She took the milk from the refrigerator and pulled out the smallest saucepan she could find. Then she warmed some milk and added a taste of vanilla and a hint of sugar. When it was ready, she took the mug upstairs and settled into bed.

Charisma deliberately reached over the album, sneering at it before grabbing for the latest thriller that she'd purchased on the recent trip she'd made to Mama's. She didn't get to read for pleasure very often, so she generally stuck with tried and true. This book, however - there was something about the cover that caught her eyes, and the description on the back had clinched it. And for the first time in a very long time, Charisma had been pleasantly surprised by something new.

Now she found her place and relaxed into the pillows as she sipped her milk and immersed herself in the imagination of H.A. Fontana.

It wasn't until sometime later - when her milk was finished and she was snuggled down ready to turn off the light - that Charisma realized she hadn't heard from Okasa. She knew if Brianna had made good her threat to call Okasa and cancel her holiday plans with the family, Okasa would have called her immediately to do something to rectify the situation. Charisma idly wondered if perhaps Brianna had reconsidered giving up Christmas with the family - after all, Thanksgiving had been wonderful. Surely Brianna wasn't willing to miss personal family time with the boys... and everyone else... because of business.

Satisfied that Brianna had come to her senses and would be at Mama's when Christmas Eve rolled around, Charisma clicked off the light and slowly slipped into sleep.

************

It was the smell of coffee that brought Charisma out of a dead sleep. She frowned and blinked her eyes open slowly, trying to remember if she'd set the coffeemaker the night before. A glance at the clock made her sit up sharply, knowing there was no way in the blue blazes of hell itself that she'd set *anything* for five o'clock in the morning. Even when Congress was in session she didn't get up this early. She certainly didn't when they were in recess... especially when Adam wasn't home.

Charisma got up soundlessly and crept to the closet, opening the safe and pulling out the handgun she kept locked inside. Though she seriously doubted an assailant would stop to make coffee, the fact remained that *someone* was in her house who hadn't been there the night before when she'd gone to bed. So she eased down the stairs silently, glad for the time she'd spent training on the range... and the black belt she could fall back on if necessary.

Charisma took a deep breath and raised the gun. Then she eased around the kitchen doorframe and nearly dropped the gun on the floor in surprise when she realized who her unexpected visitor was.

"Mama?! What are you doing sneaking into my house at five o'clock in the morning?" She latched the safety and put the gun on the counter out of sight before moving closer to Okasa's side.

Okasa gave Charisma a sardonic look. "I snuck into your house at midnight... only because you were already in bed asleep I might add. I am making coffee at five a.m. because I couldn't sleep."

Charisma frowned. "Is everything okay?" She held up a hand before Okasa could make a smart retort. "Obviously everything *isn't* okay if you're here and sneaking into my house at some ungodly hour of the night without calling first. Is it Adam?" her voice becoming more frantic. "Mama, what's wrong?? Where's my son??"

"It's not Adam," Okasa reassured Charisma immediately, smiling as she watched the tension flow out of Charisma's body "He's at home with Paddy and Ame where he's supposed to be. But something is definitely wrong. Has anything happened between you and Brianna recently?"

"How do you mean?" Charisma hedged, moving to the cabinet and reaching for a cup so she could keep her back to Okasa. Okasa grabbed her by the shoulder and forced Charisma to turn around and face her.

"Don't play games with me, Charisma Tagherty. You may be a big shot in Washington, D.C., but you're still my daughter and I won't tolerate disrespect from you."

"Mama, I wouldn't...."

"You just did. I'm not stupid. Please don't act like I am. Now," taking a deep breath and continuing only a little less severely, "what happened between you and Brianna?"

"May I ask why you're asking first?"

Okasa sighed. "She called me earlier this evening... or rather, last evening. Told me she couldn't make it for Christmas, and basically stated that we weren't going to be a family... her family... anymore." Okasa felt more than saw Charisma's swift intake of breath, but she ignored it and resumed speaking. "I know things were good at Thanksgiving - I know you two worked some things out. So what happened? What made Brianna call and remove herself from our family, Charisma?"

"Why are you asking me? Why do you assume it's my fault?"

The look Okasa shot Charisma was telling. "Now you're being deliberately stupid, Charisma, and it doesn't suit you."

"Excuse me?" the anger making her face flush a deep, dark red. Okasa held blue eyes without flinching.

"No excuse. But don't worry...." She pointed a finger at Charisma. "I'm not going to burst that bubble you're living in just yet. First I want to know what happened between you and Brianna that got me locked out of the Senate apartment building."

"Excuse me?" Charisma repeated. "What?"

Okasa blew out an impatient breath and picked up her mug. "C'mon... this is going to take a while obviously and I am too tired and too sore to stand around the kitchen at this time of the morning." They went into the family room and Charisma realized immediately that Okasa had tried sleeping on the couch. While comfortable enough for short naps, it wasn't made for long term sleeping and she turned to her mother in consternation.

"You were trying to sleep down here?? Why didn't you go upstairs to one of the guest rooms?"

"You came downstairs with a gun this morning when you smelled coffee brewing," Okasa replied wryly. "Do you really think I would chance sneaking around up there last night when the only thing that would have been announcing my presence was sound?? I like living, Charisma - I still have a number of things left to do on my bucket list before I die. I'd rather not get shot by my daughter because I was creeping around unexpectedly in her home at midnight."

