Christmas Lunch

[adifferentlife]

The best way to celebrate any holiday is to share it with people that one care's about, Sybil is sure of that. It's why she's organised this, a luncheon for any and all that she's friends with. It's not something she's done before, and it feels very adult to be hosting a party within her own home. It's not something she ever imagined doing in such a small space, or without a staff to support her, or even before she was married with her own home, but those aren't things that are considerations here.

Instead she's let everyone know when to come and to bring something to share with the others. She's ordered in the main part of the meal, a roasted turkey instead of a goose and a roast of lamb as well. There's champagne and wine, and she has the record player Kaine gave her in the corner playing christmas carols by Bing Crosby. There's a small tree of real pine with strings of beads strung through its boughs and little elecric lights twinkling. Henri has helped her to decorate and do the cooking that she's tried, even if most of the cookies she made needed to be thrown our they were so burnt.

Once people start to arrive she relaxes, allowing herself a glass of wine once she's sure everything is in order and things are going well. At some point there is nothing else she can do, other than talk to her guests; her friends. It's nothing like a Christmas at Downton, but her second one here in Darrow and it feels like the Christmas it's supposed to be.

Comments

[jaimemieux]

Rarely one at the center of a party, even a small one like this, Combeferre leaned against the edge of the sofa, sipping his wine. He was finding something truly delightful in seeing Sybil bustle about, acting as hostess. If she had reserved any anxieties from the day’s preparations, the signs were as hidden as the burnt pastries sitting at the bottom of the trash bin. Now she exuded the warmth and brightness he knew - and adored - so well, and damn it all, he was having trouble keeping his eyes off her.

You are utterly ridiculous, he told himself, and shook his head ruefully, hoping that no one else (mostly friends of Sybil’s he had not yet met, for goodness sake) noticed quite how obviously his attention was being directed.

[adifferentlife]

Yet her own gazes were as often in his direction as they were toward those that she spoke to. It was something she didn't work to resist, not today. Sybil is content for all of their friends to see the affection she feels, some sort of decision made.

"Are you having fun?" She asks it in all seriousnes, her fingers wrapping around his as she does. "Or is it torture?"

[jaimemieux]

Combeferre chuckled. "Nothing torturous about it at all." He leaned in to kiss her temple. "You look lovely. I hope you are taking time to enjoy yourself?"

[adifferentlife]

"I am, yes," she admits, knowing that had she not emerged from the kitchen or stopped doing little things that didn't truly need to be done someone - likely Henri - would have stopped her. "There's no point to having all one's friends about if I don't spend any time with them, is there?"

[jaimemieux]

"My thoughts precisely." He grinned softly. "You have done a lovely job with everything, I hope you know." Combeferre knew she had been a bit nervous about the event, for all she had hurried through her preparations with head held high. "A success, indeed."

[adifferentlife]

"Thank you," she says sincerely, needing to hear the words as much as she hates needing the reassurance. "It's good to have everyone here. To have you here."

[jaimemieux]

"And I am honored to be here," he said, a hand drifting down to brush back her hair. "Now, tell me- I know you have mentioned many of your friends, but I fear I have yet to put names with faces. Who do we have here with us?"

[adifferentlife]

Sybil looks around to the crowd, wondering where she should start. She points to Mike and Neil, and their girls, knowing that Henri has at least met them before. "Mike and Neil you should have met at their party. Near the wall there, that's Booker, he's here with Elizabeth. Thomas should be coming, he's the one from my home, but he's not here yet He might bring his friend T.J. As should Lucy and her brother Max, and Katie and her son Jamie."

[jaimemieux]

Henri nodded, searching his mind for what details Sybil had previously mentioned about those present. "I am very glad that so many of your friends were able to come."

[toanend]

It would be impossible to miss him with the way he looks at Sybil (and the way she glances back, Katie notices). Of course, Sybil's mentioned a man, but in the room with her, she can see her friend is smitten. That makes it Katie's job to meet the man, and she's happy to do it.

With Jamie in her arms, she heads over, smiling. "Hello," she says. "I don't think we've met. I'm Katie."

[jaimemieux]

"Ah, yes-" Startled out of his reverie, and sensing that he had been caught staring, Combeferre offered a sheepish smile and a small, polite bow. "Henri. Very pleased to meet you. You are a friend of Sybil's, I presume?"

