Forgotten

**Christmas Eve**

ROBBIE'S POV.

"Come on Cassie, go to bed, or Santa won't come at all!" I pleaded, Cassie wouldn't go to sleep, she was too excited about tomorrow.

"But there's no chimney! How does he get in?"

"Through the letterbox," said Josh with a smirk.

"No silly! He's too big!" giggled Cassie.

"No he's not! He's magic! He gets all around the whole world in one night and gives everyone their presents!"

"But how?"

"You ask too many questions," laughed Ray as he got up to leave. He had been hanging out here a lot, but I mean, I'm not complaining, he's cool.

"I don't! Fluffy fluffy!" cried Cassie, jumping up onto the arm of the couch so she could reach Ray's hair and ruffle it up. He sighed and bowed his head so she could reach. She grabbed handfuls of the springy curls and squealed with delight. Ray laughed and picked her up, resting her on his hip.

"You know kiddo, Santa is on his way right now, with an elf."

"Really?" she asked, awestruck.

"Yep. I know, because he told me."

"You talked to Santa!?"

"I did. He said Cassie has been a good girl this year and she gets lots of presents."

"Ray! Come on! I need to try and get her to go to sleep now!" said Dad, walking into the room but smiling as he told Ray off.

"Aww sorry Dude, but Santa gave me a call earlier and said he would be paying a visit to a very special little girl, right about..." the doorbell rang and Cassie's face lit up. "Now," said Ray, setting her down and going to answer it. Dad looked confused.

"Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!" came a slightly familiar voice from the hallway. Cassie ran out of the room and Dad walked out after her. I looked at Josh and he looked at me. We both got up and sprinted to see what was going on.

"SANTA!" screamed Cassie, jumping on the figure in the hallway. I have to say, it looked pretty convincing. It was obviously Mikey, but she wouldn't notice because she's too young. He had the hat and the fake beard and the full outfit, complete with fake big belly. He also had an elf, by way of Frank. I smirked when I saw him and he shot me a 'If you say anything, I will make you regret it', look.

"So Cassie, have you been a good girl this year?" askedMikey Santa.

She nodded vigorously.

"Well I've been checking my list and somebody hasn't been a good boy this year," said 'Santa' looking at me. Everyone laughed.

"Hey!" I cried indignantly.

"Oh no, no, I've just checked my list twice, you have been a good boy this year, you just need to get that thing out of your hair." Dad and Ray laughed.

"I like it."

"I don't," said Dad, ruffling up my black and blond hair.

"Well tough luck, the stripe is staying."

"Hey! No arguing in front of Santa! And his elf," laughed Ray. Frank blushed from beneath his elf outfit.

"Santa what are you bringing?" asked Cassie eagerly.

"Well my dear, if I told you that, then I wouldn't be able to leave you any presents now would I?"

"Awww please! I won't tell anybody else! I promise!"

"No, I'm sorry young lady but you will have to wait a few more hours until Christmas day. At three o clock on Christmas morning, go and wake up your Daddy and get him to let you open your presents."

"No! No! I'm sorry Mi-Santa, but Daddy is not getting up until at the very earliest ten AM."

"DAD!" Protested the three of us at once.

"Kidding! OK, but no earlier then seven thirty, I need some sleep."

"Well, I'd better be off, I have to go back to the North Pole and fill up my sleigh with toys. Merry Christmas to you all!" he cried, giving Cassie one last hug and then departing out into the freezing cold night, elf in tow.

"Wow! I meeted Santa!"

"No sweetie, you met Santa, now you need to go to bed or Daddy will get very annoyed and tell Santa not to come back here at all," said Dad and I laughed.

"You can go to bed too, go on, both of you, shove off," he said jokingly.

"But it's nine O clock!" I protested.

"Yeah well, you went to bed late last night," It was true. Last night Josh and I had a horror movie marathon and ended up going to bed at about 5am.

"Just another hour," I reasoned and he nodded.

"Alright but Cassie, you need to go and put your jammies on right now and brush your teeth OK?"

"OK Daddy," she said, walking up the stairs past us.

"I had no idea Mikey and Frank would do that," said Dad quietly to Ray.

"Well, Mikey stepped in at the last minute. Gerard was going to be Santa but then Lyn-Z needed him for something so Mikes had to do it."

"They made her day man, did you see the size of that smile?" I grinned.

"Yeah, she was pretty happy alright," nodded Josh. Dad headed upstairs to tuck Cassie into bed and Ray left, wishing us a happy Christmas on his way out into the cold night.

