Gifted by a Christmas Angel (open to all )

[Harper Bay Marmaduke]

Harper was a festive soul, as they attempted to climb into the tree with a Santa hat on their head, covering their pink mop of hair. "ALL SYSTEMS GO" They shouted at an attempt to get into the nine foot tree. Of course, the pine needles were not at ALL willing to be a victim of this climbing. Harper touched the tree, wrapping their arms around the trunk, wailing loudly as pine needles fell onto them. So Harper was supposed to be helping decorate, not screaming like a child and attempting to climb the tree. The twenty-two year old was by no means ready to decorate, today was a good day, they hadn't thought about or worried about panic attacks, they hadn't exploded on anyone and they hadn't made a nuisance of themself to the nurses by claiming they had a fever, or bronchitis or even AIDS. Hypochondriac was just one of the many things Harper was. Harper was also Gender queer, gender strange, gender neutral, however you wanted to put it. Harper didn't fit into the gender binary, although biologically Harper was male, he deemed himself as neither. An identity was never really developed in Harper's mind.

He knew what he wanted, what he needed and how to get all of it. That's all that mattered to him. Letting go of the tree, and crawling out from underneath it, he scratched at his skin which had been jabbed with countless pine needles, leaving red bumps along his skin, which appalled him. Ordinarily, Harper would have screamed bloody murder about having something, some disease, perhaps even cooties. Harper was wearing a yellow shirt in black writing it read "Voldemort takes over the Ministry of Magic, Snape was on Dumbldore's side, Voldemort can't be killed if Harry's alive. Harry dies but comes back, Voldemort's curse rebounds and kills him. Harry marries Ginny. Ron Marries Hermione. Everything's Okay. The End." A pair of bright pink pants tackled the lower half of his body, and red converse were pretty much glued to his feet. Harper wasn't really the best person to look to if you had a headache, as he'd make it worse. Harper's hazel-green coloured eyes shimmered with awe at the Christmas tree as he bounced up and down, looking at David. "Let me help, OHPLEEEEASE, I want to help!" He cried out, dancing like a child who might have needed to use the bathroom, hopping from one foot to another.

With Harper's help, you could probably give him the easiest task here, and he would still take three hours to do it. Not because he was stupid or couldn't figure it out but because he was pretty much ADHD, meaning, there was no attention span there what so ever. It wasn't diagnosed as ADHD, because he really didn't have all the issues ADHD children were compiled with. He just had the attention span of a dog in a field of squirrels. Harper looked at a nurse with wide, excited eyes. The boy only stood five feet and two inches, but hell, sometimes it worked for the better. "Leeeeemmmeeee Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!" He begged again with pleading eyes. There was no backing down from Harper. The nurse giggled and nodded, handing him a box of ornaments. The Nurses were unpacking a box full of decorations and checking to see that each bulb had a string to hang it up with, strings, on Christmas ornaments. How Queer. Of course they'd have strings because who knew what the suicidal patients would do with the hooks. Actually, everyone knew what they would do with metal hooks... jab them into any part of their skin they could. Then it would be a bloody Christmas, rather then a happy occasion .

Harper bounced around the tree, putting up the decorations on it. "CAN I HAVE A CANDYTHING?" He shouted at a doctor on a ladder. The doctor shook his head and told Harper he wasn't allowed a Candy cane until Christmas, when everyone got one. A sigh led Harper to the nearest box where he found more decorations. All the bulbs were plastic or made of plush materials that's one thing Duke missed about Germany, was the Christmas trees there. It was so lovely there, like the perfect place to be, like Heaven. Harper was dying to go back, desire kept strong, with an unclenching iron fist.

[Alec James Matthews]

Alec had a bad weekend, he’d been forced to work a night shift, making it a double shift for him. He hadn’t wanted to come in today but he needed too. Not only because he needed the money but because they were also short on help today. While they had their usual amount of nurses, the guards seemed to be dwindling slightly. Maybe they were finding other jobs or maybe just something else, but either way, they were leaving and Alec was left to pick up their slack. Double shifts were the bane of Alec’s existence. He needed sleep because he got cranky and mean, but he could deal, it was one weekend. It wasn’t like he hadn’t spent sleepless weekends out before, it was just different here. He wasn’t with friends, well not really. He was working, which sucked at times. He’d much rather be doing something else as a security guard but this is the only place that would take him with his lack of experiences. He was walking the halls though watching the patients to make sure they were all behaving and doing as they needed. It wasn’t that he wanted to force people to do something against their will, but it was for their best interest. Alec walked into the recreation room then to help with the decorating.

Alec saw them decorating the tree and the room itself. Christmas was one of his favorite times of year, but this year was different. He wouldn’t be going home to spend it with his family, he’d be alone for Christmas. The first time he’d ever been alone for Christmas. Maybe he’d invite some friends over or something so he didn’t have to be completely alone. But he still felt that longing for his family and his little sister. She’d have been more then happy to come over and spend it with him but his parents didn’t want her too, besides Alec worked. Alec watched as one of the patients crawled out from under the tree and looked in amazement at it. He couldn’t help but like how some of the people here still acted like little kids, it wasn’t that he liked they had some sort of mental disability but he loved their reactions to the simplest things. More people needed to be like that, they needed to stop and just take things in, fully. He knew the patient as Harper, since he pretty much knew everyone here, but he didn’t really say anything. He walked towards the tree slightly, watching them as they decorated.

