Darlene flexed her hands. They were still feeling tight, but the lidocaine helped and the color was slowly returning to normal.
"Your hands feeling better?" Erin asked.
"Yeah."
Erin placed a hand on her back. "Listen, I'm sorry that I snapped at you back there."
"I'm sorry too," Darlene said, picking up a spoonful of vegetables, which tasted a whole lot better than the peas they would have had.
Jo smiled at them, which up until now was a rare occurrence. "I think that this dinner was a smashing success."
The other two looked around the mess tent where they could see their fellow servicemen and women laughing and eating together.
Darlene looked at Jo and smiled back. "I suppose it was."
"I know I've always been hard on you two, but you guys aren't that bad," Jo rubbed at her eyes, "It may not be home cooking, but at least it came from the heart."
/scene/
"You don't mind if we keep you up another hour?"
Jo looked over to Darlene, setting down her medical journal. "What?"
"I was going to go ask the other nurses if they wanted to come over here and play a game or two of poker before we turn in for the night," Darlene replied.
Jo waved her hand. "Go ahead."
"You know you can always join us, Josie," Erin said, shuffling around in Darlene's bag for the deck of cards.
"You can stop calling me Josie. Jo is fine with me."
Erin looked back up to her. "But I thought..."
Jo shook her head. "I'm over that slimy worm. I suppose if he couldn't wait for me, I shouldn't have to wait for him. And I shouldn't have overreacted about it." She got out of her cot and sat the lamplight on the ground, and pulled the table to the middle of the tent.
"What are you doing?" Darlene asked.
"I'm getting the table ready for the poker game. You might as well go call for the other nurses before they fall asleep."
Darlene smiled, "I'll go do that," she smirked at Jo and nodded over to Erin, "make sure she doesn't mess with the deck while I'm gone. We all know how she likes to cheat."
Erin tossed the deck onto the table. "Hey! That's only because you cheat too! Besides, you win half the time!"
/scene/
The poker game the night before wasn't very crowded. The nurses in the other tent were asleep when Darlene went to go ask them, so it was a game just between the three of them. It was the first game of poker that Jo ever joined. And to their surprise, she was actually quite the competitive card player. However, Darlene won once again, which followed with Erin's accusations of cheating.
And now that it was Christmas Morning, everyone in the camp was sound asleep in their cots. Well... almost everyone.
Darlene was awakened by the soft press of someone's lips against her's, and for a moment, she almost thought she was a child again, being put to bed with a goodnight kiss. Except, she was being woken up, and it wasn't her aunt that was kissing her, it was Erin.
She groggily opened her eyes. "Hey, I'm the one who's supposed to be giving out the Christmas kisses!"
Erin stood beside her bunk, glancing upwards before returning her gaze to Darlene. "I know, but I thought I saw something hanging up there," Erin replied, walking back over to her own bunk.
And so Darlene sat up and looked above her. There, pinned to the canvas of the tent it hung.
Mistletoe.