"Oh," The Doctor breathed in relief, kissing El on the forehead, pulling her and Will into his arms. "You two are amazing!" He proudly ruffled the hair of both of them.

El laughed. "You don't need to tell me. I know I'm awesome."

"Sorry, cause, I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around it;" Mike rubbed his temples. "Did you drift a goddamn train across a frozen lake?"

"No." El replied. "I drifted a train across a frozen lake that was breaking apart."

"Hey, what about me?" Will asked. "Don't I get any credit?"

El rolled her eyes, looking at Mike. "I suppose Will gets a little bit of the credit too."

"I've been shoveling coal into this thing for the past three hours, damn skippy I get some credit!"

The Doctor put his hands over Clara's ears. "Little ears, you lot, come on!"

"Sorry." Will apologized.

"…I missed you." Mike said to El. "Every day for-"

"353 days." The girl adjusted her overalls. "I know."

"…you knew?" Mike asked, a bit hurt. "Why didn't you respond?"

"Hopper wouldn't let me."

"…Oh, that piece of shit!"

"Hey!" The Doctor lightly smacked Mike on the arm. "Language!"

"No!" Mike turned back. "Don't tell me to watch my language! He had her locked away in there for almost a year! He hid her from us! From me!"

"He was doing the right thing." The Doctor replied.

"Why should you care!?" Mike shot back. "You know, for being her 'dad,' you're a pretty shitty excuse for one! You leave her in the care of a strung-out cop, appear out of nowhere, then run off with her and my friend! How do I even know you're her dad!? You could be one of those… freaks! Using her!"

The Doctor's look got steely. "Michael Wheeler, I'm not going to raise my voice at you, or get angry… but you have no idea what you're talking about, and if you insinuate anything of the sort again, I'll throw you off this train myself, for real next time."

"Guys," Will stepped in, "Why don't we all just… calm down?" He suggested. "We've got…" He looked to El, the girl checking a map.

"Not long now." She replied.

"It won't be long 'til we get there, so how about you all hold those thoughts, and we can talk shop when this is done?" Will looked between them. "Sound good?"

Mike looked to Will, before sighing, and nodding. "Sounds good."

"Doctor?"

The Time Lord held his hands up. "I am perfectly content to talk about this later." He looked to Mike and Clara. "Come on, you two. Back to the passenger car. We don't want the others to start harping about special treatment…"


The train bent, like no ordinary train should bend, as it climbed up around the outer rim of a mountain, the night moon bathing the train and the snow around it in a heavenly glow, almost as if the train itself was a chariot of the gods.

"Watch your step, watch your step." The Doctor warned as they walked on the top of the tender. "It's tricky walking up here, it's slick, slickety, slick!"

Mike screamed, as he suddenly slipped, about to fall off the side, before the Doctor grabbed him, pulling him back up.

"There we go! What did I tell you?" He rhetorically asked, once Mike's feet were planted.

Mike looked to the Doctor, swallowing his pride and his outburst from earlier. "Thanks."

"You know what, it was my first run on this train…" He regaled the other two.

"First run?" Mike repeated. "You've done this before?"

"Well, no. But I was on this train and it was icy, so same difference. I was up on the roof, making my rounds, when I slipped on the ice myself! I reached out for a hand-on, but it broke off, I slipped and fell, and yet!" He pointed, setting foot onto the ladder on the back of the tender, looking the other two dead in their eyes. "I did not fall off this train."

"Someone saved you?" Clara asked.

"Or something." The Doctor corrected.

"…An Angel." The girl guessed.

"…Maybe." The Doctor granted, beginning to climb down.

"Well, what did he look like?" Mike asked, frantically climbing down after the Doctor, guessing that the same kind hobo who'd saved them before was also the one who 'saved' the Doctor. "Did you see him?"

"Not at all!" The Doctor replied, handing Mike his lamp as he helped Clara down from the ladder.

"Then… how'd you know something was there?" Mike responded.

"Welp, seeing is believing, but sometimes, the most real things in this universe, are the things we can't see." The Doctor offered his wisdom, taking the lamp back. "I'd like to see someone argue with me about gravity on that front…" He mumbled, opening the door to the next carriage.


