Robert was awakened by Georgie yelling excitedly, "Robert! Robert, look!"
It was early in the morning, the time Georgie normally got up to run. He knew what she was excited about and jumped out of bed, quickly pulling on pajama bottoms and a t-shirt. He found her in front of the Christmas tree looking at the presents. When he reached her, she turned to him, putting her hands on her hips and smiling while she looked at him with mock suspicion.
"What?" he said laughing, putting his hands up. "Father Christmas did it, not me!" She jumped at him, throwing her arms around his neck and hugged him tight.
"Happy Christmas, Georgie," he said into her neck, hugging her back. She pulled away to look at him, her face glowing.
"It is a happy Christmas, isn't it?" she said wistfully. The she let go of him and knelt in front of the tree, looking at the presents and he knelt down to join her.
"This one is from me to you," he said, pointing to the rolled up song tied with the t-shirt ribbon. "And this one is for both of us to share," he said, pointing to a big box of chocolates.
She was silent for a few minutes and then said quietly, "There's no present for you."
"I have one – I share it with you," he said gently.
"But there's no present from me for you," she said, suddenly sounding sad.
"Georgie, it's alright. I have you for my present, yeah?" he said quietly, putting his arm around her.
She wiped her eyes quickly with her fingers, and said firmly, "We're not opening presents until there's one under the tree for you from me." He didn't know what to think. Maybe she planned on putting something together.
"Alright, we'll wait," he said, rubbing her arm. This was Georgie's day, and they were going to do whatever she wanted.
She went to do her run and he went to his room. He got a pair of pajama bottoms and a white t-shirt and took them to Georgie's room, laying them on her bed. Then he went to the kitchen and started cooking their Christmas breakfast of sausages, scrambled eggs, toast, coffee for her, and tea for himself.
He wasn't surprised when she showed up later, still dressed in her work out clothes, carrying the pajamas he'd laid on her bed.
"What are these for?" she asked.
"Since it's just the two of us together on Christmas day, we're going to be lazy and wear pajamas all day," he explained.
Then he walked up and hugged her, saying with a smile, "I'm dying to see you in pants, Georgie."
She laughed and said, "Okay." She pulled away to leave, but he held on.
"I want your hair down too," he said, more seriously than he'd intended.
She nodded slowly, looking at him with her intense gaze, saying quietly, "Okay, Robert," and kissed him before she left, leaving him to finish making their breakfast.
When she was dressed, she came back to the kitchen and said, "Well, what do you think?"
He turned around and she twirled in a very graceful ballet-like way. She looked adorable with her hair down in the oversized t-shirt and pajama bottoms with the legs rolled up a little.
"You look beautiful!"
"Really? Wearing this?" she asked, laughing.
"Yeah, Georgie." he said, walking up to her so he could hug her. "Y'know I think you're beautiful, yeah? It doesn't matter what you wear," he said. She was glowing when she kissed him.
He asked her to start a fire in the fireplace, then they carried their plates and steaming mugs to the sitting room so they could eat sitting on the rug in front of the fire. While they ate, he couldn't get over how Georgie looked in regular clothes with her hair down. Seeing her dressed like that, he could imagine they were far away from this horrible place – just a young couple having their first Christmas together in their pajamas.
When they were nearly finished with their breakfast, Georgie said, "My family came to see me again last night."
Robert looked up at her suddenly, pushing his hair out of his eyes. She continued eating as if she hadn't said anything unusual. He tried not to let it bother him that this was normal for her, that she really believed her dead family visited her.
"Right. You didn't have a nightmare last night," he said, trying to sound normal.
She smiled at him, saying, "I remember, I got up and said, 'This is Robert. Isn't he beautiful?' Since you were with me, they could see you." It made him sad to hear her talking like this.
"They told me how happy they were for me – that I had you, I mean," she continued while she ate. He stayed silent, hoping this was the end of the conversation.
After a few minutes she said, "Frankie was different this time. Usually she's just like I remember – thirteen, you know? But last night she was older than me again. I can't remember how she looked but I just knew she was older."
"That's strange," he said, and he could hear the tension in his voice.
She didn't seem to notice and continued. "And she was telling me things about you. She talked to me a long time about you."
Robert was getting more uncomfortable by the minute. He hoped this wasn't a sign that Georgie had more serious problems with her mental health than he already suspected she had.
"I can't remember most of what she said, but I do remember she said I should trust you." That surprised him. Was Georgie not sure about him?
"Do you trust me?" he asked.
She looked at him with her intense gaze and said fervently, as if she were swearing an oath, "One hundred percent!"
