Ilna's notes: Huge thank you to Mari for the idea and for helping write scenes for this story. I really appreciate it! Thank you to Sammy for the feedback and offers to help as well!
Readers and REAL McRollers - Thank you for your amazing support. It is always appreciated!
Hope you enjoy!
Snow Day (A McRoll in the REAL World Story by Mari and Ilna)
"So the munchkin is hangin' with Grandma and Grandpa tonight?" John asked as they were seated at the restaurant.
"Don't forget Grandma Ang," Carrie added, grabbing the drink special menu from the center of the table.
John smiled. "Who could ever forget Grandma Ang?"
"Not Angie, that's for sure," Steve said. He smiled at just the thought of his daughter and one of her namesakes together. "They're at our place with Cammie and Smokey so everyone's happy."
"Especially Angie since I'm pretty sure Mom brought extra cookies in her purse," Catherine said.
Carrie chuckled. "She does have a sweet tooth."
"No denying that," Catherine agreed, picking up her menu.
They spent the next couple minutes looking over the meal and drink options and then placed their order with the server.
"Hey, I saw on Twitter the Academy had a snow day Monday," John said after their drinks were dropped off.
Steve raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah?"
John grinned. "Tell me that doesn't bring back memories."
Carrie rolled her eyes. "Oh jeez, are we about to relive–"
"The most epic snowball fight in history?" her husband cut in. "Yes, we are."
Naval Academy 1998
"Rollins! Stagler! Let's go!" a voice called as a blur of a midshipmen ran past their door.
Carrie jumped down from her bunk and stuck her head out into the hall. "What's going on?"
"Snowball fight in T-Court!" Freddie said, slowing just enough to call back over his shoulder. "Now!"
Steve and John paused outside their door. "You two in?" Steve asked.
"Hell yes," Carrie said without hesitation. She looked back at her roommate who was already grabbing extra layers from a drawer. "Cath?"
"Of course," Catherine replied just as quickly, her eyes bright at the prospect. She tossed Carrie a pair of sweatpants.
It took the girls under a minute to get their winter gear on and they joined Steve and John along with other midshipmen running to get outside.
There was over a foot of snow on the ground with more falling as the four burst through the doors of Bancroft Hall. The melee was already in full swing and groups of midshipmen were roaring joyfully as they pelted each other with snowballs.
"McGarrett!" a familiar voice yelled a split second before he was tackled into a snow drift by Freddie.
"What the hell, man?!" Steve cried, laughing as he pushed his roommate off of him.
Freddie laughed, ducking his head as snowballs flew in their direction. "Just getting in the spirit of things!"
"Come on, you idiots, you're making yourselves easy targets," Carrie said as she, Catherine, and John were busy throwing snowballs to protect their friends.
"We need the high ground," Catherine said, ducking then throwing a well-aimed snowball to her left.
"You're right," John agreed helping to pull Steve and Freddie out of the drift.
Catherine looked around the court, then pointed. "Cannon statues."
"Yes!" Carrie said. "C'mon, let's go. Before someone else gets the same idea." They ran for the cannons, dodging snowballs and throwing more as they went. "Boost me!" Carrie yelled, reaching the nearest plinth. "I'm the shortest, I'll go up first and then Catherine. We can duck behind the cannon."
John linked his hands as a foothold. "Okay, babe, go!"
Carrie put one boot in her boyfriend's gloved hands as Freddie helped her up. Dodging the barrage of snowballs, she grabbed Catherine's arm as Steve boosted her. Seconds later the two women were pelting the opposition with snowballs passed up by John as Steve and Freddie did the same from below.
Carrie grinned over at Catherine. "Look at that, my grandma always said I should find a guy who would put me on a pedestal."
"To this day I don't know if there were any actual winners or losers in that snowball fight," John said, laughing at the memories.
"What are you talking about?" Steve said, grinning. "Of course we won."
"For once, I agree with McGarrett," Carrie said. "We totally won. Thanks to my brilliant roomie's suggestion."
Catherine smiled. "Got the higher ground."
"That was something else," John said. He gave an exaggerated shiver. "I can still feel it. Cold and wet and totally soaked through."
"Yep, frozen," Carrie agreed.
"What are you guys complaining about?" Steve teased. "I'm the one who got tackled into the snow as soon as I stepped outside."
"Hey, I wasn't complaining," John said with a broad smile. "That was one of my favorite days at the Academy."
Catherine smiled. "Well, luckily we'd all thawed out by the next day when it finally stopped snowing so we could go into town and help people dig out."
