Faith, Trust, and Christmas Magic

Chapter 1

It was the last day of school before Christmas break, and Brittany and Santana were waiting for Noelle to come home. Usually Santana was still at work at this time, but she had decided to take a half day and start her vacation a few hours early. Noelle was due home any minute, so while they waited, Brittany tidied up the living room and Santana went to the kitchen to empty the dishwasher. The TV in the living room was on the Christmas carol station, and they were both humming along to it as they worked. The house was merry and calm, and was expected to get even merrier as it was also family movie night, but when they heard the school bus arrive, the front door open, and then slam shut, they knew something was amiss.

"Noelle!" Brittany chided at the same time that Santana said, "What in the world?!"

Santana rushed into the living room to see Brittany staring at a clearly bad tempered Noelle with confusion on her face. "What's wrong?" Brittany asked and she turned off the TV.

"Nothing." Noelle grumbled as she dropped her book bag and shed her coat.

"It doesn't look like 'nothing'." Santana stated the obvious.

"Baby girl, what happened? Why are you upset?" Brittany added.

"I'm fine!" Noelle huffed and threw her coat on the floor as she kicked off her shoes

Brittany and Santana just glanced at each other, not believing Noelle at all. They were not used to her coming home from school in such an agitated state, especially not after her class Christmas party. She had been giddy and practically bounced out of the house when she left that morning holding a gift bag for the Secret Santa exchange. They had expected her to come home just as giddy, if not more so. She looked absolutely disheartened. They were starting to worry that something bad happened. Santana walked up to Noelle and wrapped her arms around her. A few seconds later Brittany did the same thing.

"Honey?" Brittany said softly, urging Noelle to talk to them. "Did something happen at the party? Did your Secret Santa forget to bring your gift?"

That was the first thing that came to Brittany's mind. Noelle wasn't materialistic; they had taught her the joy of giving over receiving, and thankfully, that was a lesson that had stuck with her, but at the same time, she was only a child. She was a few days shy of her tenth birthday, and if she saw everyone around her getting gifts, and she didn't get one, Brittany could understand why that would put her in a bad mood. Nobody liked to be forgotten.

"No, I got a gift. Claire was my Secret Santa; she gave me a Hufflepuff journal."

Claire was Noelle's best friend, and Noelle loved the "Harry Potter" series, so obviously that was not the issue.

"Then did something happen elsewhere? Maybe in the lunchroom or on the bus?" Santana asked.

It wasn't often that Noelle rode the bus. Brittany had a part-time, but successful, craft business that she ran out of their home, which allowed her schedule to be flexible around Noelle's school schedule. She, or Santana on the occasions that she went into work late, took Noelle to school in the mornings and Brittany picked her up every afternoon, but today, as she did every now and then, she asked to ride the bus with her friends.

Noelle sighed. "Moms, it's nothing. I'm just cold and tired."

"That's it?" Santana asked with a raised eyebrow. She was skeptical.

"Yes." Noelle said shortly, looking up at both her moms, hoping that they would drop their inquisition.

"Well, you were up late last night." Brittany said. They had gone to the high school to see their friends' daughter in the drama club's Christmas play, and then after the show, they all went out to dinner. Noelle had gone to bed two hours later than usual.

"Maybe you should take a little nap before dinner and movie night." Santana suggested.

"Okay, I'll go to my room." Noelle said and it floored both of her parents. Noelle hated being told to take a nap. She thought it was too childish for her to do.

Noelle untangled herself from her parents and started to walk toward her room, but Santana stopped her. "Um, young lady, I know you're not going to walk away from this mess you left on the floor."

Noelle rolled her eyes before she turned around, so they couldn't see. She silently picked up her stuff and started towards her room again.

"And don't throw it on the floor in there either." Brittany added. "Put it in its place."

"Okay." Noelle drawled without turning around.

When they heard her door close, thankfully less forcibly than she had closed the front door, Brittany and Santana turned to each other.

"What do you think?" Santana asked.

