Time to Fall

Chapter Six: Christmas Bells

"Oh boy..." Connie grumbled, furrowing her brows.

Damn. Her head really hurt. She blinked awake, curling her legs instinctively to sit up. Her legs. She could move them. She couldn't help but smile at that. She had missed her legs. She sat up. She was in her bed. She was just starting to take in her surroundings. She was laying down, cocooned in blankets. There was a buzz from her phone. She groggily leaned over, fumbling for it until she had it in her hands. She winced. Goddamn her screen was bright. What did it say? December 25th, 2017. Okay. Christmas. What time was it? God, how had she missed that? The time was fucking bigger than the date! 9:00 am.

Well, Merry Christmas to her. Tom... had a point with the drone thing. If nothing else, it would get him outside. Now... if she was right, she'd bought a few drones for herself that Christmas to get some aerial photography for her art. Now, 2017 Connie wouldn't know which one was the one she wanted to keep, so she'd ordered a few different ones. But 2021 Connie knew which one she actually used and which two were collecting dust in her closet. She stumbled around for a moment, walking out to her tree.

She ripped the wrapping paper off of the presents haphazardly (yes, she'd wrapped presents for herself). She found one she was willing to give to Tim. Hell, why not two? Give the kid something to do. Who knows? Maybe he'd be into drone photography. She'd found out she really, really liked it. She'd actually used it in a lot of projects since. She had the drones to spare, as terrible as that sounded. She'd counted them as a part of her art budget when applying for grants. So... she actually straight up hadn't paid for them.

She sighed, picking up the two drones carefully and taking them to the table. She set them down, then went to her closet. What paper was she gonna use for Tim? Probably... yeah, he'd probably like the snowman print she'd made. She pulled that out and brought it to the table, starting to wrap. She was fine being alone for Christmas morning. Absolutely fine. She loved wrapping presents, and eating as big of a stack of Christmas tree pancakes as she wanted with no one to judge her. She smirked, turning on the Christmas playlist on her phone. For her, it may be July, but... Christmas was a state of mind, right?

She tried not to let the fact that she could have a fiery crash later or that Tim's fate rested on her shoulders get to her. That was a lot of pressure for one girl. And she deserved a bit of happiness after the day she'd had. I mean, dear god. She'd gone through more in the course of the past- well, it was messed up, but few days her time- than most people did in their entire lives. She deserved just to live a little normally. To have a Merry Christmas- even if it wasn't really Christmas to her.

She hoped everything was going okay with Tom. She hoped he was taking some time to be with his family- all of them. He deserved it too. The poor guy had done nothing but try to make a good family. Who could blame him for that? It's not a crime to want a loving family? A full one at that. He loved Tim plenty, and Tim loved him. It wasn't a crime to love your wife. And... he'd been given a chance to have her back. What kind of sane person doesn't take that chance? She had just finished wrapping and was about to start cooking her stack of Christmas Tree pancakes when her phone rang. She sighed, picking it up.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS AUNT CONNIE!" A very loud, shrill voice shrieked through the phone.

"Woah, my ears!" Connie laughed. "Merry Christmas, buddy!"

"Oh come on, Tim, you spoiled it!" Tom seemed to chide teasingly on the other end of the line.

"We can still sing." Tim giggled.

"Alright... ready? One, two, three!" Jane counted. They proceeded to sing a very, very rough version of 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas', which made Connie beam. God, they were cute.