Christmas with the Calvins

Chapter Eighteen

"Jessie Calvin, Please report to the head elf's office!" Santa's voiced called through the loudspeakers of the workshop.

"Go ahead," Cecilia encouraged from her seat a few workstations down. "I'll finish that Dollhouse, you can start a new one when you get back."

"I'll get back as soon as I can." Jess promised before climbing the nearest staircase. Two weeks had passed since Jessie and Bernard begun seeing each other in secret. She worried that Santa may have figured it out and wanted to speak privately to the two of them. The teenage girl breathed a sigh of relief when she entered the office to see Charlie, Scott and Bernard all crowded around the phone. Laura's voice was coming from the machine as she talked animatedly to her extended family.

"Hey, Laura, hang on just a second, Jessie's here. Jess, your mother said she and Neil have some big news for us." Scott explained, pulling his daughter toward the phone.

"Hi Jess!" Laura and Neil's voices emitted from the phone.

"Hi Mom, hi Neil." Jess greeted them. "Dad said you have big news?"

"We do!" Her mother promised. "Can everyone hear me?"

"Yes!" Charlie, Jess, Bernard and Scott all assured her.

"Neil and I, are having another baby!" Immediately cheers and cries of celebration could be heard through the room. Laura waited for noise to die down before continuing. "Now I know you were planning on spending the rest of the summer together but Jess, Charlie we could really use your help at home..." Jessie looked up at Bernard. Going home early wouldn't just mean leaving her father, it meant leaving her...Bernard.

"Will the baby be there when we get home? "Charlie asked. He was sitting on top of Bernard's desk swinging his legs and waiting for someone to answer him.

"Say uh, Laura, why don't you give us all a minute to process this? I'll talked it over with the kids. You can call us back around dinner time?" Scott asked.

"Yeah, that would be fine. We'll talk to you later!" Laura and Neil said goodbye and Bernard hung up the phone.

"Dad, where are Mom and Neil going to get another baby from?" Charlie looked up a Santa quizzically.

"Oh look at that, it's lunch time!" Jessie remarked after glancing down at an imaginary watch on her wrist.

"Jessie, wait!" Bernard sprinted out from behind his desk. "I'll join you." Jess and Bernard ditched Santa, leaving him alone to answer Charlie's questions about babies.

With the sex talk successfully avoided, Bernard and Jessie decided to catch some lunch anyway. With two silver trays of food in hand they found an empty table in the mess hall.

"So, how do you feel about having another little brother or sister?" Bernard questioned his female counterpart.

"Mom and Neil must be happy." Jess answered. "Neil doesn't have any kids of his own and mom loves babies."

"Why do I sense there's a but hidden somewhere in there?" Bernard asked.

"But," Jess replied. "What happens to us, when I go home?"

"Jessica, Bernard! Just the people I was looking for!" Curtis had entered to mess hall, the over-sized Christmas Handbook between his grasp.

"What is it now Curtis?" Bernard demanded. He was trying his best not to shout, but the number two elf couldn't have picked a worse time to interrupt him.

"I know." Curtis whispered back.

"You know what, Curtis?" Jessica asked him, sensing Bernard's blood about to boil.

"I know about the two of you." Curtis repeated impatiently. "Don't bother denying it. Two weeks ago, Santa mentioned to me something about leaving a mess in the kitchens. I thought it was suspicious because I hadn't been in the kitchen that night. Then a few days after that, I saw Jessica sneaking into your office..."

"I wasn't sneaking!" Jess tried to argue.

"What is your point Curtis?" Bernard snapped. "If you've known this all along, why have you waited so long to mention something?"

"Because, I've been trying to find a solution to your problem." The younger elf explained, thumping his handbook on the desk.

And what problem would that be?" The head elf asked. "Page one thousand three hundred five, Article nine: In cases concerning romantic relationships between mythical beings and mortals, one of two guidelines must be adhered to..."

"Let me see that." Bernard spun the book around and read the passage for himself. The scrawled script of the handbook made it difficult for Jessie to read upside down so she waited for Bernard to explain. He looked up from the handbook panic stricken. If we want to continue seeing each other once you turn eighteen, either I've got to give up being an elf or you have to become one."

"We've got to talk to my Dad." Jess insisted. "C'mon you two!" She scooped up the Christmas handbook and walked out of the mess hall.

Scott was in his office reading letters from kids when Bernard, Jessie and Curtis burst in.

Hey guys, take it easy." Santa demanded. "What's got you all so flustered?"

"Daddy," Jess threw the Christmas Handbook down on his giant oak desk. "Bernard and I have something to tell you."

"We've been seeing each other Sir, romantically that is." Bernard stepped forward and took Jessie's hand.

"What?" like Curtis, Scott had known this for weeks, but he wasn't letting his daughter off the hook easily. She waited too long to tell him, and he was going to have some fun. "That's disgusting! Jessica, Bernard like...fifty times your age!"

"Actually Santa, he's almost one hundred and thirty nine times her age." Cutis supplied. Jess and Bernard glared over their shoulders at him. He wasn't helping their case one bit.

"Santa," Bernard looked back over at his boss. I know this may come as a surprise to you, but Jessie and I have grown to care for...you're laughing? Why are you laughing?" The elves diplomatic tone changed to a slightly insulted one.

"Because, I'm Santa! I know everything!" Scott chortled. "You two really thought I didn't know? I knew you liked each other since you had Quintin commission that thing for her phone!"

"But if you knew...why didn't you say anything?" Jessie asked.

"I was waiting for you to come to me like you did with all your other boyfriends!" Her father answered. "You used to tell me everything, but now..."

"Dad! I still tell you everything!" His daughter insisted. "You're first person we've told!"

"Second!" Curtis piped up from the back of the room.

"Curtis!" Bernard warned.

"What I don't understand, is what Curtis has to do with this..." Scott knew Bernard wasn't fond of the younger elf, so he didn't understand why he was involved in the conversation.

"Because of this..." Jess flipped through the Christmas handbook to the page Curtis had shown her and Bernard earlier. "Once I turn eighteen, if Bernard and I want to keep seeing each other, he'd have to stop being an elf."

"Or Jessie would have to become one." Bernard added in.

Okay, so what are you going to do?" Scott asked.

"Well I can't become an elf!" Jess snorted.

"What's wrong with being an elf?" Bernard snapped."I'm not renouncing my job to become human!"

"Because humans are so terrible?" Jess growled. "That's why you run a toy factory for human children! You know what, Forget I said anything." She slammed the Christmas Handbook closed and forced it into Curtis' hands. "Dad, I want to go home." She stormed out of the office and started packing immediately.