House of Cards Series # 3 One...

Instead of spending money buying assorted gifts for Christmas, one year the James family and the Vega family both bought a pass to the best ski resort for Christmas. They rented a chalet and were spending a week enjoying the marvels of nature.

And about four days into their ten day vacation, Alice had broken two toes of her foot and had a hairline fracture from dropping her ski boot on her bare foot. She wasn't the only adult out of commission, West had caught the flu and was miserably sick in the chalet. So the adults had decided to take it easy and were trusting the kids to take care of themselves. Nate was eighteen, Grace and Adri both fifteen now and they were at the age that they were dying for some freedom. So they were inordinately pleased with the chance to go out without chaperones.

So with much pestering and repeated cautions to be careful, Nate, Grace and Adri finally made their escape to the wonders of Mount St. Marie. The first few days of skiing had been with the necessary evil of instruction so they didn't accidentally kill themselves with ice and fibre glass. Nathaniel had been a natural, Grace was a disastor and Adri was in love with the cute instructor in training. He was sixteen and seemed as interested in the young beauty as she was in him. Nate didn't like it but he wanted to ski the harder hills and Adri was whining about wanting to stay with Jeremy. So with the understanding that after an hour they were to meet back up at the lift, Nate and Grace left Adri flirting with her crush.

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"No kids? Whatever should we do?" Alice asked with amusement in her voice. She was in pain and irritated at being chalet bound but having her friends around made it more tolerable. Maddison had poured out coffee and hot chocolate with generous portions of bailey's and khalua for some added warmth, Malcolm had found some action movies on the television and West was silently miserable on the couch, wrapped up in blankets and heavily medicated.

"I say we rob a bank." Maddison suggested, voice serious.

Without missing a beat Malcolm started to plan their sudden turn to villany. "We could always have Alice walk in and strip, she's a great distraction." he suggested and received a whack of a pillow from his wife.

"A**." Ace muttered, smiling. "Get away driver. If we're gonig to h*** I wanna drive." she claimed.

"Shotgun." West grumbled, sounding congested. "Literally and figuratively." he added after coughing.

"What do you want, pscyhopath with a gun or safe cracker?" Maddison asked Malcom, not seeming to have a preference.

"You're scarier than me, I'll take safe cracking." Mal smirked and got whacked with a pillow again.

"So what exactly are we going to use as our getaway car, the two vans? Not the most agile of escape choices." Ace pointed out, tapping her lip.

"We could always go boost something better." Mad suggesed, but Malcolm shook his head.

"No, too much effort." He grumbled, setting into the comfortable couch as Chronicles of Riddick came on.

"Alas, our plans are foiled by laziness." Maddison put her hand to her forehead dramatically.

"Loser." Ace teased and sipped her coffee.

####

"Ewww, he's got his tongue down her throat." Grace fake gagged, keeping her voice low as they spied through the bushes.

Grace and Nate had skied the harder hills and although Nate had been fantastic, Grace had spent the entire time so afraid she nearly peed herself. Although both her parents were quite althetic and graceful, Grace was anything but what her name suggested. She tripped over nothing, walked into corners, bashed things off tables etc... So skiing was a singular adrenaline inducing experience which her thrill seeking nature loved.

When their alloted hour was up, they went to meet Adri, but she never showed. So asking around, Nate and Grace had learned that Jeremy and Adri had gone off somewhere private. They weren't doing anything inappropriate or else even Grace wouldn't have been able to stop Nathaniel from going over there and thrashing the other young man, but it was quite the enthusiastic make out session going on.

Nate whispered his plan in her ear and she grinned, nodding at his nasty scheme. Adri was her friend and she got along with the girl well enough but Grace would pretty much always back the male of the Vega siblings. He was her best friend and unless he was planning something monumentally stupid, she was along for the ride.

So without any warning, Nate and Grace jumped out of their hiding places and pelted to the kissing couple with snow balls. Adri screamed nasty words at her brother while Jeremy laughed and started to pelt snowballs back. Nathaniel yelled for Grace to make her get away while he provided cover fire and that's when everything went wrong. Grace's terrible luck struck again. She hopped into her skis,set off on what looked like a clear line and a partially buried tree branch snapped up and slammed her backwards with a pain filled cry.

Jeremy and Adri scrambled towards her and Nate beat them both, checking his best friend for injury. She was out cold now and he tore open her jacket and it was obvious her collarbone was broken clean in half. "S***." Nate swore, zipping her jacket back up as it chose this perfect time to start snowing again.

Even though Jeremy was the one who was supposed to be trained to handle this situations, he was so new he hadn't actually faced it for real yet. And he froze, not saying a thing as Nate carefully picked his unconscioud best friend up and stepped into his skis. "Go get mom and dad, I'm taking her to the first aid hut." he said calmly to his little sister and she nodded at him, eyes wide and a little scared looking. Nate smiled at her to reassure her. "Grace is a stubborn pain in my a**, she's going to be fine. Just go get the 'rents ok?" When Adri nodded, he pushed off.