I couldn't help but begin to wonder what would happen tomorrow. Had he got us presents? Had he planned something with the guys help? Why had he been out so much these past two weeks?

"But Daddy, I'm excited!" came Cassie's voice from the top landing. I laughed at her enthusiasm.

"I know baby, but please go to sleep, or Santa wont come back at all," I heard Dad reply and smirked.

"Dude lets go watch TV, he'll be hours trying to get her to go to sleep," said Josh, dragging me into the lounge. I flicked on the TV and we watched some random music videos for a while and counted down until Christmas morning.

At twenty past ten Dad finally came downstairs.

"She's finally fallen asleep," he said with a sigh, dropping onto the other couch and closing his eyes.

"Well she is excited."

"Yeah, of course she is. You guys excited?" he asked.

"Yeah," I admitted, Josh nodded in agreement.

"Go to bed, I'll see you in the morning guys. Goodnight," he said as we stood up to leave the room.

"Night Dad."

**Morning**

BOB'S POV.

"Daddy wake up!" came Cassie's voice as she bounded into my room and jumped on me. I groaned and rolled over, pulling the blanket over my head.

"It's Christmas get up!" she cried. I rubbed my eyes and pulled the blankets off my head, looking around the dark room.

"Mmm sweetie what time is it?" I asked sleepily.

"I don't know, come on!" she pulled me by my hand up out of bed. I glanced at the alarm clock.

"No! It's too early! It's 6am baby! I need some more sleep!" She giggled at me.

"But it's Christmas!" she said, looking up at me, blue eyes full of hope. I sighed and gave in, I just melted when it came to my little girl, anything she wanted, I couldn't deny her anything.

"Cassie! Snow!" came Robbie's voice. I turned around to see him stood in his bedroom doorway, wearing only a pair of boxers. I was surprised at how very skinny he still was.

"Happy Christmas to you too," I said indignantly.

"SNOW!" squealed Cassie, rushing into Robbie's room to look out the window eagerly. The snow had fallen thick and fast last night, leaving the ground covered in a perfect white blanket. Last night as it had just begun to snow I had snuck out whilst they were all sleeping and set up all their presents under the tree in the new house, there was nothing here for them at all. I had to explain everything.

"Sorry," he laughed, "Happy Christmas."

"Put some clothes on, get Josh awake and get all three of you downstairs in the kitchen right now."

He looked confused but nodded nonetheless.

I chuckled slightly to myself and walked downstairs, sitting at the kitchen table and waiting for all three of them to barge into the room, mega excited and then realize there was nothing here. All part of the plan.

A few minutes later I heard three pairs of feet rushing down the stairs. I sat at the table facing the doorway, just smiling.

"Happy Christmas Dad," said Josh, coming into the room with Robbie and Cassie behind him.

"You too, now sit down. I have some explaining to do," I said and they looked at me curiously for a moment before sitting down.

"OK. So. In case you haven't noticed, there is a serious lack of Christmas presents in this house. This is because..."

"Santa is a lazy bastard who didn't bother to bring them?" suggested Robbie.

"No! And watch your language young man," I said and Cassie giggled.

"From now on, we live in New Jersey. I wanted to get you guys away from your past, I know it hasn't been easy for you so, I'm gonna try my best to help you move on. I sold my house in Chicago and bought us a house here in Jersey. Right now, I think we should head out there, see what Santa could have left under the tree," all three of them were staring at me like I was mad.

"What?" I asked with a slight laugh before all three of them literally jumped on me and grabbed me in the biggest hug ever.

"Guys! Can't breathe!" I gasped as they were hugging me so tightly, I was risking suffocating.

"Sorry. We just... thank you!" cried Robbie as they all let go of me.

"It's nothing. Come on then, what are you waiting for! Get some shoes and warmer clothes we're going to our new home," I said with a smile as they all rushed off to their rooms to get dressed in some warm clothes.

I walked up to my own room and changed into jeans and pulled a hoody on over my shirt.

"Come on! LOOK AT THE SNOW!" yelled one of the twins from downstairs. I chuckled and headed downstairs, stepping outside and immediately getting pelted by snowballs.

"So that's how you wanna play huh?" I said, picking up a handful of snow myself and flinging it at the nearest twin. He ducked and almost slipped over.

