Piper sat in bed leaning back against the headboard with her iPad propped against her thighs. Several pillows were plumped behind her, the doona covered her to the waist. She wore a pair of deep blue flannel pyjama bottoms and a white tank top. She glanced at the time in the top corner of her iPad, then let out a quiet sigh. In four minutes it would be 1am. This was the cut off. If there was no call by 1am, there would be no call at all tonight.

She closed her eyes and rested her head back. She was tired, it had been a long day, a number of challenges had presented themselves and the only thing that had kept her going at times was the thought of this call. A dull ache pushed at her forehead and she rubbed her fingers over the skin there hoping to ease away the tension before it developed into something more sinister.

She opened her eyes and looked around the once familiar room, at the large pink chrysanthemums that dominated the wallpaper, the matching pretty but impractical curtains, the matching lampshade.

A matching lampshade? What the fuck was I thinking?

Just inside the door, sitting atop the lime-washed dressing table, sat a small collection of gifts. A very small collection. Three, in fact. There was a presentation box containing two soaps, two bath bombs and a small bottle of skin lotion. All were rose scented and made the inside of Piper's nose itch when she sniffed them. The brand label on the box made Piper aware that the cost of this little assortment was not to be sniffed at. It had to be well into three figures. Piper was astonished, horrified and disgusted all at the same time. It didn't even occur to her to be grateful.

The second gift was a pen. It was a nice pen, sleek and weighty and again came in a fancy presentation box which bore the name of a well known designer. Again, this was no cheap gift. It was practical and it was stylish and it was exactly the same gift as she'd received last Christmas. And the Christmas before. And the one before that, too.

The third gift, sitting a little apart from the other two, was a grey t-shirt which bore the slogan in black capital letters "WORLD'S OKAYEST SISTER". She actually quite liked this and it was her favourite of the three. She wasn't entirely sure when she'd wear it, but it had raised a smile this afternoon and those had been quite hard to come by in the past couple of days.

Piper had arrived at her parents' house on the morning of Christmas Eve. She was due to stay for three nights, this was the second. She had been summoned home for Christmas, just as she was summoned home for Thanksgiving. Dinner had been all about keeping up appearances, as it always was. Her younger brother had attended, but he'd arrived an hour before dinner was served and left an hour after. Her elder brother hadn't attended, but then, he hadn't been invited either.

Piper reached for her phone as she thought about Danny, did some quick mental arithmetic to work out the time, then sent him a text.

Thinking of you both.
Merry Christmas! xx

She turned her attention back to her iPad. Two minutes. Realistically, she knew the call wasn't going to come now. There was cutting it fine, then then there was within two minutes. She checked her email, then turned off her iPad and eased out of bed. She used the bathroom in the en-suite, then returned to bed to find a text waiting for her from her brother.

Love you, Pipe. Hope you
haven't killed her. ;) x

She couldn't help smiling as she read the message. Of all people, Danny knew what she was going through, having to spend Christmas in the company of her mother. She tapped out a reply and hit send.

Not yet. But only because it's
the season of goodwill. There
is still time.

As she looked at the screen waiting for Danny's reply, the phone rang in her hand. Startled, she immediately dropped it and in her attempt to grab it managed to knock it off the bed completely. She scrambled after it, snatching it up from the floor and answering it on her knees with a frantic "Yes? Hello? Alex?"

"Hey, babe. You okay?"

Piper shifted from her knees to sit on the floor, her back against the bed behind her, clutching the phone tightly in her hand. She squeezed her eyes closed, fighting back the tears that caught her by surprise. Just the sound of Alex's voice was all it had taken; a mixture of emotions swept over her and threatened to overwhelm her. She bit her lower lip hard, not trusting her voice not to give her away if she were to speak.

"Pipes? You there?"

"Yeah," she breathed.

"You okay, kid?"

"Mmhmm."

"You sure?"

Piper could hear the frown in Alex's voice, noted how her tone had lowered slightly and pictured the look of concern her girlfriend was no doubt wearing. She cleared her throat quietly, then spoke.

"Fine, yes. Fine. You?" Only a hint of a waver in her voice.