####

A mild concussion, a broken collar bone and an hour long lecture from the parents later and Nate and Grace were chalet bound while Adri was the only one left with any freedom. And she was mad at Nate for 'ruining' her chances with Jeremy. He already felt bad about getting Grace so hurt, having all the parents giving him that disappointed look that when his little sister got so mad at him she cried, he became determined to make it up to her. There had to be something he could do to fix Christmas.

Since he was stuck in the large chalet, he had a limited number of options and it was only discovering a closet full of decorations that he was able to do anything at all. The log building already had an inherent festive air to it but Nathaniel found enough gewgaws and bricabrac to kit out the chalet. Grace was on the couch with her father and Nate's mom, and Maddison and Malcolm were out chaperoning Adri once more. And with everyone ignoring Nate in stony silence, he decorated.

There was no tree but with the clever use of Christmas lights and duct tape he designed one one the main wall. Tinsle, wreaths and bulbs were strung and hung from varying levels, offering twinkling distractions and a tasteful amount of cheer. And to his vast happiness, Nathaniel found a mistletoe and knew how to make his sister happy again. Looking at the main room of the chalet, Nate saw a low beam that would be the perfect place to hang it. He just had to crawl out over a near ten foot drop to the main floor. It wouldn't kill him but he really didn't want to join the list of injured this Christmas.

So he was careful when he went up to the second floor and climbed over to the wrong side of the banister, mistletoe clenched in his teeth. Of course, it was only when he was about to do the most danergous part and needed his concentration the most that anyone noticed what he was doing. Grace had gotten curious as to where he had gotten off to and went looking for him. So now she stood on the far side of the banister and hissed at him to get his a** back there.

"I'm already out here, just let me get this done." Nate hissed back, feeling a little nervous and not needing the pressure of an audience.

"What the h*** do you think you're gonig to achieve by this? I'm sorry I was being irresponsible let me make it up by being even MORE irresponsible?" Grace demanded, voice incredulous.

Both of them seemed to have forgotten that there were witnesses around as they sniped at each other, Nate trying to focus as he partially hung over the side of the beam, trying to get the mistletoe to hang without dropping it or falling off.

"Don't you dare ignore me Nathaniel Spade Vega!" Grace warned and to his horror the injured girl looked ready to climb over and come after him.

"Grace if you come out here after me I'll put you over my knee and spank you and then not talk to you for a week. Don't think I'm bluffing." He warned.

Grace gave him a horrified look but stepped back down onto the floor. "Why are you so determined to hang a freaking mistletoe?" she asked.

"Because, I ruined Christmas. Everyone's mad at me and there's nothing I can do to fix that. I screwed up. But I can at least help Adri get her Christmas kiss. I hang this, you get Jeremy here and she'll get the Christmas kiss she wants. At least then someone doesn't hate me." he sighed and confessed.

Grace gave Nate a strange look then smiled softly. "That was so... romantic. Weird to hear it coming from a meat head like you."

Clapping from below reminded the friends that there were others able to see and hear them. They both looked down, startled to see the whole group of their family there witnessing the fight. Nate smacked his hand to his face while Grace flushed red.

Adri looked ready to cry, but in a happy way, Jeremy stood behind her looking amused and slightly embarassed and the parents were all clapping and mocking Nathaniel good naturedly as he climbed back onto the safe side of the banister. "Did I just go and make a really big fool of myself?" Nate asked his best friend.

She punched him in the arm with her good hand and nodded. "Yep. And it worked." she added smugly, as if it were all ehr doing. Nate frowned then looked down, seeing Jeremy shyly kissing Adri even with all the parents present.

"Oh." Nate said, stunned. No one seemed mad at him anymore and he didn't quite understand why. He had messed up, he was supposed to be watching out for the girls and instead had ditched one and let the other get seriously hurt. He had accepted that he was going to be bearing the consequences of that for a while. But now the parents were all relaxed looking again and sitting, talking to Jeremy and Adri while Grace just watched Nate try to piece it all together.

"You know, sometimes you're a little too hard on yourself Nathaniel." Grace said sagely.

"I just wanted this to be a good Christmas." Nate shrugged.

Grace held her hand out to her best friend and he took it in his much larger hand. "It is a good Christmas Nitwit." she teased.

"Thanks Graceless." he teased back and carefully pulled her into a hug.

"You guys coming? We're doing smores on the fireplace." Adri called from downstairs. Grace surprised Nate with a quick kiss and headed downstairs while Nate came down slower, humming Feliz Navidad. Maybe it was a good Christmas afterall.