Forests of Port Charles-
"How about this one?" Damian asked. The excitement that the three other people who were with him had not rubbed off on him while they were in the truck, and it had failed to rub off on him while they were looking around, in the freezing cold, for one tree. Damian had seen hundreds of trees already, he had the undying urge to just count them all, just to point out how many 'perfectly good trees' they had all decided to pass up.
"Too small," Dillon observed the tree. He wasn't going to pick any old tree. It had to be something special for his first Christmas with the Morgan's. That tree wouldn't even fill up half the space that he had allotted for the tree, and he was just talking about from top to bottom.
"That one over there?" Damian pointed to another nearby tree. It was larger. Surely it would suffice.
"No, not enough branches," Dillon grinned. While it was true that the tree did not have an adequate amount of branches, he was enjoying watching Damian squirm in the cold. Did it make him a little bit of a sadist? Probably, but it was still fun to see the normally calm and cool young man act a little more… human.
"And I take it the one behind me doesn't break out into song and dance and have a self-decorating feature…" Damian muttered.
"Actually, that tree behind you isn't even a pine tree, its oak…"
"I hate you," Damian started to laugh.
"No, really, it's an oak tree, look," Dillon spun him around, showing Damian the fact that was now right in front of his face. He had picked one of the scant few oak trees that were in the area.
"Any luck?" Courtney asked, coming up behind them, Michael holding her hand. She and her nephew had gone in search of the perfect tree in the other general direction, and had come up with nothing.
"I've seen plenty of trees…"
"But none of them are the right one," Dillon cut in.
Damian shook his head, "If it looks like a pine tree and smells like a pine tree, it's a pine tree. That pretty much fulfills any of the requirements that come with 'being a pine tree…' how can you say that all of them aren't the right ones?"
"Because they aren't," Dillon was having a lot of fun. He wished Christmas came more often, because tree shopping with Damian was quickly becoming a favorite pastime of his.
"My daddy always gets the best Christmas tree around," Michael chimed in. "Maybe he could get another one for you and Uncle Jason and Dillon."
Courtney knelt down, her knees becoming engrossed in the snow that surrounded her, "Sweetie, that's a great offer, but we're already here so we might as well get a tree. Besides, we'll find one, eventually."
"Let's just hope that we don't all freeze to death while we're looking," Damian was slowly beginning to lose feeling in various parts of his body. His face was numb already, and he hated it when his face got numb.
"It's not cold," Dillon, who was wearing nothing extra to protect himself from the winter chill than a jacket over his normal clothes, felt nothing.
"Again, I point out the fact that I'm from California. You know, Sunny California, the Sunshine State…"
"Damian," Courtney giggled, "Florida is the Sunshine State."
"See? My brain's frozen to the point that I can't even remember which state is the Sunshine state!" Why did he think that his state was the Sunshine State… why couldn't he even remember what nickname his state had? "The point remains the same… I'm from California, the place where we don't get snow, we don't get cold… we don't spend hours looking for one accursed pine tree!"
"Are you done yet?" Dillon waited for the rant to end so that they could begin the search anew.
"Yes…"
"Let's keep looking," Courtney wanted a good tree, a really good tree.
"Can I come with you?" Michael requested, standing next to Damian.
"Are you sure you want to be looking for trees with me, Michael? It could get really ugly, fast." Especially if he decided to start ripping apart trees at random for being inferior beings. The idea was appealing, but if his little brother was standing right next to him, such a display would be ill conceived.
"Maybe I could help you find a good tree," Michael figured that he could help Damian do anything. Whenever Michael was around, good things happened, or at least bad things didn't happen. He thought himself something of a good luck charm, ever ignorant of the steps that were taken to make sure that nothing bad did happen when he was around. "I've got this with me… remember, it's your lucky chain," Michael dug the chain out from under his jacket.
Damian smiled. He hadn't really thought about the chain that much. He didn't even notice if Michael was wearing it or not on a given day, but the fact that Michael still remembered, that Michael still treasured the simple gift that he had been given when he was in the hospital, that was touching. "Of course I remember. I told you to keep it with you… but, maybe it'll help with something."
"Are you sure you don't want it back?" Michael asked. He didn't feel entirely comfortable carrying around such an important momento, especially one that he didn't really understand the importance of, that he couldn't understand the importance of. He knew that it was something that Damian's mother gave him, but he had never met the woman, he didn't know anything else.
"I'm positive I don't want it back, but thank you for the offer, it means a lot to me."
"We come bearing gifts," a voice said from behind the two.
"Great, now my mind is so cold that it's making me think I hear Maxie…"
"Damian, I'm not cold, and I see Maxie," Michael pointed behind his big brother. "She's right there, Georgie is with her."
"You look so cute when you're trying to be a snow bunny," Maxie giggled as she walked closer to the two of them.
