Slowly Steven made his way back to his wing of the place. Quietly he hung his suit back up and put it in a protective covering.
"Well looks like it will have to wait until next year." He let out a sigh finishing zipping it up. He turned away and just stood in his giant walk in closet, the lights went out with the computerized female voice stating,
"Lights out." He let out a sigh and walked over to his bed, debating on texting Abigail or not he eventually decided against it. Picking up a book he started to read it until his eyes grew heavy, picking up his phone he was going to text her goodnight or something stupidly sweet that she would love, until he was interrupted by falling asleep.
Steve opened his eyes to see that he was standing in the S-1's cockpit at the reigns. He looked around quickly seeing all of the elves there as well.
"Steve? What are you waiting for? You can't have Christmas with out Santa." Abigail said from behind him, he turned around to see her in a skimpy Santa outfit, smiling at him. He looked down at himself to see he was wearing his suit.
"What are you doing here Abby?" He asked turning back around to take control of the S-1, "You know you're supposed to wait at home." She hugged him from behind pressing herself against his back.
"I didn't want to wait to see you though." She purred into his ear, "It's Christmas, I wanted to sit on Santa's lap." He could hear the grin in her voice. He grinned as well,
"Abby, we can't do this here in front of them." He motioned around to all the elves, which were now no longer there. He turned his questioning gaze to her,
"I sent them away. The S-1 has auto pilot." She shrugged smiling up at him.
"We promised mother to be home as early as possible." He smiled down at her, she was just a head shorter than him.
"The elves can take care of just a few cities." She moved her arms to wrap them around his neck and pull him down, "It won't take long for me to tell you what I want." Steve picked her up and moved them both to the closest chair.
"Alright you can tell Santa what you want but, you have been a very naughty girl." He grinned as she slowly trailed her hands down to his pants.
A loud noise and vibration woke Steve up out of his wonderful dream. Grunting he answered it,
"Hello?" He cleared his throat quickly, "What elf?" Quickly switching the call over the bedside screen he saw Peter,
"Bryony Shelfley, sir. The crazy wrapping elf, you know?" He made hand gestures to prove how crazy she was. "Security tracked her to Sector 19, and we think Arthur was here."
"Arthur?" Steve asked sitting on the side of his bed,
"Who else leaves the door open, huh, sir?" He asked revealing that a door, the door, to the outside was wide open.
"The old sleigh barn?" He asked standing up, "That was sealed up decades ago, after that terrible night Grand-Santa sneaked out and," He let out a shuttered breath before sitting down on the end of his bed, "Thank goodness he's too old these days to get into trouble."
"What do you wish to do, sir?" Peter asked,
"Get me the security footage from the sleigh barn and bring it to the Command Center." Steve let out a sigh ending the call and putting the book back on its shelf. Making his way down the hallways he pulled out his HOHO again.
Abby you still awake? He sent, needing someone to talk to. Someone that would understand his side, and care about it. As he opened the door to Command Center he felt it go off with a reply,
Yeah, I'm stuck at this part. I give up, for now. What's up, besides you? :) He shook his head,
A lot. Things went wrong earlier and more happened then I was made aware of. It's coming back to bite me in the butt now. He let out a sigh while grabbing an espresso.
Are you just on clean up duty or are you getting blamed for it all? She sent back fairly quickly he let out a sigh,
Both.
Ick, double whammy. I'm sorry. Want to talk about it in more detail?
Still on clean up duty. He took a drink before nodding to Peter. Watching it all on the giant screen he stopped his enjoyment of the hot drink,
"The old sleigh. What is happening here?" He asked seeing it in reverse, slamming his cup down. "It was supposed to be chopped up," He walked away from Peter his voice getting louder, his movements getting sharper, "for firewood decades ago." He turned back to start pacing, "How did that devious-?" He cut himself off in his rant,
"Old people, sir." He sounded calm, "Shall I get you your stress ball?" Steve turned to glare at him, before raising a brow,
"We have a finer comms than the Pentagon, and you say we can't contact him," He looked up at the huge screen to see his brother with a stupid grin on his face. Like he was enjoying all this torment he was causing his brother, scratch that he probably was. Why else would he do all of this on Christmas eve to him, after everything else he has already gone threw as if it wasn't enough, "except by some ancient-" He was interrupted in his ranting monolog by an old voice calling out some old term used to gain attention,
"Here comes the cavalry!" His voice sounded even more ancient than his Grandfather's. Turning to the voice he looked down to see that Peter had followed him, sometimes it was convenient that the little elf followed him so relentlessly, other times it was a bit unnerving.
