AN: No! I didn't get it done for Christmas Eve!!!! This is my late Christmas present to all readers. This story is set after the last episode of Series 3 by the way (Conby and all!) so let's just pretend everyone got home safely and everything's good and happy for the time being =]
Thankyou to primevalcrazyalice, LittleMissTomboy, AnnaSmith1984, Kathryn Hart and peterbazooca for reviewing.
24th December- Christmas Eve
Connor finished putting some tinsel up around the window. It was slightly wonky, but Connor decided that Abby was so busy she probably wouldn't notice. Connor glanced briefly around to make sure Abby wasn't watching, and then raced to take a look at the food. Abby had bought it earlier and tried to get Connor to promise not to eat any of it before the party, but when she had caught him crossing his fingers, she told him not to even look at it until the party.
Connor found the bag of food hidden in one of the cabinets by the bar. He opened the first one up excitedly and looked inside. He tossed aside the note saying 'Connor, don't look at it! Abby xx' and rifled through the contents of the bag. There were bags of crisps and boxes of After Eight mints. He opened the After Eights and quickly put one in his pocket. Connor took a look at the next bag. This one had bottles of pop and beer in it. He was just going to take a look at the other bags when he heard Abby coming down the stairs. He quickly put the bags back in the cupboard and stood with his back to the bar, hands behind his back, trying to look innocent. Abby walked over to him, looking amused. "Connor, what are you doing?"
"Uh…nothing." Connor smiled dopily at her.
"Hmmm…" Abby looked at him suspiciously. "Ok, can you help me put the food out? It's not long until the party starts now." Abby took the bags out of the cupboard and started to unpack them. Connor took a bag too. They were just finishing off when the doorbell rang.
*'*'*'*'*
Abby answered the door. Becker was standing there, looking very cold even though he was wearing a navy-blue hoody and jeans.
"Hi, Becker." Abby smiled at him.
"Hi." Becker smiled back and went to step inside, but Abby blocked him, smiling mischievously. "Hang on a minute!" She pointed at some mistletoe hanging in the doorway. Becker sighed, then obliged, kissing Abby swiftly. Abby then moved out of the way. "If you just go and put your Secret Santa gift and the tree ornament on the bar with mine and Connor's, then no-one will know who bought the present." They'd decided yesterday that they weren't going to bother with gifts other than the Secret Santa ones. Abby went over to the bar and finished unpacking the last bag. "I'm terrible with leaving things till the last minute."
Becker smiled. "I'm sure having Connor in the house doesn't help matters."
"No, it doesn't… oh, he's started on the After Eights…" Abby opened the box to check how many he'd taken. "Only one, I think… there's more boxes here anyway. Sorry, thinking out loud." Becker laughed. "Do you want a drink?"
"Do you have any beer?"
"Yeah, I put some in the fridge earlier." Abby took two cans out of the fridge. "Come on, I don't think Connor's noticed you're here." Connor had gone back to playing on the PlayStation when Abby had gone to answer the door. Abby smiled as she realized why Connor had been looking so shifty earlier; the After Eight. Abby put one of the beers down on the coffee table by the sofa for Connor and sat down next to him. Becker sat down as well. Becker watched Connor's game. Connor still hadn't noticed Becker. "Connor? Becker's here!" Connor turned around. "Oh, hi Becker." He went back to his game, and then turned around again. "I didn't know you wore lip-gloss Becker." Becker looked confused and moved his fingers to his lips. "Hey, it's the same colour as Abby's." Becker wiped the lip-gloss off muttering, "There was mistletoe…" Connor shrugged and turned back to his game. The words GAME OVER were flashing on the screen. "Noooooo! I'd nearly beaten my high score!" He sighed. "Hey, Becker, do you want to play on the two-player with me?"
"Yeah, ok then." Becker took one of the controls. "So, how do you play?" Abby thought this would be a good time to disappear for a bit. She went upstairs into her and Connor's room to check on Rex, Sid and Nancy. She had decided that it would be better if they stayed out of the way tonight. "Hello you lot." One of the little beaver-like creatures tumbled across the floor, followed by its friend. Abby didn't know which one was which but Connor seemed to. Rex chirped and flew onto her shoulder. "You ok?" Rex chirped again and flew onto a string of lights by the bed. "You like the lights, huh?" She smiled. Abby checked none of the animals were following her and went back downstairs as the doorbell rang again. As she went to the door she heard Connor call to her, "He's beaten me already!"
