Christmastime at the Cunninghams'

[FonzFan82]

Note: An online friend gave me this idea since there is another version to this story for the original story. If you go to my page where I write about the introductory "McCarey Files", I have the Christmas story on this group on the site fictionpress under the same name so you will see where I got the idea from a friend but it was originally her idea so I ended up writing this but so far both stories don't have endings yet, so it's been a while since I've worked on the original. I've been busy with my other Happy Days stories. I will post my favorite Happy Days story here at some point and I think you will all like it besides these two, but don't forget to let me know what you think of them. The ones that are not yet uploaded here are at fanfiction dot net under this pen name like fictionpress dot com so enjoy the ones I have there. Enjoy this story.

Ch 1:

Christmas was nearing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Potsie Webber was at his house, going to the attic to get out the Christmas decorations.

"Deck the halls with boughs of holly," he begin to sing.

Potsie knew he hadn't yet gotten a Christmas tree for his house but he wanted to get the decorations out before he had gotten the tree from a dealer out in Milwaukee. This was his first Christmas away from Utah.

Potsie had gotten permission to take time off from recording his latest CD with his friend, Keith Urban in the Grand Ole Opry so he could celebrate Christmas with his friends. He remembered the CD they were recording together had twelve songs but they only planned on recording a couple songs per month. Potsie grabbed his winter coat from the closet and grabbed his car keys locked the front door behind himself. He headed for his cold, orange convertible in the driveway.

He unlocked the convertible and warmed up the engine after putting the key in the ignition and drove away from the house. He saw all the neighbors' Christmas decorations as he passed the neighbors' houses. He liked this year's decorations. He liked this year's decorations he had since most of them were like the decorations from the movie Christmas Vacation. He liked having those kind of decorations. Potsie put a CD in the car and started singing along since it was only Christmas music.

He ran into his friend's sister, Joanie Cunningham in town as he parked the convertible in the parking.

"Hi, Potsie," Joanie said.

Potsie jumped as he locked his convertible.

"You scared me!" he said, giving a high jump.

Startled by her unexpected appearance, he jumped a little before landing on the ice and lost his balance, which led him ending up on his back.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Can you help me up?" Potsie asked.

"Are you hurt?" Joanie asked worriedly.

She stayed with him as she got her cell phone out from her pocket.

"They're on their way, Potsie," Joanie said.

"Okay," he said.

"Let me call the school and let them know where I am."

She got her cell phone once again and dialed the high school. The principal told her she could have the rest of the afternoon off.

"Thanks," she said and was off the phone once more.

"I get the rest of the day off because of you," Joanie said to her friend.

"I thought you had class," he said.

"I do, but I had permission from the principal to have time off," she said.

That's when the ambulance came.

"Who's the patient?" one of the crew members asked.

"My friend here. He slipped and fell on his back," Joanie said.

She watched as they got out the stretcher and put Potsie on it. Joanie got back into the ambulance and was next to Potsie.

"I'm not going to leave you for a full minute," Joanie said.

Potsie didn't respond to his friend. The only thing he did was sing in the ambulance. After Potsie finished singing a song, the ambulance reached the hospital. Joanie stayed in the waiting room for a long period of time. While waiting, she called their friends, Richie Cunningham, Chachi Arcola, and Arthur Fonzarelli to tell them that their friend, Potsie was in the hospital because he had a fall at the grocery store.

"Is Potsie all right?" Fonzie asked.

"I haven't heard anything yet, Fonzie," Joanie said, nose sniffling.

"He ain't gonna die, Joanie. Cheer up," Fonzie said to Joanie.

"I know he's not going to die, Fonzie. I want him home for Christmas," Joanie said, "and not in the hospital."

Her nose kept sniffling as she and Fonzie talked.

"Why don't you tell me what happened to Potsie?" Fonzie asked Joanie.

"Potsie pulled up at the grocery store. I don't know what he was going to be doing there. Maybe grocery shop, I don't know. I was wandering around when he got out of his convertible when he was locking his car. I thought I would go over there and say hello. So I did. He jumped when he saw me because he wasn't expecting me there at the grocery store. Next minute, he fell on his back on the icy snow," Joanie told Fonzie, "so I called for an ambulance because he couldn't get up."

"Whoa," was all Fonzie could say after hearing such a story.

He'd never heard of anything like that before but he'd heard of people slipping on icy snow but not what happened to Potsie. That's when Joanie heard her name being called.

"Listen, Fonzie, I've got to run. I guess I can see Potsie now. I'll let you all know later how he's doing," she said and put the cell back in her pocket.

Fonzie listened to the dial tone as Joanie hung up. He hung up before the operator came on. Joanie was shown where Potsie's room was.

After the nurse left, the first thing Joanie said was, "How are you?"

"Fine," Potsie said.

"What did the doctor say?" Joanie asked.

Potsie gave her the details.

"That means you'll be here for Christmas, right?" Joanie asked.

"Right. I have to go to physical therapy since I fell on the snow on my back," he said.

"How long would that take?" Joanie asked.

"I don't know. They haven't said anything to me on that yet."

"Have you talked to Ralph since you came here for Christmas?" Joanie asked.

"No. He's spending Christmas with his wife," Potsie said.

"Who's his wife again?" Joanie asked.

"Karen McCarey. She's a cop," Potsie said.

Potsie shrugged his shoulders. When he did that, he felt pain.

"Ouch," he said.

"What?"

"My shoulders hurt," he said.

"What did you do?" Joanie asked.

"Trying to shrug them. I guess I can't do that for a while."

"Guess not," she said.

"I can live with that for a while," Potsie said.

"I'm sure you can," she said.

"Joanie, I just remembered. I'm supposed to do a few shows at the Grand Ole Opry this week. I'm scheduled there to perform for Christmas. Now that I'm here, I'm not sure what I can do about the shows," Potsie said.

"We'll get that taken care of," Joanie said.

"Thanks, Joanie. I knew you'd come through for me," Potsie said.

"I'll see if we can talk to the doctors and see if you can spend Christmas at home this year instead of the hospital," Joanie said said to Potsie.

"I'd like that," he said.

"I'll worry about your Christmas performances at the Grand Ole Opry later."

Joanie left Potsie's room for a while.

On her way out, she said, "I'll see you later today. I need to go back to work."

"Okay, Joanie. See you later."

The two gave each other a kiss on her way out.

"I'll let you know what the plans are," she said.

"Do that," he said.

He watched as his friend shut the door behind herself.