Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a good Christmas, or Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or which celebration applies to you. And now we've got the lull afterwards to deal with, which one of my best friends likes to refer to as the January blues. Thank goodness we have fanfiction to keep us amused, then, eh? Anyways, here's chapter 13. Enjoy :D
Steve was sat in his office, filling in the last of his paperwork before leaving for the evening. Christmas was just two days away now, and Governor Denning had promised not to call them in for anything unless it were absolutely essential that they be there. Initially, they'd all been happy with the promise of no cases to divert their attention away from family, but considering their track record, something was likely to come up. Steve wondered, if something did come up, how long Danny'd rant for about criminals never taking a day off. Steve smiled as he imagined the rant.
"What are you smiling at?" a voice at his door asked, distracting him from his thoughts.
Steve looked up and saw Danny standing there. "Nothing. Your paperwork finished?"
Danny nodded. "Yep. What about you?"
"Uh, a couple more files, then I'm done," Steve said. "Are you taking off for the evening now?"
Danny shifted slightly, biting his lip. "In a minute; I just wanted your help with something."
Steve nodded. "Of course. What do you need help with?"
"Okay, I've been decorating Jodie's bedroom for the past week now," Danny began.
"You have?" Steve asked. "Why didn't you say anything? Chin, Kono and I could've helped."
"Grace has been helping me with the painting; it really didn't take that long to do," Danny replied. "I put up the lining paper and I did two coats on each wall on each day. The decorating is finished."
"So what do you need my help with?"
"Jodie's furniture and things arrived earlier this week; I had them put into a storage locker until I finished the decorating."
"So, you need help setting up her bedroom," Steve realised, and Danny nodded.
"If you don't mind. I want this to be a Christmas present for Jodie, and I thought it might be done quicker if I had more people helping."
"Sure, of course I'll help; we can do it all tomorrow. I'll call Chin, and you can call Kono?"
"I've actually already asked Chin," Danny replied. "Given his and Kono's family connections, someone in their family has to have a van that we could use to move Jodie's things to my house. He said he'd talk to Kono as well about helping out tomorrow, and I knew you'd get annoyed if I didn't ask you to help, 'cos I know you don't like being kept out of the loop."
Steve snorted. "Well, thanks for thinking of my feelings, Danno."
Danny smiled at him. "And you are welcome," he replied sarcastically. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
Steve nodded. "What time do you want me to be there?"
The blond shrugged. "Um, come round about nine o'clock. Chin said he'd be around then, if he managed to get a van, and I want to get started as soon as possible."
"Okay. See you tomorrow, then." Danny nodded and left, and Steve went back to his paperwork.
The next morning, Steve showed up at nine o'clock on the dot. Just as Chin had said he would, he had managed to borrow a van from someone in his extensive family. Kono's car was there as well, parked up on the driveway next to the Camaro. Steve parked his truck on the side of the road, behind the van, got out and walked up the path towards the front door. He opened the door without knocking and walked in, to find Danny, Chin and Kono sitting in the living area, all drinking coffee.
"Morning, all," he greeted them as he came in.
Danny glanced at him. "Morning. You want coffee?"
Steve shook his head. "Nah, I'm good."
"Alrighty, let's get going, then. Chin, Kono, you guys go in your cousin's... son's... whatever relation's van. Steve, you're riding with me," Danny said, and they walked out the door and towards the vehicles.
"Is everything for Jodie's bedroom in the storage locker?" Steve asked as they got into the Camaro.
"Everything should be there; I looked at what there was when it all arrived and bought a couple more things from the Discount Furniture Warehouse," Danny admitted. "But if we need to get something else, we can do easily. But I really hope we don't have to, because I just want to get it done before tomorrow."
"We should be able to get it all done today," Steve said. "When I was a kid, we completely redecorated mine and Mary's rooms. Paint, new furniture, everything. It only took a week to do each, and that was mostly taken up by the actual decorating."
"Well, that's good. And after we finish, pizzas are on me."
"Excellent." Steve smiled and leaned back in his seat.
"But no pineapple," Danny said, pointing a finger at Steve. "I refuse to have that abomination in my house. How you or anyone on this island can bear to eat that shit is beyond me. It's not right to defile a pizza in that way."
"Perfectionist," Steve murmured.
Danny glared at him. "Just 'cause you have no respect for tradition..." he muttered.
"I have plenty of respect for tradition, Danno, just not that one."
Danny didn't reply to that, but Steve could quite clearly hear him grumbling about pineapples, stupid hunks of rock and idiot Super SEAL. It took all of Steve's self-restraint not to laugh at Danny's mutterings for the rest of the journey.
