The courtyard in front of the younger grades is filled with parents and Liam stands awkwardly to the side as he waits for his niece. He'd been voluntold to go get her, and as the cold afternoon settled over him, he shivered in his coat.
"Bubby!" McKenna's shout cuts through the air and Liam grunts as she collides with his stomach.
"Hey, baby Stitch," Liam says, hugging her. When she doesn't let go quickly enough, Liam looks down and sees just how distressed she looks. "What's wrong?"
"Bubby, Pierce is mean!" she shouts, speaking of a boy in the other Kindergarten class.
'What did he do?"
"He said mean and fake things! He's mean and I don't like him!"
"What did he say?"
"He said Santa was fake and that it was just a story!"
Looking around to be sure no other little kids had heard that, Liam squats down to eye level with McKenna. "He said what!?" Liam asks again, shocked and angry for McKenna.
"He said Santa wasn't real!" McKenna is close to tears now.
"Where is he? Point him out to me." They look around and finally, Mckenna lands on a red jacket and a little boy walking away with his mom, or his nanny, Liam was never sure. He wants to run up to that kid and tell him off for making his niece cry, but doesn't. Doesn't want to make a scene at a school where he doesn't know anyone.
"Is that true? Is Santa a story?" McKenna's quiet questions break his heart and he droops at seeing her little pout.
Liam Castle, in all his fifth-grade wisdom, never could have imagined he'd have to talk to his little niece about such a complicated thing. He seriously wished his dad was there and not waiting for them in the car.
"Oh, McKenna. Come here." He hugs her close and tries to think of an answer. "Hey. Look at me." he gets her eyes, a lighter shade of blue than his, but with a similar Castle glint in them. "Look. Look at the snow. Snow is a real thing, you can touch it and feel it. People write stories about it, right?" He catches a few of the light flakes in his mittens, holding them up to McKenna.
She catches some snow herself and studies it.
"And we see Santa all around, right? In the stores and on TV. You can go meet him and talk to him. He's a real thing you can touch. And there are so many stories about him, right?" Liam goes on, thinking on the fly. "McKenna, listen. People who say mean things like that only do it because they lost the magic in their hearts and they are trying to make other people feel just as bad as they do."
McKenna looks at Liam, nodding as she starts to understand what he's saying.
"And when people lose the magic of Christmas, they feel like they can never get it back. But people like you and me and Grandpa and Papa Jim, we still have the magic. And we need to share it with everyone we meet because if we don't the magic goes away."
"Like in that movie! Santa uses his magic to make his girlfriend believe again!" McKenna supplies eagerly.
"Yes! You're right! So we need to do that, too. Keep the magic alive in us and share it with everyone. Do you think you can do that? Help us keep the magic?"
"I can!" McKenna nods, determined now in her effort to keep Christmas magic alive for others.
"Come on, grandpa is waiting for us," he says taking McKenna's hand and leading them to the dwindling carline.
"So: Pierce was kind of right. He lost the magic, but because I still have the magic, Christmas is real" McKenna deduces.
"Exactly. You are so smart, Stitch."
"I know. That's why I'm in the second math group." Liam laughs at that, crossing the street to the waiting car.
"Finally! What took you so long? We thought you'd gotten lost." Finn asks as they climb inside.
"Stitch and I were just having an important Christmas conversation, right?" Liam says, winking at the little girl.
"Yeah. It's just for Bubby and me, so there," she sticks out her tongue at her other aunts and uncles as they pull away from the curb "Grandpa? Can you play the Grinch song?"
"Yeah. which one?"
"The welcome Christmas song!"
And soon the car is full of the Whos of Whoville welcoming in the season of joy and light and magic.