DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN CSI:NY OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS. I DO HOWEVER OWN SAMANTHA FLACK AND KELLAN AND KALLISON FLACK.
HOPE YOU ALL HAD A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY! THIS IS A FUTURE CHAPTER. HOPE YOU DON'T MIND THAT IT'S AFTER BOXING DAY BUT THIS IS A MULTI-PARTER!
THANKS TO EVERYONE ADDING ME TO ALERTS AND FAVS!
Flacks and Messers: Part One
"Sometimes I'm clueless and I'm clumsy
But I've got friends that love me
And they know just where I stand
It's all a part of me
And that's who I am
So when I make a big mistake
And when I fall flat on my face
I know I'll be alright
Should my tender heart be broken
I will cry those teardrops knowing
I will be just fine
'Cause nothing changes who I am."
-Who I Am, Jessica Andrews
"Daddeee," Kellan sobbed, shaking her father's arm vigorously as he lay, dead to the world, on his stomach with one arm and one leg poking out of the heavy comforter and dangling over the edge of the mattress.
The bedroom in her grandparent's house was bathed in moonlight and inches of snow were gathered on the window ledge as icicles hung from the overhead awning. The moon's rays caught the ice and snow, causing them to sparkle brilliantly. Outside the wind howled and snow fell steadily, as the five year old, in a pair of flannel Hello Kitty jammies, her black hair flowing down her back, clutching Holly Hobbie under one tiny arm, stood at the side of the bed with tears pouring down her pale cheeks.
"Daddeeee!" she shook his arm even harder, terrified and anxious and desperate to wake her father up. "Daddeee! Wake up!"
Flack mumbled incoherently under the pillow covering his head.
"Pwease daddy," Kellan begged. "Pwease wake up!"
"Go back to bed, Kellan," he ordered.
"Wake up, daddy!" she cried. "I'm scared! Pwease wake up!"
He sighed and reached up to pull the pillow off of his head. Tossing it to the side, he propped himself on his elbows and looked at his tiny daughter standing next to him. There was enough light coming through the window that he was able to see the tears cascading down her face and the way her entire body trembled. Alarmed, he rolled over onto his back and sat up, settling the comforter on his lap in order to hide his nakedness. Thanking God neither he or Sam had managed to kick the covers off in the middle of the night, and cursing the fact that the door didn't have a lock on it.
"What's wrong, Kellan?" he asked, his voice groggy.
"I had a bad dweem," she replied. "A really, really, really bad dweem."
"What was it about?" Flack inquired, wishing she'd turn her back for at least ten seconds so he could yank his sweats, lying in a crumpled heap under the comforter, back on.
"It was about you," she sobbed. "A bad dweem about you!"
He rubbed at his eyes and ran a hand over his face. "What was the dream about?" he asked.
"That a bad guy got you!" she cried. "That a bad guy killed you dead!"
"Kellan, it was just dream. Alright? I'm here and I'm okay. Now you go back to the room and lie down with Kallison and Wiener and go back to sleep."
"I can't!" she exclaimed. "I'm too scared! Can I sleep with you and mommy?"
Flack sighed and cast a glance at his wife's sleeping form. Normally, he would have allowed Kellan, in the state she was in, to climb in between him and Sam. Who was currently curled up contently and peacefully on her side, her back facing him, her ass pressed against his leg. As naked as the day she was born. They'd been so exhausted from waking up so early with the girls that morning, that the minute the sex had been over, it had taken all the strength he'd had to roll off of her and affix the blankets around them.
"That's not a good idea, baby sweets," he told his daughter.
Her eyes filled with even more tears and her lower lip wobbled. "But daddy," she protested. "I'm scared!"
"Kellan, it was just a dream and…"
"Is it true that you almost died, daddy?" she blurted out.
Flack blinked. "What?"
"I heard you and grandpa! Grandpa said that he was sad when you almost died! Is it true you almost died, daddy?"
"Is that why you had the bad dream?" he asked gently. "Because of what you heard?"
She nodded.
"Tell you what. We're going to go and get a drink of water and I'll tuck you back in bed and tell you a story, okay?"
"Can I have a drink of milk?" she asked hopefully. "Warm milk? It would make my tummy feel better."
"Your tummy hurts, too?"
Kellan nodded.
"You didn't pee the bed or anything, did you?"
She shook her head.
"Okay. We will go downstairs and get a glass of warm milk and…"
"A cookie, too?" she asked, pouting and batting her impossibly long eyelashes at him.
