The ground was dry and bare but the first few wet snowflakes had begun to swirl towards the ground. Colt leaned against the edge of his jeep watching them dance as a sudden breeze would cause them to float back up before drifting down once more. Molly yipped happily at them, bouncing around the front yard, while Colt drew his shoulders up towards his ears snugly buried in multiple layers and a battered old baseball hat.

He was waiting on Ten and he was pretty sure that if she didn't hurry they would be trudging back through an inch of snow.

If the crunch of leaf litter under her boots didn't give her away, the chipper croon of 'Snow!' might very well have. She cut a wide smile, the sort that only really felt comfortable with those she held closest, and rubbed her gloved hands.

"I am bundled. Maybe overly so. How're you, my bruised darling?"

His shoulder ached with the pressure change but his headache was a dim echo of what it had been. He wouldn't let the defeat over his injury status sneak up and take hold of his mood. Her chipper tone and the smile that settled on her face certainly helped. Her moods could be dangerously contagious.

He straightened from his lean, reaching out to snag a handsaw off the ground before extending his free gloved hand to take hers. "You, Molly, and the outdoors? I'm pretty much in heaven."

She raised her eyebrows at the tool and let one hand hover over his open palm. She managed to scale back her grin, eyes turning a mud-tinged blue. "Is this the part where you dump my body in the woods?" she asked with a faux sigh. She followed with a relenting nod as she finally dropped her hand into his. "Always knew it would end like this..."

An aggrieved exhale was huffed at her but there was amusement crinkling the corners of his eye but once the noise passed his voice dropped to a tender tone. "I decided you needed a Christmas tree and there's a nice grove of frasier firs within walking distance...."

Gloved fingers curled around the back of his hand at his huff. At the big reveal, some slack returned to her joints as she turned her face over and slightly up to him. "I...really? We won't be home to enjoy it on the actual day, though?"

"So? Plenty of nights between then and now to enjoy it." Snow speckled their coats melting immediately from the heat trapped within. He let their clasped hands fall comfortably between them. Molly trotted along in front.

There was a rare smile, small but flanked by deep dimples. "There are," she agreed, a hint of ideas being hatched tucked soundly in her voice. "Hey. Will Ford be okay for the holiday, you think? I hate to take you away from him..."

Past the small field where the little cabin stood with a twisted old oak for company. They were enveloped by the trees beyond. Only the rare snowflake managed to slip past the branches and evergreen canopy above. "Everybody else will be there. Rhett will. I need to do this. We need to do this.?

"I know that. I know that," she said, her voice softer and warmer on the second repetition. "And...honestly? I kind of..." She shrugged. "Need it, too. Boston will be there. Monday promised to come, too."

"You missin' the Casely craziness?" His voice was stripped clean of his usual layers of charm and humor. His gaze darted from the path under foot to her face and back again at regular intervals.

"I actually do. Not for...very long, but being around your family all the time makes me miss the times when mine was in good condition." She let out an almost self-conscious laugh and looked down. "You know?"

"Yeah, I do." It was almost a whisper of a response and came paired with a light squeeze of her hand.

The various tall, leafless oaks and maples broke into a grove of carefully placed evergreens cascading down a hill. They were evenly spaced in varying heights suggesting that they had been planted over a varying number of years. Colt nodded with his chin towards the trees. "Evidently the guy who owned the cabin before me had a family. A little one. He decided to plant these about eight years ago -- just when he and his wife got married -- thinkin' they'd be just about right when they started havin' kids. Well, little did he know that they'd grow out of the house so quickly. He came by the other day tellin' me the story and askin' if I'd be alright lettin' him have one. Couldn't say no to the couple of rugrats he brought with him."

The memories had made her look down, but it wasn't long before his remarks about the previous owner drew her attention back up to the trees they were to pick from. The couple's intentions provoked a curious smile under the thoughtful gunmetal eyes, a smile just slightly bent in the middle.

"I'll bet not." It came out soft, the gentle curve of her lips remaining. "He should have a standing invitation as long as we're here."

