We'll be home for Christmas

*** Author's Note ***

Hi all! Just to warn you now, this is a rather long story that deals far more with the emotional bonding and slow progression of passion building up as the two women fall in love. There is a considerable amount of dialogue and I have inserted the first initials of the characters speaking in ( ) beside the dialogue at many points to help keep it straight. So, if you're looking for a quick jerk off, this is not a good read for you!! Sorry! But if you're willing to spend a little time and have your heart warmed up through emotional, mental and spiritual bonding that does ultimately lead to a very hot and passionate sex scene that I promise, WILL not disappoint in the least then please enjoy!

Prologue

I think everybody has one Christmas that they will never forget. A holiday tale that is nothing short of magical and divine; just like the reason for the season itself. Sure, we all have our holiday horror stories; probably more of those than we'd care to admit. But I'm talking about that one special Christmas where the wondrous power of the season captures your heart and overflows your soul with its true and beautiful meaning. They say Christmas is the season of miracles and is a time for being with the ones we love most of all. Of course, being with the ones we love is so often what leads to the infamous holiday horror stories that ultimately drive us into psychotherapy for years to come. But despite all of that, I believe that at least once in our lives, there is one Christmas that truly lives up to its reputation and we actually are filled with the love, joy and yuletide cheer that the Christmas carolers sing about. Well, that one special Christmas occurred for me when I was twenty years old. And it couldn't have come at a better time.

Natalie's Story

I'm Natalie Bennett and I was born in Bellingham, Washington; about ninety miles north of Seattle. My father Neal was a logger and my mother Paula, already having her hands full with my six year old sister Stephanie and my three year old brother Ryan, worked part time as a receptionist for the same company. Then when I was about a year old, Daddy got a great opportunity to go to work on the docks of the Port of Seattle, so my family moved down to the Emerald City. A few years later, as me and my siblings got older; Mom went back to work and is now a dispatcher for a small concrete company out of Tacoma.

Prior to becoming parents, Neal and Paula Bennett spent their early married life as over-the-road truckers, working together as team drivers for a major U.S. transport company. Separated in age by only six weeks and having been childhood sweethearts since the fifth grade, my parents had both grown up in the blue collar belt of the Pacific Northwest, and by the time they graduated from high school, neither one had the money or the desire to go to college. No one else in either of their families had ever pursued higher education and this was in the days before people made being a college student a career all on its own. But with a strong desire to break out and see the country, what better way to do it than to drive an eighteen wheeler? You make good money and see the country all at once.

Anyway, they both got their commercial licenses' and training right out of high school and spent the next several years out on the roads of North America. They traveled to every state and major city in the lower forty-eight, Alaska and all the Canadian Provinces. They were looking into buying their own tractor and becoming independent Owner/Operators when Mom got pregnant with Stephanie. They decided instead to use all the money they'd saved to buy a house on the outskirts of Bellingham. Having already seen the country and having always wanted a bunch of kids, they gave up driving permanently and settled down to raise their family together as a team.

By the time I graduated from high school at age eighteen, my sister Stephanie was already married, had two little boys and she and her husband were living over in Spokane. Stephanie was nothing short of a tramp all throughout high school and had gotten pregnant on her senior prom night. She is now twenty-six and expecting her third child. My brother Ryan enlisted in the army right after high school; after serving briefly in Afghanistan, he was redeployed to Germany where he still lives today with his wife and their two month old daughter. Mom and Daddy had worked so hard all of our lives to provide us with all the things that they didn't have and tirelessly labored to instill the value of a good education in all of us. Needless to say, they were more than a little disappointed when Stephanie and Ryan began making several of the same mistakes they had.

