Many thanks to all my loyal readers and reviewers.
I honestly never thought this story would be this long; thanks for sticking with it!
The waitress crossed the darkened pub with a large tray, setting it on the table then placing the pint glasses in front of the five morose looking men slumped in the wooden armchairs. "Here you go," she said quietly with a smile, glancing at them all with a slight frown.
A couple of them looked up and nodded; one managed a soft, "Thank you."
She nodded back, moved the stack of menus slightly to emphasize their presence then started back towards the bar.
It was almost a full minute before Tanner, with a glance at the others, reached for his glass and picked it up. "Well, we all knew going in that this could happen…"
Healey snorted. "Yeah… but it still doesn't make it any easier to take."
Steve nodded almost absent-mindedly. Dan exhaled loudly.
Haseejian was staring at the floor. "Gerry was right though, we do have to find out what happened that night. But I'll be damned how we're going to do it because I'm pretty sure we're not going to get anything outa Mike… not at this point."
"You're right about that," Dan agreed reluctantly. "Whatever little game he's playing, he's won."
Healey and Tanner nodded slightly.
"But it's not a game," Steve said softly, "and I, for one, am not going to give up."
"I don't think any of us are going to give up," Haseejian said quickly, glancing at the others.
Steve smiled warmly. "I know that, Norm, I didn't mean it that way. I'm just… frustrated… and disappointed. I was hoping to have some good news for Jeannie when she flies in on Friday."
"She's coming home for Christmas?" Tanner asked with a grin.
Both Steve and Dan nodded. "Yeah, she wants to celebrate the holidays like they've always done – tree, turkey, everything. Hey, if any of you guys are free on Christmas Day and want a turkey dinner…?"
The others shook their heads. "Bonnie and I are heading to Phoenix to visit her parents for a couple of days," Healey grinned. Haseejian and Tanner were both spending the day with their extended families; Lessing was engaged to be married, so they knew where he would be all day.
Steve sat forward and reached for the menus. "Gentlemen, as hard as it is to admit, we're not going to be getting Mike home before Christmas, but that doesn't mean we can't get him out in the New Year. We've all worked extremely hard these past couple of months and I think we should be proud with what we've accomplished."
He passed the menus around the table. "I say we take a few days off over the holidays – it's going to be hard to get anything done anyway – and start fresh after Christmas." He smiled. "Who knows… maybe one of us'll have a brainstorm and all this will become just a bad dream." He gestured towards the menus. "Let's have dinner – it's on me tonight."
Dan's head snapped back and he looked at Healey, who instantly frowned. Tanner snorted a laugh which was drowned out by Haseejian's "What?! You're gonna buy us all dinner?"
Steve froze and stared at the Armenian sergeant. "Not to put too fine a point on it, Norm, but I make a bit more as a professor - and I have private students too, remember? – than I ever did on the force. Consider it an early Christmas present…"
"Well, in that case," Haseejian said with a pleased smirk and tilt of his head as he opened the menu, and the others laughed.
# # # # #
The heavy wooden door slammed open and the pointy end of a Monterey Pine was thrust through the opening, accompanied by the grunting and groaning of the two unfortunate volunteers trying to manhandle it into the house.
"For god's sake, don't knock the lamps over!" Jeannie shouted from somewhere further down the concrete steps, trying not to laugh as Steve and Dan tried to force the 6-foot Christmas tree, it's branches bound with twine, around the steep bend from the stairs into the house.
Finally successful, they hefted it over the threshold then across the living room to where the forest green metal stand stood on several open newspaper pages in the far corner. With a further chorus of groans, they straightened the tree then, as Steve held it upright, Dan got onto his hands and knees to guide the lower end of the trunk into the ring at the top of the stand. Successful, Steve held the tree and grinned at Jeannie while Dan tightened the screws around the ring.
"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" she laughed as she closed the door, glancing down at the small trail of pine needles across the floor.
"I seem to remember it was easier when Mike was on the other end," Steve huffed, trying to catch his breath.
"I heard that!" Dan's voice came from under the tree and Jeannie giggled.
"You guys get that thing locked in and cut the twine, and I'll start dinner."
"I thought we were going to decorate it?"
"We have to let it settle first, remember. I figured we'd have dinner and it should be ready to start trimming after that. I bought steaks," she looked at Steve with raised eyebrows, "and I made an artichoke spinach lasagna for you Dan," she raised her voice and bent down towards him slightly.
"That sounds incredible, Jeannie, thanks!" came the reply from under the tree.
"That does sound good," Steve agreed with a surprised nod then continued quickly, "but I'll still take the steak."
"I thought you would," she grinned. "I'm also making fried onions and hash brown potatoes. Sound good?"
"Sounds delicious."
"Great. I'll be back with a couple of beers." She disappeared into the kitchen.
Steve had picked her up at the airport the afternoon before. It was a bittersweet reunion, and by unspoken mutual consent they had decided to talk about everything except her father. It turned out not to be as hard as either had expected; they had so much to catch up on.
He had just dropped her off; she wanted to spend that first night, without her father, alone. She had wandered the house for a time, feeling lost, heartsick in the knowledge that he wasn't just working late and would eventually come in the door, tired but overjoyed to see her, as had happened so many times over the years.
