Chapter 8: Benjamin Bernard Amnore

In the morning she woke up alone, which didn't surprise her but there was a note next to her with a frosted white rose, her favorite. Of course he remembered.

Sorry I'm not there, if I could stay in bed all day with you I would, but have to work. I hope you like the flower, I know it's your favorite; it's one of a kind like you. I love you.

Yours,

Bernard

She just rolled over to where he had been and fell back to sleep with the note and the flower above her head on the pillow. He got away a couple hours later since he hadn't seen her around yet and snuck to his house and sure enough she was still in bed. He smirked and sat next to her on the bed, leaned down and kissed her cheek then caressed it with his finger. She looked over her shoulder at him, grinned and slowly sat up.

"What time is it?"

"About ten."

"That's early."

He grinned laughing at her.

"I guess I should get up, I have a job to do too."

"You do?" he asked.

"Chet." She said.

"Oh, right, I knew that." he said, he couldn't believe he forgot after what happened.

She leaned and put her head on his shoulder. He rested his chin on her head. "I'm not awake yet."

"I see that."

"How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Stay up late working and then get up at the crack of dawn to back at it."

"I'm used to it; I've done it for as long as I can remember."

"How'd you get away?"

"We're still ahead of schedule so it's no big deal."

"Watch something go wrong while you're away."

"Please don't say that."

She just laughed. "Ok, I need to get moving."

He stood up and stood her up with him. She put her clothes back on, she wasn't naked she still had on her bra and underwear. Once she was dressed they walked back to the workshop. Sure enough while he was gone a machine had gone bonkers and there was stuff flying all over the place.

"What happened?" he asked more surprised than mad.

"We don't know, it won't stop." one of the elves said.

"Curtis, what happened?" he asked more angrily.

"I don't know."

"Does anybody know what happened?"

Upstairs she went to take a shower and get fresh clothes. Then she made her way over to Ben's room. She sat down next to him. He was lying on his stomach with his face facing her and moved his dark hair out of his face so she could actually see his face. It woke him up.

"Mom?"

"Hey."

"What time is it?"

"Too early for you."

He groaned and turned his head to go back to sleep. She stood up and moved his guitar from off his bed and set it up against the wall. She also picked up his stuff making the room look a little better.

"Stop cleaning." He said with his face buried in the mattress, so his voice was muffled.

"Go back to sleep." She told him and left headed for the stables. "Ok, Chet, let's try this again."

He got all excited and she got him ready.

"Look what I got." She said holding a handful of cookies.

He got even more excited jumping up and down.

"Now, if you do good, I'll give them to you."

He started saying "ok, ok, ok."

"K, let's go."

She climbed on and he took off.

She flew for an hour again. He did better staying focused but she had a hard time getting him to go the way she wanted him to go. At least he could stay in the air rather than before where he'd be up and then fall down. But she still had to try to land again. Except this time he fell and she had to jump. She jumped from a few feet above the ground. They all ducked as they dropped and then he went up again, but soon he fell, that's when she jumped. She hit the ground and rolled and just laid there for a minute. "Ow."

Everyone ran over.

"Ella, are you ok?"

"Dandy." She said raising her arm and giving a thumbs-up. "I'm just going to lay here for a minute."

They had the doctor come over and check her out to make sure she didn't break anything, again.

"I promise I'm ok." She told him and slowly got up. "Ow, oh, that hurt." She stood. "That's going to leave a bruise, or several."

She walked into the workshop and they had everything under control again. Bernard saw her walk in holding her back and it was obvious she was in pain.

"Ella what happened? You're hurt. Are you ok?"

"Chill, I'm fine, just Chet fell and I jumped off. At least nothing broke this time, I don't think."

"You sure you're ok?"

"Yes I'm fine."

"Is Chet ok?"

"Yep, we're both good." She said and she twisted a little trying to stretch but it hurt. "Ow."

"Ella, maybe you should go lay down."

"Bernard, stop you sound like Noah, I'll be fine ok. I'll just have a few huge bruises all over my body."

Her brother came down after hearing what happened and rushed to her.

"Speaking of." she said as she saw Noah coming.

"Ella, thank god you're ok." He said and he hugged her.

"Ow, ow, no hugs, that hurts."

He let her go. "Sorry."

"Ella, go see the doctor." Bernard told her. Noah gave him a look, it'd been this long and he still didn't like him any better.

"I did."

"Really?" he asked not believing her.

"I saw him after I crashed."

"But did you let him make sure you were ok?"

"Not exactly."

