Disclaimer: I own nothing
A/N: I don't know what fool thought I could write a "ficlet". I'm a moron if I really thought my Christmas story was going to be a ficlet. So to those wondering, this is a multi chapter story (hence the M rating and the previous promise of smut). With that being said, onward with more of the crazy B-C clan. And reviews give me the will to live. ;)
The drive to the resort in Vermont was peaceful, thankfully. In one car was the Benson-Cabots which of course included Melanie. The other car contained Alexander, Catherine, Theo and a very brave Georgia. Though Alexander and Catherine were nothing but kind to Georgia, they had not quite accepted her yet. They found it odd that Theo would use a family holiday vacation to introduce this woman they'd never heard of before, but if watching Alex grow in her love for Olivia and watching them build the family they built had taught the elder Cabots anything, it was to not judge too harshly nor too quickly. Olivia and Alex were just thankful that all the kids had instantly fallen asleep to Minions—which included Melanie—so they had a quiet drive to Vermont following the car in front of them. Alex and Olivia spent the time during the drive to discuss Georgia and how strange it was that she was there though she did seem like a nice girl in their very brief and embarrassing introduction. Truth be told, both women were as happy as they've ever been, they had each other and Thomas and Lauren. They had the absolute and pure acceptance from Alex's parents and they had even watched two adults who spent their entire lives being "proper" turn into adults who put on puppet shows and did silly dances; anything to make their grandchildren laugh. They were happy that Theo seemed happy. He was the least of their fears when it came to Alex coming out, his stance on the LGBTQ+ community was that there wasn't enough support, and that included Alex and her wife and his niece and nephew. Theo feared the day that someone would say something about Lauren or Thomas' moms because he knew Liv and Alex could handle it but he'd be there leading the charge if they let him. IF.
Both cars drove into the driveway of the Cabot vacation home—one of many depending on the desired temperature—at the same time in the late afternoon. Alex and Olivia debated letting Thomas and Lauren sleep but if they didn't wake up and run off some energy they'd wake up at 2 am and want to play so they woke up Melanie and made her babysitter while they unpacked. It would seem cruel given her last babysitting job but, though she wouldn't admit it anyone, she was so in love with her Godchildren that she'd easily take a bullet for them. She would complain about it though because she loved the eye rolls she received. So while the family brought in piece of luggage after piece of luggage and set them in specific rooms, Melanie was outside with the kids making snow angels and attempting to make snow men. Luckily there had been a good snow storm a few days before they arrived so where the snow hadn't been plowed there was about a foot of snow for them to use. Despite having a foot of soft and fluffy snow, the snow men were terrible. The snow angels were exactly what one would expect with a 2 and 3 year old making them.
Things were going well until out of the corner of her eye Alex noticed Melanie had enlisted the kids to help make a wall of snow. She knew Melanie was up to something but wasn't entirely sure what. A few minutes later she could see Melanie and the kids in a huddle of sorts whispering conspiratorially. She rolled her eyes and brought another bag into the house. As she exited the house Thomas and Lauren ran up to her, their arms full of snow with a determination in their little eyes. She knelt down and let them attempt to throw all the snow they were carrying at her but given their ages they mostly just dropped in her direction as they ran into her thinking they got their mom. They hugged her and giggled as she pretend she had been hit with the biggest snowball known to man. She was right in the middle of her dramatic show for the kids when she felt it. Melanie had snuck up behind her with two very large snowballs and had pulled her neckline and shoved the snowballs down the back of her shirt. The moment Alex realized what had happened she let got of the kids and went to stand up and that's when Melanie smacked her on the back right where the snowballs were. Instead of two snowballs she could have let fall down once she untucked her shirt she now had a full back of smushed snowballs.
"MELANIE!" Alex shrieked as she spun around to face a very happy grinning and laughing Melanie. "I'm gonna... It's so cold! You used the KIDS?! YOU ARE DEAD MEAT!" Alex continued screaming as she danced around trying to get all the snow out of the back of her shirt. Melanie was laughing so hard she fell to her knees.
Olivia, heard the screaming from inside the house but being unable to make out the words had come running out the front door to take in the scene in front of her. Alex was jumping up and down trying to shake out the back of her shirt while making threats at Melanie while her children were giggling at Alex's feet. Melanie had given up trying to even kneel; she was laughing so hard. She was now laying on the ground holding her stomach and laughing. Once taking a moment to realize what was going on Olivia grabbed a huge armful of snow and snuck up on Melanie who was laughing so hard she didn't see it coming when Olivia came up to stand next to her head.