"Something is up…I mean, it's possible she might just be tired from being up late, but it feels like something more than that."

Santana nodded in agreement. "Maybe we should just see how she is after she lays down. If we try to push her right now, she's just going to shut down. You saw how quickly she wanted to leave."

"Let's give her some time to herself. Maybe she'll be more open to talk after she rests and she gets some food in her. We have all night to try to figure out what is bothering her."

"True." Santana said. "I just hate it when she's upset though."

"I know; me too."

It wasn't often that Noelle was upset or sad. She was usually a happy child, so when something caused her to be less than that, it broke their hearts.

"It'll be okay." Brittany said putting her arm around Santana and kissing her furrowed forehead. "I'm sure she'll talk to us soon, and if we can't cheer her up right away, her birthday and Christmas are just a few days away, and we're watching one of her favorite Christmas movies tonight, so that's guaranteed to help."

Santana nodded and smiled. Brittany was right, Noelle loved movie night, and celebrating her birthday and Christmas. "You're right, I'm sure it will."

"We'll have our happy girl back soon."

-()-()-()-()-

Two hours later, Santana and Brittany were sitting in the living room, wrapping Christmas presents for Ally and Alex when there was a knock on the door.

"That's the food." Santana said standing up. They usually ordered out for movie night, just to make it a little more special. Sometimes it was pizza or burgers, but for tonight, Noelle had chosen Mexican food before she left for school that morning. "I'll pay and plate it; why don't you go and get Noelle."

"Okay." Brittany said.

She had checked on Noelle a little while ago. She had expected to find her asleep, but she was lying in bed with Lord Tubbington only pretending to be asleep. It was obvious that she wanted to be left alone. As much as Brittany wanted to call her out on her charade and ask her again what was bothering her, Brittany decided not to, at least not yet. She mentioned it to Santana, and they decided that they would give her the space she wanted, but if she didn't open up on her own by the time the movie was over, they would ask her directly again. They didn't want to let it go too long. Anything could be upsetting her, and if it was something serious, they didn't want to let it fester.

Brittany knocked on the door and then opened it, walking in to find Noelle sitting up in bed, writing in her new journal. "Oh, you're up. How did you sleep?" Brittany asked playing along with Noelle's earlier ruse.

"Umm…okay." Noelle said with a shrug as she continued to write.

"That's good. Do you feel a little better now?"

"Yep." Noelle said but the short, curt tone indicated otherwise.

Brittany had to bite her tongue because this kind of behavior was not her daughter, but she still wanted to give her just a little more time to open up on her own. "The food is here. Mama ordered chicken fajitas for you, as well as your own chips, queso, and salsa. You don't have to share them with me and Mama." Brittany said with a little chuckle, hoping that Noelle would be excited that she got her own order.

"Cool." Noelle said flatly without looking up from her journal.

"Well, go wash your hands and come eat."

"Okay, I'll be there in a few minutes."

Brittany nodded and then looked at Lord Tubbington. "Come on your Lordship, it's dinner time for you too."

At the mention of the word 'dinner', Lord Tubbington stood up, stretched languidly, and then jumped down from the bed. Brittany held the door open for him and when he stepped out of the room, she looked at Noelle again. "See you in a minute." She said before Noelle nodded.

Brittany lingered a moment, hoping that she would say something, but when she didn't, she closed the door. She sighed as she closed her eyes, taking a moment to compose herself. She hated that her baby was upset and wouldn't talk to her. When she went into the kitchen, she found Santana setting a bowl of wet cat food on the floor for Lord Tubbington.

"Here you go, Tubbs." She said and rubbed him on his head and behind his ears. "I'll give you some chicken tomorrow."

Brittany couldn't help but to smile. In the seven years that they had Lord Tubbington, Santana acted as if she was indifferent towards him. She would say that he was Brittany or Noelle's cat, but when she thought nobody was watching, Santana was exceptionally friendly to him, and would spoil him rotten. Brittany had even caught her cuddling with him more than once. She knew Santana loved the cat, even if she liked to pretend that she only tolerated him.

