Christmas Morning

Khaat was awakened by the smell of baking. Holiday baking. The house was filled with the aroma of all sorts of wonderful things. Cinnamon, spices, vanilla, fruit, bacon, and wonderful coffee. The smells were so thick and heavy that even in her half awake state, her stomach growled.

The house was amazingly quiet. She heard the shower running, and Brian's side of the bed was empty now. She wasn't sure how he had been up without her knowing, but clearly, she had slept through his getting up and going downstairs to work out and then returning to shower for the day.

Her father had removed the casts from her ankles yesterday but he had warned her that it would not at all be easy to walk yet. He had not thought her ankles would be weight bearing for another few days. He had found all to be healing well, but it just simply took time now.

The shower turned off and a few moments later, Brian came out. He saw she was awake, and he sat back on the bed and kissed her softly. "Merry Christmas," he told her. "Did I wake you?"

"No," she said. "Not at all. Did you work out?"

"Of course. When do I not?"

"Rarely," she agreed. "How did I not hear you?"

"You were really tired. How about I go get some coffee for us?"

"I really want to take advantage of being able to shower as long as I want today," she smiled.

"I knew you'd be looking forward to that," he smiled. "But you still have to sit today."

"I know." After the shower, she chose a pair of jeans, a red sweater, and her favorite warm slippers. Once she was dressed, he picked her up. "You really could just levitate me, you know," she said.

"Where's the fun in that?" he frowned. He carried her downstairs. "It smells wonderful, Angus," Brian called.

"Ah! Merry Christmas! Coffee?" Angus's voice returned as Brian put Khaat on the sofa.

"Yes, two please."

"Coming right up."

Chase's alarm went off early. She had started her exercises with Brian, and today she had decided to go ahead and do them herself, so that she wouldn't have to worry about annoying him. She had gone down to the gym, and had been working out for maybe half an hour when he came in. She just smiled and continued her routine, working with her leg and core muscles so that labor would be easier for her when it came to that. She still had a while to go, but she was looking forward to it. She had decided to announce the sex of the baby over the unwrapping of presents. It would be like her little present, she figured.

After working out, taking and taking a shower, Chase had gone downstairs early and helped Angus make Christmas goodies. "Hello Khaat! Hey Brian!" She said, her sleeves rolled up, her red hair pulled back, her stomach protruding rather wobbly in front of her. An apron tied loosely around it. "Anything to eat? Bacon, fruit, pancakes, biscuits?" She asked happily. It was almost amazing the transformation Chase had gone through in their home over the time she had been with them. When she had first come here, she had been rather shy, very polite, rather quiet. Now, she was busy washing some dishes, suds up to her elbows, a smudge of grease on her cheek, and the happiest look alive on her face.

"Oh Merry Christmas!" She said half bounding over to them, giving them both a rather greasy, sudsy kiss on their cheeks. "I hope you like chocolate." She said, dropping to small presents on their laps. "This is just my little early morning gift, the rest are to come later." She said with a laugh, pointing at the Christmas tree, which looked smaller then normal with the large amount of presents next to it. Chase laughed lightly and suddenly looked up. "Dakota is up.. means Abbey will be too..." She said shaking her head and wiping her arms off on her apron, taking it off quickly. "I'll get them don't you worry about a thing, it's Christmas!" She said with a short laugh, before heading upstairs to bring the girls down. "Why are you two awake anyway?" She asked softly as she walked up the stairs.

Khaat laughed when Chase bounced in, full of joy and energy. "Good morning," Khaat said. "Thank you. And Merry Christmas. And yes, we love chocolate. You have no idea how wonderful that all smelled upstairs. I think its the first I've been truly hungry since I got out of St. Mungos."

"Well, its about time!" Brian said. "Merry Christmas, Chase. If this makes Khaat hungry, then we need to have Christmas breakfast every morning." He heard Angus groan a bit in the kitchen just from the thought of it. "And by the looks of our tree, you have a direct connection to Father Christmas, don't you? It seems to me I saw a couple of packages for you under there."

