"The Hollow"

Author's Note: I'm sorry it took so long to get this one out, but I've been having a lot of computer trouble lately. Part of it is because this laptop is old, and it doesn't seem to handle software updates as well as it should. So, for a few days, my laptop was basically a very expensive paperweight. I got it working again, though, and I didn't lose any data, so that's a plus! Well, actually, my dad got it working again, and he's not even sure how he did it, but the point is it worked.

I had the main theme for 'Interstellar' playing on repeat while I wrote this. It seems to fit. :)

"Chapter 3: Discussion"

Bernard and most of the Council waited anxiously outside the bedroom shared by Santa and Mrs. Claus. Sandman was inside with Santa and Carol, waiting to see whether or not his services would be needed. Carol didn't want a sedative, and Santa didn't want the news about Buddy to get out just yet, so Dr. Hismus hadn't been called.

So far, Bernard was the only Elf who was aware of what had happened, and he wondered how long it would be before the news spread to all of Elfsburg. Curtis, at least, would have to be informed, and after that business with Santa's Snow Globe three years ago, Bernard wasn't sure if his 'Number Two Elf' could be trusted to keep such a big secret under his hat. Truth be told, at the moment he wasn't even thinking about that. The conversation that filtered through the closed door, punctuated by Carol's uneven breathing, sliced into his heart and made him wish that such a thing as time travel was possible.

"It's not a drug, Mrs. Claus," Sandman explained patiently, "This sand does have a mild sedative effect, and you will be able to fall asleep if you choose to-"

"I told you, I'm not going to sleep!"

"Honey, he's only trying to help-" Santa tried, but she cut him off as well.

"Why aren't we looking for our son?"

Sandman was heard to clear his throat before speaking to Santa. "I'll just leave this here. Will you excuse me?"

Whatever Santa said in response was too quiet to be heard, and a moment later Sandman came out of the room and shut the door behind him. He was immediately bombarded with questions.

Easter Bunny's nose twitched. "What's happening?"

"Is she all right?" demanded Bernard.

"Should you maybe put her to sleep anyway?" Cupid suggested, only to receive an elbow to the ribs from Tooth Fairy. "'Ey!"

"She said she doesn't want it! She wants to know what happened to her son. Would you want to sleep if your kid was missing?" scolded Tooth Fairy.

"I don't have any kids."

Sandman covered his mouth, smothering a yawn. "Is it my turn to speak yet?"

Mother Nature held up a hand, signaling for the others to quiet down. "How is she?"

"As well as can be expected," Sandman folded his hands and moved away from the door. "Santa's trying to calm her down, and she's doing her best, but..."

Sandman shook his head, and Bernard lowered his eyes, but he quickly looked up again when Santa came out of the room. Carol wasn't with him.

Sandman noticed this at once. "Is she asleep?"

"No," Santa said shortly, "She needs some time."

"Kicked ya out, huh?"

Tooth Fairy went to nudge the cherub again, but Cupid quickly hovered out of reach, and Tooth Fairy held up a fist. "I'm warning you...If you think you can out-fly me, keep it up."

"Yeah, she did," Santa folded his arms, bothered not by the careless question, but by something else. He studied Tooth Fairy's face for any sign that he knew what had happened to Buddy, but the large man seemed almost as confused as everyone else. "How did you know what he...what it was? What do you know about this?"

"Uh..." Tooth Fairy shifted uncomfortably and fluttered his wings. It wasn't enough to lift him off the ground, and he had no intention of flying away. "Well, I..."

Mother Nature put a reassuring hand on Tooth Fairy's shoulder. "No one suspects you, Tooth Fairy. However, creating Changelings was outlawed a long time ago, was it not?"

"Yeah," Tooth Fairy reluctantly admitted, "About six hundred years ago, give or take. Father Time could give you the exact number, but that's not important now."

Jack Frost, who had been so quiet that the others nearly forgot he was there, chimed in. "There was a time when Fairies and Elves were every bit as mischievous as Sprites. But there hasn't been a Changeling since they were banned. They were too..." He rolled his wrist a few times as he tried to think of the word he wanted.

"Unpredictable," Tooth Fairy supplied, before adding grimly, "and dangerous. Depending on what the one who planted the Changeling wanted, it could either appear to be weak and sick, or it could be aggressive and nasty. Normally, the Changelings weren't discovered at all..."

Santa didn't care about any of this, at least not as much as he probably should have. "Well, this one was. And what happened to the kids? What happened to my kid?"

"There's really no way to know for sure," Tooth Fairy wound a length of dental floss around one of his index fingers. It was an odd thing to find comfort in, but for some reason he was able to answer more directly if he focused part of his attention on that simple action. "but the kids were always alive. Sometimes a Fairy mother would lose a child and go mad, and she'd switch out a Changeling for a human baby and raise it as her own. Or it could be for revenge. I mean, some of us can be pretty vindictive when you tick us off. But the kids, at least, were usually okay."

"Usually?"

The other Council members had their attention focused on Tooth Fairy, who was liking it less and less. Cupid, surprisingly enough, came to his rescue.

"Okay, look...We have a pretty good idea of what happened, and that means we have a chance of gettin' your son back. We need to figure out when it happened."

Bernard put a hand to his chest as if he had a pain, and, in a way, he did. "I...I know when it happened. I just don't know how, or who it was..."

All eyes immediately flicked from Tooth Fairy to Bernard, and the Elf looked down at his black polished shoes. It never occurred to him to keep silent about what he knew, or thought he knew. It didn't even dawn on him that he might get in trouble for this. Even if it had, he would have welcomed whatever punishment Santa could throw at him.

