Christmas with the Calvins

Chapter Eighty-One

Jack Frost began to thaw there in the center of Santa's workshop. First it was his pinstripe suit. The frosted exterior of the fabric melted to show it was a deep navy underneath. Then large shells of ice began to fall from his shoulders and hair. It all fell in large segments to the floor, shattering on impact.

"What's happening to me?" Frost exclaimed as he continued to thaw.

"I'm warming your heart!" Lucy explained, in a kind quite voice, before giving the trickster another loving squeeze. Soon even the navy blue layer of Frost's pinstripe suit began to fleck off and the true color, a brilliant pure white, was revealed.

"But they told me it couldn't be done!" He remarked in amazement.

"But they didn't know about magical hugs." Lucy told him before taking a step back.

"I think I like it." Frost decided once he was completely thawed out. Gone was his angular features and snow-white hair. His eyes were still blue, but warmer and more inviting. Everything thing about him seemed more youthful and pleasant.

Once Frost had been taken care of, Neil and Laura began to thaw themselves. Having not been frozen nearly as long as the legendary figure, their ice chipped away quickly and left them standing in the heart of the room, shivering. Now that Laura and Neil were no longer imprisoned under Frost's spell, Mother Nature was able to use a bit of her magic to warm their body temperatures to where they needed to be. It happened in a matter of seconds, and there was no way Jessica was going to let the wolf in sheep's clothing get away with what he'd done.

"Quintin, are you ready?" She asked her friend, calling the attention of the entire room.

"Absolutely." From somewhere close by Quintin and Bernard wheeled over a monitor measuring about forty square inches. Quintin powered on the monitor. "Jessica and myself where suspicious of Jack Frost from the first day he was assigned to the North Pole. So we set up surveillance equipment throughout the North Pole."

"You bugged the North Pole without telling me?" Scott looked directly at his daughter.

"Would you have said yes if I'd asked?" Jess pointed out without waiting for him to answer.

"Quintin's right," She explained, now addressing the crowd at large. "I was suspicious of Frost from the beginning. I know that the elves and my family were up to speed on my husband's condition, but in case any members of the council were unaware, our former Head Elf, Bernard, fell off the roof of our house two years ago. Since then, he's been unable to remember anything that happened after Christmas of 1994. It's important for you to understand that before watching this video. On Jack Frost's first day, the elves were working on outfitting the Pole with the Canadian façade, Frost and I had a very interesting conversation."

Operating a series preloaded videos on the monitor with a remote in his hands, Quintin selected a surveillance video from the Town Square. It showed Frost nodding and smiling as he watched the elves hard at work.

"Well if it isn't Jessica Calvin!" The Jack in the video said as a video Jessica walked up to him.

"Just coming to see how things are going." Video Jessica explained, she nodded and greeted elves that passed by them. "Santa will be back any minute with Mrs. Claus' parents."

"You know, I've been Jack Frost for a long time." The real world Jess turned her attention away from the video. She remembered exactly how this conversation had gone and wasn't looking forward to reliving it. Even if it was evidence against Frost. Bernard, sensing her discomfort from across the room, moved to stand next to her with his eyes as fix on the tape as everyone else who was living the moment for the first time.