It was the day before Christmas and Paige was miserable.

"I knew I shouldn't have bought everything online," Paige grumbled to herself as she slipped on a pair of oven mitts as if she where going to war in preparation to deal with the turkey in the oven, "One day shipping is a joke."

Opening the oven Paige was ambushed by a puff of smoke to the face followed by the overwhelming smell of charcoal. Coughing and waving the smoke away with a towel she opened the window allowing the smoke to flee the house and welcome in the cold winter air.

Paige sighed as she leaned her forehead on the side of the window frame.

She normally liked Christmas. Right behind Valentine's Day and the Fourth of July, Christmas was her favorite holiday. But with just one hour before the Christmas party nothing was going right. The turkey was toast, her cat totaled her tree, and there was still no news on the delay of her husband's flight home. So far her only saving grace was that her parents had insisted on hosting the Christmas party at their place and that she didn't have to go over there until later. But later was becoming sooner, and then with the package with all her presents still having not arrived she was seriously considering calling in sick.

As she was contemplating this her phone lit up vibrating to a perky rendition to Away In A Manger that was far to cheerful for her fowl mood to handle at the moment. With a frustrated growl she threw off the oven mitts onto the counter and swiped up the phone.

"Hello?" she asked with barely concealed annoyance.

"How are you bookends?"

She perked up at the sound of the absured nickname on the other end of the line. Immediately all of Paige's grievances melted away.

"Jensen!"

Ever since her husband had gotten a promotion Jensen had been traveling for work more frequently then either of them had liked. But the pay was good and it allowed them to keep the house of their dreams (which currently smelled like a campfire ate a turkey but he didn't need to know that).

"How are you?'

"I'm good. I'm good," he kept his voice light in the way that he normally did when was preparing to tell her something he knew she wouldn't like.

Paige frowned, "Is everything okay? I thought you where supposed to arrive an hour ago. "

"About that," she could hear his wince over the phone, "My flight home got canceled."

"What?" Paige's outcry startled her cat into jumping off the kitchen counter.

"I know," Jensen huffed out a tired sigh, "there was a massive snowstorm that came out of nowhere. And with the way things look... I might not be able to make it back until the thirty first."

"...Oh," Paige sat down on the kitchen bar stool covering her face with the hand that wasn't holding the phone.

"I'll try to make it back as soon as I can but I can't make any promises."

"I see... You know what I have to go,"

"Paige wait-" she hung up on him.

Dropping the phone onto the counter Paige put her head in her hands. Of all of the disastrous things to happen today this one took the cake. It's been months since she's seen him in person and to think she might not see him again until after the new year?

She couldn't let that happen. There has to be something she could do.

Looking out the opened window her neighbor's car pulled up to their house.

Well. If he couldn't come home to her for Christmas, why couldn't she go to him?

I can't afford a flight, especially not now.

But it doesn't need to be a flight?

The idea popped into Paige's head, seemingly harmless, seemingly impossible. But then, her mind started racing with possibilities. Her fingers tapped vigorously on her phone, mistyping the simplest of words. Her most recent searches included:

possible to travell to utah from cali in 1 night car?

No, it is not.

Do you need to stuff a turkey?

She hated stuffing.

She groaned in frustration, running a hand through her messy hair. So what if Google thought her goal was physically unachievable? She stood, determination gleaming in her gaze. She'd just have to prove Google wrong.

"Ricko, c'mere boy!" she beckoned her cat over with a crooked finger, who was previously scratching his post. He instinctively leapt into her arms and nestled into her embrace. She stroked his head like an evil villainess from a stereotypical action film would've.

"Ready to travel?"

Paige slammed the front door behind her and hurried out to her car, holding Ricko in her arms.

"If Jensen can't come to me, then I'll go to him," she though as she slipped the key from her pocket and put it in the ignition. The familiar hum of the car starting up, snapped Paige out of her fantasy.

"How am I supposed to drive from California to Utah in only one day?" she muttered to herself, "Maybe I can make it if I don't drive though," she thought.

Her phone appeared in her hands for the second time in five minutes as she googled the nearest train stations and times of departure.

"Yes!" she yelled in joy as a search result came up. There was a train leaving for Utah in ten minutes. Paige tossed her phone onto her passenger seat and stomped on the gas pedal. "I am making it to that train no matter what," she thought to herself.

Pretty soon, she was at the train station with only five minutes until the train left.

"One ticket to Utah!" she yelled to the conductor.

"Just in time!" he responded, "That was my last ticket to sell.

Paige quickly handed over her money and boarded the train. She was going to make it to Utah after all and celebrate Christmas with Jensen. Just as she started relaxing though, a sudden thought occurred to her. She had forgotten Ricko in her car!