Work Text:
FRIDAY
“Maddie-kins!”
Madge was so relieved and happy to see her dad that she didn’t even care he had yelled her embarrassing childhood nickname across the airport. “Dad,” she sighed, throwing her arms around him.
It had only been five months since she’d last seen her dad, they spoke on the phone several times a week, but as he squeezed her tightly, Madge felt tears prick her eyelids. She blamed it on exhaustion; she and Gale had endured a ridiculously early start, two flights, long delays, and heavy turbulence to make it to her home town for Christmas. All that, and the dumb Christmas movies she’d been binge-watching all month combined to make her feel emotional.
She laughed at her tears and turned, expecting Gale to be right behind her laughing at her emotional display, but he was camped out at the baggage belt, watching it like a hawk even though it hadn’t even started moving. Madge pulled her dad over to him. Gale greeted him warmly, but still kept one eye on the belt. It had finally started to move. Madge’s purple suitcase appeared almost at once and Gale quickly fished it off the conveyor belt as it passed. Samuel made small talk as they waited for Gale’s bag, and Gale gave one word answers, growing increasingly more monosyllabic as the belt made yet another rotation without any sign of his suitcase.
“Where the fuck is it?” He exploded as a bright orange rucksack passed by for the seventh time. Everything else had been collected.
“Maybe it’s on one of the other belts,” Madge suggested, running a soothing hand down his arm. They left her dad to watch Madge’s bag and split up to check the other belts.
There was no sign of the bag on either of the belts Madge checked and when she returned to her dad, she found Gale remonstrating angrily with an airport worker.
Gale fell silent as Madge approached, letting the official get a word in as she explained that it happened all the time and that Gale needed to go report it, and most likely the bag would turn up.
Aware that her boyfriend was about to explode in fury, Madge stepped in and thanked the woman. “It’s fine, Gale. There’s no need to get worked up over it, I have a lot of your stuff in my bag, and I’m sure it will turn up. Let’s just go report it and get out of here.”
“All the presents are in that bag, and… other stuff. We need it.”
Madge tugged on his hand, dragging him in the direction of the lost baggage claim. “It’s only a few presents, it’s not the end of the world. Please, can we just report it and go. I’m exhausted and I just want to get home.”
She thought he would argue more, but instead he relented and let her lead him to the claim counter. The lady behind the desk didn’t seem all that concerned about the lost bag, or very convinced that it would be found, and Gale looked like he wanted to throttle her. Again, Madge had to step in and politely diffuse the situation.
“That bag had better be found, or I’m suing this airline,” Gale said as a parting shot.
Madge rolled her eyes at him. “What’s got into you, you don’t normally get this worked up over a little thing like this?”
“It’s not little,” Gale snapped. “I paid them to transport that bag to this airport. There’s stuff in it that I want and need. Your present is in it. Your parent’s present is in it.”
“My parents will understand and they won’t care,” Madge assured him. “It doesn’t matter to me if I get a present or not. I’m just really happy to be home and spending Christmas with you.” She meant that. It was the first time in their four year relationship they were spending it together, normally they went their separate ways for Christmas, but this year, Gale had surprised her by suggesting that he’d come home with her as they lived close to his family and got to see them all the time.
“It matters to me,” Gale insisted. “It took me a long time to find that present. It’s perfect and I really want to give it to you at Christmas.”
Madge squeezed his hand, touched by his thoughtfulness. “That’s really sweet, but it’s OK if it isn’t found in time. We can still have the best Christmas together.”
Gale didn’t look convinced.
SATURDAY
Madge woke in the morning to find that Gale was already up. She pulled on her fluffy dressing gown and made her way downstairs. Her parents were in the breakfast nook sipping coffee and there was no sign of her boyfriend.
“Where’s Gale?”
“Outside, he’s on the phone to somebody from the airline,” Madge’s mom answered.
Madge poured herself a cup of coffee and stepped out onto the back porch. Gale was pacing the garden path, talking urgently into the phone. He was running his hand through his hair, which was sticking up all over the place.
“I understand that it’s the holidays, I know it’s a very busy time for you, but it’s really important to me that I get that bag.... That’s not good enough. I want to speak to your supervisor.” He turned and spotted Madge. “Hey.”
“Any luck?” Madge asked, leaning over the banister to give him a quick kiss.
“The bag is in Seattle. They think it will be a few days before they get it back to me,” Gale said it like it was the worst thing in the world.
“But, that’s great,” Madge exclaimed. “It doesn’t matter if we have to wait a few days, at least it hasn’t been completely lost.”
He shook his head vigorously. “There’s time for them to get it here, if they’d just get off their asses and do their jobs.”
Madge sighed and went back inside.
By late afternoon, Gale had argued with seven different airline representatives, until finally, just as Madge was about to lose patience with him, he came to find her with a huge grin on his face. He grabbed her around the waist and spun her.
“The bag will be here tomorrow,” he said. “They’ll get it back to the airport and there’s a guy working there who will be traveling this way after his shift tomorrow and he’ll drop it off here, so I don’t even have to go to airport to collect it.” He kissed her soundly. “It’s going to be perfect, Madge. I can’t wait.”
SUNDAY
The Undersees always spent Christmas Eve with the extended Donner family. This year a cousin was hosting everyone for dinner, and Madge was really looking forward to introducing Gale to her family.
Before they left, they placed a box containing chocolates, wine and a card with a cash tip behind the large planter on the porch as a thank you to the man who was delivering Gale’s bag. Happy that his problem was solved, Gale relaxed and enjoyed the afternoon, getting along like a house on fire with Madge’s family.
