Okay, done! Sorry it took so long!

Christmas Surprise

Chapter 7

"Mike, this is amazing. The view, the food, that massage and I love my nails. Way too much."

"It's nice to spoil you for a change."

"You've done that a lot this week."

"I have a lot of years to make up for. Besides, this won't be an everyday occurrence. Maybe our next anniversary?"

"I'll be working by then. Let's get back to the room before they start setting off those fireworks. Enjoy that champagne."

"Mmm-Hmm."

"You have other things in mind."

"Mmm-Hmm. If you want to?"

"Of course. Funny, you didn't ask me that earlier."

"Which time?"

"Any of them. It didn't bother me though."

"Didn't figure."

"Can you text Tom and check on the girls? I figured they would call to say goodnight to us."

"He texted me five minutes ago. They are both sound asleep. Fell asleep watching a movie. They'll call us in the morning when they wake up…after I've texted him that we aren't otherwise occupied."

"Do you guys talk like that?"

"Not typically. He did tell me last week that our bedroom door would lock. I checked. I need to change the doorknobs."

"You need to do that first thing. Here's our room."

"I have a set in the garage. Just need to change them. I don't want the girls to ask why. Figured I would wait until they went back to school."

"Considering the fact that we are having trouble keeping our hands off each other, it might be a good idea to do it sooner rather than later. I don't think you want to explain this to Hannah?"

"God, no. Did you see the look on the masseuse's face when she asked how long we'd been married? When you said almost eighteen years, I think they were thinking we'd just got married."

"Yeah and I didn't want to explain it. I was shocked that you actually had a massage. You don't like people touching you like that."

"I don't mind you touching me. Glass of champagne?"

"Yes. And I am very well aware of that fact. Be right back."

"What are you doing?"

"Aside from going to bathroom, I want to at least make use of that nightgown at some point tonight. You haven't given me a chance to put it on."

"Not my fault you get distracted so easily."

"Mmm-Hmm."

Christine gave him a kiss and grabbed the nightgown from the end of the bed. It had already been an absolutely amazing night. They had been at the hotel since about one pm. They hadn't made it out of the room until almost five, ate dinner, and went back to the room for what started as a bathroom break that turned into a solid half hour of making out like they were teenagers. It reminded Mike a lot of what they had been like early in their marriage before deployments, money concerns, and the kid's needs, and hurt feelings got in the way. It was like they had a clean slate. They had done a lot of talking throughout the week. The only thing they hadn't talked about was Lucas dying and Mike knew it was coming. He needed to know more details, how, when, where, was he in pain, and all the things he hadn't talked to her about when he was the Arctic.

He heard the door open and turned around. Christine was absolutely beautiful. It reminded him of their wedding night, without the nerves. But with almost eighteen years' experience, three kids and a million memories. Some good and some bad. She wasn't wearing a white negligee now like she had been that night, there was gray in hair and he was lacking hair, and she was thin. Too thin for his liking but was still every bit as beautiful. He let out a low whistle as she walked towards him and pulled her close.

"I opened the curtains; fireworks will start in about five minutes. I figured you would want to watch them."

"I do. You okay? You seem off."

"I was just thinking about Lucas. All the questions and the what if's"

"Let's sit down." She grabbed the robe that was also on the end of the bed and they both sit down on the floor, facing the window but in each other's arms. "What are the questions?"

"How did he contract it? When did it happen? Did he suffer? Did he ask for me? He was probably cremated?"

"He was cremated. CDC protocols wouldn't let me do anything else. There were so many people dying that they did that automatically without asking. They also didn't give me his ashes. I couldn't bury our baby boy and couldn't get him a headstone. Nothing to mark that he existed. He was just…gone."

"If you don't want to talk about this…"

"Mike, I need to and you need to hear it. It's just painful."

"If it's too hard, we can wait."

"I think we need to deal with this before we go home. It isn't fair to Lucas."

"I agree."

