Voila! Enjoy!
Christmas day came faster than Team One expected. They had the day off, but they all agreed to come in at two o'clock to exchange their gifts.
"Damn it!" Jules shouted, kicking her foot against her locker. "I can't find the dumb key!"
"You okay?" Leah asked, walking into the locker room and hanging up her absurdly puffy jacket.
"I lost the key to my locker!" Jules said frantically, rushing out of the room to see if any of the guys knew where it was.
Outside, she pinned Ed up against the wall, giving him a cold, angry stare. "I know you have it!"
"Have what?"
"My key!" she hollered, releasing Ed and holding her hand out, expecting him to return what was rightfully hers. "Christmas always seems to be 'pick on Jules' day! So give it back!"
"Chill woman!" Ed laughed as he stepped far enough away that Jules couldn't cause him any more harm. "I don't have your key. You probably just lost it."
"I don't lose–"
Ed's wife Sophie came out of the briefing room with Greg and put her hands on her hips, looking unhappily at her husband. "Give her the key, Ed."
"I told you!" Ed insisted. "I don't have the damn key!"
Both Sophie and Jules continued glaring at Ed who seemed blatantly amused. Jules jabbed Ed in the chest with her finger. "I'm watching you!" she concluded.
When Team One had assembled in the entryway of HQ, Greg began his Secret Santa speech.
"Okay!" he began. "Merry Christmas guys, and welcome to the first annual Team One Secret Santa Party!"
"Party?" Spike asked excitedly. "We're having a party?"
Greg nodded before continuing his speech. "So here today, we have the lovely wives of Ed and Wordy to help things run more smoothly. You will give your gift to either Shelly or Sophie and they will put them all under the tree for us. Then we can begin."
Each team member secretly handed their gift to one of 'Santa's elves', as Greg put it, and then retreated into the locker room to await the moment of truth. When they were finally able to emerge, they hustled to the briefing room, nearly getting ploughed over by Spike, who was in a mad dash to get there first.
The tree was lit up with bright, colourful lights, and Jules' elegant gold star sat proudly at the top. Underneath the tree, seven neatly wrapped presents awaited, each indicating who they were for.
"I want to go first!" Spike announced, searching for the gift that had his name on it.
He found a bright green bag with an image of Santa Claus on it and began digging around for his gift. He pulled out a package of cookies and a black and yellow book.
"Robots for Dummies!" he cried out. "I've wanted this for so long! My mom wouldn't buy it for me though, so thank you, whoever 'you' are!"
Jules laughed evilly in her mind, waiting for Spike to notice his other gift. When he did, his eyes bulged with excitement.
"Hallelujah! Squishy cookies!" Spike howled. "Finally someone understands me! Thanks!"
He tore open the package and began to feast on the cookies inside, jerking it away from any team member who dared to approach.
Many laughs had been shared over Spike, and some of the other gifts that had been received. Finally there were only two people left to open their presents. Sam and Jules. Sam's gift was put in a traditional gift bag for wine, and he smiled when he saw it. Inside was an elegantly packaged bottle of Veuve Cliquot champagne.
"Thank you," Sam said graciously, looking at all his team mates, who smiled and nodded their heads, except for Jules.
"I feel like I'm missing something," Jules said as she looked at the expressions of her friends. "Is there something going on that no one's told me about?"
Greg shook his head seriously. "No Jules. Go ahead, open your gift."
Jules picked up a fairly large, neatly wrapped parcel from under the tree. She began to carefully take off the paper, feeling self-conscious of all the eyes that were staring at her.
"Come on, just rip it!" Ed proclaimed. "We don't have all day!"
"Ed!" Sophie scolded, elbowing him in the gut. "Stop being such a butt! Take your time Jules, and just ignore this one here."
"Oh wow!" Jules exclaimed when she saw the book. "The illustrated edition of Angels and Demons! How did you guys know?"
"It helped that you'd been complaining for weeks that your dad bought it for your brother a few years ago and not for you," Ed pointed out.
Jules was slowly opening the front cover of the hardcover book, when a small envelope fell out. She picked it up and studied it. Scrawled in small, messy printing, it read:
You though it was going to be that easy? Think again.
Jules sighed. "Funny guys," she groaned. "You always have to set up some prank, don't you? Like that time when I was the rookie and–"
"Just read it, Jules," said Greg.
She opened the enveloped and pulled out a small folded piece of paper.
To find your REAL gift, you have to be strong. But if you want to be strong, first there is something you must lift.
Jules read it aloud a few times, trying to decipher it. What do you have to lift that makes stronger...
"That's it!" she cried out. "Weights! To the gym!"
Jules rushed out of the briefing room and began wandering down the halls, her clue held tightly in her hand. She pushed the door of the gym open and held it as her team, and their families followed behind her.
Like a hurricane, she tore through the room, lifting up every weight it sight. She finally came to a 30 pound weight and heaved it up off the ground. Taped to the bottom of it was another white envelope.
"Found it! Here it goes."
Good job! You found it! You're smart after all. Your next clue is hidden near something yummy, but small.