Now, I had always looked up to my two older siblings, particularly Stephanie. She was very smart and beautiful and she seemed to always have time for me and had all the answers to my questions. Ryan was my hero and he would always go out of his way to protect me. With Mom and Daddy working as much as they did, Stephanie and Ryan often took on the roles as parents to me and they too, like Mom and Daddy, saw something very different about me; not that it wasn't blatantly obvious, for I am clearly the runt of the litter. Just to illustrate, Daddy is 6'5", 252lbs of solid bone and muscle, and Mom is a formidable woman of 6'1". I'm not going to give her specific weight, for that, as Mom always taught us, is a carnal sin. Let's just say that my Mom is a beautiful woman, perfectly and sexily proportionate to her height with big beautiful 35 D-cups and all the voluptuous curves and contours of a hard working, blue collar goddess. Stephanie is a virtual clone of our mother, standing an even 6'0" with solid 34 D-cups (probably 36 now that they're filling with milk) and a body holding its own very well despite having two kids and currently being knocked up with her third. Ryan is my father all over again, standing just an inch shorter at 6'4" and weighing in at about 240lbs.

Then there is me! I'm barely 5'2" and weigh 100lbs soaking wet. I don't know if it's still considered a carnal sin for a woman to openly confess her own weight, but then again: Who gives a shit about a mere 100 fucking pounds? If it wasn't for the fact that I have my father's eyes and chin, my mother's gorgeous auburn hair and alabaster skin; not to mention the same blood type, you'd think I was adopted or that my mother had a one nightstand with the Butcher, the Baker or the Candlestick Maker. When people would see the five of us together, they couldn't get over how tiny I was compared to the family of Goliath's that surrounded me and I was given the so called loving nickname "David" by the extended family and close family friends. And while being the smallest and the youngest in the family had its disadvantages, it also afforded me seemingly extra special treatment, attention and love from the rest of the family and friends. This made Stephanie and Ryan jealous from time to time; especially Ryan, for he suffered big time from the middle child syndrome. But despite everything, I always knew that I was deeply loved and treasured by my family and they all knew that there was something very special about me from day one.

My teen years were difficult for I was not nearly as beautiful as Mom and Stephanie; at least, so I believed. I didn't date that much throughout high school, and even with Stephanie's reputation as a slut preceding me, guys just weren't interested. Of course after the Stephanie years, Ryan was like a faithful and overly protective guard dog when it came to me and guys might just have been afraid to approach me. Not that it mattered, for I wasn't nearly confident enough in myself or my looks to have any interest in them. You see, while Mom and Stephanie both flaunted eye popping, D-cup cleavage, I barely filled in B-cups. And while they both had narrow and mature faces with perfect noses and high cheek bones, my face would have been better suited on a baby faced twelve year old and even had the button nose to boot. The only things that I had going for me were my hair, my skin and my downstairs. As I said, I have my mother's gorgeous auburn hair that is full, shiny and flowing down to the middle of my back and I also inherited her heavenly soft and smooth alabaster skin. Then there are my legs; though they're short, they're perfectly curved, immaculately shaped and sexily defined with exquisite muscle. And if you think those sound good, you ought to see my ass; wrapped up in tight designer jeans, its lethal!

Another reason I'd didn't date much was because I was, for the most part, a nerd. I loved school, loved learning and loved books more than both the former. When I was a sophomore, I started working as a student aide in the library before, during and after school and that didn't exactly help in attracting guys. I was fascinated with mechanics and how things worked. Daddy and Ryan had taught me everything they knew about engines; cars, pickups, motorcycles and eighteen wheelers; everything from minor repairs, to overhauls to complete rebuilds. Then the older I got, the more I became drawn to engineering; the mechanics and genius that goes into the actual construction of massive engines; everything from eighteen wheelers to military and civilian aircraft and even the Space Shuttle. Working in the library, I began reading every book I could get my hands on about engineering and my interest was leaning more and more to aeronautics and the space program. I developed a passion for aerospace and astronomy. By the time I was a junior, Stephanie and Ryan had both moved out of the house; and even though Mom and Daddy had always hoped that all three of us would go to college, they were not really surprised when Stephanie and Ryan didn't. And despite their dreams for all of us to continue our education, the truth of the matter was that Mom and Daddy could only really afford to send one of us and I think they were secretly elated when it turned out to be me. I sent out applications to some of the biggest universities in the country that had accredited Aerospace and Engineering schools. I even applied to the Air Force Academy, though I knew that I would never pass the physical exams due to my poor eye sight and my history of asthma.

