Piece by Piece

But piece by piece, he collected me

Piece by Piece

But piece by piece, he collected me

"But piece by piece, he collected me up

Off the ground, where you abandoned things"

Maya Hart had never been one for traditions. Holidays and birthdays were nice and all, the girl had just never been especially fond of either. Her mother often had had to work anyways, so Maya usually had no real preference about where she spent them. That's how, in the past, she had found herself at the Matthews' home – either their apartment in New York or the elder Matthews' house in Philadelphia – on some of these occasions more often than not. Labor Day, 4th of July, Easter or Thanksgiving – all of these days didn't mean much to the thirteen-year-old girl other than giving her the opportunity to spend even more time with her "adopted family". Christmas, however, was a horse of an entirely different color.

Because Christmas meant a lot to both Katy and Maya Hart. After Kermit's departure and with Katy's increasing work hours, the two girls had slowly started growing apart. Katy always did her best to be as involved in her daughter's upbringing as she could, but it was difficult and she was really glad that they had found kind and caring people in Topanga and Cory Matthews who were willing to help them out in any way they could. After that one faithful day when Maya was five years old, the little girl continued to spend more and more time with her best friend's family and slowly became a part of it. Even Katy herself, over time, opened up to the older Matthews – Topanga especially – and the two women became good friends. While at first it was just Maya who spent a lot of time at their home, the invitation gradually expanded to Katy as well and she often stayed for dinner when she came to pick Maya up after work. However, there was one day in the year that belonged strictly to the Hart girls.

Each year Katy tried her best to avoid having to take the Christmas shift, so she could spend the day with her beloved daughter. They woke up early in the morning on Christmas Eve, put on ridiculously festive holiday sweaters and spent the morning in the kitchen baking cookies together with Christmas songs playing in the background – all the while making a mess of the room and covering each other with flour and cookie dough. After having some sandwiches for lunch, the girls would spend the afternoon decorating their tree – a collection of all kinds of different ornaments hanging from the branches at the end of the process. While Katy went out to pick up their pre-ordered Christmas dinner, Maya would decorate the rest of their apartment. Afterwards, they would eat dinner and talk about God knows what before retiring to the couch to watch a Christmas movie marathon while drinking delicious hot chocolate and wearing Christmas pajamas. At some point, Maya would always fall asleep on her mother's lap. Katy could never bring herself to wake up her baby girl, so eventually, she would dose off as well. The girls would wake up the next morning completely well-rested and content. They would gather around the tree and open presents – it was never much but they didn't care. It was both Katy and Maya's favorite day of the year.

This year however, those plans had changed. Katy hadn't been able to get out of working the Christmas shift, too many of her co-workers had called in sick with the flu. Both Hart girls were devestated at first because it meant their traditional Christmas wouldn't happen. The Matthews got wind of that and invited the girls to spend Christmas at their place: Maya could stay the whole day and Katy could join them as soon as she got off work. They had been invited the years before as well, but this was the first year they had accepted the invitation. It was not their usual quiet night in since the whole Matthews clan would be coming from out of town, but maybe it would be equally as nice, just in a different way.