Truth be told, there were a lot of packages for Chase under the tree. Khaat had had help in finishing her shopping for Chase, and she was looking forward to gifts.

Khaat's ears perked up at the sound of babbling from upstairs. Dakota. Dakota was somehow a wee bit more energetic than Abbey. Dakota always had to be on the go. She had laid out two special Christmas onesies for them last night, almost embarressed now that she had actually bought special Christmas onesies that they would wear once and outgrow. She watched Chase gladly go upstairs to get them.


"I should have asked my parents to come over," she said, suddenly remembering that she had overlooked asking them.

"Don't worry," Brian laughed. "I invited them. Do you think your father would miss the girls' first Christmas? Not a chance! They're coming after breakfast, I think. Your father was going in to do rounds at St. Mungos before they came here.' As he spoke, two coffee mugs floated in from the kitchen, and Brian plucked them out of the air and handed one to her.

Chase came back downstairs with Dakota under one arm and Abbey under the other. "How they woke up already I"m not sure.. but they are awake.. and changed.. and everything." She said putting the girl's next to their mom before smiling a them both. "Did you sleep well? Is there anything I can get you? More food, more coffee? I'm here for your pleasure filled Christmas, and I hope that I can help in any way.. if you need me just holler okay?" She said lightly and went back into the kitchen to help Angus, pulling on her apron as she went. She felt the need to help make this Christmas for Khaat as special as she could.

With express permission from Angus, she had brought Calla over for Christmas, just so that she could have her own little family close to her. Calla was helping clean up stuff, for Chase wouldn't let her touch the food, that was Chase's job, to help Angus get all of the food perfectly made. Calla was cleaning dishes at the sink while Chase had gone to get the girls, and now stepped out of the way, bowing to her. "Hey Calla, can you go upstairs real fast and grab a letter on my bedside for me?" She asked lightly, and Calla disappeared. Chase turned back to Angus. "What else can I do?" She asked grinning at him. "Anything more fattening I can feed to Khaat? How about for the girls? I bet their hungry.." She said with a laugh.

Calla came back and Chase took the letter from her. "You can do what you want for a while now sweetie." She said lightly and Calla disappeared again. "She probably went to see the horses again. she loves them over there." She said with a grin before shaking her head and opening the letter. It had arrived in the mail this morning, and she hadn't taken the time to reading it yet. So she took the moment of rest between cleaning dishes and getting the family in the kitchen more food, to read it quickly. Chase's eyebrows shot up in to her hairline, and she quickly folded it again and suck it in her pocket. "Anything else I can do Angus? " She asked lightly. "I could get you some coffee or something?" she asked her voice sounding different for a moment before she grinned and tried to wave it away.

"Something wrong, Chase?" He asked. Just then a new thought hit him. Oh, jeesh!" Angus sighed. "The girls. I forgot to fix breakfast for the girls." He got into the fridge and prepared a couple of bottles. Chase, would you mind?" He asked. "Khaat's gonna kill me. How could I have forgotten?"

Khaat was busy, though, playing with Abbey. Dakota had lost her patience in siting with Khaat and was crawling behind the sofa after Max again. Max seemed to be used to it and seemed almost to enjoy her following him. Khaat had noticed he seemed to almost lure her on a crawl around the living room. And at least while she was crawling, she wasn't generally getting into much of anything else. Besides that, she was utterly fascinated the the enormous white cat.

Brian had been looking out the window at the fresh new snow that had fallen overnight, and when he turned around, Dakota was gone. He snapped to a state of alert. "Where'd she go?" he asked.

"Where do you think?" Khaat rolled her eyes.

"Oh, no. Really? Behind the sofa? Again?" he sighed.

"Chasing Max again," she laughed.

"That poor cat. He deserves a Christmas gift of his own for tolerating all that."

"First of all, he enjoys every bit of it. Second of all, he does have a gift. There's one for him and one for Mo. Just look. On the fireplace mantel."

Brian looked on the mantel and found two brand new catnip mice, and he could smell the fresh catnip already. "Well, this will make them crazy. Where'd you get them?"

