When it came to Abby, the winter months were some of the hardest. She hated the cold, her lizards did too, and Christmas was a rather lonely holiday. Wasn't like it was spent alone, she often went to Christmas parties hosted by co-workers at the zoo and tried her best to enjoy herself. She got small little gifts from them and sometimes even fifty pounds and a card from Jack, and most of the time even something nice from her uncle and aunt, but it wasn't worth all the hype to her. She'd grown up not expecting much from anyone and as she got older, that certainly wasn't going to change.

Connor Temple came from a very different family. Poor, no doubt, but when it was Christmas time, well…the Temple family was incredibly festive. The biggest Christmas tree they could afford, decorations, and presents galore! It was brilliant, they also had the biggest dinner of the year…it was the one time of year when everything went right in their family no matter what.

By December 2nd, he was suspicious as to why there was no holiday spirit in the flat of Maitland. His tree had always been put up by the first since that was the official start day and before that, he'd count down until that day. Christmas music could be blasted around the house and they could wear Christmas pajamas and start anxiously talking about presents and decorations and it was brilliant. It didn't even seem like Abby was even thinking about it…he was shocked. It was hard to imagine anyone being so…not festive.

"Abs!" Connor called, opening the door to her bedroom, which was an unspoken rule to be followed at all times unless there was an emergency.
She looked up from her laptop and raised her eyebrows surprised by his intrusion, the last time it had happened it was because he'd cut his finger, but he didn't seem to be in pain. "Yeah?"
"Emergency!" He claimed.
"You don't seem to be in pain…is the team okay?" She was worried now and it showed when she bit her lips. Was there an incursion she'd missed? Did someone die? It was always a fear in her mind.
"Oh yeah, yeah," Connor said quickly. "But you don't have a Christmas tree up! Or a mistletoe. Or a wreath. Or anything! You haven't even talked about it!"

Abby rolled her eyes and chuckled at his definition of emergency. "Suppose I haven't, not really that big into the holiday."
His mouth dropped open. "Are you—do you not like—celebrate it? Because that's totally cool, I just—I figured—-I'm stupid, aren't I?"
"You are stupid, but you're not wrong, I do celebrate. Technically. Sort of. Just don't really put up a tree 'till the last minute if I even do that. I'm also not into decorating or anything much. I go to Christmas parties if that matters."
He frowned. He wasn't angry or anything, just found it a bit sad that she hardly celebrated. Maybe she just didn't like the holiday—he probably shouldn't push it. She could kick him out. "Oh. Well…my family—we're kind of Christmas enthusiasts. On December 1st, the whole place is decked out and there's Christmas music blaring from an old stereo and all we do is talk about presents and giving and all of that sort of stuff. I'm sorry, I don't mean to impose my traditions on yours. You probably have your own set with your family, yeah?" A hopeful smile appeared on his face. Maybe her family just did something small, maybe they felt like they didn't need a big Christmas.

Abby shrugged. "I guess. Sometimes my brother visits and gives me a card with money he owes me. Sometimes I go over to my aunt's and uncle's. The zoologists always exchange gifts amongst each other, not anything big. Lots of gift-cards mostly."
He nodded his head. "What about gifts? You get lots from your uncle and aunt?"
"I'm an adult, adults don't get a lot, mate. Last year I got a kettle and and some nice mugs."
"I mean, that's nice. I bet they know how much tea you drink!" Connor chuckled. This year he decided things would be different for her. "Can we put the tree up now? Like the biggest one we can find? And stockings and little Santa hats on all your lizards?!"
Abby cracked up at that thought. "Yes, okay, and if you can wrestle the little hats on them…feel free, but I don't feel like getting scratched and bit, alright mate?"
"Sounds good. Now I'll leave you to it," He said to her, giving a small wave.
"Yeah, that sounds good too. See you when I take a tea break," She grinned towards him.

Now it was all about planning. What would Abby Maitland want for Christmas?

— — — — —

Connor was sitting in Professor Cutter's office studying some of the plastic fossils he had, talking about anomalies, and musing about what would win in a fight between a Giganotasaurus and a Raptor.

