Disclaimer: By the definition of 'disclaimer', you should know what this means.
A/N: Hello all! In an attempt to get back into writing fics for tP, I've decided to channel my Christmas spirit into this little one-shot! This story can be read as Jarod/Miss Parker, or just a fluffy friendship story; it's entirely up to you :) Either way, I hope you'll enjoy it and be kind enough to drop me a review at the end.
The bunny was the very essence of all she ever wanted. It was warm and softer than velvet when she lifted it into her arms. It snuggled contentedly into her chest as she clung to it, not squirming away to find someone else, not using her for anything, not critical, not demanding, it just...was. The bunny - her bunny - was chewing on a scrap of the bedding it had been laying in, completely nonplussed by the fact that someone cared so deeply about it after only several seconds in her possession. Miss Parker placed it on her lap and stroked its white ears back, admiring how smoothly its fur laid. It felt good to love something without the dread of knowing it would never really love her back. Love was different if you were a rabbit, she supposed. Love to a rabbit was who fed you and scratched scratched behind your ears and kept you warm. It was so simple. Simple was something she wanted, something she'd never gotten.
"Any ideas for a name?"
She nearly fell off the couch when the voice behind her stopped her heart. "Jarod!" she hissed, putting the bunny down on a cushion and jumping to her feet, trying to remember where she had put her gun. There he stood, just feet behind her, his black leather jacket spotted with little wet marks from the snowflakes that must have sprinkled on him outside.
"Merry Christmas, Miss Parker," he told her calmly, a teasing smile threatening to tug at the edges of his mouth. "I thought you'd like her."
He gestured with his right hand to the rabbit, and only then did she realize he held a bottle of champagne with a red ribbon stuck to the top.
"What do you want?" Miss Parker snapped, stepping around the couch and standing in front of him, lips pursed. "And make it fast, I'm not in the mood for your games tonight."
"No games," he said, beginning to slip his jacket off. "And do I really have to explain myself for wanting company on Christmas? I'm sure you know the feeling."
All too well - Miss Parker's thoughts flashed to her father's fancy dinner party at the club. They were probably on a third round of drinks by now, having a grand time. She ground her teeth together and brought her mind back to here, now, where The Centre's most wanted stood in front of her.
"Besides, you haven't given me my present," he said.
"Give me a minute to find my gun and I'll give you a real good present, right in the knee cap."
He chuckled. "Here." He held out the bottle of champagne, and in spite of herself, she took it. On a small white label, bordered with mistletoe and holly, it said To Jarod, From Miss Parker.
"What?" she said, frowning. "I didn't get you that. You just gave it to me. Really losing your touch, aren't you?" She thrust the bottle back at him.
"Actually," he grinned, "you just gave it to me. And if you check your bank statements, you'll see quite a sum made out to Blue Cove Vineyard. Thank you."
She groaned, turning away from him and sinking back onto the couch. Pressing her fingertips against her eyes, she grumbled, "Is that all, then? Will you leave?"
"Me? Leave now? Nope, just got here. And besides, I'm not drinking this by myself."
"I don't remember inviting you over," she retorted.
"Well," Jarod said, sitting down in a chair, "I don't remember asking The Centre if I could move in when I was little, so let's call it even, huh?"
"Tch," was the only reply she had to that.
"So," Jarod continued, kicking off his thick black boots and putting his feet up, "What do you think?" He gestured at the rabbit. "Any idea for a name?"
"Jarod..." she said testily.
"All right, all right," he put his hands up defensively. "Let me know when you come up with something, though. I've gotten a little attached. You know where I got her?"
Miss Parker sighed. "No," she heavily, "I don't. Enlighten me, why don't you?"
"My pleasure. I was doing some work at a lab, and I found out they were using a known carcinogenic injection on young rabbits, to see if they would pass malformed cells onto their offspring. A concept that would be nice to grasp better, but unfair to test on a living thing. I mean, you'd hardly do dangerous tests on a human child, so why on any other animal? Oh, wait a minute," he pulled a dramatically thoughtful face, "Maybe you would."
"I wouldn't," she said, letting her head fall back onto the top of the couch as she massaged her temples. She hadn't really meant to say it aloud, but what did it matter anyway?
"You, The Centre - it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins nowadays."
She didn't humor him with a response, except to open one eye long enough to gather the bunny back into her lap. There was silence for several moments, then the creaking of springs signaled that Jarod had gotten to his feet. As his footsteps thudded away from her, Miss Parker still didn't bother to look at him, hoping that maybe he'd take pity on her and leave if she said nothing. No such luck. A minute later he had returned, and when she heard a light clinking and felt the sofa sink beside her, she opened her eyes.
"Jarod, those are from my best set," she told him, looking at the crystal glasses he was now filling with champagne.
"Oh, come on, have a little fun, it's Christmas! When was the last time you used them?"
Miss Parker thought for a minute. She wasn't sure if she ever had used them. On two occasions, she could remember bringing them out, but actually using them? On the first occasion, it had been for a date...they never quite made it to the champagne that night. The second had been her father's birthday last year, when she had invited him over for dinner. She could distinctly remember being about to fill the glasses about five minutes before he was supposed to arrive, but then receiving the call that there was a lead on Jarod he wanted her to check up on. For his part, he celebrated instead with an 'acquaintance' who did some favors for the chairmen at The Centre. He'd promised Miss Parker they'd celebrate together later. They never did.
Miss Parker looked up and Jarod and sighed. "Couldn't you find anything bigger?"
