"...so we'll keep him in the hospital for observation overnight, and he'll probably be good to go in the morning," Arizona finished, smiling at the mother of her latest patient. "Appendectomies are easy to heal from, and he should be just fine."

Mason's mother nodded, smiling even though her eyes were teary. "Thank you, Dr. Robbins," she said.

"You're welcome," Arizona said. "Dr. Karev will be on-call tonight if you need anything."

Alex sighed internally. No bad outcomes, true, but for his boards he needed surgeries. Time in the OR. Not babysitting kids who technically weren't even sick anymore. Once he was out in the hall, he turned to Arizona. "Dr. Robbins, what am I supposed to do for this kid?" he asked, trying very hard not to make it sound like he was asking why me?

"You're on call," Arizona answered. "Just do what you what you would do normally, and if the kid calls you, help him out as best you can." She frowned slightly. "Come on, Karev, you know the drill by now."

"Yeah, I know, but what if the kid wants me to, I don't know, write letters to Santa or something?" he asked, throwing his hands in the air.

Arizona frowned more. "Then you sit down with the kid and write a letter to Santa. Kids believe, Karev, and it's our job to foster that belief."

"Yeah, I know, I know," Alex muttered. "I guess I just thought that when I switched into peds I'd be doing –"

"What?" Arizona interrupted him. "Doing what, Dr. Karev?" She pointed through the glass at Mason, who was sitting in the hospital bed, talking animatedly to his mother. "Those children are why we do what we do. And if you think being on-call for a child who is alone and lonely at night in a foreign place is beneath you as a doctor, go find another specialty."

There was a moment of silence in the hall, and Alex wilted a little beneath her stare. "Sorry, Dr. Robbins," he mumbled.

"Don't apologize to me, Karev," Arizona snapped, handing him the patient chart. "Just figure out what your deal is before you decide to be a doctor for tiny humans." She turned and left, leaving Alex alone.

It's not that he hated kids, it really wasn't. It's just that around this time of year, kids became insufferable. All about presents and Santa and wanting things; writing letters and making wishlists and begging – Alex couldn't stand it. Some of us had to work for our holidays, he would think, never voicing it out loud.

Stuck here, overnight, having to possibly help a kid write a letter to Santa who was going to go home and be just fine the next day – Alex would never admit it, but something galled him about it. Not resentment towards the kid, but resentment nevertheless. He sat at the desk, filling out charts and paperwork, and hoping no one paged him.

Just then, the call button for Mason's room went off. Suppressing a sigh, Alex got up and went to go see what was wrong.

"What's up, kid?" he asked, poking his head into the room.

"I couldn't sleep," Mason said, curled up underneath his blankets.

That's why you called me in here? Alex thought. Out loud he said, "Anything I can do to help?"

Mason fiddled with the hem of his blanket, not looking at Alex. "Is my mama going to be okay?" he finally asked.

"What?" Alex responded. "Why?"

"Dad said she's sick and needs medicine, but I needed an appy – appa – a"

"Appendectomy," Alex filled in the word.

"Yeah, that, so now Mama can't get her medicine and I don't know if she'll be okay," Mason finished.

Alex sighed, sitting in a chair next to the bed. "Well, I don't know if your mom's going to be okay," he said, "but I don't think you need to worry about it. That's a grownup thing, okay?"

Mason didn't look convinced at all. "Okay," he said uncertainly.

"Here, I'll stay with you until you fall asleep," Alex offered since it was a quiet night.

Mason nodded, and curled further under the blankets. He didn't say anything else, and after a while, Alex thought he might have fallen asleep. At least he thought that until he saw Mason's shoulders shaking under the blankets. "Hey, buddy," he said gently. "It's okay."

Sitting up to look at him, Mason shook his head. "It's not okay," he wailed. "No one I ask will tell me anything, and now my mama won't be okay and she won't get her medicine and it's all 'cause of me."

"Hey," Alex said firmly, being careful not to shout. "I promise, whatever happens, nothing is your fault, okay? Bodies need fixing sometimes and that isn't a bad thing."

"Really?"

"Really, really," Alex said as softly as he could. Mason sniffed loudly, and Alex searched for a distraction he could use. "Why don't you tell me about how you guys celebrate Christmas?" he asked.

Mason nodded. "Okay." He sniffed again, taking a shaky breath and then started. "Well, usually we set up a tree first, and everyone helps with that. There's music and songs and sometimes hot chocolate." He looked at Alex. "Do you set up a tree?"

"Uh, yeah," Alex said.

"Okay, so you know what it looks like all lit up like magic," Mason said. He paused for a minute, then continued. "And then we make letters to Santa telling him what we want."

"Great," Alex mumbled under his breath.

Sitting up more fully, Mason stared at Alex. "Did you write letters to Santa when you were my age?"

