Holiday Crisis
By: Shmeilia Rockie
Chapter 11: The Emergency Clause

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A/N: Oh, ya know, I couldn't have a Santa Clause fic without there actually being a clause in it. So here ya goo. Remember, I own my charas, but I don't own the original SC charas. Wish I did, but I don't. Got that?

To Crystal Millennium: I figured that there couldn't be a Mrs. Claus without a Mr. Claus. So if he disappeared, so would she. Where did the Mrs. Claus go when Santa fell off the roof and Scott took over? If you can successfully answer that question, I'll give you an imaginary cookie. I don't know! This is a fic, for Christmas' sake. I can go on pure speculation if I want to. Isn't that okay? And in answer to your question about Charlie...READ ON! All will be explained.

To everyone: Enjoy!

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"My cat! Where's my cat? Don't tell me you just LEFT him there!" April shook Destiny violently. "I want my TINSEL!"

"Calm down, there, you high strung little human woman!" Maigri pried April's fingers off of her own daughter's neck. He unzipped his over shirt and handed her the cat, which'd been sleeping quite peacefully. "I have your Tinsel right here."

"TINSEL! Oh, my baby!" She rubbed her face in his fluffy fur. "I thought you were gone for good!" After she'd hugged the life out of the cat, she turned to Maigri and demanded, "Why did you have my cat in your shirt?"

He frowned. "Your welcome."

"I-I invited him over." Destiny cleared her throat. "Ya know, since he couldn't come to the wedding. And when the attack hit, I didn't even think about Tinsel. But I guess he did."

Bernard threw her a questioning look. She shrugged it off.

"Well, thank you, Maigri." April curtsied. "That was so very uncharacteristically sweet of you."

"Let's just say you owe me big. Okay?" But he couldn't keep the smile from playing at the corners of his mouth. That stupid warm feeling just wouldn't go away. In fact it was starting to infect his very soul. Ack, blasted niceness! Oh well...

Bernard turned to Destiny and asked quietly, "How much longer will we be traveling before we reach our destination?"

She looked at the computer screen in front of her. "About two hours, if we keep going at this rate."

He nodded and his tone turned grim. "And what are we going to do about our sudden lack of a Santa?"

"I don't know, Bernard. I just don't know." She bit her lip.

A great silence hung in the air of the control room, in which everyone took off their hats and mourned the passing of the greatest Santa the world had ever known. After a minute, Curtis cleared his throat and said heavily, "I guess it's time to invoke the Emergency Clause."

The whole room (which besides Curtis, currently consisted of the pilot, Bernard, April, Maigri, Judy, Abby and Destiny) chorused, "The Emergency Clause?"

He took a deep breath, twisted his hat nervously and spoke up. "The Emergency Clause basically states that if something should happen to Santa and no one reads the card and takes his place, either the Regent or Head Elf may nominate a replacement."

Destiny and Bernard looked at each other for a few moments and agreed in unison, "Charlie."

Just then, the door opened and Merope entered, shaking her head. "Don't count on it, guys. I'm afraid Charlie's snapped."

* * * *

"I just don't know what to do, Bernard." Danielle whispered and threw a glance at the doors to a small room. Charlie sat in the corner, rocking slowly back and forth and crying into his father's robe. She grimaced painfully at the sight. "He won't even talk to me, and I'm his wife!"

"So...Nothing?"

"Well, he kept saying that it was all his fault. And when I tried to tell him that it wasn't, he became like this." She grabbed the sleeves of Bernard's shirt and looked frantically into his eyes. "Please help him...He's so sensitive, I'm afraid he'll loose his sanity if he stays this way much longer. His father meant the world to him, you know."

"Yes, I know." Bernard opened the door and hesitated. "I'm not very good at this..."

She smiled and rubbed her red eyes. "Good luck."

He took a deep breath and crossed the room to sit next to Charlie. The young man stopped rocking upon sensing the other presence in the room, but continued to sob into the dark red coat. Bernard took off his hat and ran his hand through his hair.

And waited.

Five minutes later, Charlie finally acknowledged his presence. "Well, aren't you going to say something?"

He looked down at his old friend. "No. Not unless you're ready to talk. Remember, I'm over three thousand years old; I can wait."

Charlie sat up and finally pulled his face away from the coat. His eyes were extremely bloodshot and swollen, but considering that he'd been crying for at least an hour straight, he looked pretty good. He sniffed and smoothed out the soft garment in front of him. "I...I was right there, Bernard. I watched it happen, and I-I couldn't stop it. They're both dead, and it's all my fault."

"You didn't actually physically kill them, did you?"

His eyes went wide. "Of course not!"

