Game On

"Does everyone have their list? I don't want to hear anyone bitching because they don't know what to look for! This contest is serious people." Olivia barked.

The nine people standing in her living room shot each other annoyed looks. She was going more than a little overboard with this game, turning it into an event of Olympic proportions. It really wasn't that serious, and was supposed to be a fun night out for all of them.

Fitz walked beside Olivia and put his arm around her waist. "What my wife means, is let's have fun tonight. And don't lose your partner."

"No, that's not at all what I meant!" She exclaimed.

"Calm down, Liv." Abby retorted. "It's a game. A fun one with a healthy amount of competition to keep it interesting, but still a game. It's not life or death. It ain't the hunger games."

Everyone snickered.

"Fine. But does everyone understand the rules of this game?" Olivia asked.

Someone groaned. "It'd be hard not to. You went over them four times in the last fifteen minutes."

"Remind us what they are since you have so much to say, Thad." She said sarcastically.

"Liv!" Yvonne whined. "Come on!"

"It's fine, Yvonne. I'm going to say them once and then me and my partner are getting in the car to get started. If the rest of you want to stand around with your thumbs up your ass, that's fine with me. I'm a little more competitive than that. Besides, I owe Fitz for the laser tag incident last year."

"A little less rambling smack talk. Let's hear the rules one last time."

Thad rolled his eyes. "We all have three hours to complete a Christmas lights scavenger hunt. We all have a checklist of items we need to find and take a picture beside. Also..."

"That's right." Olivia interrupted. "Picture, or it didn't happen. And your partner has to be in the picture with you and the item on the list. When you have photos of everything on your list, you have to text the group to let us know, and be the first one to get back to the house."

Fitz chuckled. "Thank you for the explanation, Thad. Great job."

His brother threw up a middle finger at him in response.

"Let's go everyone! Are you driving, Fitz or am I?" Olivia asked.

"Stephen is driving. I'm riding shotgun."

"What are you talking about? You can't ride with Stephen and Abby."

"I'm not planning to. Stephen and I are a team. You are with Abby." Looking across the room, he caught Stephen's eye and shouted, "You ready to wipe the floor with these losers?"

"You're supposed to be on my team, Fitz! All of the couples are teams."

"Please tell me that's not a real rule, Liv or I'm not playing." Quinn said groaning loudly.

"You're not partnering up with Charlie?" Olivia asked surprised.

"Hell no. I actually want to win. Thad and I are going to be back here sipping on coffee before the rest of you gets your third picture. Right, Thad?" He gave her a high five on his way to the bathroom.

Olivia found Robin amongst the warm bodies in her house and asked, "Who is your partner for the game, Robin?"

She grinned widely. "I picked Jason. He seems sweet and normal. I think we'll do well, and I won't have to listen to all that manly bullshit talk my husband is constantly spouting."

"Charlie? You ready to win this thing?" Yvonne asked.

"Born ready. Let's get the hell out of here. You want me to drive?" When she nodded, he waved goodbye to his wife and the two of them went outside.

Everyone was in cars with their oddly matched game partners. A lot of smack talk was going around in the driveway and it was revving everyone up to prove themselves as winners. Olivia made one last annoying round to make sure everyone had their checklist and then got behind the wheel of her car beside Abby. "Starbucks on me when we win." She muttered to her best friend. "They can make their own loser coffee when they get back to the house."

Cars left in a single file line down the street and eventually some broke off to go in different directions. Horns honked and laughter could be heard from the wild group. And then things got serious.

"Look, everyone is going to go straight down the list. I say we start from the bottom and work our way up." Fitz suggested.

"Spoken like a true pervert." Stephen chuckled from the driver's seat. "I'm game with that kind of thinking. What's the last thing on the list?"

Fitz laughed, already loving the testosterone filled car. "Christmas inflatables."

"Do people still put those out? Who in the hell made this list?" Stephen asked in a confused voice.

"Three guesses and the first two don't count."

"Next year, we are going to let someone sane come up with the Christmas Eve game. And side note, she needs to take meds for her competitive side! Do something about that soon, mate." Fitz laughed at the truth his friend just spoke.

In another car, three streets over, Quinn and Thad were coming up with a game plan of their own. "Nobody is gonna start in the middle. They are probably all going to start from the beginning. So, if you're okay with it, we'll start with number fifteen and skip around. Unless we see something on the list as we go. Does that work for you?"

