Chapter Three
"Hi Daddy." a cheerful Delinda beamed as she literally bounced into her father's office at the Montecito a few days later. As the graying man looked up from where he had set the phone down, the younger woman could see a tired look in his blue eyes. "Tired?"
"I've just spent the past…" Deline sighed, trailing off as he checked his watch. "Five hours convincing your grandmother not to come up here for Christmas in order to save your mother's and my sanity." He smiled weakly at his daughter. "How do you think I'm feeling?"
"Poor daddy." Delinda sympathized, walking over and hugging Ed lightly. "You should really take a break. You've certainly earned one after working so hard."
"What do you want, sweetie?" Ed grinned, picking up on a fishy tone to his daughter's voice.
"Your credit card." an honest Delinda answered, "I was going to do some shopping."
"I'm sorry, sweetheart." Ed sighed deeply, looking at his daughter. "But I thought that you worked here, so you made your own money to do your own shopping with." He motioned with his hands. "Emphasis on the your own."
"If you give me your credit card," Delinda smiled, "I'll pick something out for Mom and your name."
"Nice try." Ed smiled, stifling a chuckle.
"Oh, come on, Daddy." Delinda whined as the pair heard footsteps. Ed looked over to see Danny standing just inside the door. "Please?"
"What's she whining about now?" Danny sighed heavily, throwing himself onto one of the chairs in the room.
"Do that again, and I'm pulling the chair out from under you." Ed warned, disapproving of the way his protégé had sat down.
"Sorry." Danny apologized, shrugging his shoulders.
"Somebody doesn't seem to be too full of the Christmas spirit." Delinda noticed, grinning. Slowly, she walked over and sat down on Danny's lap. "Somebody find out that they're on the naughty list?"
"Depends on your definition of naughty." Danny winked.
"Excuse me!" Ed exclaimed loudly to remind the pair that he was still in the room and not going anywhere. Sighing, the blue-eyed man stood up, reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. "Promise me that you won't spend too much?" He held out his credit card. "And don't get anything for your mother or my name, all right? I want to pick those out myself."
"Thank you, Daddy." Delinda squealed, kissing her father as she took the card into her hands. "Bye, Danny."
"Bye." Danny said, putting a hand up as Delinda left the office. He smiled at Ed as the door shut behind the blonde-haired woman. "Remind me never to have kids…especially girls."
"Is there some reason you're in here and not on the casino floor?" Ed inquired, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
"On break." Danny grinned.
"I see." Ed nodded, sitting down on his desk. Suddenly, his voice became more concerned. "How are you holding up?"
"What do you mean?" a curious Danny asked, scrunching his brow.
"With the holidays and all of that." Ed clarified, "I remember the first Christmas without my old man…" He shook his head. "Rough times."
"I'm fine, Ed." Danny waved off, not wanting to think about the pain he admittedly had been feeling. "Really."
"Okay." Ed nodded, knowing that Danny was probably lying. "Jillian wanted me to make sure that you know that you're invited to Christmas dinner." He paused for a moment. "All of you kids are."
"I know." Danny smiled before shaking his head. "I wouldn't miss Jillian's cooking for the world. Remember those stuffed mushrooms she made last year?"
"No, I don't actually." a stern Ed replied, narrowing his eyes. "Because I seem to remember you and Mike the stomach eating all of them by yourselves." He waved a finger at Danny. "You two idiots try that again this year, and I swear I'll…"
"I think my break's over." a nervous Danny said, getting up.
"Danny, wait!" Ed sighed, putting his hand up. "What do you think Mary wants for Christmas?"
"Mary?" a puzzled Danny repeated.
"Yeah, I got her name in the whole Secret Santa thing…" Ed started, motioning with his hand.
"And you don't know what to get her." Danny finished, nodding his head. With a smile, he got up and threw his arm around his mentor. "Ed, let me introduce you to Mary-us Connell-us, the most difficult species known to man to shop for." Pausing, he sighed and looked at the floor. "Well, she might be the second."
"Who'd you get?" a curious Ed asked.
"Sam." Danny replied, glancing up quickly. "Any ideas on her?"
"Aside from Casey's head on a platter?" Ed laughed, shaking his head.
"What do you want for Christmas?" Danny asked a few hours later as he worked his way over to Mary's side as the red-haired woman wandered the casino floor.
"I thought we promised not to get each other anything." Connell replied, stopping and looking at him.
