Happily Ever Christmas

~Twenty-Four~

I lay in bed that night, staring out the windows at the cold, silent, star-filled sky.

The lights on our tree twinkled prettily over by the fireplace and the logs had long since turned to embers in the grate.

My two children were sleeping soundly, with identical little smiles on their freckled faces. As far as they were concerned, they were having the best Christmas ever.

But as an adult, I knew that Christmas always had to end at some point.

                                                                                    *~*~*~*

Olivia lay in bed that night, pretending to sleep until she heard her mother snoring.

Then she got up and stealthily slipped out of the room.

Barefoot in her pink princess pajamas, she ran down the long, quiet corridor to the main gallery chamber where all the toys were made.

The room was large and quiet now, with the lights turned off and the stations empty. All the elf workers had gone to bed a long time ago.

There was a light and some noise that drew her attention down the long, curving hallway and she ran towards it, her hand trailing over the railing.

When she reached the door where the light was coming out from under, she tried the big brass handle and found the door unlocked.

Olivia pushed the door open and bravely stepped inside.

She was on a mission, after all, and she would not fail. Her family was at stake.

The room she entered was tall and long and skinny, and absolutely packed with things. Soft, plush furnishings in dark colors like olive green and brown set the tone, and a fireplace surrounded precariously with books made the room toasty and smoky and just a little bit stuffy. There were snow globes everywhere and clocks, clocks everywhere. More clocks than she could count; little mantle clocks, alarm clocks, wall clocks, cuckoo clocks, grandfather clocks, even little pocket watches, all ticking away at slightly different times. Some were chiming off towards the back of the room and she proceeded forward towards where the adult voices were coming from.

Steve was standing at a table, looking down at something; it looked like a map to Olivia. There were a few elves with him, including Mazie, and even a few human-looking people, though they seemed too old and fancy to be normal humans to Olivia.

She stood, staring at them silently. They were all talking about something very seriously.

Steve finally noticed her and he straightened up from the table and frowned.

Olivia took a step back, afraid he was going to be mad at her.

"Honey, what's wrong?" He asked quietly, in his usual kind voice. He approached her slowly to take a knee in front of her. "You okay? Had a bad dream?"

She shook her head. "No. Are you mad? I'm sorry I didn't knock."

"It's okay, sweetie. What's on your mind? Do you need something?"

"I want to stay here, Sant-Steve!" She told him, tears welling in her innocent hazel eyes.

He smiled at her tenderly and cupped her little shoulders. "Aww, I would like that, too. But your mommy thinks your home is back in New England. I'm not sure I can convince her to stay in time."

"Are you going to ask her to marry you?" Olivia asked him next, in the utterly candid way that only children can.

His smile turned a bit rueful then and he ruffled up her hair, winning a reluctant smile from her. "Yes, I am, Princess. That's the plan anyway, but I can't make her say 'Yes', you understand that, don't you? No one can force someone else to fall in love, not even me, sweetheart."

She nodded and sniffed. She was old enough to understand these things. "I wanna stay here, though. The elves don't bully me here like they do back home."

Steve cocked his head and his smile was gone. "Kids bully you, sweetie?"

Nick Light prided himself on keeping an eye on all the special children of the world, but he couldn't watch them all every second. No one but God could do that.

She shrugged. "Sometimes, I guess. At the new school. I don't wanna go back after Christmas break."

"Oh, honey..."

"I wanna stay here with you, so you have to make my mommy want to marry you, or I won't believe you're really Santa Claus after all!"

Steve sighed and stood up, taking her hand to lead her from the room. "Alright, boss lady, I promise I will do what I can, okay? Now let's get you to back bed, you shouldn't be in here, it's dangerous."

"What's so dangerous about clocks?" She asked with a scoff, but he wasn't ready to answer that any more than she was ready to hear the answer.

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

Hope everyone's enjoying the read so far! More content gets posted tomorrow so standby, stay healthy and safe, and happy, happy holidays!

HRH