Hi everyone! Sorry it's been a little while. I took a break after I posted the last chapter to work on something from a different fandom, but I'm back now! Thanks to everyone who reviewed or even just read the last chapter and thank you for waiting so patiently these last two months. I also wanted to say, to everyone who's in those places with the dangerously high temperatures, I hope you're staying safe.

Real quick, I wanted to let you know there is a tiny mention of alcohol in this chapter. Like, one sentence tiny. But still, I thought I'd let you know. :)

I'll let you guys get to reading now. If you want, let me know what you think of this chapter. If not, just sit back and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Santa Clause movies.

8. July '96

The smell of charcoal lingers in the air, heavy and smoky, and mixes with the acrid stench leftover from fireworks. It's late enough that it's finally dark outside. A rather large bug smacks and buzzes against the porch light. The air is sticky with humidity, the evening heat beating down on the people crowded into the Miller's backyard. Scott leans back in the patio chair he's sitting in, a crack in the plastic pinching his back. On the table in front of him is a half eaten plate of food; torn pieces of bread from a hot dog bun, a few spoonfuls of Laura's potato salad that everyone loves so much, and the remnants of a corn cob. There's a small, damp circle on his jeans underneath where he's perched his lemonade glass. He's spent the better part of the last few minutes staring at the condensation and watching the ice melt in his drink. He lifts it up and places the glass against his forehead, shivering just a little as the cold touches his skin.

"Scott?"

He peers up at Neil, who looks very different in his bright floral button down with the rolled up short sleeves and a pair of faded blue jeans. His curls could rival Bernard's for how springy and wild they look right now. Despite knowing him for a couple years, Scott had never paid too much attention to the man before these last several months. A part of him always assumed Neil only ever wore those thick, colorful, chunky sweaters and sweater vests, even in the middle of summer. It's strange to see him in something else.

"Hey, Neil."

"Did you enjoy the fireworks?"

"I did, yea. Thanks for inviting me."

Last month, after Scott had taken Charlie home from the North Pole after his birthday party, Laura and Neil had surprised Scott with the invite to their annual Fourth of July barbecue. Well, surprised may not be the best word for it. They actually invite him every year. But after the first one, right after the Miller's wedding, where Laura and Scott had spent the entire time trading thinly veiled jabs with each other and just basically making the whole evening uncomfortable for everyone— he'd refused the offer to come. Until this year. Laura and Neil would not take no for an answer, saying they were a family and families spent holidays together. Scott was actually really touched by how much they wanted to include him. It's such a far cry from how the three of them used to be— stilted conversations at parent teacher meetings and soccer games or the days he and Laura only talked with insults and arguing. It felt nice that they were able to spend time together, especially since it made Charlie so happy.

"There's still some sparklers left," Neil says, flopping down into the seat beside Scott. He has a beer bottle in one hand and he sluggishly copies Scott by placing it against his face to try and cool off. "Charlie wants you to light some with him."

"Oh yea? Sounds fun." He goes to heft himself out of his chair, but is stopped by Neil.

"Actually… Laura and I wanted to tell you something first."

"Okay… what is it?"

Neil turns and waves. Scott finally notices Laura, who was not-so-subtly lingering around the steps to the back porch. She's nervously picking at her fingernails as she walks up to join them at the patio table. She sits beside her husband, grabbing his hand and sharing a smile with him. Scott sets his drink on the table, feeling like whatever they're about to say deserves his full attention.

"Well," Laura starts. "We thought- and we've already told my mom and Neil's parents. We told Charlie too and he's really excited- but we thought, because you're family too, we should be the ones to tell you- unless someone's already let you know? I told my mom not to say anything because we wanted to do it, but you know how she gets when she's excited-"

"Laura, point?" Neil laughs.

"Right. Um, well... Neil and I are going to have a baby."

