Doctor Will Zimmerman was stressed out. Of course, it wasn't unusual the day before Christmas, but this year he had an extra stress load considering he had the entire Sanctuary to decorate, and he had to get it done before the Magnuses got home.
They had gotten on the topic of Christmas one day while Helen was performing an autopsy and he got her talking. He found out that she had always wanted to light the house but had never found the time in between work and caring for her patients. She'd imagined it would brighten up the entire city. From that day on, Will decided he would arrange the best Christmas display Helen had ever seen in her 157 years.
So he rounded up some helpers.
Ogres, Fairies, and monsters alike passed him in the hallways, all performing a different task while he barked out orders. Most were carrying large boxes overflowing with lights and decorations which he had collected from various sources, mostly Ernie… who had his own sources.
"Alright, careful with that box!" he called out to a passing minotaur. "Ok, I need you to take those to Henry on the roof," he added to a pair of goblins coming from the opposite direction.
Walking at a quick pace, he almost missed the strong whiff of spoiled eggs and burning rubber as he passed the kitchen. He paused and took a few steps backward to glance into the kitchen.
Some zombies were gathered around the counter preparing something in a large bowl. Will cautiously stepped around them to open the oven. Inside was a cookie sheet with rows of, what looked like, lumpy green globs. He couldn't even identify the brown and purple clumps in some of them.
He wrinkled his nose and pulled the sheet out with an oven mitt, dumping the mess into the trash. "Oh, come on, you guys! I thought you were going to use the Toll House recipe!?" he said, whilst scraping the remnants off the tray with a spatula.
The zombies simply glared at him while he opened the tube of cookie dough and quickly assembled the cookies on a fresh cookie sheet. Once they were in the oven, he walked over to the zombie's work station and peered over their shoulders at the concoction they were brewing.
So far, it looked ok. At least it didn't have any unknown objects floating in it. He glanced back and forth quickly between the eggnog recipe he had provided and the mixture, then patted one of the creatures on the back with satisfaction.
"Alright, lookin' good fellas," he praised, then reached around one of them to grab a plastic wrapped wad of meat. "But let's not add last night's meatloaf, ok?" he added, returning it to the refrigerator and sweeping out of the room.
From there, he continued on through the lengthy corridors towards his next destination, stopping once to separate a leprechaun and pixie he caught kissing under the mistletoe… again.
"Let's focus, people! We've only got a couple of hours left!" he told them, and snatched some more bushels away from some passing fairies. "And we have enough mistletoe already, thank you!"
Inside Helen's lab, people/creatures were bustling about even more, explaining things to one another and attempting to hang lights around the circular room. Will caught Ernie's eye on the other side of the room and strode over to him.
The man was hammering stockings into the wall, one for each cell. He was wearing a Santa Claus hat and chewing gum, as usual, but still smiled brightly at Will when he saw him.
"Hey, Merry Christmas, Doc!" he greeted, thumping Will hard on the back. "Hey, what a great idea this was!" he commented, pounding another nail into the wall.
"Hey, thanks," Will said, rubbing his lower back as he admired the handy work. "How are the stockings coming?"
"Great, great!" Ernie said, fumbling in his pockets for some more nails. "Oh," he began, waving a nail in Will's face. "But I heard they could use some help down in the Doc's office," he hinted.
"Alright, thanks!" Will said and bounded off.
In the office, Will found even more commotion. He veered to the left to make room for a passing rock-creature.
"Hey, new guy!"
Will turned towards the source of the voice and was less then surprised to see two-faced guy, (preferably called TF)hovering over an old record player and sorting through records. He was beckoned over and he obliged.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"Ok, we need your opinion," he explained. "Bing Crosby… orrr…" he held up a second record. "…these drunk german guys?"
Will frowned. "Let's go with Bing Crosby," he said.
"Told you," the ugly face said as he walked away.
Will scanned the room for any other sources of problems and his eyes fell immediately upon the small group of gnomes in the far corner helping Magnus' butler wrap lights around himself. He sighed and stormed over.
"Ok, you guys! For the last time I need a Christmas tree! TREE!!" he said, jabbing his finger at a pine tree on a painting as it was carried past.
Bigfoot raised an eyebrow, looking over the doctor's shoulder at Henry, who could be seen falling from the roof through the window behind Will as he stormed off.
