Chapter Six – It's bad enough we get along so well

The temperature seemed rather warm for a December night in Ontario. Molly figured it had something to do with the magic that Bernard was using. The city was beautiful, even at night. Everything about the past 24 hours had all felt so surreal, but Molly realized there was still a chance this could all turn out to be just a dream.

"So, I have to ask, how do you think the Council of Legendary Figures is going to react?" Molly shoved her hands in her pockets and breathed in the crisp, air. She had never quite figured out what it was, but something about cities made her feel so much more alive.

Bernard shrugged. "I have no idea, to be honest. Obviously, the SOS…" he paused and looked over at her. "Do you know what the SOS is?"

"Yeah, the Secret of Santa."

"Right. There are probably going to be some fears about that. And then there's the whole Santa thing. It might make for a very tense meeting."

"Who meets with them when Santa… can't?" She didn't feel the need to point out that even if they asked the new 'Santa', he wouldn't believe them.

Bernard furrowed his brow slightly, looking stressed again. "The task falls to me, as Head Elf. I haven't had to meet with them in over two hundred years. The last time I did, it didn't go over so well."

Molly was surprised. Bernard was so organized and on task – she couldn't imagine him failing at an update meeting. "What happened?"

"Cupid and I got into it a few times," he admitted sheepishly.

Molly laughed. "Honestly, that doesn't surprise me."

Bernard raised his eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Well, he kind of seemed like a bit of a dick in the second movie."

"Wait… there's more than one?"

Molly nodded. "There's two. The third is rumoured to be coming out in two years."

"Hmm." Bernard wanted to ask her more about the movies, but her fear of ruining the time space continuum had seemed pretty intense, so he tried to ignore his curiousity. "Yeah, Cupid is a bit of a … jerk. He's full of himself and thinks he's this big hot shot just because he can make people fall in love."

"But people fall in love without his help, right?"

"Exactly."

Molly shook her head. "I don't think I'd get along with him very well."

Bernard laughed. "Very few do." He appeared thoughtful for a moment. "You know… maybe you should come with me to the meeting tomorrow. It might ease their fears on the whole SOS thing if they meet you… and might make me look a little less like I've had too much hot chocolate."

"Wait, are you SERIOUS?" Molly looked at him, eyes wide and a huge grin on her face. "Meeting the Council? I would love to!"

Bernard smiled. "How old did you say you were again?" he asked with a smirk. He had never seen anyone get that excited at meeting the Council. Then again, most people he knew were from the worlds where magic existed, and meeting the Council typically meant they had screwed up.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "There is nothing wrong with a healthy interest in the political operations of any kind of world."

"That's the first time I've heard that from someone who hasn't graduated high school."

"Hey now! I'm a victory-lapper. I graduate last year. I'm just earning some extra credits so my college applications look even better."

Bernard cocked his head towards her in interest. "Were your grades not good enough before?"

Molly shook her head. "It's not about the grades. I graduated on honour roll. The program I want to get into… it's difficult. They get thousands of applicants every year, but only admit one-hundred. I'm good, but so is everyone else applying. I want to make sure I can stand out." Her voice trailed off at the end as she realized that if she didn't get back home, that might all be moot anyways. She highly doubted transcripts could be sent from another universe.

After a few moments, Molly stopped, her gaze drifting in between two benches on the sidewalk. There, a young girl, maybe in her early teens, shivered as she slept in her worn coat.

"Can they see us or hear us?" Molly asked, unsure of how Bernard's magical barrier was working.

Bernard shook his head, as he looked over to where Molly was already walking. "What are you doing?"

She didn't respond. Instead, she fumbled around in her pockets and pulled out a couple Canadian twenty-dollar bills and tucked them into the girl's pocket cautiously. When the girl didn't react, Molly removed Quentin's jacket, and took off the sweater she had been wearing, laying it over the girl. She put back on the elven jacket and watched sadly for a moment before turning and walking away.

Bernard was moved by her display of compassion. Most humans he had observed seemed more likely to pretend the homeless didn't exist.

Sighing, Molly walked back over to him, and hugged herself to keep warm. "I wish there was more I could do," she said sadly.

"I think you just did more than most," he replied as he took off his jacket, then offered it to her. "Here, I'm used to the cold. It's natural for me."

She smiled slightly and accepted it. "I hate seeing people homeless. My family once took a trip to Toronto at Christmas and I saw so many kids my own age begging on the streets. After the first one, I couldn't even look at them, because I was trying so hard not to cry. I hate to even think of what would drive a kid to choose the streets over living at home. Everyone should have a place to feel loved and call home."

