((Because everyone needs a little time with Mr Duvet every now and then. ;-) ))

Sleeping in was a luxury Kaylee savoured very enthusiastically, especially when she'd been out late the night before. The sleigh ride home with "Santa" had been finished by the pair of them staggering in out of the cold and pretty much collapsing, already asleep, on the couches that lined the hallway of the big house at Maple Grove. She'd woken up, though, in her own bed, partially undressed and tucked in warmly ....which was the reason for the silly grin which had been inhabiting her face for most of the day. When she finally got up - up, as in, out of bed, not out of her pajamas - there was only one person she really wanted to talk to. Which was why she had just bounced in through the door of Correy's room and launched herself onto the bed. "Out of bed, sleepyhead!"

Correy had tied one over, or many over, the night before and was sleeping loudly when his annoying big sister crashed onto his bed. "Wha" Kaylee!" he groaned and covered his head with the pillow, after he had swung it at her. "Can't you see I'm sleeping." Correy curled up in a protective ball under his black and red satin duvet. The walls of his room were lined with movie posters and a huge mirror hung on one wall. The floor was strewn with dirty clothes that he refused to let the maid touch. Clothes that were not his own. When he decided that Kaylee was not going to go away, he peeked out from under the pillow, smoothing his hair back from his forehead. "You get laid or something?"

"No! I'm just really awake, and I wanted to see my baby brother!" Merciless to the last, she dragged the covers off Correy and heaved him up into the kind of hug that only Kaylee could bestow, however unwilling the recipient was. Squeezing tight, she let go finally, shaking her hands free of the jumper she'd thrown on over her pajamas. "And, yanno, we kinda need to talk."

"Oh my God!" Correy groaned and wriggled as his over exuberant sister was hugging him and being way too peppy for this early in the morning. The fact that it was actually two in the afternoon had nothing to do with it. When she let go, he scoot to the head of his bed and grabbed a pillow to clutch to his chest; as if it were a shield. "Wh...what do you we have to talk about?" He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his eyes and make sure that this was actually Katherine, his sister.

She calmed down as he scooted away from her, finally remembering that Correy was not the best at being woken up by surprise. Settling herself with Indian-style crossed legs, she looked over at him. Her expression had settled, too, into a faint kind of concern. "I need you to be honest with me," she said quietly. "Are you really okay with what?s going on?"

Correy rubbed his face and scrubbed his eyes. "Need a drink, first." He put up his "give me a second" finger and climbed out of the bed. It was only when he was half way to the bathroom that he realized he was butt naked as the day he was born. But by then she'd seen it, so no sense in rushing around like an idiot. Grabbing a glass of water, Correy returned to the bed and settled back down into it. He pulled the covers back over himself and took a sip. "Ok, so what am I supposed to be ok with?" He took a gulp of water and smacked his lips before putting the glass down.

As he slid out of the bed, displaying everything to the world, Kaylee rolled her eyes, turning her head away to give him at least the illusion of privacy as he get himself a drink and settled back under his covers. "You're ready? Nothing else you gotta do?" she teased with a small smile, before growing sombre again. "You know what I'm talking about. Me and Jon."

Correy smiled for the first time that day that wasn't sleep induced. "Kay, really. I'm fine with it. I mean, I worry that you're his rebound from Nikki and really wished that he'd have found somebody between you and her. But other than that, yeah, I'm ok with it."

"How am I a rebound?" she asked, crawling up to lie alongside him, her head propped up on her hand. "If you're lookin' at it like that, he's my rebound from What's-his-name ..." Her hand waved as she tried to work out who it was she had been seeing only a couple of weeks before.

Correy watched her crawl up on the bed and gave her a concerned look. "Exactly. He's not a rebound because you really didn't care about what?s his name. I mean, if you did, you'd have remembered who you were banging last week. But Jon asked Nikki to marry him. Even though the engagement lasted only a few days, you don't get over that so quick. It takes a while to build up to that and even though the relationship can be destroyed in an instant, it could take a long time to stop having those kinds of feelings. I don't want to think Jon would transfer the feelings from Nikki to you. But it's possible. So be careful, ok?"

She nodded, her young face solemn. Correy was always better at doing the thinking than she was. "No, I get that," she assured him. "I know he doesn't love me the way I love him, but ....is it really that hard to believe that he might?" Her eyes lifted to her brother, genuinely worried and interested to know what he thought.

Correy leaned over and kissed her between the eyeballs. "This is so weird. You've never worried about a guy like this before. You're going all soft and gooey." He chuckled and then curled an arm around her as he slid down and cuddled her to his shoulder. "Listen, it's more than possible. I honestly think he really does love you like you should be loved, Kay. But you have a track record, too. So I want you to promise me that if there's any inkling that you're going to dump him, you do it in a much kinder and gentler way. I don't want a blood feud on my hands."

The look in her eyes was wry as she looked up at him, cuddled warmly against her brother. "I know my own record, Correy," she reminded him quietly. She shook her head, lowering her eyes again with a slow sigh. "You ever spend months and months dreaming about one person, and knowing they won't ever want you? So you go with someone else, but they're not him, and it just doesn't work, so you end it, and someone else comes along, but it never works. That's me and my track record, Correy."

