She bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet. It really wasn’t that big. There were certainly larger ones in the lot. As if taking a page from the teenage handbook, Christina rolled her eyes, “Oi! Have you even looked at your place?! It’s not exactly an estate flat now is it?” she replied sounding a bit exasperated, but it was all in good fun. She opened her arms wide as she spun around to face the tree. “It’s bloody perfect! Not too big, certainly not too small. It’ll look simply brilliant with a million twinkling fairy lights on it!”
She turned back towards the other, “Please, Captain?” She asked, clasping her hands together and giving him her best pleading expression.
Donna for her part had her hands full. LITERALLY.
She arranged to get a car from the club and made her first stop a nearby department store to pick-up several boxes of lights for the tree John and Christina would be bringing home, a stand to put it in, a few boxes of shiny bobbles and round glass ornaments to hang upon its branches and a pretty impressive star for the top. The ginger was more than slightly annoyed at the sales clerk who gave her a rather amused expression when she expressed she had no idea what she would need to decorate a Christmas tree. She came damn close to smacking the teen when he laughed and called a friend over to tell him what she asked.
Donna pointed out she wasn’t daft and if he wanted to keep his job and have her not complain to his manager, he’d shut his gob and help her, quite nicely, for the rest of her shopping trip. It wasn’t that she didn’t know what to put on a bloody tree, it was more of how much she needed.
She gathered the needed items and took them up to the register, only remembering at the last moment to grab some Christmas biscuits and hot chocolate. It was a lucky thing they had some in gift sets. She didn’t care what the cost if it saved her from having to make a stop at the Tesco! She grabbed two, ensuring there would be more than enough (plus, they looked quite impressive and tasty) and tossed them up on the counter with everything else.
The ginger was feeling a bit tense as she glanced at her watch. She still needed to stop at the pet shoppe to pick up a collar, leash, food... Donna rolled her eyes and stepped on the gas.
She finished up at the pet store and hurried on to the home of the man holding the Captain’s gift. Shutting the door of the luxury sedan, she hurried to the door and knocked. The overweight man with the long hair gave her a slight grunt as a greeting, nodding her head for her to follow.
“Hello to you too, Sunshine,” she muttered as she followed after him, taking in the dishevelled surroundings distastefully. This wasn’t anyway for a dog to live let alone a human being!
Donna spotted their poor puppy in a small cage on the floor littered with take-a-way wrappers and cigarette butts. She shook her head. The man had presented himself at lest somewhat better when he was selling the dogs outside the Tesco. This was just cruel! He leaned down to open the cage of the blonde Akita puppy. It snarled and snapped at him. She could hardly blame him.
“Oi! Quiet runt!” he growled at the pup, smacking his cage with his bare hand, rattling it. The puppy that Donna was already calling “Spike” didn’t back down. The man looked over at her, “Ya’ sure ya want this one miss? He’s no good, even for this breed. Nasty, mean... thinks he’s the alpha even though he’s nuthin’ but a runt!” he spat. “He’s likely to not take to any of ya’, not even that pretty little miss ya’ had with ya.”
Donna’s jaw was set, eyes narrowed as she heard him describe both her dog and her daughter. “Funny, he was fine with us. I think he simply doesn’t care for you. Now how about you give me my dog so I can get us both the hell outta here.”
He shot her a look but complied just the same. He backed away and made a sweeping gesture towards the snarling puppy. Donna knelt down calling to him softly. “Hello there gorgeous, you ready to go home and meet your new dad?” She held her hand out holding the spiked leather collar and leash and watched as he slowly made his way over and seemed to analyse her with a cock of his head and what she was offering. Finally he gave her hand a quick lick and Donna smiled, scratching him behind the ears.
“That a boy,” she praised him, slipping the collar and leash on him and picking him up. She shot the man a dirty look and strode out the door with Spike to the awaiting car to take him home and surprise John with.
She cracked the window for the pup who seemed to love the ride and smiled as she pulled into their parking spots.
“Home sweet home, Spike.” She really hoped the Captain like the name, Donna was already rather attached to it, but in the end, he was his dog and he could name him whatever he wished.
Popping out of the car, she held his leash in one hand and gathered her bags in the other and headed on towards the house to get everything ready for John’s big Christmas surprise and the house for Christina. She needed to get Spike used to the Captain’s scent so he didn’t try to kill him, at least that’s what they said at the pet shoppe. Also, Donna wanted to surprise them by hanging a sting of lights or two in the front windows, around the back slider doors and on the fireplace. She even found three matching stockings which was no easy task this close to Christmas.
If this didn’t make Christina deliriously happy than Bah Humbug! She thought wearily juggling everything while she struggled with her keys.