Bernard didn't know what to say. Of course Christmas elves knew the harsh realities of the human world, but up in the North Pole, it was often easy to forget just how real and harsh they really were. There was no such thing as a homeless Christmas elf, or of someone feeling unloved or unwanted. Sure, there were dark times, and things were not as happy-go-lucky as the humans seemed to think, but being loved was never a question there. If things did not work out with one's family, there were plenty of relatives and friends ready to open their doors.

"Ugh… sorry, I just totally killed the Christmassy-mood," Molly apologized, shaking Bernard from his thoughts.

"What? No, don't apologize. You didn't kill the mood. An act of kindness is always part of the Christmas spirit."

They walked over to the skating rink they had seen earlier, and Molly sighed, changing the topic awkwardly. "Do you ever watch movies up in Elfsburg?"

"Sometimes."

"One of my favourite Christmas movies was filmed partially at an open skating rink in a city like this. Well, in my world." She looked up at the sky and smiled. "Cassiopeia."

Bernard followed her gaze, up to the constellation.

"Do you know the story of Cassiopeia?"

Bernard shook his head. "I just know the constellations. We use them to guide Santa. We've been using star maps since the first Santa Claus."

Pushing herself up on the small wooden wall, Molly jumped up and slowly lowered herself onto the now empty skating rink. Bernard laughed and did the same.

"You realize without skates, we're going to end up falling a lot right?"

Molly just smiled, and pushed off the wall, gliding somewhat gracefully backwards.

"So the story is your pretty standard tale about vanity. Cassiopeia would often brag about how much more beautiful she was than everyone, including the sea nymphs. Poseidon got real pissed off, punished her, and then put her image in the sky, so that part of the year she'd appear upside down with her dress over her head. Super embarrassing."

She glided around the rink a bit before she slipped and sprawled rather ungracefully across the ice, laughing as she hit the ground with a loud thunk.

Bernard slid after her, waving his arms around to try and keep his balance. He was a little wobbly but managed to make it over to her without falling. "Is that what the movie is about?" he asked as he helped her to her feet. "Because that doesn't sound very Christmassy or happy."

She chuckled. "No. The lead man tells the lead girl about Cassiopeia the night they meet, while they are at the rink. A weird, non-romantic pick-up line. But it works." She sighed again and began to skate around on her shoes. "It's a movie about love and destiny. Two random strangers have a chance encounter while shopping for a gift for their significant others, and after running back into each other again by accident, they spend the evening together. They fall for one another, but she wants to leave their relationship to destiny. So they do a test to see if destiny means for them to be together, and miss running into each other by mere seconds. The rest of the movie, they move on with their lives, but their hearts still belong to one another, and so they spend the next few years searching for each other again."

"You're such a girl," Bernard laughed. "Do you realize your eyes light up and you get this silly little glow about you when you talk about this movie?"

Molly shrugged. "What can I say, I'm a hopeless romantic. I just love the idea of two strangers knowing in an instant that they are meant to be together."

He shook his head. He couldn't believe how much he had managed to learn about this girl in one night. She was unlike anyone he knew. She was so alive and animated yet grounded at the same time. Silly and childlike, yet calm and mature. So very, very different than the elves.

There was a time when Bernard had clung to stories like the movie Molly had described. When he was in his teen years, which for Christmas elves, lasted about five-hundred years, he had been a hopeless romantic. Though he had met many a beautiful elf in his lifetime, none had ever really drawn him in. As he got older, he lost that romantic flair. His life became about work, about Santa and keeping the North Pole in order. For a moment, as Molly had gushed about this movie, he had felt that hopeless romantic inside of him coming to life again. But it was only a moment.

It was as he snapped out of that moment that he realized how much time they had spent in the city. Probably most of the night in the North Pole by this time. He glanced at his watch, noticing the magic gauge hovering dangerously low.

He skated back over to the wall, motioning for Molly to follow. "We've got to go," he said, as he climbed out of the rink.

Molly followed him, noticing the change in his demeanour. For a moment, he had become the light-hearted Bernard she recognized from the movies. But now, the crease in his forehead was reappearing, and the worried expression was replacing the smile.

"Everything okay?"

Bernard looked over at her, startled. "I'm fine, why?"

"You just are starting to look stressed again."

"I'm almost out of magic. And I still have to figure out what to do with Scott Calvin… and you."

When Molly had hoisted herself back over the wall, she walked over and gave Bernard a hug. "Thank you, for letting me take you for coffee… and for taking me through the city."

Bernard was a little taken aback at first, but then he returned the hug. "Thank you, Molly." He blushed slightly. "I can't remember the last time I've actually done something… fun."

