Part 7 of the 4th Annual McRoll in the REAL World Thanksgiving marathon.
The Princess Game (1/1)
Rollins Condo
Saturday 5:00 P.M.
"Ann Caf, can I sleep at youw house tonight with baby Angie?" Joan asked with pleading eyes the minute they finished dinner.
Elizabeth had made turkey tetrazzini with some of the leftovers from Thanksgiving and invited Steve and Catherine to join them after the library. Mary, Joan, Aaron and Deb had a flight back to Los Angeles Sunday afternoon, so this would be their last chance to have dinner together on this trip.
"Maybe Aunt Catherine has other plans, peanut," Mary said.
"Do you have plans?" Joan asked, slightly crestfallen.
Catherine shook her head. "Nothing I can think of."
"They don't have plans, Mama," Joan smiled.
"Maybe they just want some peace and quiet," Mary suggested.
"I can be quiet," Joan replied seriously causing both Mary and Aaron to chuckle.
Catherine smiled and looked at Steve.
Joan, sensing there was a chance, turned her attention to her beloved uncle. "Can I, Unca Steve? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?"
Joan had been asking all week to have a sleepover and this would be the last chance.
"Sure." Steve smiled. "It'll be fun."
"YAY!" Joan threw her arms in the air excitedly. After a few seconds of celebrating she jumped down from her chair and raced down the hall towards the guest room yelling, "I'll get my suitcase," over her shoulder.
"I better go help," Mary said as she stood up, "or you'll be getting everything she brought with her for a one-night stay."
McGarrett-Rollins Home
6:00 P.M.
"What should we do first?" Catherine asked once they stowed Joan's bag in the guest room. The youngster was thrilled to be sleeping in the room she considered Grace's.
She thought for a minute then her eyes lit up. "Let's have a scavengew hunt!"
Catherine laughed. "Didn't we already do that today?"
Joan nodded. "It was vewy vewy fun! Or how about we play pwincesses?" she suggested.
"Uncle Steve will love that."
Joan twirled around. "He can be Pwince Chawming!"
"He fits the role." Suddenly Catherine's eyes lit up. "I have an idea. Let's go find Uncle Steve and Angie."
Five minutes later Steve sat at a table on the deck with Angie and Joan, under a large umbrella, a stack of books beside them, while Catherine made the necessary preparations for a game in the house. She reemerged just as Steve finished his third reading of The Monster at the End of This Book which was one of Joan's favorites.
"It's just Gwovew," Joan giggled uproariously as they reached the last page and found a picture of the lovable blue furry Muppet. No matter how many times the book was read to her her reaction to the last page was always the same. Her joyful laughter made Steve laugh and Angie coo happily.
Catherine smiled. "Looks like you guys are having fun out here."
Joan nodded. "We awe."
"Well, whenever you're ready I have a surprise set up in the house," Catherine said.
"I'm weady!" Joan's eyes sparkled with excitement. "Awe you weady, Unca Steve? Is Baby Angie weady?"
At Steve's nod Joan slid off the bench and ran to Catherine. "We'e weady!"
"Ok," Catherine said as they entered the living room. "Joan couldn't decide between playing princesses and having another scavenger hunt, so I combined the two."
Joan's eyebrows knit together in confusion.
"I made a princess scavenger hunt!" Catherine explained.
Joan threw her arms in the air and cheered.
"I printed off pictures of eleven princesses and hid them around the house." Catherine grinned as Joan began to bounce with excitement. "When you find each one you have to say what you like most about her."
"Okay!" Joan's eyes were already darting around the kitchen. "I'm weady."
It only took her a minute to find her first princess.
"Cindewella," she said happily as she clutched the picture to her chest. "I love her pwetty dwess and she dances at the ball."
Catherine, who was holding a still wide-awake Angie, gave Steve a pointed look and smiled.
He stepped forward with a flourish and held out one hand. "Would you care to dance, Cinderella?"
She squealed as Steve swept her into his arms and did several circuits around the kitchen, spinning and humming as he went.
"You make a good Pwince Chawming," Joan said sincerely as they finished.
Catherine's eyes met Steve's. "He certainly does."
Joan moved into the dining room and quickly spotted a picture of a princess with long red hair and a bow and arrow.
"Mewida!" she squealed excitedly.
"That's right." Catherine smiled. "What do you like about her?"
"She's vewy bwave. She saves her mothew and brothews after they tuwn into beaws!" Joan held her hands up like claws and growled ferociously. "She shoots a bow and awwows. I wanna do that!"
Steve shook his head. "I don't see anything that could possibly go wrong with that idea," he chuckled to Catherine.
"Daddy says I have to wait 'til I'm a little oldew,' Joan sighed.
"Your daddy is a very smart man," Steve told her. "Now let's find the next princess."
