Advent Calendar: 24 Holiday Scenes (Veronica, Lamb) R
Title: Advent Calendar: 24 Holiday Scenes
Author: Evie (jenedorspas)
Pairing/Character: Veronica, Lamb (with just a hint of Veronica/Lamb; also: Inga, Sacks, Vinnie Van Lowe, Keith, Duncan, Weevil, Leo D’Amato, Mac, Backup, and mentions of Wallace and Lilly)
Word Count: 100 x 24
Rating: R (but only because of Lamb’s mouth)
Summary: 24 100-word drabbles (thanks to mel39 for the prompts). Set around Christmas in season 2 (so, in the vicinity of 2x10, One Angry Veronica) and focused around Veronica and Lamb.
Spoilers: Let’s say through season 2 to be safe.
Warnings: Language
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of Veronica Mars.
Author’s Notes 1: Thanks to mel39 for the prompts, and for letting me borrow them from the OC Fan Fiction community to put to my own uses. The prompts: Glitter; Holly; Eggnog; Star; Reindeer; Latkes; Party; Wise; Flame; Bauble; Snowflake; Scrooge; Punch; Pudding; Visitor; Miracle; Gold; Dreidel; Carol; Wrapping; Tree; Jingle; Joy; Stocking.
Author’s Notes 2: While I’m working roughly within the general framework of Christmas in season 2, I haven’t attempted to stick strictly to the timeline. They're mostly stand-alone, though "Visitor" and "Miracle" are an obvious pair. They're nothing special, but since they're written, I thought I might as well post them!
- Glitter
"Jesus, Inga," Lamb says, brushing a thin layer of red sparkles off his shoulder. "These Christmas decorations are shedding glitter all over everything."
"Get in the Christmas spirit, Sheriff," Inga says, seemingly oblivious to Lamb's glare.
"Lamb doesn't have any Christmas spirit," Veronica says, sauntering up to the counter. Then she raises an eyebrow and adds, "But that does look an awful lot like Christmas dandruff."
"Do you need something, Mars?" Lamb sighs.
"Not from you," she responds, flashing a sarcastic smile.
Lamb retreats to his office, but not without getting another coating of glitter on himself in the process.
- Holly
Vinnie Van Lowe stops Veronica in the hallway on the way to Courtroom C. And then he smirks and points a finger-gun upward, toward the garland strung around the doorway.
"You know the rules, V," he says, moving toward her with puckered lips.
"Ugh. No," Veronica says, holding a hand out to stop his advance. "That's not mistletoe. It's holly. And-" Veronica reaches out and rubs a leaf between her fingers- "it's not even real."
Lamb watches Veronica roll her eyes as Vinnie shrugs and walks away.
"You can't blame the guy for trying," Lamb calls to her, smiling.
- Eggnog
Deputy Jackson brought his wife's homemade eggnog; the whiskey came from Lamb's bottom desk drawer. Lamb thought it would make staying late to finish paperwork less painful, but now he's just in his office even later, waiting to sober up.
(It briefly occurs to Lamb that his continued dipping into the spiked eggnog probably isn't helping.)
When Veronica walks into the station so late on Tuesday night, Lamb knows she's up to no good. But for some reason, he just offers her some eggnog.
Lamb blames his own actions on the whiskey, but he can't explain why Veronica actually accepts.
- Star
Veronica takes Backup for a walk after dark, once the Christmas lights in the neighborhood are on. There are rows of colored lights, strands of lights hanging down like icicles, single candles in windows. The church on the corner has a life-size nativity scene, complete with three magi, a donkey, and a glowing star of Bethlehem above the manger.
Once on a darker block, Veronica looks up to real stars, far above. The thought enters her head before she can stop it: she wonders if Wallace sees the same stars in Chicago.
"You're going marshmallow, Mars," she admonishes herself softly.
- Reindeer
When Lamb walks in, Sacks is wearing a pair of felt reindeer antlers.
"Take those things off," Lamb growls. "You look like an idiot."
"Sorry, boss," Sacks stutters. "I lost a bet to-"
"Fine," Lamb interrupts. "Whatever. I don't care."
"Well, I think they're festive," Veronica Mars says, sauntering up with a smirk.
"And I still don't care," Lamb snaps. "Why are you even here?"
"Spreading Christmas cheer," she says. "Or…jury duty."
Lamb sighs and heads for his office.
"I can't wait for this Christmas shit to be over," he mutters, letting the office door clatter shut behind him.
- Latkes
"It's official," Veronica says, licking applesauce from her thumb. "One of my favorite parts of the holidays is the Hanukkah special at Moe's. It may be time to convert to Judaism."
"Oh sure," Keith says. "You say that now, while it's all jelly doughnuts and latkes, but you'll change your tune come Yom Kippur."
"Stick with Christianity," Lamb interjects, pausing by their booth on his way to the take-out counter. "And for Lent, how about you give up irritating the Sheriff?"
Veronica smiles faux-sweetly.
"Only if you give up being a-"
"I think your order's ready, Don," Keith interrupts.
