Secret Santa Gift for melanie_anne
Merry Christmas, Mel! I hope you like your prezzie, because I tried very hard to give you something you'd like. It's basically gen fic with Sam, Bailey, and Chloe and it includes your prompts of snow, a busy mall, and the dialogue you wanted to see.
Gabrielle
Title: An Empty Sleigh
Author: Gabrielle
Fandom: Profiler
Rating: FRC/G
Characters: Samantha, Bailey, Chloe
Word Count: 355
Summary: Samantha and Bailey are looking for something they'll never find.
Feedback: Please
Distribution: skewedbelievers, profiler_fans, my LJ, and my site only.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. It all belongs to Sanders/Moses, NBC, and a bunch of other people who are not now and have never been me.
Author's Notes: Written for the super terrific melanie_anne for the Secret Santa 2008 Exchange. I hope with all my heart that she enjoys it and that the rest of you do as well.
An Empty Sleigh
“Mom, why are we here?” Chloe whined.
Standing in line in front of a mall display covered in fake snow and plastic reindeer with dozens of other restless children and tired moms, looking like all of them…they were like none of them.
“Don’t you want to ask Santa for the gifts you want, Chlo?” Her daughter was growing up, eyes too wise, too cynical. Samantha kept trying to make her a little girl again. It wasn’t working.
“There’s no Santa, mom,” the old-young girl huffed.
“Humour me.” Samantha wanted a picture of a sweet little girl on Santa’s lap, something to make a false memory with. Was it too much to ask for her daughter to cooperate, to help assuage the guilt Sam felt every minute of every day for what her job had done to Chloe?
She spied someone standing off to the side, another pair of sad eyes filled with regret. She did her best to catch them with her own. It worked.
“You’re the last person I expected to see here,” she said to Bailey as he approached. He was, though she wasn’t sure why. Now that she thought about it, where else would he be? He was looking for the same thing that she was and there was too much going on at the VCTF for him to be seeking it at the bottom of a bottle of scotch today.
“Hey, Sam, Chloe,” he greeted them, ignoring Sam’s comment and faking a holiday cheer his eyes proved nonexistent. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“Yeah, well, Chloe needs to ask Santa for a few things…”
“That you or Grandma and Grandpa have already bought for me.”
“Too old for Santa?” Bailey reached down and ruffled Chloe’s hair.
“I’m not a baby,” she grumbled.
“Of course not, Chlo, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop believing in Santa.” Samantha was begging now, gazing into her daughter’s eyes. One more year, please, just one more year.
Wisdom, maybe, or maybe Chloe just gave in, but she stopped grousing and shifting from one foot to the other.
“I remember bringing Frannie here,” Bailey said softly, still gazing down at Chloe. “They grow up so fast.” Grow up too fast, and all wrong, in Frannie’s case.
Samantha said nothing. She extended the hand not holding onto Chloe. Bailey took it. The line moved forward…and forward again.
The End.
Gabrielle
Title: An Empty Sleigh
Author: Gabrielle
Fandom: Profiler
Rating: FRC/G
Characters: Samantha, Bailey, Chloe
Word Count: 355
Summary: Samantha and Bailey are looking for something they'll never find.
Feedback: Please
Distribution: skewedbelievers, profiler_fans, my LJ, and my site only.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. It all belongs to Sanders/Moses, NBC, and a bunch of other people who are not now and have never been me.
Author's Notes: Written for the super terrific melanie_anne for the Secret Santa 2008 Exchange. I hope with all my heart that she enjoys it and that the rest of you do as well.
An Empty Sleigh
“Mom, why are we here?” Chloe whined.
Standing in line in front of a mall display covered in fake snow and plastic reindeer with dozens of other restless children and tired moms, looking like all of them…they were like none of them.
“Don’t you want to ask Santa for the gifts you want, Chlo?” Her daughter was growing up, eyes too wise, too cynical. Samantha kept trying to make her a little girl again. It wasn’t working.
“There’s no Santa, mom,” the old-young girl huffed.
“Humour me.” Samantha wanted a picture of a sweet little girl on Santa’s lap, something to make a false memory with. Was it too much to ask for her daughter to cooperate, to help assuage the guilt Sam felt every minute of every day for what her job had done to Chloe?
She spied someone standing off to the side, another pair of sad eyes filled with regret. She did her best to catch them with her own. It worked.
“You’re the last person I expected to see here,” she said to Bailey as he approached. He was, though she wasn’t sure why. Now that she thought about it, where else would he be? He was looking for the same thing that she was and there was too much going on at the VCTF for him to be seeking it at the bottom of a bottle of scotch today.
“Hey, Sam, Chloe,” he greeted them, ignoring Sam’s comment and faking a holiday cheer his eyes proved nonexistent. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“Yeah, well, Chloe needs to ask Santa for a few things…”
“That you or Grandma and Grandpa have already bought for me.”
“Too old for Santa?” Bailey reached down and ruffled Chloe’s hair.
“I’m not a baby,” she grumbled.
“Of course not, Chlo, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop believing in Santa.” Samantha was begging now, gazing into her daughter’s eyes. One more year, please, just one more year.
Wisdom, maybe, or maybe Chloe just gave in, but she stopped grousing and shifting from one foot to the other.
“I remember bringing Frannie here,” Bailey said softly, still gazing down at Chloe. “They grow up so fast.” Grow up too fast, and all wrong, in Frannie’s case.
Samantha said nothing. She extended the hand not holding onto Chloe. Bailey took it. The line moved forward…and forward again.
The End.