She says this with happy tears gathering in her eyes. Scott blinks, not quite sure he heard her right, but then he sees the tears and the smile overtaking her face, and recognizes it as the same look she had when she first found out Charlie would be coming along.

"Congratulations!" he exclaims, hopping up so he can pull Laura to her feet and give her a big hug. She laughs as she returns the gesture and then pulls away so Neil can hug Scott as well. The two men give each other hearty pats on the back. He pulls away and looks over to where his son is standing with some other kids from the neighborhood. "So, Charlie's excited?"

"Oh yea. He ran around all afternoon yelling about how he was going to be a big brother when we told him." Laura says.

Neil hums, amused at the memory. "We asked him not to tell you so we could. I'm surprised he never said anything, though. He really wanted you to know."

They chitchat for a bit longer, Laura mentioning how she is going to have to pull all of Charlie's old baby stuff down from the attic, before Scott's attention is grabbed by his son yanking on his arm. He waves bye to the other adults and then goes to light sparklers with the boy. Scott laughs as Charlie runs around, drawing shapes and letters with the brightly colored sparks. The air fills with that acrid smell again and Scott brushes smoke away from his eyes, watching as his own firework burns down to the end and goes out with a hiss. He smiles when his son hands him another and thinks, not for the first time, that he wishes he'd have accepted all those invites over the years. This was a good day.

He stays the night at the Miller's since they have family counseling the next morning, and he has a meeting with Louie right after. Counseling goes great. Dr. Sanchez is happy to hear they were able to spend an evening together as a family and Charlie tells her all about the birthday party his dad threw for him- omitting any details that might sound too magical, like having elves as guests or it taking place up at the North Pole. Afterwards, he tells the others he'll meet them back home for an early dinner, since Bernard will be picking him up that night. He walks down the street to Louie's office. When he enters, he's greeted by the same woman with the freckly face. He takes a seat, grabbing a People magazine off the table in front of him and flipping through the pages. About fifteen minutes later, Louie walks out of his office, laughing with a middle-aged couple. Scott can't help but smile at the man's choice in clothing today; a pink button up shirt with little green palm trees and a yellow tie with a smiling sun wearing sunglasses. Louie bids them farewell and then turns to Scott.

"Scott!" the older man says cheerily, walking over to shake his hand. "How was your Fourth?"

"Good, good. Went to Laura and Neil's barbecue. How was yours?"

"Oh, just fine. The kids came up to see me and the missus. Loretta spent the whole time spoiling our grandson."

Scott laughs, "sounds great. I know it's been a while since you've gotten to see him. How old is he now?"

"Just turned four."

Scott feels a little warmth of magic prick at the back of his neck as he pictures his friend's grandson, Matthew. A spunky kid who loves spending time with his dad, and as of right now headed straight for the Nice list. "So, you said you wanted to meet with me since I was in town?"

"Yea," Louie rubs at his balding head. "Follow me into my office so we can talk in private."

They walk into the office, Louie shutting the door behind them with a sharp click. Scott takes a seat while the older man lowers himself into his chair on the other side of the desk. Louie fidgets with some papers, stacking them neatly and then stuffing them into an overfilled filing cabinet beside him. Scott lets him stall as long as he wants. It's obvious there's something his friend needs to say to him, but doesn't want to.

"Okay," Louie starts when there's nothing left to clean up. "I could have just told you this over the phone, but you said you were coming down in your last message so I figured it could wait a day or two until I saw you."

"What could wait?" Scott asks.

"Well... you know how I showed that couple your house on the second?"

"Yea?"

Louie sighs. "Scott, they... they aren't interested in buying anymore. Sorry."

"Oh," he says, playing with his beard. "Did they not like the townhouse?"

"No, they loved it at first. But..."

"But?"

"Well, we were standing outside talking after the showing. I had to go run to my car to grab something, when one of your old neighbors showed up. I'm not sure what exactly she said to them, all I know is it had something to do with what happened during the holidays last year. The couple said something about... about buying from a criminal and that they weren't interested anymore. I'm really sorry."

