Author's note:
When the show ended, I thought that somebody needed to write an ending story. I got the idea for this story from the very first episode, when Michaela is narrating during the opening credits. I wanted to have a story different from all the others, and it's taken me over a year to get this, my very first fanfic, written.
In this fanfic, Michaela is telling the story to her family, and each Christmas, she tells different stories about her life in Colorado Springs, from the day she first arrived there. I figured that each season of the show would
equal one Christmas in my story, and of course, just like re-runs, I'm sure Michaela told the same story over more than once! Please leave all comments on the message board, or guest book. Enjoy!
"Oh please tell us what happens next Grandma Sully!" one of the children
sprawled on the floor cried.
"But you know what happens next, Charlotte," Grandma Sully replied with a
smile.
All the adults and children seemed to come out of a daze at the end of the story. One little one was asleep in his fathers lap, and others gazed loftily at their seemingly ancient Grandma Sully with sleepy eyes.
"Besides," a young woman in her twenties said, "if we don't we don't get you
all to sleep, Santa Claus won't come! And do you know what will happen if Santa Claus doesn't come to you?"
"What Aunt Elizabeth?" the youngest children cried.
"You don't get any presents!" Elizabeth cried back.
Michaela smiled to herself at the children's reaction. None could begin to
imagine what a Christmas without presents would be like, nor did they want to!
Michaela smiled to herself again as she looked about the large room. A fire glowed warmly in the fireplace, and everywhere were people on the floor, on the couch, in chairs pulled from the kitchen table, some on the hearth, and
the children in the laps of their parents or grandparents.
Michaela thought that she liked nothing better than to sit here, surrounded by her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren on Christmas Eve and tell them all stories of her past in Colorado Springs, from the day she arrived in the small town that had never heard of a lady doctor, how she had built her medical practice, and how she had become one of its most influential and important citizens, of how she had inherited Matthew, Colleen, and Brian and had raised
them with the help of the man she loved.
At this memory Michaela felt a pang. Sully had passed away two summers ago when his heart went out. The townsfolk said she hadn't ever been quite the same since.
Indeed, too, most of
the townsfolk Michaela had known and loved were gone.
Old Mr. Bray had been gone for seven years now, and Dorothy Jennings, Michaela's dearest friend, had been gone for five.
Cloud Dancing was still alive and in fact, was in that very room at that very moment, looking at his old friend's offspring with a kind, wrinkled face.
Michaela's thoughts went back to Sully. How she missed him! How she had loved him! The terrible gap his leaving her left had been
almost unbearable. But though Time, and she knew very well, heals all wounds, for such a loss it always leaves a scar, and Michaela's mind was not quite the same after Sully's death.
Oh it is strange the way one's mind or heart will deal with such a loss as Michaela's, spinning dreams that seem so real, and Michaela had such lovely dreams. Dreams that seemed so real she would swear that they had really happened.
She had visions, sometimes, that Sully was there, tall and handsome, his smoldering blue eyes bearing into her very soul, so real, that Michaela would open her lips to speak, but before she could, he was gone.
Colleen looked at her mother with a tinge of sadness. She was in one of her spells again, the ones she had had ever since Sully had died.
Colleen could tell by the look on her ma's time-touched face. But she was especially worried, for Michaela had been complaining of chest pains that morning. But presently, Michaela was aroused by a tiny voice.
"Grandma Sully?" it asked timidly.
"Yes, sweetheart?" Michaela said, returning from her trip through her memories.
"Why do we always meet for Christmas, all of us, every year?"
"Because a long time ago, before any of you were born, except for Matthew,Colleen, and Brian, we made a pact that however far away from home we got,wherever we were, we would always come back home for Christmas," Michaela
replied, tears filling her eyes as she spoke.
"Because we all love each other. Because we're a family."
There was a long silence. Matthew, getting grey in his short beard broke the silence.
"We'd better be getting these little ones to bed," he said in his deep voice.
"I believe I'll turn in myself," the elderly woman announced.
"D'you need any help up the stairs, Ma?" Brian, a middle-aged man now, asked.
"No, no, Brian," his Ma answered gently. "I can make it on my own, thank you though. Good-night all!"
"Goodnight Grandma Sully!" the crowd said merrily in unison, for everyone called Michaela Grandma Sully.
"Merry Christmas!" was the shout as the clock struck midnight. Michaela did not join in but made her way slowly up the stairs of her old home, unconscious of the pair of old Indian eyes watching her tenderly.
"Good-bye my love," Michaela whispered under her breath.
The moonlight poured through the window in Michaela's bedroom. She woke with a start.
"Sully!" she cried. For there was her husband, as he had been when she first saw him, as she remembered him in her heart. He kissed her tenderly and whispered in her ear.
"Come, Michaela," he said. He took her hand in his.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"To paradise, my love," he said. "We leave on the breeze."
At that moment Michaela caught a glimpse of her hands. They were so young! Her hair; she looked at it flowing down her shoulders it was glossier,more rich in color, more beautiful than she had ever remembered it. She felt her face, and her fingers ran across smooth, soft skin. Michaela felt no heart thumping in her chest, yet she knew she was excited, knew she was smiling. She gave herself to her love, and followed him into the light.
The household was awakened by a scream the next morning, not by the joyful cries of the children which they had expected to awaken them.
There was a scramble up the stairs, soon followed by more screams. Cloud Dancing opened his eyes. He was now alone in the living room and he knew from the ton of the shrieks that Michaela, his dear friend, had died in the night.
Sobs and wails began to drift downstairs and the wise Indian too, felt a lump in his throat. But he did not cry.
Michaela was at last with Sully, with the
baby she had lost so many years ago, at last was with her old dear friends!
Cloud Dancing closed his eyes and began to pray to the spirits. A cold chill passed over his body, but a weight lifted from his breast, and outside it had begun to snow.