fanfic_name = The Mistletoe

author = Dwparsnip

dedicate = Everyone at DYRL.

Happy Holidays.

Rating = AP15

Type = Romance

fanfic =





"Where is it, Rick?", came her extremely annoyed inquiry.



"How am I supposed to know what you did with it?", came his equally annoyed response.



Lisa Hayes shot the man she loved passionately a dirty look as she walked into the living room of their quarters and began looking through the boxes for what was the third time. 'Or is it the fourth?', she asked herself.



The living room was nearly filled with boxes of all sizes, and it reminded her of a few months earlier when they moved into this smaller place in order to give Captain Irene James and her large family their more spacious quarters. The floor, the couch and both chairs all held boxes. Their contents had varied from Christmas tree ornaments to Christmas decorations to Christmas dishes. There was even one box that had in it the Christmas cards Lisa had accumulated over the last fifteen years or more. Rick called it being a pack rat. Max called it being sentimental. She didn't care.



Right now the only thing she cared about was getting the Christmas decorations up and the boxes put away before their guests arrived. Max, Miriya, Jean and Vince would be by soon. The tree was up and decorated and all the other decorations were up as well.except for it.



It had been with them since their very first Christmas together six years ago. It was special to her, and it was special to Rick as well. It was Rick who had bought it in a fit of romanticism a week before their first Christmas as a couple.



As she looked through the box she had in her hands, Rick walked past her in a rush. She noticed with a twinge of anger that he carried his gloves in his hands. A moment later that twinge of anger turned into a wave of anger as she saw that he was putting on his heavy coat and gloves.



"Where are you going, Rick?", she asked with undisguised disbelief. "They will be here any minute and we can barely walk around the living room!"



"Out", was the single word reply he uttered as he opened the door. He stepped outside into the falling snow and said tersely, "I won't be long."



Lisa was dumbfounded as she watched the door close behind him. She slowly looked around the disaster area that was their living room. After surveying the clutter her eyes settled on the clock that rested on top of the television.



"Thirty minutes!", she exclaimed as she realized just how soon her friends would be arriving. As she started packing the smaller boxes inside the bigger ones to conserve storage space, she remembered that Christmas.



It had been their first together and Rick was intent on making it as special as he could, especially in light of how she had spent Christmas the year before. She still didn't know how he had found out about her night long foray into the bar that night after seeing him with Minmei in his house, and she didn't dare press the issue for fear of making him feel badly about it.



He was bordering on being obsessive with the outside Christmas lights and decorations. Every light had to be perfectly placed and in sequence and by the time he had finished, the glow from the house was visible for miles around. A few nights before Christmas they had come home from an evening with Max and Miriya to find that one of the lights on the very top of the modular house had burned out. Lisa begged Rick to wait until the morning to replace the light, but he wouldn't hear tell of it. "I won't be able to sleep knowing the light is gone", he had told her.



As she carefully carried some of the boxes into the spare room she couldn't help but smile at the memory of Rick hanging off the ladder in the middle of the night, trying to reach a light bulb that was technically beyond his reach. The inevitable happened of course. He reached too far, slipped and fell head first into a hip deep snow bank. She thanked her guardian angel hundreds of times that the forecasters had been wrong that year. They had forecasted little snow for that winter, but they were wrong. Very wrong. It had actually been a very snowy winter, and because of the snow bank Rick was spared any serious injury.  It had meant that she had to cuddle him and keep him warm for the rest of that night, but that was hardly an inconvenience for her.



Lisa walked back to the couch after carrying the last of the boxes into the spare room. She looked over to the table to make sure that Rick had put out the food, which he had, and then sat down and waited. She glanced at the clock and saw that she still had seventeen minutes before the Sterlings and the Grants showed up.



As she waited she thought again about their first Christmas. The day after the light incident he came home from work, walked over to her, put his hand above her and gave her a very intense kiss. She had nearly fallen to the floor when her knees slightly buckled.the kiss was so deep and passionate. The look of pleasant surprise on her face when he finally let her breathe must have spoke volumes because he smiled and held in front of her face the prettiest piece of mistletoe that she had ever seen. For the next few days he seemed to have the mistletoe with him at all times. Lisa would be folding the laundry and the mistletoe would appear out of nowhere, followed very closely by another knee bending kiss. Sometimes the mistletoe wouldn't even make it above her head, he would just swoop in and kiss her. Only as he walked away from her would she see through starry eyes that he had the mistletoe in his hands.



Lisa got up off of the couch and walked to the window. There was no sign of Rick or their company. She watched as the giant snowflakes fell slowly and randomly to the earth. There was a fair amount of snow down now, and she was beginning to wonder if they should postpone the whole thing. She pushed the thought away. This would be the only night for weeks that they would all be able to get together.



As she stood there watching the snowfall, her mind drifted back to the mistletoe. For every Christmas since then Rick and the mistletoe were inseparable, even after it started to fall apart and Rick kept it together with glue and green wool. She never felt completely safe, but in a good way. She wasn't particularly fond of surprises, but there was something about the way that he could sneak up on her with that little thing in his hand and just take her breath away. It was the type of surprise she could most definitely live with.