He couldn't help but grin. Nothing like being played by a five year old, he thought. "A glass of warm milk and a cookie," he promised.
She held up two fingers.
"Just one," he said. "You eat more than one and you're getting an even worse tummy ache. Now let's play a game, okay?"
"Okay…"
"Give daddy Holly for a second…"
Her eyes went wide in horror at the suggestion, her face blanching.
"Just a little game of Hide and Seek," Flack told her.
"Holly loves Hide and Seek," Kellan declared, smiling despite the tears trickling down her face.
"Well give daddy Holly…" he said, reaching out to clear his daughter's tears away with gentle fingertips. "..and let him hide her and you find her, okay?"
Kellan nodded and passed her beloved dolly over to her father.
"Now I want you to turn around and close your eyes and count to ten," he instructed.
She hesitated.
"It's alright," Flack assured her. "Daddy and Holly are right here, baby sweets."
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly and turned her back to him.
"Are your eyes closed?" he asked.
She nodded vigorously. "Can I count now?" she asked.
"Yep. Start right now…"
The second she spoke the first word, Flack was tucking Holly Hobby behind his pillow and diving under the comforter in search of his sweatpants. Yanking them on and tightening and tying the draw string and resurfacing before his daughter even hit the number eight.
"Ten!" she cried and wheeled around.
"Gotta find her now," he told the five year old. "Come up here on the bed and try and find her. Watch your mommy though. She's tired and her ouchies are bugging her again."
"Okay…" Kellan said, and with great effort, climbed onto the bed. Searching around her father's body for several seconds before finally peering under the pillow and scooping her prized possession out. "I found her!" she whispered, careful not to wake her mother up.
"Then let's go and get some warm milk and a cookie," Flack told her, slipping out of bed and stretching out his arm's towards her.
Kellan scrambled across the bed and stood up carefully and jumped into her father's embrace. Curling an arm around his leg and wrapping her legs around his torso as he carried her effortlessly from the room. While both twins were tiny things like their mother, Kellan had been, and still was, the smallest of the girls. She'd been a sickly baby. She had dropped weight drastically while in the NICU and had fought valiantly to put it back on. She'd been constantly plagued by respiratory infections and gastrointestinal issues. Even during the first two years of life they were forever running her back and forth from the ER at Women's and Children's Hospital.
And even though she was a healthy weight and height, she was still considered below average and most likely always would be. Her immune system was stronger now, but she was still the one you had to worry about picking up every cold and virus and infection that went around school. It was one of the reasons that people tended to baby her and pay more attention to her then her sister. Kallison was strong -both physically and emotional. Kellan was fragile in every which was possible.
He carried her from the bedroom and down the darkened hallway before slowly and carefully making his way down the creaky stairs. One arm around his daughter tightly, his hand on the banister for support. Feeling for the edge of each step with the heel of his foot before stepping down onto it.
Once safely down, he headed through the living room and down another darkened hallway and into the kitchen. Reaching out, he flicked on the lights via the switch near the entrance and then carried his daughter to the table and settled her into one of the chairs.
"What kind of cookie?" he asked, as he went to the fridge and opened up, taking out the milk container. "You want an oatmeal one? Shortbread? A couple animal crackers?"
"Chocolate dipped mint Oreos," Kellan replied.
"Those are mommy's cookies. Think she'll get upset if we have a couple?"
His daughter shook her head energetically.
"I don't know, baby sweets," Flack said with a chuckle as he poured two glasses of milk and stuck one in the microwave for twenty seconds. "Mommy probably counts the things and will be upset when she realizes some are missing."
"Uh-uh.." Kellan said, climbing up onto her knees and laying her doll on the table. "Mommy won't mind. She loves us."
"True enough," her father agreed, taking the milk from the microwave and sipping it to check the temperature before transferring the liquid into a child friendly plastic cup. He grabbed a box of special edition fudge dipped mint oreos off of the counter where his wife had left them, and carried them and their cups to the table. "Take that for daddy," he said, nodding down at the plastic tumbler.
Kellan reached out and took it from him. "Thank you, daddy," she gushed, sipping the milk.
Flack sat his own drink and the box of cookies on the table and pulled out the chair beside her and sat down. Opening the box of oreos, he took four out. And placed two in front of his daughter.
Her blues eyes sparkled and her entire face lit up as she smiled.
"Our little secret," Flack told her and winked.
"You are the best daddy ever," she declared and picked up one of the cookies and dipped it into her milk.