V
Helen and Ashley, trudging through the snow and weighed down with bags from a night of Christmas shopping, didn't even notice the struggling Henry dangling from the roof by a string of unlit lights before he was pulled up by Steve.
The corridors were completely evacuated by the time they entered the house and were heading towards Helen's office.
"No, mom! The Beatles are not my favorite boy band! Try again!" Ashley yelled at her mother after a rather far-fetched guess. Helen sighed. This game of 'how much do you really know about my generation' was getting old.
In the midst of pondering the possibility of the Beach Boys, Helen stopped in her tracks, causing Ashley to stop also.
"Mom, what is it?" she asked.
Helen was straining to hear and she furrowed her eyebrows. "Is that… Bing Crosby?" she asked in disbelief at the sound of the music drifting their way.
"Who?" Ashley asked as her mother passed her.
The door was open when the two arrived at Helen's office, and they wandered in dazedly.
"What happened in here?" Ashley exclaimed, scrutinizing the room.
Helen was looking around in amazement beside her daughter, her eyes drifting from the lit fireplace and the mantle lined with holly, upon which sat her newly polished old nutcracker she had received on her seventh Christmas, to the large teddy bear Ashley had been given on her fourth, which sat upon Helen's cozy armchair. She let the Christmas sensations settle in; the smell of pinecones and nutmeg, the soothing notes of White Christmas filling the room from her old record player, the warmth from the fire after being in the cold… it had been years since she last felt Christmas like this.
She finally let her eyes fall on the two men in the room. Her butler, dressed in a Santa Claus costume, (though she wondered how the young doctor had found one in his size) was holding a tray of hot drinks and smiling in that friendly way she saw so often, but was hidden from everyone else. Dr. Zimmerman was finishing up hanging decorations on a large fir that seemed too big for the room, but fit the scene perfectly.
She gave a twisted smile and raised an eyebrow suspiciously at the pair. "Dr. Zimmerman, what is this?" she asked, while Ashley was still spinning around beside her, trying to view the room from every angle.
"Merry Christmas, doctor," Bigfoot greeted in a deep, but friendly voice.
Ashley finally stopped looking around the room and followed her mother's eyes to look at Will and Bigfoot.
"Sorry, we had some tree complications," Will explained, hanging a bell on one of the branches.
Helen smiled more brightly and stepped fully into the room, turning around to study it from the back as Ashley had done. "I can't believe you did all this…" she said in astonishment.
"How did you do all this?" Ashley added.
Will smiled at their reactions. "Oh, well you haven't even seen the best part yet!" he said brightly, motioning for Bigfoot to put down the tray and seizing both women's wrists excitedly, dragging them from the room.
Both were too shocked and confused to do anything but follow as he led them back through the Sanctuary and out into the snow once more.
Will picked up the two white cords from where they lay hidden in the snow several yards from the building. When Helen and Ashley were standing on either side of him, gazing up at the house, he plugged one cord into the other and the house lit up.
"Holy s…tockings…" Ashley exclaimed, gazing up at the house.
Helen was right about it lighting the entire city. The snow they stood on turned bright colors in its reflection. Lights of every color strung every window and tower in sight. As if on cue, dozens of lights, which the two women knew to be fairies, flew out of the chimney and began circling the towers of the Sanctuary, making for an incredible light show.
It was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen, and their eyes lit up when they gazed up at it in awe. A proud looking Henry and Steve came to stand beside them, giving Will a congratulatory pat on the back for providing the idea and the plans. After several moments passed and Helen was still speechless, Will smiled sheepishly.
"I guess it may have been a little much, but…"
"It's perfect," Helen said finally, and Will beamed with pride.
The next morning, Dr. Zimmerman was mildly surprised to find a striped stocking hanging from the doorknob outside his room. He sleepily removed it and brought it back into his room.
Sitting down on his bed and putting on his glasses, he proceeded to remove the contents. Mounds of chocolate, candy canes, and licorice spilled onto his pillow, along with a soft object wrapped carefully in brown paper. He gave it a puzzled look and began to unwrap it.
He chuckled when he discovered that the object inside was actually a fuzzy, Bigfoot plushy wearing a Santa hat. Where they had found it… he would never know.
There was a tiny square of white paper tied to the plushie's arm with red string. He smiled when he opened it and read the fancy cursive writing inside:
Dear Doctor Zimmerman,
Merry Christmas.
--Helen and Ashley.
P.S: No more surprises…