Chapter Twenty: Left Alone

Bernard and I spent the next couple of days lazily, not getting out of bed until we had to and going to bed early when we could. We moved the few things I had in the bedroom of the main building to his house. Went to see a few movies in the theater, we watched all of the Star Wars movies back to back together in an empty theater. He took me on a tour of the village, showing me all of the new places that were added since I had been gone. The whole time his pager had not made one sound.

On the twenty-eighth of December, at 7 am in the morning, his pager started to vibrate. I groaned, waking from my slumber, "Bernard, your pager."

"They can figure it out for themselves, it's off season." He retorted tiredly, "I'm only getting up if they call."

"You know now that you've said that they're going to call."

"They better not, unless there's an emergency, I'm on vacation until after New Year's."

"If you're on vacation, why not just turn off your pager?" I asked confused.

"You're right." He turned off the pager and went to unplug his phone, "Now if they really need me, they'll come and get me." He then climbed back into bed, "So what would you like to do?"

There had been something I had been wanting to discuss with him. I just didn't know if we were there yet, well if he was. We had just spent basically the past year in the human world pretending we were married, part of me started to wonder what it would be like if actually were. Would things be just like this? Would things be the way they've been for the past year? I loved him and I knew he loved me, why not just elope like we had been saying we did for the past year.

"You want to tell me what you're thinking?" He asked, snapping me from my thoughts, "It's really got to be something if it's got you that deep in thought."

"I was thinking about what if we actually got married." I admitted, sitting up, "We've spent the past year telling people we are. I've been in love with you for almost 700 years and spent about half of those years missing you and wondering where we'd be if I hadn't left."

He reached into his nightstand and pulled something out, "I had planned to talk to you about this on New Year's, but now that you've brought up the subject, I don't see a point in waiting." He turned to face me, "Course, I had something a little more romantic planned, but I'm going to go with this now since the opportunity has presented itself." He opened his hand to reveal a white gold diamond solitaire ring, "I've been holding on to this for the past few weeks, trying to figure out how to say what I've wanted to say to you. What I've wanted to say for centuries now. I should have said this every day since I first saw you again, I love you. I don't want to know another day without you. Will you-"

"Yes." I answered before he could get out the question, kissing him deeply. He responded to the kiss fervently.

Before we could go any further, however, there was a knock at the door. He pulled out of the embrace annoyed and went to answer the door. Five minutes later, he came back, shaking his head. By the look on his face, it most likely had been Curtis at the door.

"What's up?" I asked him.

"Nothing that couldn't have been told to me when I got back." Bernard replied, "I'll have to reiterate what constitutes as an emergency with Curtis, a meet and greet with the Legendary Council and the heralds is not one. It happens with each new Santa in addition to their standard council meetings."

"So what did you tell him?" I asked him as he climbed back into bed.

"That it's standard procedure. Santa is ready to meet the council and the heralds. And that I will not be available till mid-February because my soon to be wife and I are going to be on our honeymoon."

"Where would you like to go?"

"I was thinking somewhere warm." He replied, "Maybe somewhere in the tropics where we don't have to leave the room."

"What about Togo?" I asked, "I don't know any elf that'll take him."

"I'll figure that out." He responded, "I might have Curtis take him."

"You sure Curtis can handle him?"

"If we have to, we'll bring Togo with us." He answered, making sure to say Togo's name so that I didn't make a joke about bringing Curtis on our honeymoon.

"So when did you want to get married?"

"Maybe New Years?"

"That sounds like a good way to start off the year."

"We'll have to notify Santa that we'll be gone a little longer than planned."

"I'll talk to Scott, if you can convince Curtis to look after Togo."

"Done."

