A Not So Silent Night Part 1
It was a week before Christmas and the tree farm was bustling with activity. Families with excited children stomped around taking in the sights and jockeying for a better view. The large family farm, located on the outskirts of Old City, turned into a winter wonderland for two weeks in December.
"I can't see!" Ashley complained and tried unsuccessfully to peer around all the tall bodies blocking her line of sight. It was early evening and the sun had not yet completely set in the sky. "I'm going to miss Santa!" She gasped as she felt herself being lifted into the air and moments later found herself sitting high onto her father's broad shoulders.
"Can you see now?" he asked as he felt her hands come to rest upon his wool cap.
"Uh huh," she smiled and swiveled her head back and forth in anticipation. "I still don't see Santa though."
There was a wave of excited murmurs and heads turned to the left. "Look over there," Helen motioned to her daughter. Ashley turned her head in that direction and squealed. "Santa! I see Santa coming!"
"Santa!" Amelia repeated and clapped her little gloved hands together. The seventeen month old didn't really understand the concept of Santa but she could feel the excitement and joy that surrounded her. She was in her mother's arms and was enthralled by all the bright Christmas lights that lit up both sides of the street.
Erika, in turn, was enthralled by the two children's enthusiasm. She was in her seventh month of pregnancy and with each passing day felt she was getting closer to the finish line. Which was a good thing considering she was getting as large as a house. The hand rubbing her round protruding stomach was covered by a larger hand that pressed down possessively. Henry's whispered "Next year that will be us" warmed her heart and caused tears to glisten in her eyes. "I can't wait," she whispered back and kissed him passionately.
"Get a room," a grumpy old man standing behind them groused. The couple pulled apart and laughed. Henry wrapped his arm around his girlfriend's waist and grinned as the crowd around them pressed in closer to catch sight of the jolly old fat man as he swished past in a wagon pulled by a pair of honey colored horses with harnesses braided with red and green ribbons. Children's screams and waving gloved hands accompanied his passing. Afterwards, harried parents collected their belongings and offspring and rushed off to get in line to meet Santa and his elves. Others set off in the opposite direction in search of the perfect tree.
John lifted his oldest off his shoulder and placed her on the ground with a low grunt. Ashley was a lot heavier than her little size let on he thought. He straightened and, stretching out his neck and shoulders, caught sight of his lover smirking at him. No words were needed for him to know she was thinking he was an old man.
"Santa!" Amelia said and clapped her hands again. She was warmly bundled against the cold evening air and her chubby cheeks were pink against her porcelain skin.
"Amelia, we already saw Santa at the mall," Ashley reminded her little sister while tugging on her father's hand to move him forward. We're going to pick out a tree now." She looked up at her father. "I want a big tree, daddy. The biggest one here."
"Not too big," her mother chimed in. "It has to fit in the back of the truck."
"Henry brought a lot rope," Ashley shot back. "We can tie it on top of the truck."
"And it has to fit in the living room," her mother reminded her.
"We can put a hole in the ceiling," the child rationalized. "It'll be fine."
Helen ignored John's laugh and sharply retorted, "No, it will not fine. There will be no hole put in the ceiling."
"It would make putting the angel on top easier," Henry joked and grinned impishly as his adopted mother gave him that "behave" look he knew so well as a mischievous lad.
"Yeah, and then Henry won't fall off the tree again," Ashley said. "He's kinda clumsy you know."
"I am not," he hotly denied while Erika giggled. "I'll have you know I'm perfectly coordinated."
"Of course you are my darling," Erika giggled again as she touched his left hand which was sporting a large band-aid underneath his leather glove.
"Hey, that was Tesla's fault," he argued. "He tripped me… on purpose."
"Cookies!" Amelia cried as she observed people walking by holding foam cups of steaming cocoa and large chocolate cookies.
"Tree first, cookies later," Ashley commanded. She had her mind set on the biggest tree on the farm and no one was going to get in the way of her mission.
"Cookies!" Amelia argued and jerked free from her mother's grasp to run towards the food stalls.
"I got her," Henry said and took off after the toddler.
Erika smiled as she watched him scoop up the child and toss her lightly in the air laughing. Henry was going to be such a good daddy. "How about we grab some treats and meet you by the wagon?" she suggested.
