December 2021 Christmas Holidays Story Contest Entry  

The following story takes place in the Arctic Fox universe, but at this moment isn’t part of canon. It may be later, but I haven’t decided on that. For now, consider it a ‘what if’ story.

Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays.

Thank you to Malady for his help editing, and as usual, bouncing my ideas off of.

Your help is much appreciated!

--Rosemary

---

 

The Arctic Circle

Rikki and Granny entered the house together. Tomorrow was Christmas, and it would be special. Rikki and Carl married in the Spring with all their friends present, and this would be their first Christmas together as husband and wife. They’d spent Christmases together before, to be sure, but not as a married couple. Such as the two Christmases before, but they'd been at the Chatham house for one, and the Johnson house for the other.

This year was very different. The Chathams and Johnsons had all moved south to the Anchorage area, leaving the Blaines alone. Granny was still in North Pole, certainly, but even the Matthews were south for Christmas. They were all part of the extended family, but both Blaines were stuck in North Pole due to a storm that had been predicted and just finally hit.

“That was a lot of work,” Rikki said as she pulled her boots off by the door, replacing them with slippers to keep her feet warm.

“It sure was,” Granny agreed as she sat down on the bench beside her and pulled her own off as well.

“I'm glad we have each other here.” Rikki gave Carl a peck on the cheek when he came out of the kitchen to welcome them. Rikki was rewarded by him turning his head, then putting his arms around her, and changing the peck into something more.

Once they came up for air, Rikki said, “I do miss the family though.”

“Do you mean your parents, or Chet and Mage? Our extended family?”

“You know, I don't think of them as extended anymore. They're our real family as far as I'm concerned.”

He smiled. “You're right!”

“What about me?” Granny called from the kitchen where she had gone to make some food for her grandchildren.

“You're family too!” Rikki called out.

They could hear the sadness in Granny's voice. “I miss them too,” she said, referring to the Chathams and Johnsons. “It just doesn't feel the same without them.”

“It couldn't be helped, Granny,” Carl said. “We can't abandon the clients over Christmas.” They had been planning to go south to be with everyone else over Christmas, but the storm had been too harsh for their employees to handle on their own.

Rikki had tried to hire temporary people, and managed in Fairbanks, but not enough for North Pole, so they needed to stay.

“No, and that snow would be a killer to try to drive through anyway,” the older woman agreed.

“Granny,” Carl said as he went back into the kitchen. “You've been working out in the cold. You need to rest and warm up! Would you let me finish this?”

“When I was a kid, this was considered woman's work, you know,” Granny admonished him. “Besides, I’ll warm up over the stove.”

“Granny, I don't exactly look like a guy. I can still do ‘woman’s work’ as you call it.” Carl said, laughing.

“For crying out loud, Carl. You're as much of a guy as Rick was.”

It was Rikki’s turn to laugh now. “Granny, I wasn't much of a guy.”

She glanced at her granddaughter-in-law. “You're not helping.“

“Well I wasn't!”

Granny shooed the two into the living room, and returned to the kitchen while they talked.

“Do you miss Vic?” Carl asked.

“I always loved Vicky. I admired her look. She always dressed beautifully, and I wished I could look like that.”

“What about Vic?”

“He was a surprise. I didn't know that side of her... him.”

“I wish we'd got the chance to know him,” Carl said. He could have shown you so much about being a girl.”

“You've been a great help,” Rikki argued.

“He could have shown you how to get Vicky's look.”

“The best way to not get clocked is to not draw attention to yourself,” Rikki said. “Vicky stood out from the rest of the girls. I prefer the girl-next-door look.”

“Not draw attention to yourself,” Carl said. “That doesn’t work for me. I don't look much like a guy.”

Rikki had to agree, but phrased it deftly, “I love you however you look. Besides, give it some time. It won’t be that long.”

“You know,” Carl said, “Last year at Christmas, I wasn’t sure we would celebrate this way. Me as a guy, and you as a woman.”

“I wanted to respect their wishes,” Rikki said. “With them both in prison, it started to hit me how much their lives had changed. I was hoping to give them something stable in their lives.”