Alex paused just for a second before replying, then seemed to shrug off any niggling doubts as she spoke. "I'm okay, yeah. I'm sorry I'm a little late calling, I know we said no later than one, but I figured you'd let me off for two whole minutes."

Piper glanced at the clock on her nightstand. The illuminated digits reading 01:02.

"Of course," Piper murmured.

"I'd have called ten minutes ago, but there was a bit of a fracas downstairs when I got home and I got kinda waylaid trying to smooth things over."

"A fracas?"

"Yeah. Nothing major. I think Vasily had too much to drink, Lida was laying into him when I got home. Red was trying to get in on the act too, Yuri had drank too much to be any help and it was all very loud and, y'know, Russian. I just helped to calm things down a little."

"Merry Christmas, huh?"

"Heh, yeah." Alex half-laughed. "Too merry for some people. It was the same at the bar tonight. Too many people who couldn't hold their drink. It was a long night."

"I thought you said it was usually quiet at Christmas."

"Yeah. Famous last words. Next year, I'm either gonna make Nicky work it with me, or I just won't open. Maybe take a vacation. What do you think? You wanna spend Christmas in the Caribbean next year, kid?"

"You think we'll still be together next Christmas?"

Alex was taken aback by this. "You don't?"

Piper didn't reply, already regretting having spoken the words aloud. The silence hung heavy over the line and it was Alex who broke it, after it had stretched from awkward to uncomfortable.

"What's going on, Pipes?"

Her voice was soft, filled with concern, not much more than a murmur. Hearing the worry that laced Alex's words immediately made Piper feel guilty and she pressed the heel of her hand firmly against her forehead. She drew her knees up to her chest and tried to swallow past the lump that had firmly lodged itself in her throat.

Alex remained quiet, listening to Piper's quiet, unsteady breathing. After a full thirty seconds had passed, she tried again.

"Piper? What's wrong, babe?"

"I miss you."

The words were so quiet that Alex almost didn't catch them. It took her brain a moment to process them, to form the whispered sentiment into a sentence and make sense of it.

She kept her voice soft when she replied. "Is it bad?"

"Yeah."

"Worse than you thought?"

"Yeah."

"Is she giving you a hard time?"

"Yeah."

"Did they buy you the pen again?"

Alex detected the resigned smile in Piper's reply. "Yeah. They bought me the pen."

"It's a nice pen," Alex tried.

"It's lovely."

"It's pretty. Like you."

A pause. Then, "I'm pretty?"

"No, you're gorgeous. But it seemed a bit over the top calling a pen gorgeous."

"I don't think you've called me gorgeous before."

"I've definitely never said it to a pen."

They both smiled. Alex could practically hear it over the line, despite Piper's lack of a verbal response.

"You are though," she said, a moment later. She paused, then added "And I miss you, too."

She listened to Piper's quiet sigh, then heard her speak again. "Remind me again why I came here?"

"Because you're a good person, Piper. Because it's what your mother wanted and you didn't want to upset her."

"It's upsetting me, just being here."

"I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of it myself, kid."

There was another silence on the line, as both women reflected on their current situation. It was Piper who spoke next a few seconds later.

"I have your gift here."

"Yeah?"

"Yep."

"What did you get me? Is it a pen? It's a pen, isn't it. You're re-gifting me a pen, aren't you. Come on, admit it, you can tell me..."

She smiled as she heard Piper's quiet laugh. "It isn't a pen."

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure."

"What is it?"

"I'm not telling."

"You're a tease, Chapman."

Piper smiled a little. "You like it when I'm a tease."

"Where did you hear that? I don't remember ever telling you that. It isn't true. It's a lie. All lies. Lies I tell you."

Piper was laughing now, listening to Alex's protracted denial. Alex smiled at the sound, pleased and relieved that she'd been able to turn her girlfriend's mood around.

"Come on, tell me what my gift is."

"Nope."

"Is it a pony?"

"Nope."

"Is it a car?"

"Nope."

"Is it you?"

"Nop- um, what?"

"Is it you?"

"Me?"