"She's a very nice girl," John observed as they watched her waddle off to catch up with the duo. "She'll make a good mother when the babies are born."
"Yes, she is," Helen agreed as they followed after Ashley. "It will be quite interesting to have so many little ones under our roof at the same time. My Old Friend is thrilled at the idea of more children underfoot."
The group rejoined in time for the next horse drawn wagon to pull up and begin loading passengers. They took their places on the hay bales and partook of their cocoa and cookies as the wagon did a lazy loop around the farm towards the designated tree selection sites.
Twenty minutes later they were staring up at a giant of a tree and arguing. "I want that one!" Ashley insisted.
"Darling, that's far too big," her mother disagreed. "Pick another one."
"I don't want another one," she insisted with a stomp of her foot. "I want this one."
Helen stared down disapprovingly at her daughter's temper tantrum. Her youngest child was passed out asleep against her shoulder, which was a good thing for Ashley as it prevented Helen from dragging her bratty child back toward the wagon. "That one will not fit in the house. Either choose another one or I will."
"But it has to be a big tree," Ashley whined with a loud sniff. "My present from Santa won't fit under a little tree."
"What did you ask from Santa?" Erika inquired in an attempt to diffuse the crying fit she suspected was coming.
"A Batgirl motorcycle," Ashley explained with another pitiful sniff. She was going to work this for all it was worth to get the tree she wanted. "It's a big girl motorcycle and Santa won't bring it to me if there's no room under the tree." A large tear slipped down her left cheek and she pouted her lips together and looked up at Henry for support.
"No problem," Henry said with a wave of his hand. "It sounds like what we need isn't so much a tall tree as one with a lot of room underneath for presents. Is that right?" At her nod, he patted the child on her back affectionately and motioned to a smaller tree to the left. "This one has smaller branches underneath. They'll be easier to cut than the bigger tree. How about I cut the branches underneath so that there's enough room for a bike? It will still be tall enough to reach the ceiling."
"Okay," Ashley caved with a sigh. "But we'll have to put a lot of ornaments on it so that Santa doesn't know that we didn't get the biggest tree at the farm."
"Kiddo," he explained as he ushered her to the other tree, "Santa doesn't care about how tall the tree is. It's all about the plate of cookies and glass of milk for him. The tastier and prettier the cookies the better."
"Really?" she asked doubtfully.
"Trust me, I'm an expert," he reassured her. "I've left out more cookies for Santa than you can imagine."
"Did you ever meet Santa?" she inquired curiously as he motioned to the farm hand to chop down the tree. "I mean the real Santa. Not the one at the mall that works for Santa and listens to your wish list."
"Not exactly," he admitted. "We set out a trap for Santa but it didn't quite work out like we hoped."
"You tried to catch Santa?" John chuckled.
"I was ten," Henry said with a flush to his cheeks. "And Ashley was…" he trailed off as she stared back at him with creased brows. That Ashley didn't exist anymore save for a few random nightmares her reincarnated version sometimes suffered which brought back vague, distant memories of her former life.
"What they caught was one very angry Sasquatch," Helen inserted quickly with a wistful smile as she recalled the memory of her children shouting that they'd caught Santa only to turn and run for the hills once the sack had been wrenched open to reveal a most disgruntled Sasquatch inside.
"He ate one of the cookies," Henry defensively replied. "He shouldn't have been eating Santa's cookies."
Erika grinned. "I bet you got a great big lump of coal for Christmas that year."
"They were grounded," Helen shared as she handed their youngest to John. "The only reason they got a present from Santa that year was because my Old Friend intervened on their behalf. Children will be children he said despite the fact that he had a goose egg of a lump on his head from the incident." She eyed the tree with a critical eye. It was still too tall to fit properly in the living room. "Henry, you're going to have to do more than remove a few lower branches to fit this tree in the living room."
He shrugged and began to follow the farm hand back to the wagon. "I'll get it to work. Leave it with me."
Ashley trudged after him. "Don't forget. My bike has to fit underneath," she reminded him.
"I didn't know they made a Batgirl motorcycle for children," Erika mused as they followed in the pair's wake. "It's amazing all the wonderful toys children have access to these days."
"They don't make a Batgirl motorcycle," Helen confessed with a sigh.