*'*'*'*'*
Sarah was standing with Danny at the door to Abby's flat. It was dark and snow was falling gently around them. Sarah shivered; she was glad she had brought a coat. The door opened. Abby looked really nice with her silvery-pink lip-gloss, sparkly hairspray and body-glitter. "Hi guys." She looked surprised. "How come you two are together then?" She smiled knowingly. "Ohhhhhh…"
"Oh, no, Sarah's car won't start. I said I'd give her a lift."
"So you're not… together-together?"
"No, no, definitely not."
"No, not at all!" Danny and Sarah quickly confirmed this.
Abby smiled playfully. "Oh well, you can still kiss." She pointed at the mistletoe hanging from the doorframe. Sarah looked at Danny, embarrassed. She saw Connor and Becker turn quickly towards the door, clearly not wanting to miss this. "Come on, I'm not letting you past until you do!" Sarah leaned in for a hasty kiss. Connor wolf-whistled. Sarah could feel herself blushing as they broke apart, but Danny looked as if he was enjoying himself. Sarah stepped into the flat and Abby let her go past, but she moved in front of Danny when he tried to go in. "Hey, don't I get a kiss?" Danny grinned dangerously then kissed her. Connor said jokingly, "You're really milking this, aren't you, Abby?"
Abby said, "Yeah, my friend told me how great mistletoe was at her party last year. You can embarrass everyone else plus you get to kiss all the fitties." She said to Sarah, "It's really good from my point of view." Sarah saw Connor and Becker smirk at each other before resuming shooting things on the PlayStation. Abby showed them to the bar. "Put your Secret Santa things and the tree ornaments on the bar and I'll get you a drink. What do you want? I made some eggnog earlier, but we could save that 'til later."
"I'll have a beer thanks." Abby took a beer for Danny and an orange Bacardi Breezer from the fridge. "What do you want Sarah?"
"Umm… I'll have an orange Breezer too, please." Abby got Sarah's drink from the fridge then closed it. "You've got a great place, Abby. And you've decorated it really nicely."
"Thanks, Sarah. Connor helped… oh, hang on." Abby walked over to a piece of tinsel hanging over the window. One end was almost touching the floor and the other only had about 50 centimetres hanging over the top. She straightened it so the sides were equal. Sarah sat down on one of the chairs by the TV. Becker and Connor had taken up all the space on the three-seater sofa. Abby put a CD on. "Right, everyone's here; I thought I'd just keep it to us five."
Connor looked up from the game for a second. "She phoned Lester earlier to see if he wanted to come." Seeing the panicked look on the others' faces, he added, "It's ok, he didn't want to."
Abby ignored this. "Ok, guys, I thought we could do the Secret Santa first. Connor, can you give me a hand?" Connor groaned then paused his game. Abby and Connor went and got the presents and started handing them out. "Becker, this one's yours… Sarah, this is yours… Wait before you open them, we'll do them one at a time so everyone can see what everyone else got." Abby handed Sarah a small but heavy package. When everyone else had their present, Abby said, "Ok, Sarah, you go first." Sarah carefully tore open the parcel. Inside was a small Anubis dog. Anubis is the Egyptian god of death. The little figurine was golden with dark blue ears. "Wow… it's beautiful. Thanks whoever got me this." Sarah looked around to try and get a clue of who had bought it for her. She thought she saw Becker smiling at her, but she couldn't be sure.
Connor was next. He had a small, soft packet. He tore the wrapping paper, slightly suspicious of socks. Sure enough, inside was a pair of socks. "WHY did someone get me socks?" he demanded.
Abby said, "Do they have a pattern?" Connor took them out of the packet and unfolded them. There was a green alien stitched on each one, a tiny bulb in each of their antennae. Connor's face broke into a smile. "Woah… that's kinda cool actually!" He read the instructions on the packet. They said: "squeeze the aliens' faces to make the antennae flash. DO NOT wash." Connor squeezed the aliens' faces and the antennae flashed green and white. Danny found this hilarious.
Then it was Becker's turn. He had an oblong-shaped present, with another, smaller, present attached. He neatly opened the rectangular-shaped present. He held it up to his face, his lips pursed. He sighed, smirking, clearly holding back laughter. Connor looked at the box, and then went into hysterics. "What is it?" Danny said, impatient. Becker held up the box for everyone to see. Everyone started laughing. In the box was an Action Man doll. Becker made a mental note to find out who gave it to him and then kill them very slowly. Very, very slowly. However, he soon joined in with the laughter.
