A/N: Hey! I'm back with another chapter! Sorry again about the skipped week, there was camp, and late nights and concerts and netball and virtually no time for writing at all! But good news! School ends in two weeks, so after that, I can focus all of my brain on writing awesome chapters for you guys! YAAAAY! Now you can read.

Now Loading...

Kids Next Door Mission...

Operation: F.O.R.G.E.T.

Fragments

Of

Recovery

Gradually

Enable

Team

Chapter 28 – Kris Kringle

'Wallaby? Have you locked the back door yet?' Mrs. Beatles called to her son, who was in his room, staring at his suitcases happily, with his hands proudly on his hips.

'Yeah, Ah did before, mum!' He called back, bending down now to pick up the first of the assorted bags.

Two weeks had passed since the stakeout at Dr. Colter's; a lot in Wally's real world as well as his Kids Next Door world. Almost every day after school, Joey's sector and his own would meet up, whether it be to discuss plans, strategies and possibilities for the future, or to suss out a new lead or a possilbly suspicious teen they had spotted at school (can you guess who reported most of these? He's tall, a teensy bit uptight, an is severely lacking in the hair department).

School had ended, everyone saying their goodbyes and merry christmases for the winter break. Hoagie had created a still-in-the-test-stage serum that was supposed to reverse the turning process, but it was still unstable, and he still had many tests to run on it before he could be sure it was safe to use.

The kris-kringle had also been done as well. Nobody had had much time to think about what they were going to get for each other, but then, they had known each other for so long, that they really didn't need that much time.

They had met up at the treehouse, mid-morning, when the air still had its biting early chill, and their breath fogged in front of them.

They were sitting, in a circle, in the middle of the TV room, with the pile of wrapped up presents in the middle.

Wally had never been one to get overly excited, but even he had to admit that he was getting excited now.

It was christmas, and he was with the best friends that, until under a fortnight ago, he didn't even know he had.

And now, with the happiest time of the year comoing around soon, just around the corner, and only two days until he left for Australia, it was hard not to feel the anticipation.

Wally smirked to himself as Kuki tried to reach sneakily forward and grab her own tagged gift, only to have her hand slapped back by Abby. Kuki was always enthusiastic and excited.

Wally had been thinking about Kuki a lot, especially since his recommissioning. Thinking about how even though everything had changed, even though all the other details of his life had been flipped on their heads, his feelings for Kuki hadn't changed at all. He still loved the same things; her bubbly personality, her glittering smile, the way her hair bounced and swirled around her shoulders when she walked, how she was always ready for anything, as well as the firey side that came out whenever someone upset her.

He had had many thoughts about telling her everything, but the dream seemed too far off to even be a possibility. He had imagined the moment so many times he almost felt that it had acctually happened. He pictured himself saying it, confessing everything, he imagined the awkward silence, and felt the sharp pang in his chest as she tried to say nicely the things that could not ever be said nicely.

And that was why he chickened out every time he attempted admitting to his feelings.

Nigel picked up the first gift, a small rectangular one wrapped in red and gold paper. Nigel read out the tag;

'To Hoagie, from your Secret Santa.'

And the gift was passed to Hoagie, who tore off the paper in two seconds flat.

Kuki watched on with the rest of the group, trying to keep a straight face so Hoagie wouldn't know that she was his secret santa.

The red paper lay ripped and discarded, in bits all around the circle, while Hoagie sat holding a limited edition Yipper set, one that Hoagie knew was very hard to find.

'Awesome! This is so cool, I thought these came off the shelves ages ago!' He looked around the room.

'Thanks a lot, uhm, whoever you are..' He said, to the room.

Kuki was about to call out 'No problem!' but had to bite her tongue quickly to avoid doing so. Instead she just smiled quietly.

Abby's present was picked up next. And unlike the last one, it wasn't that hard to guess who had bought this present, even without opening it, as the tag read;

'Too Abby, Merri Krismass, from Cris Cringl.'

But Abby played along for the sake of it, and took the gift (which was wrapped a little untidily) as it was handed to her.

A gem the size of a lightbulb gleamed among the shreds of wrapping paper.

But it wasn't just any gem. The shining crystal was an emerald made out of the finest lime flavoured rock candy.

'Aw cool! Where did you find this?' She beamed to no-one in particular, holding up the candy gem to examine it in the light. Wally sat opposite her, smiling to himself, fully unaware that Abby, as well as everyone else, knew perfectly well that he was the secret santa in this situation.

Nigel opened his present next, a voucher for the online KND store, (the organisation had modernised a lot since Sector V had left) which Nigel could use to download 2X4 technology apps and gadgets to his phone.

There was also a book there, one that Nigel had loved as a kid.

'Aw, great! This is perfect! Thanks a lot!' He said, thinking of all the things he could buy with the money on the card.

Abby smirked, her hopes that her present would be well accepted confirmed.

There were only two presents left in the circle, one of which Kuki eagerly snapped up as she recognised her name on the tag.