Carl nodded in agreement. “You know they were just lashing out,” he said.

“I didn’t need that. When my bio-dad turned away, I decided I didn’t care. I had to break all ties.”

“Shunning you two days before Christmas,” Carl grimaced. “Will you ever forgive him?”

The day before, Rikki had called her father to wish him a merry Christmas. She had always tried to dress as Rick when talking to him, but her development was now too far to hide. In retrospect, she probably should have worn male clothes, and no makeup, but she was sick of turning back into Rick once a month, just to talk to her dad. She knew he was afraid of the same thing happening to her that had happened to Vic, but she had lots of support. And, her father was in prison, so he wouldn’t be killing her.

Her bio-father had taken one look at his daughter and shook his head. “You mother’s genes,” he said into the phone, quiet but clear.

Maybe he was right, as both Rikki and Vic were trans, but that was just the way it was. Rikki tried to defend her mother, but Fred Blaine would have none of it. He reached forward, and severed the connection. To Rikki, that action also severed the connection between them.

Before any more could be said, Granny called them to the table.

After dinner, they all moved back to the living room where they read the Christmas story from Luke and Matthew, and then they opened presents.

Carl had gotten his wife some rather sexy lingerie, and she had returned the favor by getting him some new pajamas. He eyed them critically, and Rikki defended herself. “I know you don’t like this kind, but they were all the store had.”

Carl nodded. He didn’t mind as much as they were in a basic black color, but it still bothered him. They were obviously women’s pajamas, and to receive them now wasn’t what he wanted.

Granny broke through Carl’s frustration when she handed the couple an envelope. Carl gave her a funny look as he opened it. Inside was the deed to her house.

“I know, I know. You've said over and over that I'm going to live forever, but that's not the case, Carl. My doctor’s given me a bit of a shorter time. Says my days are kinda numbered, so...”

“So why were you out there shoveling snow?” Carl wasn't impressed, and if Rikki’s expression was anything to go on, neither was she.

“Because you needed my help,” she said firmly.

“What’s wrong?” Rikki asked, moving to another line of questioning, although she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

“Apparently I’ve got an inoperable aneurysm.”

“And you were out shoveling show today?!” Carl exploded.

“You needed my help,” Granny repeated firmly.

Rikki sighed with exasperation while Carl shook his head. They both knew Granny could be stubborn as a mule, so they decided to drop the subject.

That left Rikki free to get Granny’s present. She went into her and Carl’s room and grabbed an envelope which was addressed to Granny. In it were two round-trip tickets to Hawaii for the end of January.

“What a perfect time,” the old woman exclaimed. “I think I’ll take that young man I’ve been seeing. If his parents agree.”

The younger couple laughed. Ron was two years older than Granny, but his birthday was the day before hers, hence the joke.

The trio played some games late into the night, and finally decided to go to bed at 12:30.

Two hours later, Carl woke Rikki up gasping.

“I think... I need... to go to... the ER.”

Rikki jumped up and helped her husband out of bed, and then hurried to Granny’s room to tell her what was going on.

Carl was getting clothes on when Rikki hurried returned.

“Let’s just go!” Rikki exclaimed, then grabbed an emergency case from the corner of the room with one hand, and grabbing Carl’s shoulder with the other. She helped him get a robe over his shoulders, and led him out to the car.

“Where’s Granny?” Carl asked as he got into the passenger seat.

“She’s pretty tired,” Rikki said. “I’ll call and let her know what’s happening, once we know a bit more.”

“Okay,” Carl said, through gritted teeth.

Considering road conditions, Rikki made excellent time to the hospital. On the way, they passed a couple of emergency vehicles with their sirens blaring and moving as fast as they dared.

Rikki slid the car to a stop at the Emergency Room doors, got out, and ran to the security guard. She explained that her husband had an emergency, and the guard grabbed a wheelchair and pushed it out to the car.

Rikki opened the door, and the guard caught sight of Carl and said, “I thought you said husband.”

