The road was empty, rather lonely for being the only main way to get from Ylisstol to the outlying rural communities, but that could have been attributed to the fact that it was Christmas Eve and everyone who was going somewhere was most likely already there. It also could have been in part to the weather report looming over everyone's heads, a warning made what felt like every year that almost never seemed to come to fruition. Judging by the way the sky was mostly cloud-free on the horizon, it felt like this might have been another year where the reports were going to be proven wrong.

That didn't stop the radio from blaring the warning every few minutes, broadcasters cautioning all listeners to get indoors and stay there, and to be exactly where they needed to be, for when the supposed storm rolled in that night. The language was fear-mongering at worst, overly cautious at best, but out on that open highway it didn't seem possible that there was a snowstorm about to blow in. Of course, that may have been why there was never a report that mentioned the farm towns, the weather out there always being different than what Ylisstol got, and different still from what everything going north towards the mountains received every year.

"You two didn't have to do this for me," the person in the backseat of the truck said, her legs propped up next to her as if she was trying to lay down. "I could have called for my husband to come and retrieve me, he would have been fighting to beat the snowstorm at any rate but he would have made it work." She sounded as tired as she looked, drained from the work she'd been doing earlier that day, but she seemed happy to be in the company of the two people in the front seats. "This is a sacrifice I should not have asked you to make."

"After everything you've done for us in the past few months, it's the least we could do to make it up to you. Besides, even if it starts to snow by the time we're getting back to town, we can manage." Turning to actually look at the woman in the back, rather than looking at her through the rearview mirror, Sully smiled at her, getting a smile back in return. "You know damn well we weren't going to make you stick around and possibly get stranded, Panne, I don't know why you think we'd want to do that."

Her smile fading as she glanced out the window, seeing the clear sky that seemed so much more innocent than she knew it to be, Panne sighed. "You don't think we also have a vehicle capable of winter driving? It isn't the snow I would be worried with out here on the plains, but rather the blizzard conditions we tend to get. You should be able to turn around and make it back with time to spare before this road will be impassable, but if you cannot…"

"Hey, let's not get t'thinkin' in terms like that, okay?" Hitting his hand on top of the steering wheel, which he was holding onto loosely with one hand to just keep them moving in the straight motion they were going, Vaike shook his head at what Panne was saying. "Trust me, I've done some drivin' in some seriously bad conditions, a little blizzard ain't anythin' that scares me. We'll definitely be makin' it home tonight, no questions asked."

"You may change your tune on that when you experience a blizzard like what we get out here for yourself. I am not speaking of snowstorms like they get in Ferox, although I know those are bad and you both can drive your way in and out of them like professionals." One of the corners of Panne's mouth turned upward in a smirk, which the mere sight of made Sully turn back around in her seat, eyes narrowing in confusion. "I'm speaking more of harsh winds and snow blown so hard, so fast, you wouldn't be able to see your hand in front of your face. Makes it quite hard to keep the animals on the farm fed when those blizzards last for days, I'll have you know."

"Maybe we should listen to her," Sully suggested, now looking towards Vaike and seeing how he didn't seem to mind what he was hearing at all. "I mean, she's the one who's got the experience with this sort of thing, we don't need to act like we know what she's talking about if we don't actually know."

He shook his head again, eyes focused on the open road ahead of him. "Snow drivin' has got t'be all the same. If you've made me go up into the Ferox mountains in a snowstorm and we managed t'get out alive, what makes ya think I can't get us out of a blizzard if it happens?"

"The fact that we don't know how bad this could get if we wait it out? Do you really want to tempt fate like that?" She waited to see his response, but when he turned the radio up for another round of the weather report giving its cryptic warning for the entire city but not mentioning anything outside of Ylisstol's borders, she knew he wasn't going to budge on his stance. "Well, fine, see how much I care about all this. You want to drive through a literal hellscape if it comes to it? That decision's on you."

"I'm certain you'll be able to make it back home safe and sound before the blizzard picks up," Panne said, adjusting her legs so they were no longer on the seat next to her, but rather where they should have been to be seated. "After all, for there to be a blizzard, there has to be snow, and for there to be snow we need it to actually start snowing. There's plenty of time to get where you need to be safely."

"See, y'hear that? You're gettin' all testy with me and there ain't even a reason for it!" Laughing, Vaike reached over to grab Sully's leg, but she smacked his hand away before it could get close enough to touch her. That shut him up quickly, surprising him that she'd rejected his advance like she had. "Er, what's the matter? Are ya tellin' me that actually upset ya or somethin'?"