"How'd…" Damian looked at Maxie and saw that she was carrying containers of some kind. Steaming containers. "What's in those?"
"Hot Cocoa," Maxie took one of the cups out. "Mike made them just for you guys." She offered the bounty to her boyfriend, "Do you want one? They're warm."
"It was Maxie's idea," Georgie came up from behind. "She figured that you guys would want something warm after you've been out here searching for a tree for so long. Has there been any luck?"
"Unless you count frostbite on my toes as luck… no." For all he knew, his toes could have just fallen off. He couldn't feel them anymore.
"I know a way to warm you up," Maxie smiled devilishly. "But we'll wait until you really need it."
"Did grandpa make a cup of cocoa for me?" Michael wondered, smelling the rich chocolate that emanated from the cups.
"Of course he did, Michael. Mike could never forget you," Maxie grabbed another cup and handed it to the child. "He made sure that it was as hot as it could get, that way it would survive out here, but we've been walking for a few minutes, so it should be at just the right time that you can drink it without burning your lips."
"How'd you know that we were out here?" Damian finally took the cup that was still being offered to him and placed it against his frozen lips. The warm chocolate tingled as the feeling sensation returned to them. He knew one thing, he was going to give his grandfather a many thanks for saving him from an early grave, amid pine trees and quite possibly caribou.
"Dillon called me on the cell phone," Georgie began looking for the boy when she mentioned his name. "Where is he, anyway?"
"Counting the amount of needles on each individual tree, followed by the branches and then getting out the tape measure and making sure that the tree is just the right height…"
"You're not serious," Georgie was amazed at the meticulous planning that appeared to be on her boyfriend's mind.
"Well, he might not be counting the needles, but the other ones are true. I wouldn't put the needle thing ahead of him, though. He's proven to be nothing if not very picky about his Christmas tree."
"It's his first Christmas without Lila," Georgie reminded Damian. "He probably just wants it to be perfect… or as perfect as it can be without his grandmother." It wasn't entirely true. Dillon had spent more Christmases alone with his mother than he had around anyone, herself or Lila included. But the fact was that since he had arrived in Port Charles to stay she had become a part of his Christmas, a part of his life, and she was gone now.
"I didn't look at it like that," Damian felt the small ping of sorrow in his numb body. He had always thought of it as the first Christmas with Jason and Courtney, not the first one without Lila. It made more sense that way. But he was still cold.
There was a loud whistle sound that caught the four people that were bunched together by surprise, shattering the peaceful serenity that surrounded them in the forest of pine. They looked at each other, nodded their heads, and followed the sound.
"Are you sure this is the one?" Courtney asked, having been the whistler in question. She wasn't sure hear voice could carry, but she knew how to make rather loud whistles that would echo, if anything worked, that would have been it.
"Look at it, Courtney," Dillon said, basking in the glow of the perfect tree. "It's almost a sin to cut the tree down, but I want it! I want it so bad!"
"Well, if we're going to cut the tree down, you're going to need to stop hugging it…"
"Right," Dillon let go of the tree, missing the feel of it on his flesh right away. It was a strange relationship, he knew that, but it was special. The tree was special. When the quartet of people got to their location, he pointed at the tree, "Don't you think she's great?"
"How does Dillon know that the tree is a girl?" Michael was puzzled. Did trees have gender?
"He doesn't…" Damian told his brother.
"So what if the tree is a boy?" Michael knew that he wouldn't want to be called a girl, he was a boy. He'd get very upset if someone called him a girl.
"I don't think the tree minds, Michael. If it does, we'll make Dillon apologize for hurting the tree's feelings." Damian looked at Maxie, who was smiling at him. She had told him many times over how impressed she was by the way that he treated his little brother, especially given the age difference and the short amount of time that they had spent together.
"The tree is great," Georgie walked the few feet away from the bunch and wrapped her arms around her boyfriend. "But you didn't have to call us. I'm sure Damian is happy that you did, since we brought cocoa, but you didn't need us here…"
"You brought Cocoa?" He saw Courtney walking towards Damian and Maxie, reaching out for a cup of something. "I guess you did…"
"Focus, Dillon, focus," Georgie reprimanded the boy. "This is your tree, you need to cut it down."
"Does everyone agree that the tree is the right tree?" Dillon asked.
He got the group nodding in unison, Damian spoke, "I'd take a palm tree right about now if it got us back to the Penthouse, but, yeah, the tree is great. Cut. Now."
Dillon got to work, bringing out the saw that was concealed safely so that nobody, most of all Michael, would get cut by the sharp edges. He paid no attention to anyone else while he severed the bond between the tree and the soil.
Michael, watching the boy, asked a simple question, "Is he always like this?"
"When he has something that he really wants, yeah, he is," Georgie answered. She knew better than anyone else how Dillon was. They stood, waiting for him to finish cutting down the tree before they would go back to the house and begin decorating.