"Mom made them," Khaat smiled. "She grew the catnip this summer and dried it this fall."

Chase nodded quickly. "Yeah.. it's nothing." She said lightly, before starting to help him get the girl's breakfast prepared. It got quite busy again for a while, so she didn't have to think about the note for a long time, and when the food was done, she sat in the living room with Khaat and Brian, eating her own little breakfast. "Did you both sleep well?" She asked lightly, sticking a piece of toast into her mouth. She was doing very well on keeping to a diet that kept her on her target weight for the baby to be perfectly strong and happy when she was born. Chase chased a grape around her plate, with her fork for a long moment, watching the family in front of her.

One day.. this would be her Christmas... sitting with her children.. with Elijah sitting next to her. Kitty crawling all over the front room... A huge breakfast, a happy family... a perfect Christmas.. it would be hers. Carefully, Chase pushed the grape around her plate, staring at it for a long moment before clearing her throat. "I got a letter today.." She said carefully, her mind trying to sort out her emotions. "It.. well it was from someone I've never actually met.. but I guess Sylvia intercepted it or something.. and got it to me safely.." She said biting her lip. She was carrying it when she came in after her hunt last night anyway." Chase cleared her throat and set her plate down, which immediately floated off to be cleaned. She smiled slightly and glanced at Khaat and Brian.

"It was from an aunt of mine.. who.. well I didn't know existed.." She said carefully biting her lower lip. "She.. well she wants custody of me.. because well, even though I'm an adult wizarding standards.. I'm not one in the muggle world.. and she wants to be my guardian. she doesn't like it that I'm staying with... well as she put it in her letter "The friends of Krums.." She shook her head unhappily. "I thought I'd tell you all this before the whole family came and it was thrown out of my mind by all the happiness here... She wants to see me.. sometime next week.. would it be okay if I met her? Maybe with Angus or something.... she's on my mom's side.." Chase glanced at the hallway that led to her room, where Calla was, who originally was her mother's house elf. Chase put her hands in her lap and glanced at Khaat and Brian carefully.

With Barker caught and the threat gone, Chase was really only here for Christmas break, and to help Khaat out with her kids while she recovered. But there was still a chance of this being a plot by Naomi Greyback.. who was still at large, and she may be trying to start up what her boyfriend had left off. Having gone into hiding, it was obvious that she either had a much larger enchantment put on her then they thought, or she was actually in league with Barker, making the fact that she was at large, all the more concerning.. she could be as bad.. if not worse then Barker was, for she'd want revenge.. and there was no way of telling what a girl would do to get back her man.. and the first thing she could do.. was go after the person they had both been leaving to get, when they had been caught, and had to run, which led to Barker's escape.. so Chase was sure, in her mind.. it was all Chase's fault.. and now... she could possibly be in worse danger then before.. and this could very well prove it.

"Certainly," Khaat said. "But I'll go with you. You're part of our family now. I'll go along. You're, of course, welcome to see her. As for her not liking us because we're friends with Eli, well, just wait til she finds out we're Lupins. That will seal the deal altogether. She won't like any part of it. I would suggest we perhaps meet in someplace public. Where ther are other people. That would, actually, increase safety for everyone. You could consider Sparks perhaps.

"I'm going with you both," Brian said. "Your aunt might as well meet the whole family. Your aunt certainly is welcome in your life, but I really don't think you need to worry about her taking custody if you don't want her to. It really isn't an issue."

"He's right," Khaat said. "You do realize, don't you, Chase, that custody is really just a matter of my signature or my father's on a form? That's all. It could be done in less than five minutes. If you know someone that you know and trust and would rather be your guardian, now is the time to speak up. You have the power to help create the life for yourself that you want, just by giving some input. That's all."