Inhaling deeply, she glared at him as she said, "No, of course not, why else would I not want you touching me? You're not that dense, are you?" She caught him taking his eyes off the road to look at her, an expression of shame in his gaze, but she wasn't letting go of her anger that easily. "You're willing to risk our damn lives to get to prove how much of a man you are by driving in dangerous conditions. You think I'm not going to be mad over that?"

"You've never gotten mad about it before, I guess I ain't seein' what the big deal here is." He shrugged, reaching towards her again and finding his hand slapped once more. "C'mon, Sully, it's just me touchin' your leg. You're normally fine with this when we're drivin' together, lighten up and lemme do it."

In the backseat, Panne brought her hands together in front of her face, clapping her fingers quietly a few times. "I'm getting to bear witness to a marital dispute, this is adorable. Just you wait until you start arguing over small things that aren't so life-impacting like this, you'll find yourselves having a blast with it."

"Sorry, but this isn't the time for your cute comments, we're having a real discussion here about my right to deny him to lay a hand on me and we don't need you giving him ideas that this is okay." There was a harshness to Sully's words that she hadn't expected to come out, making her sound much angrier than she was, and when she looked back and saw that Panne had dropped her hands and was sighing to herself, she felt bad for a moment, before remembering that there were bigger issues to be dealing with. "Anyway, I don't want you touching me right now, you've said some boneheaded things that I think you need to rethink a time or two before you get to touch me again." Giving that a moment to sink in, she then added, "I also want you to think about the damn consequences of your potential actions for once in your life before you say something, anything."

"Consequences, okay, gimme a sec on those." Putting on the most exaggerated thinking face he could manage while driving, Vaike took a few minutes before he said anything else. In the time between his statements, the radio played the warning once more and they drove through a small farm town that seemed to be barren, every home dark and boarded up, something that struck Sully as odd as she saw it. Perhaps it was a precaution for being gone during the winter, or maybe it was because the town was abandoned to begin with, but it seemed strange that no one was around at all. She couldn't let her mind get stuck on that for too long, though, not when she was waiting to hear what Vaike had to say in response to her request, which wasn't nearly as exciting as she thought it would be: "Okay, I think I've got some 'a those consequences you're lookin' for."

"Go on ahead and tell me them, I'm not getting any less angry with you as long as you're not saying anything," she replied, hoping he'd get from this what she was trying to teach him.

He nodded enthusiastically, before shrugging. "I don't really have anythin' at all, I can't come up with anythin' you'd see as a 'consequence'. We get stranded somewhere? Done that before, not a big deal for us. We go off the road? Big deal, this truck can handle it. We're not up in the Feroxi mountains, there ain't anythin' out here that scares me."

Jaw dropping at what she'd just heard, Sully took in a few deep breaths before bringing her hands to the sides of her face, her fingers running at her temples to keep her from lashing out. "I cannot believe you just said that to me. Right here, right now. After the past year we've had, I'd have thought that maybe you'd have gotten some kind of sense in your mind about what matters and what's reckless, but maybe you haven't at all."

"Perhaps the reality of everything still hasn't sank in with him?" Panne offered, before shushing herself again. "I mean, I should not step into your conversation, this is an issue the two of you must work out on your own."

Hearing what both of them had said, Vaike tilted his head side to side as he thought long and hard about what they meant, and it was clear that the realization he was looking for hit him much like a ton of bricks. "I…didn't think about…gods damn it, yeah, me playin' cool guy out in the snow'd really screw that up if somethin' were t'happen." A pause, where he looked into the rearview mirror not at Panne, but at the empty seat beside her, and when his eyes were back on the road he seemed more focused. "I'm not riskin' that, no way. Now can I at least touch ya while drivin' again?"

"You know what? No, not until we're on our way home, safe and sound." His groans of disappointment in her rejection were hard to hear, but Sully knew that she was doing the right thing in her heart by making him wait. It wasn't every day that she told him he couldn't do something, and she had to make use of every chance she got to do it. "Hey, don't whine, I could make you wait until after we're home if you get really greedy."

"Don't ya even dare, I can behave, I promise!" Sounding more like a child being scolded than a grown man, Vaike sputtered out a few more reminders that he could stay in line with what was being asked of him, before shutting up completely and focusing back on driving. "See, look here, I'm just gonna get us to Panne's place and then we can discuss this again there, right? Or are ya gonna put an end to it now?"

She didn't answer, to give him the idea that if he kept talking about it, he'd get nowhere in the discussion. Her next words were aimed at the person in the back seat, who was still sitting silently and had lost her one source of entertainment. "Say, Panne, how far is it from here? We've got to be getting close, you said it's an hour out of town and we have to have been driving for at least that long."

