David entered the house with every intention of having a calm evening with his mother. He hung his coat on the rack and as he made his way toward the kitchen, he could hear both of his parents' voices. He grimaced. Of course. His father had said he was stopping by. They were seated at the kitchen table. The scent of peppermint permeated the air and he realized it was coming from his mother's cup. It was a bad sign. Peppermint tea was always her drink of choice when she was either stressed or ill.

Maggie immediately perked up at the sight of him. "David, there you are!" She stood to give him a brief hug before sitting back down. "How were the skies today?"

"Fine. Not many clouds so it was mostly smooth flying." He chose to stand with his back against the wall rather than join them at the table.

"Are you hungry?"

"No, I grabbed something on the way here."

"See?" Maggie said as she cast a humored glance at Bernard. "He never lets me feed him any more."

Bernard sighed. "I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but they've changed the deadline. The first of the year may be it."

"What? That's not fair! They said I'd have at least until my 25th birthday!"

"I told you trying to buy you more time would backfire." Bernard pointed an accusing finger at David. "You've been acting like a spoiled brat who didn't get what they wanted for Christmas."

"Bernard, you know this isn't easy for him," Maggie said, trying to intervene.

"We had all of this sorted out a long time ago. You know what the problem is? It's Clair. Everything was fine until she entered the picture."

David felt his blood boil. "You're a fucking hypocrite! If you had done your job the way you were supposed to and left my mother alone, none of us would even be in this situation!" David put his coat back on and shouted over his shoulder as he stomped toward the door, "Screw you and screw the Elders." He slammed the door behind him.

.***.

Finding two seats at the bar was easy as the dive was nearly empty. David ordered himself a beer and chugged half of it in one gulp. Clair sipped on a glass of water, eyeing him suspiciously.

"So," she started, "what's up? Have a bad fight with your dad today?"

David wiped his mouth with his coat sleeve. "How'd you guess?"

"You almost never call me up and ask to go to a bar." She motioned to the half-empty glass in front of him. "And that's a pretty good indication too."

"He's a selfish asshole."

"Strong words coming from you."

"He's expecting me to just give up everything I've got here to go and...work for the business up there. He doesn't give a shit about how I feel about it, doesn't even consider my opinion. Then those other jerkwads up there. Don't even get me started on them. They've all got icicles shoved so far up their asses-"

"David!"

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, shaking his head. He slowly went to work on the rest of his drink.

"Since when do you worry about what other people think?"

He shrugged and used his coat sleeve as a napkin again. "I used to love going up there. When I was younger it was the coolest thing in the whole world. Everything was fine between me and my dad, but a couple years ago, it just...I don't know what happened. Don't get me wrong, I still like going up there and all, but holy snowflake, he just drives me up the wall. And there's all this crap about how it's my birthright and blah blah blah..."

"You know, I always thought it was unfair that you always have to travel to see him and he never makes an attempt to come here anymore."

"Yeah well, it's complicated. Sometimes I feel like I see him more than I want to."

Clair shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry you have such a hard relationship with him."

"What would you think," David asked, "If I left to go be up there with him with the possibility of not being able to come back?"

"Why wouldn't you be able to come back?"

"It's complicated."

"When was this decided?"

"A long time ago."

"And you're just now telling me?"

"I thought I had more time, but apparently I don't."

"What about your mom? You'd just leave her too?" She found it quite unbelievable that David would just up and leave everything and everyone.

"We have ways of making sure she is taken care of. Plus she has your family so it's not like she'd be alone." He shoved his empty glass away with a dejected sigh. "This may be our last Christmas together and it's going to be a miserable one."

Clair dropped her gaze to the counter in embarrassment.

"Jesus, that was a low blow. I'm really sorry, Clair."

"No, you're right," she reassured him. "Honestly, I don't even know what's going on."

"Do you know how it started?"

She was quiet for a moment as she gathered her thoughts. "Well, it was right after you and my dad left, a couple days after Thanksgiving. I wasn't feeling well so I stayed home from work. I was lying on my couch trying to watch Elf, and I just couldn't help but think how awful it was. I couldn't even finish it."

"Isn't that one of your favorites though?"

"It used to be," she replied sadly. "So I tried watching a different one, and I had the same reaction. Like it was the worst movie I had ever seen. And the music is just as bad."

"It's the bug," he stated, as if that was the answer to her problem.

"Bug?"

"The bah hum bug. It bites you and sucks out every ounce of holiday cheer," he explained. "It basically turns you into a Scrooge."

"I think you've had too much to drink."

"I'm serious. Remember how you couldn't even skate the other day? And I have yet to see you wear any of your favorite Christmas earrings."

Clair had to admit that he was right. Something mysterious had completely drained her of all Christmas spirit.

"Nothing else has been affected, right?" David asked. "Like regular day to day stuff or anything at work?"

"Don't worry. My aero club accounting duties have not been affected."

"Good. I don't think anyone would appreciate it if you screwed up payroll." He finally smiled.

She gently smacked him on the shoulder. "Dad is expecting me to help finish planning the company Christmas party too, but I don't know how I'm going to do that."

"I'll do my best to help you. But first things first, you're going to The Nutcracker with Susie."

.

.***.

A/N: I sat on this chapter for so long and I'm still not happy with how it turned out. Just felt like there too much talking.