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Skeeball, Mooney Eyes and a Goat
"Aunt Carrie's here!" Catherine heard from the living room in her daughter's excited voice.
Angie was already at the door when her mother entered the room and crossed to open it.
"Hello, gorgeous!" Carrie scooped Angie into a hug. "How's the smartest, most beautiful kid on the island?"
Angie giggled. "I'm very very good. We're gonna have snack, it's mango and Mommy said one cookie, want some?"
"Of course I do." She placed the little girl down and hugged Catherine. "Wait til you see what I have."
"What?"
"What do you have?"
Catherine and Angie asked with identical expressions, making her laugh.
"Mom sent me some of of those old mini VHS camera tapes and I had Brian Kane from IT put them on drives." She produced said drive and held it up. "I watched at lunchtime and I was laughing so hard I almost peed my pants at me and Kevin with hideous haircuts as kids. She snorted a laugh. "Not the most dignified look for a superior officer, so luckily I controlled myself." She passed it to Catherine. "But there's one you need to see. Where are Steve and DJ?"
"They're at practice," Angie supplied. "You didn't really almost pee your pants, did you?" She was getting good at deciphering her godmother's sense of humor, but wanted clarification.
"No, gorgeous, it's just an expression." She winked at her best friend. "How'd you get so smart?"
"Daddy says from Mommy," she answered seriously, then grinned at Catherine. "What's on there?" She pointed.
"That is some fabulous home movie footage from Annapolis."
"Of Dylan?" Angie questioned.
"Oh no, sweetie, these are from a long time ago."
"No way," Catherine said.
"Way, as we used to say. We should wait for Steve and DJ. John is on his way."
Catherine checked her watch. "They'll be home in fifteen minutes. Let's have a little snack and we'll watch as soon as they're back."
"You got it," Carrie offered a hand, which her goddaughter readily took and they swung them jauntily while parading into the kitchen ahead of Catherine and Cammie.
"Did I miss anything?" John asked as he stepped through the front door of the beach house.
"No, Uncle John, come sit by me," DJ offered from his spot in front of the TV, where he was surrounded by his parents, sister and Carrie. Not to mention both pets.
"Fire it up, McGarrett," Carrie waved a hand at the screen with a mischievous look.
The video began at the gates of the Naval Academy and a voiceover said, "We're here to pick up the kids and go for dinner."
"That's your daddy!" Angie said and pointed to Mr. Stagler on the screen.
"It is, indeed," Carrie kissed the little cheek.
"And there's you!" DJ added when she entered the frame. "How old were you, Aunt Carrie?"
"I was nineteen," she shook her head. "Younger than Grace is now."
"And there's Uncle John," Angie added. "You're going for a yummy dinner?"
"We are. Now wait for it…"
"Mommy!" Angie squealed. "There's you, Mommy!"
"There I am." Catherine smiled at the small talk from the screen. The wind was blowing hard and they all sounded like they were under water as the girls linked arms and waved at the camera. A few seconds later, the image warbled and swayed and went to black.
"Mom's camera skills have improved," Carrie snorted. "After ten million videos of Connor. They become Francesco Scavullo when they get a grandchild."
The next scene began in a restaurant. It was well lit with checkered tablecloths and Carrie's mom was in the frame, so her dad was speaking. "And now we're here at Bella Vita…" the rest of his words were drowned out by DJ and Angie's simultaneous, "There's Daddy!"
"And Mr. Mooney Eyes has arrived," Carrie elbowed Steve from her place beside him on the living room floor.
"Wave to the camera, Steve," Mrs. Stagler pointed, and he gave a fast, self conscious wave as he ducked his head and sat next to Catherine.
Watching the screen, she thought DJ ducked and smiled in a similar way and she reached over to briefly squeeze his hand.
A few more minutes of everyone in the video chatting passed before the camera was put down when dinner was served. When the next scene opened, Carrie's parents were no longer there, and she was speaking at the lens. "We commandeered the camera for the night." She mimicked an announcer. "This is Midshipman Carrie Stagler, join us, won't you, as we test our skills at skeeball …"
The camera panned an arcade with video games, foosball and air hockey tables and old school skeeball machines.
"Look there's prizes!" Angie pointed excitedly at the array that included stuffed animals. "Did you win prizes? Were there any goats?"
