“This is just fooking GREAT. Just bloody FOOKING WONDERFUL!” Kian shouted, kicking at snow as they made their way across a blanketed parking lot. A rather small hotel with several cabins lined up in back, about an hour and a half from the airport, was looming in front of them; there were cars all over the place, covered in thick layers of snow, and the group just hoped that there was a vacancy.

The roads had just been ordered closed, they had heard on the radio, and so they had to pull off at the first exit or they’d be pulled over by police. (At least that’s what the radio said, though Shane figured it was merely a scare tactic for gun-ho people who wanted to risk their lives to get home for Christmas; people such as themselves.) No one, least of all the girls, and apparently Kian, were pleased about this arrangement.

“There’s no need to swear,” Bryan muttered, plowing through the snow that was at least up to his calves. It was reaching up to the girls’ knees as they were a tad shorter. “You’re not helping matters any by being all pissy.”

Kian sneered at him, “I’m cold. I’m wet. I’m not home. What do you want me to do?”

“Shut up?” Shane suggested lightly, pushing open the lobby door; all seven of them entered, stomping snow off their boots and shoes and growling obscenities to one another. There was an elderly gentleman behind the counter with his eyes closed, who didn‘t move when they entered.

“How do people sleep standing up?” Samantha wondered aloud.

“Cows do,” Kian replied, a grin on his lips; Samantha ignored him.

“Excuse me,” Mark said to the man. “Excuse me! SIR!” The man jolted awake and stared at them all, blinking several times. “Hi. Sorry. We need rooms.”

“We haven’t got any,” the man replied, his face stoic.

“No rooms?” Mark squeaked. “But we can’t be on the roads; it’s like a blizzard out there, and it’s only going to get worse, according to the radio. So, can’t you help us out? Isn’t there a broom closet we could stay in?”

“I’d rather stay in a broom closet than the van,” Maddy remarked. “It’s so bloody cramped in there, that I swear to God I’m numb all over from Kian sitting on me.”

“I wasn’t even near you,” Kian laughed. “I was in the WAYYYYY back.”

“Yeah, with me,” Samantha mumbled, “So, shut up. At least you were sitting near someone you could STAND to be near.”

Kian rolled his eyes, but didn’t comment. Nicky, being the peacemaker, went to stand in between them in case a fight broke out.

“What about those cabins?” Bryan asked the man, ignoring the bickering.

“We got one of those vacant, but they’ve got fireplaces for heat. It’ll be cold, but they’re stocked with wood, so if you keep the fire going, it should be okay.“ He yawned and continued, “They’ve got a kitchen, a bedroom, a bathroom and a living room with a pull-out sofa and some chairs.”

“And a TV?” Nicky asked hopefully; the man laughed and nodded.

“Normally,” the man continued, his voice hoarse, “We only get hunters staying in those cabins.” He eyed the group of them, “And there are an awful lot of you for one cabin. They’re right small, they are.”

“It’ll be okay,” Shane said, “We just need someplace to stay.”

The man nodded and pulled some forms out; he handed them to Bryan, who began filling them in. “We got some food you can purchase in the little store over there that my wife runs. She’ll be out in back, sleeping, most likely, but if you holler, she’ll come out.” He jabbed a thumb to the left, where a door stood that was marked ‘Grocery.’

“There’s food here?” Nicky asked excitedly. “Thank GOD.”

Bryan was elected to pay while the others shopped; after about an hour the group of seven were trekking through the snow to the back of the hotel, and piling into the small cabin.

“There’s only one bedroom,” Mark stated, dropping some bags in the middle of the floor; everyone else followed suit, and soon the living room had a rather large pile of bags blocking the way to the kitchen. “I guess the girls should probably get it.”

Samantha began rubbing her arms for warmth, as her jacket didn’t seem to be very warm. “I would rather stay in the living room. Why don’t we just draw straws?”