"Fine by me. As long as we win. I can't stand the thought of my brother winning this insane game." Thad said, rolling his eyes.

"He gets on your nerves too?" Quinn asked, a little shocked at his admission.

"Fuck yes! He's older, so he does everything perfectly. I always hated being compared to him as a kid. Any chance I get to knock him down a peg or two, is my Christmas gift to myself!" Thad grinned over at the slightly scary chick laughing in the passenger seat. At least they had a common enemy and that could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Behind them, Robin and Jason were singing Christmas carols along with the radio and smiling like fools. She enjoyed the much calmer, less competitive nature of Jason and the two of them had hit it off immediately. Robin glanced to her right out her window and excitedly said, "Ooooh! Look, Jayson! There's a train! Pull over and we'll go take a picture with it and mark it off of our list."

As Jason pulled over, the two Fitz bashers in front of them kept laughing and driving.

Lost somewhere on a side road, Charlie was trying not to lose his mind with his co-pilot. She was the absolute worst at directions, even though they had no particular destination in mind, getting lost was not on the ridiculous checklist Olivia had given them. "Do you know where we are? We just left Fitzy's place. We haven't even had time to get lost!"

"Sorry, Charlie. The maps app on my phone is being stupid. I'm working on it. Do you see anything around here that's on our checklist?"

Charlie groaned and mumbled. "That checklist is dumb as hell. Who continues to let her come up with the Christmas Eve game?"

Surprised by his admission, Yvonne turned in her seat to look at him. "Right?!" She asked excitedly. "We would've had more fun staying at home and braiding each other's hair."

"Fitzy is a complete tool for making us do this. We should ditch this game and do something else."

"Go off grid? And do what?" Yvonne asked. The thought of not participating in this game appealed to Yvonne and she was pleasantly shocked to hear that Charlie was up for it too.

"Anything we want to. We live in New freakin' York. There's one of anything you could possibly imagine to do in this state. Is there something in particular you'd like to do? Anything is better than being lost on a dead end street."

Yvonne laughed loudly at his truth of his comment. With newfound freedom from the game, Yvonne admitted some truth of her own. "There is this thing on my bucket list that I've always wanted to do, but Jason isn't up for it and I really don't want to do it alone."

"Name it and we'll get it done. Even if it's illegal. Hell, that might make it more fun." He chuckled.

"I want to repel off a building in the city." She said quietly.

"Yea? Let's go then!" He encouraged.

"Really? Just like that?" She asked with surprise. "Would you do it with me though?"

"Sure, I will. I've done it with Quinn a couple dozen times. It's really fun. I think you'll like it. It's gonna be cold as a bitch being that high up in December, but the thrill of it, along with the crazy adrenaline running through your body will keep you warm."

Yvonne pushed a button on her door that let her window down and happily threw the checklist outside as Charlie turned the car around in the middle of the narrow street.

"Liv, we've only found four things on the list and it's been a half hour. We've got to step this up or we're gonna lose to the boys. And I'm not losing to the two of them!" Abby screeched.

"Relax, Abs. Do you honestly think I would come up with this game without a plan?"

"What's this magical plan then?" The redhead asked.

"Let's just say I have friends who have taken care of everything."

"Stop talking like the Riddler and tell me what's going on! You're stressing me out!"

"I know a guy who has set up everything on the list in a warehouse. All we have to do is show up and take pictures with them." Olivia declared smugly.

"No freaking way! You're a genius, Liv!" She shrieked, leaning over and hugging her friend's right arm as she drove.

"We don't lose to boys. Never have. Never will. We'll be at the warehouse in about thirty minutes."

"Why did we stop and take photos with those four items then?" Abby asked.

"To make it look good in case someone saw us."

"That makes sense. Let's go to Starbucks now so we don't have to wait until we're done taking pictures. It's freezing outside."

"Hell yea!" Olivia said smiling.

"I want french fries. Let's go to McDonalds." Stephen suggested.

"Yea, I could eat something too. Maybe they'll have..." Fitz looked at his checklist. "A polar bear there?"

"Nah, mate. You gotta go to the Coca Cola plant for that. They might have an inflatable chicken nugget? I bet that's not on the fucking list though, huh?" He laughed.

Fitz laughed in the passenger seat. "We're never gonna find all of this stuff. We should go watch a movie instead. Something manly that we want to see with shit being blown up."

"Really? You aren't scared Liv will tear your balls off if she finds out you didn't participate?" Stephen asked as he looked at the drive through menu.