But then came the accident on the docks. It happened in the early summer between my junior and senior year. I won't go into the details, but to make a long and grizzly story short, all my hopes and dreams of going to college vanished in one fell swoop. Daddy was badly injured and was no longer able to work. Though he had medical insurance, it didn't cover everything and that combined with the everyday expenses of life sucked my college fund completely dry within six months and we were on welfare by years end. I was devastated.

In total despair for most of the summer and into the fall, I figured that I might as well go ahead and get pregnant just like Stephanie did. But thanks to Ryan's overprotection, my lack of self-confidence and my overall lack of interest in dating, I couldn't even do that. And thank God, because early in January of my senior year, Mrs. Fortune; the librarian at my high school, proved herself to be my guardian angel. One afternoon after school, she caught me curled up in a ball and sobbing like a baby in the back corner of the library. After snuggling me for awhile, I finally calmed down enough to speak and I ended up pouring my heart out to her. Within a few days, I got a phone call from the Dean of Admissions at the University of North Dakota. The man introduced himself as Thomas Fortune, Mrs. Fortune's brother-in-law. He told me that he had received a call from her a few days earlier regarding a very special student named Natalie Bennett who dreamed of one day becoming an Aerospace Engineer or even an astronaut. After hearing my situation, he had asked for my academic records to be faxed out immediately. Then after reviewing them for a couple of days and pulling a few small strings, he was now calling to offer me a full academic scholarship to the University of North Dakota. He went on to tell me that UND has produced some of NASA's greatest minds, for it housed one of the most highly accredited Schools of Aerospace Sciences in the country. I burst into tears and could hardly even speak as I saw all my dreams being miraculously resurrected right before my very eyes. Things like this don't happen! But some how it was! And to me of all people! The following August, I loaded up my beat up old Chevy Nova and headed east on Interstate 90 out of Seattle toward my very bright future, which now began in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

In North Dakota

Upon arrival at UND, the wave of blessings that had begun flooding over me earlier in the year continued when I met my roommate, Lucy Vidor. Though I'd had a lot of friends back in Seattle, I never truly had one I could call my best friend. Well, that's exactly what Lucy and I became. Over the course of our first year, Lucy became closer and dearer to me than Stephanie, and I loved her with all my heart. Lucy was from Fargo, North Dakota and was an Economics major. Then in the summer after my first year, I met the boy I was going to marry: Eric Lawrence. Eric was from New York City, where both of his parents were white collar criminals. His father was an investment banker and his mother was a stockbroker, both living and breathing the maelstrom of Wall Street. Needless to say, they were extremely well off, even despite the recent economic crisis. Why he had chosen to come to UND when he had his pick of Ivy League schools just aching to get there hands on him was beyond me. Eric was everything I thought I'd ever dreamed of in a boyfriend. He was charming, kind, considerate and ruggedly handsome for a white collar juvenile delinquent, as I affectionately referred to him.

After overloading myself with my studies the first year, I automatically did the same thing my second year and as a result, I had little time to devote to Eric and our relationship, but he never seemed to mind my commitment to my education. It wasn't until late in the spring of my second year that Eric and I had sex together for the first time. It was my first time ever to have sex and I have to confess that I didn't really understand what all the hype was about. Sure it was nice, but there was something about it that I was obviously missing. With no complaints from Eric however, I simply brushed it off, citing my lack of experience in the whole dating realm as the culprit and figured I would learn to enjoy it the more we did it. By the end of my second year, I had a 3.9 grade point average, had the dearest friend in the world and had met the man of my dreams. That summer, I celebrated my twentieth birthday and Eric took me out for a romantic evening and again, I struggled to get into our sex life. Having continued on this same pace for months now, I began to wonder if it had something subconscious to do with Stephanie and my want to not be like her. I have to admit that I was extremely cautious, maybe overly so every time we went to bed.

