Red wakes to the smell of breakfast cooking and light streaming through the window of her bedroom. She turns in bed and reaches for Dmitri, but finds only empty space. The older woman smiles. He must be feeling bad about what he said last night, she thinks.

She stands, unhooking her dressing gown from the door. Pulling the robe around herself, Red smiles to herself as she pushes the door open. "Feeling guilty about doubting me last night?" Red calls as she walks into the kitchen. When she sees Nicky at the oven, peeking into the waffle maker, she's astounded.

The blonde pays her no attention. Her focus is mostly on the waffles, but there's a phone wedged between her shoulder and her ear. "Why do you care now?" Her voice is sharp and Red stops in her tracks. She clearly hasn't heard her, and Red's intrigued. "Lorna, shut the fuck up. I can take a guess as to why you've called. Has Christopher broke it off?"

Using the hand that isn't now propping her phone up, Nicky flips the waffle iron open, burning herself in the process. "Shit!" She puts her thumb in her mouth and listens to the words on the other end of the line. "No, that wasn't to you. No, you can't come over. Where the hell do you think I am?"

Red can't hear the person on the other end, but she hears Nicky scoffing. "Yeah, right. Tell me when you've spent a week and haven't stalked his Twitter. Or followed him upstate. I have to go." Nicky ends the call and throws the phone on the side.

Red winces at the sound of the phone hitting the countertop; clearly, Nicky never had to worry about things being replaced if she broke them.

"Everything okay?" Red says tentatively as she sits down at the table. Nicky sighs audibly and turns around with a weary smile.

"Yeah." Nicky plates up two waffles and places it on the table next to a glass of orange juice. "I made these for you."

"Thank you, honey." Red smiles. "How'd you know they were my favorite?"

"Oh," Nicky says, a blush sweeping over her pale cheeks. "Dmitri told me before he left. It's nice," Nicky continues softly. "That you two have been together for so long. I never knew anyone that's been married so long."

Red chuckles. "It wasn't always nice," she says through bites of food. "And it wasn't always easy. But nothing worth doing is."

Nicky leans on the counter. "I don't know about that," she murmurs. Red looks over at Nicky and for the first time notices that she's changed back into the clothes from the previous day.

"You got dressed." Red says, stating the obvious.

Nicky nods, not really paying attention. "Mhm. The pajamas are on the couch. I didn't know where to put them."

Red stands immediately, abandoning her breakfast. Nicky watches, perplexed, as she folds the pajamas neatly and holds them to her chest. "I'll wash them for you." Red says softly. "In case you need them again tonight."

"Oh." Nicky says, rubbing the back of her neck. She sits down at the table with a plate of her own. "You don't have to do that. I can find somewhere else, I don't wanna be a problem…"

Red's head snaps up from the pajamas. "You are not a problem," she says forcefully. Too forcefully, Nicky thinks, as she nibbles at her own breakfast. Red places the pajamas on the end of the couch and it's a wrench to leave them and turn to Nicky, but she does. As she turns, she gets a glance out of the window and immediately rushes to it. "Look!"

Nicky glances out of the window and sees the streets covered by a layer of glistening snow. It made everything look cleaner, and the flurries that continued falling made it look like a scene from a Christmas card.

Red smiles, sighing contentedly. "I love snow. It's a pain, I know...but look. Everything is beautiful. Covered by a clean layer, protected from...well, everything."

"It's fucking slippery, you ruin your shoes…"

"Mm," Red dismisses her. "Who cares about all that? You can fall over when it's not icy," she says pointedly. "And you have your whole life to have pristine shoes. Just enjoy it."

"Okay," Nicky says challengingly. "Let's go out. Enjoy it," she teases.

Red nods in Nicky's direction. "Sure, little girl," she says, calling Nicky's bluff with a twinkle in her eye. "Let's go!"

After wrapping up warmly in many layers, Nicky and Red brave the outside. Nicky's borrowed jacket, a purple trench coat, somewhat swamped her delicate frame whilst Red's warm parka covered her bad arm.

"See, it's not so bad," Red says, marvelling at the falling snowflakes. Nicky smiles. As a child, she'd never really played in the snow - no-one would take her outside, and when she was old enough to go by herself, her friends had long grown tired of throwing snowballs and building snowmen.

"I guess not," Nicky says, snowflakes getting caught in her eyelashes as she looks up to the gray sky. A smile ghosts her face. "It's kinda nice." She sticks her tongue out and catches a snowflake on the tip of it, giggling softly to herself. As she looks up, she feels a cold smack to her side. "Hey!"

Red grins from a few feet away, already holding another snowball. Nicky bends down and scoops up a handful of snow, the iciness burning her fingers but enjoying every moment. Red laughs. "You're not gonna hit an old woman, are you?"