He smiled and leaned towards her, rubbing her upper arm. "Well, I trust you one hundred percent too," and she smiled back at him. She was finished eating and moved so she could lean against the couch to watch the fire while she drank her coffee.
Robert was about to take a bite of toast, when Georgie said, "She wanted me to tell you something." He froze with the toast almost to his mouth.
"What?" he asked faintly, blinking as he looked at her.
Still looking into the fire, she said, "Frankie wanted me to tell you something. She said it over and over like she didn't want me to forget. I guess it's a good thing because I forgot so much of what she said."
Then Georgie looked at him intensely with her blue eyes. "She said, 'Tell him – whatever it takes, whatever it takes, whatever it takes. Tell him – whatever it takes.' She kept saying that over and over again."
Robert felt every hair stand on end – and he was suddenly finding it difficult to breathe.
Seeing the expression on his face, Georgie said, "I know, right? It's so random."
He put the toast he'd been holding back on his plate and concentrated on taking slow, steady breaths. There was no way for Georgie to know he'd been telling himself that same thing over and over like a mantra for the last week. Hearing those words put him right in the dark place he'd been trying to avoid by saying it. He didn't want to think about what was coming tomorrow, but images of every terrible thing that might happen, suddenly filled his mind.
The bastard could just say 'no', which would mean he was certain to lose Georgie forever. He didn't know what evil thing he'd be told he'd have to do to buy her freedom. Or if the bastard would say 'yes' to get him to do something terrible and then double cross him. There was the possibility he'd break his word, do something horrible to Georgie as punishment, making Robert watch before he forced him to leave. Anything could happen.
He fought to push the images out of his head, but he couldn't. Then he thought about the fact that Georgie's dead sister was repeating his own words back to him. The tears were coming and he wasn't going to be able to stop them. He turned his back to her before he started sobbing.
"Robert, what's wrong? What's wrong?" Georgie asked with alarm as she crawled to face him.
"It's too much, Georgie! It's too much!" he sobbed.
She climbed in his lap and he held her tightly while he cried into her shoulder. She held onto him just as tight, making shushing noises. The longer he cried, the more he realized how much stress he'd been under since he'd asked the bastard for her freedom. He hadn't allowed himself to acknowledge the fear – maybe terror would be more accurate – that had been in the back of his mind all day long, every day since the meeting.
He struggled to stop crying. He didn't want to do this to her today. He could hear her murmuring to him in French. He concentrated on the words to distract himself, trying to recognize any of them from his one year of French class, but he couldn't.
When he had control over himself, he let go of her and quickly wiped his face with his shirt sleeves, saying, "I'm sorry, Georgie. I wanted today to be special for you."
She put her hands on his cheeks and looked at him intensely. "It is special, Robert! You couldn't make it more special for me! It's okay to feel sad, even on a happy day," she said.
God, she was so wonderful. He pulled her to him for a tight hug. After he let her go, he said, "You're right," as cheerily as he could manage, and tried to look happy when he smiled.
Then he had them move over to the couch so they could lean against it and watch the fire together. He put his arm around her and drank his tea, concentrating on being in the moment with her until he'd managed to push the darkness away completely. After a while, he got up and started picking up the dishes to take them to the kitchen.
Georgie stopped him, saying, "Why don't you go work out and I'll clean up."
"Absolutely not! You're not to do any cleaning today, and I'm not working out either. I want to spend every minute of today with you," he said firmly.
She put her hand on his arm and looked at him intensely. "I think you should go work out. It will make you feel better," she said with meaning. He was about to refuse, but then he realized she wanted time alone.
"Alright, you can take the dishes to the kitchen, but you're not to wash them, yeah? I'm telling you. You don't clean today."
She kissed him, and said soberly, "Okay, Robert."
He went to change into his work out clothes and when he came back, the sitting room was cleaned up and Georgie's bedroom door was closed. When he'd finished working out, he couldn't help looking under the tree on his way to his bedroom, but there were still two presents underneath it and Georgie's door was closed. He took his time bathing and dressed back in his pajamas.
When he went back into the sitting room, Georgie was sitting on the couch with a huge grin on her face. He looked under the tree and saw a small present wrapped in the same paper he had used for her song. It was square and nearly flat, tied with a small, light colored bow that looked like string.
"What's this?" he asked dramatically.
She jumped up to join him, saying, "Santa Claus brought you something!" making him laugh.
She hugged him around the neck. "Merry Christmas, Robert!"
He couldn't help saying, "It is a merry Christmas, innit?"
"Let's open presents, okay?" she said ecstatically, letting go and practically jumping with excitement.
"Alright!"
She reached down and picked up the present for him. She looked at it for a minute, suddenly serious, then handed it to him.