Maddy rolled her eyes, but Nicky seemed enthusiastic, “Yeah, and the two or three people with the short straws can have the bedroom, and the other four will have to camp out in here.”

“Sure, but what to use for straws?” Shane asked, shaking his head and jumping over the bags to head for the kitchen.

Kian turned to a still shivering Samantha, “Here, take my jacket. It’s down, it’ll be warmer.”

She shook her head, “No, thanks.”

“Samantha, it’s freezing in here.” Just as he spoke, Bryan was piling wood into the fireplace and stealing Kian’s lighter from his back pocket.

“You can call me Sam,” she said regretfully, pulling his jacket on; he nodded, seemingly pleased.

Maddy cleared her throat loudly, “I’m going to go put all the groceries in the kitchen, so if you two will ignore me and continue flirting, I’ll just squeeze by you.”

“Maddy,” Samantha stated, sounding angry; Maddy ignored her and strutted into the kitchen, her nose in the air. “I’m not flirting with him, for Gods sake, he hates me.”

Nicky began laughing hysterically and had to allow Mark to hold him up, “Hates you?”

“Shut up, Nicky,” Kian hissed angrily.

Mark let go of Nicky and headed for the kitchen, apparently not wanting to be a part of the conversation any longer. “That couldn’t be FURTHER from the truth,” Nicky continued, laughing hysterically.

Kian hissed louder this time, “SHUT UP, NICKY.”

Samantha’s eyes widened, “What is he going on about?”

Kian grabbed Nicky‘s arm and began dragging him to the kitchen, “Absolutely nothing. He must be delirious. Come, Nix, let’s get you some water. And perhaps a SEDATIVE.”

“We don’t have any sedatives,” Nicky was saying as Kian closed the kitchen door behind them.

“What is wrong with him?” Samantha asked Bryan, who was now standing up to admire his work with the fire.

“Who, Nicky? It’s probably just the snow. He gets like this when there’s snow. Like a little kid.”

“No, I meant Kian,” she laughed.

“Oh, Kian.” Bryan tapped his chin slowly and turned towards the kitchen before looking back at her, “He’s just Kian.” He shrugged and then yelled, “OY! Lads! And lady! Bring out the straws! I’ve got the fire started!”

Samantha plopped down onto the lone sofa and watched as the rest of their group marched into the room; Nicky took the seat beside her, giving her a look that clearly showed he was extremely excited. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why, but that was Nicky; always cheerful even in horribly bad situations.

After Shane had passed all the straws around, they revealed their lengths; as it turned out, Maddy and Mark had the shortest two, and would be given the bedroom.

Maddy looked shocked, to say the least; Mark, however, looked quite happy as he began loading their bags into the other room. He enlisted Nicky’s help, whether or not he wanted any part of it.

Samantha sighed and snuggled deeper into Kian’s jacket, which, surprisingly, was remarkably warm.

“I’m starving,” Bryan muttered, sitting beside her and sliding an arm across her shoulders. “Do you cook, Sam?”

“Cook? Sure. Cereal. Macaroni and cheese. Scrambled eggs. Toast. Oh, and I make fantastic grilled cheese sandwiches.”

Kian laughed, “That sounds like me.”

Bryan’s eyebrows rose, and he retracted his arm, “Hey, Kiano. Sit down here next to Sam and plan a meal. I’ll go see what Maddy’s doing. Sheen. Let’s go.” He stood up and patted the seat, looking sternly at Kian; Samantha shrugged, and so Kian dropped down beside her, though making sure to leave some room between them, where Bryan had not.

“Where?” Shane asked, sounding curious. “It’s blizzarding outside.”

“Blizzarding is not a word,” Nicky replied, chuckling as he came back into the room; he’d left Mark on his own, bouncing up and down on the bed to check the springs.

“Kitchen,” Bryan mumbled, pulling on his two friends. “MARK! We’re going into the KITCHEN!” Mark came out of the bedroom, looking confused, but soon followed the other three.

