The Promise Basket – Part II
By
The night sky was clear and bright; a full moon shone down as Rose stepped out the kitchen door to take out the garbage and have a quiet moment. Faintly she could hear the sound of Tavon and her father at violin practice, and the soft voices of MacGyver and her mother talking in the dining room. She set the bag in the can and looked out over the driveway, wondering if Newt would make it in time. In the distance, between the trees the Christmas lights of the neighborhood, twinkled brightly. She wandered down the drive, shivering in her sweater, looking at the snowman that she and Tavon had made earlier.
"It's Christmas Eve, Newt--where are you?" she wondered out loud before turning around to go back inside.
"First we hang stockings, then we go to eight o'clock service, but you aren't required to go, and when we get back we play Monopoly before going to bed," Lara was explaining to MacGyver, who was helping her grind parsley. He dusted the fresh bits onto a paper plate.
"I don't mind the service, and as long as I can be the Racecar, the monopoly's fine with me too. What time does Tavon go to bed?"
"He'll be sent off by ten thirty or so--he's pretty good about that." Seeing the question in his eyes, Lara sighed. "He's an unofficial foster child--Matt and I are caring for him while his mother is at a shelter in another state. A bad situation with the father you understand. We've had him here for about three months now, and he's the dearest little fellow. I hope we can keep him."
"Me too," Mac agreed, picking up the parsley. Lara smiled.
"Tomorrow is when the fun begins, Mac-Gyver. We have Draw breakfast, and the underwear round, and all sorts of visitors too--"
"What?" Confused, he followed Lara out to the Bug Bunker, where Matt looked up form some notes he was taking. He greeted them, kissing Lara on the cheek, and taking the parsley from Mac.
"Dinner for my crew . . . Lara, you are a treasure. What are you whating about, MacGyver?"
"You wife just said something about underwear for tomorrow--"
"Oh the underwear round! A tradition I guarantee you won't find in any other household--one round of presents that we open are underwear--everybody gets them, nobody is allowed to complain. You'll know the package when you see it--trust me." Matt looked lost in memory as he grinned.
"I'm getting underwear?" Mac demanded desperately.
"Oh yes--Rose made sure of that," Matt and Lara shared a knowing glance and tried not to laugh.
"On the bright side, Rose and the rest of us are getting some unmentionables too, so it's not as if you're being singled out," Lara reminded him.
This news did not seem to mollify MacGyver, who watched as Matt and Lara walked down the rows of terrariums, dropping the parsley into each. He sighed and wandered back out to the living room where Rose greeted him with a hug.
"Why the long face?"
"I just heard about the underwear round--" he gave her a warning look, a glance that both begged her not to embarrass him. She rolled her eyes.
"Get used to it, Mac--I *warned* you my family was weird!" came her sardonic reply. He looked over at the sofa, where the stockings were laid out.
"Let me guess . . . this white one with the bug designs is your dad's--"
"Well it does have 'Matthew' embroidered on it too--"
"--Yeah, that's kind of a giveaway . . . and the red one with the violins is your mom's, and this green one--" he paused, looking down at the stocking. Rose blushed, and stepped closer to him as he touched the embroidered hockey sticks that surrounded his own name.
"You like it? Mom and I came up with the design when I told her you'd be with us this Christmas . . . Mac?" Rose trailed off uncertainly when he made no reply. He looked up at her with an expression of simple joy, his mouth curving into a shy smile that made her squirm with happiness.
"It's *great* . . . did you--"?
"Yep. An hour here, an hour there while you weren't around--" she confessed, touching it lightly. "--It's no big deal, really."
"Sure it is--I haven't had a stocking in a lot of years, Brat. A *lot* of years."
"Don't get too excited--around here these babies get stuffed with items of a practical nature. Toothpaste and brushes, vitamins--"
"You're right, your family *is* weird," Mac agreed after a moment's thought.
*** **** ****
The phone rang in the middle of the monopoly game; Lara hurried to answer it with the urgency of a troubled mother. Matt tossed his long ponytail over his shoulder, watched her go and sighed to MacGyver.
"Don't let her use this as an excuse to get out of paying you that hideously expensive rent on Marvin Gardens--"
They all could hear her half of the conversation in the kitchen, even through the swinging door.
"Boris Newton Clowderbock, how *dare* you worry your mother like this! Where are you?"
MacGyver looked at Rose, mouthing 'Boris?' She nodded with a giggle, whispering back,
"Kinda makes Angus seem tame, huh? Only Mom gets away with calling him by his first name these days, and only when she's mad."
"Maybe I ought to pass on the rent this time--" he replied with a wince. After a few minutes, Lara came back into the living room, a small scowl on her face.
