Part 2
CHRISTMAS EVE:
"You want to stay for dinner?" Myah asked, meeting the gaze of her middle namesake, who was currently sharing the backseat of the truck with her.
Uncle Joe smiled warmly at her. "No, no, not tonight."
Myah poked out her lower lip in a mock pout. "We're having s'mores."
"Have one for me then." Joe reached over and tapped her nose, and Myah couldn't hide her grin.
"What are you doing then? Do you have a date?"
Joe rolled his eyes. "Hardly. I'm meeting some boys down at the VA hall. I'll see you all tomorrow though." He cocked his head. "Is that Danny's car?"
"It is." Steve confirmed. "I thought he was busy tonight. You have enough room to pull around?" He glanced over at Nahele, who nodded confidently as he easily guided the truck around Danny's camaro.
Myah smiled at the almost imperceptible twitch in her brother's jaw. He would never admit to having nerves while driving but she knew him well enough to know that maneuvering the truck around the expensive sports car was enough to raise his blood pressure. Once safely parked, the four of them piled out of the car and set about unloading. Myah was pretty sure that between Steve and Joe, they had enough of an arsenal to supply an entire army. Joe finally slammed the trunk closed on his jeep.
"Well, then. Until tomorrow. Steve." Joe pulled him into his embrace. "Merry Christmas."
"You too, Joe. Don't get too wild tonight."
"You know me. Nahele." Joe put a hand on the teenager's shoulder. "That was some fine shooting today, son. You're going to be giving your old man a run for his money soon."
Nahele ducked his head, but there was a pleased smile on his face.
"And you, young lady."
Myah felt her feet leave the ground as Joe hugged her and gasped as he squeezed until she could barely breathe. "Uncle… Joe…"
"Merry Christmas. I love you, girl." He landed a quick kiss on the top of her head.
With one final wave, Myah joined her father and brother, grabbing the final duffel out of the truck and following them into the house. A warm, spicy aroma greeted them, as did Danny, who looked up and turned away from the counter.
"Oh, good, I was just about to head out." Danny took in their grimy appearances, as they unloaded their burdens onto the table. "I can barely tell you guys apart, but look, a table full of guns. It's definitely the McGarretts."
"Merry Christmas Danno." Steve set his pack down with a thump and offered a hug to his partner which Danny waved off. "What are you doing here anyway?"
"Merry Christmas ya filthy animal. I get to pick up the kids as soon as I leave here, and then we're headed back to the Ronald McDonald House to serve Christmas Eve dinner. I've been there since eight this morning and there's going to be more than enough, so I wanted to make sure you guys weren't going to be feasting on…" Danny paused and motioned to the pile of weapons on the table and their dirt covered skin. "Beef jerky and field rations."
Steve shrugged. "I don't see why that'd be so bad."
"I can't with you, seriously. Anyway, your crockpot is full of the best meatballs you'll ever taste with the recipe being a time honored Williams Christmas tradition, and there's homemade pasta in the fridge. Nahele, I'd recommend you be the one to handle that. This garlic bread is waiting to go in the oven and that tin is full of Christmas cookies. Don't forget to leave some out for Santa." Danny pulled off the blue striped apron he'd been wearing and turned to return it to the hook on the pantry door. "You guys can take it from here."
"Uncle Danny, I love your jammies!" Myah took in the sight of his pajamas, made of soft green material and covered with Charlie Brown characters in the midst of celebrating Christmas. "You're wearing them to volunteer? To serve dinner in?"
"Thank you, MJ, and yeah. Figured we might as well get as much use out of them as we can. I'll send you a picture when I pick up Grace and Charlie."
"Plus it'll save you time when you're doing your grumpy old man bedtime routine." Steve said teasingly.
"Funny you should mention…" Danny responded, choosing not to take the bait. "These are for you." He handed Steve an Amazon box.
Steve eyed Danny suspiciously as he accepted the package and carefully opened it. Pulling out a green pajama top, he snorted in sudden laughter.
"I figured that was more your style." Danny grinned, looking pleased with himself.
"Diehard. My kind of Christmas movie." Turning, so Myah and Nahele could see, Steve held up a pair of dark green plaid pajama pants and lighter green top with the silver outline of a skyscraper surrounded by snowflakes. The caption read: Nakatomi Plaza Christmas Party 1988.
Myah rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you'll look adorable in them, dad."
"Oh, you all will." Danny corrected. "There's a pair for each of you and I better get a picture."
