Influenza
Chapter Twenty Five
Disclaimer: The show and the characters do not belong to me.
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She ended up arriving at fifteen minutes before twelve, and even though Kathleen had found her way out of the bathroom, her younger sister had since then taken her place. Elliot gave Olivia a sympathetic look, when he answered the door, "It looks like you could have gone to bed for another hour or so," he told her, "we're still getting ready."
Dickey looked over at her from his spot on the couch and rolled his eyes, "Girls." he said sarcastically. "I don't think they realize that makeup does nothing to help their appearance."
Kathleen, who was sitting on the love seat, threw a pillow at him for his comment, and it hit him square in the head. Elliot warned the two against any more remarks or violence, and the two adults went into the kitchen. "I've already done most of my shopping, you're the only person I have to buy for," she told him. "Problem is, I have no idea what to get you."
He grinned and kissed her briefly, "A spot on the naughty list is fine with me."
Rolling her eyes much as Dickey had done, she hit him against the arm, half serious, half playful. "Think again, bud. Let's find something that I can buy, alright?"
Chuckling to himself, he nodded. "I'll keep my eye out for suggestions. What about you? Anything you can tell me to give me a few hints?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "I haven't really thought about it much. It's been awhile since I've even had to tell somebody what I wanted for the holidays..." she frowned and leaned up against the fridge. "All I can really say is no jewelry, well, at least no rings or no bracelets."
"Dad!" a voice, easily recognized as Elizabeth's called from somewhere outside of the kitchen. "We're all ready to go now!"
Sighing, Elliot kissed Olivia quickly and then the two of them left the kitchen, knowing that, for the rest of the day, that was probably all the alone time they were going to get.
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The mall was packed. After fifteen minutes of driving around and looking for a parking space, Elliot let the kids out of the car, so they could begin looking around. Kathleen promised not to let her brother and sister out of her sight, and to keep her phone on the entire time. She would call her father in an hour, tell him where they were, and then the five would meet up. Which meant, after parking, Elliot would have about forty-five minutes to find their presents and get them back out to the car.
It took them ten more minutes to park, and then they rushed inside the mall, which was even more packed than the parking lot. Pushing through the crowds of people, he found his way to Zales jewelry store, which was full of people, but not as packed as the halls were. "What are we doing here?" Olivia whispered as he lead her to a corner of the store, where the gem stone rings were held.
"Kathleen's present," he said, pointing at an emerald ring. It was gold, square cut, with three stones. The largest in the middle, with two smaller ones on either side. In between the emeralds were a row of three small diamonds. "It's on sale. From 2 something to one hundred."
"Oh," she said, "it's beautiful."
"Yeah, she's wanted her birth-stone ring ever since she turned sixteen last year." A sales woman came over to the two of them and smiled.
"Can I help you?" she questioned, looking at Olivia. Apparently, since she was a woman, she seemed more likely to be the one buying something. Olivia shook her head, and looked over at Elliot.
"I was wondering if I could look at this ring?" he asked, pointing at the one he had shown Olivia. The woman nodded and got it out of the show-case, handing it to him. The price tag read 105.85. "What size is it?" he questioned, looking up at her.
She took the ring back from him, and studied the tag. "It's a seven."
He winced, "I'm not sure what size she wears."
"You can always bring it back and have it sized." Olivia told him, with a shrug. "A warranty would cover it."
The woman nodded, "We have a year warranty for it, that would only be ten extra dollars, which covers sizing, cleaning, stone repairs, among other things."
"Alright," he said. "I'll take it then, with the warranty."
Five minutes later, they left the store, headed for some game place, and Dickey's "Santa" present. Of course, none of Elliot's kids still believed in Santa Claus, but in their household, the big, expensive gifts, were "Santa" gifts. This year, Dickey's "santa" gift was the most expensive. But then again, he wouldn't be getting the gift certificates to clothing stores, like his sisters.
"So, how are you and Kathy managing all of this?" Olivia questioned, as he payed for the X-box, along with two games to go with it. "I mean, this is a lot of money, for just you to be spending."
"I'll show her the receipts, and she'll pay me half," he informed her. "But that's just for the big things. We decided that we'll get the kids separate smaller gifts, as well. Like, I'm doing the certificate things for the girls, and a few games for Dickey, and she's getting some Bath & Body Works gift sets for the girls, and some more games for Dickey. Their grandparents will end up sending money."
"Oh," she replied. "Where are we headed now?"
"The Dell store."
"What for?"
"Maureen wants a new printer for her laptop, along with some computer gadget things for it. I don't know, she wrote the stuff down." he pulled out a piece of paper, and showed it to her. "It's all Greek to me."
"What does Elizabeth want?"
"A new stereo. You know, one of those five-disk things. I don't understand them, myself. I guess they require less effort, so you don't have to get up when you want to listen to a new CD."
"None of them want Ipods?"
"Kathleen informed me that, when her birthday rolls around, that's what she wants. She'll be the big 1-3, you know? Dickey said he wouldn't mind on, himself. Kathleen wants a laptop for her 17th, in May."
She sighed, sliding her hand into his, as the pushed their way through the crowds. Having already fought off the urge to hold up her badge and tell people to get the hell out of her way, she simply leaned up against his shoulder as they went searching for the computer store.