Despite the fact that she looked exactly like him, Flack couldn't help but think that he was watching a mini Sam in action. The dunking of the cookies, the wrinkling of that freckle splattered nose, the furrowing of the brow and the biting of the bottom lip as Kellan worked hard to pry the Oreo apart to get to the icing in the middle. She was her mother. No doubt about it. From the mannerisms and pet peeves to the melodic giggle and thousand watt smile.
"So do you want to talk about your dream, Kellan?" he asked, biting into one of his cookies.
She nodded.
"You had a dream that a bad guy did something to me?"
Another nod. "He killed you dead," she said simply.
"How?"
"He had a gun," she told him. "And you were chasing him and he shot you with the gun and you died. And mommy cried really, really, really bad."
"Were you sad?" Flack asked.
"I was really, really, really sad," she replied in a near whisper. "I would miss you, daddy. If some bad guy killed you dead. I'd miss you a lot."
"And you know it was just a dream, right? That it isn't going to happen the next time daddy goes to work, right?"
"But what if it does!" Kellan cried. "Policemen get hurt by bad guys!"
"But more policemen hurt bad guys," Flack told her. "So I don't want you worrying about me, okay?"
"It's hard not to worry about you, daddy," she said. "Your daddy. If you were killed dead who would take me to McDonald's for Chicken Nuggets on Sundays? And who would take me to Mother Goose at the library? And who would do my pigtails for me?"
"If something happened to me, mommy would do those things," he assured her.
"But I don't want mommy to do them," Kellan argued. "I want you to do them."
"And I am going to keep doing them," he promised. "And you need to stop worrying about stuff like that. You're five years old, baby sweets. You don't need to think of stuff like that."
"Mommy cries a lot," his daughter told him.
"When? When she's not feeling well?"
Kellan shook her head. "When you go to work at night time. She thinks that Kallison and I are sleeping but we hear her. We just stay in bed and pretend we don't."
"Why is mommy crying?"
"I think she's worried about you, too," the little girl said.
"Well I'll talk to mommy tomorrow and get her to stop worrying so much," Flack promised. "Is there something else you wanted to talk about?"
Kellan nodded and sipped her milk. "Is it true you almost died, daddy?"
He sighed. He was afraid of giving away too much information and frightening her, and not giving her enough and have her learn later in life that he had down played the bombing in order to protect her.
"A long time ago, way before you and Kallison were ever thought of, I got hurt at work," he began, choosing his words, and his tone, carefully. "And I was really sick and needed an operation to fix some things and I stayed in the hospital for a really long time. But I got a lot of rest and I got a lot of exercise and a lot of doctors and nurses helped me get better and I went back to work."
"Is that where you got your ouchies?" she asked.
She'd been calling the larger scar across the left side of his lower stomach, and the smaller ones the marred his chest his ouchies from the very first day she'd noticed them a year or so okay. Back then she'd accepted his explanation that he'd gotten hurt. Now, as she was getting older, he wasn't the least bit surprised that she needed, wanted and deserved more information.
Flack nodded and sipped his drink.
"Did it hurt a lot?" she inquired.
"It did. But it doesn't hurt now."
"Did the bad guy hurt you get in trouble?"
"He went to jail where he belongs. You don't have to worry about him."
"Was mommy sad? When you got hurt and you were in the hospital?"
"Mommy and I weren't together yet," he explained. "Mommy was still living in Arizona with nanny and papa."
"Did mommy get hurt at work too?"
Flack frowned. "No…why?"
"'Cause mommy has a big ouchie across her tummy."
"That's from the operation she had to get you and Kallison out of there," he told his daughter. "We were worried something bad was going to happen to you girls so the doctors had to get the two of you out that way."
"Poor mommy!" Kellan exclaimed. "That must have hurt!"
"She was okay after a while though. Is there anything else you want to ask me?"
Kellan nodded. "Is mommy going to die?" she asked.
"Why would you think that?"
"Because mommy is sick all the time. Does that mean she's going to die?"
"No. It means that mommy has an illness that makes her have pain constantly. And when she doesn't take her medication or sleep on that heating pad that daddy bough for her, then she doesn't feel very well and has to take a few days to get back on her feet. What mommy has isn't fatal, okay? She's not going to die from it."
"Promise?" Kellan asked.
"I promise."
"Pinkie promise?" she inquired, holding her right pinkie out towards her father.
"Pinkie promise," he replied, hooking his right baby finger with hers. ""You don't have to worry about stuff like that. Okay? That kind of stuff is not for five year olds to worry about. All you need to worry about is that daddy will do everything he can to protect you and your sister and your mom from.."
