This little bit of fic is written in response to a triple-dog dare from a certain member of the Numb3rs community who wanted to see if Suisan and myself, Amy D., could write a fluffy, non-whumping Christmas fic.
Here is the response.
A Cascadian Granger Christmas
By Amy D. and Suisan
When Lars Granger, eldest son of Gareth and Catherine Granger heard his mother's oh sweet request, he wanted to hide.
"What else are you doing at this moment that you can't make a run down to Garden City for your poor, ailing, wonderful mother?" Cat Granger asked her son.
Lars made a face. He may have been 40 plus years of age and the City Attorney for Billings, Montana but to his mother, he was her eldest and most responsible son. The only one she could send to the store and make sure the right things were bought. None of that meant he couldn't try and wheedle his way of the task.
"Can't you get Cody to do it? He's the one with access to Kevlar."
"He didn't bring it with him and, let's face it - Cody doesn't have your instincts when it comes to handling people." Cat told him.
He did not look convinced. The last thing he wanted to do was fight his way in and out of Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve. People could be down right vicious!
"Lars, you have to pick CeeJay up from Boise airport anyway . . . just stop on your way back. Colby won't mind. And don't you drag your brother in there...you're much better at finding what I need." Cat smiled up at her son, even though she did have to tilt her head a bit to do it.
"Ma! Fine. I won't drag him in there ... not to help me look anyway." He sighed. If he had to go into Wal-Mart, he wasn't going alone.
"Lars, you'll need someone to keep circling the lot while you go in." His mother replied, writing down a list and handing it to him.
"That's what you think." Lars muttered under his breath. "You're right, Ma. Okay, I'd better go or I'll be late picking Squirt up. The roads are clear of ice and snow, but you know how nutty the Boise folks are this time of year." He gave his mom a kiss on the cheek as he pulled the keys to his Escalade from the pegboard in the kitchen.
At the airport, Colby looked decidedly the worst for wear so Lars did not tell him where they were going. He'd learn soon enough.
"Lars ... why are you ... oh no." Colby cringed as he realized his oldest brother had intentionally pulled into the Garden City Wal-Mart SuperCenter parking lot. "Mom forgot some things, didn't she?"
Lars nodded. "'You have to pick up CeeJay from the Boise airport anyway, just stop on your way back. Colby won't mind'." He said, repeating their mother's words and mimicking her tone of voice.
"Frak! All I wanted to do was get home, hug mom and collapse." Colby groused.
"Aw, come on Squirt, it won't be that bad. You can block 'em and I'll get what she wants."
Colby rolled his shoulders, trying to loosen the muscles up after having suffered being crammed - like the proverbial sardine - between two rather 'large' passengers on the flight. "Right, a little exercise will do me some good. You gonna be able to find a spot before the store closes?"
Lars looked at his watch. "I've got an hour and a half to try."
"Why not just let me drive around while you go in?" He offered, then put his hands up in mock surrender when Lars glared at him. "Right. Misery loves company and I'm your chosen company this evening."
"Damn straight. I'm not going in there alone. I don't know what's so all fired important that Mom had to have tonight." Lars groused.
"Did she give you a list?" Colby asked even as he pointed toward the Garden Center entrance and the available parking at that end of the packed lot.
Lars silently pulled out a grocery style list and handed it to Colby as he headed toward the Garden Center.
Looking over the list, Colby started to chuckle a little. There wasn't much on the list but what was there were necessary if Lars was going to get the cake he was used to looking for every Christmas Day. "Let's see... eggs, Crisco oil, Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake mix, fudge instant pudding mix ... nah, none of this is so damn important that we couldn't skip it, Lars."
"Ha, ha. Keep it up, Squirt, and you're walking back to Cascade."
"You didn't tell Mom you were coming until the last minute, did you?"
Lars spied one of three empty parking spots left at the very end of the lot and eased the Escalade into one of them. He did not answer his brother's question.
Colby couldn't help it, he started to cackle. "You didn't! You thought to surprise Mom by just showing up and now you're paying for it!"
"You really do wanna walk back, don't you?" Lars growled. He got out and slammed the door shut on his brother's laughter.
He wasn't that far inside the store before Colby caught up to him. "Lars, hey, I'm sorry ... let's see if we can find what we need and get the puck out of here before I'm tempted to shoot someone."
Lars had the grace to look abashed. "It's okay, Squirt, this is what I get for surprising Mom on Christmas Eve."
Colby just nodded then, pointing the way toward the food side of the store, led the way there.
The shopping wasn't that bad actually, by the time they got down to shopping most of the crush was on the other side of the store. Of course, there was that one little old lady who dared to ask Colby 'Are you really going to use that, son?' after he found the last remaining box of Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix.
Lars had been impressed that his little brother hadn't, quite, shot the old bat - but the growl was a healthy one and she backed off and left them alone after that.
In less than an hour, the two brothers were back in the Escalade and heading for home. "You showed some real restraint there, bro."
