Hi

How are you doing? I am so sorry for the delay. Right now, I am studying so hard for IETLS test that is going to be the 6 of June (For the people who do not know it, the IELTS test is a test in which you know which level of English you have. In my country is important to do a test like that for enrolling to a university and things like that). I promise that after next Saturday, I will try to update more frequently.

I hope that you like this new chapter and let me some reviews with your opinion. Before you read the new chapter, I want to say thanks to me wonderful beta reader. Thanks to her, this chapter is easier to read =). I also want to say thanks to everyone who read the previous chapter, especially to: Whit, Dawsey 4ever, Livia Lima, Carlie, Anne Marie Clarke, barbararonchi81, Justicerocks, noro, LaJoyMechell, ScandalOlitz4Ever, Sarrabr4, Camila, texterlover, Gaellicious and Just Nevine.

Chapter 16

After leaving her parents' house, Gabby and Matt went straight to his sister's house to have dinner there with his family. He was not hundred percent sure if his sister would be glad that they showed up at her house that evening.

Matt could not avoid feeling a little nervous about seeing his sister again. He had not talked to Christie since he showed up at her house after he saw Mills holding Gabby's hands at Molly's three weeks ago. During that time, Christie tried to get in contact with him but he refused to call her back. So, he was not sure if she would be happy to see him. He was sure that she was going to give him a hard time because he broke their promise to be there for each other.

"Are you okay, baby?" Gabby placed her hand on his inner thigh. They were in her car and he was the one who was driving.

"Yeah" he said and gave her a forced smile as he held her hand and planted a tender kiss on the palm "And you? How are you two feeling?" he placed his right hand on her stomach. He had been keeping an eye on her all day in case that she started to feel dizzy like when she woke up that morning.

"I am fine. A little tired but, other than that we are great" She rested her other hand on top of his and their hands started to rub her belly "I can't wait to feel him or her moving inside of me"

"Baby" he looked her and saw how tired she looked suddenly "if you want we can go back home. I am sure that my sister will understand if we don't go to her house"

"Matt, I am telling you. I am fine" she looked at him and saw that he was nervous "Why are you nervous about visiting your sister?"

"I am not nervous" he tried to hide his nervousness with a smile

"Matt, I know you and I know that you are lying to me" after getting to know him for the last six years, she knew when he was lying and that was one of time he was not telling her the entire truth.

He smirked and said, "Alright you win. I am nervous. I have not talked with my sister for a long time"

"When was the last time? As far as I know, you two were really closed to each other" Since their mother had her parole hearing, the two became really close and their relationship was as good as the one she had with her brother Antonio. They have dinner at her house at least one night every two weeks and, he was enthusiastic with the idea of being part of his niece's life as well as his sister's life again. So, what had changed since she walked away three weeks ago? Why weren't the two in contact anymore?

"I have not replied to any of her calls or her texts the last three weeks," he said ashamed of his behavior.

At first, he was angry with her for what she said that night. In that moment, he could not understand how his sister could be on the side of Gabby. However, when he calmed down he concluded that Christie was right. Gabby was not like Hallie nevertheless, he was feeling really ashamed of what he did and every time he dialed her number, he hung up before the first ring. After a while, her calls ended.

Three weeks? She asked herself Three weeks ago was when he showed up at Molly's while I was talking with Mill and he saw him holding my hand. "Why? It Does it have something to do with what has happened between you and me?" she was concerned the she was the one who brought them apart. She could never forgive herself if she was the person who caused that.

"No, of course not" He turned down the engine because they had arrived to Christie's house. Matt parked the car in front of the entrance of the two-story house. He was looking though the window to the house remembering what happen three weeks ago "it was after what happened at Molly's," He could feel her gaze on his face "That night, I showed up at her home and asked her if I could spend the night on her couch-"He looked at Gabby reaching for her hand "She asked me what happened and I told her what I saw," he paused

"Matt, I told you, nothing happened that night at Molly's between Mills and me-"

"I know" he added quickly "I know. But, in that moment I was angry with you. I was so lost. She tried to convince me to call you; she was talking about how great you are. Then she talked about Hallie" remembering what she did to him made him feel sick and she had felt it too because she squeezed his hand softly "I could not stand it so left her house. Since that night I have not talked with her"

"Baby" she brushed his short hair

"She tried to call me but I did not pick up my phone Now, she hates me," he said sounding really broken

"Baby, I am sure that she is gonna be really glad to see you again. I know her and trust me when I say that after all that had happened between you two she is not gonna be angry with you. Never" His eyes were filling with tears "Come here" she encircled her arms around his shoulders and he buried his face on the side of her neck "she does not hate you, she loves you"

"I don't want to lose my sister again"

"You will not" She planted a tender kiss on the top of his head "Let's go to visit your family"

"Okay" he wiped away his tears and both of them walked out of the car.

