December 24th 2023

It just so happened that Clair was home in Carlisle. Tomorrow would be Christmas and she was excited. This had been the first Christmas in almost three years that she had come home and there had not been any unpleasant surprises. She was vibing with it.

Clair had decided to wear a hoodie and sweat pants, nothing better than that for a day of relaxing.
Her sister had been busy in the kitchen that morning and the smell of warm gingerbread cookies was delicately climbing the stairs and floating through the house. The girl had already been out to see all the animals, and had given Comet a big hug. The rabbit was still holding a grudge at being left home, but took cuddles after a little coaxing.

Clair came down to the kitchen and snagged a fresh cookie, it may have been a little too fresh out of the oven, "Ouchie!" She squeaked and dropped the cookie back onto the tray. Belle laughed and Clair grinned. For a few minutes it still felt like her family was whole, like her parents were alive and her sisters were younger and still happy. She pushed the thoughts away, it was Christmas Eve and she certainly did not want to be thinking about sad things.

Belle handed Clair a cooled cookie "How about one that is cooler?" Clair took the cookie,
"Thanks"
"So, is that what your wearing today?" Belle asked, scanning Clair's outfit, The Ravenclaw looked over her outfit. "Yeah, why?"

Belle shrugged, "I was just going to go to town, figured you might like to come along."
It was Clair's turn to shrug, "I guess i can come along."
Belle brightened up quickly, "Perfect! Car leaves in..." she checked the time, "20 minutes, be there or be square."

Clair nodded and ran upstairs to brush her hair.
(15 minutes later)

Clair ran out to the car, she plopped into the front seat and turned the music up. There was something about sitting in the car with christmas songs blasting that was so cheerful. a minute later Belle hopped into the car and they were off.

The whole car ride Belle refused to tell Clair where they were going other than 'to town' so Clair filled the time with chatter about school, her friends, and the troublemakers she got to bust.
Soon enough they pulled into the airport parking lot. Clair stared at her sister, "Why are we here?"
Belle smiled, "We have to pick someone special up!"
Clair assumed this meant that her grandmother had flown down from London to spend Christmas with them, but after a hour or two Belle came back out of the airport with a man.

He jumped into the back seat, and Clair turned to look at him, he had a striking familiarity, yet she had never met him before. His face was soft and he had tanned skin, his hair was a dark brown with lighter flecks in it, and his eyes were a blue much like her own. Slowly Clair realized she was looking at someone who looked like the male version of herself.
He seemed perfectly fine with being stared at, as he also looked at Clair with the same look of wonder.
It was Belle who broke the silence, "Well, Clair this is Sebastian St-Pierre, Your father. Mr. St-Pierre, this is your daughter Clair."

Sebastian reached his hand out elegantly, his eyes never leaving Clair's "Nice to meet you." He said, his voice was strange to Clair's ears. It was deep, with a stronger version of the accent that Belle and her mother had had. Clair shook his hand, still in shock as to who was sitting in her car. "I-i'm Clair." She said dumbly.

Belle grinned, "Is this a good Christmas surprise?"
"I though we were going to video chat together." She said softly, starting to come to her senses.
"I brought the results with me, I figured this might be better." He replied.

As they drove it was silent, everyone was in deep thought.
"Its much warmer than i expected. We have so much more snow at home." Sebastian said suddenly.
Belle laughed "I do remember that, Newfoundland gets a lot of snow."
The two chatted as Belle drove, they talked about Misty, and about how Red Deer had changed since Belle and Clair had moved.

When they pulled down the drive to the farm Sebastian looked around in wonder. "Misty must have loved it here." he muttered softly.

Clair could tell her must have loved her mother a lot. "Its so pretty." there had been a fresh frost over night and the tree branches were coated in it, and the grass. Everything had been touched by Jack Frost.

"Why don't you show him to his room? and then once he has rested up you can shoe him around." Belle offered.

Clair nodded, "Yeah, Yeah i'll do that. C'mon." She said still shocked.
(to be continued in next post...)
(wc 830)