"I didn't want to but she just didn't know what she was asking." Colby admitted, digging out the bag of shelled and lightly salted pistachios he'd found on the way out of the store.
"You get those shells in my car and you'll wish you hadn't." Lars said.
He just smiled at his brother and, waiting until the next light, showed him that there were no shells - which was just unnatural - before digging into the bag for his first handful. "Damn, I hate skipping meals." Colby groused as he munched.
"Flight that bad?" Lars asked.
Colby nodded. "Sandwiched between two 'large' individuals, having to run to catch the flight in the first place and all that after the case we were working blew apart in our faces late last night. Literally."
Lars shot his brother a glance before he pulled on the main road to Cascade. "Anyone hurt?"
"Just the IRA trained bomber who managed to just blow himself to hellengone. But you know how paperwork can be after crap like that." Colby grabbed a final handful of nuts, then put the bag away in the pocket of his too light coat.
Lars nodded. "The after action reports must be mind numbing."
"Numbing in more a more physical sense too. I don't think I was able to leave my chair at the office until three hours before time to catch the flight up here."
"You got from the Federal Building to LAX to the flight in under 3 hours? What'd you do? Run the lights and siren?" Lars was plainly amazed.
"Nope." Colby grinned. "Don did. Said he owed it to me since I managed to keep Charlie from being hurt..."
"How did Charlie get into this?" Lars had never met Don's younger brother but had heard plenty about him.
"He wasn't supposed to be there but showed up just as things started going south ... I managed to catch the flash and tossed his butt to the ground and covered him." Colby shrugged. "You know, just what I would've done for any civilian in the same situation."
Lars nodded and shot another look at his brother. "You okay? Really?"
"Yeah, Lars, I'm fine. A little dinged up but fine. Tired, but that's to be expected, right?"
"A little dinged up? Man, if you keel over at the house, I'll never hear the end of it, you know that?"
"Won't happen. Tim Ryan checked me over last night and then again this morning . . . I just need some seriously strong coffee or a nice cat-nap to be back to 100."
"Tim Ryan? Someone new to the team?"
"Sorry about that, no. Tim's one of the Medics the HRT teams use. Good guy." Colby wriggled a little in the passenger seat, trying to get comfy. "We're what? About an hour out from the house?"
"Yeah, maybe a little less. If you trust my driving, you can grab a snooze here."
"Yeah, just wake me if we're going to do something interesting - like crash." Colby grinned at his brother, then closed his eyes.
Lars shook his head and kept his eyes on the road. Roughly an hour later, he pulled onto the gravel driveway leading to the house, pulling to a stop next to his mother's Suburban and his father's patrol car. He nudged Colby. "Wake up, bro. We're home."
"Huh?" Colby blinked a few times, then seemed to lock his eyes on the house. "Oh, yeah!" He jumped out of the Cadillac, grabbing his bag of clothes and bag of presents, and left the Wal-Mart stuff for Lars to haul in. He was so eager to get into the house, he completely missed the Christmas lights and decorations strung up around the house and on the front lawn.
The first person to greet Colby as he walked into the house was his father. Gareth hugged him even as he took the bags from his son's hands and placed them on the stairwell off the living area. Then Cody came up and, smiling, handed him a mug of hot wassail. Lars brought up the rear and with the Wal-Mart bags in hand.
The commotion must have alerted Cat for she came out of the kitchen and made a beeline toward Colby, engulfing him in a hug that threatened to spill the spiced apple drink all over the floor.
"Merry Christmas, Mom." Colby managed to get out.
"Got the stuff you wanted Mom." Lars said, weaving past his family. "Colby's pretty good at shopping you know."
"He should be! I got him trained right after all." Cat parried back at her eldest before looking back up at her youngest. "I'm not going to ask why you smell like an EOD officer, I'm just happy you're home for a good reason this time, CeeJay."
Colby flushed.
Lars said not a word.
"Smells like what, Cat?" Gareth asked.
"A bomb disposal officer. You wouldn't have noticed, Gar. You and Cody still have the gunpowder residue from your hunt all over you." Cat released Colby from her hug, then grabbed up the two bags from Lars. "Now, you three shoo and get cleaned up - Colby, the kitchen. If you would?"
"Mom ... I should get cleaned up too--" He watched as the other Granger men took off up the stairs then decided that following his mother was the best course of action.
"I know, I know ... you'll get a chance in just a few moments." She held the door to the kitchen open as he passed her into the fragrant haven.
He inhaled and nothing else mattered. He was home and the rest of the world fell away.
He watched as his mom unpacked the bags, letting out a sigh of relief when she unpacked the Crisco. "Oh good. I was worried Lars would try to get another brand."
Colby smiled. "He tried, Mom. I wouldn't let him."
"Good." She looked back over her shoulder at him. "I take it the cakes you made went over well then?"
He nodded, pulling out the blue ribbon from the FBI Cake Bake Off and several 'thank you' notes from his teammates. "You could say that, Mom."
