| Subject: Christmas Nigh; Adeste Fi! - Part 25B /25 (The End) |
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Teacup
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Date Posted: 21:48:40 08/06/07 Mon
In reply to:
Teacup (aka Ever-Xmas)
's message, "Christmas Nigh; Adeste Fi!" on 23:51:19 06/30/07 Sat
Christmas Nigh; Adeste Fi!
Part 25 B (The very, very end)
----
“Merry Christmas!” said Kelly when she saw Mac.
“Same to you,” Mac greeted.
Seeing that Mac was dressed, Kelly noted, “Good, you’ve been up. I was afraid we’d come too early. Bobby insisted -”
Mac started looking around to see if the boy was also in the hallway, so Kelly interrupted herself. “Oh, he’s coming. He ran back to get something.”
Mac nodded and looked at her neighbor to continue.
“In the meantime,” said Kelly, “I can return your cookie pla-” She stopped mid-word, as she saw Harm come out, pulling a shirt on. She was enamored with the view.
“Hi,” said Harm, breaking the trance the visitor was in.
“Hi,” Kelly responded brightly. “Merry Christmas!”
“Merry Christmas to you,” Harm replied. There was an awkward moment of silence, until Harm noticed the empty plate. “Cookies gone already?”
“Almost. There are a few left, but they’ll be gone before lunch. Thought I’d bring the plate back before I forgot.” She started to hand the dish back to Mac, but Harm intercepted it.
“Here, … I’ll take that to the kitchen,” he offered.
“Thanks,” said Mac.
Kelly’s eyes trailed after Harm as he walked to the kitchen.
“… Stop that,” Mac ordered lightly, with the hint of a grin.
“Stop what?”
“Checking out my boyfriend.”
Kelly tried to justify herself, “Hey, he’s hot and there’s no - … Wait. … What happened to ‘we’re just good friends’?”
Mac smiled. She wanted to share the news with someone. “We talked after you left last night, … and realized that we both … want more with each other.”
“Of course you do. Sooo, … talking wasn’t the only use of your lips last night, was it?”
Mac blushed. “There may have been … some kissing,” she admitted, knowing it was an understatement. Earth shattering, incredible, and wonderful would not even do justice as descriptions of last night’s kisses.
“And?”
“And … our change in relationship is new,” she cut off Kelly’s line of inquiry. “I’m just so …” Mac was floating on her happiness and couldn’t find the words. “… He loves me,” she finally said. “I’d always hoped, but … he really does.”
Kelly recognized the significance of what was happening. This was not just about dating the hot guy.
“This is serious,” Kelly realized. “Like, ‘he’s the one’ serious.”
“Yeah,” Mac admitted.
“Wow, no wonder you’re glowing. I figured it wasn’t that you broke out the feel-good liquor this early in the day,” Kelly joked. “Otherwise, I’d ask for some.”
Not wanting to address her alcoholism, Mac simply smiled and declared, “I haven’t had a single drink this morning.”
“But you’re all lit up like a Christmas tree,” Kelly pointed out, referring to Mac’s blissful state.
Harm came in just in time to hear the last part of the exchange. “There’ll be no lighting of any trees here,” he said. “Once they catch fire, you’ve got less than 30 seconds before the whole room is ablaze. A few seconds more and you’re dead from smoke.”
Both Mac and Kelly looked at him incredulously. It was Christmas day and he was talking about death?
He sensed that they wanted to get back to happier things. “So, how’s Frosty?” he asked.
“See for yourself,” answered Bobby, who appeared in the doorway.
“Well, look at that,” said Harm. “Frosty’s free.” The bird was no longer bandaged up as he had been the night before.
Bobby walked into the apartment and Mac reached to stroke the back of her finger along the parrot’s wing. “Almost good as new,” she commented.
“Thanks to you guys,” Bobby admitted.
“Harm’s the one who always manages to pull something out of his magic hat and make things better,” said Mac.
Frosty suddenly burst out with a loud squawk, followed by, “Happy Birthday!”
Mac jumped back, and Harm was equally surprised.
“I told you he could only say one phrase,” Bobby told Harm.
Kelly explained, “My husband taught Frosty that for Bobby’s last birthday. I’m afraid it doesn’t make sense most of the rest of the year.”
“Oh, I think it’s very appropriate for today,” said Mac. “This holiday is really about celebrating a birthday, after all.”
