Request for a happier chapter granted, and then delayed because of school, and back now because David's Tea has just released a new Tea Advent Calendar and I am PUMPED. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
xxiii : Christmas
Someone knocked on the door of Cabin 13. Nico crossed the cabin to open it, and there stood Will Solace on the steps. His cheeks were red from the cold, and he'd bundled up in a big, blue sweater that brought out his eyes. Nico could still see his orange t-shirt, poking through the collar.
"Hey," Will said. "I just wanted to let you know since you'd never really been at camp over the holidays that the nymphs are putting on a special supper tonight."
"Okay," Nico said.
"They usually roast a bunch of turkeys," Will said. "We get mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes and squash and vegetables and cranberry sauce and fresh bread and all of that."
"Okay," Nico siad.
"Last year for dessert they made crème brulée," Will said. "It was really fancy. Until Cabin 11 started throwing it across the dining hall. Rumours have it that we're either getting cheesecake or pudding this year."
"Okay," Nico said.
"I'm telling you this because you didn't come at lunch," Will said. The boy simply would not go away. "I mean... I get that it's sort of awkward, when you're sitting alone with Jason Grace because he's cool and all but he doesn't really talk to anybody- at least not on the basketball courts... Please come to Christmas dinner. Nobody should be alone on Christmas."
Nico's lip twitched in amusement.
"I'll see," he said.
"What, do you have a busy schedule today?" Will asked. Nico wasn't too sure what to respond, but Will winked. "I'll see you at supper."
"Are you coming to Christmas supper this year?" Will asked, his arms wrapped around Nico and his breath tickling his ear.
"You know I am," Nico said.
"Mmmkay," Will said sleepily. His clothes still smelled like smoke from the campfire that he'd just finished corralling back into Cabin 7. "Are you coming to Christmas morning?"
"I've caught on by now that I get the silent treatment when I don't eat breakfast," Nico said.
"No," Will said. "I mean, will you come to Cabin 7's pre-Christmas cabin-wide celebration?"
"You guys do that?"
"Don't call us nerds."
"I won't."
"We'll have oranges and candy canes and hot chocolate and I'm hoping to give Katie Gardner some of our cold tea in exchange for a batch of her gingerbread," Will said. "Everything is decorated, we have Christmas karaoke, and we do a gift exchange, but you wouldn't have to participate."
"Yeah I will," Nico said.
"No, nobody would expect you to- oh! Present tense, present tense!" Will said, letting go of Nico and happily clapping. "You'll come?"
"Yeah, I'll come," Nico said. His stomach tightened. This was his first Christmas morning.
"Does it change your answer if I tell you that we do this in our pajamas?" Will said.
"You look cute in your pajamas."
"It's a Christmas miracle, your heart grew three sizes!" Will said, kissing his nose.
Catalina Bianca
"Knock knock."
Will looked up from his paperwork and a smile split his face instantly.
"Hi babe," he said. Nico smiled, and hauled the baby carrier up so it could rest on Dr Bourgeois' empty desk. "And hello to you, beautiful… What are you doing here?"
"We missed you," Nico said. "Well, she's been sleeping all day, but I missed you. So I called, and the nurse's station said you were having a really quiet day, and so we came to visit."
"She's been good?" Will asked. "Not too much trouble?"
"No, no," Nico said. He pulled back the blanket he'd draped over Catalina for the car ride to show him the Christmas pajamas he'd dressed her up in, red with little snowflakes all over, and the hat with the pompom to match. Her t-shirt read BABY'S FIRST CHRISTMAS.
"Oh my gods, she's the cutest," Will gasped. "Are those the pajamas Mom sent? Did you send her a picture?"
"Of course," Nico said.
"Look who's getting all up in the spirit of Christmas after all," Will said. He kissed Nico's nose.
"I wish you didn't work, it would be a whole lot easier," Nico said. Over the years, Will had learned that the little things spoke the loudest when it came to Nico. 'I wish you weren't working' roughly translated to 'I miss you'.
He kissed his husband for real this time. "I wish I were home too, but seniority was not my friend. By the time she's old enough to remember her Christmases, hopefully I'll be able to get out of these things. Gods, I wish she'd wake up so I could pick her up…"
"You can wake her up if you can put her back down," Nico said, plopping down in an empty desk chair. "Be my guest."
Will couldn't risk it. He sat on Bourgeois' desk so that he could look at Catalina sleep. The name still felt like the most beautiful name in the world whenever he said it or thought about it. Catalina. Cata. Lina.
"She's beautiful," Will said. "I don't think we could have made a better baby, even if we'd have been able to."
"Get those jokes out of your system before she can understand them," Nico said. But he smiled, as he dug in the diaper bag he'd brought along. "I made sandwiches with last night's leftovers."