"Newt won't be here for a few days--bad weather out of La Guardia. The little monster claims he tried to call earlier, but I know better--"
"That little monster is a grown man, Lara my love. Perhaps he's entitled to a life?" The words were mildly spoken, but the look Matt put behind them was enough to make his wife draw in a deep breath and finally laugh.
"Oh stop being the voice of reason when I want to be mad!" she spluttered helplessly. Tavon ran to hug her, grinning as she hugged him back and muttered, "Doctor Matt is right, but he doesn't have to be so darn sensible about it, eh?"
"Tush, woman--get back here and pay Mac that rent before I have your firm fanny dragged off to the slammer," Matt grumbled. Rose rolled her eyes and picked up the dice as the game resumed.
Within twenty minutes it was all over; the mighty real estate empire quietly amassed by Matthew Clowderbock had gobbled up everyone's holdings. Rose held out longest, but finally she too, succumbed when her little top hat landed on Park Place with a fated dice roll.
Two thousand twenty two dollars payable to me, darling daughter--"
"Pa, that's sooo wrong," she grumbled, trying to figure out the mortgage value of her properties. MacGyver and Lara were sipping green tea and watching; Tavon was asleep on the sofa, curled into a little ball.
"Capitalistic tripe--" Lara sighed, "In Russia, the rent would be divided equally among the players, and the railroads would be free."
"Sure, and free parking would be in some Gulag out in Siberia--" Matt teased gently as he moved to pack up the board. Mac yawned.
"Time to hit the hay-- tomorrow will be very busy," Lara announced. She gave Rose a look. "Do *not* get up before 5 or 6 or 7 my daughter, or you will be last draw for the promise basket, do you hear me?"
"Yes ma'am," she meekly agreed, and Mac shot her an astonished gaze. As they filed out down the dark hallway he whispered,
"Still trying to be good for Santa, Brat?"
"I'm more afraid of my mother's wrath than Santa's judgment, Mac," she admitted as they stepped into Newt's old room and flipped on the lights. The twin beds looked small yet tidy; a huge dresser stood against the wall between them and Rose chuckled.
"My poor mom--she's very modern in a lot of ways, but there are still a few situations that make her twitch. Newt used to bring a lot of girls up for the holidays, and finally Mom decided that they could share a room but not a bed. Think you can live with that?"
"Yep," Mac agreed without hesitating. "First rule as a guest--respect the regulations of the house. In fact, I can go bunk on the sofa if it will keep me in good standing around here."
"No--if you do that then mom will worry that you didn't sleep well, or that we had a fight--just grab a bed and leave it at that, okay?"
"Gotcha," he grinned. Sitting on the nearest one, he pulled off his Nikes and set them under the bed, while Rose slipped out the door, heading to the bathroom down the hall. He waited until he heard her close the door, then swiftly darted to his duffle bag. A few second's frantic digging found the band-aid box; he popped the tin lid open and dumped the contents out in his hand. MacGyver smiled as he closed his fingers over the green velvet box. With stealth, he stole out to the dark living room, moving over to the fireplace, searching for the red stocking. A quick tip of his hand, and the box fell to the toe with a soft thump. Mac slipped back into the room and changed into his sweats trying to look innocent, but it was hard not to grin.
Eventually he looked up when Rose came back from the bathroom, wrapped in her pink terry robe.
"Ready for bed?"
"Uh huh," she yawned, dropping the robe from her shoulders and setting it on the chair. Mac gave a pained little gasp at the sight of her in a peach silk teddy edged with black lace.
"COAL, Brat. You're getting an entire shipment of coal in your stocking," he growled. She batted her eyes.
"Who, innocent little me?" came her purr. MacGyver laughed, shaking his head in frustrated good humor. He sighed deeply, grabbed her creamy bare shoulders and planted a quick kiss on her forehead, whispering,
"You deserve a spanking--later. Go to bed and behave yourself."
"Goodnight Mac," she replied sleepily as she kissed his chin and climbed into her own bed.
"Is he awake?"
"I don't think so."
"When *is* he going to wake up?"
"Honey, I don't know--is anyone else awake?"
"Nope. Just you and me and some of the bugs. I want Christmas to start, Rose! I looked in the living room already and there are like a million billion presents and two of the really big ones are for me and I want to open them but--"
"I'm awake *now*--" came MacGyver's annoyed grumble. From the other bed, Rose and Tavon looked up guiltily from their huddle. Mac threw his pillow at Rose; she ducked and Tavon giggled. Within minutes all three of them were tossing pillows and laughing. Finally Tavon threw himself back across Rose's bed and sighed dramatically.
"Man! It takes forever for Christmas to start!"
"Tell you what, little man--you go get dressed while Mac and I do the same, and we'll make enough noise to get everyone else up, okay?"
"Okay!" The boy was up and off like a shot; Mac ran a hand over his chin experimentally.
"Shower and a shave sounds good."