"And Wiener," his daughter tossed out.
"And Wiener," he added. "From all the bad guys and the bad stuff that goes on in the world. Alright? Daddy won't let anything happen to any of you."
"'Cause daddy can do anything," Kellan declared and polished off her milk in one large gulp. Giggling and blushing as she let out a tiny burp.
"You know what daddy is really good at it?" Flack asked, picking up his own milk and downing it.
Kellan shook her head.
He let out a huge, rib shaking belch that caused his daughter to erupt into a fit of laughter. "I'm better at burping contests then you are," he said.
"That's because you're a boy, daddy!" she howled with laughter. "Boys are good burpers!"
"I don't know about that. Mommy's a girl and she can burp really, really loud. You done?"
Kellan nodded.
Flack pushed his chair away from table and stood up. Gathering the empty cups and the box of cookies, he carried both over to the sink. The cups he rinsed before setting them in the sink and the Oreos he placed in the exact same spot on the counter as where he had found them.
"Come on," he said to his daughter as he returned to the table and scooped her out of her chair and up into his arms. Snagging Holly, he handed the doll to her. "Back to bed for you two. We have a busy day ahead of us at Uncle Danny's."
"Do I have to brush my teeth again?" Kellan asked with disdain. "Mommy says if we eat chocolate we have to brush our teeth right away."
"Well you know what? Mommy doesn't know we had cookies. And I'm not going to tell her. So I say we live dangerously and not brush our teeth. Okay?" he reached out to flick off the light.
"Okay, daddy," she said with a giggle and curled her arm around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder as he carried her from the room. "Daddy?" she asked, as they headed through the living room.
"What baby sweets?"
"I love you and I think you're the bestest policeman ever."
He grinned and kissed her temple. "I love you too, Kellan."
She was fast asleep by the time his feet hit the top landing of the stairs and Flack carefully laid her and Holly down in the bed alongside of Kallison and a snoring Wiener. Covering his two girls up and tucking them in tightly, he stood, at the side of the bed and stared down at his twin daughters, in awe at how beautiful and innocent and peaceful they were.
He prayed to God that he was able to keep his promises to them. That he'd be able to protect them and their mother, at all costs.
He bent down and pressed a kiss to each of their foreheads before leaving them to their deep, warm slumber and returning to the room he was sharing with his wife.
Sam stirred as he slipped back into bed beside her. "Everything okay?" she asked. "I thought I heard you talking to Kellan earlier."
"I was," Flack told her, fixing the blankets around them. "She had a bad dream."
"What about?"
He shrugged. "Just typical five year old nightmare stuff. Aliens and three headed monsters. Stuff like that. She's fast asleep again. No worries."
"Okay," Sam said and yawned noisily.
He wrapped his arm around her slender body and pulled her tight against him and kissed her softly.
"Mmmm…" she said. "You taste like chocolate. And mint."
He smiled sheepishly.
"You've been into my cookies!" she scolded him, then giggled as he rolled over onto his back, pulling her on top of him.
"I have," he admitted, and kissed her deeply and ran his hand underneath the bottom of her pyjama top. His fingertips grazing along the small of her back. "But there's another cookie I wouldn't mind getting a hold of."
She laughed. "You are such a perv!"
"Consider it a Boxing Day present."
"It doesn't have to be a holiday for me to give you that kind of present," she assured him.
"No?"
She shook her head and placed a knee on either side of him and sat up. She peeled off her pyjama top. The moonlight danced off of her curves and made her pale, smooth skin shimmer.
"I am a very lucky man," Flack declared, running his hands over her thighs and up her sides and around the to front of her to gently cup her breasts.
"The luckiest in the whole wide world," she said and leaned over to kiss him.
"I love you so much, baby," he whispered against her lips after the kiss ended. "Forever and ever."
"I love you, too," she said with a smile.
"Forever and ever?"
"Don't push it," she teased, her eyes sparkling as she bent over him, her hair tumbling over his skin, as she licked and suckled at his neck.
"And you know that I'd never leave you and the girls unless I had to, right?" he asked, his hands running back down her sides and resting on her hips.
She drew back to look at him, a frown on her face. "What's that suppose to mean?"
"It means exactly what I said. You know that I'd never leave you and the girls unless I had to, right? And I'm talking permanently, not on this planet anymore."
"Why do you have to ruin a perfectly good smutty moment by talking about something like that?" she huffed and made to climb off of him.
