Notes: Sammy and Mari – I see your individual strength and generosity in so many ways and it is inspiring. For that and for all you do each and every day, thank you!
Readers and REAL McRollers – your enthusiasm and support are uplifting and I cannot thank you enough for being such an integral part of the REAL World.
Enjoy!
'Tis the Season (A McRoll in the REAL World Story)
Steve, Catherine, and Danny were gathered around the smart table discussing a file when Kono and Chin returned from their afternoon at the Prosecuting Attorney's office.
"Hey, how'd it go?" Steve asked as the two joined them at the table.
"As expected," Chin said.
"But quickly," Kono added. "Frank wants to move fast on this one."
"Said there are just a few more depositions to arrange," Chin said. "I think he wants to get as much done as possible before the holidays."
"Makes sense," Danny said with a nod.
"Speaking of holidays . . ." Kono began. "We were talking on the way back . . ."
"I don't think we've thanked you guys enough for covering," Catherine said, putting a hand on Kono's arm and looking between her and Chin. "Not only during Thanksgiving, but with us going to New Jersey after Christmas."
"Actually, that's what we wanted to talk to you guys about," Chin said.
"What's up?" Steve asked.
Chin and Kono exchanged a look.
"We don't think you and Catherine should leave on the 27th," Chin said.
It was Steve and Catherine's turn to share a look.
"What do you mean?" Catherine asked.
"We think you should go on the 23rd," Kono said with a smile. "With Danny and Grace."
Both Steve and Catherine began speaking at once.
"Oh, no, you guys–" Catherine started.
"We're not gonna leave you guys to cover that long," Steve said. "We can't do that."
"Sure you can," Kono said.
Chin nodded. "Consider it a Christmas gift."
Catherine continued her protest. "That's so generous, but really, it's not fair to you."
"We knew you were going to say that," Kono said, folding her arms.
"Look," Chin said. "When you get right down to it, we're really lucky because most of our family is here. So we saw them at Thanksgiving, and we'll see them at Christmas, and-"
"And we get to see them pretty much whenever we want," Kono continued. "But you guys have family all over, not just here on the island. It was so great that you got to see some of your family for Thanksgiving, now go see some more for Christmas. I mean, how many holidays have you had where that wasn't even an option?"
Steve and Catherine were silent.
"I'll insist if I have to," Chin said.
Steve sighed. "I don't know, what if–"
"What's the problem?" Danny asked with a chuckle. "Do you think Santa won't be able to find you in Jersey?"
Steve rolled his eyes. "I wasn't-"
"What are you worried about anyway?" Danny said, smirking. "You're just getting coal in your stocking."
"Hey, I've been very good this year."
Danny scoffed. "On what scale?" He rolled his eyes. "Actually, you'd probably like a stocking full of coal. Bet you learned 101 ways to use it in SuperSEAL school."
"Well, now that you mention it–"
Danny waved a hand. "Please. Spare me."
Chin and Kono laughed.
Catherine still looked unsure. "But that's four extra days. I don't want to wear out our welcome at Nonna's," she said, glancing at Danny.
"Nonna will be ecstatic and you know it," he said.
"You talked to Grover weeks ago," Chin said to Steve. "He's already offered his team as backup if we need anything."
"So you're out of excuses," Kono said.
"Yeah, just say 'Okay' and 'Thank you,' " Chin said with a broad smile.
There was a pause as Steve and Catherine looked at each other, then both chuckled.
"Okay," Steve said and clasped Chin's arm gratefully.
"And thank you," Catherine said with a laugh as she hugged Kono.
"Thanks," Steve echoed.
Danny grinned at his friends.
"Just wait till Grace hears."
Catherine and Steve were walking toward the exit at Food Land when Catherine's phone buzzed.
After pulling it from her pocket, she glanced down at the screen and smiled. "That's the third text from Grace."
Steve grinned and said, "Yeah, I got a couple, too."
"She's a little excited."
"She's not the only one," he said, looking at her with a smirk.
"Oh, I'm not a little excited, I am a lot excited." She nudged his arm with her elbow. "And hey, who just told Jirou?"
Steve shrugged unapologetically. "What's wrong with that?"
She cocked an eyebrow. "Without even being asked?"
He chuckled and acknowledged her point with a tilt of his head.
They walked past the lighted Christmas tree near the door, and Steve glanced at it before they stepped outside and headed for the truck.
"Hey, are we putting up a tree?" he asked.