"Ahem, Melanie?" Olivia spoke as she stood over Melanie with her armful of snow. She waited until Melanie opened her eyes and looked up at Olivia. The two women made eye contact and as they did Melanie realized she was about to get payback from Alex's wife. Olivia smiled wide and then opened her arms dropping the load of snow directly on Melanie's head. It was a good thing most of Melanie's words were muffled by her arms—which she had thrown in front of her face just as the snow hit—and the snow itself because it was a certainty that her words were not meant for small ears. She flailed around until she could get herself upright on her feet. Once on her feet she glared at Olivia.
"You are gonna pay for that Olivia," she warned just before quickly kneeling down and grabbing two handfuls of snow.
"You started it, no one uses my kids to get my wife without getting payback. If you can't handle the consequences..." Olivia smirked and shrugged.
"We'll see how you feel about consequences in just a second," Melanie said as she stalked towards Olivia.
"Oh please, you've got two small snowballs at best," Olivia returned as she backed up, just in case.
Melanie continued stalking towards Olivia with a plan in mind. When Olivia was right where she wanted her, Melanie threw both handfuls of snow directly at Olivia's face with the knowledge that Olivia would protect her face. As soon as Olivia raised arms to cover her face Melanie made her move. Rushing at Olivia full speed Melanie reached her and pushed her shoulders forcing Olivia to try to take a step backwards to keep her balance. What Olivia didn't realize was that she had backed herself right up to the edge of the driveway where there was a small snowdrift from when the driveway was plowed. She tripped on the snowdrift and fell backwards into the yard and disappeared into the foot of snow.
"Consequences," Melanie smirked as she walked away from Olivia laughing.
The children who had been watching their mommy and Aunt Melanie play decided they wanted to play in the snow with Mommy too and they ran to Olivia and climbed over the snowdrift and jumped into the snow and then collapsed on top of their mommy who had yet to get up from where she landed. Suddenly it was dog pile on top of Olivia while she could hear Melanie laughing even harder.
"Alex! Help! Get her! Get me! Get the kids! Help!" Olivia shouted from underneath her children as they squirmed on top of their mommy. Alex ran over to Olivia to help but as she was making her way Olivia shouted, "She can't get away!".
Alex stopped running, "Well make up your mind!"
"I'll avenge you Olivia!" Theo yelled with the confidence of a man showing off for his girlfriend. "No one attacks my sister AND her wife and gets away with it!" He began making snowballs behind a car. Once he had a few large snowballs he collected them and peered out to look for Melanie.
"Come get me LITTLE BRO!" Melanie shouted, emphasis on the "little bro", from behind the senior Cabots' car just as Alexander and Catherine stepped outside to investigate all the noise from their very mature, very adult children.
"Theodore Michael Cabot! If you get one single scratch on our car," threatened Catherine. Before she could finish her threat a very small snowball landed at her feet. She looked at the direction it came from and a very proud of herself Lauren stood there smiling and giggling. Catherine marched over to Lauren but not before making a small, loosely-packed snowball. "You're gonna get it little one," she said as she walked over to where Lauren was holding onto her mommy, her protector.
Meanwhile Theo was still on a mission to defend his sister and sister-in-law but given the threat from his mother he decided to enlist his girlfriend Georgia and sent her to sneak around and hopefully behind Melanie with her own ammunition. Melanie was too busy watching for Theo to see Georgia slowing making her way over.
Georgia was so close to getting Melanie when she heard, "Now young lady, I don't know you all that well and I would never throw a snowball at a young lady, however, you are getting quite close to my car and I'd hate for it to get hit." Alexander said bringing Melanie's attention to Georgia. "I can't speak for Melanie though and I doubt she has the same reservations and maturity as I have so good luck because I can't help you. I have a son to pelt," he finished as he grabbed the snowballs he had made as soon as he walked out and saw what was happening in the front yard. Armed with his snowballs Alexander walked confidently towards the other vehicle where Theo was hiding.
What happened next was complete chaos. Olivia was still laying in the snow being tickled and tickling back, by Thomas while Lauren ran around her as she ran away from her grandmother who was "chasing" her around Olivia with her small snowball. Theo had run from the car thinking he could outrun his father but he had forgotten that Alexander Cabot had been a pretty good baseball player back in his day. He still had a pretty good arm and was using it to hit Theo as he ran away which made Theo decide to attack instead of retreat. Melanie was gently lobbing snowballs at Georgia not wanting to actually hit her hard. Georgia, to her credit was not showing the same mercy and once Melanie came out from the car's cover, started throwing her snowballs at Melanie no where near as soft as the ones Melanie was throwing. Alex, unsure who to help or if she even wanted to jump into this all out war, simply went inside to grab a bottle of wine and some chaos-safe wine cups. She opened the wine, poured herself a drink, grabbed the bottle and the extra cups and went back outside to sit on one of the porch chairs and watched her crazy family. She didn't have much time to watch them though as Theo, ever the younger brother, realized she wasn't in the battle.
