December 6th - Holly Wreath by Cleo the Muse
All Ages
Gen, Drabble, Holiday (Christmas), Humor
Warnings: Gratuitous whumpage
Episodes: Season seven
Synopsis: The AO Happy Place Advent Calendar challenge, in which each day of December (until Christmas), a new door is opened on the Advent calendar, and a picture prompt revealed.
Word count: 500
Status: Completed as of December 6, 2007
December 6th - Holly Wreath
Jack had always loved Christmas, and considered it to be by far the best time of year. The year after Charlie died and Sara left, he didn't celebrate the day at all, but the following year, he bought a few strands of bright lights to string up around the roofline of his house. The year after that, he added a few more to wrap around the porch posts and line the deck rail. Every year thereafter, the O'Neill residence got brighter and more extravagant.
The Christmas after Daniel came back, Jack decided to go all-out and purchase the gaudiest plastic figures he could find, figuring he could make his house look almost as festive by day as it did by night. The giant candy canes went in the front yard and the cheap-looking holly wreath hung on a nail above the bedroom windows, but to get the rest situated where he wanted them, Jack had to call in help. Grumbling good-naturedly, Daniel came over, and the duo soon began wrestling the illuminated Santa, sleigh, and octet of reindeer onto the roof.
All went well until Jack's rickety old ladder decided to call it quits.
Daniel, standing on the roof, made a grab for Jack just as the colonel lunged for the gutter. In doing so, the archaeologist accidentally kicked one of the ropes they were using to lash down the sleigh, dislodging a plastic reindeer. Bent over to try to help his friend to safety, he never saw the oncoming figure until it was too late.
Eight pounds of garishly-painted plastic reindeer might not seem like much, but it was more than sufficient to knock an already-off-balance Daniel over the roof's edge. He reflexively grabbed for the gutter as Jack had done, but unlike his friend, he missed. Instead, his fingers wrapped around a strand of Christmas lights, which were not designed to support anywhere near the weight of a muscular, six-foot tall man. The overstressed wire snapped and sent him swinging across the front of the house like a Christmas Tarzan.
Or, more accurately, George of the Jungle.
One of Jack's decorative bushes brought an end to the arc described by the falling archaeologist, cushioning his landing so that he thankfully wasn't too badly hurt. The damage to the shrubbery was more severe, but Jack--who had let go of the gutter and dropped to the ground--was just thankful his friend escaped from the accident with only bruises and scrapes.
"Daniel got run over by a reindeer," he commented cheekily, reaching in to help the younger man try to squirm out of the broken bushes.
"Shut up, Jack," Daniel muttered, his pride wounded more than the rest of him.
The malevolent Christmas decorations weren't finished yet, and before either man could react, a gust of wind finished loosening the cheap plastic holly wreath from its precarious perch and sent it hurtling downward atop the surprised colonel.
Daniel smirked. "Deck the Jack with boughs of holly..."
"Shut up, Daniel."
Author's Notes:
Now let's just hope they don't trip over any of the giant candy canes on their way back in the house!