“Come on guys move it!” Ziva yelled down the hall from the kitchen.

Skylar skipped into the kitchen already dressed in her Mrs. Claus outfit. “Morning!”

Ziva looked her up and down. “Nice costume. Where’s everyone else?”

“On their way down,” Skylar told her as she poured a glass of orange juice and drank it.

Ziva opened her mouth to ask when they were coming down, but as she did the others came into the kitchen all set to leave for the mall and work. She turned to them. “It’s about time you guys! We’re gonna be late!” She turned away to grab her keys off the hook by the door and grumbled as she yanked open the door out to the garage.

Stevie tapped at his iPad and followed her out. “Wow, someone is cranky this morning.”

The others followed behind them and they piled into the cars to head to the mall. Ziva climbed behind the wheel of her car and waited as Craig climbed in beside her. A’Cadia, Stone, Mellissa, Nixon, and Stevie, were also riding in her car. The others were in Skylar’s car.

She turned slightly to look back at Mellissa where she sat beside Stone; somehow, A’Cadia had ended up in the third row seat next to Stevie. “Why is Nixon coming with?”

With a grin, she pulled out a headband with antlers on them and stuck them on Nixon. “Because he’s one of Santa’s reindeer! Duh!”

“Riiiiight,” Ziva replied and turned to face front while turning the key in the ignition to start the car. She followed Skylar out of the garage. Before long, they were on the highway heading for the mall, Nixon had his head out the window, eyes partially closed, fur blowing in the wind, and his tongue hanging out. They had only been on the highway for few minutes when Nixon suddenly leapt out the window.

 Mellissa screamed and leaned out the window. “TUCK AND ROLL NIXON! TUCK AND ROLL!”

“Oh my God I can’t believe he did that.” A’Cadia was twisted around in the seat to stare out the back window.

Mellissa was still leaning out the window. “Ziva, we have to go back and get him!”

“What? Are you nuts? We’re on the highway! It’s six lanes!”

“Ziiiiiiiivvva!” Mellissa whined.

“Fine, fine, I’ll pull over. But I can’t exactly turn around. You’ll have to walk back and find him.”

A’Cadia snorted as they took off their seatbelts and got out of the car. “Don’t expect much he just jumped out of a car doing like seventy. He’s probably hamburger meat.”

Mellissa made a distressed sound as she ran back along the shoulder. Ziva shot A’Cadia a look. “Nice one Kitty Girl scare her why don’t you.”

Mellissa suddenly yelled happily and dropped to her knees.

They all stopped dead and stared at Mellissa hugging a filthy Nixon sitting there panting on the shoulder of the highway. A’Cadia shook her head. “I don’t believe it. He’s perfectly fine.”

Mellissa sat back on her heels and wagged a finger at Nixon. “Don’t you ever do that again Nixon! What were you thinking?”

He cocked his head to the side and stared at Mellissa for several seconds. After a minute, she shook her head. “I don’t care if you saw a squirrel! You can’t jump out of a moving car, besides now you’re all dirty and the stupid thing got away anyway!”

“Come on let’s get back to the car, we’re gonna be late.” Ziva turned away and started to walk back. The others followed behind her. Mellissa and Nixon last in line, Mellissa admonishing Nixon for his leap out the window, mostly because he’d lost his antlers.

They continued the drive, arrived with enough time to park, and get inside to clock in. They all bid each other goodbye and separated to head off to their separate jobs.

***

“Thank you ma’am, you have a magical day!” A’Cadia managed not to grimace as she said the words.

The woman smiled as she took the bag, turned, and gathered her three kids, and then shoved them toward the door. A’Cadia sighed, rounded the counter, and fixed the display the three little angels had destroyed. She hurried back to the register when another customer came up to stand before the counter.

“Hello, did you find everything all right?” she asked.

“Oh yes thank you!” the woman replied.

Her little girl reached out and tugged on the hem of her shirt. “Mommy, I want the Rapunzel doll!”

“Christmas is almost here sweetie, maybe Santa will get it for you. You can ask him for it when we go see him after this.”

“But I want it now!” the little girl whined sulkily.

A’Cadia grinned. The little girl reminded her a bit of Mellissa, although her hair was dark brown instead of reddish. She leaned on the counter, folding her arms and smiling at the girl. “Your mom is right, Christmas is almost here. Santa is paying real close attention to who is being naughty and who is being nice. You know what?”

The little girl looked up at her shyly. “What?”

“Santa is a real good friend of mine and if you’re extra good while your mommy checks out, I’ll let him know.”

The girl’s eyes went wide. “You will?”

A’Cadia winked at her. “I sure will.”

