A Different Time and Place - A Collection of WoSo one shots.

The Perfect Tree (Pugh/Horan)

Mal Pugh loves her job, and her boss; so when her boss delegates the of picking the perfect tree for their lobby to her, she quickly accepts, wanting to prove herself capable of handling the responsibility. She borrows a pickup truck from a friend and sets off in search of the best Christmas trees in all of Denver and surrounding areas.

After searching Yelp for some recommendations, she plugs in the co-ordinates in her GPS and is on her way to the tree farm about an hour outside of the city.

She is enjoying listening to some tunes and singing along when her concert is interrupted by an incoming call from her Mom.

"Hey, Mom, what's up?"

"Where are you? You were supposed to be here to help put up the decorations an hour ago. It's our tradition."

Mal hits herself on the head with the realization that she was so caught up in the idea of finding the perfect tree, that she forgot about her commitment to her Mom and Dad.

"I'm really sorry Mom, it's just that Emily tasked me with finding the perfect tree for the office this year and I'm on my way to the tree farm now. I shouldn't be more than a couple of hours, do you think you can wait for me?"

"I suppose so, your father is watching a game and you know how grumpy he gets when he is disturbed."

"Yep."

"Mal, while I have you, I'm doing a final headcount for dinner; will Rose be joining us this year?"

"No Mom, Rose won't be joining us, we broke up."

"I'm sorry to hear that, I really liked her and you together, even though she looked like Casper in comparison to you."

"Not funny, Mom."

"You have to admit, she was always extremely pale-looking though. Do you mind me asking what happened?"

"Yeah, she could give the snow a run for its money in terms of whiteness. She got transferred to the office in Washington and we didn't think it was a good idea to pursue a long-distance relationship, so we broke up."

"There are plenty of attractive, available women jumping at the bit to get a chance with you; you know I should call Patricia and get her daughter Bridget's number for you. You two would have a lot in common."

"Mom, there is no way in heck I'm going out with Fidget, she could never stay still in school and she sounds like a donkey when she laughs; which by the way is all the time. I appreciate the offer, but maybe I'm meant to be on my own for a little while."

"Okay, but the offer stands."

"Love you, Mom and I'll see you in a little while."

"Drive safe."

"Bye Mom."

Mal drives a bit further and notices that the houses are getting fewer and further between as she continues to follow the GPS into the unknown. Finally, after what seems forever, she sees a sign, "Welcome to the Horan Family Tree Farm," She turns in the driveway and is met with a gate, that has a closed sign on it and the hours of operation. She looks closer at the sign and finds that the farm closed 10 minutes before she arrived.

She looks around but doesn't see anyone to speak with. With it getting darker out she gets the truck turned around and begins the trip back to civilization.

Her phone signal gets weak and then disappears as does the annoying woman talking through the GPS. Feeling confident that she should be able to find her way back, Mal continues to drive around and everything looks the same. The truck starts to make noise, sputtering and then stopping; Mal guides it off to the side of the road and attempts to get it to restart with no luck, looking at the dash she realizes the fuel gauge is on empty.