Hey, that's not Dad!
A/N: This is for a challenge that lateBloomer04 posted at HTR. I changed the rules to a certain degree, but I hope it'll still be fine all the same. This is dedicated to the folks at HTR.
Oh, and I hope y'all don't mind, but I made the Turner family Catholic in this story—I added one of my own traditions, and it only works if you're Catholic, so I hope none of you mind, considering the fact that none of us know what religion any of them really are.
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"Oh, Will… Are you sure?"
"Yes, Elizabeth – I'm sure. I really wish that I wasn't."
Christmas this year was not going to be an ideal one for the Turner family. As it had turned out, Will had been called away for business – and was not expected to be back until the 26th of the December. The day after Christmas.
Will's blacksmithing business had really taken off since its opening that past September and because of it, Will had been called away on several occasions to make different things for the vast majority of his customers. As it was merely a few days before Christmas, his customers had no intention of going to his shop in London for his work; as a result, he had travel to them if he wanted their business. And in this particular case, Will had had to fly across the pond to New York City, where all airports had just happened to be snowed in and were not expected to open up until the day after Christmas.
"I'm sorry, Liz. I really don't want to be here right now; you know I want to be home with you, William and the baby more than anything."
Elizabeth sighed dejectedly as she rubbed her swollen abdomen with her free hand. As she had been with Will on every Christmas since she was twelve years old, she had no idea how she was going to be able to enjoy this one without him.
"I know." Elizabeth knew that her husband wanted to be with them, but that still didn't make the pain of him not being there any less.
"I love you, Liz. And tell the kids that I love them as well. I'll call you first thing tomorrow," Will told his wife over his cell phone.
"I love you too, Will. And I'll be sure to tell them."
"Okay, bye."
"Bye." Elizabeth clicked off the phone as their son, William, came into the room.
"Mummy, Mummy! Was that Dad? Is he coming home?" The six year old anxiously questioned his mother as he jumped up and down excitedly.
Elizabeth started dolefully down at her son, unsure of how to explain to him that his father was not going to be spending Christmas with them.
"Yes, that was Dad…" William cut her off.
"So he called to say that he's coming home, right?" The jovial tone in her son's voice was enough to bring unwanted tears to Elizabeth's eyes.
"No, son." Elizabeth shook her head, looking even more dejected as she watched the light in her son's eyes slowly extinguish. "He's not coming home until after Christmas."
William ceased his jumping as he turned to stare down at his shoes. "Oh."
"I'm sorry," Elizabeth told her son, slowly bringing herself down to a kneeling position to awkwardly hug him. "I wish that he could be here, too."
William immediately returned his mother's hug, his own eyes beginning to well up with tears.
"But, it'll be okay," Elizabeth said as she pulled back to look at William, attempting to make her tone of voice sound hopeful. "We'll still have a fun day, I promise. And we'll call Daddy several times throughout the course of the day to see how he's doing and to wish him a Happy Christmas. Alright?"
William nodded, trying to be strong for his mother. "Okay."
"Okay." Elizabeth smiled as she gave her son another hug. "Now, go and get ready for church. The Mass is going to start in forty-five minutes."
Will returned his mother's smile before running out of the room and up the stairs to his bedroom to get ready.
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After reading William The Night Before Christmas and tucking him into bed, Elizabeth went into her own bedroom to grab William's presents so she could set them under the tree before going to bed herself.
As she walked carefully down the stairs, due to her being seven months pregnant, Elizabeth began to remember back to the previous Christmas Eves she'd spent with Will and how much fun they'd had setting out William's presents from "Santa Claus". As she was alone, she didn't see any fun in putting them out this year; it was just another chore to be done before she'd get to go to sleep.
Carefully pushing herself up to a standing position after placing all of William's presents under the tree, Elizabeth smiled at her handy work – William may not be able to spend Christmas with his father, but at least he'd be able to have a fun time playing with all of the toys that he was going to get upon opening his gifts the next morning.
