Comic Convention

Christmas

When Clara wakes up the next morning, Rose is standing over her bed. Rose had been asleep when Clara got home last night. Rose demands to be told everything right then. Clara obliges.

"We have to start cleaning!" Rose says after Clara's done. "We have to impress my future brother-in-law."

Clara rolls her eyes but gets out of bed. Clara makes breakfast as Rose gets out the cleaning supplies. Rose makes them eat quickly so they can get started.

"We have all day, relax."

"We also have to make Christmas cookies. You promised we would make them today."

So, they get busy cleaning. Rose takes the easy room like the living room and her bedroom. Clara does the rest. Rose gets done first and Clara orders her to get all the ingredients out for the cookies. They spend all afternoon baking the cookies and decorating them. Rose sets aside a few cookies she made specially for Marshall.

Marshall bursts into his room when they return to the hotel. He drops to his knees in front of the couch and searches the ground for the paper. He can't find it. He digs around in the couch in case it fell between the cushions while he was sleeping. He doesn't find it there either. It's gone.

"Marshall," Hayden calls from the door. "We have to leave in 10 minutes."

Marshall nods absently. She's going to think he bailed on her. He goes to pack his bags and think about a way he can reach Clara.

Back in the lobby, his bags are packed but he has no answer to his Clara problem. His bags are taken out to the car. He trails slowly out to the car, waving halfheartedly at the fans before climbing back into the car. The car whisks them away to the airport, leaving Marshall's problem left unsolved.

At 4:30 pm the next day, Clara is pulling the turkey out of the oven. The side dishes are done and on the table. The only left thing to do is carve the turkey. She checks the time for the millionth time that day. She hasn't heard from Marshall today but he's supposed to be here any minute.

"Dad, can you carve the turkey?" Clara calls to her dad.

He comes into the kitchen, rolling up the sleeves of the button up Rose forced him to put on. He wasn't too excited when the girls told him of their last-minute guest or of the fact he had to dress up in his own house.

The turkey gets carved. The table is set. The food is cooling off. It's 5 pm and the only thing left to do is wait for Marshall to arrive.

At 5:30 pm, Marshall still hasn't arrived. Clara tells Rose and her dad to go ahead and eat before the food gets cold.

At 6:30 pm, Rose tries to get Clara to eat something. She refuses, her stomach twisting in knots.

At 7:30 pm, Rose and Dad have given up on Marshall showing up. Both have changed, put up the food, and disappeared to their rooms. Clara stares blankly at the television, trying not to think about Marshall Fox.

At 10 pm, Clara turns off the television. She heads up to her room, changes, and crawls into bed. She turns on the television in her room. The DVD menu for Maroon Mountain is still up. Marshall's face stares back at her. The tears come fast and hard.

That's how she falls asleep: crying and listening to the music of the DVD menu over and over again.

In the morning, Clara gets out of bed briefly to open presents for Rose. She pretends last night didn't happen. After the presents are all opened and the trash picked up, Clara carries her things to her room and crawls back in bed.

Hours later and many failed attempts to get Clara out of bed, Rose runs into the room. She jumps up on the bed and keeps jumping.

"Rose, please stop."

"You need to get up. Put on some nicer clothes and maybe some makeup."

"I'm not getting up."

"We have some guests. You have to come down."

"Who's here?"

"Come down and find out," Rose says, jumping off the bed and races out of the room.

Clara groans in frustration and kicks the blankets off. She finds some jeans and a t-shirt on the floor, smells them, and puts them on after deciding they are clean enough. She heads to the bathroom to wash her face. She bypasses the makeup, figuring whoever is here doesn't warrant the extra effort.

Rose is talking excitedly to whoever is here. Clara stops at the top of the stairs, putting a smile on her face, before jogging down. Rounding the corner, she spots three people around Rose as she shows them what she got. The tallest one turns slowly to face Clara. She freezes when she sees Marshall. He smiles nervously.

"You're about 24 hours late," she says.

"I know. I apologize. We had a last minute event get added and I lost the paper with your number so I couldn't let you know I couldn't make it," he explains, taking a few steps toward her.

"Well, what are you doing here now?"

"I wanted to apologize. The hotel called to say they found the paper and gave me the information. Alexandra and Hayden overheard the conversation and, once I told them what was happening, booked us tickets back here," he says, taking a few more steps. He's standing right in front of her now.

"You could have just called."

"True but I wouldn't have been able to do this."

He gently grabs her face and lowers his mouth to hers. Cheers erupt behind them. The pair breaks apart, laughing, turning to the others in the room. Rose offers Alexandra and Hayden some of the Christmas cookies they baked yesterday. All three of them disappear into the kitchen.

"I'm glad you came," she says, leaning into him.

"I couldn't miss another chance to see my biggest fan. I figured it would be the perfect gift for Rose. I didn't think you would be here or else I wouldn't have come," he jokes.

She pushes him away, laughing. Taking his hand, she leads him to the kitchen. "Rose, made cookies specially for you."

They join the others in the kitchen, each taking a cookie from the plate on the counter. Alexandra and Hayden take turns telling everyone about their journey to bring Marshall back to his mystery girl.