4.

It was mildly surprising to everyone how Bernard's attitude towards his chaperoning duties changed after that first afternoon.

Make no mistake, he wasn't thrilled about having to slow his schedule down a tad and keep his focus in two places most of the time, but it wasn't nearly as bad as he'd expected. Sure, maybe Ellington was a bit glum at times, but she was quiet and when she wasn't, she was intelligent and even funny. Besides, her sadness and tension was easily explainable; and it seemed the longer she was away from home, the better her mood grew-especially once they sorted the matter of her parents.

After quite the brainstorming session Santa and Ellington had come up with the idea to send Mr. and Mrs. Connelly some elves posing as some sort of charity organization, who were helping the girls during "their time of need." Given how stressed and tired they were, Phillip and Josette were too grateful to put too much thought into the strangely short social workers and their promises that the girls were safe. Ellington did the rest, talking to them over the phone and taking care of any concerns they had. After that, her mood had lightened considerably, because she didn't have to worry about them worrying about her. From then on out she was able to truly enjoy her stay in the Workshop.

Bernard didn't like to admit it (and he wouldn't have if you had asked him) but he didn't mind having someone with him who was interested in what he was doing, and not showing him up. Curtis could wear on anyone after a while, so having a change of face was nice. Not to mention, the girl seemed to be distracting him from his own problems—when she was actually with him.

Because another thing Ellington was very good about was entertaining herself. She seemed to be quite fascinated with how things worked, how the toys were made and the other gifts as well.

And so, a week into the girl's stay, Bernard found it surprising that he enjoyed her company.

What was so bad about that?

What was so bad about that, he reminded himself, was that it was distracting him from his work. He should be focusing on maintaining quotas, not holding a mental debate with himself on whether it was okay for him to like Ellington.

Yes, "like" Ellington. No more, no less. It wasn't an obligation to feel anything more. So why did he feel so stressed about it?

"Ugh." Bernard groaned. His mind was playing games with him, and he was losing.

"Illogical," he said out loud. That was it. Illogical.

"I thought you were an elf, not a Vulcan."

Surprised that he'd been overheard, Bernard turned around to face the voice.

Ellington wore a mildly amused expression as she sipped at a cup of something hot. "I mean, you do have the ears. Straighten those curls into some bangs and I just might believe it."

"So you know a thing or two about Star Trek, hmm?" Bernard commented, still keeping his focus mostly on the list he was double checking.

"A bit. My dad got me into it last year," Ellington replied, her tone softening. Bernard looked over to find her expression had dropped a little.

"Probably could pass for a Vulcan."

Ellington looked up in confusion. "What's that?"

"I said, I probably could pass for a Vulcan," Bernard said good naturedly. "You know, if I did something pretty eccentric with my eyebrows."

Ellington's smirk grew a little, a fond twinkle in her eye as she looked at the clipboard in his hand. "What are you doing? Crossword?"

That garnered a sideways look. "Really."

"Oh c'mon, don't even try to tell me that you're not that old," Ellington quietly said with a slight sideways nudge, and in spite of himself Bernard found he was smiling.

"Not for an elf," he replied, and Ellington looked mildly interested before deciding not to pursue an answer. She peered slightly over his shoulder, curious as to what was so confusing.

"What's going on here?" Bernard couldn't help but peer at her reaction to the numbers, finding her brow furrowed and her eyes locked on the page.

"Eh, something isn't adding up, but I think I've been looking at it too long. Can't seem to pinpoint it." For a few seconds he forgot he was supposed to be solving the chart himself, until she gave him another subtle nudge. "Hmm?"

"Row three," she said, pointing at the line in questions. "Looks like a seven, it's actually a one."

"Oh? I doubt it's that simple." His eyes went back to the sheet, following her finger to the number in question and quickly recalculating the column in his mind. "On second thought..." He changed the number with a reluctant tilt of his head and a small smile. "I think you got it."

"Glad to help," Elle said with a brighter smile than she normally gave, before realizing how close she was standing and taking a step back. "I'm gonna go see what's going on over here," she said slightly awkwardly, beating a retreat to where some ice skates were being laced and readied for packaging. Bernard only smiled crookedly and shook his head at her antics.

