Fruit Fight   Fruit Fight By Postcard postcard@manutd.com 

Rating: - PG. Humour. Slight Violence. 

Pairings: - Fraser/Thatcher.  

Teaser: - Poppy's visit to see Father Christmas (Santa Claus) ends in a
fruit fight. 

Disclaimer: - The Due South characters in this story are not mine and
anything else Due South isn't mine either. I do not mean to infringe on
copyrights held by any copyright holders for Due South. The story and
Poppy are mine (copyright October 2000 by Postcard on all original story
content.) Please do not reproduce for anything other than personal reading
without the written consent of author. This story is not written for
profit and the author does not give permission for this story to be
reproduced for profit. 

Author's note: - This story is a sequel to 'Seeing Red' and it is in the
series called 'Crackerjack Parents'. This story is for Blink, Kiki,
Marybeth and zzzaney. Hope you enjoy the story and any constructive
comments are welcome at postcard@manutd.com   

Holding onto her parent's hands and with Dief pottering along protectively
behind her, Poppy walked excitedly through the shopping centre, towards
Santa's Grotto. The little girl looked up in awe at the gigantic Christmas
tree in the centre of the shopping mall. It rose so high, that Poppy had
to strain to glimpse the fairy perched on the top. Meg looked down at her
daughter and seeing that Poppy's eyes were lit up as brightly as the
lights on the Christmas tree, Meg smiled and gently squeezed her hand. 

Jumping from one foot to the other, Poppy waited in the queue to see
Father Christmas. "Daddy, can I ask Santa to make granddad real?" 

Ben glanced at Meg and she gave him a look that said, 'she asked you, not
me'. Bending down so that he was at eye level with his daughter, Ben spoke
softly to her. "Honey, I think it's best not to. I know it's hard to
understand, but no matter how much Santa might want to, he can't turn
granddad from a ghost into a human. I'm sorry, sweetie." 

Poppy wrinkled her forehead up in concentration. Then, looking at him with
her brown eyes, she said, "All right, I want to go and watch Manchester
United play at Old Trafford!"  

Ben rubbed his left eyebrow. "Don't forget, sweetie, that Old Trafford is
in England. It might be a little difficult for Santa to do that!" 

Poppy pulled a face and shouted, "I want a pony, then!" She folded her
arms stubbornly in front of her. 

"We'll see, honey," Ben told his daughter. Straightening himself up, he
whispered into his wife's ear, "Where in the world we're going to keep a
pony in the middle of Chicago, I don't know! I visited all of the stables
in the Greater Chicago area and they were all full." 

"Don't worry, Ben. It's already covered," Meg whispered back. "I found a
stables that we can keep her pony in." 

"You did?" Ben couldn't keep the surprise from his voice and face.  

Meg smiled smugly at him. "Yes, I did. I used some gentle persuasion." Ben
cocked his head to the side and raised one of his eyebrows questionably.
"I called in some outstanding favours," Meg elaborated. "It's surprising
what you can accomplish with a few contacts and a little---blackmail." 

Sat on Father Christmas' lap, Poppy scrutinised the bearded, round-bellied
man. Somehow, he seemed familiar to her. "So, what would you like for
Christmas?" He asked pleasantly and smiled at her. 

Hearing the voice, Poppy knew that this wasn't Father Christmas. "You're
not Santa. Uncle Hardy, why are you pretending to be Santa?" Getting a
fistful of his fake white beard, Poppy tugged at it.  

"Poppy, don't do that," Thatcher told Poppy off.  

"Be a good girl and let go of the beard," Fraser backed his wife up. 

Poppy obeyed and let go of it. To Welsh's pain, the beard was on an
elasticised band and when Poppy let go of it, the beard sprang back
towards Welsh's face. 'THWACK'.  

"I want Santa Claus!" Poppy whined. "Where is he?" She sulked. 

"Er---well, he had to go and sort some last minute things out for
Christmas and so I'm standing in for him," Welsh said, slightly flustered
at the inquisition. 

"What things?" Poppy folded her arms across her chest and scowled at
Welsh. At that moment in time, Welsh thought how much she resembled
Thatcher interrogating the Mounties under her command. 

"Oh! Erm---what things?" Welsh looked at Fraser and Thatcher for help,
while Poppy slowly nodded her head, causing her dark ponytail to bounce.  

Thatcher wore an amused smile on her face and shrugged her shoulders at
Welsh's unspoken plea of help. Fraser on the other hand, piped up with;
"It's a secret. Isn't it, Uncle Harding?" 

"Yes. Yes, that's right. It's a secret." Welsh gave Fraser a grateful
look.  

Lifting Poppy up off Welsh's knee, Ben handed her to Meg. While Father
Christmas' elf gave Poppy a candy stick, Fraser asked Welsh, "I didn't
know that you were the Santa here!" 

"I'm not normally. We, er---we had to bust the normal guy for a
shoplifting offence and to cut a long story short, Commander O'Neil made
me stand in today." Fraser nodded and gave Welsh a 'knowing look'. 

"Yo! Frase!" Kowalski shouted across the mall and waved. Dodging around
the masses of Christmas shoppers, Stan made his way over.  

"Uncle Stan!" Poppy shouted and he picked her up.  

"How's my favourite niece?" Stan asked and gave her a hug.  

"I wanted to see Santa, but he isn't here!" Poppy complained to him. 

"Huh? Oh! Er, well, there's always next year!" Turning his attention to
Welsh, Kowalski grinned broadly. "So, how ya likin bein Santa, huh? Are ya
gonna volunteer to do it next year? Ya know, the outfit kinda suits you." 