"Thanks, Danno." Steve said, looking more enthusiastic than Myah had ever thought he'd be, about matching Christmas pajamas.
"No problem. One more thing and I'm out of here. Santa doesn't come until tomorrow of course, but he gave me permission to drop these off early. No peeking inside though."
Myah was eager at this point to see what else Danny had brought and smiled when he pulled a stocking out of a bag and handed it to Nahele.
Nahele chuckled and held up the light blue stocking featuring a smiling shark wearing a Santa hat and holding a gift. "Even has my name on it."
"Of course it does." Danny handed Steve the next stocking, which was made of the same green camouflage Steve wore when on duty. A braid made of paracord decorated the top above the patch embroidered with Steve's name.
"Jeeze Danno…" Steve had stopped laughing and was clearly touched. "This is awesome."
"Don't mention it. You're easy to buy for." Danny reached into his bag for the final time and handed Myah the last stocking.
Myah's breath caught as she took hold of the pale pink velvet stocking. The embroidered snowflakes sparkled just as she remembered, as did her name sewn in script across the top. "Is this… how did you…" Her voice trailed off as she felt tears press against her lids. This was no replica. This was her childhood stocking, an item she had assumed had been lost in all the chaos of her mother's illness and her own move to Hawaii.
"I'm a detective." Danny's words were teasing but his tone was tender. "Finding things is what I do."
"I would hug you, but I don't want to get your pajamas dirty." Myah said. "Thank you so so much."
"You're welcome, babe. Now I'm off. See you guys tomorrow. I'm assuming the guns will be off the table by then?"
"They will." Steve assured him, following him to the front door. "Thank you, Danno, for everything. Especially that." He nodded towards Myah who was hugging the pink stocking to her chest.
"Her face made it all worth it, believe me. Hey no peeking, Nahele!"
Nahele snapped upright, smiling guiltily. "Sorry."
"Yeah." Myah said primly. "If you do, your gifts will be replaced with coal and switches."
"Yeesh." Steve said, closing the door behind Danny. "That's harsh. Is that what your mom told you?"
"Well, sort of. She was the one who read my Little House in the Big Woods back in the day and mentioned it after that. But I always thought that meant like… electrical light switches. Which of course would be a boring gift, so I didn't want it. I had no idea it meant switches for spankings. Things I've learned living with you."
"Hey." Steve protested, waving them back towards the kitchen, and motioning to the pile of guns that awaited their attention for a good cleaning. "I've never given you a spanking with a switch. And I don't think I would." The look of what was clearly an unpleasant memory flashed across his face and he shook his head. "Nahele, start with the AR. Myah, you've got the 22."
"Oke doke." Myah shot Steve a curious look. "You have a story, dad?"
"Nothing I want to remember out loud, thank you very much. But I do resent you saying you learned about switches from me."
"You're right, I'm sorry." Myah amended. "That's not exactly true. I was babysitting for Joanie-"
"Mary used a switch on her?!" Steve interrupted, looking horrified.
"Oh my gosh, no!" Myah was starting to regret having brought the topic up at all, as Steve clearly had some PTSD regarding the subject. "I was reading her Peter Rabbit. Peter and Benjamin Bunny sneak into Mr. McGregor's garden and afterwards Benjamin's father whips him with a switch. It was kind of scary actually, but it did make the Christmas threat make more sense. Not that my mom would ever have done that." Her eyes softened. "She made me that stocking when she was pregnant with me. I can't believe Uncle Danny found it."
Steve smiled at her words, clearly taking joy in her joy.
"Where are we going to hang those?" Nahele asked. "No fireplace."
They all pondered the situation for a moment and then Myah suggested, "What about those hooks that used to have hanging plants? You know from underneath the balcony in the living room?"
"That'll work." Steve nodded in approval.
With the three of them working together, they had the guns cleaned and put away in a little under an hour, before finally getting to shower. Myah examined her reflection in the bathroom. No wonder Danny had been taken aback. Her face was streaked with a mixture of dirt and sweat and her arms and legs were brown with dried mud from lying on her belly. Her hair was tangled with dust and twigs.
She recalled the picture Danny had sent of himself, Grace and Charlie, all decked out in their matching Charlie Brown Christmas pajamas and ready to serve dinner at the Ronald McDonald house. They hadn't needed those services during Charlie's treatment that fall, but they'd met several people that did and Danny had said he couldn't think of a better place to volunteer.
