Hi!  The second chapter and here we go again. I know that probably the title says too much, but the best is still before you (and me;)) I still don't know how to turn it around and it is almost clear...

That day went smoothly in silence and Sam didn't turn around once to sit in Jupiter at the action, but he kind of missed this feeling, so before his shift ended Sam checked if anyone was wanting something from him and he sat on passager seat inside Jupiter.
"It is pretty good to be back, isn't it, Jupiter?" He asked the vehicle rethorically. But after so many years it hadn't felt weird for Sam to talk with thosse vehicles around firestation. They felt as well as family member as any other employee. But for Sam Jupiter was the most special of them all, sure he liked Mercury and it was clear for everyone that the quad is mostly Sam's, but his appearance didn't change what Sam felt before if it went for big red truck. Jupiter was always there and he heard probably most of the stories that went through this walls. "I wonder how Venus feels about her new driver?" Venus was special for Penny and it was no wonder that after that event the firefighters had a huge problem choosing who will be sitting after Venus' wheel from then on.

"Arnold took this place" someone said after the window. At first Sam thought he misheard it, but when Elvis climbed up and sat next to his friend it became clear. "Come on, Sam, I know why you weren't around for so long. It wasn't only an injury, was it?" Elvis tried to force a talk, but unsuccessfully.

"I don't want to talk about it now, not yet" Sam complained and was about to jumped out of Jupiter, but Ellie stepped in and blocked his way.

"Here and now, no backtalk" Ellie forced climbing up and putting Sam in the seat between her and Elvis.

"I needed to become fit enough for work" Sam muttered an answer, but he was unlucky to tell it to two people who now knew him the best, of course after Charlie and Station Officer Steele.

"Three weeks, Sam! Three weeks without any word, any message, any sign of life from you. This loss was huge, but I supposse not big enough to left us wandering if we have to loose another team member" Ellie began to loose her brakes.

"Ellie's right, Sam. If it was not for Charlie, I really would have thought you cried out" Elvis agreed sadly.

"What was I suppossed to do, Elvis?" Sam turned around in annoyence. "I loved her. Now even sound of her name hurts me" he confessed at the edge of crying. World wasn't fair before Christmas for him, never in his life. When he was a little boy, his mother, then at college, his father and now, this year, his best friend.

They spent the rest of Sam's shift sitting in silence in Jupiter, visiting from time to time by Jerry Lee with a tea or Radar who stubbornly wanted to pick their attention to something. Rather someone, as Sam noticed when he ended his shift. He decided he would take Radar for a walk and instead the dalmatian took Sam for a walk towards a postman with strangely shaping box in his hand.

"Are you Samuel Jones?" He asked the air, reading from his paper.

"Yes, I am" Sam answered briefly.

"Two boxes for you. Here you are. Thank you" he turned around and walked away, leaving Sam with a normal box and with the strange one. Sam, exhausted, went back to his house and sat in the living room, staring at two boxes laying on the table.

"I didn't expect any presents that early, Radar" he complained when the dog continued to stroked him by his paw. "Why you so desperately want me to open it?" Sam asked when Radar even bit him, but the dog only looked at him in the answer in the way like he wanted to say you need to find out by opening them.
So Sam was forced to opened two boxes. First the normal looking one. It was a paper laying on a present box, wrapped in a blue paper and with little red star with Sam's name. He felt like tears began to fill his eyes, because it was without a doubt Penny's wavy handwriting style. They wrote report together so many times that Sam knew her handwriting style perfectly well.
With trembling hands he took a box on his knees and he slightly opened the paper it was wrapped  to took a second paper out. It was written in someone's else style, but the first words already showed Sam he knew it.

Dear Sam,
Maybe you don't remember me, but I remember you in very good light, that's why I am sending this present to you now. My niece left it in me and Penny wanted to pick it up that day, but she couldn't and you probably know why. [here a couple of tears signs]
Penny told me it had become a tradition that you two give each other a Christmas present every year. So I wanted to make it last time, to honour her life.
Penny's aunt
Teresa Brown

It was so typical of Penny to think about others first before herself. That's what made her such an amazing firefighter and a friend at the same time.
But it hurted Sam so deep, if last scar already somehow healed, it opened again. So he went and put the present under a little Christmas tree in the corner of the room Sarah and James decorated few days ago to cheer their uncle up.

Sam thought it was already after the trouble, but Radar not so gently remainded him there was still something left.
"You really have to, Radar?" Sam asked annoyed and reach for strange shaped present. It was wrapped in tectural paper and it wasn't sign anywhere. "I'm sure it is from Ellie or Elvis, I'm not gonna open it, boy" Sam refused, but Radar had something else in his doggy mind, so he jumped with his front paws on table and opened the paper on his own. "Radar!"