If your heart stops beating

**Author's Note: Wow, the story is going on for longer than I thought it would. I thought it was going to be over by Chapter 30, but there's much more yet to come. I know how it's going to end, and it will probably conclude in the next 10 chapters, but I may do a sequel. Happy Reading!**

~*Jamia’s Point of view*~

I was woken up by the sound of yelling.
“It’s CHRIIISTMAAAS!”
I groaned.
“Frank, go deal with your kid.”
No reply. I rolled over. Frank was sound asleep.
“Frank!”
“What?”
He blinked, taking a moment to focus on my face.
“Go make Alec shut up.”
“Mfff... You’re grouchy.”
“It’s 6 o’clock!”
“It’s Christmas... Hey!”
He sat bolt upright.
“It’s Christmas!”
“Duh.”
He bounced out of bed.
“It’s Christmas! Get up, Jamia. I got you a present.”
“I would break your face if you didn’t.”
“Ha ha, my sweet little angel. Come on, get up.”
I rolled over, swinging my legs onto the floor and standing up. I felt the baby move inside me and smiled. Due in less than four months...
“Alec!”
Frank ran out, satisfied that I was up.
“What are you doing up at this unearthly hour?”
As I followed Frank slowly, I heard Alec’s voice, obviously surprised.
“It’s Christmas...”
I reached the door of the living room and leaned on the doorpost, watching Frank pick Alec up and swing him over his shoulder.
“Merry Christmas, Alec.”
“Merry Christmas Frank. Put me down.”
Frank laughed and obliged, setting Alec down right next to the Christmas tree.
“Hey Jamia!”
“Hey Alec.”
“Merry Christmas Jamia!”
“Merry Christmas Alec.”
“I’ve eaten all the chocolate in my stocking and I’m high Jamia!”
“I can see that Alec.”
Frank grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the couch, forcing me down onto it and sitting down next to me.
“Alec!”
“Yeah?”
“Play Santa for us.”
Alec grinned and picked up the nearest present.
“This one’s foooor... Frank from Mikey and Bob.”
Frank took the box and opened it, sliding off the lid slightly to see what was inside before jumping up and running out of the room, returning a minute later without the box. As he sat back down beside me I raised an eyebrow.
“Care to explain what that was all about?”
“Um... Something roughly equating to about a year’s supply of skittles.”
I shook my head sadly.
“You, Frank, have an unhealthy addiction.”
“Not unhealthy! Just... unnatural.”
“Jamia! This one’s for you. From Mikey and Bob.”
I opened the small floppy present that Alec handed me. A t-shirt. Brilliant. I held it up, reading the writing.
“I’m married to stupid.”
I turned it over.
“Ah, Frank, it’s got one of our wedding photos on it!”
Frank groaned.
“They just had to, didn’t they?”
Alec giggled. Frank scooted off the couch and down onto the floor beside Alec, inspecting the presents at the base of the tree.
“Oh here we go Alec, this one’s for you. From Katie.”
Alec ripped off the wrapping paper.
“It’s a DVD.”
He opened the case and read the label, then looked up, eyes glittering.
“It’s Katie’s first ballet concert!”
“What?”
Frank leaned over him and peered at the disk.
“Holy crap, she’s dancing on a fucking stage!”
Alec giggled.
“Okay, I’m gonna be watching this later. Your boy is going to spend Christmas Day watching ballet, now you know there’s something wrong with him.”
Frank laughed and reached for another box.