"Ernie Clicker, sir." This time it seemed to be informative,
"Head of Polar Communications for 46 missions!" The old elf called a smile on his wrinkled face, slowly he made his was towards them, "Oh, crikey blikey," Steve recognized that tone, it was the same one Grand-Santa had every time he was going to go on some long spiel about something he had done decades ago. "me and your granddad saw some times!" Called it. Steve thought to himself before quickly walking towards the ancient elf, "I remember once," Picking him up and setting him on the chair he interrupted not wanting to hear it,
"Wow, must catch up soon." His voice completely dismissive, "Now,"
"Oh, you're in a hurry. I can tell." Ernie looked up at him, as Peter pulled the wire away from him and pulled off the covering, blowing on it kicked up enough dust to not only choke himself but, Steve as well. The machine came to life shocking the old elf slightly,
"Oh this is ridiculous. Could we hurry this?" Steve asked being pushed to his limit. The old one turned to harass him some more it seemed,
"You can't rush the Signalator." He rubbed his hands up the keypad softly, "Got to play her gentle." Steve brought both of his brows up, out, and together as the elf whacked the Signalator. "So, what do you wish to say?" He turned his face back to the now whirling machinery. "I wouldn't worry. It's not like they're facing man-eating lions." Steve and Peter shared a look before Steve shook himself out of it.
"I need to know what they are thinking! I need to know where they are now!" Ernie typed away on his machine before sitting back and watching the little flags.
"You'll have to give it a minute, unlike all your fancy things today it takes a minute to get threw." Ernie smiled at them both before just sitting there. It had been a good 5 minutes so Steve checked his phone.
Well, I am really sorry to hear that. After your done call me. Maybe I can take your mind off of it. At least for awhile.
"Oh!" Ernie called out distracting him from replying back, "Something's coming through." Steve bent back down to look at it closer,
"What does it say?" Ernie spoke a bunch of gibberish. Steve looked down at him then at Peter. "What?" He repeated,
"I don't know." Ernie said looking at the flags standing up, "Maybe they hit something and it bumped it out of place." He said pulling on a few of the flags. "Maybe if I," And he went to work trying to fix it.
"Try them again. Keep trying." Steve grumbled, "All this for one child. In 600 million." No one ever cared if I got anything or not. He moped to himself.
I'll call when its done but, it seems like its going to take all night at this rate. More things keep going wrong.
"We should turn her of a mo." Ernie said looking back at them.
"Don't worry, sir. Children are stupid. Either it won't know it got missed or it'll think it's been bad. It's a win-win." Peter tried to calm him down. but I wasn't bad. Steve gloomed in his own mind.
"You missed one? A nipper? Cor!" Ernie started to laugh, "What's all this here for if you miss one?" Derailing the depressing train of thought for now he decided to focus on what needed to be done.
"Could you please type faster?" Ernie looked up at him with a sarcastic face,
"All right." He typed a few more words only to have the machine revolt against him. It flung a flag at Steve in anger and decided that it was done. Sending a shock to the main computer,
"Systems critical. Lead in Christmas." The computer rang out as all the lights started to go out quickly. Until the entire room was dark.
"Oops-a-daisy." Ernie proclaimed, Steve felt a small hand grab his,
"Peter," he let out in an air of annoyance, "let go of my hand, please."
"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir." Peter said while letting go of his hand quickly. His phone went off with a reply from Abigail, "And get me IT." He said while reading it,
You could just take a break, let it calm down and call me? Besides isn't it your fathers company or what ever? I mean I know you do all the work but, seriously it's Christmas, we had a web date planned for later and everything. Steve let a smile cross his face for just a moment.
We had a date planned? He just pictured her squirming having let the cat out of the bag early.
Did my phone put date? Because I typed web chat. Stupid auto-correct. Ha-ha. He let out a chuckle.
I'm not complaining. It will be a nice surprise.
Speaking of surprises have you seen what's on the news? Aliens on Christmas, really? He looked confused at the text for a minute before turning his HOHO onto the news, what he watched astonished him.