Christmas Morning: Spending it Together

Posted on Mon Jan 20th, 2025 @ 12:18am by Lieutenant JG Malcolm Beckett M.D. & Ensign Charlotte Dawes & Lieutenant Commander Eirly Andersen & Lieutenant JG Kasper Andersen M.D

2,932 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Happy Holidays
Location: Eirly's Quarters
Timeline: Christmas Morning

As Malcolm was walking back over to Eirly with a mug of warmed mulled wine, the door chime finally alerted that someone was there. Malcolm silently prayed that it was Kasper and not someone else calling by. Not that they wouldn't be welcome, but Kasper was already almost twenty minutes late and Eirly was clearly on edge.

Eirly had managed to take a sip of the wine just as the door chime went off, "This is really nice. I can't see this lasting very long," She gave him a grin as she stood back up and walked to the door to open it rather than just call out a command. Of course that wasn't going to be the case.

Instead of the person on the side doing the polite thing and waiting to be invited in, the door opened to reveal Kasper with a triumphant grin on his face and Charlotte standing behind him in disbelief. "I'm finally here, no need to worry any more. It's only," he looked at his watch, "what, twenty minutes late? I daresay that's a record for me. And I brought Charlotte too!"

Eirly simply rolled her eyes at him, took another sip of the wine and went to walk back to where Malcolm was until she saw Charlotte standing awkwardly in the entrance. "Charlotte! Come in! I feel like I haven't seen you in ages, happy Christmas!"

"Hi," Charlotte said as she walked in shyly. "I put together a little fruit and cheese tray. I hope that's okay. I didn't want to come empty handed, and wasn't sure what to bring. I would have asked, but I found out kind of last minute and didn't want to bother you last night."

Charlotte glanced around for a place to set the tray, but Malcolm walked up to her and took it from her.

"You didn't have to do anything, but it looks great. We appreciate that. And are glad you could make it," Malcolm said cheerfully. "Can I get you something to drink? We've got mulled wine, hot cocoa, cider?"

Charlotte took a quick glance and noticed that Eirly had a cup of something before answering. "Sure, hot cocoa?"

"Of course, right away. Kasper what about you?" Malcolm asked. He was keeping his energy up, hoping to lift Eirly's spirits as much as possible.

Kasper shook his head and followed Malcolm over to the replicator, leaving Eirly and Charlotte to catch up for a bit, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how mad is she with me?" Kasper asked him with caution in his voice. He had a feeling it was close to ten but needed the final confirmation. "I mean, I would've been here earlier, but I stopped to get Charlotte a present and give it to her."

"I don't know why you don't apologize for being late instead of barging in here like a tool," Malcolm scolded. "You aren't making it better for yourself."

"Like a tool?" Kasper repeated in a mock exsasperated tone with his eyebrows raised, "Yeah, look, that's fair. Not gonna deny it. I think I'll skip having a drink, just so I don't make any more of an ass of myself, and I'll go apologize." He liked the fact that Malcolm had his sister's best interests at heart, even though he would never admit it out loud.

Walking back over to where Eirly and Charlotte were sitting, Kasper sat down on the ground next to where Charlotte was and looked at Eirly, "Lee, I'm sorry. For being late, for barging in without waiting just now, and for basically everything over last few months." He then looked up at Charlotte, "And I'm sorry to you too, but you already know that." He offered a hopeful close-lipped smile toward them both.

Eirly watched Malcolm come back over with the drinks and leaned into him as he sat back down, "I'm still annoyed, but thank you for the apology." Getting an apology out of him was like trying to draw blood from a stone, so this was a rare event.

"I didn't get Kasper anything for Christmas, but maybe we could all pitch in and get him a calendar or something," Charlotte chirped. "You know, one you wear on your wrist that sends out an alarm before you're supposed to be somewhere."

"And maybe set it to go off like an hour before he's meant to be somewhere?" Eirly added in with a laugh, "That way he'll only be five minutes late? Or, shock horror, on time?!"

"Hey!" Kasper retorted, "It's a flaw, okay? You both even said so yourselves."

Charlotte laughed and shook her head. "An hour is too long. He'll forget the alarm went off before it's time to leave and not show up at all."

"So funny story about that," Eirly admitted with a grin, "At our school graduation, him and I were like fourth and fifth on the roll because it went in order of surnames, and he rocks up after our names were called out and they were up to the D names, and I'll watching our mother get madder and madder," She laughed at the memory, "Until she absolutely exploded when he interrupted the entire procession to get his certificate. I don't think I saw you for a week after that."