- Party
The Sheriff's Department Holiday Party isn't so much a party as the festive veneer to the Sheriff's Department Holiday Raffle. The drawings are held at the $25-a-head banquet at the Neptune Grand, but almost no one buys the raffle tickets because of the prizes. And almost no one seems to think the party is actually fun.
Except, perhaps, Lamb.
He leans against the bar, takes a swig of beer, and smiles to himself. It's a room full of powerful people with powerful checkbooks-and powerful secrets and motives that keep them wrapped around his finger.
Sometimes, he likes being Sheriff.
- Wise
"Don't you know your Christmas stories, Mars?" Lamb asks with a sigh when she walks into his office. "It's supposed to be three wise men on camels, not one blonde wise-ass."
"Yes, if you were the baby Jesus," she says. "And while I do often think you must've been born yesterday, I don't so much think of you as the son of God. More like…demon spawn."
"Enough," Lamb snaps. "Just tell me what you want so we can get this over with."
"I want you to arrest an actual criminal," she says. "In other words, something of a Christmas miracle."
- Flame
"Ah, Christmas in California," Veronica says. "Chestnuts roasting on an open…bonfire on the beach."
She's only there because Duncan wanted to go, to take his mind off things, to pretend for a while that his only concern is getting drunk on the beach with a bunch of 09ers in tacky Christmas sweaters.
Veronica can handle sweaters, but she's never been good at taking her mind off things. She sits next to Duncan but lets her thoughts wander, absentmindedly watching the flames lick at the logs.
When Lamb and Sacks show up to break up the party, she's not particularly disappointed.
- Bauble
It’s just a trinket, a bauble, nothing more than colored glass. Logan, Duncan, the rest of those rich boys-they would’ve had diamonds, something in a little box from a fancy jewelry store.
“I think you should have this,” Weevil says, thrusting it into Veronica’s palm.
“What is-”
“Something I bought for Lilly, for Christmas,” he says. “But I never gave it to her.”
“Why not?” Veronica asks, turning it over in her hand.
“Figured it wasn’t good enough,” he says, and looks away. “And then…you know. I never got the chance. So. I want you to have it now.”
- Snowflake
When there’s a knock at Lamb’s office door, it’s probably the first time he’s actually almost relieved to see Veronica Mars. He’s been hiding in his office since Inga started passing around a Secret Santa sign-up sheet.
If there’s anyone who won’t jam holiday crap down his throat, it’s Mars.
“Miss Mars,” he greets her, reclining in his chair. “What’re the odds you’re just stopping by to say hi, and bring me some lunch?”
"I’d put the odds at about the same as a snowflake's chance in hell," Veronica says. “But on the upside, it’s more interesting than a sandwich.”
- Scrooge
The disappearance of the Aaron Echolls sex tapes is not exactly the Christmas present Lamb had hoped for. He doesn’t actually mind firing Leo D’Amato, though.
“It figures,” Leo says, with a wry smile. “Right before Christmas.”
“It’s not my fault your incompetence happened to peak,” Lamb says. “Sorry, Bob Cratchit. Guess you’ll have to find another way to take care of Tiny Tim.”
“You…do know what happens at the end of A Christmas Carol, don’t you?” Leo asks, with a hint of disbelief.
“Well, life doesn’t imitate art,” Lamb snaps. “Go clean out your desk.”
“Okay,” Leo says. “Scrooge.”
- Punch
Lamb swings by the Manning house on his way home. He’s been stopping by and parking up outside about once a week, ever since the night they got a call about intruders.
Some nights they’re eating dinner; some nights they’re not even home. This time, they have people over, a group of well-to-do Neptune types wearing Christmas sweaters, standing around eating finger foods and ladling out glasses of punch.
“I have a different kind of punch for you,” Lamb mutters, glaring at Mr. Manning.
He waits until he’s pretty sure they’ve noticed the cruiser before pulling away and going home.
- Pudding
“What,” Veronica asks, looking up from A Christmas Carol, “exactly is Christmas pudding?”
“Well, it’s not a Jello cup,” Keith says as he packs up his camera bag.
(It makes Veronica think of the lunches Alicia used to pack for Wallace-sandwich, apple, pudding cup.)
“You have a job?” Veronica asks, watching Keith shoulder the bag. He nods.
“Still don’t have the money shot,” Keith says. “And you know what they say: the proof is in the pudding. Puddin.”
Veronica rolls her eyes.
“I’ll have some cookies ready when you get back,” she says, turning off the TV. “But…no pudding.”
- Visitor
Lamb doesn’t really know why he’s there. Well-he knows the excuse he gave himself on the drive over. And he knows that the liquid courage probably has something to do with it.
She answers the door in pajamas, with her hair in a messy ponytail and one eyebrow raised.
“Well, you’re not Santa Claus,” she says. “And definitely not the late-night visitor I had in mind.”
“Now you know how I feel every time you walk into my office,” Lamb says.
“What do you want?” she asks, ignoring the jab.
“I…” Lamb starts, but then loses his concentration. “Are you baking something?”
- Miracle
The only thing Lamb can think of to explain why Veronica Mars is letting him eat cookies, instead of throwing his drunk ass straight out of her apartment, is a Christmas miracle.
