Cookies
By: MysticFantasy
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Disclaimer: (I own no part of this movie or the characters in it.)
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Eight year old Jack Mercer watched in wonder as his mother rolled out raw cookie dough on the table on top of a large piece of ceramic paper. She was smoothing it out with a rolling pin while quietly humming a christmas song. Once she was done rolling it out, she brought out two cookie sheets and placed them on the table before grabbing a plastic container that had dozens of different shaped cookie cutters.
"Here Jackie. Why don't you pick some out and I'll show you how to cut the dough with them." Evelyn offered setting the container in front of the small boy. She noticed the slightly nervous look on her youngest son's face as he started to look through the container holding the cookie cutters.
Helping bake and cook was something new to Jack and Evelyn wanted to do something that would make him more comfortable now that he's part of the family. Only a few times, she'd caught him watching her cook and make sweets and she had decided to try to get through to him with that.
Sure enough, it had started to work. Jack was coming out his shell a little more each time Evelyn asked him to help but he still hadn't spoken to any of them yet. She still had trouble believing that anyone would hurt such a sweet little boy.
Evelyn smiled when she saw the first cutter Jack pulled out of the container. A winged angel.
"That one's my favorite to use." she said gaining Jack's curious eyes. "I always love to put sprinkles on it once it's baked. I can even show you how we can paint them."
She saw a ghost a smile appear on Jack's face and smiled herself. A smile was the rarest thing to see on Jack and Evelyn considered it a great victory if she managed to get him to smile even a little.
Jack picked out a few more cutters and then Evelyn began to show him how to cut the dough with them.
"Press down hard. Move it around a bit to make sure that it cuts all the way through. Now bring it up."
Jack followed Evelyn's instructions carefully and when he brought up the cutter he saw the cut dough inside it. He placed it on one of the two cookie sheets and then grabbed a star shapped cutter.
Evelyn smiled when she saw Jack become less tense as he continued to cut out different christmas related shapes from the dough. She could see an amused gleam in his eyes and she could even see a faint smile start to appear on his face.
"Hey Ma. Hey Jackie." Bobby greeted coming through the back door.
Evelyn noticed Jack drop the dough from the wreath cutter and lightly frowned when she saw him return to his frightened state.
Bobby was the one Jack was scared of the most out of her sons. She could easily see why Jack was scared of Bobby and she had tried to convince him that he had nothing to be scared of. But nothing seemed to sink in.
"Hey cookies." Bobby mused as Jack sank into his chair. "Can I have the left over dough Ma?"
"We'll see." Evelyn answered and heard a knock at the front door. "Bobby, can you stay with Jack and help him finish cutting the cookies?"
"Sure." Bobby answered and sat in the chair his mother had been occupying. He looked over to Jack and saw the young boys eyes were to the floor and he was as far back in his chair as possible.
Bobby did feel bad that Jack was so scared of him. He wanted Jack to like him, trust him, but he didn't really have a way to do that. He looked over to the remaining dough that had different shapes in it.
"So which one is your favorite Jackie?" Bobby asked looking through the container. He lightly frowned when he didn't get an answer but continued to try to make a bond with the newest Mercer. "I always liked this little dinosaur. I wish they would make one like a hockey stick. Think you'd like that one Jackie?"
Bobby saw Jack look up at him for the first time that day and saw him give a light shrug.
"Did mom show you her favorite?" Bobby asked holding the angel shapped cutter. He saw Jack nod and he felt a little better thinking he was making a better impression on his new little brother.
His first impression hadn't been the best and it was a reason why Jack was so scared of him. When Jack had first been brought to the house, he hadn't been informed of the new arrival right away and had made a noisy entrance. A death threat to Angel actually.
Jack had thought Bobby had been serious about the threat and it had caused him to go into hiding. It took two hours to find him and another hour explaining who Bobby was. Since then Bobby had been doing his best to tone down on his rowdy behavior so he wouldn't scare Jack as much and try to earn his trust.
Bobby took the dinosaur cutter and pressed it into the dough. He frowned when it didn't come out right.
"Man, I'm no good at this." he said. "Yours are perfect and mine are horrible. Can you show me how you do yours? Maybe I can do it like that and they'll come out better."
