Chris Beck stood staring at a cabinet in the rec room. He reached out his hand to open it then pulled it back.
"Dr. Beck?" Vogel said. "Are you okay?"
"Hmm?" Beck turned to look at his crewmate. "Yeah, just thinking."
"That is the cabinet that holds our holiday gifts isn't it?"
Chris nodded.
"Today is Christmas."
"Well, yes, that's why none of us have any scientific duties today.."
"So are you going to get those presents out?" Vogel asked.
"I know I should," Beck answered. "I know we need to move on, to keep living, and we have been but I worry about this making things worse."
Before the mission had started, the crew had all arranged for gifts to be sent to their families the week of Christmas or on Christmas itself. An idea started by Jim Lovell back in the Gemini program and continued throughout the shuttle era and ISS eras.
To help keep morale up on the trip back to Earth, holidays were days off and celebrated with special meals or decorations. To that end, small things had been packed for each of them from their families and each other. These included gifts for and from Mark.
"I'll help you," Alex offered. "We should start with the tree."
"Sure."
The two men moved to another closet and pulled out the tabletop-sized, already decorated tree that had been put on Hermes when Ares 1 launched. It had been used by the previous two missions as the small ones on the ISS and ISS2 were used by those crews. Morale was shown to improve when holidays were recognized and celebrated, and so each of the three large crew vessels contained a variety of holiday decorations for numerous religious and secular holidays that could be pulled out to brighten up the normally fairly dull blank walls.
They placed the tree in the center of the table and then moved back to the cupboard with the gifts. Opening it, Beck let out a sigh of relief when he saw that they were stored in individual boxes with their names on them. They pulled out everyone's but Mark's.
"We should see that his parents get that," Vogel said.
"Yes, we should. We can put it with his personal belongings when we pack up his room."
They went to work setting out the small brightly wrapped packages underneath the tree.
"Should we?" Alex held up a package with a label written in Mark's distinctly chicken-scratchy handwriting.
"I think we should, everyone can decide for themselves if they want to open theirs."
Vogel nodded.
"Thank you," Chris said.
"Bitte Schön."
Christmas carols were playing softly in the background as the crew gathered in the rec for dinner.
"It's Christmas?" Beth asked. "Really?"
"Yes, really," Rick replied. "Of course, if you don't want to open your presents I can do it for you."
She frowned at him, "What's wrong with you?"
"What? It's Christmas."
"And Mark's dead, in case you forgot," she snapped.
"And we're all dealing with that in our own ways," Lewis said. "Just like we can all choose to participate in this or not."
"Fine, then I'm going to my room," Beth said.
"Johanssen wait," Martinex called out as she did her best to stomp to the ladder in a half g.
"Beth," Chris said more softly.
"What?" She snarled.
"At least take this one from your parents with you." He held out a green box smaller than his hand. "I'm sure they'll be waiting to hear from you."
Her shoulders dropped and so did her head. "They will. Thank you."
He just shrugged in reply.
"I guess I can open it here."
"If you want," Lewis said.
Beth nodded and shuffled across the floor to the table.
Everyone sat down in their usual places. Mark's chair had been moved to the other side of the room so they didn't see it sitting empty each meal.
"I'm gonna be Santa," Martinez said.
"Oh good Lord." Beck rolled his eyes as Rick pulled a Santa hat from under his sweatshirt and put it on.
"Ho, ho, ho," Rick chuckled, dropping his voice to a deep bass. "Now let's see what we have for the good little boys and girls on Hermes."
"Martinez, you dork!" Beck shook his head.
"Ah," Rick intoned, "it seems the good doctor has moved to the naughty list. I'll have to reassign his presents to others."
"Um, Santa?" Lewis said, raising an eyebrow, shaking her head, and pointing with a smirk at the commander's stripe on her sweatshirt.
Rick cleared his throat. "Ah yes, it seems I misspoke. So, then Miss Johanssen you already have a present, perhaps you should open it."
She huffed but began to carefully peel up the tape and unfold the paper.