Santa was with Curtis, checking out some toys that were giving the elves on the production floor a bit of trouble. Seeing Bernard coming towards them wearing an almost peaceful expression, Scott raised an eyebrow. "Well someone's in a half decent mood," he muttered to Curtis, who looked over equally surprised.

"Good morning, Bernard?" he asked, seeming slightly amused.

"Pretty good, yeah." Bernard almost looked happy for a moment before clearing his throat. "Considering it's a Monday and all, that is."

"Right, of course."

"Here are the charts you asked for," the head elf replied nonchalantly, passing them to Scott.

"All sorted out?"

"Of course."

"Any trouble?"

"A little. But I had some help." Scott followed Bernard's gaze to Ellington, noting the elf's sideways smirk. Ellington had moved on from the skates, standing beside an elf who seemed to be having trouble with some sort of wiring assembly.

"She's not giving you too much grief, is she?" Scott asked, sounding slightly entertained.

"Not at all. I really don't know why I was so stressed about it before, she's actually more of a help than a hindrance." Bernard turned his attention to what Curtis was trying to fix.

"From what Curtis had told me, Annise is just as well mannered. Charlie says Dorothy is still stuck in the denial phase, but he's going to show her some of the more magical places around Elfsburg this afternoon. Maybe that'll help convince her," Scott said with a little laugh. Dorothy had arrived in the late half of the week, and was taking awhile to come around to the fact that she really was at the North Pole.

"Yeah, well. All of this can be a bit much for people nowadays. Seems like some kind of hologram show or something. Hopefully she'll come around."

"You don't seem too worried about it."

"What can I say, they're good kids. And even if Dorothy is on the Naughty List, no one is more equipped to help her overcome that than Charlie." Bernard sighed and snatched something from Curtis, turning it several times before setting it back in its slot. The toy rocket sprang to life, Curtis making an impressed noise. "Have you heard from the council yet? Is everybody still on for this evening?"

"Mother Nature called earlier, said everyone should be here around six," Scott replied, moving down the row a ways to pick a color of ribbon for a particular type of doll. "Of course, Jack didn't call her back so his showing up is a bit up in the air—"

"Not that I have a problem with that," Bernard muttered, and Scott groaned.

"Bernard, I thought we'd agreed to leave that in the past."

"I'm just saying, the last time we had new guests here he stirred up a great deal of trouble. It's only natural that I'm a little wary." From across the workshop a small round of excited cheering rose. Scott and Bernard looked over to find Ellington blushing, patting the elf on the shoulder in a way that clearly meant she was putting credit onto him. The elves seemed to be praising the both of them though, which led Bernard to think that Ellington maybe really did have a knack for fixing things after all.

"Huh. She sure seems to be adjusting well," Scott commented, watching the look on Bernard's face and musing on how he almost seemed…affectionate? "And you seem to be in a good mood whenever she's around."

"What can I say? She grows on you," Bernard said, breaking into a smile as she waved at them happily, allowing another elf to lead her by the hand over to the dollhouses.


It had been Bernard's idea not to tell the girls that the council was assembling that night to discuss the matter of their father's life. He had managed to convince Scott that making them stress all evening over whether or not the Legendaries could find an immediate solution wasn't exactly fair to any of them. In fact, an outright distraction might be in order.

"I don't know if Annise and I having a 'family dinner' with Dottie is such a good idea," Ellington had told him, frowning and scuffing her boot against the straw strewn floor the stables. It wasn't the first time he'd brought the idea up in a roundabout way, but each time she seemed to shut down and become very unsure and quiet. At this point, he hated seeing her that way—and he hated being the cause of it even more.

"Why not? I thought that seeing Dorothy here is the first time in years for you and Annise," Bernard asked patiently, opening the gate to join her and hand her a brush. He had finally found time in his schedule to take a short break to teach Ellington how to properly groom a reindeer. "Don't you want to spend time together, make use of the opportunity?"

Ellington sighed, scratching behind Dancer's ears thoughtfully. "If that were the case, don't you think we would have made an effort to do that sometime during the week we've been here?" she pointed out, looking away awkwardly.

"I take it the three of you aren't on the best of terms, then," Bernard said, and Ellington's stomach sank.

