Taking a Chance on Christmas (A/T - Teen) 1/1 12-2-06

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To_Kiss_A_Frog
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Taking a Chance on Christmas (A/T - Teen) 1/1 12-2-06

Post by To_Kiss_A_Frog »

Title: Taking a Chance on Christmas
Author: To_Kiss_A_Frog
Pairings: Alex and Tess
Disclaimer: Don't own anything you recognize
Author's NoteI tried writing an update for one of my other fics but I guess I was more in a Christmas mood... thus, this fic. Hope you enjoy!
Summary: A holiday fifth wheeler tale that explores what could have happened during A Roswell Christmas Carol if Alex had been around.


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Taking a Chance on Christmas</center>

Frustration was evident in every step as she weaved through the crowd of people walking both ways. The town may have had a population of only a few thousand but it seemed that every single one of them was out searching for last minute gifts. Shopping bags in hands with smiles stretched across their lips made her stand out as the only grinch in the bunch.

The scowl on her face became more prominent as she walked past the Crashdown café and saw a sign in the window advertising the $7.99 all you can eat turkey meal. It seemed just as mocking as the horde of patrons inside, grinning happy grins as they drank mugs of cider or hot chocolate. Then again, they all had reasons to be happy. A family, kids, parents maybe a brother or a sister.

She was certain that none of them knew what it felt like to be raised by a man who was emotionally stunted.

“Careful or you’ll melt the glass,” a teasing voice quipped, causing her head of blonde curls to whip around. With his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans and a crimson scarf wrapped loosely around his neck stood Alex Whitman.

“You know that isn’t actually possible, right?” Tess asked in return, marveling at the sound of her own voice. How long had it been since she’d spoken to anyone? Days at least. Not since she tried to have a conversation with Kyle and the sheriff, only to find them unresponsive. She supposed that giving them the silent treatment might make them stop and take notice of what was really bothering her but lo and behold, they didn’t seem to notice her lack of conversation either. “What are you doing here anyway?” she added a bit too harshly and cleared her throat self consciously when she realized how raspy she sounded. “I thought you weren’t coming back until after the new year.”

“I guess seeing my family outweighed the idea of a white Christmas,” he shrugged and let out tired sigh. Small puffs of smoke formed in front of his mouth as he spoke, a testament to how cold it really was outside.

“Rub it in,” Tess muttered under her breath and stared down at the salted sidewalk.

Two days before, someone mentioned that they heard from someone who heard from someone else that it was finally going to snow in Roswell. Naturally all the locals were thrilled at the prospect and eagerly salted the concrete in preparation for the snowy holiday.

Tess seriously doubted they’d see a single flake much less a heavy fall but kept that assumption to herself.

“Okay…” Alex said slowly, drawing out the word as he searched for something else to say. “Right. Well I’m just gonna…” he said, gesturing to the park a couple blocks up where a large group had gathered to begin setting up for the annual Christmas pageant. Tess remembered Isabel saying something about children and the elderly from the local old folk’s home. She wasn’t quite sure what exactly Isabel had to do with either groups but the tall blonde’s presence was probably why Alex seemed so eager to keep walking.

“Oh. Right, yeah… I understand,” Tess mumbled and began walking away without another word.

“Wait! Tess!” she heard and turned to find Alex looking uncertainly between her and the park. “Do you want to go for a walk?” he finally asked and despite knowing that he’d probably rather be with Isabel, Tess found herself nodding yes. “Come on,” he invited and together, the two walked off in the opposite direction.


<center>~*~*~*~</center>


“So how was Sweden?” she asked for lack of a better question.

“It was okay, I guess,” Alex shrugged half heartedly. With so many people lining the sidewalks, the two had to walk close together. So close that their arms brushed up against each other every few steps. The wind lightly blew around the pair and Alex caught a faint hint of peaches and cream. He opened his mouth to ask what scent of shampoo she wore but at the last second, chickened out.

“You’re family is big on Christmas then, huh?”

Again, Alex opened his mouth to emit a simple response until he looked down at her and found sad blue eyes staring back up at him. From the first moment she arrived in Roswell, spouting nonsense about destiny and basically making his friends miserable, not once had he ever seen her remorseful. It was almost as if she believed she was entitled to all the things she showed up and tried to take. Whether it was friendship from Isabel and Michael or love from Max.

