, a family court lawyer, was working, trying to keep from having to work on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. Sam had found out they were spending Christmas alone, just the two of them, so he'd invited them over to spend Christmas with him, Evy, Dean, Jody, Claire, and Alex. Sam finished the girls' snacks and brought it out to them in the living room.

"Alrighty, chef Sammy at your service."

Evy was in the middle seat of the couch, Lily on the far right side. "Thank you, Sammy." she said as reached over and took a cookie off the plate.

"Thanks, uncle Sammy." Lily said.

"You're welcome, girls." Sam said, ruffling Evy's hair a little. "What are you two up to?"

"We're watching it snow." Evy replied.

Sam looked out the window, surprised. "Wow. I didn't even know it was snowing."

"Can we go out and play later?" Evy asked.

"If it stops soon, sure." Sam answered.

Evy grinned and reached over to hug him. Sam sat and watched the snow with them for a while. It was falling steadily, but not particularly hard. Lily's mom Linda came and picked her up. After confirming for Lily she didn't have to work, Lily asked excitedly,

"Mommy, can Evy and I play in the snow tomorrow?"
"Sure." Linda said. She turned to Sam and asked, "You want to take turns watching them? So neither of us has to spend all day outside?"

"Sounds like a plan." Sam said. "You guys still coming Christmas day?"

"Wouldn't miss it." Linda said. "But someone," she continued, grabbing Lily's hand, "needs to get ready for bed soon."

"Aww, mommy…" Lily said.

"Same here." Sam said, getting the same "Aww" in response.

"Alright, you two. Say good night." Linda prompted.

Evy and Lily gave each other a hug and continued to chit chat for a minute. Sam and Linda watched them, both of them grateful all over again that their girls each had a friend. Linda turned to Sam and said,

"Thanks again for watching her." Linda said. "And not just this time."

"Anytime." Sam said. "I mean that. We've got to stick together."

Linda looked over to the couch and laughed. "You know, for someone who wasn't a single parent until this year, you've adapted remarkably well to it."

"What are you…" Sam asked, and saw she was pointing at the tray of cookies. "Oh. Yeah. Well…"
"Sam, I'm sorry I laughed. I'm just not used to that. I've gotten so used to taking care of Lily on my own it still feels weird to have someone who'll help me out willingly."

"I feel the same." Sam said. "With Dean gone so much, especially while I'm working at the bookstore, I like that there's someone else I can trust."

"Well, anytime you need to talk, you know where to find me." Linda said. "Good night, Sam."

"Good night, Linda."

Linda and Lily left, and Sam got Evy ready for bed. As he tucked her in later that night, after the usual requests of "Can I please stay up a little more?" and "Read me one more, pleeease?" Sam finally had her settled down and ready to go to sleep.

"Alright, baby, time to go to sleep." Sam said as he handed her Beanie.

"Okay." Evy said as she yawned. "Where's Deanie? He's not gonna miss Christmas with us, is he?"

"He's on his way back now." Sam told her, praying it was true. "Are you excited about Christmas?"
"Yeah." Evy said. "Thank you for letting Lily come over."
"I'm happy you've got such a good friend, sweetheart." Sam said.

"Thank you, Sammy." Evy said again.

"For what, Cricket?"

"Giving me all this." Evy said.

Sam smiled. "You don't ever have to thank me for that, baby." He leaned down and kissed her cheek. "Goodnight. I love you."

"Love you too."

Sam turned off her beside lamp, kissed her cheek one more time, and got up. He stood in the doorway for a minute, watching her sleep. When he thought about where he was at the same time the year before, sitting in his bedroom, crying yet again over losing Evy, he felt something he had gotten used to never feeling. Lucky. Blessed. Happy.

Lily and Evy spent the next day alternating between houses, playing out in the snow. Sam and Linda took turns playing with them. Jody, Claire, and Alex showed up, followed by Cass and Dean. For once, Dean didn't complain that Evy wanted to play with Lily instead of spend some time with him after getting home from a case; he got in, put his duffel bag in his bedroom, and went and started a snowball fight with the two thrilled girls. Dinner was a bit of a complicated affair, with Jody and Linda both contributing the majority of it. Sam alternated his time between the kitchen with them and the living room with the girls, where Dean was entertaining them with jokes. After reminding Dean to keep the jokes age appropriate, Sam went back into the kitchen. At one point, he caught Jody staring at him. After making sure that everyone else was occupied, Sam asked,

"What?"

Jody thought for a long moment before speaking. "I'm proud of you."

Sam, who was just finishing up cleaning the kitchen, turned off the running faucet. "Proud of me? For what?"

"For all this." Jody said, pointing around the kitchen. "For taking Evy and giving her a life. You…you've done good, Sam. Really good. You don't even look like the same guy anymore."

"Jody…" Sam said, searching for words that weren't coming.

"You know, I'll admit, when you first told me about this, I was skeptical. Jealous even." Jody said.
"Jealous?" Sam asked. "Why…?" When it occurred to Sam the reason why, he suddenly felt guilty. "Oh, Jody. I'm sorry. I never thought about that."

"It's okay, Sam. Really, it is." Jody said. "I'm glad you're finally happy. Both you and Dean."

Before anything else could be said, Evy walked in the kitchen and grabbed Sam and Jody by the hand, dragging them into the living room. She gave Sam, Dean, Cass, Alex, Claire, Jody, and Linda Christmas cards that she'd made at school earlier in the week. They all watched a Christmas movie together, before Sam announced it was Evy's bedtime.

"Aww, Sammy…"

"Come on, kiddo. You got to be asleep for Santa to come." Dean reminded her.

Evy pouted a little; it was usually easier to convince Dean to let her stay up than Sam.

"Alright, baby, say goodnight to Lily and aunt Linda. They'll be back at lunchtime tomorrow." Sam said gently.

"Okay."

An hour later, Sam was tucking Evy into bed. She was practically vibrating with excitement about Christmas day, and Sam had a somewhat harder time than normal getting her down to bed.

"Dean was right, you know." Sam said. "No Santa unless you're asleep."

"I know, I know." Evy answered. "I'm just too excited."
"You want me to read you a story?"

Evy shook her head and placed an arm around Beanie. "No."

"No?" Sam asked, surprised. "You don't? That's a first."

Evy shook her head again. "No. Sing to me, please."

Sam smiled. "Okay." He turned off the lamp next to her bed. "Close your eyes."

Evy grabbed Sam's hand and put it on her belly, then flipped over on her side. Sam gently scratched her back and started the song he'd learned almost thirty years earlier just for her.

"Don't you feel it growing, day by day…"

Before he finished the last verse, Evy was asleep. Sam pulled her blanket up to her neck, and smiled when she stuck her feet out. He had given up trying to make her keep her feet covered; it always either ended with her waking up or Sam waking her up the next morning to find her feet sticking out anyway. Sam kissed her cheek and said quietly,

"Merry Christmas, Cricket. Sammy loves you, baby."

Next chapter: Evy gets in trouble at school.