"We're coming up on the turn soon enough, I forgot you've never been the one to come out all this way to my farm." Smiling like she had been earlier, Panne leaned forward until she was brushing up against the back of Sully's seat with her face, so that she could whisper, "Maybe next time it could just be you along for the ride, or at least, you and not him."

"I can hear ya, I hope ya know," Vaike said, wanting to remind her that the very person she was speaking of excluding was driving. "I don't know what you'd wanna do with just Sully out here, but whatever it is, don't think I'm gonna let it happen that easy. Me and her go everywhere together, that one time or two I came out here without her were bad situations that I can't believe ya wanna use against us."

Leaning back, Panne raised an eyebrow in surprise. "I never said I was going to use it against you, but rather I want to give her the same chance you've had to get to see the farm and know a thing or two about the life I and my family live. We won't have the time today to make it happen with you needed to get back into Ylisstol in time to miss the blizzard."

"Don't worry, next time you need a ride back out here I'll be more than willing to provide you one." Sully's answer was genuine, as she was curious about what there might have been that Panne wanted to show her that she wasn't going to get to, but at the same time, she wasn't sure if that time would ever happen. Due to that, she followed up with, "But even if that time doesn't happen, I'm sure I can still find a way to sneak out here to see the farm. You did make it up to the camp this summer with your family while covering shifts, it's the least I can do."

"I'm surprised that you remember that I did that," Panne said with a laugh, her face going back to showing its happy expression she'd been wearing for most of the ride. "That trip was nothing short of a disaster, something I blame almost entirely on those children of mine. The fact that you remember the trip is one thing, but that you don't blame me or them for what went wrong is another."

Blinking a few times, her mind trying to piece together what was being mentioned, Sully was about to ask for some clarification when the truck made an unexpected and fast turn, diving off the main road onto a side, unpaved one. "Er, why would I ever blame you for anything? What happened wasn't anyone's fault, I'm sure, and I wouldn't hold a grudge against someone who's done so much for me."

"One ride gone wrong and it changed lives forever, it surprises me that you don't harbor at least a little hatred for it." Panne leaned forward again, unfazed by the change in road conditions that had them all bouncing around in their seats. "If I were in your shoes, I would never have forgiven who caused that to happen, which was my family, if not necessarily me. But everything turned out okay in the end, so I suppose your complete forgiveness is justified to some extent."

"Can you maybe not talk about that stuff, please?" Vaike asked, not because it was distracting him but rather because he just didn't care for the topic. "It's enough that I've gotta live with the fact that I wasn't there for any 'a that, but t'hear ya talkin' 'bout it so casually is rubbin' me the wrong way. She doesn't hate ya, she doesn't blame ya, leave it at that."

"Right, my apologies for taking this time to talk about it." Now her smile wasn't as genuine as it had been before, but Panne didn't seem bothered by being shut down. She was quick to move on in conversation, her next words a suggestion for what they should do upon approaching the shabby farm house coming up on the horizon. "If you don't mind, backing into the driveway may be easier for getting out, especially if the clouds start rolling in before then. You never want to back out into a cloud bank, and they tend to gather at the end of the driveway before a storm."

That was the last thing said between any of them before pulling up in front of the house, backing into the fenced-off driveway that led to the house that had seen much better days. Even though there was a pressing time crunch to get back home, they all got out of the truck to stretch legs and say goodbyes, but before anyone could get back in to leave the front door to the house opened and three children came running out, followed by an adult holding an infant fourth. Sharing a look between them as the kids swarmed around Panne, excited to see her, neither Sully nor Vaike knew what to do about their current situation. Was it appropriate for them to leave without another word, or did they need to stick around for at least some conversation?

"You two should get on headin' home 'fore that storm rolls through town," the man in the doorway called out at them, bouncing the child in his arms as he spoke. "We've been hearin' the warnin's all day, got scared Panne won't comin' home tonight after all. Kiddos were super worried they'd be spendin' the holidays without their ma around and it's great seein' that she made it back without a hitch."

"Listen to Donnel, he's right about this." Giving them a pleading look, Panne allowed for the oldest of the children to grab her hand and start tugging for her to follow him inside, while the other two grabbed her belongings and were carrying them back inside. "There's always next time, maybe on a day where it's not going to snow, that we can all sit around and catch up with one another."

The look was shared again, this time wordlessly asking if listening to them was worth it. For a moment it seemed as if going right away was going to be the decision made, but at the last second before they went to get back in their seats, that oldest child let go of his mother's hand and ran towards Sully, going to grab her hand. "No, you have to come inside," he said, voice timid as he spoke. "It's just for a minute! Please, follow me!"

