[backdated to early Christmas morning]
December 25th, very, very early morning. Just after midnight. All isn't quiet in Chicago, but then, when is it ever? There's people spilling out of bars and clubs, celebrating the coming of the day with a little too much alcohol and quite enough joy for the entire city. There are couples in Grant Park, taking a stroll to enjoy the freshly-
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Especially not when Dean Winchester lives in the Tower.
Some things are just too tempting.
She places it somewhere only she knows, keeping the postcard of Ellen's tucked in the back pocket of her jeans. It's Christmas morning, so she's certain there will be festive crap around the Tower.
And she's hungry. A girl is handing candy canes and reindeer headbands. Jo has no idea what to do with them. She is certainly not putting the headband on.
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Because, okay, Santa is not real, last Dean checked. But neither were faeries and the freakin' Marshmallow Man, either.
It's been a long time since Dean risked his Rift change. He's not sure today's the day to start, note from Santa or not.
On the other hand... cheeseburgers. Help him out, Jo.
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Jo grins at him a little, stopping a the doorway. She notices his expression and walks over to him, candy cane and reindeer headband and all.
She reads the note. "Huh. Santa's a plucky bastard."
She approves. Noting Dean's look, she adds, "... Well. Come on. What's the worst that could happen?"
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He glances up when she comes in, and that candy cane and headband is met with a grin of his own. "That's a good look on you, Jo."
Then he looks back down at the note, and at Jo again when she says that. That gets her a stern look because really, by the time Jo showed up in Chicago, Dean had stopped even trying to fight the Rift on this issue.
But again. Cheeseburger. So with a sigh, and mix of hope and fear, Dean picks up the cheeseburger. Before he takes a bite, he eyes Jo and says, "If this thing kills me, I'm hauntin' your ass."
Finally, he brings the cheeseburger up to his mouth and takes a bite. He winces - his Rift change usually stops him from being able to get past chewing - but when nothing happens, he finishes the bite and swallows.
That cheeseburger is going to disappear in about twelve point five seconds.
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Lucky Spencer.
He pauses, looking strangely at it. It's obvious what it is, but Sonny already gave him an extra guitar lying around the bar. He doesn't really need another one. Lucky picks up the present and takes it to a table, ripping open the package. The weight of it feels strangely familiar in his hands, and then he has the package open.
It's his guitar. It's the first guitar that he ever picked up and called his own, and he holds it between his hands for a moment, wondering at the impossibility of it all. His eyes burn, and he runs his fingers down the strings.
It takes Lucky a moment, but he sees that behind the strings... there's a picture. He pulls it out from the guitar, staring at it in wonder. He thought... he thought he'd never see them again. When he went to Ireland, he didn't allow himself the comfort of having a ( ... )
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It could be hours that she sits there. She doesn't check. Her heart's heavier and lighter than it was only yesterday, and she doesn't know how both can be true, but they are. They are and they keep her rooted in her spot for longer than she can keep track of.
She wipes at her cheeks, picking up the memory box with the intention of carrying it back to her room.
It's when she finds him by the stairs, looking similarly to how she did when she found the memory box in the dresser.
"... Lucky, you okay?" she asks in an uncharacteristically small voice.
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He glances at the memory box in her hand, noticing how strange her voice sounds.
"I am," he says, and he manages to smile though the air that he keeps breathing in seems thin or maybe he's simply incapable of taking in deep breaths at the moment. "I'm..." Lucky clears his throat. "Christmas present. An impossible Christmas present, but it's... it's a good one."
It's amazing.
"Are you... okay? I didn't... didn't realize anyone else was awake."
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It made her sad but it also made her happy. Made her remember what love really is, and while she doesn't think her father would be proud of what she's done, he was at least proud of who she was.
Lena studies him skeptically, and not without a little concern.
"Let me guess," she says gently, finally reaching his side. She sits on the table across from him, feet dangling in the air, while she takes a peak at the note. "Santa?"
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It's Christmas after all. Two years ago, the REAL Santa Claus came through giving people impossible gifts. That was before she was sixteen, but her father received something impossible and her grandmother did too. She got a very nice bracelet that she'd seen once and never told anyone that she had wanted.
She still has that bracelet.
When she steps out into the apartment, she notices a package on the counter marked to Elizabeth from Santa. She opens it to find the videotape inside with her mother's name on it... and the year... the year before she was born. Her heart jumps up into her throat, and she runs to the TV, placing the video tape into the VCR and falling down on the floor in front of it ( ... )
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He does agree it's a waste. And the coal better not have messed with the gifts underneath the tree. The gifts were bought by him, and they're for Elizabeth.
Well, of course they're for Elizabeth. He doesn't have anyone else he wants to gift.