She walked into the kitchen and cleared her throat. Santana stood up and went over to the sink to wash her hands. Neither of them mentioned the display of affection between Santana and Lord Tubbington.

"How is she?" Santana asked.

"The same. She was sitting up and writing in her journal this time. She told me she slept 'okay' and when I asked her if she felt a little better, she said, 'Yep', but I don't think she slept at all, and the tone in the few clipped words that she said didn't sound like she felt any better."

Santana sighed. "I hate this."

Brittany wrapped her arms around Santana from behind and rested her chin on her shoulder. "I know, babe."

"Well, at least she's started to process and express her emotions though writing; hopefully that means she'll talk to us soon."

"Mm-hmm."

"Maybe some food will help too."

"She does like Mexican food." Brittany said, letting go of Santana.

"Um, 'like' doesn't even begin to cover it." Santana chuckled as she dried her hands on a dish towel. She was glad that Noelle had picked Mexican for dinner, because she was hoping that Noelle's love for queso and chips and salsa would act as a kind of antidepressant and perk her up a bit.

"You're right, obsessed is more like it." Brittany giggled.

"For real." Santana said playfully rolling her eyes.

Brittany looked at the counter at the unopened containers. Santana had planned to plate the food, but she had only gotten as far as taking everything out of the bag that it was delivered in before Lord Tubbington had come into the kitchen meowing at her for his food.

"I'll help you with the food." Brittany said.

"Thanks." Santana said with a little smile and leaned in, pecking Brittany's lips.

By the time they had plated the food, Noelle came into the kitchen. She grabbed a can of Coke out of the refrigerator, another treat that she was only allowed on special occasions, such as movie night.

"There she is!" Santana chirped with a bright smile, holding out the plate with the chicken fajitas, rice, and beans. "Your plate is all ready for you."

"Thanks." Noelle said taking it and not returning the smile.

Santana looked at Brittany, as if to say, "You try."

"Why don't you have a seat at the table and start eating." Brittany said. "I'll bring in your chips and dips in a second."

Noelle nodded and left the room without saying anything, leaving Brittany and Santana to just look at each other, defeated.

"I think the silence and the dejected look on her face is what is killing me the most." Brittany whispered.

"I know, usually we can't get her to stop talking. She's always a chatterbox and today we get nothing. If she's trying to convince us that nothing is wrong with her, she should at least try to act as she usually does."

Brittany nodded.

"Come on, let's go in with her, and see if the food can work some magic." Santana said.

"I wish I could just magic this." Brittany sighed picking up the paper bag with Noelle's chips and the two small bowls with the salsa and queso.

"Too bad you can't just snap your fingers and fix this like you did that chair last week."

"I guess we're just going to have to do this hard way."

"Convincing a pre-teen to talk when she doesn't want to; yeah, we're going to have an uphill battle."

"Well at least we're in it together."

"Thank goodness." Santana said as she picked up her plate, as well as Brittany's. She leaned over and kissed Brittany's cheek before they went in to the dining room.

"Hey, Honey." Brittany said to Noelle as they came into the room. "Here's your chips. I reheated the queso, so it's hot, be careful." She set the bag of chips and bowls in front of her.

"Thanks, Mom." Noelle drawled when she swallowed the food that was in her mouth. She picked a chip out of the bag and dipped it into the queso.

After she had a second chip dipped in queso, and a third dipped in salsa, Santana asked, "How's the food?" Then she took a bite of her enchilada.

Noelle took a sip of her coke and then said. "It's really good. It's my favorite." This time there was a little smile on her face and the tone in her voice wasn't flat. There was a hint of appreciative inflection.

Brittany and Santana both noticed and they quickly glanced to each other, silently acknowledging the slight improvement.

"Well, I'm glad you're enjoying it." Santana said. "I think this was a perfect pick for dinner."

"Totally." Brittany said with a smile before she took a bite of her burrito.