"Let go of her, Yarne," Panne yelled after him, seeing what he was about to do. "She needs to get home, she doesn't have the time to talk to you about whatever you want to tell her. Especially if it's about—oh damn it." As she was trying to talk him out of what he was doing, Sully decided to humor the boy and follow him, which in turn led to Vaike following her. "You two do realize that every minute spent here is another minute not home, correct?"

"We have time to get back, it's not like the storm's going to start right away. It's still hours from nightfall and that's when the storm will get bad, like it always does." Sully laughed, keeping pace with the boy leading her into the house. "Besides, the last thing we want to do is be rude to your children. If Yarne has something to show me, I don't want to make him think I'm not interested."

The boy in question was beaming, the words he was hearing nothing less than praise to him. "It's not much, but I've wanted to show you since what happened," he explained, as he led her into the house, Donnel in the doorway stepping aside to let them in. As everyone else filed inside, he was already leading her into the first bedroom from the front door, a cramped space that was clearly tacked onto the house as an afterthought. It was there that he let go of her hand and started digging through a pile of belongings on his bed, her watching to see what kind of surprise he had for her. "I didn't mean to take this when I was at your camp," he explained, as he pulled out a blanket that she recognized as being from the bunks at the horse camp in Ferox. "I just, I got so scared and needed something to hold onto, and it's not mine but…"

"You can keep it, there's plenty of spares." She wasn't sure what had spooked him hard enough to go through with stealing a blanket, but whatever it was, he equated it with her and seemed to want her to know he had it. But then he shoved it at her, pushing it into her hands and refusing to take it back. "Oh, you want me to return it? Seriously kid, there's plenty of these up there, we can handle missing one."

"I don't want you to return it, I just want you to have it when you're driving in the storm today. It got me through a scary time, I think it can do the same for you!" Yarne seemed pleased with himself with his thought process, and Sully was impressed that he was willing to give up something of his for her, but she felt wrong taking it from him when he clearly cared a lot about it. Pushing it back at him, he went wide-eyed at the gesture. "No, I can take it back next time you come here! You have to have it for this!"

She flexed an arm, trying to give the impression that she was stronger than he realized, but the sleeve of her police force jacket ruined any kind of muscle definition she was trying to show off. "Trust me, I think I can handle a little storm on my own. You have it here with you in case the storm gets bad for you, that way you have a piece of my camp and my strength with you."

"Ooh, I didn't think of it that way!" He grabbed the blanket back and wrapped himself up in it, grinning the whole time. "Thanks, miss Sully! You're the best!"

"I hear that every so often, yeah," she replied, dropping her arm but opening up to hug the boy for a moment, blanket and all. "Next summer you're going to have to come back up to visit and ride horses with me again, but we're going to see each other before then, aren't we? You're going to keep that blanket around until we see each other again, and then we can talk about it and maybe put it back where it belongs if you really want to." She pulled her arms back to signal that the hug was over, but he stayed close to her, even as she headed back towards the front door.

Panne was not amused in the slightest that her son had dragged someone inside for the sake of a blanket, but when she saw that she was the only one bothered by it, she let it roll off her shoulders. "Now that this minor distraction has been settled, is it time for the two of you to get on your way? The weather waits for no one, not even off-duty officers."

"I'd say it's time, yeah," Vaike replied, chuckling to himself when he saw the boy reach to cling to Sully but she pushed him off, her job done when it came to seeing what he had for her. "Can't spend all day playin' dangerous, you heard how much a certain someone doesn't like us doin' that anymore."

"Don't pin that one on me, it's not entirely my fault we can't risk being stranded." Nudging him in the ribs in retaliation for what he'd said, Sully looked to Panne with a half-hearted smile. "Until next time then, I suppose?"

She gave a small nod, as she cleared a way for them towards the door. "I'll follow you out, but yes, until next time. Never hesitate to call for me when you need coverage at the station while you're down there, I am more than honored to fill either of your shoes." As they went back outside, she grabbed the baby from Donny's arms, cradling it carefully to her chest while watching her two companions head back to their truck. "Wait a moment, before you do that," she said, stopping them in their tracks. "Come back here, will you?"

There was a moment's hesitation, but both decided that going back wasn't going to harm anything as long as it was another quick distraction. "If you're going to show us the kid, we've already seen her," Sully told her in reminder. "You brought her with you to the camp, which is how I know her, and don't think Vaike didn't come home talking about how you have the cutest damn baby when he had to bring you out here before."

"I know you've both met her, it's nothing strictly to do with her that's caused for me to call you back." Looking down at the babbling girl in her arms, Panne gave a soft laugh, leaning down to nuzzle her nose against the child's. "I've been thinking about the ride out here, and while I know it must be because it was a long ride and you're not sure how well it would have gone over, I wanted to ask if perhaps my unruly children were why we made this journey with just us three."

