AN: I have other chapters in mind, but I'm curious to know what you guys think of the first chapter. Please read and review .
December 20th, 2008
East Manhattan
John's POV
After nearly a decade working SVU, he had begun to sympathize with cops who had eaten their Glocks or needed therapy to get through everyday tasks. The entire month has pressure-cooked him, but today had been an exceptionally difficult day. It had started at 3:30am, when a late night jogger had found a young child wandering around in the park. When she was examined at Mercy, doctors found bruising consistent with sexual abuse. It took 15 hours to arrest the perp and get a confession; it felt like an eternity to him.
On the way home, he again considered leaving SVU in January. It was really taking all of his control not to type his letter of resignation, put it on Cragen's desk, and walk away from the 1-6 forever. Ten years ago, he had been certain he'd be in SVU for the rest of his life. His fourth wife had just left him, he was never going to see his daughter again, and he had reasoned it may actually be easier then homicide. Now, married to his true soul mate and having his daughter living with him again, he had begun to realize that this was one of the few times his hunches had been completely wrong.
As he parked in front of their apartment behind his wife's G6, headlights from his daughter's Escape illuminated his unmarked Impala. He sincerely hoped her day had been better than his.
Nicola's POV
She had never excepted Charlie Brown to be on her mind that day. It had seemed like an innocent enough choice when she had been channel surfing the night before. It wasn't Jewish guilt coming back to bother her; she couldn't even remember the last time she had been religious. Besides, she just plain liked Charlie Brown. No matter how many times she watched the Halloween special, she still got belly laughs.
The Christmas special was a different animal, though. Although she found it just as funny as the Halloween special, for some reason, the lesson of the Great Pumpkin being a waste of time never really stuck with her the way lessons from the Christmas special were.
Linus was completely right about the commercialization of Christmas. She had experienced it all that day. She had the students she student-taught make up holiday wish lists (she had been sure to politically correct); it was the only thing that first graders on a sugar high seemed to be able to concentrate on. When they shared their lists with the class, she had been baffled. Why did they all insist on having the fancier things on the planet? She had never remembered lusting after the super-expensive toys or trying to one-up her friends with the amount of toys she had. Her parents used to try to get her some nicer things; six months later, they often found themselves in the box headed to Goodwill.
As she sat in her car, turning off the radio and heat, she found that there was only one thing on her wish list: a typical Munch Christmas. Every year, the Munches chose a menu for the 25th. Then, they spent all day cooking it, watching movies, and just plain enjoying each other's company. It was a delicious release from the norm and there was absolutely no commercialization, thank goodness.
Caryn's POV
She loved her husband and stepdaughter very much; the affection was mutual. As she watched the two tired people get out of their cars and tightly embrace each other, she winced a little inside. She knew they had been looking forward to the Munch Christmas; she had been too. At first, she had thought it would feel a bit odd for her, a cradle Catholic, to push aside the little religion she still practiced and just enjoy the day, but the more she thought about it, the better it sounded. Leave it to her mother to mess things up.
She had been sitting in the living room with a glass of red wine, poring over recipe books, when the phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Caryn, honey, it's your mom."
"Hi mom, what's up?"
"Well, sweetie, I still haven't heard back from you about Christmas. It's gonna be you, Johnny, and Nicki right?"
Caryn sighed inwardly. "Mom, their names are John and Nicola and I already told you, we're not coming. I'm celebrating Christmas with John and Nicola's side of the family."
Her mother let out a rude chuckle. "Those two don't have any other family AND they're Jews. How can you possibly celebrate Christmas with them??"
Caryn shut her eyes and envisioned pictures from past Munch Christmases. "It isn't as hard as you think, mom."
"Why do you always have to be so difficult, Caryn? Your brother never gives us this much trouble!"
"That's mainly because Jacob is a pushover!"
"He is not, he's a good boy. You, on the other hand…," she trailed off for a second. "Look, you bring those two and come for Christmas Eve. You can still have the next day together. I'll see you at 5 and will talk to you later. Bye."
She looked out the window again, and noticed that John and Nicola were no longer outside. She gave a quiet groan and took a seat on the couch. She hoped that they were in decent moods.