The sun winked at the Drosselmeyer Estate as it crept toward the horizon, promising Christmas Day. Benjamin Stahlbaum stepped away from the younger of his two daughters, Clara, as she looked out into the crowd. He followed his daughter's eyeline into the crowd, to see them rest upon a young, dark-skinned soldier who was steadily making his way to the gazebo where the father and daughter were dancing.
Wait.
Benjamin knew that uniform. As the young soldier continued his march, Benjamin even came to recognize him.
Hoffman.
How had he gotten here? Drosselmeyer didn't open the clock portal, since the people of their world wouldn't take kindly to the Four Realms—
"Phillip!" Clara raced down the steps to meet Captain Hoffman. He lifted her hand to his lips.
"Hello, Clara," he said. "Not very much time has passed in your world, has it?"
"Only a few hours." She glanced over to Benjamin, and she hastily turned back to Hoffman. "Phillip, this is my father, Dr. Benjamin Stahlbaum! Father, this is—"
"Captain Phillip Hoffman of the Nutcracker Regiment," Benjamin finished as he clasped his hands in front awkwardly. He nodded. "We've met."
"You hadn't mentioned that the king lives still!" Captain Hoffman dropped to his knees. "King Benjamin, Your Majesty, I'm devastated to hear about Marie."
"Rise," Benjamin said, faintly aware of the looks the soldier was earning from the other party-goers. "It really isn't necessary, here."
"Oh, of course," Captain Hoffman said, glancing to Clara in a silent cry for help. "I am just honored to see you again, after all of these years."
"You knew my father, then?" Clara asked, looking from Captain Hoffman to her father, and then back again.
"He was the first Nutcracker!" Phillip said. "All of the rest of us look up to him! He served our queen so well, he became her consort!"
Clara's pale green eyes shifted inquisitively toward her father. A million questions were unspoken, and yet written all over her face.
Benjamin sighed heavily. "I see I have a lot of explaining to do. Captain Hoffman, would you please find Christian? He has his part of the story to tell."
"Yes, sir," Captain Hoffman said.
"And Clara, please find Louise and Fritz," Benjamin said. "They deserve to hear this, too. And I have a feeling you have your own story to share."
"Yes, Father," Clara sad.
Captain Hoffman and Clara both disappeared into the crowd of party-goers, leaving Benjamin alone for the moment. That was when he realized that the music in the egg was still playing. Benjamin scooped it up, not wanting his wife's last gift to be forgotten, only to realize that he'd sent Clara off.
He turned off the music, and stared at the egg a moment. It was one of Marie's favorite possessions, made by Drosselmeyer himself. Marie would modify it later, after his first dance with her all of those years ago.
He remembered the dance, in the Land of the Flowers. He remembered the orchard, where they danced for the first time to the very melody.
Benjamin realized, with a start, that he'd forgotten it during the months after Marie's death. How could he have? In his long life, there were so many others he'd wanted to forget more.
It took all of Benjamin's strength not to cry. Marie had been the one tying him to this world. Now he was to remain in it with his children. This was their world, and he wasn't going to ask them to leave for the Four Realms for his sake, and he wouldn't make them orphans.
He remembered the teary whispers in the night as Marie got sicker and sicker, how she was afraid of leaving them like her parents left her.
He assured her that he would keep going on. Somehow, he would.
As he spotted Captain Hoffman and Clara returning with the people they needed, he remembered when he first met Marie, all of those years ago.