Will's lip twitched. "Turkey and brie?"
Nico arched an eyebrow. "What is this, amateur hour? There's cranberry sauce too"
They unwrapped their sandwiches from the tinfoil, and Nico had also brought apple cider in a thermos and Will wanted to kiss him senseless, but then Cata woke up because she needed a diaper change. Once that was settled, they paraded her around the nurse's station. One of Will's patients, Theo who had had a brain tumour removed two weeks ago, was walking back to his room and he got really excited about seeing Will and then curious about the baby and also about Nico. Most little kids were fascinated by Nico because he talked to them like they were regular people and didn't freak out about how cute they were right away. They sort of felt challenged by him.
"Why the baby?" Theo asked.
"She's mine," Will told him. "She's ten months old."
"She's so small you could squish her in your hand." Theo observed.
"Theo!" His mother said.
"You're right, we have to be really gentle with her," Will said.
"You have the best hands in the world, so it's okay," Theo told Will. Will grinned and gave Theo a high-five before he went back to his room.
"This morning, Santa Clause brought hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies for the entire surgical ward," Will said.
"Is that why all of you are wearing Christmas hats?" Nico said.
"I'm doing this for my sex appeal, actually," Will said quietly since there were no small children around.
"Gross," Nico said. "I don't want to see it in our house."
"Can't promise that," Will said, as Cata tugged at his fingers playfully. Will turned back to her and made a face, so she laughed again. His pager buzzed at his waist.
"Shit," Will said. "I've got to get to the ER, babe. I'll see you at home?"
"With no Christmas hat," Nico nodded. He scooped up Cata from Will's arms and kissed him quickly. "Love you."
"Love you too," Will said. He wanted to tell Nico how happy he was that he'd visited, how thankful he was to have been there for a little bit of their first daughter's first Christmas, but he really had to get going. He just had to hope Nico knew.
Francesca Antonia
The baby was lying down in a pile of wrapping paper with a smile on her face and her curls forking in a million directions, amusing herself with a piece of wrapping paper. It was a good thing they owned four million stuffed animals. And counting, since that's what people defaulted to buying on Christmas. This year, Catalina's favourite seemed to be the little plastic barn with the animals inside.
Nico kept putting the cow at the rooster's spot, on top of the barn, and Catalina kept saying no Papa and putting the cow back in the barn, leaving Nico a window to put the pig on the roof. It was a vicious cycle that lasted a good fourteen minutes until Cata put her hand on the roof and said No Papa that's enough out of you, parroting something she'd heard him tell Will a million times.
Will burst out laughing. "You tell him, Cata." He was sitting near Francesca, giving her more wrapping paper to play with and confiscating it when she brought it to her mouth.
"Well Cata, if the roof was for the rooster only, you should have just told me, tresoro," he said.
Cata plopped back down and got up immediately, wandering off saying "baby, baby, baby".
She came back with the raggedy stuffed rabbit that Will and Nico had given her when Francesca had come to them, and its bottle. She plopped back down and started to feed the rabbit.
"Papa feed your baby," she told him.
"I would, but she's not hungry," Nico said. "Daddy just gave her a bottle."
"Hmm," Cata said like she doubted it. She crawled over (throwing her rabbit aside as she did, which was another reason why Nico wasn't too worried about taking parenting advice from her) to Francesca and kissed the baby's forehead.
"Gentle," Will reminded her. "Just like that. You're such a good big sister, Cata."
"Franca liked my present best," she informed them. Nico grinned. They maybe should have given the baby a simpler name.
"She did," Will said. Cata had picked out a stuffed lion with mirrors in its tummy and plastic shapes dangling from its paws.
"ROAR!" Cata said.
"Gentle, gentle," Nico said. "You'll scare her."
"Sorry Franca," Cata said. She kissed Francesca's forehead. "Don't cry. Don't cry at Christmas."
Teresa Camille
Francesca was standing by the door, already wearing her coat and her mittens, her curls neat and pinned back with sparkly bobby pins and red and green barrettes Will had picked up for her. She was bouncing anxiously.
"We have to go!" She said.
"Francesca, be patient," Nico said. "Daddy has to change the baby, and then we can go."
"Mrs Donovan said not to be late," Francesca said.
"We won't be late," Nico said. "Cata, come!"
"I can't find my blue shoes!"
"That's because you're not wearing your blue shoes, you're going to wear black shoes like Mrs Lu asked," Nico said. "Come down!"
"Catalina Solace, I have heard your father ask you twice," Will said, swinging into the entrance way with a freshly changed Teresa. He passed her to Nico, so he could slip her into her little snow coat. Teresa was all windmill arms and legs kicking like a dancer, which made her pretty impossible to dress. Nico seemed to have a bit of an edge over Will for whatever reason, so when time was of the essence, Will didn't even bother trying- especially when Tessa was already mad with him for changing her. She was going to be a fun teenager.