"Wait. Wait! Everyone wait!" he shouted. Everyone stopped, most of them were now covered in snow. "Anyone notice Alex? Completely dry Alex who seems to have gotten away without a single snowball hitting her?" Everyone turned their eyes to the porch where Alex had suddenly stopped moving—her cup of wine just touching her lips—freezing the moment her entire family stared at her.
"No. What? No. I'm the reason this started remember? And I'm not completely dry. NO." Alex attempted to stare everyone down afraid of what they were all thinking. "Don't even dare. Melanie..." Alex used her warning voice. "Theo don't even think about it." Theo just ignored her and started slowly walking up to where Alex was on the porch. "I have wine, I'll spill it!" Alex was watching the family all walking towards the porch. "I have a bunch of cups!" She said, hoping that was dissuade them.
"Good thing you brought the outside, unbreakable cups," Theo answered.
"You'll make me spill and waste all the wine," Alex said, her voice sounded a little like she was pleading.
"There's a lot more where that came from," answered Theo.
"Olivia?" Alex was getting desperate, she had a bad feeling she was about to get up close and personal with a lot of snow. "Daddy?"
"I'm sorry sweetheart I'm not sure I can help you now," Alexander answered with a smirk.
"Well you could at least put YOUR snowball down." Alex pointed out.
"Sorry sweetie, I think it's already locked onto its target; can't change it's course now."
"You guys are all going to get it." Alex looked around for anything she could use to help her cause. "Thomas! Lauren! Come here!" And before anyone could grab the kids to stop them, they sprinted onto the porch to be with their mama. Alex grabbed them and hugged them to her. "You guys wouldn't would hit my beautiful wonderful babies would you?" She said as she turned them around to face their family.
"Shit, that's LOW Al!" Melanie groused knowing full well that Alex had won this battle. No one would peg her while she was standing behind the kids. It seemed that everyone came to the same conclusion because they all dropped their snowballs. All of them but Melanie who took the opportunity to throw hers at Theo now that he was out from behind the car. It hit Theo in the back of his head. He spun around and glared at Melanie. "Oh man that's too bad Theo, the snowball fight is over because... you know, we all just gave up. Sorry man, that last one must have slipped when I was dropping it to the ground."
Theo continued to stare death rays at Melanie while Georgia walked over to help him get the snow that was settled in the back of his collar. "This isn't over SIS" he seethed.
Once most of the snow was gone from his shirt he and Georgia joined his family on the porch where he grabbed two cups of wine from Alex. Alexander cleared his throat and everyone stopped and looked at him, waiting as he lifted his glass for a toast.
"Now that that's done with I'd like to say a few words to start off our family vacation," he started. "I consider myself to be very lucky when it comes to family. It used to be just Alex and Theo and that was exactly enough, or so I thought. Then one year Alex brought this wild and loud classmate home who had no where else to go for the holiday break. Catherine and I had no idea that wild and loud classmate would become a Cabot by proxy but she did and we are so happy for that. And then Alex met Olivia at work the next thing you know, we have another addition to the Cabot family. And when Lauren was born Catherine and I wondered how life could get any better. But we didn't have to wait long to find out how much better it could be because Thomas was right behind his big sister. Our small 4 person family grew in such a wonderful way, we consider ourselves the luckiest people to exist. And now our son Theo has brought a beautiful woman home with him and we can't wait to get to know more about you Georgia. Welcome to our home," Alexander said giving Georgia a warm smile. "Welcome all of you to our Cabot home and we can't wait to start making our Christmas memories for this year. So I'll stop talking so we can actually start this vacation. Cheers!" A chorus of "cheers" followed Alexander's words as everyone touched their glasses with everyone else and tapped their glasses against the wood banister of the porch before taking a sip of their wine.
"Okay," interjected Catherine, "everyone who is dry or is under four feet tall, may enter through the front door, the rest of you soaking wet heathens can go around back and go through the mud room and use the bathroom back there. I'll bring down some towels and robes so you can go to your rooms and change for dinner, which will be pizza because I refuse to cook after that drive. And if you don't have all your luggage out of the car yet, I suggest you get that as well." And with that, Catherine brought the children in the front door with Alex and Alexander following. Georgia, still feeling a little awkward went with Theo to enter via the mud room.
Melanie looked at Olivia, "Honestly, she could run the world and everything would be in tip top shape."
"So could Alex, it definitely runs in the family," laughed Olivia. The two made sure all the luggage was out of the cars and then trudged through the snow to the mud room.
A/N Sexy times ahead!
