Genre: Friendship/Family

Characters: Mr. C. Lizewski, Marcus W.

Mako's Message: A little late. But not too late. 2015 was a bad year for me. Bad enough that it made me realize I need to make some SERIOUS changes in my life. Hopefully some of the lessons I've "learned" will prove to have been truly learned and acted upon. One of which I applied to this chapter. I needed a bonus chapter, but between work, family, and travel, I didn't have a lot of time to write one. So... I just wrote a short one. When Precocious Crush gained popularity, it was only with chapters of one or two pages. As much as I might like to write a huge epic(which I have, just in many tiny parts)... I need to not stress myself out over these things and just write a chapter and let it be what it is. Everything will not be perfect. Everything will not be better than the last. No matter how hard I try, some sentences, paragraphs, scenes, chapters, and stories will be weaker than others. And some will be stronger. But what's important is to move forward. To get the stories, chapters, scenes, paragraphs, and sentences written, and let the world judge them. Because they don't do me any good just rattling around my head.

Mr. Lizewski sat on his couch in his living room, enjoying a beer and watching the New Years Eves festivities. As he was wondering if he would like more of the music they were playing if he was younger, or if he'd still only like one out of every dozen or so, the doorbell rang.

He stood up, curious as to who it could be this close to midnight. He did not however neglect the baseball bat he kept just around the corner from the door as he asked, "Who is it?"

"It's me, Marcus," came from the other side.

Mr. Lizewski stood straight at the response, "Marcus? What're you doing here?" he asked as he opened the door.

"I thought I'd check up on you. Make sure everything was good before I went home," Marcus said as he stood there on the porch, still in uniform.

"You don't have to be there?" Casimir asked, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at the TV.

Marcus just gave him a flat look before he said, "Not every cop in the city is in Times Square. That'd be irresponsible."

"Oh. Right..." At a loss for anything else to say he stepped aside and said, "Would you like to come in?"

"Thank you," Marcus said as he stepped inside.

"Here," Casimir took Marcus coat and hung it on one of the hooks by the door, "Go have a seat, I'll grab you a beer."

Marcus found a comfortable spot and sat down, glad to be off his feet and able to relax. A moment later he was thanking Caz again as he accepted the drink.

"So, you making any resolutions?" Caz asked as he took his seat.

Marcus looked at, or maybe through, the television for a minute before saying, "Yeah. I wanna do whatever I can to make the world a better place, so my kid doesn't have to be out there doing it herself."

Casimir was thoughtful for a moment before he said, "I can drink to that," and reach out to clink his bottle with Marcus's.

The End

Here is where I'm calling it quits in regards to Holiday Bonus. This story is complete and shall remain so. I may write more holiday themed stories in the future, but my own personal rule about writing for all the same holidays without skipping any...has become more of a chore than fun. Too many holidays were leaving me grasping at smoke for ideas. So I'm done with this. And with this story off my back, I hope to be able to better focus on and complete more of my in-progress stories. And free myself up to write many new ones.

Happy New Year to all.