Before I post, I want everyone to know I have not been on lately and today I realized that challenge was over in a few hours. This is a very very very short story and I hope you enjoy it. I wrote it very quickly as I have to leave my house virtually right now... I tried really hard to make it believable.. Thanks for reading. One more thing: some of it is written in the past, some in the present. I have not read any other stories yet, so if it similar to others, I apologize but it is just coincidence.
Happy belated holidays! Laura


Miracle on 34th Street.

Sue Thomas glanced around her surroundings. She smiled when she saw Christmas Tree. To say it was size challenged was an understatement. The abundant amount of ornaments weighed it down, causing it to droop. It would have looked sad, if it hadn’t had the many multicoloured lights, balls and the silver tinsel. She fingered one special ornament. It had “Baby’s first Christmas” written on it. It looked like the situation would get them on a technacality. Myles had given it to Jack and Sue a few weeks before, insisting that his bet in the baby pool was the winner. “Laugh, Koala boy, if you must… But I am telling you, the baby will be a girl born on December 25. I have an aura for these certain life events.”
Sue recalled how all of this had happened. After she had almost left the bureau, Jack and she had finally come to an understanding that this “thing” was more than just a friendship. She laughed as she thought about the first time he had actually asked her out. It had been an off-the-hand kind of thing.
“Sue,” jack had said.
Sue looked at him and smiled “ Yes”
“Well, I know that you and I both like football, so I was wondering if you wanted to come wth me to the game.”
Poof, just like that things began to change. You should have seen the look on Bobby’s face when he realized he was not to accompany Jack. Lucy eyed him, causing him to shut up completely.
And of course there was red tape to cut through. It had to be cleared and documented at the Office and both of them had to sit down with Garrett to go over proper procedures, behaviours, rules and guidelines.
They dated for about a year before Jack popped the question. They had just come off an assignment and Jack had felt the time was right. Jack had taken her back to Calehan and Merced to the very office where they had shared their first “unofficial” kiss. He had had to get Janice’s help, but she came through for them.
Sue had had no idea what was happening. Jack had told her that they needed to stop by the office after hours for an investigation. Sue didn’t really buy it, but decided to play along. He let her go into the office first. A smile crept to her lips and she turned around and eyed him suspiciously.
“Does this look familiar, Miss Thomas?”
“It does, Special Agent Jack Hudson” Sue replied raising her eyebrows.
Jack handed Sue a file folder. Sue took it. Jack said “Open it” She did as he had requested. On the inside was a deposition. A note of Jack’s read “You were good back there… I mean… with the deposition.”
“Remember that Sue?”
“How could I forget?” she replied, her voice full of emotion.
Jack dropped on one knee. Sue gasped, her eyes filling of tears.
“Sue Thomas, I have known you for almost 4 years. And while I have always liked you, it was on that night at this office that I really fell for you, that I realized I was in love. Will you marry me and make me the happiest FBI agent who has never been so grateful for undercover work?”
The answer, of course, was simple. They had a church wedding only a few months later. Lucy was her maid of honour, with Tara and Amanda her bridesmaids. Bobby was Jack’s best man,, with Myles and D as Ushers. It was a small wedding, just the way Sue had wanted. She didn’t care if there were thousands of people in the room, if she was with Jack, to her, it would be as if they were alone.
Sue and Jack had bought a house similar to the one they had done undercover work in. It was on a side road, with a fenced in yard for Levi to run in. There was just enough space between houses for them to feel as if they were living in the country, instead of minutes away from downtown DC. Lucy had stayed in their old apartment, and shortly after Tara had moved in with her, which was supposed to be temporary while the landlord fixed her apartment, but became permanent after Tara decided she much prefered rooming with Lucy.
Lucy could not believe it, but Bobby and Tara were moving slower than Jack and Sue ever had. Lucy had already been successful in one matchmake, but she had one more to go. As for Myles, he was seeing some women off and on, but they never lasted.
Jack and Sue had discussed children, but they did not plan on one right away. Sometimes, Mother Nature has to give a little, “push”. When Sue found out she was at work. She had gone to the doctor, secretly behind Jack’s back so as not to worry him. She picked up the phone and read the message on the screen.
“Hello?”
“Mrs Hudson, this is Mary calling from Mr. Coulier’s office.”
“Oh, hello… Have my tests results came in yet?”
“Yes, that is what I am calling you about.”
“Really, do I have to come in?”
“Oh, no this can be dealt with on the phone. Congratulations, Mrs. Hudson, you’re pregnant”
Sue dropped the microphone. She blinked three times, then opened her eyes to ensure she had read that right. She regained her composure as Jack scrunched his eyebrows and glanced at her. Quickly, she closed the computer window and went to grab some water.
Now what would she do? Obviously, she would have to tell Jack. You can’t keep this sort of “big” secret from anyone long. She walked up to his desk.
“Are you okay Sue?”
“Yes,” she said beaming. After the initial shock, she was thrilled.
That night at home she sat at dinner pushing her food around.
“Jack, we’re gonna have to do some redecorating?”
“Why,” he said, swallowing his food “Don’t you like it? We bought the house because we loved the location and its interior.”
“Well, yes, I do but umm… well our house is missing one thing…”
“What’s that,” Jack replied, drinking some of his milk.
“A nursery”
“A nursery? But we don’t need one until… unless…no… you can’t be… are you?”
Sue bit her lip and smiled “The doctor’s office phoned today. I am” Jack jumped up and ran his fingers through his hair.
“Well, we didn’t expect this so soon, but I mean, it happened and now I’m really excited… This is great!” He looked at Sue “Sue why are you crying”
Sue shook her head “This is just a preview of what the next months are going to be like.”