"Not really, because she is going to cheat at this game anyways."

Stephen turned to his right with a shocked expression on his face. "What are you talking about? How do you cheat at a scavenger hunt?"

"She is going to a remote location not far from here where one of her clients has sent up every single thing on the list for her and Abby to take pictures beside. I want a number four with a Coke."

"Who cares about food right now? What the fuck are you talking about? Liv is going to actually cheat? As in not play fair? How do you know about it?"

"She got an email from some guy named Huck. He sent pictures of everything on the list." Stephen was staring at him with his mouth hanging open. "Stephen, order my food. If you want to starve, that's cool. But I want.."

"I got it. A number four with a coke." Stephen ordered their food and a mischievous smile spread across his face. "Do you know the address of this place with the completed checklist of Christmas bullshit?"

Fitz grinned. "Maybe. Why?"

"Because we would have options then."

"What kind of options?"

"We could beat the girls there, take all the pictures, and be back at the house before them. Or we could show up and spoil their fun, take pictures before or after them, and then race home? Or we could just go to the movies and skip all of it. Your choice."

Fitz thought about it for a while. "If we get there and the girls are already there, then we say screw it and go to the movies. But if we beat them there, we explain that she sent us in her place, take all of the pictures, and then drive like a bat out of hell back to the house, telling no one."

"Those are good options. The only thing I would add is that, assuming we beat the girls there, we take the goofiest photos ever."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Mooning the penguin. Or put the wreath on our ass. Goofy shit like that."

"Olivia would really get pissed about that." Fitz laughed. "I love it! I'm gonna check in with the others and see how it's going with them."

"What do you want?" Thad accused.

"How's the hunt for Santa in a sleigh coming, little brother?"

"We found that an hour ago. We've only got like three things left on the list to find."

"You suck at lying, Thad. More like you've only found three things on the list."

"Man, shut up. What do you want?"

"I'm just trying to share the love. There's a Rudolph, red nose and everything, over on forty-second street."

Stephen burst into laughter and quickly covered his mouth with his hand to hold it in.

"And right next door is that impossible to find gingerbread man."

"Why are you sharing this information with me?" Thad asked, full of skepticism. "And why did you drive all the way into the city for this lame ass game?"

"I'm trying to win. We've gotten quite a few things on our list already and I thought I'd share some of them with you. But if you're gonna turn into a conspiracy theorist, then never mind. And for your information, we are in the city because that's where all of the lights are. Everybody knows that, dumbass." Fitz ended the call and told Stephen. "He'll be in the city within ten minutes."

The teenager opened the window and passed Stephen a bag of food and he drove off. "So, what do you want to do, mate?"

Fitz was quiet for a few moments, as he ate his hot fries. "The movies would be fun. And peaceful without the women with us. But screwing with the girls is one of my favorite things to do in the world. I'm for that option."

"Let's go screw with the girls then." Fitz called out the address and Stephen drove.

"I can't believe you found that nutcracker, Jason! Great eye!" Robin praised. The jolly duo were making their way back to the car after taking their photo. Robin scanned the checklist and announced, "We only have two more items to find. We have a real shot at winning this thing!"

"I'm glad we didn't go the couples route. It's been fun getting to know you, Robin. I think we make a great team." Jason said smiling.

"I agree completely. You are not what I was expecting at all. This has been a fun relaxing night. The Christmas music makes it even more fun."

"I love good Christmas music. I listen to it all year. Drives Yvonne crazy." He chuckled.

"We still have..." She checked her watch and added, "an hour left until the game is over. You wanna grab a hot cocoa somewhere?"

"Yea, that sounds great. I'm going to check in with Yvonne real quick first." He found her name in his phone and made the call.

In the city, Yvonne was getting strapped into a harness and freaking out a little as Charlie encouraged her to follow through with her idea. "You've got this! Piece of cake, girl. I'm not gonna lie to you. The first step off is terrifying. But after that it's really beautiful."

She heard the familiar ringtone but her terrified mind couldn't comprehend where it was coming from. Charlie touched her arm and she almost jumped out of her skin. "Your phone is ringing. Answer it while they finish strapping you in. Maybe it'll calm you down some?"

She nodded and pulled it from her pocket. It was Jason. "H...Hello?"

"Hey, honey. How are you coming along on your list?"

Scavenger hunt list. Bucket list. A list was a list, right? "Oh, just great. We're about to get the big one."

