Boy Next Door

Last Christmas

Camila stood in the kitchen cleaning up after their dinner as Shawn entertained Quinn in the living room after giving her a bath. She couldn't help but laugh when she heard her husband speak to their daughter in what little Spanish he knew. 

"Nuestro gato es muy pequeño," he said as he ran his hand over Pip's back. Camila snorted and shook her head. "What?" he said defensively. "I'm teaching her Spanish."

"Don't you think maybe you should learn Spanish before you start teaching other people?" Camila giggled.

"I know enough!"

"You definitely know more than you did when we first started dating, but your accent still needs some work." Shawn pouted and quietly repeated the sentence to himself, trying to perfect his accent as Camila finished cleaning up. Once she was done, the three of them cuddled up on the couch and watched a nature documentary on Netflix. By the time the movie was over Quinn was asleep on her dad's chest. He carefully got up off of the couch and carried her to her room, kissing her gently on the cheek before tucking her in for the night. He came back out into the kitchen and saw Camila pouring two glasses of wine. This was something they did many nights: sit out on their back porch together and stare out at the ocean as they sipped wine and talked about nothing in particular. Shawn took one of the glasses and walked out onto their porch, sitting down on one of the wicker couches with his wife curling up against his side.

"How are you, my love?" he asked as he wrapped his arm around her and caressed her upper arm with his hand.

"Good," she hummed against him. "Do you wanna go Christmas shopping tomorrow? We've only got a few weeks left and we haven't bought anything yet."

"We can do that," he replied. "Are you excited for Christmas?"

"Of course," she said with a smile. "I mean, it's gotta be better than last year...right?"

- Last Christmas -

It had been a couple hours since she had been visited by Shawn and their daughter and now she was sitting on the bed in her room. Almost all of the other mom's in the treatment center had gone to bed but she couldn't bring herself to fall asleep. She grabbed one of the blankets from her bed and wrapped it around her shoulders, quietly slipping out of her room and walking into the main living room area where the Christmas tree had been set up. She sat down on the couch and stared up at the tree as classic holiday tunes played quietly from the office. She couldn't help but let her mind wander to how Shawn and Quinn were spending her very first Christmas Eve. A few stray tears escaped from her eyes and streamed down her cheeks as she stared at the twinkling lights of the tree.

"Do you wanna talk?" she heard quietly echo behind her. She turned around to see one of her therapists standing there with her bag in her hand, clearly on her way out to go home for the night. 

"No, I'm okay. You should go home and be with your family."

"Okay," she quietly replied with a sympathetic smile. "Merry Christmas."

"You too," Camila responded before turning back around. She stayed on the couch softly crying to herself as she listened to the Christmas music and admired the large, colorful tree. Eventually her exhaustion caught up with her and she made her way back into her room to go to bed. 

She woke up the next morning to the sunlight peering through the blinds. She yawned and stretched out her tired limbs before looking at the clock. It was 9 am and Shawn and Quinn were planning on coming over at 9:30. She grabbed everything she needed to take a shower and get ready for the day and made her way to the bathroom to take a quick shower. By the time she finished showering and getting ready, she came back to her room to see Shawn setting up a mini tree on her nightstand and setting the gifts he had brought on the floor around it.

"Merry Christmas," she said quietly from the doorway as she watched him set up their little mini-Christmas. 

"Good morning!" he excitedly turned around and walked over to give her a hug. "Merry Christmas, baby." They exchanged a quick, sweet kiss before Camila made her way over to her daughter who was laying in the middle of Camila's bed and kicking her legs in the air. She smiled when she saw that Shawn had put her in the most adorable, tiny little Christmas sweater. Camila laid down on her bed next to Quinn, kissing the top of her head softly before caressing the silky dark hair sprouting out of the top of the newborn's head.

"Did you two have a good Christmas Eve?"

"We did," Shawn sighed as he joined her on the bed, laying on the other side of Quinn. "We missed you, though."

"I missed you too. I hate that we have to spend her first Christmas like this."

"It's not ideal," he agreed. "But we're together...and I think that's the most important part."

"I guess you're right."

"Wanna open presents? Quinn is pretty excited about some of the stuff she got you..." he said as he wiggled his eyebrows at her. She chuckled and shook her head as she sat up from the bed. 

"I wasn't able to get you anything," she said sadly as she looked down at the floor.

"I wasn't expecting you to," he shrugged. "That's not what it's about. Getting to spend Christmas with you is a gift itself."

They sat around the tiny twinkling tree sitting on her nightstand and opened the gifts, most of which were for Camila since Quinn was still too young to be getting tons of toys or even understand the concept of presents. Shawn had gotten her many sweet gifts including a candle, a few new outfits, a sunflower necklace, a new bottle of her favorite perfume, and an empty notebook for all of her poetry writing. Her favorite gift by far, though, was a scrapbook he had made full of polaroids he had taken of both Quinn and himself while she had been in treatment. She flipped through the pages, her eyes welling up with tears as she looked at all of the sweet pictures. At some point the dam broke and she dropped the book in her lap as she let herself cry in her boyfriend's arms. He pulled her into his lap and pressed his lips to her forehead as she let her tears soak his shirt. 

"I didn't mean to make you upset," he said apologetically. 

"No," she clarified. "I love the book so much. It's such a sweet gift. I just...I wish I was there for these moments."

"We wish you were too," he sighed. "But right now it's more important that you're here and getting the help that you need." He ran his fingers through her still slightly damp curls as she nuzzled her head under his chin. "I promise we'll make up for it next Christmas, okay?"

"Okay," she sniffled.

---

Christmas in the treatment center wasn't ideal, and on that day she might've considered it one of the low points of her time staying there. But looking back, she was grateful to even be alive to celebrate with the two people that meant most to her, and she was confident that this Christmas truly would be one to remember.