Summary: Jamie Fraser is dreading the upcoming holiday season, but he finds solace in his growing friendship with his neighbor, Claire Beauchamp, who is battling her own grief this year. Together, they decide to help each other through a difficult time and also work to bring a little joy at Christmas to a child in foster care.
For every year that Jamie Fraser could remember, the Christmas season was ushered in with a Fraser family trudge out to the woods to chop down their Christmas tree. In those early years of childhood, there was Willie walking beside him, helping Jamie every time he lost his too-big, hand-me-down boots in the deep snow. And for two more years after that, Jamie could recall slipping his hand into his mother’s as she walked slower than the rest of them, her lips pulled tight in a grim line. She would smile then, just a bit, when she felt his hand in hers, but she was never as happy as before they lost Willie. And then Ma was gone, with the baby too, and every year after that, it was only Da, Jenny, and Jamie making that trip.
Until this year.
This year, there would be no ushering in. No joyful, snowy trek about the grounds of Lallybroch.
This year, instead, everything started with a knock on his door.
He hadn’t seen his neighbor Claire Beauchamp since the day her world collapsed, but she stood on the other side of his door now with a casserole dish in hand ‒ a meal that he guessed she hadn’t made herself, given the glimpse he’d seen of her fridge.
“Claire? Hi. Hallo. This is…”
“I brought beef stew,” she cut in, holding the dish out to him. “As a ‒ a thank you. For the pizza.”
“Christ, ye dinna have tae ‒”
“Full disclosure, I didn’t actually make this, if that makes any difference,” she went on, and Jamie, feeling like a fool for letting her stand there with the dish in hand, took the food and stepped backwards into his flat.
“C’mon in, Claire.”
“A friend from work ‒ yes, thank you ‒ keeps sending me home with home-cooked meals from his wife and they’re starting to pile up in my fridge.” She gestured to the food he still held awkwardly in his hands. “Oh, that’s fresh, though, I just got it tonight and I figured‒” She shrugged. “Well, as a thank you,” Claire said softly.
“Ye really didna have tae…”
But she had. And she was here, in his home, with food. And truth be told, he didn’t really want her to leave. “Stay and eat wi’ me?”
Claire smiled, a small, sad thing, but it was enough to see it on her face again. “Sure. If you’d like.”
Adam’s first real film as a writer and director was in 2015 with When the Starlight Ends, a comedy/drama about a writer who goes through a terrible breakup and decides to rewrite his life the way he wanted it to go.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
I feel like the film industry is full of interesting people! I’ve worked with some legendary actors thus far. Sam Heughan, star of the show Outlander, is a really sweet and genuine person, and was a joy to work with.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
One thing I discovered early on is that there really are very few truly kind and helpful people in the film industry. There are a lot who pretend to be, but really want something in return. An exception for me was the actor Sam Heughan. Sam was the lead in my first real feature film, and heading into production, some major changes came about, which easily could have torpedoed the film. To be clear: the producers not only cut Sam’s pay for the film by like 90%, but they wanted me to break the news to him, with the warning that if he was out, there was no movie. So I called Sam, certain that it was all over, but rather than walking, Sam just said that he’s doing the movie no matter what, and that his fee would at least almost cover his travel and living expenses during production. This level of kindness and loyalty was entirely unwarranted and completely unexpected, and I will never, ever forget it.
“So what you’re telling me is that you’re in love with this woman, you’ve kissed her, but you’re going to be ‘just friends for now.’” John lifted his hands and made air quotes, causing Jamie to roll his eyes. He opened his mouth to offer a retort, but John cut him off. “Oh, and now you — pardon, I mean we — are invited to Christmas at her house with her family. And this invitation happened after you kissed and after you both decided to set up clear boundaries? Do I have that all correct?”
Jamie gave his best friend a withering look and poured them each another dram of whisky. It was late in the evening on December 23; John had volunteered to stay with Willie when Jamie and Claire made their final attempt to obtain the Lego sets early the next morning. “Do ye have such little faith in me, mo charaid, that ye think I canna control myself?”
John pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his hide while chuckling. “Jamie, I’ve known you since we were both in short pants. You may have a lot of people fooled with your tough exterior, but I happen to know that it’s a quite thin, fragile layer. You may have spent years guarding your heart because you had to. But I know that you are led by your heart in everything you do. You’re a fighter by necessity but a lover by nature.”
Jamie grumbled low in his throat and took another sip of his drink.
“I also know that you have been incredibly lonely for a very long time,” John said more gently. “All you have needed all this time is for the right person to come along and see through all the bullshit you hide behind. I think Claire might be that person. And I think that if you feel you can’t be in a relationship with her right now, a verbal agreement to have boundaries is not going to last for very long.”
“What are ye saying, that I shouldna have Claire in my life at all? That’s ridiculous, and ye ken it.” Jamie’s fingers drummed against the table, his temper rising.
John reached across the table and placed his hand over Jamie’s, stilling his friend’s nervous tell. “What I’m saying is, I don’t think you can have it halfway. And I think if you try to, you’re going to end up heartbroken. That’s all I’m saying.”
Tori