Four hours later, the team stood in the doorway to what would be Jodie's bedroom and looked with pride at the finished result. The double bed had been pushed up against the middle of the window adjacent wall so Jodie could get into it from either side. The two tall single wardrobes had been rebuilt and placed on the opposite side of the room, and the chest of drawers had been placed next to those. There was a second, much smaller chest of drawers next to the bed, and on that stood a striped purple, lilac, pink and cream bedside lamp. Finally, there was a small desk and chair pushed up against the window wall. All in all, it looked move-in ready.
"I like the additional pieces you bought, Danny," Kono said. "They're really nice. God, Jodie's gonna freak when she sees this."
"In a good way, I hope," Danny replied.
They walked around the room, making sure one last time that everything was to their satisfaction. Chin stopped by the bedside table and frowned when he spotted a small, oval-shaped object which had what looked like enormous wheels on either side, sitting next to the lamp. "Danny, what's this?"
Danny chuckled when he saw what Chin was holding. "Err... Jodie's probably gonna hate me for that," he said. "It's an alarm clock with wheels. Basically, when it goes off, the alarm clock rolls off the table, so you have to get up out of bed and catch it to turn off the alarm."
The others laughed. "That's actually brilliant," Kono said. "And you're right; Jodie will hate you for that."
"Yeah, I know. But, Bethany told me that Jodie is even less of a morning person than me - which is saying something - and I saw this in the shop, and I thought it'd be funny."
Steve shook his head. "And you say that I'm an evil person."
"That's because you are," Danny retorted. "A runaway alarm clock is nowhere near as bad as any of the crap you've pulled over the years. Now, come on; time for pizza."
The next day, Danny showed up at the hotel room in the morning. Jodie opened the door a couple of moments after he knocked. "Hey, Danny."
"Hey, Jodie. Merry Christmas," he greeted her as he walked in.
"Merry Christmas to you, too," she replied.
"Where's your mom?"
"She's still asleep." Jodie bit her lip and looked away. "I, er, I heard her last night. She was crying."
Danny nodded. "I know. She's in a lot of pain, your mom."
"But she shouldn't be! She should be in a hospital, where the doctors can help her!"
"I know she should, Jodie, but your mom is very stubborn; she doesn't want to do things she doesn't like, and she always says so quite stridently," Danny said. Jodie still didn't look happy, though. "But we made a compromise when she was in the hospital before. When the pain gets worse, she is going to the hospital. I'll probably have to drag her there, though," he added with a grin.
Jodie smiled a little at that. "As long as she's in the hospital, I don't care how she gets there."
Danny smiled at her. "We'll have fun when that time comes around, won't we?" he said. "Now, why don't you go wake your mom, and I'll start on breakfast. I went shopping a couple of days ago and bought all low fibre foods."
Jodie nodded. "Okay. And then presents after?" she asked with a hopeful smile.
Danny chuckled. "Sure."
Jodie quietly went into Bethany's room, while Danny headed into the small kitchen area and unpacked the various foods he'd brought along with him. He popped six slices of white bread into the toaster and opened a pack of bacon and peeled several strips out. Jodie came back out as Danny placed them under the grill.
"I woke Mom up, but she didn't seem to want to get out of bed," Jodie said, looking worried.
Danny sighed. "Okay, can you turn the hob on for me; turn it up to the large flame. Leave the eggs, though; I'll do those when I come back out." Jodie nodded and walked over to the kitchen area while Danny went into Bethany's room. Jodie had opened the curtains and sunlight flooded the room, but it didn't motivate the woman in the bed to move. Danny sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Bethany? You getting up?" All he got in response was a non-committal grunt. "Bethany, come on. I'm doing breakfast. A nice, low-fibre breakfast, just like Doctor Kai said you should have."
Bethany moved her head so she could look up at Danny, who saw the pain reflected in her eyes. "I won't be able to eat anything; it hurts too much."
"I know it hurts, Bethany, but you need to keep your strength up," Danny replied softly. "I'm doing something light; toast, eggs and bacon. Not lots, but enough to keep you going." Bethany still didn't looked keen on the idea, and Danny leaned forwards slightly. "Bethany, please, just try."
Bethany stared at him for a moment more, before pushing the covers off herself and trying to push herself up into a sitting position. Danny helped her up, noticing how she winced. Bethany slipped her feet into her Birkenstocks and stood up and slowly walked into the other room, with Danny keeping a supportive arm on her back. Jodie looked up as they came out, and smiled at Bethany.
"Merry Christmas, Mom."
"Merry Christmas, sweetie," Bethany replied, and frowned suddenly. "You're cooking?"
Jodie laughed. "Seriously? You think I'd be stupid to try and cook again after I managed to set toast on fire?" she asked incredulously.