As they continued to move around the downstairs Joan found Rapunzel, who she declared to have the prettiest hair ever, Tiana, which resulted in Steve and Joan imitating frogs as they leaped across the living room, Aurora who Joan insisted taught her "dweams can come twue", and Snow White who Joan loved because she was nice to everyone, especially the animals and the dwarves.
They made their way upstairs and Joan immediately screamed "Belle" and raced down the hall to retrieve the picture. "Belle loves to wead," she said. "I wike when people wead to me. I want to leawn to wead myself."
Steve smiled. The realization that these stories had real lessons to teach made him dread Angie's inevitable princess phase a little less.
The discovery of Jasmine's picture on the shower curtain in the guest bathroom resulted in Steve holding Joan high over his head so she could fly like Jasmine and Aladdin. "Mama says Jasmine didn't let anyone make her do things she didn't want to do," Joan reported.
"That's a very good thing," Catherine replied.
On the bed in the guest room Joan found Mulan. "She was vewy brave," Joan said reverently. "She saved evewybody. She fought the bad guys like you and Ann Caf."
"What else do you like about her?" Catherine asked.
"She said giwls can do anything boys can do!" Joan pumped her fist.
"Exactly," Catherine smiled.
"One princess left," Catherine encouraged as they entered the master bedroom. Joan moved around the room checking the dresser and the bassinette.
Finally, she made her way into the bathroom and began to laugh. "Awiel is in the baftub!"
"I think that's an appropriate place for a mermaid, don't you?' Catherine chuckled. "Also, a good place to end because it's bath time for you, young lady."
Joan ran into the shower stall with the tiles that changed color when exposed to heat that she loved to test out every time she visited.
"Would you rather take a shower?" Steve asked.
Joan turned and gazed lovingly at the soaking tub, clearly having trouble deciding.
"I'll tell you what, how about both?" he suggested.
"Thank you, Unca Steve!" she said happily as she exited the shower stall and wrapped his knees in a tight hug.
After fifteen minutes of pressing against the walls of the shower making various shapes Joan stepped into the soaking tub filled with bubbles under Catherine's supervision.
"I wuv this tub," she sighed dreamily.
"Me too," Catherine grinned.
"Does Baby Angie get a baff in this tub?"
"Not yet," Catherine smiled. "But someday she will."
"I think she will love it too," Joan said confidently.
Steve appeared in the doorway carrying a now tired Angie, freshly diapered and dressed for bed. "Where did Joanie go?" he asked in an exaggerated manner. "I thought she was in here with you."
"I'm he'we," Joan giggled as she raised her bubble-covered arms.
"I couldn't see you for all the bubbles," Steve teased. "I wanted to see if you want to help me give Angie her bottle."
"Yes!" Joan stood up immediately and Catherine reached out her hand to steady the young girl.
"Ok, you get dried off and dressed and I'll go downstairs and get the bottle ready," Steve said.
By the time Joan emerged from the bathroom wearing her Elsa pajamas, Steve had returned with the warm bottle. Joan scrambled up onto the bed and positioned herself against the headboard. Catherine arranged the pillows around her then helped settle Angie in her arms. Joan offered the infant her bottle and smiled broadly when Angie began to suck.
"She likes it when you feed her," Steve said.
"I like feeding hew," Joan said with a wide smile. "I can feed hew next time she comes to my house too."
"Deal," Catherine said as she took a seat on the edge of the bed.
"I'm gonna tell my fwiends at school I got to feed Baby Angie mashed potatoes," Joan said excitedly.
"And she liked them so much she didn't even spit any on you," Steve chuckled.
Joan spent the next several minutes telling them all about her friends from school as Angie finished her bottle and her eyelids began to droop. Steve picked her up to burp her as Joan let out a large yawn.
On some nights Angie still slept in the bassinette for convenience but Steve and Catherine both knew that if they tried that tonight Joan would want to sleep in their room also which might well result in no one getting any sleep. So tonight Angie would sleep in the nursery.
Joan accompanied them down the hall and whispered a soft "Night night, Baby Angie" before Steve made sure the baby monitor was on and they all left the room quietly.
"How about we have snack?" Catherine suggested. "I have some fresh fruit in the refrigerator."
"Then I go to sleep in Gwace's room?" Joan asked excitedly.
"First, we'll call your mama and daddy and say goodnight," Catherine said as they reached the top of the stairs.
"I'll tell them all about my baff, and the pwincess game, and that I'm sleeping in Gwace's room," Joan bubbled as she grabbed the railing carefully.
Steve smiled. "Sounds like a plan."
As she made her way down the stairs Steve turned to Catherine. "I love how comfortable she is here at the house. I hope she always feels that way."
"She will," Catherine said confidently. "Because she'll always know she's loved here."
THE END
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