A/N: Thanks to all my super reviewers and everyone who has favourited or followed this story since the last update. Since I made you all wait a while for this update, I also made it a long one. Enjoy!
After eight hours in the Santa suit, Eric couldn't say that he was looking forward to three more at the LOPP Christmas Party but it didn't seem like he had much in the way of options. He had to change suits at lunch when the last kid before his break had an accident. Luckily, the store kept three Santa suits in rotation between the backroom, Eric's locker and the dry cleaner.
He grabbed a chocolate bar out of the vending machine in the staff lunch room and waited for Jackie. The Santa's Workshop gang would be him, Jackie, and Shelly as Mrs. Claus. There was no need for a candy cane elf tonight in a room full of grownups. The branch office for Santa's workshop was being set up by Shelly Wessler over at the Knights of Columbus Hall this afternoon while the rest of them were at the store. He'd been playing Santa for weeks, but it was finally starting to feel like Christmas.
"You know, I thought you'd smell like pee for a lot longer than you actually did." Jackie did a good job a faking being impressed. "You realize that everyone is going to see us at this Party, right?
"Yeah, but they probably won't recognize me." Eric shrugged. "I mean, I'll probably be forty before I can actually grow facial hair, so no one knows what I look like with a beard."
"Also probably has something to do with the fact that Santa weighs like twice what you do." Jackie giggled as the two of them headed for the back door to the store. Three more hours in a Santa suit wouldn't be the worst thing. He popped the door to the Cruiser open and dropped in behind the steering wheel. Jackie got in next to him and he fired up the car. "Eric. What am I going to do when some of these women see me?" She swallowed nervously. "I know most of them from when my parents still had a country club membership."
"You haven't seen most of them since your Dad went away?" Eric pulled the car out of the parking spot and headed across the lot.
"You don't know these people." Jackie pulled her elf's hat down over her eyes. "They'll look down on you if you eat the wrong cheese. They're not exactly going to open their arms to someone whose Dad is in prison and whose Mom is under some bar – or worse, bartender – in Mexico."
He pulled the Cruiser on to the road and headed toward the Knights of Columbus Hall on the North end of town. "Jackie, listen, over the last few weeks I've met a lot of bad kids and even worse parents playing Santa Claus and it's taught me two things. First, if Santa actually had a naughty and nice list, way more kids would be on the naughty list than the nice list. Second, no one gets to look down on you. You're caring and you're funny and you're really tough. You could make excuses but you don't and I…well, I admire that."
Her eyes got really big for a second. People didn't usually tell her what they thought of her in a way that she took seriously. Whenever Steven or Michael would say something nice about her, she just assumed it was an attempt to move the conversation toward sex. Eric had a tendency to just start rambling when he had something on his mind that he didn't know how to get out. It was like if he just tried to push all the words out at the same time, his tongue would sort them out.
"Eric, that was very sweet." Jackie reached over to the steering wheel and put her hand on top of his. It was a gesture that she didn't really understand. But it felt natural. She tried to downplay it, turn it into a good-natured pat on the knuckles before pulling her hand back and continuing to sit nervously in the passenger's seat.
The two of them sat in silence for the remainder of the short drive to the Hall. Eric tried not to think about what would happen if he got pulled over. He tried to envision a cop pulling over Santa Claus driving an Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser. It brought a smile to his face as he stepped out into the snow of the parking lot. He looked over to see Jackie bundled up in her coat. He held the door for her on the way into the Hall. It didn't even occur to him that kids probably shouldn't see Santa climbing out of a car on a night like tonight. He was supposed to be the stuff of flying reindeer after all.
Once they got into the Hall, it was obvious that Shelly had spent the day trying to turn it into a kind of paper mache winter wonderland with candy canes and snowmen strategically placed around the floor and a ton of cotton snowballs around the chair where Eric expected he was going to have to take his place for the next three hours. Jackie hung her coat up as Eric cleared his throat, lowered his voice and headed into the mass of waiting people.
