A/N: Hey everyone, here's another update. I'm really sorry about all the complication that happened with the last update. Hopefully all the issues are resolved through the site and this one gets posted without any issues. So sorry about all the confusion, but thanks to everyone that told me things weren't working and thanks for pushing the comments over 100. You are all awesome.
So this is the New Year's Day in the Williams house. Hope you like it.
Enjoy!
Chapter 11: The Family Home
Noon was absolutely too late for Steve to try and stay in bed. He tried, laid in bed listening to the silent house, listening to the silent street and watching the snow fall out the window. Finally he got fed up. He dressed in whatever he pulled out of the duffle bag he'd brought with him and headed down stairs. He just couldn't wait any longer.
The house was deserted and quiet, and for the first time since they'd arrived, Steve allowed himself the time to explore and take in the charms of the old Victorian style home. Old and new photographs and paintings were everywhere, mixed with antique furniture and modern necessities. The Christmas tree that still stood beautifully in the sitting room, one of two in the house, was covered with hand made ornaments, starched doilies and pompom angels, with plaster casts of children's hands and feet. Popsicle stick frames filled with old school photos and baby ornaments spelled out the history of the Williams happy family.
Steve stayed at the tree for a long time until he spotted a photo he didn't even realize was taken. It was of Danny and him, and the rest of the team from when Veronica and Patrick had visited and there it was, a snapshot of one of the good times they had shared, framed in a hand made wooden frame and hung on the tree. There was something about it that made Steve need to reach out and touch it.
"Do you like it?" Veronica whispered from the entrance to the living room and causing Steve to jump and turn away as if he had been a child in a place he shouldn't have been.
"Don't worry dear," Veronica said as she came forward in a simple house coat and sat down in the chair beside the tree. "I was wondering how long it would take for you to find it. I made it just after we'd returned from Hawaii and it's been on the tree all season. I usually take the trees down on the first of January but I know how much Daniel misses them and I know he's not yet had a chance to sit and enjoy them. So I'll leave them up for a few more days."
Steve smiled as he knelt down beside the chair Mrs. Williams had taken a seat in, "I don't even remember when that picture was taken."
"You don't recognize the house?" Veronica asked in shock as she reached out and touched his face. "It was taken in your dining room the night we all gathered together to be safe. The same night you were shot." Veronica sighed. "I didn't remember it either until we got home and Patrick started printing the pictures from his camera. It's my favorite of the whole vacation. You look so happy in it and so does Daniel, a happy I hadn't seen in my son in a very long time. He was quite unhappy before he left for Hawaii. Was he unhappy when you met him?" she asked.
"I think so, but then again I wasn't in a good place either. He wasn't settled. He wasn't looking to enjoy Hawaii and I think he was home sick, but he built walls for Grace's sake and I think he even threw himself into my problems to mask his own. By the time you arrived on vacation, I think he was starting to find some happiness, we all were, but then things fell apart. I think he might be happy now, or at least he's trying to be."
"He was happy in Hawaii when we saw him; he's not a good enough actor to fool his mother, so the happiness I saw in Hawaii was genuine. The happiness he's feeling here in the past few days is also the real deal."
"I can tell he's happy here and I'm sorry I'll have to take him back with me, but I hope this visit is a renewal for him," Steve smiled.
"And what about you Steven, are you happy?" Veronica asked.
"I am very happy," Steve smiled, "more then I've ever been, I think."
"I'm glad," Veronica sighed happily. "Are you hungry love," She asked and moved to get up.
"No, no, you rest and let me make breakfast. I haven't seen you out of that kitchen since we arrived. Now I must insist that you rest." Steve stated as he stood quickly and rushed away.
Veronica giggled slightly to herself and moved off to change and be ready for the rest of the afternoon as the noon hour was quickly approaching and her house was still sleeping quietly.
Steve through together a small meal of breakfast foods he'd learned to make over many years abroad that he shared with Veronica, and after they'd eaten together and started a new pot of coffee, Steve asked for the grand tour that he'd yet to receive. Delighted by the idea, Veronica walked the young man around the house pointing out antiques and photographs, and telling years and years worth of anecdotal stories that went with the years of living in the house.
"That there is the window Daniel broke in his baseball days," Veronica stated as she and Steve exited the dining room.
"Was that the baseball game that Danny told me about, one that broke the gravy boat?" Steve asked with a laugh.
"Yes, that very window, and he broke more then the gravy boat, but he felt so terrible about it that I only punished him for the one piece of broken china." Veronica stated as she hushed her voice, "don't tell him I told you that, I still believe he thinks it was only the gravy boat."
Steve laughed at the though of Veronica keeping a secret like that, but followed along as they moved through the house.
Danny came down the stairs from the second floor, when he'd finally woken up, to find his mother and Steve sitting on the bottom stair looking at the front door as Veronica spoke emphatically with her hands.
