here is my @holbualtysecretsanta gift for the wonderful @conniebaechamp! I hope you like it!
Title: amid the falling snow
Word Count: 1,629
fic can be found here or under the cut for your convenience :)
Connie would have missed her flight if not for the delay due to inclement weather. 2 hours until they were leaving, the attendant told her.
She took her carry-on bad and purse and sat on an empty bench, pulling out a book and her phone. She sent a quick text to Grace, letting her know that she would make it home for Christmas, just later than expected, then turned off her phone and began to read the book. Despite being annoyed at the plane delay, she was thankful for the time to herself that didn’t involve chemotherapy.
It wasn’t long before she felt herself wake up to the sound of an announcement that they could reboard for her flight. She gathered her stuff and slowly walked towards the plane. As she stumbled, she was offered a hand by a flight attendant. Due to her stubborn nature, she refused the hand and kept walking by herself. Once she was on the plane, she relaxed into her first-class “cocoon” - nothing but the best for Miss Connie Beauchamp - covered her eyes with the complimentary flight sleep mask, and dozed off once again.
After a few hours of wonderful sleep, she awoke once more. Five minutes after waking, she found herself being offered champagne. She graciously accepted and sipped it, pulling her iPad out of her purse and inserting her earbuds, opening Netflix and beginning one of her favourite guilty pleasures - “Victoria.”
They were one hour from landing, so Connie grabbed her hairbrush, makeup, and toothbrush, and went into the bathroom. She brushed her hair and teeth before applying her eyemakeup and foundation. She looked at herself in the mirror, grimacing at how pale she was. She took a highlighter and contour palette out of her purse and attempted to make her face look slightly less ill, finished up, and exited the washroom.
The announcement system beeped on and informed them to put their seatbelts back on. Connie hadn’t realized just how long she had taken to get ready. She felt extremely tired.
The landing was smooth. Connie enjoyed flying as much as the next person, but she was very grateful to be back on solid ground. She gathered all her little things, put them back into her purse and carry-on, and did one final fix of her hair before disembarking the plane. She was determined to make it off the plane without help, and she did, but barely.
Everything went as it should when disembarking the plane, just a little slower than Connie was used to. Passport check, security, baggage claim, etc. She was roughly bumped into a few times, and almost lost her balance, but that is what one tends to expect when visiting New York City. When she was finally finished and exiting the airport, she caught a glimpse of Sam. He was pacing, clearly anxious about whether Connie was there and safe. She didn’t see Grace.
She stepped onto the escalator and he finally seemed to see her. When their eyes met, her breath hitched in her throat. She hated that he had that effect on her, but he always had, and he always would.
She got off the escalator and he ran towards her. She wasn’t sure how he would react - he was running like he wanted to kiss her or embrace her but she knew as well as he did that those feelings weren’t there anymore.
He simply stood in front of her, grabbing her suitcase out of her arms.
“I like your hair.”
She thanked him softly, and he placed his free hand on the small of her back and guided her towards the door of the airport.
“No Grace?”
“She’s really excited for you to come home, I promise. She was just so tired.”
They had been driving in silence for 20 minutes. New York traffic was unbelievable.
“We should have taken the underground.”
Connie nodded in agreement,
When they finally arrived home, Connie felt much more unwelcome than she had expected. Sam had barely said a word to her, and she didn’t feel much like making conversation. Sam showed her to the guest room and carried her suitcase to it.
“Goodnight.”
He softly closed the door behind him, and Connie dropped onto the bed. She pulled her slacks off, leaving just a cozy sweater from the flight. The bed was softer than she had expected, and she fell asleep quickly, Much quicker than she had on the plane.
Connie awoke to a familiar face greeting her. Grace.
Grace smiled brightly. “Oh, good, you’re finally awake! Happy Christmas, mum!”
Connie smiled in response, sitting up in the bed.
“I like your hair!”
Connie’s smiled widened as Grace echoed Sam’s statement from the previous day. Grace put a platter across Connie’s lap. A wonderful breakfast spread, eggs, toast, bacon, and orange juice.
