Christmas Eve, 2017

Rita was placing the gifts she had gotten for Iain and Ruby under the Christmas tree in her living room. Ruby was 1 and a half now so she still didn't fully understand the concept of presents, and Rita guessed she wouldn't be able to unwrap them very well, so she'd used tissue paper to wrap her daughter's presents.

It was a little after lunchtime on Christmas Eve and Rita couldn't wait for her daughter to have her first real Christmas, since she had been too small to interact with anyone or anything the previous year.

Ruby had been growing used to the tree in the middle of the living room, and barely took notice of the colourful boxes and shapes underneath, but she was still curious as to why her mother insisted on these new decorations.

The following day Iain would come over at around 10 o'clock and exchange presents with Rita and Ruby before leaving to start a shift at 2pm, after he'd eaten lunch with the family. Rita and Iain had managed to find the perfect balance as friends and parents, as well as colleagues, over time since Ruby had been born.

"Mama." Said Ruby, from the floor at the other side of the room.

Rita turned to watch her daughter as she held onto the edge of the sofa and pulled herself up before letting go of the sofa. Rita smiled encouragingly, as her daughter had been standing alone for the past couple of months. Then she watched as Ruby did something Rita had never witnessed her do previously; she lifted a leg and put it back down in front of her, managing to take 3 tiny steps before falling onto her bum.

"Ruby!" Rita shouted excitedly, running over to the now-toddler and picking her up. "You're so clever."

The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to teach Ruby to walk and playing with the toys she had piled up in the playroom. Rita thought she ought to donate the toys that she knew Ruby never used, especially since she would be getting twice as many at Christmas, but she pushed the thought to one side because she knew she wouldn't get it done with Ruby awake.

Christmas Day

Ruby slept through the night and eventually Rita had to wake her up before Iain arrived.

"Daddy!" The child called excitedly, crawling quickly towards Iain the moment he stepped through the door.

"Hi Ruby. Hey Reets." Iain said, picking up the young girl and passing Rita a bottle of non-alcoholic wine. "I didn't want to show up without contributing to lunch, but I still don't know what you're making us."

"Well, you'll have to wait and see." Rita replied, taking the bottle into the kitchen. "Do you want a glass now?"

"Yeah, go on then." Iain replied, bouncing Ruby on his hip.

The 3 made their way into the living room, Iain dropping a big red sack on the floor besides the tree. "Who are you, Santa?" Rita quipped.

"You haven't opened anything without me, then." Iain motioned towards the pile of presents under the tree.

"We couldn't start the party without Santa. Anyway, she's only been awake about 10 minutes." Rita replied.

"Can sleep for England, just like her dad." Iain smirked.

Iain and Rita chatted for a bit until Iain announced that it was definitely present time. Iain had a stack of presents for Rita, and another for Ruby, and he pulled each neatly wrapped shape out one at a time. Each family member unwrapped their presents, Rita helping Ruby when she tried to open her presents from Iain.

"Lunch will be about half an hour, I'm just putting it in the oven now." Rita said, getting up to leave the room. When she returned she told Iain that Ruby had something to show him.

Rita then helped Ruby to her feet and made sure she was stable before shuffling backwards less than a meter. "Come on the baby girl."

Slowly Ruby took a few steps, reaching out to her mother, as Iain watched in awe. The young girl made it over to Rita just before she fell.

"Wow! That was amazing Ruby." Iain was very excited, and so was Rita. Ruby looked incredibly proud of herself, and she loved all the attention and praise that she received every time she walked.

Once the family had finished their lunch of Rita's homemade lasagna it was time for Iain to leave for work, offering to work some of Christmas Day so that Sam could have some time off as well.

"Thank you so much for a wonderful morning you two, and well done for all that walking Ruby, keep it up." Iain said, taking his bag and coat. "I'll see you both in the new year."

So this is the last chapter, since I have nowhere else to go with the story and I never intended for it to be long anyway. I just want to thank everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, and favourited this story along the way. I appreciate all of you.

I wrote this on Halloween, despite it being a Christmas story, but my wi-fi was down and I'm trying to stick to a new timetable so I've been really busy.

Also, if any of you follow Losing Grace I'm sorry to say that I have stopped writing that for good now because, even though I had more chapter ideas, I'm not enjoying writing it anymore.