The ring of the doorbell pulled Claudia out of the trance that the flashing images on the TV had put her in. She had the house to herself, and though so many times she wished it had been like that, it now felt lonely. Pete and Myka were out finding some harmonica in Tampa, and Steve had met Joshua and she kind of forced them to go out on a date. Artie was… well probably where ever they held HG, and Leena was gone regardless of what Pete kept saying he saw. So that left Claudia to her own devices, flipping between Call me Claus, and The Year without a Santa Claus, while idly flipping between tabs on her computer. Claudia stood up and shook her legs awake, disturbing Trailer's sleep, and walked to the front door.
"Ugh this had better not be Dwayne." She mumbled as she threw open the door. There stood Dr. Douglas Fargo, hands shoved in the pockets of his pea coat, and his cheeks bright red, he smiled his goofy smile before Claudia jumped and hugged him.
"DOUGIE! What are you doing here?" Fargo, snapped out of his shock and wrapped his arms around the small girl. She pulls away, and grabs his hand to lead him into the B&B.
"Well I thought I'd come see how you all were doing. Uh since it's the first Christmas since the whole Artie thing." Claudia's posture deflates for a couple seconds before perking back up in show.
"Well that's great, uh I'm kind of flying solo tonight, ya know watching Christmas movies, getting my ho ho ho on." He nods and takes off his jacket. Claudia starts giggling, and Fargo scrunches his eyebrows and inspects his outfit trying to see what she was laughing at. She shook her head and walked over to him and touched his arm.
"When don't you wear suits? I mean I know you own at least some casual clothing, I saw it in California." He stares at her hand that hadn't moved yet.
"I was just in a meeting, before I caught my plane here, and you would not believe how difficult it is trying to change in an airport bathroom." She smiles and moves both her hands to his collar, unaware that his eyes widened and how he gulped.
"Well as you can see" gesturing down at her shorts, t-shirt, and knit wool socks, "we are a casual dress party." He looked around for the other part of we and spotted a dogs paw sticking up through the nest of blankets that still had Claudia's shape in it.
"Well how do I casual up?" Her eyebrows rose. "Right casual, never going to work as a verb." She rolled her eyes and smiled, before starting to undo his tie.
"No tie, shoes and sleeves rolled up." She pulls the now loose tie away from his neck, then realizing their proximity she pulls away and lets Fargo finish the "necessary" adjustments to his outfit. He walks over to the couch as Claudia slips her computer beneath it. Plopping down she pats the seat next to her removing the blankets from that spot. As he sits down, Trailer jumps off the couch after being awoken 3 times and glares at Fargo while he slinks away to the chair Artie usually sat at.
"So I see Artie can still make his message clear about not liking me even when he's not here." Claudia nods and offers him a pillow. He takes it and shoves it behind his neck, and they start watching the Claymation for a while, Claudia noticed Doug kept glancing at her then looking down. After 10 minutes of it she grabbed the remote and muted the TV. Claudia turned towards him, while Fargo attempted to look around casually but ended up meeting her eyes.
"Why are you here, Doug?"
"I recently got some perspective. All the walls were closing in on Henry, Carter, Zane and I, and all I could think about was holy shit I don't have a Jo, or an Allison, or a Grace who would care if I died. I mean it would be known but mostly Ding Dong the Witch is Dead would be playing in their minds. And through all of that you kind of came into my mind, and I didn't really know what that meant and so I decided to come here to see you. To see if it brought anything back." Claudia nodded chewing on her cheek.
"Did it?" Fargo just shrugged his shoulders.
"Maybe the thing we had was just…" Claudia's hands reach up to cradle the sides of Fargo's face, pulling him in closer as their lips finally touch. Doug wraps his arms around her back and pulls her in closer. They finally break apart and Claudia rests her forehead against his.
"That was…" Claudia interrupts him.
"Our first kiss without having beaten whatever mortal peril we were in" He moves his head away from hers.
"Wow, I guess that's right." Claudia scoots over on the couch and rests her head on his shoulder.
"Maybe instead of trying to bring something back, we should just start things." He smiles down at her.
"I think I'd like that tech-girl." She raised her eyebrows and shook her head.
"Still doesn't work?" She sits up and kisses his cheek.
"Not at all Fargonator."