“Enjoy! See you when you’re done!”
Grace wheeled out of the room, leaving Connie to eat in silence. Despite the kind gesture, Connie couldn’t help but feel even more unwelcome, being left to eat by herself.
She finished the lovely breakfast in bed and dressed, ready for a lovely day out with Sam and Grace. At the end of the stairs stood Sam.
“Unfortunately, the day we had planned won’t work out. The state police are saying we should stay inside unless it’s totally necessary.”
“That’s fine. Grace can pick a film and we can exchange gifts.”
Grace chose Love, Actually, a Christmas classic in the Stracham-Beauchamp household. They sat as a family on the couch, and Connie finally started to feel welcome with Sam and Grace.
The film had finished, and Connie, Grace, and Sam had eaten lunch when the state police sent out a tweet saying it was safer than before if people wanted to leave their houses. They put on their snow gear and headed out to play in the snow.
Connie tried very hard to ignore the feeling of nausea as she walked around pushing Grace and had a snowball fight with her family.
It wasn’t long, however, before she requested they head back into the house.
They were back inside and had their snow gear off when Connie remembered the gift for Grace. She asked them to please wait a moment, heading to the guest room and removing the bracelet from her purse.
She had to take a moment to catch her breath before standing back up.
She made her way back into the living room and presented Grace with the bracelet, trying and failing to conceal the struggle of breathing.
“Mum, it’s so beautiful. Thank you.”
Connie helped Grace put the bracelet on her wrist, then felt a tear fall from her eye.
“What’s wrong, Connie?”
Connie let out a heavy, laboured breath, and told them everything. The cancer, the chemotherapy, the fight to continue working. She told them about their hair loss and the subsequent haircut. Then, and only then, did she let the tears fall freely. Sam embraced her tightly, and Connie wrapped a free arm around Grace. They sat like that for a very long time, only releasing each other when Connie announced that they would still have a wonderful visit and that it was dinner time.
Dinner was eaten and Grace had gone to bed, and Connie and Sam stood and simply looked at each other.
“I missed you.”
They spoke at the exact same time. Sam stepped towards Connie and pulled her into a deep, romantic kiss. It wasn’t like the embrace from earlier, it didn’t feel sad or pessimistic.
The kiss felt like a beacon of things to come. Sam pulled back from the kiss, and told Connie to look out the window. It was softly snowing outside Sam’s busy Manhattan home. He smiled brightly at her, pulling her towards the door by her hands, softly, not quickly.
“C’mon!”
Connie marvelled at the boyish joy in his eyes. She hadn’t seen him like that in years. He was giddy and excited for the snow. He tossed her mittens and hat at her, and she put them on after her coat. Once they were ready, he took her hand again, firmly and excitedly.
Connie could see her breath. The snow landed on Sam’s face, and she cracked a smile at the snowflakes on his eyelashes. He stuck his tongue out to catch snowflakes.
She began to laugh. It hurt, her body didn’t like the feeling of laughter, but her heart did. She could feel her soul soar at the sheer feeling of happiness. He pulled her into a close embrace and began to slow dance with her in the snow.
“Were you going to tell us?”
“I didn’t want to.”
“I’m glad you did.”
She closed the distance between their faces and kissed him softly. The snow fell around them and they continued to kiss.
Connie had arrived feeling unwelcome and lonely. She had fully expected a simple few days with Sam, them putting up with each other, probably an argument. Instead, she felt herself falling back in love with him. She knew in her heart that it was because of the cancer, but that didn’t have to be a bad thing. Tragedy does bring people together, and that isn’t so bad. Sam made her weak, and vulnerable, and that was ok with her. Sam was the one person who could break down her fortified walls.
When they pulled apart, Sam rested his forehead against hers.
“I’m happy to be with you.”
“I don’t have much time left. You know that as well as I do.”
“Well, then let’s simply see what tomorrow brings.”
Connie smiled at that last statement, knowing that she had to count her tomorrows.
“I think I love you, Sam Strachan.”
“I think I love you too, Connie Beauchamp.”
