Feels Like Home

Christmas morning came quickly and brightly. Billie Joe sat on the couch in a sleepy daze with a wrapping bow in his hair as Sydney played with her new doll and kitten on his lap. Sydney decided to name the kitten 'Cork' for no apparent reason.

Even after all the excitement of the previous night, Joey and Sydney showed no signs of distress or trauma. Instead, they laughed and played as if nothing had happened. The adults, however,
had an air of foreboding around them, as if they were waiting on something else terrible to happen.

Gloria, Billie Joe, and Adrienne had stayed up until the wee hours of the morning fixing the Christmas tree presents and decorations, along with talking about David and what happened. Adrienne was deathly afraid that he would try to take Joey and Sydney away from her but Billie Joe had to be optimistic for her and assure it would never happen.

Adrienne sat in the floor with Joey amid a sea of shredded wrapping paper. Adrienne looked over her shoulder to find Billie Joe nodding asleep while Sydney was talking to him as she brushed her doll's hair. Only feeling slightly sorry for him to come off of touring and a night of problems to spend an early Christmas morning with them, Adrienne wadded a ball of wrapping paper up and threw it at him.

It hit Billie Joe in the side of the nose. Billie Joe jumped from the surprise contact and from slight pain as it hit the bruised area of his nose from where David hit him the night before.

"Wake up California boy It's Christmas." Adrienne shouted as she ran over and jumped onto the seat next to him.

"What the fu...stuff." Billie Joe mumbled as he remembered Sydney was sitting with him. She got up and ran after her kitten who was chasing after the ball of paper flying around the room.

Billie Joe gave a small moan as he closed his eyes and leaned his head back again. "You are a bitch sometimes."

Adrienne lightly hit his arm and leaned up against him so her head was on his shoulder. "Yeah, but you like it."

"You know I do." Billie Joe mumbled, his eyes still closed but a smirk smearing across his face as he put a hand on her leg.

"Mmm hmm." Adrienne kissed him. "And I love you."

"I love you too." Billie Joe cracked open his eyes. "Wait a minute, we're missing a present."

Adrienne quickly scanned the room with her mom-vision calculating the gifts. "No we're not."

"Yes we are," Billie Joe insisted. "It was for you. Joey, look for a little black box with a gold ribbon on it."

Joey eagerly dived into the wrapping paper under the tree looking for the elusive box Billie Joe described for him.

"What is it?" Adrienne gave Billie Joe a curious look.

"You'll see." Billie Joe sang softly as he laid his head back on the couch and closed his eyes again. His smirk was wider as he left Adrienne wondering.

"I found it " Joey yelled as he crawled his way to them on the couch, the box lifted high in the air. He put it in his mom's lap and sat on her other side. "Open it Mom."

Adrienne looked at the small box with curiosity. She held it up to her ear and shook it. It rattled loudly. Her eyebrows furrowing, Adrienne gently began to undo the gold ribbon slowly.

"Will you hurry up." Billie Joe snapped. He was tired of Adrienne purposefully going painfully slow to torture him.

"Patience is a virtue Billie Joe." Adrienne reminded him as she pulled the top of the box off and pulled a layer of cotton away to find a set of car keys. Her mouth parted slightly as she held the keys up. "Billie Joe," She gasped. "You didn't." She looked at him with bright eyes.

"Yeah I did." Billie Joe drawled. "I was tired of your old car messing up so," He looked towards the door and Adrienne quickly darted to it and flung it open.

"Oh my God you did " Adrienne screamed as a new black BMW SUV was parked in their driveway. Adrienne ran outside in the deep snow, not caring that she didn't have on a coat or shoes and sat in the driver's seat of her car and examined it with all it's entirety. "I can't believe you did this Oh Billie Joe, this was too much." She leaned out the open door and kissed him.

Billie Joe, who at least had the sense to put on a pair of unlaced shoes and a coat, accepted the kiss with a slight laugh. "Nothing is too much for you Adie. You deserve the best and I'm going to give it to you."

Adrienne continued to look at the interior of her new car when Joey ran outside, the cordless phone in his hand. "Joseph Marciano " Adrienne yelled. "Don't come out here without a coat or shoes on "

Billie Joe was taken aback by Joey's name. "You're one to talk." Billie Joe muttered nonchalantly to her about her attire, or lack thereof, as she gave him a look telling him to be quiet.

Joey was all ready by them. "But Mom The phone's for you." He held out the phone, his little body all ready shaking from the cold.

Adrienne took the phone as Billie Joe picked Joey up and headed into the house. Adrienne stayed inside the car to take the call. "Hello."
"On January tenth, I'm taking you to court to get the kids back." David's voice sneered through the receiver. "Leave the freak show at the carnival."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Billie Joe, could you turn that eye down?" Adrienne asked as she washed some vegetables in the sink.