She looked a little surprised. "Do you want to put up a tree?"
"I don't know . . ." he said with a shrug. "Might be kind of nice."
"Yeah, but now we're not going to be here for Christmas."
"I know, but we could still put one up."
"Well, we've got that little tabletop one from last year . . ."
He made a face. "We got that at the last minute because Danny and Grace were coming over for brunch on Christmas and we wanted to have it for Grace." He shrugged again. "We should get a decent sized tree this year."
They reached the truck and parted to walk to the opposite sides of the vehicle. Opening the back doors, they deposited their grocery bags.
"Okay," Catherine continued, looking across the seat at him. "But if we're gonna do it, we should do it soon. It's already the 10th and now we're leaving for New Jersey on the 23rd. And that's not even two weeks so we shouldn't get a real one."
He nodded his agreement. Motioning at the bags, he said, "There's nothing perishable in here. Why don't we stop off at Lowe's or something and see what they've got?"
"Okay." She smiled at him. "Let's go get a Christmas tree."
Two hours later, the lit tree stood in the living room. They had moved the furniture around to make space, and Cammie had watched with interest as Steve and Catherine first assembled and then placed strings of white lights on the tree.
Catherine had gone out to the garage, and Steve stood with his phone pressed between his ear and shoulder as he adjusted the branches on the tree.
"No, Danny, we didn't get a 'giant' tree. It's nine feet."
Cringing, he reached up and held the phone against his shoulder so he could pull his head away from the volume of Danny's response.
Steve straightened a few of the lights and put his ear back to the phone. "What? I'm gonna get a tree that's barely taller than me? Come on."
Catherine came back into the room carrying a cardboard box.
"All right," Steve said. "Cath's back. I gotta go." He paused. "Yeah, talk to you later."
He ended the call and pocketed his phone, turning to Catherine as she spoke.
"Here's the box of ornaments we found when we were cleaning out the garage a couple months ago," she said.
She set the box on the floor and noticed a smaller box at his feet.
"What's that?" she asked.
He smiled and picked it up.
"Open it and find out."
She took the box, feigning an accusatory look. "What did you do?"
He stayed silent, watching with a small smile as she opened the box.
Catherine looked inside and gasped.
She looked up at him and then back inside the box. Sitting quickly, she placed the box in front of her and reached inside. She pulled out an ornament box and opened it, holding up the small baby carriage with "Baby's First Christmas 1978" stitched on the blanket inside.
Steve sat beside her, his face full of affection as he watched her.
"After we found that box in the garage, I called your mom and asked her to bring some of your favorite ornaments with her at Thanksgiving," he said.
She stared at him, her eyes brimming with tears.
"This is why you wanted to put up a tree," she said quietly.
"This is why I wanted to put up a tree."
She put a hand on his cheek and drew him close for a kiss.
"Thank you," she whispered against his lips.
He kissed her again then sat back, nodding toward the box.
"Let's see what else you got in there."
"You, too," she said, reaching over and pulling the other box toward him. "These were the only ones we found so they have to be the ones your dad chose to keep."
"We didn't use a lot of actual ornaments," Steve said, opening the box. "Just a lot of red and green balls, you know? But I don't see any of them here."
"And they weren't in the garage, either. He must have felt the ornaments in this box were the important ones."
Steve pulled out an ornament wrapped in old paper towel. He unwrapped it and held up a small train with "Son" painted on one of the cars. The corner of his mouth rose in a smile as he looked at it.
"This was always my favorite," he said.
Catherine smiled.
"Well, when I was young, anyway," he corrected. "When I was a little older, I liked . . ." his voice trailed off as he set the train down and dug around, finally pulling out a small box. He opened it and pulled out a Santa Claus in a red football jersey and helmet.
Catherine laughed with an amused eye roll. "Of course."
"St. Nick's got pretty good form, huh?"
"Absolutely."
"Your turn," he nodded toward the box in front of her.
Catherine unwrapped a pair of Victorian carolers. Her smile was bittersweet as she looked at him.
"Aunt Louise got me this the year she took me to see a production of A Christmas Carol at this little theater in her town." Her gaze drifted back to the ornament. "Just the two of us went. It was a really special night."
He reached over and squeezed her leg lightly. She gave him a grateful smile and set the ornament down gently.
Reaching back in the box she pulled out a flat, colorful piece of plastic with a loop of yarn through the hole at the top.
Steve looked at it and smiled.
"Is that a Catherine Rollins' original?" he asked, reaching out and holding the edges for a better look.
