Disclaimer: I own nothing, my writing is for amusement and sanity.

Here's my Take Three! Or is it Four? I've messed with my other story "Reindeer to the Rescue", from edits to deletes and redo tries...I'm not satisfied with it, and can't make myself fix it at this point so let's try this!

Read and Review please!

New Year! New Chapters!

Chapter Eleven

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April 9th

11:45pm

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Grumbling under his breath, Charlie squinted his way through the hall, even though the area was almost completely dark with everyone else in bed. Technically, Charlie was supposed to be asleep as well, but his shoulder was killing him if he slept on his side, his neck hurt if he slept on the other side, and his head hurt no matter how he lay down.

The doctor had said all the teen would need was over the counter pain medication, Charlie was seriously questioning that advice as he was hurting and it was two hours until his next dosage. After being released from the hospital, Charlie had basically hid in his bedroom all day, in the dark and quiet, and avoiding his mom's hovering judgement. At almost midnight, Charlie was too uncomfortable to remain in place while waiting for the right time to take meds.

His dad's low snores slipped out from the guest room as Charlie stumbled towards the stairs, double checking that all the other bedroom doors were shut before he flicked on the light switch for the descent. Snagging water from the kitchen, Charlie crept into the living room where someone had left a lamp on, figuring Bernard was sound asleep on the couch.

Instead, he found his dad's number one elf leaning over something on the coffee table, engrossed in his task and not glancing up when the teenager approached.

"Can't sleep?"

Charlie growled instead of answering, collapsing onto the couch with a low noise of pain. Bernard shrugged off the lack of response, adjusting his hands and continuing. Shifting on the pillow, Charlie stared in half-focused grogginess as the elf worked on the scroll bracket in his hand. It was one of three metal brackets that held the glass globe and base to the bottom of Charlie's snow globe. Somehow, whether wear and tear, or just age, the pieces of the brackets had started to separate from one another. Not wanting to risk anyone jarring the globe and shifting the weight onto a weakened point, Charlie had bundled the piece with a sweatshirt and into his backpack. An antique shop in the mall had listed one of the owners as someone possibly capable of fixing the metalwork, hence Charlie's presence at the car crash the day before. Unfortunately the repair quote was over a hundred dollars and had disheartened the teen beyond belief.

Bernard worked in silence, having already dismantled the glass globe from the brackets and base, and was currently adjusting the bracket pieces in his hand to line up better.

"I swear I didn't drop it."

A small smirk crossed the elf's face, even as his brow furrowed in concentration to snap the two sides of the bracket together with internal cross bars locking into place, "Considering how old this thing is, doesn't surprise me it's started to come loose. I didn't exactly take as much time as I should have the first time."

Charlie sat up a bit more, "You made that?"

"Mhm," Bernard paused in talking to inspect the bracket before setting it aside to work on other one, leaving the first 'naked' without the other edge, "Was rushing a bit on the solder work and it's breaking up as expected. I honestly forgot how crappy I did on this, should have snagged it from you before it got this far."

"Do I want to know how long ago that was?"

This time the smirk was wide enough Charlie copied the look, and Bernard rolled his eyes, "Nah, might hurt your brain to think that far."

"Very funny."

Shrugging again, Bernard muttered under his breath as the solder lines cracked and the bracket fell apart in his hand, "See…didn't bond right between the pieces and the soldering."

By the time the elf was done explaining, Charlie had shifted closer and was watching carefully as Bernard pulled the bracket sides apart and peeled the broken front edges away from the solid sides, "So it's two side pieces? How'd you do the front and back?"

Bernard tipped the bracket pieces, part of the front edge still clinging to one side, "Thin metal, almost like a ribbon, get it warm enough and it can be malleable enough to bend along the thicker pieces, instead of trying to stencil out the curves and measurements. Weaker to solder together, you're not supposed to rush the joining part."

"The inner locking is for structure right?"

"Yep, distributes the weight on the thick pieces so the heavy glass doesn't stress the thinner metal. The ribbon part is just to give the whole thing a more finished look, there's a way to do the inside pieces to look more professional, but I wasn't interested in that look at the time. I'd just finished a fussier base and finer details were driving me nuts. Took more time to develop the interior on this one."

Charlie carefully picked up the glass globe, the bottom that he'd never seen having been undone from the thicker base that the brackets connected to. Dark brown paint protected the glass from the sealant to the holding base, the color stopping at the exact edge of the base and the snow on the interior of the glass. Blurring the line between the outside world, and the fragile interior encapsulated within the glass. While solid and rather sturdy, the glass appeared almost frost thin and just as delicately serene in Charlie's hands.

"So…" Charlie tipped the globe to examine the trees inside at different angles, mildly amused that the sparkles still lit up even when not all connected, "Is the entire inside magic? Or does someone have to believe to see it?"

"The basic scenery is made up of actual pieces, the foliage and the buildings, but the reactions, the way the magic reacts…that all depends-" Bernard took the globe briefly, twirling it before passing it back so the snow lit up the houses again and sent the reindeer soaring across the trees, "-on the person activating it. See, when you accepted the snow globe from me, you customized the actual magic. Under the personal touch, everything is pretty basic, but forms itself to the holder. When I moved the globe before you took it, it sparkled and shimmered like dancing snow, but didn't have the details of the house fronts nor the reindeer. You did that."