They pulled apart, and Molly shifted awkwardly. Hugging him had been a natural reaction, but she hadn't expected him to hug back. She knew it was just a hug, but suddenly she just felt very self-conscious about the act. "You're welcome," she said, trying to hide her discomfort.

It was obvious to Bernard that something was suddenly bothering her, but he wasn't sure he wanted to know what. He had felt her flinch slightly when he hugged back, a response that he found more confusing than he had anticipated. Now, her cheeks were flushed, and she wouldn't meet his gaze.

Trying not to put much thought into her reaction, he pulled out the miniaturized jetpack and pressed the button to bring it back to a normal size again.

When he had secured it on his back, he reached out and took Molly' hand. "You gonna be okay this time?"

Again, the flinch.

Molly was doing everything she could not to let the feelings that overwhelmed her when he returned the hug show. She knew his hug and grabbing her hand meant nothing, but crushes didn't vanish just because one willed it so.

"Sorry," she said. "I'm just nervous about the flying."

He knew it was a lie but didn't push the question. Her sudden change in behaviour was strange, but he had didn't want to push her on it.

"I'll be okay this time, I think," she said, taking a deep breath as she answered his question.

He fired up the jetpack and they raised slowly into the air then took off into the night.

As they flew through the skies, Bernard started to tell Molly about life as a Christmas elf and about the North Pole. He didn't know how much the movies she kept referring to explained about their lives, so he just kept talking. If he was telling her information she already knew, she wasn't letting on as she listened intently.

"We're not actually called Christmas elves," Bernard said. "I mean, we are, but that's not what we really are. We got the nickname just over 1500 years ago, when we first came to help Saint Nicholas, the original Santa Claus. It was started as a joke by some of the other elves. It just made sense for us. Unlike our brethren, who are tall, slender and majestic, we have always been shorter and more childlike. It takes a very long time for us to look like adults. We were dubbed 'Christmas elves' because it seemed to be the only thing we could do well."

Molly was enthralled by his stories. She had always wondered about the elves beyond the movies. Where they came from, whether they were strictly Christmas elves or not.

"Most elves leave the North Pole once they reach adulthood. By then, they've saved enough that they choose to leave and start families of their own. Elves at the North Pole are usually between five hundred to a thousand years old. They leave after that."

Molly looked over at him. "So how old are you then?"

Bernard flushed slightly, suddenly feeling very old. "1457."

"Well, you don't look a day over twenty to me," Molly smiled.

Her earlier awkwardness seemed to fade the more they talked. Or rather, the more Bernard talked and Molly listened.

She wasn't sure if pushing why he had stayed was a good move at this time, or if that should wait.

"Thanks, though, twenty for an elf looks like a baby for a human."

"Way to make me feel even younger then," she teased. "Until today, I was starting to feel like I was getting old!"

As they began to descend onto the North Pole, Molly took in everything. It was so majestic and beautiful from the air. As she looked around, she noticed a polar bear directing traffic.

"Oh my gosh! It's actually true!" she exclaimed.

"What is?"

"Polar bears directing traffic!" She giggled.

Bernard smiled. "It's amazing isn't it?"

"Beyond words."

By the time they landed and put away the equipment, Molly had begun to yawn.

"Good timing, I am definitely ready for bed. Goodnight, Bernard," she said softly as she turned to go down the hall to the 'guest' room.

Bernard paused, wondering if he should offer her a better place to stay. He wasn't sure how he felt about asking a girl he had just met to stay in his apartment, but he knew for a fact the couch in his living room was more comfortable than the guest room. He bit his lip slightly as he decided, then called out to her.

"You know, my couch is way more comfortable than that bed," he offered.

Molly turned around, surprised. "Are you sure?" she asked. "I mean, we barely know each other."

"It's not like I'm asking you to sleep in my bed with me," he pointed out. "Trust me. You'll get a better sleep. And you need your rest if you're going to be facing the council with me tomorrow."

Molly crinkled her nose as she thought. Although her parents would seriously disprove, the thought of a more comfortable sleep was far too tantalizing.

"Okay… just let me get my things."

Bernard's apartment was smaller than Molly had expected, but cozy and warm. She had expected it to be decorated like Christmas, but instead, it was a perfect blend of deep blues, blacks and rich greens. The kitchen opened into a small living room with a large-sized two-cushioned couch and a coffee table in front of it. A hallway off the living room led to the bedroom and the bathroom.

They didn't talk much before Molly curled up on the couch and passed out. Once Bernard was certain she was asleep, he ventured to his own, stressing about what would happen at the council meeting the next day.