Jack looked nervous as he picked up the wreath shapped cutter and pressed it in the dough. He did the same movements Evelyn showed him then picked up the cutter to show the dough cut perfectly.
"Dang, you're good at this. I wish I was." Bobby said pressing the dinosaur cutter into the dough only for the dough to come out wrong again. "Guess I know not to try to be a cook for a career."
The older brother lightly sighed as a sort of awkward silence fell upon him and his youngest brother. Coming up with things to talk about with Jerry and Angel was easy but Jack was different. Any topic that was brought up he wouldn't so much as give a whisper of an answer, question or statement.
Jack was providing Bobby with a whole new set of challenges. Ones that Bobby wasn't use to dealing with. The older brother spotted their mother standing in the doorway giving him a look of encouragment. She wanted him to continue trying to bond with Jack.
That was when Bobby was suddenly struck with an idea.
"Hey, have you ever made a gingerbread family before?" he asked.
Jack slowly shook his head and watched as Bobby dug around the container and found the gingerbread man shapped cookie cutter.
"Well, to make the gingerbread family, you gotta use your real family. Like inspiration and stuff. You cut out how many people there are in your family. Go ahead Jackie."
Jack slowly took the cutter from Bobby and cut out five gingerbread forms.
"Awesome. Now we gotta decide who's who. I think we should make this one mom. What do you think?"
Jack nodded as he started to feel the tension slowly fade away. He watched Bobby cut off a small strand of dough, cut it into smaller pieces, rolled it out to be a little thinner and then place it on the gingerbread dough like braclets.
Then Bobby added extra dough to make it look like the gingerbread figure was wearing a skirt and had curly hair. Then he added two dots for eyes and made a smile.
"There. That's one down." Bobby said smiling at his work. "Wanna help me with the rest?"
Jack nodded as he copied Bobby's actions of adding dough to the figures to make them seem more real.
Evelyn slowly made her way into the kitchen and got the oven set at the right temperature. While it warmed up, she gathered the items needed to paint the cookies when they were done. She looked over her shoulder every now and then and saw that Jack was starting to become a little less nervous as he and Bobby continued to cut shapes from the dough.
She was a bit amused when she saw how perfect Jack's were coming out and how Bobby's were tearing or deformed. They finally cut out enough to fill the two cookie sheets right as the oven was ready.
Bobby picked up the cookie sheets and carried them over to the oven. He hesitated a little then smiled when he saw a perfect dinosaur shape.
Kid is slick. he thought as he slid the sheets into the oven.
Evelyn closed the oven and set the timer.
"It'll be about thirty minutes." she announced. "You can both go watch tv for a while. I'll call you when they're done."
"Sounds good. Come on Jackie. Let's go see what boring christmas movies are on." Bobby said holding his hand out.
Jack stood but made no motion to grab ahold of Bobby's waiting hand.
Bobby felt a bit hurt but pushed it aside as best he could. He led the younger boy into the living room where he grabbed the remote and started flipping through the channels that seemed to be showing the same themed movie.
Bobby sat on the couch and Jack sat in the armchair opposite of where he sat. Once more, Bobby tried to put his hurt aside. His little brother didn't even want to sit on the same couch with him.
But Bobby had to remind himself of what Evelyn had told them about Jack and why he was nervous about letting people get close to him. Even though Jack had been through so much, and Bobby could tell that he remembered everything, he felt that Jack had made great improvement since he'd been in the house with them. Which was close to eight months.
Finally, Bobby gave up on looking for anything interesting and settled on the classic version of A Christmas Carol right at the part where the spirit of Christmas past was showing the greedy Mr. Scrooge his past.
The movie continued to play until their mother called them right when the spirit of Christmas present made it's appearance.
The two brother's went back into kitchen just as Evelyn finished setting the food paint and different colored sprinkles on the table.
"Yet another thing I stink at." Bobby declared sitting down. "Painting."
"It doesn't have to be perfect Bobby." Evelyn chuckled.
"You know me Ma." Bobby said with a smirk as he grabbed one of the small paintbrushes. "I try to make it perfect."
"At least you try." Evelyn said as she placed the first tray of cooled cookies on the table. "Alright, go ahead and start painting."
Bobby picked up the wreath shapped cookie and dipped his brush in the edible green paint. He started to paint the cookie and Jack watched curiously. He got his own brush, dipped it in the same colored paint and began to paint the cookie shaped like a Christmas tree. He painted the star yellow and added a few dots of other colors to make it look like ornaments.
