The Workshop: A "The Santa Clause" Fanfiction. (Bernard x Female OC)

The Snow Globe Clause (Reprise)

February

A few weeks passed and momentarily, it seemed like all the fuss of gnomes and kidnappings was past us. All of us let down our hyper-fixed guards, and we became more relaxed... although the iron bars stayed temporarily until we were 100% certain that no pitch-forked armed gnomes would come sneaking through. After the gnome meeting last month, we even called a Council meeting, but even Mother Nature didn't seem that worried, simply advising us to keep an eye out, "just in case".

My grandparents left to go back home, as well as Charlie, after Laura claimed that "it had been too long since she's seen her baby boy". So, life went back to normal, well, my normal; that is, checking our supplies, making sure we were on track in toy production, and managing things behind the scenes.

"You call these sandwiches?" Bernard asked me, holding one up in his hand, not amused by the tiny tea sandwiches I had made for us. "Do you even know how much I can eat?"

"Relax, small grumpy man." I laughed at his face, "They're supposed to be small. It's called tea foods... like, little snacks you eat with tea, not lunch. It's just a snack." Even so, I pulled some fruit and cookies out of the basket I had put all the food in. "You said you would try tea. It's healthier for you anyway, much better for you than cocoa-" I tried to reach for his large gauntlet of cocoa, but he quickly whisked the mug away from my grasp.

"I thought you were going to stop commenting on my cocoa intake." He said as he held it above his head.

"I'm just saying, I was sorting through things in the kitchens earlier, and Larry mentioned that you ordered 10 in one day. I think you have some sort of addiction going on." I rolled my eyes at his attitude, leaning back again instead of trying to tackle it out of his hands.

"I've had a lot of work, I've needed the extra energy." He crossed his arms after throwing a few more sandwiches in his mouth. "Okay, these are good, you just have to eat five at a time." He said with his mouth full.

"Close your mouth-" I laughed, shaking my head at his attitude being particularly grumpy today.

There was a knock at his office door, and Kenny, the leader of E.L.F.S poked his head in. He had a frantic look on his face that he was very poorly trying to hide. "Uh, sir," He addressed Bernard who quickly stood up and swallowed his big bite of food. "We've had a problem... a really bad big... really bad problem"

"What type of problem?" I immediately stood up from my spot and opened the door for him to come inside.

Kenny waited until closing the door behind him to let his face drop into total fear and dismay and say, "Someone broke into the Snow Globe room. They're gone, all of them. We're also down two men... they didn't show back up, and evidence shows that-"

"What?" Bernard responded in the most snappy voice ever, eyebrows furrowed, as if he thought this was some sort of cruel joke that Kenny was playing on us.

"How could that happen?" I studied his face for any trace of hope that he was simply trying to get a weird reaction, but Larry wasn't the teasing type.

Kenny led us down to the Red-Deer machine that acted as a front to the Snow Globe room.

Upon closer inspection, one of the levers was lying on the floor broken. The door was open just a crack, but not enough for any elf or human to get through. Bernard, Larry, and I all tugged as hard as we could together to get the door to turn open.

"Oh... milk and cookies," I muttered once we stepped inside the room. It was eerily quiet and blank. Where normally over a hundred orbs would be floating around, with fun Christmas music and snow, there before us, stood an empty white room. My voice echoed even though I practically whispered.