It's Been A Long Time... [Desperate Measures Sequel]

FortyTwo.

Spending the first couple of hours preparing the food was not my idea of fun on paper but Dean made it seem like it was a breeze. He put some music on and started turkey preparations, something which he had insisted on doing. I didn't mind though, I was more than happy to stick to vegetables and other items which I felt like I couldn't mess up. 

"You know," he looked up from the turkey, I looked over at him and smiled at him, "We should have invited people over to help with all the early prep."

I laughed, "Maybe next year we'll be invited to someone else's house and they can deal with all this instead. It's not too bad though, it's like a Christmas dinner."

Dean shook his head, "No," he placed his knife down, "Christmas is going to be a totally different affair. That's the big one."

Rolling my eyes I returned to the vegetables in front of me, I smiled as I began to chop. I was a little nervous about today, about all the people who would be coming by, I was the most nervous about seeing Brie again. We had been good friends at one point and I hoped that maybe today we could be civil at the very least. 

"So what exactly do you do at Christmas?" I asked him as I tried to concentrate on the chopping. 

Dean laughed, "When Christmas comes around you'll see. Everyone usually comes to mine, it's a big thing. Although I try to get out of the cooking. Katherine brings the twins, every other year Roman brings his daughter." I looked up and watched him as his face lit up as he talked about how Christmas made him feel. "After dinner, a few of the guys and girls come over and we spend the night celebrating in our own way."

I raised an eyebrow, "What?"

He looked up at me and laughed, "Not like that. I mean we play games, we drink and watch reruns of Christmas movies and tv programmes."

Nodding my head I returned to the carrots in front of me, "My Christmas traditions are a bit different."

"Maybe we can do some of both traditions," he said. I looked up at him to see him watching me. I smiled at him as I realised how serious he was being right now. "Tell me about what happens in your house."

My mind returned to Christmas' past. When I was young Christmas was a joyous occasion, my mum and dad enjoyed having a house full, the wider family would come over and spend the day at our house, all our aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents and even a few families from in the street. It was always loud and musical, toys would be broken, tears would be shed, drinks would be spilt but everyone always left happy. The older I got the more Christmas became different, my brother left home and travelled to America, the family members had their own Christmas' to do in their own homes and my parents got older. As a teenager, I spent at least two Christmas' in rehab trying to make myself well enough to continue to live. Christmas' with James was like any other day we spent together, no matter how much we both knew it was Christmas, nothing changed. In the last few years being out here in America I spent my Christmas' either in a hotel or rehab.

"Usually a lot of family," I said talking about my time as a young child. "Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and even mum's friends."

"That must have been hectic," he pointed out. 

I shook my head, "Honestly it was so much fun. We'd open our presents with our parents and by ten o clock, it was an open house. The tv would either have Christmas music playing or The Snowman rolling through. I would cry at that film every time, even if I saw it two hours before I would cry the next time it played. My cousins liked to play big board games, I was one of the youngest in the house at the time. My brother would always pair up with me and we'd be on a team. Mum would cook the dinner with her sisters and we'd all sit around watching the Queen's speech with our dinner."