"Oh. What are you going to do?" the pregnant woman asked. Ashley would not react well to not getting her desired Christmas gift.
"What I always do in circumstances such as this," the older woman replied. "I improvised."
Hearing a lot of grunting and raised voices Tesla entered the living room and stopped halfway in. The right corner of his mouth turned up and he shook his head. He couldn't believe he lived with these silly children. Halfway between the fireplace and large picture window an enormous fir tree swaying back and forth. Behind it two sets of feet shuffled from side to side trying to stabilize the heavy tree. Druitt was in front of the tree with his long arms wrapped around it and in a muffled voice was asking if his companions had the tree set in its stand.
"Almost," came an equally muffled reply from the back.
"It needs to move a little to the left," Kate was instructing. "It's crooked."
"Daddy, fix the tree!" Ashley demanded. "Santa won't like it if the tree is crooked."
Tesla's smile widened as he moved in closer and heard his old classmate growling lowly. "I can't hold it much longer," John exclaimed and let out a loud sneeze. The tree's close proximity was causing his allergies to trigger.
"Daddy!" Ashley whined and got a glare from her father in return.
"Ashley, we're doing the best we can," he reprimanded. "You are not helping with your complaints."
"How about we start unwrapping the ornaments?" Erika suggested to distract the child who was opening her mouth to argue that the tree was still leaning to one side.
"Okay, but we can't put ornaments on the tree if it's crooked," Ashley complained and received another glare from her father and from Will, who was peeking out around the back of the tree.
"Okay," Henry puffed from somewhere at the base of the tree. "It's locked in."
"Ah, if it isn't the Scooby Doo gang preparing for Christmas," Nikola teased as he approached the tree and looked up. "And Ashley's right, it is leaning to the left."
"See, I told you!" the child chided.
Henry and Will swiveled the tree a bit to straighten it and stepped back to eye it critically. "It's straight," Erika praised and gave the pair a sweet smile.
"It's missing over two feet of branches underneath," Nikola criticized and looked over at the young Techie. "Is this a wolf thing? Are you planning to sleep under the tree? Or are you hoping to catch Santa by hiding under the tree?"
"No," Henry barked back indignantly with hands on hips. "It's to make room for Ashley's gift from Santa. And I haven't tried to catch Santa since I was a kid."
"Oh," Nikola continued to tease. "I thought perhaps catching the Sasquatch was the warm up to the real thing."
"Okay," Henry growled and looked around the room. "Which one of you blabber mouths told Vlad here about the Santa incident?"
"That would be me," Ashley held up her hand. "It was funny."
"Hilarious," Nikola concurred with a toothy grin.
"Well, since you're here," Kate said as she began unwinding the first of many strands of lights, "how about a little help trimming the tree? Electricity is your bag, right?"
"I think not," the vampire declined and turned on his heel to depart. "Trimming the tree is for the children. Call me when the wassail is set out."
Kate pulled a face. "Yuck. That stuff tastes like shoe polish."
"Not if it's made properly with lots of sherry," Nikola called back.
"Maybe we should spike his punch," Kate suggested after he left.
John snorted and began unrolling another pile of lights. "Never try to get a vampire drunk. Trust me, it's not possible."
"Speaking from experience are we?" Will asked already knowing the answer by the smirk on Druitt's face.
The big man further brightened as Amelia raced into the room followed by her mother, who had caught the tail end of the exchange and shot him a questioning glance. "Boys will be boys," he simply answered, choosing not to go into detail about all the times he, James and Nigel had tried to get Tesla drunk. To his youngest he asked, "Ready to decorate your first tree, my pet?" He chuckled as the toddler chose instead to go play under the tree.
Helen bent down and peered in at her little one. "Darling, the decorations are out here." She shook her head as the toddler grabbed hold of a branch above her and tried to lift herself up. "No, the tree is not a jungle gym. Amelia, come out from there this instant young lady."
Ashley shook her head at her sister's silly antics. "Babies. They don't know anything," she wisely intoned to an amused Erika.
To be continued…
Author's Note: It will probably after Christmas before I can finish the second part to this chapter. Sorry! Too much going on during the holidays. I can promise the chapter will contain cookies, reindeer, and mischief most foul.