The next day, Magee and Lanny decided to pay Wayne a visit. Magee didn't care that she was supposed to be at work, she really needed to see Wayne. She had something important to show him...and tell him. When they reached Wayne's house they found to their surprise that Noel was there.

"Noel?" Lanny said. "What are you doing here?"

"There aren't a lot of naughty kids this year so I have some free time." Noel explained. "I wanted to see if Wayne wanted to hang out like we used to when we were kids."

"I don't know if he'll want to, we had an awkward moment last night." Magee hung her head. "Remember the Christmas Wayne gave me that sweater?"

"How could I forget? I wasn't too happy about your reaction either." Noel frowned.

Magee winced, realizing that Noel also knew what the sweater was supposed to read but, like Wayne, had no idea of how it got messed up.

"Yes, well, I just found out from Wayne what the sweater was really supposed to read." Magee continued. "And Wayne had just found out that your grandma accidentally messed up the words."

Noel's face softened.

"Aw man...she was in really bad shape by the time she reached the lettering." Noel remembered. "So you're here to apologize or something?" He guessed.

"Something." Magee nodded. "I just hope he's feeling good enough to at least talk to us."

"We'll soon find out." Noel knocked on the door.

No answer.

Noel then rang the doorbell.

Still no answer.

"That's weird...maybe Wayne needed to take another walk." Lanny guessed.

"Maybe...or..." Noel loosened a brick on the front steps and found a key inside it.

"How did you know that was there?" Lanny asked.

"It was something Wayne and I came up with many years ago." Noel explained. "If one of us had to leave for a long time because of an emergency, the other could look after his house. Normally we'd leave a message on the phone first though...I guess Wayne figured you two would realize that he wasn't there and come get me or something."

Noel unlocked the door and the three of them went inside. Sure enough Wayne wasn't there, in fact the entire house was dark. They couldn't find a note anywhere downstairs, so they went upstairs to look for one. They found it, with three packages, on Wayne's bed. Lanny took the note and read it:

Dear Magee, Lanny, and Noel

After finding out the truth about the sweater I gave Magee I started thinking about my past and how my temper had hurt everyone, even nearly ruined Timmy Terwelp's Christmas. I realized that I don't deserve any of you or my job. I don't even deserve to be an elf. So, I've run away. I still care about all of you, and I hope you'll be okay without me. I know you'll miss me, but I can't risk hurting anyone else with my temper.

Lanny, you were the best partner I ever had and I hope your new partner will be a big help to you. Also I should've explained something to you years ago: remember how I acted like a Grinch at Timmy Terwelp's house our first mission together? Well, it wasn't just the thrill being gone that caused me to act like that. See at that time I had hoped and even expected to be promoted to Director of Naughty List Intelligence, but it went to my previous partner instead despite the fact that I had been working at Prep and Landing longer than him. However when I saw Santa the following morning he explained to me that he didn't promote me because I was irreplaceable. However I think he's wrong, I think Prep and Landing will do great without me. Maybe even better.

Noel, again I'm really sorry for the way I lashed out at you back when we teamed up to deal with Grace Goodwin. You see, I had been jealous of you for a long time. You may have been trying to be as good as me, but you ended up being better than me. Not a hard thing to accomplish either. So when you said you were going to win the Elf of the Year award I lost it because I was in running for that award too. I'm not that popular a guy, surprise surprise, and I had been hoping that winning the award would help me gain some popularity. It kinda worked, but not much, and now I see that I hadn't gained that much popularity because I don't deserve to be popular.

Magee, I have to tell you the truth: I still love you. When we had that fight I quickly realized that it could cause us to lose our friendship so I suggested that we stopped dating to preserve it. Breaking up did hurt, but losing your friendship would've hurt worse. I guess that's why I had also been trying so hard to gain so much popularity...I was trying to fill the hole in my heart. But who am I kidding? You're the only one who can fill that hole, and yet I don't deserve you. Even so you'll always be the most important girl in my life, so I've left you something to represent that. It's in the smallest package.

Again I'm sorry, but I had to leave. I still care about all of you and I'll always miss you, but I don't deserve any of you.

Wayne

Lanny was crying by the end of the letter. Noel and Magee were in tears as well. Magee then reached for the smallest package and opened it. Inside was a beautiful crystal snowflake ornament.

"That was grandma's favorite ornament." Noel nearly gasped. "She left it to Wayne in her will to remember her by."

Magee, even more upset, started crying as well.