His hands tightened on her hips, anchoring her in place. "I need you to look at me and tell me that you know that there's nothing, or no one on this earth, that will take me away from my family. That the only one I'm ever leaving you guys is by death. And even then, I'm putting up a hell of a fight. I need you to look me in the eyes and tell me you know this."
"Donnie, why in the hell are you…"
"Do you know this? It's not a difficult question, babe."
She sighed and nodded sullenly. Her eyes never leaving his. "I know this," she said in a quiet voice.
"I need you to stop worrying about me so much. And don't tell me you don't because a very reliable source told me that you've been crying a lot when I go off to work. Especially if I get a middle of the night call out. I've been a cop a long time, Sammie. And I've come through some heavy duty shit. So why are you just getting like this now?"
"I'm not just getting like anything," she argued. "I've always worried about you. Just lately, with how sick I've been and how hard things have been for us, I've been worrying extra. I worry about what would happen to the girls if something happened to you and I got too sick to care for them properly and…"
Frowning, he tipped her over onto her back and covered her petite body with his much larger, stronger one, propping himself on one arm as he held her delicate face in his free hand. "I don't ever want you to be thinking about stuff like that. Alright? There's no reason for you to be thinking, or talking like that."
"You know what the neurologist said, Donnie. About finding that spot on the last MRI I went for."
"I know what he said. And what he said was that it showed a freckle, Sam. A freckle. A minuscule spot on the brain stem. And he also said that he'd check it out every three months and that none of your problems were associated with whatever the hell it is he saw. Because he doesn't even know what it is or if there's something even there or if it was a fuck up on the test's part. So why in the hell are you.."
"And if it wasn't?" she asked. "If it wasn't a screw up on the machine and the spot is bigger next time and…"
"I'm not fucking listening to this, Sam," he snapped, moving off of her and flopping onto his back. "Why do you have to do this? Why do you have to bring shit like this up? Especially at Christmas? Does it make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside to think of morbid shit? At a time when we're suppose to be happiest?"
"It's something legitimate to be concerned about it," she reasoned, sitting up in bed.
"No, it's not. Until we go for that second MRI in another month and they tell us that the goddamn thing got bigger and we have something to worried about, then and only then will I be freaked out. Right now, I just want to make my Christmas holidays with my girls as memorable and special as I possibly can. And you talking about shit like that.."
"I know it bothers you to think about stuff like this, Donnie."
"You know what? It does. It does bother me. Thinking about there being something fatally wrong with you scares the shit out of me. Thinking about spending my life without you and raising our children on my own fucking terrifies me. I didn't sign up for that when I married you! It was for better or worse, to death to us part. And as far as I'm concerned, the latter isn't going to happen for a hell of a long time. We're a team, Samantha. It's me and you. No individuals. And I don't want to think about being a single father and facing the rest of me life without you. So do me a favour and…"
She leaned over and silenced him with a long kiss.
He relaxed under the touch of her moist, warm, skillful lips. Laying a hand on the small of her back, he ran his fingertips along her smooth skin until the reached the back of her neck and he was burying his fingers in her thick, dark hair.
"Let's not talk anymore," she suggested, pressing kisses along his cheek and his jaw and making her way to the side of his neck.
"You're the one that…"
She laid her hand over his mouth and smiled devilishly at him as she trailed the tip of her tongue along his collar bone and down onto his chest. Licking and nibbling her way down to his navel.
"Are we through talking?" she asked, her fingers pausing on the waist band of his sweats.
He nodded vigorously. "Other things I'd rather you be doing with your mouth then talking right about now," he said.
She grinned. "It's been a very Merry Christmas for you."
"It has," he agreed. His eyes closing and his hands gripping the sheets below him as he handed himself over to her completely. Losing both himself, and his mind, to the love of his life.
"DADDY!" Five year old Daniel Messer Jr -DJ as his Uncle Donnie had been calling him from the day he was born- bellowed as he stood at the back door of his family's four bedroom, two and a half storey in Ridgewood, Queens.
Moving to Queens had been an easy decision for the Messer family. Despite Danny's grumblings, he had been the one who'd brought the idea up to his wife after Flack and Sam had announced that they'd bought at house in the borough Flack had grown up in. Up until then, the Messers and the Flack's had been living only three floors from each other in the same lower Manhattan apartment building. They had liked residing in such a close proximity of each other. It had meant the their respective kids would be able to carry on with the tight knit friendships that their parents shared. That there was someone close by in case of an emergency or a last minute baby sitter was needed. Holidays and birthdays were spent together.
