** Note: not a new chapter!

**Announcement:

I am re-writing this story under the same name. For anyone who has read the story of Chris and Charity before, if you're interested, I'm posting new chapters on these two. The plot line has changed a little, as has the characters (not by much). I would love to see you guys re-visit their story!

-Lisa

I Never Needed You

Chapter 20

Charity groaned as she heard the shrill noise that her alarm was making. It wasn't even light outside yet!

"Are you going to turn that thing off?" Christian asked groggily as he rolled over onto his side and buried his head in the pillows.

"You're closer to it," she mumbled as she placed her pillow over her head to block out the sound.

"Get up lazy butts!" Derek could be heard from somewhere outside the room.

"It's Christmas morning! Presents! Food! Presents!" he managed to get Mike chanting as they seemingly walked down the hallways pounding on the doors to get the peacefully sleeping people up.

"Make them shut up," Charity whined as she crawled over Christian to turn the alarm clock off.

"Hmm…now this is a way to wake me up," Christian smiled sleepily as he rolled over onto his back and looked up at Charity, who was now straddling his waist.

"Too bad for you that we're going to be walked in on in a couple of seconds," Charity smirked as she leaned down and kissed him lightly on the lips.

"Merry Christmas baby," she whispered softly as she sat back up.

"I love you," Christian told her as he slipped his warm hands under her sleeping shirt and rubbed softly.

"Wake up, wake -oh, Chris is already up," Mike smirked as he threw Charity's bedroom door open – which of course gave him the perfect view of the bed.

"Shut up, Mike!" Charity laughed as she rolled off of Christian and on to the cold floor.

"Maybe I should have given you guys a little more time, huh?" he grinned and winked as he backed out of the room.

"I don't understand how you deal with that boy every day of your life," Charity huffed as she walked over to her closet to grab a hoodie.

"Practice," he laughed as he managed to pull himself up to a sitting position on the side of the bed. "Can you throw me my sweater?"

Charity laughed as the sweater hit in square in the face before sliding down to sit in his lap.

"Sorry," she snorted as she leaned against her closet door and folded her arms, waiting for him to finally get up.

"Why don't I believe that?' he asked her as he stood up and stretched, smiling her way.

"I have no clue what you could mean," she said, looking at him with wide, innocent eyes. "Now come on, presents are opening and we're not down there!"

"I need to do something first, go down, and I'll be there in a couple," Christian told her as he started towards the bathroom.

With a sigh, Charity did as he asked, causing him to smile. She was acting like a little kid on the morning of Christmas – granted it was Christmas morning.

Checking to make sure that she was out of the room, Christian walked over to his luggage and dug into one of the pockets for a present that he had left in there. It had been the only way that he could be sure that she wasn't going to find it.

Opening the lid of the small black velvet box, Christian let out a deep breath. He was going to do this, and he was going to do this right.

Snapping the lid shut, Chris placed the box in his pocket and walked out the door before Charity could come and find him.

Walking down the stairs, Chris followed the sound of voices and found himself leaning against the doorjamb, simply staring at Charity as she laughed at her brother.

"I can't believe that you actually gave Mom a freaking mixing machine," Charity laughed as Derek continued to rub the spot on the back of his head that Sophia had smacked after she opened her present. "You have a lot to learn about the art of giving gifts to females, brother dear."

"Shut up," he grumbled, sticking his tongue out at her to show what he thought of her comment.

"No, you deserve that," Alexander told his son, watching as Anthony opened one of his presents.

"Is no one on my side?" Derek asked as he glared at his father. Who was to know that getting someone who loved to cook a cooking instrument would result in so much pain?

"No. Because if they are, they're going to get the same thing that you did!" Sophia huffed. "I hope that you didn't give Kim something that she could plug in."

"No, I happened to get her a necklace," Derek protested. "She doesn't cook. She's more likely to blow up the kitchen than make something edible in the kitchen."

"I'm so-ooo going to tell her you said that!" Charity laughed, just as she noticed Christian walk in the family room. "Come. Sit," she smiled and patted the space on the floor that was to the right of her.

Christian looked around the large room and shook his head in amazement. Their families merged together perfectly.

Their mothers were sitting next to the fireplace talking animatedly as they sipped out of coffee mugs. They couldn't look more opposite of each other, in build and coloring, but their attitude and body language made it look as if they had known each other their whole lives.

Their fathers were sitting next to their wives respectively talking about who knows what, while all of the younger crew was in a huge circle discussing anything and everything under the sun, most likely waiting on him to finish opening the presents.

"Chris is here, can we start now?" Mike yelled out, confirming his thoughts.

The parents automatically stopped talking and moved over so that they were sitting on the floor in the circle along with the rest of them.

