by Lizzie
by Lizzie
Meanwhile, in New York, Alli was still asleep and Sean was working his magic. He prepared a lovely tray of Alli’s favorite breakfast food, favorite flower, even the napkin was her favorite color. Alli begins to stir. She slowly stretches and pats her eyes a few times.
"Good Morning."
Startled, Alli’s first reaction is to pull her covers up but once she sees it is Sean, she calms down."What’s this?" she says as she looks at the tray in his hand.
"It would be breakfast. Geeze, what did you learn in that fancy school in Switzerland?"
"I knew it was breakfast! Did you make it?"
"No, that would be the work of room service. I just made it presentable."
"Well it is." she picks up the flower off the tray and smells it. "How did you know I loved Sterling Roses?"
"Well, I didn’t. I picked it out because I thought it was cool it had no thorns. Kinda like, the perfect flower, for the perfect girl."
"How do you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Say all those great things and not even think about everything I did to mess us up."
"Not thinking is my specialty, I guess." They both laugh and Alli begins to enjoy her meal while giving Sean the occasional bite.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It would be breakfast time with the Rule High gang too, but Cameron has a vague idea why no one is really hungry...
"That’s all you are taking?"
"Might not look like a lot, Miss Cory, but it is the maximum amount we can take without putting you in any risk. Besides, this should be enough. The EMS got there fast enough to stop the bleeding and whoever wrapped the sweater around his head helped out a bit too."
"That’s good news."
"You lay here for awhile to make sure you don’t get sick. Oh, and drink this. I have to go check on my other patients and run this to lab." The doctor leaves and Amanda sips at the drink. After she finished it, she sat up and dialed the phone. "Susan?"
"Amanda! I’m so glad you called. I was waiting for you to call! I was afraid you guys were hurt, but you called, so you are all fine! I’m so happy. I can’..."
"Breathe."
"Sorry. I’m just so happy you are all okay."
"Actually, I am okay. Cameron is..."
"NO!? I tried to help.. I swear. I thought I helped."
"You did, Susan. The doctor said you helped a lot with the sweater. They took some blood from me and they say after that he should be fine."
"But, that doesn’t guarantee he’ll wake up, right?" Amanda pauses and starts to talk but Susan interrupts her. "My dad is calling me, I gotta go."
"Ok, bye." she hangs up the receiver and lays back down, thinking about what Susan said. She forgot that helping the blood lose was only part of the solution. "He’ll wake up. For me... he will." she gets up and walks over to his room. She opens the door and sits next to him.
Was I awake, or was it just a dream?
I opened up my eyes, and you weren't with me.
And now you've said that you're leaving but you'll be home soon.
It's never easy bein' away from you.
One thought, boy, I'm all choked up.
There's something about you, I could never ever get enough.
It's the way that you move.
It's the smile on your face.
Breaks my heart in two everytime you go away.
I always said I'd never cry over you.
But it's hard to hold back tears when your fears come true.
I'm sittin' here lonely just a-missin' you.
Baby, come home...
Everytime you go away, my heart goes with you.
Everytime you go away, my heart's torn in two.
Is there something I can say?
Won't you change the plan to make?
'Cuz my heart can't stand the pain.
Everytime, everytime you go away.
"Don’t let me down, Cameron." she kisses his cheek and leaves. She hasn’t slept since she got up from the incident. After a nice bath and a really nice nap, Amanda got dressed, had some dinner, and went back to the hospital. She was hoping to walk into Cameron’s room and see him sitting in his bed, flippin’ through the channels on the T.V., but that wasn’t the case. She looked through the window and sees that Cameron has yet to move. She walked in quietly.
"Oh Cameron. You were supposed to be awake. I walk in and you jerk your head and I gasp and say ‘You’re awake! Thank God.’ and you say something sarcastic like ‘I didn’t think you’d recognize me.’ and I laugh and go to your bed to give you a big, but gentle hug."
"I guess.....I’m not familiar... with the procedure."
"Cameron!"
"That’s what they call me."
"See, there is the sarcastic phrase."
"Where’s my hug?" She walks over and brushes her hand on his cheek. She leans in and gives him a soft kiss on the lips and another on the bandage on his head. "Now you don’t know the procedure. That wasn’t a hug."
"I improvised." she says as she sits next to him on the bed.
"I’ve been laying here long enough, can we blow this popsicle stand?"
"I don’t know. And lets not forget you have been unconscious, you don’t know how long you have been laying here! You’ve been sleeping the whole 2 days."