"Professor, what do girls like? Like for Christmas?" Connor spit out.
"I'm the worst person to ask." Cutter laughed, shaking his head and looking down at the graphs he'd made of the fluctuations of the time-rips.
"Well, what did you get your mum for Christmas? Or like…a sister?"
"Nothing." He admitted.
"Oh…"
"And do you want to know why I got them nothing for Christmas, Connor?"
"You were a very rude child?" He teased.
"No. I was making latkes, spinning dreidels, and begging my da for just a little more chocolate gelt."
"Oh. Sorry—I just…I don't know. I just know I need to find the perfect gift, okay?"
"For who? Mum, friend, sister, girlfriend?" Cutter said the last word with doubt dripping from his tongue. He would've known if Connor had a girlfriend. He would've shouted it for all the world to hear. Probably.
"Uh…" He hesitated for a moment even though her name was always on his mind and he was always a second away from saying it. "Abby. I need to get gifts for Abby…"
"Gifts? Isn't Abby the one who told me that I shouldn't buy her a cup of coffee because she felt like it was too much?"
"Well—I know, but see, professor, I don't think she's ever had a proper good Christmas. She talked very lowly about it, said sometimes her brother comes down and gives her money he owes her and sometimes she gets gifts from her aunt and uncle, nothing really big or spectacular and she mostly just goes to Christmas parties. I just want to show her there's more to it, yeah?"
"Like materialism?" Cutter joked, rolling his eyes.
"Oh, shut your face!" He sighed.

He sat in silence for a few moments thinking it over. Was it just kind of stupid? I mean, Christmas was supposed to be for giving and it was supposed to be family-oriented and there were supposed to be prayers and songs sang and all of that jazz. It wasn't supposed to be about the gifts.

"Listen," The professor finally spoke again. "Two things I know about Abby Maitland for sure; 1. She's not the most affectionate woman in history. 2. She's not the biggest fan of people doing something for her."
"Yeah, but—"
"And here's something I know about gift-giving; don't get her meaningless crap, don't go to the store and pick out perfume and jewelry she'll never wear. Get her something she wants, something she needs, something that makes you think about her, something that means something to her her. Even something small. You might not think it's anything great, but trust me, people like the small things when it's something they feel means something."

Connor nodded his head. It wasn't like his Christmas gifts were the most expensive either, but he did admit to asking for more gifts than anything and he certainly wasn't the biggest fan of mass.

"Thank you, professor. Helps a lot." He said, finally looking back at the fossil in his hands. He'd just been mindlessly fiddling with it.
"And now you've got me thinking, I might get her a little something too, maybe something that relates to her odd obsession of lizards."
"Oh, like your preferred present wouldn't be a pile of bones. Two opposites, you two are, she likes alive creatures and you like dead ones. It's weird,"
"And I bet I know who asked for fossilized dinosaur poop for Christmas, Connor Temple."
"One time."

— — — — — —

He'd gone to ten different stores and browsed everything. He just didn't know what to get her. He even thought about giving up and getting her another lizard, making a grand total of thirteen. But no. He had to find something. Something she liked, something that made him think of her, something she needed…

She liked yoga and kickboxing. She liked strawberries and healthy food and cheesy romance movies he despised. She liked writing, sometimes he found one of her poems lying around. She liked good-looking actors that made him jealous. She didn't wear much jewelry and she wore subtle perfume that smelled of vanilla. Nothing like what they had in the stores that he could find. And Cutter said not to buy that. That wasn't meaningful enough.

There had to be something.

Stuffed animals, maybe. She quite liked that…Connor thought, at least.

He should've just asked her, blown his cover, because at the moment he thought about banging his head.

Something small. Something nice. Something special.

— — — —

It was December 15th when Abby woke up to a fully decorated flat. Tinsel everywhere, ornaments on the tree, snowmen and Santa and wreaths and a misletoe. If he thought he was getting a kiss under that—

"Connor, what the hell did you do?"
His eyes widened. "I can take it down if you'd like. I just wasn't feeling very Christmas spirited and that's—that's not right, Abs."
"No, no, don't take it down. Just get me a cuppa and have Santa stop staring at me, yeah?"
He laughed and grabbed a mug and dashed off to get her tea. Maybe he could just subtly ask her what she wanted…

As he handed it to her and she sat down at the table and flipped through some magazine that hardly caught her attention, but there was nothing better to do.

