Time's Up

celebrations *jazzhands*

SOUTH CAROLINA, DECEMBER 1781

CAT'S POV

I'll be forward with you-- I'm not the Christmassy type. Sure, the whole lights thing it pretty neat, and there's never a wrong time for the jolly old Christmas spirit, but our family was always a bit on the poor side, so the only Christmas trees we got to see were the large ones erected in public squares and such. As for the whole symbolic meaning behind it... well it's awesome, of course, I'm not denying that. The birth of a Messiah, a Saviour, that's something that deserves to be celebrated. And I think it should be-- celebrated, that is.

But for some reason, those celebrations were never anything overly special in the Barton household.

They could've been, if we'd wanted them to be. But for us-- especially for my brother and I, after our parents died --life went on as usual on Christmas day, the only difference being a surge in crime as every criminal on the block tried to take advantage of the naive mood hovering over the city like a thick fog.

So much for the Christmas spirit.

That was part of why I was so surprised when Laurens announced that we'd be heading back to NYC for Christmas.

"But-- why?" I'd protested, "we still have so much work to do here! We might've won at Yorktown, but the British aren't gone yet, and--"

Laurens had interrupted me with a soft chuckle, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Relax, Chris," he'd reassured me, "there'll be plenty of men staying here, they can miss us. Besides, Alexander invited us to celebrate with him, and it would be a shame to turn down a feast like that."

"But-- the British?"

"Janet and Rogers will probably be there, and Clint too-- you can check in with him as well, while you're at it."

The thought of seeing my brother again had been both a welcome and a dreaded one, but I'd decided that I probably wouldn't change Laurens's mind on the matter, so I gave in.

Of course, it was just our luck that McKennan caught on and decided to invite himself too.

So now we were walking beside our horses through a ridiculously thick layer of snow, while I wondered whether I'd ever seen a Christmas this white.

We walked in silence, Laurens and I up front and McKennan struggling on behind us. The idiot had stayed mounted despite Laurens's extremely patient explanation about giving the horse a chance to rest, and said horse was starting to look rather fatigued in the aftermath of that decision.

McKennan threw another string of curses at the horse -- as if that would help matters -- and Laurens shook his head in disbelief, before turning to face me instead.

"When do you think you'll be time-jumping again?" he asked, and I glanced over my shoulder to see whether McKennan was listening along. He seemed rather preoccupied with his steed, however, so I shrugged and answered Laurens's question.

"I don't know," I answered honestly, "this is the longest we've gone without time jumping, since... since it all started. It's also the longest I've gone without being with the other time jumpers."

"Do you think that has something to do with it?" Laurens tilted his head curiously, and I bit my lip.

"I-- it's a possibility, I suppose. I mean, I'd considered it-- that's part of the reason I didn't really want to go back to New York."

Laurens frowned slightly.

"I'm afraid I'm not seeing the correlation there. Don't you want to go home?"