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

A Christmas Wish

It was Christmas Eve without her mom, this wasn't the first time nor would it be the last that she would spend this holiday without her mom. In fact, in Coretta's short seven-year life she had spent every holiday without her mother.

You would think she would be used to it by now, but she wasn't. The first four years of her life it hadn't bothered her that she was motherless though, but then she started school. It was then she came to the conclusion that everyone had a father and mother.

She only had one out of that pairing.

Her father loved her and she knew that, still, it was hard when every single one of her friends raved about the cookies their mom had made or the decorations that their mom had put up around the house. Her father did every one of those things for her, and while it was fun it still wasn't the same. She wanted her mom to do those small trivial things with her.

She never voiced these thoughts and insecurities though, because at age seven she knew that her father was trying hard to give her the best childhood he could provide. So she wouldn't guilt him with this, it wasn't his fault anyway. No, that blame was hers.

Her father had tried to disabuse her of that notion and he thought he had succeeded. Only because Coretta let him think that way, he needed a win. So after he had that conversation with her she let him believe that she no longer blamed herself for her mother's death.

Coretta did blame herself though. Probably always would, because if it wasn't her fault then whose was it? After all her mom had died giving birth to her. So she saw no other possible explanation and that was because there wasn't.

She had killed her mom, even if she hadn't meant to do it.

Still, even with all the dark and gloomy thoughts running through her head, she couldn't deny that she absolutely loved Christmas. So maybe her love for Christmas would grant her a wish.

A very important wish.

She wrote a letter to Santa begging for her mother back, even just for a day. All she wanted was for her mom to hold her and then Coretta could go back to listening to her friends talk about how wonderful their parents were. She just wanted to be held by her mom.

Just once.

She wrote the letter two weeks ago, the idea had come to her late at night, far past her bedtime. She had been tired but she powered through and wrote the long letter, a flashlight propped up against the wall so she could see the paper.

Her handwriting was neat, neater than she thought possible and the next morning when she examined it she thought it looked nothing like the work of a second-grader. No, more like a fifth grader and she was quite pleased with herself.

Later on, before she left for school, she placed the letter in an envelope and sealed it. She scribbled the address and left it in her mailbox. And when she came home from school the mailbox was empty, her letter gone with everything else.

She hadn't told her father about her wish just in case it didn't work but she was optimistic it would. After all, she had always gotten what she wished for. Santa had never failed her before, so she didn't see why now would be any different.

So as she went to bed for the night she thought about all the gifts she would receive the next day and for once her father and mother would be there to witness her open them. Just how life was supposed to be, just how she wanted life to be.

...

It was late and his dear daughter was finally asleep. He retired to the living room tonight as he did most nights, seven years later and the bed still didn't feel the same without Angelica next to him.