*peeks from behind a corner* Well, hi! Long time no see? Sorry its been *checks watch* a few years since an update to this little story, I lost motivation to write POTO, I was feeling burnt out and found a new muse in Star Wars with Obitine, but I never stopped thinking about this fic! So here it is! An update! Not exactly the update I had originally planned, I wrote and scrapped and rewrote and redrafted and finally came up with this chapter and decided that there was too much talking that needs to happen that I decided that it deserved its own chapter...sooo I spilt it in half. A Christmas present, if you will, a few days before Christmas (mostly for myself so the Ghost of Abandoned Christmas Fic Guilt will stop haunting me haha) Not sure who all still reads this story, but it felt nice to write Christine again. 3

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"This is a US national weather service announcement, expect severe snowy conditions throughout the day, up to eight inches of snow accumulation forecasted. Icy conditions are expected. Stay off the road when possible…"

Great.

The windshield wipers on the rental car trudged back and forth, batting the hurtling snow away best they could. Her throat tightened as she straightened up in the driver's seat, eyes squinting through the blinding white road ahead of her, the dark pavement long since covered up by the falling snow. It had been about three hours since she had left the hotel—

Left Erik…

She shook her head and focused back on the road that she had been staring at for the past three hours.

Three hours. Two hours of uneventful driving and one hour in the pouring snow as she crossed over into Pennsylvania, her destination painstakingly getting closer and closer. Three hours since she had left, three hours she'd had to dwell on her anger, three hours to figure out a plan to rightfully take back what was hers, three hours without Erik bothering her or arguing with her or driving too fast or talking about music or singing or…

Her eyes drifted over to her phone that lay on the passenger seat, the screen softly glowing from her map and the occasional notification. She scanned the message well enough to understand it was another severe weather warning before glaring back at the road. Snow, snow, snow…she'd had enough of the stuff. Piles upon piles were dumped on the sides of the road with no end in sight. Come to think of it, she truly hadn't seen that many cars pass her recently…but it was a travel holiday and it was still fairly early in the morning, surely there were other cars and she just hadn't seen them yet, right? Right?

Maybe she should've kept trying to book that airplane ticket…

But every website she had checked at the hotel showed canceled upon canceled flights and if they weren't canceled they were sold out and the few that were available were far outside of her price range. So, by not exactly a choice of her own, she had made the incredibly stupid decision to drive…by herself…in the middle of a snow storm.

Well, she supposed the 'by herself' part wasn't entirely her fault.

Plus she didn't control the weather, how was she to know she was driving straight into a freak snowstorm (ok sure maybe she should've checked her weather app radar before she began driving but she had been very distracted with other very overwhelming emotions when she began driving…and it had only started really snowing hard an hour ago).

She didn't even like driving.

Her hands gripped the steering wheel and she leaned forward, straining to see the yellow lines of the road through the ever-increasing snow. She had passed a snow plow a few miles back but it was pushing snow the opposite direction she was going.

That figures…

It was just her luck to get stuck driving through a snowstorm. She'd gone most of her life without ever having to deal with the stuff and now here she was having to drive through probably the worst snowstorm this area had seen in the better part of a decade. She sighed and stopped at the red light ahead of her, waiting to turn left at the direction of her GPS's chirpy little voice. She propped her elbow up on the windowsill of the driver's window and leaned her forehead into her hand. The few hours of sleep she had managed to get simply were not enough and the steady beat of her blinker sounded like the ticking of a bedroom clock. Should she pull over? There were probably rest areas along the route, or at the very least a gas station? But then again, if she stopped and the snow continued to fall then there was the very good chance of her getting literally stuck and missing her opportunity to visit Mama Valerius entirely and–

Honk!

She jumped and turned to look over her shoulder. Another car had pulled up behind her while she had been stopped at the red light. Rude.

"Asshole," she muttered under her breath as she turned back around only to finally notice the green glow of the light in front of her.

Oops, she was the asshole this time.

She waved her hand up in apology and turned left, shutting her blinker off as she did. God, she couldn't even focus on the stoplight. What was wrong with her today? Well, she knew…she knew good and well what was wrong with her and what bothered her and what kept gnawing at her insides and consuming her thoughts–

She shut the radio off, the static in the background too much when mixed with her own overwhelming mind.

