"Let's see…" Rookie mumbled, "Instant coffees, check… hot chocolate mix, check… marshmallows, check… portable screen projector… double check… and water and hotdogs. Oh, plus the buns, fudge and the cookies I made."

Rookie was bouncing eagerly as she marked off the things on her list. This was going to be the best Christmas ever! In truth this was practically the first Christmas she was having, or at least, the first she could remember. Thanks to the healthy shot of amnesia she received as she was recruited in the army. She was sure she must have had celebrated some holiday before, but this one was what mattered now. And she prepared everything, she spent hours of baking the Christmas themed cookies, forbidding even her team mates to come inside the kitchen and bother her. Though Church, still in his floating orb body, was thoroughly annoyed, Tucker mentioned that she would make a good housewife someday, in particularly, his. Rookie ignored this comment for the sake of the holiday good will.

Gathering together all her things and arranged them on the table, "Guys!" She shouted. "Guys! I have a surprise for you!"

She stuck her head out the base to call them again, yet her calls went unanswered.

"They must be having another meeti-"

"Rookie!"

She jumped and whipped around, Tucker, Church and Caboose were sprinting towards her.

"Oh there you are!" she said happily, imaging their response when she told them of her plans. "So I bet you were all wondering what I was doing in the kitchen."

"Not really." Tucker deadpanned as came up from the hill.

Rookie ignored him.

"I thought, in the spirit of the holidays, I've made us a-"

"Rookie, pack your things, we're being transferred out for the next few days." Church said as he floated past her.

"Can I bring my favorite gun?" Caboose asked his leader as he followed him inside.

"Caboose, you only have one gun!"

Rookie stood where was left, mouth hanging as if to finish her sentence. Her planning, all of her preparations and future fun for this Christmas, ruined by another pointless mission that must have something to do with those dumb reds.

Just then she heard Tucker calling back from in the base, "Aw, sweet! Cookies! We can take this with us and eat it on the go?"

Rookie finally relaxed her body and sighed; she hadn't even seen the reds yet and already felt exhausted.

"Here it is!" Church announced as they stomped up the last part of the slope.

The Blue Team had been walking for a little over 7 hours up the mountain side. Fortunately, they, with the exception of Church who can practically fly, were all used to walking at such hikes and made it there fairly easy and were immediately greeted with the sight of what was going to be their 'home' for the next few days.

Rookie was not impressed in the slightest.

Granted, it was bigger, had more space and overall more equipment, but in the middle of a snow covered mountain, it seemed dismal and lonely. Even worse when they quickly discovered that this base had no heating whatsoever and the only food they had was what Rookie bought and stuffed inside their tank Shelia.

"Why were the Reds even here? What was wrong with their other base in a nice warm canyon by the seaside?"

"Shut up Rookie." Church growled, he did not like this new set up either. "We are here as long as the Reds are, so let's hurry up and kill them so we can go back home."

"Hey Reds are you over here?" Tucker shouted, his voice echoing off the cliffs and though the freezing wind.

They were standing outside the Red base, where they had seen Grif and Simmons wandering around.

"All of my work…" Rookie muttered while trying to keep her teeth from chattering, "all of my plans…"

She was still sore about her ruined Christmas.

"Oh no it's the Blues!" they heard Simmons squeaky voice echo back, "How did they get here?"

"We got here because of you morons! Our Command transferred us here because you guys got transferred. And now we're all freezing thanks!"

"Oh really?" an uninterested tone came back, as the maroon solider stepped into view. "Wow, yeah that sounds bad. Sorry about that. Grif load your weapon." They heard him trying to whisper, "Get ready to attack."

"Sorry Simmons, organized combat is against 87% of my belief systems."

"Grif! We can hear you in there!"

"The whole damn mountain can hear us." A sarcastic female voice followed up.

"Just go away! Go back to you base!"

"Our base is back at Valhalla where it's not freezing."

"AND where we were supposed to spend Christmas!"

"Really Rookie," Church added, "you need to let that go."

Simmons was replay with a mocking reply, "You don't like the cold? What's the matter? No holiday sp-"

He jumped to one side with a frightened yelp as a bullet grazed the side of his helmet

The rest of the Blue team turned and stared in shock at Rookie, what as holding up her rifle and aiming it at where she last saw Simmons.

"No holiday spirit?" Rookie said in an eerily breathless voice, sending chills down all who heard it.

"I spent all of December… planning, cooking, baking, shopping and setting up the perfect Christmas party my team has ever seen... the fist I've ever had in my life as far as I know…"

"Um, Rookie?" Caboose asked timidly.

"And you…you have the audacity… to say I'd rather throw all that away, to stand out here, in the damn snow-"

"We never said that!" Grif cried out, but there was no diffusing the scorned girl with the gun.

"…to stand out in the freezing cold, talking to a couple RED REJECTS!?"

Her next wave of bullets mingled with the reds panicked screams as they fled deeper into their base for cover.

The rest of her team looked at one another and shrugged. "Screw it." They thought and joined in.

Inside the base, Simmons and Girf were sitting ducks. The orange soldier was looking out the crack in the window, before pulling back as one of Rookie's well aimed bullet whizzed through and into the far wall behind them. An explosion followed in suit.

"They just blew up our Warthog! No wait- It look's ok actually-" a second explosion. "Ok, that one got it." He called back. Simmons however was frantically trying to get a hold of Sarge on the other end.

