How a family starts

Chapter 48

~TWO YEARS LATER~

Shailene POV:
I'm crazily excited because it's Christmas Eve.

It's snowing like crazy outside. Hannah is singing at the children's hospital with her boyfriend, Jack.

Sadie and Julie are outside. "Come on mommy! Call daddy to come! Come play with us!" Sadie yells.

"Coming!" I say back. Theo comes running down the stairs. He's ready to go outside.

I put on my snow gear, and we go play in he snow. Sadie and Theo team up, and I team up with Julie. Each team makes a little snow wall and a bunch of snow balls.

We begin having a war, and Julie and I win.

After that, we make snowmen. We take pictures of them and start having a photo shoot with the new camera Theo bought.

Theo stays outside with the kids some more, then I go inside to make us some cookies and hot chocolate.

After about two hours, everyone comes inside. "It's time for everyone to have a warm bath." I say. I take Sadie and put her in the bathtub.

When I wash her off, Julie hops into the tub and starts taking a bath. Once everyone is done, we get into our pj's and cuddle up on the couch.

We start eating the cookies and drinking the hot chocolate while watching the movie Elf.

By the time we're done, everyone is tired so we go to bed. Hannah gets home and she goes to need also.

Theo and I lay in bed, cuddling. "This was a fun afternoon." I say.

"Yeah, I loved it."

I look up at him. "I miss having all of our kids with us." I say.

"Babe, Nathan is so happy he can barely explain it. Hannah is probably also going to move out with Jack, and Sadie and Julie will choose their own paths. But all that I know, is that in the end, all of us will be happy. I promise."

I smile. I kiss him, and then pull back. "You're right. Now let's get some sleep, I'm tired." I say. He kisses my forehead, and we fall asleep.

-----

The girls wake us up. "Mommy! Daddy! It's Christmas! Wake up!" Sadie yells. We groan.

"Do we have to do this every year?" I ask. We all go downstairs and they open presents.

Hannah gets ten new pieces of clothing, a new phone, beats, some bath and body works hand sanitizers and shampoos, and some snowflake earrings.

Julie gets a Mac, he same bath and body works stuff as Hannah, a necklace, a lot of books, and a Divergent poster.

Sadie gets a lot of barbies, a play makeup kit, some new dresses, my little pony CD's, and some chocolate.

I know we over-did ourselves this year, but Theo is getting a CRAZY high payment. The kids are happy, we're happy, and Sammy is happy.

So why ruin that?

-----

We all sit sat the dinner table holding hands with our eyes closed. "Dear god, thank you for this food, may you forever be with our loved ones and wish everyone a merry Christmas." Theo says.

"Amen." We all say in unison.

We open our eyes and unlink our hands. We start to eat.

"This is the best Christmas ever." Hannah says, gulping down some turkey. "If onto Nathan was here to enjoy moms delicious cooking."

"Aw, thank you sweetie." I kiss her forehead. "I'll bring him some left overs tomorrow."

"But why isn't he here? He promised he'd be home for Christmas." Julie says.

"I don't know sweetheart, it appears he's not coming this year." Theo says. Julie frowns.

"But I expected him to come, so he could spend some time with us on Christmas. He doesn't understand how much we miss him."

"Julie, of course he understands."

"THEN WHY ISNT HE HERE?"

"I don't know," I snap. "Now please calm down."

She sighs and goes back to her food. We all eat in silence. When we finish, I get up.

"Merry Christmas." I mumble and I storm up the stairs.

-----

Theo POV:
She storms up the stairs. I sigh. I rub my forehead. "I'm sorry dad, it's my fault." Julie says.

"No sweetie, it's not your fault. It's nobody's fault." I say. I get up and go upstairs. I hear quiet sobbing in our bedroom. I lightly knock.

"Shai? Babe? Can I come in?" I ask.

"No." She says, her breath shaky.

"Please?"

Shailene groans. "Fine." She says. I get into our room. She's in our bed under the covers. I go under the covers to talk to her. I pull her in my arms. She sobs into my chest.

"I'm a terrible mother." She says.

"Don't say that, you're an amazing mother."

"No, I'm not. I'm a terrible mother because I yelled at my kid, and she didn't even do anything!"

"Shai, that's the smallest thing ever. It's okay." I say.

"Why isn't Nathan here?" She asks after a while.

"I don't know. But I bet he wants to be here."