She was kneeling on the floor. The carpet was already beginning to make little indentations in her bare legs. Her chocolate brown eyes were looking through the pages of the secret book she found. Of course it looked like an ordinary scrapbook, but it must be special. Otherwise why would it be hidden in Momma's comic and manga collection?
"What are you looking at?" A pair of larger arms hugged the girl from behind.
"This," she held up the scrapbook.
"Oh, I remember making this!"
"So, what is it?"
Allison laughed a little, "It's the story of how I met Mum."
"B-But this is a picture of-"
"How about I tell you the whole story from the beginning, Virginia?"
Virginia could only nod, her brown braid bobbing up and down. She hadn't heard how her mothers met. It was something she never really had thought about. Virginia was at that age where she could not imagine her parents having a life before she was adopted.
"C'mon, Supergirl, let's go on the couch where it is comfortable." Allison scooped Virginia and book into her arms and carried both to a nearby couch. She did not exactly sit down. It was more like gracefully letting gravity pull her down. Agatha would not have been amused if she had seen it.
Virginia wriggled around so that she was sitting on the woman's lap with the book on her own.
"So let's see now," Allison opened it up to the first page. There was a picture of the British woman with her hair all over the place, bumps, bruises and just being overall highly disheveled. Oh, and it was the type of picture taken when someone is arrested by the police. "This was on Christmas Eve…"
xXx
"So, Natalia, how are you going to spend Christmas?" Officer Jones asked her partner as they sat in the patrol car. Styrofoam cups held the precious hot coffee in them.
"Working."
"Are you getting the time and a half and a deferred holiday or double pay?"
"Double pay."
"Alright, Scrooge."
Natalia gave a glare to Allison as cold as the snow outside. "New Years is the day where we have festivities. Christmas is a solemn religious holiday."
"Besides, Christmas is in January."
"Nope, I'm pretty sure it is in December."
"I'm Orthodox!"
"So?"
"We use a different calendar. My family has Christmas on the seventh of January."
"Alright, alright, you could have just explained it in the first place!"
"Car 345, this is dispatch, there is a woman harassing the cashier at the 7-11. She described her as being drunk.
Allison reached for the radio with one back gloves. "This is car 345, we are enroute."
She jealously looked at Natalia. The Belarusian was sitting behind the steering wheel. It only bothered Allison a little that she would not have control as they hurtled down the ice sheathed hills. What really bothered her was that she was not going to get another turn driving until the roads were cleaner. Natalia was by far the better driver in winter weather. It made the young officer a bit annoyed.
They pulled into the 7-11. There was only one other car parked there, a supervisor's car. As the two women got out of their own vehicle and approached the convenience store, a man with sergeant's stripes on his dark, almost black, blue shirt got out of the other car. He had an unmistakable crop of white hair. It was Sergeant Beilschmidt.
"Officers," he nodded at the two women before turning on one booted foot and heading inside. The two women followed him inside.
"She's in the back," the shaking attendant behind the counter said.
As the three walked back toward the coolers they say a blonde haired woman. She had glass hanging from a chain around her neck. Half of her hair was up in a ponytail on one side of her head. The hair on the other half hung loose in a tangled mess. She wore no shoes. Snow stuck to her stocking clad feet. This woman wore what looked like a very nice skirt suit.
Slowly she turned her head toward the officers. Her movements were zombie like. The thought that she might be a zombie vanished as she took off running away from the officers and toward a small hallway. She stopped and looked at the signs. To the left was the bathroom, to the right was the fire exit and straight ahead was an area that was off limits to customers. Like some old cartoon she stared dumbly and then turned to the left, slamming the bathroom door behind her.
The three had started chasing her, but they stopped still when the woman went into the bathroom.
"A-Alright, let's get her out of there and bring her in," Gilbert strode confidently ahead of the others and reached out to handle. The door started to open. Then female hands pushed it closed again.
Natalia put her shoulder against the door with Gilbert and started to push. The door burst open. The two fell inside the bathroom. The door slammed closed again before Allison could get inside. She stood there, trying to push the door open again as very painful sounds and shouts radiated out. Finally, she got the door open a inch or two. Just in time to see Natalia lift the lid off of the toilette. Allison let go of the door and just stepped back. She did not need to see to know how Natalia was going to use that lid. On her radio she could hear the noises from inside echoed. A button must have been accidentally pressed.
