December 9, 1956

Nixon, New Jersey, United States

"Psst. Wake up, mommy."

Alice groaned into her pillow. She tried to hide her face from whatever tried to disturb her, but small hands found their way onto her face anyways. One of them patted her cheek.

"Come on, mommy!" 

With a dramatic sigh, Alice opened her eyes. Brown eyes stared back at her. They were big in the little face of her younger daughter, full of the mischief she'd come to realize came from her husband's side of the family. "Noëlle. What have I told you about waking me up when my door's closed?"

"Not to do it, 'less it's an emergency."

"So why are you in here?"

"It's an emergency, mommy."

Alice frowned but sat up in bed. Throwing the sheets off, she looked at her five year old daughter. The girl hardly looked frightened, which she would've expected from an emergency. To her right, Nix's side of the bed was empty, and cold based on her hand. He must've been up for awhile. 

"Alright, ma vie, what's the emergency?" She patted the bed and let Noë climb up. "Where's Ettie?"

"She's with Daddy. They're making pancakes," Noë explained. Her dark hair whipped around her face as she turned towards the door. "Daddy dropped a plate and it broke."

It took every ounce of her strength not to roll her eyes. Of course he had. "Did Daddy send you to tell me?"

The grin on Noë's face grew and she giggled. "No. He told me not to. But I wanted to."

Alice couldn't help but smile. Noëlle never settled. She'd expected the response. "Ok, ma vie. Pick out a dress for me and we can go get Daddy in trouble."

The girl squealed with laughter as she scrambled down from the bed. Her feet pounded against the wood floor as she ran to find Alice a dress. Alice moved a bit more slowly.

"Here. This one's pretty." Noëlle laid a black winter dress on her bed and giggled again. "Are they really coming today!"

At her daughter's excitement, Alice couldn't help but grin along with her. "Yes." She laughed as her daughter nodded with a grin. The dress pulled on easily, and soon she'd slipped her feet into shoes and turned to Noë. "Ready?"

They left the room side by side. Noë's red jumper bounced a bit around her as she sped down the hall to the stairs. Once on the first floor, the girl sped towards the kitchen, leaving Alice to follow. When she walked in after her daughter, she found a disaster. Flour was all over the laminate countertops. The pastel blue cabinets had flour on them as well, some still half open.

But most alarming of all, the wallpaper on the far side of the room had a sugary-powder spot the size of a miniature donut. In the midst of all of it, Ettie, blonde hair frizzy from either labor or syrup, Alice didn't know, stood next to Nix. He at least had the decency to look sheepish as she glared at him. 

"Noë!" Ettie groaned. "You're such a traitor!" But the younger girl just laughed, cackling as Ettie tried to wipe her hands on her apron. 

"Lewis Nixon," Alice began. "What are you doing to this kitchen!"

"Cooking?" he ventured. "Ettie thought we should make pancakes-"

"Do not try to blame this on Bernadette," Alice snapped. "Ettie, go get cleaned up please. It's almost noon."

She sighed, but nodded. On the way past her mother, she just shrugged. "Is Uncle Ron coming soon?"

"Yes. So go clean up!" Alice then turned to their other daughter. "Noë, go find something to do."

"But-"

"Now."

"Can I go skate?"

Alice sighed. "Not by yourself, you can't. Once Ettie's dressed, she can go out with you."

Grumbling under her breath, Noë ran back down the hallway after her older sister. Confident they were out of the way, Alice turned back to Nix. He had started wiping the counters. A large pile of pancakes sat on a china plate, waiting to be eaten. 

"So, what's with the powder stain," she asked, joining him at the counter. 

He grimaced. "You don't want to know."

"Well I know Ettie didn't throw it, Nix." At the look on his face, she couldn't help but laugh. Alice grabbed a towel and got to work cleaning alongside him. "But I am surprised that you missed her."

"Well my aim's never been quite as good as yours," he said, smirking.

"Hm, that's true." 

Before long, the kitchen was clean again. Just as they sat down at the table to eat the pancakes, Noëlle went rushing through the kitchen to the backdoor, dressed head to toe in winter clothes. Ettie followed with less enthusiasm, but no less bundled up. Noë loved to skate on the small pond in their backyard, but Alice refused to let her do it alone. That meant Ettie drew the short straw more often than not.

"These aren't bad," Alice admitted.

He grinned. "Yeah, I know. I can cook."

"Do you know what time Ron and Harry were planning on showing up?"

"Ron said close to noon. He's driving from his sister's place in Boston. I don't know about Harry and Kitty."

They fell back into quiet, digging into their food. They only had about an hour until noon. It passed in relatively uneventful, with Noëlle coming in with Ettie just as the clock struck twelve. At the same time, a knock on the door pulled them out of their domestic peace.

Noëlle beat everyone to the door. After peeking through the window next to it, she grabbed the knob and swung it open. Her absolute favorite person in the entire world stood on the other side. "Uncle Ron!"

He smirked as she attached herself to his waist. "Hey kid." Ron caught sight of Alice behind her in the hall. He shot her smirk and crouched down in front of Noëlle. "You're not causing your mom trouble, are you?"

