Finding Love

“Daddy! Daddy wake up!” Sidney’s eyes slowly opened to see his daughter jumping on his bed, her snowflake pajamas standing out from his white bedspread. Bridget was by the door with a cup of coffee, her whole body shaking as she laughed.

“Hi baby girl,” Sidney stretched while sitting up, he felt all of his muscles knowing that yes, it was Christmas morning.

“Rise and shine big boy,” Bridget came over and started jumping on the bed also, making the bedrock back and forth.

“Time to open pwesents Daddy!” Ariel sang as she grabbed his large hands, trying to force him up.

“What time is it?” Sidney moaned as he looked at the clock, only 7:30.

“Don’t complain it’s Christmas. I made waffles, there in the kitchen. First though, we open presents,” Bridget clapped as she continued to jump on the bed.

“Fine, fine. I’m up,” Sidney pulled himself out of bed, letting his feet feel the freeze of the hardwood floors beneath him.

As he went to open the curtains, he heard a loud, disgusting cough. The cough wasn’t just one though, it continued shortly after with several other coughs.

“What the heck? Bridget are you okay?” Sidney rushed over to his girl friend that was now sitting on her side of the bed, heaving.

“Fine…just a second…” after Bridget cleared her throat several times, she stood back up, making her way out of the room, ignoring the confused glances of Ariel and Sidney.

“Come Ariel,” Sidney opened his arms as Ariel ran into them. Sidney started fast walking towards the kitchen, where Bridget was casually gulping water down her throat.

“Can we open pwesents yet?” Ariel complained, frustrated with the massive boxes wrapped in beautiful colors waiting by a huge Christmas tree, decorated by the family a few weeks ago.

“Yeah, let’s open the presents,” Bridget faked a smile, knowing that Sidney was beyond annoyed at her not bringing the subject up.

“We can talk about this later,” he whispered to her as Ariel pulled them both towards the presents.

“Dad! Dad! Dad! Look what Santa got me! The Barbie dream house!” Ariel grinned from ear to ear as she marveled at the pink and white extravaganza house.

“That’s really cool! Maybe Nana and Papa will play with you when they get here,” Sidney smiled. His parents were flying down from Canada for the few days, eager to see their granddaughter. They were coming for dinner, as well as some of Sidney’s hockey teammates.

After they finished opening presents, Ariel ended up with endless amounts of new toys to occupy her time with, Bridget had gotten the Mac book pro she had been secretly wanted, and Sidney got the Xbox kinect, they were all ready for some food.

The waffles that Bridget made were of course amazing, lavished in syrup and whip cream.

“When are Nani and Papi and Aunt Taylor coming?” Ariel wondered through a mouthful of food.

“Chew first honey,” Sidney warned before continuing, “They should be here in a few hours. Enough time for you to take a bath and put on that dress Brig got you for today.”

“I don’t want a bath!” Ariel complained.

“Yes you do. You can play with ducky and make bubbles!” Bridget reminded the small girl who just wanted to play with her new toys.

“Bubbles!” Ariel delightfully remembered as the adults chuckled to themselves. Christmas was a stressful time for the two, but the little girl was making it easier to relax and not worry so much about preparing meals for later on.

After Ariel was bathed, she was soundly taking a nap before her family arrived

“So, we need to stuff the turkey, and we need to make the mashed potatoes, your Mom is bringing casserole and cupcakes, I need to bake the cake, and go to the store to get the veggie dip platter and fruit platter,” Bridget read off of the list she had made for a few weeks.

“Right,” Sidney nodded, reading over her shoulder.

With not so much time, they started getting to work. Preparing the turkey was going to be the hardest, they had never cooked a real meal like this before; it was their first time.

“So basically, we have to find the innards and just like put it in?” Bridget put her hand on her hip.

“I think so, that’s what my mom always did,” Sidney shrugged.

So they did just that. Stuffing the turkey, putting it in the stainless steal oven. Then they prepared the mashed potatoes and put them on the stove to cook.

They waited for a few hours, watching the Christmas shows on TV, laughing and talking over hot chocolate.

The whole morning was rather peaceful as it drifted into the early day, except when the fire alarm went off.

“Oh my god! Sidney!” Bridget screamed. She had to get out of their, her lungs…

Sidney rushed over to Ariel’s bedroom, grabbing the sleeping girl before looking back at the kitchen.

It had gone on fire; their turkey had gone on fire, slowly enfolding it in flames.

“Sidney! We have to leave!” Bridget shouted while coughing. Sidney’s head snapped up. Her throat sounded horrible, wet and disgusting.

“Will you be able to make it?” Sidney asked, revealing that he defiantly knew something was up.

“Of course! I don’t want you guys to get hurt, let’s go!” Bridge demanded, opening the door to the hallway so they could file out of the stairs. Many people that occupied the other apartments were also running for their lives, as if this was a hug fire instead of a small kitchen fire.

What a horrible Christmas.

“Daddy? Daddy?” Ariel opened her eyes to find the mess of people. She wasn’t in her bed anymore, but she was outside of her apartment, in Sidney’s arms.

“Baby your all right. It’s okay; we’re almost there. Are you okay?” Sidney asked, running towards an area not quite as crowded, though still freezing cold.

“Yeah. What happened?” Ariel looked around.

“A small fire baby, nothing to worry about,” Sidney reassured his daughter.

“Does Bridget have a boo boo?” Ariel pointed towards the woman.

“Bridget? Oh my god, where is she?” Sidney was looking all around the mass of people, finally locating her by an ambulance.

Sidney managed to run into his neighbor that was kind enough to always watch Ariel when needed, and he handed her over to her, just for a few moments while he tried to see if Bridget would be okay

Sprinting over, she found Bridget breathing into the mask, crying.

“Bridget. I need to know now, and I need to know the truth,” Sidney kneeled down to Bridget, where paramedics were taking her vitals.

“I just swallowed too much smoke, and I have a, uh cough,” Bridget spoke while taking the mask off.

“Keep the mask on ma’am,” the paramedic plastered it back on her face.

“Are you sure that’s all that’s going on? Your okay, right?” Sidney asked, still suspicious.

“Baby, I’m good. I feel fine. We have more important things to worry about, like what we are going to do now?” Bridget looked at Sidney with her piercing blue eyes.

“About dinner? I’m going to call them and tell them that they can’t come over. You aren’t well enough and our room was just on fire,” Sidney spoke, set on his decision.

“I am not ruining Christmas,” Bridget protested.

“We can have Christmas just the three of us. Order in Chinese, watch Elf, it will be fun,” Sidney reassured her, rubbing her back gently.

“That does sound nice, and I am really tired,” Bridget shook her head, “Though I just feel horrible about all of this. Is the fire even out? How much damage was done?”

“The fire is out, I think they caught it before anything even really happened,” Sidney looked up towards the large building, peering at his window.

After Bridget was cleared for being okay, Sidney got Ariel back and they headed upstairs, Bridget slowly, making each step carefully.

Sidney was positive this was not just a cold.