This is a response to a dare set upon me by Treenie from STFBE. The dare was "Myles acts the part of Scrooge; seemingly not the jolly type during the holidays. In the beginning of the episode he was not in the Christmas spirit at all; only gaining it after the Santa Bandit was caught. I was just thinking there must have been something from his past that had put somewhat of a damper on the whole season for him. " and I responded to it to the best of my abilities.
Why is that? What may have happened in his past to turn him against celebrating Christmas?
I hope you enjoy!
Off to the Cape for another Christmas with Phillip and Elizabeth Leland
Off to the Cape for another Christmas with Phillip and Elizabeth Leland. Usually, it was something Myles tried to avoid, but this year something had changed. This year, he had a familiar Christmas tune in his heart and it was actually exploding out through his lips. He couldn't help but smile.
Turning east as he got out of DC, he began to wonder. How long had it been since he'd felt like this around Christmas? And why, after all this time, did the season of happiness and joy affect him.
There was only one answer to that question. Sue.
She had been the driving force this year to make their Christmas a perfect one. She and Lucy even brought in a mini tree to decorate to make the bullpen more festive. And though she'd explained how her mother and father had decided to spring the surprise of a monstrous, yet very beautiful Blue Fir, it still didn't hide the fact that the tree depicted her own kind, soft touch.
She was what had made Christmas different this year and she was the one that had brought the team together to celebrate the season. Even the case of the Santa Bandit couldn't lower his spirits, though he would admit that he had played the part of Ebenezer earlier in the week.
He felt the spirit now, both in his heart and all around him. It even made celebrating the week with his family seem… inviting.
He couldn't remember how old he'd been when he'd turned into the Scrooge of the New Millennium, but he could remember the reason.
So many Christmas's ago, he'd received the greatest gift imaginable! A model train set courtesy of his grandmother, an amazing woman who loved to shower her grandchildren with presents and allowed a reprieve from the constant competition going on between him and Anne set by their mother and father. At Grandma Hattie's they were allowed to just be children, enjoy the break from their high-cost private schools and just be Myles and Anne for a few days.
Looking back on the time he'd spent with Grandma Hattie, Myles couldn't think of any greater memories than spending the week before Christmas at her estate while Phillip and Elizabeth shuttled off on some ski weekend at some high-classed resort. Anne always wanted to tag along, but Myles thoroughly enjoyed being with his Grandma.
Every year she would greet the two children at the door with a plate of warm, freshly-made chocolate chip cookies. And by the tie the week was over, an entire family of snowmen lined her front lawn from the hours of endless play in the fluffy white winters.
Myles had so many great memories of his Grandma Hattie, but all too suddenly, the memories had stopped. Not too long before Christmas break when he was thirteen, he'd received word that she'd passed away. He would later learn that Hattie had been sick for a number of years, a cancer that they had found much too late had finally took control until her body just shut down.
He could remember crying weeks later, even after the holiday had passed. And what had his father done? Told him to get over it and focus on his future. "A Leland never focuses on the past, only what lay in front of him, son," he would say over and over again.
It would take a great deal of time, but as the years passed and holidays between he and his parents became the usual Leland reunion of one-upmanship, the mourning period would be over and Myles would slip into the mask of a faceless man. He was just another face in the crowd of nameless people. And it hadn't been until this year that he finally realized it.
He would no longer mourn for Hattie, but celebrate her life. So, every year, he could drive up to the Cape, but he wouldn't do it for Phillip or Elizabeth. He would do it for his grandmother who showed him what the Christmas spirit was all about.
For the grandmother who gave him his first model train set when he was only eight-years-old.
For the woman who taught him there was more to life than just being good at something or even being better than something at something.
He would do it for Hattie and he would thank Sue for reminding him that that was the reason why he made this trip every year.
Flicking on the radio, Myles pushed the 'search' button to find a station playing good traveling music. As the first verse of "Silent Night" crooned out of his car's stereo, he turned up the volume and even sang along as he continued northeast.
THE END