Musings, Dinner, Flight & Surprising Sam

Toronto Airport – Thursday, December 24th – 8:00 pm

Adam was glad he had hitched a ride with Zach. They had a good time on the flight down from Ottawa. He did not get to spend as much time with his little brother as he would like. Especially now that Zach was in Special Forces. So just having one on one time with him on the flight down here had been nice.

As he walked to the private jet terminal he had a huge smile on his face, a rarity for him. This year was too long in coming. It was something he never thought would occur but was damned glad was happening. He was really looking forward to Christmas this year.

So many things for so many years had prevented them from having a truly happy Christmas. Nothing like he remembered before Sara had died. Before she had died Christmas was always a joyful time and the family made extra effort to gather together. Back then it was rare that someone was missing. Normally it was one of the dads, Uncle Will mostly.

But after Sara died it just wasn't the same. They had lost Sam that year too. All the joy left Sam. It was like looking at a burnt-out Christmas light the few years he was able to see Sam at Christmas. They never gathered in Ottawa because Sam's parents were concerned that he would go catatonic. That was highly probable, so everyone agreed to different locations. But that made it difficult given the mix of duty stations and little kids with activities.

Once he joined the Air Force, Adam was one of the ones that often had difficulty getting leave for Christmas. He had been low man on the totem pole for many years. As such, he normally had to cover for more senior men. It bothered him the most because Zach was little and he wanted to be there for him being his only sibling. With thirteen years between them, he had missed a lot of Zach growing up.

But he always kept in touch with him. They corresponded in letters and email often. He knew about Zach's girlfriends before their parents did. He knew a lot of things about Zach that his parents didn't because Zach confided in him and sought his advice often.

Adam caught sight of Sam in one of the chairs and his random thoughts concluded.

Sam had his feet up on one of his bags, his eyes closed and he was listening to his music player. He looked relaxed. Then Adam noticed the bandaged hand and the bruise on the side of Sam's head. Damn, today must have been a rough one if he was looking like that.

Adam sighed and came to a stop in front of Sam, "Hey cuz, you ready to take off?"

Sam was kicked back and listening to Christmas tunes. He opened his eyes at the voice, that was not Zach. Sam grinned as he sat up. His voice came out a little gruff "I didn't expect you."

"Decided to keep Zach company on the flight down. He's taking care of refueling. I came to fetch you" Adam explained. Then he asked "You're not coming down with a cold, are you? You sound a little ragged."

Standing up, Sam shook his head and took a sip of his coffee then said "Little dry. Spent hours reading aloud to the kids at Mayfield."

Adam asked "Don't you normally do all the fetch and carry and washing stuff?"

"Yeah, but they wouldn't let me this year. I'll tell you all about it on the flight" Sam said and bent to get his bags.

Adam grabbed his bags before Sam could and said "Well if they wouldn't let you, there must be a reason. Let me get these for you."

Sam chuckled and didn't put up a fuss as he quipped "You'd make a good porter if you ever decided to give up the Air Force."

Chuckling Adam responded in kind, "From the looks of you, you'd make a good crash dummy when you are ready to hang up SRU."

Sam shrugged "Some days it feels like I already am."

The two of them headed out to the airplane.

Ed's Home – Thursday, December 24th – 8:00 pm

Jules knocked on the door and smiled as Clark opened it and said "Aunt Jules" and waved her in. Clark bounded back up the stairs calling back "I'll be down in a minute."

The house was warm and festively decorated. There was a fire in the living room fireplace and the Boss and Ed were seated in front of it talking. Wonderful smells were emanating from the kitchen.

Jules waved to Ed and Greg as she headed for the kitchen to see if Sophie needed a hand.

Sophie looked up as she pulled a roast from the oven and smiled, "Jules you made it. I was beginning to worry."

Jules set down her purse and said "Had to take a detour due to an accident and a few road closures. Took a bit longer than I expected. Can I help with something?"

Putting a foil tent over the roast so it could rest a bit before carving Sophie answered "Everything is done. Just need to let the roast rest a moment. Would you like a glass of wine? I've got a nice red opened."

"Sounds good" Jules said.

