THE BATTERED CHRISTMAS TREE

Madeline lifted her head as she looked into the mirror. She took one last look of her face, and the eyes looking back. It was hard to remember when she started this tradition, as Operations would call it, but sometimes, she wished that it would end. It had to be at least five years ago that it started.

Madeline turns and walks into the room of screaming children and then ran around her body. Madeline mentally counted to ten as she walked to the rocking chair and sat down. The children still ran about and Madeline looked to the tree and smiled softly.

“Children!” Madeline calls out, and suddenly, all of the children stop in their tracks. Madeline smiles at them as she can tell that their parent, or parents, has trained them well about Madeline. Quickly they turn and start to walk to Madeline’s feet. They silently sat down on the floor and two walked and leaned against the rocking chair.

“Madeline, what story are you going to tell us this year?” One girl, with wire glasses on calls out and Madeline smiles at her.

“Belinda, I will be telling you a true story.” Madeline says and Belinda’s mouth opens wide. The kids start to whisper between themselves and Madeline pauses for a moment. She could almost laugh. There was a time she would have killed all the children, instead of telling them a Christmas story. Now, each Christmas, she would tell the children a Christmas story as the parents finished up shopping, wrapping, and going to the Section Christmas party. Madeline would not admit it, but she found that telling the story was much more enjoyable than being with those she worked with day in and day out.

“About who?” Sandra asked, who had the same red hair as her mother. Madeline was thankful that Birkoff did not mix his genes with Gail, the combination could have been odd to face everyday.

“You don’t know them. They are two of my finest operatives, Michael and Nikita.” Madeline says and the children all turn and look at Belinda.

“Yes, Belinda, you know them.” Madeline says with a soft smile. Belinda smiles broadly and lifts her head to the children. Belinda could keep secrets, unlike her father.

Madeline leans back in her chair and smiles. She could not remember the last time she saw either Michael or Nikita. She wondered where they were this year.

“It started out as a mission…” Madeline says slowly and the children sigh and roll their eyes around.

“Is this going to be like Santa Ops? Who was that? Operations?” One of the older children calls out. Madeline blinks her eyes as the comments continue for several minutes.

“Children? Do you want me to stop?” Madeline asks and they all suddenly become quiet.

“Now…. Where was I?” Madeline asks with a slight evil smile that crossed her face. The children giggled and Madeline smiled at them. How she wished Operations was as easy to get along with. She wouldn’t have to play mind games with him anymore!

“It was a mission, and Michael and Nikita were sent to the mountains of Pennsylvania.” Madeline says and the children wrinkle their noses up.

“Pennsylvania? As in Pittsburgh?” Sandra asks and Madeline stares at the girl.

“No.. She means Pennsylvania, as in Philadelphia!” another girl screams back.

“NO! ERIE!!!”

“NO! HARRISBURG!!!”

“Children!” Madeline calls out and she watches all eyes turn back towards her. She smiles at their sparkling eyes and meets them with her own. She knew they told their parents how nice she was, and they probably were told never to trust her.

“All of those cities are correct, but Michael and Nikita were sent to the mountains. They were not near a city, and there was only one road, for many many miles.” Madeline says and a small boy, around three raises his hand.

“OH WALTER!” Belinda says as she rolls her eyes as her little brother stands up.

“What was the mission for, Madeline?” Walter asks and Madeline smiles and nods her head.

“I will tell you, if you may allow me to continue.” Madeline says and the children giggle.

The snow was deeper the further the two operatives ran with the heavy equipment on. Again, the communications devices were used, but only a crackled was picked up on all pieces. The night was calm as the two operatives trudged on. There was no one behind them, and there will be no one behind them. Out, somewhere in the Pennsylvania woods, the only knowledge that someone was out there, was the trail of blood and footprints. Those were quickly becoming covered with the heavy snow that fell.

“I can’t.” The words are yelled out with pain laced in each word. There is a stumble forward and the deep snow stops the falling operative from landing hard.

“Nikita, get up.” Michael says as he turns around and looks at Nikita as she is stopped in the snow. He looks at his watch and looks around. They were heading into the woods, as the entire mission had folded down around them. They were the only survivors, and Nikita was wounded. It was a long hike out of the area before the pick up point. Now was not the time for all equipment to go down, but that was what happened.

Michael pulls at Nikita’s good arm and she looks up with a pale face, almost as white as the snow. The only color came from the two rosy red cheeks from the extremely cold temperatures. The weather had violently turned during Michael’s and Nikita’s egress. It also compounded what they needed to finish on this full moon night.

Yet, there were no stars or moon this night as the snow continued to heavily fall. Michael looked in front of them as Nikita gathered her balance. They had to continue on. Movement was vital to their survival. Nikita leans her head back and screams as the communications unit crackles back at her. She pulls it off her ear, and is about to chuck it into the snow when Michael grabs it out of her hand.

