A/N: I adore these sisters.
"Remember when we were really little and made Christmas cards?" Jenny suddenly spoke up, breaking a long silence. Abbie had thought all her focus was on the tv droning on in front of her as she herself threw some noodles in boiling water and a jar of sauce in another pot to warm.
"The ones that Mom had us make?" Abbie looked up toward the ceiling, then over at Jenny, unsure of where this conversation would lead. "With the Santas who had macaroni beards?"
"I got upset that we were wasting macaroni," Jenny continued, voice having a strange almost monotone quality. Abbie set the stove's timer and entered into the living room, blocking the tv to stand in front of Jenny and read her face. It was blank, none of her usual sarcasm and spunk written across it.
"You almost cried," Abbie muttered, frowning now. She wasn't sure she liked where this was going. It was the holidays, shouldn't they be celebrating the few good moment they had in their messed up lives?
Her placement blocking the tv seemed to bring Jenny out of her trance of remembrance. She gave a smirk and swatted at Abbie to move out of the way. "Whatever, I was lame," bonding nostalgia seemed to be over. "Move, Rodolph was about to leave the island of misfit toys."
Abbie didn't budge, but a genuine smile came to her face as the memory continued itself. "No, you weren't lame, you were just as you are now. You wanted to give the macaroni to the people who didn't have enough, to the homeless and the poor. You were fighting for rights and good causes even then." Jenny just sulked, glaring at her as though she could see through to the tv. Abbie knelt though, forcing her to meet her eyes. "Jenny, I am so proud of you. You stuck with who you wanted to be, even when the world tried its best to crush you." Abbie couldn't help but feel her heart fill with both love for her sister and regret for her part in helping the world try and knock her down.
Jenny looked her right in the eye, searching, and then said in her matter of fact wisdom. "Well you wanted Santa to be a cop so, can't say you didn't have to fight to keep to your destiny either." Jenny then looked away and cleared her throat. After a time of silence, just as Abbie moved to stand up, feeling Jenny had had enough of the touchy feely and they had made progress in repairing their relationship, Jenny spoke up one more. "I am proud of you too. Being a cop, getting into the FBI, and now giving that up to fight evil? That is pretty damn amazing."
Abbie was in surprised by those words and for a moment could only watch her sister's face in silence. But then she laughed just out of happiness, trying to cover up how tight her throat and how damp her eyes had suddenly gotten. What Jenny thought of her truly meant a lot. Debating it only for a moment, she leaned forward and hugged Jenny, who reciprocated after a long moment of stiffness. "Thank you," Abbie murmured over her shoulder.
"Hey what are holidays for if not family," Jenny grumbled, and they separated. Abbie moved back to the kitchen to finish dinner and Jenny focused once more on the tv. "You are forgetting the happy ending to that memory though." Jenny added over her shoulder.
"Oh yeah?" Abbie questioned, stirring the sauce and looking thoughtful.
"We took cookies to the local precinct the next day, before going to help at the near by food shelf," Jenny said, a smile evident in her voice.
Abbie grinned as well, straining the noodles after the beep of the timer rang out. "That was a wonderful Christmas." She set up the plates, putting real parmesan on both to make up for the cheap sauce. Moving back into the living area, she handed Jenny her dish before taking a seat on the couch beside her. "Hey, why don't we do it again."
Jenny looked over at her and asked through a mouthful. "Do what? Make macaroni Santas?"
Abbie shook her head with a quick laugh. "No, make cookies for the office and then go to the food shelf to see what we can do to help."
Jenny looked thoughtful for a moment, then shrugged while nodding, "Tis the season of giving." She then asked, in a tone as though she couldn't really care. "We will get to eat some of the cookies, right?"
Abbie laughed truly this time, before digging in to her dinner, "Of course, how else will we have the energy to bake them all?"
"Good," Jenny responded. With that they settled in to a night of Christmas movie classics, speaking only to debate which ones had to be shown to a certain British man displaced in time.