It all ended this Christmas though; at least it wasn't the same. Somehow they had managed to lose the mistletoe, and neither of them liked it. Rick had become irritated and upset that they had managed to lose that special mistletoe. She hadn't realized how much he thought of it until he went through the decorations a few days ago and found almost everything but the mistletoe. When he couldn't find it, he was very upset. He was still nuts about the decorations and very supportive and loving, but the holiday kisses, while still intense and full of love, just weren't quite the same. She wouldn't complain though. For her, any kiss from Rick was magical enough.



She could see that it played on his mind though. She could live without the mistletoe, but she desperately wanted Rick back to himself.



Someone knocked on the door. She opened it to find a snow covered Max and Miriya on the other side.



"Get in here before you guys get buried in the stuff", said Lisa not all that jokingly. The snow was coming down harder than it had all night, and there seemed to be a lot more of it waiting to come down.



She had just put away Max and Miriya's coats when Jean and Vince arrived. She put away their coats as well and walked into the living room to see to her guests. "All right guys", she said. "There is food and drink on the table. Go ahead and help yourselves."



As Max walked towards the table he asked, "Where's Rick, Lisa?"



As Lisa took a seat on the couch next to Miriya she responded, "I have no idea. He left half an hour ago and said he wouldn't be long. He shouldn't be too much longer."



On cue, the door opened and in walked Rick Hunter. He looked like the abominable snowman, and he screwed up his nose as Lisa and his friends shared a laugh at his expense.



Lisa got up and went to him. She was concerned about his emotional well being and his physical health, especially when she saw that his nose was so red that it glowed. He was out in the freezing cold doing only he knew what, and he was upset about the mistletoe.



She took his snow-covered coat and hung it up. As she turned back to him she ran right into one of the deepest and emotionally charged kisses she had ever received. It took a few seconds for her to get over the pleasant surprise, but once she did she gave as good as she got and gently put her arms around his neck in order to make sure he wouldn't be going anywhere.



Rick gently pushed Lisa back against the closet door and continued the kiss, steadily intensifying it until he could sense that she was wavering just a little.



He stopped the kiss, placed his forehead against hers and said a little breathlessly, "I love you."



Lisa had to wait a few seconds to catch her own breath before responding. "I love you too."



From behind them they heard a familiar voice clear her throat and say, "Would you guys like us to leave?"



Without moving Rick replied, "No, Jean. I just need to tell Lisa something."



He lowered his voice so that only she could hear him. "I went to our old place and asked Irene if she found the mistletoe. Instead of answering my question she reached over and kissed my cheek. When I looked at her kind of funny she just looked up to the ceiling, and what should I see up there but our mistletoe. I was about to ask if I could have it back when her three little girls walked by and had to kiss my cheek because I was under their mistletoe."



He reached down and kissed Lisa again, softly and tenderly this time. He stopped and leaned back to look into her eyes, to let her see that what he was about to say was from his heart. "I was upset because the mistletoe reminded me of our first Christmas together, and how special it was. For some reason, I thought I needed the mistletoe for every Christmas to be as special as that one, but when I thought about it I realized that I don't need the mistletoe for Christmas to be special. Just being with you makes it special for me. I don't need the mistletoe to kiss you either. All I need to want to kiss you is to see your face, to hear your voice.all I need to want to kiss you, Lisa, is to wake up in the morning. I love you so much."



Just to emphasize what he was saying he leaned in again and covered her mouth with his in another electrically charged, spine tingling kiss.



Almost a minute went by before he forced himself to back away from her. "We should see to our guests." He held out his hand for her to take.



Lisa smiled as she took Rick's hand, and as he led her into the living room and to their friends, she once again marveled at the difference between Christmas with Rick and Christmas without him.



She sat down and Rick went to get her a glass of wine. As she took the wine Rick leaned down and gave her a quick kiss and stood up.



He made sure everyone else had a glass of wine then raised his own glass and said, "To the loves in our lives that keep us going. Merry Christmas, my friends."



Blue eyes locked onto green eyes as glasses were lifted and the chorus of "Merry Christmas" rang out, and as Rick and Lisa peered into each other's souls, nothing else mattered.



An hour and half later, just as the snow finally stopped falling, Lisa closed the door after saying good-bye to their guests and felt a tiny kiss on the back of her neck. Then another. Then another.



Her heart began to beat to a rhythm that only Rick had ever been able to orchestrate and she took a deep breath, moaning a little in blissful pleasure as she let the breath out. She turned around quickly and kissed him full on lips, taking a fair amount of pleasure in the surprise she saw on his face before she closed her eyes. After a few moments she stopped their kiss and looked into his eyes.



"Merry Christmas, you handsome devil", she said with a heart-warming smile.



"Merry Christmas to you, you gorgeous babe", said Rick with a rakish smile.



Before she could say anything else his lips found hers. This time as he intensified the kiss, he started to gently pull her towards the bedroom, leaving in their wake a trail of clothes from the door to their bed.



It was indeed, a very Merry Christmas.

****************************** ****************

I would like to wish everyone at DYRL a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. Stay safe.



DWP

State = Fin/The End

feedback = Sí/Yes

email = dparsnipAThotmail.com