set pre-series, Kate's first Christmas without her mom
(Kate)
She doesn't go home after class, choosing instead to wander aimlessly around the city. It's bitterly cold, and it hasn't stopped snowing all day, but it's better than going home and watching her dad drink himself to sleep. It keeps her from locking herself in her mom's study and crying until she can't breathe.
Mom would hate what they've become, Kate and her dad. They're shells of the happy family that they were last year, when Mom was alive.
They haven't even decorated the house for Christmas. It's two weeks away, and theirs is the only house on the block without so much as a wreath on the door. No tree, no lights, nothing. God, Mom would have a heart attack.
Christmas was her mom's favorite holiday, used to be Kate's, too. The minute Thanksgiving was over, they'd be decorating, baking, skating in Rockefeller Center, dancing around the kitchen to Christmas carols on the radio.
It doesn't feel like Christmas without Mom, and she can't bring herself to even try to celebrate. Her therapist insists that it isn't what her mom would want. That she'd want Kate and Jim to celebrate in her memory. And she's probably right. But...it's just not that easy.
She finds herself at Rockefeller Center when she finally pays attention to where she's been walking for the past hour. She goes in on impulse, uses the remains of her lunch money to rent a pair of skates. Her own neon skates are stuffed in a box in the back of her closet, hidden with all of the other memories from last year.
It's early enough in the day that the rink is mostly deserted. She makes her way around the ice slowly, ignoring the couple that laps her repeatedly. For all of her natural grace, she's never mastered the art of speed skating without falling on her butt. The last time she'd been here...
The last time she'd been here, she'd tried showing off and wound up with a badly bruised tailbone and ego. To her mom's credit, she'd made sure Kate was okay before laughing hysterically.
Her vision blurs with tears, and she heads for the exit. She should have known this was a dumb idea, that she would only end up in tears...again.
She's trying to tie her shoes and wipe away tears at the same time when she hears footsteps stop beside her. A hand on her shoulder, and she's looking up into a pair of seriously blue eyes.
The guy looks familiar, but she can't place him. He also seems genuinely concerned. "Are you okay, miss?"
"I'm fine," she says automatically. He doesn't seem convinced, and neither does the little girl with red hair and matching eyes that's peeking around his leg.
"Why're you crying?" she asks, and Kate might be annoyed if the girl weren't so young.
"Pumpkin, that's none of our business," her dad says, shooting Kate an apologetic look.
"It's fine," she says. "I fell, that's all." Her mom would scold her for lying, but no way is she spilling her guts to a complete stranger. She tries to smile. "Hurt my ego more than anything else."
He smiles back. "As long as you're okay..."
Kate nods. "I really am. But thank you."
It isn't until she pulls out the book she brought to occupy her on the subway that she realizes she just met her mom's favorite author.