36.5. Interlude

It had begun so simply, with the unpacking of a box.

Elle was still preparing to move into her new loft, and was finally getting around to packing the few things she had saved from her, well, 'past lives' for lack of a better term. She was an elf now, through and through; she knew that, and was grateful for it. But sitting on the floor of her new home, Elle pulled opened a box of things her best friend Jacqueline had somehow saved from her flat in Seattle, and new questions bubbled to the front of her mind.

These items were from a parallel universe that never should have existed, but there was Jack Frost— sometime trickster and legendary figure, not to mention Jacqueline's older brother—to thank for that. His time and reality bending shenanigans now referred to as the Pocket-watch Incident had created a timeline where Elle had never come to the North Pole—she hasn't needed to, as her family had been healthy, at least. Maybe not entirely happy, but healthy. And so Elle had never met Bernard and had never fallen subject to the Emissary Clause, which didn't even exist there.

That's where this box had come from. A universe where, even though Elle had been made to forget, some part of her head or heart wouldn't quite let go of what had been lost, and that's what the box's contents were a testament to.

In that place, which Elle had taken to referring to as Watchverse by now, she had spent the good part of a year researching, documenting, learning everything she could about conspiracy theories—specifically ones related to alternate realities or erased timelines, anything to help explain the forgotten memories that kept resurfacing in her mind. There hadn't been room for skepticism in her anymore, not after she'd become telepathic and telekinetic. Anything seemed possible, if not probable, and her foggy recollections together with her inexplicable powers had fueled her search for explanations. For magic, specifically, or some way that it could have once existed in a way that she could remember it from.

And now, here in the proper timeline (if not a little earlier in time than she'd once been,) here were the remnants of that phase of her life. Granted, she still enjoyed a good conspiracy theory. But nowadays, now that magic was a fact in her life and not a fairy tale, now that she knew alternate realities were real, her interests had shifted away from those things to other topics—she was still trying to confirm that the Grinch classified as a cryptid, for example, and Krampus? Krampus was a textbook cryptid.

But looking at the notes, and the paintings of her memories, and her thoughts scribbled down on napkins…something about it got the gears in Elle's mind turning again.

"Do you think there are other versions of us?"

It was just after dinner time, a few days later. That stray thought was still wandering around in her mind, and she'd finally decided to share it with her forever person.

"Hmm? How do you mean?" Bernard looked up from where he was digging around in the sofa cushions. They were at his house that particular evening, and little things always seemed to go missing in unlikely places there. "I don't really think there are a lot of other couples like us, Els," he said with a triumphant smile, plunking down on the sofa with the found remote.

"No, not like that." Elle emptied the bag of freshly popped popcorn into a big bowl, frowning thoughtfully. Seeing that she seemed really serious, and that the vibe through their bond felt the same way, he looked a little more concerned. "I mean, other versions of us. Throughout the multiverse."

"Have you been reading more of those theoretical websites again? They seem pretty hokey, shouldn't let them get to you."

"Nah, more like my old notes from back home." She came and sat down beside him, handing two glass bottles of fizzy soda to him to open, the popcorn bowl in her lap. "They just got me thinking. If I was right about all this being real"—she gestured around, but clearly meant the Pole and the magical world beyond it—"then…isn't it possible there are other universes where you and I exist too? Under different circumstances?"

"I mean yeah, in theory," Bernard agreed, taking the tops off the bottles. Elle still didn't know how to do that with just her hand like he did, and found it oddly satisfying to watch. "Pretty sure Hawking spoke about that at some point. Father Time could probably clear the whole idea up for you, if you happened to catch him at a talkative moment. He's the expert after all."

"Isn't he always pretty talkative?"

"Well, yes. But if you catch him after he's had a few drinks, he'll really get into the metaphysical stuff you're into. The trouble is getting him to stop."

She couldn't help but laugh at that, finding the idea of a buzzed and talkative Father Time quite amusing—something led her to think he'd use a lot more hand gestures than normal. "It's not a bad idea, though he's not due here for a few more months." She sighed, resting her head on the back of the couch. "And you know how I get when a thought takes over." Meaning, she found it hard to drop the subject until her curiosity was satisfied.

"I do. And I can only assume this is the idea that you've been mentally shielding me from the past few days." Elle looked guilty, but Bernard just chuckled, setting a hand on her knee. "It's okay, I'm not mad about it. I just find it funny the things you think you need to keep private."

"It's just a weird train of thought, you know? I felt a little embarrassed at how far my mind wanted to run with it," Elle admitted sheepishly, picking at the popcorn. "I mean, if there are, how many of those universes do we meet in?"

"A lot, I hope," Bernard said, slipping a straw into her drink and passing it to her. He lifted the popcorn bowl out of her lap and into his, setting his arm along the back of the couch and beckoning her closer. She scooted over against his side, snuggling against his shoulder.

"And the ones we don't?"

"Probably not worth talking about."

"It just made me wonder, how many are happy universes? Are some completely bizarre?"

"Ours is a little bizarre already."

"But you know what I mean. And what about the ones that are unhappy? What if sometimes we don't get a happy ending." Her voice went quiet towards the end, and she looked down into her drink a bit sadly. Bernard gave her arm a gentle squeeze.

"We already had a close call with our own universe," he pointed out, tone equally quiet. "I don't like to think about ways we might not have ended up together, because there was a point when that was a very real threat. But, if I did think about it, I like to think we'd work it out in the end. That we'd find our ways back to each other—just like we did here."

"That's a nice way of looking at it," Elle said, and he smiled. She couldn't help but smile back, letting out a soft laugh. "Leave it to you to be the optimist when it comes to us, hmm?"

"Wouldn't want to switch up my shtick now, would I?" He leaned his cheek against her head, and she felt a warm thrum of reassurance along their mental connection. "No, it's really what I think. Because if there are other universes where we exist, I'd like to believe that us being together is a constant throughout them. Don't you?"

"Yeah, B. I really, really do."

And somehow for Elle, without any further reasoning or explanation, that was more than enough.

Hey guys! I know it's out of season for ROE to be updating, but you know me, I like updating year round if possible. I just wanted to drop in with this short little tie-in of a chapter to let you know that I'm posting an AU collection for this story! It's based off of tumblr style alternate universe romance prompts, and is of course centered around Bernelle. I currently have around twenty different oneshots/drabbles/multi-part series AUs and I wanted to share them with my off tumblr audience here on ffn. I posted this chapter here too, not just in the spin-off, because I wanted to make sure that those of you subscribed to just ROE and not me as an author got the news as well!

As per usual, requests/prompts are always welcome—especially for the AUs. If you'd like to see them replied to a bit more quickly, you can even head over to tumblr (my username is shittyelfwriter there as well) and drop them in my ask box! I can promise you'll get a reply faster there, and my anon asks are always on if you'd prefer that.

I'll be posting the AU collection under the title A Hundred Lifetimes. I really look forward to seeing what you all think of them, and I hope you're all having a good year! :)

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.