"Crap! Rookie's coming closer!"

"Oh no," Simmons trembled, "She's gonna come in and finish the job!"

"Man, who knew girls can be so scary?"

Rookie flung bomb after bomb, fired a multitude of bullets at the base, gradually moving closer as she did. As she stopped to re-load, Simmons stepped out again.

"Guys! Hey guys, cease fire! Hold on a sec!" He cried out with all he had, noticing Rookie slamming another magazine into her gun and preparing to take aim again.

"Rookie stop!"

Rookie lowered her gun as Church and Tucker came up behind her.

"What do you want?" Tucker yelled.

"Listen guys," Simmons pleaded, knowing his and Grif's life depended on it. "I know fighting is what we do, but I was thinking it's the holidays, do we really need to be fighting during the time of year when people all around the are coming together in the spirit of brotherhood and good will?"

"It'd be good will to end you right here and now!" Rookie screeched. However, Tucker stepped up in front of her.

"Actually the only reason why we're fighting you guys if because we're trying to stay warm."

Rookie then realized that in the time she had been fighting, she had forgotten about the cold as her body worked to try and kill those who wrecked her night.

"We're afraid that if we stop fighting, we'll die of hypothermia."

"We're afraid of freezing too," Simmons called back. Grif leaned out next to him. "So why don't we agree, just for a day, to set aside our differences and work together in celebration of the season. Do you think we can do that?" He asked nervously while eyeing Rookie's rifle. "Just this once?"

A bullet suddenly hit him in the chest, "ARG!"

"Sorry!" Tucker yelled, "Had one bullet left in my clip, it seemed dumb not to use it. But yeah were down with the peace and brotherhood and whatever thing."

"We are?" Rookie hissed.

"It's fine," Tucker said cheerfully, "now you have a chance to break out all that stuff and do what you wanted to do before."

Not long after, two reds and three blues were gathered on a snow plateau under an icy overhand. They stood around a moderate sized bon fire build from wood scraps and branches. Happily eating the Christmas treats and drinking various hot beverages Rookie had heated up over the fire. Even Sheila was there, running her heaters and allowing Caboose to

"See? This what happens when we agree to work together. Nobody dies." Simmons sighed taking another drink of hot chocolate.

Grif stopped stuffing his face with cookies and fudge long enough to speak, "Just don't tell our Sargent about this when he gets back."

"That guy pretty nuts." Tucker acknowledge.

"And self-centered." Rookie added, "Who goes on vacation and leaves his team in the freezing cold to take on another army by themselves?"

"Yeah…" Caboose drawled, "We had some pretty crazy times fighting you guys over the years."

Grif chuckled, "Yeah, remember that time Sarge got possessed by that crazy AI?"

"Or, what about the time I got impregnated by that alien? Ouch."

"That's actually very normal for their kind to do that? Granted he had to lie to get your guard down…"

"How do you know this Rookie?"

Rookie looked away, "Um…" honestly, she didn't know how she knew or why she was defending that alien after what it did.

Fortunately, it was the Reds who saved her from the situation, "ah-ha, alien baby." The orange soldier snorted.

"Hey remember that time your sister crashed that ship on Donut's head?" Simmons eagerly mentioned.

"…sometimes I have trouble talking to girls." Caboose said out of nowhere. Everyone looked at him. Except Rookie who didn't seem to think it was odd in the slightest.

"Um, Caboose?" Tucker started carefully. "This really isn't THAT kind of chat by the fire. We're doing something a little differe-"

"I had a tough time fitting in at training camp 'cause I kept hurting people during practice and my Drill Sargent marked me for a trouble maker." Rookie said casually.

"Not you too." Tucker moaned.

"So, ok," Simmons piped up to change the subject. "What about that time we all got beat up by that really mean girl?"

"Are you talking about me? I'm pretty sure I beat up almost everyone here." Rookie gave them a look from behind her helmet.

"No, we mean the girl in the black armor. Where did you guys find her? She was kind of awesome." Grif said.

Rookie felt herself wince internally. Grif's innocent remark reminded of her mentor Tex. How she trained her, taught her the best fighting skills a Freelancer could offer, only to find it, while the training was real, it was nothing more than an act for Tex. A means to get a deeper trust with her team so that she could turn on them when they had the alien child Jr. An alien destoned to be a hero and savior to his kind. Tex was supposed to steal him so there her superiors could use him to control the alien race he belonged too.

"…I was never very close to my dad." Caboose said again out of nowhere. "He worked a lot."

"I never remember having a dad." Rookie said, trying to distract herself from bad memories.

"My father was a factory. I only saw him once and he sent me to war 5 hours after I was made." Shelia said.

"Ok, seriously you guys, you don't have to talk. It's not required." Tucker quickly said before the topic could take hold.

"Oh good," Caboose said, relived. "that's good."

"Happy Holidays buddy." Tucker said in a monotone voice.

"You too."

Rookie paused, "…remember when Church died and came back?"

"Yeah! I can't believe he tried to con Serge into paying him to get to the afterlife!" Tucker laughed.

"It was a good idea, he just forgot that ghosts don't have money." Grif chuckled.

"I think I saw him during the time I was momentarily offline." Shelia said.

Just then an orb flew in to view. "Hey Rookie, I got that projector synced with my body's projector, so we can watch those dumb Christmas movies you've never seen."

"Yay movies!" the other shouted. Church groaned.

-End-

-Happy Holidays Everyone!