In his mind, he was convinced that she would never take responsibility for the damage she caused.

Now, seeing her eyes wide with innocent sadness, Alex found himself wondering why. Why did she always seem so closed off despite her desire to be accepted? What caused her to ever feel like she had keep everything bottled up inside? Even from those she believed to be her family, namely the other three aliens and the two Valenti males.

“My parents kind of are,” he finally responded. “Do you want to sit?” he added, gesturing to a vacant bus stop bench just off of Citrus Street.

“Sure,” Tess agreed amicably, feeling considerably less depressed than she had been after leaving the Valenti house.

“We aren’t the kind of people that sing Christmas carols while we string popcorn and put up lights but we do have a tree every year,” Alex explained and pulled his hands out of his pockets before slowly sitting down on the cold wood. Tess noticed that he had been wearing gloves the entire time and watched, curious as he pulled the red knit off a finger at a time. Without breaking his string of sentences, he offered the warm wool to Tess.

Alex didn’t seem to notice the way her eyes widened almost imperceptibly or the way her hand shook as she reached for the gloves.

“My mom roasts a turkey and makes eggnog. Then every few years my grandparents show up… when they aren’t with my aunts and uncles,” he continued in the same easy going voice he had been using before they found their bench. “My grandma pinches my cheeks and when no one’s looking, my grandpa will slip a five dollar bill in my hand with the instruction of buying something nice for myself.”

Despite her earlier mood, Tess couldn’t hold back a grin as she listened to him spin an amusing tale.

“Sounds like fun,” Tess mused aloud.

“It is,” Alex acknowledged, glad when he saw that some of her earlier sorrow had dissipated a fraction.

“When I was a kid, I didn’t even know what Christmas was,” Tess murmured as she turned away and stared unseeing at the hardware store in front of them. Fake snow had been sprayed along all the corners and edges of the window panes, highlighting the red and green sign baring well wishes of happy holidays. “Nasedo used to say that decorating trees with colorful lights and buying presents wrapped in shiny paper was just a silly human tradition that we were above. He would tell me that with the ability to change molecular structure, I could entertain myself by changing objects back and forth. So I didn’t need dolls or board games or… anything but food and clothes, really.”

Alex suspected that however small the glimpse Tess was giving him, it was bigger than anything else she’d given the rest of the pod squad.

Even he had looked at her as a robot. Nothing seemed to faze her. The wariness and animosity mixed in with a healthy dose of distrust seemed to be things she just let roll of her shoulders. In all their eyes, she had given a new meaning to not being human.

Alex was ashamed of himself for that now as he realized how much harder it had been for Tess on the run. She had no support system or a person to teach her right from wrong. All she had were a bunch of fairy tales told to her by someone who made a habit out of killing to evade their enemies. In an environment like that, could they really blame her for the way she turned out?

“What about the sheriff and Kyle?” he asked, only to immediately regret it when Tess looked back down again. Her gaze focused on the itchy red wool as she offered her own shrug.

“They have some plastic tree in their garage that Kyle uses to dry his socks,” she whispered and shook her head self deprecatingly when she felt tears gather in the corners of her eyes.

At a loss, Alex stayed quiet for several moments before he finally found something helpful to say. “Well if you’re above our silly traditions,” he began with a teasing lilt to his voice. “Then why don’t you start a new one at the Valenti house?” he suggested.

Considering, Tess also kept quiet long enough to think it through. “But I don’t know how,” she finally admitted. “Should I make a roasted turkey too or string popcorn?” she asked helplessly, a first for Alex who had never seen past her tough exterior.

“You can do whatever you want,” Alex replied but refrained from saying anything else as a large Greyhound pulled up in front of them. One by one, ten passengers climbed down the slippery steps holding suitcases and shopping bags. “Why don’t we go to the park to see the pageant,” he suggested, consulting his watch. “And afterwards we can figure out what your new tradition is going to be.”

“Okay,” Tess agreed with an inaudible sigh.


