Author's Note: Because it's the holidays and because I felt like it. Totally un-beta-ed... :D
CFFC#9: A lovely thing about Christmas is that
it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.
~Garrison Keillor
How does Wednesday Addams like her Wednesdays? It was the only question plaguing Elizabeth's mind early on that Christmas morning. It may have been the fact that she'd watched too much TV, or imbibed too much Cuervo, but still even while nursing a raging hangover, it was the only thought still lodged in her brain. As she got up from the couch in her drafty studio and gained enough momentum to start her heater with a swift kick to its mechanical pants, other thoughts soon started making their way into her head.
Elizabeth sighed in relief as she made her way over to her one great extravagance in life, hot chocolate. She had it ready in mere minutes and only after the first sip did she feel like a human being again. She was never watching The Exorcist late night on Christmas Eve ever again.
And then it happened.
It felt like the whole world was shaking.
At first she thought she might have been shivering from the cold winter air, but that really didn't seem to be the case as her easels started toppling all around her. She took another sip of the hot liquid. It helped her gain strength and in the next instant, she was running out the door in her jammies wearing only her frog booties. Other people were headed down the hallways too. Most were not in an orderly fashion. She was tripped three times, one after the other by some rather rude escapees as she made her way down the fire exit.
When Elizabeth was outside she turned to a neighbour she recognised in the crowd. He turned to her at the same time too.
"What's going on?" They asked each other at once. Both shook their heads in reply indicating that they didn't know anything.
And then the world shook harder.
The ground beneath their feet moved.
As she looked over at the docks, Elizabeth saw the water splash in thunderous waves on to land. She raised her eyes farther out and saw boats and ships rocking precariously. But as soon as she looked toward Spoon Island, every single thought, even the one about Wednesday, flew out of her head. Her mouth gaped wide open.
There was a light emanating from the top of the castle. In the dreary light of the early winter morning, it was brighter than the sun as it reached out towards the sky. It was blue and white and it hurt her eyes. She nudged her neighbour; he turned to look at it too, as did the rest of the crowd.
At that moment she dropped her mug of hot chocolate she hadn't noticed she'd still been holding. That explained why she'd had a hard time staying upright on the way down the fire exit, she thought idly. As she looked down, instead of breaking into a million smithereens, her mug floated an inch above the ground acting like gravity was a nuisance it didn't need to bother with. The hot chocolate though, rose up into the sky and Elizabeth felt a little sad, that had been a particularly good batch she'd made. It headed toward that huge blue-white spotlight. If she'd been a navigator or had installed a GPS tracking device into the hot chocolate, she might have been able to calculate its trajectory more accurately. But luckily for her, she had eyes, and her sight wasn't that bad, atleast that's what the optometrist had said the last time she'd visited her. She'd really loved her fudge brownies.
The hot chocolate was absorbed by the blue-white spotlight, and because she couldn't call it blue-white spotlight in her head all the time (on the account of her laziness with regard to conversations in her head) she changed the name to heavenly light. Atleast, on this day of all days it was poetic if nothing else.
The light turned red, like the red glass she'd once gotten from an ex-friend/boyfriend who she'd rather not think about in this moment. It would not do to give that rat bastard a thought while the world was ending. Someone might ask her one day what her last thought was as she watched the world go to bits and she'd be thoroughly embarrassed if it turned out it had been about him. When the heavenly light (HL) changed colour, it also changed direction. It slowly travelled its way down the skyline and towards them.
Elizabeth thought about freaking out for a whole minute as it slowly made its way towards her, but decided against it. It was pretty early in the morning and she really didn't know anyone in this crowd well enough to let them see that. So while other residents of her run-down building edged away from the sight screaming loudly as they departed, Elizabeth stood rooted to the spot tracking HL's progress. It was slow going. HL seemed to be a little confused at times, but slowly and surely it made its way toward her. She wondered whether it was the delicious hot-chocolate that had affected HL. But it was a thought she didn't have much time to dwell on as the HL finally landed on her. She shut her eyes and scrunched down against the inevitable; glad that her last thought on Earth was if she'd had that last piece of fudge brownie last night or not.
And then the world stopped shaking.
Everything was still.
Behind her, farther away, those who had stuck around seemed to be holding their collective breaths. She opened her eyes one at a time as she straightened up. The light splashed over her, and within its folds she could decipher a form.
Really? What the hell was Helena up to these days? Why was she so obsessed with killing her? Elizabeth made a mean batch of brownies, sure, but these days she wasn't even tight with Lucky or Nikolas. So why did the old bat insist on terminating her existence? And then, even as she tried to figure out what kind of creature was slowly makes its way toward her from inside the light, she wished she was John Connor in T2 and standing behind the Terminator as she faced off another one of Helena's demonic attempts at world domination. She wondered if this one included freezing the world again, because in Port Charles that stage was pretty much currently covered.