"You guys found a live nativity? Where?"

Yvonne chuckled nervously. "That's cheating. If I told you I'd have to kill you." One of the instructors told her they were ready to go over the building and she paled but nodded to him. "Look, I've got to go now. We've got to get this picture and scoot to get it crossed off the list. I'll see you back at Liv's house. Love you."

"Why do you sound...scared? Are you okay? Tell me where you are."

"I'm fine. But I gotta go. We'll talk soon. I can't wait to see your pictures and for you to see mine. Bye, Jason."

"Okay. Love you too." He ended the call and Robin was finishing up sending a text to Thad. "That was weird."

"Is everything okay?" Robin asked.

"She sounded weird. Like she was terrified or something. I don't know, I just got a strange feeling from her."

"This is a strange question, but do the two of you have GPS on each other's phones? Not to spy on each other, but for situations like this?"

"Yea, we do. Good idea." He fiddled with his phone for a minute or two and his face twisted when he found her location. "What the hell is she doing in the middle of Brooklyn?"

"Looking for items on the scavenger hunt probably." Robin guessed.

"She's at the IN4th building."

"What's that?

"Hang on, I'm looking." After using Google to look it up, Jason reluctantly said, "It's an apartment building. What is she doing at an apartment building with Charlie?"

"Maybe they probably found an amazing light display that had a lot of stuff on the checklist?" Robin offered. When Jason continued to look at his phone, Robin touched his arm. "Hey, don't let your mind go there. There's a reasonable explanation for it. Maybe Charlie had a family emergency and had to go there to check it out. There are a thousand reasons they could be there, but none of them are whatever is going on in your mind right now. Do you want to go check it out? Would that make you feel better?"

"Yes!" He immediately answered. "I trust her completely. It's just weird. And for the record, I'm not thinking anything inappropriate is going on between the two of them. But she sounded scared. Like genuinely terrified. And that's why I want to go check on her. We might not get the other three items on the list. Are you sure it's ok with you?"

"Of course. If the situation was reversed, I'd be making my way to Thad already. It's only a ten minute drive anyways. Chances are we'll find them quickly." They took off toward the blinking red dot on Jason's phone.

Thad and Quinn had driven into the city, where they had already given up on the scavenger hunt, but were looking for something to do. Quinn's phone chimed and she looked at the face of it, seeing Charlie's face. She answered it with a curt, "Hello?"

She could hear his voice, but couldn't make out what he was saying. She kept yelling "hello" but he didn't reply. She was about to hang up when she heard him say, "rappelling down the IN4th is pretty friggin' amazing for your first time."

She ended the obvious butt dial, turned her head sharply at Thad, and said, "Drive to the IN4th building. NOW! And step on it!"

"What for?" He asked, but making a left hand turn.

"Charlie is rappelling down a building and I want to see it. Hell, we might as well go down ourselves! It beats this game."

"He's going down the outside of an apartment building in this weather? Is he crazy?"

"Don't be such a pansy, Thad. We've rappelled down dozens of buildings. It's fun. Besides, I bet your brother hasn't done it before. You'd have a one up on him. Much cooler than laser tag too, I might add." She was pouring it on thick, hoping to challenge him to accept.

"Why the hell not? My wife might kill me, but it does sound like fun. Let's do this!"

Olivia and Abby had pulled up in front of the warehouse, Starbucks in hand, and were collecting their things when a man jumped beside each of their doors, shouting loudly. Startled, they both screamed just as loudly and the expensive coffee went flying all over them. Laughter could be heard from outside Olivia's car.

The two terrified women looked out their windows and Abby screamed, "Stephen? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Fitzgerald Grant, have you lost your mind? I am going to kick your ass for that!" Olivia threatened.

The guys opened the doors for their women and both were immediately slapped on the arm. "You scared the shit out of me!" Abby shrieked.

Olivia, who had gained her composure some, and got her breathing back in the normal range, asked, "What are the two of you doing here?"

"Ahhh, yes. Good question." Stephen stated. "We could ask you the same thing though."

"Yea, Liv. Why are you and Abs here?" He was grinning at her and she knew he somehow was already aware of why they were here.

"We came here to do some last minute Christmas shopping." She explained.

"Liar. You wanna try again?"

"The truth this time maybe?" Stephen suggested.

"Fine. We are here for the game."

"Yea, we know." Fitz supplied. "You are nothing but a big ole cheater."

