Thanks to TB's LMC for helping me with this story.
Disclaimer: How I wish the boys were mine. But no, they belong to someone else.
Christmas Lockets
Christmas used to be a happy time for the family, filled with laughter and good food. When Jeff lost his wife, Christmas wasn't the same. Over the years it became a quiet day for the Tracy family. When the Thunderbirds launched this day became even quieter, with either John or Alan being up on Five for the month.
This year Jeff really wanted to give his boys something that they could carry with them wherever they went, to remind them of their mother. Yes, they had lots of photos of her everywhere in the villa but when they left the island, those stayed behind.
He had John come down from Five for Christmas this year and put Communications on auto for the time being. He was looking forward to a Christmas with all of them together for a change.
Well, all but one.
Sitting on his bed, Jeff looked at the box on his desk. In it lay the gifts he wanted to give to his boys but there wasn't enough wrapping paper left to wrap them all in. He couldn't remember how long he'd had this box sitting on his desk. A year? Two years?
Sighing, Jeff got into bed and closed his eyes for the night. 'I'll find something else to put them in tomorrow,' he thought as he drifted off to sleep.
A soft humming woke him up a while later. Jeff was shocked when he saw a woman sitting on his desk chair, smiling as she looked at the gifts inside the box. "Hello, Jeff. Glad to see that you're awake now."
Jeff didn't feel awake. "Who are you and who told you that you could look inside that box?"
Closing the lid, the woman smiled. "Oh, I couldn't help it. I just had to know what was inside."
He was about to say something as he rolled out of bed, when the woman got up herself and held out her hand to him. "Come with me, Jeff. There's something I want you to see."
"Why, what do you want to show me?"
The woman smiled sweetly. "I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past, does that ring a bell?"
It did ring a bell all right and he was hearing more than one jingling somewhere. "If you're talking about the bells I'm hearing now, then yes."
"No, my dear, that's a memory I'm about to show you. Anyway, you'll know after we've gone there."
Before he knew it, Jeff found himself standing in the snow barefoot without feeling cold. Not far away he saw a younger version of himself getting the boys ready for a ride on a one-horse sleigh. "Why this memory? Did I do something wrong?"
The woman rested her hand on his arm. "No, just watch."
Jeff could hear himself singing with his family all joining in. They hadn't a care in the world, a mixture of high and low and some off-key making the music sound just right.
"Dashing through the snow
In a one-horse open sleigh
Over the fields we go
Laughing all the way
Bells on bobtail ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to laugh and sing
A sleighing song tonight!"
Jeff watched the boys as they each got a turn to ride with their dad on the sleigh, laughing as they went. He also saw the ones waiting their turn next to their mother, stopping the singing now and then as they ate some chocolate chip cookies she had baked just for them.
"Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way.
Oh! what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.
Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way;
Oh! what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh."
Jeff remembered thinking about Christmas and the different things he and his wife would do with the boys. A sleigh ride had sounded like a good idea to him when he'd thought about it back then and it sure had been a winner with his boys.
"A day or two ago
I thought I'd take a ride
And soon, Miss Fanny Bright
Was seated by my side,
The horse was lean and lank
Misfortune seemed his lot
He got into a drifted bank
And then we got upsot."
He remembered the next memory as it played out before him, of him and his wife laughing as she got her turn by his side. She even brought a few chocolate chip cookies along with a flask of coffee.
"A day or two ago,
The story I must tell
I went out on the snow,
And on my back I fell;
A gent was riding by
In a one-horse open sleigh,
He laughed as there I sprawling lie,
But quickly drove away."
When they stopped for a rest, the horse had snatched a cookie from the plate, knocking Jeff over when he tried moving it away. There'd been gales of laughter all around when the boys and their mother saw him floundering in a huge snow drift.
"Now the ground is white
Go it while you're young,
Take the girls tonight
and sing this sleighing song;
Just get a bobtailed bay
Two forty as his speed
Hitch him to an open sleigh
And crack! You'll take the lead."
It was the best Christmas he could ever ask for, just him and his family having fun in the snow.
When the memory faded away, Jeff blinked and there right in front of him, in his own bedroom suite, stood his wife. "Now do you know why I showed you the memory, Jeff?"
"It's of happier times gone by." His eyes were burning now. Seeing his wife standing there, smiling, alive and well, it was just too much for him. "Why?"
"I'm here because of these gifts, Jeff. You bought them so long ago and yet, they are still in this old box, waiting for our boys to open them."
Picking the box up off his desk, he smiled sadly. "I always wanted the boys to have these, but..."
"You were afraid that they would hate you for giving them something that would remind them of what happened."
Lifting the lid from the box, Jeff peered inside. There were five lockets, one for each of his sons. "I guess it's finally time to give them to their owners. What will I use to wrap them in?"
"Tin foil, Jeff. It's what I used to do when I ran out of wrapping paper. Remember?"
Nodding as he put the box down on his bed, he looked at his wife. "Why did you have to go so soon?"
"It was my time. Besides, International Rescue wouldn't even be here if I had lived."
He wanted to touch her, hold her one more time before she disappeared. "I would have loved to have you here on the day of our first rescue."
"I was here. I'll always be here with you and the boys." She smiled. "It's time for me to go visit them now."
"They miss you and I miss you even more."
She stepped close to him and then hugged and kissed him. "This was your wish, Jeff."
He was stunned into silence that she'd known what he wanted from her. Yet she always had known everything he was thinking, whether he gave voice to it or not.
"Now go wrap those lockets up and hang them on our boys' doors."
Hugging her one more time, he smiled through tears escaping down his cheeks. "Thank you."
Waking with a start, Jeff sat up in bed. His foot connected with the box he had sworn he'd left on the desk before going to bed. He remembered the memory of the sleigh ride he had taken his boys on and his wife…she had been here talking to him about the lockets. 'How else could the box end up on my bed?' he thought as he picked it up and headed to the kitchen.
The next morning as each of the boys woke up and found their doors jamming because something was preventing them from opening all the way, they reached through the small crack to snatch at a little golden bell hanging on a string from the knob. When they pulled it, a small package dropped into their hands.
One by one they opened their little packages. Each found a locket shining in the morning sun streaming through their bedroom windows. Upon opening the lockets, they each gave a sad smile as they found a photo of their mother on the left side and one of their father on the right side smiling back at them.
From where he was waiting down the hall, Jeff watched his sons step out of their rooms and look at each other and what all of them held in their hands. Emotions flickered across their faces, from sadness to joy to a fond smile as they remembered the Christmases they used to have a long time ago.
As they each walked past him, he hugged them tightly one by one, all smiles. Yes, his beloved wife, and their mother, was gone. But the truth was they were all still going strong, saving lives and for once all five of the boys were home for this special holiday.
"I couldn't ask for a better Christmas than this," he told them as they headed for the kitchen where Grandma was already busy with dinner preparations. "Merry Christmas, boys."
As one, they chorused. "Merry Christmas, Dad."
Jeff stopped briefly at the top of the stairs, looked up at the ceiling and whispered, "Merry Christmas, my love."
He would swear until his dying day that he heard her whisper, "Merry Christmas, Jeff." right back.