A/N: Pre-Jackrine wedding.
"I only counted eleven," Davey told Jack. Jack looked at the boys in the Lodge and running his hand through his hair. "That means we're missing..?" Jack asked, looking at Davey for the math. "Five," Davey finished. The door flew open and the freezing wind blew throughout the room.
Crutchie limped in with Finch and Elmer behind him. "Do we have everyone?" Crutchie shivered with pink cheeks and a pink nose, as Finch and Elmer pulled the door shut. "We're still missing two boys," Swift explained. As if on cue, the door swung open again and Katherine walked in, pulling Romeo and Buttons with her. "You three ok?" Davey asked.
"Yeah, we'se ok," Romeo shivered. "Found them wandering around near my apartment," Katherine explained, shivering as well. "Thanks, Ace," Jack said, kissing his girlfriend.
It was Christmas Eve and the boys, Swift, and Katherine had never seen a snowstorm this bad. Jack peeked out the window as Finch and Henry locked the door to keep the wind from blowing it open. "Ace, it looks like you'se gonna have ta spend the night. Davey, Les, you too," Jack announced, "I can't see a thing out there."
Specs and Mush found what little coals the boys had and put them in the heater. A few of the boys also found some old newspapers they'd accidently brought home and threw those in with the coals and soon the room warmed up a little.
"So what're the sleeping arrangements?" Davey asked. "What do you mean?" Race asked, frowning a bit. "Well, I don't really think that Katherine and Jack can share a room, can they?" he asked. After discussing it, it was determined the couple was not sharing a room and that Katherine would sleep in the girl's room with Swift.
"C'mon, I'll take you up to it," Swift said. Katherine followed the younger girl up to the big, empty room other than one messy bed. "That's mine, you can pick whichever one you want. I think I have some extra clothes if you wanna to change outta that skirt. We're about the same size, right?" Swift asked, digging around under her bed.
Katherine sat on a bed next to Swift's as she sat up, tossing Katherine a pair of worn pants and a long sleeve worn shirt. "Sorry it's not thicker," Swift apologized. "No, it's perfect! Thank you, Swift," Katherine smiled and quickly got changed before following Swift downstairs.
Jack, who had been in what looked like an irritating discussion with Henry and Albert, did a double take at Katherine before grinning. "Wow, Ace! I barely recognized ya! Ya look just like one of us!" Jack exclaimed, walking over and kissing her.
Katherine laughed as they separated and the couple just barely dodged a flying pillow. "Hey, that's mine!" Buttons shouted. Race, who was closest to the pillow, grinned and picked it up, dashing up the stairs with it. Buttons followed close behind and soon a giant game of 'Keep-Away' broke out.
Swift gracefully caught a boot and took off with it before tossing it to Sniper, who dodged Mush and took off.
"Is it always like this?" Katherine asked and she and Jack moved to the top of one of the bunks. "Yep," Jack sighed. Les suddenly gasped and shouted out, "Fellas, it's Christmas Eve! Santa's coming tonight!" Silence fell for a quick second.
Then all hell broke loose.
The boys began running around, shouting incoherent things the each other. One of the pillows ended up busting, which caused feathers to fly around the room. Race and Buttons even returned at one point and the older boys began trying to calm the younger ones down.
"Hey! HEY!" Jack shouted, jumping down from the bunk. The boys halted in their craziness and stared at their leader. "What is goin' on? Last I checked you loved Santa Claus!" Jack shouted, confused.
The younger boys (Elmer and under) looked at each other. "I thought you were going to tell him!" Finch 'whispered' to Crutchie. "No I wasn't! I told you I didn't want any part of this!" Crutchie defended, limping off to sit at a table with Davey.
"Any part of what exactly?" Specs asked slowly.
The younger boys looked at each other before Romeo spoke up and said, "We'se gonna kidnap Santa Clause."
At first, no one said anything. Then Jack blinked and said, "Um. You'se gonna do what?"
"We'se gonna kidnap Santa. C'mon Jack keep up," Les said, earning an irritated look from said boy. "I heard what you said. What the heck gave you the idea to kidnap Santa Claus?" Jack asked.
"Cause we want to make sure he's real. If we kidnap him, then we can make sure he's real," Buttons reasoned.
In Jack's mind, that was the worst reason he'd ever heard. He turned to Swift, who was snickering quietly to herself, and asked, "Did you know about this?"
She nodded. "They tried to recruit me yesterday but I said no."
"But boys if you kidnap Santa, won't he put you on the naughty list? Then you won't get any presents," Katherine said, climbing down from the bunk as well. "Yeah but then we'll get coal for the fireplace. It's a win-win," Elmer explained. Jack looked to Davey for help. "I've already tried to talk sense into them. Les told me about it on the way here," Davey sighed.
"You know what? Just let them do it," Jack said, knowing they wouldn't actually kidnap anybody. Santa wasn't even real, who would they end up kidnapping? The younger ones grinned maniacally and cheered.
"One rule! You gotta calm down! We'll get kicked out if you all go insane like that again!" Jack commanded and the boys nodded in agreement. The resumed their activities in a somewhat calmer way. There was less shouting at least.
Jack went upstairs with the older ones plus Swift and Crutchie, who refused to be apart of that.
"What're you gonna do, Jack? We got that closet full of their presents downstairs. How're we going to put them near the heater if they're sitting there all night waiting for Santa to come?" Davey asked.
"Wait, what?" Swift asked, glancing at Crutchie who looked just as confused. Jack looked at Davey, Specs, Mush, and Katherine before sighing and turning to Swift, Crutchie, and Race. "We put our money together and managed to get a few cheap hats and gloves for all of us. We even got the nuns to donate stuff. Most of the stuff we got is from them," Jack explained.