Kian relaxed against the couch and turned to look at a very uncomfortable looking Samantha, “So, your sister’s just had a baby?”

“Er, yeah. My older sister, Sarah. She lives in London, but she and her husband went home to Ireland to have the baby a couple months ago, so they‘d be there for Christmas.”

“What’d she have?”

Samantha continued to stare straight ahead, looking out the window as the snow cascaded down from the sky and was blown around by the violent winds. “A girl. About three weeks ago.”

“Why didn’t you leave the tour to go home then?”

“I can’t just leave the tour,” she chuckled. “You’ve never read our contracts, I see.”

Kian shrugged, “No, why?”

“We’ll be fired, and most likely fined, if we leave in the middle of a tour.”

“If you had talked to me about it, I would have worked it out so you could be home.”

“I don’t think you could have done anything,” she turned towards him, “But thanks anyway.” She noticed for the first time, his fuzzy black sweater in contrast to his blue eyes and his worn jeans and boots; then she remembered she was still wearing his jacket. “Do you want your jacket back? You must be freezing.”

“Nah, I’m fine.” Kian smiled warmly at her, “It’s nice of you to sit with me, and talk, and not slap me across the face. Which is probably no less than what I deserve.”

Samantha cocked her head to the side and peered at him from under her eyelashes, “Though you were a bastard, and are on lots of occasions, an arse, I don’t want to slap you. At least not today.” She added as an afterthought, “Unless you say something rude to me.”

“I won’t,” he replied quickly. “I won’t screw it up, I don’t want us to not be on speaking terms. God only knows how long we’ll be stuck here.”

She looked back towards the window, “Hopefully not very long.”

“Yeah,” Kian paused, gathering his words, “Though if I had to be stranded in a cabin, in a blizzard with anyone, I’d want it to be you.”

“Is this that charm the newspapers are always talking about?”

“I dunno; are they always talking about my charm?”

Samantha giggled slightly, “Yes, it‘s rather annoying, really.”

“Only because you’ve never witnessed it first hand.”

“That is probably why, yeah.”

“Until now, of course,” he grinned widely at her.

“Don’t sweet talk me, Egan.” She stood up, which made the grin fall off his face. “I’m going to go see how the kitchen folk are doing.”

“I’ll come with you,” he jumped up beside her; she shrugged and led him into the kitchen, where some sort of fight was going on.

Nicky was holding a huge eggplant over the sink; he had a very odd look in his eyes, “I will drop this thing in the disposal if you don’t promise you won’t use it.”

Samantha let out a rather large laugh, “Nix, what are you DOING? Holding an eggplant hostage?”

“That’s exactly what he’s doing,” Mark said blandly from the kitchen table, where he sat with Bryan and Shane. Maddy was standing a few feet away from Nicky, trying to coax the eggplant away from him. “Maddy wanted to make eggplant pasta or some such concoction, but Nix hates eggplant.”

Nicky yelled out, “DESPISES!” and nearly dropped the eggplant in the sink; Maddy gasped loudly and ran towards him, attempting to wrestle it from his grasp.

“Did you know that the mobiles don’t work out here?” Shane asked above the scuffle of Nicky and Maddy; he was watching his cell phone to see if there was any sort of signal, as if there was not a fight to the deaths going on in front of him.

“Probably because of the snow,” Mark replied blankly; he stood up suddenly, “MADDY! Just let him have it!”

Maddy scowled, “Never! Even if he won’t eat it, I can!”

Nicky shook his head, “NO! You can’t contaminate us all!”

“YOU GUYS!” Samantha yelled suddenly. “I’ll make guacamole and we can have Mexican. I know you LOOOOOOVE Mexican, Nix. Okay?”

Nicky’s eyes brightened, “WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” He tossed the eggplant to Maddy, but not before sticking his tongue out; Maddy retaliated by sticking her tongue out as well.

“This is going to be a bloody long blizzard,” Bryan muttered, half laughing.