The next morning Micky woke up and was startled to find himself not in his own bed, not even in his own room!

“Where am I!” He said starting to panic, then he remembered, “Oh yeah I know now” He said and breathed a sigh of relieve. He got up and walked downstairs. Peter and Davy were in the kitchen eating breakfast.

“Morning Mick, sleep well?” Peter asked, pushing a bowl of cereal in Micky’s direction.

“Yeah I did thanks Pete, Panicked a bit this morning when I forgot where I was but I had a good nights rest” He told the bassist “Where’s Mike?” He added and started to pour some orange juice over his cereal. Peter stared at him, after having lived with Micky for two years he still wasn’t used to seeing him put orange juice on his cornflakes, he watching in fascination as Micky shoved a spoonful into his mouth and started munching happily. Davy shrugged.

“Dunno, he just said he was going out, he didn’t tell us where” he said. Micky looked at him.

“To see Lucy?” He asked, gulping down some cereal.

“Could be” Davy replied.

“We saw her yesterday” Peter told them.

“We know Pete, Davy and I were there too remember” Micky said. Peter shook his head.

“No I mean Mike and I saw her when we went to get permission to cut down the tree. Turns out Lucy was the person we needed to see, she’s assistant manager here and she’s very smart,” He explained.

“Figures” Davy said, “Mike couldn’t just fall for any old chick, he had to fall for some high powered intelligent business chick”.

“Do you think this will interfere with our plans?” Micky asked Davy.

“What plans?” Peter asked. So Davy and Micky explained to Peter what they had decided.

“What to you think?” Micky asked, he and Davy were grinning at Peter expectantly waiting for him to tell them what a brilliant idea it was but Peter just stared at them.

“You’re gonna give Lucy to Mike for Christmas?” He said finally. Davy nodded.

“Uh-huh, what do you think?” He replied.

“That’s not very fair on Lucy” Peter told them Micky and Davy stared back at him “Well it’s not” He added quietly. Davy looked at Micky.

“He’s right you know, it’s not fair on Lucy” He said and Micky sighed and nodded.

“Yeah I guess you’re right” He said and stood up.

“Where you off too babe?” Davy asked.

“Into town, I need to find a gift for Mike” Micky told him and started to head for the door.

“Er Mick?” Davy called. The drummer turned around.

“Yeah?”

“You maybe wanna get dressed first?” Davy told him and pointed at his clothes. Micky looked down and realised he was still wearing his blue and white striped pyjamas.

“Oh yeah maybe that would be a good idea” He replied and smiled sheepishly then disappeared upstairs, leaving Davy and Peter sniggering into their breakfast.

Later that morning Davy was sitting in the living room and Mike peeked in the front door.

“Hay Davy, is Peter around?” Mike asked.

“Yeah he’s upstairs, why?”

“Quick help me hide these,” He said, he disappeared for a couple of seconds then heaved in a huge grey sack.

“What’s that?” Davy asked, standing up and walking over to Mike.

“They’re the gifts are families sent up for Christmas. There’s another one in the Monkeemobile, we need to find some place to hide them before Peter sees them” Mike explained.

“He’s 22 years old Mike, don’t you think it’s about time someone told him the truth about Father Christmas?”

“Come on Davy, that would crush him. It’s not harmin’ anyone by him not knowin’ the truth, besides, do you really wanna do that to him?” Mike told him and Davy sighed.

“No of course not, I’ll go get the other sack” He replied and went outside. He returned a couple of seconds later, dragging the sack behind him.

“Now where can we put these? It has to be some place Peter would never go” Mike thought out loud.

“Somewhere in yours and Micky’s room perhaps?” Davy suggested.

“Yeah that’s a good idea we’ll hide them in the closet, they’ve got locks on too so we can lock the door as an extra precaution” Mike told him “You go distract Peter so I can get these upstairs without him comin’ out and seein’”.

“How am I supposed to distract him?”

