Twelve Days of Christmas CSI:NY
Spoilers up to Season 4: "Child's Play."
A/N: St Basil is a saint in the Orthodox Churches, beloved for his care for the poor and for children; he established orphanages and hospitals, as well as designing many of the monastic rules. The traditions as performed by Stella are followed in many Greek homes around the world.
Thanks to all who are sticking with this story: there are four days left!
Disclaimer: The characters and the show CSI:NY are the intellectual property of their creators and CBS TV.
On the ninth day of ChristmasJan 2
St Basil's Day (a little late)
"Hey, Flack! You're just in time!" Danny said as Flack walked into the break room. Everyone else seemed to be there as well, Flack noticed: Hawkes was in the corner with Sid Hammerback, Lindsay and Adam were sitting at the table, even Mac was standing leaning against the counter, watching Stella busy over by the sink.
Flack looked around a little suspiciously. It was unusual, to say the least, to see any members of the team sitting taking things easy.
He hadn't said a word to Danny about the scene on the big screen. He figured the video clip currently winging its way around the world courtesy of youtube really spoke for itself. He was just waiting for the first person to break the news – his money was on Adam.
"What are you all up to? I have a case…" he started, only to be howled down by everyone in the room.
"No shop-talk for," Mac checked his watch, "Another fifteen minutes, Don. We are on a break."
Flack's eyebrows shot up. Taylor taking a break? What could have provoked such an earth-shattering event, he wondered.
Jut then Stella turned around, a large plate in her hands. On the plate reposed a large flat cake decorated with almonds, otherwise looking a lot like the shortbread Flack's Irish grandmother made religiously every Christmas. Stella put it down on the table in front of Lindsay beside a large knife and a glass tumbler.
"Ya' hungry, Flack?" Danny said flippantly.
"I could eat," Flack answered, watching Stella move across the room. Starving, he wanted to say.
Stella looked around with a smile and explained, "This is a St Basil's Cake -Vassilopitta. I made it last night. It should have been eaten before midnight, but …" She shrugged. She didn't really need to spell out that she hadn't had anyone to share it with until she came to work. Most of them were in the same predicament.
Lindsay said lightly, "Did you bake it wearing your best clothes and your jewels, Stel?" When the men looked at her in varying degrees of disbelief, she said, "What? I research."
Stella laughed as she placed the glass over the centre of the cake and pushed it down slowly and steadily. "Well, I was wearing a gold necklace and my Jimmy Choos. I think that counts as a show of wealth." She and Lindsay shared a look of perfect understanding. Stella twisted the glass and pulled it up, leaving a circular piece of the cake standing alone. "There. That piece is for St Basil, a saint of the Greek Orthodox Church." She cut a new slice and handed it to Mac. "I have to serve it in order of age," she said serenely to Danny, who was holding out his plate expectantly. Quickly, she served out all the pieces. Led by Mac, they had all waited until everyone had a piece.
"Just a minute!" She stopped Danny, whose fork was heading towards the piece on his plate. "There is a coin in one piece. Whoever finds it will have a lucky year."
"My grandmother does the same thing with Christmas cake," Lindsay said. "A button for a bachelor, a thimble for the old maid …"
"A ring for the first to get married," Adam chimed in, then blushed to the roots of his red hair.
Hammerback said, "My grandmother used to put coins in our birthday cakes. One year she forgot to wrap them, and we all ended up in the ER."
As Hammerback's story wandered into realms no one really wanted to think about, Flack looked around the table. Every one here deserved a little good luck this year, he thought. Hawkes with his brush with a madman and the wrong side of a prison cell; Adam with the marks of cigarette burns still marring the backs of his pale freckled hands; Stella with her scare over possible HIV infection, then being stalked in a cruel game of cat and mouse with Mac; Mac himself, with Peyton gone and the ghosts of youthful mistakes rising to trip him up even now.
And Danny and Lindsay. So many moments when things had gone wrong over the past year. No matter all the things that had gone right, Flack thought, those terrible memories had burned tiny holes into all their souls.
Thinking of Stella dressed in Jimmy Choos and gold and not very much more, he bit down on a piece of cake, not paying much attention to what he was doing. The fillings in his teeth set up a jangling, painful burr and he swore as he reached in and pulled out a small foil packet. "What the hell?"
He swallowed hard as he looked up at Stella, his face twisted quizzically.
Lindsay laughed, and said, "Flack! It's his turn for a year of good luck. About time too, I'd say." Her eyes were warm as she sought his out. Flack wondered at the affectionate concern he saw there, but he didn't have much time to think about before everyone was gathered around looking at the coin he had pulled out of its foil shroud.
He looked at it closely. It was golden in colour, but not in weight, and had a sun sign with 100 printed under it. Around the edge were Greek letters. He looked up at Stella again. She blushed a little at his gaze.
"It's a 100 drachmae coin," she explained. "Nickel and brass. They've gone to the Euro now, of course, so there aren't that many left."
"You should keep this then," he said quickly, holding it out to her.
She closed his hand over the coin, holding it a moment longer than strictly necessary, before dropping his hand and blushing even more.
"Don't be silly. You deserve to get lucky." She smiled and began to clear away the dishes, thanking Hawkes as he leapt up to help her.
Flack stared at the little coin in his hand. 'Unlucky in cards, lucky in love,' his grandfather used to say to explain away his gambling habit: money dripped through his fingers at the card table while he stayed married to the same woman for nearly forty years.
"Wonder if luck in cake means the same thing?"
