1. Chapter 1 (1/2)

1

christmas

eve in jericho

emily

was standing in he front hall preparing to leave for the night. it

was christmas eve and she was headed over to the green's for the

evening, at least as soon as she worked up the courage anyway. roger

had been gone almost a month and she and jake were still way up in

the air, truthfully she didn't know how she felt she loved jake she

knew that but wether or not she was ready to be with him again was a

whole other question. right now all she was sure of was that she was

confused and that she promised gail she'd be there tonight.

despite

the fact that it was well below freezing and the green house was a as

without power as the rest of the town it still managed to be warm and

inviting when emily walked up. johnston opened the door when she

arrived and there were some surprising faces inside. emily wasn't

surprised to see bonnie as with stanley gone, but she was surprised

to see mary kenchy and several of the refugee's, with eric in new

bern and april gone she had expected a very low key cele

ation this

year.

emily

walked over to bonnie, if she was missing stanley couldn't imagine

how hard it must be for the young girl. "how are you" she signed.

"i'm

okay, i've never had a christmas without stanley before"bonnie

signed bak looking worried.

"me

neither"emily smiled down stanley ad been one of the few people

emily had always been able to count on and she wanted to look out for

bonnie for his sake.

"i'm

sure stanley is having a ball whatever he's up to" emily signed.

bonnie

smiled "he only in new bern right"she signed, all of a sudden

sean cam up behind her and shoulder's startling her. she turned and

started chasing after him telling him off as he teased her. watching

them made her smile they looked awful familiar to her and they made

it all look so simple.

when

she looked around the room she saw jake standing in the kitchen

watching bonnie with concern. she decided to get a drink.

jake

smiled and turned to look at her "when did that happen" he asked

pointing his glass at the two teenager's.

"i'm

not sure, i found out when i went to ask sean about coming to classes

and found them taking advantage of the fact that sean's mother

wasn't around"

jake

laughed a little "i remember those days"

"yeah

i finally got an idea of how mr. hutchins felt when he found us in

the old a. v. room"

jake

started to laugh but switched to shock when he realized what emily

was telling him.

"

you mean they're..." he couldn't quite say it but

emily knew what he was getting at.