Author's Disclaimer: I don't own Bernard or any other Santa Clause character. Helen is mine. And hopefully not too much of a MarySue, but then, such is life. There are worse sins.

The Day Bernard Got Beaned (And What Happened After)

Chapter Three: Magic

About forty five minutes later, they were back in the living room. Helen had followed Bernard into the kitchen to help with lunch, and while working on that they'd both avoided anything other than the topic of food. Now they both had a bowl of chicken noodle casserole, which smelled and tasted wonderful. Bernard had done the seasoning, and Helen had to admit to herself that it was pretty unusual for a teenage boy to cook as well as he did.

"This is really good. That's a very unusual skill for a...um." Helen's eyes widened slightly, and she suddenly wished she could eat her words instead.

Bernard didn't respond for a long moment. "Still think I'm a teenager?" His words held only a slightly grumpy edge.

Helen focused on her food, and hoped he couldn't see her blush. So...maybe he wasn't a teenager. Some people just looked young like that, even into their thirties, she had to admit. She did know that the possibility of him being older made her nervous. Helen was a private person, an introvert. She had few friends, and kept her private life close to her. That wasn't to say that she'd never dated. As a twenty-six year old, she'd had a few boyfriends, but nothing remotely serious- not that she hadn't taken them seriously. They just hadn't gone anywhere.

And maybe it made her old fashioned, but she'd never been alone with a man for so long before, not ever. Not someone who wasn't family, anyway. An image of Bernard's grinning face came to her, as he stood in her bedroom doorway, and before she could stop herself, Helen voiced the question she'd meant to ask at breakfast.

"How'd I get in my room last night?" She stared over at him for a short moment, then went back to her food, taking her time to select the next bite. His eyes had been unreadable.

Bernard looked across at her, not sure what to say. 'I had to carry you there after magicking you to sleep' didn't seem like the way to go. Well, the carrying part wasn't so incriminating, at least.

"Oh, I carried you. You dropped off really fast."

Helen blushed again, and this time she was sure he could see the pink in her cheeks. "That...you could've woken me up. O-or, was I on the recliner? I've slept there before, that would've been fine." She felt completely flustered. She hadn't expected him to just come out and say it like that, even if it was the only thing that made sense. Now she felt embarrassed at it...and about even being embarrassed about it. As if this sort of thing happened all the time.

Bernard looked up at her again, and their eyes briefly met before she flinched away. He felt a pang of guilt about lying, and tried to respond before thinking it through. "I..." He stopped, not knowing what to say. She looked really uncomfortable. And he couldn't blame her- she could probably sense that something really weird had happened.

He set his bowl down on the coffee table. "Okay, I lied a little. But I don't want to freak you out." Bernard waited for her to look at him again.

Out of the blue, Helen suddenly wondered if he'd had his ears surgically altered. That would make him a very crazy person, wouldn't it? It was truly delusional, to do something that extreme!

She sighed to herself. Okay, that was just stupid. He wasn't a psycho, he was a sweetheart. And whatever he did last night couldn't have been that bad.

Helen finally stopped avoiding his gaze. "What did you lie about?" She put down her food, frowning. Despite her wild thoughts, disappointment was all she really felt, like he was a friend letting her down.

Bernard worked hard not to grin. She was pouting! He had no idea why, but it was adorable. He almost wanted to tell her how cute it looked, but something told him that would be a bad idea. Besides, underneath that pout lay some serious worries.

He reached over and put his hand over hers, as a sign of friendship. "Look. You don't need to worry. I promise I'd never hurt you, okay? But...I did use magic on you. But that was before I realized that I can. And I won't do it again, I promise."

There was a strange, silent moment, in which Helen just stared at him.

He went on a little more awkwardly. "That's...why you basically collapsed in the hallway. I was willing you to fall asleep, and called up some magic to make it happen. So, I'm sorry...about that."

"Oh." Helen rubbed her lips together briefly, like she did when putting on chap stick. "Right, right. Magic." She stared a moment longer, as the fact that he was being serious finally sank in.

Then she crossed her arms, feeling rightfully ticked off. "Prove it. Show me some magic." This was...insane. Idiotic! She didn't know what to think anymore, other than she really liked this strange guy with the elf ears, but he was telling her something completely ridiculous. It was too much.

"You mean, you don't believe me. Again?" Bernard leaned back, resignation settling in. He narrowed his eyes at her. I've had this experience before, I just know it. He let out an irritated huff of air. "Skeptic."

"Prove. It." Helen stared him down. "Come on! If you've got magic you used by accident, surely you can do some on purpose. And if you can't..." she cut herself off, and made herself calm down. She would save the anger. There was the remote possibility he was telling her the truth. So until he completely failed at this -and he would- she would hold off.

Bernard had sat up straighter during her challenge. Prove it. He wasn't sure what he could do, though. And putting her to sleep again wouldn't work- if it did, she wouldn't be asking him to prove anything right now.

Part of him still wanted to be angry at her, for not believing him. He was getting the idea that wherever he came from, it was a really rare thing there for him to be questioned. And to be completely disbelieved? It was like being called a liar! Bernard wasn't going to get angry this time, though. He was finally starting to understand just how alien this was to Helen. She didn't believe in elves, didn't believe he could be older than twenty-something...he was messing with her world view. And he genuinely liked her. He didn't want to mess with her world view; not for fun, anyway.