Alec decided it was best if he helped instead of just stood there and he went over to start talking to a nurse. While he was talking he started helping though, since he wanted to. He hadn’t had time to get his own tree yet so he hadn’t decorated his own apartment but he’d help out here. He wanted the patients to have a nice Christmas, even if he didn’t. Who knew, maybe he’d even spend his Christmas here if he had nowhere else to go. It wasn’t like he disliked the people here, it was just sort of the job itself. He liked being a cop but he always thought there’d be more action involved. After helping for a little Alec stepped back again just to watch since he knew he needed to watch the patients as well. He knew he could be called away at any minute to help someone else so he didn’t want to get too attached with helping to decorate. Although he loved that part. He leaned against the wall, relaxed but ready to move the moment he needed to, watching the decorating going on. Now if only he had the energy to do this to his own apartment really. Maybe he’d just throw a few things up later if he could. He could listen to Christmas music while he did, and maybe have a drink or two if he was really in the mood. But that would have to wait until he wasn’t working and covering everyone else’s shifts here.

[April Sophia May]

April gazed up at the huge tree before her with a dazed smile on her lips. She twirled her hair around her finger (the hair, which was colored bright bubblegum pink) And smiled. She loved Christmas, but she was very sad also. This was her first Christmas away from home, and she was stuck with a bunch of strangers. If she hadn't gotten into that damn fight in the bar she wouldn't of lost her baby too. She loved the baby so much, but she lost it. She was looking forward to a christmas with her new little girl or boy (Even if she did believe that the baby was a girl, never once thinking that it could be a boy) for this year.

But instead, here she was; babyless, not pregnant and standing in an Asylum. A tears sprung into her eyes as she watched a group of people put decorations on the tree. Instantly, as if a reaction a voice began to speak quietly to April in her mind.

"Maybe you should help, take your mind off things.." The voice told her (Who she had named Kelly, often insisting that Kelly was a real person) quietly, but Kelly was rarely kind to April. April always did what the voice said to her, even if it was a bad thing. Yet, Kelly seemed to care about April in some weird ways.

April reached into the pocket of her shirt (She was dressed in a pink shirt which was to big for her and a large fluffy tutu, with permission of course) And plucked out a pad of pink sticky notes, and a short stubby pencil. April sat on the ground and began to tear one of the sticky notes into the shape of a star; using the pencil to put a hole in it. When she was done, she held it up to admire her handywork from a distance. It was nice, to her. She shuffled forward and attached it to a pine needle on the tree with a smile.

She got to her feet and touched one of the shiny plastic ornaments briefly. She smiled at her reflection. But suddenly, she squealed. Some boy's hands closed around her waist and she was lifted into the air. "Look, I found the angel for the top of the tree!" he said, picking her up slightly off the ground. April squeled, struggling to get out of his grip. "She even has a tutu! She's pretty, she'll go on the tree!"

[Alec James Matthews]

Alec looked around the room again and saw a girl with bright bubblegum pink hair. That was interesting hair, he wondered how she’d decided on that color. Although she was a patient here so he knew it was probably because of some mental disability that she’d come by it. He watched her looking at the tree and tried to remember her name. The long night had screwed with his memories at the moment. After a minute of thinking he knew her name was April, he’d seen her around before. She never talked to anyone, and that was basically all he knew. It wasn’t his job to know their medical conditions. Alec thought she sort of reminded her of his sister, just with bright hair. He looked back around again to make sure no one was causing trouble since his job was to do exactly that. Also to help if someone had made trouble.

When Alec looked back around he saw April had sat down on the floor and had started to tear sticky notes. He watched her hold up the torn sticky note only to see it was in the shape of a star. It was rather creative, he couldn’t help but think. He’d never been able to do anything like that and he figured he’d never be able to. He watched her put it on the tree then, so that’s what she was doing. Helping to decorate the tree in her own way. It would definitely make the tree unique with the star, but it was cool. He just hoped he could decorate his tree with his son this year. They had gotten theirs up really late last year and it sucked because it was all last minute. Although it’d probably be the same this year, but his son never seemed to mind, at least not that he vocalized. He just seemed to like spending time with Alec.

Alec had been lost and thought and looking down when a squeal brought him back to the present and that he was working. He looked up to see one of the other patients had grabbed April and was lifting her into the air saying she could be the angel for the top. He knew this shouldn’t be happening so he pushed himself off the wall and went over to them. ”No she can’t be the angel on top. You need to put her down.” He said in a calm voice so he didn’t freak anyone out. He reached out to get the guy to let her go so he didn’t just drop her and let her get injured. If he needed to he could get him to let go by force but he’d much rather not do that. It could hurt both of them if he wasn’t careful and he didn’t want anyone to get hurt. ”Why don’t you go get the angel from the nurse over there.” He said pointing to a nurse nearby as he still worked on getting him to let her go.