"Yeah, I'm glad we volunteered to do that," Carrie said. "That was almost as much fun as the snowball fight."
"Agreed," Steve said.
Catherine nudged him. "You just liked racing to see who could brush off the cars or shovel a driveway fastest."
"And?" he quipped, grinning at her.
Carrie looked at her own husband. "And you just liked all the free hot cocoa."
"Guilty as charged," John said. "It's not quite the same drinking hot cocoa when it's 80 degrees out."
"You have a point," Carrie conceded. "Hey, remember the lady who loved Steve?"
"Which one?" John said with grin.
Carrie snorted. "Isn't that the truth," she replied as Steve rolled his eyes and Catherine smiled knowingly. "The one with the cockatoo."
"Oh yeah," John said. "Now she made great hot cocoa …"
"Yoo hoo!" an elderly woman called from her front stoop, shakily holding a tray of cups.
"Let me get that for you, ma'am," John said, hurrying up the sidewalk and relieving her of the tray before it fell.
"Oh, thank you," she said. She looked around as Carrie and Catherine approached. "Where's the other young man who was out here before? The tall one."
"He went down a few doors to help another group, ma'am," Catherine said, motioning to where Steve had gone to join Freddie and a few other midshipman. She leaned an elbow on the handle of her shovel. "We're just finishing up here."
The woman's shoulders drooped a little but she smiled, pulling her shawl tighter against the cold. "Well, thank you so much for doing this," she said. "I didn't know how I was going to get out after all that snow."
"We're happy to help, ma'am," Carrie said.
"I made you some hot cocoa," the woman said, nodding to the tray John held. She smiled. "Made with my special ingredient."
"Thank you very much, ma'am," Catherine said, and the other two echoed her as they took a cup.
"Your bird seems very interested in the snow," Carrie commented, nodding to the front window where a large white bird stood on a wooden stand. "He's a cockatoo, right?"
The woman smiled broadly. "Royce. My pride and joy. That's his favorite perch, he likes to keep watch on the world."
"He's beautiful," Catherine said.
"He is," John agreed, "but this … this is delicious." He looked down at the hot cocoa in wonder. "What's in it?"
"Rosemary," the woman said with a little wink. "Just like my name."
"It really is good," Catherine said, taking another sip.
"I better drink Steve's, too," John said. "Wouldn't want it to go to waste."
Carrie and Catherine chuckled along with Rosemary.
After they finished, they gave her back the tray with the now empty cups. "Thank you again," Rosemary said. "And you tell that Steve he can come back down and I'll make him a special cup."
"Oh, we'll tell him, ma'am," Carrie said with a sly smile. She waved as they walked away from the door. "Good-bye, ma'am. And bye, Royce!"
"It's a good thing I don't have an inferiority complex or we could never have been friends," John joked, grinning across the table at his friend.
Carrie leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Absolutely nothing to feel inferior about," she said. "Plus you got the extra hot cocoa."
"Sure did," he said, sitting back with a satisfied smile.
"I remember going to check on the Mills," Catherine said. "Even though I'm sure the colonel could have handled the driveway himself."
"Catherine, honey, thank you so much. It was so nice of you to check in on us and to help Hal shovel." Dee Mills wrapped her in a warm hug and ushered her inside. "Come on, Steve, get in here." She wrapped her sweater tighter around herself. "Thank you, too. You can't be used to this horrible weather." Leaning around them, she stuck her head outside. "Hal! Get inside and warm up!"
Catherine and Steve shared a grin as they stomped the packed snow off their boots. Colonel Mills entered the foyer and kissed his wife's cheek. "Reporting inside as ordered, ma'am."
"Good. Before you catch pneumonia out there." She dimpled a smile. "Now, have some hot coffee. Pot's on the stove."
The retired Marine glanced at Steve, nodding towards Catherine, and moved toward the kitchen. "You make sure to remember who's really the ranking officer at home. It'll come in handy someday." Steve's eyes opened wide before he recovered to study his boots while Catherine pinked even more than the glow she wore from the exertion and cold.
"We … um … we need to go help shovel out Mr. Billings around the corner," Catherine said after clearing her throat at Steve's look. When he'd glanced back up, a completely unexpected kaleidoscope of butterflies took flight in her stomach. She knew him well enough to spot when he was trying to keep his expression neutral but his eyes were so soft and …
Her thoughts were interrupted when Steve spoke. "Ah … yeah … we have a list." He pulled a page from his peacoat pocket as evidence.