"Hey, Abs, was Christmas ever a big holiday in your house?"
She sipped her tea and shifted in her seat a bit. "Not really. Didn't have the most religious family in the world."
"Well—I know, but Christmas' meaning has changed over the years, hasn't it? I wouldn't exactly call it the most religious holiday anymore."
"Just wasn't that big. Got a few gifts and that was that. It was okay."
"Is there anything you ever really wanted? I know when I was a kid there was this chemistry set that I would've died like five times for and me mum never quite had enough money for it or she didn't trust me with it or something."
She actually thought about that question. Had she ever really wanted something? She bit her lip and tried to think. "I loved stuffed animals as a kid. Didn't ever really get a lot of them, not any of the ones I really wanted. And always wanted one of those really big paint sets, you know? And just you know, regular kid stuff. I liked sports and stuff."

Paint. Stuffed animals. And maybe he could find something that made him think about her.

"Paint? Never imagined you as an artist,"
"I hardly was. I just liked making a mess, I think." She smiled. "By the way, why?"
"I mean…I don't know. Helps me get to know you,"
"Suppose so." But she had a feeling there was something else. There always was.

—- —- —- —-

It was Christmas morning. Abby liked sleeping in Christmas morning, she always got to. She always got her own gifts. It was nice, but instead, Connor Temple was at her door at 8:00 in the morning.

"I waited as long as I could!" He claimed, a dorky grin on his face in a stupid sweater and pajama pants and not to mention the bed head.
"You look ridiculous,"
"Do you think I care, though?"
"Probably not. Which is a bit unfortunate." She stood on her tip-toes just to ruffle his hair. "And why exactly did you wake me up at 8:00?"
"Gifts and cookies, of course!"
"Very healthy."
"Right?"

She actually felt a little bit excited. She hadn't expected him to actually go out and get her something, to be fair, she was planning on it being just another day since she didn't really work at the zoo anymore. But of course, Connor would always drag her into his plans. It was his thing.

"Okay, you have to open yours first!" He sat cross-legged at the tree, practically shaking. He wanted her to like them…no, he wanted her to love them. He got exactly what she wanted. At least he hoped.

"Alright, alright, calm down." She took a breath and sat down next to him, grabbing the ones marked with her name. For a little bit, Abby just stared at them trying to find out what they were.

"Abby, I swear if you don't open them—"

"I'm getting there!" She shushed him, a finger on his lips as she unwrapped the first one. No. She looked down at the gift, a stuffed dinosaur toy. It was honestly adorable.

"I felt like it kind of signified us, you know? I was trying to find a Scutosaurus 'cause that's the first dinosaur we found together, but uh…apparently it's not a very popular dinosaur to make into puppets, so I found a Stegasaurus. I hope that's alright,"

"Connor, if you hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have even noticed. Thank you so much," Abby would've been willing to stop right there. This was enough for her, he'd obviously listened.

"Open the next one! Now!" He exclaimed, plopping it into her lap.

She laughed and tore the paper open. Of course a painting set. One that was quite good too. God, she hoped he didn't spend too much. She knew if she'd said that out loud, he'd scold her for even thinking about money. He always did.

And now there was just one more that he'd bought her. It was small. In fact, it was really small. That was unusual for Connor. To him, she figured, the bigger the better.

She unwrapped this one carefully and slowly and when it was unveiled to her, she just shook her head.

"You don't like it, do you?" He twiddled his thumbs nervously and frowned. That's the one he was sure she'd definitely love the most.
"No,"
"Oh. I mean, I can get rid of it if you'd like—"
"No, Connor, that's not what I meant. I love it. A lot."
"Yeah, I just figured—you like bracelets and you like simplicity and it seemed like blue and black were your favorite colours and it made me think of you and so I just thought you'd like that a lot or something."
"Yeah, well, I do. Apparently you do do some thinking in that brain of yours." She teased, leaning in to hug him. "Now you definitely have to open yours."

He opened his quicker than she could even tell him to and practically jumped and down like an imbecile. A chemistry set, a USS Enterprise LEGO building set, and a keychain with one of the few pictures they had of themselves together. He'd be staring at that one for hours. "Abs, just…thanks."

— — — — —

While eating cookies and sitting in front of the telly, a cheesy holiday film on, she looked over at him. "I'm not going to lie to you, my holidays have never been…great or anything. I didn't come from that great of a family so they just kind of always sucked. Holidays were a big reminder that I wouldn't have what other kids would…but this one? This one was the exception. This one was the best."

"Yeah? I think so too…and not just 'cause I get out of hearing me mum's horrible singing voice," Connor hesitantly wrapped his arm around her and didn't let go for the rest of the duration of the movie.

Yeah.

This was one for the books.