Bethany shook her head. "Of course; I banned you from going anywhere near the toaster again, didn't I?"
Danny looked between them confused. "I'm sorry, you managed to set toast on fire?" he repeated, and they both nodded. "How on Earth did you manage that?!"
Jodie shrugged. "Unique talent, I guess."
Smiling and shaking his head, Danny walked over to the kitchen area. He got a frying pan out of the cupboard and placed it on the hob that Jodie had turned on. He got a large bottle of vegetable oil and poured some into the pan. Instantly, it started sizzling. Danny cracked four eggs into the pan and started frying them. He took the bacon off the grill and placed it on two plates. The toast popped up just then and Danny placed three slices on both plates. He finished frying the eggs, and a couple of minutes later, he took the plates over to Bethany and Jodie.
"Breakfast is served," he said, handing the plates over. Jodie started eating immediately, but Bethany was a little more hesitant to start. Danny stared at her until she started eating.
"So what's the plan for today, then?" she asked as she started eating.
"Um, we'll spend the morning here, and then I'm picking Grace up after lunch and we'll go back to my place. The others are going to meet us there later," Danny replied.
Bethany nodded. "Okay, that sounds good."
Several minutes later, Bethany and Jodie had finished their breakfast, and Danny took their plates away. As he walked away, Bethany leaned over to Jodie and whispered, "Do you want to go get his present?" Jodie grinned and ran off.
Danny came back, holding a glass of water and pill bottle. He shook one of the pills out and handed it and the water to Bethany. "Here. Pain medication."
Jodie came back with a large, rectangular wrapped object as Bethany swallowed the pill. "Danny? We got a little something for you."
Danny walked back over with the bag he'd brought with him. "Thank you, guys. I got some things you too." He brought two small identical boxes out of the bag, and, after checking the tags, handed one to Bethany and the other to Jodie, while the teenage handed Danny the wrapped parcel.
The girls opened the boxes and gasped simultaneously. Inside Jodie's box was a white gold locket with a rose engraved onto it, while inside Bethany's box stood a sterling silver ring that had a trinity knot on it. Bethany took the ring and stared at it in awe.
"Oh, my God, Danny, it's beautiful!" she cried, holding it up. She frowned slightly as she looked at the trinity knot. "What's the symbol?"
"It's a trinity knot. It's a well-known symbol in Ireland," Danny explained. "It symbolises many things: Christians believe that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are depicted by the three points. Others see it as a representation of the natural elements: water, earth and air. But, at its most spiritual, the trinity knot symbolises life, death and rebirth."
Bethany stared at him in wonderment. "Danny, that's... that's just... wow! God, that's so romantic and sweet!"
Danny smiled at her. "I'm glad you like it." He looked at Jodie, who was staring at her locket, mouth hanging open slightly. "Jodie? D'you like it?"
Jodie looked up at him with a shocked expression. "This is one of the most amazing things I've ever gotten," she whispered, and turned her head to look at Bethany. "Mom, look at the picture. Do you remember this?"
Bethany leaned over to look at the picture, and her breath hitched for a moment. In the picture, she was stood with her arms around a younger-looking Jodie. Both of them wore the biggest grins imaginable, and in the background, Christmas lights hung from a row of trees. A smile slowly spread across her face.
"I remember this," she whispered. "This was taken three years ago, before... before I got the diagnosis," she explained to Danny. "That was the last time I remember being this happy at Christmas. When I went to see the Christmas lights in Millennium Park being turned on with my daughter."
Jodie ran over to Danny and flung her arms around his neck. "Thank you," she murmured in his ear.
Danny smiled at her. "I'm glad you like it."
Bethany gestured to the package in Danny's hands. "Now, come on; open yours!"
"Alright, alright," Danny chuckled, and ripped open the wrapping paper. His smile widened as he looked at the two Tom Clancy novels. "Oh, brilliant! Thanks!"
"I remember you loved his novels when we were dating," Bethany said.
Danny grinned happily as he looked at the titles of the books - Threat Vector and Command Authority. "You're right; I do love his work. I'll enjoy reading these later."
"I'm sure you will," Bethany said, and rubbed her hands together. "Now, who's in the mood for some Christmas movies?"
I know it's a little late in posting a Christmas chapter, but oh well. I hope you enjoyed that. I actually managed to set toast on fire once; no idea how, so don't ask me. And Tom Clancy is a favourite author of mine as well. And now, because I have now finished this at 4 o'clock in the morning, and everyone else is asleep, I... am... EXHAUSTED! I'm probably going to sleep away most of New Year's Day. Oh well...
Drop me a review and tell me what you think of the chapter. Cheers x