Ch 30 – Family
The Bower-Micelli family really only had one Christmas tradition, and Angela was dreading it this year: the Christmas morning Lindy Hop.
Right now, she could imagine nothing worse than being dipped and twirled, thrown and lifted the way a good Lindy demanded.
She felt queasy enough as it was, just sitting still in the armchair by the Christmas tree, dutifully aiming the camcorder that stood next to her on a tripod as the kids and Mona tore through present after present that Tony handed them from under the tree.
This was the worst morning yet, although she had experienced small bouts of nausea here and there all week in a surprising deviation from her first pregnancy. With Jonathan, she had felt a little off every now and then, but nothing even remotely like this.
Some saltine crackers and a mug of ginger tea that Tony had brought to her bedside early this morning had helped a little, but Angela still wasn't feeling her best.
"Mom! Thank you! This is awesome!" Jonathan shouted after he had ripped open the biggest package and found the Nintendo console and three game cartridges inside.
"As long as your schoolwork doesn't suffer, darling," Angela said weakly, cringing inwardly as soon as the words were out. This useless admonition was going to be on the audio track of the 1988 Christmas video for all eternity.
"Mo-om!" Jonathan groaned. "It won't." He shook his head dramatically before beginning to examine the cardboard packaging of the video game console.
Angela smiled to herself and shifted the camera's focus to Sam and Tony.
He had just finished helping her put on her new silver necklace, and now father and daughter were sharing a warm hug. Things between them weren't entirely back to normal yet, but they were getting there.
Sam seemed to have learned her lesson, and Tony had lifted her sentence, starting on New Year's Eve so she could go to a party at Julia's – but only under one condition: Sam could never see Eric again, to which she had readily agreed.
Since Eric was a friend of Bonnie's brother Scott, Angela wasn't entirely sure how realistic this promise was, but it seemed that her terrible experience had cured Sam of any fascination with 'bad boys' she might have harbored.
They couldn't put her in bubble wrap, and Angela and Tony both trusted Sam to defend herself if push ever came to shove again.
"Thank you, dear," Mona said from over by the fireplace, interrupting Angela's musings.
She was holding a lavender-colored knit garment into the camera. Then she stalked through the mountains of wrapping paper and ribbon to come sit on the armrest of Angela's chair.
"What a beautiful sweater," she continued, "I don't know how you do it, Angela, year after year – getting me just what I like."
Angela chuckled. As usual, she had surrendered one of her credit cards to her mother so she could buy her own Christmas gift. It was so much easier that way, and it made them both happy.
"You're very welcome, Mother."
"Don't you want to open any of your presents?" Mona asked. "We want to see what Tony and you got each other." Angela could hear her waggling her eyebrows.
"In a minute." As unobtrusively as possible, she took a couple of deep breaths, willing the nausea to subside.
"Yeah, Mona is right," Tony said, coming over. "Let me handle the camera, and you can open this."
He handed Angela a gift bag before taking the tripod and positioning it further away so that the camera was now filming her.
"There's two things in there. You can open the big one now, but keep the other one for later. I'll tell you when."
"Oooooh," Sam hooted, and Mona let out a wolf whistle.
"It's nothing like that," Tony said, a little embarrassed. "It's just – some things are private."
"Uh-huh." Mona nudged Angela with her elbow.
"Mother," she scolded, but only semi-seriously, as she lifted the bigger of the two packages out of the bag. It felt compact and heavy, like a coffee table book.
As Angela slid her index finger between two layers of wrapping paper, she caught Tony's expectant look, and her heart started to beat faster. She hoped that he hadn't spent a lot of money on her.
The wrapping paper fell away, and Angela held a thick photo album in her hands. The cover and spine were embossed with gold, cursive letters that read Family.
She opened it, and the first photo she saw was of the four of them – Tony, Angela, Samantha, and Jonathan, standing in front of the rickety-looking rollercoaster at the carnival in Brooklyn that they had gone to not long after Tony and Samantha moved to Fairfield.
Her most vivid memory of that night was throwing up on Tony right after they got off the ride – and his reaction. She had been mortified of course and began to apologize profusely, but the first thing he asked was, 'Are you okay?' She was almost taken aback, so used was she still to Michael's disgruntlement whenever she wasn't as fun or as adventurous as he would have liked.
But Tony wasn't Michael. He got her a can of ginger ale at one of the little booths and cleaned off his shoes and pants using paper napkins and water, and that had been that.
Angela continued to flip through the photo album, her fingers trembling.
On the pages that followed were photos of Samantha's 12th birthday, of their first Christmas together, of the family visiting Jonathan at camp, and so it continued until about halfway through the album. Then the pages were empty, except for a Post-it note stuck to the first one: To be continued.
"Tony," Angela gasped and looked up at him.