Scott's POV

The week had been pretty quiet after Christmas with most of the elves on vacation, even Bernard who seemed like he was always working took some time off. I had spent my time exploring the village. Since this was going to be my new home, I should know every part of it. The only other thing I had this week was a meeting with the Legendary Council, which consisted of Father Time, Mother Nature, Cupid, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, Sandman, and Jack Frost. According to the agenda, I had rcvd it was more of a get to know you type of meeting to which others outside of the legendary council were invited to attend like other season heralds and other holidays. From the looks of it, there we only a couple not invited Krampus and the Boogeyman. Although from what I've read of the two, that wasn't surprising. Both were banished for vile acts against other legendary figures including members of their own family. Speaking of family, if she decided to show, Heidi Kringle was on the list of invited guests. I was hoping she would, I had a few questions for her. A few had come early, Aiden, the herald of Summer, and Isla, the herald of Spring, had been around on and off for the past few weeks. Hazel, the Halloween spirit, had been around for a couple of days. Sandman had come earlier this morning, he fell asleep shortly after arriving in the toy department on top of a 6ft teddy bear. Cupid arrived around midday, he had been hanging around wrapping. The Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy had arrived already too; they were currently sitting in the kitchen, munching on left over candy and sweets. We were just waiting on the last members of the legendary council to start the meeting.

"I heard you and certain members of your staff have been trying to get some information on me." A voice said from behind, pulling me from my thoughts of the things I needed to do today, "The information was redacted for a reason, some matters are best left private." This was Heidi.

I turned to face the eldest Kringle sister. She had fiery hair and deep blue eyes that betrayed the stoic expression she was wearing, it was very clear whatever was taken from our records was painful and personal. The little I was able to read from what I had gathered, it had something to do with a boy around her age. It didn't give much information about who, other than his name was Jack, and they were trying to run away together because their families didn't approve of their relationship. They kept the relationship secret and were planning to get married, but when the time came to leave something happened, it didn't say to which of the two or whether it happened to both.

"Who was Jack?" I asked her after a few moments.

"You'll meet him soon enough." She responded, "I believe he's on your council."

Frost. There was no one else it could have been with that answer, which only brought more questions. He became a herald and she disappeared for centuries. If they were going to run away together, why did they end up how they did?

"Why did you disappear?"

"Someone else showed up instead of him." She responded vaguely, "If you do not mind, Santa, I would rather not discuss this anymore. I am here to get to know you, not discuss myself."

"What would you like to know?" I asked her, accepting the change of subject.

"Whatever you'd like to tell me." She responded openly.

I laughed nervously, "How much time do you have?"

"Until the rest of your legendary council show up." She shrugged. I gestured for her to sit down in one of the chairs in the office. She sat and we started to talk about my background.

After a couple of hours, members of the council started to file into the office. Heidi stood as the last of the council members made their way into the office. The tension could be felt in the room as Jack found his way inside. There were two different types of uncomfortability that could be felt: one of immense annoyance coming from most of the members of the council and one of previous romantic history coming from Heidi and Jack.

"Heidi, it's good to see you." Jack told her, barely audible, "It's been a while."

"Jack…" She nodded in acknowledgement, before leaving the room. As if they hadn't said a word, Mother Nature started the meeting.

Heidi's POV

As I wandered through the village, memories came flooding back. Some good, some bad, all painful to remember. The more I walked around, the more I had wanted to leave. I thought I might have been able to avoid Jack, he never showed up to anything on time. I heard from him from time to time. Whenever there was a new Santa, he'd leave me a note. I hadn't seen him though for centuries, not since before…

I sighed, disheartened at the memory, 'You couldn't show up on time for once?' I would never know why he didn't show up. I had my guesses why, but I wouldn't know for sure. From what I knew he had been delayed by his father, but I didn't think I should believe anything coming from Krampus' lips. Especially since he said it right before trapped me in a snow globe. I looked down, it was time to go. I closed my eyes and let my magic transport me to wherever it deemed fit, I didn't care where I went as long as it wasn't here.

When I opened my eyes, I was somewhere in the desert. I shrugged, 'This'll do.' Using magic, I changed my outfit to something a little more fitting for the weather. 'Let's see which desert, I'm in.' I thought as I started to walk down the dune.

Sasha's POV

After leaving a note for Scott, letting him know that Bernard and I were eloping and heading to the tropics, and dropping Togo off with Curtis, we signed our marriage license, packed up a small bag each, and headed to the tropics.