Author's Note: See Part 1 for synopsis. Please be kind and send me feedback (I would send it to you!) [email protected]

"Mommy, wake up!!!!" Tim screams running into Andie and Pacey's room and jumping on their bed. "Time to open presents."

Andie bolts up in bed. "Tim!!!" She yells at him. She elbows Pacey.

"What?" Pacey asks half asleep. "Not now, Andie, I'm tired."

Andie rolls her eyes. "Pacey, explain to your son that it is 3 AM. Further more, it isn't even Christmas! It is Christmas Eve! Tomorrow is Christmas!" Andie explains angrily.

"You heard the woman." Pacey tells Tim, and rolls over.

"It's not Christmas?!" Tim asks.

"No!" Pacey and Andie yell in unison.

"Are you sure?" Tim asks skeptically.

"Timothy Richard Witter, do you want to wake up Aunt Joey and Uncle Dawson?! Get back to bed right now!" Andie reprimands.

Tim hops off the bed and scurries out of the room. Andie lays back down and closes her eyes. "You have to admit, it was kind of funny." Pacey tells her, still half asleep.

Andie sits up and hits him over the head with her pillow.

"It's not Christmas." Tim tells Taylor, miffed, once he gets back in his room.

"I told you!" Taylor tells him.

"Are you guys okay in here?" Dawson ask walking into the boys' room.

"Tim thought it was Christmas." Taylor explains to his father.

Dawson's face breaks into a smile. "You did?"

"Yes!" Tim says climbing back under his covers. "I woke up my mom and dad and they were mad."

Dawson laughs to himself picturing Andie freaking out. "I know, I couldn't sleep and I heard a bunch of yelling so I came in here to check things out. It's only Christmas Eve." Dawson tells him.

"I know that now." Tim says solemnly.

"Dad, we didn't wake mommy up, did we?" Taylor asks concerned. He knew Joey was always tired.

"No." Dawson tells him. Dawson looks down to the bottom bunk and sees Tim has fallen asleep. "Taylor, we have to talk. About mommy." He tells him. "You know how you didn't want mommy to go out tonight?" Taylor nods and climbs down the ladder of the bunk bed and Dawson carries him over to an arm chair in the corner of the room. "Taylor, you know that mommy is sick. Mommy's very sick. And you know that the medicines they gave her didn't work, right?" Taylor nods. "Well, soon mommy is gonna get sicker and the doctors can't give her any medicine to make it better. And an angel, just like Grandma, is gonna come down, and bring her up to heaven. And mommy is gonna watch over us, and protect us. And it will just be you and me."

Taylor looks upset. "Will she come back?"

Dawson shakes his head. "She'll always be with us, but we won't be able to see her. And she won't hurt anymore, or get sick, or cry."

"What about me and you?" He asks, having trouble comprehending all that Dawson is telling him.

Dawson was having a hard time too. He couldn't cry like he wanted too, he had to be strong for his son. But it was so hard to tell a four year old his mother would be dead in a matter of months or even weeks. "We'll have to stick together. And mommy will protect us from heaven."

"But I want mommy here, I want mommy with me!" Taylor starts to cry.

"Taylor," Dawson tells him. "It's okay to cry, but we have to think about mommy. We don't mommy to hurt anymore, right?"

Taylor is silent for a minute. He wraps his arms around Dawson's neck. "Right." He whispers.

On to Part 12