"That's putting it lightly." She slipped her hand into the strap of the brush, still keeping her eyes downcast. "When we moved away it was to save my mom's life—the cold climate was really harsh on her health, you know? But in spite of the truth, Dottie seemed set on taking the move personally, like we were leaving her behind. It wasn't our fault that her mother has custody, and doesn't like to let her visit much." She sighed, staring at the brush absently as though caught in the memory.

Before she could fall too deep into the train of thought however, she was pulled out of her mind by the feeling of Bernard's hand over hers. She looked up in surprise to find him guiding her hand, trailing the brush over the reindeer's coat in smooth, sure strokes. "Well," he said, as though his standing so very close behind her were perfectly normal. Was it? All Ellington knew was that her cheeks suddenly felt very warm. "You can't really change how she's been feeling about it. But now that you're actually together again face to face, maybe you can show her that just because you moved away doesn't mean she stopped being a part of your family."

Ellington nodded softly, not complaining when she'd already gotten the hang of the rhythm and Bernard didn't pull his hand away. "I just don't know if she'll be willing to listen," she admitted.

"If you don't try, you'll never know." Somehow, Ellington felt calmed by his words. "And she is your sister. She may be upset, but you're family—and I think deep down she knows that you and Annise are only kids. If she wants to blame anyone, it's your parents."

"The last thing we need is her blaming them right now," Ellington pointed out, but it wasn't as worried as she'd sounded before. "I don't know. I know dad's cancer has been hard on her too. Maybe you're right. Maybe we just need to find a way to move past everything that's happened."

"It's a start," Bernard agreed. It only then occurred to him that for the greater part of two minutes, Ellington had been fully capable of managing the brush on her own. He was also quite aware of the fact that she seemed perfectly content almost holding hands with him. Upon closer inspection, he found her cheeks dusted pink, and the idea that he'd flustered her made him smirk just a little. "Think you've got a hang of this?"

"Just about," Ellington said quietly, and the fact that her tone sounded vaguely reluctant only made his smile grow a little more. A moment later she turned to look at him, her cheeks darkening a bit and her eyes dropping shyly as she found him already with his gaze on her. "It's kind of relaxing, isn't it?" Dancer made a happy little noise, their nose still buried in their feed bucket. Ellington smiled, her eyes on the reindeer and therefore entirely missing the fond smile on Bernard's face. Even Bernard wasn't fully aware he was making it, too distracted by the fact that when Ellington was happy, she seemed to light up the room.

He finally let her hand go, moving to the other side of the stall to work on the other side of Dancer's coat. Maybe Scott was right, that he really was happier when Ellington was around. He was happier since they'd come to terms with each other than he'd been in quite a while. Were they friends? Was that too far of a reach? He wasn't sure, but he knew he enjoyed making her lighten up in whatever way he could. It didn't even feel like a burden, which was surprising.

But after a moment his train of thought returned to what he'd been trying to sort out, and he started up the conversation again. "Do you think," he began carefully, "that tonight would work? For the dinner, that is. I can have everything arranged. I know it's kinda short notice, but—"

"No, you're right," Ellington agreed abruptly, looking up with a thoughtful expression. "It's one of those things where the sooner we deal with it, the better. I mean, it'll only get more awkward if we keep avoiding each other."

"Tonight it is then. Six sound alright?"

Ellington hesitated before sighing and giving a little shrug. "Why not?" She smiled and stopped brushing, taking the strap from her hand. She was still anxious and worried about actually facing Dottie when the last few times she had had been quite confrontational, but she didn't need to tell Bernard that. She could already feel a headache coming on just from the thought of how badly the night could end. Regardless of how willing she seemed in front of the elf, she was far from sure that things wouldn't end terribly. "Is it okay if I split? After all, Annise will need some convincing, and I should probably take a shower. I'll need all the time I can get."

"Of course." Bernard felt a pang of disappointment, but tried not to think about it.