Sue was not far off the marker. Her feet swelled, she had weird cravings, and many many meltdowns. But Jack, and the team were there for her.
Her last day at the bureau was at the end of November. The team bought them a stroller, blankets and diapers.

Jack came through the door
“Sue, are you okay? You look distant.”
“I’m fine, just thinking.”

That night they cuddled around the fireplace. Sue felt discomfort, but thought nothing of it since the last nine months were all uncomfortable.
The next morning they exchanged gifts. Sue’s back began to hurt and she would shudder, but it wasn’t terrible yet, so she thought she was okay.
Jack and sue needed to head out across town that day to visit their coworkers. It was when she was stepping into the car with Levi behind her that she realized she was in labour. The subtle pains began to come more frequently and they hurt much more than they ever did.
“Jack, I’m in labour.”
He got that “Deer in the headlights” look in his eyes. Then he got her into the car and ran back inside for the luggage for the hospital.
Washington DC is usually a vry busy place to drive in, and there are usually heavy volumes of traffic. Mix this with Christmas day, and you know it will be a zoo trying to get from out of the main part of town to the nearest hospital. Half an hour later they were still 15 minutes away from the hospital. Sue was in extreme pain. She gasped and Jack got out his cell phone again.
“This is special agent Jack Hudson. My wife is in labour and we are stuck in traffic. Is there anything you can do? They said they’re going to send an ambulance, Sue.”
“Jack, my water just broke.”
Those were not the words Jack wanted to hear.
The operator told him to pull over and give them the street name that they were on
“There’s no way you are going to get here in all the traffic. We’ll come to you as soon as we can.”
“We’re on 34th street.”
“We’ll be there when we can.”

Holly Judith Hudson was born as the paramedics were just getting there. Sue thought that Holly was the perfect name for a christmas baby. The middle name Judy was in rememberance of her childhood best friend. Sue believed Judy had been watching them from above, and helped Jack to deliver Holly. Jack was such shock that Sue could have said “Let’s call her Betty Joe Levi Hudson,” and he wouldn’t have cared.
Sue was being put into the ambulance with Holly when she saw the street sign. Before,she had been too busy and in too much pain to hear or notice the street name, but now it all made sense. Judy and God had helped to make a Miracle on 34th Street. With tears in her eyes she sent up a prayer of thanks and kissed her new daughter.
Later, at the hospital it was decided that the team would stay there for a little while to meet the newest member of their team and family.
“So what if its rubber chicken and powdered potatoes, righto Myles,” Bobby asked playfully
“ Just no one forget that I predicted Sue would have the baby today and that it would be a girl.”
“You’re never gonna let us live this down, are you?”
“Nope…”

Sue and Jack stared at amazement at their newborn daughter and the circumstances of her birth. Everyone that they told was in awe at the miracle that happened on 34th Street in Washington, DC

Betty Joe Levi

Seriously, Holly Judy is a perfect name for a Christmas baby !

Fantastic! Beautiful story!



I loved this part!

I love it - Holly Judith Hudson - perfect!!!

Miracle on 34th Street indeed!!!

Thanks for sharing!!!

Joy

Great job!
thanks,
Terie

Great short story. Congrats on fitting it in just in time.

kav