It was Christmas Eve and in it's true glory, it was a cold winter's night in Norfolk. Little Frankie was tucked in his bed fast asleep dreaming of Santa and his reindeers. Kara after putting her son to bed, had spent the evening cleaning and placing presents under the tree before she retired. She had been tossing and turning all night, she missed Danny. He was stationed on the Nathan James sailing in parts unknown. She had vainly hoped he and the crew would be home for Christmas but no such luck. Even if they made it back, they'd never be able to make port as the blizzard dumping snow on them would've impeded the ship from docking.
Kara gave an impatient huff as she rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. She needed to sleep but it would not come to her.
A thud sound came from downstairs, Kara sat up in bed as she heard the noise from downstairs sound again. She wondered if Frankie had decided to start Christmas early. She got out of bed and pulled on a navy sweatshirt and headed out of her and Danny's room. She stopped at Frankie's room and frowned as he was still in bed.
She heard more rummaging and whispering, a chill of fear ran down her spine. They were being robbed. We're being robbed on Christmas? She thought, her fear turned swiftly to anger as it was bad enough Danny wasn't home but now a bunch of creeps were going to rob her?
Oh, hell no. She thought. She quietly crept down the staircase until the last step, she quietly pulled the baseball bat from the umbrella bucket. Danny was not the greatest at packing away his sports gear but tonight it worked in her favour.
She swung her head into the room and saw two figures near the tree. It looked like they were taking the presents. She rushed into the room and hit the closest in back, he crooned as he went down in agony. Kara swung the bat but the intruder grabbed the bat. She kicked him in the groin.
"Kara." a familiar voice groaned in the dark, Kara froze.
"Danny?!" Kara hissed incredulously.
"Oh, my balls!" Danny groaned.
"What about my back?!" Burk grouched.
"Burk?" Kara said, she rushed to the wall and switched on the lights to find both men sprawled on the floor. Burk was sprawled out like a starfish while Danny was curled up clutching his nuts. The vindictive side of Kara felt he deserved the pain for freaking her out.
"Merry Christmas." Burk said.
"What the fork are you two doing creeping around in the dark in the middle of the night?! I thought I was being robbed." Kara told them, they all kept their voices low so as not to wake Frankie.
"I told him it was a bad idea." Burk said, he laid the blame directly on Danny.
"I'm feeling punished for it." Danny said, he had tears running down his face as he groaned again.
"So, what? you thought you'd slip into the house under the cover of darkness pretending to be Santa was a good idea?" Kara asked incredulously.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time." Danny said as he tried to get off the floor but only managed to sit upright.
"You should be happy to see us. We're home for Christmas." Burk told her as he wasn't moving an inch until the pain subsided.
"You could've sent a text or called like a normal person." Kara retorted as she was shaking off the fear and adrenaline. She was happy to see them but their combined stupidity had pissed her off.
"In hindsight, we should've done that." Burk said.
"DADDY!" Frankie shouted as he ran into the room and jumped on Danny.
"Oh, ow." Danny groaned as his kid accidently kneed him in the junk when he landed on him. "Hi Frankie." he said, he hugged him close. He looked at Kara who's anger seemed to fade into vindictive joy. He deserved it.
"You're home for Christmas!" Frankie said happily.
"I am." Danny said, he smiled at his son. But he couldn't hide all the pain he was feeling in his very bruised nether regions.
"Are you hurt? I can kiss it better!" Frankie offered, Danny shook his head while Kara snorted a laugh.
"No, it's ok. Just the joy of seeing you makes me feel 1000% better." He told his son, he pointed at Burk, "And Uncle Burk is here too." he added. Frankie ran to Burk and jumped onto the man with no thought of being careful.
"Omph, hey kiddo." Burk groaned as Frankie hugged him hard. "Oh look Halsey!" he said, he pointed at the dog. Frankie crawled over him and hugged Halsey who didn't mind the attention but then the dog hadn't met the business end of a baseball bat.
"This is the best Christmas ever!" Frankie declared happily.
"It's definitely going to be one of the most memorable ones." Kara said smugly as she swung the bat in a casual manner.