Scott sits there, mouth open, not knowing what to say but knowing he probably should say something. A criminal? He wasn't a criminal! He'll admit a thousand times that, yes, the whole misunderstanding last year was his fault. But if Laura, Neil, and him were fine with it why couldn't the rest of the world be? He wonders which neighbor it was, and then thinks about how it could have been any of them. It's not like he knew them all that well. He'd never taken the time to.

"I see," is what he finally says.

Louie sighs again and gives him a pitying look. "I feel awful. I should have mentioned something to them before anyone else got the chance to. You know, told them how it was a big misunderstanding that got out of hand. I just didn't think anyone would go gossiping about it.

"It's okay, Louie. It's not your fault." Scott mumbles.

"Hey, now. Don't get too worried. I'll find another buyer soon! And I won't let nosy neighbors mess things up for us again. Trust me."

Scott manages a small grin. "I trust you, Louie."

He tries to hide how upset he is from Charlie and the others when the taxi drops him off back home. They eat dinner, eggplant parmesan prepared by Neil, and then Scott passes the next couple hours playing board games with Charlie until Bernard comes to get him. He knows the elf can tell something is wrong when they teleport back to the North Pole, but he seems to get that Scott doesn't want to talk about it. They part ways and Bernard heads down to the workshop floor while Scott retreats to his bedroom, feeling haggard even though he hadn't done much today.

The next day, after breakfast and several hours helping the elves on the Main Floor, Scott goes to his office to look over some designs for toy airplanes, and to get a moment to himself before he meets with Bernard. He doesn't know how to feel about yesterday. In the pit of his stomach he's nauseous and hurt. It seems like the more time that passes, the more he realizes how he's messed things up. He thought he could take whatever it was, as long as Charlie wasn't affected. But Charlie has had to deal with it all year so far, and now things are getting worse for him too. Are Laura and Neil going through this too, because they forgave him so easily? They haven't said anything about it. But maybe that's not because it hasn't happened, but because they want to spare Scott's feelings.

He walks into the room and finds Jack Frost sitting in his chair, some of his letters in one hand and his feet propped up on his desk.

"Can I help you, Jack?" he asks, annoyed.

"Santa!" Jack greets him cheerily, eyes briefly glancing up from the letter he's reading. "Took you forever to get up here. I've already read through your mail twice now."

"Why are you reading my mail at all?" Scott grumbles as he walks over to snatch the paper away. Jack lets it go without a fight, smirking up at the other Legendary Figure.

"I had to find something to do while I waited. It's so boring up here. How do you deal with it?"

He ignores that question. "Why are you here?"

"Dropped by on official business. Mother Nature insisted I make myself useful, so, here I am. The messenger boy for the Legendary Council."

He doesn't seem too pleased about it. Jack's nose wrinkles in distaste as he says the words. Scott finally notices a large envelope sitting on the desk by the other man's feet. There's a small pool of dirty, half-melted snow staining it. He grabs it and flips it over to see his name written on the front in a handwriting he doesn't recognize.

"What is this?"

"You know," Jack says in an evasive way, not answering Scott's question. He reaches over and grabs an old memo from Titus up in the Tower, something about one of the radios being on the fritz. Scott remembers it was fixed last week, he just hadn't thrown the note away yet. "I've always liked to stop by here from time to time, see how the big guy is doing. I am your opening act, after all. I get half the world ready for Christmas. Snow covered streets, icicles hanging from rooftops and tree branches, frost covered windows- all me. Imagine the shock I had when I realized how far behind the pole is this year."

"What do you mean 'behind'?"

"Well, I've dealt with my fair share of Santas and they all had a lot more done this time of year. Makes me wonder if you'll be ready come Christmastime."