"It's a family album," he explained the obvious, his cheeks ablaze. "I figured it's about time we started one."
"Yes, absolutely, yes," she nodded.
He was right. All these years, they had taken pictures and kept them in envelopes and boxes, not really sure what to do with the mounting evidence of their ever more entwined lives.
"Thank you, I love it." Angela hugged the album to her chest gingerly.
"There are lots of blank pages left, too," Tony went on, and their eyes met again, a silent understanding. Soon enough, there would be wedding photos and baby pictures to fill them with.
"Come here," Angela gestured with one arm, and Tony bent down to her for a kiss. "You're the sweetest," she whispered into his ear.
"Dad, you old softie, your turn," Sam said, handing him a large, flat, rectangular package.
"Can I?" Tony asked.
"Of course."
Angela's stomach lurched, and she wasn't quite sure if it was from morning sickness or from nerves. Hopefully he would understand the meaning behind her gift. The last thing she wanted was to make him sad on Christmas morning.
Tony tore off the wrapping paper, revealing a picture frame. He stared at it for a moment. Then his features relaxed, and Angela knew that he got it.
"Sweetheart," he said, visibly moved, "thank you."
"I thought we could hang it … somewhere." With somewhere, she meant the nursery, which of course she couldn't say out loud yet. "Since it's kind of what got us started."
So far, they had kept mostly quiet about what had brought on the changes in their relationship, but Angela thought it safe to say this much.
"What is it!?" Jonathan asked impatiently.
Tony turned the picture frame around so Jonathan, Sam, and Mona could see.
"Great-Grandpa Micelli's U.S. citizenship test!" Sam said. "That's a nice idea, Angela."
Mona put her hand on Angela's shoulder and squeezed it.
"But how did this 'get you started'?" Sam asked.
"That's kind of a long story," Tony hedged. "I guess you could say when Angela cleaned up the attic in the fall, it got both of us thinking about some things."
"Well, that's a boring answer," Mona deadpanned.
"Well, that's all you get for now," Tony retorted, imitating her tone, but with a smile around his eyes. "We should get Grandpa's naturalization letter framed, too."
Angela swallowed. "There's one more package." She pointed to another rectangular shape under the tree.
Tony's eyebrows slanted in that way they had when he was touched. "You didn't-"
"Great minds," she said softly. "We can hang them next to each other."
Tony put the picture frame down and extended his hand to Angela. She took it and let him pull her to her feet and into a gentle embrace.
"Thank you," he said again, running his hands up and down her back. Then he pulled back and gave her a peck on the lips. "I mean it, Angela. What wonderful gifts."
"It's family history, right?" she ventured. "I'm glad you like them. I wasn't sure if you-"
"Oh, enough with the schmaltz," Mona interrupted Angela's explanations. "Don't you two owe us a dance?"
"Yeah!" Sam and Jonathan agreed in unison, a rare thing these days.
As horrified as the kids had been by their parents' dancing to the old-timey music when they first did it four years ago, they had quickly embraced the Lindy Hop as a natural part of the holidays at their house – even as they got older and should have been more and more embarrassed by Tony and Angela's antics.
Angela felt Tony's eyes on her. "You okay?" he mouthed, facing away from the other family members.
She nodded almost imperceptibly, not at all sure that she was, but also not wanting to disappoint him. Tony gave her a reassuring smile.
"Make it a slow one, buddy," he said to Jonathan, who was already standing by the record player.
"How am I supposed to know which of these are slow?" Jonathan held up four or five record sleeves with both hands.
"Never mind, just pick one, we'll make it work," Tony said and pulled Angela closer.
The music started up, and of course it was a fast big band number, but Tony put his hands on her waist to anchor her to him, and with Angela's head on his shoulder, they swayed to and fro, all but forgetting the world around them.
It was only when she could bring herself to watch the video many years later that Angela realized that Jonathan must have picked up the camcorder to film them.
"The two of you are no fun anymore now that you're burning off all your excess energy in other ways," Mona nagged them good-naturedly from off-screen.
"I think it's adorable," said Sam. "They're only young once, Mona. Let them enjoy it."
Then they both laughed, while in the middle of the frame, she and Tony continued to dance in place.
ooooooooo
"Come on, guys! Only for half an hour!"
"But why, Dad?" Sam asked as she came down the stairs. "I promised Bonnie I would call her this afternoon."
"Because fresh air is good for you."
"I thought I was still grounded."
"Not for family activities."
With a sigh, Sam grabbed her parka off the coat rack and put it on.
"Time to go," Angela said to Jonathan, who was sitting next to her on the couch, completely engrossed in his video game.
He had gotten the Nintendo hooked up in record time and had been glued to the screen since mid-morning. Because it was Christmas, and she really didn't feel up for any sort of discussion with her son, Angela was letting it slide for now.
"Do I have to come?" he whined.