Beck and Martinez groaned, and Vogel and Lewis chuckled. No one said anything to tease her or tell her to just tear the damned paper already. That would have been Mark, and today no one felt like taking his place and doing what he would have done.
When she had finally reached the box, she slid the top off and shook her head at what she'd revealed.
"What is it?" Rick asked.
"Yeah come on, show us," Beck said.
She grimaced and held up a keychain that said 'Bethy'.
"Bethy?" Rick's eyes went wide and his grin nearly split his face.
She glared at him and then around the table. "If one person calls me that I'll… well I'm not sure what I'll do but it won't be pleasant and you'll never know when it's going to happen."
Lewis didn't bat an eye, simply said, "Ok Santa time to hand out another present."
They each opened the presents from their families and showed them off. Lewis had a data stick she said was probably loaded with more music. Martinez got a small wooden ornament of a reindeer colored by his son. Vogel received handprint ornaments from his two kids. All three of those were added to the tree. Chris opened a tiny pocket blade from his sister with "scalpel" etched onto the side.
They laughed at the ridiculous socks Martinez had given them, the holiday glasses from Vogel, and the antler headbands from Johanssen. After putting them on they thanked Lewis for the Amazon gift cards and told her she shouldn't have and she clearly broke the rules and spent more than she was supposed to, she just smiled. They were shocked to see their doctor, who regularly reminded the lot of them that they needed to be healthy, had provided each with their favorite candy bar.
Five presents sat waiting on the table. No one touched them.
"I think we have some eggnog pouches if someone wants one," Alex said.
"Ugh, gross," Beth said. "I'll make hot chocolate thanks."
A debate arose over eggnog and whether or not it was good that then somehow led to a debate over fruitcake and still those five presents sat, ignored.
"Movie time!" Rick called.
"Man, I wish we had popcorn," Beth grumbled, as everyone moved over and settled in front of the large pull-down screen on the couch and cushions on the floor.
"Really? You had to bring that up? We haven't talked about it enough on other movie nights," Chris complained.
"Sorry, I miss it."
"You're not sorry," Chris teased teasingly. "You just want the rest of us to be as miserable about it as you are."
"Maybe." She smirked but ducked her head.
"Enough children," Lewis chided with a laugh. "What are we watching Rick?"
"Die Hard of course."
Groans rose from everyone.
"Are you serious?"
"No way!"
"I don't care what you say, that is not a Christmas movie."
"Nope, veto, pick something else."
Martinez shook his head. "Geez, can't you people take a joke?"
He pressed play on the laptop attached to the projector.
"A Muppet Christmas Carol? My favorite!" Lewis said.
"Really? This version?" Beck said, eyes wide.
"Shh, we can discuss versions later. Right now we watch and you all zip it!"
They did exactly when the movie ended before finally all heading off to bed, and still, five presents sat on the table unopened.
Karen sat in her car down the street from the Watney home. Mark had left presents for his parents with her to be delivered in time for them to open on Christmas. He hadn't expected her to spend the day with them, but after talking to her own family she knew this was where she needed to be today.
The Christmas Song sung by Nat King Cole played low in the car as she shifted into gear and drove down the street to park in front of their house. She took a deep breath as she turned the car off and stepped out into the street. Vehicles were lined up and down each side of the street except for this house. She wondered where their extended family and friends were.
Grabbing the gift bags from the back seat she looked at the house that appeared so sad with no lights on a street full of houses shining brightly. There was no tree in the window, no sign anywhere that it was Christmas. For the dozenth time that day, she wondered if this was the right thing to do.
She braced herself and walked to the door and knocked.
"Karen, dear," Grace said when she opened the door. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you with your family? Come in, come in out of the cold."
As Karen passed her by, Grace spotted the bags in the younger woman's hands.
"Oh dear, you didn't have to get us anything."
Karen bit her lip and said, "I didn't actually. Let's go find Timothy and I'll explain."
"No need," he said from the doorway of the living room. "Those are from Mark."
"I...yes."
"Oh," Grace whispered and put a hand to her mouth.
"I'm sorry," Karen said. "I know he wanted you to have these and I didn't want to not deliver them. I'm sorry, this was a bad idea."
