Title: Coventry Carol
Author: Neoxphile
Written: December 2006...about time it got posted
Category: post-series; Christmas; crossover (Joan of Arcadia/X-Files)
Summary: "And ever morn and day/For thy parting neither say nor sing/By, by, lully, lullay."
Author's note: this story is set after both Joan of Arcadia and The X-Files series finales. It's nice to catch up with "old friends", isn't it?
mid-December, 2006
Joan's new neighbors had move into the house next door two months earlier. She'd gone over with her mother to bring them a loaf of banana bread the day after they arrived. The father had accepted it with a quite murmur of thanks before disappearing back into the house. He'd seemed very sad to her, maybe a little tired. Her mother had summed it up as they walked back. "He looks careworn." Joan found that she had to agree with the assessment.
It hadn't exactly been an introduction to the family, but she'd seen them enough to know that they had three little kids. Two very little ones around two and four, and another little boy that rarely seemed to leave the house and seemed to be seven or eight. She saw that child so rarely that it came as a surprise to her to see him sitting out on the porch one afternoon before dark. He looked lonely, with his elbows resting on his knees.
So she detoured away from her own driveway and found herself walking up to him instead. He looked up at her with a slightly wistful expression. "What's up?" she said him. He reminded her of a child she once babysat, but she pushed the thought away.
"Nothing," he told her, and she could see that he was missing a front tooth.
Joan sat down next to him without waiting for him to invite her to do so. It might not even occur to such a young boy to do so anyway. "You don't look like nothing's up. And believe me, I'm an expert on that sort of thing."
"It's just..." the little boy started to say before trailing off. "No, it's stupid. You'll think I'm dumb."
"No I won't," she promised.
"Yeah you will."
"I promise," Joan told him in a solemn tone. "And I always keep my promises."
"Okay... I'm kind of jealous," he confided. "Dad plays with Ryan instead of me."
"I've seen your little brothers. I bet Ryan is the older one," Joan guessed.
"Yeah. Henry is a baby," the little boy said dismissively. "He hardly counts."
"I have two brothers too," Joan told him. "Sometimes parents have to spend a lot of time with the other kids, and we get left out. It's not really their fault when there's more of us than them."
"I guess." He sounded doubtful. "But dad never plays with me anymore."
"Maybe you could spend time with your mom, sometimes."
"She's not my mom," he said quickly, and it connected some dots for her. The woman was tall and dark-haired, and the littler boys looked like her. It explained how this child was blond.
"Ah, a stepmom. I don't know much about that. My parents have been married a long time." And she could hardly imagine them ever getting a divorce. Especially since they needed them so much still. Even Kevin did. "I bet the divorce was rough on everyone."
"Something bad happened, and they broke up," Luke told her, and she was slightly alarmed to see a shimmer of tears in his eyes. "I think it was all my fault."
"Oh, don't think that," she told him, and to her surprise he put his arms around her. She just let him hug her. "It's never the kids fault when the grownups can't work things out."
The boy pulled away. "You don't know what happened."
"I'm-" Joan was going to tell him that it didn't matter, but he got up and ran inside the house, leaving her there alone. Eventually she got up and walked to her house.
Girardi Household
"Hey watch it!" she complained when her older brother's wheelchair nearly bowled her over.
Kevin grinned at her over the top of a box of Christmas decorations. "She stops on a dime and I didn't break a single glass ball." He patted one of the wheels affectionately.
"I don't think I'm up to hearing you sing the praises of your new chair tonight. Even if it can do marc ten," Joan told him.
"What do you have better to do?"
Joan grabbed a tray of ornaments out of the box and danced away. "Trim the tree?"
"I'll grant you that it's more useful, but I'm not sure it's better. Where's Luke? He's supposed to be drafted into decorating too."
"How should I know? I just got home."
"Luke is with Grace," their mother said from behind them. "So he'll be a little late."
"Grace doesn't even celebrate Christmas," Kevin mumbled as he wheeled himself towards the tree. "Is he going to help them light a menorah?"
"I have no idea," Helen said calmly. "The less I know about what Luke and Grace do, the happier I am."
Helen wandered off in search of lights for the tree, and Joan turned to her older brother and smirked. "God I wish I was the youngest."