***

“Frank! Get your fucking ass out here and open the door!”
Frank skidded through the kitchen as the doorbell rang again.
“They’re heeere!”
He flung open the door.
“Hey guys!”
In came Gerard, Mikey, Bob and Ray. I beamed at them as I turned off the oven.
“Just in time, lunch is served. Alec, get the plates off the fire.”
Alec grabbed the oven mitt and ran into the lounge to get the plates that were warming on top of the fireplace. Five minutes later everything was in place. Ray sniffed appreciatively.
“Smells good, Jamia. You did all this by yourself?”
“What, don’t you think I’m capable?”
“No, no, I didn’t mean-”
I laughed.
“Alec helped. Frank was too busy doing meaningless stuff, taking care of himself and leaving his poor overworked wife and little boy to do all the work.”
“Overworked, my ass. You lie around all day.”
“I’m pregnant, asshole. Everything is tiring when you’re pregnant. When you’re pregnant you need a lot of rest.”
Frank blinked.
“How tiring can it be to sit around all day reading women’s gossip magazines?”
Alec laughed and immediately choked. Ray banged him on the back while he coughed and spluttered, finally taking a huge mouthful of water in an attempt to wash down whatever it was that had gotten stuck. Then, crisis over, he put his head on the table beside his plate and breathed deeply for a moment, straightening up red in the face and grinning.
“Well that was interesting, wasn’t it? Thanks, Ray.”
Ray laughed, clapping him on the back again.
“Don’t die on Christmas, Alec. It would spoil it for everyone else. Ooh, evil eye, evil eye!”
Alec aimed a punch at Ray’s shoulder amid the ensuing laughter.

~*Frank’s Point of view*~

“What ya doing, boy?”
Alec looked up.
“Katie,” he said simply.
I sat down beside him to watch. About 20 little girls of about nine or ten were dressed in light blue leotards, with blue streamers flowing from their shoulders and fingers. They were all wearing skirts of the same blue strips. The dance seemed to involve a lot of finger-wiggling.
“What are they?”
“They’re rain. The concert theme is the four seasons, and this is spring. See that one there?” He pointed to one of the shorter girls, in the middle.
“Yeah?”
“That’s Katie. She said she got a special part at the end of the dance.”
Sure enough, the dance was ending, the rain drops were taking their final pose, and girls in yellow sunbeam suits were taking the stage. As all the little rain drops scattered, one was left in the middle, spinning round and round with her hands on her face in mock horror as the sunbeams closed in on her. Then she ran through a gap at the front, down to the front of the stage, spun around a few more times and ran off after the other rain drops. Alec laughed.
“They always over-act so much. So much spinning and... Finger wiggling.”
I nodded. Alec leaned forward and pressed the fast forward button.
“She’s on next in autumn. She’s a leaf, apparently. Did I tell you she’s taking contemporary classes? Yeah, she says there’s a lot more freedom in the dance. That’s what the leaf dance is.”
He pressed play as we reached autumn, and little brown, orange and red leaves came on to take the place of the tiny five-year-olds who had been playing flowers. I could see right away that the dancing was completely different. The leaves didn’t run on in straight lines with everybody the same, they jumped and rolled. I looked at Alec, and he grinned.
“They actually look like leaves.”
I nodded and fixed my attention back on the screen. The leaves were still jumping all over the place.
“Ooh, see, there’s Katie!”
I looked where Alec pointed. The leaves were in a tight clump in the centre of the stage, and as we watched one of the little ones was lifted up by two bigger girls who looked about 14.
“That’s her, that’s her!”
As we watched, Katie spread her arms and held her pose for a few seconds before falling forward to be caught by the other leaves.
Alec and I blinked, staring at each other.
“And she’s been dancing how long?”
Alec shrugged.
“She always used to dance in her bedroom. Since she was about... well, pretty much ever since she could walk. Mum never cared and Dad didn’t know anything about dancing, so she never got lessons.”
He grinned.
“She used to borrow me for lifts and stuff. And she used to get me to lift her legs up over her head and hold them there until it hurt. She’s going to go to England when she’s eleven to stay at that dancing school... White Lodge I think. Yeah, White Lodge. She’s serious about ballet, she’s going to be famous.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Hell yeah. It’s all she’s ever talked about, pretty much. She reads all the ballet books she can find, so she’s a walking encyclopaedia about everything even remotely dance-related. She says she’s not going to wear high heels cause it wrecks your posture, and she’s not going to eat a lot of junk food, cause you can’t dance if you’re fat, but she’s not going to be anorexic either, because then you never have any energy.”
I laughed.
“You seem to know an awful lot about the subject.”
“Yeah, well, I lived with her for seven years.”
He grinned and returned to watching the DVD.