They were full of festive cheer as they drove back to their house on Merchant Square that night. The moment the reached the house, Gale made a beeline for the planter, but when he pushed it aside he discovered that the box was still there and no sign of his bag. His whole demeanor changed.
“Fucking shitbag, I’m going to kill that guy,” he swore after searching the porch and all around the house just in case the guy had left it someplace else.
“Maybe he got delayed and he’s still on the way,” Madge suggested.
“No, the woman at the airport said this afternoon.”
“Can you call him?”
Gale swore again. “No. I wasn’t talking to him, I was only talking to his colleague. Shit.” He pulled out his phone again.
“Gale, it’s after nine on Christmas Eve, there won’t be anybody there.”
“There has to be somebody. Security or something. If the bag is still there, I could drive up tomorrow morning and collect it myself. Why couldn’t they just have let me do that today instead of insisting this guy bring it?” He huffed angrily as he call rang out and punched in another number.
Madge went inside to get ready for bed.
When she came out of the bathroom, Gale was sitting on the bed looking defeated. She sat beside him and took his hand in hers. “Luckily,” she said in a sultry voice. “My present to you was in my bag. Wanna open it now?” She left the shoulder of her dressing gown slip down, revealing the lacy pink strap beneath.
“Maybe I could drive up there tomorrow morning. I know they’re closed for flights, but there will be somebody there and we can look for the bag. I’d be back by the afternoon.”
“Gale, for fuck’s sake,” Madge snapped, dropping his hand and yanking her dressing gown back up. “Will you just let it go. It’s not a big deal. OK, just forget about the bag, please? I just want to enjoy my Christmas and I can’t because you haven’t stopped obsessing about that fucking bag for one fucking second.”
Gale’s mouth fell open in shock. Madge never yelled at him. He shook his head and gingerly reached for her hand. “I’m sorry. I am, really. It’s just that I’ve been planning this gift for months and it’s perfect, Madge. It really meant a lot to me to be able to give it to you. I’m sorry that I couldn’t.”
Her anger dissolved in the face of his disappointment. “Baby, it’s fine. I know that you tried really hard to get that bag. I understand why I won’t have a gift tomorrow. I don’t care about it, I really don’t. I’m just so happy to spend it with you and my parents, you know that, right.”
He smiled sadly. “I know. I’m sorry if I’ve been an ass.”
“I’m sure you can find some way to make it up to me,” Madge grinned, letting her dressing gown slip again.
MONDAY
Although Gale appeared to get into the spirit of Christmas, Madge could tell he was despondent on Christmas Day. After calling his family that evening, he got even quieter. So Madge suggested they go for a walk around the neighborhood to look at all the lights. It was always one of her favourite things to do, and was always sure to cheer her up.
The lights, the gently falling snow and the quiet streets worked their magic, and Gale wrapped his arms tightly around Madge and held her close to him.
Around the third street they visited, Gale paused. “Haven’t we been here already?”
Madge shook her head. “Nope. This is Merchant Lane. We were just on Merchant Place. That’s the problem with living in a cookie cutter development, all the houses look identical. There’s like five different Merchant streets.”
“Five?” Gale had a strange look on his face.
“What?”
“Come on.” He grabbed her hand and walked briskly down the block to number Twelve Merchant Lane. “Stay here.” He jogged up the path onto the porch and had a quick look around before knocking on the door. He spoke to the homeowner for a minute before coming back to Madge. Although he was empty handed, he was smiling. “Not this one. Where’s the next Merchant street?”
“This way,” Madge told him, pointing in the direction of Merchant Avenue.
Gale knocked on the door of number Twelve, Merchant Avenue, but there was no sign of the bag there either. They continued on to Merchant Meadow, but again, no sign of Gale’s bag at number Twelve. Instead of being disappointed, Gale seemed excited. He grabbed Madge’s hand and hurried back to Merchant Place, the first street they had visited. As they got closer to number Twelve, Gale sped up so he was almost running and Madge was struggling to keep up with him.
They paused on the sidewalk in front of number Twelve, Merchant Avenue. The house was in darkness, with only a simple wreath on the front door and a single light burning in an upstairs room.
“The Andersons go away every year for Christmas,” Madge recalled.
“Come on,” Gale led her up the steps to the porch. There was a large planter in each corner. Behind the first was a couple of Amazon packages. Gale checked behind the second and with a sound of triumph, pulled out his red suitcase.
Madge clapped in delight.
Gale, to her surprise, opened his bag right there on the Anderson’s porch and started rifling through it.
“What are you doing? Our house is just two minutes from here?” Madge asked. Gale said nothing, but he pulled out his pair of brown boots. From the first, he pulled out all the socks and underwear he had stuffed into it to make room in the bag. Once it was empty, he tossed it aside and did the same to the other.
Madge stared at him in bafflement.
Gale pulled out another pair of socks, his phone charger and then a small, black jewellery box.
Oh.
OH.
He opened the box and finally sighed in relief. Madge stepped closer, her eyes glued to the sparkling ring inside.
Gale looked around at their surroundings and laughed. “This wasn’t how I planned to ask, but-”
“Yes. Yes!” Madge exclaimed, throwing herself into his arms and peppering his face with kisses.
“Can I at least give you the ring?” Gale asked with a laugh after several moments of kissing.
Madge brushed tears away and held out her finger so he could slip the ring on. It fit perfectly. “It’s perfect, right?” Gale asked. Madge laughed and kissed him again.