You Can't Be Too Careful [Star Trek/Leonard "Bones" McCoy Love Story]

[8.] Christmas With The Scottish Sass-Queen

[8] Christmas With The Scottish Sass-Queen

Astrid and I spent the next five days catching up with each other. On the first day we hung out around campus, and I showed her all of my classes and introduced her to Commander Haines (whom she thoroughly terrified with her incessant banter). The next couple days were spent driving here and there, playing in the snow a few towns away and staying overnight in a log cabin. By the time Christmas Eve arrived, we were back at the Academy. Exhausted from our trip, we crashed early, the Christmas lights still twinkling and the Christmas presents now placed under a small, 4-foot Christmas tree that we picked up at a nearby store.

Astrid woke me up the next morning by throwing herself on top of me and whispering, “Santa came,” in her creepiest voice in my ear.

“Good lord,” I grunted, sitting up and running my fingers through my hair.

“Mornin’, sleepyhead!”

“What time is it?”

“Six! Way too late already!”

“Astrid, I can barely get you up before noon on a day to day basis.”

“Bu’ i’s Christmas, Catherine!”

“Fine, fine. What are you, five years old?”

“Five and three quarters,” she huffed, crossing her arms and sticking her tongue out at me. I laughed and crawled out from under my covers. Astrid and I sat cross-legged in front of our little tree and handed each other’s gifts to each other until we each had a small pile of wrapped boxes surrounding the both of us.

“Ready?” she asked, wiggling her fingers over the first package.

“Yep.”

“An’…go!”

We both dove into our gifts like greedy animals, not caring that we were making a mess with the wrapping paper and squealing like children. It was Christmas, and we were going to be five-year-olds if we wanted to be. Astrid gushed over her sweaters and hats and scarves and swooned over her books and journal. I received a gift card to a nearby coffee shop with a ridiculously large amount of money on it, a necklace with Astrid and I’s birthstones molded together, and hand-knit sweater from an antique store in Scotland.

“Thank you so much, Astrid,” I gushed, admiring my new possessions.

“I’m glad ya like it all, lass,” she replied, grinning.

“I really do,” I said, putting the necklace on and looking down at it once more.

She grinned. “I ‘ave one too.”

“What?”

“A necklace,” she clarified, reaching into her sweatshirt and revealing an identical necklace that she wore around her neck. “We always talked abou’ ‘aving friendship jewelry when we were younger, an’ since we never did i’, I figured I would do it now, and do it nicely.”

“They’re beautiful,” I said, leaning forward and hugging her. She returned the embrace and laughed.

“I’m glad ya think so.”

We pulled apart, and Astrid reached for some of her candy.

“Oh, I almost forgot!” she cried after popping a sour gummy worm in her mouth. “I ‘ave some stuff from yer Da!”

I nearly choked. “You what?”

“Yeah, in ma suitcase! He didn’ want me ta give any of it to ya until Christmas morning, though, so don’ yell at me fer not givin’ them to ya earlier!”