Love Will Make You Stay

Christmas Day

STEF POV

"Mommy look what Santa got me! Look!" Mariana said running over to me on the couch as I sat drinking my coffee. Who in the world knew I could get so much joy in watching these two open up what seemed like a million presents on Christmas morning. The running around I had done the last few weeks and all the extra overtime had paid off. Yes I went totally overboard but it had been a really hard year for them and I just wanted them to be happy on this day.

"Yeah baby I see that. That's that doll set you wanted. Huh?"

"It is mama! It is!" I could only kiss her soft forehead as she marveled at the doll set. I was glad to see her so happy as I looked to Callie as she ran over to me.

"Mommy look?"

"Yeah love what's that?"

"A giant lego set!"

"Wow that's awesome. Looks fun!"

"Yeah, can we build something later?"

"Sure honey."

"Cool Callie!" Mariana said looking to the gift and letting out a wide smile as I sipped on my coffee again and watched the two walk back over to the tree. A few moments later they both ran back over to me handing me a wrapped gift. I could tell they both wrapped it by how messy it was but I loved it.

"What's this babies?"

"Merry Christmas mommy." Mariana said as they both looked to me with wide smiles.

"Aww sweethearts." I said smiling putting my cup down. "You didn't have to get me anything." Opening the gift I could see it was a picture as I now tore the rest of the paper off. It was a collage picture of the past six months we spent together and in the middle of the pictures it said, "Best mommy ever."

"Do you like it?" Callie asked as I wiped the tears from my eyes.

"I love it babies. I Love it so much."

"Then why are you crying?" Mariana asked.

"Crying because I'm happy and I love the both of you so much. Come here babies." I said as they hugged me both harder then ever and I kissed both of their cheeks a million times.

"We made it mommy." Callie said.

"Yeah I see that and it's beautiful. It's the greatest present I have ever gotten sweethearts."

"Thank you for taking care of us mommy."

"You never have to thank me for that baby. I love doing it. I love taking care of both of you more then anything." They both smiled wide at me as I loved Callie's missing teeth. "Now I think there are a few more gifts under the tree from Santa. Why don't you go check them out." They smiled once again running back over to the tree as I looked to the picture collage they had made. I had so many emotions at this point that I didn't know what to feel. Part of me was struggling with so much guilt for loving them the way I did. For loving them like any mother would love her children. Part of me also felt guilty for loving the fact that I could take care of them and experience this new life with them. But the other part of me felt so bad for the reason. I felt horrible that Lena, their mother was still in coma. I felt so torn that she was missing everything and that I was the one experiencing it with them and not her. There was just no way around the constant confusion as I soon heard my phone go off thinking  it was my mother. But looking to the screen I could see it  was the hosptial and I became nervous.

"Hello Stef Foster." I answered a little worried.

"Hi Stef. It's Dr. Stevens."

"Oh hi Merry Christmas is everything ok?" I asked worried.