Bernard shrugged trying very hard not to think about what it must have been like. "Then it's not your fault. You did what you could."

"But..." He held out the robe as if presenting evidence.

"No buts, Charlie. You saved so many people today... Scott would be proud."

Charlie wiped his nose on his sleeve. "Really?"

Bernard smiled as best he could. "Yes. Hey, I'm proud of you. And there are about four or five Council members who are too, if you want to talk to them."

His eyes brightened just a little and the panic began to ease out of his voice. "How is everyone, by the way?"

"Bruised and broken, but okay. I think. I haven't really had time to look at the reports yet."

Charlie nodded, suddenly feeling a lot better. He sucked in a couple of deep, calming breaths. "Thanks, Bernard. Thanks for being here. You're a great friend."

Bernard winced. Here it came..."Actually, I'm here on business. I need to ask you something, and I know it's going to be hard for you, but..." He trailed off, realizing it was just too soon to ask him such a life-altering question. "I guess it can wait."

"N-no, what is it?"

Bernard looked him straight in the eye. "We need a replacement for Scott, and we need him by next week. Curtis told me that I have the power in this case to nominate someone for the position."

The pain came rushing back again, but Charlie managed to stay calm. He rubbed his eyes to keep the tears from spilling over. "Who do you have in mind?"

Bernard hesitated. "You, Charlie. I think you would be perfect for the job."

Charlie's mouth dropped open, as that statement hit home. He stared at Bernard dumbfounded. "I...I don't know what to say...Why me?"

"You're one of the only people on in the entire world who's believed in Santa all your life...You understand children better than most parents...All the elves love you...And I remember when you were little you wanted to take over the position when you were old enough. Well you're old enough, the position's open, and we need you-"

Charlie held up his hand. "Okay, enough reasons! I got it!" He stared at Bernard with something almost like contempt. This was just happening too quickly!

"You would be the youngest Santa ever, though. What are you now, eighteen?"

"Nineteen."

"You were born to be Santa, Charlie. You realize that, don't you?"

He buried his face in his hands and choked back another wave of panic. "Yes. I knew from the moment Dad put on the suit that I would inherit it one day. I just didn't think it would be so soon."

There was a long silence. Bernard chuckled quietly, earning a poisonous look from Charlie. He worked up a smile. "Oh, that first year just came to mind...I had to practically beat Scott over the head to make him understand, but you knew almost instinctually what he was supposed to do. I remember thinking, 'Sheesh, his kid is smarter than he is!' And it wasn't just a part of the Christmas magic, either. Normal kids don't know as much about Santa's job as you did. They just know if they're good, they can write a letter and leave out some cookies and milk, and Santa will give them what they want. Kids that age rarely understand the finer workings of his position, but you did. I saw the seed of something special in you, Charlie. That's why I gave you the snow globe in the first place. And since then...Forgive me for sounding overly poetic, but that seed has grown into the most beautiful sense of the Christmas Spirit I have ever seen."

Charlie also chuckled half-heartedly, not sure what to say to that. "Really? I thought you gave it to me just because you were a nice guy."

"Well, that too..." Bernard winked and nudged him in the ribs.

"Hey, ow!" Charlie laughed genuinely for the first time since the Crisis, and playfully punched Bernard in the arm. "Thanks, Bernard. I'll seriously consider it. Okay?"

The Head Elf stood up and looked down at the young man with almost a fatherly pride. "Remember, you only have a week to decide."

"Can I talk it over with my wife first?"

"Yes. I'm sure she'll gladly talk to you now that you're coherent." Bernard opened the door for Danielle and jerked his head in Charlie's direction. She touched his arm and mouthed a thank you before crossing the room to give Charlie a loving hug. He stared at them for a moment before deciding to check out how his own wife was doing.

He'd almost reached the elevator when Destiny announced over the intercom, "We will be docking in approximately five minutes."

At those words, he effected an immediate change of course and sharply turned a corner, now heading toward what he hoped was the unloading area. There he waited, greeting any other people who found their way through the maze of hallways. He tried not to worry too much about April and concentrate on his job, but it still bothered him greatly. What a way to spend his wedding day. If only he'd known what would happen...It would have been nice if Destiny had TOLD him what would happen, but it was very likely she didn't know in the first place. And even if she did tell him, he would have rescheduled and then it wouldn't happen, so there was no way she would have known about it because it wouldn't have happened that way...

Rules of time travel can give one quite the headache.

Destiny and Merope finally appeared on the scene, the latter leading a slightly disoriented April by the elbow. All three stopped and smiled at him in the weird annoying way they had when they had some kind of secret between them. It was probably just nerves, though. Destiny spoke to the clustered group of elves between them and Bernard. "Brace yourselves for landing!"

