Prompt by CrazyforKate
It was Christmas Eve when Lisbeth Salander stepped out of her Honda into three inches of snow outside of the Ersta rehabilitation home. Two boxes; one large, the other slim, were tucked under each arm as she walked with a slight bounce in her step towards the older building.
Palmgren sat at their usual table next to the bay window overlooking the park and pond behind them, now frozen over. Before him sat the wooden chess set that had passed from his possession into Lisbeth's and then back again. Beside it was a too-perfectly wrapped box covered in little snowmen.
They played a few rounds of chess before exchanging gifts. Lisbeth had been less ruthless than usual, but wound up annihilating him each time. Palmgren just smiled the whole time. He'd given up any hope of beating her at the damned game a week after they'd played their first game almost twelve years ago.
His hands barely shook when he slipped a finger under the wrapping of the box Lisbeth had slid across the table. They'd seen a huge big improvement in dexterity since his birthday in October when he was last challenged with Lisbeth's attempt at giftwrapping. The paper fell away with little effort, revealing a Sony portable DVD player.
When he pushed the snowman box towards her, she shook her head and halted his hand. "Open the other one first."
The smaller box was slightly more difficult to coax open, but the look on his face when he finally tore the newspaper off was better than anything his physical therapist had helped him wrap. She'd known for years he had a borderline addiction to crime TV shows, so along with the DVD player she'd picked up the first three discs of Wallander.
The two of them earned a scowl from Sivarnandan when she ordered a medium pizza from Pizza Hut, but he didn't say anything against it as they both sat in front of the DVD player watching the first disc of Wallander. It was Christmas, after all.