Gift Ideas

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Danny Green brainstorms what to buy his wife for Christmas with a little help from Carlton Burk. Future AU. Written for the 2021 TLS Holiday Fest. Installment 5 of the Holiday Card Series.

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Carlton shook his head at Danny. "How can you be married to the woman for twenty-nine years and not know what to get her for Christmas?"

"That's the problem," Danny groused, ignoring Carlton's amusement as they strolled through the home goods store where Carlton had just picked up a set of high-end knives for Ravit. Not, like in past years, a nice Swiss army knife or a good fixed blade. No, since her retirement five years prior, Ravit had discovered a love for gourmet cooking. Danny couldn't deny that she was damn good at it too, even if he found the transition from mean operator to gourmet chef puzzling. Kara merely laughed when he mentioned how weird the change was, claiming that cutting up a man and slicing a good cut of beef weren't that different. Danny had been forced to concede the point.

Danny glanced around the store at the fancy glasses, the high-end bedding, and stainless steel cookware. "Can you imagine if I bought Kara any of this stuff?"

"You'd be a dead man," Carlton replied without blinking. Kara had never been what either man would term domestic.

"Besides, the boys would destroy it within hours," Danny added. He lit up. "Maybe I can get her a new espresso machine."

"You did that last year," Carlton pointed out.

"Yeah, but Steve broke it trying to use the tubing to make rotgut," Danny began, before sighing. "I forgot that Mark sent some new fancy one from Germany. It's sitting in the garage in the box."

They stepped out of the store, and Danny glanced around at the other options. There was the coffee shop where he and Kara went on Saturdays after their run, but they had no need for another mug. Next to that was the store selling high-end athletic gear that Kara mocked endlessly, her idea of gym gear usually one of Danny's old shirts and a pair of cut-off sweatpants.

Carlton nodded towards the store in the corner, the one with the discretely darkened windows, wiggling his eyebrows. "No kids at home anymore. You could finally have that honeymoon."

Danny considered that option. Things had been a little more interesting since their youngest left for college in September — if by interesting you meant that they once had sex on the couch rather than in their bedroom. Oh, and they only locked the door about half the time, out of habit. Kara could wander around the house without her bra for the first time in about fifteen years, since Frankie's friends hit puberty and realized that his mother was hot. Danny imagined Kara's face if he gave her a bunch of lacy panties and tiny negligees. Yup, those would end up in the closet next to the box of toys hidden in a box labeled "hemorrhoid cream" after the time that Mark found their stash, covering himself in K-Y jelly and wandering into the living room holding a fine selection of flavored condoms just as Mrs. Abbot arrived at the baby shower that Kara was hosting for Courtney and Eric.

Kara was mortified. Kat, on the other hand, found the entire situation hysterical, describing it to the guys with great relish. Kat claimed that living with the Greens was the best birth control possible, although they hadn't turned her off parenthood completely thankfully. Kat and Ray were now the proud parents of their own two terrors. Danny sighed. "Let's get a beer."

Two hours and three beers later, he was no closer to thinking of a gift for Kara. Carlton waved his fries drenched in barbeque sauce at Danny. "Kara has to have a hobby."

"Well, sure," Danny agreed. "She goes to the gym every day."

Carlton gave him a disapproving glance. "That's not a hobby, Green. What does she do for fun?"

Danny opened his mouth, only to stop. The truth was that Kara didn't have hobbies. Years spent raising a family while working full time sucked up every spare moment, juggling deployments and travel soccer and feeding everyone what felt like ten times a day. Frankly, when Anna, their youngest child, left for college that September, both he and Kara found themselves at loose ends. Danny filled the time with long overdue home improvement projects and teaching Miller's youngest how to whittle, something none of his own kids showed any interest in. Kara spent the first month catching up on her reading but since then the thing that she seemed to look forward to the most was chatting with the kids when they called.

Inspiration struck and Danny sat straight up, cursing himself for being such an idiot. "I have the perfect idea."

"Want to share?" Carlton asked, looking wary. Danny couldn't blame him. After spending hours shooting down every idea that Carlton had, the other man had the right to be suspicious. But this was perfect. Unfortunately, it was going to require a lot of help.

"First, I need to call Sasha."

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Kara shot Danny an annoyed glance as she clicked her seatbelt into place. "I don't know why we're bothering to do this."

"It's tradition," he protested. "Sasha always takes the picture for our holiday card."

Like Ravit and cooking, following her retirement and a round-the-world cruise with Tom, Sasha found her own passion in photography. Her work as a sniper apparently translated into a good eye for photography.

Kara sighed. "I was thinking about doing a regular card this year rather than a picture card. Or maybe we could use one of the shots from Anna's graduation or our trip to see Frankie."

"Look," Danny replied, "if you don't want to use the pictures, that's fine. But I told Sasha that we would be there and it's rude to just not show."

"I suppose," Kara muttered, eyes on the road. Danny lifted his phone as discreetly as he could, texting. ETA 5. He dropped his phone back to his side, only to realize that Kara was gazing at him, exasperated. "You know that's illegal."

Danny grinned at her. "When have we ever followed the rules?"

Five minutes later, Danny parked the truck, walking around to open Kara's door. As she stepped to the ground, Kara started towards Sasha, who was standing next to a patch of trees at the side of the pavilion. "Well, let's get this over with..."

"SURPRISE!"

With a shout, Mark and Stevie popped out from behind the park pavilion, followed at a more sedate pace by Frankie, his arm looped around Anna's shoulders. Kat and Ray appeared from the woods, each holding a child by hand. Kara stood frozen, her eyes darting from one person to another, before more swiftly forward to pull each one in for a tight hug.

She stopped at Mark, eyes narrowing. "Aren't you supposed to be doing exercises in the South Pacific? You didn't get kicked out, did you?"

Mark grinned at his mother cockily, his face a reflection of Danny's own face at twenty-two. "Ah, Mom, you know how it is. One call from a retired Admiral and my leave was approved."

Kara shook her head, before turning back to Danny. "Did you really ask Mike to waste thousands of dollars returning our son to the States just so that I could get a family picture with everyone here?"

Danny considered the question. When you put it like that. "Actually Chandler made the call. Sasha said he was happy to help."

Sasha, who had been snapping pictures of the reunion, lowered her camera, eyes narrowing. "Don't drag me into this, Green. Whatever you said to Tom to get him to make the call is between the two of you."

Ignoring their antics, Kara walked towards Danny, tears in her eyes, and wrapped her arms around his waist. Danny lifted a hand to brush a strand of hair away from her face. "Merry Christmas, sweetheart. I hope that you like your gift."

Kara leaned up to give him a gentle kiss, both of them ignoring the fake gagging in the background. "Best present ever."