Blue Christmas

Part 15:

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Missy was clearly enjoying herself, that she was enjoying herself at the expense of making her family squirm was something Osgood could have almost forgiven, well if she hadn't been dragged into the centre of it.

After her mother had been sequestered in her favourite armchair with a stiff brandy Osgood had tried to explain that Missy had only been joking yet it seemed her family didn't quite believe her. Her sister certainly kept shooting her all manner of smug knowing looks and it took all the maturity Osgood possessed not to stick her tongue out at Stacie like they were still squabbling children.

So when her sister stupidly started to poke and prod verbally at Missy like she was one of Osgood's lab specimens well it was with more than a modicum of satisfaction that Osgood sat back and left them to it. She would gladly help scoop up what was left of Stacie off the floor after Missy was finished verbally eviscerating her, and perhaps it would teach her stuck up sister a thing or two about judging people before she had properly met them.

"So are you a lesbian then?" Stacie blurted out over the turkey and stuffing causing the table to suddenly fall silent, only the clink of dropping cutlery could be heard.

Blinking her bright blue eyes Missy took her time before answering one of her unnerving smiles slowly creeping across her face. "Am I a what?"

"A lesbian." Stacie repeated extra slowly as talking to someone slow witted. "You sleep with girls?"

"I generally sleep by myself." Missy countered innocently. "Of course occasionally when one of the twins won't settle they stay with me."

"That's not..." Stacie began before changing tactic when her mother shot her a pointed glare and one of her own obnoxious children piped up.

"When Katie sleeps over she stays in my bed, does that mean I'm a lesbian Mummy?"

"Don't be silly Cassandra. You shouldn't be eavesdropping. Now eat your vegetables." Stacie chastised her youngest daughter, fighting an embarrassed flush and for a few minutes an awkward silence descended as the rest of the family hid their faces in their food.

Yet it was only so long before Stacie could resist poking at the Missy shaped mystery at the table, especially with the way her baby sister kept shooting her "friend" concerned glances. Stacie just knew her oh so smart sister was a dyke, of course she had done her best to hide it over the years, but now she had actually brought a woman home with her did she honestly expect to rub their noses in it and still get away with it?

"So your children were they in vitro, did you use a donor or is there a proper baby daddy out there somewhere?"

"I really don't see how that's any of your business Stacie." Osgood muttered.

"Why not I'm curious and it's not often you see a woman of such advancing years with two small children, they can't possibly be natural." Stacie scoffed lifting her wine glass to take a deep sip.

"Oh you're quite right there was nothing natural about it." Missy replied wrinkling her nose in disgust at the thought of the human birthing process, for her species the very idea of a "natural birth" was vile and backward. No way at all for a proper Time Lord to be born.

"See." Stacie pronounced with a smug smile in her sisters direction.

"I mean what sane woman would allow parasites to feed off of her for months, warping her body and then putting her through agony just to bring them into the universe, positively barbaric." Missy continued on shuddering.

"It was the most incredible experience of my life." Stacie retorted defensively.

"Oh dear." Missy shook her head innocently her blue eyes glinting as she caught Skip's gaze. "Well you've got a few years left perhaps it's not too late to change that?"

"I...You..." Stacie spluttered as Missy returned her outraged glare with one of perfect innocence.

Biting her lip Stacie settled back into her chair and began to viciously attack her roast potatoes whilst glaring daggers at a serenely smiling Missy who was a picture of maternal contentedness as she fussed over two babies and somehow still managed to eat her lunch.

The Twins were happily ensconced in the rather well-worn highchairs that Mr Osgood had managed to find in the garage from when Stacie's own offspring were little and well that they had been hanging on to in the hope that one day their youngest daughter might surprise them. With a quick clean they were still perfectly serviceable and Osgood had been more than a little relieved when Missy actually commented on their usefulness and didn't turn up her nose at the fact they were second hand.

"So how's work pumpkin?" Mr Osgood finally spoke up hoping to change the subject and ease the tense atmosphere; in personality he was much closer to his younger daughter even if he couldn't claim responsibility for her intellect as well.

"Good Dad, busy."

"Kate still in charge?" Uncle Tom asked from the end of the table and Osgood favoured him with a nervous smile.

Of all the family members she had been the most nervous about introducing Missy to her favourite uncle, yet it seemed her uncle really had gone civilian in the last few years as he didn't even twitch when she introduced them.

"Of course she's a Lethbridge-Stewart." Missy retorted as though that should have been obvious, even with her limited knowledge of human's even she could recognise familial traits and being in charge was clearly a dominant one in that gene pool.

"Oh do you work with our little Petronella?" Uncle Tom questioned.

"I'm freelance." Missy quipped a glint of mischief in her gaze as she locked gazes with Skip who seemed to be about to burst something vital. "But we've been known to cross paths and swords once or twice."

"Oh yes I could tell you a few stories like that." Uncle Tom chortled, opening his mouth to clearly launch into some tall tale when his dominant sister-in-law's glare had him suddenly engrossed in the remains of his dinner.

"So don't you have family of your own to spend Christmas with?" Stacie's blunt question cut through the silence and the lighter mood.

"By family I suppose you mean Mother, father, siblings, cousins?" Missy replied her blue gaze suddenly chilling. "No I don't they are all gone, but even if they weren't I doubt any of them would have an interest in celebrating this particularly holiday. It's not really the done thing where I am from people would think it a little strange."

"Why are you Muslim or something?" Stacie spat back. "You don't look like it, aren't you Scottish, do they even have Scottish Muslims?"

"Stacie love perhaps now is not the t..." Mr Osgood tried to control his eldest child's bluntness; the fact that Missy's family was clearly all dead seemed not to have registered with his daughter who with a complete lack of empathy bowled on not caring who she knocked over.

"I am just showing an interest Dad." Stacie huffed. "I mean this is the first time Petronella has brought a girl home shouldn't we be interested?"

"Dear that misunderstanding has already been explained." Mrs Osgood insisted her brown eyes promising bloody murder to anyone else who dared even mention it again.

"Has it?" Stacie countered risking her mother's wrath. "I mean there is only so long we can all pretend we don't know what is really going on..."

"Stacie!"

"I mean she's even wearing a polo neck." Stacie added ignoring even her mother as she eyeballed her baby sister. "Covering up some hickey's are we Petty?"

"Shut up just shut up!" Osgood snapped at her sister causing Stacie to fall back in her chair as though she was actually under attack. "Fine you want me to say it Stacie. Yes I have a girlfriend. No it is not Missy. I am a great big dyke and I don't give a damn, there are you happy now?!"

That statement fell upon the family with all the devastating power of a nuclear bomb, for a moment there was nothing but a deathly silence, and then all hell broke loose.

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