Surely he wouldn't object to a *little* Christmas present. Phryne knew Jack had said he didn't want anything for the holiday, but considering he'd just saved her from a psychopath and helped her find Janey, she felt like she couldn't NOT get him something. Truthfully, all he would have had to do was say the word and she'd have given him anything his heart desired regardless of the difficulty to find it. It was the least she could do, she mused.

For all their work together over the past months, Phryne still felt like she barely knew Jack. He hadn't shared much of himself but then she hadn't really given him the opportunity. She knew he'd just gotten a divorce and had been living alone for quite some time. Come to think of it, he never talked about other friends or family, but she knew he had to have them. And other than a confessed aversion to operetta and a love of Shakespeare she didn't even know his habits or hobbies.

So what to get the man you knew but didn't know at all? Window shopping hadn't given her any answers and it wasn't as though she knew his acquaintances to be an ally in her gift selection pursuits. Asking Hugh Collins hadn't gotten her any answers either.

"The Inspector tends to keep himself apart from the rest of us, Miss. Not because he thinks he's better than everyone, but he just feels that as the boss he can't get too friendly. Personally though," Hugh leaned in confidentially, "I think he thinks we wouldn't want to be friends. That no one would actually want to know him outside the station. I don't have any proof of this, it's just a feeling."

Phryne tended to agree with Hugh's assessment, though she'd noticed Jack had a soft spot for the young constable. He protected his cadets and constables as best he could and tried to be a thorough teacher of police procedure, but when it came time to mingle personally, like at the Fireman and Policeman's Ball, Jack volunteered to work instead. He claimed it was so someone else could attend the ball, but Phryne thought it was more because if his men wanted a place to complain about him, they had free reign to do so there without fear of reprisal.

But Jack was well-respected amongst his fellow officers and they all had good things to say about him. Professionally. Personally, they didn't really know anything, which several men found amusing. The running theory this month was that he had been hired as the newest gossip columnist for The Globe and went by the pseudonym Mrs. Nosy Nellie. Phryne thought Jack could hold quite a lot under his hat if he wanted to. Still waters ran deep and all that.

But it still didn't answer the question of what to get him for Christmas. And it was two days away. It wasn't until she opened a drawer in the desk of her parlor that she finally realized what it should be.

"Miss Fisher!" Jack looked up from his desk to see the rather unexpected but welcome sight of the raven-haired adventuress standing in his doorway. "What brings you by today? I would have thought you'd be preparing for the holidays?"

"I am, Inspector, but as I knew I wouldn't be seeing you on Christmas Day, I thought I should come by and wish you a happy Christmas in person."

"Unnecessary, but I appreciate the sentiment all the same." He gave her a soft smile. "A happy Christmas to you as well."

Her lower lip trembled in spite of itself. "Yes, well...I suppose happy might not be the word for it this year. Perhaps more relieved." She took a deep breath and shook off her momentary sadness. "The main reason I came to see you was to give you a Christmas gift." A bubble of laughter began to rise when he reacted just as she'd predicted. He waved his hands, flustered.

"No, Miss Fisher, I do not require any presents, nor do I need anything. Your kind wish was enough."

"You misunderstand, Jack. I'm not giving you a present. I'm giving you a gift." He stopped gesturing, confused. She gestured to the bag in her lap and pulled out a bottle of whiskey. She could have gotten him the finest aged bourbon made, but she didn't think he'd accept it, so she got him something that was still very good, but nowhere near as expensive. "You can keep this either at home or here in your office for when you need a moment to relax or a belt of courage. Or you can share with me when you're not sitting in my parlor being served a fine cocktail by Mr. Butler. Hopefully you'll never have to need it when you're sad."

He gave her the half-smile that she was coming to adore about him. "Thank you very much. I will indeed put this to good use."

"That's not the gift, Jack. That's just making sure you've got something decent on hand for guests." She gestured at the other chair in his office. "This is the gift." She reached into her trouser pocket and pulled out a large coin. Phryne gently touched the face of the coin and then just as gently placed it on the desk in front of Jack.

He looked at it curiously. There was a woman on the coin wearing a long, flowing dress and she carried branches of laurel and oak, a waving flag behind her, as she walked towards the sunrise. "I believe this is called a Walking Liberty half-dollar, first minted in 1916. It's from the States, yes?"

"Correct." She looked surprised. "How did you know that?"

He flushed slightly with a shrug of his shoulders. "I collect coins. A relative got me started years ago."

Setting aside the thrill of learning something completely new about Jack Robinson in that moment, she continued her story. "During the war, a woman in my ambulance unit was married to an American soldier. He'd given her this coin to 'keep her safe' she said. The belief was that the lady Liberty figure was reaching out her hand towards hope. And if you carried one of these coins with you, you would always have hope."

She swallowed hard and looked into his face. "I had told her stories about Janey and myself and when the war was over, just before our unit disbanded, she gave me that coin one night. She told me that when things seemed darkest and she thought she'd never see her husband or family again, she'd hold this coin and remember she had hope. She gave it to me and told me that I should hang on to the hope that I'd find my sister again.

"Thanks to you I have my sister back. I can pass on this coin now."

Jack looked stunned. "Miss Fisher – Phryne – "

"Don't say anything, Jack. Just take it. Please. It would mean so much to me if you did. I know it's just a piece of metal but if there is anything you hope for, I sincerely want you to get it or find it or achieve it. This is my Christmas gift to you."

Shaking his head a little in disbelief, he tried to find words to express how much it meant to him but his throat had closed up and nothing could come out. Phryne stood up, leaned over the desk, and softly kissed him on the cheek. Without another word, she floated out of his office with only the sweet scent of her perfume lingering.

Jack picked up the silver coin with something akin to reverence and let it sit in the palm of his hand. He hadn't felt hopeful about anything for a very long time. But lately – lately he'd found himself longing for things he'd thought had died years ago. Maybe hope wasn't lost, just misplaced. He nodded to himself and wrapped his fingers around the coin.