Thomgelica One-shots because not enough people write about them.

Christmas Without You

It was Christmas Eve, yet Thomas did not feel the joy he once did. Around this time was especially hard for him these past two years. After losing his wife it seemed as though the Holiday spirit forgot to visit him. He was not happy during the holidays, particularly during Christmas time.

He pretended though, he pretended that he was the happiest man alive during these times, all for his darling daughter Coretta. He didn't have to pretend, the sweet child was much too young to understand the concept of Christmas. But he wanted to do right by her.

He wanted to do right by the girl who was the spitting image of Angelica. The same dough eyes full of curiosity, she had lips just like her mother, that parted into one of the most wonderful smiles he had ever seen. And Coretta's luxurious locks came from both her mother and father, but the curls fell down her back the same way her mother's did.

He thought it only fitting that their child looked so much like Angelica. She had been the one to sacrifice herself for the girl. So Coretta should carry on her mother's face and in time she would grow into it, make it her own. But that hint of Angelica would always be there, a bitter sweet reminder of what he had lost and gained.

He also saw so much of Angelica in the child's personality. Already Coretta was so wise. Wiser than you would imagine any two-year-old to be. She walked around as if she had the world all figured out, as if she knew all there was to know about life. He could tell she would do great things.

She had a good head on her shoulders, even so, the girl's temper often got the better of her. Just like her mother, her eyes would alight with a raging fire, the fire sparkled dangerously behind her brown eyes. It was then Thomas knew he should try his best not to anger his daughter, for she, like her mother, would get her revenge.

But the girl, as amazing as she was, was a reminder of what he had lost. His dear, sweet Angelica.

When he first lost her he thought it was simply impossible to go on without her. How could he? For so long she was the reason he smiled, laughed, cried, and breathed. She was the reason he got up in the morning.

Then in a second, she had ceased to exist. Just that day she had been laughing with him over a stupid joke and then she was gone. Almost like she was never there, the only sign that she had, in fact, lived life was her pale lifeless body.

That body had once contained the kind soul of his wife and it didn't look like his Angelica without her spirit.

She was gone forever and she had left behind their child. Their child that before Angelica's death he had promised himself he would love the girl more than life itself, he had promised Angelica. And he couldn't break his promise to her, not when it was the last one had had ever made.

So he had held the child like she was the most precious thing in the world. And as he stared at her through blurry tear-filled eyes she became the most precious thing in the world.

So it didn't matter that he no longer enjoyed Christmas, he would pretend for Coretta.

A/N: So how did we feel about this one? Was the angst there?