“I guess that’s true,” said the boy’s mom. “Bobby, you got the gift?”
Confused, Mac pointed out, “We already exchanged gifts.”
“For Christmas,” Kelly agreed. “But this is a thank you for last night.”
“That’s not necessary,” Mac objected.
“Bobby wanted to get you something.”
“It’s nothing big,” the boy said. “You two helped Frosty, and Mom says thank you gifts are appropriate.” He shrugged. “… Plus, we had one of these leftover from what Mom had me give my teachers this year.”
Harm and Mac were again amused at the boy’s forthrightness. Come to think of it, maybe they owed him a gift for inspiring their ‘what if’ game the night before, which had led to so much more.
Mac politely accepted the three-inch square box wrapped in pretty paper with pretty ribbons of blue. “Thank you. That was very nice of you to think of us.”
“No problem,” answered Bobby, just as Frosty started knocking into the boy’s head with his beak.
“We’d better go,” Kelly decided.
Her statement was followed by another loud squawk from the bird.
Bobby decided to translate. “Frosty wants to wish you a merry Christmas from the bottom of his heart.”
Harm was about to thank Frosty for his ‘wishes,’ when the bird gave out another squawk. Then the parrot surprised everyone, saying, “Feliz Navidad!”
Kelly looked at her son. “When did you teach him that?”
“I didn’t,” admitted Bobby, equally shocked.
“Maybe Spanish is his native tongue,” joked Harm.
Bobby’s mom suspected it was actually the cleaning lady who was responsible, but kept her thoughts to herself.
“I wish Dad was home for Christmas, so he could hear this,” said Bobby.
His mother ruffled her son’s hair. “He is home with us … if only in our dreams.” Kelly then declared it time for them to leave.
When the neighbors had gone, Mac looked to Harm. “You want to open it?”
“Nah, you go ahead.”
“Okay.” She unwrapped the box and found inside a glass ball ornament with the words ‘Adeste Fidelis’ inscribed upon it. She read it aloud.
“What does that mean?” asked Harm.
Mac shot him a look as if to say that he ought to know.
“What?” he questioned defensively. “You’re the language expert, not me.”
“Do you at least know what language it is?” she asked him.
“Of course I do,” he said. “It’s … Latin.”
“Very good,” she told him.
“Hey, I picked up a thing or two in law school.”
“Well, you’d better be able to tell me what ‘fidelis’ means, or I’m revoking your honorary Marine status,” Mac threatened.
That, of course, gave Harm the hint he needed for the meaning of that word to click in his brain. “The Marine Corp motto – ‘Semper fi,’” he stated. “… ‘Fi’ is short for ‘fidelis.’”
“Uh huh,” Mac encouraged him to continue.
“The motto means ‘always faithful,’ so, ‘fidelis’ must be the word for faithful,” he declared with triumph. “Do I get to keep my honorary status?”
“For now,” Mac answered with a smile.
“So, what does ‘adeste’ mean?” he asked.
“It’s sort of a call to follow or join, … to be present,” said Mac. “‘Adeste Fidelis’ is the title of the song, translated as … ‘O Come All Ye Faithful.’”
“I know that song,” said Harm.
“I would think so.”
“That ornament will look nice on your tree,” Harm told Mac as he scanned her Christmas tree for an open spot.
She pursed her lips for a moment. “You know,” she said, “… Bobby gave this to both of us.”
“What are you suggesting?”
Mac held up the ornament. “It means we have joint legal custody …”
One side of Harm’s mouth raised in a lopsided smile. “Like the picture.”
“And frame,” added Mac. “… Since that pair of items gets to stay at my place for Christmas, I think the ornament should go to yours. … It can be the first decoration we hang on your little tree.”
“Okay,” Harm agreed. “We switch off, so you get it next year?”
“… Maybe by next year,” suggested Mac with hope, “… we won’t have to switch off for physical custody.”
Harm smiled at her shyly and quietly agreed, “Maybe we won’t.”
It was the twinkle in his eyes though, that made Mac want to jump up and down with delight. She refrained from doing so, but Harm saw how happy she was, and that filled him with a joy he had never known before.
“I’m going to finish getting breakfast ready,” he said, remembering he needed to feed her.
“Sounds good,” Mac agreed. She went to place the ornament box on her coffee table to take to Harm’s place later. It was then that she noticed the little bell she had left on that table the night before, … the bell that couldn’t jingle. She had forgotten to throw it out with all the mess from the s’mores.