Sophie poured one glass for Jules and one glass for herself then handed one to Jules as she said "I'm glad you were able to change your plans at the last minute. When Ed asked me to have dinner later than normal so he and Greg could go help Sam at the soup kitchen, I thought that you and Greg might like to join us."

Taking a sip of wine, Jules looked at the feast Sophie had prepared and smiled "Everything smells delicious. Looks like you were busy in the kitchen all day."

Sophie smiled "From what Ed tells me, so were you. And I enjoy cooking. It's nice to have more than just Ed and Clark to cook for."

Greg and Ed entered the kitchen and Ed asked "Did Sam get off to the airport okay?"

Jules nodded "Yeah, I left him in the private jet terminal. He was expecting Zach about eight so he should be in the air soon."

"Good" Ed responded as held his wine glass out to Sophie for a refill.

Greg sipped his coffee and said "Sam accepted his special assignment at Mayfield with good grace tonight."

Sophie asked "What was his assignment?"

Ed grinned and answered "Reading Christmas stories to the kids. Sam had them in the palm of his hands."

"He did seem to enjoy it" Greg shared.

Clark bounded into the room and smiled as he asked "Is it time to eat yet? I'm starving."

Sophie hugged Clark and said "Yes. The roast just needs to be carved. Ed, could you do that please while Clark and I set the other dishes on the table?"

Ed nodded and then moved the roast to a platter and started to carve it as the others moved the many dishes to the table. Once he was done Ed carried the platter to the table and set it down. He said "Reminds me of the Who-ville feast, right down to the roast beast."

Jules and Greg chuckled recalling Sam's reading of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

Clark looked around the table and remarked "I really liked helping today. We have so much more than some families. But sometimes it is the simplest things that bring the most joy."

He then pulled four wrapped items out of his pocket and handed one to his mom, his dad, Uncle Greg and Aunt Jules and said "I made these for you today, I hope you like them. You can open them now."

Sophie recognized the wrapping paper that she had given Clark when he got home from Mayfield. He had been secretive when she asked why he needed it and raced up to his room.

The four looked at the wrapped presents for a moment then at Clark. They unwrapped them and smiles lit their faces.

Clark said "I got a kick out of helping the little kids make them at Mayfield today. Ms. Bennett said they had more than enough supplies so she let me make some for all of you. I have one for Sam, Spike, Wordy and Leah too."

They each held a brightly painted piece of wood in the shape of a large Christmas light bulb. Around the top, which was the base of the light bulb, was a pipe cleaner twisted and the ends were shaped like antlers. There were two googly-eyes glued to the wide part of the bulb and at the tip of the bulb was a small red pompom glued to it. A reindeer light bulb ornament, cute.

But the best part was on the back. On the back, Clark had written in permanent marker 'you make a difference'.

Sophie hugged Clark until he squirmed away blushing a bit and stated "I'm hungry, can we eat now?"

Everyone laughed, thanked Clark and started passing the food around. The five of them had a wonderful dinner, laughing and enjoying each other's company.

As Jules finished her dinner she smiled thinking that she was having a merry Christmas too with her chosen family. The ones that were always there for her and never let her down.

Greg sipped his after-dinner coffee as Sophie was serving them all pie. He looked at Clark and had a pang of hurt thinking that he would love to be having Christmas Eve with Dean. But he pushed that to the background and just enjoyed the moment. This team was his family. That was enough.

Airplane Enroute to Ottawa – Thursday, December 24th – 8:30 pm

Sam's stomach started growling as Zach took off. He really should have stopped to grab something or make a sandwich before he left his apartment. But he did not want to make Jules late for dinner at Ed's.

As he was thinking if he had any power bars in his bags a baggie of cookies landed in his lap. Sam looked at Adam.

Adam chuckled and said "I heard your stomach from here. There's only a few left, Zach and I ate most on the way down but it should tide you over until we get to Scott's."

Sam opened the bag as he said "Thanks."

As Sam took a bite of the cookie Adam said "I talked to my dad today. They got the results of the investigation into the crashes."

"What were they?" Sam asked hoping it was not pilot error. That would be hard for the boys to accept.

Adam's expression darkened a bit and said "Not pilot error. Apparently, it was the recent software upgrade. There was an error that caused the altitude calculation to be off. One missing decimal in thousands of lines of code."