Dee Mills smiled and shook her head at the young couple who still didn't classify themselves as such. "I'll put the coffee in travel cups for you. It won't take a minute."
"I'm going to use the restroom before we go, if that's okay?" Catherine removed her gloves and stuffed them in her pocket before taking off her coat. Passing it to Steve she said, "I don't want to drip all over."
Taking the coat, Steve's eyes followed her as she moved down the hall to the bathroom. When the Mills were beside him a minute later with coffee in to-go mugs, he made small talk until Catherine returned, but his eyes kept drifting towards the hall.
Not long afterwards, as they exited the house and picked up their shovels to meet back up with their friends, Steve's smile returned while replaying the colonel's comment over in his head.
"And of course Catherine made a furry-legged friend," Carrie said, smiling at her.
"Barkley," Catherine said.
Carrie laughed. "Ha! Of course you remember his name."
"He was a sweetheart," Catherine said.
"Aren't you girls just wonderful for helping!" Mrs. Eldridge said and pulled first Catherine then Carrie into a hug.
"No problem at all, ma'am. We're glad to do it." Carrie smiled and pushed her black knit, regulation cap up from where it had slid over her brow as Catherine agreed and leaned lightly on her shovel handle.
From behind Mrs. Eldridge, a furry face appeared and said, "Woof."
"Oh, hi, look at you." Catherine knelt and greeted the medium sized yellow dog.
"Say 'Hi' to the nice midshipmen who dug us out, Barkley." The smiling woman pointed to each girl in turn. "Now we can go for a potty walk. All he's done is his business and run back inside since the storm yesterday. He loves it, but it's too deep in the yard and I didn't want to risk a fall by taking him farther than the front lawn."
"That's smart." Carrie nodded. "You don't want to slip."
"I'd be happy to walk him, ma'am," Catherine offered sincerely, noting the woman's sweats and slipper-clad feet. "That way you don't have to change and get all bundled up."
"That's so nice of you, but I don't want to put you out. You girls have already been so kind."
Catherine offered her hand and the dog sniffed before pushing up against it to be petted. "Hi, Barkley." She rubbed his fur. "I have a dog myself, ma'am, he's overseas with my parents. I'd love it, really."
"He definitely likes you."
Carrie grinned. "Everyone likes her. How about if I dig a sort of potty path in the yard for him while Catherine takes him for a walk?"
Mrs. Eldridge smiled broadly. "That sounds wonderful. But on one condition."
"Ma'am?" they echoed simultaneously.
"You give me your full names and I'm going to drop off some cupcakes as soon as the weather's clear. Deal?"
The best friends looked at each other and smiled broadly. "Yes, ma'am." "Thank you, ma'am."
"Perfect." She grabbed a leash from the hook just inside the door frame and clipped it on. "Barkley, go burn off some energy with one of our new friends, Catherine while Carrie makes a nice potty area for you in our yard." She handed the leash to Catherine, noting, "There are pick up bags on the handle." Turning to Carrie, she gestured she should come through the house. "Don't worry about the snow, and when you girls are done, I'll have some hot tea and sandwiches ready."
"We did pretty much make out like bandits in the hot drink and snack department that day," Carrie said wistfully.
Catherine nodded, smiling at her friend.
Steve smiled softly at the memories. "I remember that being such a strange idea when I first moved to Annapolis. A 'snow day.' "
"There's really nothing else quite like it," John said. "Kind of a bummer you've only had a couple."
"We had something similar a few years back when we went to New Jersey for Christmas and New Year's," Catherine said. "But yeah, it's a bit different when you're on vacation. A snow day while you're in school has a different feeling to it. Like you're getting away with something. A bonus day, even if you're shoveling driveways for some of it." She smiled at Steve and reached over to squeeze his hand. "I'm glad you got the chance at that."
He smiled. "Yeah, me, too. Especially since it was with good friends."
John raised his drink. "To good friends and snow days. Even though we've probably all seen the last of the latter."
The others lifted their own drinks and echoed his toast.
"To good friends and snow days."
Hope you enjoyed!
Find all our stories (in chronological order!) on our website: marirealmcroll dot wixsite dot com backslash real-mcroll
Or in the McRoll in the REAL World community here on fanfiction dot net
Find us on Tumblr: mcrollintherealworld dot tumblr dot com
You can still join our mailing list by emailing us realmcroll at yahoo dot com with Add me, please! in the subject line.
And find Mari on Twitter asking your opinions on all things McRoll in the REAL World! at Mari21763 and add #REALMcRoller