Within three seconds, she was holding a DVD compilation of all her favourite rainbow monkey movies TV show episodes and holiday specials. She squealed, causing the others to wince and cover their ears.

'Eeeep! I haven't seen these movies in ages! Oh my gosh, thank you thank you thank you!' She gave everyone a hug, because she wasn't sure which of them she was meant to be thanking, but Hoagie did feel very thanked when she got to him, and hugged him so tight that he, as well as the others, were left gasping for air.

And then there was only one more. The gift stood alone, in the middle of a pile of torn wrapping and packaging in shreds, clad in blue and silver paper. Wally looked from side to side, as if making sure that it was his present. When he was sure, he leant over and picked up the oddly-shaped parcel. Pulling off the paper, two little objects slipped out; one he loved, another, he...

'RAINBOW MONKEYS?' He yelled, staring in disbelief at the cover of the videogame; "Rainbow Monkey Picnic 4: Share Time," which was sitting in his hands. There was a few seconds of silence, before Nigel, Hoagie and Abby began to laugh their heads off, while Kuki was left to say;

'What? That's a good game!'

The laughter died down (after a considerable amount of time) and Wally's glare made it all the harder to calm themselves down.

'Okay, who's tha wise guy who gave me tha cruddy rainbow dorky game?' He said, shooting a poisonous look around the circle.

'Maybe you should open the cover, Wally,' Abby said, pretty sure she'd worked out the trick Wally's secret santa had played on him.

Wally's eyebrows narrowed, and he looked down again, before opening the cover of the game, and looking down at a game disk that was not Rainbow Monkey Picnic 4.

'Agh, awesome! Tha new Zombie Warrior Destroyer game! Cool!' He cried, his anger melting away. He then looked down at the other object that had slipped out of the present when he'd opened it.

It was small, in the shape of a squashed oval, and had about a million little buttons and knobs attatched to the side and front.

'What does this do?' he asked to nobody, cautiously pushing one of the many buttons. Instantly, a soda bottle opener sprung out of one of the ends of the contraption, startling Wally a bit, but putting a smile on his face.

'Sweet! This thing has gotta have like eleventy-hundred gadgets on it!' He said, now proceeding to push every button, pull every trigger and twist every knob he could get his hands on.

'That oughta keep him busy for a while,' Numbuh 2 smirked.

Numbuh 1 sat next to him, also smiling. He knew Wally was going to like it, and the look on his face when he unwrapped that little Rainbow Monkey prank he'd pulled...

Priceless.

After that, Sector V had gone up to the point. Yes, they went to the point. Sure, it was full of teens but it was almost christmas, and everyone seemed to be in a pretty good mood. The joint had been decorated with tinsel, baubles, fake snow, and bells.

They had ordered drinks and food, and spent the day laughing at each other as they fell over on the rink; again and again and again.

'Wally! Come on love, it's time to leave!' Wally's mother's voice jerked him out of his little recount, and he looked down again at all his bags, beginning to haul the first few out of his room.

'Alright, mum! I'll be -ugh, stupid bag- right down!'

Ten minutes later, the bags were in the car (it was amazing that they could all fit in there) and the Beatles family set off to the airport, and Wally couldn't help the smile on his face, as he sat looking out the car window, with his headphones in.

'Australia, here Ah come,' he thought to himself, smiling wider as he saw Joey sitting next to him, jiggling up and down in his seat and looking very excited.

~(*)~

Wally had left from the Point to go straight home at about 1:30pm.

It was now 2:05pm.

Nigel was having a good time, at the roller rink. He wasn't a great skater, prefered to stick to calmly doing laps around the floor than racing around like Wally did. He was with his friends, and it was nearly christmas. What else could he want?

Then, she showed up.

'Hiii, Nigie!' She called, and instantly Nigel's good feeling faded. He hesitated, considering pretending he hadn't seen her, but it was too late. He wouldn't be able to get out of it now.

'Uh, hi Lizzie. How are you?'

'Oh, I'm fine,' she said, doing the whole 'flirty-eyelashes thing. 'I didn't think I'd run into you here.'

'Uh, yeah, well... here I am.'

Since Lizzie still thought that Nigel shouldn't remember anything about them ever being together, ever breaking up, she obviously had the nerve to try and 'get him back.'

That made Nigel just a teeensy bit angry.

'So, can I- uhm, help you, Lizzie?' he asked, wondering just where this girl would try to take the conversation.

'Oh no, I'm just here to skate. Do you wanna, y'know, skate with me?' she posed, hitting full on desperate-flirt-try-anything-you-can mode.

'Ehe, thanks, Lizzie, but no thanks. I'm actually, I'm- I'm here with someone!' He fibbed, instantly regreting it.

Lizzie's smile hardened.

'Oh really?' She said, somewhat harshly. 'Who?'

Nigel scanned the room, wondering just how on earth he was going to get out of this now.

That's when he spotted her.

Rachel was at the counter of the snack bar, ordering something. Nigel thought she must have just arrived, as he hadn't seen her until now.

