Merry Christmas Everyone!! -

Christmas in the Church

"Hand me that green one at eleven o' clock." Carter reached up with one hand and held his other hand down.

Serenity felt the floor. A small, round object made contact with her finger tips. "The one with the..." she felt it some more. There was a lacey, ribbon around it, "gold lace ribbon?"

"Yes, that's it."

She held it up and waved it around until it hit his hand. "Got it?"

"Got it. You can let go."

She let go and Carter proceeded to hang it on the tree. "Okay, now the little yellow picture frame at seven-thirty."

"Got it. Here you go." She pressed it into Carter's hand. "Tell me about the picture?" She asked, giddily.

Carter chuckled. "Well, it is of you and I. We are both sleeping on the futon, under the afghan. Your face is in the crook of my neck and my arm is under your head and curled upward," he hung it up at the top of the tree, "to frame your hair. The sunlight is shining down on your face, making it look like an angels'."

Serenity's tan face turned a candy pink. "Carter stop." she giggled.

"How could I?" he smiled. "Such a lovely young lady deserves such treatment."

"Very funny. Such a kindly man shouldn't play tricks on me." she feigned annoyance.

"Hah ha! Kindly, eh? What a compliment--" Just then, a shiny cobalt blue orb, mirroring the churches every breath, every flicker, every mood and feeling, slid off of the bristled branch and into the air. It seemed to have suspended, frozen in time, attempting to display the last few moments of Christmas before crashing to the tile stone floor, and shattering to a hundred tiny fragments of warmth and memories.

"Oh! I'm terribly sorry, Serenity! Are you hurt anywhere?" He stepped down off of his step ladder, shoes crunching the blue glass, to inspect the wholesome young lady sitting on the floor for injuries.

"No, no. I'm fine." She placed her hand down and stood up. Upon doing so, she looked at the palm of her hand. "Oh my."

"What?" Carter looked up and saw blood dripping down her arm. "Oh! Darnit! The Clinic is closed, too," he growled. "And we don't have any running water...Huuuh..." He thought for a mere second and pulled her out into the garden where he took a handful of snow and rubbed it on her arm, cleansing it of blood. He then took a snowball and gently and slowly rubbed her palm with it. "Tell me if I hurt you."

"You aren't hurting me." Serenity replied. "The cold is actually numbing it..."

Carter dragged her back inside and sat her down on a small wooden chair in the confessional, in front of the table. He placed his first aid kid down and dug around for a pair of tweezers and a petri dish. "Hold very still. I beg you to please tell me to stop if I hurt you, alright?"

She nodded. "Please, just get this over with so we can go back to decorating the tree."

The blue glass was slowly pulled from the skin of the young lady. "You know, the reason I had asked for a first aid kit from Tim in the first place was because of you."

"Wha-? Why, I can get around just fine on my own in this church, thank you." Serenity replied curtly.

Carter chuckled, "Oh, I know that. You've been around for so long that you can beat Cliff and Claire in a blind-folded race around Mineral Town." He removed another peice of glass from her delicate hand. "You know, I remember the first time Claire dragged you into the Church. You looked so frightened. You kept turning your head at every sound made. I knew that something had happened. And then I had, out of sadistic curiousity, dropped a large book on the ground. That's when I knew that you were blind."

Serenity drank in the silence before saying, "I thought my lack of responce to anything you did was the giveaway."

"That was the second giveaway. I just didn't want to tell you that the first giveaway was on purpose."

"Yes, well..." Serenity winced.

Carter immediately dropped the tweezers. "We should go to the Doctor."

"No, no, please!" she begged. "I'd rather we stay here. I don't want to leave and ruin our evening. Continue getting those dreadful pieces of glass out of my hand."

The pastor swallowed hard and resumed tweezing the glass out of her palm. He looked at every piece, and within every piece, a memory was placed. He looked sadly at each bloodied shard. Such bittersweet moments this little orb has witnessed...Serenity jolted yet again. "I really don't think I can do this." Carter dropped the tweezers yet again and stood up. "Come on, Serenity. We are going to the Doctor."

