Christmas Time Is Here: Academy Exclusives

Christmas Puppy

Erica pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm sorry. You just can't come waltzing in here and just give Dakota a puppy for Christmas and then waltz right back out the door again." She opened her eyes and stared at her husband. Her hopefully soon to be ex husband. She wasn't exactly sure how she was going to manage that quite yet.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "We talked about this."

"You mentioned it. You said one day you wanted to get him a dog. Of course." She said, holding up a hand.

"Exactly."

She huffed out a breath and stared at the Christmas tree over his shoulder. "We did not talk about timing or when this would be a good idea. I'm telling you a 4, almost 5 year old is not going to be responsible for a 2 month old puppy on his own."

"Guess you'll be busy then, honey." He said with a sarcastic sneer.

She glared at him. "I'm already busy. Our daughter is almost 9 months old. She's starting to walk and talk and I am more than enough busy with running after her and watching our son." She stated, her voice rising. "I don't have time for a puppy."

He shrugged. "Not my concern. And I'd watch your tone, Erica."

"You are gone more than you're here. What's up with that? I know that's not procedure. You are NOT getting all these deployment assignments." She crossed her arms. "And I'll watch my tone when I feel like it." She let her tone get sassy. She might end up regretting that, she thought as she watched his facial expression change to one that normally would send her crashing into the wall.

He took a step towards her. "You watch your tone." He hissed. "And I thought you preferred it when I was gone." His eyes narrowed. "Ben Taylor seems to love it when I'm gone." He accused.

"What are you saying?" She frowned. "Ben's a friend, you know that. He's your friend too. He just needs help with Luke more often than the others do and you know that too. He never asked to be a substitute father. But he's more of a father than you are."

His face contorted into anger and she barely managed to dodge his swing. He growled at her and she backed up against the wall, dodging again at the last minute when he swung his closed fist at her head and put a hole in the wall.

Thank God, she wasn't pregnant this year, she thought. "Knock it off." She scowled at him.

"I'll knock your block off." He hissed.

"No." she said. "you're leaving. God, I can't believe you managed to ruin another Christmas." She said, feeling tears of panic and frustration welling up inside her. "Dakota was actually excited at the idea that you were going to be here for Christmas."

He shook his head. "I'm sorry I'm such a HUGE disappointment to you Erica." He jeered. "Actually I'm not because you're just a fat cow and I can't understand what I ever saw in you. I think you're the bigger disappointment." He moved past her, making sure to bump her firmly into the wall and paused while he had her pinned up against the wall. "I could just do something about that right now." He said, his breath hot on her face and she willed herself to not flinch as he raised his hand, putting it around her neck as he pushed her back more against the wall.

"MAMA!" She'd never been so relieved to hear Jessica scream in the middle of the night.

Not that 9 pm was the middle of anyone's night.

His hand increased the pressure slightly as Jessica screamed again for her.

"I have to get her before she wakes up Kota." She breathlessly begged him as she struggled to push back against him, starting to struggle to breath. Jessica didn't scream again but she started to wail. "Please."

He let go and she sucked in a breath. "Go get the brat quiet."

"The puppy stays, you go." She finally managed to glare at him. "Just go like you always do." She flung at him before running down the hall to scoop Jessica out of her crib and cuddle her close. Jessica cried, eyes screwed up tight as she clung to Erica with a grip as good as any spider monkey would have on a tree or their own mama. She didn't dare to breathe a sigh of relief quite yet because she could hear her husband moving around the living room.

She settled with Jessica in the rocking chair as the kitchen door slammed shut and she heard the soft whimpers of the puppy who had been left behind in the kitchen. "There, there, baby girl." She murmured, pressing a kiss to the top of Jessica's head as the sobs subsided to hiccups and soft snuffling as Jessica nuzzled her nose against Erica's shirt. She got up and went to the kitchen, throwing all the extra locks she'd put in place over the past year and hadn't given him a key to. Then she wandered the house and locked everything else up before turning the tree on and settling on the couch with Jessica as the puppy wandered into the room and curled up on a blanket under the tree.

"Merry Christmas to us, baby girl." She murmured, wincing slightly as she reached up with her hand to touch the spot on her neck that was sure to show bruising tomorrow.

A baby, a 4 year old and a puppy...She was sure that there was going to be a good story there at some point. She looked down at the puppy who tilted his head to look at her. "Not your fault, pup pup." She reassured him. "Dakota will name you tomorrow." She said and he rested his head on his paws again and whimpered slightly just as Jessica whimpered as well. She kissed the top of her daughter's head and stared into the lights of the tree, wondering just where everything had gone wrong.

(fade..)