"The salsa is perfect." Noelle said before taking another bite.

Santana and Brittany just smiled at her as they both had food in their mouths. When Santana swallowed, she decided to try to steer the conversation away from the food. There was only so much about they could say about it before it got boring and they fell into an awkward silence.

"I talked to Abuela today while I was at work."

"Oh yeah?" Noelle said, visibly perking up. She loved her Abuela.

"She wanted to know if you would like to spend the day with her the day before your birthday. Her neighbor's granddaughter is coming into town for Christmas. You remember Mrs. Harper, right? She lives in the blue house across the street." Santana said and Noelle nodded because she was chewing. "She's about your age and Mrs. Harper wants to take her to the trampoline park, but she thought she would have more fun with someone to play with. Do you want to go?"

"Yes! Duh!" Noelle chirped. She loved any excuse to go to the trampoline park, and she wasn't overly shy, so she made friends easily.

"Great." Santana said with a smile and she was so happy to see Noelle smiling as well. "I think Abuela mentioned pizza and the movie theater too if you girls aren't too tired after jumping."

Noelle's eyes lit up. "Is it December 21st yet?"

Brittany chuckled. "I think you're more excited for that than your birthday."

"Well you haven't told me what we're doing for my birthday yet." Noelle said.

They were going skiing for the day. Santana and Brittany had even bought Noelle a new pair of skis for her birthday as she had outgrown her other pair. They weren't having a party for her though. They learned the hard way that if they didn't have a party for her a few weeks early in the middle of December, before school let out, to not bother having one on her birthday or during Christmas week, because no one would show up, except Maribel and Carlo, and Miguel, Lisa, and the twins if they were in town. After Noelle's sixth birthday, where they had invited her whole kindergarten class, and none of her friends came, they stopped doing them on her actual birthday, and instead did something else, but still just as special.

"Are we doing anything for her birthday?" Santana teased looking at Brittany with a confused expression.

"Maybe, maybe not…she's just going to have to wait until the 22nd to find out." Brittany added winking at Noelle.

Noelle just stuck her tongue out at her parents. She was sure they had something planned; they always did, they just wanted it to be a surprise.

Normally, Santana and Brittany would ask Noelle about her day at school, but since she came home from school upset, and they were trying to give her time to open up on her own, without it looking as if they were purposely prying, they decided to avoid asking that question for the time being.

"So, how excited are you to have the next two and a half weeks off?" Brittany asked.

"Super excited!" Noelle cheered.

She started talking about all the things that she wanted to do during the break, which eventually digressed, somehow, into random conversations about Lord Tubbington, elephants, and her two favorite superheroes: Supergirl and Wonder Woman. Santana and Brittany listened with rapt attention, interjecting every now and then, but mostly they listened to Noelle talk, both thankful that she sounded like her usual self again.

By the time dinner was over, Noelle was in a much better mood. Santana and Brittany were elated, but unfortunately, that changed after Noelle came into Brittany and Santana's room after her shower. Brittany dried and brushed Noelle's hair as Santana folded a load of laundry, piling it out on the bed.

When she was done with her hair, Brittany turned Noelle around and playfully bopped her nose. "Well, now that we're all in our jammies, and it's movie night, I think it's time that we watch 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'!"

"I don't want to watch that anymore." Noelle said and the smile that had been on her face was now gone.

Brittany and Santana just glanced at each other and then back to Noelle.

"Okay…what do you want to watch?" Santana asked.

"I don't know, not that."

"How about 'Home Alone'." Brittany suggested.

"No." Noelle said flatly.

"'Frosty the Snowman'?"

"Nope."

"'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer'?"

Noelle shook her head and she seemed more and more agitated with each suggestion.

"How about you go into the living room and pick out a movie." Brittany said.

Noelle sighed as if that would be a burden, but she nodded and left the room.

"What is that all about?" Santana whispered, turning to Brittany as soon as Noelle was out of the room.

Brittany shrugged. "I have no idea, she loves all those movies."