Steve barked a laugh. "There actually were stuffed goats. The Bill the Goat stuffed animal, remember?" He asked the others.
"Did you win a goat?" Angie swiveled to face him from her spot on her mother's lap as her brother grinned at her question.
"Watch and see," Catherine dropped a kiss on her head.
'And that's 380 for me! Which is 760 combined for us.' She motioned between herself and John. 'McGarrett you're up,' nineteen year old Carrie said from the TV as she collected the tickets being spit from the machine.
'Best possible score is 450,' Steve answered as he picked up the first of the nine balls in the machine. 'Plenty of room to beat you, Stagler.' He bent and rolled the first one into the 50 ring.
"Yay, Daddy! You did good!" Angie cheered for the younger version himself and Steve ran a hand over her hair. "Thank you baby girl."
A minute later, he was smirking at the camera. '430. You're up, Cath.'
Catherine stepped into the camera frame and Carrie, who was doing the filming, swung the angle to include her and Steve. In the present, she pointed at the TV.
"And … Bam! Mooney eyes!" She laughed and Steve shook his head. "You were so busy looking at Catherine you didn't even know the camera was on you too."
"Cause Mommy's beautiful and you love her," DJ said with a smile.
"No denying that," Steve leaned over to peck his wife's lips. "Then and now."
"Aww, thanks," she replied, even as Angie leaned forward towards the TV. "Both of you."
"Go, Mommy!" Angie cheered.
As they watched, Catherine bent lower and rolled her first ball. After two consecutive fifties, she faced the camera and smiled. When she scored 440, she raised both arms in victory and spun in a circle before hugging Steve.
They shared a look before realizing the hug went a few beats longer than friendship and pulled apart, smiling.
"Looook at you," Carrie teased. "Like we weren't even in the room. God, this is the best."
"That's before you were boyfriend and girlfriend, so you weren't hugging too long," DJ pointed out. "But you're smiling like you do now when one of you comes home from work or even in from being outside," their very observant son said with a sweet grin."
"They did that all night," John supplied. "Aunt Carrie kept whispering how cute it was."
"And you won!" Angie pointed to the screen as Catherine collected the plethora of tickets being spewed by the machine. "Yay Mommy!"
"I had a lot of practice in Ocean City."
"With Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Greg and Aunt Susan…" Angie rattled off.
"And your cousins!" DJ added.
"Who I had to master boardwalk games to beat," Catherine smiled at the memory. "The key is to think about your stance, aim for 40 points to start, and stay low."
"Of course my bestie had a skeeball strategy." Carrie laughed as the video came to an end with Catherine and Carrie pooling all the tickets and taking a large stuffed Bill the Goat from the man behind the arcade counter.
'No animals in the rooms, you know,' twenty year old Steve said, his eyes never leaving Catherine's face.
"I'll send it home with my mom. She'll take care of Bill Junior," Carrie said with a laugh. Her and Catherine holding the stuffed mascot to the camera was the last scene before the TV went dark.
"You won the goat!" Angie was beside herself with excitement. "The really big one!"
"We sure did." Carrie high fived Catherine and kissed Angie's cheek. "And that video deserves pizza for dinner. Let's order, we're buying."
"You don't have to…" Catherine began, but stopped at her best friend's hand wave. "Okay, thank you. How's pepperoni and plain?"
"Perfect," John said and Steve nodded his agreement, standing to take Cammie for a pre dinner potty break. "How about we set up, DJ while your dad runs outside?"
The nine year old was on his feet and following his uncle to the kitchen while Catherine reached for her phone to call for the pizza.
When Carrie said, "C'mon, gorgeous, let's supervise the drinks." Angie was standing between her mother and godmother looking between them both.
A beat later, she tilted her head and asked, "Where's your Bill the Goat?" And both women chuckled.
"He's … with my mom and dad, happily sitting in the spare bedroom. I see him whenever I visit," Carrie supplied.
After Angie sighed happily and said, "Yay! You can tell him hi from me and Felix next time you visit your mommy and daddy," before flying out of the room to lead the way for drink duty.
Catherine grinned. "Good save, godmother. If you'd said he was tossed years ago that could have been ugly."
Carrie looped her arm through her best friend's and laughed. "Are you kidding? I could never disappoint Ms. Angie McGarrett, especially when it comes to a goat." Both women shared a laugh at her next words. "Besides, it's absolutely true."
# End thanks for reading
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