So when Sam and Flack decided it was time for them to move on to something bigger -something that they could actually afford, at that- Ridgewood had been an easy choice for them. The houses were well kept, the neighbours were friendly and there were nice parks and decent schools for the kids. Despite his loyal ties to Staten Island and the friendly ribbing that had always gone on between him and Flack regarding their places of birth, Danny had been easily sold on the idea of purchasing a house only two short blocks away. Truth be told, not only had he and Linds and their two small children run out of room in their apartment a long time ago, he hated the thought of being that far from his best friend and Sammie and the girls. The twins that Danny loved as if they were his own.
Of course Danny would never admit that it was his brotherly love for Don Flack Jr that had spurred his decision to move himself and his family to Queens.
"DADDEEEE!!!" DJ screamed once again.
Danny looked up from his current labour of love -the small backyard ice rink that he'd been slaving over since the temperatures became cold enough to maintain the ice - and glanced towards his son who, in just a pair of cargo pants and a button down white dress shirt, stood at the sliding glass door that led from the kitchen and out onto the snow covered deck.
"Go back inside, buddy!" Danny called. "You've got no coat and no shoes on and your glass are going to fog up!"
"Mommy says that Uncle Donnie and Auntie Sam are going to be here soon!! And Kellan and Kallison too!"
"Well you tell your mom that I'll be in in a few once I clear the snow off the ice, okay?"
"Okay!" DJ yelled. "Hey, mommy!" he screamed into the house. "Daddy says he'll be in in a few!"
Danny turned back to his shovelling. The idea of creating a backyard rink had hit him the moment he'd seen the size of their backyard. It was one of the more spacious ones in the neighbourhood. Enough room for a fairly decent sized swing set for the kids and gardens he and Lindsay toiled in during the spring and summer months. Neither of them were even aware they possessed green thumbs, but after a browse through the outdoor/garden section at Home Depot, they had decided to try their hand at growing fruits and vegetables and creating spectacular flower gardens that boasted ponds and tiny waterfalls.
The Messers took an extreme amount of pride in their home, in and out. And during the winter, Danny's first, and sometimes only, love was his ice rink.
Growing up, he and his brother Louie would always haul ass down to Battery Park as soon as the outdoor public rink opened up. They'd spent hours there playing pickup hockey with other kids their age and just goofing around. Dragging themselves into the house just in time for supper. Their arms feeling like dead weight from skating so much and their ears and their fingers half frozen from loosing their hats and their mitts sometime during the day. Their mom always had a fit over the amount of hats and gloves her boys lost in the course of their young lives. And always threatened to hide their skates if they didn't smarten up.
She never did of course. And he and Louie never tired of spending hours upon hours on the rink in Battery Park.
The backyard rink, started three years ago, was an homage of sorts to Louie. Unable to lace up the skates now thanks to permanent and severe brain damage left behind following the beating that Sonny Sassone had orchestrated on him. He'd been confined to his bed in a nursing home for nearly seventeen years now. Unable to speak more than a couple of words, unable to read or feed himself or even use the bathroom on his own. There were times, during his twice weekly visits - a practice Danny had kept up with since Louie, after nearly half a year in the hospital had been sent to the home- that Danny wondered if Louie even knew who his younger brother was. But Danny remained faithful to his older brother. Louie had saved him. Plain and simple. And there was no way Danny could ever repay him for that.
So instead, Danny talked proudly and lovingly about Lindsay and the kids and showed his older brother pictures of his sister in law and his nieces and nephew. And felt as guilt as all shit every time he left that he wasn't in the position to bring Louie home with him and either take care of him himself, or hire someone to do that.
Yeah…the rink was all for Louie. Danny always said it was for the kids. Amanda and DJ and the Flack twins for that mattered, loved spending time on it, their giggles drifting through the backyard and filling the cold winter days with warmth and happiness. But deep down, it was for Louie. And Danny himself. Because that backyard rink reminded Danny of the happier times he'd spent with his brother. He had a lot of fond memories of Louie.
And no one could ever take those away.
Danny cleared the last of the snow off the ice surface and stepped back to admire his handy work. The ice was firm and crystal clear. He'd created snow banks a foot higher running the entire length on each side of the rink. A little protection for the kids if they needed to crash into something. He'd put two benches on either side of the ice for sitting down and putting skates on. And he'd purchased some all weather outdoor speakers to play music -supplied inside the house- and white Christmas lights in the trees to add some ambiance for adult only time at night.
