Happy (early) Halloween! I probably won't be in touch with ya'll on the actual day, so I'll say it now.

I just love October. It's my favorite month, my new show, Mighty Med, has offically aired in it, and I get to see Billy Unger dressed up as a makeshift Ghost Buster in Lab Rats in this month.

Plus all the free candy I'll get from strangers!

It's a good month.

It feels really weird because Chase and Christine are at Christmas, two, almost three, months ahead of us.

Whatever, I'm just really happy for unexplainable reasons.

December 25th 2013

Chase's Pov

Bree made us sleep in the living room.

I found the idea pretty ridiculous, but went along with it for everyone else's sake because ruining their gung-ho Christmas cheer would only make me a douche.

Plus I actually found myself enjoying being in my pajamas, a thick layer of quilts, passing around a plate of Gingerbread men and Santa Claus cookies while we each took turns telling Christmas-themed horror stories.

I, being the person of intellect realized that Santa was a story of make belief told to children by parents to add the extra holiday cheer - and explain why people hung a picture of a fat guy in a red suit in their windows every December.

But I didn't have to tell my siblings that, firm believers in the thought of a jolly guy wiggling down our chimney and giving us exactly what we want.

Leo didn't have the heart to ruin that picture for them either, which probably explained why I saw him slip Davenport a list that I knew contained every present Adam and Bree had asked Santa for.

"You haven't told anyone what you wanted," Leo had pointed out to me the day before, after catching me see him give Davenport the list.

I had shrugged, leaning back on the couch and looking over at Bree, who had been in the kitchen with Tasha making cookies and pies, then to Adam, who sat at the table making handmade ornaments I knew that he'd get glued to himself somehow in the next five minutes.

"I guess this is it," I'd said, feeling very cheesy. But it was true; after all the hectic activity over the last four months, it was nice just to see us act like a normal family, preparing for a normal Christmas celebration.

I thought about this now, at three am with a loudly snoring Adam sleeping upside down next to me on the couch and the weight of Bree's head as she slept peacefully draped over my stomach, her legs supporting Leo's as he snored away in a bundle of blankets and pillows on the floor.

Yeah, as corny as it was, this was exactly what I wanted for Christmas.

I was awoken with a hard kick to my legs.

I groaned, rolling on to my back and blinking upwards, everything a blur in my groggy state. "Nugh..."

"He came!" A rather loud voice shouted in what seemed to be my ear. "He came! Chase, get up!"

Ah, that's what the all the kicks to the get about.

"Hopefully there's a new colon in one of those boxes," I grunted, getting up from my tangled position on the couch, "because I think you just broke mine."

Adam either didn't hear my comment or just didn't care - probably the latter.

Leo and Bree were already sitting amongst the huge pile of presents that had spread from their place under the Christmas tree to little around the stairs and almost to the couch.

Davenport and Tasha looked at us over their mugs of coffee, smiling as they stood observing in the kitchen.

"About time!" Bree snapped impatiently, looking at me as I sat down beside Leo. "Tasha wouldn't let us open presents without!"

"It's tradition to open the presents together!" Tasha insisted, but was smiling as she did so.

Bree made a noise, but I could see the corners of her mouth twitching upwards as she did so. "Whatever," was all she said before she began tearing into the present that sat in her lap. I recognized the blue bow and purple paper as the present Leo had dragged me around the mall for.

"Whoa," she breathed, holding up the purple and white striped backpack with a smile. She checked the tag attached to the ribbon she had ripped off before launching herself at Leo. "I love it!"

I saw the relief spread across his face as Leo laughed and hugged her back, albeit briefly, and said almost sheepishly, "there's more. Look inside."

Bree pulled back and furrowed her eyebrows, grabbing her new bag from where it had fallen off her lap during her launch. "Oh my god!" she gasped after doing the zipper. Small and plastic she held a card in her hand, with swirling letters and a book wrapped in a sparkling bow. "100 dollars?"

"Yeah, that was Chase's doing."

She looked at me, a wide smile stretched across her face. I smiled back like the awkward dolt I was and scratched my neck.

"You do realize I'll need the car for, like, a month, right?" Bree said, her attention now on Davenport, shaking the card to prove her point. "You know, books and all that."

Davenport grimaced, although I didn't know why. Bree, surprisingly enough, actually did okay on her driving test - hell, almost better than Adam did on his. "That's a discussion to put on a shelf."

Bree pursed her lips and rolled her eyes, showing her annoyance. "Fine," she huffed, but obviously didn't like it.

"My turn! My turn!" Adam insisted, dive bombing into the rest of the presents.