Jarod gave her a tight smile, then handed her the glass. "To us," he said, holding his out for a toast. "May old friendships never die." And he chuckled infuriatingly.
She didn't even have the heart to make a snide remark. After clinking the edge of her glass to his, she lifted it to her lips without hesitation and downed it all in one gulp. Jarod took a small sip and returned his glass to the table while Miss Parker filled up for round two.
"You know," he said, as he watched her drain it again, "drinking makes you feel better because it poisons you and makes your body start to react differently. Your brain has to focus so hard on keeping your body going against the toxicity that all your problems skip your mind. Only for a little while though. As soon as the poison starts to pass, you're head goes into rebellion and you feel even worse."
When she glared at him over the rim of round three, he lifted one shoulder. "But I'm sure you've noticed the pattern."
"If you're so against it, why the hell'd you get it in the first place?" she asked irritably. "Thought you might get lucky if you came over and got me drunk?"
"No such thing," Jarod shook his head. "You know I don't work like that. I thought it would be a good ice breaker. After all, you'd never have let me stay if I didn't have something that you thought would make you feel better."
"And why are you so bent on staying in the first place?" she asked, though her tone dripped with disinterest.
"No one should be alone on Christmas," he said, and for the first time all night there was sadness in his voice. "It's always the ones who need someone the most who end up alone, isn't it?"
She gave a sniff of hesitant agreement. "Damn right about that," she said. "Cheers."
Jarod took a second sip of champagne. "We could sit here and wallow in our pity all night, but I have a better idea. When I stopped to buy the drink, I got an old Christmas movie. Maybe you've heard of it? It's called How the Grinch Stole Christmas."
Miss Parker stared at him for a second, hiccuped, then started to laugh. "I think I might have heard of it," she said. "I haven't watched that movie since I was..." her voice trailed off and she stopped laughing. "Since I was ten years old."
"Well," Jarod smiled, "Let's put it in, then."
The champagne seemed to be making her more agreeable, because when he got up to pop the tape into the VCR, she didn't argue.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"It's a beautiful movie," Jarod said. It was half an hour later, and the movie was over. Neither had spoken during the movie, Jarod because he had never seen it before, and Miss Parker because she was absorbed in the world of her long-lost childhood.
"It's a kid's story, Jarod," she told him with a snort.
"Yes, but I wonder if a child could really understand the meaning behind it," Jarod said thoughtfully. "Sure, they could enjoy it, but I don't think they could really appreciate it unless they'd lived a little longer, experienced life's true meanings."
Miss Parker made a face. "You're making too much out of it," she said. "It's a cartoon. The Grinch isn't even a human being, for God's sake."
"Am I?" Jarod questioned. "Am I making too much of it? The grinch isolated himself in a mountain, shut himself out from the world. The joy of the Whos bothered him and he set out to make them miserable, just like him. It was only after he'd done everything he could to ruin it for them that he realized his mistake. He didn't seem too inhuman to me."
"The fact that the size of his heart physically multiplied by three didn't strike you as a little unrealistic?" Miss Parker said, rolling her eyes.
"Children are visual," Jarod shrugged. "The image of his heart expanding helps get the point across. But I don't think it so much grew as he found he had one after all. He realized his heart was just the same as everyone else's if he only just used it."
"It's a children's story," Miss Parker said again, a bitter finality to her voice. "A bunch of little people holding hands and singing doesn't make a shred of a difference in real life."
"Maybe it would if you wanted it to."
Miss Parker looked into what remained of her champagne and swirled it around in the glass. "Maybe." She was beginning to feel sleepy now, probably the aftereffect of all the drinking she'd done.
Sensing her weariness, Jarod got to his feet. "Well, it's late," he said. "I've pushed my luck a little too long already, so I'll be heading out." He lifted Miss Parker's chin gently up to look at him. "Stay in," he instructed. "You had a lot to drink. Take it easy for a few days, enjoy the holidays, maybe watch some more old movies. And if you don't, I'll know." He winked.
Miss Parker almost found herself asking him to stay a little longer but caught herself before the words could form. "Where are you going?" she asked conversationally.
Jarod smiled, "Here, there, anywhere." He was tying his shoes back on now. "I've got a couple places in mind." He straighted up and took his coat from the back of her armchair. "I'm sure you'll end up there soon enough." He buttoned the last button on his long, leather jacket and started for the door. Miss Parker watched him from the couch, wondering if there was anything to say, wishing there was.
"Think of a name for her." Jarod stopped at the door and pointed at the now-sleeping bunny cuddled up on Miss Parker's lap. "If it helps, I think Cindy-Lou fits. Merry Christmas, Miss Parker."
And without pausing to see if she'd return his holiday wishes, he left, slipping out and shutting the door quickly the keep the falling snow and winter air outside.
Miss Parker stared at the door for several long minutes after it closed behind him. Her brain felt sluggish and exhausted as it tried to run over all he had said. Jarod, he always had to find a deeper meaning in the simplest things, make them all complicated and confusing. Or maybe things were complicated and confusing in the first place, and he was just trying to help her realize it. Maybe then, someday, she'd be able to make them simple again by herself.
With a heavy sigh, Miss Parker picked her bunny up just long enough to reach for the remote on the coffee table and lay down across the sofa. She curled her arms around her new pet and hugged her to her chest, the bunny's fur and body heat warming her. She hit the 'rewind' button and listened to the whirring of the tape as it sped back to the beginning.
"Merry Christmas, Jarod," she whispered into her empty house, but as usual, she was just a little too late.
Thanks for reading! Please leave even a short review to let me know what you thought about it. I really would appreciate it. Happy holidays!