"This is for you, Robert," she said quietly, tearing up a little. He took it from her. It weighed almost nothing.
He picked up the song and looked at it for a moment. He felt himself tearing up a little too when he thought of what he'd put in it, what the words meant.
He handed it to her, saying, "This is for you, Georgie." She accepted it reverently. They looked at each other, both of them fighting tears.
To break the mood, Robert picked up the box of chocolates, saying, "Let's open this one first, yeah?"
They sat on the couch and Georgie opened it. He let her look at the perfect shiny chocolates in silence. After a minute, she lifted the box so she could smell them even though the whole room smelled like chocolate by then. He'd deliberately asked for a brand of boxed chocolates that had no filling. He knew it'd been years since she'd had any and he wanted her to get to enjoy the chocolate without anything else getting in the way of the flavor.
"I say we each eat one piece a day," he said quietly. She could only nod while she looked at them.
"Take one, Georgie. Try one right now," he encouraged.
She carefully chose one and examined it before she took a bite, then closed her eyes like she was tasting heaven. He watched her eat it slowly, taking her time. When she was finally finished, she looked at him and smiled. He knew that smile, it usually came after sex.
"Now you, Robert," she said quietly.
He wasn't going to, but since she'd asked he took one and bit into it. It was really good chocolate. He'd chosen well for her. He didn't take as much time as she did, and was soon finished. He closed the box and set it aside.
Now it was time for the other presents. Neither of them said anything for a few minutes while they looked at their presents. Robert wondered what his could be and Georgie seemed to be doing the same thing.
"Who should go first?" she asked quietly.
"Dunno."
They were silent for a few more minutes. Robert wondered if he wasn't anxious for Georgie to open hers since he knew how emotional it was going to be for both of them.
"Shall I go first?" he asked her. She nodded, suddenly looking like she might cry.
The present had been tied with a bit of sewing thread she'd knotted somehow to make it more substantial. The bow untied easily and he pulled it off, making sure the paper didn't open, wanting to take his time. He lifted the folds one at a time until it was opened and looked at his present with shock.
It was an intricately woven dark brown and pale grey bracelet with a button on one end and a loop on the other end to close it. This was not something she'd put together while he was running and bathing. It looked like it had taken at least a week to make, maybe longer. Even though she'd made it by hand, he could tell she'd been careful to weave it tightly to make sure it would hold up and last a long time.
Before he could say anything, she said, "There's a story with this," and he could tell she was crying. He couldn't look at her, keeping his eyes on the bracelet.
"Do you remember I told you how mom would take me and Frankie to the museums in Chicago?" He nodded, unable to speak.
She continued, "One of my favorite things to look at was the jewelry and mom would tell us about some of them and the stories behind them. She told us how back when people didn't have photographs like we do now, they would make jewelry as a gift so that the person who got it would have something to remember them by."
She paused and took a deep breath to steady herself. "Like a girl might make jewelry using her hair, and give it to the boy she loved so he could have a part of her with him no matter where he was."
He looked at her suddenly, and then looked at the bracelet more carefully. Now he could clearly see, she'd used tiny sections of her hair in the weaving, and the grey was multiple pieces of sewing thread held together and woven with the hair. The button looked like it might be from one of her skirts.
"Georgie, it's brilliant," he managed to say before he was overcome with emotion, and pulled her into tight hug.
When he'd recovered enough to let go, she said, "I was saving this for when it was time for you to leave, but –," then stopped, unable to say more.
He managed to choke out, "Cheers, Georgie," before his throat closed up.
He handed the bracelet to her to put on his wrist because he couldn't ask her. She must have been secretly measuring him because it fit perfectly. He held his arm out and they admired it for a few minutes.
Then she said firmly, "You can't let him see it. He mustn't know you have this. But for today, it's okay for you to wear it. I think I've figured out a way for you to sneak it out when you leave."
"It's beautiful, Georgie. I'll wear it all the time," he said, overcome with emotion and pulling her to him for a tight hug.
After a few minutes, she suddenly laughed against his chest and he let go of her. She was smiling through her tears when she said, "Frankie thought the hair jewelry was disgusting but I always thought it was romantic."
He laughed with her. It was just what they needed to break the tension. He felt he was ready for her to open her present.
****
I did not purposely plan for Chapter 25 to be the beginning chapter of Robert and Georgie's Christmas celebration. Total coincidence! I have to say that the two Christmas chapters hold a special place in my heart. They show how much things have changed between Robert and Georgie since their early days as a couple and I think they are some of my best writing in the story. And how incredibly wonderful is Robert? I won't keep you so you can finish up Christmas day.
Please vote and comment if you enjoyed this chapter!