"No, it's not," Timothy reassured her. "I'm not sure we'll open them, but he did want us to have them and I'm glad you brought them."
They all settled in their customary spots in the living room, the bags placed in the corner.
"He never was any good at wrapping boxes." Grace smiled sadly.
Timothy laughed softly, "You always wrapped every present and made me do the same. I remember the first time someone gave him a gift bag and he realized that was an option. He couldn't decide between being delighted that it was and being mad at you for never telling him about it."
"He's never once even attempted to wrap a present since that day."
"No matter what he bought, even if it was already in a box he put it in a bag."
"It became a joke in the family. Whoever was hosting Christmas needed to make sure they saved plenty of space under the tree, usually a whole side, just for his gift bags."
"I swear to you he even had the gifts he ordered and sent to us when he was in Africa put into gift bags."
"So that's why he asked me to wrap the presents for the crew."
"No gift bags allowed in space huh?" Timothy raised an eyebrow and chuckled.
"Yeah, that wouldn't work very well when Hermes is in zero-g even with tiny bags."
"I'm surprised he didn't insist on them and staple them shut or use tape or something," his father said.
"I don't know, he may have tried that suggestion," Karen replied, "but he also wanted to go on this mission badly, you know that, so I'm sure he did anything he could not rock the boat, including breaking his gift bag only rule."
"We should open them," Grace said, "but I don't want to. They're the last gifts I'm ever going to get from my son."
Timothy put his arms around his wife and held her close as tears began streaming down her face. Karen clasped her hands in her lap unsure of what to do.
"We don't have to open them right now," he reassured his wife. "They can wait."
"But if I wait I may never want to open it. I may never be able to bring myself to open it."
"You don't have to. You don't ever have to open them if you don't want to. Mark would understand."
"No, he wouldn't. He would want us to have whatever is in those bags to remember him by. And I have to admit I am curious. Those are just about the largest gift bags I've ever seen other than the big plastic Santa bag kind."
"He had larger ones picked out. I told him there was no way I was going to be able to get them here alone; he'd have to pay for an actual delivery service but he was too afraid of them not making it here by Christmas so he agreed to that size instead."
They all looked over at the bags that stood a good three feet tall and at least a foot wide. The tops were stuffed, nearly overflowing with red, green, and white tissue paper with glitter."
Karen grabbed the bags and placed each in front of its recipients
Timothy grimaced and laughed. "Leave it to our son to find tissue paper covered in glitter. We'll be finding glitter everywhere for years."
Grace smiled, "Well now we know where all the glitter on the living room floor of his apartment came from."
Karen shook her head. "He tried to bring it over to my place to wrap since I'd need to have them to bring to you. I told him that glittery stuff wasn't coming in my door. He had to go home and wrap. Of course, now there's glitter all over my trunk."
"Glitter is evil," Tim said, then turned to Grace. "Well, dear?"
She nodded and reached for the bag, pulling the tissue paper carefully from it, trying to minimize the glitter spread.
Timothy did the same then laughed and shook his head. "He always was just a bit of a brat," he commented.
"What?" Karen asked.
Mark's parents both pulled out smaller packages wrapped in the glitter paper. Karen tried not to laugh but failed.
"I'm sorry," she said and bit her lip.
"No, no," Tim said, "it's what he'd expect. He'd have been waiting for the email yelling at him."
"And then he would have gloated to his crew until they were sick of him," Grace added. "They look to be about the same size, shall we open them together?"
"I suppose there's no use trying to do it neatly or to go and get scissors?"
"No, let's just tear. I'd rather have the glitter to remind me of his fun-loving but slightly devilish nature."
The Watneys tore the paper and threw it to the floor revealing matching Ares III sweatshirts that had been embroidered with "Ma Watney" and "Pa Watney".
Grace hugged hers close while Timothy immediately put his on.
They continued opening packages to find a new watch for Timothy along with a book on gardening that had him chuckling and rolling his eyes, and a do-it-yourself house maintenance manual. Grace found new gardening gloves and the newest book by her favorite author.