He was a proud man, Danny Messer. He'd done alright for himself and his family. A nice place to live, all the bills paid, food on the table. His wife had a loving, faithful husband and his children had two parents that adored them and would die in a heartbeat for them.
Life wasn't perfect, but some days, it seemed damn close to it.
"Hi, daddy!" DJ suddenly chirped from alongside of him. Clad in his winter coat and thick wool hat and mitts. And his damn glasses nearly fogged up completely.
"What are you doing out here, buddy?" Danny asked. "You're going to aggravate that ear infection of yours being out here in the cold."
"Mommy says it's okay," his son replied. "She put cotton balls in my ear. Is Kallison going to get here soon?"
"I thought you just said mommy said to tell me that Uncle Flack and Auntie B will be here any minute."
"Seems like forever ago!" DJ complained. "I want them to get here now! Especially Kallison."
"What's the deal with you and Kallie?" Danny inquired. "You're always talking about her. Don't see her enough at school or something?"
"She sits right next to me, you know. And she has her cubby two away from me."
"I know all of that. I've been to your classroom, remember? Not to mention you tell me like twice a day and have told me twice a day, since you started school in September."
"Kallison's cute," DJ said with a dreamy sigh.
"She is. But so is Kellan. They are identical."
"I know dat," his son said, kicking at a snow bank. "But Kallison is different. She's my girlfriend."
"She is, is she?" Danny asked with a grin. "Does she know that?"
DJ nodded. "It was her idea."
"It was her idea to be boyfriend and girlfriend?"
The little boy nodded again.
"In between her beating you up and making you cry?"
"She's really, really cute daddy," DJ gushed.
"I heard you the first time. Don't let your Uncle Donnie hear that. He's liable to have a stroke."
"She kissed me in the sandbox," DJ informed his father.
Danny arched an eyebrow. "She did?"
"Yep."
"When did this happen?" his father asked.
"Last week. And it was nice, too. I liked it."
Danny couldn't help but chuckle. "Strange thing about this, Daniel? I recall having a conversation very similar to this with your Uncle Donnie eight years ago. When Auntie B kissed him the first time, he was a goner, too. Didn't stand a chance."
"That's 'cause Auntie B is pretty like Kallison," DJ declared. "That's why Uncle Donnie let her kiss him."
Danny grinned and lay a hand on top of his son's head. "Pretty women have that effect on us guys. Same thing happened with me and your mommy. I was doomed from the start. The second she looked at me the first day we met, that was it. I was toast."
"Yeah…" DJ blushed slightly, his eyes on the ice. "Kallison kissed me and it was nice. Boom."
Danny laughed heartily. "Like father like son!" he declared. "You're learning well. How about you and I get out of this cold and go inside and have some hot chocolate and keep warm until your girlfriend gets here."
"Peppermint hot chocolate?" DJ asked as he and his father, hand in hand, headed off the rink and through the snow towards the stairs to the deck.
Danny sighed. "Okay…so maybe you got some of your mother in ya, too."
"He gets all the good stuff from me," Lindsay declared, as she stood in just inside the open sliding door.
"You wish, Montana," Danny said and bent down to capture her lips in a searing kiss.
"What was that for?" she asked.
Her husband shrugged. "Just because," he replied. "'Cause I wanna kiss my girl. Is that okay with you?"
She laid a hand on the back of DJ's head and gently pushed him into the house. Then grabbed her husband by the front of the front of his jacket and yanked him down into a long, intense, toe curling and snow melting kiss.
"Is that okay with you, Mister Messer?" she asked, licking her bottom lip when the kiss ended.
"How about we lock the kids in their rooms and I take you in the bedroom and show you how okay that was," he growled, attempting to pull her back into another kiss.
"How about you go bury yourself in the snow to cool yourself down," Lindsay said, laughing as he grabbed her ass roughly and yanked her towards him.
"How about you just…"
The doorbell sounded. The chime echoing through the house.
"Our guests are here," Lindsay told him, shoving him away and headed through the kitchen.
"Tell Flack he's got shit timing!" Danny called after her. "And they're not guests, babe! They're family! You know that!"
"God knows I love them more then my actual family back in Montana!" Lindsay shouted back.
Danny smiled. He was definitely looking forward to what had become a Boxing Day tradition. The coming together of the Messers and the Flacks.
