New Year had arrived - not just bringing an end to the year, but to the end of the decade. A decade in which life had changed beyond all recognition for one couple on Maple Grove. With promises of good behavior and an injunction to enjoy themselves, Jon and Vicki had been waved off to spend the New Year festivities in Edinburgh, on Earth; a part of their Christmas present from Bea and Humphrey. Hogmanay was a very old tradition in Scotland, and it should always be experienced at least once. Perhaps it wasn't the romantic New Years' Eve they might have planned for themselves, but they could always have a romantic breakfast the next morning. Tonight, they were going to celebrate, Celtic-style.

Despite the chill in the air that necessitated thick coats, hats, and gloves, there was also an air of genial celebration covering the ancient city as the couple stepped out of their hotel and onto the Royal Mile. All around them were gathering crowds of people, stalls set up selling food and drink, music playing live and recorded up and down the street. Vicki laughed cheerfully, looking up at Jon.

"I think Bea might have earned herself an amazing hug for this."

"I still can't figure out how she arranged it," Jon remarked, one gloved hand taking hers as they started their stroll down the crowded city street, filled with food, music, and revelers. Little Bea had obviously had help in arranging for her parents' getaway, and that help had most likely come from Old Man Granger.

"I think she overheard Liv talking about the midnight fireworks and just ran with it," Vicki suggested, though she couldn't be sure Bea hadn't done all the research herself. Their eldest was a resourceful little fiend at times.

"I wouldn't put it past Liv to have lent a hand," Jon remarked, knowing how resourceful the woman was in her own right. "Does it feel strange to be away from home on New Year's Eve?" he asked.

Squeezing his hand as they walked, Vicki smiled absently. "It does, in a way," she admitted. "But it isn't a bad feeling. Just a strange one. Being able to stay up until past midnight without worrying about being woken up at 5am is a novelty these days."

Jon chuckled at his wife's sentiment. "The kids won't stay little forever," he reminded her. It had taken a few days to recover from the madness that always accompanied Christmas at Maple Grove.

"You're not wrong," she laughed, "but it's nice to have you to myself every once in a while. Our family got big." She leaned into him to avoid a group of teenagers muscling past with paper cups of steaming spiced cocoa.

"I don't mind having you all to myself now and then, either, Mrs. Granger," he told her, smooching her lips as she leaned close. He didn't think anyone would mind him kissing his wife in public here on New Year’s Eve.

If anyone noticed, they didn't care; Hogmanay was a night for celebrating the old year gone and the year to come, not for nitpicking the private lives of celebrities in their midst. Vicki grinned against Jon's lips, all too aware of how lucky she was to be able to call him hers. "Shall we investigate the stalls, stud muffin?"

He grinned at the nickname she'd given him when they'd first started dating. Though they might not have as much time or energy to devote to their sex life these days, when they did, the spark was definitely still there. "We should definitely do this more often," he told her. "Where to first?"

She sniffed the air impishly. "I can smell caramelized onions," she informed him. "I bet I can get you a good British street burger, Mr. Refined Palate."

"With a good British ale?" Jon queried. After all, it was New Years Eve. It wouldn't be right not to drink like a native, if he was going to eat like one.

"Scotch whisky on Hogmanay, darling!" she told him, almost scandalized that he would suggest drinking anything else right here in Edinburgh on one of the biggest nights of the year.

"Scotch whisky it is!" he replied, agreeably. "Lead the way, love," he told her, waving her onward. This was familiar territory for her, and it reminded him a little bit of the many festivals and fairs back in Rhy'Din.

There was plenty on hand to entertain and amuse as they wandered toward the enticing smell of onions and meat, passing stalls that sold handmade crafts, hot drinks, alcoholic drinks, hot and cold snacks both sweet and savory. Digging into her pocket as they joined the line outside the truck selling freshly cooked burgers among other things, Vicki grinned at Jon. "All the trimmings?"

"Yes, ma'am!" he confirmed. It was the last night of the old year - there was no point in holding back now. Tomorrow was another story.

It didn't take long before he was holding an enormous burger in its paper, with fixings spilling out the sides whenever he took a bite. Vicki was in a similar position - her vegetarian version was just as over-stuffed as his. But that was part of the fun of street food; you found somewhere to sit or lean out of the way, and you played catch the pickle every time you took a bite.

Jon tugged his gloves off and stuffed them in a coat pocket before taking up his burger, ready to catch any wayward pickles or lick his fingers clean of catsup whenever necessary. He grinned around his burger, moaning in delight at every delicious, juicy bite.

Vicki moaned right along with him. "God, it has been so long since we had proper greasy junk food," she declared about halfway through, grinning at the sight of her always well put together husband gobbling away at the kind of street food she had grown up with.