"Well when you put it that way...." Charisma said drolly. Okasa gave her a tight smile. "Mama, why didn't you just call me?"

"Have a seat," motioning Charisma to one of the recliners while she reseated herself on the couch. "I'll start at the beginning of my part of this saga. Then maybe you'll fill in the beginning of yours."

************

"So by the time I was finished talking to the young man on duty and he roused his sergeant to explain to me what Brianna had done and why he couldn't countermand her directive and so forth and so on, it was close to midnight. I did call your cell phone, but when I got no answer I figured you were out at some party or other. It was only once I got here and saw that the house was dark that I realized you were probably in bed asleep. So I let myself in."

"She really had you banned from the building?"

"Not from the building per se - simply from her visitor's list. I couldn't even get the young man to call and find out if there had been a mistake. When the sergeant came in, he assured me that Brianna had spoken to him personally shortly after you'd left. And a short time after that, she'd left for the remainder of the holiday for parts unknown."

"I thought she understood," Charisma muttered.

"Understood what?"

"It doesn't matter - evidently I was incorrect in my supposition."

Okasa glared. "Charisma, what did you and Brianna argue about?"

"We didn't argue, Mama," keeping her gaze steady when Okasa snorted her disbelief. "We didn't," Charisma insisted. "We talked about a number of different things, including the nature of the business that is politics in this town, but we didn't argue. She gave me the letters you told me about and then I left."

"And have you read them? The letters, Charisma - have you read them?"

"Mama, I just brought the box home last night. I haven't had time...."

"Have you even opened the box yet, Charisma?"

Charisma huffed. "No, Mama... I haven't. I do have other things in my life that take precedence over some old letters that were written twenty years ago," her expression defiant. Okasa glared at Charisma with more than a hint of disgust and aggravation on her countenance and Charisma shrugged her shoulders diffidently. "What??"

"You're a coward, Charisma Tagherty, and we raised you better than that. However," she went on, ignoring Charisma's sputtered attempts at outrage, "except as it concerns Brianna's withdrawal from our family, it's not really my business, is it?" Okasa paused. "That's what you were going to say, wasn't it? " A beat. "Charisma, if the letters weren't that important to you, why did you push to get them?"

"Who says I did?"

"Charisma, I *know* what Brianna's reaction was when she found out you knew about the letters. I'm the one who had to tell her you knew!"

"That doesn't mean I demanded she give them to me!"

"She wouldn't have given them to you if you hadn't asked her for them. They were hers to give... or not... and I know for a fact she had no intention of sharing them with you right now - she TOLD me so. But then she's never really been able to deny you very much, Daughter."

"I don't see what the big deal is - they're just some old letters that are addressed to me. Wouldn't you be the least bit curious if it was you, Mama?"

"Yes, probably," Okasa admitted without hesitation. "But then I never treated anyone in my life the way you have Brianna."

"She's the one who walked away, Mama!"

"And you're the one who let her go." Okasa snorted, her mien tainted with more than a hint of sadness. "You'd like to think no one can see past the faзade you've built around yourself. But the truth of the matter is - you're the only one who can't... or won't... see past it." She sighed soundlessly and rose from the couch. "Go read your letters, Charisma - or don't. It's up to you. I'm going to go take a shower and then I'm going home."

"But...."

"You said you had things to do. So do I, and believe it or not, they don't involve staying here. The only reason I came down here in the first place is because Brianna refused to answer the phone after she said goodbye."

"Wait - she said goodbye to you?"

"Yes. And this time, I think she intends for it to stick."

"How dare she...!! After all this family has done for her!! I'll...."

"You'll what, Charisma??" Okasa asked kindly. "She's done as much for this family as any other member of it without any real obligation except the one in her heart. And no expectation of it lasting beyond the moment, though I blame her parents for that outlook as much as I blame...."

"As much as you blame me?" Charisma asked bitterly, shocking Okasa with her tone.

"I was going to say as much as I blame anything else in her life, Charisma. Why would you think I'd blame you for that?"

"You seem to be blaming me for everything else," her attitude almost petulant. "Why not this?" Charisma sighed and closed her eyes, willing herself to find the calm center she'd developed for dealing with crises many years prior. When she felt it slip into place, she opened her eyes and looked at Okasa. "I'm sorry, Mama. That was uncalled for."

Okasa wanted to cry. She felt like she'd been making headway, even if it had been inch by battering, bloody inch. And now Charisma's walls were back in place. She nodded and turned her back to Charisma so she could start stripping the couch of the bedding she had used. "No harm, no foul, right?"

Charisma chuckled, though it sounded strained and awkward. "You've been hanging around with the boys too much, Mama, if you're using sports idioms."

"They're the ones I see for dinner every week, Charisma. And there is always sports talk after dinner if not during." She finished folding the blanket and placed it on one end of the couch. "Even the girls get involved in a lot of it."

"That must make for some interesting meals."

"It makes for some interesting dialogue at any rate." Her smile held a hint of embarrassment. "I've already had to put a couple topics off-limits. They came perilously close to starting food fights."