Speaking of fun, Catalina came downstairs grumpy, which Nico could tell because the ends of her braids were turning blue.
"I want my blue shoes."
"I know," Nico said. "But Mrs. Lu asked everyone to wear black shoes for the Christmas concert. You're the one who told me that yesterday."
"But I want to wear blue shoes because I'm not in the front row," Catalina said.
"Would Mrs. Lu want you to be wearing black shoes in the second row?" Will asked.
Cata had no response to that.
"Cata stop we have to go!" Francesca wined.
"You stop!" Cata bit back.
Francesca was so stressed about being late, she looked like she might cry.
"That's enough from both of you," Will said. "You're sisters, you shouldn't fight like this. This is your baby sister's first Christmas, I'm sure she rather hear you two sing in the concert than fight."
The girls were quiet.
"My class is singing Frosty the Snowman," Francesca said.
"That's going to be beautiful," Nico said, zipping up Teresa's coat at last. "Let's get you two to school."
Daniel Lee
"Here you go Danny," Will said, passing a Christmas stocking to Daniel.
"For me?" Daniel asked.
Nico's smile could have been a cringe just as easily. He remembered that place where nothing seemed to come to you just because, and where nothing was yours. But Daniel looked so excited there was no way around his grin. He'd been excited for weeks about his first Christmas out of foster care. Nico had asked him if there was anything that he liked to do at Christmas, but there wasn't. So Daniel had spent the holidays loving the letters to Santa Clause, taking his turn to change the page on the advent calendar in the living room, making cookies, and all the rest.
"Yeah," Will said. "For you. Just for you."
"Thanks Dad," Daniel said.
Francesca plopped down next to Daniel to open her stocking and compare their stickers and candy and oranges.
Will looked up at Nico and smiled, his eyes watery. Casually, Nico got up and sat down on the floor next to him. He put his arm around Will's shoulders and kissed his hair.
"That's the first time he's said that to either of us," Nico whispered.
"Best Christmas present ever," Will whispered back.
Emilia Maureen
Will didn't mind working on Christmas so much. He'd said Merry Christmas to everyone with Skype and like every year, Santa had come to their house on Christmas Eve since he knew that Dad was working on Christmas.
He'd just gotten out of surgery and washed up and talked to the family and finished the paperwork. Tobogganing accident on Christmas Day. He couldn't imagine. The boy would be fine though.
Since he had some time to spare, he went up a floor to the neonatal ward and checked in with a nurse.
"Merry Christmas," Will said, leaning on the nurse's desk.
"You here to see your little one?" One of the nurses, the nurse who always seemed to be working the ward, said.
"Yes please," Will said. Ever since Cata had come to them, Will had spent his free time at work (or the free time he created by wandering off from other work) rocking the babies in the neonatal ward when their parents were away- or when they didn't have parents at all.
She checked him in, which she said, as she always did, seemed silly since Will had clearance to go wherever in the hospital he wanted to. But Will didn't mind, it helped him to check out from being a doctor and check in to his other job.
There were fewer volunteers than usual and more families, rocking the babies and holding them. His baby was in an incubator in the back.
"How's she been?" Will asked, picking up the baby and sitting down in the armchair next to her. He ignored all the other parents who were wondering what a doctor was doing there and whether or not he would talk to them about their own babies…
"She had a decent night," Maureen said. "She had a seizure this morning, but she took a nap and bounced right back, didn't you, Miss? She even finished her bottle for me. First time that's happened, isn't it sweet pea?"
"Well done," Will told her, rocking her back and forth. "Well done. We need you to get strong, Miss. We need you to put on some weight and start sleeping your nights to strengthen you up."
"We've had a nice, strong heartbeat," Maureen said. "I dare say that last surgery may have done the trick."
Emilia cooed in Will's arms and he rocked her back and forth.
"I like that you ask instead of looking at her chart," Maureen told him.
"I spend all day looking at charts," Will said. "And I don't spend nearly enough time with you, do I, Miss?"
"I hope the paperwork goes through," Maureen said. "She's going to have a much better chance in this world if somebody loves her. She's already showed us that she's enough of a fighter to pull through it all, but a little help never hurt."
Will smiled. "The good people of Child Protective Services really hustled to get us processed before the holidays, and gave us a call yesterday. Nico and I are officially fostering her now."
"Oh my goodness," Maureen said. "That's great news!"
"Yeah," Will smiled. "Dr Tucche was telling me that we're probably looking at one more month in here, at the least. But Nico can come in and meet her now."