She beamed. "They were a bit surprised, weren't they?"
He let out a full laugh. "Yeah, especially Megan."
"I bet she was. How is everyone?"
"They're good and send their wishes to you and Dad." He shrugged out of his coat and, for the first time, realized she was right. He reeked of explosives. "Damn, I'm surprised I made it through screening like this. Mom, I've GOT to go change before I help out in here."
She sighed. "Colby James, your language..."
"Sorry. Mom." He kissed her on the cheek then made good his escape.
Christmas Day, after the family had sat down to the rather large meal of fresh turkey, supplied by Cody and Gareth, and more side dishes than Colby could ever recall being on the table at any one time, Lars made tracks to the countertop where THE chocolate cake sat on it's pedestal.
As usual, he got the first piece of that cake while the others waved off his offer of slices for them. They were just too full. Colby, however, waited to see his brother's reaction when he took that first bite. After all, it wasn't very often Colby managed to 'improve' one of his mother's recipes and this one... Well, it was the award winner.
Lars took the bite, then looked up. "Mom, what did you do? This is good!"
"I didn't do a thing, Lars. CeeJay did." Cat said, beaming at her youngest.
Lars looked at his baby brother. "CeeJay?"
"Yeah, surprised everyone in LA too ... it's not too much, is it?"
"No, it's real good but what'd you do?"
"Just a touch of mint extract - in the glaze only and in the superfine dusting. Judges said it reminded them of the milder Chocolate Mint candies."
Lars grinned, then laughed. "My baby brother, a pastry chef, who'd a thunk it?"
Colby blushed. "Yeah, well, I can't rely on girlfriends to bake for me and you know how much I love good food."
"This is really good, bro." Lars inhaled the piece and then looked at his mother.
Cat let out a laugh. "Oh, go ahead, Lars! It's not like you're supposed to behave on this day. Not when there's more food than your father and I could possibly handle alone."
He grinned and cut himself a slightly larger slice.
"Lars? A tiny slice for me if you would…" Gareth asked, and was seconded by Cody.
"Yeah, I've got to taste this, there's no way CeeJay out did Mom."
Lars found himself serving the cake and everyone who ate it, agreed it was the best they'd had in a while.
Catherine leaned over and patted Colby on the shoulder. "CeeJay - you are hereby officially in charge of the Christmas Cake from here on out."
Colby groaned. "Thanks, Mom. I think." He smiled and kissed his mother on the cheek.
"And I expect one every year. They freeze really well, as Cliff can attest. I shipped him one of my plain ol' Fudge Cakes in time for the holidays - he had to use a spar to keep people away from it."
The whole table laughed at that.
"Did he get a chance to call this year?" Colby asked.
"A few days ago." Gareth answered. "Said something about OpSec for the rest of the week and he'd try to catch you here before you go back to LA at the end of the week."
Colby nodded. Even in the age of e-mail, the Internet and instant communication, it was still hard to make a phone call sometimes, especially if you were on a ship in the middle of the some ocean or sea on the other side of the planet.
After the dishes were cleaned up - Cody pulled KP duties alongside Gareth - the family was settling down to watch a family favorite movie, The Cantervile Ghost, when someone knocked on the front door.
Colby, not being busy or holding anything at the moment, got up to answer and when he pulled open the door, stood there dumbstruck.
"CeeJay?" Gareth called from the living room.
Gareth was the first to approach the entryway, but Catherine wasn't too far behind him. The tall figure was clad in a long dark coat, the collar turned up against the cold winds and flying snow, but when the man turned...
"CLIFFTON!" Cat let out a cheerful cry that brought Cody and Lars running as well.
Senior Chief Petty Officer Cliffton Granger found himself at the bottom of hugging, laughing heap of people.
END
Merry Christmas to all and may those of you who are serving, or have family members serving - may everyone be together in spirit, if not in body.
Here is the cake recipe that Colby and his mother make in the story.
Great Pound Cake
Suisan's mom started making this cake in the 70's - the variation below has won more than one Blue Ribbon at various Cake Events as well as County Fairs.
1 package Cake Mix, Dark Chocolate Fudge
1 small package of instant pudding - Chocolate Fudge (Sugar Free is good too)
1/2 cup Crisco Oil (Cake tends to be 'gummy' if any other brand is used)
1 cup water
4 eggs - beaten
Pre-heat over to 350 degrees. Blend all ingredients in a large bowl; beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Bake in a greased and floured tube or bundt pan for 45-55 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool 25 minutes - until warm to the touch - and invert onto a serving plate. Dust with powdered sugar, drizzle a chocolate glaze over it or serve plain.
This year, Suisan added her own special touch to this recipe. She took some Chocolate Fudge frosting and, after heating it just a little in a microwave (20 seconds), added a touch of mint extract and drizzled that over the finished cake. Just before the drizzle glaze hardened, she also dusted it - lightly - with mint flavored superfine sugar.
Pssst! Jels! No Whumpage! EG