"You know what, snowball fight later, let's go and do presents before somebody gets hurt," I said, stepping back into the band house and grabbing my keys and my camera, knowing I wanted pictures of this. I locked up the door behind us and we all got into my car, I cranked the heater up to full straight away, our breath rising in clouds of steam before us.

After a slow, careful drive over to our new home so that I didn't slip on the icy roads, the kids were bubbling over with excitement. I couldn't help but smile wildly as they got more and more excited on the way over to the house.

"Alright guys, here's the deal. I'll open the door and go into the lounge and turn on all the lights and stuff. Don't leave the hallway until I tell you alright?" I said as we got out of the car.

"OK," they agreed and once I had let us in, they contented themselves with looking around the hallway of their new home.

I opened the door to the lounge and slipped into the room, closing the door behind me and flicking on the lights. A smile crept onto my face when I saw the tree the guys and I had set up and the mountains of presents heaped beneath it and around it. I had gone for colours with the wrapping paper to make things easier, Cassie's presents were all in shiny pink paper, Robbie's all in shiny blue, and Josh's all in green.

I walked over to by the Christmas tree and turned on the socket which the tree lights were plugged into. The tree seemed to come to life, the tiny lights illuminating everything in bright, shimmering colours and reflecting off the baubles and tinsel.

I took one more look at the tree and then slipped out of the room again to fetch the kids.

"Come on guys, happy Christmas," I said softly and opened the door to the room wide. They ran inside and I was met with cries of surprise, happiness and a loud 'fuck' from Robbie.

I quickly took a picture of them looking so shocked and happy, I had not one single picture of them that I had taken and things were going to change.

"Oh my god! That big thing has my name on it!" squealed Josh, eagerly diving on a large present in green paper with his name written on it.

"Big presents last! Open everything else, but slowly, don't rush it," I said walking over to by the tree and sitting down on the floor so I could pass the kids up their presents one at a time.

Cassie was stood frozen near the doorway, a mixture of huge shock and huge joy on her face. Robbie had a stupidly big grin and Josh was looking happier then I have ever seen him.

"Cassie come here sweetie, first ones for you," I said and she took a few steps towards me. I picked up a small present wrapped in the pink shiny paper and handed it to her.

She took it cautiously and looked at it, felt it and then shook it as if trying to guess what it was.

"Open it Cass," prompted Josh gently.

She carefully peeled the tape off the top fold and slipped the package open.

"You can rip the paper sweetie, there's loads more of it upstairs," I laughed as I watched her be so careful with it.

The pulled out her first present of the day, a small white, pink and black paramore t-shirt which I knew she would love.

"What does it say?" she whispered to Robbie and he laughed.

"It's paramore, you know-"

"YAY!" she squealed, hugging the t-shirt close to her chest.

"Josh, Robbie," I said, throwing each of them a present.

This was how we spent the next hour, slowly getting through the pile of presents until a few more special ones remained.

"OK so, I know you will like this one," I said, handing each of the kids a big box. Little did they know that the boxes were full of polystyrene and that the only thing in them was a ticket at the bottom.

"Huh?" said Robbie as he pulled the lid off his box.

"I was messing with you, trying to make the present look bigger," I explained and Josh laughed, digging through the polystyrene beads to find an envelope which he ripped open quickly.

"No way!" he cried, reading and re-reading the ticket.

"Yes way," I smiled.

"So we get to see them and meet them?" asked Robbie, smiling as he read his own ticket.

"Yep. Cassie can you read it? Who is it?"

Um... P... pa... paramore!"

"You got it!"

"Wow!"

I laughed as she carefully put her ticket back inside its envelope and placed it carefully in her pile of opened presents.

"OK, ones from other people, then main presents, then one more surprise for each of you."

I don't think they were actually listening when I mentioned the last surprise because they were too busy opening things from the guys.

"Oh cool," said Josh, twirling a pair of black drumsticks from Frank between his fingers.

"SPONGEDADDY!" screamed Cassie, ripping the paper off her present from Frank. He had introduced her to spongebob on TV and she had quickly remembered my first name was Bob, and now spongebob had become 'spongedaddy'. It was a big, cuddly, yellow teddy of the character, she hugged it tightly. I took a photo quickly whilst she was looking so cute and half buried in a mound of ripped and scrumpled wrapping paper.

"Don't point that shit at me, I hate cameras," warned Robbie as he opened his present from Gerard.

The guys had been so nice, getting the kids presents and stuff, I told them they didn't need to.