"He hasn't yet?" Maureen said.
"No," Will said. "We only realized last week that Mystery Baby was the special needs placement they'd been talking to us about."
"It was meant to be, sugar," Maureen told him. "She took a liking to you. Does this mean we'll be able to give her a name now? I don't like calling her Baby Girl or 'Charity', which is what she's named now."
"That's horrible," Will laughed.
"See why we call her 'Baby Girl'," Maureen said.
"Nico and I stayed up late last night coming up with ideas," Will said. "We're waiting for him to meet her. It's between Emilia, Vittoria and Simona. What's your vote?"
"I don't get a vote," Maureen said.
"Of course you do," Will said. "You're her favourite nurse. She finished her first bottle for you."
Maureen grinned. "I like Emilia."
"Me too," Will confided.
"We'll see what your husband says," Maureen said, still smiling. She fussed with the baby's blanket. "Thanks for coming by, Will. This was some good Christmas news."
Lucia Roshanak
"Suspended?" Nico asked when they got back to the house. "Suspended?"
"Papa," Teresa said.
"This isn't about you as I understand it, and honestly if you had something to do with this, I rather not know," Nico said. "Out."
Teresa gave her sister one last look and left. Roshanak was still wearing her coat, snowflakes in her hair.
"Take your coat off," Nico said tossing his car keys in the bowl next to the door. "You're not going anywhere."
Rosh was still glaring at him defiantly, but she shrugged her coat off.
"There's no reason for you to fight at school," Nico said. "None. You didn't convince me in the principal's office, and you won't convince me now. Chiron stresses not fighting with mortals, and the rules don't change here."
Roshanak kept glaring. She didn't look away.
"Look," Nico said. "I know you think you're a badass. I know you think you're just here for your sister, and you're humouring the rest of us, and you don't really care about going to school. That's fine. But I know who you are, and you can probably fight me on that, but I've been where you are. I know you're a kid and I know you're scared and I know you're just happy whenever you get a meal."
Roshanak looked at Nico with hard, angry grey eyes.
"I've seen you walk Emilia through homework, and I've seen you play with the neighbor's dog. I know you have a personality- that you're kind, that you're not just intelligent but that you can be witty and funny and adventurous and fun. That girl would also have a place to stay here. You're not just here because you're Teresa's sister, you're here because you deserve a home."
Roshanak's jaw unclenched. She took a deep breath.
"Right," Nico said. "Is there any reason why you're more wound up than usual lately? That's right. We notice these things."
She hesitated.
"I was looking at the pictures in the living room," she said. "It's just babies sitting on Santas. And there are handmade ornaments on the trees, and old Christmas crafts that you've kept. It's history that I don't have. Not just here, but anywhere, and I can't start now."
"Why not?" Nico asked. "Will is my family. We met when we were fourteen. I had no idea this is where we'd end up, or that I'd even want this. But it begins with putting your roots down somewhere- anywhere. And it doesn't have to be with us, but I'd like it to be."
Roshanak tugged on her hair. "I didn't think this was going to happen. I thought I was… I don't know. I just wanted my sister."
"If you told the twelve-year-old version of me that I would end up with six kids and a husband and a house, I would have slapped you," Nico said. "Dead ass, slapped you."
Roshanak laughed. "Can you… never mind."
"What?" Nico asked.
"It's too late for me to put my name in for the family gift-exchange, right?" She said tentatively.
"Nope," Nico said. "Will and I rigged it. We gave you Emilia since she's easy to shop for."
Roshanak laughed, and it was the first time Nico had heard her laugh when it didn't come from behind closed doors.
"Thank you," Roshanak said. "Did you give my name to someone good?"
"Yeah we did," Nico said.
It was him. He'd gotten Roshanak a stack of used books and a Kindle so she wouldn't have to borrow books from the other kids anymore. He knew what he'd been like in her shoes, she'd like to travel light- so he'd also gotten a green case for the Kindle, since she seemed to wear lots of green clothes and pick out green notebooks for herself when they'd gone back-to-school shopping.
"If I'm not grounded for fighting, can I get a ride to the mall?" Rosh asked. "I think I know what I want to get her."
"It's Christmas season, the mall's going to be crazy tonight. I can take a day off tomorrow and take you," Nico said. "We can go grab some food too... It sounds like that fuckboy really deserved to get his ass handed to him."
"I made him eat shit, but he brought up twincest all on his own," Rosh said, to which Nico laughed.
"Alright, plan made," Nico said. "Hang up your coat, you can go hang out with your sister if you want."
Roshanak nodded and looked at the ground and looked up and gave Nico a smile. And then he knew he was right; he'd chipped enough away to see someone a whole lot lighter and a whole lot happier.
He smiled back.