"That does appear to be my signature at about age seven or eight."
"I like how the border matches the angel's purple wings," he said with a teasing smile.
She grinned."Yeah, that's nice, isn't it?"
"What are the yellow blotches everywhere?"
Catherine squinted at the picture.
"That is a very good question," she said.
Steve tapped it with his nail. "What is it? Plastic?"
"It's a shrinky dink," she said, smiling.
His brow knitted. "What?"
"There were these plastic sheets and you'd color them and then shrink them in the oven."
He gave her an incredulous look.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. It shrinks and the plastic gets really hard but the color and shape of the design doesn't change so you've got an instant ornament."
"All right, what else homemade do you have in there?" he asked.
Catherine shifted the items in the box. "Ah, here we go." She pulled out a gold-colored plastic oval frame. "My first cross stitch project."
She showed him the ornament which featured a small teddy bear doing a handstand with the word "Noel" above his feet.
"All of about two hundred stitches," she said.
"How old were you when you made that?"
"Maybe seven," she said. "Mom taught me, but I never really kept up with it. Like I've said, you're better with a needle than I am." She reached in the box for another ornament and handed it to him. "You should probably hang this guy up."
He opened the flap and chuckled as he pulled out a snowman with a thimble on his head.
"Oh, oh!" Catherine said as she uncovered a flat wooden Donald Duck ornament.
Steve laughed. "Why am I not surprised?"
"No, no, here's the best part . . . watch."
She pulled the string at the base of the ornament and Donald's legs and arms moved.
He smiled at the delight on her face.
Catherine sighed happily, her hands dropping to her lap, and looked at him.
"Thank you so much for this, Steve." She shook her head. "I can't imagine a more perfect set of ornaments for our tree."
He smiled.
"I know there are more in there," she said, nodding toward the box in front of him.
He pulled out a red apple ornament with careful cursive and the year 1990 written in black marker.
"What does it say?" she asked, reaching out and turning it for a better look. " 'Keep music in your heart,' " she read.
"Mary's piano teacher used to make those for all her students."
"Mary took piano lessons?"
"Yeah, she hated 'em," he said with a smile. "But she loved the teacher. Mrs. B. She was one of the recess monitors at Mary's elementary school. She actually didn't live too far from here. I used to have to walk Mary down to her house for her lesson, then walk her back after." He smiled softly at the memory.
"You know, maybe we could take some of those ornaments when we go visit. Mary might want to show Joan someday."
"Yeah," he said, nodding slowly. "Yeah, she might."
He gave her a small smile and then his attention was drawn to another ornament in the box. He unpackaged it carefully and pulled out a golden glass ball with "Dad" on the red and green plaid stripe around the middle.
Steve held it carefully.
"I picked this out when I was five," he said quietly.
He turned it around to show her how the glass had broken at the back.
"We were decorating the tree one year and Mary dropped it. But Dad wouldn't throw it away. He hung it up anyway." His voice grew distant. "And the year after that and the year after that."
Catherine placed her hand on his leg.
"Because it was special to him," she said.
He looked at her and smiled softly.
She returned his smile and squeezed his leg.
"Let's hang that one first," she said.
After they had hung all the ornaments in both boxes, Steve and Catherine stood back to look at the tree.
Steve had his arm draped over Catherine's shoulder and her arms were folded.
"It doesn't look a little bare?" she wondered.
He shrugged.
"Maybe a little," he admitted. "But we'll keep adding to it. A few more ornaments each year."
She smiled at the thought.
"Now, one last ornament," he said and took a step back.
"I thought we got 'em all," she said, looking at the empty boxes on the floor.
"This is a new one," he said as he walked into the dining room.
He retrieved a small bag from the sideboard and brought it back to the living room. He took an ornament box from the bag and handed it to her.
"I saw it the other day and couldn't resist," he said with a smile.
"Awww," she said, laughing. "It looks like Cammie."
At the sound of her name, Cammie rose and wandered closer.
Catherine took the ornament out and handed the box back to Steve. She knelt by the dog.
"What do you think, pretty girl?" She put a hand on Cammie's back and showed her the ornament. "Should we put this on the tree?"
Cammie gave a woof in reply.
Smiling, Catherine stood. Steve handed her an ornament hook and put his hand on her back as she hung the new ornament on the tree.
She stepped back and he pulled her closer to his side.
"Well?" he asked.
She smiled.
"Now it's perfect."
Hope you enjoyed!
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