An answer came immediately to Sully's lips, but she couldn't find the words to give it, so she looked to Vaike in hopes that he would have something correct and smart to say. "Well, uh, I guess we never considered not just doin' this adults-only? It woulda been a much different ride if we hadn't done it this way, I'm sure, but I can't tell ya why we did it this way. Say, d'ya remember why we did?"

"We didn't want to try it, it's too much to handle at once and I don't think either of us would last in a car with a crying baby." Her eyes were fixated on the baby in Panne's arms, but the child in her mind was nowhere near the same as the one she was looking at. "But with all the talk of blizzards and rushing, I think we made the right choice to leave her in someone else's care for a few hours. Has to be a first time to not have one of us with her, you know."

"I'm not saying that's wrong, but…" Panne shook her head, turning how she was standing so that Sully couldn't stare at her baby any longer. "I shouldn't have asked about it, I am doing nothing but holding you up longer. Go on, get home and give your darling girl a kiss on the head for me when you see her!"

"I think one or both 'a us can manage that for ya," Vaike said, giving her a small wave before jumping into the driver's seat of the truck. He was working on starting it as Sully slowly got in as well, her movements a lot slower as she tried resisting to get back to staring at that baby. As she closed her door, she sighed, which led him to stop messing with the ignition for a moment to look at her. "Hey, what's got ya down right now? This ain't normally how ya are, I'm gettin' a bit worried 'bout you."

"Nothing's got me down, I'm just thinking about some stuff." She paused, expecting him to question further, but he merely went back to starting the truck, the engine groaning as it came back to life. "I can't help but wonder if Panne asked that question for a reason. Do you think she thinks we're bad parents for—"

"I'm gonna go ahead and stop ya right there, there's no way she'd think such a thing 'bout us. She's not the kind 'a person t'hide what they're thinkin', so if she did think it she'd have said it by now." Stepping on the pedal slowly, to get the truck moving, Vaike looked over at Sully again, seeing that she was still deep in thought. "Just don't worry 'bout it, there ain't anythin' wrong between her and us."

Deep inside, she knew he was right, but there was a part of her mind that was telling her to keep arguing, to keep trying to point him to the possible reality that he was wrong after all. "I guess she'd know better than us, seeing as she's got four kids to our one, she has to know everything about the proper age to leave them alone with a babysitter for a few hours. Do you think she's ever actually done that with any of those kids?"

"Stop worryin', seriously. You're just stressin' yourself out over this, it's not even worth it. We're gonna be home soon enough, then you can know we did the right thing and didn't do anythin' we'd regret." They were rolling down the driveway, the truck seemingly unable to pick up any speed, and as they reached the end he went to pull out and get back on the road, only for the truck to slow down until it wasn't moving any further. Having just said they'd be home soon, the lack of movement concerned Vaike, and after trying to get the truck moving again a few times he opened his door and jumped out, leaving the truck running but still not moving. "You stay inside and watch, this should take me just a moment and then we'll be goin'."

"I don't think so," she replied, unbuckling herself so she could climb out and accompany him as he looked at what might have been wrong. "You know this, I'm just as good at fixing things as you are, my gender be damned. Don't expect me to just sit around and do nothing while you save the day."

"Fine, if you're gonna be that way, you can go ahead and push the truck t'see if it'll get movin' that way, I'll sit inside and listen t'hear if it starts runnin' right." Grinning at her, as if he'd just tricked her into doing something she hadn't wanted to do, Vaike motioned towards the back of the truck, miming pushing it with his hands. "Go ahead, you're the one who decided ya wanted t'do what I was doin', rather than what I told ya t'do."

Lips pursing together as she realized how she'd been used, Sully accepted that she had indeed chosen to ignore what he'd said because she thought he was putting her aside for an irrelevant reason, but she refused to do what was now being asked of her. "No way, I know you well enough to know you'll drive off without me and make me chase you down if it starts because of me pushing it. I'll do the watching, you do the pushing."

She headed back to her side of the truck, hearing him teasingly call after her that she shouldn't have gotten out to begin with. There was room for retorting, and she was filled with ideas for it, but she ignored what he was doing and got back in her seat, slamming her door closed with more force than needed; even though she was supposed to be listening for the engine roaring back to life so they could get on their way, she couldn't help but slink down in her seat and bury her face in her hands, dwelling on all the thoughts that were occupying her mind.