Tasha began to protest, along with Bree, about how she hadn't gotten to open all of hers yet, but they fell on deaf ears as Adam finally dug out one of his. "Ooh, it says Santa!"

I resist the urge to chuckle as my sister's eyes lit up, crawling over to look over his shoulder and see what's inside.

I went over to where Tasha and Davenport were quietly talking. "When did Rem say they were coming over?"

Tasha chuckled, ruffling my bedhead. "Honey, that's the fifth time you've asked this week."

"So, what time was it, again?"

"Rem said they would be stopping by sometime after noon," Tasha told me, for the seventh time that week, not the the fifth. But I couldn't help my eagerness on the subject. It was a need to be close to Christine, ever since James and his minions were carted off to jail, I just had to be near her; not that the need didn't exist before then - it was just stronger now.

"Chase! It's your turn!" I looked over my shoulder to Bree, who held her arm toward me and shook a wrapped box that must have had my name on it. "It says from Santa."

I rejoined them on the floor, seeing Leo smile for a second. It was obvious that he had found his Santa plan successful, at least for Adam and Bree anyway. I sat next to Bree, reaching over to pluck my present from her lap. I shook it lightly, squinting at it curiously.

"Well, open it!" Bree insisted, crossing her arms and giving me an impatient look.

I laughed, and tore through the nice silver and blue snowflake paper, letting the shredded remains of it fall to the ground and on my crossed knees.

True to its form - quite literally, I must add - it was a box. I popped the lid, off peering inside.

"Whoa, what is that thing?" Bree asked as I pulled the book out.

"Ew, it looks old," Adam commented in disdain.

I brushed my fingers over the cover in awe. Like Adam had said, it was old, but also maybe one of the coolest things you could ever come across in guitar history. In my hands I held one of the first books to ever be written and published about guitars of all types. It was written by the musical genius sibling pair of Igor and Esther Annette in the early 1900's.

Their names were printed on the bottom of the spine and front cover in a deep gold print, breaking the smooth feel of the leather cover.

I had put it down as a long shot, not believing that even Davenport could find such a rare, valuable piece of music history for me. But I my theory was proven wrong as I held the most amazing thing I now own in my hands.

"This is awesome," was all I said, but the sheer happiness in my voice couldn't be disguised.

I caught my siblings exchanging a look out of the corner of my eye. They obviously didn't get my fuss over a lame old book that probably had dust and spiderwebs on it at some point, but I didn't care.

I flipped it open, reading the title page in all of its blunt and bold glory.

The Ode of Thy Chord: A Guitar Story

Below it was a printed messaged in a messy, rushed scrawl.

I licked my lips, recognizing the handwriting almost instantly.

Merry Christmas, Chase.

As Adam, Leo, and Bree tore through more presents, I looked back at Davenport. He was standing next to Tasha, drinking coffee and smiling.

Turning back around, I smiled too.

Merry Christmas indeed.

A couple hours later I had showered and changed out of my wrinkled, hot chocolate-stained pajamas and in to a fresh pair of dark jeans and a clean polo shirt.

Bree made Leo put everyone on video chat, holding his new Mighty Med collectables hostage until he stopped whining and actually did it. Adam was busy eating what was left of "Santa's" cookies and the candy canes that had been hanging on the tree, and I was waiting for two in the afternoon to come.

"Chase! Get your butt over here now!"

I cringed, but stood from where I had been sitting on the stools, trying to distract myself by reading a couple pages of my new book. How could Rachel make her voice so loud over video chat?

"Merry Christmas!" She, Ashely, and Sammie chimed once I was squished in between Adam and Leo on the couch, scowling at them.

"Awh, what's wrong, Scrooge?" Ashley teased. She appeared to be in her room, with damp hair and falling spaghetti straps on her shoulders.

"Yeah, way to get into the holiday spirits, Hun," Rachel added with a roll of her eyes. Holiday my ass; she was with her parents and sister, celebrating Christmas in the Bahamas, probably laughing at us Californians suffering with high, cold winds and rain.

As Bree and the girls went into their own conversation of presents, I noticed that Leo looked gloomy beside me. I felt bad for him; he, too, had to wait until Janelle was done celebrating and spending time with her family until she could come over, and she had yet to call to say when that would be.

"I'll be upstairs, drowning my sorrow in new comics," Leo said, melodramatically rising and drifting toward the stairs, being sure to grab a cookie that had escaped Adam's eye from the kitchen in the way.

"What's his problem?" Sammie asked, wrinkling her nose. Like the rest of us, excluding Rachel, she the most traveling she had done this Christmas was to her room and the living room. She looked to be sitting in her kitchen, the laptop propped on a counter. She sipped from a snowman mug, steam evident even through the screen.