"Did you see how quickly her demeanor changed too? It was almost as if she didn't want to watch a movie, and that girl lives for movie night."

"Yeah, I know."

"Something is definitely going on with her."

"Clearly." Brittany said.

"Should we just ask her what's up now?"

"Let's give her more time. She started to open up at dinner, so maybe she'll open up a little more after she's enjoyed the movie. If she hasn't mentioned anything by the time the movie is over, we'll ask her."

"Okay." Santana said with a defeated sigh.

They went into the living room, Santana swinging by the kitchen and retrieving a plate of cookies Brittany had baked earlier. She set the plate on the coffee table and then sat on the couch next to Brittany.

"What did you decide on, Mija?" Santana asked as Brittany put her arm around her shoulders.

"'Beauty and the Beast'." Noelle said as she put the disc in the player. She swiped a cookie and flopped down in the oversized beanbag chair that Santana had moved in from her room earlier in the day. She usually sat in that chair on movie night.

"Oh?" Brittany said. "Not a Christmas movie?"

"Nope." Noelle said flatly while petting Lord Tubbington's head as he curled up beside her.

Brittany was a little surprised at her choice, but also not surprised. Given the season and Noelle's love for Christmas, she thought for sure she'd pick a Christmas movie, but at the same time, 'Beauty and the Beast' was Noelle's favorite Disney Movie and it was a movie that she always watched when she was sick. It was one of her comfort movies.

She glanced at Santana to see her frowning. She too had noticed that this was a comfort move.

"Hey, how about you come up here and sit with us?" Santana suggested. "We can cuddle like we used to do when you were little and we watched movies."

"Yeah, that'll be fun." Brittany added. She was so glad Santana suggested that.

"No, I'm good here." Noelle said but she didn't look back at her parents at all, she just stared at the TV as the previews came on.

"Oh, okay." Santana said disappointed. He heart was breaking that Noelle didn't even want to sit with them. She turned to look at Brittany and she looked just as sad. When they made eye contact, Brittany mouthed, "I know," and then kissed Santana on her temple.

As Noelle watched the movie, Brittany and Santana only watched her. She seemed rigid and stoic at first, but to their great relief, she softened as the movie went on, even singing along to the songs. When it ended, it was almost nine o'clock, which was past her bedtime for a school night, but on weekends and school holidays, they let her stay up later.

Noelle stood up from the beanbag chair and stretched. "Can I have another cookie before bed? And some milk?"

"Sure, in a few minutes." Santana said putting a little space between her and Brittany and patting it with her hand. "But first, come have a seat with us for a few minutes. Mom and I want to ask you something."

Noelle did as she was told and then looked between them as she asked, "Am I in trouble?"

"No. No, not at all Mija." Santana said putting a comforting hand on her knee. "It's just…Mom and I have noticed that there is something bothering you today, and we just wanted to talk about it and see if we can help."

"I'm fine." Noelle said and faked a smile.

"See, that's just it, honey, we're not sure that you are." Brittany said gently tucking a strand of Noelle's hair behind her ear. "You were fine when you left for school, but you were upset when you came home. Then during dinner you seemed to perk up, but all of sudden, right before the movie, you seemed upset again."

"Did something happen at school?" Santana asked softly.

Noelle didn't say anything for a few moments. She just stared at the coffee table.

"Mija, please talk to us." Santana urged. "If something happened we need to know. We can't try to make it better if we don't know what it is."

"You can't make it better." Noelle finally said, but she didn't look up from the table.

"And why do you think that?" Brittany said rubbing her hand up and down her back.

"It's dumb." Noelle said.

"I'm sure it's not." Santana said. "Especially not if it's upsetting you."

Noelle sighed. "Some of the kids in the bus line up heard me talking about Christmas and Santa. They made fun of me for still believing in him. They called me a baby and told me that he wasn't real; that's he's just made up."

"Honey, that's just not true." Brittany said but before she could say anything else, Noelle interrupted her.