Exactly a year ago, they'd been at the station Christmas party, hanging out with their friends and co-workers and tying off loose ends in terms of bad relationships, as well as striking a new chapter down in their own romance. Even with her hands covering her face, she could make out exactly where the ring on her finger was, its cool metal pressing against the bridge of her nose as she held her hands in place. It was the same ring she was given that night, something she treasured arguably more than the second ring she'd received not even a week after that, simply because it wasn't nearly as covered in gems and looked a lot nicer when it reflected light off her hand.

It was that night, a year before, that things had changed in their lives forever, after years of being cagey about how they felt and after finally accepting that they were meant for each other. And it was the year following that night that added onto those changes, piling more and more on until it was obvious that their lives weren't anything close to how they were the year before, and they would never be close to the same again. If this were any other year, a little bit of vehicle trouble and a looming chance of being stranded somewhere wouldn't have felt so daunting and concerning, and the fear that they weren't going to make it home was starting to chew deep at her soul.

They had to make it back, they needed to get into Ylisstol before the snowstorm started and before the blizzard picked up on the road back. They weren't going to that party at the station this year—it was a decision they'd made long before knowing they were driving anyone home that day, and even then, driving Panne out to her farm didn't have any impact on their ability to go. If they wanted to go to the party, there was still plenty of time for them to make it back and be able to get ready to go before it got into full swing. It was just that neither of them wanted to go, finding that there was somewhere much more important they needed to spend the night and it didn't involve any officers but themselves.

The thought of where that was made Sully drop her hands, looking around to see if anything had changed about where she was sitting. The lack of hum of the engine was still present, and she was still the only one in the truck at the moment, which meant that little to no progress had been made so far. "Oh come on, you can't be serious that we're still here," she grumbled, going to open her door again before it came opened on its own, Vaike standing outside looking at her with distressed eyes and his mouth tightly shut. "What's the matter, mister 'this'll take just a moment'? Something not working right?"

"Just get out and look at this for yourself, I don't wanna say it's bad but…" The way his voice trailed off after his mumbling was easily one of the most concerning things she'd heard in a while, but even still it was overshadowed by some of the thoughts still lodged in her mind. He motioned for her to follow him, and after she got back out of her seat and was solidly on the ground he was leading her around to the front of the truck, where normally there'd be a loud noise letting them know that it was running properly. "I don't know what's happened to it, it's never done this t'us before, y'know," he said, bringing his hand over his mouth half in shock and half in thought, as he reached to put a reassuring hand on Sully's shoulder. "It's almost like it decided that today, of all the days, it wants t'break down on us."

"You're…kidding, right?" One of her hands resting on his, and the other finding itself getting entangled in her hair, she looked at the front of the truck, the vehicle that had stuck with them through so many sticky situations, in complete disbelief. "It's seriously going to choose to break down here? Today? We need to get home, we have to find a way to get this damn thing working, and fast!"

"I have an idea for how we're gonna manage that. We just haveta hope that Panne or Donny can bail us outta this one." It wasn't every day that their issues had someone else at a reasonable distance away from where they were; normally when something bad befell them they were hours away from the nearest person they knew, or the nearest place that could provide them what they needed. Without warning, Vaike yanked his hand off of Sully's shoulder and, after making sure he had his keys out of the truck and that the thing was shut off completely, was running back towards the house, yelling the whole way to try and get someone inside to pay attention to him,

She was following, although not as fast and without yelling as he was. There was something about watching him, in most of his police uniform as if he'd just left work before coming out here (which he hadn't, he'd worked overnight and had come home and promptly fell asleep in his uniform, never bothering to change), that made her feel like she was about to watch him raid someone's house for the sake of the job. That wasn't something she'd ever watched him do before, nor was it something she'd ever had to do herself, but it was one of those things they'd talked about being stuck doing together and for a moment it felt like that was exactly what they were doing, especially when she remembered that she too was wearing her uniform pants and jacket. They were just off-duty officers doing things in uniform, even though they weren't doing anything work-related in the slightest, and if anyone who wasn't aware of who they were saw them approaching this house in moderate levels of panic they would probably assume some big raid was about to happen.

Instead, the only witnesses were a few kids and two adults who were entirely aware of who the officers coming towards their door were. "I thought we told you to leave fifteen minutes ago," Panne said to them once they were at the front door, Vaike out of breath and unable to respond and Sully caught up in her thoughts to the point that she hadn't actually heard what was said, time-wise. "What's stopped you from leaving? Don't you want to get home to that dear child of yours and spend the holidays with her?"

