Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, or Christmas… Which is sort of a given.

The tree didn't look finished. Nicky and I had put hundreds of lights on it, as well as ornaments and tinsel, but it still didn't look right. Something was missing, and I couldn't put my finger on what it was. I ran through the list in my head, and found nothing to be missing. Tree, tinsel, a bunch of ornaments, too many lights, nothing else was missing.

Then I realized that the presents were still in my closet. A Christmas tree was never complete without a plethora of presents beneath its needle-shaped leaves. I'd felt that way since I was a little girl. It had been a family tradition to go and get a real tree, and I'd been keeping that tradition intact since I moved out. Of course, most years Riley came with me. She'd been a bit 'busy' this year, so I'd taken Nicky instead. He'd enjoyed the smell of fresh-cut pine, and we'd even gotten some hot chocolate.

I soon found myself in my room, pushing a pile of dirty clothes away from the door that led to my small walk-in closet. As I dropped the pile, I got a quick whiff, and decided to wash those as soon as my schedule allowed. However, I ignored them as I pulled the door open and stepped inside.

On the floor in the middle of the closet was a plastic bag full of boxes and bags, wrapped by none other than myself (I actually got the lady at Wal-Mart to do it, but that's our little secret). There was at least one for everyone important in my life, and at least three for the children.

I snatched the presents and slammed my closet door shut, sneering at the pile of dirty clothes before heading back downstairs. I arranged the presents so they'd look nice, stacking and overlapping. I'd have to pick them up tomorrow, but they could look nice until then.

The minute I stood and stretched, popping the joints in my back (if backs have joints), my phone screamed from the kitchen. It was the familiar sound of Riley's voice, telling me I had a text. This was obviously her alert, and I raced to see what the message said. As I picked up the phone, I slid the little thing on the touch screen and the message popped up. It read:

Shuld we bring the presents tonite or tmrw? And Rose says 2 bring ur massage thingy

I grinned at the mention of my god-daughter. She'd just turned two at the beginning of the month, and she was getting into that phase of childhood when the child is curious and interested in everything. The last time she'd visited, she'd slipped out of sight and into my room, where she'd found a small hand-massage-tool that my mom had bought me years ago when I was complaining about the stress of college. I didn't understand why, but she loved the thing. In fact, she'd loved it so much that I'd bought her one for Christmas.

I shot Riley a quick reply telling her to bring them tomorrow, and then glanced at the clock. It was five. I needed to be at my mother's by six. So, I set my phone down on the counter and headed towards my room. I took the stairs two at a time, and ran through the hallway. Yes, I was excited. What can I say? Christmas is my favorite holiday.

I had my chosen outfit all laid out on my bed. It was nothing overly fancy, just a pair of nice jeans and the world's only comfortable turtleneck. I wore pretty much the same thing almost every year. That turtleneck had been worn the past three years in a row, even though this was the first year it had actually fit me well.

Once I was dressed, I skipped into the bathroom. I just needed to run a brush through my hair, and then I'd be good to go. As I caught sight of myself in the mirror, I sneered. It wasn't so much that I was sneering at how I looked, I was sneering at my glasses.

A few months ago, I'd looked into Lasik. You know, that surgery that fixes bad eyes. I'd gone so far that I'd set up an appointment with the surgeon that performed the operation, and then chickened out at the last moment. I hadn't really been scared that something bad would happen to me during the surgery, I just had been too attached to my glasses. Well, no, that's not even right. I wasn't attached to the glasses, I was attached to the person that the glasses reminded me of.

At the beginning of my Lasik phase, as I'd come to call it, I'd wanted to get rid of the glasses because I didn't want to be reminded of the Doctor every time I saw them. At the end of it, I found that I couldn't forget them because he'd said he liked them so many times. What would he say if he came back and couldn't recognize me?

Yeah, I was that pathetic.

With a sigh, I quickly brushed my stick-straight hair and tucked the TARDIS key hanging around my neck beneath my shirt. I wasn't going to be caught up on him tonight.