"Dreams have been good, though."
"Glad yours have been. Mine are all about that night."
"Amanda..."
"Oh look, the doctor!" she says quickly as she goes to speak with the doctor. "Doctor, when is Cameron allowed to leave?"
"Well, we checked all his vitals and ran another cat-scan and he is fine. He can go whenever he wants. But, after the display I saw here the other night, I can’t imagine why he would want to leave here any time soon."
"Thank you."she walks back into Cameron’s room. "He says you can go anytime you want but maybe you should think about it."
"Why?"
"You are much safer here than you are at home!"
"Baby, I know he scared you, ok, probably more than I know, but I promise, everything is going to be okay. I’ll walk in and he’ll be on the couch watching a Christmas movie and he’ll talk to me like nothing ever happened."
"But something did happen. And what if you are wrong?"
"I’m sorry, what? That word isn’t in my vocabulary bank."
"Just... don’t go right away, okay?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I have been sitting here on my butt for 2 days, and I have been with you, but I just really need you to be with me."
"You don’t even have to ask." he walked over to her and she leaned her forehead on his.
"I was just really scared that I was going to lose the best thing that has ever happened to me and I just want you to know I love you."
"I love you too." he said and gave her a passionate kiss and then spun her around.
"Cameron, come on. We have to go get Alli and Sean at the airport now."
"Yea, ok." and they left.
"Will Alli be accompanying us to Gary and Josie’s for dinner this evening?"
"This may shock you, but I didn’t even think to ask, in fact, I forgot about it myself."
"What part of that was suppose to shock me?"
"Oh, shut-up! I just meant I didn’t even ask because I wasn’t expecting her to have any other plans but I bet things have changed since then."
"Well, why don’t you ask her?"
"MOM!"
"Alli, welcome back! How was the trip?"
"Thanks, it was great!"
"Yea, totally decent of you, Cameron."
"Thanks, Sean. Just don’t expect a present tomorrow."
"That’s cool, same goes for you."
"Very clever!"
"Enough bickering you two! Now, get in the car and tell me all about your trip!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Even though New York was fun, it is nice to be home."
"Well, will you be staying or do you have plans for tonight?"
"I was going to go to Sean’s house to celebrate Christmas Eve with them since I will be with you guys tomorrow and won’t have time to exchange gifts but if you need me..."
"No, I was just curious. Cameron and I will be going to Gary’s tonight. So, we’ll see you later then?"
"Sure mom." Alli gets her coat and goes out the door. Amanda and Cameron got dressed and left for Gary’s. Cameron was about to knock on the door but before he did he turned around and gave Amanda a tender, and long, kiss.
"Thanks you."
"Gary is my friend too, it’s not like I hate these people, I’d love to spend the holiday with them, just like I love spending everyday with you."
"Not just for this dinner. But for being, well, with me."
"Awe, are you dying?" she giggles and gives him a little kiss.
"Hey you two, the party is on the other side of the door."
"I knew something was wrong." Amanda kisses Gary on the cheek and Cameron hands him a bag of gifts they brought.
"Josie, this tree is absolutely dazzling."
"Thank you, Amanda."
"What’s on the menu?"
"Your favorite, Cameron. Take out!"
They all have their laughs and dig into the food. After dinner they gather around the wondrously decorated tree and exchange gifts.
"I was going to give you another week off of work, but that can’t happen."
"Maybe you can both have a big break when you get back, IF you get back."
"I can see you are just as excited about their little lead as I am, Josie."
"SO, Gary! I’ll catch ya later!"
"Yea, thanks for coming!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back with the Rule High gang, Christmas Eve was going just as well...
"Gary, where is your gift for Cameron?"
"I’m going to give it to him tomorrow."
"What’s this I hear? Our family traditions not good enough for you, boy?"
"I will not have this argument tonight." Gary grabs his coat and walks out the door. Cameron excuses himself and runs after Gary.
"Yo, wait up! Where are you going?"
"I don’t know, but I had to leave. I wasn’t going to take his crap, not on a holiday."
"We are pretty use to it. Does it matter if it is a holiday or not?"
"No, but, ever since the accident... I don’t know. He just gets away with to much and it has to stop!"
"Yea, but..."
"Just forget it. What about Amanda?"
"I’m not following your change-of-subject."
"The whole guest wing. I could ask Rachael for a favor. I mean, it’s Christmas!"