“If we find shelter, I might be able to patch a line up.” Michael says and Nikita shakes her head. She didn’t believe a word of what Michael said. She pulled her feet up and started the trudge. The weight of the knee-deep snow almost took Nikita’s worries off of the extreme pain in her right arm and the stickiness of blood running down the inside of her jacket.

“Can we have a break?” Nikita calls out and Michael snaps around. She was getting weaker. Michael walked to her and pulled the strap off of his gun. He moved quickly, making a half sling, and helped place Nikita’s arm into it.

“We move.” Michael says as he starts back out through the snow. They stepped on rocks and holes, as there is no way of telling what is below their feet. There is a line of trees and then a long empty stretch. Michael stops and looks. Although the snow is heavy, it is easy to see that the passage is actually a stream of some sort. Michael starts out to the right, looking for a way across the stream, without furthering their wet state. Hypothermia was a deep concern of Michael’s.

Michael rubbed his gloved hands together as he waited for Nikita to step over a fallen tree. The injury made Nikita’s balance even more incapable in this snow. Michael stepped forward and slipped a little. Michael caught himself and looked back at Nikita.

“Icy patch.” Michael comments and Nikita nods her head. To avoid the patch, she steps back a few steps, and safely makes it to Michael’s side.

“How many fingers am I holding up?” Michael questions after he pulls his hand out of the glove and holds up two fingers. Nikita blinks and looks at Michael.

“Two.” Nikita comments and Michael gloves his hand back up and looks at what Michael is assuming is downstream. Down not too far, is a large tree that can act as a bridge to the other side.

“We will cross there.” Michael says and Nikita looks at him and shakes her head.

“I can’t Michael.” Nikita says and she almost gives into the winning darkness that is pushing in from the sides. Michael takes his hands and holds her around the waist.

“We must, Nikita.” Michael says and Nikita stares at him.

“We are lost. We have no communications.. We have no location devices working. We are walking around with no compass in the woods during a blizzard.” Nikita cries out and Michael looks at Nikita. The frustration was starting to set in for him too, but it was important that he maintained control. Losing it would not serve any of them any good.

“It was suppose to be an easy in and out mission, be back and enjoy Christmas mission!” Nikita cries out and Michael stares at her as tears start to fall. Michael shakes his head.

“Save your energy, Nikita.” Michael says and Nikita looks at him as he starts out towards the tree. She moved behind him, as he knew she would. Nikita knew they had to either find shelter or continue moving. It was the only way for them to live.

“Nikita.” Michael says as he turns around and sees her falling behind. He did not want her too far behind, as he could not tell how badly she was injured. It had happened during their emergency egress. They were rounding the corner, running quickly, knowing that the impending explosion was soon to rock the building. Nikita had just entered a clear area, and before Michael could take out the guard, the bullet hit Nikita. She did not stop, as she continued on, knowing that the explosion would surely kill her.

“Take your arm out of the sling. Take a few moments to gather your strength.” Michael says as he moves to the tree and sits down on it. He hoped that it would hold their weight.

Michael sat down on the tree and pushed the snow away. He turned and looked at Nikita as she leaned against a tree. Her eyelids had slipped down and over her eyes. He had to do something soon, or he was going to lose Nikita.

“NIKITA!” Michael hollers and Nikita opens her eyes and starts to walk towards him. He helps steady Nikita as she straddles the tree in the same fashion as Michael has. The plan was simple. Michael was going to scoot across the tree, and push the snow away as he went. All Nikita had to do was to follow behind.

“Do not get to close to me. We cannot risk too much weight on this tree at once.” Michael says and Nikita nods her head. Michael starts out, as it is a slow process. He is fueled by the image of Nikita’s closed eyes when he looks back. He needed to make movement, and soon, he was more than half way across the stream.

“Nikita.. It’s time to move.” Michael calls out, and Nikita nods her head and starts across. Michael watches her for a few moments, catching his own breath. He feels a dip in the tree, and realizes that he must get to the other side.

“Nikita… keep moving.. But go slowly…” Michael calls out loudly, as he cannot turn his head to look at Nikita. His hands push the snow away quickly and soon his feet touches the firm snowing ground. Michael crawls into the snow and turns to watch Nikita. She had not made much ground.

“Nikita…. Please..” Michael begs out and Nikita blinks and nods her head. Nikita tries to grab hold of the tree with her arms and pull, but those only proceeds to rip pain into her harder. Nikita works as quickly as she can as she hits the center.

“Michael.. It’s like ice!” Nikita calls out. Michael stands up and watches Nikita. She can’t grip her hands onto the tree anymore. Michael’s body heat must have melted the snow and then made it into ice once he moved on.

