Lilly

A whole month had passed. A month with nothing but unnecessary chaos and madness. I had helped my father in the clinic most of the days, the whole day mind you, so I wasn't apart of much gossip unless Amata or Christine filled me in on it. The whole month Amata spent attempting to regain the friendship she lost, although I didn't put up much of a fight, I had made it clear she wasn't my top priority at the very moment. I sympathized for Amata, I really did, as she got the bad end of the whole marriage shenanigans, marrying Butch wasn't in my intend and I didn't exactly enjoy it, but it wasn't me who married the vault's very own boogeyman.

However, there was one thing I was looking forward to – Christmas! The one time a year my father and I would actually sit together for a meal, properly. Father and I usually enjoyed each other's company, even if it was just the two of us. Despite never liking Butch, I sympathized for him, I doubt that he ever had a proper Christmas with his mom, considering that she would usually wind up in the clinic the night after Christmas, disturbing my father's day off and giving Butch trouble. I never hated Ellen, nor had I held a grudge against her, but I had always sought to find out why Butch behaved like he did, and it was in Ellen and her husband – their broken marriage broke Butch, their only son. It wasn't Wally's fault for the way Butch behaved, although he certainly provoked more anger in Butch.

It was around four in the evening, my father had convinced me to leave the clinic as he thought I should help 'decorate' the tree. Ah, I wish I was even welcome to do that. The only people who ever decorated the tree were Susie, Gloria Mack (Susie's mother), Christine Kendall and Mary Kendall, Christine's mother. Beatrice would sit somewhere close the tree while she wrote a poem, but she didn't volunteer to help very often.

Instead of helping, I retreated to my apartment, where I made myself a light sandwich with a Nuka-Cola. I took a seat on the couch and began munching on the light snack. The door to the apartment slid open to reveal Ellen's thin, quite frail and malnourished frame. I pitied her, I really did. The excess alcohol that began taking over her body was beginning to show, the yellowing skin, her thinning hair, her fragile body and even her shaken voice, was all an indication that she was ill.

"Ms. Deloria, what are you doing here?" I inquired, calmly but demanding. Ellen looked like she was on the verge of tears before she collapsed into my arms, sobbing her own eyes out.

"It's nearly Christmas, and like the shitty mother I am, I hadn't gotten anything for my little Butchie. He hates me, he always has!" I could smell the liquor on her breath as she spoke through her sobs.

"Ms. Deloria, I don't think you should worry. We'll figure something out." My attempts to comfort her seemed to do the trick as she began dabbing the tissue around her eyes, glancing around the room.

"My Butchie, he's always been jealous of you and your father. Bless his soul, your father has always been there for me, Christmas after Christmas, he helped me see the next day." Ellen began, she had shuffled out of my embrace and managed to sit herself beside me on the couch, "I remember him saying that he wanted to have a father like James, he said he hated being around me, I ruined his Christmas. But I never blamed him, I'd hate me too. I've always been a shitty, fucking, messed up mother attempting to raise my son. And look what happened! He's an animal! Behaving like his pathetic father before he died! Lilly, never turn to alcohol, no matter how Butch behaves. He don't know better!"

"Ms. Deloria –"

"Ellen, dear."

"Umm. Ellen." I corrected myself, letting a few seconds of silence pass, "all Butch wants is to have a Christmas with his mother, when she's sober. We can prepare a Christmas meal together for James and Butch, and I'll guarantee that they'll be happy."

"That sounds splendid. Oh, this will be so much fun. Cooking with a daughter in law. Oh, how I've always wanted a daughter."

"That's the plan? I'll come around at about five in the evening on Saturday."

"Sounds great, dear."

Ellen gave me a tight embrace before leaving the apartment. Had I really made dinner plans with Ellen? I huffed before averting my eyes to every corner of the room, there wasn't much to see if I was being honest, the incommodious kitchen only consisted of three counters, stove and fridge with a sink built in one of the counters. The dinner table was placed in the middle of the kitchen with four chairs, they were plain and boring. The couch was placed near the entrance of the apartment, a tv was placed in the corner, the coffee table was on top of the petite carpet and a lounge chair was placed vertically beside the couch.

Butch and I never had the luxury of living in the high end of the vault where his little buddies lived, nor did I have the opportunity to go up to Amata and her her father's apartment that often, he hated me lingering around there. We just weren't what the vault would consider 'worthy' enough. Whether it was Ellen's fault of my father's, it wasn't clear why we hadn't moved up a notch. But we never complained, it was better than living out there.

It was six pm when I decided to go to the diner to grab my dinner, I knew I would either meet Amata or Christine there, even if I wasn't very fond of Amata yet, I still didn't mind hanging with her for half an hour, so long as she didn't complain too much. Either way, the diner wasn't very full. A couple of the officers were having their meals – Wolfe and O'Bryan, I think. Jim and Janice were occupying another booth, old lady Palmer was sitting on the stool with Agnes, while Andy was serving them whatever he was serving. The jukebox was playing 'Blue Moon' by Frank Sinatra, an odd song for this time of the year, if I must say so myself.