"Yeah." Billie Joe turned the eye down as he continued to saute vegetables in a skillet.

They were trying to fix some sort of Christmas dinner with the help of Gloria before Adrienne's brothers came in just a bit. There was a turkey in the oven and an array of side dishes fixing or cooling all over the kitchen.
"Uh, Adie baby," Billie Joe started off softly. He didn't want to bring Gloria into their conversation.

"Oh no, you burned them." Adrienne gasped, referring to the vegetables.

"No, no." Billie Joe tossed some vegetables in the skillet. "My sauteed vegetables are always awesome. But, uh, about Joey's name." He looked at her, cutting to the chase.

"I know." Adrienne nudged him with her hips so he would move over so she could check the oven things. "David never knew that Marciano was your father's name. He just thought I heard it on TV and liked it." She stood next to him and stirred potatoes.

"Why?" Billie Joe dumped the vegetables into a dish with other ingredients and he began to mix them according to the recipe in front of him.
"Why did I name him that? Because I wanted you near one way or the other. So I named my son after you and your father. I know I didn't really have any right to do that, but I didn't want to name him anything else." Adrienne didn't meet Billie Joe's eyes as she pulled the bread from the oven.

"Yes you did." Billie Joe insisted as Joey flew by the kitchen chasing Cork. "You knew we would be together again. You were just preparing."
"So you're not mad?"

"No. Why would I be mad?" He put the vegetable dish into the oven. "I love Joey like he's mine and in a sense you gave me permission to be a father to him by giving him a family name of mine."

Adrienne just nodded in agreement as the door opened and her older brother Allen burst in with his wife and children.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"So it wasn't a dog?" Steve Nesser looked around the laughing table with a confused expression. Steve was Adrienne's younger brother. He was a professional skateboarder. His girlfriend Ava sat next to him, trying to compose her laughter. Steve looked around again. "I'm serious. It wasn't a dog? Then what was it?"

Billie Joe leaned back in his chair and laughed. Steve could be so easily confused. It felt wonderful just sitting at the table laughing and having a good time. Adrienne had her hand on his thigh under the table and one his hands was intertwined with it. The other held onto a nearly empty wineglass.

"No dear, it wasn't a dog." Gloria said calmly as she spooned some more food onto her plate. "Billie Joe, do you want anymore?"

"Uh, no. No thanks Gloria." Billie Joe replied. Maybe it was the wine Billie Joe brought with him or the Christmas spirit, but Gloria was being overly kind and nice to Billie Joe and he didn't understand why.

"Look over there at Joey." Adrienne whispered as the other table occupants continued with tales of the past.

Billie Joe craned his neck so he could see out of the small dining room into the kitchen where all the kids were. Joey was looking miserable at a table full of little giggling girls. Allen and his wife Marcia had two daughters who were seven and five. Adding Sydney made Joey the obvious minority of the kiddie table.

"Poor guy." Billie Joe said as Joey propped his cheek on his fist. "Don't worry, it happens to the best of us."

Adrienne giggled as she took a sip of her wine. "So we're going to California tomorrow and then to Vegas?"
"Vegas?" Steve hadn't been paying to any conversation, but he heard the word 'Vegas' clearly. "Who's going to Vegas? I want to go to Vegas."

The flow of conversation came to a stop as five pairs of eyes set on Billie Joe and Adrienne.

"Vegas?" Gloria repeated. "Why would you be going to Las Vegas?"

"We have a show on New Years there and I wanted Adrienne and the kids to come with me." Billie Joe scratched his ear nervously. It was something about four pairs of Nesser eyes watching him, waiting for him to screw up.

"Oh, cool. I wanna go." Steve said as he took the last drink of his wine.

"Whatever. If you want to come, come." Billie Joe rubbed his neck. It was getting oddly hot in the room and he felt smothered.

"Adrienne?" Gloria looked at her daughter expectantly.

"Mother?" Adrienne challenged. There was not a smile on Adrienne's face anymore. Instead, it was hard and cold as she waited for her mother's response.

Gloria pursed her lips into a tight white line. "Nothing. Have fun. Excuse me." She left the table and went into the kitchen where the kids were.

Steve shrugged as Allen shook his head in a disappointed manner of his mother's and Adrienne's behavior.

"Adrienne," He started.

"Don't Allen." Adrienne held up her hand. "Don't even start."

"Leave her alone Allen." Steve said, trying to lighten the mood. "She's going to Vegas, let her have some fun in Sin City. Just don't do anything overly stupid," He pointed his finger at her and then at himself "Without me."