" A... It’s Christmas Eve and B...don’t you think she has done enough favors for us?"
"Yes, but, you got us in with the goods, bro!"
"Shut-up!" Gary starts to knock on the door. "Don’t you think we are imposing a little? What if they have plans?"
"Shhhh." he pauses as the door opens. "Hey Matt. Can we speak with your mom?"
"MOM... the Sinclair brothers are here."
"Oh boys! How nice of you to drop by. Do you want some cookies."
"Thank you Mrs. Cory. Can I talk with you privately?"
"Sure, Gary." They step out to the terrace.
"So Matt, where’s Amanda."
"I think she is on the phone in her room." Cameron creeps up the stairs and slowly creaks Amanda’s door open to peak in.
"Yes, Evan. The bear you got me was beautiful. My brother really appreciates it; he didn’t have a target for his new BB gun." she listens as Evan responds. "Well, of course it hurt. It wasn’t meant to be a compliment." she listens more. "Why am I mad at you? Do you even have to ask?" Cameron opened the door and leaned against the frame. Amanda saw the door move in her peripheral vision and turned to see who was there. She smiled. "I have to go, Evan." she hangs up the phone. "I thought Santa brings gifts after I am asleep."
"Some girls are just lucky, I guess." he says as he stops leaning against the frame and comes in.
"GirlS?" She says playfully as she goes over to him. "What are you doing here?"
"Dreadful etiquette, I apologize, but Gary sort of made me come."
"Oh, so you wouldn’t have came unless you were dragged, kicking and screaming?"
"Basically." they laugh and go downstairs to join Matt, Rachael and Gary who are watching A Christmas Story. After it finished, Claudia took Gary and Cameron to the guest room and they got into their beds.
"Gary, what did you mean when you said you weren’t going to take anymore of dad’s crap anymore?"
"I’d get some sleep, buddy." he quickly says as he turns off the lamp and goes to sleep leaving Cameron to wonder what Gary was planning.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Sounds like my dream is going to get Gary in some trouble." says Cameron to himself as they pull into the driveway. They don’t get two steps into the house before Alli bombards them with excitement.
"Mom, Cameron! Look what Sean got me." she pulls back her sleeve to reveal and silver framed bracelet that had blue sapphire hearts all around it and engraved on the back was ‘I love you. Amanda looks at Cameron in shock. "I mean, it matches the necklace you gave me perfectly. I don’t even remember showing him it, so how did he know? I’m going to go call Kiki."
"Ok, good night, honey." she looks back at Cameron who, yet again, is avoiding eye contact with her. "Do you enjoy toying with my daughter’s life?"
"She seemed happy." Cameron says in his defense.
"Wow, even I’d forgotten about that necklace. I couldn’t believe it when you got it back for me."
"I’m just an all-around good guy."
"I’m starting to think so." she leans in for a kiss before they go upstairs and go to bed. Amanda was having a little trouble getting to sleep though. She was too excited about what Christmas would have in store for her this year. Her, and the whole Rule High gang......
Amanda’s alarm clock had gone off at 6:30 and as she was stirring, someone turned it off. She opened her eyes and saw Cameron standing at the foot of her bed with a gift in his hand and one of the cute hats with the mistletoe hanging from it.
"I love Christmas." she said as she sat up and motioned for Cameron to sit next to her.
"Merry Christmas, Amanda." and he leaned in for a kiss. Amanda scooted closer and wrapped her hands around his neck. Cameron trailed the gift up her body. "I want you to open this now."
Amanda unwrapped the little red bow and took off the lid to the box. Inside was a silver necklace with a blue diamond heart connected to it. Amanda flipped it over and engraved on it was ‘I give you my heart.’
"Cameron...."
"I know it is cheesy, but... I do."
"You know." she pauses. "It’s actually just a saying. You really love with your mind and your soul." Amanda gets out to try to prevent her from crying.
"Well..." Cameron pauses as he is puzzled. "Then why does it hurt here when you aren’t with me?" Cameron says tenderly as he takes her hand and places it on his heart.
"Awe, Cameron." Gary walks in to break their long, passionate embrace.
"Alright lovebirds, some of us have been waiting for your lazy bones to get downstairs so we could eat!" They descend the staircase and enjoy a nice family breakfast, then a normal exchange of gifts. Cameron couldn’t help but to pause to look around to think about how nice it felt to not have to walk on eggshells just to enjoy the holiday. All of a sudden, people started flowing into the Cory house and Cameron stepped out to the terrace, feeling a little in the way. Amanda excused herself and followed him.
