It was their first Christmas together and it was in St. Louis of all places. She certainly didn't think that when she began this trip, that she would end up in St. Louis. She didn't think that she would end up with a boyfriend. She really wished there was a better word for it. Lover didn't exactly cut it either. They were more than that. But here they were, in St. Louis, on Christmas, the first one since the Red Flu ended.
She went a little overboard on the cookies, she thought, but it was supposed to be fun. Kathleen and Tex were coming over later tonight after the party. Well, they would be there for the party, but they would be staying after the party. They were supposed to be doing this together. But he and Kathleen had stuff to do outside the house all day.
It was good though. When she had suggested this at the annual Thanksgiving dinner last month, she felt like it was lark that anyone would go for it. But surprisingly, everyone was into it. The whole Nathan James crew wanted to do Christmas in St. Louis again. And they were doing it Secret Santa style.
Everyone had picked a name, making sure that it wasn't their own, and that was the person they had to shop for. She wondered who got her name. Even Kathleen was invited to join in, though she had politely declined for fear of not knowing what to get someone quite a bit older than her, other than her dad or Rachel. That said, it was also the time for the crew to get together and give presents just in general. She expected there would be more than enough to go around.
As people started flooding in, she wondered where Tex and Kathleen were, sure that something had happened to them. Everyone reassured her that everything was fine. She didn't know whether or not to believe them was the key.
She put the music on and smiled as she hugged everyone, including little Frankie, who was less than a year old. She held him in his arms and smiled at Kara. "You have outdone yourself with this one," She said.
"I know, he's the cutest," Kara said as she smiled happily to her baby.
Tex came around and smiled as he gave Rachel a kiss on the cheek. "Well, isn't this a sight?" He asked as he looked down at her with the baby. "You smell like cinnamon," He said with a look in his eyes.
Kara rolled hers. "Come on, now," She said as she looked at the two, happy for the moment. "You guys are going to have to get a room if you guys want to do the googly eyes thing for much longer." Kara said. "And you're going to have give back the baby,"
Rachel snapped out of it and looked down at little Frankie once more and smiled. "Probably should anyway," She said as she gently laid Frankie in his mother's welcome arms.
"I have something for you," Tex said quietly, as he looked to the door.
It was Kelly and Ava. She rushed over to meet them and to swing little Ava around. That was Rachel, he thought. Not a mother, but completely in love with kids. Little frankie, Kathleen, and Ava. She was obsessed with them. "But I don't have any presents for you guys, they were sent to your house in Norfolk," She told them.
Kathleen arrived underneath Rachel's arm. "Dad had that one figured out too," She said as she put some presents in front of Rachel for the two of them. Rachel kissed Kathleen on the forehead and blushed a little.
"Was this what was taking you guys so long?" Rachel asked.
Kathleen nodded and looked to her dad. "He thought you could use a little Christmas cheer. Though, by the looks of it, he clearly didn't think you were going to go this all out," Kathleen said as she ran towards the kitchen full of cookies.
Kelly looked at her and smiled. "I think you have a good family right there," She said as she looked at the rest of the Nathan James crew being happy and merry in the background. "When Tex said that we could join you, well, it's been a while since we've seen you and we thought that it would be a good time to come and spend the holidays with someone that we really know."
"Are you guys finding it harder to fit in?"
Kelly shook her head. "No. We're doing fine. It's just that it's different." She told her friend. "He really likes you by the way. You wouldn't believe how excited he was that he could do this for you," She said.
"I like him too." Rachel blushed as she looked at her feet for a second. She cleared her throat and looked back up at Kelly. Ava was there with Kathleen, in the kitchen, making sure that all her delicious work went to good use.
As everyone settled down, they did the same thing that they did before, choose a name out of a hat and this time, the person whose name was called got to sit in the middle of the crowd and wait for their gift to be handed to them. It was something a little untraditional but if they simply passed gifts out, well then they couldn't make a game out of it.
Tex got Eric. He got the kid some models of the ships and helicopters that he had been used to working on. It was a silly kind of gift, but Rachel thought that Eric appreciated it. He had a smile on his face anyway. It was a little hard to tell whether or not, it was forced. He certainly got a little heckled for his gift, but Rachel thought it was sweet. Tex was taking a shot in the dark there.
Burke was next. Kara got him. She got him something to do with a gun. They were always about their guns. Rachel thought it was a little off-putting but everyone else loved it so she smiled and clapped for him, just like everyone else.
Rachel got called into the hot seat and she hoped that her secret santa was someone who understood who she was, otherwise, she might very well be getting a microscope or something that she didn't really need.