When everyone had sobered, Becker opened the second present. It was a bag of giant chocolate buttons. Abby said, "They're as a consolation prize… oops!" She clapped a hand to her mouth, laughing. "That's not to say I got you them, though…"
Danny was next. Once he'd wiped the tears of laughter away, he opened his round present. It was a giant roll of Hubba Bubba bubblegum. "Ok… thanks, then, whoever." He laughed.
Abby was the last one to open her present. It was a silver necklace with amber beads. "This is gorgeous! Thanks so much!" Abby couldn't figure out who had bought her the necklace, but she hoped that whoever it was hadn't spent too much money on her.
After the tree decoration contest (Connor won this with a fat little cherub) they played a game with the After Eights (at this point Connor remembered the one in his pocket; he had to go and change his trousers) where they all had to put one on their forehead and try and get it into their mouth by only moving their face. Everyone had melted chocolate all over their face by the time they'd finished.
After a few other games, including one with disgusting mixed drinks and forfeits, they did karaoke. The boys in particular had fun screaming the swearwords in all of Abby's P!nk songs.
When they had all had enough of that, Connor said, "So who got me socks?"
Abby said, "Connor, its Secret Santa, remember? Secret as in no-one else knows?"
"Yeah, but no one sticks to that anyway," Danny said.
"Ok, I got Danny the bubblegum."
"Thanks Connor. You're so cheap! Kidding, kidding…I bought Abby the necklace."
"Thanks Danny! It's really nice!" Abby was wearing the pretty necklace now. "As you've probably guessed, I got Becker the action-man doll and the chocolate buttons."
"Remember, I know where you live now, Abby," Becker joked. "I bought Sarah the Anubis dog."
"Aw, Becker, thanks so much! I hope it wasn't expensive… I got Connor the socks."
"I actually quite like them… thanks, Sarah."
"Ok, now that's all out of the way, let's watch the film," Abby said.
"Ooh, ooh, ooh, yeah yeah yeah!"
"Ok Connor, calm down!"
"What film is it?"
"It's 'The Descent: Part Two'. Everyone's seen 'The Descent', haven't they?" Everyone had, so Abby got some eggnog and mulled wine then put the film on.
The film was terrifying. After the first major scare, Abby shrieked, grabbed Danny's arm and didn't let go for another half-hour. Connor tried doing the same thing. However, after the look he received from Danny, he decided that he would rather be scared by the film than have to deal with Danny after it.
The film finished just after 4am. Abby realized something. "It's Christmas Day now!"
Connor cheered. "Do I get to open my presents now?"
"Shut up, Connor!" Abby looked at Danny, who had fallen asleep at some point in the film. "Right, I'm not going to make Danny drive home, I don't know if anyone else saw how much he had to drink. He can stay here the night. Sarah, do you want me to call you a taxi home?"
"Uh"-
Becker interrupted her. "I can give you a lift home if you want, Sarah."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, it's fine by me."
"Aw, thanks Becker, you're so kind."
"My pleasure. Ok, bye then Abby."
"See you Becker. And you, Sarah."
"Night Abby. I've had a really great time." Sarah yawned.
"Go on, you'd better get home." Abby opened the front door for them. Becker and Sarah smiled at her and stepped outside.
*'*'*'*'*
It was snowing outside. Sarah shivered. Becker turned to look at her and suddenly their eyes locked. Sarah was shocked at the intensity of the connection. Becker was so beautiful… She suddenly realized that they had drawn closer together, Becker's face only centimetres from her own. Sarah breathed out shakily. Becker leaned in towards her then hesitated for a fraction of a second. She closed her eyes as his lips touched hers, their only audience the silent snow falling gently in the peaceful night.
*'*'*'*'*
AN: First proper kiss scene! Nightmare! Well actually it wasn't as hard as I was expecting. I think I did ok… what do you lot think? The reasons I didn't tell you about it in the summary are:
1. I wasn't sure if I was actually going to write it in
2. I wanted it to be a surprise!!!
I hope you all had as much fun reading this as I have writing it. Sorry it's late, I just wanted to make sure I got this last chapter right.
Also, watch out for an epilogue!
Please review!