<center>~*~*~*~</center>


Isabel Evans had outdone herself that year. Children of various ages walked across the makeshift stage, adorned in beautifully sewn costumes. The boys wore theatrical looking top hats and fake beards while the girls had been fitted in old fashioned, ankle length dresses. “Mr. Scrooge… Mr. Scrooge, please…”

In the distance, Tess spotted Liz Parker walking away from her best friend, Maria and straight towards Max. Curiously, she watched the pair as Liz placed one hand on Max’s shoulder and leaned up to whisper something in his ear. Left behind, Maria continued to sit woefully, staring at the stage while the troupe of kids filed off. Another group took their place, centered by a sweet looking girl with shoulder length brown hair and wings attached to her back.

Just beyond the curtain stood Isabel. She fidgeted like an anxious mother until Michael Guerin said something to draw her attention away. Without heat, she slapped his arm before returning her brown eyes to the developing plot on stage.

A line of children laughed and talked, occasionally being scolded by an irate parent as they waited to have their picture taken with Santa.

“That looks like fun,” Tess declared without thinking.

“What does?”

“Nothing,” she quickly said and shook her head in the hopes that Alex would just drop it. “So those kids are pretty talented, huh? I wonder how long it took them all to learn their lines.”

“What looks like fun,” Alex persisted and turned so that he and Tess stood face to face.

“Nothing. It was just… it was stupid,” Tess rationed while her eyes darted back and forth, reluctant to meet Alex’s teasing gaze. “What is so funny,” she demanded in a harsh whisper when he began to grin. Valiantly, she tried to keep her scowl in place but the friendliness on his face and the mischief twinkling in his eyes made it difficult. “What?!”

“You know, I happen to know Santa personally,” he said in a voice filled with mock seriousness. “If you wanted… I could probably get you in to see him. Maybe get a picture of you sitting in his lap,” Alex smiled as Tess rolled her eyes heavenward. “And if you’ve been a good girl this year and wait patiently in line, one of his elves will even give you candy cane,” he stage whispered.

Just as Alex was seeing a different, more vulnerable side of Tess, she was noticing the playful part of his personality. Both enjoyed the changes in the other, whether it was something they’d see more often or behavior that would expire at the end of the day.

“What about you?” Tess queried innocently.

“What about me?” Alex asked back, perplexed.

“Have you been a good boy this year or will Santa give you a lump of coal instead of a candy cane?”

Eyes narrowed, Alex fixed her with an appalled expression. “You won’t find out because I am not sitting on his lap,” he confidently informed.

“Afraid you’ll get the lump of coal?”

“Just go,” Alex rolled his eyes and playfully shoved Tess in the direction of the line. “And no cutting,” he added as an after thought.


<center>~*~*~*~</center>


Kyle and the Sheriff had moved onto the next football game by the time Tess returned home. They still didn’t have a tree but after a long excursion at the super market, they would now have a Christmas dinner. Roasted turkey, buttery rolls, baked potatoes and candied yams, a recipe graciously received from Mrs. Whitman. The pleasant woman had only been too glad to help and as she stood in the kitchen, writing everything down word for word, Tess decided she was just as sweet as Alex was.

Alex. He was still outside, trying to wrestle a bag of decorations out from the trunk of his car.

Contemplating, Tess waited a few seconds before reaching into one of the shopping bags. Quickly grabbing the small object, she made sure her jacket was fastened before stepping back out into the cold. The wind was stronger now and the air had dropped at least five degrees since she first ventured out earlier that afternoon.

Maybe it would snow after all, she thought.

“Aha!” Alex cried out in triumph as he pulled the bag loose. Somehow it had gotten wedged between a spare tire and a box Mrs. Whitman asked him to drop off at the goodwill store. “So is it going to be a good, new tradition or what?” he asked and handed Tess the plastic sack.

“I think so,” Tess replied while nervously biting her lip.

Deciding that nothing could be more embarrassing that being totally disregarded by her supposed mate, Tess took the plunge and pulled her hand out from behind her back. Between her fingers she held a small sprig of mistletoe, an impulse buy when Alex wasn’t looking.

“Merry Christmas?” she asked and fidgeted as he stared up at the green leaves.

Tess could swear that he gulped and blushed lightly. He didn’t look completely disgusted by the idea though which made her feel a modicum of confidence.

“Merry Christmas,” Alex repeated and leaned down to place a soft, gentle kiss against her lips.

Involuntarily, her eyes closed, savoring the brief and almost timeless moment.

“Now it is,” she whispered with a smile.

<center>The End</center>
Last edited by To_Kiss_A_Frog on Wed Jan 24, 2007 5:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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