"B-But, Tim and Elli! We shouldn't bother them on the Starry Night Festival!" she insisted. She took his hand in her own, unscathed one, "Just, trust me. I trust you." Her eyes pleaded.

The paster stared deeply into them, searching for the truth. She spoke the truth. He calmly sat back down and plucked the little shards from her palm. "Only one more left. It's in there pretty deep." He looked up. "Would you like to hold my hand?"

The young lady chuckled. "I am holding your hand." She smiled. "I'll be okay."

Carter counted, "One..."

"Two..." Serenity counted and held her breath. Carter yanked it out so hard, that it broke in half and part of it stayed, embeded in the flesh of her palm. Crystaline tears sprung into her eyes. "Get the last one. Hurry." Carter tugged it out, more gently than the last and set it on the tray.

"That's the last one...How are you feeling?"

"Pain."

"Should I get more snow?"

"Please?"

Carter stood up and rummaged around for a large bowl. "I'll use this to melt the snow. We'll have drinking water, as well. Maybe make some tea."

"Carter, I brought a thermus of tea with me." Serenity pointed out.

The pastor hesitated. "Right. Well, I guess I'll be getting that water, then..."

When Carter returned with the snow, he placed Serenity's hand in. The snow melted and the faintest shades of pink suffused through the water. He let her hand soak for a moment before pulling it out and bandaging it. "We'll get it checked tomorrow."

"That would be a good idea, but..." Serenity sighed. "What about the ornament?"

"Well, I suppose we'll have to sweep up the shards and throw them away." he answered.

The young lady instantly looked crest fallen. "But you and I brought that when I first moved here. It's very special to me, and, broken or not, I cannot just throw it in the garbage like some broken rag doll and--"

She was interrupted by a large finger covering her lips. A pair of lips pressed against her forehead. The pastor's warm breath carressed her cheek and she pressed farther into his cradling arms. "If it means that much to you, then we'll fix it." he whispered. I'm glad...That I'm not the only one who feels that way...

"But how? It's shattered to pieces." she sighed, full of meloncholy dissapointment.

Carter pressed his nose into her hair and thought. "A box."

"A...a box?" she pulled away. "What do you mean a box?"

"I mean..." he let go of her and picked a small box that previously held a ring inside and took the cushion out of it. "Well put the pieces in a box, write a note on the inside and...you can't...write..." He inwardly cursed himself. "Forget it. It was a stupid idea."

"I can write." Serenity raised a challenging eyebrow. "Hand me a sheet of paper and a pen and I'll show you."

The pastor fetched a peice of scrap paper out of a book. His heart sank when he realized it was a love letter he's written her before realizing she probably couldn't read. He laid it in front of her and pressed a pen into her hands. On the paper she wrote in delicate script, "Hello."

Carter stared at it, as if thinking that his eyes were playing tricks on him and that the blind young lady next to him had actually written something completely illegible. "You have lovely handwriting for one without sight."

"I get that alot." she chuckled and wrote, "Happy Starry Night." on the paper, not aware of her over lapping the H in Hello.

"Happy Starry Night to you, too." Carter murmured, a smile in his voice.

Later, that evening, when the tree was decorated in blue, red, and green glass, and the star was placed upon the tree, Carter and Serenity popped open a bottle of fine wine, a gift from Duke and Manna, to celebrate the Festival. They drank cheerfully.

Carter turned his head to look at the tree. His eyes fell upon a small, red box, tied up in a piece of frayed twine. Inside the box are two notes, and the pieces to the broken ornament. He closed his eyes and thought back to the words he wrote, May I get my chance. And, if she wants it, may Serenity get hers.

He felt the need to ask, What did you write on your paper? But why should he? The young lady at the table, with a glass of wine in her hands, chatting away, like she always would with him, won't always be his.

So why waste precious breath?

Have any of you ever read Fahreinheit 451? If so, then Who does Serenity remind you of? Freaky isn't it?

Be sure to read What the Poor Man Can Give if you haven't already! (it'll provide much understanding...)

Merry christmas everyone! And a Happy Hanneukah and a Happy Kwanzah!