"Yeah. Is it you? If I go to my front door now and open it, will I find you standing there wearing nothing but a big red bow and holding a sprig of mistletoe?"

Piper was silent for a couple of seconds, her voice carried a hint of resignation when she next spoke. "Damn. I so should've done that."

Alex smiled a little. "You'd either be spending the night in police cells for indecent exposure or in a hospital with real exposure, babe. I prefer you hot, not hypothermic."

"Yeah, I guess."

"You'll be home soon."

"Not soon enough."

"Only two more nights. Tonight and tomorrow and then you'll be back in the city and away from all of that drama."

"Will you be working?"

"When?"

"The night I get back."

"That depends. Are you gonna stop off somewhere on the way home to buy a bow and some mistletoe?"

Piper smiled. "I would, for you."

Alex chuckled. "Not necessary. I'll be happy just to see you. I won't be working."

"Okay, cool."

"What time do you think you'll be back?"

"I'm not sure. Sometime in the afternoon I think. I need to check the train times."

"Alright. Let me know, yeah?"

"Yeah, of course." Piper paused, then spoke again. "How was your day? I didn't ask, being all consumed in my own pit of misery."

Alex chuckled. "It was okay. Quiet, y'know. I had to open up at four, so it was all pretty low key. Dinner was nice though."

"Just the three of you?"

"Yeah."

"I still can't believe those two aren't together."

"Nah. Or at least, not in any official kinda way. Roomies with semi-regular benefits, I think."

"If it works for them..."

"Yeah. It seems to."

"Are you working tomorrow?"

"From twelve, yeah."

"Okay. I should let you go, get some sleep."

"Yeah, probably."

A pause. Then, "I don't really want to, though."

Alex smiled, listening to Piper's reluctance.

"Are you in bed?"

"Yeah. Well. Kinda."

"Kinda?"

"Well, I was in bed. But then when you called I dropped the phone and knocked it off the bed and so I'm sitting on the floor, next to the bed. Not technically in it any more."

Alex's smile grew as she listened. She could picture that sequence of events perfectly. It was very Piper. "You're adorable," she murmured.

"I prefer hot. Puppies are adorable."

"Well obviously you're hot. That goes without saying. But you're adorable too."

"Like a puppy?"

"I don't know. Do I need to buy you a collar and leash?"

Piper laughed quietly, her cheeks bearing a faint pink blush.

"I should do that," Alex mused. "Buy you a collar and leash. Then I could keep you here, make sure you don't run away and abandon me at Christmas and other times when I need you here with me."

"Mmm, my mom would love that."

"Yeah she would."

"I'm sorry mother, I can't come home for the holidays, my girlfriend has me on a short leash and tied to the bed."

"Hot..." Alex grinned.

Piper smiled and was about to reply when Alex continued "...but I didn't say anything about tying you to the bed. That was all you, Pipes."

To Alex's surprise, Piper didn't make any attempt at backtracking or denial. She simply replied with a quiet "Mmm. It was."

Alex raised both eyebrows and was about to question Piper on this, when her girlfriend spoke again.

"I'll leave you to think about that, Al. It's time I was going."

"Going?"

"Back to bed."

"Oh, but..."

"Nuh-uh. No buts. It's almost one-thirty, you have work tomorrow and I have another day of trying not to kill my mother."

"Pipes, you can't just say something like that and then-"

"Watch me."

A smirk played on Alex's lips. She remained silent for a couple of seconds, listening to Piper as she moved around, sounding like she was getting back into bed again. Her voice was quiet when she spoke again.

"You're really gonna go?"

"Mmhmm."

"And leave me like this?"

Piper smiled. "Like what?"

"You know what."

"Do I?"

"Piper..."

Piper smiled, listening to the sound of her girlfriend's quiet breathing over the line. She let the silence stretch out for several seconds.

Softly, she eventually spoke. "I can't wait to see you, Alex. I miss you very much."

"I miss you too, babe."

"I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"You will."

There was a pause, the kind of pause that would be filled with a certain declaration, if any declaration were to be made. Two months into their relationship, no such statement had yet been declared.

The silence sat heavy between them, until Piper spoke again just before ending the call.

"Merry Christmas, Al."