Shopping For Christmas

Logan was stood window shopping in the commerce district of Serenity City, having taken a rare day off to shop for Christmas. It would be Logan & Rahel’s first Christmas, or at least their first Christmas together. The previous year they’d been separated by hundreds of light-years, but this year they would both be on Serenity and Logan was prepared to pull out all the stops.

Whilst Logan was not religious, his family had always celebrated Christmas in one form or another, seeing it as an opportunity to unite distant sections of the family and bring them all together. Now there was only Logan and Lana left of the McQueen family.

Logan had hoped that Lana and Rahel’s brother Ashraf would have been able to visit them in their new home, but they were assigned to the other side of the Alpha quadrant and wouldn’t be back for three months.

Even for December, it was still a warm day in the city and Logan was dressed in casual, loose clothing rather than his Starfleet uniform.

“Hello stranger.” A female voice remarked. “We’ve not seen you around here lately.”

Logan turned to see Counsellor Karissa Bentara standing behind him. She was dressed in her uniform, unlike Logan. Logan hadn’t made a habit of seeing Karissa, but somehow whenever he’d come to Serenity City, he’d bump into Karissa somewhere along the way.

“Hello Karissa.” Logan remarked. “It’s nice to see you.”

Karissa looked past Logan at the window display.

“Buying Rahel something nice I hope !” Karissa remarked, having seen the window display. Although Karissa had never met Rahel, it was the one topic Logan would talk about constantly, so much so that it felt sometimes to her that she knew Rahel personally.

“Actually I was looking for something special to give her for Christmas….” Logan replied, pausing. “…….In fact I could do with a female opinion, if you’ve got a few minutes.”

“Actually I was meeting Shara for lunch, but I’m sure she’ll wait for me.” Karissa suggested. “So let’s go inside and have a better look around.”

Logan and Karissa entered the store and ten minutes later, re-emerged with the perfect gift for a girl on Christmas day.

“Would you like to join me and Shara for lunch ?” Karissa enquired. “Then you can tell us both just how you’re going to give Rahel her present.”

“Sure.” Logan replied.

The two officers arrived outside a small café, where Shara was already sitting, a sandwich and a large tumbler of water with two glasses in front of her. Karissa and Logan sat down and ordered, requesting a third glass. The conversation very soon got around to Rahel’s present, guided by Karissa and Logan showed it to Shara.

“It’s beautiful.” Shara remarked. “I’m sure she’ll love it. I just wish I could see her face when you give it to her.”

Karissa suddenly had an idea.

“I was going to keep this to just family, William, the twins, Joshan and my parents…” Karissa stated. “I guess three more wouldn’t make much difference and Shara’s already sort of family. How would you both like to come for Christmas dinner ?. Logan, you’ll bring Rahel along, I’d like to finally get to meet her in the flesh.”

Logan was both surprised and shocked at the invitation. He’d not planned anything for Christmas beyond the present and contacting Lana and Ashraf, so there was no harm in accepting the offer, but he was unsure whether Rahel had plans, even at this early stage.

“I’d have to check with Rahel, just in case she’s made any alternate arrangements.” Logan remarked. “But I’m sure we’d both be very glad of the invitation.”

Logan arrived back at the Starfleet building adjacent to the space port of Lake Town just as the early evening arrived. He quickly secured the present he’d just bought in the vault, before heading towards the medical centre, where he found Rahel sat reading text from her console.

“Hi Rahel.” Logan announced as he entered the room. “Had a good day ?”

“Nothing really exciting.” Rahel replied. “So I thought I’d catch up on some reading. How did you enjoy your day off ?”

“It was uneventful too.” Logan stated. “But I did run into Counsellor Bentara and we had lunch. I was saying that we were finding life in Lake Town interesting, but the population was so transient, it was hard to make close friends.”

“It would be nice to have friends to visit now and again.” Rahel remarked.

“Well the counsellor has invited us for Christmas dinner.” Logan announced. “So long as you haven’t made any other plans.”

“When ?” Rahel asked, the words escaping her mouth before she realised her error.

“Very funny.” Logan replied. “I wasn’t sure if you’d made any plans for Christmas day, so I said I’d get back to her.”

“I’ve not started make plans just yet, especially since we found out that Lana and Ashraf wouldn’t be able to get out here.” Rahel said. “I did think about just having a quiet Christmas here, maybe eating by the side of the lake, but this could make for an interesting day. I’ve heard so much about Karissa from you and Doctor Hancock, I’m looking forward to finally meeting her.”

“As is she.” Logan replied. “So we’re going ?”

Rahel paused thinking it over one last time.

“Yes.” Rahel confirmed.

“This is going to be a good Christmas.” Logan remarked. “One we’ll never forget.”

“Know something I don’t ?” Rahel asked, picking up on something about Logan. She sensed that he was happy, very happy with himself, but there was something more. It was like he was the happiest man alive, but he wanted to hide it from Rahel.

“I’ll contact Karissa tomorrow and tell her that we’ll be coming for dinner.” Logan announced.

“Fine.” Rahel said. “Speaking of dinner, I think it’s time I got something to eat, coming ?.”

Rahel rose from behind her console and walked up to Logan, kissing firmly on the lips. Again she sensed something odd about Logan, but it was something she couldn’t place. As she attempted to break away, Logan held onto her, holding her in a tight embrace, whilst looking into her green eyes.

“I love you.” Logan remarked.

“I know.” Rahel replied, releasing her body from Logan’s embrace and walking out of the medical bay hand-in-hand with him, down the corridor to the mess hall.