"No," Alex answered. What was the point? Between taking care of his mother and all his other responsibilities, Alex had never considered writing a letter to someone he'd never believed in. Not that there would have been much point as there was no way he ever would've received the things on his list.

Mason looked at him and raised his eyebrows. "Okay, well, we do," he said with a shrug. "And sometimes Mama says that we can ask for crazy stuff!" He flung his arms out in front of him. "Like a bike or a fish or money?"

"Kid, why are you asking for money?" Alex cut in, trying to disguise his annoyance. Writing letters to Santa for money?

"Because," Mason explained, talking slowly like he didn't think Alex would understand him, "sometimes we need a little extra to go around. At least, that's what Mama and Dad say." He looked down again. "Like when Mama needs extra medicine, or Dad doesn't have a job with health ben'fits."

"Oh." Alex stared at his hands. All the annoyance drained out of him and instead he just felt tired. A kid with too many worries and too much responsibility – he knew what that was like and it sucked. He dragged his hands over his face, and decided to ask the only question he could ask. "Does it work?"

"Letters to Santa always work," Mason said confidently. "Sometimes it takes a little bit, like when we wrote to Santa to get Dad a new job and he got a bad one so he's still looking, but they work."

Alex nodded. This kid's surgery hadn't been pro bono, and there was no way he could do anything like Izzie had when she'd paid for that kid's spinal surgery. So, he did the only thing he could do. "Do you want to write a letter to Santa right now?" he asked.

Mason squinted at him. "Aren't I supposed to be going to bed?"

"Well," Alex said, leaning towards him, "I'll tell you a little secret. Most kids don't sleep after surgery. That's why they have doctors here on-call. And if you aren't sleeping, it's our job to hang out with you until you can."

"Okay," Mason said a shrug.

"I'll be right back," Alex said standing up.

Fortunately, the nurses station had some Christmas-themed stationary in the drawers, and Alex was able to snag a couple of pencils to go with it. He walked back into the room and pulled over a small table. "Okay, do you want to write it, or do you want to dictate?" he asked.

"Dic-tate?" Mason asked.

"It means you talk and I write it down," Alex explained.

"Let's do that one," Mason said. "I don't like writing that much."

Alex nodded and got ready. Mason talked for a long time, and Alex wrote the entire time. They filled up a whole sheet of paper, and the back of another one, and Mason was yawning by the time he was done.

"Okay, kid," Alex said, finishing up the last line. "Now you just need to write your name at the bottom."

Mason nodded as he grabbed the pencil, and wrote FROM MASON in wobbly block letters at the bottom. Alex smiled, and pulled the blanket up to Mason's chin.

"All right, go to sleep now, okay?"

"Good night," Mason said, yawning in the middle of the word.

Alex turned off the bedside light and stepped out into the hall, holding the letter in his hand. Heading back to the nurses station, he found an envelope and stamp. Addressing it, he dropped it in the box for outgoing mail and sat down to finish his shift.

"So, how was it, Karev?" Arizona asked the next morning.

"Fine," Alex tried to bluff. He was quiet for a moment and then asked, "Did you know?"

"Know what?" Arizona asked.

Alex ran a hand through his hair. "This kid's mom is sick and they're in the hospital for appendicitis! Can they pay for it? I mean, there's gotta be something for this, Mason's mom has some kind of condition for God's sake!"

Arizona smiled. "As it so happens, Karev, this family's expenses are covered by the hospital. It's not pro bono, something to do with their insurance, I think, but they don't have to pay anything."

Before he could help himself, Alex let out a bark of laughter. "Seriously? That's great!"

"It sure is, "Arizona agreed. "Anyway, how was the night shift?"

Alex shrugged. "Kid couldn't sleep, I helped him write a letter to Santa. Kid went to sleep."

"And how was it?" Arizona prodded. Seeing his smile on his face, she grinned back. "See, there's a reason we let these kids believe. Sometimes it's nice to believe along with them." She gestured to the room. "Do you want to tell the family the good news?"

"Hell yeah!" Alex said excitedly. "I mean, yes please, Dr. Robbins."

Arizona was laughing when they entered the room.

Dear Santa.

It's been a good year for me. I hope you had a good year, too. Are the reindeer okay? My teacher said they live up north where it's snowy all the time, so I guess they would be. Don't forget to brush them!

Anyway, I'm writing to ask for some things.

1. A new set of sneakers – there's some really cool ones with green racing stripes I saw in the store when I went there with my mama

2. A new Power Ranger – those guys are so cool!

3. Some help paying for my surgery

I don't know if you know, but I had to get a surgery this year. I don't know if my mom and dad can pay, so can you help Santa? I know it's a lot to ask, but if you can fly around the whole world, you could probably do this too. I asked Jesus at church this week, but it's almost Christmas so I thought I'd ask you too.

Thanks again, Santa! I'll keep milk and cookies out like always, and try to stay awake to see you.

FROM MASON