The creature turned out to be humanoid in form. She tried to contain her glee at using words like that. Elizabeth was trying to grow up, it was time she stopped reacting to everything with glee. It came towards her and as her eyes slowly adjusted, they noticed that it was a guy, a really brutally hot guy. And he was staring right at her like she had the answer to life, the universe and everything.
"42."
His voice was like liquid silver as it washed over her.
She shivered deliciously in response.
He took another step toward her. At this point she was pretty sure of a few things. First, she was not alone, standing behind her but keeping their distance were a lot of curious onlookers. Second, some of those onlookers carried guns issued to them by the Unites States government. Third, some of the crowd carried weapons issued to them by themselves. Fourth, some of the crowd of curious people knew her. She could decipher her name being whispered once or twice. Aside from that she could hear nothing else.
"Can you hear what I'm thinking?" She asked quietly.
"Yes."
Elizabeth sighed with relief, atleast she wasn't alone in her head now. The alien hot guy smiled at her. She forgot how to breathe.
"I have your answer."
Elizabeth stared at him blankly.
"Please breathe."
Elizabeth stared some more.
He reached out towards her. She heard the safety being released on several guns at once. His hand touched her face. It was warm. She took in a deep breath.
"Answer to what?" Elizabeth choked out at the alien hot guy (AHG).
"Your question."
"Okay."
"The answer is Wednesday beheads her dolls on Wednesday."
"Oh."
They stood staring at each other in silence for a full minute. She wondered if AHG had a name.
"My name is not important."
"Can I call you NI for short?"
"Yes."
"Why are you here?"
"Your hot-chocolate is very good."
"Thanks."
"Elizabeth-"
"You know my name!"
"Yes. Elizabeth, you are special."
"Well, thanks."
"No, you are special."
"Okay."
"Seriously, Elizabeth, you are special."
"Alright."
"Good, so you see why I'm here, right?"
"No."
"No? Okay, well, I'm here to tell you everything will be alright."
"How?"
"I just know what I'm supposed to tell you."
"Who told you to tell me that?"
"His name was Steve."
"Okay."
"Good. So, I'm going to go now." He started to turn back to the HL.
"Are you from another planet?" Elizabeth blurted out. Anything to prolong NI's visit.
"No, I'm from the future."
"Is there a future-movie scarier than The Exorcist?"
"I don't watch scary movies."
"I think I like you." NI smiled at that and she had to remember to breathe. "So how far into the future are you from, NI?"
"Not far, I'm from the year 2012."
"That's just eleven years away!"
"Yeah."
"So do I know you then?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"I'm your bodyguard."
"I have a bodyguard?"
"Yes. You're married to a very dangerous man who has a lot of enemies and I'm your personal bodyguard."
"So this man, am I faithful to him?"
"Why would you ask me that?" He looked shocked and Elizabeth felt like he got hotter by the second.
"Because you're incredibly hot!"
"Well-"
"What's my future-last name?" Elizabeth interrupted.
"It starts with M." His smile was mysterious now and Elizabeth wanted to become Nancy Drew.
"Oh!" Elizabeth could have sworn she heard some in the crowd gasp in dismay behind her.
"As I was going to say, I'd always had the hots for you."
"Really?" Elizabeth was positively giddy.
"Yeah."
"NI, I'm sure future-me would want you too."
"Well, that's really nice of you to say. I think I'm going to leave now." He smiled wistfully and Elizabeth stared at him lust-fully.
"Oh." She felt like she'd rather take the end of the world than let NI go.
"Elizabeth, could I ask you a favour?"
"Sure!" Anything.
"Can I kiss you?"
When she nodded breathlessly he put his arms around her and crushed her to his chest. His hand made its way up the back of her neck as he tilted her face towards his.
In the next instant Elizabeth fell off her couch.
That had been one incredibly hot dream kiss.
Elizabeth straightened up and made her way toward the window. It was snowing outside. She plugged in the electric kettle and made herself some hot chocolate. She bundled up into her jacket and grabbing the mug, she made her way out the door and down to the docks. As she stood sipping on her drink, she watched Spoon Island. No HL, No NI. Her happy state was slowly evaporating away when she heard the tell-tale sound of motorcycle boots on the wooden staircase.
A voice, low and rough, whispered out on the wind, "Merry Christmas, Elizabeth."
Elizabeth sipped her hot chocolate and wondered if today was a good day to bake another batch of fudge brownies.