"Uncle Danny!" Kellan cried as she spotted the familiar face strolling into the living room, where
DJ was already all over his Uncle Donnie, begging him to come skating with him in the backyard. Kallison and Amanda were already running upstairs to take a peek at Amanda's Christmas presents and Sam and Lindsay were talking excitedly about the Disney themed Christmas tree Lindsay had worked her ass off to decorate. Each Messer kid got a different Disney decoration each year. Starting with seven years ago when Amanda was born. Between the collection the kids had accumulated and what Danny had bought his wife just because, the tree was jammed back.
Danny easily caught the tiny body that came flying at him and scooped Kellan up into his arms.
"Hi, Uncle Danny!" she chirped and gave him a noisy kiss before curling her arms and legs around him.
"How's my girl doing?" he asked, showering her with kisses and stroking her silky black hair. "You have a good Christmas?"
She nodded energetically. "Did you?" she asked.
"I had an amazing Christmas. Did Santa bring you everything you wanted?"
"Well…" she said with a sigh. "Not really."
"No? What was it you didn't get?" he asked.
"I wanted a baby brother or sister," she replied. "But I didn't get one. And I didn't get one last year or the year before that!"
"Well Santa doesn't bring baby brothers or sisters," Danny told her. "Mommies and daddies take care of that stuff. And I think your mommy and daddy have already explained that God didn't want them to have any more babies. Just you and your sister. It's what makes you two so special."
"Can't mommy and daddy go somewhere and get me a baby brother or sister? Like the hospital? When Makenna was born there was lots of babies there. Can't mommy and daddy have one of them?"
"Those babies have mommies and daddies," Danny said.
"Well there has to be somewhere to get a baby brother or sister," she huffed. "'Cause I want one real bad."
"Kellan, we've talked about this," Flack said, where from he was already sprawled out on the floor rough housing with DJ. "No baby brothers or sisters. Alright?"
"Alright," she said with a heavy dramatic sigh.
"Why don't you go upstairs and find Kallison and Amanda?" Danny suggested as he sat his niece down on the floor. "Then you and your sister can open up the presents Aunt Linds and I bought for you."
"Can I play with Makenna?" she asked hopefully.
"She's having a nap," Danny replied. "But I promise you that as soon as she gets up, you can help change her and then play with her? Okay?"
"Okay!" Kellan chirped and bounded through the living room and up the stairs.
"Go easy on your Uncle Donnie there, Daniel," Danny said to his son, who was bouncing up and down on his uncle's stomach. "He's not as young as he used to be. Can't you see all the grey hair?"
"Funny, Mess," Flack snorted. "You got four years up on me so shut it."
"Four years older and I could still whup you, Lieutenant," Danny declared.
"You wish," his best friend laughed. "I could take you with both hands tied behind my back."
Danny rolled his eyes. "Me and you on the backyard rink later."
"You're on," Flack told him, finally escaping from DJ's clutches and standing up. "Merry Christmas, Dan-o," he said, offering his hand.
"Don't give me that crap," Danny growled and pulled his best friend into a tight hug. "Merry Christmas, Don. Things went okay with the parents yesterday?"
"Better then I expected. I was fearing the worse when Mel showed up on my door step. But she bailed on the way there so we didn't have to deal with her crap."
"And things are good? With you and Sammie?" the CSI asked as he and Flack moved from the living room and into the kitchen.
Flack frowned. "Why woudn't they be? I got laid like six times in two days. That hasn't happened since before the girls were born."
"You sounded a little…I don't know…agitated on the phone this morning," Danny told him, opening the fridge and taking out two bottles of Bud. Twisting the caps off of both and tossing them in the sink before handing a beer to his best friend. "And then you said you and Sammie had something to tell me and Linds. Guess I got to thinking it was something bad. Like you guys were separating or something."
"Nothing like that," Flack assured him and sipped his beer. "But we do have some news."
"What kind of news?" Danny asked, leaning against the island in the center of the kitchen.
"Sam and I wanted to wait until later on. After the festivities."
Danny frowned. "That bad?"
Flack shrugged. "Not life or death of anything. Maybe a little earth moving for some people."
Danny stared long and hard at his best friend.
"There's two things," Flack told him.
"What's the first?"
"Sam got fired from the lab," the detective announced.
Danny's eyes widened.
"And she's got another job. In another city."
"Okay…" Danny said, for the lack of nothing better to say thanks to the shock invading his mind and body. "What city?"
Flack took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "We're moving to New Jersey," he said.
Thanks to everyone that is reading and reviewing! I appreciate each and every one of you! Even the lurkers! But please, please, please review! It makes my day!
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