"Oh! And I can't forget Med School graduation!" Eirly's annoyance at him was disappearing fast because she was able to tease him a bit, "Surely you remember that performance, right Mal?" She looked at Malcolm for confirmation she wasn't just imagining it.

"It's like you want to be the center of attention in a bad way sometimes. I'm surprised they let you keep our J.G. rank after the lake of decorum," Malcolm commented. "I wonder how many other graduating classes in the history of Starfleet have had someone pull a stunt in the middle of a ceremony like that."

"Since when did this turn into a "Let's replay all of Kasper's worst timed moments" game?" Kasper said defensively as he crossed his arms with a huff. "And for your information, what you didn't see was that I got hauled into the office, lectured for twenty minutes and they threatened to demote me back to Ensign."

He looked at Charlotte, "This is generally what happens each year, except usually it's me ribbing out our other two brothers. And there's also food, speaking of." He stood up and grabbed the tray she had made, putting it in front of everyone, "This looks delicious."

Eirly could see he was trying, especially with Charlotte, so she quietly stopped laughing at him and cuddled into Malcolm a bit after she grabbed a strawberry, popped it in the wine and continued drinking it. She then noticed the necklace Charlotte was wearing, "I love that necklace, by the way. It's so delicate, is it a daisy?"

"Oh yeah. Um, Kasper just gave it to me today." Charlotte blushed as she touched the charm on the necklace.

"You know that's his favourite flower, right?" Eirly queried with a smile, knowing full well he wouldn't admit that to just anyone. If anything, she was proud that he'd actively matured since their talk. "You must be special then, if he's gone and done that."

Charlotte turned a darker shade of red as felt her face flush with warmth. "Yeah, he mentioned that. So what does everyone have planned for the day?"

Eirly looked up at Malcolm and tucked her feet under her, "I think we're just going to do this here, then chill for the rest of the day," she then looked at Kasper, "Maybe even call mother and father and wish them happy holidays, see the other two are with them, and maybe even officially introduce Mal to them." Giving him a dirty look, she added, "What about you guys?"

"Some friends of mine are getting together a little later. Kind of a junior officers silly time sort of thing. Karaoke and a white elephant gift exchange. Who knows what else." She grinned. "I talked to my mom and brother already this morning."

"Dr. Beckett, what about you? Do you have family off of the ship somewhere that you try to talk to over the holidays?" Charlotte asked.

"Aye, but you can call me Malcolm when we're off duty. My sister and mom decided that Thursday was when everyone seemed to be able to get on subspace at the same time. I still need to double check the hour," Malcolm said. "She's on a different time zone in Aldebaran III this month, and my parents went to Casperia Prime as a little Christmas present to themselves."

"That must be nice for them to go away together, just the two of them," Eirly said with a smile, "Does that mean I get to meet them? Or did you want that to be an in person thing?" She was fine either way.

"I'm sure everyone would love to meet you, if you're up for it," Malcolm offered.

"I'm just going to hang out with Charlie and see what happens, see if the boys are free for a chat or not," Kasper shrugged as he put his two cents in and rested his head against Charlotte's knee without even thinking.

Charlotte wasn't sure what to make of Kasper's behavior. He was acting like they were dating, but they weren't. At least not yet. And she was a little uncomfortable in front of Malcolm and Eirly, but she ignored the fact that his head was against her knee and didn't pull away.

"So do the Andersens have any family traditions? Or did you used to?" Charlotte asked.

Eirly opened her mouth to answer but Kasper jumped in first, a sudden burst of energy appearing out of nowhere, "So. Back when we were kids and all six of us were together, on Christmas Eve, our mother and her sisters would spend absolute hours in the kitchen preparing this massive feast," he started adding in the hand movements to emphasise his points, "Eirly would contribute as well with her amazing baking, and then we would all be together, exchanging gifts and playing games and everything."

Kasper continued, "Aside from that, it was usually sled races with either the dogs or the horses, and even the adults would join in too," His smile was wide, "I remember this time where our father was holding, I think it was Leif? Anyway, he was like two years old or something and we were all out in the snow... Mind you, this was really deep... and I think I threw a rock at Eirly, hence why she's got that little scar on her cheek, and our father saw it," He started laughing, "Poor Leif, just gets absolutely dropped and disappears into the snow, and our mother is yelling at our father to deal with all three of us. It was hilarious."

"You still have a scar from back then? Aren't there a lot of doctors in your family?" Charlotte asked. "I would think someone would have taken care of that right away."

