Christmas with the Calvins

Chapter Seventy-Nine

Bernard grabbed on to the collar of his father-in-law's suit jacket as soon as he realized what Frost had said. The same magical glitter that previously emitted from Scott's snowglobe, was now swirling upwards around Santa Frost, Scott and Bernard. Also, just like before the three men landed on their backs in the snow outside of the Calvin house in 1994. As the young Scott Calvin came out of the house in his boxers and boots to investigate the noise on his roof, Bernard and the older Scott wrestled to Jack Frost to the ground. They held him down and kept out of sight long enough for young Scott to put on the red coat like he was meant to.

With things put back to the way they were supposed to be, the three men were transported a final time back to the North Pole in 2006. Scott and Frost were standing outside exactly where they'd been before Frost had pulled his trick. Scott was holding his Santa snowglobe, which he instinctively pulled closer to his chest once he realized what he was holding. He was glad to see his big ol' bowl of jelly stomach once again, and he stroked his long white beard, just to make sure it was still there.

"We did it!" Bernard breathed in relief. "We made it home!"

"You'd better go find Jessie." Scott told his son-in-law. "I've gotta find Carol. And you," He glared at Frost. "Better not wander off anywhere. We need to have a serious conversation. But first I have to fix things with my family." Scott told Bernard that the last time he'd seen Jess she'd been on her way to find Curtis. "Find her and then call the council." Santa added in a whisper. "They need to know about Frost."

Bernard had such a burning urge to see his wife. He'd been missing her so desperately for the past two years. Occasionally he would travel to the Chicago in the alternate reality and watch Jessica just so that he could see her. Of course, that wasn't really his Jess. She'd been here safe and well here at the North Pole.

Bernard walked through the familiar halls of the workshop. It was slightly disorienting at first to see everything looking so different from the reality he'd been trapped in, but while he walked around he began to remember changes that had been made over time and his own reality seemed became more familiar once again. He'd pass an elf here or there occasionally and they'd greet each other with friendly smiles but it seemed none of them had noticed his two year long absence. He wondered if maybe while he'd been gone the Bernard from the other reality had been trapped here. Or maybe Curtis had made a toy Bernard much like the Toy Santa a few years ago. He could feel the stress headache building at that thought. A toy Bernard? Jess would never allow that trick again. He could only hope.

Bernard found his wife in the main room of the workshop frowning at a set of blueprints. Curtis was standing at her side ranting up a storm about something that he wasn't close enough to hear. Curtis was tossing his hands in the air and shaking his head. Jess ignoring him, as she skimmed over the blue prints one more time. Bernard closed his eyes and stopped walking. He tried to think of something Inspiring or profound to say. It was going to be the first time he saw his wife and his best friend in two years.

But rather than finding answers, he got more questions from himself. What had happened to them while he'd been gone? Had they missed him as much as he'd missed them? Had they even noticed he'd been missing or had the other Bernard slid right into his life unnoticed? What about the North Pole? Who had filled in the position of Head Elf while he'd been gone? What about his kids? Where were they, and what did they know about their father? Bernard knew the only way to get answers to his questions was to go directly to the source, so armed with a bouquet of his wife's favorite flowers, Bernard walked right up to them and cleared his through.

"Hum-hmmm, Jessie, Curtis?" Jess and Curtis stopped their conversation and looked over at Bernard.

"Bernard, I thought you were helping Naughty and Nice get that list sorted out. Did you guys already get that finished?" Jess asked him with raised eyebrows. She seemed impressed by a task that didn't sound all too difficult. "See I told you the old Bernard was still in there..." She gave him a reassuring smile before glancing back down at the blueprints in her hand.

"Are those sunflowers?" Curtis, who hadn't taken his eyes off Bernard, asked. The best Bernard could offer was a nod and a weak explanation.

"They're Jessie's favorite flower. I remember because the first Easter after her father became Santa Claus she invited me to Easter dinner, and I brought her sunflowers because Santa told me that they were her favorite." Once Bernard got himself talking about the old memory he found it easier to look at Curtis. Jess put down her documents again and was now looking back at Bernard. Something about her expression was different this time. There was a glimmer, a hint of something else, hope maybe.

"You remember that?" She asked him quietly.

"Of course." He nodded, feeling tears well up in his eyes. "I remember it all. The Christmas that I met you and you sat on the corner of my desk and marveled at my ridiculously decorative handwriting. I remember our first kiss, where we hid from Santa in a kitchen pantry in the middle of the night. I remember every one of our fights and how stupid and stubborn I can be. And the one thing I never forgot in the two years was your laugh Jessie. Your sweet beautiful laugh that reminds me so much of..."

"The bells on Santa's sleigh." She finished for him. "Oh Bernard, I've missed you so much!" Jess couldn't help but fling herself into her husband's arms. She couldn't stop the tears of relief that came pouring out either.

"I hate to interrupt," Curtis narrowed his eyes at Bernard. The husband and wife separated and looked to their friend. "But you said you're glad to be back, where have you been? Because there's been a Bernard here the whole time."

"Curtis, trust me I would love to tell you all about it, and I saw a lot of things you wouldn't believe over there." Bernard promised his friend. "But right now, we have bigger problems. Jack Frost tricked Jess' Dad into using the Escape Clause..."

"The Escape Clause?" Jess repeated. "The only people who how exactly how to invoke that are the Head Elf, the Keeper of the Christmas Handbook and Santa himself. And even if Frost could figure out specially how to do it, He'd had to get into the Hall of Snowglobes and somehow get Dad to say a very specific phrase."

"How do you know that?" Bernard marveled. It seemed a great deal had happened while he was gone.

"She's Keeper of the Handbook now." Curtis explained as if that should have been obvious.

"Really? Jessie that's fantastic! But wait..." Bernard's excitement disappeared quickly. He looked to Curtis. "Does that mean..."

"Stay on track." Jess interrupted her husband. "I'm assuming you coming back has something to do with my Dad and the Escape Clause?"

"Like I said I'll explain in more detail later but basically I was trapped in a different reality." Bernard said. "Over there, Jack Frost became Santa in 1994 instead of your father. I was only trapped there for the last two years of his reign as Santa, but that's where the real Santa, your father, found me. I was stuck in the alternate North Pole of 2006 before we put things right in 1994 and came back here. Now, we still have to stop Frost from getting away with this."

"We've gotta find Q. He's got the whole Pole rigged with surveillance equipment." Jess explained. "No one is supposed to know about it, but we set things up as soon as we suspected Frost was up to something. Of course, now I'm sure he's been behind everything. Curtis, can you alert the Council of Legendary Figures while Bernard and I find Quintin and see what we can lift off the security intel?"

"Of course." Curtis nodded and raced off. Jess grasped her husband by the hand, gave him a brief kiss on the cheek before leading the way to the Research and Development lab.