The ship rocked gently, jostled a bit against something, then settled to a complete stop. Destiny and Merope fought their way to the front of the pack. Destiny smoothed out her hair and looked nervously up at Bernard. "We'll stay here and guide the late comers, okay? You can go on ahead. We've already seen it, anyway."

He didn't hear her or the noisy elves, however. He was busy looking into April's glittering green eyes from across the room. She smiled her trademark smile and somehow he knew everything would be alright. Oh, how he longed to hold her...But business first, business first.

After a moment of impatient silence, the glass doors slid open. Before the group stood an incredibly tall, incredibly beautiful young, athletic woman with long silver hair (tied back), dressed in blue leather. Around her neck hung a rather large dog whistle. She smiled warmly and clapped her hands together, excitement showing in her eyes and her voice as she boomed, "Welcome to the moon, my home. I am Diana, and I will be your host. I hope you all enjoy your stay!"

All the elves looked at each other questioningly, but said nothing.

"Please follow me." The woman took off at a brisk pace with which the little people had quite a hard time matching. They traveled down a long, dimly lit, cramped tunnel for at least five minutes before coming to a set of thick steel doors.

Diana pushed a couple of buttons on the keypad next to the door, then waved and said something in Latin. The sound of gears turning vibrated the ground under their feet. Diana yelled over the noise. "Welcome, friends, to Holidayopolis!"

The doors rolled back, revealing a wall of a highly reflective sky blue gel-like substance, which seemed to be constantly in motion.

"Go ahead. Just walk through!" The tall woman shoved a group of frightened, tightly clustered elves through the portal. A loud slurping sound made everyone just a bit nervous, but before anyone could comment about it, she shoved some more into it.

"Bernard!" April jumped into his arms before he could even recognize who was speaking to him. She buried her face in his shirt. "I don't want to go anywhere without you!"

He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her. "Then don't! We're married now; we can do this together."

"This has been the craziest day, hasn't it? We couldn't even enjoy our after party!" She stepped back just enough to look into his eyes. She still looked kinda out of it, which made him very nervous. Tears bubbled up in her eyes. "I wish..."

He ran his fingers through her hair and lowered his voice to a gentle whisper. "I'm not happy about it either, but we can't go back. We can only move forward...And we still have our honeymoon to look forward to!"

She sniffed. "Yeah, in about a week. Most likely... You were married to your job long before you decided to take me for your wife."

"I'm sorry, April. I really am, but I AM the Head Elf..."

She sighed. "I know. I know. But there's Destiny...Why couldn't she handle things?"

He opened his mouth to reply, but another voice cut him off. "Oh, I can handle things, alright. You two go have fun."

"But there's too much to do-"

"NO!" Destiny pointed at Bernard's nose, clearly frustrated. "I'm above you and I'm ORDERING you to...To go sleep with your wife!" Then before he could argue, she bowed to Diana and stepped through the portal.

Diana made a disgusted face at the couple. "Well, you heard the girl. Take it somewhere else, please."

"But where...?"

The woman rolled her eyes. "Just go through the blasted portal! All will make itself clear after that. I promise. And hurry up, slowpokes. You're the last ones left!"

"Well, I guess we should get going, then." Bernard held out his arm to his bride. "Shall we?"

She slipped her arm through his. "Lead the way."

Once successfully on the other side, they literally ran into a mining car. Bernard, who'd been leading the way, toppled over the side onto a bench-like seat. April snorted and shoved his feet inside before opening the side door and calmly stepping inside.

Bernard righted himself in the seat and grabbed his hat, which had landed in the corner of the car. He shoved it onto his messed up hair and pointed at April. "Not one word. Just don't say anything."

"Yes, Master," She giggled, turning it so it sat correctly on his head. "I won't say anything at all!"

He tried to frown, but it didn't work. Instead, he pulled her onto his lap. "I'll 'Yes, Master' you, Wife."

From the car in front of them, Destiny and Merope rolled eyes at each other. Merope groaned as they watched the couple play a nice little round of tonsil hockey. "Oh, someone shoot me. They're just like your parents!"

Destiny lifted an eyebrow at her.

"What? Oh, yes I know they ARE your parents...But you know what I mean. Must they do that in front of me? It always grosses me out." She shuttered.

"Let's not go any farther with this conversation, 'cause I'm getting a bit grossed out now." Destiny stood up and addressed the couple with a wave of her arms. "Hey, guys, chill! You can get a room in a minute...Guys...HEY, LOVEBIRDS, I GOTTA SAY SOMETHING!"

They broke away from their juicy kiss and glared grudgingly at her.