Grace had texted Myah several times throughout the day but their remote location had interfered with her ability to read them until they'd regained cell service while driving back. Grace was still struggling with celebrating holidays with her mother and step-father, and while trying to make the most of the day, was heartily looking forward to her dad picking her up. Judging from her smile in the picture with Danny and Charlie, Grace had finally caught the holiday spirit. Unlike Myah, she looked perfect, not a hair out of place, her carefully curled hair and glittery eyeshadow adding a little whimsical magic to her ensemble.
Deciding that although she would never be as cute as Grace, she could at least be as clean, Myah hopped in the shower and took her time lathering up and washing the grime of the day away. She'd enjoyed every minute, as she found shooting to be a fun past-time, especially when with Steve, Joe and Nahele. Steve and Joe were both good teachers and had a wealth of stories between the two of them. Myah imagined that if they were allowed to talk about all the things that were classified, there would be no end to the story telling. As it was, there was continual banter and several times Myah had been near tears with laughter.
When she rejoined Steve and Nahele in the kitchen she saw they'd also donned their Diehard Christmas jammies. They seemed to have the final dinner preparations under control and so Myah busied herself with arranging the s'more supplies onto a wooden tray, utilizing some of the Christmas napkins Danny had dropped off to make it extra festive. She was rather pleased with the outcome and snapped a picture to send to Sam and Grace.
"Fancy." Steve complimented in approval, as he peaked over her shoulder. Myah had gathered cinnamon sprinkled and fudge covered graham crackers, the usual Hersey bars, reeses peanut butter cups and large peppermint patties, along with extra large marshmallows.
A short while later they all settled around the firepit, set a short distance away from the chairs Steve and Danny normally sat in, but not close enough to get sprayed by the pounding surf. Myah wondered briefly if other people might find it odd that after a day spent outside in what would be considered off the grid, that they were choosing to continue their evening outdoors. She imagined so, but then also supposed that they might not have the privilege of being treated to the panoramic display of color that was the Christmas eve sunset, as well as the comforting sound of crashing waves. She occasionally missed the midwest weather, but at that moment wouldn't trade her backyard for all the snow in the world.
"Uncle Danny wasn't kidding." Myah murmured. "These meatballs are the best." They feasted in companionable silence before putting their culinary skills to the test with Myah's s'more charcuterie board.
Myah nibbled the last few bites of her favorite holiday combination of peppermint patty with marshmallow on the fudge coated graham crackers, relaxing against Steve's shoulder while Nahele lightly strummed on his guitar. He seemed to be following his muse with a few more popular songs interspersed with Christmas carols. He was really getting very good and Myah smiled to herself in anticipation of his face when he saw the gift she and Steve had picked out for him. She glanced up at their dad and noted that Steve looked a thousand miles away. Nahele paused in his playing to make a s'more and looked over at them.
"You good, Dad?"
"I'm fine." Steve sighed. "I guess Christmas with you guys makes me think of Christmas when I was a kid. Seems like the strongest memories I have are of all the lasts, you know those last holidays before Doris faked her death, before dad sent us away."
Myah's heart twisted and she looked up at him tenderly. "Were you happy?"
"For the most part I suppose. At least I thought I was. I have a hard time now because I really don't know what was real and what wasn't." Steve shook his head. "Sorry guys. I don't need to saddle you with that, especially on Christmas."
"Why not?" Nahele asked dryly. "We're family. That's what we do."
"And besides," Myah added. "At least we know that what you're giving us is one hundred percent real."
Steve snorted. "Guess that's one way of looking at it. If I was going to make something up, I'd definitely come up with a better story."
Myah eyed him. She could not remember him ever discouraging herself or Nahele from sharing their feelings, even when it would have been far easier to not deal with the emotional aftermath. It seemed sad that Steve felt he needed to bottle his feelings up inside.
"So… what…uh… what was that Christmas like?"
Steve's eyebrows raised. "That last Christmas?"
"Yeah."
"Well…" Steve shifted uncomfortably in the sand. "I was fourteen. It was a toss up if I was more obsessed with football or mountain biking. My 10-speed wasn't keeping up so when they said I got a mountain bike, I was over the moon."
"Do you still have it?" Nahele asked, the wheels in his head obviously turning.
Steve smiled at him, but shook his head. "I wrecked it a few months later. I'm lucky I didn't kill myself. Anyway, dad always grilled on Christmas eve and mom always made this amazing red velvet cake with buttercream frosting. Except that Christmas she didn't. She bought one from the store. Said she was just too busy to make one. I didn't think much of it other than being annoyed that the taste wasn't nearly as good."