"Hey buddy. You are wasting my time to show off my new necklace!"
"I’m sorry. I think me and Gary should get going though."
"Why? I swear, give it a couple of hours, the crowd will completely vanish. Besides, you have to stick around. I haven’t given you your gift yet."
"I don’t need anything. I have you."
"You can’t expect to give me an AMAZING gift and then just go empty handed."
"There’s a hand in my gift?" he says with a sly smirk.
"Come back inside you pervert!" she laughs and they go back inside for the meet and greet. After about 2 hours, the entire house was empty. Gary left for a walk, Rachael and Matt went with Cass and Felicia, and the rest of the surprise guests went back to their own homes or other obligations. "See, I was right."
"Fine, the princess was right, are you satisfied?"
"Not until recently." she walks over to him and pulled him in for a kiss.
"I took off the mistletoe hat."
"I know." Amanda says in a depressed voice. Just then, the doorbell rings.
"You were wrong!" Cameron yells in victory as he raises his arms and cheers for vindication. Amanda staggers to the door because she is laughing so hard.
"Susan, I didn’t expect you. Come on in."
"Merry Christmas to all."
"A to you, a good bye." Amanda snaps at Evan, not knowing Susan had brought him. Cameron comes from the living room and rubs her back indicating to Amanda that it was okay.
"Greetings and salutations."
"See Amanda, Cameron is a bigger man than you give him credit for. He is fine with me coming here."
"Evan, you know Amanda is much to young to know how big any man is." she chuckles as Amanda playfully hits her and they go into the living room to have a little exchange of gifts. After some basic chit-chat, they say there good-byes and Amanda tells Cameron to put on his coat.
"What for? I was okay with Evan staying here, I had no intention of walking him to his car or anything."
"No, it’s time for my gift to you." she grins and asks Claudia to get the car.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I hope my gift is good." says Amanda as she wakes up to an empty bed. Downstairs, Cameron and Alli were preparing a Christmas breakfast. When Amanda was younger, she always dreamed about having her own family and carrying over traditions and now, seeing them actually come true, she was truly touched. They all sat around the table and enjoyed the meal then Alli practically ran to the tree.
"Aren’t you a little old to be so excited about Christmas?"
"Sorry Cam, it’s a Cory curse." Amanda says as she throws her napkin on the table and races Alli to the tree. After some exchanging of gifts, Alli went upstairs to try on some of the news clothes she received before she had to leave for gramma’s.
"So, I don’t see my gift here."
"Ut oh, must have blown away from the extreme amount of wind that came from you and Alli thrashing through the presents."
"Maybe, but I doubt it..." she holds out her hands waiting for he gift.
"Fine, here."
Authors Note: There was a song in Chapter 8 that I forgot to give credit to. The song written in the chapter was called ‘EveryTime’ by Tatyana Ali on her Kiss the Sky album.
"I figured I would stay away from the jewelry store this time, seeing as it was too hard to figure out what you had already and what you didn’t."
"Please, I don’t have that much!" she starts to open her gift. "It’s a key."
"Yep, and that key unlocks your real gift, which you can’t have until its ready."
"CHEATER! What does it open?"
"I guess you’ll just have to WAIT and see."
"AHHHH!!!" she screams as she goes upstairs to get ready for Rachael’s. Cameron follows.
"So, where is my gift?" says a pondering Cameron as he changes into a more presentable attire.
"Ah-ha! I will get you back this year! I have this little gift for you." she hands him a nicely wrapped box. "And I also have something you’ll have to wait for!"
"A new jogging outfit... does this have symbolic meaning?"
"Unlike you, Sinclair, us Corys don’t need symbolism, we just need a credit card!"
"That’s good to hear. I was afraid I was getting out of shape!"
"Nah, we always workout together." she smirks and they all leave for the Cory Mansion. Which was buzzing with practically the entire city. Everyone was in the holiday spirt and Cameron loved it. Normal Christmas... who would have thought they even existed after the past he and Gary had. Although he was loving just watching people have a great holiday, in the back of his mind, Cameron’s thoughts trailed to the investigation in Las Vegas. Not just the fact that they could get the money back, but that maybe the tragedy that lingers with Cameron and Amanda had a trilogy. He shrugged it off and went mingling with Amanda.
"What did you get Cameron, darling?"
"Actually," Amanda motions for both Cameron and Alli to come sit with her. "I have a joint gift for all of you, but it won’t be here for about 9 months."