"I'm going to take you to our destination, okay? This place is huge, but really all ya need to know is that we're going to an exact replica of Elfsburg. There you will find everything is exactly how you left it when we fled. And that means EVERTHING. As in, there's as much toilet paper left on the roll as there was back home. Oh, no, don't bombard me with questions about how that works, because that info is classified." She crossed her arms and stared at them defiantly, as if telling them to please ask. They glanced at each other and back at her with confused/innocent looks on their faces. Disappointed, she sat down and told her palm pilot to take them to the replica Elfsburg. Destiny watched out of the corner of her eye as they shrugged in unison and returned to their previous activity. She sighed heavily. Just like her parents...

The train slowed to a stop at the edge of town. The tracks were located on some kind of border, where one "world" melted into the next one. To the left sat the familiar snow covered buildings of Elfsburg. To the right, the snow quickly gave way to a sandy beach. Bernard nodded toward the ocean. "What's over there?"

Merope shimmied her shoulders and struck a dance pose. "Party Town! Home of the New Years' celebration, Mardi Gras parade (although its not nearly as wild as its American counter part, it still gets kinda crazy), and anyone and everyone's b-days...Oh, the list goes on and on. There's practically a party every day!" She sighed with happiness. "I love that place."

Bernard lifted his eyebrows and wisely chose to remain speechless. April, however, squinted at the horizon. "I don't see anything. Where is it? WHAT is it?"

"Oh, it's out there." Destiny clasped her hands together. "It's a cute little island with exotic flowers and tropical music..."

Merope copied her. "...And tons of non-alcoholic beverages and cute young waiters whose only job it is to please single young women..."

Bernard made a face. "Well, I was about to suggest we go there for our honeymoon, but now that you've said that..."

April grabbed his shirt and started hauling him toward Elfsburg. "Come on, now. Time's a wasting!"

"Yes, Master! Ugh, I mean, Mistress..."

Destiny waved after them. "Don't worry, Bernard. I'll take care of everything! You two go have fun!"

"Oh, don't say that, girl." Merope shuttered again. "It creates bad pictures in my widdle innocent mind."

"Innocent my butt. If you were really that innocent, you wouldn't get pictures like that, now would you?"

"Shove off, Destiny. Just shove off."

* * * *

"BERNARD! I'M SO GLAD I FOUND YOU!" Curtis bounded over the hill and tripped, landing face first in a snow dune. He quickly hopped back to his feet and put his glasses back on his nose. Saying he looked distressed would be an understatement.

This alarmed Bernard. "What's wrong, Curtis?"

"Charlie wants to talk to you before you disappear. Hello, April, by the way."

April waved.

Bernard brushed some of the snow off his small friend's jacket, since the younger elf wasn't in the right state of mind to do it himself. "Did he say why, by any chance?"

"Nope, but it sounded urgent." Curtis looked down at his jacket and frowned. "And you can stop touching me now. Thanks."

Bernard promptly ceased the dusting. "Sorry." Man, he was beginning to feel like a parent. He'd been doing little things like that ever since he realized Destiny was his daughter.

Curtis vaguely pointed behind him. "Charlie's standing at the entrance of the Workshop. He said it will only take a few minutes."

"Okay, thanks." Bernard turned to April. "If you want to go home and wait for me, you can. I promise I won't be long."

She looked like she would say something sarcastic, then changed her mind. "Which home? Yours, or mine?"

Bernard shrugged. "Mine? Is that okay?"

"Yes, honey. It is." She gave him a quick kiss, then started off without him.

Bernard smiled after her, then turned back to Curtis. "So, how are you doing? How's your jaw?"

Curtis winced as they started down the path. "Not broken, though it sure feels like it. Stupid robot."

* * * *

"I'm sorry to keep you from your honeymoon, Bernard." Charlie put his arm around Danielle. "But we talked your proposition over."

The two exchanged a look and tried to hide their grins.

Bernard lifted an eyebrow." And?"

Charlie held out the coat. "Robe me, Head Elf!"

"This is wonderful!" A relieved smile broke across Bernard's face, and he gladly helped Charlie into the robe.

"I know Dad would have wanted it this way." Charlie tied the sash and put on the hat. "How do I look?"

"Like the new Santa, Charlie."

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A/N: I apologize greatly for the delay of this chapter. I had SERIOUS writer's block. But I think I'm all better now. I think...

Well, I now have over 80 reviews! I want to thank everyone bunches, especially those who've reviewed more than once. Can I now get a hundred, or is that too much to ask? 'Cause ya know, that would just make me sooooooo happy! I would be perfectly content with a hundred reviews. So, please review! Tell me what you think. I want to know. *Big sparkling puppy eyes* Please?