"I told him as much. Told him the current owners of that particular cabin have a soft spot for large rowdy families." His teasing held a sweet note as he leaned in to press a kiss against her temple, releasing her hand to nod towards the trees.

"Well, Miss Casely, this is the last of the holidays that we have not spent together. You have the duty of pickin' out our very first Christmas tree. Which one shall you choose?"

She lifted a hand to hold his cheek when he kissed her forehead, then let it linger there as she turned her gaze to the plethora of options before them. There were snippets of time where she wanted nothing more than to just be an extension of him, and now seemed one of them, because she leaned her weight into his body.

She crinkled her nose up. "It can't be big. We don't have the space, nor have we built an ornament collection, yet."

"Small but not Charlie Brown small, alright?" His voice stayed in that soft tease. The softer she was, the more he melted. Tension poured out of his form. He didn't hold his shoulders quite so squarely and the lines of his face allowed gentler smiles. Molly rooted from tree-to-tree with nose to the ground as if it were possible to sniff out the best tree from the bunch.

"Who is Charlie Brown?" She asked, yellowy eyes only finding pieces of cheek when she shifted her look to him. It was one of the slight disadvantages to being so close to him.

He shook his head at the question. There were acceptable differences in their earths but this was an unacceptable one. How did one grow up without a Charlie Brown Christmas? Ten wouldn't have another Christmas without one, he silently vowed.

It was that thought that caused his free hand to reach up to the small of her back before sliding around to her far hip, lingering there above her layers. "You know this is the first of many, right?"

She was a little too tall to really nestle her head in the crook over his collar, but she found peace with wriggling into the semi-circle of his arm. "Christmas trees? Yeah. I plan to keep decorating, I guess. Or did you mean tree-cutting sessions in general?"

Because what would the moment be without her being a bit of a brat?

He reached out to set the handsaw down against a tree, freeing his hands to twist to face her and allow both hands on her hips. "Ten... listen to me. I want you to really listen for once... you're going to live. You're not going to die. Not for a long time. And if you want to have babies, we will find a way to make that happen. And if you want to race planes or get back into acting or whatever you want to do... we will find a way to make that happen. 'Cause we're that strong together. I believe that and I'm gonna keep forcin' it down your throat until you do too."

The stern affection that he delivered made her whole body still and turned her irises a burnt orange. Her lips parted and her eyes widened on his.

A quiet pause followed through the quiet of the deep woods. She chewed her lower lip again and stared down at his right forearm as snowflakes danced between them. There weren't words she wouldn't turn into a joke. There wasn't anything that felt right to say other than: "I'm really glad I get to spend Christmas with you." Her voice was throatier there, like she was choking something down around the words. "I'm really glad I get to spend any time with you, at all. I...didn't expect to find you, ever."

"I know." Those words came quickly as if attempting to stem off an apology. He wouldn't hear it. Every moment, even the painful ones, were a blessing. His eyes lingered on her, his voice remained pitched in a solemn promise. "You've fought to get here and I know sometimes you get tired of fighting. But that's what I'm tryin' to say. You're not fighting alone anymore. I feel like you're gettin' that now. I see it. It's what I've been waitin' for. And I see it now. I'm proud of you."

It won't work forever. The idea lingered somewhere in the back of her mind and the back of her mouth. Luckily, it was too heavy a reminder, and it sank right back down into the pit of her stomach. So she took the hand he'd place on her right hip, cradled it in both palms, and lifted it to her face to press her cheekbone against.

"We've beaten a lot. I never really questioned your ability to pick yourself back up, but it's still rewarding to see you do it."

Her thoughts were darker than his. There was only one that he could entertain as her hands lifted his

There is no ring on that finger. Suddenly, it felt wrong that he didn't feel the hard metal underside of a ring on her left hand underneath her glove. He'd had that ring for months and Dylan had teased that it would burn a hole in his pocket... but it hadn't. Not until that moment.

The snow swirled and danced in their own private tree lot. "C'mon. Let's find ourselves as perfect a tree as we've got."

((Taken from live play with thanks to the player behind Tenacity.))