While she hadn't heard how long they'd been wasting trying to get to leave, Sully definitely did hear Panne's second comment, and her heartbeat picked up at the thought. "We do want to get home to her, I promise we're not dragging our feet on this intentionally, it's just that the truck won't move and—"

"Somethin' happened t'the truck and it's not runnin' right, can't get it out of the driveway and that means we can't get home." He hadn't meant to cut Sully off in her explanation, but Vaike was able to say what was wrong a lot faster than she would have been able to. "By chance, would any of ya here know how t'fix a truck real quick?"

Her eyes flitting around for a moment as she thought, Panne ultimately shook her head in denial. "We always call on the neighbors to assist us when we have mechanical issues, and very few, if any, of them are in town right now. The least I can do is offer up our vehicle for your use, but if you said the truck is at the end of the driveway, by the time we move it out of the way to allow for the other car to get out, it may be too late to get far without finding yourselves stranded in the blizzard."

"But it's worth a shot, right?" Coming up behind her, having heard the conversation, Donny gave everyone there a large, eager smile. "I ain't gonna let anyone kind like you folks have t'sit around stuck out in the farmland when you've got places t'be! C'mon, let's get that truck 'a yours back up here so we can try gettin' y'all outta here!" He seemed to be far too excited to get to help out, but it was understandable, given that the people he was helping had just been helping him out. He wanted to share the kindness as much as he could, and if that meant running down to the end of the driveway with them to push the truck back up to the house, that was what he was going to do.

It only took close to an hour to get it all the way back, having to stop a few times because of children getting underfoot, one of those times involving the kid very nearly getting hit by the truck as he tried to run behind it. He came out unscathed, if a bit shaken by the experience, and he made sure to watch the work from his mother's side for the rest of the time they were moving the truck. Once it was back at the top of the long driveway, and the other car was maneuvered out around it so it could be used, a decision had to be made: was it worth risking getting stuck in the blizzard to drive home right then?

On one hand, if they were able to out-speed the storm, it meant they'd be home just a little later than they'd expected to be, but on the other, if they weren't able to, that meant sleeping in a car that wasn't their own, on the side of a lonely highway back into town, for however long it took for the storm to pass. There was enough reward to take the risk, but was the risk too great to want to chance it, that was the question that needed to be answered.

They were leaning towards going for it when the first snowflakes began to drift into view. "I didn't think it would start snowing here until later," Panne remarked, looking up at the still-clear sky overhead and realizing what that meant. "That would be because it isn't snowing here yet. I can't imagine that the road's passable once you get back to the highway, I think staying here's in your best interest."

"No, we have to get home, it can't be that bad out there already." Also looking to the sky and noticing the same cloudless blue that Panne had seen, Sully's eyes shifted towards the horizon, where the clouds were rolling in, and fast. She grit her teeth, knowing what those clouds meant and knowing that if they tried racing them, they'd meet them halfway back to Ylisstol and be stranded there until the storm passed. There was no choice but to stay at the farm until the blizzard rolled by them, but there was no definite answer on how long that might have been. "Come on, really? We have to get back into town!"

"With how fast it's moving, it may just last through the morning, and then you can be on your way back home. I know it's going to be hard to accept this, but you have to just let it be." Sounding as comforting as she could, Panne opened the front door to the house and directed the children inside, before looking at Sully and telling her, "Come inside when you're ready, I'll get a place set up for the two of you to sleep tonight."

"But we're not…we can't…" Throwing her head back and letting loose a bellowing cry, Sully waited several moments before collecting herself and focusing on the two guys out by the truck, fiddling with something under its hood. She took in a deep breath before closing her eyes, the image of them standing there burned into her memory until she reopened her eyes. They were still there, in the same positions, but in the time she'd not been looking the snow blowing in had picked up just slightly, visible snowflakes moving through the air carried entirely by the wind. Panne was right, staying there was for the best, but damn she did not want to have to accept that as fact until there really was no other option.

As she watched the two men try to get something working, the wind-carried snow picking up in intensity by the second, she could see them getting colder, followed by the closing of the truck's hood and them coming to the door where she was standing. "Thing's finally given out on us. Amazin' that it didn't happen before now, but wish it coulda waited until we were back in town to do it." Hanging his head in defeat, Vaike was taken by surprise when Sully grabbed him and pulled him in closer to her. "Uh, what's all this about? Somethin' wrong, besides the obvious?"

"We are stuck out here, in the middle of farmland nowhere, on Christmas Eve, and you want to ask me if something's wrong?" She had missed his tacked-on obvious statement, judging by how upset she was at his question. "We're not going to make it home today, we're not going to get to spend tonight and tomorrow with our child, yet you don't seem to see there's an issue here and want to ask me what's wrong."