She picked it up to discard now, when to her surprise, it made a noise. She shook it, and, lo and behold, … it jingled.
“Hey Harm,” she called to him as she walked to the dining room where Harm was placing something on the table. The bell went jingling all the way.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“It jingles today,” she said, baffled.
“That’s the broken bell from last night?” he asked for clarification.
“Yeah. … How do you suppose that happened?”
Harm was surprised as well, but suggested “… Maybe the thingy inside was just jammed. Stuck or something. We must have loosened it up.”
“I guess.” Mac laid the bell on the dining room table next to her Advent Wreath and followed Harm into the kitchen.
“You ready for food?” he asked.
“I’m starving,” she said, stealing a piece of bacon.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” His hands were full with serving-plates of bacon and eggs. “… You wanna grab the pancakes?”
“Sure,” Mac answered. Harm had warmed the pancakes up and put them on a platter. The ‘angel’ was atop the stack. The rest appeared to be ‘stockings,’ though one of them caught Mac’s eye, because it looked like something else.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” she called to him. “Go ahead and sit down.”
As he waited, Harm thought about what Mac had said to Bobby about Harm pulling things out of a magic hat. “You know, it wasn’t magic last night that helped with Bobby and Frosty,” Harm said, loud enough for Mac to hear.
“No?” she responded.
“No. It was just a matter of convincing Bobby that his bird would live and be fine. That was the tricky part.”
“I never doubted you for a minute,” Mac called back.
“Of course you didn’t,” Harm took on his false bravado. “You saw me using my incredible lawyering skills of persuasion.”
Mac rolled her eyes though Harm couldn’t see her in the kitchen.
“It even makes sense to believe in me now. I mean, I must be a pretty good lawyer. I take a very skeptical little boy who’s convinced he’s a failure and that he’s killed his father’s prized possession, and I prove that he’s not guilty of anything. I convince him that all he has to do is be calm and confident to pull his bird through to be healthy as ever. … That’s just good lawyering skills,” said Harm.
“Magic, on the other hand,” he continued as Mac came into to room, “would be if I could snap my fingers and make a candy cane appear before me.”
Harm snapped his fingers to demonstrate that he did not have magical powers. At the same time, Mac used a spatula to serve him a special pancake, putting it on the plate in front of him.
Upon seeing what was instantly before him, he stopped. “… Or maybe I didn’t do such a wonderful thing after all,” he relented. “… How did you know I was going to say that?”
“You did do a wonderful thing with Bobby,” Mac assured him, “… but you had help.” Placing her hand on his shoulder, she told him, “… I guess you’re going to have to accept than when it comes to the two of us, Flyboy, … there is magic.”
“No arguments there,” he agreed, with something of a suggestive look. Then he accused her, “You used one of your visions, didn’t you?”
“No, I just thought the shape of that particular pancake made a better candy cane than a stocking. … So, I decided to fix it up for you. It’s not as good as the angel you made for me,” she admitted, “but I figure the candy cane represents how ‘sweet’ you’ve been being.” She caressed his cheek and then went to sit down.
Harm was moved by her thought and gesture, but did not let himself outwardly react too much. Instead, he turned his plate around and examined the shape the other way. “It could be a stocking,” he persisted.
“Well, before I added the stripes, it looked like something that should be on the end of a fishing line,” Mac argued, as she filled her plate.
“Maybe I meant for this one to be a hook,” he objected, with a mischievous grin.
Mac stopped what she was doing and smiled up at Harm. “Because you finally ‘hooked’ me?” she guessed.
“Because I’m ‘hooked’ on you,” he corrected.
Mac looked at him in an odd manner, and then flippantly declared, “It’s a good thing you’ve got jelly on that pancake, because you sure don’t need any syrup.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re already dripping with sap,” she pleasantly observed.
They enjoyed breakfast. Afterwards, Mac told Harm to get dressed while she did the dishes. He objected, but she insisted on cleaning up since he had cooked.
Harm had decided not to bother getting the sea bag from his car. He would just throw on yesterday’s clothes for now. Later, he would shower and put on clean clothes at his apartment to get ready for his evening ‘date’ with Mac.
“Mac, do you know where my shoes are?” he called to her from the bedroom.
“You took them off by the fireplace last night,” she replied.
