"Mommy, what do you and Daddy do on Christmas eve when I'm asleep?" Keith asked as he sat enthroned upon Katherine's lap, gnawing on the flannel blanket thoughtfully. "Maybe while waiting for Daddy to come home later, we can do some of them together, you and me. Do you each open a present? We can do that."
Katherine smiled wistfully, the sweet faint strains of the music bringing back her memories, then turned back her son's uplifted, hopeful face. She gently tweaked his nose. "No, you little imp, we don't open presents... nice try, but you'll have to wait till tomorrow morning to do that."
"Oh." Keith's face fell a little, then thoughtfully frowned again. "What do you do then 'sides dancing? I don't dance, you see."
She sighed and closed her eyes to hide her sudden tears. "Well, little man, not much else, really. You see my dancing with Daddy on Christmas eve is a tradition for us."
Keith's face looked even more troubled at that... wasn't dancing for girls only? He had never seen Daddy dance, so he had never asked to learn - but now Mommy was saying that Daddy danced with her every Christmas eve. His little jaw tightened with resolve, then he put down his flannel blanket, reaching up to touch her cheek gently.
“Well, Mommy – since Daddy isn’t here yet, I can
be the one to dance with you,” Keith offered, watching his mother’s despondent
face and wanting to make her smile again. “See, I’m big enough now to learn
to dance with you, and I won’t mind if you won’t tell Lance next time we
see him ‘cause he’ll tease me.” He sat up higher on her lap and kissed
her cheek. “You look so sad, Mommy, and I want to see you smile ‘cause
it’s Christmas and ‘cause I love you.”
Katherine watched Keith’s solemn expression with
a twinge of amusement and a wealth of love for her sweet young son. It
was during times like these when the rightness of her decision to stay
away from life as a Galaxy Garrison pilot, other than as a part-time lecturer
at the Academy, to raise a family with a force that almost made her heart
burst. Maybe when Keith was older and studying at the Academy, she could
go back to flying herself, but right now, her life was her son – and her
husband.
“Keith Zachary Montgomery,” she said softly, tousling the unruly dark hair even more, “I think that’s a wonderful idea.” With that, she put him down on the floor and knelt before him with a solemn smile. She bowed to him and he mimicked her with a serious expression on his cherubic face.
“Well, little man, may I request the pleasure of this dance?” she asked with a small grin.
He nodded solemnly, and she placed his small hands
in position at her shoulder and at her waist. A sliver of joy penetrated
Katherine’s worry as she spent the next hour moving her son’s feet to the
basic steps of a waltz, thankful that he had inherited her sense of rhythm
and resolving that next year, she would share a Christmas dance with him
again as well.
Keith, who was snuggled in the shelter of his mother’s arms curled up in the easy chair in front of the dying fire and was lightly sleeping, suddenly woke up at the soft rustle of footsteps on the rug. His eyes shot open and saw a shadow had fallen over him and his mother, but felt no alarm knowing instinctively who had cast it.
The new arrival had moved to the front of the easy chair and solemnly regarded the picture of mother and son so closely entwined. Keith’s eyes lit up upon recognizing him, now fully awake, and the small boy began to squirm to give him an exuberant greeting.
Zachary Montgomery held a finger to his lips and shook his head, gesturing towards the sleeping woman holding him. Keith stilled, realizing that he might wake up his mother. But it was too late, and Katherine had also begun to stir, instinctively holding the child in her arms tighter. Her eyelids slowly lifted open, and she dreamily smiled up at the face of her husband, half-awake and thinking that she was still dreaming.
“Zachary?” she whispered, her tones husky with sleep. “I knew you'd come back to me.” Then she retreated back into her deep slumber, not really having wakened.
He leaned down to kiss the top of her head, then gently extricated his excited son from her arms. Keith went willingly, hugging his adored father tightly, the blue flannel blanket crushed between them.
“Mommy said you’d be home, and I knew it, too,” Keith whispered to Zachary as he carried him up the stairs. “You’d never, never missed Christmas, and she said you wouldn’t let us down.” Keith's arms, holding on to his neck to keep from falling off his high perch in his father's arms, suddenly tightened. "I love you, Daddy."
"And I love you, little man. But what were you doing out of bed in the first place?” he asked, awed by his son’s unflinching trust, a gift he had not yet gotten used to ever since he had become a father. The rocking motions did their work on the boy, and Keith had begun yawning again, the sudden burst of energy at seeing Zachary just as quickly abating.
“I danced the waltz – Mommy taught me ‘cause you weren’t there and I said I would so that she’d smile again… but don’t tell Uncle Hawke ‘cause he might tell Lance,” Keith babbled drowsily, yawning lustily as his father tucked him back in his bed but struggling to keep awake. “I learned and was real good – and Mommy said thank goodness I didn’t get your two left feet and got her rhythm instead.” His large, dark eyes fringed with long, thick lashes had begun to grow heavy with sleep, but he went on, his voice fading. “Do you really have two left feet, Daddy? I want to see.”
Zachary held back an indignant laugh at the last whispered request and watched with a tender smile as dreams began to claim his son again. As Keith's eyes finally closed completely, Zach leaned down and kissed the top of his dark, tousled head, letting his innocent baby powder smell fill him, his heart with love that almost made him ache with a physical pain, for this very special little boy who was part his and part Kat's. Keith was turning out to be a fine child, and the part he played in molding his son's spirit still filled Zachary with a sense of wonder even after five years.
He went back down the stairs as silently as he could, not wanting to disturb Katherine and planning to carry her up to their room as well, but when he reached the living room, she had already sat up from the easy chair and was wide awake. Her eyes drank in the sight of him, looking as if she couldn't quite be sure that it was really him. “I saw you earlier,” she said quietly as he approached her. “I thought I was dreaming, but you were really here, weren’t you?”
He nodded, touching her cheeks and finding them to be damp with traces of tears. “I’m sorry I took so long, Kat. Got attacked and our rear thrusters were shot at and had to stop for repairs,” he said, pulling her up to him for a quick kiss. “The comm systems got busted during the first attack even before the mission began. I didn’t think I’d make it on time, and it nearly drove me crazy not being able to let you know.”
She lay her cheek on his chest, taking a long, shuddering breath laden with relief. “I’m just glad you’re home. That's all that really matters to me. “ She pulled back from him a little, bent and reached behind her on the easy chair, and handed him a small, flat wrapped package. “Merry Christmas, Zach.”
He didn’t open it and instead tucked it rather sheepishly inside the back pocket of his uniform. “I wish I had something to give you – but I wasn’t able to get anything before I left, and I came home as soon as we docked,” he said apologetically, hugging her in thanks.
She looked at him, relief and love shining in her emerald eyes, hushing him with a finger to his lips. “You’ve given me the best gift of all, Zachary Montgomery,” she told him softly. “You.” She reached back and took a remote from the easy chair, and selected their song on the sound system. The first sweet bars filled the room, and she went back into his arms, firmly but gently pushing him to the middle to the room. “And you owe me a Christmas waltz.”
Upstairs in his sleep, in the warm cocoon of his
bed, little Keith Montgomery heard the familiar strains of the love song,
dreamed of his mother’s smile and his father’s secure arms, and he
fell even deeper into the sweet, blissful sleep of those who know they
are loved.