"I'm not sure the word 'proper' belongs in that sentence," he teased, as he finished up the last few bites of his burger and licked his fingers clean. Now to find a proper glass of scotch, which he assumed meant finding a nearby pub. "That was amazing," he told her, smiling happily.

"This is what I used to eat when I went into town with my friends as a teenager," she told him, swallowing down her last bite happily. "Then we'd grab a bottle of cider and go sit in a park somewhere." She laughed at those memories. "Simple pleasures, you know?"

"Just one bottle between you?" he asked, linking his arm with hers as they started on their way again in search of a "proper" pub. He couldn't very well comment on his own youth, as the memories of that part of his life were lost, but he was content to be making new memories with her - happy memories.

"When you're sixteen in Cornwall, one three quid liter of cider is all you can really afford," she chuckled affectionately, hugging his arm as they walked. It turned out that they didn't need to find a pub - there were stalls selling whisky, hot toddies, spiced wine, and buttered rum. It was simply a case of deciding what they wanted to drink.

"What' Since when?" he asked, unwrapping himself from her arms, only to tuck her arm in his again as they continued their stroll. He wasn't sure where to get a hot toddy, but he was in no hurry.

"Since he realized he really enjoys being woken up at the arse end of the night by over-excited children." Vicki's laugh was mildly disbelieving; Christopher Marshall had been a genuine godsend over Christmas.

"Seriously?" Jon said, looking more than a little surprised. "I thought your father swore he'd never leave Truro," he said, remembering when Vicki's father had thought Rhy'Din was in Canada.

"I don't think it was Truro so much as Maria," she admitted ruefully. "Once she realized he was never going to marry her, she was gone, and now he's all alone in that house. I don't think he wants to sell it, but he wants to be closer to us."

"Well, we could move here, you know," he suggested, though he doubted they'd want to do that. They had too many friends and family members on Rhy'Din, not to mention the fact that the kids were happy there. "He could stay with us awhile. See how he likes Rhy'Din," he suggested. He didn't really understand why her father hadn't moved to Rhy'Din already, considering they were his only family.

"I think that is probably a good idea," she agreed. "I'll talk to him about it, see if he wants to spend February with us maybe. If he's comfortable, he might decide to stay anyway."

"Your father gets along well with Humphrey, and Cosmo adores him," Jon pointed out, frowning as another thought came to mind. "He has to be lonely here, Vicki. And you two have always been so close. I honestly think he'd be happier in Rhy'Din." But her father had to decide that for himself.

"I'll talk to him," she promised, hugging his arm as they wandered through the mingling crowd. She knew Jon wasn't a huge fan of crowds, but the fact that he was enduring this one for her was not lost on her. With a gentle tug, she pulled him to a stall serving steaming hot toddies, digging in her pocket to pay for the potent warmer.

It wasn't so bad when people weren't paying him much mind. So far, no one had recognized him; or at least, no one had hounded him for a selfie or an autograph. Then again, it had been some years since he'd done anything here on Earth that warranted notice; maybe they'd just forgotten him. Whatever the case, he was enjoying the anonymity. "What shall we drink to?" he asked, once they had their drinks.

"To us," she said firmly, raising her paper cup with a grin. "And to celebrating our first decade together in the not too distant future."

"To us," he echoed, raising his cup to mirror hers before taking a small sip. "Mm, not bad," he said, as the drink warmed his insides on the way down. "Time flies when you're having fun," he said, blue eyes sparkling with happiness.

She laughed, pausing to savor her own sip of the warming drink. "Oh, we have definitely been having fun," she agreed in an impish tone. "Here's to many more years of it!"

"A lifetime will not be enough to spend with you, my love," he told her, turning just a bit sappy, but he had always been a little sappy where she was concerned.

"Maybe we can come back and do it again when we're done this time around," she replied with a warm smile, tucking herself close under his arm. Her eyes followed the movement on the street - the families and couples eating and drinking and dancing to traditional music beneath the towering darkness of the castle, emblazoned with a countdown to midnight.

"Do you really believe that or are you just teasing me?" he asked, uncertainly. It was something they had never really discussed, too busy living life to worry about what happened after death.

"Well, I'm nominally Catholic," she mused. "So I believe there is some kind of afterlife. I've never really thought about it, though." She tilted her head, eyeing him curiously. "What about you?"

He took another sip of his drink, offering a one-shoulder shrug before replying, "I don't think this is all there is, but I'm not really sure what happens after you die," he said, with a thoughtful frown. He'd had his own close brush with death once, but he didn't remember much about it, other than having awoken with no memory of anything that had come before. "I guess I've always just assumed there's some kind of afterlife, but I'm not sure what it is."

