A/n: Here's a christmas story for ya. It'll be pritty short, somewhere between 2 and 5 chapters depending on the response. If your looking for a gritty crime filled story to read, check out my other story the unbreakible two, the beginnings not my best work because i was rusty but as it goes it flows better. With that said i hope you enjoy this story and i'd love to see your feedback.

December 15th, 2023, 2:30 PM.

The day was cool, but the sun was surprisingly bright for a day in mid December. The students in the class smiled as they finished playing their last game for the day as some of them looked in awe at the rare appearance of the sun. "I can't wait till we get to leave here, mom and Elliot are gonna take me to see home alone tonight, then if 1 of them gets tomorrow off they say they're gonna take me to see Santa clause Noah said with a bright smile.

"Don't kid yourself kid, that Santa clause ain't real, don't keep filling yourself with false hope your how old now?" Daryl the school janetor asked him while cleaning up around his desk. He was known at the school as the school grinch, he didn't like Christmas, didn't celebrate it either and didn't like for others to be happy around the holiday.

"I'm 9.., but mom and Elliot say that he's real besides I've met him before." Noah said not believing him.

"he nodded "you met him at the mall right?"

Noah nodded with a bright smile "yes mr. Daryl, he let me sit on his lap, I told him every thing i wanted for Christmas then i got to take a picture with him."

Daryl sighed to himself why do parents put these crazy thoughts into their children's heads? He thought to himself as he looked to Noah "well the man you saw wasn't actually santa, he was a guy who got paid to pretend to be him. See there's no such thing as Santa clause or mrs. clause it's all your parents, and they pretend for some strange reason, 1 i'll never figure out. Look i've gotta go kid" Daryl said heading off as Noah and his friend Jakob sat in their seats crying.

16th precenct*

Elliot parked his vehicle , got out and headed in to olivia's office as he knocked on the door "come in" Liv called as he entered "you ready to go get Noah? I've got the rest of the day off so i figured we could go together, swing over to the highschool to get Eli, have a nice dinner out then all go to see the movie together?"

"Sounds great El, let me sign this last DD5 then i'll be all yours" she said as she quickly finished reading over it, signed it then turned her computer off, put her coat on and headed out with him.

"We're heading out Fin, I'll see you on Monday unless something urgent comes up. I wanna try to spend the weekend with Noah if possible." "I understand Liv, me and Valasco have every thing covered here" Fin said with a smile as Olivia smiled , nodded and left the precinct with Elliot.

"So how was your day?" El asked as he drove.

"You know same old same old, Magrath is still giving me a hard time but what's knew?" "I don't get why that guy has such a problem with you, every one loves you," "I wish" she chuckled "but you love me and that's all that matters" she said as he looked away from the road for long enough to kiss her quickly "that's very true my love."

She smiled "but yeah honestly it's been slow i've just been doing paperwork mostly and i had to attend a couple meetings you?"

"Same here minus the meetings part, filed all my DD5'S on that guy Murry that was charging people money in exchange for counterfeit covid19 vaccination cards. He sighed "you know what would fix that problem?"

"What's that El?" She asked sighing knowing already where this was going.

"The city needs to ease up the restrictions on us, I mean come on, it's been almost 3 years since this started, the vacceens have been out sense early 2021, the only people who haven't gotten them are the people who really don't want them.. I mean Liv trust me i see the importance of them but last i checked this is the US not China, it's not right to ban people from restaurants just because they don't have a vaccination card. Think back to the prohibition era what did people do when alcohol was banned?"

"They opened up Speakeasy's and bought it from illegal breweries, the black net and gangs."

"Exactly and that's exactly what's happening with these vaccination cards, when there's a want there's a way, people aren't gonna stand for this for much longer Liv."

She sighed slightly "I here you El but safety has to take number 1 over every thing."

He nodded "yes but last i checked we the american people are of forded more than just life, we're afforded life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

What does that have to do with this though El?"

"Denying people the right to sit down in a restaurant because of their vaccination status in my book is discrimination Olivia and all it's doing is causing these criminals like Jon Murry to flourish and proffet because like I said a few minutes ago, when people want something bad enough they find a way." He said as he pulled in to the school parking lot.

"Noah slightly smiled seeing their car as he got in with slightly red eyes and put his head down.

"What's wrong sweetboy?" Olivia asked right away noticing that something was wrong.

"I-it's not true right?" Noah cried.

Olivia looked puzzled, the friendly debate with Elliot forgotten "what's not true?"

"m-mr. Daryl says that Santa clause isn't real..."

The adults frowned and looked at each other "he deserves that innocence for a while longer elliot whispered to olivia as she looked back at Noah "how does he know that Santa isn't real?"

"i-I dunno... h he said though that the santa at the mall is just pretending, that there's no santa , that you guys made him up and that you guys are the ones who give me presents."

Olivia nodded "sweetboy what do you wanna believe?"

"i- I wanna believe that Santa clause is real."

She nodded "then believe that for as long as you want, there are some people out there , like mr. Daryl for example who just don't want people to be happy so they make sure that they're not but I'm gonna talk to him ok? And 1 day when your older the conversation we just had, and the 1 you had with daryl will make sense, but by the time it does it want matter to you anymore, I promise."

Noah nodded his head with a slight smile as he started to cheer up and Elliot looked at Olivia in awe as he gently squezed her knee you ready to go get Eli?"

She nodded with a smile "yeah lets go, but i'm calling Noah's prenciple about Daryl first thing Monday morning" she said as Elliot nodded with a knowing smile and drove off.