After passing through the kitchen car, then the dining car, they came up on a car stuffed to the brim with what looked like junk toys.

"Ah, the forsaken, and the abandoned…" The Doctor quietly said, almost mournfully. "Watch your step, you two, these… these poor toys have suffered enough, being left to rust and decay in the back alleys and vacant lots of the world." He took great care to step over the old, junked toys, treating them with the same respect as one would treat the dead.

"What are they all doing here?" Mike asked, looking at an old tinker toy lying on the seat.

"It's something the big man came up with." The Doctor answered. "Instead of making all new toys, we gather up the old ones the ungrateful kids of the world treat like trash, and we fix 'em up, good as new, to be given to another kid, hopefully one that would be a lot kinder to it. Why, there was this one dollhouse that I'm proud of… Bigger on the inside! My handiwork."

"It makes me want to cry…" Clara picked up a doll that looked like it'd been buried out in the dirt. "Seeing toys that've been treated this way."

"Ah, but that's the thing. Some people, they just don't care." The Doctor sighed. "All they see from Christmas is a day of free stuff… But, that's why we do this." The Doctor continued, turning back around. "For every bad egg in the world… There's another, who despite everything that has been thrown at them, is absolutely deserving of a little bit of good faith." He let out a grunt as he ducked under an old puppet hanging from the ceiling. "These old string puppets and marionettes pose a particular problem. But, Santa found that the tiny fingers of his workforce at the old North Pole was perfect for getting out all the knots and tangles, hold this." The Time Lord asked, handing the lamp off to Mike. "Thank you."

"So, Santa Claus is real?" Mike skeptically asked.

The Doctor glanced at him as he tried to pry the door. "And now you know why we went on the roof instead of just going through the cars…" He muttered as the door stuck. "But yes, of course he's real."

"Bullshit."

"Excuse me?"

"If Santa Claus is real, then why don't the parents get suspicious about presents appearing overnight without them doing it?" Mike questioned.

"Because," The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Santa doesn't leave gifts for every child, every year. He rotates out the list, gives one or two, then it's up to the parents to pick up the slack." The door finally slid open, and the Doctor took the lamp, walking through.

The three jumped the gap into the passenger car, moving through.

"Hey, you missed it!" Glasses jumped out of nowhere. "We rode down some really sharp hills! And then we were on what looked like a frozen lake," Mike looked to Clara and the Doctor, the two suddenly having vanished like Batman. "But I know it was just an optical illusion caused by moonlight and atmosphere!" Looking around, Mike searched for either one of the two. "He said the train was actually on the ice, but I said that was impossible! Because you can't put train tracks-" Mike saw the girl standing with the shy little boy from earlier in the observation car and decided to investigate. "Hey, where're you going now!?"


Mike stepped into the observation car, and Clara, who noted his arrival, motioned for him to keep it down. The shy boy was on the rear platform, staring up into the night sky, and singing to himself despondently.

The shy kid stopped, and Clara picked up the next verse, the boy turning around, surprised. Mike didn't catch the full thing, but, in short, it seemed to him that the shy boy shared a depressing opinion about Christmas, and Clara was the opposite, singing about the holiday's positives, the people coming together, not merely for presents, but to be together, rejoicing that they'd made it through another year…

…he did have to admit, it was a good song. But what was it about this train that caused people to belt out into song?

Clara gasped, as ribbons of glowing green, blue, and pink particles streamed in the sky. "Look!"

"The Northern Lights!" Mike recognized, running out onto the platform to get a better look.

"Aurora Borealis!" The Doctor came striding into the car. "You three, we've just crossed it! Latitude 66 degrees, 33 minutes, the Arctic Circle!" He came to join them on the platform. "And do you see?" He turned, pointing at something far, far away in the ice. "Those lights in the distance… They look like the lights of a strange ocean liner, sailing on a frozen sea… There…" He turned back to them with an excited smile, as up ahead, the train did a sharp turn, whistle blowing as it headed directly toward the lights. "Is the North Pole!"