Nicky takes aim. "You bet I am."

Nicky's phone rings as they trudge through the now slushy snow. They're both covered in ice, and their clothes are soaking wet now, but their spirits are still high. Her eyes scan over the screen and an unknown number flashes on it. She glances at Red before tapping accept. "Hello?"

"Hi, Nicky," the voice, thick with emotion, whispers. There's a pause, the slightest hesitation, before she continues. "I'm in trouble."

Nicky recognizes the voice instantly. Her voice even, she replies. "Trouble?"

The word finally catches Red's attention, who tears her eyes away from the children playing in the snow across the street to look at Nicky. Her arm, which loops through Nicky's, tenses. Nicky, though she notices every minute movement, ignores her gaze.

"I can't call Franny. I really can't. She'd be so mad," Lorna murmurs. "Can you come get me? Please, Nicky."

Nicky bites her lip. "Lorna, I'm working." She looks at Red out of the corner of her eye. "Where are you?" Lorna reels her off her location, and Nicky recognizes the place as the jail she had also spent a night in. "What the fuck? Why are you in…" she trails off, conscious of Red by her side. "Why are you there?"

"Nicky, please! I'm too upset to talk about this right now. Just pick me up, I'm begging you." Lorna's voice was full of gasps and sobs, and Nicky finally relents.

"Okay," she says after a beat. "Do you need anything?"

"No," she says. "Just you."

Nicky closes her eyes. She had waited years to hear Lorna say those words, but they were in the wrong circumstances altogether. It meant nothing if Lorna had no-one else to call she reminds herself, cutting the call.

Nicky makes herself put one foot in front of another as they trek on in a weary, uncomfortable silence that Nicky enforces by answering anything Red has to say with a shrug. When they finally get to the apartment, Nicky sits down on the sofa and faces Red. "I need an hour," she says bluntly. There was no point in beating around the bush, Red had heard the conversation. "I know it's not ideal. But I have no choice."

"Okay." Red says simply. There's a voice inside of her screaming to say no, but she forces herself to nod amicably. "Go. Do what you have to do. Just come back, okay?"

Nicky swallows hard, but nods. "Of course."

Nicky counts out dollar bills from her purse, biting her lip as she pays the cab fare. She had taken as much money from Marka's apartment as she could find, which was a fair amount lying around, but it was running out fast. "Wait for me, will you?" She barks, more harshly than she intends. "I've gotta pick someone up but I'll be out in a sec."

Nicky braces herself to walk into the cold building, preferring to stand out in the falling sleet. With one last glance to the sky, she pushes the door open with a shove, walking up to the desk. "I'm here to...uh, collect Lorna Morello."

"Okay." The bored looking person on the desk mutters. He motions for her to wait there and then goes through a heavy metal door. He emerged with a tearstained Lorna and Nicky's heart lurches for her. "Sign here, miss." Nicky scribbles her name down on the form carelessly, her eyes barely leaving Lorna. The receptionist gives a perfunctory glance down at the form and scoffs. "Nicole Nichols? You think I'm that stupid. Real name, or ID to prove it."

A blush sweeps Nicky's cheeks as she draws herself up defensively. She had always hated Marka for the laughable moniker she had lumbered her with. "I don't have any photo ID," she grumbles, pulling out a credit card. "I have this," she offers, showing the name on the card.

"Fine," he replied, sounding annoyed that she wasn't lying. He let go of Lorna's arm and gave her a little push towards Nicky. "I don't wanna see you here again, or things will get a lot worse for you."

"I know," Lorna whispers. She latches onto Nicky's arm as they exit the cold, uneasy building and climb into the still waiting cab. Nicky turns to face Lorna, her features quizzical.

"What did you do?" Nicky hissed. She stops herself from glaring, and instead takes Lorna's cold and clammy hands in her own. "How could you be so stupid?"

Lorna doesn't look Nicky in the eye, but squeezes her hand tightly. "I'm sorry, Nicky," she says softly. "But I couldn't let that bitch get away with it." Her voice suddenly turns sharper, harsher, and in a tone that Nicky had never turned before. "She fucking stole him from me!" Lorna sobs, her head now on Nicky's chest. Exhaling a shaky breath, Nicky wonders if Lorna can hear her heart hammering in her ribcage. Lorna spits with rage as she continues. "How can he want that slut and not me? We're meant to be, Nicky! He knows it! You believe me, right?"

Nicky bites her lip, and rests her chin on Lorna's head, glancing out at the rushing buildings going past. She feels sick to her stomach, but blinks back tears as she nods. "He'd be lucky to have you, kid." Her voice trails away. "Real lucky."

When Lorna leaves the cab, the driver turns to face Nicky. "Where to now, doll?"

