Pre-Christmas party, the morning of December 10th

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

The stockings were hung by the cardboard cutout chimney with care set up in the Commissary. A Christmas tree decorated with large colorful lights, tinsel and personal ornaments made by the employees of the New York headquarters of U.N.C.L.E….well mostly the ladies that is, dangled festively.

The caterer, hired by Mr. Waverly, had arrived and under the watchful eye of Security set up the feast in the gymnasium. This year there was going to be live music at the party, put together by members of the staff who were more musically inclined, though Kuryakin declined to participate, apparently he had other plans.(conconcted with George Dennell)

Between sets a record player was to be set up to keep the mood going by playing the latest top 100 hits.

Chris Kringlemeister of the mailroom would be playing Santa * this year as Waverly had ordered Solo to stay away from the costume, much to his disappointment.

He had been a little too free with his hands the prior year when some of the secretaries had taken turns sitting in his lap, and then of course there were his lines filled with risqué innuendo, and of course the kissing. Most of the ladies loved it, but there were a few who didn’t and complained, resulting this year in the Old Man put his foot down.

Luncheon would be served in the Commissary as usual, with those meals prepared by the resident chef, popularly known as 'Cookie.' He was a retired military man and accustomed to cooking for the troops so to speak and while his entrees started out a bit...rough when he first arrived; little by little, with help, his cooking improved.

He had a tasty menu prepared of savory beef stew, roast turkey, lasagna, of course the requisite chicken noodle soup, potato leek, and chowders along with a variety of side dishes and simple desserts. Chocolate cream pie, lemon meringue, and sadly jello...lemon lime jello to be precise and these were the only sweets that were palatable. (if you could say that about the dreaded green jello?)

Cookie still had a problem with his baking traditional Christmas and gingerbread cookies as somehow they always came out as hard as hockey puck. There were some who planned to use them just for that in the corridors later on for an impromptu hockey game...as long as Waverly didn't get wind of it. He had warned against food fights, but that was with the catered foods, some had noted. The pies were being eyed ...

For those with less of an appetite, there were sandwiches with cold cuts, and for the ladies always on a diet...salads.

This was nothing in comparison to the menu for the Christmas Party being held this evening, but it was a good lunch to tide everyone over, and for those not planning to attend the shindig; by choice or because they were on duty.  Somebody had to hold down the fort.

For those stuck in Security, or Communications, plenty of the catered food would be brought in for them...no liquor permitted though but a blind eye was usually turned for a small glass of champagne punch.

Waverly made sure his people were seen to this time of year, Lord knows they deserved it.

There was an air of anticipation all morning and afternoon, sending a gaggle of giggling women to the watercooler to start their pre-gossip warm up.

Who was going with whom, who would be the lucky girl to leave with Solo. Would anyone get Illya to tell the truth about being married or not; regardless of that fact plenty of the girls pined to disappear into the Map Room closet with him, even though Mr. Waverly had deemed it off limits in his pre-party memo. The copy room was off limits as well, since some compromising photocopies of certain female and male anatomy ( derrieres to be precise) made with the new equipment circulated the halls of UNCLE after last year's party. Waverly was not amused at the subject matter nor the misuse of company equipment, which somehow became damaged.

Some of the girls were hoping to get their arms around Mark Slate feeling he was as close as to one of the Beatles they were going to get; a few of those other good looking Section II and Section V agents were a topic of discussion as well.

Of course the gratuitous male would show up at the watercooler to talk about drooling over April Dancer, Lisa Rogers, the new agent Faustina or some of the other women of U.N.C.L.E. not present at the gossip session. Rumors galore flew at these meetings... ***

Supposedly Napoleon had organized some sort of competition with a new game called ‘Twister,’ but that was apparently to remain behind closed doors.**

“I’d love to be a fly on that wall,”Wanda snickered.”I've heard about that game and that it can put people in some compromising positions.”

“Mmmm, I know what compromising position I’d like to get in with Illya. What a dreamboat he is,” Stella cooed. She was fairly new and wasn’t quite aware of Kuryakin’s rule about not dating co-workers...though sometimes he did break it when it suited him. The question of his being married or not didn't seem to matter for the most part when it came to the mysterious Russian.

One thing they all agreed upon...they couldn’t wait for the Christmas party to start.

* reference to mrua7’s Short Affair ~“The season of giving”

** reference to ssclassof56's ~ “Reindeer Games”
*** Faustina is a character created by ssclassof56

Comments

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Hey we have team thing going on here. I haven't introduced my AU female agent Elliott McGowan to Section VII as it was originally supposed to be a site for canon. That, to say the least has changed from the original concept...for the better I think.

[ssclassof56.livejournal.com]

You're all very sweet to welcome her. If I'd seen any GFU years ago, I'd probably have written about April. But I hadn't and I needed a female agent, so Faustina was born. Twenty years later, she's so entwined in my head canon, it's hard to exclude her.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

I became that way with Elliott as well. I had to go back in the time line before she came around (eventually she becomes Illya's lover, the mother of his son, and they do get married etc) I called that series the Saga series as someone said it was almost like a soap opera. So my Illya and Napoleon stories are now pre-Elliott...what I call Pre- Saga. lol!

I need to get back to writing Elliott as I left her off a long time ago, pregnant with yet another Kuryakin offspring. She must be as big as an elephant by now. Yikes!

[ssclassof56.livejournal.com]

Haha. 11 days overdue was agony for me. Can't imagine how poor Elliott feels. :)