The last packages pulled from each bag were once again the same size and clearly in boxes inside their tissue paper. Grace's held a formal astronaut photo of Mark, while Timothy had a picture of the whole crew. They were in matching frames. Grace took both and set them up on the mantel then turned to Karen.
"Thank you dear for bringing us our son, even if for only a little while."
Karen smiled and hugged both Watneys, then accepted their offer of hot chocolate before she left.
The morning after Christmas the member of the crew on Hermes straggled in slowly to the rec room. No one said anything until they were all seated around the table.
"How long are we going to leave these here?" Beth asked.
"You can take yours and put it back in the closet if you want," Chris said.
"I'm opening mine," Rick said, reaching out and grabbing the small box with his name on it.
The others watched as he held the package, looking at it for a moment before tearing the paper off and laughing when he saw the writing on the outside. He held it up to show the others.
Pretend this is covered in glitter. Didn't want to make Lewis mad.
Everyone else, except Beth, reached for theirs and quickly tore the wrapping off. Chris and Alex had the same message. Lewis had nothing but a smiley face.
"Together?" Beck suggested. The others nodded and all pulled the lids off at the same time.
"Did he get us all Ares III keychains?" Rick asked and groaned.
"Yes, he did," Alex said.
Lewis held hers up and turned it over. "They're engraved," she said.
"What?" Rick flipped his over and roared with laughter.
"Oh good gravy," Beck said and reached for the pilot to keep him from falling out of his chair. He took the keychain and read it aloud to the others.
"Rick Martinez, pilot, basically useless."
Everyone laughed and took turns reading their own.
"Melissa Lewis, commander, Boss Babe."
"Bossy Beck, the nosy doctor."
"Alex Vogel, mad space scientist."
They looked at Beth who sat holding the package with her name on it. She shook her head. No one pressed her.
The day was treated as another holiday, so no one had any work to do and all drifted off to do their own things. Beth climbed the ladder and headed to her quarters then changed her mind and went instead to the cupola with Mark's voice in her head.
"You're going to love your gift."
"What did you get me?" she asked.
"Nope, not gonna tell. You just have to wait and see," he teased.
"I bet I can make you tell," she said and poked him in the side trying to tickle him. The maneuver didn't work so well in zero-g. He grabbed her and put her in a gentle headlock, then rubbed the top of her head. She elbowed him in the stomach which just ended up pushing him back and making him let go of her. They both laughed and went back to looking out the cupola window.
"You're gonna cry when you open it," Mark said.
She snorted. "I highly doubt that, unless you mean because I'm laughing so hard."
"Nope, you won't laugh, just cry."
"Bet I don't."
"Bet you do!"
"Fine, what do you want to put on it?"
"Breakfast for a week," Mark said, knowing how much she hated getting out of bed in the morning, even more than he did.
She groaned but assented and shook his hand.
Arriving in the cupola as the memory faded, Beth looked out and held the box close to her chest. Tears were already filling her eyes and bubbling up. She had to keep swiping them away, soaking them up with the sleeve of her sweatshirt.
"Guess I lost the bet," she whispered, looking back towards Mars. "Damn, I wish you were here. I'd make you breakfast every day without a single complaint."
She floated staring out the window for several minutes before looking down at the small wrapped package and carefully opening it just as she had the one from her parents. Her crew would be surprised to know that she usually was a "tear the paper off quickly" person. She just wasn't feeling that way this year.
She folded the paper as best she could while holding the box against her body with her arm and put the paper in the pocket of her hoodie.
The box said, "Don't throw me away, check every spot."
"Ok," she said, "whatever you say."
Inside the box on a small bed of cotton was the same Ares III keychain the others had received. She pulled it out and quickly slid the lid back onto the box so the cotton wouldn't escape. Flipping over the keychain she found the message.
"Beth Johanssen, reactor tech & most popular nerd girl ever."
"Funny Mark, but not crying over it." She shook her head and opened the box again to put the keychain away but before she could the little cotton pad floated out and she saw something else on the bottom of the box, a necklace taped there. Instead of putting the keychain away she pocketed it and let the lid float with the cotton. The necklace had a smaller version of the Ares III Patch as a pendant backed in silver on a delicate silver chain. Turning it over she discovered that it, like the keychain, had an inscription.