"I know that's wrong, I was askin' if there was anythin' else. Gods, calm down for a moment and stop lashin' out at me over this, it wasn't me who offered t'drive her home today." He was let go of for that statement, Sully turning forcefully on her heels and going inside without another word, leaving him outside in the snow with Donny, who looked like he felt awkward to have been present for that. "Sorry that y'had t'hear that one, she's got a bit of a temper on her sometimes."

Donny shrugged, heading to the door for himself. "Can't complain 'bout it, she ain't nothin' compared to my Panne when she gets all riled up. 'sides, it seems like y'all have a lot you're missin' out on by bein' stuck here, can't blame a woman for gettin' upset 'bout nothin' in that situation, no sir."

Nodding sagely, in complete understanding and agreement with what had been said, Vaike followed him in and made sure the door was tightly closed behind him, as he was the last person out in the coming storm that needed to come back in. The scene in the house was a lot different than how it had been when they'd come in for that momentary distraction, with the kids and Panne all carrying things to rearrange rooms for the moment. "I hope you don't mind too much that the best we can do is give you two beds in the same room," she said, arms filled with toys that she was moving. "The only double bed in the house is ours, and I don't think you would be interested in sleeping in that room."

"I think we'll be able t'handle it, thanks for at least givin' us that much." In all honesty, Vaike had expected to come inside to see that they were going to be sleeping on couches, so any type of bed was better than that. It was then that he actually looked around and saw that Sully was not amongst everyone in there, which was strange to him. "Say, any idea where that darlin' wife of mine got off to? She didn't go back outside, did she?"

"She said that she needed to place a phone call, so I told her to step into my bedroom to do so, for privacy." Panne motioned her head to one of the many doors branching off the main room. "Did you…not hear her ask that when you were coming in?"

"I must not've, sorry 'bout that. Mind if I go find her and make sure everythin' is fine?" He knew it wasn't going to be fine, he knew that finding her was going to allow for her to take out all her conflicted emotions about the situation on him, but it was better that she had the chance to vent than it was for her to bottle all those feelings inside. When Panne told him that he could, he gave her thanks before heading towards that bedroom door, opening it with ease but finding the door itself only able to open a few inches. "Sully, you in here still?" he asked, unable to poke his head in to look around for himself.

The response he received was the light in the room turning on, followed by a quick cough. "Yeah, I'm in here, what's going on? Storm pass over already? Are we going home after all?"

"No, none 'a that, sadly. Lemme in so we can talk, will ya?" She obliged, moving out from behind the door so he could open it enough to squeeze inside, and once he was in it was closed once more. There in that bedroom that wasn't their own, in a house far from where they were supposed to be, it almost felt like older days when they'd been trapped in a similar situation, and he was about to comment on the similarities when he saw her anxiously glancing towards her phone. It all clicked as to what she'd been doing, who she'd been calling, and his face fell at the reality. "You had t'let someone back home know we weren't makin' it tonight, didn't you?"

"There wasn't a choice, if we're not leaving then I can't leave them hanging on where we might be. The hell kind of monster do you take me for?" There were obvious tearstains on her cheeks, which she caught him looking at and glared at him for noticing, although when he reached to try drying them off himself she wasn't nearly as angry about it. "It just seems that we can't do anything nice for anyone without something bad happening to us as a result. This time's just…worse than any of the others. And I didn't even get an answer when I called, told me the line was busy. Some babysitter we picked, huh?"

Ignoring her last sentences, he tried to lighten up the mood in whatever way he could. "We're not gonna die and we'll make it home in time t'celebrate the holidays with her, don't worry." He was pulling her closer to him, even though she'd gone back to looking at her phone's screen, waiting for some kind of response to something she hadn't bothered telling him about. It wasn't the most opportune time for them to be holding one another, but each other was all they had in that moment, and they needed to hold onto what they had with them there on the farm.

The kiss they shared was complemented with the sounds of her phone going off, someone sending their response to whatever question she'd posed, but it wasn't until after they'd broken apart that either of them knew that was what it was. But in that moment where they'd been kissing, everything bad had faded from their minds as long as their lips were on each other, a reminder of all the good things the past year had given them.

It was just that the message received was a reminder of all the bad things.

A/N: okay so, welcome to my NaNo 2k17 project, otherwise known as "the remnants of what was the original SDN plot"

wait what, how could this be the remnants of that plot? aren't they, like, two very different stories? yes! SDN was originally going to take place four and a half years after Snowed In, rather than three and a half years, and was going to be the end of summer, not the beginning of it. but I decided to change up that plot to focus on something more interesting (like...gun fights in stairwells). and guess what! this story still doesn't focus on the original SDN plot! but it's here, oh goodness it's here.

see you in a few days when I post more of the same old, same old c: