Home for Christmas
Summary: The turkey's in danger of burning, the decorations are held by glitter glue and the fairylights are on the fritz. With Michael's flight landing in 2 hours, it didn't leave much time for the gang to create a perfect family Christmas.
Rating: M
Pairing: Michael and Fiona (Burn Notice)
Disclaimer: Sadly, there is no ownership of Burn Notice attached to my name in any way, shape or form. I make no profit except reviews (which are absolutely worth their weight in gold).
Chapter One
"Fiona?" Madeline asked, peering tired eyes through the window in the door. "Oh no." The first thought was for the worst and she yanked open the door with no care for the ratty nightgown and curlers she wore. "What happen-"
"It's happening." Fiona simply said, moving into the house with Sam and Nate close behind her.
"Sorry for the wakeup call, Maddy." Sam apologised, ducking around her to place a box of what looked to be decorations on the table.
"What do you mean?" Madeline asked, now tugging the robe tighter and wishing she had the preservation to have thrown it out years ago. They just didn't make them as warm or soft as this anymore though.
"Michael phoned. He's on his way home." And from the tone of Fiona's voice, she wasn't happy about the short notice either.
"He's what?" Maddy turned quick. "Now?"
"Hi mom." Nate dropped a kiss to his mother's cheek, embracing the smell of cigarettes before following Sam and Fi into the sunroom. "You really weren't kidding were you?" Nate commented, seeing the bare walls and lack of colour.
"I told you. Christmas is postponed until we can have it as a family." Madeline's harsh tone had first spoken these words when Michael's CIA job had informed him he would most likely be in Siberia until January. His mother had simply insisted they were going to celebrate Christmas together as a family (both those of blood and heart) and not a single decoration would be hung until Michael was home, however late in the year it would be.
Which was all well and good in idea, but when you get a phone call from the man who was going to be surprised with a postponed Christmas saying he would be home in a few hours, it threw a spanner in the works.
"Well, it's on now." Fiona turned her head to the clock, 12:31am it read. "His flight will land in two hours, Nate will pick him up and we shall have Christmas tonight."
"But… the food… I haven't cooked anything." Madeline started to panic, they'd expected at least a few days' notice before Michael would be coming home, but that's the problem with surprises; sometimes you get surprised yourself.
"We got as much of it as we could in the back of the car." Nate explained. "I even found a roast." he beamed with pride. It truly was a success considering it was December 27th currently. The shops were almost all cleared out, and considering they were limited due to the hour as well, it was madness.
"But… the decorations."
"We'll make do with what we have, or make our own. You have supplies right?" Fiona asked, already on her way to the closet that held memories of festivities past.
"Well, the lights are busted." Maddy complained as Fiona pulled out the first box with fairy lights in.
Fiona simply turned her head to the boys.
"Sam?"
"On it." he replied, catching the lights she haphazardly threw to him and hunting the screwdriver from under the sink.
"Oh god. The tree!" Maddy flustered but it was quickly solved again.
"Jesse's bringing one now." Fiona stood, the three boxes at her feet, more to come from the loft. "Everything will work out." The promise rang true in all ears; there was little the team couldn't accomplish. Whilst this was far from tactical invasion or perimeter defences, Christmas would be taken just as easily into their encompassing strides.
Maddy sat herself in the nearest chair, her nerves demanding a cigarette. She reached onto the side table only to catch the sight of the old robe again.
"Suppose I should get dressed." Maddy spoke to herself, continuing to pocket the cigarettes. "And for god sake, someone get some eggnog made." she insisted, stepping from the sofa and missing the grin that passed between the visitors. "And don't you dare go easy on the bourbon."
"Wouldn't dare." Sam answered, already in the kitchen and taking the duty of alcohol upon himself.
30 minutes later, Jesse was battling a tree for a position perpendicular to the ground (which seemed near impossible). Sam was muttering about fairy lights being more complicated than the wires of homemade detonators. Nate and Maddy were arguing over the treatment of the food and oven space. And Fiona was sitting crosslegged on the floor, between strips of wrapping paper she was turning into a paper chain and glitter glue she was using to hold her designs together.
"This isn't working god damn it." Jesse grunted to himself, currently securing climbing ropes to the trunk and then around Maddy's furniture for stability.
"It worked last year and it will work this year. It's not it's fault if you can't work it right." Maddy shot back at him, pausing from the cranberry argument with Nate.
"This is a death contraption." Jesse complained, kicking the tree stand with his boot. "I've seen easier mechanisms inside high tech security panels."
"You wanna talk about complex?" Sam interrupted. "How about you try working with the fairy shockers over here. I'm not sure if I've stopped being electrocuted by these damn nymphs of if I've just become immune."
"You better be immune to more than just shocks if you want to live through this dinner." Nate slid in, turning the argument back to the turkey Maddy was trying to cook.
"Excuse me." She snatched her lighter from the side board again. "I've been feeding my family for years and none of you have curled over and died from my cooking."
"No… but we've wanted to." Nate spat back, snatching the baster from his mother. "And stop dropping ash in the veg ma!"
Fiona sat quiet, her mind on the task, her ears tuned to the Christmas songs in the background rather than the family drama.
It was just like being back at home and it filled her with memories of her childhood. Which of course led back to Claire… She cut off her train of thought before the happy occasion would turn sour.
She'd rang home on Christmas, spoken to all her brothers and each had had something to complain about. Mostly about the other brothers. She grinned to herself, ignoring the pink glitter that transferred from the glue to her arm as she laid down more of the paper chain she was making.
Madeline had passed her the artefacts from Christmases way back in the past, and then some extra arts and crafts supplies she had stored away.
"Woah… you're not going to cook them together are you?" Fiona looked up at Jesse's newest grumble, his eyes flying across the room to the sprouts and carrots Madeline had thrown together.