The girl smiled. “I promise I’ll be reaaaalll good.” She clamped her lips shut while A’Cadia checked her mother out and packed up the purchases. She reached for a roll of stickers they used to seal tissue paper when wrapping fragile purchases, quickly scrawled her name on the sticker and walked around the counter to come down on her knees in front of the girl.

“Okay, you wear this sticker and when you go see Santa you tell him you met his friend A’Cadia and she said you were a very good girl while shopping here. And you make certain to be a really good girl for the rest of the time till Christmas, all right?” She stuck the sticker to the little girl’s shirt.

The girl petted the sticker and smiled widely before throwing herself at A’Cadia and hugging her tightly. “Wow! Thanks! I promise I’ll be extra good so Santa will know how awesome I was for you!”

A’Cadia stood and patted her shoulder. “You do that. Have a Merry Christmas!” The girl skipped toward the front of the store to show her grandma, who was waiting for them, her sticker.

Her mom turned to go, stopped, and turned back to A’Cadia. “Thanks very much for that. You’re very good with kids; you’re going to be a wonderful mom someday.”

A’Cadia felt her cheeks heat with a blush at her words. “Um, thanks it was nothing really. Have a Merry Christmas.”

The woman smiled, wished her a Merry Christmas and left. A’Cadia watched her go with a shake of her head. She really hadn’t ever wanted kids, not after the childhood she’d had. Her mom was, well, not the greatest. And having never known Logan growing up had been hard. She’d never wanted to get married; her mother hadn’t been the best example of marital bliss. She’d been married more times, than A’Cadia could count. Her mom tended to rather flighty about staying married.

Now though, she frowned a bit and thought about Stone. Yeah maybe she might want to try for happily ever after. A husband, house, kids. All of that. If Stone wanted to be in politics, she might even put up with it simply because she actually might love the big dork.

She sighed; it must be the stupid holidays making her act like this because she certainly never got all touchy feely like this. She raised her head and looked around. Maybe it was this stupid store, she thought with a scowl. Dumb Disney magic.

Ziva knew her smile was as fake as a trillion dollar bill, but she couldn’t help it, Hallmark made her want to hack up a hairball. It was all happy and it made people, ug, feel things. She’d rather be working at Sears in the tool department; at least if people got on her nerves over there she’d have a hammer close by! But here? No such luck, it wasn’t like she could bash someone’s head in with a Webkinz or paper cut them to death with a card.

She was doomed to die of uber happiness.

A woman walked up to the counter. “Do you have a card for someone who is having a seventieth birthday on Christmas, but is also Jewish?”

Ziva seriously wanted to strangle someone. Instead, she reminded herself that she had to pass this stupid project, smiled, and led the woman over to the birthday cards in the Christmas cards section that also dealt with Chanukah. “Here you are Ma’am. If you need anything else please let me know!”

“Oh wow, thank you so much!”

Ziva left the woman to her card selection. Who the hell knew they had so many damn cards. I mean jeez who on earth gave people a flippin’ card from their damn cat? People were idiots! She stood behind the counter and stared out at the store. She hated the holidays; it only reminded her she had no family.

Well, she had hated the holidays. Since she’d started at Xavier’s. Not so much. A real smile lifted the corners of her lips. She felt more at home there than she had any place in a long time. And with Craig …

She stopped her thoughts and patted at her now hot cheeks. Yeah, that was the best part.

“So what’d ya get A’Cadia for Christmas?” Craig asked Stone as they made their rounds around the mall.

Stone sighed and looked at his best friend. “Nothing yet. Dude, I swear I do not know what to get her. I mean she’s flippin’ rich. What do I get her?”

Craig laughed. “So are you man!”

Stone ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, but I think she’s richer than I am. Still, what do I get her?”

Craig shrugged. “How should I know? I don’t even know what to get Ziva! I think we’re both screwed man.”

Stone nodded. “Yeah man, we so are.” They walked in silence for a bit.

“Neither one of them is really girly. So I think like diamonds are out. Right?” Craig asked.

“Probably.”

They both sighed heavily and waved to Skylar as they passed Santa’s winter wonderland.

“Dude this sucks I wanted to get Ziva something really special this year.”

“Yeah same here.” Stone looked at Craig. “Hey maybe we should like take them out to dinner or something. Like someplace fancy.”

Craig shook his head. “Neither of them like fancy. Hell, we had to fight to get Ziva into a dress for our first date. She wouldn’t even wear the pumps Skylar got her; she wore her Chucks with the dress. Not that I minded.”

Stone grinned at him. “Yeah you wouldn’t. You’re right they probably wouldn’t like it.” He was quiet for several minutes. Suddenly he came to a halt. “I’ve got it! We’ll take them camping! Just the four of us.”