"Never!" she assured him.

"Good. You can cause your dad trouble though," he told her, voice in a fake whisper. "He deserves it."

Noë nodded vigorously. Standing up, Ron moved past her. "Christ, it's cold," he muttered, giving Alice a very quick hug. "Where's your other one?"

"The kid or the husband?" she teased. "Ettie's trying to find a notebook and I have no idea where Nix went."

"Uncle Ron," Noëlle interrupted. "Can you teach me hockey?"

He turned from Alice to the girl at his side. She looked up at him eagerly. A smile spread across Alice's face. Why Noëlle had latched onto Ron as her favorite person, she could never quite figure out. Ettie had sent Ron drawings while he was in Korea, but Noë hadn't been old enough. Once she'd reached the age, though, she'd insisted on sending them to Ron.

"Noë, girls don't play hockey," he pointed out.

"Well, mommy was a soldier and girls aren't soldiers either."

Alice couldn't stop the sharp laugh that escaped her at her daughter's words. Ron looked from Noëlle to Alice. All she could was shrug.

"You want to learn how to play hockey?" he asked.

"Yes."

"What team will you root for."

Noë frowned. "What's your team?"

He tried not to laugh. "They're called the Bruins."

"What's a Bruin?"

"It's a bear."

She nodded. "I like the Bruins then."

Alice laughed and pushed them both down the hall. "Come on. Noë, stop talking his ear off, please. Go find your sister."

As she disappeared into the house, Ron turned back to her. But neither said any thing. There wasn't much to say. Noë was Noë. Energetic, excited, headstrong, and eager to do anything she wasn't supposed to do.

Finally, Nix made an appearance. He had his flask in his hand and smirked when he saw Ron. "There you are."

"Your kid's crazy just like you," Ron told him.

He snorted. "Yeah. Sounds like her."

Footsteps pounded down the floor. Two sets, one much faster than the other. In the end, after Noë rounded the corner, Ettie came into the kitchen as well. She grinned and said hello.

"You still drawing, Ettie?" he asked.

"Yes! Do you wanna see them?" 

Ettie grinned as Ron moved over towards her. She opened up the notebook she'd been searching for as he sipped at the glass of whiskey Nix had given to him. While they looked at her drawings, the doorbell rang. Nixon went to get it, leaving Alice tying up the skates that Noë had already grabbed. 

"Ron, Nix has a pair outside," she told him. "If you are going to teach my daughter how to play hockey."

"Well I can't say no," he told her. "She got around my one excuse." Then he turned back to Ettie. They finished up going through her sketches as voices were heard down the hall.

Alice left Noë standing in her skates by the door and hurried down the hall. At the sight of Kitty and Harry, she beamed. "There you are!"

Kitty laughed and hurried over to her. She grabbed her in a hug. "Alice!" 

They nearly fell over, they hugged each other so hard. But in the end, Alice pulled away, and moved over to Harry. She grabbed him in a hug as well. "You two made good time."

"Yeah, well, we had places to be," Harry teased. Then he looked past the two women. "Is that Major Speirs I see?"

"Damn right, Welsh," Ron said.

"Alright, everyone to the backyard," Alice ordered. "There is not enough space in this hall."

Nix just laughed. He'd expected it. She'd never liked small spaces with lots of people, not since he'd known her at least. Even their own house became too crowded quickly. He assured the adults through to the back where Noë already stood wobbling around on the concrete with her skates on. 

It didn't take long for Harry and Kitty to be rushed by both Ettie and Noëlle, though she came more slowly thanks to the skate blades. It was cold outside, but not unbearably so. Nix started a small fire while Alice chatted a mile a minute with Kitty. Ron just followed Noë to the tiny pond fifty feet back. 

"I'm a good skater," she told him.

He tried to suppress a laugh. But he had to admit that when she stepped on the ice, she did have decent form. The hockey stick Noë had come into possession of wasn't as long as he'd want, but it would have to do. He stepped onto the ice and moved over towards her.

"Ready?"

"Always," she said, smirking.

For about thirty minutes, Ron tried to teach Noë what he could about how to hold a stick, how to maneuver, and in the end, how to skate backwards. She wasn't a natural, but she picked it up fairly quickly. He had to admit he was impressed. When he called it a day, she just panted and moved off the ice, straightening her dress as she did so.

As Ron undid his skates near the side of the house, Ettie came over. She smiled, her shoulder length blonde hair bobbing up and down the same way Alice's did. Aside from the brown eyes, it always struck him how close to Alice Ettie looked.

"Can you tell me more about my mom in the war?" she asked. 

The forbidden question. As far as he could tell, he was one of the only people who would tell her about the war. She'd mentioned that Bill Guarnere would say some stuff in his letters if she asked him questions, but mostly it wasn't discussed. None of them discussed the war, really. Not as long as they could avoid it.

Ron looked at her. "What do you want to know?"

Ettie just shrugged. Her brown eyes widened as she looked up at him. She closed her notebook. "I want to know everything."

Author's Note:

#IceSkatingRon