I must've assumed wrong, as no one my age was even at the diner at this time. I should've been working late with my father, but like always, he forced me out of the clinic as I should've been studying the female anatomy instead, for science of course. So I sat in silence, reading the book I had brought along with me. It was old, dusty and pages were partly torn out, yet it was a very useful book for me.

"Hey, Lilly." My silence was disrupted by Amata. She looked exhausted, with dark bags under her hazel eyes, her usually neat bun was now an inconsistent mess and her voice was shaky and tired.

"Wow. Being a shift supervisor must be very hard." My dry, yet snide reply made Amata sigh, "I'm kidding."

"It's – it's not as tiring but I didn't want to do a bad job, so I stayed up the whole night before preparing." Amata's voice full of regret said it all.

"Or you couldn't sleep knowing that you had to share a room with your bully." Honestly, I was in no place to pass judgement, yet I carried on provoking Amata like a child.

"Believe it or not, he's not so bad after all. Maybe it's because he's on probation," 'as if that's ever stopped Wally from doing stupid shit', "but he's decent, although we don't speak to one another, I feel a little safer."

"Right. I wouldn't feel safe even if he was standing ten feet away from me. Hey, maybe he likes you!" I teased. I noticed how Amata wrinkled her nose out of disgust.

"No way. Never say that again."

"Hah. Anyway, I agreed to help Ellen to prepare a meal for Christmas, since we'll all be spending it together," I sighed, "it was always better with my father."

"Tell me about it. I can't even imagine what Gloria and Allen are like, those Macks are all business."

"There's some truth in that. I doubt Gloria is as big a bitch as Susie."

"Yeah. Look I have to go, my break is ending in five minutes. Maybe let's meet after work?"

"My shift is already over, and it's six. I have to go help Ellen."

"Shoot. Well, Merry Christmas!"

Amata scurried out of the diner, leaving me on my lonesome. I knew damn well that Amata was trying to let her job eat into her extra time with family and Wally's family, I honestly couldn't blame her. Wally and Susie were bad enough with their constant bullying of whoever wasn't on their 'level', Stevie was just a pathetic little boy hiding in his security uniform and Allen was a dick who raised three of the biggest assholes in the vault. So yes, I understood Amata's reasons very well.

I tied my hair up into a messy bun as I strolled down to Ellen's apartment, it was already six thirty, so no doubt the dinner would have to get pushed forward a bit. I mean it wasn't exactly too bad as my father was still working till around nine and Butch was working till eight.

I heard Christmas music coming from Ellen's apartment as I saw her dancing around the kitchen with one pan in her hand. It was the first time I've seen her so happy. With a genuine smile plastered on my face, I entered the apartment. Ellen immediately dropped the pan on the counter top before rushing to me, grabbing a hold of my hands.

The Ronettes - Frosty the Snowman was playing in the background as Ellen swung me around the kitchen.

"Oh sweetie, let us both enjoy this one day without those two boys." Ellen exclaimed. Her taller frame swinging me around the room. She laughed, she smiled, she was happy. It was all I wanted to see.

"So, what're we cooking?" I clapped my hands as soon as she let go. Ellen averted her eyes from me before scurrying around the kitchen in a haste. The cook book was placed on the counter top beside a bowl full of various vegetables.

"So! I thought that we should make a turkey with some vegetables. We'll have some delicious drinks," I felt my own eyes glare at Ellen with a frown embedded on my face, "oh we will not get drunk. I promise."

"Ellen. How can we be sure? What will Butch think?"

"Don't you worry, dear. I am going to make the most exquisite drink you have ever tasted. I vow that to you."

Reluctantly, I nodded. I just didn't want to see Ellen go back down into the slums with alcohol. Nonetheless, I began peeling the potatoes while Ellen began mixing various of spices and vegetables to use as stuffing for the turkey. My head swirled around to check the time, only to notice that it was already seven. We had basically an hour and a half to get everything ready.

With the potatoes done, I began decorating and preparing the table. I heard Ellen humming while I arranged the plates and silverware.

After going to the bathroom, I walked out into Ellen's bedroom, where I noticed a pretty huge variety of pictures of herself and Butch. They were all pretty much alike, until I saw it - a picture of Alexander, Butch's dad. I inched closer to the bedside table before seizing the picture into my grasp. He was a replica of Butch, or Butch was the replica of him. His hair was slicked back in a jet black shade, due to the colorlessness of the picture, I couldn't tell what his eye color was, but I could've only assumed it was blue, like Butch's. His face was quite thin and his eyebrows were furrowed as he glared into the camera, with Ellen by his side.

Prom.

It must've been.

Ellen herself looked much better, she had clearly gained a few pounds, her hair was quite long, going down to her chest. She had a beautiful smile plastered on her chubby face, and she overall looked healthier. Who know that man was going to drive her into a suicidal state? I looked at Ellen's floor length dress, that had various floral patterns embedded in it. It was magnificent. I remembered her wearing that dress on my wedding day - it looked so much better in real life than in pictures.

That's when the door opened to reveal Ellen.

OKAY THIS WAS SHORT AF.BUT...I'm obviously writing a part two to the Christmas special. With all of my exams over, I can finally sit back and begin to write more chapters, and longer ones too. I also update the story on Ao3 before I update it on this website, don't ask why - I use Ao3 more in general. Apologies for VERY slow updates.