Rayne's POV

I give Michael another nudge before he grunts awake. "What what happened?" He muffles.

"You're daughter is awake. Merry Christmas." I rub my sleepy eyes and head downstairs.

"Oh my goodness a bike!! Thank you mommy!" She gleams. I sat on the couch quietly watching her unwrap all of her presents more excited for the next one. Michael straggled down the stairs and flopped next to me, leaning his head on mine to fall back to sleep.

"This one is for you mommy." She hands me a small plastic box.

I unwrap it and see two pairs of baby shoes causing my heart to melt "aww. Thank you Michael.."

Michael gives me small grin, his eyes still closed. "Daddy this one is yours.." Camille says.

He unwraps the gift and sees the brand new fedora in a hat box. "Oh man, I love this." He smiles placing the hat on his head.

Later that morning, Michael and Camille sat in the living room playing Camille's new video game laughing at how terrible Michael was.

"Well good morning, and merry Christmas."Lea's voice fluttered through the phone.

"Good morning, merry Christmas. How's the family?" I say nonchalantly, while preparing for our Christmas dinner tonight.

"Great! Izzy woke Derrick and I up at almost 6 in the morning. The time zones are still kicking my butt. But it's good to finally be home." She sighs.

"Oh you guys are back in the states? That's great. I'm making a big dinner for Christmas why don't you bring the family over around 2?" I smile.

"Sounds like fun. We'll be down there." She grins, hanging up.

After preparing for the big dinner, I join my family in the living room. Looks like they were racing.

"Daddy you suck at this game.." Camille cackles.

"I'm pressing go.. it just won't drive straight." He groans. I giggle at him running into walls and squinting at the television. Camille began to laugh louder, "Daddy just go straight." She laughs, barely holding on to her controller.

"Mike you're showing your age right now." I giggle.

"I'm 40 years old, I don't know about this stuff." He says grumpily, still pressing buttons. At this point Camille was on the floor laughing til tears came out. Finally the race ended and "You Won!" Flashed across Michael's portion of the screen.

"Huh??" Camille whines.

"Slow and steady always wins the race." Michael boast proudly.

"No fair daddy, you cheated. You made me laugh." She pouts.

"Don't get all sour. You were too busy laughing." I tickle her. "I've got a surprise for you later. " I smile.

"Is it the baby?!" She asked.

"No.." I giggle, "we've got a few more months for that." I rub my stomach.

Leon arrives at the door with Elizabeth Taylor and a few gifts in his arms. "Come on in Leon, you can just set the gifts there." I smile pointing to the tree.

"Elizabeth!" Michael smiles.

"Hello and merry Christmas! I come bearing gifts.." she laughs.

"Leon.. do you celebrate Christmas?" Camille asks.

"I sure do. I'm going home in a few hours." He replies. "Just gotta make sure you guys are safe and secured first" he smiles, rubbing her head.

"Speaking of which, before you go.." I smile handing him a wrapped gift. "Give that to your girlfriend, tell her congratulations on the baby."

"Thanks Rayne, I know she'll appreciate it." He smiles back.

"Mommy, can we call 'big boss'" Camille asked referring to Bill.

"Um.. I don't have his number.. Leon?"

Leon pulls out his phone and dials "hey bruh. Merry Christmas...no I'm cool. I've got someone who wants to talk to you. Hang on." He replied pressing the speaker button. "Bill say hello"

"Hello?"

"BILL!" Camille beams, grabbing the phone. "Hi Big Boss!"

"Hey little boss! Merry Christmas!" He says, you could honestly hear the grin on his face. Their relationship was priceless.

"I miss you Bill, when are you coming back?"

"Aw, I miss you too little one. I'm in Northern California. I'm not too far away. Maybe I'll come visit one day." He sighs.

"Ok.."

"Tell mommy and daddy I said merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas Bill!" Michael yells back, handing Elizabeth Taylor her gift.

"Talk to you later little boss!"

"Ok. Bye!" She hands Leon the phone back and he leaves.

"Camille, every time I see you you're two inches taller! Stop growing." Elizabeth giggles, hugging her tightly.

I sit down out of breath, it's been harder to do the most simple task ever since I've been closer to my due date. I was honestly ready to just have him.

"Babe you ok?" Michael asked. I nod quietly.

"She's exhausted. Poor thing. Don't sit there it's bad for your back, sit here." Elizabeth leads me to the couch and places a pillow on my back. She was the closest thing to a mother, I've had since I came to LA. The things she did for me were things I wished my mother would've done.

"Thanks Liz. He's just doing a lot of moving. I guess all the excitement has him excited too." I giggle.

***

When Derrick, Lea, and Izzy finally arrived the house was filled with people. We all simply enjoyed each other's company. Izzy ran and sat on Derrick's lap and Camille did the same with Michael watching them play Camille's new video game.

It peaked an emotion from me that was unexpected, to say the least. I went upstairs to the bedroom and cried. The picture of my father, gleaming at me on my bedside table. My father has been gone for two years and this was the time I cried the most. Michael never knew, I just kept it to myself.

The day my dad died, I learned on the flight home on the news. I just didn't want to believe it. I remember calling my father repeatedly trying to get ahold of him and hear him tell me he was ok. But instead I was met with his voicemail. That night before I laid in the bed that night, I popped a few of Michael's pills, praying I never woke up. He never knew.

I laid in the bed, gripping my father's photo tightly, quietly sniffling and whimpering to myself until my mind went to sleep for a few hours.

"Hey.. why are you up here all alone?" Michael asked, peeking into our room as I woke up.

He removes my father's photo from my arms and places it on the table beside me. "Are you ok?" He says studying my face. "Have you been crying?"

I sit up and nod quietly. "Holidays are just hard.." I grumble, laying my heavy head on his shoulder. My eyes dry and puffy, Michael strokes my face softly.

"I can only imagine.." he rubs my shoulder. Not having any words to console me with, I appreciated the silence. Him just allowing me to be emotional, was enough for me. I always wondered if I should tell him about my attempted suicide. But I didn't want him to be upset with me. I didn't want him to even think I wasn't aware of what that would do to him and Camille. Even thinking about it tore me apart, causing me to cry harder.

"Baby, it will be ok..I'm here." He says softly hugging me tighter.

"You don't even know.." I mumble into his chest.  "My father meant more to me than life. I almost gave up when he left me.." I sniffle.

"What do you mean??" He asked.

I explained to him what I did and I could feel him squeeze me tighter. "Rayne, I can't believe this. Why didn't you let me know you felt this way."

"I don't know.. I just- I lost everything. My dad my mother..I just didn't feel like anything was worth it anymore."

"Baby you have Camille, you have me.. I could've lost you that night. Oh my God." He says tears filling his eyes. He clutches on to me tighter than ever before. "Losing you would've killed me."