She was on her own, she was going to drive to New York, she was going to lie down in a bed and sleep…and then she would dwell on Erik again. Not now though. He was too distracting. Everytime she even began to let her mind slip to him and the violin…

She rolled her shoulders back and unclenched her jaw.

She was angry even thinking about 'thinking about it'.

What a rotten trip.

The road stretched on before her, miles and miles of blinding white snow pelting her windshield. Miles and miles of nothing but silence. Miles and miles of nothing but growing anger, growing confusion, growing tiredness.

Maybe she would pullover, it would only be for a few minutes and she could use that time to reset and refocus and maybe take a tiny nap…yeah she was gonna pullover. She couldn't keep driving, not like this.

She pulled off into the shoulder of the road, put on her hazards and put the car into park.

It'll just be a few minutes, I'll set an alarm for 15 minutes and just shut my eyes…

She reached over and set her phone timer, turned her engine off but left the heat vent on and adjusted it so it would blow directly on her and shut her eyes. She needed this, she needed a moment to destress and to empty her thoughts and just enjoy the heat and appreciate a moment or two of darkness…

Just darkness…

She noticed her fingers first.

She stretched them and then clenched them into a fist, annoyed at her apparently poor circulation today. Gosh they were stiff…and cold…she squeezed her eyes and arched her back as she stretched, groggily opening her eyes. She blew out a puff of air as she reached up to adjust the heat vent–

Strange.

There was no heat coming out of it.

There was definitely heat when she dozed off.

Frantically she patted around for her phone to check the time– an hour and a half? An hour and a half? She'd pulled off and taken over an hour long nap? Oh this was bad, this was bad…the snow very obviously had continued to come down and she had just given it an entire hour to build up.

She huffed and turned the key.

It sputtered…and nothing.

Her eyes widened.

Nothing?

She cranked the engine again.

Same result.

Again and again and again.

Shit.

With a defeated sigh she flopped her head down on the steering wheel, rewarding her with a long continuous beeeeeeeeeeeeep for all her troubles.

She raised up and sank back into the driver's seat.

She had screwed up this whole trip, but this? Oh this was just the cherry on top of her very crappy sundae. Who up there had it out for her today? What were the odds that her rental car would literally break down on the side of the road. What had happened? She knew she hadn't used up all the gas, and she didn't overheat…this stupid car!

She was stuck.

Alone.

In the snow.

She took a deep breath. Surely there was a bright side? It was Christmas time- there's always a bright side…

She was stuck alone in the snow, but her phone was charged this time?

Yeah. Yeah, there was the bright side.

She picked it up and stared at it, her map directing her to get back on the route (oh if only it knew). She could call someone. But who? The cops? 911? AAA? Uber?

Oh gosh, but then what was she supposed to say? How was she supposed to explain this incredibly strange situation she'd found herself in? 'Hello Officer, I'm currently broke down in the snow on the side of the highway, no I don't know what mile marker it is…no I don't know why the car broke down...oh and also I'm in a rental car that I didn't rent, so my name and license doesn't match what's on the rental agreement…Merry Christmas Eve'...uhhh no way.

Her phone landed back in the passenger seat with a soft thump.

She blew out a puff of air and grasped her steering wheel (as if she could go anywhere), and looked out at the unmoving road ahead. Was she truly done? Had she really just traveled all this way only to get stuck in the middle of nowhere by herself? She could admit defeat, should admit defeat, but she wasn't a quitter. This was Christmas time for god's sake! Wasn't this the time of year when miraculous things happened? She couldn't think of the last time a miracle had happened to her…maybe it was finally her turn. She pressed the brake and turned the key–

Again, nothing.

"Damn it!" she cursed under her breath as she yanked the key out of the ignition and hit the wheel. She needed to get out of the car, needed to get out of the confined space she'd spent all morning in, needed to straighten her stiff legs and let her anger mellow out. None of which she could do in this stupid, broken car.

The car door shut behind her as she stepped out into the snow, glad she had taken Meg's advice to wear winter boots. If only she'd taken Meg's advice to just come to her family's Christmas in sunny, very not snowy, Los Angeles. Christine stretched as she gazed around her. No cars, no plows…just road and snow. At least the road was somewhat visible, a plow obviously had been through at some point, though the snow was quickly dusting over the asphalt. She walked to the other side of the car.

The stupid, unreliable rental car.