Hand by hand, they two walked to the main door. She could feel his nervousness because his hands were sweating.

"Everything is gonna be okay" she said when they reached the main door.

He gave her a smile, glad that he doesn't have to do that alone and rang the bell. A few seconds later, his niece opened the door. Violet looked at her uncle with a surprised expression of her face that rapidly changed to a cheerful one.

"Uncle Matt" a really excited Violet yelled and ran to him to give him a hug "You came. Mom was not really sure if you were coming by this Christmas but you did," her hands were encircled around his waist and her head pressed in his chest.

Matt had never expected a greeting like that. He looked to his niece and hugged her "I am sorry that we are late, kiddo" he smiled and kissed her on her blonde hair.

"Violet" Christies voice came out from the kitchen "who is-" but her words died inside of her mouth as soon as she saw her brother standing up in the front room of the house. "Matt" Christie said, not believing that he was there. "Matty" his sister said again and excited, she ran to her brother's side to hug him. They were in that position for what could have been hours. Her head was resting on the shoulder blade and his hands were encircled around her back. After a couple of seconds, Christie noticed that Matt had not come alone. Gabby and Violet were watching them with a wide smile on their faces "Gabby" she said as she walked out of the embrace "You also came"

"Yeah, I hope that you don't mind-"

"of course not. You are always welcomed in this house. It is good to see you" she had not expected to see her after what happened between her and her baby brother but, she figured that the two had solved their problems.

"nice to see you, Christie" Gabby said and both women shared a quick hug

"How are you doing?" it had been a while since both women saw each other.

"I am fine and you?"

"not bad. I will start teaching history in Violet's school after Christmas," she said smiling "I can't wait to start"

"That is great," Matt said glad that she passed her recertification test.

"It is not as great as you think, uncle Matt" Violet complained making that three adults laughed "Next year, she is gonna be my teacher"

"Meaning that you will have to behave, eh?" Matt joked as he shook Violet's shoulders softy

"Matthew?"They heard behind them. They looked to the living room and saw that Nancy was coming towards them.

Matt looked surprised at his sister because, he thought that Christie did not want to spend Christmas with her. It was true that their relationship was not like in the past when Nancy was in jail however; he would have never imagined before that she was going to spend the Christmas holidays at Christie's house.

"Mom" he walked to her mother and gave her a hug. It had been more than a month since they have seen each other; Matt had been busy with some construction jobs.

"How are you?" She cupped his face for studying him closely as she always did.

"I am fine" he smiled and rubbed her forearms.

"Gabby" his mother walked to her and gave her a hug too "how are you doing? Someone told me that you are a hell of firefighter," she said looking at her son

Gabby looked to Matt and his cheeks turned red. He was really proud of his girl the candidate of the truck 81. However, he had to be strict with her since both of them were under the microscope."I am great thanks"

"Did you save someone?" Violet asked enthusiastic of hearing her stories as firefighter

Gabby remained silent, not knowing what to say. Her days as a firefighter were done until the baby that she was carrying was born. And after that, she was not really sure if she were going to come back to the truck or to the ambulance as a PIC.

"Of course, she saved people" Matt said placing his arm around her shoulders "During her last shift, she saved the driver of a truck"

"Really?"

"Yeah" Gabby murmured with a soft smile on her lips

"You have to tell me about your calls"

"Whenever you want, kiddo" She really liked his niece. She was like Diego and Eva, always so funny and happy.

"Violet, do you mind helping me in the kitchen, sweetheart?" Nancy said to her granddaughter with the intension of letting Matt and Christie alone to talk. She had the feeling that her two children needed to talk about something. Since Matt and Gabby had arrived to the house, Christie and Matt had been sharing long looks like if they wanted to talk about something really important.

"sure" her granddaughter said "Do you want to help us too, Aunty Gabby?"

Gabby nodded and said "Yeah, why not?" Before walking to the kitchen, she rubbed Matt's shoulder letting him know that she was always going to be at his side.

When Gabby walked through the hallway, Matt and Christie were left behind and alone in the middle of the front room. Neither of them knew what to say.

"Do you want to go to the living room?" Christie was the one to break the silence.

"Yeah" they walked to the living room and took a seat on the couch.

"I am sorry" both of them said at the same time

"Go ahead" Christie said knowing that Matt was shyer than she was.

