'Tis the Season

Disclaimer: Happy Holidays to one and all. Get Smart and all characters associated with it are not mine. They belong to Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. I'm just using them for harmless entertainment.

The little Christmas tree adorning Agent 99's office was significantly prettier than the one that sat atop the gunmetal gray file cabinet in Maxwell Smart's office. 99's dark evergreen was tastefully decorated in three thoughtfully-placed strings of white lights, warming the office with its hazy glow. Max, on the other hand, had layered his tree with 10 strings of blinking red, green and blue lights, half of which did not work.

A small, silver star was perched atop 99's tree, a lovely and striking contrast to the delicate strands of red tinsel draped across the branches. In Max's office, a golden star dangled precariously off the tip of the tree, while the overhead light reflected off the stringy, silver tinsel that hanged limply from assorted branches.

99 had offered to decorate Max's tree for him, but Max – wanting to impress 99 and show off his creativity – had declined, determined to do it himself. The end result had elicited a laugh, smothered by a smile and a nod from 99, assuring him that his tree was truly creative and the honest answer that no, she had never seen anything else like it before. But now, as Max admired 99's tree while waiting for her to get off the phone, he had to admit that her tree looked better than his. But that was okay, he reasoned. After all, 99 was a girl, and girls just knew how to do things like that. Satisfied with that line of reasoning, he moved farther into her office as she finished her conversation and motioned for him to come inside.

"Nice tree," he remarked casually, making his way to where she sat.

"Thanks." She shuffled some papers and watched as he propped himself up to sit on the edge of her desk and then pulled open a drawer to neatly file them away. Max waited for her to finish – honestly, he had never seen anyone more meticulous than 99 – before asking his partner about her holiday travel plans.

"Mother wanted me to fly out this evening, take a week off and spend it with her at the farm," she told him. She moved over to a file cabinet and began rummaging through it, not noticing the crestfallen expression on Max's face that appeared with that news. He'd been hoping that she'd be able to spend a few days with him before heading back to Idaho, but now it looked as if that were out of the question.

"But," 99 continued, "I told her that I had a few things I needed to finish here, so I couldn't be there until at least Saturday." She put the file away and turned back to Max.

"So you'll be leaving tomorrow?"

"Yes," she nodded. "It's not as long as I hoped, but I will be there for Christmas Eve through the 29th. That's almost a week."

Max grew thoughtful. He ran a finger across the top of her desk, trying to devise the best way to ask her what he was thinking. "Look, 99, if you're not too busy …"

"Yes, Max?"

"Well, I was thinking maybe –"

"Oh Max, hold that thought," 99 interrupted as her intercom beeped, the flashing red light shattering his perfect opportunity. Reaching over, she pressed the black button. "Yes, Larabee?"

"The Chief wants to see you and Max in his office."

She looked puzzled. "Larabee, how did you know Max was in my office?"

"He wasn't in his office, so where else would he be?" he explained, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh." She shrugged. "Well, tell the Chief we're on our way." She looked at Max and shook her head. "That was odd."

"You know Larabee."

"Yes," she frowned, still curious as to what Larabee had meant and plagued by a nagging suspicion that she had a pretty good idea. Deciding not to dwell it, she motioned for Max to follow her. "Let's go. We don't want to keep the Chief waiting."

Now, itt was Max's turn to frown. He had been on the verge of asking 99 something important even though he himself wasn't quite sure exactly what he was going to ask. Still, it had been important, and the Chief had to go and ruin it all by wanting to see them. Drat! But there was nothing he could do about it now. Reluctantly, he followed 99 out the door, closing it behind him as he went, still mumbling about the Chief's horrible timing.

Larabee was sitting at his desk, as usual, when Max and 99 strolled into the Chief's outer office.

"Morning Larabee," 99 called.

"Morning 99."

Max strode silently past Larabee and over to the doorframe where 99 was waiting.

"Max."

At the sound of his name, Max turned to see Larabee pointing a finger at a spring of mistletoe hanging delicately above their heads. Max's ears began to burn. He glanced at 99 and found that her cheeks were suffused with a bright shade of pink.

"Well, go on," Larabee urged. "Kiss her, Max!"

Max looked helplessly at 99 and lifted a hand as if to ask what he was to do.

"It is tradition," 99 said hesitantly. She, too, looked slightly uncomfortable.

"Yeah it is," Max mumbled, not really comfortable kissing his favorite girl right in front of Larabee.

Larabee watched the two of them stand there, discussing what they should do.

'Boy, they sure are thick,' he thought to himself. 'Here I go and put up mistletoe trying to help them out and they do this. Well not for long,' Larabee thought. 'I'm not wasting any more time with this.'

"Would you get on with it and kiss her already!" he called out to Max.

Startled, both Max and 99 looked up from the doorway. In their embarrassment and ensuing discussion, they had forgotten he was even there.

"Fine," Max snapped. "I'll uphold tradition." He leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss on 99's lips. Looking pointedly at him, Max asked, "Are you satisfied now, Larabee?"

Larabee shrugged as if to say "not really," but picked up his files and exited the office. 99, who had already moved away from the mistletoe, was surprised to see Max still standing there, staring up at the mistletoe.

"Is something wrong, Max?"

"I'm not sure," he replied, motioning to her. "Come here and look at this."

She walked over and glanced upwards. "I don't see anything wrong."

"Hmm. Must be my imagination then," Max grinned, much more comfortable now that had left the room.

99 gave him a strange look. "Max, are you OK?"

"I'm fine 99," he assured her.

"Then why are you grinning like an idiot?"

"Well, because we're sort of standing under the mistletoe again."

Indeed they were, 99 noted. She had a sneaking suspicion that Max hadn't seen anything at all. "It does look that way," she admitted. "Fortunately, Larabee's not around to enforce the rule," she told him, a wicked gleam in her eyes.

"What? Oh, um … yeah," Max nodded, his face falling as he realized what she was saying. "Well, uh, I suppose we'd better see what the Chief wants then." He moved away, slightly miffed that he had failed to score a kiss from the lovely Agent 99.

99 gave a small laugh and followed behind him.