Khaat did not want to force Chase into an awkward position by making her think she had to choose her and Brian, but she also knew that Chase knew Khaat never saw it as an obstacle or an imposition to take on another guardianship. It was just part of who Khaat was. She'd been raised to believe in the importance in family. And, so far, all the kids she'd taken under her wing were doing well. She wanted Chase to meet her aunt, but she already knew from experience how Krums and Lupins got labelled easily. This was liable to force Chase to choose between an aunt she never knew on one side, and Eli and Brian and her and all that came with it--the good and the bad--on the other. And, although Khaat wouldn't trade her life for anything, life as a Lupin family member just was not easy.

"It's your choice," Khaat told her gently. "Whatever you want, I'll support."

Chase looked around at everyone who said they would go along. Her aunt... someone who was her only blood relative, someone who had grown up with her mother, obviously didn't like the Krums.. An aunt.. who was related to her. Wanted her back.. and the Lupins.. who were her real family in actuality. She had never felt safer, happier, and more carefree then she had in the last few weeks with the Lupins. Chase looked a the family around her. Then glanced down at the letter in her hand, then very slowly, she crumpled it in her fist. "I want... to be apart of your family.." She said slowly. "She may be the last blood relative I have.. but when it comes to family, it doesn't matter.. if your related or not.. if you all look the same.. or have the same mother.. it's how you feel around them.." She said softly.

"Even.. when my family were alive... I wasn't nearly as happy as I am with you.. now.." She said looking around at them all. "So thank you... I would love... to.. well become part of your family.. as long as it doesn't do anything weird legally with me and Elijah... I doubt my aunt has any ability to take me away from here... not with who I am with.." She said and then ended her speak, her cheeks flushing red. She looked down at her hands and then back up at the family. Before, she hadn't thought family was anything more then a definition f the people you were born with, your mother, your father, your siblings, aunts, uncles, all of that, they were your family. She had never actually considered the fact that a family could be so much more then that. People who were there by you always... who cared for you, wanted what was best for you.

"Khaat..." She said slowly, her eyes locking on hers. "Thank you.. Thank you everyone... You have no idea.. how much I want to be apart of this family... I don't think I've ever been this happy... and I'm pregnant now! Imagine how I'll be with my own little girl.. running around... playing with Dakota and Abbey..." Chase suddenly realized what she said and stopped and blushed. "opps. That was supposed to be a surprise... But I guess I can tell everyone else later... It's a girl." She said with a huge grin.

"Congratulations," Khaat smiled. "Another girl in the house. That will be nice. Brian, you and Angus are geting sorely outnumbered. As for the guardianship, Chase, I can have my father bring the form with him when he comes later today, if you like, It only takes as much time to make it legal as it takes to sign the form. The minute its signed, its legal. Muggle courts don't work quite like we do. We don't bother with the waiting period that lot of muggle courts put in there," Khaat said. "It's fine with Brian and me if that's what you want to do. And, no, it shouldn't mess up you and Eli. Guardianships don't work the same way adoptions do. Not from that standpoint anyway. You two will be fine."

"I don't mind being outnumbered, Believe me. Khaat and I are glad you're happy here," Brian smiled. "This is too big a house for it not to have a lot of love and laughter in it. It was designed to be a place for family. When I bought it, I really didn't know why I was buying a place so big to live by myself in. And it sat empty until the night Abbey was born. My life hasn't been the same since. And I don't think I've ever been happier."

"Yeah, once you got over that big fear of commitment," Khaat laughed.

"Me? What about you?" he raised his eyebrows at her. "You weren't exactly ready to make another big leap either."

"No. I wasn't," she smiled. She looked at Chase. "I dodn't take good care of myself when I was pregnant with Abbey. And I had her entirely too soon. She was premature."

"And Khaat was in such poor health by then that she nearly died," Brian said. "We don't want that to happen to you. That was an ugly night. I came to see Robert and ended up being Khaat's coach in the delivery room. That was the night she and Rob ended up splitting up."

"Brian promised me that Abbey and I wouldn't ever want for anything ever again. And we haven't. Not me, not either of the girls. I have been saying that I want more kids, though."

