Title: Holiday Journal: St. Patrick's Day
Author: Sammi M.
Series: Holiday Journal Classification: S
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: All the adults are CC's, FB's and TT's, but the kid's mine and I only rent her out on weekends. I'm not infringing on their rights; I just wanted to write a story and have some fun. Besides, I'm poor and the only way they're going to get anything out of me is if they send Mitch and David to torture me for it. (Won't do any good, but I sure as heck will enjoy it!)

Summary: Hunter learns why St. Patrick's is her father's most, and soon to be least, favorite holiday.

Note: Hello, campers. Here's another story in the HJ mini-series. This one is really short, but it's important because of Scully.

Just a few things to remember. When Mulder and Hunter communicate amongst themselves, its represented by *. Also, I'm not following any particular calendar year, so that's why the days seem weird.

All of the stories in this series are being tossed out for discussion on fictalk. All feedback is welcome.


Holiday Journal, Entry #26

At first I wasn't going to write an entry for today. A lot of people don't consider this an actual holiday and I didn't see the point of putting it in the journal. But then I started thinking about this day in the scheme of everything and figured why not. Besides, it'll probably make Dana smile later on. Much later.

It's been interesting around here since Dana's Birthday. She really enjoyed her present from Dad and I think she gave him extra mess-up points when she found out the present was already housebroken. Nothing warms a woman's heart more than a puppy who understands the concept of the great outdoors. Believe me, my dad could almost do no wrong, ... until today, that is.

It started out like any other day ...


March 17th
Apartment 42
Arlington, Va
6:45 am

"You're not wearing that to school." The voice of Fox Mulder broke into my morning ritual of reading the People section of the paper. I loved scarfing down cereal while I scanned for any mention of my favorite actor, David Duchovny. This morning I had almost gagged when I read he was dating what Suzannah Blake would call a Blazing Bimbette. This was not the time for him to start razzing me.

"What?"

"I said, you're not wearing that to school. Not today, anyway."

All sorts of ways to torture a person flashed through my mind and a few of them I let him see. "Don't you think that's a bit much coming from someone with that particular tie on? Dana's going to send you home when she sees it."

*Mrwowr.* Echoed through my mind. *You didn't have to get catty; I'm only trying to protect you like any good father would.* This from the man who actually fights me over getting the cereal with the most sugar in it. *That outfit is guaranteed to send you home all black and blue.*

When he said that, I had to take another look at myself. Last time I checked, pink and yellow weren't on any of the gang color combinations lists my dad had made me memorize. But, maybe they had updated the lists. "What exactly is wrong with my outfit and, can you tell me in twenty words or less before Gram gets here?"

"I can do it in five." He grinned at my confused look. The man can be evil at times. In a truly inspired manner, he held up five fingers and began to lower them with each word. "Today is St. Patrick's Day." He sat back like he had just told me the secret combination to Fort Knox.

"And?"

"And, there's no green in that romper."

At that moment, I really had to question my birth parent's decision to leave me to him. No green? Puleez! "How would you know? You can't even see it, Mr. Red-Green Colour blind."

"I can differentiate shades of it or else I couldn't be an agent, Ms. Smarty Pants. And that romper doesn't have a bit in it."

"So, what's the big deal?" I had no idea where this was going and a small part of me was afraid ... very afraid. "I don't have green on; it's not like it's the end of the world."

He headed for my room and I could feel him mind-muttering as he searched for something. Finally, "Aha!" drifted from my doorway and I watched as he quickly came back to me and started braiding (Yes, he braids. Isn't he great!) the green ribbon into my hair. "We don't have time for me to explain this so, for once, just trust your dad when he says it's safer this way. You'll thank me later."

Daddy finished just as the downstairs announcer buzzed."That's Gram. I gotta go." I stood and kissed him when he bent over. He pushed me to grab my books and headed me toward the door. "You're strange, but I suppose I'll keep you. Behave yourself and I really would change that tie before Dana sees it."


March 17
The hallway outside of Apartment 42
Arlington, Va
3:39 pm

As I got off the elevator, I had to wave at Mrs. Monroe. It was either wave or drop laughing. This woman had taken today too seriously. From the top of her perfectly coiffed (What kind of word is coiffed?) head to the soles of her size twelve feet, she had every shade of green on known to man. The combination was sickening and while we were on the elevator together I was very thankful Dad made me carry anti-nausea meds with me. I know avoiding being pinched is ideal, but .... ewww.

I could hear strange noises coming from our apartment the closer I got to the door. I scanned for anything bad, but only picked up Dad and Dana. Dad and Dana? What are they doing here at this time of day? I let myself in and headed for the den where all of the noise was coming from.

"Damnit, Mulder, stop!" Dana yelled as she slapped at my dad's hands. Since he was laying on his back, the slap missed his hands and hit his head. "How anyone could still be so grabby with the injuries you have ..."