"Very funny Kowalski. I suggest you shut your mouth, unless you like the
sound of traffic duty!" 

"Ya know, I still can't believe O'Neil made ya be Santa. Neither can the
guys at the precinct and so I came ta take a pic ta show em." Taking out a
camera, Kowalski took a snap of Welsh. 

Sensing that the situation was going to turn ugly, Meg said, "Come on,
Poppy. Let's go for some ice-cream!" 

Kowalski looked at Thatcher and smirked; then started to laugh. 

"What is it, detective?" Meg asked, giving him a hard look. 

"I was just thinkin dat's all." 

"Oh! You were? That'll make a nice change!" 

"Yeah! Well, I was just thinkin that 'The Ice-cream Queen' had a certain
ring to it! What d'ya think?"  

In response, Meg glared at him and took hold of her daughter's hand. "Come
on, Poppy." 

Saying 'goodbye' to Stan and Welsh, Fraser followed Meg and Poppy to the
ice-cream shop.  

After their ice cream, Ben and Meg each took hold of their daughter's hand
and led Poppy out of the ice-cream shop, towards the nearest exit of the
mall. Passing the jewellery shop, the family heard a high pitched scream.
The next second, two masked robbers burst out of the shop, both waving a
handgun and carrying a bag.  

Fleeing out of the way, nearby shoppers dropped their shopping bags on the
floor, as they shoved past one another. Fraser and Thatcher's police
training immediately kicked in and they both rushed their daughter out of
the way, behind a stall that sold fruit and fruit products.  

Firing shots into the air the gunmen started to run off towards the exit
of the mall. The noise of shrieks and gunfire in the mall was deafening
and Meg held tightly onto her shaking daughter. Telling Dief to 'look
after Poppy and Meg', Fraser jumped up from behind the shelter of the
fruit stall.  

Picking up an orange, Fraser hurled it at one of the gunmen. 'WHACK'. It
hit the gunman on the back of his head, taking him completely by surprise.
 

Knocked off balance, the gunman tripped over a shopping bag that someone
had dropped in the chaos. As he went sprawling onto the floor, he lost the
grip on his gun and it went skidding across the floor, out of his reach.  

Startled, the second gunman whirled around to face Fraser. While Ben
reached for a second orange, the gunman took aim at him.  

Before the robber could pull the trigger, from out of nowhere, an apple
flew through the air and expertly knocked the gun out of his hand. To his
surprise, a barrage of apples, oranges and dried apricots, hurtled through
the air and clobbered him. Trying to run away, he tripped over his partner
in crime, who was attempting to scramble to his feet and falling on top of
him, he flattened him back onto the floor. Dazed, both robbers lay in a
heap by the exit. 

For good measure, the second fruit thrower picked up two apple pies and
let them soar, one at a time, towards the robbers. 'SPLAT'---'SPLAT'. Each
of the apple pies landed squarely in the face of a robber. "Nice shots,
love," Ben told Meg as he gave her a quick hug in appreciation.  

"Yes, I'm quite pleased with them, too," Meg crossed her arms and smiled
smugly at her fruit display. The apple pies were starting to drip down the
villains faces.  

Now that it was safe, Dief left his post of guarding Poppy and made a
beeline towards the smell of apple pie. Seeing the wolf approach them, the
villains nearly wet themselves.  

Approaching first one villain and then the other, Dief sniffed the faces
of the two men. Sticking out his tongue, Dief started to lick the apple
pie off each of their terrified faces. 

Ben moved behind the fruit stall and picked up Poppy. Kissing her on the
cheek, he gave her a reassuring hug. "Everything's all right now,
sweetheart." 

Stan handcuffed the robbers and examined the contents of their bags---they
were full to the brim with loot.  

Before Ben or Meg could stop her, Poppy ran up to the robber that had
tried to shoot at Fraser. Yelling, "Don't you hurt my daddy," Poppy,
kicked him in the shin.  

"Ouch! You little brat." Drawing his leg back, the robber attempted to
kick Poppy, but Fraser pulled her out of the way. With one swift movement,
Fraser dropped the robber to the floor. 

"Don’t you ever lay a finger or foot on my daughter," Ben spoke in a hard
tone, which was uncharacteristic for him. 

"Grrrrrrrrrrr," Dief snarled at the criminal. 

"Yeah! Yer ever try anythin like dat again on my niece and I'll floor ya,"
threatened Stan. "And then Dief'll bite yer balls off." The robber's eyes
went wide and turning very pale, he gulped. 

Now that fruit wasn't flying at him, the other robber took a good look at
Fraser's uniform. "What the hell are you? Some kind of Superman Santa?" He
asked Fraser.  

"No, I'm not Santa. I'm a Mountie." 

Stan picked the guns up and then dragging the robbers off, he jokingly
asked them, "So, what d'ya want fer Christmas? Shin-pads? Or a good
lawyer?" Neither of the criminals answered, they decided to take the
'fifth', as Stan pushed them out of the mall. 

Once the criminals were out of sight, Ben turned to his daughter. "Where
did you learn that, my flower?" Ben asked Poppy. "You know, you really
shouldn't kick people. It's not nice."	

"Mummy told me that if anyone tried to hurt me, to, 'kick em in the shins
and then run for it'." 

"Did she now!" Ben arched his eyebrows at his wife. 

"Erm---I, er, may have said something along those lines," Meg confessed.
"But I think that it's good advice. I wouldn't want anything to happen to
this little one." Meg bent down and hugged Poppy. The End