A small ficlet that started off as a text message to Audrey (markaleen) to get her mind off of last week's blizzard.
"Oliver, dear, it's time to wake up." A voice so sweet it was as if it were a dream, invaded Oliver Warbucks's slumber. "Please dear, get up." The voice did nothing but send Oliver further into his sleep. "Oh dear. What am I ever going to do with you?" The woman sighed. Seconds later Warbucks felt himself being pummeled by various pieces of heavy fabric. "Sir, you have to get up!"
Bolting upright in bed, vision blurred, "What is it Miss. Farrell?" Oliver's voice was filled with it's usual morning gruff but this morning it was edged with a hint of annoyance. As his vision cleared he saw his wife standing near the window, with a hand on her hip, an eyebrow raised inquisitively, and a small but detectable smirk on her face.
"Oh so am I back to being Miss. Farrell now?" Grace watched as her husbands cheeks took on a light shade of pink. "In that case, sir, it is time to wake up. I'll be downstairs with Annie, waiting for you to join us for breakfast." She chuckled lightly as she made her way to the door of their suite.
"Grace, wait! What is the meaning of all this?" He held up a wool jacket and a scarf, he was obviously confused. Grace changed her course and came closer to the bed.
"We are going out after breakfast." She stated matter-of-factly. "Annie and I talked about it this morning and we decided that it is about time we got out of the house."
"And where is it, may I ask, that we are going?"
"To the park."
Oliver's eyes practically jumped out of his head. "To the park?! Do you have any idea how cold it is?"
"Twenty-four degrees."
He cringed at hearing that, Oliver had a great dislike for the cold. "Is that is Fahrenheit or Celsius?"
"Oh don't be smart Oliver. It is practically spring compared to what it's been and you have an eleven year old daughter who has been cooped up inside for far too long. Not to mention you have a usually mild mannered wife but under the right circumstances even she can become a little rambunctious." A devilish grin spread over his face as his wife offered her rebuttal.
"Mrs. Warbucks have I ever told you how beautiful you are when you argue with me?" Grace rolled her eyes at him. "And I, myself, enjoy a woman who can be a little rambunctious." He said as he pulled her onto the bed. "Now I can think of something that we can do for fun, inside, where it is warm. We don't even have to leave our bed." He kissed her neck feverishly as he spoke. One of hands became tangled him her hair while the other was snaked around her waist and was wrapped up in the light blue silk of her dressing gown. Grace could feel her body nearly giving itself away to his touch, she knew that she very well wanted it to, but she knew that she couldn't. She had to stop it before it got too far progressed.
Grace pushed herself off of him. "No Oliver. That is not a family friendly activity." She gave him a peck on the lips before removing herself from the bed and straightening out the fabric of her dressing gown. "No matter how nice your offer sounds I could really use some fresh air. Besides, I don't want to be left having to explain to Annie why it took so long for us to come down for breakfast." After fixing herself and making sure she looked presentable she began to remove the coats and other items of winter clothing that she threw at Oliver earlier, off of him. Once that was finished she extended her hand to him and said "Now, I am going to have breakfast with our daughter, would you like to join me?" and Oliver practically leapt off the bed and took her hand.
It was ten-thirty and the Warbucks family was as fashionably bundled up as they could be and they were out the door into the brisk morning air. Annie rushed ahead of her parents, excited about the prospects of a day in the freshly fallen powder. She had been skulking about the house for far too long and she needed to be able to run and play without the threat of breaking something or being too loud. Ideas kept popping into her head as how to spend the day and she continued to eagerly share each idea with Oliver and Grace.
"And mom we can go sledding! Oh I've never been sledding!" Annie chattered away gaily. Oliver and Grace shared a knowing look of joy with each other, never had they imagined that the could possibly be this happy. Annie was like a hurricane, there was always something new and she was always here and there and all over the board, but she was a storm that Mr. and Mrs. Warbucks were happy to be caught in. "Oh and what if we build a snow fort and an igloo! We are going to have so much fun!" Annie spun around, catching a patch of ice and tumbling to the ground. Without thought Grace removed her arm from Oliver's and rushed towards the red-head.
"Oh Annie are you all-Oh!" Next thing Grace knew she was flat on her back with Annie gazing down at her with concern. Oliver raced towards his wife and daughter.
"You okay mom? You hit your head on the ground." Annie asked, lifting Grace's head off of the ground and settling it in her lap. This was something that Grace did to Annie when she was ill, or tired, or just needed comforting. Annie stroked the side of her mother's face gingerly, this was something that Grace also did to comfort Annie.
Grace smiled at Annie, her daughter's compassion never failed to amaze her. Just as she went to reassure her Oliver burst into an onslaught of concern. "Darling are you okay? I knew I should have brought the Asp and Punjab with us, it would be much easier to get you to the hospital with them here. Don't worry Grace, I'll get some help." Grace tenderly placed a gloved finger to his lips before he could say anymore. All those years not showing that he cared and now he was constantly overcompensating for it.