Since I hadn't been home in over two years, my parents came to Grand Forks to visit that summer between my second and third year, and they brought incredible news. Completely unbeknownst to me, they had filed a lawsuit against the Port of Seattle right after the accident and now it had finally come through, netting them nearly five million dollars in damages. Asking what they might be able to do to help me financially, Lucy and I had both wanted for sometime to move into our own apartment off campus, so Mom and Daddy paid for it. Lucy and I moved into our new two bedroom place with all new furniture that my parents provided and thanks to his father, Eric and I spent the remainder of the summer taking flying lessons. I was on my way to space.

As the first semester of my third year began to wind down after the Thanksgiving Holiday, which I spent in New York City with Eric's family, I began to really feel homesick. It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't been home to Seattle in over three years, not even for the holidays. I got a call from my Mom around December 7th and she told me that Ryan and his family were coming all the way from Germany and that Stephanie, her husband and my two nephews were coming home as well for a big family Christmas. I told her that I wouldn't miss it for the world and that I would be bringing Eric with me. Mom was so thrilled that she broke down in tears. All her babies were coming home for Christmas.

Confirming with Eric a few days prior, we planned to head out early in the morning on December 22nd, so he was going to spend the night at my apartment on the 21st. With a near 1500 mile drive, Eric rented a big fancy SUV. Why we weren't flying was beyond me. But since Eric, Lucy and I had become like the three musketeers over the past two years, I was actually looking forward to spending a few days on the road with him, just the two of us. Eric brought his stuff over on the afternoon of the 21st and even had to shove a pair of his sneakers into my bag. Leaving him to his own devices for the evening, I went to work at the campus library. I got off work at 9:00pm and went out for a Starbuck's with a couple of the other girls that work at the library. I got back to mine and Lucy's apartment around 11:30pm and it was so cold out that I nearly froze to death just going from my car to the front door. The temperature was minus 8 and with the wind blowing like it was, it was easily minus 30 wind chill. I fumbled with my keys, unlocked the door and went inside.

If I live to be 100 years old, I'll never forget the overwhelming shockwave of nausea that tore through my body as I came into my living room. Eric and Lucy were both stark naked and in the throes of heated sexual passion on the sofa. Their bodies were drenched with sweat and Lucy was riding Eric's cock like a wild horse. The frigid winter air blowing threw the door snapped them out of their passionate trance and Eric flung Lucy across the room like a rag doll when he saw me. With tears streaming down my face and my chest muscles straining to contain my exploding heart, I felt anger, betrayal, disgust and hurt eating away at my soul like hydrochloric acid and violating every fiber of my being. With their sweat laden bodies glistening in the soft glow of the fire burning in the fire place, the two dearest people in the world to me up to that moment stood motionless, staring at me with blank faces.

Feeling the vomit rising up my throat like magma inside a volcano, I stormed up the hallway and into my room. Lucy came stumbling in a few seconds later tugging up her jeans with one hand while trying to close her blouse with the other. Between my thundering heart echoing in my ear and my uncontrollable sobbing, I couldn't even hear what Lucy was saying; nor did I even want to. Eric suddenly appeared behind her, buttoning up the fly on his jeans. I snapped up my duffle bag and pushed past them with all my might and heard myself roar like a T-Rex at the top of my lungs. Once again my size seemed to be against me for Lucy was 5'9" and Eric was 5'11", but my anger more than compensated for it this time.

The next thing I knew, I was throwing my bag in the trunk of my beat up old Nova with Lucy pleading desperately for me to hear her out. Eric stood silent further up the passenger side with his thumb up his ass. In an instant I slammed the trunk, turned to my supposed best friend and spit in her face. Lucy stumbled back a couple of steps and it was so cold out that my spit almost immediately began to freeze on her skin.

"Fuck off and die, cunt!" I snarled.

I turned sharply on my heels and rounded the drivers' side of the car. I needed to get away as fast as humanly possible. I hadn't taken three steps when I felt my left foot slip out from under me. My arms whirled wildly around, reaching and stretching frantically for something to grab on to as the rest of my body spun out of control. In the blink of an eye, I hit the ice covered pavement with my left ankle jammed between my ass and the frozen ground. Dazed and confused for a few seconds, I was snapped back to reality as I felt Eric's hand grab my shoulders.