Scott's hands tighten around the envelope. His stomach is squirming again, but instead of the heavy guilty feeling he's had all day, it's nerves. Ones, if he's honest with himself, he's been trying to ignore since last Christmas, when he fully stepped into his new role. "What-"

"Enough with the lies, Jack. If you're just here to cause trouble, leave."

Both Legendary Figure's gazes snap towards the door. Bernard is standing there, a large mail bag slung over one shoulder, his mouth a hard line. He's looking past his boss to the other man, staring at him with a look that could turn you to stone. Jack grumbles something under his breath and then finally gets up out of the chair.

"Well, since the kill joy has arrived, I suppose I'll take my leave."

"Hold on," Scott says, waving the envelope in the air. "You haven't told me what this is or what the 'official business' you had with me was."

Jack sighs. He's clearly annoyed with Bernard showing up. Scott wonders why the two of them dislike each other so much. "That is some reports from Tooth Fairy and Sandman. Tooth Fairy's annual meeting is soon so Mother Nature wanted to make sure you weren't too busy to come. I'm supposed to tell you it's on the twentieth of this month."

"Tooth has his own meeting? I thought you had to be in charge of a holiday for that."

"Used to be that way, but our current Mother Nature decided the non-holiday Legendary Figures should have their own dedicated meeting as well. It's at Tooth Fairy's home every year. Which reminds me, he wants you to bring your little elf over there to take minutes."

Jack sneers at Bernard when he says the word "elf." Bernard's face sours and Scott can already hear the retort his friend wants to make, so he claps Jack on the shoulder and starts pushing him towards the door before the boy gets a chance. Whether Frost deserves it or not, Scott doesn't want Bernard getting in trouble for mouthing off to Jack. "Well, tell Mother Nature I'll be there. You can find your own way out, right?"

Jack doesn't answer, he just pushes past Bernard, knocking into the boy's shoulder and making him drop the bag of mail. Bernard bites his tongue and watches him walk away. After a few awkward moments of the boy just staring down the hallway, Scott clears his throat. Bernard turns his way at the noise and says, "don't listen to him."

"About what? The meeting?"

"No. What he said about us being behind, it's not true."

Scott rubs at the back of his neck. "Really?"

"Yes. We're doing fine. He's just trying to cause trouble. Like he always does."

"Okay." A part of Scott doesn't believe Bernard, and it's the same part that's been worried all year that he's actually doing a bad job. But he pushes that little piece of his mind away and gives the elf a smile. "What do you say we get started on those letters?"

Two weeks later, Bernard teleports the two of them down to a beautiful forest in Oregon. The path they're standing on is a little over grown and heavily shaded. The woodsy scent of the trees surrounding them reminds Scott of all the times he went camping with his dad when he was a kid. Bernard leads him down hill, rounding a turn with thick brush until finally the path levels out. Scott runs his hand along some trees with strange symbols carved into their trunks, feeling the carefully cut grooves and marveling at the magic buzzing underneath his fingertips. "What are these?"

"Hm," the Head Elf says absentmindedly. "Oh, they're runes."

"Runes?"

"Yea. The fairies use them for protection and to keep this place hidden. This area isn't really anywhere near any hiking trails, but there's still a chance someone might stumble upon it, so they use them to sort of... ward them off?"

"And it works?"

"For the most part, unless they're in tune with the supernatural in any way. Believing is seeing, so if you believe in magic, the runes have no effect because you can see what they're doing."

"That... I'm confused. Wouldn't they work better against people who believed in magic?"

Bernard grins. "You'd think. To be honest, and don't you dare tell her I said this or I'll get an earful, but I think the Head Fairy did them wrong when she put them up. They only work at keeping away people who don't believe in magic. If anything, they seem to draw in people who do."

Scott looks back at the tree, where his hand is now pressed flat against one of the carvings. He can definitely agree that he was drawn to it when he first saw it. It almost feels like the buzzing of a beehive beneath the bark. He doesn't want to take his hand away.