"After everyone went to sleep, we was gonna put them next to the heater since we don't got a tree," Specs added. "Everyone has some stuff? Even you guys?" Crutchie asked. They nodded.
"They're not gonna end up staying up all night. Remember the night after the strike? They tried to stay up all night and they were out within the first two hours," Race said. "I dunno, they seemed pretty determined," Mush said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"They've been determined about a lot of stuff and never ended up doing it," Specs added. After a minute, Jack nodded in agreement. "Let's just see how it plays out. If they don't end up going to bed then we need another plan," Jack decided. They all nodded and went downstairs.
"ELMER ROLL AROUND ON THE FLOOR!" Romeo shouted. The others looked at each other before running down the steps to see Elmer's shirt was on fire. It was a small fire and only on his sleeve, but it was quickly growing. After managing to put it out and making sure Elmer wasn't hurt, they told the younger boys to keep away from the heater.
The boys were currently sitting around the heater (at a safe distance) with their nets and pillow cases in hand, waiting for St. Nick to appear.
As the night dragged on, everyone began getting tired. The older boys were determined not to tell the younger ones that Santa wasn't real so after the boys had stayed up for more than two hours, they began brainstorming.
"What if one of us dresses up as Santa? Then while the Santa is distracting them, everyone else could be getting the presents downstairs." Davey asked. They grinned and looked at Davey. "I wasn't volunteering!" he added quickly.
"C'mon Dave, it's for the kids!" Jack insisted! "Then why can't you do it?" Davey questioned.
"Cause I don't want to!"
"Well neither do I!"
"Oh hush all of ya. I'll do it. I'se got the glasses anyways," Specs said. So they dressed Specs up the best they good with their limited selection of clothing.
"How am I gonna get down there? I can't go through the heater!" Specs whispered. "Just go down the stairs. Say the heater is broke or somethin'," Race whispered with a shrug. "Yeah, I could say that I captured ya," Crutchie suggest and the other nodded.
Specs sighed before walking down the stairs with Crutchie. "Hey guys, look who I found!" Crutchie announced, making the younger boys look over. They gasped and shouted, "GET HIM!"
Before Crutchie had time to do anything, the younger boys had tackled Specs, placing nets over his head and tying him up. Specs' glasses ended up breaking somewhere in the process. Since the younger ones rarely ever saw Specs without his glasses, none of them recognized him.
Crutchie managed to sneak the glasses up the stairs to Swift, who gave them to Davey. "How the heck did they do this?" Davey whispered. The glasses had been broken down the middle, with barely any glass being broken at all. They taped the glasses together while back downstairs, the younger boys were interrogating 'Santa Claus'.
"How do the reindeer fly?"
"How do we know you're real?"
"You're not as fat as I thought you were."
"How do you get everywhere in one night?"
"Sorry boys, but I can't answer your questions. I gotta get going to the other houses," Specs said, making his voice lower than usual. "But you didn't give us any presents," Romeo pointed out.
"Well, erm," Specs stuttered, looking to Crutchie for help. "Hey, fellas, look it's a reindeer!" Crutchie shouted, pointing out the window. This resulted in some looking out the window and others actually running outside.
While Crutchie and 'Santa' tried to get the boys that were outside to come back in, the others ran up and down the stairs as quietly as possible, placing the presents next to the heater but not so close they'd catch on fire.
After they came back inside, everyone did a double take at the presents. "How'd you do that?" Buttons asked, looking up at 'Santa'. Specs blinked and said, "Um."
"It's magic," Crutchie saved. "Well now that you'se got your present, I need to get going. So I'd appreciate it if you untied me," Specs insisted. They untied Specs, apologizing to 'Santa' for tying him up.
"Wait don't ya need to go up the heater?" Jojo asked. "No the heater's broke. I gotta go back the way I came," Specs said heading towards the stairs. "We wanna come!" Les shouted and they began to chase after Specs until Crutchie said, "Fellas the magical presents are going to disappear unless you go to bed."
Tha made them get into bed faster than Crutchie and Specs had ever seen. "Goodnight, Santa!" they chorused. Specs waved then hurried upstairs. Well, tried. Without his glasses he fell up a few of them, but Crutchie helped guide him. Davey handed him the glasses that he quickly put on.
"Magical presents? How'd ya come up with that, Crutch?" Jack asked as Specs took off the Santa gear. Crutchie shrugged. "I dunno. Just came off the top of my head, I guess."
Everyone fell asleep, the older ones in peace because they'd managed to sneak teh presents downstairs with having to tell the younger ones that Santa wasn't real and the younger ones in peace that they'd been able to capture Santa Claus.
"IT'S CHRISTMAS!"
Everyone that had been in their beds nearly fell out due the sudden announcement. Katherine and Swift actually did fall out of their beds. Everyone went down to the main room and saw the boys examining all the gifts.
"Specs, what happened to your glasses?" Elmer asked. "Um, I fell," Specs explained. It wasn't a total lie. "Hey wait a second," Finch began slowly. "Boys, look! Presents!" Swift shouted, distracting them from Specs.
They passed out the gifts and everyone celebrated. It was one of the best Christmas' ever in their opinion.
A/N: Well, I loved this oneshot. I hope you guys like it as much as I do. I know this is going up earlier than expected, but I won't be on on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so I decided to go ahead and put it up. Also this is the 30th chapter and that makes me really happy. Merry Christmas! TTFN! Ta ta for now!