"Thanks." Ellington slipped her foot into the wood of the gate and quickly climbed over it, landing on her feet on the other side with a slight thud. "And Bernard?" She added, causing the elf's expression to grow more attentive. "Thank you for taking time to show me the reindeer, and for the talk. I know how busy you are, and…well. It means a lot." She gave him a smile and went off without waiting for an answer, leaving Bernard smiling softly in her wake. She really is a good kid, Bernard thought to himself, an unfamiliar warmth in his chest.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of one of the stable elves snickering softly. Bernard frowned in confusion, unsure what was laughable about the situation. "Something funny, Eustace?" he asked, the elf stopping with the wheelbarrow of straw he was moving. He grinned and pushed his engineer's cap up, a grin on his lips.

"Oh nothing, sir. I was just finding it a little funny how comfortable you seem around miss Ellington. Almost, familiar?" By the suggestive lift of his eyebrow it was clear what he was trying to point out.

"I was teaching her how to groom a reindeer," Bernard said, his voice lifting an octave as he defended his actions. "Standing on the other side of the stall wouldn't have helped me much, now would it?"

"I don't expect it would," the elf agreed with a nod. "And you've always seemed like a hands-on kinda guy. But it occurs to me that Ellington lives on a farm, and from the reports my elves have given me on the livestock they have, well. She already knows how to groom an animal." He chuckled again. "Then again, she didn't exactly seem to be complaining. That's all." Seeing Bernard was startled and a little taken aback by his words, Eustace continued on with his activities, leaving the head elf to sort out how he felt about that information.

After a moment, Bernard scowled. Why was he so comfortable around Ellington? Why did he find her so endearing? He made a mental note to not make that kind of mistake again. After all, she was only seventeen. He really shouldn't be misreading any kind of interaction between them. "How much do I have to pay them not to be so nosy?" he said to himself, Dancer murmuring in agreement. "You understand, don't you? Reindeer are so much better than people sometimes." He gave her coat a few more strokes before giving her head a pat and teleporting off in a shimmer of gold sparks. He had plenty to do to prepare for the council meeting.


Six o' clock rolled around, finding Ellington and Annise dressed up nicely and ready for dinner with Dottie. Both girls were apprehensive, but Ellington was doing all she could to keep Annise from getting too anxious. In spite of having had a rather nasty headache most of the evening, Ellington was trying to stay positive. If all three of them could get along, it would make things a lot less awkward for everyone involved. So far Santa and Mrs. Claus had seemed a bit bewildered by their hesitance to be around their sister, and Ellington suspected that sentiment had something to do with Bernard orchestrating this dinner for them. She just hoped that it wouldn't be a letdown for everyone involved.

"Do you think she's mad at us? For not calling more, for not being able to afford to fly her out?" Annise asked as the girls made their way through the halls of the main workshop, passing busy elves left and right. Ellington frowned and shook her head, feeling a static sort of buzzing in and around her ears.

"If she is, that isn't something we can help," The older sister replied, squeezing Annise's hand reassuringly. "All we can try to do at this point is leave the past behind us, and move forward. After all, we're here so we can help dad. Even if she's mad at him, she still loves him. We have that in common."

"Ellington!" The conversation was cut short by the sound of running feet, a small voice rising over the noise. Both girls turned to find an elf chasing after them, one Ellington recognized from the day before.

"Hey Archie, what's up?" Ellington gave an easy smile, even though her head was killing her. Seeing that Annise looked interested, she decided to introduce the two. "Annise, this is Archie. He plans the music that plays here in the workshop and manages the radio station that broadcasts throughout all of Elfsburg. Archie, this is my sister Annise."

"It's a real pleasure," Archie replied, smiling and shaking the hand Annise had eagerly held out. He was still a little winded from trying to catch up to them. "Sorry to interrupt wherever you two were going, but I was wondering if you were still going to be available this evening to show me the music you brought with you? And that site you promised to show me?"

Ellington grimaced slightly. "Yikes, Archie, I'm so sorry. I completely forgot about that, and Bernard arranged for us to have dinner with our sister Dottie. Can we try again, maybe tomorrow? Or whenever you have time, I know you're a busy guy."

Archie made a dismissive noise, waving a hand with a grin. "Please, I can always make time for you. Besides, I don't always get an opportunity to get my hands on new music. I'll take a raincheck! Feel free to swing by my office any time you'd like—or you know, any time that you're not busy with Bernard." He made off back in the direction he'd come, apparently not dispirited in the least. "And good luck to both of you with dinner! I hope you have a good night."

