Santa Trouble #6
“We, uh, heard about the challenge,” Ben explained.
“We know we aren’t supposed to listen to grownup conversations, but it was an accident.
And then we started listening to all the clues you were giving us.
We know we don’t know all the things other kids do, but we’ve been working really hard to protect the house and prove we can do it. ”
“Protect the… wait.” Nana made a weird sound and Ollie looked at her. “Why do you think you have to protect the house?”
“You said, Nana,” Ollie explained. “He sees you when you’re sleeping.”
“He knows when you’re awake,” Jack added.
“You said we better watch out,” Emily said. “So we made a plan.”
“Yeah, and even though some of the words were confusing, we figured it out.”
“Con...fusing,” Papa said. “I’m a little confused myself.”
“Don’t worry, though,” Ben explained. “We borrowed a drill from Brooks. He said it was the quietest one he had. So the holes are covered. I mean, if you wanted to give us another clue as to where to put them all…”
“Holes?”
“Silent night. Holy night,” Natasha explained. “Grammy said all would be calm and bright, but we figured we had to get the holes in quietly, probably to let in the moonlight so Henry could make his wards. It was a good clue, Grammy.”
“Th-thank you,” Grammy said. She squeezed Ollie a little tighter. She sniffed a little too.
“Why are you crying, Grammy?”
“I’m… I just am.”
Pop-Pop sniffed a little too.
“And Nana got us some ribbon so we could put bows in the halls. I mean, we aren’t really sure why we have to punch them first, but we’re going to.
But maybe that’s how we get them to stick?
And I’m not really sure why this Santa guy will be afraid of bows?
But Henry’s going to put wards on them just in case.
And since bow and bow are the same, ‘Tasha got Aunt Calli to teach her how to use a bow and arrow. But Aunt Calli won’t leave it here because it has to be under adult supervision.
So we’re hoping it’s bows and not bows and arrows even though we asked Teague to bring us some holly branches that we’re going to try to make into a bow just in case. ”
Henry nodded. “And I made extra sure I asked Zaire about putting a ward on the chimney since that’s how he’s supposed to get in the house.”
Henry’s grin got bigger and Ollie giggled. “We’ll light his pants on fire!”
“Goodness gracious,” Nana said.
“So,” Grandpa William said loudly. “As you can see, we had a bit of a problem on our hands. Santa said that you guys hadn’t heard the right story about him, so he wanted to give me a new mission.
I had to straighten everything out but don’t worry.
I’ve got this under control. And Santa isn’t going to hurt anybody.
He also said that you guys had a master plan.
I didn’t know what he meant at the time, but now that I’m hearing it, I understand.
You guys would totally have beaten the challenge if the challenge was real. ”
Papa made a weird groaning sound and put his head on Daddy’s shoulder. “We’re never going to hear the end of this one.”
“Probably not,” Daddy said. “But like Santa told Grandpa, you have nothing to worry about. All Santa’s going to do is drop off a load of presents for you guys.
That’s it. And like Grandpa said, he won’t even come in the house since you don’t like it.
And just so we’re clear, there is no challenge.
You are my kids. Period. No one will ever challenge that, or they’ll deal with me. And Uncle Meshaq. But mostly me.”
Ollie looked at his brothers and sisters and made sure he understood. “So Uncle Meshaq will get Santa if he’s bad, right?”
Daddy sighed. “You know I’m supposed to be the scary one, right? Everyone knows that? I’m the alpha?”
Emily patted Daddy’s arm. “Yes, Daddy. But Uncle Meshaq is scarier. And, let’s be honest, you’re not very scary. You can’t make flamey eyes or anything. And you can’t use a sword like Aunt Calli. And you can’t do magic like Aunt Zaire.”
Pop-pop snickered and pulled Ollie onto his lap next to Jack. “You feel better now, little man?”
Ollie shrugged. “I mean, as long as Uncle Meshaq says it’s…”
Daddy groaned. “Will someone call Meshaq please?”