“Nikita.. Move on.. NOW!” Michael calls out, but the scream is too late, as he watches Nikita’s body starts to tip. Nikita flips and tries to grab onto the tree, but can only do so with her injured right arm.

“MICHAEL!” Nikita screams out. Michael looks down and then at Nikita.

“Pull yourself back up, Nikita. You have too.” Michael says and Nikita tries to pull her other arm up, but it slips on the ice.

“Nikita…. Try again!” Michael calls out as he inches towards the edge of the bank. Michael watches as all the strength of the arm runs out and she falls into the snow and ice filled stream. Nikita screams all the way down. There is a momentarily silence, and then screams again.

“MY LEG!!!” Nikita hollers out and Michael dashes down the snow filled back and crashes into the stream. The cold water is not noticed, as Michael feels the jagged rocks as he moves towards Nikita. He kicks the big bolder near Nikita, and knows that the leg was going to be in bad shape.

“Nikita… grab my neck. We need to get out of this water.” Michael says. Nikita grunts in pain as she wraps her arms around Michael’s neck. Michael pulls up, and sees the leg twisted about as he gingerly picks it up so he is not dragging it. Nikita’s howls of pain momentarily deafen Michael as he turns back towards shore.

The climb up the bank was a bit, difficult, but Michael made it quickly, as he felt Nikita’s body tremble in pain and in coldness. Michael sets her down in the snow. He had to at least put a brace of some sort on the leg. He did not know how much further it would be to shelter, and he could not carry Nikita the entire way.

It may have been setting Nikita down that caused her the most pain. It also gave Michael the chance to looks at Nikita’s leg. He didn’t need to be a medical doctor to see that the bottom leg was almost shattered, and that there was at least one break in the upper thigh area.

“Go, Michael.. Save yourself.” Nikita moans out. Michael pulls at tree and breaks off limbs to start a big supportive brace. Nikita was going to be in considerable pain, but he wasn’t going to leave her.

“And this is when Santa Claus comes down and takes Nikita and Michael to the North Pole?” little Walter calls out and Belinda drops her head in embarrassment.

“NO!!!” Sandra calls out and moves to slap the young boy.

“Sandra.. It is not too late to get coal in your stocking.” Madeline says carefully and Sandra sits back down.

“I am sorry, Madeline.” Sandra says and Madeline nods her head. Sometimes the kids were worse than their parents.

“Children please. I am only at the beginning of the story.” Madeline says softly and the children squirm around. Madeline looks up and nods to the operative that is holding some bowls of popcorn. That should help settle the children down.

“Madeline… was Nikita hurt bad?” Belinda asks and Madeline smiles. She was given the ok to continue.

“Nikita…. Not much further.” Michael says as he is starting to become worn of the work. Nikita was leaning almost all of her weight on him. He could tell that she was on the brink of death, and shelter was desperately needed. Nikita fumbled with the communications unit. It gave her something to focus on, and therefore, kept her awake.

“AWH!” Nikita screams as she is forced to put weight on the broken leg. Michael bends over some, and lets Nikita put more weight on him. He looks around. It was impossible to see anything in the blinding snow that was flying down the hill. It was almost a whiteout condition.

“Michael.. I need rest.” Nikita says as she shakes her head and Michael looks at her face that is so close to his. Panic filled him as he saw her eyes drop again. She could not continue on.

“PLEASE!” Michael begged upward, and as if someone was listening to him, the snow slowed down. Michael looked to the left, and felt as if he found the Garden of Eden. He pointed to the little cabin to Nikita and then stopped. Michael stubbornly used the last of his strength to pick Nikita up and take her to the cabin.

Michael was pleasantly happy as the door opened and he entered. It was not run down and was relatively well stocked. Michael moved to the cot and gently placed Nikita down. Although he wanted to attend to Nikita’s injuries, a fire was more important. Both of them were quite wet and needed the warmth to survive the night.

Once the fire was roaring, Michael moved to the cot. Slowly, he pulled away the brace and dropped the pieces to the floor. He stopped and looked around the cabin. He quickly found a small medical kit, but more importantly, some Jack Daniel’s. Michael goes to the sink area and grabs a cup. There was plenty of the liquid, and he poured some for Nikita.

“Drink.” Michael says. He knew he was going to cause pain, but at least now, it will not be as much as before. Nikita slowly drinks and winces as the liquor hits her stomach. Michael then goes and starts to take the layers of clothing off of Nikita. It was a job that made Michael wish he had earplugs. Once he had cleared the arm wound, he saw the amount of blood.

Michael could see the bullet, and knew that it was best that it come out now. Michael cleansed the wound with the some of the liquor that caused Nikita to scream. He sterilized a knife, and quickly pulled the bullet out. It caused no more bleeding, and he tentatively stitched Nikita up.

This was where Michael stopped. The arm was a typical wound, one that Nikita had suffered before, and he was sure would suffer again if they get out of the blizzard Michael pulled the blanket up to Nikita’s chest and saw that even then she continued to shiver.

