Chapter 2: Cupid did it

Meanwhile in the workshop Ella was trying to calm everyone down.

"Ok, guys I'm really flattered I am, and I missed you all, but I'm not here for just a visit…Curtis! (she shouted as she saw him in the crowd)"

Curtis jumped at being yelled at and he rushed over. "Ella? What are you doing here?"

"Long story, where is he?"

"Who? Santa?"

"No…" she said knowing he knew who she was talking about.

"Bernard?"

She pressed her lips together in a little grin and nodded once.

"He's uh, where did he go?"

"Find him Curtis."

"Right." He rushed off in search of Bernard.

He found him outside. "Bernard! I found you, come on."

"Where?"

"Ella's here." He said all excited.

"I got that Curtis thanks."

"Aren't you excited? It's Ella, we haven't seen her in over a hundred years."

"I know."

"Then come on."

"No, I'm busy."

"But she sent me to get you."

He closed his eyes and stopped what he was doing. "She did?"

"Yes."

He sighed and turned and headed towards the workshop with Curtis right behind him.

Ella convinced everybody to get back to work and was waiting on the steps outside. Bernard stopped once he saw her and she saw him. she got up and walked down the steps towards him. Curtis excused himself.

"Hi." She said.

"Hi."

"I don't even know where to start."

"How did you get here?"

"I do know the way."

"I know but how did you get here?"

"You hung the necklace on my tree remember?"

"How do you know I did it?"

"Oh please, only you would, it's your necklace, you gave it to me when I was a kid, only you would go to my house just to give it back."

He didn't say anything.

"Why? Why would you do that?"

"You were dying." He said slowly to emphasize his point.

"And that gives you the right to come to my house just to give me a necklace that I didn't want back?"

"This is why you came all the way here?"

"Yes, because I don't understand."

"I told you, you were dying. You lost all faith in Christmas, which is the only thing keeping you alive, just like us."

"I wonder why. I lost my faith nad love for Christmas a long time ago, it just took until now for it to catch up to me. and then you show up to give me this with a note that says remember, you couldn't have picked anything else to write? I don't want to remember, that's why I gave it back. I swore I'd never come back and I'd never look back, try to move on like everyone wanted me to do."

"Ella, I'm sorry, I am, I just – "

Back in the meeting Cupid finally came clean.

"Alright Cupid, what is it?"

"I did it."

"Did what?"

"I shot Ella."

"Ok, not following."

"Do you see any mortals up here?"

"No."

"Exactly, so she fell in love with the only thing around, an elf."

"Let me guess, Bernard?"

Everyone nodded.

"You all knew?"

"Of course we did, he told everybody the day it happened." said Mother Nature.

"He kind of panicked actually." Tooth fairy said.

"Why?"

"Well, the day it happened we were in a meeting like we are now, and he showed up panicking, and told Santa he shot his daughter." Father Time told him.

"How'd he take it?"

"Oh he took it well. Even after he realized who it was she fell in love with."

"What happened?"

"Well, when her father died and was no longer Santa they had to leave the North Pole, which tore them apart." Mother Nature told him.

"I hate it when that happens." Cupid said.

"Bernard in love, I have a hard time picturing that."

"Bernard, you're the one who told me to leave." She budded in.

"I know that, I was just trying to do what was best for you."

"By telling me to leave my home?"

"Ella, can we move on from that?"

"Move on?"

"Yes, that was a hundred years ago."

"Fine, it's done, it's over." She said taking off the necklace and held it in front of him dangling in the air. "Here."

"Keep it this time."

"No, I swore I'd never come back for a reason, I don't want to remember, so take it back…again."

"No."

She gave up and walked away.

Bernard sighed and went back to work to try and get his mind somewhere else. She on-the-other-hand went for a walk outside in the snow. While on her walk she kept staring down at the necklace she held in her hand. And she couldn't help but flashback to when she was a kid and Bernard gave it to her.

Flashback

A young Ella was upset while her father was gone delivering presents. She had overheard a conversation her father had about how one day the day would come that he would no longer be Santa, and it upset her because she never wanted to leave. Bernard saw her sitting on the stairs of an empty workshop wiping tears.

"Ella, what's wrong?" he asked sitting down next to her.

"Is it true that daddy wont be santa anymore?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I overheard daddy talking about it, he said one day he won't be Santa anymore."

"Well, to be honest yes that is true."

"But I don't want that to happen, I don't ever want to leave home. I wouldn't know how to fit in with normal kids. And I would miss all the elves and the reindeer and the snow, I love it here."

"Hm…come with me." he said holding his hand out and she took it. He led her to a small room in the workshop, one that she didn't know existed. "This room is very secret."

"I promise not to tell."

He grinned and led her in. Inside were shelves full of different things. He walked to a shelf and grabbed a small box. He looked at the bottom where the label was and smiled realizing it was what he was looking for. He walked over to her and knelt down, then opened the box. Inside all she saw was a snow ball, real snow, somehow it hadn't melted.

"Go ahead, blow on it."

She looked at him confused for a second until he nodded and she did blow on it. Instead of melting the snow blew away and when it was gone there was a beautiful frosted snowflake necklace. She looked at it stunned. He took it out of the box and put it on her.

"Now if you do ever have leave you can come back whenever you want."

"Really?"

"Really. And you'll have a piece of the pole with you forever, it's a snow flake and when the light hits this just right (pointing at the pearl in the middle) it shines like the northern lights in the sky."

She smiled happily and hugged him. "Thank you Bernard."

"You're welcome."

End of flashback

She realized she had tears in her eyes and wiped them away as she sat on a bench next to the ice.