“Oh, right. Thanks.” He suddenly had a feeling that he would be experiencing similar moments many times in the future, when Mac would know where his things were better than he did. He realized that he considered that to be a nice thought.
He found his shoes by the fireplace, but as he picked them up, he realized that there was an envelope in one of them. It had his name on it.
Harm opened it up to find a folded paper heart, just as Mac had received, although this one was made of red paper.
He unfolded it to find ‘SM + HR Always’ written on it. He smiled, put his shoes on, and went into the kitchen where Mac was just finishing the dishes.
“This,” he held up the envelope, “was in one of my shoes.”
“What is it?” asked Mac.
Harm opened the heart up to show her. “Know anything about how it got there?” he asked.
“Hmm, … Santa must have left it. Looks like he found you last night after all.”
“And left it in my shoe?”
“Sure,” said Mac. “That’s a traditional place for St. Nick to leave gifts. And since you don’t have your own Christmas tree here, he had to leave your present somewhere.”
“He gave us matching gifts,” Harm pointed out.
“I think he just gave us an assurance of what we already know.” Mac looked intently into Harm’s eyes. “What we already share. Santa knew we just needed some faith.”
Harm smiled brightly. “I guess so.”
Something in the way he was looking at her made Mac ask, “What?”
“You believe in Santa Claus,” he said.
“Yeah,” Mac agreed. She thought they had already covered this topic earlier in the morning. “More importantly,” she told him, “… I believe in us.”
She was leaning up to kiss him when there was a knock at the door.
“Oh, come on!” Harm exclaimed in frustration.
Mac started to move away from Harm to open the door, but then changed her mind. Quickly, she pulled on Harm, bringing his mouth down to meet hers, and they shared one much too short, but intensive, kiss.
When they finished, it left them both a little stunned. They did not release their holds on each other. But the knocking persisted. “Your visitor is getting impatient,” Harm whispered to her.
“Serves them right for lousy timing,” said Mac, brushing her lips across Harm’s one last time before pulling away to answer the door.
She peered through the peephole and then informed Harm, “It’s the maintenance man.”
Mac opened the door. “Noel, hi.”
“Merry Christmas, Ms. MacKenzie!” the young man greeted.
“Thanks. Same to you.”
“I have just come to check that everything is okay after last night’s outage.”
“Yeah, everything seems to be back on and working fine,” Mac assured him.
“Do you mind if I take a look at your heaters?” he asked.
“… Uh, no. Go ahead.” Mac did not know what the man needed to check, but figured it didn’t matter.
As Noel entered, he began to converse with Mac. “So, do you have plans for today? Because if not, I’m planning -” he stopped mid-sentence when he spotted Harm standing in the background.
“Hi,” said Harm, realizing the man had just noticed him.
Noel’s demeanor completely changed. He nodded slightly at Harm, but then walked past without saying another word.
“That’s odd,” Mac commented quietly to Harm when Noel was out of earshot. “He’s usually quite friendly.”
“I don’t think he likes me,” Harm stated.
Mac just shrugged.
“He’s got eyes for you,” Harm pointed out. “… I’m competition.”
“There is no competition,” Mac gently protested.
“He was flirting with you.”
Mac smiled at Harm. “Well, he’s not nearly as bad as Noel, Sr. is”
“Noel, Sr.?”
“His father. Noel is a junior, like you.”
“And his dad lives here as well?”
“He’s the building manager,” answered Mac.
For some reason, Mac found that Harm’s criticism of men showing interest in her was cuter now that he had actually laid a claim. Before, she had always been too frustrated at his constant disapproval, considering he had never been willing to step up to the plate.
“And how does the first Noel treat you?” Harm inquired.
“Pierre Noel? … He’s always giving me things. Calls me cutesy nicknames.” Mac cocked her head at Harm. “… You jealous?” she checked.
“Should I be?”
“No.”
“Then I’m not,” Harm assured her.
“Ms. MacKenzie,” said Noel, coming back. “Everything looks good.”
“Thanks, Noel.”
The young man stared at her, seemingly entranced.
Though he may not have been jealous, Harm did not appreciate the young man practically salivating over Mac. Harm took it upon himself to usher Noel out. “Yeah, thanks for coming by. We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.”
Noel resisted Harm’s urges to leave. “Ms. MacKenzie, I need you to sign this piece of paper. Just to say I was here and checked on things.”
“Okay.”