I turned and strode purposefully out of my bedroom, down the stairs and towards the front door. As I shoved my small feet into my old boots, I snatched my coat from the rack I kept near my door. I threw it on, and then my long, rather useless scarf followed. The last thing I did was pull on my gloves, thin little things that didn't really do much to keep my hands warm, and then I was outside. I locked the front door, and started towards my car. As I reached my Corvette, I reached into my pocket to grab my keys. There was only one problem, and that was that I'd left them inside. I really should just put my house key and car key on the same ring.

I groaned and turned to run back to the house. It took me a moment to actually get the key in the lock because my little gloves made every smooth surface extremely slippery. When I did, I threw the door open and slid out of my boots. I quickly ran into my kitchen. My keys sat on the counter, right beside my phone, which I'd forgotten as well.

I snatched both objects and tossed them into my pocket before running and shoving my feet back into my boots. I then repeated the process I'd just been through, only this time I could actually get into my car. With a contented sigh, I unlocked my car, and slipped inside. Just before I slammed the door shut and cranked up the Christmas tunes, I heard something.

A whirring sound.

My heart skipped a beat. It was the same sound I'd memorized in ten seconds, the same sound I'd dreamt of hearing so many times all of the fantasies and dreams blended together. It had been three years, and the sound was just as I'd remembered it.

Then again, I wasn't even sure it was him. It could've been anything. A snow blower that was on the fritz, a new snow toy that the kids on the street had. After I thought about it, it was more likely to be one of those things that the Doctor. That thought made me a bit numb.

Maybe I was just being hopeful, and maybe I was just setting myself up for disappointment, but I got out of my car and headed back towards my house for the second time that night. I was trying my hardest to compose myself and not take off, like I'd done when I'd forgotten my keys. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to get inside as fast as I could so I'd know if he was here, or if I was just hearing things.

With an immense amount of self control, I slowly made my way to the door. My hands shook as I unlocked it, and when I finally got the door open I took a few slow steps towards the kitchen. My calm façade melted away, and I started sprinting, forgetting to slide out of my boots as the butterflies in my stomach started flying. I didn't even bother to turn the lights on. My boots were wet due to the snow on my driveway, and they left muddy footprints on my carpet. Footprints were left on the tile in my kitchen, too, but that would be easier to clean up.

I squeaked to a stop at the window, looking outside into the darkness. At first, I didn't see anything. I pushed my glasses further up my nose and looked closer, trying to make out the shape of the Police Box. My eyes, bad as they were, took a moment to focus. I still couldn't see anything. It was too dark out.

Then, the clouds shifted and allowed a small bit of moonlight to flood through.

And I saw it. That magnificent blue box I'd been hoping to see.

For a moment, I was frozen where I stood. My eyes were fixed, and I couldn't move them. I was happy just seeing that thing again. It felt as if I stared at it, it would never disappear again. I didn't want it to disappear. I wanted it to stay forever.

Suddenly, a wave of conflicting emotions crashed down on me. My initial reaction was joy. Joy that I'd be able to see the man I hadn't been able to forget. Joy that I'd be in the comfort of the TARDIS once more. However, another emotion stormed in and crushed the joy. Anger. I was angry that he'd come back, even though I'd told him not to. Of course, it was a bit irrational. I was still angry, though.

My head started to swim. I didn't know if I wanted to see him or not. And, if I did, would I hug him or slap him?

My focus shifted to the events that had occurred the last time we'd seen each other. I'd kissed him. I hadn't meant to, I hadn't even been aware that I had been doing it. Neither of us had paid much attention to it at the time because we'd been a bit preoccupied. I'd run away before he could say anything, and after that we'd both been focused on the TARDIS.

That kiss hadn't worried me too much. At first, yeah, but then I found out that he was leaving, and I'd completely forgotten it. After that, the only possible way that it would've interfered with my everyday life is if I'd thought about it, so I just didn't. I hadn't really needed to. But he was back now, and that changed everything. Yesterday, that kiss had felt a million miles away; almost like it had never happened. Now, though, it had crept out of the crevices of my mind and was staring me in the face. Was I honestly brave enough to face it? I think not.

I sighed, and leaned heavily against the counter. I was getting a headache.

