"It's CANCELED!?" A shriek, a stomping foot. "It's BLOODY CANCELED!?" She lowered her voice and leaned over the counter, "But it's Christmas. You can't cancel it. I wanna go home to my family."

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but there's nothing I can do." The woman shrugged apologetically. "Next?"

The girl moved away from the counter to stand a foot away with her quiet friend and their pile of luggage, "I'm sorry, Sam," she whispered, pulling her long redish hair into a ponytail.

"Why are you saying sorry to me?" Samantha asked, half laughing.

"Because I know how much you wanted to see your mum. And your sister. And the new baby."

"Yeah," Samantha cleared her throat. "Well." Tears were welling up in her eyes as soon as she was engulfed in a hug. "You did your best, short of threatening to kill them." She coughed and pulled away, "Madds? What are we gonna do? Stay here?"

"At the airport?" Maddy laughed. "Hardly. We can go back to the hotel."

"They're all booked up. Remember?"

"Bloody hell," Maddy sighed and slunk down into a hard airport chair. "What are we gonna do?"

Samantha sat beside her and quietly folded her jacket on top of her lap. "I don't know. I asked you. And, besides, I'm not the one with all the answers." She sighed and leaned back in her seat. "This sucks."

"You're telling me. We should have just stayed home."

"And missed the tour?" Samantha laughed, "And all the grief that came with it? No thanks."

Maddy laughed, "So."

"So."

"Hungry?"

"Starved."

Both girls stood up, grabbed their luggage and headed towards where the food was located. "I'm sure planes will be able to leave in an hour or so."

"Sure, it's not even snowing that badly." Samantha turned to look out the huge window and her face fell. "Maddy. It's a bloody blizzard."

"WHAT!?" Came a scream from the desk from which they had just left. "The flight is CANCELED!? It's bloody CHRISTMAS!"

Maddy stopped walking and turned towards her friend, "That voice sounds oddly familiar." Samantha slowly turned around to start back, but Maddy grabbed her arm, "No. You don't really want to spend the whole time here talking to them, do you?"

"God, no." She paused. "Well, maybe Nicky. He was nice to me at least."

"Yeah, and Mark's hot, but I'm not going to put myself through that any longer without getting paid. Let's go." When Samantha didn't move, Maddy's eyebrows rose, "Do you remember Kian? And how horribly mean he is?"

Samantha nodded, "Yeah, but I could use some company---"

"What am I?"

"My friend who is going to have a rage blackout pretty soon if she doesn't calm the hell down."

A laugh escaped Maddy's lips and she set her bags down, "What do you propose we do?"

"They've got the bus, we could have them drop us off. I'm sure they'll try heading home."

Maddy looked very uneasy suddenly and not so sure with the plans suggested, but she sighed anyway and nodded. "I guess, but only 'cause I love you. I don't want to spend six hundred hours on a bus with Kian."

"You think I do?" Samantha put her hands on her hips, obviously ready for some sort of fight.

"I'm beginning to wonder."

"Maddy?" Came a voice from behind her; Maddy turned around and smiled slightly. "Sam?"

"Bryan," Maddy nodded.

"What are you two doing here?" Bryan asked, grinning at them.

"Same as you, I imagine," she answered briskly. "Trying to get home."

"Yeah, all the flights are canceled." He looked outside briefly and turned back to them. "We're gonna try and plow through it, I think. Mark's trying to get a rental car. Seeing as you're both headed in the same direction, you wanna come? It is Christmas after all. And I know how much you wanted to see your family," he added to Samantha, who swallowed and nodded, tears in her eyes. "Believe me, I wanna get home to my family, too. I've got kids for Gods sake."

Samanta smiled slightly, "It'll be okay. We'll get there. We have, er, a day at least."

"Yes, as it is Christmas Eve eve," Maddy joked.

"Apparently the snow's not supposed to let up, but the roads aren't closed or anything. And Dublin's only a three hour drive from here,” Bryan commented, sounding a little worried.

Samantha let out a long breath, "Three hours. In the snow, it'll be more like six."

"Or seven," Nicky chirped, coming up to join their small group. "Hullooooooo, girls."

"Why is he so chipper?" Maddy whispered to Bryan, who shrugged.

"I've invited the girls," Bryan stated, bending to pick up a couple stray bags.

"Brilliant," Nicky replied, picking up the remainder. "Hopefully the vehicle Mark manages has lots of room."

"I refuse to sit on anyone's lap," Maddy deadpanned.

"Even mine?" Bryan asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Yes, you're married."

Bryan nodded, "So is Nix. That leaves Mark and Kian, so who're you going to choose?"