Clara looked like she was ready to jump up and down, and even Mike found an excited gasp exiting his mouth.


Up in the locomotive, El released the pull cord for the whistle with a smile on her face as she turned to Will. "Ready?"

"…I'm not doing it."

"Come on!" El hopped. "Please?" She begged.

"No."

"But you promised!"

Will looked at her and sighed. Hard to resist the person who saved your life. "…augh! Fine! But you'd better not be recording this!"

"I'm not." El smiled mischievously. She took a deep breath, and waited for Will, before both of them broke out into song.

"She's a magic carpet on a rail,
Never takes a rest!
Flying through the mountains and the snow,
Ride for free and join the fun,
If you just say yes!
'Cause that's the way things happen,
On the Polar Express!"

The Polar Express huffed and puffed as it chugged down the winding, brick path to the North Pole, the great many lights of the city shining like a beacon in the frozen tundra. The whistle blared loudly as the train took the bend, signaling those in the city of its approach.

"Wooo wooo the whistle blows,
That's the sound of her singing!
Ding ding the bell will ring,
Golly look at her go!"

As the train passed into the North Pole proper, the children inside (including Mike, for though he wasn't strictly a child, he felt as giddy as a little girl upon seeing his surroundings) excitedly darted around, looking at the brickwork and arches that appeared to belong to an old train station.

"You wonder if you'll get there soon,
Anybody's guess!
'Cause that's the way things happen,
On the Polar Express!"

The train came to ground level, whistle blowing as it proceeded down the streets of the North Pole, towards what could only be assumed to be the town square.

"When we get there we'll scream, 'Yay!'
We'll arrive with a bang bang bang,
Boom boom boom,
Laughing all the way!"

"We made it!" The Doctor laughed, leaning out of the side of the train. "Five minutes to go, and we made it!" He pumped his fist triumphantly. "HA! Ha ha!" He looked around, a big grin on his face, as he stepped back inside.


"There should be elves…" Clara muttered, looking out the window. "Where are all the elves?"

"Yeah," Mike wondered. "Where are they?"

"They are gathering in the center of the city." The Doctor answered, stepping back into the car. "That is where Santa will give the first gift of Christmas."

"Ooh!" Glasses kid shot up. "Who gets the first gift of Christmas!?"

The Doctor looked around. "He'll choose one of you."

"Look!" A little girl pointed out the window, as the train began to slow down.

"Elves!" Another hollered.

Outside the train, a legion of elves, what must have been hundreds, thousands, the entire population of the city, all marched in the same direction, some doing twirls, others doing cartwheels, as they moved into the square.

So many elves, in fact, the train slowed to a crawl, moving at the same speed as Santa's helpers.

When the Polar Express could go no further, it came to a full stop, the whistle blaring loudly.


"All right, ladies and gentlemen, two columns if you please!" The Doctor instructed, leading the children off the train. "Shorter in the front, taller in the rear…"

Mike looked around in childlike wonder, unable to believe he was actually at the North Pole. Whatever his mind was cooking up… it was amazing.

"Even numbered birthdays on the right, odd numbered on the left. No pushing!" The Doctor evidently chided someone. "No pushing, but let's not dilly-dally, it's five minutes to midnight!"

"Hey, what gives!?" Glasses demanded. "It was five minutes to midnight four minutes ago!"

The Doctor snapped his fingers, pointing at the boy. "Exactly!" He walked over to Mike and Clara. "Columns of two, one, two."

"Excuse me?" Clara asked.

"Yes?" The Doctor tilted his head.

"What about him?" Clara asked, pointing to the boy in the observation car.

The Doctor glanced over quickly and looked back. "No one is required to see Santa." He turned around, walking back to the front of the line. "Ladies and gents, you don't have to hold hands, but stay together! I don't want to have to explain to your mums and dads why their kids are lost at the north pole!"

Clara turned to Mike. "Come on!" She motioned for him to follow, running back over to the train. She climbed up first, and Mike followed.

The boy's foot slipped, slamming against a metal bar that gave way, but he quickly recovered, going to join Clara.