"I do, and there are." Eirly admitted with a nod, "But our parents wanted us all to just experience life in a normal way. The boys have all had a lot more cuts, bruises and scars than me, bigger ones too, so this tiny little thing is nothing." She rolled up her sleeves to reveal the scars on her forearms, "I chose to keep these as well from when I was baking, and it doesn't bother me at all that they're not dermalogically removed. In fact, if anyone asks, I say it with pride that I got them from doing something I loved."

Charlotte shook her head. "The pain goes away so much faster if you just zap those when they happen though!"

"Most of the time I didn't even feel it or know it was there until I was washing my hands after, so I just rolled with it," Eirly shrugged in indifference. Charlotte wasn't going to convince her otherwise to get the already existing ones removed, maybe in the future it might be a different story.

"Hopefully it stays quiet on board today," Malcolm commented. "Eirly might feel a little lonely if there's an outbreak of food poisoning from the mess hall and we all get called in today."

"Oh no, what a shame," Eirly rolled her eyes and laughed, "I really hope no one does get food poisoning, but on the topic of food, I have something for you, Charlotte, because I had a feeling you would be here today anyway." She got up, walked over to the table and picked up the two other gifts before returning. "I know it's not much, but I promise these are baked with 100% natural ingredients that aren't replicated, and they give a taste of home, wherever that may be. I hope you like it."

"Oh wow. This is so sweet," Charlotte said as she was sincerely moved by the gift, knowing how much time and energy would have went into baking so many treats. "Thanks so much. My brother is going to be so jealous."

"Im glad you like it. As for you," Eirly looked at her brother, "Even though you've been a bit of a dick lately, you're still my brother and I love you, so this is from us to you." She handed him the bag with the bottle inside. "It's more from Malcolm than me though."

Kasper pulled out the bottle of Icelandic vodka, "This is awesome, thanks! I reckon it'll go nicely on the rocks or with some lemon and lime." He nodded his appreciation.

"Just don't drink it all at once," Malcolm chided.

"I know better than that, don't worry." Kasper clapped back to Malcolm, "I meant it when I said I would change. I haven't had a drink, real or synthehol, since shoreleave. So this will last a while, I promise."

After a couple of hours of visiting with Kasper's sister and Malcolm, Charlotte was starting to think that maybe she could use some down time before they went out later. She also didn't want to be in the way when they went to call their parents, and she wasn't sure when they were planning on making the call. She tried to think of a tactful way to make an exit.

"It's been really nice hanging out with you guys today. Thanks for including me. It was nice to get to know you a little better," Charlotte stated. "I know you guys have a family call probably. I still don't know what I'm wearing tonight, so I should probably get going. Cooridinate with Dani. You know how it is," she added laughing softly.

"Glad you joined us, Charlotte. You're always a pleasure to be around," Malcolm said with a smile as he stood up to walk her out.

"She deserves someone good, Kas," Eirly said to her brother quietly with a soft smile, "Try and no screw it up again, okay? I like her. I'll tell our parents you'll call them later too. Just don't forget." She gave him a hug around the waist, "But have fun."

"I promise I won't forget, and I'm doing everything not to screw up," Kasper accepted her hug and gave her a kiss on the top of her head. "I hope everyone likes Malcolm too, which i know they will."

Walking over to where Malcolm and Charlotte were, Eirly took Charlotte aside for a moment, leaving the boys to talk, "I'm sorry for kind of just being thrown in the deep end today, but it's honestly been really nice having you here."

"Thanks. And hey, I got cookies," she said with a grin holding up the package that Eirly had given her.

"Well, I hope you enjoy them," Eirly said as she went to stand next to Malcolm to continue saying the goodbyes.

Once they were gone and the door was closed, she turned to him, "Now we can relax for a whole, what did you want to do?"

Malcolm reached an arm around her waist and stepped closer to her. "We could deliver the rest of your treat packages if you want. Depending on what time it is when we're done, we could see what we want to do for dinner?" He suggested.

"I think we can forego that until a lot later, maybe even tomorrow," Eirly looked at Malcolm and saw, like really saw, just how lucky she was to have him in her life, "I'm already thinking that a traditional roast lamb dinner sounds divine. But, I do need too subspace call my parents at some stage, remember? After that though, I'm all yours for whatever you want."

"If you were ready to do that now, then you should have just said so," Malcolm replied. "I'm ready when you are."

"Are you sure? Like absolutely sure you want to be officially introduced to the same crazy family that Kasper comes from?" She raised an eyebrow to further accentuate the question.

"I've been to your house before and met your mother. It's whether or not you want them to know you are associating with me," he said. He leaned down and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"My father will be happy," She closed her eyes at the kiss. By the Gods, did she love this man. Taking a breath in and out through her nose she added, "Shall we do this then?"

"Sure. Just point me where you want me."

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