"Wow. So what now?" Sam asked.

"The contractor and software company will fix the error and all flights on aircraft installed with that software have been grounded until it is fully retested. The families will receive settlement monies based on insurance the company maintains in case of such an error. The Kettle boy's monies will be placed in trust funds to assist them with college educations and living expenses while in college and if they don't go to college they will each get a lump payment when they turn twenty-five" Adam shared.

Sam munched on a cookie and then responded "That is good that they will be able to go to college if they desire. But that is probably of little comfort to them right now. I'm sure they would rather have their father."

Adam nodded but then smiled as he shared "Osmund and Carol are in seventh heaven though. They never had kids of their own, Carol loves having the boys there. They will be good for the boys. They will provide a loving home for the boys."

Sam nodded in agreement based on what he observed last night. Then he grinned and changed the subject, "I can't wait to surprise mom. I almost came clean the other day. Her voice was a bit melancholy when I told her I had to work and would not be there. After not being there on Thanksgiving I made me feel bad to make her sad."

Grinning Adam said "You will be completely forgiven for your ruse once she sees the entire family there."

Zach called back to them "So Sam, what is your surprise? Adam still won't tell me no matter how much I bug him."

Sam laughed and answered "You'll see tomorrow."

Zach groaned.

Adam laughed.

Sam happily munched on cookies.

Scott's Home – Thursday, December 24th – 10:00 pm

Sam, Zach and Adam entered Scott's home and headed for the basement quietly so as to not wake Laura and the babies.

Adam held Zach back with a look and let Sam enter the basement stairs first. They had a little surprise of their own for Sam. Zach just grinned and waited holding Sam's bags.

Sam stopped at the top of the stairs and whispered back to Adam and Zach "Scott must have gone to bed. It's dark in the basement."

Adam nodded and said "No matter. We have an early morning anyways. We'll just drop your bags off and head out."

Starting again, Sam flipped on the light switch. As he did so the room was flooded with colorful lights and his cousins all started singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Sam stopped three steps down the stairs as he looked around the basement. Tiffany, Pamela, Scott, Ashley, Vicky, Jeff, Amelia, Natalie and Kyle were all there and singing to him.

Adam patted Sam's back and moved him down the stairs as he and Zach joined in the singing.

When Sam got to the bottom of the stairs Natalie rushed to him and gave him a huge hug. Natalie whispered "Surprise. Missed you Sammy. Glad you came home. Merry Christmas."

Then Sam was swamped by the others as he was passed around from hug to hug as he was welcomed by all of his cousins. Sam was stunned but grinning like a loon.

After everyone greeted him Sam took a moment to look at them all. Family. He had family again. He gave them a WOW smile and said "Man, this is some surprise."

Scott grinned "We couldn't resist."

Natalie grabbed Sam's right hand and pulled him to a couch and said "Come sit down."

Wincing only slightly as Nat grabbed his right hand, Sam went with her and sat. Nat sat next to him and smiled "So what is this surprise Zach keeps moaning about that Adam will not tell?"

Vicky realized that Natalie was in her own world again and did not see Sam's condition or wince. She sat down next to him and asked "Are you okay Sam? That's quite a bruise and your hand."

Natalie bit her lower lip as she looked at her brother and saw his condition and his wrapped hand "Oh my, did I hurt your hand? I'm so sorry, I was just so happy to see you."

Sam grinned and said "No you didn't hurt me Nat." Then he turned to Vicky and said "I'm good. Just a few rough days at work."

Scott moved forward and simply gave Sam the look.

Sam laughed and shook his head at Scott's look "Truly I'm good. So, says Dr. Fraser just this morning. He rechecked my chest and said it was healing fine."

"You required to take any meds?" Scott asked.

Sam nodded and said "In my bag. But only if I need them. I'm good right now."

Jeff fished out the pain meds and looked at them then commented "Some pretty heavy duty meds. You sure you don't need them?" He tossed the meds to Scott to review.

"I'm sure. I haven't done anything strenuous since I held on as the roof collapsed under me this morning" Sam stated.

Natalie gasped "You were on a roof that collapsed?"

"Yeah, we were serving a warrant on the Grinch Brigade" Sam responded.

Kyle laughed "Grinch Brigade. Man, I gotta hear this one."