“I dunno, improvise” Mike said. So Davy walked upstairs and opened the door to the room he shared with Peter. Peter was sitting on the bed and when he heard the door open he frantically tried to hide something, but when he saw it was Davy he sighed with relief.

“It’s only you, I thought you were Mike,” He said.

“Sorry to disappoint you” Davy replied coming over and sitting on the bed.

“No you didn’t it’s just I’m wrapping Mike’s present and I didn’t want him to see”.

“Oh, so what did you get him?”

“Just a guitar strap for his 12 string, I really couldn’t afford anything else” Peter said, sounding a little disappointed.

“No that’s great Pete, I bet he’ll love it”.

“You sure you’ll be able to get it to Santa on time?”

“Yeah I’m sure, I promised you yesterday didn’t I. It’ll be no problem Mike will find it under the tree tomorrow morning, you have my word” Davy told him and Peter grinned.

“Thank you David,” He said.

“You’re welcome, you wanna hang out in here for a while, just the two of us?” Davy asked.

“Yeah I’d like that” Peter replied. After about fifteen minutes or so, Mike opened the door and walked in.

“Hi fella’s what you up too?” He asked and sneaked a thumbs up to Davy which Davy acknowledged with a slight nod.

“Just hanging out” Peter replied “Where did you run off to this morning?”

“Just wanted to drive around, take a look at the place, it’s real pretty “ Mike told them, coming over and sitting on the bed.

“Did you see Lucy?” Davy asked. Mike stared at him.

“Real subtle Dave” He said, “Yes I saw Lucy”

“And?” Peter prompted, “What happened?” He added when Mike just looked at him.

“Nothing happened, we just talked that’s all” Mike said.

“About what?” Davy asked, probing for more information.

“Normal stuff, the weather, the party, Christmas, that kinda thing”

“You didn’t tell her how you felt about her then” Davy said.

“There’s no point, we couldn’t have a relationship she lives a million miles away. It wouldn’t be logical”

“Yeah you’re right, Spock!” Davy said, his tone dripping with sarcasm, which earned him a glare from Mike “It’s not like you’d be happy or anything and the fact that this girl could really like you. Come on Mike you have to at least give it a try, you haven’t had a girlfriend in like…forever!”

“Yeah forget logic, think about Lucy” Peter added. Mike looked at them, as though he was seriously considering it but then he shook his head.

“Na it’s not worth it, I’m way too busy” He told them then got up and left.

“Oh sometimes he infuriates me!” Peter growled “He’s always taking care of other people, when’s he gonna start taking care of himself!” he said, getting up and pacing the room.

“See, that idea about getting him Lucy for Christmas doesn’t seem so bad now does it!” Davy said. Peter didn’t answer he just glared at him “Sorry” Davy added, hanging his head.

“I’m gonna go call Mr Schneider” Peter said and left the room.

When Micky returned the four Monkees set about learning some Christmas songs to add to there set list for the party that evening. Lucy had given Mike some sheet music for a couple of songs but he was worried they had left it too late and would not learn them in time but he decided that they at least had to try. Each Monkee went into a different room so they could learn there individual pieces separately at first then try putting them together and also try and learn the words. Mike had decided to sing ‘The Christmas Song’ and Micky remarked that he only wanted to sing that one to impress Lucy because he knew she liked the way he sang it. Micky wanted to sing ‘Winter Wonderland’ Davy chose ‘Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow’ and Peter would attempt ‘Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer’. When the others asked why he had chosen that one he remained very cryptic and just replied, “You’ll see”. So The Monkees did there best to learn there parts and spent the afternoon and early evenin g putting it all together. At dinner Mike put together a set list, then after dinner they went back to practising the Christmas music. They surprised themselves by managing to pull it off but Micky soon began to get bored and announced that he was confident enough with his drum parts and that he was just going to get some fresh air for a few minutes. Mike didn’t even get chance to protest, the drummer had already bolted out the door before the Texan could even open his mouth.

continued