"He's suffering from Janelle withdrawals," Bree stated with a shrug.

"Poor little guy," Rachel said, but didn't sound too sympathetic. How could she? She was able to make Bree get Adam on video chat whenever she wanted, because that's the kind of things you're able to do when you scare people.

Soon the topic was back on presents, and I fell away, back to my original place on the stool, reading my new book. It wasn't that I couldn't have joined in at any given moment, but what group of teenage girls do you know that would listen to a guy a year younger than them go on about books?

I still had a good two hours to go until Christine came over, and while my book was quite riveting, it still didn't ease my patience.

Sighing, I trudged up to my room, book in tow. I had already put away the rest of my gifts, but none seemed to appeal to me.

"Okay, what's his problem?" I heard Rachel asked as I turned the corner.

"Ugh, I dunno - probably Christine withdrawals," was what Bree gave in reply, and the last thing I heard as I closed the door to my room.

I switched on the TV with nothing else to do. I pulled my shirt and shoes off, fell on to my bed, and flicked to the news. Yeah, not exactly something a teenager willingly watched, but since the criminals in my life were expected to be in trial any day now, I figured it would be a good thing to keep a close eye on what was happening.

So far, it was only Misty Mustenburger giving the hourly weather report with her perky voice and hair that never moved. This and her plastic nose and overly whitened teeth were more disturbing than they were more pretty.

I shut it off, flopping back.

Tasha probably hid a cookie stash somewhere, knowing Adam and Leo would sniff out all the cookies in open sight; I could go looking for those, but then Adam would want to fight for it, and I really didn't need a bruised body over a stupid gingersnap or snicker doodle.

I checked my phone. An hour and a half left.

Almost unwillingly, a yawn escaped.

Well, I guess that meant a nap was in order.

After all, Bree did get my ass up at eight am for something that could've been done at ten.

With that, I closed my eyes and fell asleep, determined to get some more sleep in before girlfriend showed.

"Yo, they won't let us eat without you! Get up!"

Once again, I woke up to someone hitting me. Really hard.

"Stop that," I said gruffly, propping myself up and glaring at my girlfriend.

Christine rolled her eyes, but ceased with wacking my arm and chose to cross hers over her chest, and give me a pointed look. "Come on, dude. Food. Downstairs. Now."

"Oh gee, merry Christmas to you too, babe."

She rolled her eyes again, but was smiling as she tossed my shirt at my chest from where I had it neatly laying out on the foot of my bed. "Yeah, yeah. Happy holidays and all that cheesy shit. Now, come on, Tasha's got a ham down there bigger than my ass smothered in gravy. Hurry up!"

I laughed as my girlfriend darted out of the room. Pulling on my shirt and slipping back into my shoes, I combed my fingers through my hair and proceeded to follow her downstairs.

Tasha had done some more decorating while I was asleep. Christmas lights boarded the walls and candles burned on the kitchen counter and coffee table.

Everyone was gathered around the table, already beginning to pile food onto their plates as I slid in next to Christine, who was already engaged in conversation with Bree, her mouth opened in a laugh.

Leo and Bradley seemed to getting along well, which I figured had been a match made in heaven when Bradley made an off-handed comment to me about his interest in action figures. At the moment they seemed to be having a giggle fest over Leo's new Mighty Med action figures underneath the table where they thought Tasha couldn't see. I knew she did, but she had a glass of wine in her hand and was too happily chatting with Rem to be in a mood of scolding anybody.

Plus, who had ever heard of scolding on Christmas?

I sat back after loading my plate up with steamy food, looking around the table.

My sister and brothers had bright smiles. I caught Bree mid-laugh, head tilted back and new golden necklace Davenport had gotten her shining in the Christmas lights around her neck. Adam was carefully drawing an army base with special lasers in his mashed potato mountain. Leo was still in serious conversation over his new toys.

The adults were flushed with wine and the steam from the food. The rush of laughter and chatter was loud in my ears, but the noise made me smile.

Then, I noticed the lack of Maria, and couldn't help but pity her for a brief moment. She would be spending the holidays alone. Not even she, a prisoner, yet so rude to loved ones, deserved that on Christmas.

Christine turned me, smiling as her hand found mine and gave my fingers a squeeze. "What'cha thinking about?" she whispered.

I met her smile with one of my own, leaning close. "I just really love Christmas."

Then I kissed her, Leo and Bradley's fake gagging like horrible background music.

Holy shit, that was a long chapter for me!

The next chapter in the epilouge. Sob sob. So sad, I know. But, just hang in there.

The next chapter will be up next week. Please send in your reviews and tell us what your favorite part of LL was.

See in you in the next (final) chapter! Bye!