Sam launched into the call this morning. That lead him into telling his cousins all about the twelve days leading up to today. Sometime during his telling a huge roast beef sandwich and chips ended up in front of him along with an iced coffee.

He ate as he talked and his cousins listened and laughed at the funny things that happened in the past twelve days. Especially the part about Sam getting high, with the Lieutenant Governor no less. They all agreed they would have loved to see that.

Sam finished saying "Spike even created a song modeled off the twelve days of Christmas."

Ashley smiled as she said "Sing it. Spike is so funny I bet it is great."

Sam's voice was a little ragged from reading and talking so much but he took a sip of coffee then launched into the last verse, skipping the repetitive building of the verses "On the twelfth day of Christmas, Team One gave to me twelve brothers believing, eleven bagpipers caterwauling, ten leopards a leaping, nine ladies flirting, eight maids a gunrunning, seven swans a sinking, six geese attacking, five onion rings, four falling birds, three mother hens, two Jammy doves, and a frozen sniper in a pear tree."

They were all laughing again and Sam looked at the clock. It was eleven-fifty-nine. He thought that this Christmas Eve had been the best ever. All his cousins were here and his sister too.

Sam yawned and stretched a bit stifling a wince as his muscle started to revolt a from this morning's roof incident and subsequent drop to the ground. He eyed his pain meds and thought it might be a good idea to take a couple. But he wasn't going to let his cousins know he needed them. He would just take them before he went to sleep.

Scott saw Sam's slow movements and Jeff was right, those were some heavy pain meds. Sam would not have been prescribed them unless he needed them. It was time to break up the party and let Sam get some rest. Besides, he Adam and Jeff had a little something for Sam that they wanted to give him privately.

He cleared his throat, then Scott said "I think we all should grab a few hours of sleep. We all need to be up and over to Uncle Will's at 0500."

Everyone except Scott, Adam and Jeff headed out after saying good night and reiterating they would be where Sam instructed them to be by 0500.

When it was just the four of them Scott grabbed the pain meds and tossed them to Sam as he said "Take your meds Doppelganger."

Sam opened the meds and responded "Okay." He downed two pills with the last of his iced coffee and said "That was fun. Thanks guys."

Adam nodded and said "It was. But we have something for you that we wanted to give you without the others around."

Looking between Scott, Adam and Jeff he wondered what it might be.

Then Scott handed him a small box wrapped in princess paper. He laughed a bit and said "Really, princess paper."

Scott, Adam and Jeff all sat down in front of Sam as Jeff said "Not just any princess paper."

Sam stopped chuckling and looked at the paper. His lower lip quivered a bit and his eyes teared up. He looked at them and said "How?"

Adam wiped the tear from his eye and said "We looked at the pictures of Sara's last birthday. Then we searched until we found the exact same paper. It was important."

Scott's voice was choked with emotion as he said "Open it."

Sam carefully undid the tape not ripping the paper at all. When he uncovered a small box, Sam stopped and took a breath as his hand hovered to open the box.

He lifted the top off and tears sprouted in his eyes. He sucked in a breath and stared at the ornament. His hand shook as he reached in and lifted it up. Tears dripped out of his eyes as he clutched the ornament to his heart.

Sam looked at Scott, then Adam and Jeff, they all had tears in their eyes. He choked out in a gravelly emotion laden voice "I'll cherish it always."

Scott hugged Sam and said "It will be like having Sara with you for Christmas."

Adam hugged Sam and said "Merry Christmas Sam, it's been too long without you."

Jeff hugged Sam and said "I was afraid it would be wrong. I'm glad you like it. Merry Christmas."

Sam pulled the ornament away from his heart to gaze at it again.

It was a yellow ceramic star with a photo of him and Sara sitting at Sara's little table with teacups in front of them. Sara was smiling happily. His expression was not so happy and bespoke of being none too pleased to have his picture taken. That was because he had let Sara dress him up for a Queen's Tea with a tiara and all the accoutrements befitting a princess.

Below the picture in blue childlike writing it said 'My Sammy, World's Best Brother'.

Sam wiped the happy tears away and smiled at his cousins as he said "Merry Christmas" as his hand closed around the star and held it to his heart again.