"Yes it is!" Noelle yelled standing up, finally losing her temper after holding in her emotions as best as she could.

Her outburst took both Brittany and Santana by surprise. It wasn't often that she did that. Lord Tubbington was also stunned by it, and ran away from the room.

"Noelle, Mija, please just listen to us. What those kids said isn't true." Santana tried to say, but Noelle didn't let her finish.

"Those kids said that their parents told them that Santa wasn't real. Why would they tell them that if it wasn't true. You two have been tricking me my whole life. I thought you said lying is bad!"

Santana and Brittany were both taken back by that accusation.

"Noelle, I want you to listen to me very carefully." Brittany said sliding to the edge of her seat and reaching out her hand for Noelle's, but she crossed her arms instead. "We have not been tricking or lying to you. A lot of people lose their belief, but Santa Claus is real-"

"No he isn't! He isn't real!" Noelle said heatedly, stormed away from them, and sat on the love seat. "He's just something parents make up to trick their kids to be good, but it's all just fake! Santa, Christmas, flying reindeer that can go around the world in one night, elves that make toys…all of it made up!"

"Baby girl, let me-" Brittany started to say, but Noelle cut her off again.

"No, Mom, I don't want to talk about it anymore. I don't even want to think about Christmas! I just wish it was over!" She yelled with tears in her eyes and then looked away from them.

For the next few seconds, it was quiet. Santana and Brittany looked at each other and both of them were at a loss. Neither of them expected this to be what was upsetting her. They knew one day that the time would come that someone would tell Noelle that Santa wasn't real, and they would have to try to convince her otherwise, but they never predicted this reaction. She was deeply hurt and emotional over it.

"Okay..." Santana finally said. "Everyone is worked up right now, we're tired and emotional, so I think that we should take a break, and tomorrow when we're all rested and calmer, we can talk about this."

Brittany almost said something, but then she bit her tongue. She didn't want to say what she wanted to say in front of Noelle. They tried very hard not to contradict each other in front of her.

"Alright, Noelle you heard Mama; please go brush your teeth and then go to bed. We'll come in a few minutes to tuck you in."

Noelle didn't say anything; she just wiped the tears out of her eyes and stood up, leaving the room.

Brittany and Santana watched her leave, and when the bathroom door closed and they heard the water start running, they turned to each other.

"Santana, I don't think we should let this go right now. This is so much worse than I thought it was. We have to fix this. The Christmas stuff aside, our daughter thinks we have been lying to her in a vindictive scheme. I mean, how did we even get here?!" Brittany said almost panicked.

"Britt, I know what you're thinking, and I agree, but you saw her. She's upset, hurt, and angry because she loves Christmas and she was just told that it was all a sham. That alone would upset any kid, but then thinking that your parents created that sham just pushed her over the edge. She's in no place to listen rationally. She needs to calm down before we have this conversation, because nothing we say to her about it right now is going to change her mind. All we're going to do is push her further away. Trust me; I was the same way as a child. I needed time to process and expel some of my anger before I could be reasoned with."

Brittany sighed, because she knew Santana was right. "Alright…I don't like this, but you're probably right."

"I don't like it either, but short of showing her some magic or taking her to the North Pole, which I honestly don't think is the best idea at this particular moment, we aren't going to convince her. Once she has calmed down a bit, we can address why she thinks we would trick her, and then we can figure out a way to address the Christmas stuff."

Brittany nodded. "Okay."

"Okay." Santana said and then wrapped her arms around Brittany, resting their foreheads together. "It'll be okay. We'll get through this and Noelle will be happy again." Santana said, for her sake, as well as Brittany's.

Brittany sighed and then nodded.

They stayed cuddled together, trying to comfort each other until they heard the bathroom door open and then Noelle's bedroom door close. They pulled apart from each other and went to her room, knocking on the door before opening it. Noelle was already in bed with Lord Tubbington curled beside her.