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Half an hour later, after dropping the kids things off in the trunk on the car, they headed back into the store, Elliot pulling out his cell phone and calling Kathleen. "Where are you at, hon?" he questioned, not even bothering to fight through the crowds at that moment. "Oh, okay. We'll be there in a few minutes." He turned to Olivia, "They're in Hollister. I'm going to need you to distract them for a little, so I can get their gift cards from there, and then across the hall in American Eagle. Okay?"
"Sure. I can do that."
So the two set off for the store. The outside was amazing, better than any other mall store she had ever seen. It was done up like a beach hut, fully equipt with a deck, beach chairs, and a straw covered top. Inside, the store was just as impressive, even if the clothes were too expensive. She would certainly never pay seventy dollars for a pair of torn up jeans, much less forty for a mini skirt. Deciding that she would never understand the minds of teenager girls, she began looking around the store for the girls.
She found them in the back part of the store, looking through the sales. "I like this one, Lizzie," Kathleen said, holding up a sweater. "It's on sale for twenty."
Elizabeth held up a sweater that was almost the same, although it was grey, where Kathleen's was dark blue, and the neckline was a square, where Kathleen's was a V. "And I like this one, it's on sale for 20, too."
"Good," Kathleen said, taking the shirt from Elizabeth and handing the girl hers. "I'm finished with you and Dickey now."
"I'm done with you and Maureen."
"Hi, girls." she said. "Your dad told me to find you, he's still getting some things." In fact, he was across the way, getting their gift cards from American Eagle, while she got them out of Hollister. "You done here?"
"Yeah, we just have to pay."
Luckily, there were three registers, and the lines went fast. They were out in less than ten minutes, and Elliot was still no where to be seen. "So, where do you guys need to go to now?"
Dickey shrugged, "I'm finished. I did most of my shopping in October."
Kathleen sighed, "Well, I still have to get Maureen her skirt from Express. We could go there."
"Okay." she said, and the four of them headed off in the other direction.
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An hour later, Kathleen had bought the skirt, which turned out to be knee length, and light blue, and Elizabeth had bought Dickey a sweater he liked from some boys clothing store. Then they had gone to Sears where they bought their dad some things. Dickey was in charge of pajamas, Elizabeth got the shirts, and Kathleen bought him a jacket she said he had wanted.
"What kind of thing would your father want?" she asked, as they headed down the mall, to a store where they would buy their mother her gifts.
"I don't know," Kathleen said, "he's hard to shop for. We always end up getting him clothes, or tools. But there's not much he can do in an apartment, so it's just clothes this year."
She sighed, as they walked into the clothing store, having not caught the name of it before entering. While the girls and Dickey looked around, she did the same, wondering how Elliot's shopping was going. Among the children's gifts, he still had to buy things for Munch, Fin, Alex, and Cragen. As she looked around, a dress caught her eye. It was simple, black, and looked as if it might go slightly past her knees. The hem was jagged, and she briefly wondered what it would look like if the owner of it twirled around. The neck was haltered and other than that, it was plain, but gorgeous.
"You ready to go?" a voice said, from behind her. Olivia turned around to see Kathleen, bags in hand, smiling.
"Yeah," she replied. "That was quick."
They headed out of the store, "We knew what we were looking for."
"Oh."
"Hey, Olivia," Elizabeth asked, "what kind of things do you like? You know, as a gift?"
"Oh, you guys don't have to get me anything."
"You got us something," Dickey said. "Didn't you?"
"Yeah, but you're kids," she replied. "That's what Christmas presents are for. Kids."
"And for the girlfriend's of kids father's."
Olivia smiled, "Anything you got me would be great." Clearly, that wasn't the answer they had been looking for. "Well," she sighed, "I do kind of need a new coffee pot..."
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When they met back up with Elliot, there were no bags in his hands. "I brought it all out to the car."
"What are we supposed to do with our bags?" Kathleen questioned, knowing her father wouldn't let them put their things in the trunk, if it already held their presents.
"Keep them in the back with you," he said with a shrug. "It'll all fit."
The look on their faces was clear, they didn't like the idea of being squished in the back with more than ten bags of clothes and gifts between the three. But, then again, there wasn't really another option.
"What's for dinner?" Dickey asked. They had made good time with shopping, but it had still taken over three hours, and he was hungry. "There's an Olive Garden down the road. We could go there. Or, I think there's a Chinese place close by, too."
Elliot sighed, "How about we drop everything off at home, then go out for dinner. Okay?"
The three children nodded, that sounded like a good idea to them.
"Oh, and don't think you're gonna be able to find out what you guys got for Christmas. I'm bringing the gifts to Olivia's house."
They groaned. That was totally unfair. The whole fun of Christmas was taking a sneak peak at your gifts.
"Come on dad," Elizabeth whined, "we won't look. We promise."
Elliot looked behind him, shooting the kids an incredulous look, "Why don't I believe that?" He pretended to think a moment, "Oh, I know. You said the same thing last year, and Christmas morning, we woke up to find all the gifts rearranged... That's a strange coincidence, don't you thin so, Olivia?"
She grinned, then shook her head. "I'm not gonna get involved in this..."
He shrugged, "Doesn't matter anyway. I'm either leaving them with you or Don."
The kids sighed, knowing they had been defeated. Elizabeth folded her arms across her chest, "Fine. Then I'm leaving your gift with grandma."
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A/N: Alrighty, you know what to do. Push that review button and type me in a sweet little message!