Steve and Dan had met her at the Christmas tree lot mid-afternoon and helped her pick out the Monterey Pine, strapping it across a blanket on the top of the Porsche, which elicited a lot of stunned stares on the way home; especially when the Porsche was being followed by a Jeep and a family sedan, the more rational choices.
Now, after cutting the twine that released the branches on the bound tree and washing the sap off their hands, the two men were sitting back, enjoying the cold beer and the prospect of a home-cooked meal.
From his position on the couch, Steve looked around the living room. Jeannie had begun to put up some of the decorations, and the stockings were already hanging from the small hooks on the mantel. As usual, there were four: Mike, Jeannie, Steve and, the most recent addition, Dan. It was a silly tradition that Mike loved to keep – he would fill all their stockings with frivolous things like a Mandarin orange or a Pez dispenser, tiny bottles of scotch or a chocolate bar. But there was always one item of value, either monetary or sentimental.
Steve smiled, remembering. Three years ago, the gift had been bought as a joke, and Mike was truly not prepared for the reaction it received. It was the first Christmas after Steve had retired, after he had almost died in the line of duty. He was working at Berkeley by then, settling into his new life as an academic, but still maintaining regular and much-needed contact with the man who had come to mean so much to him.
He had been spending Christmas Day with the Stones as he had done since they'd become partners almost seven years before. And he had heard Mike chuckling when he opened the little wrapped box and taken out the two small rectangular aluminum plates on a long ball chain. Both plates were debossed.
Steve stared at them and swallowed heavily. He heard Mike's laughter fade away and the older man said quietly, "They're dog tags. One's you… and the other's me…"
He held the tags closer. One of them had his name, blood type and penicillin allergy in concave lettering stamped into it. The other had Mike's name and blood type. He looked up to see two suddenly worried blue eyes watching him.
He smiled slowly, trying to keep his lower lip from trembling and the tears from his eyes. He was close enough to be able to reach out and place a hand on the back of the older man's neck and squeeze; he had been too overwhelmed to speak.
He cleared his throat and shook his head, bringing himself back to the present. Almost absent-mindedly he reached up, his fingertips touching the chain that was always around his neck, hidden under his shirt, forever close to his heart.
# # # # #
The delicious dinner out of the way, and a good portion of a bottle of red wine consumed, they set about the task of trimming the tree. Jeannie, as per the custom, was in charge of unwrapping the many ornaments the Stone family had accumulated over the years and carefully kept in storage. Steve was handling the two strings of treelights, with the unenviable task of trying to find the one burnt out bulb amongst all the rest; it was the ultimate test of patience and perseverance. Dan was the master of garlands and tinsel, and scaling the kitchen stepladder to set the angel on the top.
They had kept the conversation light and had even managed to talk about Mike without guilt or sorrow. And there was a great deal of laughter, especially over Steve's growing frustration at not being able to find the errant bulb. At one point he threw back his head and roared, "This is the perfect example of Einstein's definition of insanity!" It was several minutes until any real work on the tree could start again.
They had the two strands of lights laid out across the living room floor and all three of them were screwing and unscrewing the small multi-coloured bulbs in an attempt to find the offending dud. There was actually more laughing than practical work being done. Steve had just thrown another bulb across the room when the phone rang.
Laughing, Jeannie got to her feet and crossed to the black table phone on the far endtable. "Hello?" She listened, her body stiffening slightly. Still sitting cross-legged on the floor, both men looked up at her. She glanced their way. "Yes, yes, I'll accept the charges." Their eyes widened. "Mike?... Yes… yes, I made it home safe and sound… The house looks great, Dan's been taking good care of it… Yes, yes, I did get a tree. I told you I would… Yeah, from Benny, like we do every year… It's a beauty, a Monterey Pine, of course… About six feet, it's gorgeous."
She glanced at Steve and Dan, whose eyes hadn't left her face. "Yes, yes, um, actually they're both here right now. We just had dinner and they're helping me decorate the tree… Yeah, I got the turkey this morning from Tony, one of those fresh ones… No, not too big this year, fourteen pounds… Yeah… Yeah, they're both coming… Will they be serving turkey there?... Hopefully it'll be better than what they served at Thanksgiving, right?... What?..." She looked towards the others. "Sure. Just a second."
She put her hand over the mouthpiece and held it out. Her eyes met Steve's. "He wants to talk to you both."
Slowly, with a glance at Dan, Steve got to his feet and crossed the room, taking the phone from her outstretched hand. "Mike?"
"Steve, how are you doing? Jeannie tells me you're helping her put up the tree again. Does she have you doing the lights?"
Trying to stop his heart from pounding, Steve laughed. "What else is new? How do you do it every year? We can't get them to work, there must be a burnt out bulb and we've been trying for over an hour to find which one it is."
"You obviously weren't paying attention all those years when it was my job. This is what you do. Stretch the string out and make sure all the bulbs are in securely first. You'd be surprised how many times it turns out to be just a loose bulb…"
They talked for almost five minutes, about the Christmas tree lights and the weather and sports; anything except what was foremost on both their minds.
Steve passed the phone to Dan then sat beside Jeannie on the sofa with his arm around her shoulders. She had begun to cry quietly. By the time the phone was returned to her to say her goodbyes, she had her emotions under control.
In silence, they made their way back to the floor and the strings of lights. Doing exactly what Mike had told Steve to do, they found the blown bulb within ten minutes.
They also found a profound sense of peace and love that stayed with them for the rest of the night.