Robbie, Josh and I burst out laughing as Cassie opened her present from Ray. He had gotten her rollers to put in her hair to make it curly. She didn't understand so we had to explain but when she knew what it was she was very pleased with it.

Presents from the Green Day guys and from Nathan and Matthew Leone had turned up too, which I was surprised about. There was a note from Billie Joe saying he would give me a call sometime soon to arrange bringing Joey and Jakob down to meet my kids.

Soon all the presents were opened and the only things remaining were the big presents for each of them.

"OK, so, these are to make up for all the Christmases and birthdays I've missed. Just think of it as fifteen years worth of presents from me, or seven years worth, depending how old you are. So, one at a time. Josh first," I said and he nervously looked at the massive lumpy green parcel. It had taken Mikey and Gee a long time to get it wrapped, and several rolls of wrapping paper.

Josh's big present was obviously a drum kit. He had such a natural ability it would be stupid not to encourage it, I mean, Tre taught him to play basket case in an hour and that's like grade six level.

"Are you kidding?!" he cried after ripping off a small part of the paper and seeing what it was. I laughed and shook my head as, with help from Robbie and Cassie, he removed all the wrapping paper.

"I love you!" he cried excitedly, looking at the kit. We had spent several hours talking about what the best drum kit in the world would be, and I had gotten pretty much exactly what he had described.

"You are the BEST!" He grabbed me in a hug and I laughed, hugging him back and just glad I had made him so happy.

"How the hell did you get that wrapped?" asked Robbie, shaking his head.

"I didn't, ask Mikey and Gee, they wrapped it up."

"Either way, its still awesome! Thank you so much!"

"Don't mention it, just make sure you put it to good use."

"Don't worry about that, I will," he said, grinning. His eyes were shining with a happiness I hadn't seen in them before, it was like he was fully alive, able to move on from what Darren had done to him and forget, even if it was only for a few moments, I could see the boy he should have been and longed to be and not the tortured person that years of abuse had turned him into.

"Alright. Robbie next," I said and Robbie's eyes widened upon seeing two parcels for him as his main present.

He tore off the corner of the wrapping paper, to be met with plain brown cardboard. He ripped off all the blue paper and then opened the large, long, and fairly flat box. He peeked inside and screamed like a girl.

"Bloody hell!"

"NO WAY!" He pulled the lid off the box to reveal a brand new bass guitar. Mikey had helped me pick it out, knowing what's good and what isn't. It was black and red and looked similar to Matthew Leone's. He ran his hand over it carefully, as if he was scared he might break it.

"You shouldn't have, really, you shouldn't," he said, shaking his head.

"Yes I should, remember I'm making stuff up to you guys."

"I don't deserve it! The way I've been acting! I've been a total prick to you, I'm so sorry," he looked like he was going to cry.

"No! It's fine! I understand totally, I mean, it must have been hard for you guys to live with a total stranger who turns out to be your father."

"That's no excuse for the way I was acting, I'm sorry," he said, standing up to hug me. I hugged him back.

"Forget it, open your other present."

"Does it start with an a and end with a mp?" he asked as he started to rip off the paper.

"Maaaaybe," I said as he continued to tear apart the wrapping.

The look on his face as the amp came into view was priceless. Josh grabbed the camera and snapped a photo as Robbie leaped on me and and hugged me so tightly, I thought he was going to break my ribs.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"It's nothing!" I laughed as he finally let go and went off to play with his new toy. I had a feeling that bass and amp would be getting a lot of use, as well as Josh's drums.

"Cassie, go on," I said as she looked longingly at her biggest present. We had wrapped hers up all in one package so it was one big present rather then two smaller ones.

"Micomophone!" she squealed as she ripped off the pink paper.

I remembered what the kids had been saying, about starting a band, and I've tried to help fuel their musical interest and talent. Cassie especially, her voice is like nothing I've ever heard before.

"So, you plug the micomophone into the speaker and it makes you sing loud," I explained as she turned all the sound control dials on the speaker.

"Is it really really loud?" she asked, eyes shining with excitement.

"I don't know sweetie, we can try it out later on and see how loud it goes."

"Yay! Thank you Daddy," she said, hugging me round my waist. I picked her up and hugged her back for a few moments before setting her down and looking at the boys. They looked so happy, exactly how any teenager should look on Christmas morning, I just hoped that I could do enough to make them forget.

"Alright. Before you get into playing with all your new stuff, I have one more surprise for each of you," I said, opening the door to the hallway and smiling as they looked at me curiously. They wont know what hit them.