"Alright, where was I? Oh, his teacher wanted him in summer school since his reading was so bad. She thought he might have been dyslexic. Anyway, a little girl came to school with it. She was Patient X, that's what the doctor said anyway. As far as the school was concerned, she was who started it. It spread like wildfire. As painful as things were with Lucas, I felt horribly for her. She died alone, well not quite. She and Lucas were in the hospital room together. They had Lucas sedated but the sedation wasn't working on her. I don't know where her parents were but she just laid there and cried for them. They had me in gloves and a mask and I was showing no signs of symptoms so they let me stay with Lucas. The nurse wouldn't give her any pain medication because she was who exposed the entire school. I just couldn't leave her crying. So I held her hand as she died. At the end, she thought I was her mom. It was…heartbreaking. Such a painful death. Lucas was lucky, I guess. They kept him sedated and he didn't seem to be in pain. I don't know what kind of mother it makes me, that instead of holding our child's hand as he was dying, I was holding another little girl's as she did die. It just seemed like the right thing to do. She had already died before him so I was holding his hand. He imagined that you were there with me. So no, he didn't ask for you because he thought you were there. I don't think he knew he was dying and I didn't have the heart to say anything."

"It means you're a good mother. That little girl needed you. I'm glad you did it. As far as Lucas is concerned. I'm not sure why, but that is comforting."

"It honestly was a peaceful death. I had to double check to make sure he had even stopped breathing. He just kind of faded. That little girl, Hope, her's wasn't so peaceful. Her death is the one that haunts me which is odd. You'd think it would be Lucas dying. Do you know how it all started?"

"A scientist, Niels Sorenson. I guess you could say he had delusions of grandeur. He was working with the virus and was trying to prove that…I'm not even sure. Anyway he ended up becoming the carrier. It spread like wildfire. And he didn't help it."

"Was he caught? What happened? Is this classified?"

"It is probably classified but I am telling you in confidence. We had this scientist riding along with us. Dr. Scott. We thought it was a cold weapons test but it wasn't. We were tasked, unknowingly, with protecting her. The virus was actually an ancient one, and the cure would be derived from the primordial virus. I am a little sketchy on that stuff but somehow Neils unleashed that virus. Dr. Scott found the primordial in the Arctic but the Russians, or a faction of them wanted it. We managed to get her and the primordial back to ship. The Russians had somehow got her colleague's wife and daughter. He was in communication with them and tried to kidnap Dr. Scott and get her to the Russians. What he didn't know was that Neils was on board the Russian ship. We got a call to help a fishing boat, everyone onboard other than this girl, Bertrise. Dr. Scott believed that she was immune so we had to get her. We managed to, but Tom and this guy that was helping us, Tex, were gotten by the Russians. Long story short, we got them back and discovered what Neils had done. At the same time, Dr. Scott had created what she thought was the cure. We had the trials, lost another crewmember but managed to come up with a cure and an immunization. We made our way towards Norfolk. On the way, we were contacted by Amy Granderson, who happened to be our OOD's mother. Alicia is solid and so Tom and I both figured Amy was too. We were really wrong. Dr. Scott, Tom and a couple other crew went into Baltimore where Ms. Granderson had a lab. She was going to help us distribute the cure except that was not her real plan. She had her select people living there and contributing and all the rest were turned out on the streets. They were burning the dead to create electricity. Horrible situation. Amy Granderson had these troopers working for her and they ended up taking over the Nathan James. They killed Dr. Scott's colleague and when they couldn't find the primordial, they kidnapped Kara. She was pregnant with Frankie and they planned on getting the cure from the stem cells. I'm a bit sketchy on this but my understanding was, it could have killed both her and the baby. Alicia had gone with Tom and Dr. Scott and ended up getting shot trying to stop things at Olympia. The leader of the troopers, Lt. Norris had me put in the chart room when I tried to stop them from taking Kara. What he didn't know was there was a small passageway from the chart room to the comms room. I was able to control the lights while a group of the crew took the ship back. Meanwhile back on land, Tom worked with a group of warlords that had been trying to stop Granderson. He finally got to Amy Granderson and she ended up committing suicide. She had been having the people she turned away given a shot that caused them to die, then she burnt their remains for electricity. After we got our crew that had been on land back we made our way back to Norfolk where the crew separated to find family that was close. I went to the safe zone and didn't find you. Just found a photo album and Caroline's sweatshirt. I checked the house and left the immunizations, radio and a note for you. I didn't want to but I went back to the James. We had created labs to distribute the cure but the Immunes had hooked up with Neils. They were spreading some weird propaganda. We also found the President and made our way up the Mississippi. We had found Neils in Florida and he was a creep. Dr. Scott ended up killing him. Anyway, we made it up the Mississippi to St. Louis where President Michener was administered the Oath of Office. Tom become CNO, Dr. Scott was murdered by the Immunes but she had created a way that the cure could be spread by person to person contact. I was given the Captaincy of the Nathan James. We went to Asia to distribute the cure and ended up being taken POW. I've told you this. While I was deployed, Tom oversaw the investigation trying to find you girls. I'd hired investigators but they were coming up empty handed. Tom ended up leaving the Navy after his dad was murdered. I kept looking for you all, but got deployed to the Med because of the Red Rust. We managed to get those seeds and I ended up getting stabbed. I was dosed with a hallucinogen that caused me to see Lucas and you all. Tom had been in Greece and managed to hook up with the crew and they found me. At some point, I told them I wanted to go back. Back to when I was with you all. Anyway, we killed the doctor that was trying to stop the seeds from getting back to the states. Actually, he killed himself but anyway. We headed back to the states, gave the seeds over to the scientist and got back to St. Louis."