"Thanks, I think we're gonna need it. And you too!" Ellington called in reply, turning back onto the path she and Annise had been setting for the town square. The comment about Bernard had struck her funny for some reason. She didn't spend that much time around Bernard, did she? On second thought, she rather did.

"Seems like a nice elf," Annise commented, and Ellington nodded as she held the door open.

"Aren't they all? I'm not sure, but I doubt they'd be allowed to work here if they were mean. But anyway yeah, Archie's pretty cool." The sisters tramped outside, snow lightly falling on them and their breath steaming as they made their way downtown. "I forgot to ask you yesterday, how is Curtis treating you as a chaperone? Last time I saw you seemed to be getting along alright." Small talk wasn't doing much for Ellington's ever growing migraine, but it did help pass the time and keep the topic away from Dottie.

"Curtis is fun, actually," Annise admitted with a slight shrug. "He can be a bit uptight at times but for the most part, he really goes out of his way to keep me entertained. I almost feel a bit guilty sometimes, for taking up his time. He's pretty busy inventing stuff most days, from what I've seen."

"Well that's R and D for ya." Ellington pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. The address for the restaurant was written across it in Bernard's distinctive handwriting, and Ellington found herself spacing off and admiring the script before focusing and turning her feet in the right direction. "Okay, just two blocks this way."

"Good, it's freezing out here," Annise said with a little shiver, rubbing her arms over her coat.

Ellington eyed her mischievously. "It bothers you? The cold, I mean."

"Just a bit. Considering where are and where we live it's not that surprising," Annise replied defensively, making her older sister chuckle and nudge her playfully.

"I was only teasing." Not five minutes later they were stepping into the warm foyer of the restaurant, where the staff seemed to be expecting them. Annise and Ellington were too distracted to take in the surroundings though, suddenly struck by the reality of the situation. Beyond a set of double doors, their sister was waiting for them, and neither of them knew how she would react.

"Right this way," the waitress said cheerfully, the bells on her shoes jangling brightly, but she seemed slightly on edge, as though she'd been put under warning that things might not go well. At least Ellington hoped Bernard had warned them. She didn't want to surprise these elves with the rather twisted elements of the Connelly family dynamic.

"Thank you." Ellington tugged nervously at the sleeve of her blouse nervously before offering Annise her hand and following behind. Her headache was still raging, to the point of making her eyes water slightly, and she wished she'd thought to ask for some aspirin or something before she'd left the workshop. Oh well, there wasn't any help for it now.

The girls went into the room, surprised and yet not so to find that it was a private room, and that Dottie sat alone at the far end of the table. She was sitting sideways with her legs across the arm of the chair, face furrowed thoughtfully as she scrolled through her phone. There wasn't any food on the table yet, only glasses of water and silverware and napkins at each place, so apparently they had arrived in perfect timing and she hadn't been waiting long. She looked over and immediately perked up when she noticed the Annise and Ellington, her eyes going wide.

"I wasn't sure you two would show up," she said, sounding slightly surprised and yet nonplussed. Ellington wasn't exactly sure because of how blurry her eyes were at the moment, but she thought that there was quite a bit of defensive cynicism in her sister's eyes.

"Why would we invite you here and then not show up?" Ellington replied with a shrug and a sigh, taking a seat at the opposite end of the table. Annise looked back and forth between both of her older siblings before taking a seat partway down the table, almost evenly between the both of them but just slightly closer to Ellington. Clearly she was trying to be a mediator in case things took a turn for the worst.

"Dunno. Sometimes you don't have a good reason," Dottie said offhandedly, examining her nails.

Ellington rolled her eyes, leaning back in her seat and already feeling tired. "Can we save the subtext please? I know you've got plenty of resentment built up but I'd like to at least try and have this be a nice evening for the three of us," she said, shooting Annise a reassuring look. Annise smiled thinly, clearly still trying to keep up her spirits. She turned to Dottie, giving her a genuine smile.

"I was worried you might not be here, Dot. I'm glad you didn't back out," she said softly, and even Dottie had to stop glaring at Ellington to sigh and give a slightly more relaxed shrug.