Michael cleaned off his bloody knife, and started to cut away the mission pants from Nikita’s leg. She howled in pain as he pulled the material away. She moved her head side to side and Michael closed his eye. There were no bones sticking out, but the leg was crooked and twisted. All he could possible do is put it into a splint and watch it.

Michael saw two walking sticks in the corner and pulled them to Nikita’s legs. From the hip to past her foot the sticks went, and Michael strapped those tightly to each other. Then he slowly attached more sticks and tied more.

“Can I sleep now?” Nikita asks in a meek voice. Michael bends down and covers her body. They were both tired, and Michael looked at Nikita. Her lips were still blue. Michael felt the chill from his own wet clothes. Lucky for Michael, there were men’s clothing left, and once Nikita felt better, she could use one of the many shirts. Michael pealed off his clothing and set the alarm on his watch and slide into bed with Nikita.

The body heat was comforting, but feeling Michael holding her gave Nikita the sense of safety that she longed for.

There was first warmth as Nikita rolled her head to the side and then there was pain. Nikita lifted her head slightly and then she opened her eyes. Nikita struggles to keep her eyes open as she sees something moving towards her.

“Here.” Michael says as he places a cup in Nikita’s hand and Nikita shakes her head. She drops the cup back to Michael’s hand as her head falls back down. Her eyes shut, as it feels as if the pain was cutting off all other senses in her body. Nikita moaned lightly as Michael sat down on the bed and pushed back some hair.

“Nikita, time to wake up. I’ll give you something for the pain.” Michael says and Nikita opens her eyes and tries to sit up some. Michael walks over and grabs some large blankets and builds them up from Nikita’s head, so now she is leaning.

“First, you have to eat. I don’t want anymore liquor on your stomach without food.” Michael says as he hands Nikita the instant hot chocolate and walks back to the little stove he has up and running. Nikita swallows the hot liquid and relishes the comfort it gives her.

“We don’t have much choice here. Soup or Spam?” Michael asks and Nikita looks at him and smiles.

“I’ll have soup.” Nikita comments and Michael nods his head. He pours the pot into another cup and hands it to Nikita. Nikita sips at the Chicken Noodle soup slowly and looks at Michael with a clenched jaw.

“Do we have communications up?” Nikita asks and Michael moves to the foot of the bed. Michael pulls the blanket back and sees the foot that was starting to turn blue. It could mean that the breaks had cut off circulation, or that the brace was on too tightly.

“We have to redo this brace.” Michael says and Nikita turns her head and tries to stop her chin from quivering.

“We don’t have contact, do we?” Nikita asks and Michael walks back to Nikita and pulls the blanket off of her chest, to view the bullet wound. It was the least of her worries, and Michael was satisfied that unless it started to pain Nikita more than usual, that it will be fine.

“Nikita, eat. I have to redo that brace. You’ll want something for the pain.” Michael says and Nikita looks at Michael and moans. Michael sits down on the bed and strokes her face softly.

“I will try again after we fix this brace.” Michael says softly and Nikita looks out the window. It was still snowing, and heavily at that.

“How much more snow?” Nikita asks and Michael drops his head and takes Nikita’s hand into his.

“Let’s not worry about that.” Michael says and Nikita stares at Michael.

“Michael, no lies on Christmas Eve, please.” Nikita says and Michael blinks his eyes and nods his head.

“About four more.” Michael says and Nikita closes her eyes and looks up at the ceiling.

“God, Michael. How are they going to find us?” Nikita questions and Michael looks to the window.

“I am sure they are working on that, Nikita.” Michael says and he looks at Nikita and refills her cup with more soup. She was going to need a lot of liquor this time.

“Hey… is this where my Daddy comes into this story?” Belinda calls out and Madeline looks at her and nods her head.

“But Belinda, no one else knows this story. You are going to have to stay quiet if you want to stay.” Madeline says and Belinda nods her head and Sandra stands up and looks at little Walter. He was squirming about and she was getting annoyed.

“STOP IT!” Sandra yells and little Walter looks up at her and shakes his head.

“WHY YOU!” Sandra yells and Madeline stands up and takes little Walter into her lap.

“Now, Walter…. Your daddy is in this story. Do you want to hear about this?” Madeline asks softly and the young boy nods his head.

“Well… can you say, Incoming Intel for me?” Madeline asks and little Walter smiles broadly. It was his first full sentence he had said.

“Insoming Intol!” little Walter screams out and Belinda laughs and covers her face.

“That was good. Just like your daddy.” Madeline says as she looks to the corner and sees Operations. He nods his head and winks at Madeline. Madeline pauses in thought. He had never visited her during this yearly activity.

“Madeline!!!!” some kids called out and Madeline turned her attention back to the children.