“I will!” Henry yelled.
“Henry—”
Henry did his special magic thing and suddenly a flamey portal came into the living room. Uncle Meshaq ran out and his eyes were all flamey.
“Cool,” Ollie said. He liked Uncle Meshaq. He wondered if they could dress up like Toy Story again. He liked it when Uncle Meshaq was Slinky the dog. Ollie squirmed his way across Jack and onto Daddy’s lap.
“Everything okay?” Uncle Meshaq asked.
“Uncle Meshaq, will you protect us from Santa Claus?” Emily asked. “Pretty please? Daddy’s not very scary but you are.”
Uncle Meshaq scratched his head and started to back his way into the portal. “Um, sure. I don’t… what? This isn’t… I’m confused.”
“Don’t you go through that portal young man,” Nana said sharply.
Uncle Meshaq froze. “I won’t.”
“Henry,” Papa said, “I thought we agreed that we were only going to use our magic to call Uncle Meshaq when it was an emergency?”
Henry rubbed the bracelet on his arm. “But this was important, Papa. Isn’t that the same as emergency?”
“Pick your battles, son,” Grandpa William said.
Papa groaned and tugged Emily onto his lap beside Jack. Ollie cuddled closer to Daddy and tucked his nose against Daddy’s neck.
“So, everyone is clear now? No one has to defeat Santa Claus. He’s not a bad guy. There’s no challenge. You’re the alpha’s kids, end of story, and your Uncle Meshaq here will beat anybody up who says otherwise. Am I right?”
Uncle Meshaq looked confused. “Santa Claus isn’t—”
“Going to come into the house!” Papa yelled.
“Uh, right. You do realize they’d be able to smell—”
“Bah!” Papa yelled.
Ollie really didn’t know why he was yelling. Papa was kinda weird sometimes, though. It was probably a human thing.
Uncle Meshaq stopped talking and turned to Ollie. “I need a snack.”
“Me, too, Uncle Meshaq.”
“Figured. Gonna get us some nachos. Who wants to come with me?”
“Me!”
Ollie was pretty sure all of his siblings said yes. Except Ben who had a really funny look on his face. He was staring at Papa and Daddy like he was figuring out the answer to a question.
“Uh, that okay?” Uncle Meshaq asked.
Daddy sighed. “Fine.”
“I want to do the flamey thing,” Grandpa William said. “I’ll come too.”
“Portal,” Natasha said to Grandpa. “And you’ll have to stay by me. Uncle Meshaq’s bar is…” She raised her eyebrows, but Ollie had no clue what she meant.
“It is not!” Uncle Meshaq scooped Ollie up and tucked him against his side. Ollie leaned in close to see the flames in his eyes. So cool.
“Uncle Meshaq,” Natasha said, “Are you sure your bar is age appropriate for our grandpa?”
Grandpa William cackled. “My girl’s such a firecracker!”
“He’ll be fine. Humans work for me, ‘Tasha. I’ve told you this.”
Uncle Meshaq walked through the portal and Ollie stopped listening. He’d realized that if he asked Mr. Walt really nicely, he might make him extra nachos. If he ate enough, he’d be too full for his dinner. And then he didn’t have to eat asparagus.
Ben wasn’t at all surprised when Ollie woke him up on Christmas morning by climbing onto his bed. “Is it time?”
It wasn’t. Ben didn’t even have to open his eyes to know. “What are the numbers on the clock?”
Ollie grumbled but wiggled around so he could see them. Papa said he needed to practice and if it meant Ben could keep his eyes closed for another second, he’d take it.
“Five three seven,” Ollie whispered.
“Not time yet. Close, though.”
“Did Santa come?”
Ben didn’t answer but only because he heard movement from the room next door. Ollie turned to look that way as well and moments later their bedroom door opened. Henry and Jack stumbled in, both of them wearing the Christmas pajamas Nana had bought them all. Everybody matched. Even Papa and Daddy.