"Injuries?" I had to interrupt as my worry-meter skyrocketed. "What happened?"

Dana jumped as she realized I had heard her little outburst. "I'm sorry, Hunt. I didn't know you were home."

I walked over to Dad and kneeled beside him. I tried to see how bad he was hurt but I couldn't see anything major. *That's probably because they're not on the outside.* Huh? I turned back to Dana because he wasn't making any sense.

"Did he bump his head again?"

"No, Baby, he didn't. At least that's not why he was treated." She tried to hide the smile that was threatening to come on her face. I was really confused because that's not usually her reaction to him getting hurt. "He fell on his rear and sprained his back and bruised his tailbone."

"I didn't just fall, Scully. You pushed me."

My eyes grew big. "Dana pushed you?" It didn't take much thought to come up with my next question. "What'd you do?"

Dad started pouting and put on his best little-boy lost face. "Me? I'm the one hurt and she's the one who did it and all you can ask is what I did. Don't you have any sympathy for your dear old dad?"

He picked up on my answer when I stood and walked to Dana. "What did he do?"

She started laughing really hard. I hadn't seen her like this since she explained what the stuff on the letter that Dad sent with Q2 meant. I was expecting something good; I wasn't disappointed. She tried to take a deep breath to calm herself but it didn't help, "He wouldn't leave me alone! I ...told hi .... him to ...stop, but he just kept ... on. So, ... I (Giggle) just pushed him. How was I s .... supposed to know ... they'd just waxed the floors!" She couldn't control the laughter any more and just cut loose. "He ... went ... a go ..g-good ...fifteen ...f-feet before he ...hit the wall. It was hilarious!"

Her laughter was contagious and I couldn't help it especially when Daddy tried to look hurt and ended up grimacing. "This isn't funny, you two. I'm in pain over here."

He really did look like he was hurting, so I went over and kissed his head. "I'm sorry, Daddy. I should be nicer to you since you saved me from all of the creeps today."

It was Dana's turn to be confused. "My turn, now: what'd he do?"

"Nothing. I didn't do anything."

I noticed he had a panicked look on his face, but I ignored it because I wanted Dana to know what he did. "He saved me from all of the depraved hands at Selwyn. If he hadn't made me wear my green ribbon, I would have been pinched to death!"

"Wait a minute. Your dad made you wear green today." I nodded and a strange look came on her face. "Before he left for work, he made you wear a green ribbon."

This was weird. "Yes, Dana. He went into my room, found my ribbon and braided it into my hair." Since she seemed to be lagging behind, I thought a visual aid might be nice. "See. It's still there. From this morning."

"You creep!" Uh oh. "You lied to me! You knew all along what today was and you had it all planned. Oooooh, I cannot believe you!"

At the beginning of her speech, Dad had gone really white. "Scully, I was only kidding." He tried to smile but she wasn't buying it. "I just wanted to have a little fun; no harm done."

Dana was now several shades of red and still climbing. "No harm done! You pretended to 'just figure out' today was St. Pat's and then notice I wasn't wearing any green." She shook her head. "You knew what I was planning on wearing today, yesterday, and you deliberately kept quiet so that you could cop a f..." She always does that when she realizes I'm around. Thank goodness I have the guys to tell me what she doesn't want me to know. "So that .... you could pinch me black and blue! I actually felt bad about your being hurt. I thought I might have gone too far! Falling on your ass was too good for you." Uh oh! She must really be ticked cause she said the a-word and I'm still in the room.

"I didn't mean anything by it." This man was afraid for his life. He, too, knew what it meant for her to have used that word. In that moment he did the only thing he could think of to protect himself: he used me as his human shield. "Scully, you wouldn't think of harming a poor, defenseless child just to get at me. She's innocent." He tried to move us away from her direct line of sight, but his back and tailbone weren't letting him. "It was all in good fun. That's all." He had the nervous laughter of a man in front of a firing squad. "I just thought it would be a great way to celebrate one of my favorite holidays; you're just so pinchable!" As soon as he said it, he knew it was the wrong thing.

Dana started advancing and I suppose he realized it was a lost cause to keep me in front of him. So, he let me go. "Hunter. Go in your room and don't come out until I say it's all right to do so. Ignore any and all sounds your dad makes or else you're on my black list as well. Is that clear?" I didn't wait to answer. I was in my room before she had taken a breath. The last thing I heard right before his screams was her, "I'll show you who's pinchable! Favorite holiday, indeed!"

Something tells me he's going to be a lot more sore in the morning!

The End

Read More Like This Write One Like This
Other Holidays
Young Relatives
Family Vacations

Other Family Holidays Challenge
Family Summer Vacation Challenge
Labor Day Labor Challenge

Return to The Nursery Files home