"You're a natural at this Jackie." Bobby said. "Mine stinks."
Jack looked at Bobby's cookie and secretly admitted that it looked like someone his age might have done it instead of someone at the age of twenty two. He and Bobby continued to paint all of the cookies and Bobby had even shown him how he liked to paint the dinosaur.
With white pointy teeth that had blood on them and the side of its mouth, a black spot where it looked like a tooth was missing, it's eyes looking angry, a hockey helmet on its head and a painted jersey that said Red Wings.
Painting the gingerbread family turned out to be hilarious since Bobby tried to make Jerry's and Angel's cookies look like they were wearing make-up. He would have succeeded if Evelyn hadn't caught him.
Then all that was left was the angel.
"Jack, you paint it." Bobby said placing the cookie in front of his brother.
Jack looked up at Bobby with uncertainty.
"Hey, you'll do great. Better than me at least. Look at the ones he did Ma."
Evelyn went over and easily told apart Jack's cookies from Bobby's.
"Jackie, you're very talented." she said. "I think I know who I'm asking to help bake every year."
"See Jackie? You've got a skill for this. Let's see how awesome you make this angel look." Bobby encouraged.
A little nervous because he was being watched, Jack dipped this paintbrush into the yellow paint and began painting.
Knowing that Jack was nervous, Bobby got up from the table and helped Evelyn with whatever else she was doing.
"Did you get Jerry and Angel anything yet?" Evelyn asked.
"Yeah. I got their junk in my car." Bobby answered with a smirk.
"You better not have done the same thing that you did last year."
"Maybe I did? What's gonna happen if I did?"
"You'll be grounded again."
"I'll go to the mall later."
"Did you get Jack something?" Evelyn asked softly.
"It's already wrapped and under the tree." Bobby answered. "I think it suits him perfectly."
"Good. He needs something to make him realize he's safe here." Evelyn said. "What better way then to get a christmas present from a big brother."
"I agree." Bobby said with a smirk then looked over to the young boy who just set down the paintbrush. "Finished Jackie?"
Jack nodded and Bobby went over to look at the amazing work his little brother had done. He smiled more when he noticed the angel resembled the woman standing in the kitchen with them. It looked just like her, right down to what she was wearing.
"We're done with the cookies Ma." Bobby announced placing the angel on the cookie sheet with the others.
Evelyn walked over and smiled at the work they had done. Her smile brightened when she saw the angel cookie.
"You both did such a wonderful job." She said running her hand through Jack's short hair.
"You mean Jack did a wonderful job." Bobby stated. "You can tell which ones I did."
"True but it's very nice to see you both getting along." Evelyn said. "Since you both did such a good job with the cookies and helping each other, I think you both earned the right to open one present."
"Alright!" Bobby exclaimed with a grin. "Come on Jackie. Let's go get some presents."
Evelyn nodded and Jack followed his brother into the living room. His mother then knelt next to him once he was by the tree.
"Go ahead and give Bobby the present you got for him honey." she said softly.
Jack spotted the present he had picked out for Bobby and picked it up. The older brother looked up when he saw Jack slowly step forward and hand him the present.
"Hey. Thanks Jackie." Bobby said and grabbed a present from under the tree. "This is for you from me."
Jack accepted the present with a small smile which made Bobby and Evelyn smile. The older brother then began to open his present and when he saw what was inside he smiled greatly.
"Awesome!" he cried happily bringing out the two black skates. "This is just what I needed! Thanks Jackie."
"Go ahead and open your present honey." Evelyn said.
Jack sat on the floor and started to open his present. He opened the box and inside he saw the best present he'd ever gotten in his life.
"Do you like it Jackie?" Bobby asked a bit nervously.
Jack nodded with a slightly bigger smile as he held the black hoodie sweater.
"What do you say Jackie?" Evelyn encouraged hoping to get Jack to say his first words to Bobby.
They were both surprised when Jack walked over and hugged Bobby.
Bobby smiled greatly and hugged his little brother back.
"Thank you Bobby." Jack said softly.
Bobby blinked away happy tears as he hugged Jack more.
"Anything for you Jackie." Bobby said. "Only the best for my baby brother."