"What do you mean? Why didn't you say anything before?"

Bernard couldn't see Santa's expression, and he knew from his tone that he wasn't assigning blame, but that didn't make this any easier.

Santa approached Bernard, his booted footfalls slow and quiet, and he gently put his hand on the distraught Elf's shoulder. "What do you know, Bernard? Tell me."

The bedroom door's hinges were freshly oiled, and no one heard it when Carol peeked out to listen.

"Well...last night, before I put him to bed, we were playing hide-and-seek. He hid behind the curtains, and I forgot to close them afterwards. I...I put him to bed, and I took a nap, and I..." Bernard's breath hitched in his throat, and he took a moment to make sure he remained in control of his emotions.

"It's okay, go on," Santa urged, and Bernard flinched at the mix of fear and compassion in his voice.

"When you woke me up, I went back in because I forgot my hat, remember?" He asked, and went on when Santa nodded to show that he did. "I noticed that the room was cold, as if the window was open, but it was shut. It was the curtains that were open. I...I forgot to close them. I...I think it someone came in through the window when I was asleep, because he was acting completely normal before that. Santa, I...I'm so sorry..."

There was a long, pregnant silence before Mrs. Claus came out of the room. She ignored the murmurings of the others and her husband's concerned look, and her eyes glimmered with tears, but she was more or less composed as she spoke. "We told you it was okay to nap after Buddy was asleep, if you were tired. Didn't we?"

"Yes, but...if I hadn't..."

"This is what happened," Carol said firmly, wiping away her tears with a vicious swipe. "and it's nobody's fault, except for the bastard that took my son."

Such language wasn't typically used at the North Pole, but in this case no one so much as batted an eye.

"But..." Bernard took a step back. If he didn't leave soon, he was going to embarrass himself by crying in front of everyone, and that certainly wouldn't help matters.

"No," Carol shook her head. She very nearly went over to hug him, but stopped herself in time, understanding that this would be a very bad idea at the moment. "None of this is your fault, Bernard."

"It is!" The Elf held his head, his fingers digging into his beret. "And even if it isn't, it happened on my watch. I-I'm sorry, would...would you please excuse me?"

Without waiting for an answer, Bernard turned and hurried away at a fast walk, his slight limp making itself known. No one followed him, though Santa and Carol certainly looked like they wanted to.

Mother Nature briefly put a hand over her face, but when she lowered it she was all business again. "We must search the nursery and surrounding area for signs."

"Signs of what?" Easter Bunny cocked his head. "We already found the Changeling."

Santa, who had his arm around Carol and was rubbing her shoulder, answered the question. "Look for anything that shouldn't be there."

Tooth Fairy, who had unwrapped the dental floss from one index finger and was winding it around the other, looked up again. "Look for a Fairy Ring. Um...a ring of mushrooms. Usually, they're red with white spots on them, and there's always thirteen."

Jack Frost looked doubtful. "How can you be sure it's a Fairy, and not a Sprite? My kind used to make Changelings, too, you know."

"I'm not sure."

The last thing Bernard wanted to do right now was explain himself to the other Elves, and he teleported to the seldom-traveled back alleys. Eventually, these would lead to the Workshop, and he supposed he would have to find Curtis and explain everything to him. That was for later. Right now, he needed a few moments to clear his head.

Why did Mrs. Claus have to be so...so forgiving? Was this how she would punish him for what he had done...or not done? By killing him with kindness?

Who would want to take Buddy? Bernard couldn't think of anyone from the outside who even knew about the boy, other than extended family, and they certainly wouldn't have done this!

It was bad enough that this should happen at all, but their busy season was just beginning, and there was far more at stake than a missing child. Toys had to be made, packaged, and wrapped, and overseeing that was Bernard's job, above all else.

Curtis can do it. Bernard thought, then emphatically shook his head. For the first time in centuries, his mind wasn't on his job at all, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that.

But...

Curtis could do it. Bernard could participate in the search (he assumed that there would be one), and Curtis could oversee the Christmas preparations.

But is Buddy safe, wherever he is? Is he scared? Is he cold, or hungry?

Bernard's vision blurred, and he leaned against a wall and pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes to keep the tears from falling. It worked...mostly. He took a few deep breaths and rubbed his face before pushing off from the wall and shuffling into the alley behind the Workshop. He would enter through the back door, stop at a restroom to wash his face and make sure he didn't look as unhinged as he felt, and he would track Curtis down and explain the situation...

But he never got that far. Thirteen snow-covered lumps stood in a circle between him and the path to the door, and while he did see them, he didn't take much notice of them. At least, not until he stepped into the ring with the intention of crossing it to get to the door. Bernard halted in mid-stride when he felt the familiar tingle of magic, and he had teleported often enough to recognize it as teleportation magic, but it wasn't he who had initiated it.

He felt himself being pulled, but at the same time he didn't feel like he was moving at all; he couldn't decide if it was painful, or merely uncomfortable, but he knew for certain that he didn't like it. The door in front of him seemed to stretch and twist, but he knew that it wasn't the door that was moving; it was him!

Bernard tried to resist the pull, but quickly realized that he held no power over this strange magic. As vertigo set in, he shut his eyes to block out the kaleidoscopic swirling that now surrounded him on all sides.

Then, all at once, the feeling of being forcefully transported somewhere ceased. Bernard stifled his nausea and cracked open one eye.

He was in total darkness. Wonderful.