"I'm quite all right." She chuckled quietly. Grace leaned up and kissed Annie softly on the forehead before turning to Oliver, kissing him lightly on the lips. "Thank you for your concern though, I think the worst that I will have is an ugly looking bruise. Now are you all right?" She turned her attention back to Annie.
"I'm fine mom, it was kind of fun actually." Annie gasped and her eyes light up with excitement, she must have had another idea. "We should go ice skating!" She looked at her dad and the turned with false sympathy to her mother, "Well maybe mom should sit out that one, dontcha think dad?" Grace looked at her daughter incredulously. "I'm only kidding mom. You can ice skate with us any time you want."
As the hours passed and after enjoying a brief lunch the Warbuckses finally made their way to the park. This time Oliver trailed behind his wife and daughter as Annie had a death grip on Grace's hand and she giddily dragged her along. Her voice rung out in the dead of winter, the park was virtually lifeless, save for a few squirrels milling about. Oliver watched as Grace began to point out little things to Annie, Annie had never been to Central Park in the snow, sure they had came many times during the summer and autumn, but it was like a whole new world in the winter.
"And look, over there you can see The Plaza. Isn't it pretty in the snow?" Grace said and Annie nodded in agreement. "New York is beautiful in the winter."
"NYC, you're cold, oh you are so cold." Oliver thought to himself. "And you may be beautiful but I can't think of any view more beautiful than seeing my girls together." He stopped himself for a minute, a stupid simper was plastered on his face. "My girls, my girls. I don't think I will ever be able to get over that. God, they always told me that money couldn't buy me everything and it took Grace asking me if money was really everything, to realize that it really wasn't. And now here they are, these two beautiful, incredible beings, who could care less if we live in a palace or a Hooverville, all they care about is if we are together."
"Oliver!" His wife's voice snapped him back to attention. "Oliver, are you coming along?" She beamed sweetly at him. Her face, a face which he studied for years in private trying to get even the most feeble understanding of it as if it were a key to unlocking hidden treasure and it wasn't until recent months that he learned that Grace's face was not the key, no it was a part of a bigger hidden treasure than he could've ever fathomed. "Oliver, are you all right?" Grace queried, he hadn't realized that he had been standing in the same spot, staring at her dumbfoundedly.
"Yes. I'm fine. I'll be along in a moment." He replied and watched as his girls walked further down the path hand in hand, chattering gaily the entire way.
Annie turned around quickly and shouted back to him, "Daddy you better hurry up! We might go ice skating and if something happens to mom I don't think I can carry her back all by myself!"
Oliver laughed dryly. "Grace, she is never going to let you live that down." Though his wife's back was to him he could see her give an exaggerated nod. "I am coming, I'm coming." He followed behind them, taking his time. As he was walking a picked up a bit of snow and absentmindedly played with it in his hands. As he came closer to Grace and Annie a diabolical thought popped into his head and Grace's light purple cloaked backside was coming into range.
"I am actually quite good at ice skating, Annie." Grace tried to convince the eleven year old. "The first time I went ice skating I had to be a year or two older than your friend Molly."
"I know, I'm just foolin' with you." Annie replied. "Besides I've never been skatin' before and I need someone to teach me and dad isn't really all that graceful when it comes to stuff like that."
"You can say that again." Suddenly Grace gasped in shock as something pelted her lower back. Swinging around she caught Oliver red-handed with a fist full of snow readied to launch at her. A faint smirk traced her face as he shook her head at him. Kneeling down she scooped up some snow and launched it at him, hitting him smack in the shoulder. Oliver's next snowball hit her right knee, and despite wearing two pairs of stockings, he could see his wife shiver. "That was a big mistake Mr. Warbuck." Packing the snow tightly in her hands, Grace acquired her target and let the snow fly from her hand, and Oliver caught the snow, not with his hand but rather his face.
"Nice shot!" Annie whooped! She couldn't help but laugh at her parent's childish antics.
Seconds later Oliver launched a full out assault, covering Grace in snow from head to toe. "That is payback for the coats this morning!" He shouted.
Next thing he knew he was being tackled to the ground by his snow covered wife. He rolled on top of her and kissed her cheeks as she let out a belly laugh. "Oh dear Oliver, I am going to be icicle by the time we get done ice skating!" She exclaimed, rolling out from underneath him.
Oliver stood up and grabbed both of his wife's hands, pulling her up from her snowy bed. "Well now that you're mother is frozen to the bone, I think it is time to go home and get some of Mrs. Pugh's hot chocolate, what do you say Annie?"
"I think that is a swell idea. I don't think I'd like having an ice cube for a mother too much." Both Grace and Oliver chuckled at Annie's response.
With her husband's arm wrapped her shoulder, Grace leaned into him murmured into his ear, "I think I may need a little more than hot chocolate to warm me up." Oliver turned to her, wide-eyed. "What can I say? Maybe it wasn't being held up in the house that makes me a little rambunctious after all." She said with a wink.