Noel motioned toward the dining room table to take care of the paperwork.
He reached the table first and picked up the little jingle bell to move it out of the way so that Mac had room to sign the paper.
As Mac signed the page, Noel shook the bell to ring it.
“Here you go.” Mac handed him back his sheet of paper.
“Thanks,” said Noel. He jingled the bell again in front of her. “Do you need another bell?” he asked.
“No, thanks,” Mac answered, unsure why the man thought the bell needed a partner.
“That’s too bad, it’s broken. … You sure you don’t want me to find a replacement?” he asked.
When she didn’t respond, Noel added, “I might be able to find one that actually rings in my father’s collection.”
Mac and Harm looked at each other apprehensively.
“Uh, … no, thank you,” Mac finally answered Noel.
“Okay,” said the young man. “If there’s anything I can do, just let me know,” he told her.
“Thanks, Noel. Merry Christmas.”
When the young man left, Harm picked up the bell and shook it.
“You hear it, don’t you?” Mac asked.
“Yeah,” Harm hesitantly admitted. “You too?”
Mac nodded.
“You think he was playing a joke on us?” Harm asked.
“I think … this … is a special bell,” Mac decided, taking the item from Harm. “I think we should hang it on your Christmas tree right next to our new ornament.”
“Even if the bell is actually broken?”
“Do you believe it rings?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“If you believe it rings, and I believe it rings, … does it matter what the rest of the world believes?”
Harm shook his head no and came close to hold Mac. She put her arms around him and looked up at his face.
“Adeste fi, Harm. Do you believe in the spirit of Christmas?”
Harm considered it. Despite the pain due to his father’s capture many years ago when Christmas was nigh, he did feel the goodness of the holiday.
“Yes,” he said. “I believe in the spirit of giving and of love.” With a grin he added, “ … Especially of love.” He was so much more at ease than Mac had seen him in a long time. “But more importantly,” he quoted her from earlier, “I believe in us.”
Mac’s heart ballooned for the umpteenth time in the past twelve hours. “I want to kiss you,” she whispered.
“What’s stopping you?” asked Harm.
“I’m afraid someone is going to come knocking on the door again.”
He smiled at her. “No one will interrupt us this time.”
“How can you be sure?” she asked.
“I have faith,” he said.
Mac slid her arms up around Harm’s neck, and decided, “I have faith, too.” They came together in a slow, gentle kiss. And with no knocks at the door or any other interruptions, they embraced tighter and, once again, indulged in the best Christmas gift ever. A beautiful present of love wrapped up in each other.
---
And so we now leave the whole JAG crew
With Christmas dreams: past, present, and new
Wrapped up in family, supporting each friend
Cautions of vices that cause hearts need to mend
Lessons from presence of Spirit or wraith
And all is much better … when you come with true faith.
The End
Author’s Note: Thanks for being patient with this story and for the reviews from the ‘faithful’ readers. Please tell me what you thought of this part or of the story as a whole. It really does encourage me when I know people are reading. Putting these stories together and formatting them for posting actually takes a lot of time and work … at least for me. And feedback gives me some much needed happiness!
So, at the beginning of this last part, how many people thought it was Harm walking in on Santa? And did you think it all ended ok? Though I have had some fleeting ideas for a sequel, I do not have any plans to write one at this time. I do plan to get working again on ‘JAG Continues,’ but you probably won’t see more of that for awhile yet. I might do a short story here and there in the meantime. We’ll see what my schedule allows.
Merry Christmas in July (and into August)!
Challenges: When I started posting, I set out two challenges. The first one was for me to post daily. I was doing really well on that until the very end - when I failed miserably.
The second, and far more interesting challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to make a list of all the Christmas song/movie/story/tradition references that you can spot in this story and email me at: teacupofjag@hotmail.com
Hopefully, you can do better on that challenge than I did on my daily postings there at the end. Let’s say, if you’re interested – get the lists to me by September 30th, and I’ll see who did the best.
Eventually, I will post my own list, which will be more of a crediting/explanation of the various references. (So, realistically, your deadline is any time before I post that … which won’t be anytime soon.) Wish I could offer a prize, but I can’t – except to grant you bragging rights!
Disclaimer: In case you forgot, the JAG universe, unfortunately, does not belong to me. However, Bobby, Kelly, Frosty, Noel Jr. were all characters I made up. So don’t go hunting for references to them on your JAG DVDs!
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