Walking into Central Command he was met with his assistant, Peter, and another nameless elf he didn't know that well.
"I secured the gift, sir. Gift secured!" She said with a slightly high pitched voice,
"This just can't be." Steve said looking at her, "The system is foolproof." His voice was still disbelieving,
"It has to be an error, sir." Peter said motioning to the female elf.
"Error?" Steve parroted back, still confused.
"I spotted the ribbon glinting in the shadows. I am actually trained in wrapping." She started to go on. "And I said to myself, "Bryony, the wrapping looks okay. Thank goodness." The now named Bryony proclaimed with a smile on her face, before it was replaced with a more serious look, "but that present should not be lying in the-" She was cut off with a hand raised,
"Thank you, soldier." He just needed a minute to think,
"Has someone got the wrong present? That's awful." Arthur said slipping on the ice,
"No one get's the wrong present." Peter said walking over to a computer,
"Whose is it?" Arthur asked following him,
"47785BXK, "Gift undelivered"?" He asked with a shocked face, Arthur pulled in a little closer,
"They got nothing?" Peter shrugged his shoulders at Arthur just as confused as Steve now, "A child's been missed!" Arthur yelled, Steve held up his hands trying to reign in control of the situation.
"Not necessarily." He started in his explanation, he was however interrupted by the computer count down resetting itself and showing a simple 1. Arthur yelled and pointed,
"A child's been missed!" Steve scoffed and looked over at his brother,
"Wanna wake up the North Pole?" He asked rhetorically,
"Good idea. A child's been missed!" He went screaming down the pathway to go wake up everyone.
"Arthur!" Steve yelled at him, before letting out a sigh hearing his father come in.
"Everything all right?" He asked while yawning, quickly Steve tried to use his body to shield the present from his fathers eyes, if word got out about this he would never get to be Santa.
"There's been a glitch." He tried to start out only to have Arthur come in and grab the gift showing it to their father,
"A glitch? We've missed a child!" Arthur said pushing it in front of Steve who tried to elbow him back gently,
"Really? Dear, oh, dear." Santa said walking up and looking around at everything, "That's awful." Steve tried to run in front of him again, vainly trying to stop his father from seeing anymore. "How did you let it happen, Steven?" He dropped his hands done with trying to block his view, how could he just, it wasn't like he was Santa.
"How did I- ? I thought it was your mission." He threw back at him, Santa got that smile on his face,
"No, this is your department."
"What'll we do?" Arthur asked looking back and forth in between the two. Santa held up his finger,
"We must- We must-" His face lost the smile and took on a confused look, "What must we do, Steven?" He asked turning back to his son.
"There's nothing to do. The mission was a success." He tried again,
"We can't leave a child out of Christmas." Arthur jumped out from behind their father, wanting to let out a growl he started walking over to Peter.
"Sunrise at destination," he watched Peter quickly type away and then motion to the screen once he had made the very short trip over to it. "is 7:39 a.m. There's no way to get there in time." He motioned to the screen as well to help prove his point. "Except, of course, for the S-1." He added as an after thought.
"The S-1. Right-o." His father smiled starting to walk off,
"No!" Steven yelled to stop him, "The S-1 has just traveled 7 million miles." He threw his hands down. "We could damage it!" Santa's eyes grew in size
"Oh, dear."
"And risk the lives of the elves," He said motioning down hoping that the little female elf would take the hint. Peter played along perfectly, she how ever did not.
"I'll go, sir!" She quipped, "Bryony Shelfley Wrapping Division. Grade 3, sir." Peter let go of the act and glared at the she-elf.
"Who asked you?"
"I wasn't called up for field duty. I served out my mission in Gift Wrap Support. I wrapped 264,000 presents in three days, sir. If you want that bike delivered in a perfect state," Steve looked down to see Peter mocking her, "of enwrapement, then I'm your elf." She finished enthusiastically.
"No one is going. It's impossible." Steve put his foot down. They were not going to wreck his S-1.
"But this child-" Santa was interrupted by Peter,
"It's a margin of error of 0.00000001514834 percent, sir." He said showing the HOHO he did his math on to Steve, who gained a smiled,
"I mean, hello? Where's the champagne? My department has delivered the most outstanding Christmas ever." He motioned to the graph on his HOHO, still smiling. His father adopted the smile as well,
"Well done, us." Steve wanted to roll his eyes, of coarse when ever there was a problem or something was wrong it was his fault wasn't it?
"But there's a child without a present." Arthur gloomfully stated looking at then both with disappointed eyes,
"Arthur, Christmas is not a time for emotion." He tried to adopted an upset face, even though he was pleased he had smoothed it over so no one would find out, "We will get 4 double 7 85BXK a present within the window of Christmas." He tried to smooth it over with Arthur now, trying to convey he was serious. "We'll messenger the item. It'll be there in five days."
"But that'll ruin the magic." Steve walked over and patted his brothers shoulder,
"If there was any way at all to make the drop tonight," He walked off a bit while raising his hands, still looking at him, "But it can't be done."
"Your brother knows about these things. I won't sleep easy after this, Arthur, but there it is. Can't be done." His father said looking Arthur straight in the eyes with a forlorn look before walking off with Steven.