"Huh," Charlie rubbed at his face, staving off a wave of pain when he reached to carefully set the globe back on the coffee table and a bunched up handkerchief Bernard had waiting to cradle the glass, "Are all Pole snow globes like that?"

Bernard grabbed a pillow he'd set aside, jamming it against his hip in silent order for Charlie to lay down, as the teen did so, the elf fussed over the third bracket, "Only the special ones, made for a specific person, for a specific reason. Very similar to your dad's Santa Snow Globe, how it's custom to his specialty as Santa. Past Santa's each have their own personalized globe."

But you said," Charlie shifted so he could watch the brackets versus just stare at the settling globe, "You said the globe you gave me was as almost as old as you…"

Yawning around a stab of pain in his head, Charlie trailed off while Bernard continued on without pause, "Yes, I did. When I made this one, it wasn't for a specific person's gift at the time. I just knew I had to make it ready for someone eventually. When I met you, I was actually removing the globe from the sleigh. I sent it out every couple decades or so on Christmas Eve with whichever Santa was in the suit at the time. Trying to find the right person. You rode in the sleigh with it all night and didn't even know. But when your dad introduced us, I knew it was for you. Synced it with the same magic that lets me know your dad is in trouble. It's why if you shake it, he knows you need him."

"And you," The teen slurred, "You've answered it too."

"Similar magic."

Not wanting to go that deep into theoretical discussions of magic, Charlie burrowed into the pillow while the elf worked in silence. Bernard made sure all three brackets were ready to be soldered again, lightly sanding them with tools he had in his bag and prepping the base metal to accept the brackets as well.

"Time 's it?"

"Little after twelve-thirty."

"Dammit…"

"What are you waiting for?"

"Can't take drugs til after one-thirty."

Humming softly, Bernard set down his tools and leaned back into the couch, letting Charlie stretch on the pillow better and hide from the dim light, "Wondered when you'd find your way down here."

Grunting softly, Charlie closed his eyes against the building nausea, swallowing thickly and ignoring Bernard settling into the cushions.

"Why's the globe base only partly hollow?"

Bernard snorted a little like he was smirking, but Charlie didn't want to move and find out, "Room for a gear box, could make it a musical globe. Like I said, I wasn't in the mood to fuss with all that, and doing the finishing edges on key holes and gears is annoying."

"Why's it sound like you were just as impatient back then as you are now?"

The elf flicked the teen's ear, a low chuckle soothing to Charlie's aching head, "Not wrong. Get some sleep Sport, I'll let you help me fix the rest in the morning."

"It is morning."

"Shh."

Charlie grumbled a little, but sagged further into the couch cushions as the warm body heat next to him settled some of the tension his aches were causing. Bernard sounded like he was doing the same, a hand dropped to Charlie's shoulder in silent comfort while the elf stretched out and tipped his head back.

Before either could properly fall asleep, someone shut door upstairs, the low echo making both of them jump a little.

The low growl Charlie let out was echoed by Bernard humming softly to quiet the grumbles, long fingers lightly digging into the tense shoulder, "Go to sleep kiddo."

"…'m not a kid."

"Compare to me, you sure are."

Another growl, "You're just old."

Chuckling softly, Bernard's hand stilled on Charlie's arm, both closer to actual sleep than coherent wakefulness. The stillness of the late hour dragged the silence on, minutes waning longer than reality dictated.

"You should come visit more."

"Hmm?"

Charlie didn't turn his head, even though he knew Bernard had moved to try and meet his gaze, "You don't visit anymore…should come visit…"

"Charlie…"

"Just sayin'…"

"He's not wrong Number One," Scott grunted as he sat down by Charlie's feet, shaking a water bottle when the teen glanced over, "But don't worry about that, here Charlie, take these and go to bed, let Bernard get some sleep too."

Propping himself to do as bid, Charlie ignored the faint snort from the elf next to him. Swallowing roughly around the pills, Charlie swigged back a third of the bottle before giving up on staying remotely upright.

Bernard didn't make a sound when the teen dropped back to his side.

Before the meds could even truly kick in, Charlie was drifting again, unable to open his eyes and pay attention when his dad spread a blanket over first his son, and then the elf that tried to complain away the fussing.

"Oh hush, want me to move him, if you're going to be so picky?"

"Nah…let him sleep, needs it."

"Thanks Bernard."

"Anytime Santa."

"He's right, you don't pop down to visit him as much as you did when he was little."

"Harder to stay hidden the older the kids get, someone notices the strange visiting friend doesn't age like everyone else."

Scott huffed softly, "Well, get some sleep either way Bernard, you even think of slipping away before Charlie wakes up and he'll get pissed."

"Noted boss. Goodnight."

Xxx

Dreary Lane

Xxx

"Now?"

"No…patience, my dear."

"When?"

A dark chuckle echoed, "Soon."

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