"Let's go or we'll be late," Bernard says, gently grabbing Scott's arm and tugging him along the path again. They push through some bushes and finally find themselves in a more open area, near a shining, clear lake. There's a large house— more like a mansion, actually— near the water with pristine white walls and big, round columns lining the porch. The front of the building has nearly a dozen windows, all with matching pale blue shutters and open to let in the summer air, the ones on the first floor with window boxes overflowing with dainty flowers. An outside chandelier hangs from the roof. It's made of brass and shaped like an orb, the metal in thin intricate loops around the glass ball that covers the bulb.

At the front of the house is a huge hawthorn tree. They have to stoop under its branches to get to the front steps. The foliage is thick, with beautiful white flowers hanging all around them. Unfortunately, that's the only thing nice about them. Scott brings a hand up to cover his mouth and nose. The flowers stink, like musk and rot. Bernard doesn't seemed bothered by it. He stops to look at some wind chimes and fairy lights weaved throughout the leaves. The bell like noise that echoes from them with the breeze is calming, but also a little eerie. It might be pretty, but Scott honestly wants to get away from the tree as fast as possible. He steers the Head Elf away, leading him up the steps and through the large double doors.

"Coming through!" shrieks a high pitched voice to his right as soon as he steps foot inside. He and Bernard duck just in time as a group of winged people go flying by. Scott catches a glimpse of them as they take off into another room. They couldn't have been more than six inches tall and their wings had the same bright pattern as a blue morpho butterfly.

He stands back up when he thinks he's safe and takes in Tooth's home. All the furniture is heavy, dark wood and from what he can see from the entrance the walls of each room are painted a different color. There are house plants covering every table and stand and some tall ones reaching Scott's shoulders in large ceramic pots near the doors to the other rooms. There's also six bird perches in the foyer alone and he can easily guess as to why.

Fairies are whizzing passed in every direction- some carrying tiny velvet sacks, others just seem to be playing around, chasing their friends. Not all of them have wings. Some are wingless, perched on small birds so they can fly. One on a blue jay swoops down and lands on the elf's shoulder.

"Bernard!" She shouts excitedly. Her voice sounds like the wind chimes outside.

"Hi Cowrie," the boy smiles.

"Oddie said you were coming today. I thought he was lying."

"No, no, I came with my boss. We're here for the meeting. It upstairs like usual?"

Cowrie nods her head. "Yep. You're the last ones here, I think. You should get a move on before the others realize it's you that's here. You'll never make it up the steps if you don't!"

Cowrie lets out a big laugh at her joke and then takes off on her bird. Scott watches the fairy go, wondering what she meant by that. He opens his mouth to ask Bernard, but the elf is already walking up the stairs across the entrance. Scott hurries after him, thinking he'll ask him later, if he remembers.

Tooth greets them happily when they enter the room for the meeting. After thanking the boy for taking minutes, he directs Bernard over to a desk by the window and leads Scott over to an antique looking couch with blue velvet cushions. They sit down together as Mother Nature stands to start the meeting. Scott notices Jack Frost isn't here again. The only mention of the Legendary Figure is when Mother Nature hands out copies of a report on the southern hemisphere's winter season that the man had shipped to Tooth's house two days before the meeting. He wonders why Jack skips out on them so often. So far this year, he's only been to one. He's distracted from his thoughts when Sandman wakes with a snort, almost falling out of the chair he'd been dozing in. Mother Nature sighs, but then asks the man to start on his own report. After a huge yawn, he does so.

Three hours later, Scott finds himself standing in the foyer of Tooth's home, waiting for his Head Elf. There'd been a lot to cover during the meeting. Sandman had told them there was an uptick of nightmares happening in children over the last month, but he'd said it wasn't anything to be concerned about yet. Tooth had tried to convince the other Legendary Figures that the name "Tooth Fairy" was outdated, and he should pick a new one. Scott had sided with the man, thinking it couldn't hurt to switch things up, but the others had all said no. Mother Nature had to go over both her reports on the summer season and Jack's winter season notes. After all that, Scott was ready to go home and take a break.