Nicky ignores the pet name, though usually she'd make a face, and nibbles on her thumbnail. A quick glance to her phone shows that she's been gone for almost an hour, and if she went back to Red's now, she could keep to her word.

On the other hand, she thinks, scrolling through her contacts, there was always a friendly face to see when she feels this shitty. Numbly, Nicky reels off an address that had become increasingly familiar over the last few months, and tries to push all thoughts of Red from her brain. It had never been this hard before, she thinks, as Marka's words float through her head.

When they finally arrive, Nicky shoves a fistful of dollar bills to the driver and slams the door, quicking climbing the stairs to find the apartment she wanted. She knocks on the door curtly and bounces from foot to foot. "Come on, man….open the damn door."

When a familiar face finally does open the door, he grins at her. "Nichols…" he says, looking her body and up down. "Haven't seen you in awhile."

Nicky sniffs and nods quickly, not looking him in the eye. If she could detach herself from the situation, then maybe she could pretend that it never happened later on, when she had to look Red in the eye. "Yeah. Well, you know how addicts are. You got my usual stuff or not?"

"Course I have. Always for you, Nicky. Come on in…"

Nicky steps in and he closes the door behind her.

"You got the money?"

Nicky nods mutely, unrolling her last few twenties from her purse. "Gimme the stuff," she says gruffly. "I just need a fix, okay? I don't wanna chit chat."

"Sure, girl." He says easily, putting the money in his pocket and pulling a syringe from a metal tin on the other side of the room. He passes it to her. "Pleasure doing business with you."

Nicky takes the needle brusquely. She sits down on the sofa that she had sat at on numerous other occasions, and rolls it in her forefinger and thumb. Thoughts of Red roll through her head. Of Lorna. Of Marka. She doesn't dwell on them, and plunges the needle into her arm before she can talk herself out of it.

Meanwhile, Red sits in her apartment, glancing at the clock. Almost three hours have passed already. Two untouched hot chocolates sit on the coffee table, marshmallows bobbing, enmeshed in a bed of whipped cream.

The older woman turns the snow globe that she clutches tightly, shaking it gently so that snowflakes fall like the one outside. She only ever touched the snow globe when she felt particularly alone. Holding it up at eye level, tears pricked at her eyes. A doe and her fawn stood inside the globe, frozen in time. How Red wishes she could be frozen like that, with all of her children by her side.

The door opening is what pulls Red from her thoughts. She looks up hopefully, but Dmitri steps through the door instead of Nicky. His wife's disappointed face, looking so crestfallen, almost breaks him.

"Galina," he says, his voice full of concern. "Where's Nicky?" There's a warmth in his voice for her. This morning, when she'd been so eager to please and to make his wife happy had melted his frosty exterior slightly. But now, he was even more concerned than the previous day.

He takes off his coat, though he had only intended to check up on the both of them, and kneels down next to his wife. Her hand shakes with the slightest tremor, and he gently takes the snow globe from her, placing it on the window sill. "You don't want to drop this," he says softly. "It was always her favorite, wasn't it?"

Red nods, a regretful smile sweeping her cheeks. "She loved it. I think she just liked the idea of a mother and her baby."

Dmitri nods, feeling the emotion seeping into his own voice. "Well, she had you in the end, didn't she? You were everything to her." He changes the subject, reverting back to his original question. "Where's Nicky?"

"She had to help a friend," Red says with a sigh. She looks to her husband. "She said she'd be back in an hour...that was a while ago."

"Maybe she got held up," Dmitri offers bleakley. He rubs the back of his neck, which prickled with sweat under the scarf he hadn't yet taken off.

"Maybe," Red laments. "I should have gone with her. It's freezing out there, and she's so slight."

"She'll be back, love," Dmitri says, his voice sounding more hopeful than he felt. "I have to go back to work." He says suddenly, planting a kiss on Red's cheek. "Will you be okay until she gets back?"

"Of course," Red says distractedly, watching the snowflakes settle on the snow globe. "I'll see you in a bit."

"Goodbye, milya." He says, slipping his arms into his coat. As he braves the outside once more, he pulls his phone from his pocket and calls his son, who's manning the restaurant. "Yuri?" He says, once his son answers. "You're going to have to watch the restaurant for a little longer." He crunches the ice with his shoe and sighs. "You know your mother's not feeling well. She needs something and I have to go find it…"

"Okay, pa." Yuri says easily. "Let me know if you need any help finding it. How long do you think you'll be?"

"I have no idea." Dmitri sighs. "I have a feeling it's not going to be easy to find."

Hiya, lovelies!
I hope you're all doing well and enjoying this lovely festive season whatever you celebrate!
Please tell me what you thought in a review.

Be safe and happy!

- Star xo