"We did," a shaky Danny admitted, wondering how to explain he was asking for Ed. "But what if I wanted to get you something, what would you want?"
"Something besides a pet rock." a teasing Mary said, starting to walk away again.
"Oh, come on!" Danny groaned, rolling his eyes before following her. "I was four, Mary! It seemed like a great present at the time!" Not being able to help himself, he did chuckle at the memory. "Even if it was just a rock with magic marker on it."
"The eyes were the cutest part." Mary smiled, "Well, besides, the lightning bolts."
"The lightning bolts made it look cool." Danny shrugged.
"So, who has my name?" Mary asked, looking over at her friend.
"Ed." Danny replied as they paused once more.
"Thought so." Mary nodded as a puzzled look found its way to Danny's face. "Mike would have just spied on me until…" The redhead paused as her eyes traveled upward. "Oh, no."
"What?" a curious Danny asked, following Mary's gaze right to the mistletoe that Sam and Casey had found themselves under earlier. "Oh." Embarrassed, he looked at Mary. "You know, we don't have to…"
"It is tradition." an equally embarrassed Mary shrugged, "We'll probably piss off some spirits or something if we don't." Smiling, she looked away. "Besides, it's not like we haven't done worse."
"But that was…" Danny started, finding himself interrupted as Mary's lips made contact with his own.
For a brief moment, both friends found themselves flashing back to times when their relationship had been something more than a friendship. Something that both of them wondered why it had disappeared when they both wanted it. Thinking about how awkward this moment and their relationship was, both Danny and Mary pulled away quickly.
"Well…" Danny started with a rare redness in his cheeks.
"It's tradition to kiss under the mistletoe." an equally embarrassed Mary said, looking at the floor. "Perfectly normal."
"Yeah, normal." Danny nodded in agreement.
"Just tell Ed that I'll like anything he picks out, okay?" Mary smiled, "I'm sure that he'll come up with something other than a pet rock."
"You're not nice." Danny replied, teasingly glaring at her.
"Sam!" a surprised Jillian exclaimed, opening the door to the Deline house after hearing a knock on the door. "What brings you out here? Is there a problem at the Montecito?"
"Sort of." Sam admitted, shrugging her shoulders. The raven-haired woman hated asking others for help, but knew that she had no other choice. "I need your advice on something."
"Well, come and sit down." Jillian smiled, gently putting her hands on the younger woman's arm and leading her into the living room. "What seems to be the problem?"
"I drew Ed's name for Secret Santa." Sam replied bluntly as she plopped down on the Delines' couch. "And I have no idea what to get him."
"Well, Ed is a hard man to shop for." Jillian nodded, sitting down in one of the overstuffed armchairs across from the couch. She shook her blonde-haired head. "He used to return practically everything I got him when we first got married, or it would sit in the closet unused."
"So, you don't have any ideas?" a defeated Sam assumed.
"A million." Jillian grinned, "Which one do you want to use?"
"You know," Mike stated as he noticed Danny leaning back in his chair and staring at the surveillance room's ceiling. "You keep sitting in that thing the wrong way and it's going to break, man."
"Least of my problems right now." Danny sighed, not looking away.
"Yeah, that moment with Mary and the mistletoe was pretty awkward." Mike agreed with a nod.
"You saw that!" a stunned Danny exclaimed, sitting up so fast that he nearly fell out of his chair.
"We've got a camera on that area 24/7." a gray-haired man named Mitch grinned from where he sat on the other side of Mike. "Good, cheap entertainment."
"For those who have no lives." a humiliated Danny replied, shaking his head.
"At least, I've never made it look like I've never kissed a girl." Mike teased as Ed walked into the room.
"Now, see," Ed replied, putting a hand on Danny's shoulder to restrain him from going after Mike. "You kissing a girl, Michael, would be a sign of the apocalypse."
"That's cold, Mr. D." Mike grimaced, taking a moment to glare at a snickering Mitch. Danny didn't make a sound, but simply had a wide grin on his face.
"You deserved it." Ed reassured before waving his hand at Mitch and Mike. "Now, if you two idiots would stop watching the makeout cam and actually get to work…" He squeezed Danny's shoulder. "You, my office."
"Why?" a puzzled Danny asked, looking up at his boss. He was forced to wince as a silent Ed clamped down harder on his shoulder. "Okay, okay."
To be continued...