by pebble/scifipony
Fandom: The Librarians
Characters: Cassandra Cillian, Flynn Carsen, Charlene (others in background)
Words: 744
Tags: Christmas, Found Family, Fluff, Friendship, Holiday Traditions
Warnings: None
Author's Notes: This started as a few throwaway lines of dialogue in Deck The Halls but it ended up spawning a brand new plot bunny and now it's a separate little fic of its own. Oh well.
“Hey, what are you two up to?”
Cassandra’s voice startled Flynn out of his frustrated search through the cardboard box in front of him. He sat back with a sigh. “Looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Sitting on the floor beside him, digging through her own box, Charlene scoffed. “It’s a wonder you find any artifacts with that attitude.”
“Artifacts usually have clues leading to them,” Flynn pointed out. “Or a very handy map with an X on it.”
Cassandra tapped her foot impatiently, frowning down at the two of them. “So, neither of you are going to answer?”
“We’re looking for a holiday custom of ours,” Charlene said cryptically.
“That was, for some reason, not put in a clearly labeled box before being stored in the archives,” Flynn added. “Hence, the fifty boxes we’ve already searched.”
“Again, not really an answer,” Cassandra said.
Flynn reached back into the box in front of him as he started to respond, cutting himself off when his hand landed on the very thing they’d been hunting for. “Hey, I found them!” he called to Charlene, passing the stack of greeting cards over to her.
Charlene eagerly accepted them. A sad smile lit her face as she flipped through the stack. “They’re all still here.”
Flynn felt a presence at his elbow as Cassandra leaned in, trying to see what they were looking at. He scooted over for her. “They’re Christmas cards,” he explained. “From the different Librarians to Judson and Charlene. It’s a sort of tradition.”
Charlene’s smile grew as she pulled one of the less faded cards from the pile. “Oh, Flynn, look. This is the one you gave us during your first year as Librarian.”
“Ooh, let me see!” Cassandra reached past him to snatch it up. She grinned in delight at the seasonal greeting written out in hieroglyphs on the front of the card. “Aww, that’s adorable.”
Flynn tried to grab it back from her, but she lifted it just out of reach.
“It was very sweet,” Charlene reassured him, patting his arm.
“We should hang these up somewhere,” Cassandra said, returning the card to Charlene. “It’d be nice to see the Library’s history captured in these little holiday moments.”
“That’s an excellent idea,” Charlene agreed. “We should put them up in the hall of portraits.”
Flynn pushed himself to his feet, holding out a hand to help Charlene up as well. “Eve was decorating the Annex earlier. I’m sure she has some leftover string and tacks.”
“I’ll go ask.” Charlene carefully picked up the stack of cards and started off down the hall.
Flynn moved to follow her, but felt Cassandra snag his arm to stop him. “I just had a thought. Do you think you could help me with something?”
Not quite sure what he was signing himself up for, he nodded anyway. “Sure. What is it?”
“I have an idea for a gift for Charlene.”
And, really, that was enough to get him onboard with whatever she had planned.
~~~~~
A few days later, the team was gathered around a massive tree in the reading room, happily exchanging gifts and sipping on mugs of flavored cocoa.
Cassandra got up towards the end of the unwrapping rituals and approached Charlene with an eager bounce in her step. She grinned wide, hands hidden behind her back. “Charlene,” she said, “we have one more present for you.”
The Guardian eyed her for a moment, as if trying to assess how to react. But her expression changed the moment she saw what the girl handed to her. She accepted the stack of handmade cards with a heartfelt smile. “What is all this?”
“We each made one,” Cassandra said proudly. “We wanted to add to your collection. And since this is the first Christmas some of us have celebrated in the actual Library, we thought it’d be a nice way to mark the occasion.”
“Cassie gets most of the credit,” Jacob said. “She arranged it all.”
“Well, I had help from Flynn. Oh, and Eve helped with the organizing.”
“In other words,” Eve said, “it was a team effort. Merry Christmas, Charlene.”
Charlene looked at a loss for words. “Thank you, everyone,” she finally managed. “I’ll be very happy to add these to the collection.” She glanced over at Flynn with a nod of approval. “I think your new Librarians fit right in here.”
Flynn returned her smile, with a touch of pride. “Yes, they do.”