[toanend]

"I am," she says warmly. "Sybil's really something, isn't she? We met at work." The bow is unexpected, but charming, and she decides she likes him. Granted, Katie knows her judgment isn't always very good, but she likes to think that Sybil's is better. Jamie seems intrigued, at least, watching the man with big, solemn eyes.

[jaimemieux]

"Oh, yes? You work at the hospital?" Combeferre said, pleased to have found this connection. "I was studying medicine previously. Sybil has been kind enough to show me the medical establishment here." Perhaps someday, he would call the hospital his place of work as well, though that goal still seemed much further away than it ever had in Paris.

The infant's solemn expression brought a smile to Combeferre's lips. "And who do we have here?"

[toanend]

"Oh, this is my son Jamie," Katie says, smiling down at him. She's mostly thankful he's been so well-behaved today. He's not always this quiet and calm, but today he seems content to watch the world around him. "Say hi, Jamie. Yeah, I'm a nurse. I'm studying to become a doctor, though."

[jaimemieux]

“Alors, hello there,” Henri said with a bob of his head. “Always a pleasure to meet another friend of Sybil’s.” He shared a grin with Katie. “Oh, yes? You are studying here in Darrow?”

[toanend]

"Mm-hmm," Katie says, nodding. "I started back home, and I was almost done, but... well, it turns out you can make a lot of medical advances in thirty years." She grins, not minding too much. It's extra time and work, but it's interesting, too, and it means they can do so much more than in her own time. She would've had to learn even if she'd arrived a doctor anyway.

[jaimemieux]

Combeferre smiled with sympathy. “Ah, yes. Progress does move forever forward, yes? Inevitable - and not so very terrible, as far as inevitabilities go. I have found myself in a similar predicament, if fact. Previously, I was studying medicine as well, though,” he shrugged, his voice entirely free of self-pity, "I fear I have a bit more than thirty years to catch up on."

[radicalize]

It's a look that Lucy knows well, though she knows better than to say as much, or to let herself think for more than a fleeting second that it's been a long time since anyone looked at her that way, seeking her out in a crowd. Today, she can't be anything other than happy on Sybil's behalf, and not about to call Henri out on it. "Hello," she says, smiling. "It's nice to see you again."

[jaimemieux]

"Lucy, what a surprise." That first week in Darrow had been a blur of faces, and information, and strange sights, but he remembered the young woman who had so kindly helped with his books, and understood something of his bafflement at the world in which he had found himself.

He offered a small bow, as was still his habit. "And nice to see you, as well. I was not aware that you knew Sybil."

[radicalize]

"Yeah, we met when she first got here, actually," Lucy says with a nod, smiling slightly at the thought. That was a long time ago now, and thinking about it is more than a little strange, but she isn't one to mind that. If anything, it's nice, knowing she has friends who've stayed in Darrow all this time. "I guess people who come from times earlier than this just tend to stick together."

[jaimemieux]

"We are a motley collection, aren't we?" Combeferre said with a chuckle. "Well, on our hostess' behalf, thank you for coming. I hope Christmastide is treating you well?"

[radicalize]

"We really are," Lucy agrees with a laugh, nodding. "And it is, yeah. Sybil let me bring my brother, so I really don't think there's much more I could need." These days, she knows how fortunate it makes her just to have people here at all. Especially around Christmas, it seems important to appreciate that.

[jaimemieux]

“Oh, yes? That must be very comforting, having your brother here this time of year.” Across the room, Henri spotted a young man with blond hair and passingly similar features that he guessed to be the brother in question. “And I cannot imagine Sybil refusing such a request. She is delighted to have so many people here."

[radicalize]

"It really is," Lucy says, nodding. Especially around the holidays, she's more grateful for that than ever, something she wouldn't have it in her to try to downplay. "I hadn't seen him in a long time before we both got here, so yeah." She still sometimes feels as if this is bound to be short-lived because of that, but now is hardly the time to dwell on that. "It really is nice, isn't it? Everyone getting together like this."

[jaimemieux]

"It is. Sybil knows just the right way of doing that, doesn't she?" A terribly fond smile flickered on his lips, and he chuckled and shook his head. Someday, perhaps, Henri would find a way to pass five minutes without showering Sybil with compliments, but not today. "Ah, can I get you anything to drink, by the way?"