"Ella, go." Bernard ordered.

"Fine, I'm going. Jeez, bossy."

"It's what I do."

She headed out and he looked up at Noah seeing the dirty look. "What?"

"I'm watching you." He warned and then left.

All Bernard thought was thank god he didn't know what happened last night, Noah would kill him.

After the doctor checked her out she went to see Ben who was out and about by now. She had something to tell him, she was nervous about telling him and Bernard but she knew it had to be done.

Ben was in the music room, which he just discovered earlier that day, laying down singing along to Christmas songs with a baseball mitt in one hand and tossing the ball up in the air and catching it.

"Ben."

He didn't hear her.

"Benjamin!"

He jumped opening his eyes and saw his mother. He sat up and paused the loud music. "Mom? What's up?"

"We need to talk."

"About?"

"Your father."

"Oh now you want to talk about it?"

"Yes."

"Why now?"

"Because I feel better talking about it now, where before it upset me too much to even think about it."

"Ok. Who is he?"

She sighed; she had dreaded this conversation for so long. "Well…see, while my dad was still Santa – you know Cupid (he nodded) he shot me and I fell in love with your father."

"I still can't believe all these people are real, even now that I've met them all."

"Yeah, I've known them all my life so it was never weird for me but I can imagine."

"Ok so who is he?"

"Well, this is the weird part, and why I never told you, do you see any other humans around here?"

"Uh…no." he said and it took a minute for it to sink in. "that means he's – (he jumped up standing) I'm an elf?!"

"Not technically, because I'm not, if I was one too you would be, but I'm not so you're not."

"Oh my god." He said putting his hand on his forehead.

"I'm sorry honey, this is why I was afraid to tell you, I didn't even know if you'd believe me, but now that you're here and you see that they obviously exist."

"I get it, it's just – oh lord."

She waited for him to recover.

"Who is he?"

"What's your middle name?"

"Bernard."

"There's your answer."

"Bernard?....wait, isn't that the – "

She nodded.

"Him?!"

"Yep."

He just stood there looking at her wide eyed. "That's why Uncle Noah hates him and gives him a hard time?"

"Pretty much."

"Does he know?"

"About you? No. I didn't know until after I left, so there's no way he would've."

"Are you going to tell him?"

"Of course I'm going to tell him."

"When?"

"Tonight after he's done working."

"Ok. I'm going to go take a walk."

"Ok."

Downstairs she could hear the workshop shutting down and she waited in her room. A little while later Bernard came knocking.

"Come in."

"Hi."

"Hi."

"What's the matter?"

"I need to tell you something."

"Ok." He walked over and sat down next to her. "What is it?"

"It's Ben."

"Ben?"

"I lied to you."

"What do you mean? He's not your son?"

"No he's mine, but Jack wasn't his father. I mean in Ben's mind he always saw Jack as his dad but he wasn't. I hadn't even met Jack yet when Ben was born."

It didn't take long for it to click in Bernard's head and his mouth opened and his eyes went wide once he realized what she was implying. "You mean he's – "

"Yeah."

Bernard stood up and walked away from the bed a little with his hand over his mouth. She walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around him from behind him and rested her head against his back.

"I am so sorry." She whispered. "I didn't even find out until after I left."

"Why'd you tell me he was Jack's?"

"I don't know, I was afraid to tell you."

"After everything that happened last night you were afraid to tell me?" he asked her turning to face her with a confused look on his face.

"I didn't know how to tell you. We had enough to work through telling you about him would've only made it worse. I'm sorry."

"And your daughter?"

"She is Jack's."

He nodded.

"I really am sorry, I didn't even tell him until earlier today. The only ones who knew were mother and my brother and sister."

He took a deep breath and hugged her carefully so he didn't hurt her. "It's ok." He told her and he kissed her forehead. "How'd he take it?"

"He was a little freaked out."

Bernard chuckled a little amused imagining what he would think about having an elf for a father.

"I'm so sorry."

"Stop apologizing."

"K."

"How do you feel?"

"Still sore."

"Then lay down." He led her to the bed, pulled the covers back and made her lay down then covered her up and knelt down beside the bed when she pulled him down. Then she pulled him down for a kiss. But he stopped before she got too serious.

"Not tonight. You're hurt, you need to relax and sleep." He said and then kissed her forehead and stood up. But she grabbed his arm and he turned to look at her.

"Stay, please."

He gave in as always and laid down next to her on top of the covers after taking off his shoes and he held her until she fell asleep. As soon as she was out he snuck out.