WHO: Avery Rollins & Jakob Hale WHEN: Thursday, late afternoon WHERE: Avery's apartment WHAT: A Christmas surprise! RATING: PG.
Training was exhausting. It had been very frustrating, working with Rahim. It wasn't bad, necessarily, and she was pretty confident that he and Jake were both right. She was affected by the radiation poisoning, her emotions were all out of whack because she had Empathy, and she was not actually crazy. That realization alone was worth today's training even if she wasn't sure anything else had been really accomplished. Maybe when she was less tired, less upset by the whole thing would she be able to see a difference in herself post-training. For now, she just wanted to go home and lie down, shut her mind off for a while.
Of course, when she did get home there was something distinctly different upon walking up. Even before she got inside, she could feel a sense of joy and happiness that she didn't usually feel. Maybe Bart was in a particularly good mood and she could feel him from here, given his apartment was very close to hers. She ignored it as she unlocked her door to walk inside, and did not immediately register the difference in her living room area until after she had shut the door. Before locking it, she did a double take and - yep, that was a Christmas tree.
Her jaw dropped open as she stared at the tree. It was more beautiful than any tree she had ever seen before, but maybe that's because it was a surprise, sitting right there in her living room. As she took the scene in, she realized there was more than just a tree. Her whole living room was decorated - lights, garlands, pillows. Everything smelled like pine and sugar. A brief glance to her kitchen showed cookies on the counter. She had no idea how any of it got there and maybe if she was a different person the idea that someone had gotten into her apartment while she was gone would have set off some alarm bells, but it didn't. She was a bit naive in that respect, and all she saw was the beautiful surprise sitting in front of her. "Oh my gosh!" She said aloud, as she walked forward to inspect her very first, very real, very her own Christmas tree.