“Do I need to call you a cab?” she asks. “Or…an ambulance? Did you recently suffer massive head trauma?”
“I’m sorry,” he says.
“You should be,” she says. “Now I have to make more cookies.”
“No,” Lamb says. “That’s why I’m here. Because I’m sorry.”
Veronica stares at him skeptically. Lamb? Apologizing? To her? It’s some sort of bizarre, drunken Christmas miracle, she thinks.
Or a Christmas delusion.
- Gold
Veronica never noticed before that Lamb has flecks of gold in his eyes when the light catches them.
Kind of like the flakes in the bottle of Goldschlager. Which is now half-empty.
“Isn’t stopping illegal, underage drinking supposed to be your job?” she asks, the words stumbling into one another. “You’re going to get in trouble. Deputy.”
“Yeah,” he says, and then downs another shot. “I’m going straight to hell. I already know.”
He’s known that for a long time; long before he walks out of a bar in late December with a tipsy Veronica Mars tucked under his arm.
- Dreidel
"Have a chocolate coin," Inga tells Veronica, gesturing to a bowl on the counter.
"I realized we needed more than just Christmas decorations," she continues while Veronica unwraps one. "Deputy Cohen is Jewish, so there's gelt, and dreidels, and-"
"How multicultural, Inga," Lamb interrupts, slapping a file into Inga's inbox. Then he picks up the dreidel and gives it a spin.
It lands on gimel, with the bottom point toward Veronica.
"You know the rules," Lamb says, leering at her.
"It's spin the dreidel, not spin the bottle," Veronica says, rolling her eyes.
"Worth a shot," Lamb says, shrugging.
- Carol
“What now?” Lamb growls when Veronica walks into his office, again.
“Did you forget?” Veronica asks, feigning confusion. “2pm? Christmas carols with Veronica? Right before your 3pm making paper snowflakes with Sacks?”
“Well,” Lamb says. “Unfortunately, I have a 9-to-5 appointment with my job today, so I can’t sing tenor on ‘Jingle Bells’ after all.”
“Oh, you’re doing your job today?” Veronica asks. “In that case, did you look at the file I-”
“Fine,” Lamb interrupts, tossing his pen down on the desk in exaggerated frustration. “I’ll sing a carol. Let’s try ‘Veronica Got Run Over by a Reindeer.’”
- Wrapping
When Keith gets home, the first thing he notices is the smell of spaghetti sauce cooking; the second thing is the three neatly-wrapped packages underneath the Christmas tree.
He bends down to examine the tags; each one reads to Dad. He sighs.
"No peeking!" Veronica yelps, emerging from her bedroom. "Not until Christmas!"
"I do have something for you, honey," Keith says, standing up. "I just haven't wrapped it yet. Things have been so-"
"It's fine," Veronica interrupts, smiling and kissing him on the cheek.
She pauses, then adds, "I know how hard wrapping up a pony must be."
- Tree
“Ow,” Mac says, and plucks something out of her pants. She examines it, and sighs. “Everything I own is covered in pine needles. We had to drive an hour up to some farm and hike around so my dad could chop the tree down himself.”
“How…outdoorsy of you,” Veronica says.
“Yeah,” Mac says, making a face. “What’s so wrong with indoorsy? A Christmas tree screensaver might be more my speed.”
“Well, it’s no Christmas tree screensaver, but…I do have something you could help me with?” Veronica says, cringing at asking another favor of Mac. “Totally indoorsy. No pine needles involved.”
- Jingle
The waitresses are all wearing Santa hats with jingle bells on the pom, so Lamb always knows when his waitress is coming before she arrives.
“You’re the Sheriff, right?” she asks with a shy smile as she sets down Lamb’s second beer.
“That’s right, ma’am,” Lamb says.
“That’s really cool,” she says, and Lamb’s smile widens.
Then she adds, “But how come you’re eating alone?”
It’s an opening. He should ask for her company later.
But he doesn’t. The question hits him the wrong way.
He just shrugs, and concentrates on his beer until he hears the jingles fade away.
- Joy
Veronica gets a Christmas card from her mother. It has no return address and the postmark is smudged. In the past, Veronica might’ve tried to decipher it, but now, she just sighs.
“Peace and Joy,” she reads aloud. “Merry Christmas, Veronica, love Mom.”
Veronica crumples it up, tosses it into the trash can, and goes back to making dinner.
Keith gets home twenty minutes later.
“Ah!” he says, smiling. “Joy is coming home to a delicious meal and some daddy-daughter time.”
“Well,” she says. “It’s not exactly hard to beat sitting in your car outside the Camelot.”
But she smiles.
- Stocking
It’s Christmas Eve, and Lamb has let most of the deputies go home (he makes the two he doesn’t really like stay on). Lamb’s staying late so Sacks could leave early for the drive to his family’s house near LA.
It’s not like Lamb’s going anywhere, anyway, and the station is more Christmasy than his apartment. He’s even got a stocking with his name on it hanging on his office door (courtesy Inga). Earlier, he’d found a lump of coal in a Ziploc bag in it (courtesy Veronica).
It makes Lamb something close to happy, though he’s not sure why.