"Hey Honey." Brittany said softly and then kissed Noelle on her forehead. She had so much she wanted to say about their current dilemma, but didn't push it, so she took Santana's advice. She would wait until morning to bring it up again; so she just said, "Sleep well. Love you."

Noelle didn't say anything, she just swallowed hard. Tears were forming in her eyes again.

Santana adjusted the blanket around Noelle and kissed her on her forehead as well. "Love you too, Mija.

Again, Noelle didn't say anything. She was too angry to talk.

Brittany took Santana by the hand and they walked out of her room, closing the door. They stood outside the room, silently in the darkened hallway, listening to see if they could hear anything, and after a few moments, they heard Noelle whisper, "Love you too."

Hearing that was such a relief to them. Even though their daughter was mad, she still loved them. They tiptoed away from her room and into their room as it was the quickest escape.

"Let's go to bed." Brittany said. It was still early for them, but neither of them were in a mindset to do anything else that night. They were emotionally exhausted.

"Yeah. Can you just magic everything off? I don't have the energy to go back in there."

"Sure." Brittany said and snapped her fingers, turning off the TV and all the lights in the rest of the house.

They quickly went thought their nighttime routines before crawling into bed. Santana curled into Brittany, resting her head on her chest. They just laid in silence, but after a few minutes, Brittany gasped.

"What?" Santana squeaked, startled from the sudden movement.

"I forgot to move Snowflake." Brittany said.

Snowflake was the toy elf that Brittany had made years ago after she moved from the North Pole to be with Santana. Brittany, and especially Santana, didn't want a real scout elf in their house, because it felt as if it was too much of an invasion of their privacy since a replacement would have been someone Brittany knew, so Brittany made a toy elf in the toyshop. It was made to look exactly as Brittany did as a scout elf, but they 'renamed' the elf because everyone thought it was weird that Santana's elf had the same name as her new girlfriend. For the past twelve years, Brittany had still been acting as a scout elf and reporting the children's behavior to Santa.

"Do you really think that's necessary?" Santana asked.

"Yes, especially after tonight. She doesn't believe in Santa and Christmas anymore, so maybe seeing that she's moved will help her regain some of that belief until we can explain everything properly."

Santana had to admit that that made some sense to her, and at this point, she was willing to try anything. She rolled off Brittany and laid back on her pillow. "Okay...come back to me quickly." She knew that Brittany liked to create fun and sometimes elaborate scenes of Snowflake doing things for Noelle to find, but tonight, she didn't want her to be away from her for too long.

"I'll just move her by magic tonight." Brittany said and snapped her fingers. She wasn't in the mood to do a big scene manually.

Santana sighed in relief and curled back in to Brittany, kissing her lips softly before resting her head on her chest again. After whispers of "I love you," and "It'll be okay," to help make them feel just a little bit better, they fell asleep in each other's arms, hoping for a better tomorrow.

-()-()-()-()-

A/N: Hi everyone! I hope you enjoyed this next installment in the 'Santana's Elf' universe. My beta asked for another Elf fic for Christmas, so I wrote it for her. You all can thank her for this story, because I don't know that I would have written a Christmas fic this year, if it wasn't for her asking for one.

I originally wanted this story to be a one-shot that was five or six thousand words, max, but since I seem to be incapable of writing small, this story looks like it's going to be three chapters long. Chapter 2 is written, but not edited yet. I'm thinking I'm going to post it on Christmas Day, but I'm not 100% sure of when I will post it yet, so keep an eye out for the update.

I'm still writing the third chapter, but I am literally giving this fic every shred of my free time to try to have it completed for you all by New Year's. Fingers crossed that I succeed. I know it's a few days before Christmas, and for those of you that celebrate, I know you have a lot going on, I'm right there with you, but if you have a few moments, please take a moment to send me your thoughts. This fandom is smaller than it used to be, and if you're still reading, I'd love to know what you think of this story.

To my beta, naynay1963, thank you for beta-ing so quickly. I hope you enjoy your Elfie Christmas gift ;-)

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Glee' or any copyrighted material or products that are mentioned in this story.