Finally, the door opened and out came the disheveled woman. Allison clotheslined her. Unbelievably, the woman got back up again. There was blood everywhere and she was still getting back up. That was when Detective Honda showed up. His taser was in hand and seconds later there was volts going through the woman. This time she stayed down long enough for them to handcuff her.
"That. Was. AWESOME!" Sergeant Beilschmidt said as he exited the bathroom, bruises already forming.
xXx
"That was how I met Mum," Allison said to Virginia.
"I don't get it, where was she?"
"She was the woman we arrested. Someone put a drug in her drink so she wasn't acting normal."
"Oh," Virginia turned a page and pasted there was the remains of a used airline ticket. "What about this?"
"That was from the next Christmas…"
xXx
Allison stared at the board that listed the information for the flights. If she just stared long enough it would change from canceled to the boarding time. Nope, did not change even when she glared at it over the rims of her glasses.
She pulled her suitcase behind her as she walked toward one of the airport restaurants. Outside the windows only white could be seen as a snowstorm consumed the Pittsburgh International Airport. She found herself a place that had decent food and beer. She plopped into barstool, next to a blonde woman in a business suit.
"I'll take a coke," she said cheerfully.
The bartender set the red can in front of her.
"Don't you have anything that isn't half piss?" the blonde woman said with a British accent.
"Aren't you a sourpuss," Allison said not exactly quietly.
"Excuse me? I'm stuck here on Christmas Eve and this beer is horrible."
"I'm stuck here too, but you don't see me complaining. Where are you heading to? London?"
"There are more cities in the United Kingdom then just London."
"Well, sorry, I was just trying to be friendly," Allison did not sound sorry.
"…My apologies… Where are you going?"
"Toronto, my brother lives there. But, my flight is canceled. Hey, don't I know you?"
"N-No," she said with unusual emphasis, "we have never met before."
"I arrested you last year! You were high as a kite! Did you get any brain damage from that toilette lid?"
The Brit glared at her, "if you must know, my drink was spiked. All charges were dropped."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure," Allison said with a teasing smile. "The name is Allison, my friends call me Al."
"Agatha Kirkland."
"So what brings you to Pittsburgh?"
"If you must know, I went to a writing convention."
"Oh, are you a writer?"
"No, I'm a lawyer."
Allison made a face at that. "I see…"
"I work for CPS."
"Oh, that is great then!"
"You do know what that means, don't you?"
"I'm not an idiot. I've seen Law & Order: UK."
"You like that kind of show?"
"Course I do! I love anything with the police getting their man and protecting the public."
Agatha could not help but laugh at the childish enthusiasm at that. "I love books. That is why I went to the writing conference."
"You should write one someday."
"I don't think that is going to happen. My writing is rubbish."
"So you have tried to write!"
"Only a little."
"Hey, hold on a second." Allison got out of her seat and walked away. She went across to a simple convenience store. After a quick purchase she walked back and held out a Hershey chocolate bar to Agatha. "It is after midnight. Merry Christmas."
Agatha did not take the offered sweet. "I don't like American chocolate."
xXx
"Is that when you and Mum fell in love?"
"No, we did keep on talking until we were able to get on our flights."
"So when did you fall in love?"
"Turn the page, Virginia."
Virginia did as she was told and on the next page was a receipt. "What is that from?"
"Well, I'll tell you."
xXx
It was Christmas Eve once again. Allison was out doing some last minute shopping. She walked past a bookstore. Something caught her attention and she stopped to look in the window. Inside was a blonde haired woman signing books.
"Rubbish my ass," Allison said as she turned around and walked back to the grocery story just a few shops down from the bookstore. She purchased one single item before returning to the book store and stepping inside.
The line for the signing was not very long. Soon she found herself right in front of the table.
"Who do I make it out to?" Agatha asked without looking up. Her hand was reaching out for a book.
Allison put a chocolate bar in the hand. "Merry Christmas."
Agatha's head shot up. Her eyes widened as her green eyes went from the Cadburry bar to Allison's smiling face. The corners of her lips started to turn up in a matching smile.
xXx
"The next day she went with me to the station Christmas party, our first date."
"Aww, that is how you fell in love?"
"It was the start, yep."
"I want to hear more."
"Sorry, Supergirl," Allison said as she stood up, holding her daughter close, "time for you to go to bed. Otherwise, Santa Clause won't come tonight."
"Okay, momma," Virginia loved it when she was carried. "Will you tell me more tomorrow?"
"Course I will. I'll tell you about how next Christmas we went on a vacation to Florida."
"I bet it was really fun."
"Sure was, we spent it being chased by a murderer!"