Twenty minutes later, a steamy clean furry chested MacGyver stood over the sink, his towel wrapped low on his lean hips. He had just covered his lower face with shaving foam when Rose walked in. He frowned at her in the mirror.
"You just love barging in on me, don't you? Ever since the first day we met--"
"I don't love to barge in, I *consistently* barge in. And never when the toilet is involved I might add," Rose replied as she perched herself on the edge of the tub, propping one foot up and shaking her nail polish. She wore a pink oversized sweater with white leggings, and her hair was in a French twist.
"Don't you usually do that in the bedroom?"
"But I like to watch you shave--it's one of those estrogen meets testosterone things, Mac."
Resigned, he rolled his eyes and turned back to the mirror. He ran the water, wet the razor and began in slow efficient strokes; the soft scraping sounds mingling with the running water. Rose studied the two bottles, then the toes of her right foot.
"Pink or silver?"
"Pink," came his absent mutter. She shrugged and proceeded to uncap the first bottle. With delicate concentration, she painted the toenails of her right foot. Mac pinched his nose and shaved his upper lip, ignoring the faces Rose was making at him in the mirror.
"Mac?" She started on the left foot.
"Yes, Brat?"
"You doing okay with this whole--family thing?"
"So far so good--We'll see after the underwear round," came his patient reply.
Draw breakfast was precisely what it implied, with everyone drawing lots for jobs. Mac pulled pancake duty, Rose had juice squeezing, Matt and Tavon had dish washing and Lara handled all the little jobs that included table setting, toast making and setting out condiments.
Mac studied the huge bowl of batter he'd made thoughtfully, and then began looking through the cabinets. Lara watched him with amusement.
"Hunting for something?"
"Yeah, a funnel," came his distracted reply. She fished one out of a drawer, watching as he ladled batter into it, holding his index finger over the hole at the end. He let the batter flow through into the hot griddle, forming a perfectly round pancake. He repeated the action, dropping three other pancakes onto the griddle while Lara beamed.
"Beautiful! But how can you set it down and not have batter run everywhere?"
"Like this--" Mac let the excess batter flow back into the bowl, then set it point down in an empty glass. "I only put enough batter in it to make one set of pancakes--cuts down on the mess."
"A handy trick--I may have to remember that," Lara admitted with a laugh.
After breakfast, the opening of the stockings began in earnest, with everyone simultaneously dumping out their loot and making comments. Fancy soaps, various lotions, new toothbrushes and nail clippers seemed to be the order of the day, along with the odd assortment of bath gels, bags of candy, and in Tavon's case small goodies like tops and marbles. Rose laughed when she saw that both she and her mother had given Mac aftershave.
"Old Spice, and Bristol Harbor--great--" he muttered weakly, holding up the bottles. Matt patted his shoulder commiseratingly.
"Curse of the season, lad. Be glad you don't wear ties on a regular basis the way I have to--I've got so many damned bug ties it boggles the mind."
Rose sighed, and set her stocking aside to gather the bottles of polish and perfume; Mac nudged it back towards her.
"Sure it's empty?"
She gave it a shake and the green velvet box dropped out with a heavy thunk. She sighed with happiness.
"You got it for me!"
"Yep."
"I guess I did drop a lot of hints--"
"True, since you weren't subtle about this--"
"So I can show it off to everyone--"
"Un huh--"
"And I won't have to come on to you or dig around in your pocket for that big heavy thing of *yours* when I need some serious screwing done--"
Alarmed, Lara and Matt looked at each other and then at Mac, who caught their expressions and blushed.
"It's a pocketknife! " he blurted quickly, gesturing towards the box. "She's been wanting one and I found the ladies' version of mine, and . . . . Ahhhh!" He trailed off, dropping his face in his hands. Rose, who had been playing with all the various apparatus on the Swiss Army knife looked up absent-mindedly at her startled parents.
"What?" she demanded. Lara began laughing, burying her face in Matt's shoulder; he guffawed along with her, and even MacGyver started to join in. Rose looked at them as if they had all lost their minds while Tavon shook his head at the absurdity of grownups.
"That," Matt announced, wiping his eyes "Takes the cake and then some. Briar Rose Althea Thais Clowderbock, you kiss that man and apologize. I think we better go to the underwear round right now just to even out the embarrassment."
"You're right, Matti--Tavon, sweetie, help me pass out the purple packages--" Lara dug around the tree, handing various gifts to Tavon, who brought them to the appropriate person while Rose kissed Mac's cheek.
"You first," Matt told the boy. Tavon ripped into his package with all the subtlety of a lioness going into an antelope.
"Star Wars? Oh man, and Yoda's right on the butt--I ain't never wearing *these*!" came the disgusted evaluation. Lara shook her head at Matt, who shrugged.
"Better him than me."
