This came to me when I watching And We Banish Shade the other day.

Really need to revise but ideas keep coming to my head!

R&R please xx

It was Christmas Eve. It was cold and Jac was tired. She sat at the nurse station with Mo on the night shift, a ridicules decision as tomorrow she was expected to go to Mo's and spend Christmas there with her family. The thought of it made Jac repulsed and the only reason she was going was so she wouldn't have to make a meal for one and then clean up as well. She really didn't want to go, she found it awkward and humiliating when the questions were asked about why she wasn't spending Christmas with her own family, so of course had to make up a lie.

She thought back to last year when she had spent Christmas Day working, something which confused Jonny as she had offered to do the shift. She thought back to the many times she had been invited to people's homes to spend a meal with them; Sacha and Mo had both made offers last year but she declined both. She thought back to the surprised way Jonny had looked at her when he realised she had never decorated a tree and when she had mentioned they were too poor for books, present and a tree. She thought back to when Jonny had come back to the ward in the evening the time she had given him his secret Santa and when she was shocked to discover that she didn't know his parents weren't around, maybe they weren't so different and maybe he would understand if she told him. But the more she thought about the more she realised it was stupid to think he had been in the same situation she had been in, to think he had gone through the same damage she had, she would have noticed something that gave her a clue, wouldn't she?

Jac was brought out of her thoughts when she realised Mo was talking to her.

"You ready for tomorrow?" Mo asked, still slightly surprised Jac had agreed to coming to her house, where all her family would be, on Christmas Day. She remembered last year when she had offered and Jac had quickly refused something which Mo had found odd. What was so wrong with Christmas to Jac? Why had she never celebrated properly? Was she really that poor or was it a cover up for something else? Mo's mind began to think up different scenarios, all of which seemed very unlikely.

"Maybe it's best if I don't come. I mean I'm not family or anything and I feel as if I'm intruding into something which seems to mean a lot to you all." She had already tried to get out of it once she realised Jonny wasn't going either, and she knew it was hardly the right time to try and make an excuse now, the night before.

"What are you on about? You can't drop out know, there expecting you and are all quite excited to meet you, now they know you're going to have Jonny's baby. And how many times do I have to say; you're not intruding I invited you over. You can hardly manage by yourself anyway, you're 8 months pregnant." She spoke matter-of-factly and knew Jac was just trying to get out of it, she really didn't like Christmas.

"I'm going to be too tired to do much though and I am fully aware of being pregnant thank-you very much." Jac's tone had turned harsh, as she was annoyed and cross that Mo wouldn't let her out of this.

"Jac, what is your problem with Christmas, would you just stop moaning about everything. I'm trying to be nice, and you are just trying to make me sound like the bad one. I don't believe that you don't like Christmas, everyone does. When you think about when you were a kid, waking up and seeing all the presents from Santa, doesn't it make you want to, I don't know, smile or be happy or something." Mo was getting cross as well now, what she had said was true. She was trying to be nice and Jac made it seem like she was the bad one and trying to make Jac feel unwelcome.

Jac looked away from Mo, thinking back to when she was a kid. Christmas had been like any other day when she was small. When she went back to school she would have to make up a lie about what she got as a present, because she was embarrassed to know that she didn't get things like other children. Only when she was older did she realise that it was because Santa wasn't real, and her mother didn't think she deserved to get presents and couldn't be bothered to go out and buy something for her so she could wake up excited like all the other children she knew.

When Jac didn't answer Mo frowned. She reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. The two had become lot closer since Jac had become pregnant as Mo was trying to help out with things and make life easier for Jac, as she had gone through the whole pregnancy thing adn knew what it was like. Jac had also had to trust Mo, when she found out about her endometriosis and also when she discovered her pregnancy, as to not tell Jonny everything, something which had proved great difficulty. Jac had been paranoid that Mo had told Jonny, as the two shared some sort of close relationship that Jac didn't completely understand.

However, even though they were close, Jac didn't appreciate being touched where is wasn't necessary; it bought back things that had happened to a different her, someone she no longer was, someone who's memories still lingered with her although she was no longer her.

"Don't touch me," Jac said sternly and Mo removed her hand from the other woman's shoulder. Jac went back to the earlier remark Mo had made about what her problem with Christmas was. "I just don't like Christmas Mo, is that such a crime, really?"

"Well... no, but still."

"But still, what? I don' like Christmas, I never have nor will I ever. That's it"

"There has to be a reason. Did Santa not come to Jac because she was a naughty girl?" Mo said it in a joking way, but Jac's body froze.

Jac grimaced under what Mo had said. She thought back to when her mum's boyfriend would be round on Christmas, the way he would watch her and then when she didn't get any presents she would be punished for being a naughty little girl.

She felt the tears well up in her eyes as she thought about the many times she had been punished for things. She spoke quietly then left to go to her office, a place where she would spend the last hours of the night shift. "No. Jac didn't get any presents because her mum was a selfish cow."

Mo sat in her chair, now by herself at the nurse station, and thought about the way she had misjudged Jac's character, and the reason why she was the way she was. Jac hadn't realised it, but she had just opened Mo's ideas about her and soon Mo would want to know everything about the person who was Jac Naylor.

Please review! I am going to carry this one on as I have already started writing other parts to it, unless everyone things it's the worst story every written (wouldn't be surprised if you did) and sorry for any mistakes, I did check but I always miss things.