Advent Calendar - 5th December 2008
Poinsettia, or not
By Leesa Perrie
Season 4. After ‘Tabula Rasa’, before ‘Quarantine’
Thank you to Jayne Perry for the beta-reading.
Rodney wasn’t one for picking up subtle hints, something Katie knew well enough, but he had surprised her this time.
“Oh, that’s…really nice,” she said, looking at the plant before her.
“Yes, well, you said you missed having a poinsettia for
Christmas, and, well, I couldn’t really get one requisitioned
from Earth and I’m not sure they would allow me to bring one back
myself, but when I saw this on M3X-361 I thought that maybe it might do
instead.”
She smiled at him kindly. He was so proud of himself, both for
remembering and thinking of it, which was very sweet and she really
didn’t want to upset him.
“Thank you, that’s really nice.”
“Good, good. So, dinner?”
“Yes, I’d like that. I just need to get this settled in.”
“Sure, right, half an hour?”
“Sure.”
He grinned awkwardly before heading out of the botany lab.
Katie looked at the plant before her and sighed, before locking it into
the secure plant safe next to the other thirty such-like plants –
all destined for incineration the next day.
She hadn’t the heart to tell him they were one of the most common
plants on their new home world, nor that they reproduced worse than
weeds.
Or that they were carnivorous, one particularly hungry specimen having attacked Dr Parrish just that morning.
It was, after all, the thought that counts.
The End