"Jackie, honey, good thing I found you." Mrs. Forman came running over to Jackie when she recognized the long raven hair without the elf hat on. "I wanted you to give Eric this for getting up early and shovelling the driveway before going to work this morning." Kitty slipped Jackie a five dollar bill. "If Red knew I was giving it to him, I'd never get that vein in his neck calmed down."
Jackie laughed a little to herself and took the money. "I'll make sure he gets it, Mrs. Forman." Jackie smiled at the older woman fondly. She always had the feeling that Mrs. Forman had a soft spot for her. Her green tunic rode up as she found a pocket for the money.
"My, my, isn't that costume…tight." Kitty wearily observed.
"Yeah, they don't really give us a choice." Jackie offered an explanation. "It seems to work in terms of happy kids. I feel like the babysitter every little guy has a crush on sometimes." She could tell that Mrs. Forman wanted to say something else but instead, she just pursed her lips and pushed a smile out between her teeth.
Eric was already seated about halfway across the hall with Shelly Wessler fawning all over him like the doting Mrs. Claus she was dressed to be. It was hard for Jackie not to roll her eyes at that. All the way at the far end of the hall, there sat what looked to be a brand new car, or else one that someone had worked very hard to get into showroom condition. Next to it was the LOPP raffle drum. Every year, leading up to the LOPP Christmas Party, various LOPPs around town sold raffle tickets as a way of raising money for a local cause – usually the hospital auxiliary.
This was a mostly adult party, but no doubt between Trudie Wessler and Kitty Forman, it had gotten around to a lot of the LOPP members that Eric Forman was playing Santa Claus. Some of these middle aged moms, long ignored by their often well-fed and otherwise occupied husbands would get a slight thrill from sitting in Santa's lap this evening. Boney as Eric was, she wondered if he'd get anything out of it.
She walked over and took her place behind the camera. There wouldn't be too many people lining up for photos with Santa, she figured. Likely as not, they wouldn't even really do business until the spiked punch really started flowing. Jackie made sure the camera was all set before walking over to a spot over Eric's shoulder.
"Hey, your mom wanted me to give this to you for shovelling the driveway this morning." Jackie whispered in his ear and pressed the bill into his palm.
"Do me a favour." Eric replied in a hush from behind his fake moustache. "Take the money and go grab a few raffle tickets. I'd really like to win that GTO for Red for Christmas."
The inherent selflessness brought a smile to Jackie's face. It also made her think of her conversation with Mrs. Forman. If Red ever found out that Kitty gave Eric money for something he would have expected him to do anyway, he probably would have been angry. Finding out that Eric then used it on his Dad likely would calm Red's anger a little bit.
Checking to see if anyone was headed for the lineup to get their picture taken with Santa, Jackie decided to head over to the raffle table. No one even thought twice when an elf got into the line at the raffle table to buy a few tickets. She picked up ten tickets for the five dollar bill and stuffed them into the pocket of her tunic where the bill was. Before heading back over to her spot behind the camera, Jackie's eyes met Bob Pinciotti's across the Hall.
Of course Bob would be at something that had a bunch of single, middle aged women at it. He gave her a Bob smile and a polite wave as he made his way over. "Hey there, ho there, Hi there." Bob greeted Jackie as he got in line to get his picture taken with Santa. "I didn't know you were one of Santa's elves this year."
"Yeah, well I needed the job and this way I get to help spread the Christmas spirit to some young kids." Jackie shrugged, her hands landed with a gentle slap against her thighs. "Besides, it gets me a discount on my shopping."
"Yeah, well, I always love it when they bring Santa Claus to these things." The smile on Bob's face grew wider. "Mind if I get a picture?"
"Not at all, Mr. Pinciotti." Jackie cheered. "Go right ahead." When Bob Pinciotti took a seat on Eric's knee, Jackie thought it was for sure going to give way. Instead, she saw Eric grimace and quickly grit his teeth before adjust to support Bob.
"Ho, Ho, Ho." Eric thundered in his deepest Santa Claus voice. "If it isn't little Bobby Pinciotti."
"Yeah, it is." Bob seemed stunned. "How did you know that?"