However, before I could do anything about that, I had a decision to make. I could either go to my mom's and deal with this later, or I could deal with this now and get it over with. They both had their own separate negatives. If I went to my mom's, I'd be thinking and worrying about it all night. If I dealt with it now, I'd most likely put a damper on the rest of my night. Neither seemed very appetizing.

With another sigh, I tried my hardest to focus on the little box. No one was coming out. Why wasn't he coming out? Maybe he wasn't in there. No, that didn't make any sense. The TARDIS wouldn't come here without him. Hell, I didn't even know if the TARDIS could come here without him. Maybe he was injured and couldn't move…

My hand subconsciously moved to my chest, where my TARDIS key was hidden beneath my turtleneck. Angry, scared, or otherwise, the thought of him injured was enough to make my eyes water.

With a sigh of frustration and disbelief, I turned and started toward the glass sliding door. I couldn't believe I was actually doing this, even as I flipped the lock and grabbed tightly onto the handle. It was cool to the touch. When I tugged, the door didn't budge. I tried again, and it stayed put. My guess was that it was frozen shut. Minnesota winters were just a frozen Hell in reality.

After a final heave, I growled. I was growing slightly impatient. No, more than slightly, I was growing very impatient. So impatient that I wasn't even going to bother with this door anymore. I'd rather go outside and trek through the piles of hard snow around the house than mess with it anymore.

And that's what I did. I locked the door again and turned, slamming my front door shut as I went. My face was red from frustration, so the icy wind didn't have much effect on me. The cold snow might, seeing as it was so deep that it tumbled over the edges of my boots and made my socks wet and chilly. I didn't really mind, though. I was a Minnesotan, we were raised to live in this kind of weather.

I shrugged my shoulders to hide my already frozen face from the wind as I rounded the final corner of my house into the back yard. A few more steps and I was only a few more feet away from the Police Box. I'd forgotten the size of it. It was so much bigger than I remembered; at least on the outside. The inside was perfectly remembered.

For a few moments, I just stared at it, buried in my coat. It was hard to believe it was actually here. I even reached out and trailed a thinly gloved hand across the rough wood. I wondered if he ever had to repaint her.

My tongue flicked out and left a wet trail on my lips, which were soon just as frozen as before. With shaky fingers, I undid the top button on my coat and dug around my turtleneck for the chain that held my TARDIS key. For a moment after it was released from the confines of my shirt, I cradled the key in my hands and stared at it. I never thought I'd actually use it. I wondered if it would actually work.

The butterflies in my stomach flared up again as I pulled off my gloves (I needed the traction with those shaky hands) and slowly pushed the key into the small, circular lock. I hesitated a moment before turning the key. A soft click emanated from it. I slowly gripped the frozen metal handle just above the lock, and then ignored what the sign to my left said. It said to pull, but I knew you actually had to push. So, I pushed.

The door opened with surprising ease. Once the door was open, I knew why.

"Hello, Catherine."

A/N: Merry Christmas! And a happy New Year!

Oh, this morning has been wonderful. I woke up to three new reviews that lit my face, an iPod dock from 'Santa' and bras... Yeah, my mom could've given me some warning about that present. Anyways, my sister came into my room at six thirty (she's eight, you can't blame her) and I fell back asleep. She sent my brother in around seven, and I actually got up. We opened presents at my grandmother's house last night, and I'm a hundred dollars happier. I'm getting so close to my laptop, it's scary. Seriously, I have to start shopping around.

Anyways, this is the Christmas themed chapter I was talking about. The next few will be that way, actually. Sorry about that. I meant to make the introduction to the actual story a bit shorter, but there's nothing wrong with putting in a lot. Plus, I really didn't cram in all that much. Hopefully you guys don't mind reading about Christmas for a little while longer. It's not really focused on it, but it's placed, so... yeah.

Did you guys like it? I woke up and checked my stats this morning and some of the things you guys are saying... Oh, it just warms my heart. I really think you guys are the world's most amazing people. My eyes are watering just talking about it... or writing, I suppose.

So, it's Christmas, and I really should be with my family. I love you guys, and that's why I'm here, but, y'know... Christmas. I'm sure you have family to get back to, too, so I'll leave it at that.

I love you guys!

Jazmine