Matt took a deep breath and said "I am sorry for not returning the calls, I-" He stuttered "I-I-I am sorry"

"It does not matter" she was glad to see him again and that was that he was here in that moment "I should not have pushed you to call Gabby that night, it was obvious that you two had had a fight"

"I was scared-"he confessed "When I saw that he was holding her hand, all that I could thought was in what Hallie did -"

"Matt, I told you Gabby is not like Hallie. She never is gonna cheat on you" she said cupping his face

"I know. But, I thought that same about her and she cheated on me with that guy for weeks" He made a pause and asked, "Anyway, are we okay? I don't want to discuss that with you anymore, I think that we had had enough of that in the past," he said refereeing to all the discussions that they had after their mother killed their father sixteen years ago.

"Absolutely" and both of them shared another hug feeling glad of having solved their problems "Now, let's go to the kitchen. I am sure that mom is trying to make her famous dessert"

"Her famous brownies" He loved her chocolate brownies; she used to cook them for his birthday when he was a kid.

/

Later that night, Matt and Gabby had just came back home. They were tired and Matt could not wait to go to bed; next day he was on shift. That would be his first shift since he was released of the hospital and he was excited of seeing his fifty-one family again.

"I am going to take a quick shower and call it a night" he said as a yawn came out of his mouth "Do you want to join me?" he asked seductively placing his hands on her hips

"If I join you, we are not going to leave the bathroom for hours" she teased him "And you are on shift tomorrow"

"Yeah. I can't wait" he said happy and gave her a kiss on her forehead before walking to the bathroom "It will not take so long"

Gabby walked to the couch and rested her legs on the coffee table wanting to relax for a couple of minutes. She rested her hands on her stomach and smiled as she thought how much everything had changed in the last forty-eight hours. Suddenly, her phone started to ringin her purse. She took it and saw that Chaplain Orlovsky was calling her.

"Chaplain" she said happy "Merry Christmas"

"Merry Christmas" he said from the other side of the line "how are you?"

"I am great, and you?"

"Not bad" he answered, "Well I am calling you to talk about what you told me a couple of days ago. Are you free to talk?"

"Yeah, Matt is in the shower" she was anxious of knowing what he had to say. It would be great if he could make what she wanted. It would mean a lot for her and for Matt too.

"I can help you with what you asked me but, it has to be in two days"

"Two days?" She said shocked getting up of the couch. Two days was not a lot of time to get everything ready. She had to do everything by her own in two days; she hadn't had a lot of chances to get everything done and perfect.

"Gabby, are you still there?" Chaplain asked

"Yeah. I am here. I am not sure if I will be able to have everything ready in two days"

He smiled as he saw that Gabriela Dawson had not changed since he met her. She was so independent but, that time, she will have to ask for help "I can help you if you want"

"That would be great. I will speak with my mom and with his family too, maybe they can help us with a few things"

"And what about your family of the fifty-one? I am sure that Christopher Herrmann and Otis would be more than happy to help you"

"Yeah, I think so. Thanks so much for your help, Chaplain"

"That is why I am here," he said laughing "Be safe"

"You too. See you in a couple of days"

"Give me a call if you need anything else"

After ending the call, she started to breathe heavy. There was no way she could organize an entire wedding in two days. She wanted her weeding with Matt to be perfect but, how was she gonna do it in forty-eight hours?

She took a seat on the couch knowing that she should calm down. The stress was not good for the baby. She took a deep breath and called her mother. "Mom"

"Hi sweetheart, how are you? Are you okay?" she asked worried

"Yeah. I am fine. I am sorry for calling you that late," she said after checking what time was "I need to ask you something. Do you think the dress would be ready in two days?" she held her breath waiting for her answer as she bit her lower lip

Her mother let out a laugh and said "Of course it is gonna be ready. I will be up all night sewing if that is necessary"

"Thanks mom" she said relief that at least the dress was going to be ready.

"So, two days, eh?"

"Yeah. I can believe it" she said with a wide smile on her lips "But remember, Matt does not know anything about it"

"I know, honey"

"Mom, I have to hang up," she said as she heard that Matt turned off the water "I will call you tomorrow while Matt is on shift"

"Alright. Good night"

"Good night" and she hung up her phone, grabbed one of his books that was on the coffee table and tried to act like she had been reading while he was in the shower

"Anything interesting?" Matt asked walking from the bathroom

"Not really" she said with a suspicious smile on her face "You ready to go to bed?" she asked before he could ask her why she was smiling

"Yeah" he pressed his lips against hers and before she knew what was happening, he was carrying her in bridal style to the main room "I am also ready to finish what we started yesterday" he said and he placed her on the bed. He crawled on the top of her and started to remove her clothes.

Will Gabby have everything ready for the big day? Finally you know what her surprise is gonna be. Who is Matt going to react?

I hope that you like this new chapter and let me some reviews.

I will try to update "How to save a life" as soon as I can. I have already written half of the chapter on my phone =)

Have a nice day

Namine Redfield