Christmas Viewing

"Where," Casey asked in a subtly accusing tone as Kelly returned to the common room with a handful of Red Vines, "did those come from?"

"Shh," the Squad lieutenant replied, "What 3rd Watch doesn't know won't hurt us."

Casey quietly laughed as Kelly flopped down beside him on the couch and handed him half of the licorice. It was after midnight and everybody else was asleep, no calls had come in since dinner, and everybody hoped it stayed that way until 8 AM tomorrow morning. The two lieutenants couldn't sleep thought and decided to pass the time watching TV. They turned back to the Christmas program on TV, the light from the screen the only illumination in the dark room, and watched for a few minutes before Kelly suddenly said, "You know, this cartoon never made any sense to me."

"Why not?" Casey asked.

"Half of the toys shouldn't have even been on that island," Kelly said, "what's wrong with a spotted elephant? They sell elephants in every color imaginable."

"Today, sure, but not back then," Casey replied.

"And who cares if the jack-in-the-box has a different name?"

Casey made an indecisive sound as he shrugged his shoulders and chewed on one of the Red Vines.

"And the doll, they never even said what was wrong with her, why was she there?"

"Fair point."

"And really, today half of these toys would be big sellers...what kid wouldn't want a gun that shoots jelly?"

Casey laughed so hard he about choked, "That's a good point."

"A cowboy riding an ostrich? That's like those Halloween costumes they make now."

"True."

"Another thing I never got," Kelly said, "Why everybody was such a dick to Rudolph."

Casey shrugged, "I guess as a kid it didn't occur to me to think it was strange...think about it, when you're a kid, most adults do act like dicks...fathers included."

Kelly got silent for a minute as he took that in, and replied, "Good point."

"I don't know, I guess it just seemed more 'normal' to me," Casey said.

Kelly looked at him and kept his thoughts to himself about how sad that was. He reached for the remote and asked, "You want to watch something else?"

"Nah, I'm starting the get the idea it's better not to get you going on any of the other Christmas shows. I can just imagine what you'd have to say about 'Frosty the Snowman'."

"Well it was insane," Kelly took that as an invitation to jump right in with his opinion, "Santa drops the girl on the roof, there's no chimney, no ladder, how's she gonna get down?"

Casey lowly chuckled and rolled his eyes as he said, "Did it ever occur to you you're way overthinking these cartoons?"

"Well they gave every other house a chimney in the scene, why not that one too?" Kelly asked, "Then you could at least assume she slides down the chimney like Santa does, but they didn't even give us that."

Casey reached behind him, picked up one of the throw pillows and tried to shove it into Kelly's face to shut him up as he rambled on. After several seconds he pulled the pillow back just enough to hear that Kelly was still ranting, so he pressed it back into the Squad lieutenant's face as hard as he could with one hand to shut him up, all the while silently laughing until his whole body was wracking from it.