It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

The New UNIT Games

In one of the late nights Kate Lethbridge-Stewart spent reading her father's reports she came upon a mention of the annual UNIT Games. She'd heard of them, of course, they had run annually up until the mid-nineties when, for reasons unknown they just stopped. She well knew, as did everyone at UNIT, that the games had been a legendary Eastick Idea. The report she had come upon was her father's account of those inaugural games. She had become quite used to reading the report he had wanted to write rather than the one he actually had. For instance by: 'Sergeant Eastick and his team of ANZACs won the games overall in an impassive show of the teamwork, improvisation and resilience characteristic of their services and countrymen.' He really meant: Richard and the ANZACs managed, despite the best efforts of everyone else involved, to win the day. In our tactical planning meetings prior to the event Captain Yates, Sergeant Benton and myself, in what was a fatal tactical error, overlooked the Kiwis.'

Kate had decided sometime that night while reading the corresponding reports from Benton, Yates and Richard that it was high time the games were resurrected.

It had been pure luck That Jayne Eastick had been with The Doctor when he arrived to help with an unrelated incident a few days before the games were due to be held. When Kate had put the idea of staying for them to Jayne she jumped at the chance. Erin happened to be on her annual research trip and was quite by chance spending a week or so with John and Mike, who had also been invited. Jayne had accepted the offer of a UNIT VIP room while The Doctor had gone off in the TARDIS to bring in 'a team' whatever he had meant by that.

The night before the games Jayne was in bed she wasn't asleep, not really, she was dozing but it was still early. She was thinking of the first time she'd ever met Erin. It had been a characteristic nice day at the beginning of the second academic semester. Jayne hadn't believed in love at first sight until that morning when Erin had walked into that first class with Lisa, her co convenor. Jayne had been struck immediately by Erin. Her energy her beauty. Then she had started talking animatedly with Lisa and Jayne was gone. They had struck a fast friendship soon after that and Jayne had found herself falling more and more for this woman every day. Jayne had resigned herself to the all too common fate of her kind, to be hopelessly in love with her best friend for the rest of her life.

It had begun on one of their shared research trips to Belfast. Jayne was the only research assistant Erin had ever taken with her. The university hadn't given her funding for one until after they'd met and when they had, Jayne had been her first choice. Erin liked Jayne, she honestly couldn't think of anyone she would rather live out of an Irish hotel for eight weeks with. Jayne would be forever grateful for this. It was at the beginning of their third trip to Belfast. They'd left Australia earlier than usual that year to spend Christmas with John and Mike. Jayne and Erin had been sitting together in John and Mike's living room.

"Thanks for inviting me, to Christmas I mean," Jayne had said after a short silence, "I could have easily met you in Belfast."

"And let me fly all the way over here by myself? Don't be silly I'm glad you could make it. I know your family weren't too pleased when you told them you were coming over early."

"They weren't but I made something up about the university wanting us both on the same flights, I made something up about invoices and they stopped listening."

"For the record, I spent a lot of time debating with myself weather to get you the present I got you or not. I hope you remember the conversation I'm throwing back to because if you don't it's kind of a crap gift."

"I remember every conversation we've ever had."

"Do you?"

"Yes. Not every word of every conversation verbatim but all the finer details."

"I'm impressed."

"Good motivation."

"Oh?"

"The best."

"You're hopelessly in love with me aren't you?" Erin said jokingly.

"Well yes."

"What?"

"I shouldn't have said anything."

"You really are, aren't you?"

Jayne had sighed. "Truly, madly and deeply. I have been for some time now. Forget it, it's fine."

"Oh, it's much more than fine."

"Now you've lost me."

"It's much more than fine because I'm in love with you too. I have been for some time now."

Jayne had leaned in and kissed Erin, because that seemed like the thing to do at that juncture.

"Finally," came John's voice from the doorway when they broke apart.

"How long?"

"Have I been standing here? About a minute. Have I known you two were completely besotted with each other? Since about eight seconds into Jayne's first visit. I do have some experience with the phenomenon."

Jayne was distracted from the memory when the bed dipped. She opened one eye to find Erin taking off her shoes.

"Hey," she said, leaning down to kiss her fiancée in greeting.

"Hey yourself. I thought you weren't coming up until tomorrow."

"We weren't but Osgood wanted to go over something or other with the boys last minute."

"Young Osgood or Old Osgood?"

"Old Osgood."

As it turned out Osgood had wanted to put a team of the UNIT old guard together to compete in the games. It had been his daughters idea. These games were to last a week. There were not significantly more events but there were quite a few more competitors. There was a team of old guard from every era of UNIT. In Mike, John, Osgood the elder and some of the other members of UNIT from the seventies they had the original Old Guard. Then Brigadier Winifred Bambera, her trans dimensional husband, and some of her eighties contemporaries made up the less old guard. A team from the nineties, the slightly newer old guard. Another from the naughties, the new old guard. And, of course, several made up of current serving members of UNIT from around the world. Then there were the Doctor's temporal ring-ins. The Doctor, Missy (formerly known as The Master) as well as several of The Doctor's former companions including a bemused Tegan, an excited Jamie, Captain Jack Harkness who still had not aged a day and Ace McShane.

Jayne and Erin were spoiled for choice. Among the currently serving UNIT teams there was one for descendants of the old guard which consisted of Kate, Young Osgood, Jayne's favourite uncle Tommy and an assortment of other family members of the old guard who had some affiliation with UNIT. It had been this one they had chosen.

This would be a very bad week to invade the UK with several generations of UNIT's finest assembled.

The old guard had done remarkably well consideringthe youngest of them was over seventy, with the handicap factored in they hadplaced third. The ANZAC team had come in second and Kate's conglomerate ofdescendants had come in first. Tommy, who was a fully-fledged Sergeant in TheAustralian Army, had not been pleased at having a lower marksmanship score thanhis niece, a mere Corporal in the Army Reserve. He nonetheless took the creditfor training the champion marksman of the day. In actual fact it had beenRichard who trained both of them. Jayne thought it best not to correct heruncle, especially when they were about to go head to head with bluntedbroadswords, Jayne had beaten him at that too.