The Sweetest Christmas, Part 3
Posted on Mon Dec 30th, 2024 @ 3:33pm by Lieutenant JG Jane Sinclair
1,107 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Christmas Vacation
Location: The woods outside the town of Clearlake, Proxima Centauri II
Timeline: Christmas time
“Ah still can’t believe he would do this,” Emmy muttered as they walked, her breath fogging the air in front of her as a cold front made itself known in the woods near Clearlake. ”After high school…ah thought he might’ve outgrown his nasty streak.”
”Not everyone grows out of old habits,” Jane observed, keeping up a steady pace, flashlight in one hand and tricorder in the other. The paw prints were gone but the tricorder still picked up traces that they could follow. “I guess some people just stay…jerks. While others stay…”
Emmy looked at her and smiled for the first time in the previous two hours. “Stay what?”
”…Lovely,” Jane decided. “Warm, inviting, kind. Just, all around lovely.”
“And what about you?” Emmy asked. “What have you stayed?”
”Fast?” Jane hazarded a guess. “At least I’d like to think so. Fast, quick, other synonyms.”
”What about restless?” Emmy suggested. “Ah did some reading before you came by. Is it true you’ve not stayed in one place since leaving Proxima?”
“I’ve been on the Myogi a few years now,” Jane answered.
Emmy shook her head. “A warp-capable ship doesn’t count. No, you left home for Interstellar racing, visiting while working at the yards, gallivanted while racing, go through the Academy accelerated, and now mobile on a starship.” She sighed. “Haven’t you ever just wanted to be somewhere simple? Peaceful? Still?”
Jane laughed and shook her head. “You got me dead to rights. I’m not sure I have still in me. There’s too much out there to see!”
”There’s a lot to see here too,” Emmy replied. “C’mon. You need to take time to breathe. Get away from the rush and come home and just…stop. And breathe. And take in the sights.” Her wistful smile was suddenly replaced by a look of shock. “I know where Bailey is. Follow me!” She raced ahead down the trail, with Jane in hot pursuit.
**
Ten minutes later the two found themselves outside a wooden cabin with a porch that extended over the lake, on which sat a cold and tired golden retriever.
”Bailey!” Emmy ran ahead and crouched down so the dog could get in close. “You shouldn’t worry me like that! But ah forgive you. Let’s get you inside.” Emmy unlocked the door to the cabin. “Gimme one sec Jane.” She disappeared into the cabin and moments later a couple of lights came on inside.
Jane walked to the edge of the porch and looked across the lake. They were opposite the town; the lights of Clearlake twinkling brightly, reflected in the stillness of the lake for which it got its name. The stars above were barely sullied by the town’s own emanations. The snowfall was getting a bit heavier but Jane barely noticed for the quality of the view.
”Ah’ve got a fire goin’ inside,” Emmy said, coming back out to the deck. “Would ya look at that?”
”I’ve not been here since I was a little girl,” Jane said, her eyes never leaving the view. She giggled. “I feel like I’m inside a snow globe. Just the absolute perfect scene, captured forever.”
”Meanwhile ah need to be practicin’ what ah preach,” Emmy admitted. “This contest has taken so much of my attention…Bailey an’ me shoulda been out here a lot more. This is her favourite place anywhere.”
”I can see why,” Jane admitted. “The view, the atmosphere, the company.”
Emmy smiled at that last word and set her hands down on the railing in front of her, touching Jane’s. Neither flinched. For the first time they looked away from the view and into each other’s eyes, and seconds later their lips met in the perfect first kiss.
When their lips parted, their hands came together and they stared back out at the perfect scene before them.
**
The snow had been falling harder with each passing hour, and by nine that night it was getting hard to see anything even a few meters ahead, much less across the lake.
Jane made a call with her commbadge and then joined Emmy inside the cabin.
“Emergency services are stretched tonight,” she said. “Lots of people are stuck and need help. They said if we had somewhere we could take shelter then we should do that and ask for beam-out in the morning.”
Emmy nodded. “Mind if ah borrow your communicator?” Jane handed it to her and then set about stoking the fire in the hearth. “This is Emmy Doyle callin’ Sweet Haven Bakery. Anybody there?”
”Emmy! It’s Lucy!” came a slightly staticky answer. “Where are you? Did you find Bailey?”
”We did,” Emmy assured her colleague, “and we’re fine. Ah’m with Jane Sinclair, we tracked Bailey to my old cabin. We’re stuck here though. How’s everything there?”
”We have it in hand!” Lucy said. “We’re bustin’ our butts off but we’ll have the best cookies you’ve ever tasted by the start of the festival tomorrow. Helps that we can’t get home!”
That made Emmy laugh. “Ah appreciate everything you’re doin’, Lucy, you and the whole team. Rest when you can. Be safe and Ah’ll see you come mornin’.”
The signal closed and Emmy turned to her guest. “Be right back.” She returned from a back room with blankets and pillows. “Heatin’ isn’t great in this cabin, so Ah figure we’re best sleepin’ in the den. Hardwood floor won’t be great but it’s that or be cold on a mattress.”
Their bed made, they sat in the middle of it, in front of the fire, Bailey sleeping on the chair nearby, content and warm. “Well, I didn’t expect to get stuck somewhere during my Christmas visit home,” Jane admitted. “But if I had to, I say the circumstances are damn near perfect.”
”Thank you for helpin’ me today, Jane,” Emmy said. “Ah’m not sure I’d have found Bailey without you.”
”It’s no trouble,” Jane answered. “I should be thanking you.”
”For what?”
Jane looked Emmy in her eyes. “For reminding me that there are things to love here.”
Their lips came together again. Not softly and gently like before, but furtively and passionately, as Jane Sinclair and Emmy Doyle lay down in their makeshift bed in front of a roaring fire and got to know each other a lot more intimately.
To be continued…
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