The Mysterious Package

A oneshot of Harry and Anna as parents. One of their little rascals has been up to no good, resulting in a mysterious package being shipped to their home, addressed to Annalisa.

“What’s this?”

Anna briefly paused stirring the vegetable stew at the stove and glanced over her shoulder, recognizing the package in Harry’s hands.  “Oh, Janice brought that by earlier.  I haven’t gotten around to it yet.  I figured you had ordered George’s birthday gift you were talking about the other day.”

“Nope, I assumed you were going to after you said you had to buy Dora’s.”

Anna snorted and shook her head.  Of course he assumed so.  He was always pushing things like this to the last minute, causing Anna to be in charge of birthday presents.  In fact, she found herself being the one to shop for their family and friends for several years now.

“I’ll do it later,” she said, switching the burner to the lowest setting to let the stew simmer.  Turning around to face him, she smiled when the faint fits of giggles came from the other room.  “They love having Sarah here for the summers.”

Harry returned the smile, the sounds of their children laughing warming his heart.  “If only she could stay year ‘round.  We’d have a lot more time to ourselves to..” He wiggled his brows suggestively.

Anna rolled her eyes with a chortle.  “Oh, please.. we still..” She wiggled her brows the same way he had, “..at least four times a week.”

The mischievous glint in his blue eyes created a dip in her belly.  Anna gave him a warning glare, knowing they had to stop before things escalated and they were caught by either their teenaged niece or one of the little rascals that always sensed when they wanted alone time.  “Stop it right now.”

Harry answered with a look that was depicted as mock innocence.  “I’m not doing anything..” A cocky smirk quirked his lips.  “Besides being the irresistibly sexy soldier you married.”

Anna laughed openly, grateful for the island that stood between them.  As much as she knew they couldn’t do that, she knew she would be putty in his hands if he were within reach.  Especially with the way he was gazing at her.  “I swear with you… Are you not expecting a package?”

Harry winked.  “No, but you should be expecting a package later.”

Anna almost choked on her giggles.  “Oh, my god! Stop!”

Harry broke out into a splitting grin and laughed with her, then turned back to the box in question that he still held.  “No, I didn’t order anything…and it’s addressed to you.”

“It is?” She asked, confused.  “I shouldn’t be getting anything in.”

Harry moved to where she stood, a puzzled expression etched on his face as he studied the box in his hands.  It felt heavy; heavy enough to use both hands.  “If you didn’t order anything, and I didn’t order anything, then what the hell is this?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged.  “Open it.”

Harry placed the box on the granite counter and began to tear through the tape with Anna watching intently, the curiosity spiking within the two.  Once he moved the flaps to the side, they both peered inside simultaneously.

Batteries.  Thirteen bulky packages of batteries.  Ones that weren’t of much use for any of their appliances or gadgets.

“What the fu-” Harry paused mid-sentence, catching himself before he had to place a bill in the growing swear jar.  “-uuudge?”

“Umm… I think this deserves a free pass..” Anna quickly surveyed the kitchen to make sure the children hadn’t snuck in the room.  “What the fuck?” She whispered to Harry.

“I don’t know!” Harry exclaimed.  “Are you sure you didn’t order this?”

“I think I would remember something like this.  We don’t even use these.. Maybe they sent it to the wrong account… It should come with some sort of invoice or confirmation receipt in the box.”

Harry’s eyes caught the piece of paper that was hiding near the corner of the box as the words were spilling from her mouth.  “This must be it.” He plucked the paper out of the box and let his eyes rove over it, reading it through several times to make sure it was correct.  “Anna, were you drunk? It says you ordered it five days ago at 11:24 in the morning.  It has the last four digits of your debit.”

“What?! No way.”

“I don’t know how I feel about you having a drink while watching the kids,” he teased with a grin.

Anna frowned in reply, swatting his arm.  “I do not drink during the day.  I wait until they’re passed out in bed.”

Harry laughed and waved the receipt in the air.  “This proves the opposite, peaches.  Is there something we should talk about?”

“Give me that.” She snatched the paper out of his hands and glanced it over.

He was right.  It was last Friday morning according to Amazon’s records.  She wracked her brain for what they had been doing that morning while Harry was at work.  She recalled it being a chaotic day, trying to tweak the speech she would be giving that weekend at an engagement.  The kids were being rowdy, being locked indoors for the past couple of days due to the rainy forecast.  She had tried many ways to distract them to allow her some time to work on the notes she had received from Harry the previous night, all attempts failing to keep their attention for more than two minutes.

All.. but one.

“Oh, my god!” Anna gasped, covering her mouth and looking up at Harry.  “Those little rascals!”

“What?” Harry chuckled, amused by the look of horror that twisted her features.

“My kindle.  I let them play around on my kindle for a while so I could work on my speech.  They must’ve gotten onto Amazon and ordered it by accident.”

Harry’s eyes widened, mirroring his wife’s shocked expression.  Their attention dropped back down to the abundance amounts of batteries they now owned.

“Well, then,” Harry began, his dancing eyes meeting hers.  “Got batteries?”

Anna howled with laughter and fell against him.  He easily caught her, his own body shaking as they clung to each other.  It was only a matter of seconds before little pairs of feet padded against the floorboards, curious minds wanting to know what had caused the commotion in the kitchen.

Never would they know how much entertainment they brought into that home…