“See… What I… mean?” Carl laughed and gasped to Rikki. “I don’t look much like a man right now.”

The guard recovered his composure and said, “I’m sorry. My mistake.”

Carl took it in good stride as he was pushed toward the sliding doors. When the doors slid open, he called out, “Pregnant man! Coming through!”

Several heads turned toward him, while Rikki giggled. The guard laughed as he saw the triage nurse’s eyes widen.

“Bring her… ah him through here,” the nurse said.

She started to stop Rikki, saying, “I’m sorry, Ma’am. You’ll need to wait out here.”

Rikki did something she almost never did anymore. She allowed her voice to slide to it’s original register as she said, “I’m his wife, and the father.”

She was surprised the Nurse’s eyes didn’t pop out of their sockets as they got even wider than they had been. To her credit, the nurse simply said, “Fair enough,” and allowed Rikki to follow.

The guard parked the wheelchair by the vitals desk and set the brakes. “Great day for a baby,” he said. “God bless!” He shook Carl’s hand, then turned to Rikki and said, “Ma’am,” with a tip of the head.

He made his way out to his guard room with the window to the outside, grinning. What a great start to Christmas. A baby being born!

“What’s your name?” the nurse asked Carl. “Carl Blaine,” he told her.

The couple were hurried through triage and into a room. It was quickly determined that Carl was actually in labor, the contractions coming more and more rapidly.

The ER called Maternity and found they had a free birthing room, so he and Rikki were moved once more.

-=#=-

It was another half hour before the doctor told Carl he could push, something he was very grateful for. Another hour, and a little girl was born.

“What’s her name going to be?” asked a nurse while another took the little girl to be weighed and measured.

“Vicki,” Carl said as Rikki said, “Caroline.”

The two stared at each other for a moment, then Rikki said, “We haven’t really decided yet.”

Carl raised an eyebrow in a decidedly Vulcan expression, but said nothing. As far as he knew, they’d decided to name the baby after Vic, Rikki’s brother who’d been killed by a psychopathic father.

“Well, we’ll leave the name part of the certificate open for now,” said the nurse. “You can discuss it and we can fill that in later. I would recommend you have the name figured out before you leave the hospital. You don’t have to, but we should put something there, cause ‘baby girl’ for the name will just cause problems.”

Carl laughed. “I can imagine.”

“Oh, some people don’t decide by the time they leave, and they find out that they’ve got a world of trouble getting things fixed.”

-=#=-

It was nearly five o'clock in the afternoon when Rikki’s phone chimed. It was an incoming Zoom session.

“Hi, Uncle Darryl,” she said. “Merry Christmas!”

On the screen, Darryl’s image looked around. “She’s born?! Congratulations!”

Carl held up the infant so she could be seen. “About 5:36 this morning. Her name is ‘Coral Victoria.’”

By that time, Darryl had centered the camera where everyone could see. There were several congratulations and Merry Christmases, then Marcia said, “How come Coral?”

Carl’s face took on a sad expression. “Rikki went to wake up Granny when I went into labor, and she was dead.”

“We didn’t have time to wait around, so I called 911 and told them what was happening while we hurried to the ER.”

Everyone on the screen looked somber. “So you named the baby Coral for Granny,” Mage said. Carol Gleason had been ‘Granny’ to all of the members of the extended family for the past three years.

“You’ll let us know any details for a memorial service?” Gloria asked. “We’ll definitely want to be there.”

“Of course,” Rikki told them.

It took a little while for everyone to shake off the sadness and sense of loss over Granny’s death, but the joy of Coral being born on Christmas was wonderful.

Later that night, as she prepared for bed, Rikki thought of the circle things had come in. Yes, they’d lost Granny, but they gained a child.

You planned this, she thought to God. You knew how much we’d miss Granny, so You gave us this wonderful little girl to keep us busy. To not dwell on the loss of a wonderful soul. Thank you!

It was with those grateful thoughts that she fell asleep. Feeling lonely for the loss of Carol, but elated for the arrival of Coral. The Arctic Circle... of Life.