He steps into the apartment a few minutes after the video is done with. Which doesn't matter, because he sees the look on her face and that's enough go get him to stop in his tracks. Worry grips his chest and he slowly steps forward.
"... Elizabeth?" he asks quietly. His first thought it the worst conclusion. It often is. He thinks of Nikolas, thinks of what he might have meant by Christmas presents, wonders if she's like that because she received hers, and he feels ( ... )
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He takes her hand, and she squeezes his back at first, and then wraps her arms around him, hugging him tightly.
"Santa... came. I know you saw your coal, and I was like ugh that could fuel a boat, but... but he gave me..." She pulls back from the hug, smiles at him tearily so he knows that it's good, presses rewind on the tape, and tries to find the words still but can't. It finishes rewinding, and she pushes play. "He gave me this. Look. It's... it's my mom, Josef. She made this for me, and my dad told me about it before but he said it got destroyed. It's impossible that it's even here but it's... it's really it. I don't know how he did it, but I'm-- I'm so happy ( ... )
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The concern and the confusion soon give way to surprise.
Look, she says, and Josef does. He shifts in place, keeping his arms around her still, and he is taken aback by what he sees. It's Elizabeth's mother. Speaking to her about how much she already loved her. He can't think of anything more perfect. If he could have given this to her himself, he would have. "Elizabeth, this is..." he shakes his head.
He doesn't need to say how amazing it is. He can hear it in her voice, and he is so happy for her.
"She's very beautiful." Josef presses a kiss to the top of her head and pulls her in much closer. He looks back at the screen, slightly dazed. "You look so much like her,
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On top of that, she's still struggling with processing all of what Japan entailed. She feels like she spent far too much of the holiday feeling either sore, scared or miserable, and now all she wants is some rest. Not the fitful kind of rest you get on a cramped, noisy plane, or in a strange place thousands of miles from home, but actual sleep, in her own room, with no one around. For the last several hours, she's been basically uncommunicative. She's not even sure she'd be up for Molly's company right now, and that's saying something.
That said, she's not quite so devoid of energy that she won't elicit surprise at the sight of a shiny, metallic thing, possessed of a large number of arms and several bulbous... eyes?... hovering a foot or so off the ground. "...Hey, how'd you get in ( ... )
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She had flown in front of the killing curse that would have been the end of him. He'd let her go, let her escape so that she could be free, because he knew the year ahead would be a dangerous one. He didn't want to risk her getting hurt. But she flew back, taking the death that had been meant for him.
It's why when he wakes up to those sounds of an owl in a cage, he isn't certain where he is. Is it a dream of his past? But no, he is in his room at the Tower and not in his room at Privet Drive. Yet still, there's that familiar skittering sound and the hooting like Hedwig trying to get his attention. He flips on the switch of the lamp beside his bed and pushes himself away from the covers, freezing at the ( ... )
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She roots for the underdog.
Naturally, rooting for the underdog alone is hardly satisfactory. Least of all productive. She also has to help. There has to be a level of action in the defense of those that aren't often able to defend themselves or aren't able to do so on their own. The greatest testament to this was when she found a political conscience once she was witness to the intolerable treatment of house elves.
It is also why she purchased Crookshanks that fateful day in Diagon Alley.
She remembers it very clearly. She remembers the exact spot in Diagon Alley. And she remembers why it was Crookshanks, out of all the other possible pets and magical familiars that she could have chosen.
Nobody wanted him. His face was too squashed in. He wasn't what one would outwardly call pretty, and Hermione, naturally, felt a kindred spirit in the cat. Nobody wanted him and so Hermione Granger did ( ... )
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"It's Hedwig."
Hedwig recognizes Hermione as well, and she makes a noise as greeting before flying into Hermione's room. It's a new universe to be explored, much different than the last, but Hedwig is a magical owl, excited to explore every inch of it.
"And you have... Crookshanks?" Yes, Harry would recognize that cat's ugly mug anywhere, and he did end up growing fond of the cat in the end.
The cat didn't turn out to be a horrible person in disguise after all, and he did try to warn them when it came down to it that the rat was not what they'd thought it was.
"How is this possible? Did you get a note or anything with him or did he appear out of thin air?" Harry is still smiling wide as eh steps into Hermione's room to watch Hedwig soar around up by the ceiling. "There was a cage set up in my room. I didn't... check for any note before I'd run over to show ( ... )
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Hermione spins around as Hedwig flies into Hermione's room, eager in her exploration. She lets out a breathless laugh, and this time, she does cover her face with her hands. It's all so much more than she can wrap her head around. "I do. I was just about to go to your room to show you when you knocked on the door. I'd been sleeping, or making a rather poor attempt of it, when I felt a weight at the foot of my bed. Imagine my bewilderment when it was Crookshanks, with a red bow and everything. Isn't Crookshanks still gorgeous, Harry ( ... )
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