But by the way things were going, that might not be happening any time soon. Scott looks over at Bernard, who's standing in the doorway of another room, over a dozen fairies fluttering around him or perching on his shoulders. Scott feels his mouth tilting up into a grin. Bernard's face is as red as his shirt. He doesn't know what the fairies are saying, but whatever it is has the boy flustered. Tooth comes over to stand beside Scott and watch the Head Elf as well.

"You know, this was the other reason I asked you to bring Bernard over with you. My fairies just love getting to see him."

"No kidding," Scott chuckles as he watches one fairy start to play with the elf's curls. "They can't get enough of him."

"You should see the fuss Celeste makes over him when she's around. It's a shame she's so busy today."

"Celeste?"

"The Head Fairy. She's got a lot of work today, so she couldn't come say hello. Otherwise you might have had to stay for dinner. There's no way she would have let Bernard go without getting to spend at least a couple hours with him."

"Really?" Scott says. Bernard finally manages to escape the fairies and walk over to hiss boss, calling out an enthusiastic goodbye to the other magical creatures. His hair is in knots where they'd been playing with it and his cheeks are still a little flushed. Scott smirks at him. "Took you long enough, Casanova."

Bernard sticks his tongue out at him. "Ready to go?"

"I've been ready."

Tooth snorts at them. "Well, see you guys later. Thanks for the help, Bernard."

Bernard whisks them away a moment later. They land right outside Scott's office. He thanks the elf and then turns to enter the room. He stops though when he notices another huge bag of letters sitting outside the door, some spilling out of the top and onto the floor.

"I told Letitia to tell the guys at the post office to be more careful with these!" Bernard grumbles, kneeling down to scoop the letters off the floor.

Scott runs a hand down his face. "I don't think I've gotten through the last bag you brought up yet."

Bernard pauses and looks up to face him. "You okay, boss? You've seemed kind of... off lately."

"I'm fine." Scott lies. The elf frowns. It's obvious he doesn't believe him, so Scott shrugs and gives him a more truthful answer. "I'm just feeling a little overwhelmed. Plus things haven't been going so well with trying to sell my house."

"I thought you had someone who was going to buy it?"

"They backed out. I'm sure Louie can find someone else who wants it. It's just stressing me out, is all."

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that." Bernard says, getting to his feet and heaving the bag up into his arms. Scott opens the door for him and lets him walk through first so he can drop it into one of the chairs by the desk. "If it helps, you're doing a great job with things on this end so far."

Scott snorts. "Really? That's not what I've heard."

"Is this about what Jack said to you? I told you, don't listen to him. We're fine."

"Are we though?" Scott slumps into his chair, face turned up towards the ceiling.

"Yes. I wouldn't lie to you."

Scott turns his head so he's looking at the elf instead. He wonders if that's true. He thinks it is. Scott's never worked with somebody who seemed to be completely on his side. At the toy company, even though they were working together for the business, it was still a competition to do the best work and get the most clients. He'd never say then that he trusted them to not lie.

"Why are you so supportive?"

Bernard tilts his head, confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're like my own personal cheerleader. Why?"

"Well, I don't know if I'd call myself a cheerleader," the boy scoffs, "but it's my job to be."

"So, you don't really mean it?"

"Of course I mean it, boss. Look," Bernard sits down across from him and looks him right in the eye. "If I didn't think you were doing a good job, I wouldn't be trusting you to do all this yourself. I'd just start doing it all on my own. But you are. I know it feels like a lot, but it's just because this is your first time up here all year. You'll get used to it. Trust me."

The elf means every word. Scott can feel it. He smiles at the boy, feeling just a little bit better. "I do. Thanks, buddy."

"Anytime. Now, ready to get some actual work done, or do you need another pep talk?"

"Har, har. Just pass me an envelope and let's get started."