Christmas Surprise

Chapter 6

It was only five am when both girls jumped on Mike and Christine's bed. Hannah wasn't surprising but Mike was a little surprised to have Caroline next to him. The girls had wedged in between Mike and Christine and had both sort of cuddled up. It was highly unusual for Caroline. She wasn't overly affectionate even at the best of times and had been worse in the past couple days. Hannah had ended up next to Christine and so Caroline was on her other side, next to Mike. He didn't want to draw attention to it. It might cause her to get up and so he wrapped both arms around her and kissed the back of her head. Christine seemed equally shocked and indicated that Caroline was falling back to sleep. She covered both girls up with the blankets and the girls and Christine fell back asleep. Mike stayed awake, watching them.

About seven, Caroline rolled to her other side and Mike smiled at her. She started to raise up but he stopped her and kissed the top of her head. She didn't say much, just rested her head on his shoulder. Her forehead was wrinkled up and she was looking at the scar on his side.

"What happened? And your arm?"

"I was stabbed on my last deployment. That one on my forearm was from when I was a POW. The one on my shoulder is from the Immunes."

"What does that letter stand for?"

"It's my blood type. I'm O-. They used my blood to treat the Red Flu since I had been immunized. The immunization didn't work on them because of some chemical warfare."

"They branded you with your blood type?"

"Essentially. It was a confusing situation, Caroline."

"I guess I figured you were living it up while we were homeless."

"In a way, I was. I had shelter when my wife and daughters didn't. It's a tough pill to swallow."

"But you didn't have it easy?"

"No. But the physical pain wasn't as bad as what it felt like to not be able to find you all."

"You looked?"

"Yes. And I hired detectives. Your Uncle Tom oversaw everything when I was deployed but I never stopped looking. "

"And you couldn't avoid being deployed?"

"Unless I resigned my commission, no. Trust me, I wanted to but I also had to have something to occupy my mind. I would have gone crazy if I quit and only looked for you all. Is this what has been bothering you?"

"Kind of."

"Alright, well I can't fix it, if you don't tell me what it is. I know I have to prove to you that I'm staying. Beyond that?"

"I…I don't know. You and Mom fought all the time before and now you're like newlyweds."

"Marriage is hard work and I didn't take the time to see and appreciate that I had a beautiful and amazing wife. It wasn't until I couldn't find you all, that I realized exactly what I had and what I stood to lose. I have no intentions on that happening again. Your mom and I are taking a night away soon. You and Hannah will stay at Tom's. We need this time. We both want our marriage to work but we have to figure out how to do it and we also need to take the time to grieve for Lucas, together."

"Oh, and it's only one night?"

"Yeah. We didn't want to be gone from you girls that long."

"Oh."

"Caroline, your mom and I love each other very much and we love you and Hannah. I know you're angry at me and you don't trust me right now. I ask, beg even, that you give me some time to fix the issues and when you have a concern, you tell your mom or I so it can be addressed."

"Okay."

"I love you, sweetheart. And I did miss you."

"Mmm."

Mike kissed the top of her head, she was drifting off again. He looked over at Christine, who had been awake the entire time. She smiled at him and smoothed Caroline's hair down with her hand. She still had her head lying on Mike's shoulder and had burrowed in.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because it was a conversation you needed to have with her. You did good."

"I wish I could fix this."

"You are. Just keep doing what you're doing. I figured when they came in so early that we would be up opening presents then but I also love this time with them."

"Yeah, me too. It does make me miss Lucas a lot."

"Me too. He would want us to enjoy the day though."

"Yeah, I suppose."

"You didn't take much time to grieve for him, did you?"

"Not like I should have."

"In all honesty, I probably didn't either. We'll work through it together. I do have to say, I figured you had other things in mind for that night away."

"Oh, I definitely have that in mind."

"I thought so. Me too."

"I'm going to go start coffee. It's only a matter of time before these girls wake up. Provided of course, I can get out from under Caroline. She's really got ahold of me."

"And you wouldn't change it for the world."

"Nope." Mike managed to get out from under Caroline without waking her back up. He laid her back on the bed with the same care he might have with a newborn and kissed both girls on the forehead and gave Christine a kiss. He pulled a sweatshirt on and headed out to the kitchen to make coffee. While it was brewing, he checked out hotels on his IPad. He found a couple close to the river. There would be fireworks for New Year's Eve. He decided to go all out and got the honeymoon package for the night. It included room service, complimentary champagne, and a couple's massage. The price wasn't terrible and he made the reservation. He wanted to treat Christine. She'd love the massage. Him, not so much.