But he was still pretty annoyed with her at the moment. "So you need a demonstration? Okay. What would you like me to do?" He paused, holding up a hand. "Now understand, it might take a few tries. I'm not sure what magic I'm capable of, okay?"

Helen managed not to seethe too noticeably. "Right. Sure." She looked around herself, eager to put his "magic" to the test. He was too bloody self confident!

"Okay...okay. I know. This is a classic." She got up, practically running to the kitchen to get a candle and some matches. Moments later she had set them down on the coffee table, and went about lighting the candle.

"Now. Put the flame out. Using magic."

Bernard looked at her sideways, then back at the candle. "Right." The problem was, he wasn't sure if he could. "Here goes."

He focused, visualizing the candle flame having gone out, with just a smoking wick left in its place. He tried with open eyes, then with closed eyes. He imagined a cold wind blowing through, causing the flame to die. He focused, and focused...and focused. And then he leaned back, and crossed his arms.

"Apparently I can't control flame. Ah!" He cut Helen off before she could say anything, raising a finger to shush her. The aggravation he'd suppressed earlier was in full swing now. "That doesn't prove anything, other than what I just stated."

Helen raised an eyebrow at him, and couldn't stop the slight grin. "Alright, fine. You choose the next test."

"Fine." Bernard got up, and started pacing back and forth. This was ridiculous! If only he could remember, then he'd know what magic he could do, end of story. But then he probably wouldn't even be here, trying to convince a girl named Helen that he had magic.

He wasn't sure how he felt about that. Sure, he felt guilty about not working on...whatever it was he was supposed to be working on. But then, he hadn't had this much fun, or at least been this relaxed, in what felt like...ages. Even if he was arguing at the moment.

Bernard came to a stop, and looked back at Helen. "Hm."

"Hmm? What does that mean?" Helen wasn't sure she liked the speculative look in his eyes.

"Last time I did magic, it was on you, to make you sleep..." He kept staring at her, trying to think of something that might work, something that she would remember.

"I don't like where this is going." It wasn't that she really believed he could do magic...probably. But still. It was the principle of the thing.

"Don't worry." Bernard walked over to her, and sat down cross-legged just next to her on the floor. His voice was thoughtful, nearly a whisper. "I just...think this is closer to what I can do..." He reached out to gently rest a hand on her shoulder, making sure to touch some of the skin on her neck. Then he calmed his mind, pictured something...and focused.

A long moment went by where neither of them spoke or moved much at all.

Then Bernard pulled slowly away. His voice came out soft and gentle. "What are you thinking of?"

Helen opened her eyes, only just realizing that she had closed them. She smiled, her face glowing softly, her eyes glittering. "Gently falling snow. Gingerbread cookies. Stockings over the fireplace, and...a little toy train..." Her gaze slowly fell from his, down, down to the ground.

Helen turned suddenly away, grabbing the coffee table for support even though she was sitting, and tried to stop herself from trembling. That had been beautiful, and she wanted to be amazed, to tell him how wonderful whatever it was he had done had been...

But the moment was gone, and had twisted into everything she had been avoiding, here in this house by herself. A sob wracked her body, and she wrapped her arms tightly around herself. She didn't want to spend Christmas alone. She didn't want to be the only one who, who didn't have anyone to see this year...

Helen didn't want to think about...

A pair of arms gently wrapped themselves around her from behind, and pulled her close. She heard Bernard's gentle voice close by. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry Helen, I didn't mean to make you cry..." He was quiet, calming. And strong. It made her fall apart even more, almost as if the presence of someone tougher than her, wiser than her, gave her the permission she had been denying herself to finally let the tears fall.

She cried for a long time before she had calming down enough to talk. There was a lot of pain there she'd been bottling up. Part of her wished she didn't need to explain, and could just sit there instead, being gently rocked back and forth like a little child while she leaned back against Bernard. Despite his somewhat short stature, she was still much smaller than him, only about an inch above five feet tall. The difference in size was deeply comforting.

"Thank you. My...my brother used to hold me like this, sometimes." Helen huffed a little, a halfway laugh, a halfway sob. "Because he said, our mom used to hold him like this..."

Bernard's voice came, soothing and gentle. "She passed away..."

Helen's shoulders trembled for a long moment. "My parents passed a long time ago. My..." another sob wracked her frame, and she felt his embrace tighten slightly in sympathy. "My brother died a month ago."

Bernard remained silent. The moment she had started crying, he began putting things together- all the clues he had somehow missed. There were a few Christmas decorations here and there, but it was half hearted. And there weren't any stockings, or a Christmas tree, even though the holiday was only a day away now. There were no packed bags either, so she hadn't planned for a visit with family. Helen had hardly talked about herself at all, actually, or mentioned Christmas. Instead she had spent half of Christmas Eve helping him, a stranger- a very strange stranger- try to remember his life.

"I'm...I'm lucky." Bernard's eyes widened as Helen found her voice again. That wasn't what he had been thinking. "I had the best big brother ever, and...the best, most w-wonderful parents. I just wish..." She stopped, her voice not letting her continue.

She just wished they didn't have to go.

Bernard held her close for several long minutes, long enough for the tears he had silently let fall to dry. He smiled softly, and let his chin gently rest on the top of her head. "I want to get a Christmas tree. Would you come with me, Helen?"

She turned around and gave him a hug, and in that moment she was like a little child, grateful and guileless. "Okay."

AN: Please review... :)