"Santa knows everything about you." Eric gave Bob the brightest smile he could muster. "Like the Sherriff's star that you wanted when you were a little boy. Even the deer rifle you asked for so you could go hunting with your Dad." In this moment, Eric was so happy he listened to Donna when she talked about her parents back when they were in counselling. There was a slightly confused, slightly wistful look on Bob's face as he listened. "What can Santa do for you this year, Bobby?"
"I don't know, Santa." Bob still looked puzzled. You always got the feeling that Bob Pinciotti's inner child never lived too far below the surface. It seemed to be right on the surface right now. "I guess, maybe a new lady if you can swing it Santa. I'm gonna be a little lonely around the house once my daughter goes to school."
"Well, I don't know if I can make that work, little Bobby." Eric gently chucked Bob on the chin. "But Santa will see what he can do. Now, smile for the camera." Eric pointed at the camera and a giant smile sprouted on Bob's face. Jackie took a quick snapshot. Eric reached into the interior pocket of his red suit and pulled out one of the candy canes he always kept in case they ran out at the Elf station in the store. "Merry Christmas, Bobby."
"Thanks, Santa." Bob took the candy cane and headed back into the crowd. Eric gave his leg a rub and tried to get the feeling back into it. He wasn't expecting adults to want to sit on Santa's lap and he really wasn't expecting it of Bob Pinciotti. However, Bob had started the trend. By the time he got up, a small line had started to form. A few were single mothers, but most were couples that were probably just going to stand on either side of Santa's chair and get their picture taken.
One by one, Eric spent the next two hours seeing them all. Some of them were teachers from school or coworkers of his mom's at the hospital. There were some of Jackie's country clubbers, that world that straddled the Chamber of Commerce and the county Republican Executive. After two hours, Trudie Wessler let out a hard whistle and tapped on the microphone to command everyone's silence. "Everyone, I want to thank you all for coming to the 38th LOPP Christmas Social." There was a round of applause. "This event was first put together right after the Pearl Harbour attack in 1941 as a way to rally the community around the war effort. Until 1973, all proceeds west to the USO. In 1973, that was changed to the Point Place Hospital Auxiliary and it's my pleasure to announce that this year we set a new fundraising record for the raffle draw at over $26,000 that we'll be able to donate."
The room broke into applause. "Of course, that's only half the story. The other half is the draw for his beautiful burgundy, two door convertible 1967 Pontiac GTO. I'm told the engine is a 389 and it's capable of more than 330 horsepower, so someone is getting a real hot ride here."
Mrs. Wessler stuck her hand into the drum and fished around for the ticket stub. For her part, Jackie couldn't remember praying this hard for anything in her life. She squeezed the tickets in her right hand. Mr. Forman had to give up his Corvette when he thought Mrs. Forman was pregnant a couple years ago. A GTO wasn't a Corvette, but she was sure that he wouldn't mind. Come on.
She stared down at the numbers and waited for the call. Trudie Wessler pulled a stub and started reading. "7-8-5-5-1-0-1" They waited to see if anyone in the room reacted. All the stubs had phone numbers on them in case the winner wasn't in the room. That way they could be called later on. After reading the number on the ticket, Jackie couldn't believe it. She held the squeal in and rushed over to Eric shaking the ticket furtively. "You did it!" She whispered exuberantly. "You won." She squeezed the ticket even harder.
Eric's eyes almost shot out from under his Santa hat. "Holy crap!" He raised a glove to cover his mouth. There were certain things that people just shouldn't hear Santa Claus say. They only had another hour to go. "Jackie, hold on to that ticket and we'll talk to Mrs. Wessler after the party's over." The one thing that you could count on in this sleepy suburb was that the adults didn't feel a great need to be out late.
Sure enough, shortly after the draw, the Hall started to clear out. Eric got up and walked around to be as social as he could be as Santa Claus. It was all he could do not to limp around after Bob almost crushed his left knee. Fighting the bruise and trying to keep his voice in a deep baritone were almost contrary impulses.
"Santa, you just look adorable this year." Kitty was a couple of punches deep and more giggly than usual. "How was your night? Were the Ladies of Point Place good little girls this year?"