"So you could have done whatever you wanted with Rowe?" Kevin asked slyly.
"Yeah right. Maybe if I had done 'whatever I wanted' Adam and I wouldn't have broken up."
Kevin waved a dismissive hand. "But you'll get back together."
"Uh huh." She snorted. "You realize that being psychotic doesn't make you psychic, right?"
Kevin tapped the side of his head. "You know they did all sorts of evals on me right? I'm not crazy. You don't have to be crazy to see that you're going to take him back."
"Whatever." The first ornament Joan hung was something made of metal and feathers. She wasn't sure what it was supposed to be, but her ex-boyfriend had made it for her. It didn't take her mind off her brother's prediction.
"Hey, I remember this one!" Kevin enthused from the other side of the tree. "Mom and Dad bought me this transformer ornament to make up for having you that year."
"Nice, Kevin." Joan stuck her tongue out at him. "Hey, do you know anything about the new neighbors?"
"No, why?"
She shrugged. "You're an investigative reporter, I thought you might know something."
"Ha. Calling me an investigative reporter is like calling our garbage man a sanitation engineer," Kevin told her. "Maybe I can find something out."
"Let me know if you do, okay?"
"If you make cocoa I will."
"Fine," Joan agreed. "Give me ten minutes."
The next day Joan found herself distracted on her way to school; she kept thinking about the little boy next door. He can't be right, she thought. It can't be his fault that his folks broke up.
"You look worried, Joan," a young familiar voice commented. Joan wasn't surprised to see one of god's most familiar guises - that of a young curly-haired girl - watching her from inside the elementary schoolyard.
"How perceptive of you," Joan groused as she walked towards the chain link fence. "But then, you know everything."
"It pays to be omnipotent," the child said arrogantly. "But you are troubled. Why?"
"If you know everything, why don't you tell me?"
She shook her head. "Telling me yourself will make you feel better."
"I'm worried about one of the neighbors' kids. This little guy is so unhappy."
"Why?"
"First of all, he thinks he made his parents get a divorce. And... He hasn't said it exactly, but I think he's worried that his father doesn't love him as much as his little brothers."
"That's sad," God remarked.
"That's it?" Joan asked in disbelief. "You just think it's sad? I was sure you were going to order me to help him."
A bell rang and the real children began to line up. The god-child made move to as well, but she looked over her shoulder. "I don't have to," she said before running to catch up to her class.
Joan watched her go. "God does know everything." She sighed and hurried off herself.
December 22rd, 2006
"So I did some digging about our neighbors," Kevin said.
"What did you find out?"
"Not a whole lot. They used to be FBI agents-"
"What, both of them?"
"Yeah, why?" Kevin gave her a curious look.
"I don't know. I mean, I can sort of see her as having been one, but mister Doggett? He doesn't strike me as the type."
"Well, he was. They left after one of their fellow agents was tried for murder, then escaped. There was some suspicion that they'd been involved in that, but they left voluntarily. She must have already been pregnant since their older son was born seven months later."
"What else did you find out?"
"Not much. They're working civilian jobs now. That's about it."
"Thanks, Kev."
"No problem. It was actually sort of fun. Maybe I'll become a PI when I grow up."
"When do you plan to grow up?" Joan asked archly. Then she narrowly dodged a couch pillow that flew towards her head.
"See if I do you any more favors," her brother complained, but he was still smiling.
December 24th, 2006
Joan was walking by her mother when Helen stopped her by placing a box in her arms. "Joan, here."
"What is it?"
"A box of Lindt balls."
"Oh, yummy!" Joan exclaimed, reaching to open the paper.
Helen tapped her fingers. "I want you to bring this over to the neighbors."
"Aww." Joan gave her mother a puppy dog look. "Tell me you bought some for our stockings too."
"I can't confirm or deny that allegation," Helen told her with a slight smirk.
"Well, there's still a couple hours for you to do shopping if you forgot to get us some too."
"As if I'd go shopping on Christmas Eve."
"You don't want to disappoint your children, do you, Mom?"
Helen gave her a gentle push towards the door. "Go on."
a/n: one more part to go...feedback, please.