Someone had gone digging under the tree before they got there and placed all of the presents in a pile that everyone surrounded. Not sure what they did, Chris sat back and waited for someone to start passing presents around.

.0.0.0.

All-in-all Christmas was a different experience from what Chris and his family was used to. Granted his family wasn't the quietest out there, but they had nothing on the . It could be the Italian in them, or it could just be how they grew up, but it seemed as if all of them had the need to talk over each other at the top of their voice.

"I think that I finally figured out why you have such a powerful singing voice," Christian commented as he and Charity started to bundle up in their warm clothes so that they could go for a walk in the back gardens.

"Why?" Charity asked, her brows rose as she wound a scarf around her neck.

"Your family all talks at once. If you want to be heard you have to scream," he told her as he held his hand out for her.

"I've never thought of it that way," Charity laughed with a shake of her head as they headed out the back door.

Stepping outside, Chris took a deep breath of air, and almost choked from the sharpness of the cold.

"Holy crap," he coughed much to Charity's amusement.

"It takes a while for people to get used to," she told him with a smile.

Nodding his head, Christian wrapped his arm around her shoulders, bringing her body closer to his.

"Have you ever thought what it would be like to have a family and a home that was strictly yours?" he asked suddenly, stopping in he middle of the pathway and turning to look at her.

"Of course I have, every little girl has," Charity answered, confused at his sudden question. "Why?"

"What would you say to starting a family, and a house?" he asked nervously, immediately forgetting the speech that he had typed out and practiced for hours on end before he flew out. "With me."

Christian didn't think that it had been possible, but his hands were sweating even though it had to be fifteen degrees outside. Charity just stood there in front of him, slowly blinking her beautiful blue eyes.

"…what do you mean?" she asked softly, her breath creating white patches of air as she breathed out.

"I love you. There's no one else out here for me. I know that I screwed up royally in the past, but please know that I'm never going to be that stupid again. I know that you're the only woman for me…I don't want anyone else.

I want to watch you grow with my children inside of you. I want to wake up every morning and have you by my side. I want to take the good and the bad with you. Marry me….say that you'll marry me," he begged, trying not to sound as frantic as he felt.

Not even realizing that tears were welling up in her eyes, Charity nodded her head, barely managing to stutter out her "yes".

"Really? You're sure…Really?" he asked, a huge grin on his face as she continued to nod her head as the tears spilled onto her cheeks.

"Yes, yes, yes!" she laughed happily as she jumped the two feet between them and hugged him.

Laughing as he never had before, Christian did the most clichéd thing that he could have. He swung her around in a wide circle before setting her down on her feet again and digging in his coat pocket.

"This is yours," he smiled as he opened the box that had been in his pocket all day. Tilting it so that the moon light hit it, Christian showed Charity the ring that had literally taken him weeks to find.

It was a simple princess cut diamond that was laid in a band of channel cut sapphires that covered the surface of the band. It had screamed Charity the moment that he saw it.

"It's beautiful," she sniffed as he took it out of the box and lifted her hand to take her glove off.

"Not as beautiful as its owner," he grinned, not caring that he was saying the most over used compliment ever. It was true.

"I love you so much Christian," she told him as she reached up to bring his face down to hers. "You just gave me the best Christmas present ever."

"I love you too. No one else could make me as happy as you do."

.0.0.0.

Exactly one year later Christian and Charity were joined as husband and wife in the same exact spot that Christian and proposed to her.

It had been a crazy year, with Christian taking extra classes so that he could graduate early, Charity's World Tour.

Kim and Derek had announced on the same night they became engaged that she was expecting. On July 19, 2009 the happy parents had welcomed Harmony Marie into the world – Charity and Sophia doted on the poor little girl like crazy.

Of course as soon as Christian and Charity were married Sophia begun to lay hints that she wanted another grandchild – this one from them.

They had no problem giving it the good ol' college try that night – nor for the next four months while Charity was on break from recording.

It wasn't until Charity was well into recording her fifth album that she had become pregnant for the second time.

February 4, 2010 Gabriel Alexander Jacob Sinclair was born.

Life went on from there.

After three years of juggling being a performer and a mother, Charity called it quits and escaped from the spotlight, turning to opening up her own record label instead, which exploded with success the moment she signed Isabella Christenson, stealing her from records.

And this was only the beginning of the end.

Authors Notes:

After four years, the story of Chris and Charity is finally completely. It's sad to see them go, but it was their time.

Thank you for all of your reviews and support! I really appreciate it.

Look out for my next story Someday I'll Find. I've kind of changed the summary and plot from what I posted on my profile, but the gist of it is the same.

Let me know if you want me to send you an email when it's up! I actually already have four chapters done, but I'm trying to get it to where I have enough to where I don't have to feel bad about not being able to post often!

As always:

Happy Reading, and Happy Holidays!

Lisa