Christine and the girls all came out shortly after eight and Mike handed Christine her coffee and they all headed down to the living room. Mike and Christine sit side by side on the couch while the girls separated the many presents. The tags were all in Kara's handwriting and when they got to the three packages on the bottom that Mike had gotten, they looked at him suspiciously.

"I had gotten those presents before I found you all. I didn't want to not be prepared."

The girls nodded at Mike and Christine kissed his cheek. The girls and Christine started opening their presents and Mike was thrilled with everything that Sasha, Kara and Andrea had gotten. There were clothes, books, knick knacks for their rooms, hair stuff and make up for Caroline which she seemed really thrilled with, hats, gloves and scarves, and nail polishes. Christine had gotten clothes, hair stuff, shoes and some costume jewelry. The gifts that Mike had for them were actually just framed pictures. One of him and Christine from their wedding day. Caroline's was from a father daughter dance when she was ten. She had insisted that he wore his dress whites and she was wearing a light purple dress. They were dancing and she was standing on his feet. Hannah's was a picture of them in a bumper car on a mini vacation that Christine and Mike took the kids to not long before his deployment to the Arctic. They all seemed thrilled with the gifts and had given Mike a big hugs. The girls started taking their many presents to their rooms but Christine stayed on the couch with him.

"I feel bad. We didn't get you anything."

"It's fine. I have you girls. That's all I wanted."

"I especially love my picture. Those clothes and everything is great but this picture. I just love it."

"I'm glad. I did get a hotel reservation made."

"Great. New Year's Eve? How far from here?"

"Downtown St. Louis. It's nice. And yes, on New Year's Eve."

"I hope this week goes by quickly."

"Me too. I got a good price. It's in the honeymoon suite, included couple's massages, room service and complimentary champagne. You can get a manicure and pedicure if you'd like to. It has a view of the river and there will be fireworks. Best I can do in the romance department. Sorry."

"It sounds great. You romantic? The same man that bought me a toaster oven for our first anniversary?"

"And that should have been your first indication."

"I was just thrilled that you remembered the anniversary. But then again, you were always good at remembering my birthday and our anniversary. Sometimes the way you celebrated it was a bit off but you did remember the days."

"Wasn't it our tenth that I got you a new vacuum? You had been saying you needed a new one."

"Yes and you got a better one than I planned on getting."

"I will admit I am not a fancy dinner, wine, candles and chocolate kind of guy."

"You have your moments and I do like the practical gifts at times."

"I'll try and do better. Did you like the rest of this stuff? Andrea picked your clothes out. She seemed to get your style pretty well, which is hilarious since she would prefer to wear her coveralls all the time."

"She will love that you said that. I do need to make a trip to the store. I need to get a few things for our night out. Something more for you than me."

"Okay, I am glad that they didn't get those things for you. You know you don't have to, right?"

"I do."

"Your towel was enough for me."

"I'll keep it simple. I honestly don't want anything too fancy because knowing you, it won't stay on."

"That's definite. You seriously don't need to worry about it. I'm okay with you going to the store and getting anything you need or want but just know that I don't need you to wear anything fancy to want to do this with you."

"I know which is what makes it better. I'd better get breakfast started. I have a make ahead casserole that I just have to put in the oven. I figured we'd just relax today. Soups and sandwiches, pajamas all day, movies and maybe Hannah and I will watch you and Caroline play a board game."

"I do have some card games. Better for four people."

"Okay. Thanks for all this. It was amazing."

"No thanks necessary. Just thank Sasha, Kara and Andrea."

Christine nodded at him and grabbed a stack of her clothes and other items. Mike got up and grabbed a trash bag to clean up the living room. It was a disaster. By the time he got back in the girls were in the dining room waiting for breakfast. They visited for a while before the breakfast casserole was put on the table. Christine truly wanted to relax because they ate off paper plates and used plastic utensils.

They spent the day watching movies, playing cards, and sleeping. It was a perfect day as far as Mike was concerned. They would have to get the girls enrolled in school. Fortunately there was one close by and they catered to students who had lost several years of school like Caroline and Hannah had. Christine had worked with them as much as she could to keep them learning but there were some holes in their education. Christine also mentioned trying to find a job to keep her busy. She had some experience in real estate and banking and it would be an in demand career. People were filtering into St. Louis since it was the new capitol and were looking for housing. She would spend the week putting in applications and finding out what it would take to get her licensing updated. Mike didn't care if she went back to work but also knew she would be bored stiff if she stayed home all day while he was at work and the girls were in school.