It was really quite nerve wracking in the Christmas hot seat. She wondered why she insisted on this. But here she was in the hot seat of her own making.
She closed her eyes and breathed. She could fake it with the best of them if she ended up hating her gift. It would be fine.
Tom was the one to come up to her and he gave her a quite bulky package wrapped in plain paper, clearly not trying to be too flashy in the presentation of his presents. They also didn't have a lot of options when it came to present paper. It just wasn't high on the list of things to get back in production.
Rachel peeled the paper back to reveal a rather large box. She opened the box and found an assortment of books, all of which she had heard of, but none of which she'd had time to read.
"I remember poking into your room and seeing that you liked books," He said, blushing a little, as if he had just admitted to a great secret. She nodded and looked some more at the books, she couldn't believe that he had such great taste in books too. There wasn't one in the pile that she didn't think she would enjoy.
She looked up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, Tom," She said. "I love them."
The rest of the party went in quick succession with the only one sitting out being Ravit, because she didn't celebrate Christmas, but not to worry Rachel thought, she could do something for the girl. While everyone else gave gifts in the circle Rachel dug around for some candles and tin foil. She'd once had to do this in the Antarctic, studying viruses in cold climates was something she'd done for a long time.
When she found both of the things she needed, she started putting together the makeshift menorah and bringing it out to Ravit, who blushed very hard. Everyone else seemed to enjoy the fact that there was something else going on, distracted from the presents by her menorah.
"I know hanukkah has passed, but you deserve something special too." Rachel said as she set the menorah on the table. "Do you want to say the blessings? I don't think it would be too much. God has given us the strength to last this last year."
Ravit nodded as she wiped a tear from her eye. What they were doing was special. It was worth blessing. "Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tsivanu l'hadlik ner shel Hanukkah." She said and took a breath before she started into the next one. She lit the candles as she said both blessings, all eight candles, for the might of the Jewish people over oppressors and for the whole of the human race having might over the virus, "Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, she-asah nisim laavoteinu v'imoteinu bayamim hahaeim baz'man hazeh,"
The festivities went on with people eating the cookies that she had so anxiously baked this afternoon, with dancing around the christmas tree, and with people kissing underneath mistletoe.
She didn't even know how that got there.
"You put that there?" Rachel asked Tex as she looked over to the mistletoe, which Kara and Danny were kissing under. Before it had been Ravit and Burke, but they went back to dancing around the Christmas tree.
Tex shrugged with a smirk. "Don't know why you would think that,"
"You know with Kelly and Ava here, we're going to have to be good. I mean more good than we would have been with Kathleen," She said as she looked at the whole thing. She couldn't believe the scene in front of her eyes. It was just something out of a movie. Everyone she loved was in the same spot.
Tex shrugged. "Yeah, but it's worth it. The look on your face when you saw them," He said as he looked at her. "It couldn't be beat. It was a nice thing that you did for Ravit." He smiled at the joy in their house. It was a real home like this.
Rachel nodded. "Just trying to spread the holiday cheer," She said as she wrapped her arm around his middle and looked around. It was inspiring to think that next year could be even better than this. She wasn't sure how, but they'd find a way to make it happen.
Ava and Kathleen sat together and seemed to be conspiring about something, but that was what the holiday was about. Silly joy. Kelly seemed a little overwhelmed by everyone, sipping on some wine, and not really talking unless talked too. She guessed not all of the things from the Red Flu had gone away quite yet. Everyone would always be a little bit damaged from it.
"You did a good job," Tex said. "With any luck, we'll have to host Christmas in St. Louis every year," She looked to him, confused as to what he was saying and he continued. "Yeah, everyone had such a fun time that they want to do this next year too. Make it a tradition. Christmas in St. Louis. What do you say?"
It was sweet that everyone decided that they wanted to have Christmas in St. Louis every year, but hosting every year? She looked to Ava and Kelly and how Kelly seemed to be drawn back from the crowd. "But Kelly…"
"We don't have to do it every year. We can go to Norfolk to visit Kelly and Ava some years if you want, but everyone loves the idea of a tradition of this Nathan James crew getting together for Christmas. And that's all thanks to you. And your brilliant idea to secret santa gifts."
Rachel shook her head. It was a little crazy that they all loved it this much, but if they did, who was she to say no to them? She loved it too. She loved this crew so much for what they did and for who they were. They were kind and loving and generous when the world was so desperate for them not to be.
Then she shrugged. "Let's see how the next one goes," She told him, "Before we officially make tradition the word."
He kissed her on the forehead and smiled. "Sounds good, doc. Sounds good."