"Did you take your bike out that day?" Myah asked, having picked up on a slightly odd choice of words.
"No. I didn't get it on Christmas. They printed a picture and wrapped it. Said that the model I wanted hadn't come in time." Steved rolled his eyes. "Looking back it's just so obvious. Doris was clearly preoccupied with plans other than Christmas."
Myah's heart clenched at the pain evident in his voice and wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders, resting against his back. "I'm sorry, dad."
Steve shrugged, giving her hand a little squeeze. "It is what it is, I guess."
Nahele wiped his hands on his shorts and carefully set another log onto the fire, before positioning himself to sit a little closer to Steve and Myah. The firelight glinted in his dark eyes as he looked over at them. "I uh… I remember the Christmas I was eight. Kaili was barely around and my mom had to work a lot, but tried to make things special. We made a paper chain to hang on the wall and she clipped a peppermint to each link. I got to eat one every day of December. As a countdown, you know? And she saved and saved to get me the Transformer action figure I wanted. She told me it was from Santa but I knew. It kind of made me mad when she would mention Santa, because I knew how hard she worked, but I pretended. Kaili showed up on Christmas Eve and my mom barely let him stay. Pretty sure he was drunk." Nahele poked at the fire again, following that matter of fact statement.
Steve normally scolded them if he caught them staring into the flames due to it impacting their night vision, but Myah wasn't surprised when he didn't say a word to Nahele. She herself was watching her adopted big brother intently. He so rarely shared details about his childhood, that she didn't take the moment for granted.
"He brought me a stack of comic books and I was so happy, but my mom just looked so tense the whole day. I know now that part of the reason for that is because they were stolen. Probably the cheapest thing he ever stole, but still. Pretty sure that every time he came home after finishing a… a job, that he'd steal a comic to bring home to me."
"I've never seen you read a comic." Myah said, softly.
Nahele snorted. "Cause I don't. Not anymore."
Myah dug a finger into the sand, feeling uncomfortable with the direction the evening conversation had taken. Not that she was uncomfortable hearing from Steve and Nahele. On the contrary, she felt honored that they had shared, although she found herself close to tears as she sensed the hurt both of them carried. However, they had both displayed courage in dredging up that buried hurt and her heart pounded a little as she tried to decide if she could be as brave. Neither of the guys would pressure her, but as sequencing went, it was definitely her turn.
"The last holiday I remember being normal was the Halloween when I was nine. Thanksgiving and then the Christmas after that I started noticing things changing. Mom was starting chemo and it made her so sick. She was really tired all the time. We didn't go to any Christmas shows or put up any decorations. A church delivered dinner and a tree. Thankfully it was the pre-lit kind."
Tears started to press against the back of her lids and Myah swallowed, attempting to fight them off. "We would turn off all the lights except for the twinkle lights on the tree and light candles and sit at the table and color, and we watched so many Christmas movies. Home Alone was my favorite. When Kevin's family comes home to him at the end… it always gave me hope." Myah dropped her head onto her knees and in the dim light, watched spots appear on the sand as tears fell. She felt Steve's comforting hand on the back of her neck.
No one said anything for a long while and Myah found comfort in focusing on the pounding of the waves. She was thankful there were no words of sympathy to respond to. People did the best they could when faced with hearing about what she'd experienced, but she often felt guilty for making them uncomfortable and for the subsequent awkwardness. She, Steve and Nahele had the common bond of having had families torn apart and as such there existed an understanding that there weren't words to make any of their situations better. Myah couldn't help but think that the burden of buried pain seemed a little lighter now that she had shared it with her family. She hoped Steve and Nahele felt the same.
Fatigue from the day began to settle in and Myah would have dozed off on the beach if Steve had not gently nudged her awake. She managed to rally enough to carry in her share of the dishes, and was almost finished with cleaning off the tray of s'more ingredients when she had the stroke of inspiration to place a few of the leftover fudge covered crackers onto a small plate.
"Is there a reason you're making more dishes?" Steve asked dryly, motioning to the plate.
"Oh… I think it'll make Uncle Danny happy if I send him a picture… he did say to leave out cookies and milk for Santa."
Steve chuckled and rolled his eyes. "You're probably right. Don't put out milk though." He reached into the fridge and then handed her a beer. "Pretty sure Santa would prefer this."
Obediently Myah placed the beer by the cookies and then snapped a picture to send to Danny. She had brushed her teeth and climbed into bed when he texted back "That's my girl."
