o O o

A/N: Best wishes to all residents of "The Vault," past, present, and future. If the name is tongue in cheek, we shall never tell. .. As everyone surely knows by now, I am nowhere close to owning the rights to any Elvis Presley tune, and as previously mentioned, neither can I claim any Disney adaptation.

Many thanks to all readers and reviewers; I wish you a prosperous new year!

o O o

The Colonel was not a natural storyteller, his delivery was abrupt - as though the need to deliver the content in the fewest number of words was more important than the story itself. "It was early December, and I was shepherding the young guys, the new recruits who didn't have passes to go home for Christmas. We went to the winter concert at the University; your mom was just a freshman in the choir." He stopped and cleared his throat. "Not even eighteen years old – she had a late birthday. Supposed to be a Christmas baby but came a couple of days early, thus the name. She had a solo – I thought she was channeling the heavenly host. There was something otherworldly about her. She WAS the music; she lived it. She breathed it. I was smitten. I stopped her afterwards, asked her out on the spot. "

Spencer narrowed his eyes, seeing immediately the direction the story would take. Carly, on the other hand, sat on the edge of her seat, always enthralled by any story about her mother. "Maybe there was divine intervention; I don't know – here I was a perfect stranger, but she agreed. Something about a man in uniform, I guess. I wanted to take her to dinner and a movie, but she wanted to go ICE SKATING, of all things." Spencer raised his eyebrows as the image appeared unbidden in his mind. His father on ice skates? That must have been a sight. "I was miserable at it," he admitted, "but she was something else. I pretty much gave up - I would happily have frozen to death there by the ice just watching her; she was so light on her feet, she made it look like she was floating. I felt like she was imprinted on the inside of my eyelids; every time I closed my eyes I saw her. From that night on, I spent every free moment with her. But being who I was, I PLANNED every moment. I scheduled every second. I arrived precisely on time for every date, always punctual, completely reliable, and entirely predictable. I gave her the expected gifts in the expected order. As you may have guessed, Noelle was much more of a free spirit. She didn't view organization and time management in the same light that I did; she found me at times…inflexible and this bothered her. She made a point of trying to 'break me out' of the predictable pattern, and at least on one front, she was spectacularly successful." He shot a pointed look at Spencer, who nodded that he understood.

"Your dad was beside himself," Granddad interjected. "He didn't want to tell me, you see, that –"

"DAD," Steven admonished. "Let me tell it." He composed himself and continued in as neutral a voice as he could muster. "When she… turned up pregnant in March, I told her that of course, I would marry her. Noelle didn't take too kindly to that. I didn't exactly ASK her; I just told her. I was in shock when she refused. What would it take, I asked, for her to change her mind? 'You're too uptight Steve; you need to unleash your creativity. I can't imagine that you're ever going to be happy with someone like me.' 'You're wrong,' I said. 'You're everything to me. Please don't walk away.' So I bought her a ring – the very one that's on your finger, young lady," nodding to Sam, "and I proposed properly, down on one knee, the whole bit. She still turned me down. I was crushed. I asked her every day for two weeks straight. No good."

"What did you do Dad?" Carly was almost bouncing, so excited to hear the rest of the story.

For the first time he smiled. "One night I serenaded her in the dorm. I signed in at the front desk five minutes before lock up and she came down with a couple of friends in tow, probably intending to send me packing." He paused for a moment, recalling the scene. "I should probably add that your mother lived in the only all girls freshman dorm on campus, the rest being co-ed by that time. Because of its unique status – housing only first year girls, it was affectionately known by the students as 'The Vault.'"

"Actually Dad," Spencer pointed out in amusement, "that dorm is still on campus and I'm positive it's called the –"

"Never mind," the Colonel cut him off brusquely. "My point is that the RD in that building took her duties as guardian of the girls quite seriously, and I was already pushing my luck – a 25 year old adult male signing in just moments before closing. Before your mother could say a word I burst into song right there in the lobby – you should have seen her, the big 'O' on her face turned into the most delighted laugh. She had a beautiful laugh, just like her beautiful voice. Her friends were mortified, but when I finished my songs and asked her if she would marry me now, she kissed me and said 'Yes Steve, I'll marry you now.' And that was that. I married her in June. Spencer was born that November."

"What did you SING?" Carly demanded. A good story demands details, and this one was still lacking.

"Well Carly, it's really not important WHAT I sang; it was the fact that I did it at all that-"

"DAD," she complained. "Really, what did you sing?"

Spencer pulled Sam close and added, "These things are important to women, Dad, you may as well tell her because she's not going to rest until you do. Believe me. I know."

"If you must know –"

"I must," Carly insisted.

With a straight face the Colonel said, "The first one was Elvis."

"Elvis?" Sam choked, trying not to laugh.

"Elvis," he said firmly. "Can't Help Falling In Love. But I think the one that really got her was the second one. Once Upon a Dream."

Carly lit up. "From Sleeping Beauty! Dad, that's so ROMANTIC! You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream..."

Sam noted that the tempers in the room had cooled considerably as the Colonel told his tale. Was it possible that they had successfully negotiated the minefield? She glanced from the ring on her finger back to Spencer, impulsively turning in his arms to kiss him. About to whisper "I love you," she sniffed delicately as the odor of scorched peppers wafted over from the kitchen.

"Oh chizz …"