Correy nodded slowly, turning his head to glance at one of the posters on his wall. He sighed, and didn't want her to catch too much of his alcohol laced morning breath. It was that time of the year, Christmas and the memories of Brian flooding through his mind. He hadn't spoken of him in years. "I've loved somebody before, but I was just his experiment. One of his many." Correy shrugged then, it was off topic. "Anyway, it makes sense. I just hope that Jon is the one that settles you down."

"You never said anything," Kaylee said quietly, tilting her head back up to look at him. "Anyone who plays with you and walks away isn't worth it, Correy. I never lied to anyone I was with about how I felt. Besides, you've got Rori now. Maybe she's going to settle you down."

"Brian." Never mind that her hug stayed warm and non-judgemental, Kaylee's voice on that one word was filled with poisonous hatred. After all, there was only a year between them, they'd gone to the same school; she'd known most of Correy's friends and acquaintances, just as he'd known most of hers.

"Yeah." Correy sat back then and let his hand trail down to take her hands. "I'm so sorry I didn't talk to you about it, Kay. I was so stupid and ashamed of myself. I really let him get to me." He rolled his eyes a bit and then snorted a laugh. "Well, not completely. We didn't do anything more than kiss in the closets. But when we could be alone, it was like the best. We talked for hours and he really led me to believe that he was going to tell the entire school that he loved me." He sighed wistfully and looked up at the photograph. "He was beautiful, wasn't he?"

Holding Correy's hands gently, Kaylee couldn't believe what she was hearing. Not that Brian had broken her baby brother's heart, but that he'd hurt Correy so badly and Correy still thought fondly about the time they'd been together. "Was is the right word," she told him, trying hard to keep her sudden and furious hatred of said Brian under control. "He lost whatever he had the minute he hurt you."

"He lost everything a month later when his car flipped and he ended up wrapped around a telephone pole." Correy lowered his head to look at his sister with an odd smile. "It's easier to think about him when things were good. Because the bad was just too much to bear. I wasn't able to go to his funeral, but they say it was very nicely done."

"You gotta move on, Correy," Kaylee told him gently. "If you keep livin' in the past with Brian, you're gonna miss what you got right now. You don't have to keep Rori a secret from anyone, so playin' the field just isn't on anymore. Don't turn into Brian, just because you can't forget how good he made you feel."

It was the good advice that had been imparted not only by his sister, but his grandfather as well. Correy gently squeezed Kay's hands and leaned forwards to kiss her cheek. "But I'm having fun playing the field. Besides, if I marry Rori before I'm with a guy, how will I ever know if I'm not supposed to be with a guy' I mean, Rori is just amazing. She's fiesty and she's taught me things that I'd never dreamed of. But she likes to put me down in public, too. And that kind of sucks. I intend to be a top and a bottom at least once before I completely settle down."

"Then you have to tell her that," his sister said firmly. "Don't lie to her, and don't keep her in the dark. If you're completely honest about things, then at least if she does get hurt, she's only got herself to blame." Her eyes took on a cheeky little twinkle. "You're not exactly flawless yourself, either."

"I know, I'm a big pain in the ass." He laughed with her and then sighed softly. "I really do like her, a lot. I'm just not so sure she's liking me much right now. I've not seen her in about a week."

"Maybe she went home for Christmas?" she suggested with a shrug. "I mean, she's not from around here, is she" And if you're not calling her, what reason does she have to call you? It's harder than you think to know where your lover is all the time."

"Maybe," he shrugged and picked at a loose thread on the duvet. "I figure that when she wants to talk to me, she'll call. If she is home for Christmas, I don't want to call and interrupt her good time."

Kaylee's brow rose. "How many family Christmasses do you know that are a good time?" she asked with a grin.

"Not ours, without Gigi's special plants," he chuckled. "But there is hope that someday, somehow somebody else does have that picture perfect Christmas."

"I think Miss Eless gets the closest to it," Kaylee made a random guess, grinning. "She seems like the type who no one can argue with."

"I don't know, I think Lola gets closer. Nobody wants to argue with her and she gives the best gifts." And it was true, Correy often wore proudly the knitted gifts from his favorite cousin.

"Yeah, but she has to sit in the middle of all the shouting, and it's not exactly a secret that Junior hates Ollie's guts, is it' Can't be fun having your dad and your brother hating on each other."

"Ollie and Jr. haven't attended a Christmas together in ages." He shook his head, it was sad to think about Ollie and his dad. "You know what we should do, Kay?"

"Go and make a snowman?" She grinned, batting her lashes at him cheekily.

"Well, that too." He laughed and chucked her in the shoulder. "I think we should have a Christmas party of our own. With just the cousins. We all get along pretty good and there won't be the atomic meltdown that usually entails when Gramps and Jr. get into the same room."

"I think that's a great idea," Kaylee declared with a wide smile. "Getting everyone together ..." Her voice trailed off, her expression sobering. "Well, nearly everyone."

"She'll be back in time." Correy was confident that somehow they'd get Caroline back. "Don't you worry about that." He hugged his sister tightly. "We will, I know we will."

((Thanks to Correy's player!))