She kicked the back left tire.

She sighed.

Somehow, someway, that had felt…good?

She kicked it again and laughed.

What else was there for her to do?

Headlights approached from behind her and she moved out of the oncoming SUV's way as it passed her. Gosh, she could only imagine what the driver probably thought of the crazy woman kicking her tire on the side of the snowy road on Christmas Eve. A nutcase was probably the answer…that's what she would think anyway. What kind of normal person spends their Christmas Eve on the side of the road standing out in a snowstorm cursing out their rental car?

She leaned her back against the backdoor of the car and stood defeated, watching the snow gently fall.

Snow: 1, Christine: 0.

At least it was pretty.

That was another bright side she supposed…the snow was at least beautiful…and she wasn't sure that she'd ever experienced a real white Christmas like in the old 50s movie with Bing Crosby…except he was in a hotel in Vermont and she was on the highway somewhere in Pennsylvania…but it was close enough, right?

Headlights were coming from the opposite side of the road now, the hum of a car engine becoming closer and closer.

Idiots won't turn their brights off, she thought as she squinted her eyes in the bright lights.

Except the car didn't pass her…it slowed down…

She raised up off of the car door. Wait…that was the same car that had just passed a few minutes ago. Maybe they'd taken pity on her, maybe they thought she had a flat tire or something.

The car pulled across the yellow line (because sure, what were traffic laws in a snowstorm anyway?) and slowed to a stop. The driver side window rolled down and a well covered face stuck its head out the window.

"Need help?"

Her eyes were as wide and round as the tires she had just been abusing.

Talk about luck.

(Good or bad…she wasn't sure yet…)

"Erik?" she sputtered, half in shock and half in disbelief.

She was met with a close lipped smile as if to say 'who else would it be'.

Here she had been nearly fuming about this man for the past three hours and here he just shows up out of literally nowhere asking her if she needed help? Her mouth was trying to move but words were simply not forming, or at least not fast enough. Where had he come from (obviously she knew where he had come from, she knew how major highways worked and they were both headed in relatively the same directions) but how had he obtained a rental car so fast? How was he this close behind her?

Why was he helping her?

"I figured you'd be nowhere around here, how are you…I mean…how did you know it was me?" she stuttered, from disbelief or from the cold or maybe both.

With one forced laugh and an eye roll he shifted the car into park.

"I'd recognize that awful pink coat anywhere."

She was delirious, right? There was absolutely no way in hell that this was the same man who had basically kicked her out of their hotel room earlier that same day, and there was absolutely no chance that he had just happened to take the same route as her. This was too much to be a coincidence.

Maybe it was her miracle?

"Is everything all right or did you just feel like taking your stress out on your tires?" he started, leaning his elbow out the window.

If he was her miracle then she needed to have a serious chat with the big man.

"I broke down, thank you, and yes I was taking my stress out on the tires."

He hummed in approval before unlocking the car and stepping out.

"Well, should I grab your things or are you?"

She blinked.

Huh?

"Huh?" she echoed her thoughts aloud, turning to watch him open her driver side door.

"Despite many rumors, I am in fact not a monster and I am not about to drive off and leave you in a snowstorm with no car," he said as he began collecting her things from the passenger seat. "I can give you a lift."

She walked over to help him, only to find that he carried all of her few belongings quite easily. "I never said you were a monster."

"Well," he shut the car door, "a thief then…keys?" he said nonchalantly as he held out his hand for the keys.

She pursed her lips and handed him the keys. He took them, locked the car, then pocketed them before carrying her things to the car he had pulled up in. Gosh she didn't know what to think! On one hand she was grateful that he had appeared but on the other, she wasn't ready to talk about what had happened a few hours ago, she was still fuming on the inside and he was the last person she wanted to see right now…but he was also her only hope at the moment.

"What do we do about this car?"

"We leave it. I'll let the appropriate people know and call a tow," he said, walking around to the passenger side of the car.

"Is it that easy?" she asked, crossing her arms.

He held the passenger door open for her and shrugged.

Annnnd there he goes, being all vague again.

She begrudgingly sat down and buckled up as he shut the door and crossed over to the driver side and got in.

Well.

What an…odd turn of events.

But the car was warm…and working…and she was with someone she knew…there was the bright side.

"So…" Erik began as he shut the door and shifted back into drive, "to Rochester?"