"If there was a guarantee of a good life after death ....would you really live this one?" Vicki mused. He should know better than to introduce philosophy to her when she was drinking; his wife could pick deep into many subjects, and sometimes she was even serious about it.

"Good point," he said, in agreement. "How'd this subject come up again?" he asked, with a smirk. He was the one who'd brought it up, sort of, but not intentionally. "Anyway, I'm not worried. I plan on us getting very old together," he told her, winking as he swung an arm around her shoulders and planted another kiss against her lips.

"Stud muffin, we survived vampires and a ghoul in our first year together," she reminded him with a cheeky grin. "I think we can safely say we're in this for the long haul now."

"We could probably always buy a youth potion," he remarked with a grin. He wasn't really aware if such a thing existed, but anything was possible in Rhy'Din.

"But that means we wouldn't get to deeply embarrass our grandkids by being doddery old love machines," Vicki pointed out, snickering just at the thought of that.

Jon chuckled. "They probably already think that," he said, remembering how just the other day Emily tried to get between them while they were smooching.

She snorted with laughter. "Since when did you acquire grandkids?" she asked, prodding at his stomach through his thick coat.

He snickered at his own mistake. "I just meant we already embarrass our own kids," he told her. "Isn't that what we're supposed to do?" he asked, still smirking.

"Oh, absolutely," she agreed. "And when they get older, they'll do the same to their children, because we are going to set such an amazing example."

"Overall, I think we're awesome parents, don't you?" he asked, though he wasn't really expecting an answer. He drained the rest of his toddy, before nodding his head in the direction of the ferris wheel. "What do you think?"

Feeling his gaze on her, she tipped her head to look at him, her own smile flattered by his warm attention. "You know, I don't think I've ever actually said it, but ....thank you for taking a chance on me," she said quietly. "My timing was not great, but you didn't push me away. And now look at us."

"I think I'm the one who should be thanking you," he told her softly. "I'm not sure I ever told you this either, but I truly believe I'm only here because of you. You saved me, Vicki. If it wasn't for you ..." He shrugged lightly, leaving the rest unsaid and seemingly undisturbed by the fact that the wheel was still moving up and around.

"You would have found someone to give you the hand up you needed," she said, absolutely certain of that fact in her own heart and mind. "I still consider myself very lucky that my hand was the one you chose to hold onto."

"I don't know about that," Jon replied, but he didn't really want to think about that now. Everything had been different then. He had been different then. Meeting Vicki, falling in love with Vicki had changed everything. She had changed his whole life. "All I'm saying is you're the best thing that ever happened to me."

"You're the best part of my life," she answered, curling her fingers into his as, below them, the countdown to the New Year began. "Well, look at that. We might actually get that highest kiss of the New Year in."

Jon couldn't help but smirk as the countdown began. "Is that something you're looking to cross off your bucket list?" he asked, obviously amused. There had been a time when kissing Jonathan Granger had probably been on her bucket list, and here she was, married to him. Still, he knew he was the lucky one to find himself with her.

"May I kiss you, Mrs. Granger?" he asked, leaning closer, even as the wheel surged upwards.

She laughed, doing her best to ignore the gentle rocking of the cradle in which they sat as it rose higher still. "I wouldn't say no, Mr. Granger," she told him, eyes bright with mischief. "In fact, if you don't, I'll have to kiss you instead."

"I guess we'll just have to kiss each other then," he said, the corners of his eyes crinkling in amusement. "Shall we?" he asked, before leaning in to claim that kiss, just as the crowd counted down the last seconds until the New Year. So, he was kissing her a few seconds early; he didn't much care.

Was there something special about already kissing as the old year passed into the new" Vicki didn't know, and to be honest, she didn't care. Nothing could prevent her from thoroughly enjoying a good kiss from her adorable husband, even at the top of a ferris wheel. She grinned against his lips, snuggling closer, listening as the last seconds became a raucous shout in the street below, followed by the drunken enthusiasm of Auld Lang Syne.

Jon lingered in that kiss as long as he could, before shouts of "Happy New Year!" went up from somewhere below them, and he broke the kiss to take up the song along with the crowed, despite the fact that he'd never been a very good singer. With his arm around Vicki, and her snuggled against him, there was no place he'd rather be at that moment than right there, ringing in the New Year with the woman he'd fallen so hopelessly in love with.

Tomorrow, they'd be home with their children and the rest of their family, but for tonight, it felt right that they were together, just the two of them, welcoming in the new year in each other's arms. Happy New Year, indeed.