She looked over at Brian who glared at her. "Not while we already have two in diapers. Let's get these two potty trained first," He said. It really wasn't about anything more, for him, than the fact that he didn't want a repeat of what had happened with Abbey. IF more children were in the picture, he wanted Khaat in pristine health first before they even considered it.

Voices penetrated the peaceful slumber Elijah had been in and he cracked an eye open. Fauve came into his line of sight and he pushed himself up onto his elbows. The little French girl smiled brightly and scrambled onto the bed. She kissed her father and thanked him before jumping off of the bed and dancing out of the room. Elijah ran his hand through his hair and rubbed his face. He moaned quietly to himself and dropped his head back down onto the goose feather pillows. He sighed and his eyes flicked over to the alarm clock on his bedside table. December 25th, fabulous. Elijah sat up suddenly and grabbed the alarm clock. He held it in his hands and looked at the numbers that were blaring up at him. December 25th. He’d missed Alice. Elijah sighed shakily and ran a hand through his hair.

“Elijah do you have my straighteners because Cher said she doesn’t-“ Cassidy paused in the doorway and bit her crimson bottom lip. Her hair was swathed around her shoulders, calling attention to the pale pink lacy number she’d encased her breasts in. She didn’t have anything else on other than some high-waisted shorts, tights and a pair of red stilettos. Elijah wiped the tears away that had formed in his eyes and put his alarm clock down on the side. He stood up and walked over to the jeans he’d abandoned the night before. “Do you always sleep naked or is this just for my benefit?” Cassidy asked, watching as Elijah pulled the jeans on. He zipped the flies up and popped the button into the hole. He turned and shot her a despairing look which she returned with a smile and her bedroom eyes.

“It’s too early for you, Cass. Go and find Finn. He liked you well enough didn’t he?” Elijah said, pulling his necklace around so the pendant sat back on his chest again. He stretched, pulling his arms up over his head, and looked pointedly at Cassidy who was still lingering in the doorway. “I don’t have your straighteners, love. Go and see Finn already. Go!” He pushed Cassidy out of the door and she smirked at him again before flouncing off down the hallway, her hair flying out behind her. Elijah leaned against the doorframe and watched her go. He shook his head and looked over at the window which took up most of the wall opposite his room. Harry was stood to the left of a statue and he pressed forward, catching Elijah’s hand and pulling the smaller man to him. Elijah fell against Harry and placed his hand flat against his cousin’s chest to brace himself. He exhaled and looked up at the dark-haired Harrow.

“Do you always sleep naked, Elijah?” He purred, a toothy smile pulling his lips up. Elijah pulled away from Harry but the elder man soon pulled his cousin back. “Oh come on...answer me.” Elijah struggled against Harry and the elder boy released his cousin. Harry sighed and took a wrapped parcel out from behind his back. “Merry Christmas, Eli.” He said sheepishly. Elijah sighed and took the well-wrapped parcel from Harry. “Don’t open it until later alright? I’m going to go and see mum.” He leaned forward and kissed Elijah’s forehead before turning and walking back down the hallway. Elijah looked down at the present and turned it over in his hands. He bit his lip and looked at Harry’s retreating back.

“H-hey...Harry!” Elijah called his cousin and the black-haired Bulgarian turned. He smiled at Elijah and waited patiently for the young man to speak again. “T-thanks....thank you Harry...” Elijah murmured. Harry smiled and nodded before turning once more and making his way back down towards his mother’s room. Elijah walked out into the hallway and closed the door behind him, parcel still in hand. He made his way down the hall towards the stairs and quickly descended them. He walked through the living room and into the kitchen where everyone seemed to be congregating. He put the parcel down on one of the counters and went straight for the biscuit tin. He took the top off and put his hand inside. He produced what looked to be a gingerbread man but wasn’t. It was made out of white chocolate which was what seemed to courtesy of Arlene. Elijah smiled and bit the head off of the whitechocolate man and walked over to Chase. He wrapped his arm around her waist and placed a lingering kiss on her cheek.

He pulled away and smiled at Khaat. “Mornin’” He greeted everyone in the room. “And Merry Christmas!”