As she turned to go back upstairs to her bedroom so she could finally turn in for the night, Elizabeth felt two gloved hands being placed over her eyes. She attempted to scream, but found that one of the gloved hands had been moved from her eyes down to her mouth.
"Have you been a naughty girl this year, Mrs. Turner?" asked a sly voice that sounded vaguely familiar to Elizabeth. She turned around to get a good look at her captor, but found to her utmost surprise, and relief, that it was only Will, dressed up from head to tow as Santa Claus.
Elizabeth smacked him on the arm as hard as she could. "Don't you ever scare me like that again!" she hissed, giving him another smack to show him just how upset she was.
Will raised his gloved hands up in surrender. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" he apologized several times, letting his wife know that she had made her point. "That was a stupid idea and I probably shouldn't have tried to surprise you that way."
"Damn right you shouldn't have!" Elizabeth's irate expression dimmed down to one of foreboding as she stared at her husband. "I'm sorry I snapped at you, Will. Just, please, don't ever scare me like that again, especially in this condition."
Will pulled his wife into an awkward hug, due to the large bump that was her belly. "Again, I'm sorry. And I promise I'll never do that again."
Elizabeth chuckled softly into her husband's chest. "Thank you." Will smiled as he rocked his wife in his arms.
"Wait a second," Elizabeth said, pulling out of her husband's embrace just enough to look up at him. "I thought the New York City airport was snowed in and they weren't allowing anyone to leave until after Christmas?"
Will gave Elizabeth a secret smile. "I mentioned our situation to the man I had been making a duplicate of an old Civil War sword for and he offered to give me a free ride home in one of his jets."
Elizabeth's eyes lit up excitedly. "Really?!"
Will chuckled jovially. "Yes."
"So, when I was talking to you on the phone earlier, you weren't really at the airport; you were on that jet, coming home?"
Will nodded. "Now we all get to be together for Christmas."
"Oh, Will! I can't believe it! This is fantastic!" Elizabeth pulled her husband's head down for kiss. The couple stayed locked in that position until they heard a scream that sounded like it had come from the second floor of their home. They both looked up towards the top of the stairway just in time to see their son running back towards his bedroom.
"Oh, no," Elizabeth sighed as she held the front of her head with one of her hands. "He thinks you're really Santa Claus."
Will sighed as well. "I guess I better go and talk to him." He began walking in the direction of the stairway, but Elizabeth stopped him.
"No," she said, "let me go talk to him. He'll still think that you're Santa."
Will nodded. "Right. I'll just wait outside his door, in case you need me."
Elizabeth smiled and caressed the side of his face once before walking unsteadily up the stairs.
"Need any help?" Will worriedly called from the bottom of the stairs.
"No, I think I can manage," Elizabeth replied, giving him another smile. "But, thank you for offering."
Upon reaching the landing of the stairway, Elizabeth headed directly towards her son's room, where she came face-to-face with a locked door.
"William, please unlock this door right now," Elizabeth asked her son through the door, knocking lightly on it.
"No!" he called back, attempting to subdue his sobbing. Elizabeth's heart broke at the sound.
"Please, William. I would like to explain. Please open the door," Elizabeth pleaded into the hard wood of her son's door. Elizabeth could hear William's sniffles from the other side.
"Alright, fine." Not ten seconds later, Elizabeth heard the unlocking of the door and clicking sound of its opening, revealing a red-eyed little six year old boy.
"William…" Elizabeth went to hug her son, but he took a step back before she could reach him. Elizabeth felt her eyes, once again, begin to well up with tears.
"How could you do that to Dad?!" William screeched as he tried to wipe the tears from his eyes.
"William, I didn't do anything to Dad and you would know this if you'd just let me explain," Elizabeth firmly told her son. She didn't want to sound upset, but she didn't know how else to get her son to listen to her.