"Spoken like a man who hasn't opened his present yet--" she warned. Matt looked around and gave a resigned sigh, then slowly peeled the paper off the box in his lap.
"Gracious . . . Boxers with musical notes . . . wait a moment--isn't this the opening stanza to Bach's first concerto? Lara, you sly woman--" Looking through his half-moon glasses, Matt studied the underwear intently before glancing at his wife and winking. She smiled.
"My turn--" she declared, a flush of pink crossing her face. "All I can hope is that is isn't as bad as the year I got the tie dye brassiere . . ."
She peeked in the gift bag and bit her lips, looking at Matt mischievously.
"Chili peppers?" She lifted a tiny corner of silky cloth out for general inspection.
"Chili peppers," he confirmed forthrightly. "Appropriate for a winter's day--MacGyver, I believe it's your turn."
MacGyver looked down at the gaudy purple package resting on his knees and gritted his teeth. He closed his eyes and tore open the paper.
"Oh man--"
The boxers were bright blue, and covered with a design of Boy Scout merit badges. Rose snorted as MacGyver's high cheekbones went pink yet again.
"Fashionable, yet practical, huh? I know nurses in the Emergency room will love those."
"If I'm going to the Emergency room in these, I won't be going there alone--" Mac warned her, but Rose laughed. She faltered when she realized everyone was staring at her expectantly.
"Oh yeah--" She tore the paper on the squashy package in her lap. Rose chuffed out a breath in surprise as the panties slithered off her lap; she picked them up, flinching.
"Ah Geez--Betty Boop?"
"That's what you get for being a smarty pants, Rose--" her mother scolded. Mac tried to hide his smirk, but didn't succeed; Rose shot him an evil glare.
"You're just lucky we didn't get our packages mixed up--" she hissed, and Mac shook his head.
"Sorry, out of all the things I've done both for the DXS and the Foundation, cross-dressing is *right* out," he insisted firmly.
By lunch, most of the presents had been opened and lay around the tree. Tavon and Rose were out taking the new snowboard out for a test, and Lara was working on lunch. In the lull, Matt and Mac took a moment to record data in the bug bunker.
"Blattella germanica--sturdy, tank like, indestructible. I have a great respect for the common cockroach. They're two days prior to initial molting, so let's add a 2 percent sugar water to the feeding."
"Gotcha. What's over here in the tented boxes?"
"Lunar moths. They've got a few weeks more of hibernation to go," Matt murmured. He cast a glance over at MacGyver, who was sitting on a stool, carefully measuring sugar into a beaker.
"You know lad, I'm supposed to ask you about your intentions regarding my daughter, right?"
Startled, Mac looked up at the smiling older man and gave a slow nod.
"Yes sir, I know that's how it's done, traditionally--" he ventured. Matt rolled his eyes, a small smile on his weathered face.
"There's nothing traditional about this family, but you've figured that out by now. And as for your intentions, well, I have a fair guess as to what they are as well," Matt held a cocoon up and studied it intently through a magnifying glass, letting the silence stretch out. Mac sighed.
"But . . ."
"I know, lad, I know. Rose is as skittish as a colt, and just as prone to saying no as she is yes. She wasn't always like that, but--"
"--Yeah. We talked about--" Mac couldn't figure out the way to phrase it; he glimpse at Matt, who nodded.
"--O'Keefe." The name came out laced with bitterness. Matt set the cocoon down and rubbed his eyes. Mac waited until the older man looked up again.
"Uh huh. I know about the broken jaw."
"Good," Matt muttered. "She must be serious about you if she discussed that monster. He cost her a year of surgery and physical therapy, and left her more than a little gun-shy in the relationship department."
"She's coming around," Mac confided. "And I can be pretty patient."
"A fine virtue, MacGyver. How long have you known Rose?"
"Two and a half years," he thought back with surprise. "We met when the Foundation was doing a sting in cooperation with the FBI."
"Hmmmmm." Matt adjusted a temperature dial on a terrarium and stepped closer to Mac, taking the sugar water solution from him and poured part of it into an eyedropper.
"More to the point, how long have you been in love with her? Not the physical stuff--" Matt waved a dismissing hand and frowned, "--But the heart of the thing."
The pause this time was longer; MacGyver crossed his arms and seemed lost in thought as Matt went back to the terrarium and set the dropper into their dish.
"Matt, to be honest, there doesn't seem to be a defining moment for that--as long as I've known her she's been moving in her own orbit in my universe--she kissed me before she even told me her *name* for crying out loud!"
The memory was enough to make him grin in a lopsided fashion. Matt came back over and clapped a heavy hand on his shoulder; MacGyver looked up into his affectionate, fatherly smile.
"On such inconsequential things hang the balance of our lives, lad--rest assured. Lara adores you, and I trust her judgment on matters such as this. Now let's get on with the rest of Christmas and see if the soup's ready."