"Well I didn't have any other plans, exactly. Charlie is busy with his dad tonight or something so I would have just been holed up in my room. Not that that would've been bad, the rooms here are amazing and the wifi is ridiculously fast." Dottie fell silent as a waiter brought the first course in, all of the girls sitting in a tense silence that seemed to spook the staff a little.

They remained silent through their bowls of soup, almost as if they were all afraid of picking the wrong thing to say. Ellington was the least hungry, leaving a good half of her bowl behind simply because of her migraine induced nausea.

"You and Charlie getting along alright?" Annise asked Dottie, mimicking the question Ellington had asked her minutes before. Ellington was sitting silently, her elbow on the armrest as she rested her cheek on one hand and subtly rubbed at her aching temple.

"Yeah. I'll admit the whole chaperone thing is a little bit better because he's not some grumpy old adult who's constantly bossing me around. It's actually been pretty fun, generally—if not a little unbelievable."

"Unbelievable?" Ellington repeated, opening her eyes. She wasn't sure when she'd closed them, but she suspected it was around the same point that her ears had begun ringing again.

"Yeah, unbelievable. We're at the freaking North Pole, if you haven't been too busy falling asleep to notice!" Dottie snapped back. Ellington scowled, then quickly stopped when she realized it only served to make her headache worse. Dottie's expression grew sly. "I heard you got stuck with the crotchety Head Elf. How's that panning out for you? Is that the reason you look so worn out, or am I really that boring to you after all this time?"

"Dottie!" Annise said reproachfully, trying to calm both of her sisters down before things got nasty.

"For goodness sake Dot, it's been a year and a half. Not a decade," Ellington retorted sharply. "We all love you just as much as we did when we moved away, but you just insist on being bitter over something Annise and I couldn't control!" Dottie leaned back in surprise at Ellington's outburst, noting how all the glasses on the table were shaking. Ellington gritted her teeth and lifted her eyebrows, trying to relax her eyes and ease what was by now a crushing headache. "I don't know why I'm feeling like this, but I'm still trying to pull through and make this decent so could you just stop trying to push my buttons—"

Dottie looked down at her soup, an unreadable expression on her face. 'Well excuse me if no one has time to deal with the real problems before we pretend to be okay.'

"Enough!" Ellington stood up, glaring daggers down the table at her sister. Before she knew what was happening, her steak knife was stuck in the top of Dottie's chair, and all three of the water glasses were smashed against the wall behind her. The blonde haired girl was hunched down almost into her dinner in an effort to avoid all of the projectiles, while Annise had let out a frightened yell and was now plastered to the back of her chair, leaning as much out of the way as she was able. Ellington blinked, her eyes growing fuzzy again. She hadn't thrown that knife or the glasses, how had they…

"What the hell, Ellington!?" Dottie yelled at her, her face red with rage. "You go from peaceful pushover to murderous crazy person in two seconds flat now? Get yourself together! And how did you..."

But Ellington wasn't listening, too busy clutching at her head. Her eyes were screwed shut in pain, the ringing in her ears overpowering until it seemed to clear. She fell back into her seat, eyes wide as the sound of hundreds of people speaking filled her ears.

"Els?" Annise asked fearfully. 'Is she okay?' Ellington didn't understand why she'd phrased it like that until she looked over at Dottie and realized neither of their mouths were moving, yet she could hear Dottie's voice.

'Has she gone completely mental on us? What the hell is going on?'

She was hearing their thoughts—and by the noise in her head, everyone else's for a good few miles too. Her vision was going black as she began to realize that there were elves on either side of her chair now, calling to each other and thinking frenetic, worried thoughts about what was wrong with the poor human girl? And a recurring idea to find someone called Dr. Hismus.

With these final confusing thoughts overpowering her senses, Ellington went out in a cold faint.


Disclaimers:
I am not Disney or Disney affiliated and therefore do not own any rights or credits to any characters, concepts or places portrayed in or from "The Santa Clause 1, 2, or 3". The only thing I own is my own creative work and original content and characters, including the Connelly family, the Emissary Clause and Elle herself.

Many characters and concepts are borrowed/used shamelessly from the works and headcanons of SafyreSky, all rights and credit go to her for coming up with such incredible ideas. These include but are not limited to the Legate concept, Jacqueline Frost and the portrayal of many other non-canon/canon characters.