To the best "Little sister" ever. Love, Mark & Rick
"Damn you, Mark," she whispered as tears began to fill her eyes again. With the necklace tucked into a fist, she sobbed into her hands for several minutes until she felt arms wrap around her and hold her tight one set from the front and one from the back.
"It's ok Beth," Chris whispered.
"He loved you," Rick said softly. "I mean he was pretty crazy so…"
She huffed a laugh and elbowed her other "big brother".
A moment later they floated apart.
"You knew about this," she accused them.
"Well duh!" Rick said. "My name is on it."
Chris nodded, "Yeah he told me. He also told me about your bet."
"Yeah, and since he won, I think as your other big brother I should get the reward in his place."
"In your dreams, Martinez."
"Aww come on," he said and pouted.
"Nope." She shook her head.
"You ok now?" Chris asked.
Beth sighed, "As ok as I can be. Thanks guys."
"No problem. You know we're here whenever you need us," he said.
"I know, but right now I think I'd like to be alone for a while."
"Ok, well you know where to find me," Beck said and pushed off down the hall.
"That means you too," she said looking at Martinez.
"I know. I'll go in a minute. Want me to put that on for you first?" He asked, pointing to the necklace in her hand.
She held it up, looked at it, then held it out to the pilot, and turned around.
Rick took the necklace, opened the clasp, put it around her neck, and closed it. He hugged her from behind, laid his cheek on the top of her head, and held her for a moment.
"Thanks Rick."
"De nada Hermanita. Come find me if you need me, or you know if you decide to make me breakfast."
"I think you should be the one making breakfast. I mean what do you do all day anyway," she teased him with a wink.
"Whatever."
She stayed in the cupola for nearly an hour after the two men left just floating and thinking before she finally pushed off to go back to her quarters and send her parents a thank you message.
A week later the crew sat around the table in the rec eating dinner and chatting about their work that day.
As they cleaned up Rick asked, "So are we doing a countdown tonight?"
"If anyone wants to," Lewis replied. "I'm rather tired though so I don't know if I can last until midnight."
"We could watch a movie or two to fill the time," Alex suggested.
"I'm up for that," Chris replied. "What about you Beth?"
She played with the pendant hanging around her neck and shrugged.
"There will be no kissing at midnight," Lewis said. "I'm sure I didn't need to say that but-"
"Aw commander," Martinez groaned, "not even on the cheek?"
"Unnecessary," Lewis replied.
"Fine," he said and then stuck his tongue out at her when she turned away.
"How about we do a poker tournament instead of movies," Rick suggested.
"Poker is only good if we have something to bet with," Chris said.
"Don't we still have plenty of pretzels or peanuts?" Beth asked.
"You know we'll all regret it a few months from now if we use food to bet with," Chris said.
"But what else do we have to use?" Rick asked.
"Um, utensils?" Beth suggested. "Or some sort of sample sticks from one of the labs as long as they don't have to stay sterile.
"Couldn't we use the playing cards? We have a few sets, each suit could be worth a certain amount," Martinez said.
"Really?" Chris shook his head. "Really?"
"What?"
"Yeah, this is why you are only the pilot."
"OK yeah I know but we just use one set to play with a different background than the others."
"Or," Lewis put in, "we could just use these poker chips." She held up a box.
"We have poker chips?" Rick asked, "What the hell? Where were those? I've been in that closet a dozen times and never found them."
"Yeah," Beth said, "we all know how you look though. It's no wonder Marissa was willing to let you leave for over a year, a whole year where she doesn't have to find things for you that are right in front of your face."
"Or pick up your dirty socks off the floor," Chris added, "but I'm with him I've never seen those either."
"Commanders have to have some secrets up their sleeve for morale purposes," Melissa said.
"You've been hiding stuff from us?" Rick asked. "What else is in there that you haven't told us about yet?"
"Why would I tell you now?"
