The great doors of the church of Our Lady of Perpetual Misery opened onto the first hours of Christmas morning, spilling warm candlelight and the sound of many voices wishing one another a Merry Christmas out onto the snow covered streets. Vicki was still humming the sprightly carol that had ended Midnight Mass as she and Jon made their way out onto the street among the chattering groups of people, squeezing his arm fondly with a kiss to his cheek. "Wait right here," she told him with an impish grin. "I just have to go and get one thing ..."

Jon smiled and leaned into her kiss, wondering what she was up to, but only answering with a nod of his head. It was starting to snow, but bundled up as they were, he hardly felt the cold. Besides, they had each other to keep them warm. He nodded a greeting and smiled warmly at those who looked their way, but for the most part, no one bothered them, even if they did recognize him.

The redhead grinned, disappearing into the crowd and out of sight. Moments later, a young black and white Border Collie came padding between the people's legs, sniffing curiously around Jon's knees before deciding to sit on the actor's foot, looking up at him with liquid brown eyes. There was a ribbon tied about the dog's neck, and if Jon looked closely enough, a tag with his name on it in familiar handwriting.

Jon watched Vicki disappear into the crowd, still wondering what she was up to, stretching upwards and looking over heads to see if he could spot her, hands shoved in his coat pockets to keep them warm. He was about to follow when he felt something brush against his leg and he glanced down to find a black and white dog sitting on his foot. He arched a curious brow before crouching down in front of the dog. "Well, now....Who do you belong to?" he asked, reaching for the tag around its neck, thinking the dog must have gotten away from someone.

The dog leaned in close, sniffing at Jon's face before offering the man a long lick on his cheek. The tag in Jon's fingers, which was just simple card attached to the ribbon, read: "My name is Cosmo. I am for you, Jon. Happy Christmas!" in handwriting that gave itself away in the shape of the letters as being Vicki's. She was watching from under the eaves of the church's porch, hands deep in her pockets, hoping that her carefully planned surprise had worked.

Jon chuckled a little when his cheek got licked and he dug his fingers into the dog's fur as he read the writing on the tag. If Vicki didn't make him happy enough already, this was the icing on the cake. His face beamed a smile as he ruffled the dog's fur. "Well, hello, Cosmo. It looks like we're going to be friends." He took hold of the dog's leash and moved to his feet, looking around for the gift-giver.

The beaming smile on Jon's face was enough to tell Vicki that Cosmo had done his job. With a quick nod to the friend who had brought the dog out to the church from the care home where he had been staying since her father had sent him from Earth, she moved to join Jon with a smile of her own. "Happy Christmas, Jon-boy."

With the dog's leash in one hand, he slid his free arm around her waist and pulled her in for a kiss, the best way he knew to put what he was feeling into words. It wasn't gratitude exactly. It was happiness. His heart felt like it might burst with happiness, and it was all because of her. There was no better gift she could have given him.

She giggled softly into the kiss, not least because she could feel the collie fidgeting where he stood beside Jon, eager to get moving in the cold. Her gloved hand stoked Jon's cheek for a moment as she drew away. "So ....are you a stockings first or presents first kind of guy?" she asked him impishly.

He lingered in her kiss a moment, despite the collie's impatience, smiling a little at her question. "To be honest, I'm not sure. I guess we'll find out together." In an ironic kind of way, it was sort of Jon's first Christmas all over again, and making new memories with Vicki only made it all the more special to him.

Vicki had already insisted that Christmas was going to be spent at Jon's condo, not least because her own little house had a tendency to hang onto the cold like a lifeline. Over the past week, since their return from the Alps, they'd set up a little Christmas tree together, and Vicki had looted a couple of hedgerows for mistletoe, holly, and ivy, to fill the living room with festive greenery. Smiling, she looped her arm around Jon's back, leaning into him as they headed for Luks Condos. "Not sleepy yet, then?" she teased lightly, as Cosmo padded back and forth across the street in front of them, attempting to herd snowflakes to amuse himself.

"Not yet, no. I'm used to being a night owl." Though since the vampire incident, nights were sometimes difficult, they were slowly getting easier. Nights were far easier when he was with Vicki, than when he was alone. He slipped an arm around her shoulders, letting her lean into him as much as she wanted, and in no great hurry to get where they were going. It was a lovely night for a stroll, albeit a bit cold, but the cold didn't bother him. The cold reminded him he was alive, and though he didn't remember it, Christmas had always been his favorite time of year.

"I love Christmas Eve," Vicki murmured as though reading his mind, looking up at the sky as they walked along, heedless of the snowflakes as they decorated her hair and eyelashes. "Even the religious bit. I used to hate going to mass at midnight when I was a kid, but now it's like a link to home, you know" All the old carols that I know backwards and the stories, and knowing that when it's all over, Christmas is here." She laughed softly, looking up at him. "Boy, do I sound corny tonight or what?"

He smiled affectionately at her as they walked along, leaning over to brush a few snowflakes from her hair, while she shared her thoughts about a holiday he had mixed feelings about. "Were you raised Catholic?" he asked, curious to know more about her, to know everything there was to know about her. "You don't sound corny, Vicki. I envy you."

"Yeah," she chuckled lightly. "My dad's pretty devout, but he doesn't force it on you. He told me I was going to be Catholic until I was old enough to make my own decisions, so I ended up at a school run by nuns." She smiled at Jon fondly. "I don't really practise anymore, but I don't think I could be anything but Catholic now. It's too much a part of who I am." Her arm squeezed about him tightly for a moment as he spoke of his envy. "It'll come back to you, Jon. I'm sure it will."

He smiled down at her, knowing she was trying to reassure and comfort him, but there was a hint of sadness in that smile. "To be honest, I'm not sure I want it to. From what I've read, it didn't sound like I was very happy. I'm building new memories now. Happy memories with you."

Her smile softened to his smile. "And Cosmo, of course," she added to his assurance, laughing when the dog looked back at them with a curious bark on hearing his name. "He's a rescue, by the way. Two years old, from a shelter near where my dad lives." Her eyes sparkled as she passed on this information; it was a hint toward the news that her father had been as much involved in this particular present as she had been.

He looked thoughtful, finding some irony in that bit of information. "In a way, so am I." He glanced over at the dog. "What made you decide to get me a dog?" He knew he'd wanted one as a boy but had been denied, his father refusing him that. Of course, he didn't remember wanting a dog as a boy. Anything he knew of himself before the shooting either came from his journals or from other people.