William defiantly crossed his arms over his chest. "Fine." He turned from where he was standing and quietly sat down on his bed. Elizabeth followed him over.
"May I sit down?" William nodded before looking away from his mother. "Okay, now—William please look at me." She continued once he had done so. "Okay, now William, I know that you think that I betrayed your father, but I didn't."
William looked doubtful. "Mum, I may be six, but I'm not an idiot. I know that that man you were kissing wasn't Dad—it was Santa."
Elizabeth quickly shook her head. "No, no. It wasn't Santa—it was Dad."
William continued to look doubtful. "Nah-uh. I know what Santa looks like and that was definitely him! And Dad's in America, so it couldn't be him!"
Elizabeth carefully got down on her knees in front of her son and took both of his hands in hers. "No, sweetie, that really was Dad. He got a different ride home that was much faster than the other one that he was going to have to take."
"If that was really Dad, then where is he?" William questioned his mother suspiciously.
"Will!" Elizabeth called, looking towards her son's doorway. "Please come in here!" Not but five seconds later, a tall man in a large red coat stepped into the little boy's room.
"No!" William screamed upon seeing the man. "Get out of my room!"
"William, William!" Will tried to shush his son, taking off his red coat. "It's just me, I promise."
"Dad?" William whispered as he jumped off of his bed and ran to his father.
Will kneeled down, so he could be eye-level with his son. "Yes, it's really me." William ran his fingers over his father's face just to be sure. His face then lit up once his realized that it really was his father.
"Daddy!" he screamed, albeit this time joyfully, as he jumped into his father's arms. "It really is you!"
Will smiled as he hugged his son closely. "Yes, it really is. Your mother wasn't lying." It was then that William turned around to look at his mother.
She smiled at her son as she tried to push herself up from her kneeling position on the floor next to his bed. Both father and son quickly walked over and helped her up. Once she was steadily on her feet, William hugged her tightly.
"I'm sorry that I didn't believe you, Mum," William told his mother sincerely.
"It's alright." Elizabeth bent over to give her son a kiss on the forehead.
"Mum!" he lightly scolded her, playfully wiping his forehead where she'd kissed him. Elizabeth smiled down at him as she ruffled his hair.
"Well," Will began, breaking the mother-son moment, "I think it's time that we all finally went to bed."
Elizabeth nodded, quite relieved; however, William shook his head.
"No! I want to stay up and be with you, Dad! I haven't seen you in days!"
Will lightly chuckled, taking his return at ruffling his son's hair. "I know you do, and I want to spend time with you too, but we have tomorrow for that. Besides," he added, "if you don't go to bed, the real Santa won't come and then you won't get any presents tomorrow!"
"Ah!" William gasped before running back to his bed and promptly jumping under the covers. "Goodnight Mum, goodnight Dad."
The couple chuckled in unison as they walked out the door. They both turned to give their son one final look and said, "Goodnight, William. Sweet dreams," before closing the door to his room.
"Well," Elizabeth began as she and Will walked quietly towards their bedroom. "That was the most exciting Christmas Eve I've ever had."
Will laughed, agreeing whole-heartedly.
Both husband and wife then began to get ready for bed. Once they were both ready, Will helped Elizabeth climb into bed before he willingly joined her. Will then began to gently caress Elizabeth's midsection, as he did every night before they fell asleep.
"Mmm…" Elizabeth purred. "I've missed this."
"Well, I've missed you," Will countered playfully.
Elizabeth giggled as she softly caressed the side of Will's face before leaning over to kiss him lightly on the lips. "Me, too. Goodnight."
Will continued his caressing as he slowly began to let his eyes close shut. "Goodnight. I love you."
Elizabeth, her eyes already closed, smiled. "I love you, too. Merry Christmas."
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A/N: Okay, there you have it. Not my best work ever, but I like enough—I hope you do, too. Please leave a review letting me know what you thought it if you'd like! Oh, and Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanza, Happy New Year and Happy—insert holiday here—to you all!