"Neither," Maddy retorted, beginning to walk towards where she suspected the car rental section to be.

Samantha sighed and rolled her eyes, "This is going to be a blast."

"You say that awfully sarcastically," Nicky joked. "It’s as if you don't like us.”

"She doesn't like Kian," Maddy said helpfully from ahead of them.

"MADISEN!" Samantha hissed, "You're not supposed to bloody SAY that!"

"I can understand why you wouldn't like him," Bryan said conversationally, "He was rude to you that one time when you wanted him to wear the pink shirt."

Samantha colored slightly, "Pink looked good on him at the time."

"Yes," Bryan agreed, "but normally men don't like to wear pink."

"Unless they're playing golf," Nicky put in.

"What has golf got to do with it?" Samantha asked, hoisting her bag further up her shoulder.

"Absolutely nothing. Ah, look, there's Kian, now."

Kian, who had been standing with Mark while Mark chatted to a giggly car rental woman, rose his eyebrows in question, "What's up?"

Bryan set Maddy's bags down, "Madisen and Samantha are going to join us on our jaunt to get home for the holidays." Maddy stood beside them, stoutly crossing her arms across her chest and waiting for Kian to say something she didn’t like so she could pounce on him.

Samantha stood behind her, beside Nicky, who was trying to put everyone's bags into some orderly pile. "We're not going to have any room to breathe," Kian said blatantly.

"Since when is breathing a necessity?" Bryan questioned, waltzing up to the counter to converse with Mark.

Kian rolled his eyes and sighed, "I just want to get the fook home."

"So do I," Samantha stated, "So it'd be helpful if you were pleasant, considering none of us want to be in this scenario any more than you do."

He narrowed his eyes at her, "When have I never been pleasant to you?"

She snorted and rolled her eyes, "Every day I've known you."

He pushed himself away from the counter and took a step towards her, "Really? That‘s, like, three years.”

"Yes, hadn't you noticed you‘ve been a prick every bloody day?"

"Not really, no. I'm mean to everybody--"

"When he's in his moods," Nicky finished for him, smiling cheerily.

"It's nothing personal," Kian continued, staring Samantha straight in the eyes. He turned to Nicky, "Aren't you afraid you're going to have to spend Christmas away from your family and your new wife? Would you stop being so bloody cheery?"

"Yeah, I‘m worried about not getting home, but I'm tying to make the best of it, unlike SOME."

Maddy stepped up to them, "Nicky. Want to go get some hot chocolate with me?" He agreed and the two of them took off towards the vending machines. Samantha watched them go, scowling; she could kill Maddy for leaving her alone with Kian.

Mark and Bryan seemed to be negotiating the prices and sizes of the available vehicles, while the line steadily grew longer with very aggravated passengers.

"I only remember one time when I wasn't nice to you," Kian remarked evenly, a few seconds later.

Blandly, she replied, "The Pink Shirt Incident."

"Yeah, that's the one," he laughed. "I'm sorry. I was having a bad day. I'm sure you understand."

"Yes. I do. As you are the cause of mine."

"I'm that bad, eh?" There was a small smile on his lips, but she refused to look at him; she was concentrating, instead, on the back of Bryan's head.

"I just want to be home for Christmas," she said eventually. "My sister has just had a baby, and I haven't seen pictures yet, even...and, you don't care."

He turned towards her, "I do, actually."

Samantha rolled her eyes, "You don't have to be nice to me. You can be however you want to be since my job's done for the year."

"But what'll happen on the next tour?"

This time, she tuned completely to look him in the eye, "Maybe I'll quit by then. I heard Blue‘s hiring."

Kian's eyes widened, "God, what did I DO to you?"

"It doesn't matter. I'm having one of those days, and I'm taking it out on you. I'm bitter. You always take your bad days out on me, so why can't I have a turn?"

"You can. Slap me if you want," Kian sighed heavily, and though the thought of the pleasure she'd get from the slap would be great, she just couldn't bother.

"I don't want to slap you," her voice lost the icy edge it had before, and her eyes softened. "We're in this together, I suppose, and without you guys, I wouldn't be getting home at all."

Kian gave her a wane smile, "So, we're friends?"

"I wouldn't go that far."

Mark and Bryan were smiling when they walked up to them, then; Nicky and Maddy returned with Shane, who had been on the phone to his family, and Bryan delivered the good news. "We've got a huge arse van for half price. Let's get going, before it gets too late. Traffic's gonna be hell."

"How'd you get half price?" Shane asked, watching as all the other guys loaded themselves down with bags.

"Women love me," Mark said, from below a huge duffel; he winked at Maddy and then led the way to their automobile.