"Oh, I think we're going to have a lot of very happy Christmas mornings in Point Place this year." Eric kept his voice deep until he was sure that he was talking only to his mom. The crowd was starting to noticeably thin out.
"Doesn't Jackie look so cute in her little elf outfit." Kitty pointed over Eric's shoulder where Jackie had started helping Shelly clean up the temporary Santa station.
"I guess." Eric shrugged. Like he hadn't spent the last three weeks casting quick glances every time Jackie would bend over and her green tunic would ride up, exposing the long, tight, candy cane striped tights underneath.
"You guess?" Kitty's voice shot up both in pitch and volume unexpectedly. Eric's eyes almost shot out of his head as he worried that his mom had blown his cover. "Sometimes, your father's right you can be such a dumbass."
"Alright, Kitty." Eric had never been quite so relieved to see Red. "Why don't we get you home, huh?" Red gently took his wife by her shoulders and turned her toward the exit. Before he was out of range, Red leaned back and whispered a warning to Eric. "Don't be stupid taking Jackie home."
It was cryptic in a way that his dad so rarely was. What was the stupid thing to do here? Would it be just dropping her off and going home? Would it be making a move on her? As confused as he was before, Red's advice – if that's what it was – actually made things worse. He headed back over to help Jackie and Shelly clean up. Cleaning up the cotton and packing the paper mache figures took most of the time. The chair they used for Santa actually was property of the hall, so all they had to do was cart it into a backroom.
By the time they were done cleaning up, they were staring at an empty hall with a collection of Euchre and cribbage banners hanging from a far wall and the faint smell of stale beer coming from the kitchen. It was one of those little smells of home that let you know that you were experiencing the holiday season in a way you'd remember. Eric used the few free minutes to duck into the Men's room and finally change out of his Santa Claus costume after close to eleven hours.
On his way out of the men's room, Eric ran into Mrs. Wessler who was closing up the kitchen in the hall. "Mrs. Wessler!" Eric shouted after his boss. "Um, I don't know what we were planning on doing with the car after tonight…"
"The dealer who donated it is going to hold on to it until after we contact the person who won the raffle." Mrs. Wessler answered with a slightly Stepfordian smile. "Don't worry about the car, I've got it taken care of."
"That's the thing." Eric reached into his pocket and grabbed the raffle ticket that Jackie had given him. "I won." He handed the ticket to Mrs. Wessler who took one look at it and then looked back up at Eric. "On Monday, I'll let you know where you can pick it up." She handed the ticket back to Eric. "Congratulations, Eric. Merry Christmas." She headed out a back door to the hall.
Eric walked back out into the main hall and saw Jackie standing there in her coat waiting for him. "Alright, Twinkle, you ready to head home?"
"So ready." Jackie answered with a yawn. "Let's get out of here, Santa." She gave him a playful shove toward the door of the Hall. The two of them climbed into the Vista Cruiser and Eric fired up the engine. "Can you believe you won the GTO?"
"No." Eric shook his head, staring at the steering wheel. "I don't want to sound like I'm feeling sorry for myself, but aside from this job it doesn't feel like a lot has really gone right for me since I got back."
"I know the feeling." Jackie let her head bob gently in comprehension. He put the car in drive and started pulling out of the parking lot. "The time I've spent with you has probably been my favourite part of the holidays so far."
"Me, too." He laughed quietly, sardonically. "Who would have thought that when I got home early?" The silence between them in moments like this was no longer awkward, it was anticipatory. Like watching two chess players sitting across a table, carefully moving pieces of their own emotional evolution into place. "I actually find myself looking forward to going into work. I wonder what's going to happen the day after Christmas?"
The day after Christmas, yeah she'd thought about that. It wasn't like they'd stop seeing each other or stop hanging out. But it was something about Santa's workshop. It was like it was a universe that was unique to the two of them. Like it created a place where the two of them could let their guard down. It felt like, if something didn't happen between the two of them by Christmas, then it wasn't going to happen.
"Are you looking forward to the parade tomorrow?" She tried to change the subject to lift a little of the emotional weight that the conversation was carrying.
"Not really." Eric admitted. "I like having Sundays off. It's one of the few nights that I get to sleep in."