“Is everything okay?” Henry looked nervous. He’d put the ward on the fireplace anyway, even though Ben had promised him it would be okay. Daddy and Papa explained everything to him when Uncle Meshaq had taken Grandpa and his brothers and sisters to his bar.
“Everything’s fine. Let’s wait for Natasha and Emily. They’ll be here soon.”
Once one of them woke up, they all did. It had been that way for as long as Ben could remember.
Even though Papa was being weird about this whole Santa business, Ben realized he had a way to finally explain it to his siblings that would actually make sense.
He’d been trying to reassure them since he’d figured it out, but Papa really hadn’t wanted them in on the secret.
He said Christmas was magical for little kids and he wanted them to experience it.
Papa sometimes forgot that magical meant something different to them.
It wasn’t because Papa didn’t try, but he was human, after all. And Ben talked to Dad about it. Papa wanted them to have the best life he could give them, and that was enough for Ben. He wanted his brothers and sisters to be able to forget all the bad stuff they’d been through, too.
It only took another couple minutes before his sisters came into the room and curled up with the rest of them on Ben’s bed. He glanced at the clock and realized he only had a couple minutes left before they could go downstairs.
“You guys remember the stories I told you about Lion?” Ben said softly.
Natasha raised her head. She was next oldest and had the most memories of their time at the bad place. She looked a little worried about where Ben was going with his question, but he smiled at her and leaned his head down so it rested against Ollie.
“When things were bad, we’d make up stories about Lion and how he’d come and save us. Now, none of those stories were real but when we told them, we got really happy and excited. Remember?”
Emily nodded. “Lion was our hero.”
“Exactly. And Lion was real, but those stories weren’t. They still made us feel better, though.”
“We hoped Lion would come and save us,” Jack said. “But he didn’t.”
“No, he didn’t. But see, I talked to Dad and Papa about this Santa guy. He’s kinda like Lion. He’s real, but he doesn’t really come to everyone’s house in one night. It’s made up stories like Lion to make us feel better. Santa’s a good guy, just like Lion was.”
“Santa is like Lion,” Ollie said. “That means he’s nice.”
“Yeah,” Ben said. “He’s a good guy. And they tell stories about him this time of year to remember all the good things he did, just like I told you stories about Lion. It’s… I don’t know. A thing we do. We remember the people who are amazing and tell stories about them.”
“That makes sense. So Papa wants us to feel about Santa the way we feel about Lion,” Natasha said.
“Yep.”
“But he’s not Lion,” Jack said with a scowl. “Lion was special.”
“I know. And Santa is special to Papa and a lot of other people. So we just go along with it and let Papa have fun pretending its Santa bringing us presents. Because it’s like when we pretended Lion was coming.”
“Ohhhh.”
It took a second for them all to let it sink in, but Ben could feel a lot of the tension leave them.
Even though all the grownups in their lives had said Santa wasn’t going to do anything bad, it was still hard to let go of their worry.
Once Ben had figured it out and talked to Papa, he knew he’d have to find out a way to explain it.
Papa was really good to them. Ben couldn’t figure out why, exactly.
He’d even talked to Pop-Pop about it. It didn’t make sense for them to all feel so safe with a human.
But they did. Even Ben, and he was a lot bigger than Papa.
But he knew Papa would keep him safe, just as much as their alpha would.
Being part of the Jerrick pack was everything Ben had ever dreamed of. This was their version of those picture cards Dad kept getting in the mail from all the shifter families he’d helped over the years. Everything was warm and happy and just… right.
“Can we go get Daddy and Papa now?” Ollie asked.
Ben glanced over at the clock. It wasn’t time, but Ben knew they’d love it. They’d all end up snuggled up together on Dad and Papa’s big bed and everything would be okay. More than okay. Good. Safe. Warm. Happy. And that was the best Christmas present of all.
“Let’s go get ‘em.”
The End.