Cat and Mouse
Chapter 9
First Christmas Together…
AN: response to reviewers
Rain: Just wait for what the twins do later on.
Furi15: yes damn drunk drivers – more on Mare'stella later in the next few chapters.
Melodie568 & FalconWolf3: Thanks for reviewing
Wow! 30 reviews now.
And now here is about Christmas with Emma, Shalimar and the rest of the group!
…
Christmas comes but once a year,And when it comes it brings good cheer.… Emma decided to go all out for Christmas this year, decorating, making cookies, taking the twins shopping, and doing about a hundred million other things between when they came back from New Orleans and Christmas Eve. She even tired Shalimar out with her seemingly unending supply of energy. After all, Emma reasoned to herself, she had four Christmases and 4 birthdays to make up for with Jori and Chessy. And she had 10 days to accomplish it all! She decided to decorate both Sanctuary and the Estate House. She came down the day after their little trip and gave everybody a detailed shopping and task list. Brennan, Adam, and Jesse groaned when she presented them with their lists, but they all smiled when she told them it was for the twins. That finally got them to do it, as well as her facial expressions when she pleased with them. She didn't forget about their new friends in New Orleans either. Much to their chagrin, she sent them a big box of clothes and cd's. Mare' kept up an email and IM correspondence with both Emma and Shalimar, mostly of tidbits about the club, or Tabby's latest joke. Emma could tell there was something troubling Mare', but she didn't press the issue, not wanting to ruin her Christmas plans or her current happy mood. The ten days sped by very quickly. … Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat,Please to put a penny in an old man's hat;If you haven't got a penny a ha'penny will do,If you haven't got a ha'penny, God bless you.…
Emma and Shalimar allowed the two younger girls to stay up to midnight on Christmas Eve. All of them enjoyed an evening of Christmas videos and popcorn and the prerequisite popcorn fight that followed. Jori and Chessy almost balked at going to bed, but with a promise from everybody in the room to awaken them if Santa arrived, they finally went off to bed. Emma and Shal listened to them whispering about the merits of Santa using reindeer or the Double Helix in getting all those presents to all the good little boys and girls. The Double Helix argument won and the girls finally went to sleep.
Shal decided it was time to spring her first present to Emma at this point. She blindfolded Emma and led her thru the halls of Sanctuary to her old bedroom. She had been practicing in secret since they came back to give Emma a special present of a private striptease. Mare' and Tabby had helped her with some of the details.
After settling Emma on a chair, she quickly changed into a lacy frilly red negligee' and then turned on some music. She then took Emma's blindfold off. Emma's eyes widened in surprise and much appreciation of Shalimar's scantily clad body. She tried to move off the chair after the first song, but Shal shook her head. Her present wasn't over yet.
She finished her dancing with a lap dance, complete with moves that would have made Mr. Ladies man himself, Brennan, blush. Emma couldn't control herself any longer and maneuvered Shal over onto the mattress on the floor, which she was very certain, had not been moved out of the room for this very reason.
Shalimar looked up at her with a very pleased Cheshire cat smile, being very pleased with Emma's reactions to her present….
Later, Emma asked, "Did you do this all by yourself?"
"Sort of. I asked Tabby and Mare' for a few sure ways of seducing somebody with a dance. I put it together myself." Shal stretched and looked at her watch. "Now we have two choices. We can stay here or go back to our own bed. But if I'm not mistaken, we're going to have two very hyper 4 year olds waking us up in about 5 hours.
"Let's go to our bed, Shalimar deLauro-Fox."
"After you, Emma deLauro-Fox."
They quickly dressed and headed back to their bedroom.
…
As predicted, Jori and Chess were climbing on their bed at 7 am. After a tickle battle, Emma went to the closet and pulled out two big boxes; one for the twins, the other for her and Shal. Inside there were 4 matching Minnie Mouse Christmas sweat suits.
"Emma, if it was anybody else giving me matching outfits, it would be going into the dumpster first chance," Shal said as the squealing twins ran to their rooms to change.
"You might not like me later today," Emma said, thinking of the similar presents she had for the three men in their lives.
…
Later that evening
Emma stared into the fireplace and sighed. Ever sensitive to Shal's needs, they were only using the fake logs. It had been a perfect Christmas day. Even the guys were smiling, especially after all their grumbling at her lists. She looked around at the others, her family that was hers by blood and some by choice. The last two months had been the strangest roller coaster ride on her emotions. From Myra to finding her twin daughters to cementing a forever friendship and relationship with Shalimar to her new fortunes to even finding someone who knew her when she was with Myra to her friends at the Estate House to how her family accepted her and Shal's decisions about the girls. There were a few small regrets. One that Myra couldn't be here with them celebrating and two that she missed out on a whole lot of her girls' younger years. Now the only thing that could make it more complete was a baby that was her's and Shal's together, in addition to the twins.
…
"Family isn't about whose blood you have. It's about who you care about." Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park
…
TBC
A/N: there are a bunch of surprises coming along in the next few chapters…. More about Katya, Mare', Tabby, and Star too!
A/N: sorry this is short. Work is piling up more with the beginning of the semester!
Sigh!