"Of course. We're all going," Tony said from over by the door.
One of the brochures from Dr. Solomon's practice suggested 'non-strenuous physical activity' and spending time outside as a way to deal with fatigue and nausea in early pregnancy. Tony had taken the recommendation to heart and wanted Angela – and the rest of the family – to go for a Christmas walk.
"Why don't we all go?" he had asked Angela after her early-afternoon nap. "It's nice out, and my dad, Grandpa, and I used to take walks around the neighborhood on holidays all the time. You know, see and be seen."
Angela laughed. Tony made it sound as if they were celebrities, or royalty.
"The Prince of Pitkin Avenue, huh?" she asked.
"Something like that," he said with a smile followed by a kiss to her cheek.
"Well, alright. Why not," she agreed.
"Great. I kinda want to show you off, too," Tony said, and at first she didn't know what he meant. It wasn't like this would be their first time outside together.
But she understood once they started walking down the sidewalk in the low winter sunshine. They were still on Oak Hills Drive, barely past the Wilmingtons' house, when Tony reached for her hand.
It filled Angela with giddy excitement to think about the fact that whoever was looking out of their window now, or passed them by on the street, would see them together. Tony looked just as happy and proud, and Angela's heart soared.
The rest of the family were walking ahead of them, Sam and Mona patiently listening to Jonathan as he went on and on about The Legend of Zelda, one of his new games for the Nintendo. Angela hadn't seen him this excited about something in a long time.
"You okay?" Tony asked, and she felt his gaze on her face.
She nodded. "I was just thinking. Everything is changing so fast."
"Yeah, but I mean, it took us long enough before you went and cleaned up the attic. Maybe we're just making up for lost time here."
"Hmm, maybe," she said, feeling a little wistful. Not because she didn't want things to change. She did. But change was still change. Maybe pregnancy hormones had her all mixed up today.
"Hey, what did Michael say when you told him?" Tony asked, letting go of her hand and slipping his arm around her waist instead. They hadn't really talked since Angela made the phone call to California after lunch.
She couldn't keep the amusement out of her voice as she recounted Michael's reaction. "He said 'Finally'."
"That's it? 'Finally'?"
"Pretty much."
"Wow."
"And he asked if he could come to our wedding. To return the favor."
Tony laughed. "Sure, why not. We owe him one, I guess."
"We'll see. He wasn't sure they could make it, with the baby coming in May."
"Right." Tony was silent for a little while. Then he turned his head and whispered close to her ear, "I haven't forgotten that I still need to ask you, by the way."
"I look forward to it," she whispered back, making a mental note to forget that she still needed to tell him something.
ooooooooo
Later that night, after another exquisite Christmas dinner (mercifully unspoiled by nausea), Angela came out of the bathroom, clad in the black lace teddy Tony liked so much. She found him sitting on the edge of the mattress, holding the gift bag from this morning.
"We never got around to this."
For a second, Angela was afraid that this was going to be it – Tony's proposal –, and that she would miss her window to come clear about … what she needed to come clear about.
"No need to look shocked," he said with a smile. "I'm not proposing just yet. Not in a pair of sweatpants. This is just a little something I got a while back. Call it the second part of your Christmas present."
Angela exhaled with a smile of her own and climbed onto the bed, sliding her bare legs under the covers. Tony turned to face her and handed her the contents of the bag.
She felt the small, soft package and looked up at Tony, but his facial expression was unreadable. Had her mother's insinuation been correct, and he had gotten her lingerie? There was only one way to find out, of course.
Angela tugged on the ribbon and tore open the wrapping paper to reveal a soft, white piece of clothing. She unfolded it and held it up in front of her.
It was a tiny onesie, emblazoned with the St. Louis Cardinals lettering and a red bird on the tummy.
"Tony," she breathed.
He gave an adorable shrug. "They were selling them in the hotel gift shop," he said in a throaty voice, his hand stroking her leg through the comforter. "I figured we might need it someday."
"Oh, Tony, this is so darling." Angela couldn't believe he had thought to buy the onesie all those weeks ago, back when they were still fumbling their way towards each other, step by risky step.
"Turn it over," he said, and she did.
On the back of the onesie, large angular letters read BABY BIRD.
"For our baby bird." He leaned forward towards her, gently pushing his forehead and the bridge of his nose against hers. Angela pushed back, fighting tears as they went in for a quick kiss.
"I love you so much, you have no idea," she sobbed happily and slung her arms around Tony's shoulders.
"I love you too. And I think I have a pretty good idea."
A/N: I forgot to put a note at the end of the previous chapter, giving credit for something. The inspiration for the game room in the basement, and specifically Tony's idea to get a pool table for down there, kind of came from a fanfic by VioletStella that I read a while back, I think it was 'Uptown Girl', where Angela surprises Tony with a pool table for the basement. :)