Craig looked unsure. “Camping? I don’t think either of them will want to leave indoor pluming behind.”

“Okay fine, we’ll rent a cabin somewhere. Like on a lake! We’ll go for New Years! Huh?” Stone asked excitedly.

“Oh God that’s perfect! Dude you are awesome! High five!” They high fived and continued walking.

Mellissa held out the plastic coated flyer with the prices for pictures. The mother was humming as she decided. Mellissa glanced over her shoulder to be certain Skylar was busy with the camera.

“We’ll take the Dasher package!” the woman said brightly.

“Excellent choice!” Mellissa told her as she collected the cash, pretended to ring it up, and handed the woman the change. When the woman herded her kid over to sit on Death’s lap, Mellissa rang up the correct price for the Dasher package with a grin. Ahhh, she was brilliant!

“How are things going over here Mellissa?” Skylar asked.

“Oh perfect!” She quickly flipped over her plastic card to the correct prices before Skylar saw her fake overpriced side.

“Good! Oh, camera time!” She scurried off.

Mellissa moved on to the next customer with a bright smile.

Death was an excellent Santa, Skylar a perfect Mrs. Claus. Angela was doing a great job handing out candy canes to the kids as they exited after hopping off of Santa’s lap. Nixon sat quietly next to Death’s chair with a new set of antlers that Skylar had found at the pet shop in the mall. He was still black with roadside dirt; they simply told the kids he didn’t have time to take a bath after his last trip down a chimney.

Stevie hummed as he tapped keys, reprogramming the security systems for the mall. Lines of code scrolled across the screen at top speed. The entire system was a piece of low-tech crap and he planned on fixing it. When he was done this was going to be one hell of a security system. New cameras, new screens, and motion detectors for after hours. Not to mention a few other goodies he planned on adding.

Stopping he reached over to grab his soda, took a deep drink, set the can down, and started typing again. His radio crackled and he picked it up. “Yup?”

“Stevie, the cameras on the loading dock aren’t working,” Craig told him.

“I know. I’m working on reprogramming them. They don’t cover enough ground.”

“Oh okay then.” The radio went quiet.

Stevie continued typing. When he was done, this place was going to be major high-tech. hopefully his name would be know all over and he’d get a few jobs from this one. He rubbed his hands together, then they’d see who was smarter, him or Tony Stark.

***

When they arrived home that evening, they reported to Storm to let her know how their jobs were going. She seemed pleased with how the project was going thus far. Happy that everyone, even the kids, had gotten jobs.

As they all prepared to leave the office, she stopped them. “What happened to Nixon?”

Mellissa answered immediately. “He was trying on Halloween costumes!”

“It’s December.” Storm looked at her skeptically.

“So?” Mellissa said.

“Right. What is he supposed to be?” Storm asked her.

“Batman!” Mellissa answered without missing a beat.

Storm blinked at her, looked at Nixon, then back at Mellissa. “Really?”

“Duh! You don’t see it? Come on look at the ears Storm!” Mellissa rolled her eyes.

“Sure, whatever.”

Mellissa looked down at Nixon. “Huh? What, oh okay I guess so.” She looked back at Storm. “He says that he could also be one of the dogs from 101 Dalmatians, you know after they rolled in the soot so they could get past the bad guys.”

Storm shook her head and waved a hand toward the door. “Get out of my office. I don’t want to know what really happened.”

Mellissa shrugged. “I just told you!”

“Go. Out,” Storm told her.

Mellissa shrugged. “Fine. Come on Nixon let’s go wash you off.”

They all left and headed upstairs. A’Cadia looked at Mellissa with a smile. “That was brilliant Mellissa. Nixon does kinda look like Batman.”

Mellissa patted Nixon on the head. “Yeah, he does.” Nixon licked her hands and woofed loudly. Mellissa laughed. “He likes the idea.”

Everyone laughed.

Craig and Stone went to their room where they spent an hour on the computer booking the cabin for the girls’ Christmas gift before they called it a night.

As they lay in bed, Stone grinned, it was gonna be an awesome Christmas. Hey Craig?”

“Yeah man?”

“I want you to know I’m really glad that we’re friends. I’ve never really had any really close friends.”

“Yeah me either. I’m glad too.”

Stone cleared his throat. “I’m glad I decided to come here.”

Craig smiled in the darkness. “I’m glad you’re my roommate, even if you snore like a freight train.”

“Shove it Sand Man!” Stone said with a laugh.

Craig laugh as well, he suddenly didn’t care all that much about the name not when it came from Stone. At one time, he’d thought Lenny was his best friend, it had been a false assumption, one based on the fact that they spent so much time together and were roommates. This time, he knew that Stone really was his best friend.