"Gee thanks," Jules snapped. "Whoever this is finally realized how intelligent I am. That took a while."
She glared at her team who mostly just shrugged, with amused expressions on their faces. "I know that this was you, Ed! Something is going to pop out at me, like that stupid banana cream pie! Do you remember that?"
"Oh yeah!" Ed cackled. "You looked good enough to eat! Hah! Get it? Good enough to eat?"
Jules growled angrily and looked back to her next clue, not sure whether she wanted to continue with this potentially deadly wild goose chase.
"I don't remember the pie thing," Sam whispered to Wordy.
"That was when she was a rookie. It was pretty mean, I must say," Wordy replied. "Ed made this booby trap thing with Rolie and attached a pie to it on her second or third day. It exploded in her face and she went home crying."
Ed pointed accusingly at Wordy, still laughing hysterically about the pie incident. "Admit it Wordsworth, it was hilarious. You laughed too!"
"Okay, okay, it was kinda funny."
"Psssh! It was beautiful! The look on her face was priceless!"
Jules looked up from her clue. "Shut the hell up, Ed. I'm trying to figure this out...whether I want to or not."
Jules finally exited the workout room, the others still babbling about cream cheese in vests and all that stupid stuff. She was thankful that Shelly and Sophie didn't find it overly amusing either.
The team ended up in the cafeteria. Jules stood in the doorway trying to figure out where to start. She began pacing around the room, eying every corner, crevice and counter. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a small yogurt container with a red ribbon stuck on top.
"This is small, I guess," she said to herself, noticing everyone crowding around her. "But where's the envelope?"
No one said anything. Jules flipped the container over...and there it was. The key to her locker.
"I knew you guys stole it!" she fumed, pulling the key off the bottom of the can. "So it's been in my locker all this time?"
Jules pushed herself through her friends, anxious to get to her locker. Her heart pounded loudly, nearly exploding out of her chest, and she wondered briefly if everyone else could hear it.
The group stopped dead in front of Jules' locker. Jules slowly slid the key into the lock and turned it. She pulled off the lock and turned around before opening her locker.
The team all had smiles on their faces, as if they knew exactly what was going on. Ed's smile looked a bit insane, Greg's expression looked ad if he was focused intensely and Sam looked somewhat nervous as he tugged at the collar of his shirt.
Jules decided to give a warning speech. "If something pops out in my face, or falls on my head, I want all of you guys to know that I will be extremely angry this lovely Christmas day and you won't be hearing from me for a very, very long time!"
With that, Jules braced herself and swung the doors of her locker open. To her surprise, nothing popped out, but an enormous package sat on the top shelf, just above her head.
She stood on her tiptoes and reached for the package. The room fell silent, and she felt the gaze of eight pairs of eyes become fixed upon her.
Jules plopped down on the floor with her package and began to tear off the layer of wrapping paper. Then came the box. She pulled open the cardboard flaps just to find another box on the inside. A toaster box this time.
"A toaster?" she queried. "You got me a toaster?"
Once again the team said nothing and Jules proceeded to open the toaster box. Inside, she found a third box.
"You've got to be kidding me!" she sighed.
Jules finally got to the last box. It was tiny and wrapped in silver paper. Her heart still pounding, Jules stood up and began to unwrap the final box. Underneath the wrapping paper was blue velvet and Jules suddenly knew what was going on. The team had known the whole time. She felt herself beginning to tremble, her lip quivering, and her knees threatening to fail her. A single tear fell down her cheek.
Sam came up behind Jules and wiped the tears gently from her cheeks as she stared at the diamond ring. He held her hand in his and got down on one knee.
"Julianna Callaghan," Sam began, watching as Jules put her free hand over her mouth in shock, her soft sobbing sounds now audible. "I love you more than anything in the world. If you wanted the stars or the moon from the sky, I'd get them for you. But right now, you are the only thing in the world that I want. So... will you marry me?"
Team one watched intently as Jules stood as still as a statue, her eyes red with tears, and still obviously not over the initial shock of the event. Slowly but surely, she nodded her head. Sam let out a loud breath of relief as he stood up and slipped the ring over Jules' left ring finger. Then, he wrapped her in his arms and cradled her soothingly.
Sophie and Shelly, tears in their eyes, looked over to the rest of the team. Even Ed, who had been such an impassive pain for the entire day, had a trace of water on his cheeks. Sophie nudged him gently and he wiped any signs of his tears away.
Suddenly, a large man burst angrily through the door of the women's locker room, holding a photo.
"Callaghan, Braddock!" he shouted. "Would you like to explain–?"
Greg silenced Commander Holleran and indicated for him to look ahead. The commander's expression softened.
There stood Sam, dancing slowly as Jules stood on his toes with her hands wrapped around his waist. She looked towards her team and smiled briefly before turning back to her new fiancée and placing a soft kiss on his lips.
As darkness settled over the Strategic Response Unit headquarters, a joyful Team One celebrated the true meaning of Christmas together as a happy family. These days Christmas has been taken over by greed and commercialism, but in reality, its love and joy that make this holiday what it is.
The End. Merry Christmas.