"Cheater, cheater pumpkin eater." Stephen sang. It sounded weird coming out of his British mouth.

"So, why are the two of you here?" Abby asked. She had to give them credit. The fact that they knew where they were and why was impressive.

"We came here to screw with the two of you."

"Mission accomplished. You can go home now." Olivia said with sass.

"Not gonna happen. We're going in with you and we're getting pictures too. When it's all said and done, the first one home wins.

"Have the two of you lost your minds? That is not happening." Abby tried.

"Oh, not only is it happening, Red but we are going to take our pictures the way we want to. And the two of you will not comment on them. Or, we'll tell the rest of the group what you did. The choice is yours." Stephen said defiantly.

"Let's get this over with so we can race home like crazy folks and win this game." Olivia said with an eyeroll.

"Oh yea, and you are no longer in charge of making up the Christmas Eve games." Fitz said smiling.

"Well done, mate!" Stephen encouraged. "This game was shit and you know it, Liv. I'm betting the four of us are the only ones still playing it."

"Fine, but I hate you both. Let's go!"

"Men ruin every damn thing." Abby mumbled.

"After you." Fitz said allowing her to lead the way to mayhem.

Over at the IN4th building, Quinn and Thad pulled into a parking space and ran inside, jumping into the elevator. They stepped out onto the roof and caught Yvonne and Charlie going over the building. Yvonne was screaming her head off in fear, but Charlie was encouraging her the entire time. The two of them went closer to the edge and saw Jason and Robin were watching as well.

"I can't believe my fiancé just willingly went over the side of this building! I'm so...proud of her! That is amazing! I mean, I can still hear her screaming, but wow! That was something on her bucket list, she was dying to do but it wasn't something I could do. She's a freaking beast!" He was grinning proudly and talking a mile a minute.

Yvonne was over the building, clinging tightly to the rope in front of her with her eyes tightly closed. "Why did I do this, Charlie? I'm not brave or fun. I'm just stupid! Why didn't you talk me out of it?"

Charlie was about ten feet away from her but instead of panicking, he was smiling. "You're doing great! You ARE brave! You just did something you've wanted to for a long time. That's amazing! Yvonne, open your eyes. It's snowing! Look!"

She very slowly cracked one eye open and looked up. The white powdery fluff was falling from the sky and it was beautiful. She stuck her tongue out to try to catch a snowflake on it and ended up smiling. "I can't believe I'm rappelling off the side of this building! It's not so bad." She kicked her legs off the edge of the building and dropped some. "It's actually kinda fun!"

"You are amazing, baby! I'm so proud of you!" A voice yelled from the roof.

"Jason?" Yvonne yelled back. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to watch you kick this buildings ass! And to take pictures!"

Feeling much more confident, Yvonne continued all the way down to the bottom, and enjoyed every minute of it. Once they reached the ground, she excitedly hugged Charlie. "Thank you so much for doing this with me, Charlie! It was awesome!"

"Any time you want to do more crazy shit, call me. I'll be happy to go with you! That was a great ending to this stupid day." The two of them laughed together and were taken out of their harnesses.

"Oh, that's the one, Stephen. I love it! Hold that position." Fitz directed. His crazy co-conspirator currently had his crotch in a nutcracker. The two fools took the picture and moved on to the next one while the women watched, in complete silence, and then quickly and unceremoniously took their own pictures.

When all of the items had been checked off the list, Fitz and Stephen pecked the women's lips and raced out the door, calling out over their shoulder, "The last one home is a rotten egg!"

Olivia and Abby stood rooted to the spot with their arms crossed in front of their chests. They had no intentions of racing those two fools home. The guys didn't have to know that though. They watched the men peel out of the warehouse parking lot, laughing like lunatics, and then turned to each other.

"Remember that photo they took with the penguin?" Olivia asked.

"Where they did handstands and put their asses in it's face? I'm trying to forget but you won't let me." Abby complained.

"Remember Fitz asking me to hold his wallet so it wouldn't fall out of his pants?" When the redhead nodded, Olivia added, "I took Fitz's credit card. You wanna go shopping?" Olivia asked.

"Most definitely! I need a new pair of shoes after watching those two idiots act like twelve year olds. Maybe a new dress too?"

"I'm feeling like a new pair of boots myself. Maybe a coat too? We'll see what speaks to us. We'll consider it his Christmas present to us." They smiled at each other, hooked arms, and made their way to the car.