'Rachel! Uhh, I'm here with Rachel,' he said, hoping that Lizzie'd buy it. The little menace in glasses raised an eyebrow, following Nigel's pointed finger to look at Rachel, who Nigel couldn't help but think looked a lot better than the girl in front of him, who was wearing a try-hard pink cropped top and tight jeans, as opposed to Rachel, who was in simple khaki shorts and an orange tee.

'Oh are you?' Lizzie said.

'Yeah. She just went to, uhm, get us some drinks.' Nigel hoped his lies were believable. Lizzie looked him up and down, then back at Rachel, then him, then her, then finally, back to him.

'Alright. But you better tell Rachel to watch out...'

Then, with a very fake, forced wink, Lizzie skated off, mumbling something like; 'I knew it! I always knew that blondie had a thing for my Nigie...' and Nigel breathed a heavy sigh of relief, before looking to Rachel. She was skating towards a table, holding a milkshake.

He considered saying telling her what had just happened, but instantly rejected the idea. How crazy would he sound then? But, after much, much debating with himself, he decided he could at least go over and say hi. So, he shakily propelled himself over to the booth in which she was sitting, tapping her fingers on the table along to the music.

'H-hi, Rachel,' he said, sitting down on the edge of the booth.

'Oh, hey, Nigel. What's up?' She replied, smiling at him in a friendly way, even though Nigel could tell she was wondering why he was there.

'Oh, not much. Just... skating..'

'Yeah... me too.' She said.

It was awkward.

'I saw Lizzie talking to you before,' Rachel added afterwards, looking down at her hands and fiddling with a little bracelet she was wearing.

'Oh. Oh! Oh no, she wasn't- I mean, we aren't... I don't like her, I think she just likes me,' he managed to finally get out.

'Really?

'Oh yeah. She's really not.. uhm, my type.'

'Ha, yeah. I didn't think you'd go for little miss wannabe.' Rachel's comment surprised Nigel a little. For one, she seemed to be acting apprehensive towards Lizzie for talking to him, although he couldn't think why, and two, she was taking a strange amount of interest in this. The two of them weren't even that close.

'Oh yeah. I could see the make-up on her face she was standing so close!' Nigel joked back, sliding a little further into the booth and starting to feel a little more comfortable.

Meanwhile, in the background, a certain chubby, very annoying figure stood seething, as she saw Nigel and Rachel sitting together. She had thought Nigel was lying about being here with her, but apparently it was actually happening.

'Stupid blondie...'

~(*)~

'Hey Abby, did you hear about the fairy who ate a chrismas decoration?'

'Ugh, no, Hoagie, I did not.'

'She got tinselitis! Get it? tinselitis? Bahahaha!' Abby rolled her eyes at the boy, before giving him a well-deserved hat smack.

'Ow! Aw, come on, that one was funny!'

'Nu-uh, it wasn't!'

The pair of them were sitting on the top deck of the treehouse, at 5:30pm. And Hoagie had been telling corny christmas jokes since they had gotten back from the point, half an hour ago.

They were just sitting there, legs dangling over the edge of the deck, leaning forward in the gaps of the railing, looking out at the sunset. And every now and then Hoagie would ruin the moment with another stupid joke.

The truth was, though, Hoagie had been stalling a little. He had another present for Abby, and he was trying to find the exact right moment to give it to her. But every time he got close to doing it, he'd chicken out and tell another joke instead.

But now, he thought, I'm actually going to do it. He took in a deep breath through his teeth, and did it.

'Uhm, Abby?' He said, looking across at her.

'No, Hoagie, I don't know why the reindeer crossed the Arctic.'

'No, it's not that. It's... uh, it's... here,' He stumbled, pushing the little gift box across the wooden deck to her. She picked up the little box, creased her brow, wondering what it was, before picking up the envelope attatched to it and tearing it open. Inside was a christmas card.

It had a picture on the front of a christmas tree out in the snow, with a large snowflake on the top right, and written across the bottom;

'I must be a snowflake, because I've fallen for you...'

Abby smiled despite herself. She couldn't resist the sweetness, however corny it was. She opened it, and read the message that Hoagie had written;

The winter snow may make me freeze,

But you're always the only one that I see.

And there's nowhere else that I'd rather be,

Than right next to you on Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas Abby,

Love, Hoagie

She smiled, her eyes glazing over a little.

'Thank-you Hoagie,' she said quietly. She then picked up the little gift box that lay in her lap, opening it with care.

A little gold necklace gleamed back at her.

A golden chain, with a charm on the end. It was obviously custom made, since it had a '2' and a '5' on it, enclosed in a little heart.

Hoagie picked it up carefully out of the box, and gently, he undid the clasp and fastened it around Abby's neck.

Now, Abby actually did start to cry, leaning into Hoagie and putting her arms around his neck.

'Thank you,' she breathed again.

But what Hoagie didn't know, was at that moment, Abby made a vow to herself to get Hoagie a gift that would match up to this one before christmas, and she would do anything to find it.

A/N: I really have nothing to say right now, except review and all, but that's a given.

...

...

...

Goodbye.

-Numbuh 25 over and out