"What if we beat you when we play? Will you tell us then?"
Beth shook her head. "Martinez you're in danger of whining like your two-year-old, if you do that I'm not playing."
"Aw, you have to play Johanssen. It's not fun if it's not all of us."
"It's not fun no matter how many of us play," she complained.
"You just need to get better at bluffing."
"Whatever, I'll play til I'm out of chips and then I can just chill and watch a movie while you all stay up all night."
"Just as long as you don't bet everything on the first hand," Chris said.
"Well then we just all have to fold so she wins," Rick replied.
Beth grimaced and shook her head, then laughed. "Damn it, Beck, if you hadn't said anything he'd never have figured it out."
Rick grabbed for Beth to tickle her but she dodged out of his way.
By this time Alex and Melissa were seated at the table. She had divided the chips evenly and he had shuffled the cards and was ready to deal. "Are you three in or out?" Vogel asked.
"In," Martinez answered for all of them and bounded over to the table.
They played several rounds with no one coming out ahead. When it was once again Rick's turn to deal he said, "Mark's rules this round."
"I don't even remember his rules," Alex complained.
"And I don't know them," Lewis added. She had never played poker with the crew before the game at Kennedy Space Center, the traditional "we don't launch until the commander loses and uses up all their bad luck" game. They had tried to get her to play with them multiple times but she refused every time. It was a deeply held belief of hers, that she should never put herself in the position to take from those under her command. They never played for money, only for bragging rights and still, she refused.
"Mark's rules are backward," Beth said. "It's confusing until you've played several hands and then you go back to normal and it's all weird again."
"It's fun," Rick argues.
"It's weird, and it's not right to play it that way without Mark," Beth said.
Lewis held up a hand. "Let's play it that way once in his memory. Then we can go back to normal, ok?" she said, looking at Beth.
Johanssen grimaced but nodded once curtly.
"So backward means what exactly?" Lewis asked. "As in the lowest hand is the winner?"
"Exactly, but it has to be an actual hand and not just five cards that match in no way."
"Ok, so a pair of twos is the goal?"
"Yeah," Martinez said and started to deal.
They each picked up their five cards and looked at them.
"Question," Lewis said.
"What?"
"Do we still need an ace to trade in four cards?"
Beth groaned, "No, actually you can only trade in four cards if one of them is the joker."
Melissa tilted her head and cocked an eyebrow. "A joker?"
"The joker is also wild," Beck said.
"And if you have two jokers it counts as less than a pair of twos," Rick added.
"Let me get this straight, the actual best hand is two jokers, which normally aren't even part of the game?"
"Uh-huh."
"Leave it to Watney," she said.
When the round was done, with Alex winning with a pair of twos they decided to keep playing that way. Over the next hour, there was a great deal of laughter, several muttered curses directed at Mark, and a few stealthily wiped tears. Every few rounds someone else tried to introduce a new crazy rule: changing the suit worth the least, making a different card wild, making Jokers the highest value, making all face cards the same value, etc.
Lewis checked her watch and said, "Last round."
Martinez shuffled, looked to the ceiling, and then cackled.
"Oh Lord," Beth groaned, "here we go."
"Ok, so Watney rules plus one-eyed jacks, suicide and praying kings, and the staff queen are wild."
"What the hell?" Chris said. "What even are those cards? I mean, I know the one-eyed jacks but the kings and the queen, what?"
His question was echoed by the rest of the table so Martinez pulled out the cards in question to show them then shuffled once again and dealt.
Beth cheered when she won the final hand.
Lewis again checked her watch. "Ok, we have just enough time for everyone to get the drink of their choice before we countdown."
They did just that and then gathered in a circle, waiting.
"10, 9, 8," Lewis started.
The rest of the crew joined in. "7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Happy new year!"
They toasted with their apple juice, water, and hot chocolate. Then slowly cleaned up and went off to bed.
The next morning as they finished breakfast Lewis said, "Before you all go, NASA is holding a memorial for Mark on Saturday. They'd like us to send them a video talking about him. Take some time to think about what you want to say. We'll record tomorrow evening after dinner."