"Wow, mom. I have to teach you how to use the Internet better. You got screwed on your shipping deal."
Amanda smiles and looks at Cameron. He stares into her eyes trying to comprehend what she is getting at. Amanda takes his hand and places it on her stomach. Cameron’s stare lowers to his hand.
"I think you killed him!" Rachael says eagerly as she and Alli go to tell the rest of the house the news.
"Honey, are you okay?"
"I can’t believe this." Cameron says still starring at his hand.
"You are scarring me. Are you happy or..."
"Happy?" he looks back into Amanda’s eyes. "I can’t even express my enthusiasm!" he pulls her up to his lap and kisses her.
"Merry Christmas, Cameron."
"Geeze, way to make my gift look like nothing!"
"What is you gift?" she says quickly, hoping to trick him into telling her.
"I am ashamed that you would try to take advantage of me in my fragile state of mine and try to steal the whereabouts of your gift from my shaken mind."
"What movie is that from?" Amanda teases.
"Not a Christian Slater one." Cameron snaps back. They get up to rejoin the party, or what was left of it. After about an hour, they piled there things into the car and headed back home. Cameron’s mind was just racing now. He had everything on his mind, from the investigation, his new family, even to his dream.............
"Where are you taking me?" Cameron says as he staggers along a path.
"You’ll see."
"Doubtful, you blindfolded me, woman."
"Ha. Ha." Cameron pulls her close for a kiss. "That was impressive."
"I could always find your lips." Amanda smiles and takes off the blindfold. "Awe, I was just starting to enjoy that."
"Well enjoy this..." and she points to a romantic candlelight dinner, or, what was probably suppose to be one. Everything was trashed. The setting was spread around all over the snowy ground and Amanda just starred at it in shock. She fell to her knees and started to cry. "Who could do something like this?"
"Maybe it was the wind." Cameron said as he knelt down to comfort Amanda.
"Get real, I know who did this."
"Don’t jump to conclusions."
"You are being awfully understanding for a person who is in the middle of this disaster area, formally known as your gift." She begins to cry again. Cameron walks over to the mess and picks up a bow off the ground. He walks back over to Amanda and kneels back down. He wipes away a tear with his finger and places the bow on her head.
"Oh my gosh! You shouldn’t have! It’s exactly what I wanted."
"Amanda tries not to laugh at how sweet and funny he was being, but she couldn’t help herself. "You try to unwrap it and I draw blood!"
"Damn! How about I just take it back home."
"That sounds nice." Cameron stands first and extends his hand for Amanda’s. She smiles and gets up and gives him a big hug.
"Thank you Cameron."
"For what?" he says as they start to walk back to her house.
"For being perfect." she kisses his cheek and lays her head on his shoulder. They continue talking and walking home, leaving a very unsatisfied Evan and Susan back at the mess.
"That’s it, your plan sucked! It is my turn."
"What did you have in mind?" Asked an intrigued Evan.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Why on Earth am I dreaming up trouble for me and Amanda?" says Cameron as he continues packing for his trip to Vegas. Amanda peeked her head inside before entering. She slowly walked to the bed, trying to make eye contact with Cameron so he would see her puppy eyes. "Don’t even try it."
"Try what?"
"That look."
"What look?" Amanda says as she tries to intensify the look.
"That look that makes me feel like I’m the number one jerk even though I’m doing the right thing by making you stay here."
"Wouldn’t I be much safer with you with me. To protect me."
"Not in this case. Me and Gary digging into this case only brings us into trouble, and you need to be left out of it."
"Really reassuring, Cameron." she falls back onto the bed. Cameron zips up his suitcase and lays next to Amanda.
"You’ll see, me, Gary, and your money will be back before you know it."
"The money isn’t worth your life."
"We’ll be fine. I promise."
"Really?"
"Yea." they fall asleep in each other’s arms. Only, Amanda was having a little trouble sleeping. With Cameron’s trip on her mind, and lets not forget what was happening with the Rule High gang..........
Cameron was at home just tossing a nerf football around with Gary.
"So, how was you present from Amanda?"
"Destroyed."
"Huh?"
"She made this great dinner with the works in the park but when we got there is was totally wrecked."
"Who did it."
"There are no for-sures, but I have my suspicions."
"And they would be?"
"Well, Amanda says she thinks it was Evan since he has been on a jealous rampage every since we got together but..."
"Wouldn’t you?" Gary interrupts.