Steve entered her room a short while later and Myah took note of the bottle in his hand. "Did you steal Santa's milk?" she asked teasingly.
Steve grinned confidently. "Benefits of running a task force… I answer to God and the governor."
"Wow. Okay." Myah shook her head in mock disapproval, but scooted over so he could sit next to her in bed. He'd left the book they'd been reading face down on her desk, so she assumed they weren't reading that night. He took a sip of the beer and leaned back against the headboard with his legs stretching out. He looked down at her with a knowing smirk.
"You ready for more storytime, little girl?"
Surprised at this, Myah nodded. "Yeah, sure." She snuggled into her pillow feeling cozy in the ridiculous green pajamas. She wrinkled her nose up at him. "Old man."
"Behave yourself, brat. Anyway… My dad was a good man. But he was really strict. Yes, stricter than me."
Myah closed her mouth as Steve answered her rather sassy question before she could ask it.
"You know I was in Boy Scouts."
She nodded.
"Mom was actually quite involved, it was definitely her thing. But my dad was always too busy. He took me camping as often as he could, but it was usually when he had an unexpected weekend off. He could never commit to something in advance. One summer when I was eleven he agreed to chaperone one of our scouting trips and I was so excited. The only problem I had to deal with was Carter Aarons."
"Aarons? J's dad?"
"Yep. Just so you know, J is already a far better man than his father ever will be."
Considering the man had pretty much abandoned his son, Myah was not surprised to hear this, but it was new information that Steve had known the man from boyhood.
"Carter was always my main competition in sports and it was no friendly rivalry, at least as far as he was concerned. That carried over into scouting too, but thankfully we weren't in the same troop so I didn't have to deal with him there on a regular basis. But his troop was with ours for the weekend and I was… unprepared for how hard he planned to come at me. Which is my fault."
"How?" Myah asked disbelievingly. "You were eleven."
Steve shook his head. "You should always be prepared. I hadn't hit my growth spurt yet and was more into wrestling than football at the time. There'd been a championship tournament a couple weekends prior and I'd wiped his face on the mats." A small smile of satisfaction crossed Steve's face at the memory. "Unfortunately he was pissed and out for revenge, and if I hadn't been distracted with having my dad there, I might have been more on my guard."
Myah shook her head. "You were eleven." she repeated. "You shouldn't have been having to worry about that."
"You were worrying about a lot more than that when you were eleven." Steve responded.
"That doesn't make it right. So what'd Carter do?"
"Just stupid stuff at first. Sugar water in my bug spray. Ash on my sunglasses."
"Ash?!"
"Yeah. Starts out with you not being able to see and then ends with a mess on your clothes when you try and clean them off. But his coup de grace was to put matches and a pack of cigarettes in my pack. I still to this day do not know how he got close enough to my stuff to put them in there. A couple other guys corroborated that I'd been bragging about having stuff to smoke with. And I have nothing nice to say about cowards like that, but I saw the look on Carter's face and knew he'd paid them off." Steve shook his head. "I'm pretty sure our regular scoutmaster would have stood up for me, but he wasn't there. Carter's scoutmaster was in charge and when he and my dad exchanged looks, I knew I was done for. I didn't even get a chance to defend myself, before dad marched me out of the camp, cut a switch and whipped me."
Myah poked her lower lip out in sympathy. "Awww."
"It hurt like hell, but it was nothing compared to what that did to my pride, as believe you me, he did not march us as far away from camp as he should have."
"So the other boys…."
"Oh, they got an earful. I was stubborn enough that I held off crying for most of it, but I'm only human. And like you said, I was eleven."
"Aw, dad, that sucks so much. I'm sorry I made the joke about switches in stockings."
"That's okay. And now you know why you'll never have to worry about me using a switch on you."
"That's a relief. Though the hardest spanking I ever got from you was in the woods."
"Yeah, well, there was no one else around and you one hundred percent deserved every bit of that."
"Hmmm." Myah said sleepily. "Of course, I disagree, but I'm getting too sleepy to argue with you."
"For once. Alright, Merry Christmas kid. I love you, sleep tight." Steve drained the rest of his beer and then stood.
"Yes, sir." Myah snuggled down under her comforter, finally allowing herself to give into the sleep that was calling her name. "I love you, Daddy."
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Author's Note: Thank you guys for those lovely reviews! I've missed you too, and believe me, the McGarrett family is never far from my mind. Happy Sunday!