"Yeah, that's kind of nice." Jackie nervously started to play with her fingers as Eric pulled up in front of her building. "Hey Eric, why don't you pull around back and come up for a glass of egg nog?"
"Sure?" He seemed confused. Inside his head, a thousand questions were engaged in a sprint from his brain to his tongue and he couldn't think of a good way to process them all. He pulled the car into the visitor's parking behind the building and the two of them headed inside.
"I didn't really figure you for the egg nog type." Eric attempted to make small talk as they climbed the stairs to her apartment.
"I'm not, really, but Fez is in love with everything about Christmas in America, so he bought like a case of it about a week ago." Jackie pushed open the door to the apartment and flicked on the light. "Take a seat on the couch, I'll pour us a couple glasses."
Maybe it was the exhaustion, maybe it was actually being up here alone in her apartment with her but he let his eyes linger on her as she walked away. His gaze walked its way up her tight toned calves, following the swirling red and white lines of her elf tights until they disappeared under the green tunic and the gold belt that tied it closed around her waist. "Hey, where is Fez anyway?" He snapped out of his trance when he realized there was a possibility they weren't alone.
"He heard something about a Christmas disco in Kenosha tonight and he decided to go with some of the girls from the hair salon." Jackie brought their drinks in from the kitchen. She took a seat on the couch next to him. She put a hand on his knee lightly and pointed her glass at him. "Merry Christmas, Santa."
"Merry Christmas, Twinkle." A smile sprouted at the corners of Eric's mouth as the glasses clinked together. What came over him in that minute, he wasn't really sure. He just leaned forward and went for it. It was something about her smile or the welcoming pink of her lips. He lightly kissed her at first. She shifted her glass from one hand to the other and brought her left hand up to caress his cheek. When they finally separated, he looked into her eyes for a second.
The strains of WFPP came through clearly from the radio that sat on the kitchen counter. Neither of them knew what to do next. Jackie nervously chewed on her lower lip, waiting for him to say something, anything. He seemed frozen. His mind clearly hadn't gotten to the beyond what he was going to do when he kissed her. As she heard the light piano intro echo from the radio, an idea popped into her head. She took his glass from him and set it next to hers on the coffee table.
"Come on, Santa, dance with me." She took him by the hand and pulled him up off the couch. She wrapped her arms around his neck and they started to shuffle around the carpet of the living room.
Babe I'm leaving
I must be on my way
The time is drawing near
My train is going
I see it in your eyes
"I hear this song everywhere." He said, like he was still trying to regain control of his brain.
"It's number one." She smiled up at him as she flung her hair over her shoulders. "I love this song."
"And you used to make fun of me for being a Styx fan." He chuckled lightly as his hands slowly migrated from her waist, heading for a meet up somewhere in the small of her back.
'Cause you know it's you babe
Whenever I get weary
And I've had enough
Feel like giving up
She laid her head on his chest and was almost instantly mesmerized by the hard rhythmic beating of his heart. His nerves were tangible, in every slightly shaky movement of his hand and hard swallow that amplified the pounding in his chest.
You know it's you babe
Giving me the courage
And the strength I need
Please believe that it's true
Babe, I love you
The apartment had never felt so small and yet so totally disconnected from the rest of the world outside of it.
'Cause I'll be lonely without you
And I'll need your love to see me through
Please believe me
My heart is in your hands
'Cause I'll be missing you
Babe, I love you
Babe, I love you
Oh, babe
As the last strains of the song trailed off. She could finally feel him starting to relax. They broke apart and he looked at her. Without needing to look too hard, she could see that instant fear of the unknown in his eyes. "Um, I think maybe I should go…" Eric was hesitant, more like he was trying to convince himself than anything else.
Before he could brush passed her, she reached out and snagged his hand. "No." She firmly said and he stopped. "Stay."
"Stay?" He asked tepidly. "Like stay stay?"
"Not like that." She answered. "I just want you here when I wake up tomorrow." It felt like she was out on a huge emotional limb here, praying that she didn't hear the branch creak.
He barely thought about it. "Yeah." He answered. "I think I'd like that, too."