Happily Ever Christmas

~Seventeen~

It was a giant, magical kitchen, mind you, full of slender, green, magical Elves, but it was still a kitchen, and I felt considerably more comfortable here.

"Alright, why don't we just sit you down, huh? Get you some hot cocoa?" Nick said gently, helping me to sit in a chair at a long wooden table. He gestured at one of the nearby elves and they exchanged a meaningful look, I was sure of it.

An elf approached me and set a giant mug of hot cocoa topped with whip cream and marshmallows down near my elbow, then tentatively backed away when he saw the way I was looking at him.

They were just so shockingly...inhuman!

I was having trouble swallowing or breathing. I swayed in my seat and my head felt fuzzy. I shook it in an attempt to clear it, but that only made me feel nauseous.

My two children were standing in front of me, I realized. I jumped a little when Olivia took my hand and Bradley stepped deliberately onto the toe of my boot to get my attention.

"We tried to tell you, Mamma. Please don't be upset." Olivia begged softly.

"We told you the Elves were real!" Bradley piped in, sounding far less apologetic about it. "Oh my God, nobody at school's gonna believe it! That we went to the North Pole!" Bradley kicked his sister's leg in his excitement and she shot him a stern expression that she'd inherited from her father.

"Bradley, you're too young for this conversation, go away."

She turned back to me primly as her little brother made faces at her.

Nick grinned, watching us from a short distance. He squatted down now and spoke to Bradley. "Why don't you go have Mazie fix you up your favorite treat, huh, kiddo? She's great at picking out people's favorite dessert without them even telling her. Go on, give it a try." Nick suggested, and the elf named Mazie waved Bradley over.

I saw how Bradley's blue eyes lit up, but I was still in panicked Mamma Mode. "Why don't you back off, Nick, or whoever you even are?!" I snapped at him. "You send us home right now, do you hear me?! To Earth or whatever; wh-where we belong!"

"Mom." My daughter said quietly, putting her little hand on my shoulder. "Please don't be mad at Santa. He just answered my wish. It's really my fault we're here."

I stared down at her, then lifted my eyes to Nick's face. He gave me a small smile.

"Honey, why don't you go join your brother? Please, just...just give two grownups us a minute?" I asked her in a halting fashion I couldn't control.

She bit her lip, glancing up at Nick. I certainly didn't appreciate that she looked to him for confirmation, not one bit.

He grinned down at her reassuringly. "Mazie can whip up something for you, too, sugarplum; go on ahead and ask her."

This got Olivia to grin. She might be an incredibly gifted, special, intelligent seven-year-old, but she was still a seven-year-old.

She patted me on the head then scampered off to join her brother over by the industrial size stove with the tall Elf named Mazie. She had long, silver dreadlocks hanging in a neat bouquet down her back, almost all the way down to the floor. She reminded me of someone I had seen in Manhattan a few years ago, actually.

"Drink your cocoa, Emberly, it'll make you feel better." Nick pulled up a chair and straddled it, facing me.

I could see by the stubborn set of his square jaw that he wasn't going to say another word until I drank the damn cocoa.

I reached for it and took a sip as I cradled the warm mug in my hands. It was truly heavenly and I had another sip before I could even stop myself.

No doubt with a whip cream mustache now, I set the mug aside and licked my lips, trying to remain poised, righteously angry, and on top of my game. Even if inside, my brain had become a bowl of Jell-O and my spine wasn't feeling much better.

"Alright, so I've seen your magical warehouse, and I confess, this is all very...startling and-and amazing! Mind-blowing, I would even say.

"But I still very much would like to go home now. My-our family...they will be worried sick. You understand that, don't you? I know you said you don't have a family anymore-"

"I don't." He said firmly, and I gazed at him with thinned lips.

"Okay. I'm sorry. But surely you remember what it's like to have loved ones? It's very upsetting when they just disappear with the stranger no one should've invited to the party-!"

"Emberly." Nick reached for my hand, but I quickly withdrew it.

He paused and sighed, then continued, smoothing his palm over the smooth wooden surface of the table top. "This place...where to start? The Elves call it Winter's Glen. It exists inside of a time bubble.

"Basically, time passes so slowly here that to a human's point of view, it barely passes at all. That's how this whole place - this whole operation - works.

"So please, if you will just consider being my guest here, I only ask for three days' time, counting today, then I will return you and your children to your home, safe and sound. You will find yourselves waking up on Christmas morning and, if that's still what you want.

"It'll be like I've never even been there, like it was all just a dream, and you will never see me again. You have my word."

I stared steadily into his eyes. "Why?" I asked softly. "Why us?"

"I will explain everything, Emberly, if you would just give me a little bit of your time and a little bit of your trust."

"Oh, I don't know, see, it would be a lot easier, Nick, if you hadn't lied to us first, then kidnapped us to a strange place!"

He sighed heavily and scratched at his head of thick black curls. "I know, I'm sorry, that's no way to start a relationship of any kind. Look, I'll tell you anything you want to know, I promise. Just let me go grab a shower and just, like, a wink of sleep."

I smiled at him rather sardonically then. "Fine, but first, tell me your whole entire life story." I laughed when I saw him visibly pale. "No. That's fair enough, I guess. You look terrible."

"Thanks." He said dryly, standing up. "Mazie here will take care of anything you guys need; please, just make yourselves at home, really. I want you to be comfortable here, just act like everything's yours. And I'll be back in just a few minutes."

"If you need to sleep longer than that..." I said as he swayed on his feet, drunk with lack of sleep.

"No, no. It'll be fine, trust me. See you guys soon. Have fun!" He waved to Olivia and Bradley who waved back at him, both wreathed in blissful good cheer.

I sighed and got up to go join them. I took my hot cocoa with me, too.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Thanks so much for reading!

HRH