"We need the room." She simply blinked at him, lost for an action, the cigarette sitting limp at the corner of her mouth.
"Yeah, but… I mean, you don't want the two flavours to combine. I mean sprouts and carrots, and is that parsnip?"
"What Jesse?!" Madeline snapped, slamming the pan down on the counter. "Is there some vital law against parsnip and carrot integration now?"
"No, no. I didn't mean it like that, I-"
"You think you can do it better, then you come and do it. You're only making a damn mess brutalising a perfectly good tree anyway." Before Jesse could compose the look of fear Madeline had struck into him, she was marching over, taking the tree from him and pointing in the direction of the kitchen, the smoking cig between her two forefingers. He went without much complaint, whether through fear or preference was undecided.
Fiona went back to the gluing, but her silence had made her a target for Sam's anger.
"Jesus Fi. The glue goes on the decorations, not you." he snapped, the task under his hands stressing him.
"And you could do it better?" she asked, her calm façade strange to those who knew her. Sam blinked at the lack of expected fire and the fight that was sure to burn off his hate of the fairy lights, but she sat and questioned him without snark or snide remark.
"Well… yeah." he said, for lack of other answer.
"Well, I suppose I do have a gentler hand with fiddly wiring."
"Oh, I get it, you just want to show me up, prove you can do this better than I can." Sam slid the lights closer to him across the table. "Don't think I do-"
"For god's sake Sam, give Fiona the damn lights and stick the decorations to the god damn wall!" Madeline ordered and like chastised schoolchildren their places changed again.
The team had been up against the scum of the earth armed to the teeth and enraged past reason, but nothing gave them more fear than Madeline Western with voice raised and smoke curling.
Fiona sat herself with her eggnog at the table, her fingers easily taking the lights from the plastic holders and testing the connections.
There was one reason and one reason alone she was as laid back as she was.
Some would say she was tired; it was late. Late enough that with each raised voice and slammed pan they were waiting for a neighbour to complain or cop to knock.
Some would say she was used to experiencing their anger without Michael as a mediator and had simply adjusted.
The truth was simple.
Michael was coming home tonight.
1 hour and 50 minutes (at an estimate) before he walked through that front door, passed the make-shift orange and cinnamon stick wreath she'd artfully created and would finally be back in her arms.
He'd been gone since late November and a month was a hell of a long time to go without him. One email, a few texts, the odd phone call but not a single satisfactory moment had come her way since he left.
Each time she'd try to call, he'd have had to ditch the phone and she'd get nothing but endless rings or voicemail.
She'd been in bed when he'd called tonight.
"This better be god damn important." she grumbled sleepily into the phone as she accepted the unknown number. Her eyes found the TV re-runs still playing on the TV; she must have fallen asleep watching them again.
"Fi." All it took was a word.
Just one word and she was wide awake, turning off the TV and pushing up from her duvet.
"Michael."
"Hey." She could almost hear his smile. "I didn't wake you did I?"
"No. No." she lied. "I was wide awake. There was a Buffy marathon, and you know how much I love some vampire slaying before bed."
"Sorry I woke you." he chuckled. "I just wanted to let you know, I'm coming home."
"You're coming home?" she scrubbed a hand down her face, her sleep addled mind still trying to find focus in the darkness. "When?"
"A few hours. There's a flight re-routed to pick me up soon."
"The job? It's done?" she asked. "I thought they said January."
"Yeah." He sighed. "Turned out we didn't need that long."
"So… tonight?" Fiona stretched over the bed to turn the alarm clock towards her. "You'll be back tonight?!"
He chuckled again at her sudden giddiness.
"Yeah Fi. They're happy enough to leave the debriefing until the day after." he stated, though both knew the CIA were rarely 'happy enough' about anything to grant any leniency on their demands.
"Don't they reali-" but her yawn cut off her words and she smothered it beneath her hand.
"Go back to sleep Fi. I'll be there soon."
"Michael." she chastised softly. "You do realise I'm in bed."
"Generally where people sleep." he commended cleverly.
"No, I mean… I'm in bed." And this time, the words were laced with insinuation and dripping in the undercurrent of sex.
"Fi. I'm waiting with the team."
"I'm sure they don't mind. They know it's been a month or so." she teased playfully. "I'm wearing that little green babydoll you like."
"Fi." he groaned.
"But, I can always take it off." she taunted, her voice as seductive as her words.
"Fi."
"And, I have all these ideas of what I want to do when I see you, and I don't think I can wait that long." She pouted and she knew he would be seeing the image in his mind's eye.
"You can't wait a few hours?"
"Uh-uh." She dropped a breath, sliding a moan in for his benefit.
"Fi." A warning.
"Oh Michael." she moaned overly erotic.
"Fiona." he snipped, trying to contain the energy she drove into him with the sounds he'd missed most.
"Michael, shall I tell you what I'm doing?" her voice played with him though her hands had yet to wander from the pillow she'd slept on and her grip on the phone. Her teddybear pyjamas were wrapping her in comfort and the green babydoll was deep in the bottom of her wardrobe. But, where was the sexuality in high thread cotton?
"How about instead, I'll tell you what I'm doing; I'm hanging up the phone." He chuckled. "I'll see you soon Fi."
There was a pause, a bated breath where both hung on. It whispered 'I miss you' but never quite left lips.
"Soon." she replied. "Travel safe." And the call ended.
Fiona dropped back to the bedding. She need to get up, and dressed… in something other than pyjamas. She needed to shave her legs.
Oh god, she needed to call Maddy and arrange Christmas.
Reviews are always welcome. Will post the next chapter in a week (ish).
Much love, thanks for reading/clicking and scrolling :D
Xx