"He sat right here, on this spot, just staring out that window waiting for us to return and when we did I don't think I'd ever seen a child so excited to meet his first sibling. Daniel was never the jealous type and when he got over the initial shock that Maria wasn't a boy my toddler became a bright brother and the protector of all of his younger siblings. Every baby we brought home after that we always found Daniel and the others waiting on the stairs for the new arrivals." Veronica explained and then turned around to see her eldest child standing on the very same stairs.
"Don't worry Danno, I waited for Mary in the exact same way," Steve smiled up at him, "my mother used to love telling that story."
"Has she told you about the time I fell down these stairs and broke my foot right before football tryouts?" Danny asked with a laughed, "or the first time I came down these stairs in a suit for my prom?"
"It was baby blue and way too dated for him, but his friends had been goofy that way," Veronica laughed.
"and my girlfriend broke up with me just as she had threatened to if I wore that suit," Danny laughed, "but I had a new girlfriend by the end of the night so I didn't mind."
Steve laughed heartily at the story.
Danny joined in on the tour of the house showing off his accolades that still hung in the den or pushing the tour onward if his mother's stories became too embarrassing.
By the time Steve knew the house from top to bottom and all the memories that were stored with in it, both he and Danny were exhausted once more, although Steve fought the fatigue valiantly.
"Go and rest. I'm sure there is something on TV that you boys would rather be watching than listening to me rambling on," Veronica had ordered and the boys were off.
Within moment of settling on a holiday movie on one of the very forgettable channels, both Steve and Danny dozed in the basement. Grace still hadn't come down from her prolonged slumber when they woke again to the sound of Patrick rummaging behind his bar in the basement.
"Don't let me disturb you boys," Patrick stated as Danny through a hand knit wool blanket over his head and Steve just stretched himself out to his full height on the slightly shorter couch. "That is unless anyone wants to join Veronica and I for scrabble."
"Words are too hard," Danny grumbled and only slightly peeked out from under the blanket.
"I'll play," Steve smiled and rolled him self off the couch. "Come play!" he ordered his partner as he threw a couch pillow at Danny's head.
"Assault, seven letters, seventy seven points right off the start. I win!" Danny stated and threw the pillow back at Steve but he got up and followed Steve and his father to the kitchen.
It was well into the dinner time hours when Grace finally showed her face.
"The jet lag and yesterday's excitement have really caught up with you my Monkey," Danny chuckled as his child climbed into his lap on the living room couch and she curled up. "It's only about two in the afternoon back in Hawaii." He added as Grace grumbled and shut her eyes again.
"She'll probably sleep all night," Veronica smiled as the child quickly fell back to sleep in her fathers arms.
"Or she'll be up at midnight starving." Danny laughed.
"Put her back to bed, son, and she'll get up when she's ready. That is what today is for." Patrick said as Danny stood and he did return the sleepy child to her bed.
Dinner that night was a combination of new items made from leftovers and just plain leftovers, and everyone was content with the offerings. Another attempt at watching a movie by the warmth of the real wood burning fireplace in the basement had Danny and Steve dozing again while Patrick slept in his old leather recliner and Veronica knit.
Grace did wake up again just before nine o-clock, asked for some toast and ate, but she was ready for bed again as soon as she was finished and frankly so was Danny. By ten o-clock that night the house was silent once more, with everyone tucked safely into the warmth of their beds as a new years blizzard raged on outside the house.
Monday January second was spent in much the same way, although Grace was up early in the morning and spent most of the day baking with her grandmother, while Danny and Steve braved the element and shoveled off all of the side walks and the deck after the four inches of snow that had fallen the night before.
The rest of the day was spent in quiet comfort playing board games, watching holiday movies and napping in preparation for Danny to head to court the very next day.
A/N: So the story about Veronica knowing more about the broken china then Danny is based on a story that my mother tells. When she was young she lived on a farm, and on that farm they had geese. One goose in particular was really mean and every day when she would go out to feed the animals the goose would charge at the fence, stick its head through the wires and bite her in the same place on the arm. She still has the scars to this day. Finally one morning she had, had enough and grabbed the goose by the neck and killed it before it could bite her. She pushed the goose back into the pen and went and told her father it was dead but she lied and told him she didn't know how it died. After cleaning and cooking the goose for dinner that evening (a goose that tasted absolutely terrible I am told) the story was dropped and it remained just as I have just told it until many years later. My mother and her brother had to put their father in a home after he had a stroke. One of the visits, after talking for a while as if my mother was his wife, my grandfather, suffering from Alzheimer's had a moment of clarity and stated out of the blue, "Lynny I saw you kill that goose." My mother was shocked. It had been over twenty years since the incident. My grandfather died later that year. I just had to use the same kind of a story in this one because it's one of my favorites. Steve will keep that secret for a very long time.