"Oh, Mike. That's terrible."

"The worst part was not finding you all."

"I can only imagine. We did try and find you. I headed to St. Louis because there were jobs to be had. I just couldn't get caught up enough to find one. I was going to go the Navy Headquarters to apply for benefits but I lost our ID's."

"I am glad that the President made me go to that soup kitchen. I didn't want to."

"It was shocking to see you there. All because Hannah was hungry."

"Thank God. You didn't say when Lucas died?"

"July 8th. Sorry. I got caught up with what you were saying."

"It's okay. It's stupid but I would like to get some sort of headstone for him. I know he isn't there but it would be nice to have somewhere to visit. Mark his existence."

"I hadn't thought about that but you're right. I hate to ask but could we put that little girl's name on it too? Hope's? She deserves to be remembered and to be…grieved for."

"I was going to suggest that. We'll go this week and look at headstones and find a place for it."

"I'm exhausted."

"Me too. Let's lay down for a couple hours."

"You don't want to take advantage of me being in this get up?"

"Normally, I would say yes but I don't think I've ever been so tired. I'm fine with you wearing it to bed. Maybe later?"

"Sounds nice. We barely even noticed the fireworks."

"I know. Oh, well."

Christine pulled the robe off and after Mike got ready, they laid down in the bed. He pulled her onto his chest and she burrowed down. She was as exhausted as he was but it felt better getting things off her chest. She was thrilled that he didn't blame Hope and would allow her to be remembered. Christine leaned up and kissed his cheek and smiled at him.

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

Mike watched Christine drift off to sleep and as tired as he was, he couldn't fall asleep. They had done a lot of talking over the last week and their marriage was much stronger than it had ever been. He was slowly working things out with Caroline too. It would take her longer to trust him to not leave. Hannah was easy. The President had accepted his transfer and he would be heading up the training facility. Christine had gotten a really good job offer at a real estate agency because of her experience at an agent. She would start back to work that week and the girls would start school. Caroline was absolutely thrilled and Hannah was slowly getting there. Mike suspected within a couple weeks, he and Christine would be busy with sports, practices, school dances and functions. Before the Red Flu, he complained about that stuff but now, he was just thrilled to have his girls. He would never complain about another thing where they were concerned. It felt better having some answers concerning Lucas. Mike pulled Christine in closer and drifted off to sleep. He had realized just how lucky he was and would never take his wife or daughters for granted again.