Chapter Text
Prologue: An Encounter
Bernard could count the number of times he'd been this angry on one hand.
There was the pocket watch thing—that had gotten him really upset. There was the time the Toy Santa sentenced him to house arrest; that was up there. There was that ice storm fourteen hundred or so years ago that knocked out Santa's connection with the magical world just before the seasonal Council meeting, with no way to contact Mother Nature to see what had happened. That wouldn't have been too upsetting, if it wasn't for the fact that the Santa at the time had sent Bernard to investigate. Needless to say, the MOMENT he got a look at the damage, it had immediately earned its place as one of the top three things that had gotten him absolutely furious.
But this? This situation took the cake.
Normally, it would be fine; had he been at the Workshop, he probably could have easily stopped it.
But he hadn't been. He had been on a well-needed vacation de-stressing after two very, well, traumatic Christmases had taken a toll on both him and Elle, his partner in every sense of the word.
Everything had been fine prior to leaving, though! They had waited until after the first week of December and had been ahead of quota, set for the arrival of baby Claus, and this season looked like it would go off without a hitch. That's really why they had decided to go on that vacation (aside from, y'know, really, really needing it).
With everything looking like it'd really for real ACTUALLY go off without a hitch (he really regretted thinking that now), Bernard was in good spirits about the time off; he was excited, even. He was so sure that he'd agreed to leave Curtis in charge—a decision he had not taken lightly. It'd taken a good amount of coaxing for Bernard to well and truly be okay with the idea. The Big Man himself had had to reassure Bernard multiple times!
"Don't worry! Elle and I have it all worked out. Curtis can take care of things up here while the two of you take care of yourselves."
"Are you sure about that?!"
"C'mon, give the kid a break. This is a chance for him to make up for, you know…"
"Being Curtis?"
"Cut the kid some slack! He's a little ambitious, but he means well. Look, this will give him an opportunity to take a stab at the whole, managing thing, you know? See how he really feels about being in charge! And, yeah, maybe make up for—"
"Curtis-ing about."
"Y'know, there are better ways to phrase it...but yeah. You got it, Number One. That about sums it up."
Despite his doubts, Santa had assured him that it would be fine. Elle thought so, too; so off the two had gone with everything set for a perfect holiday season!
Bernard wanted to say that it had been a stupid idea. He really, really, did! But he couldn't. He and Elle had really needed the vacation. It had been working wonders on their stress levels and they had been enjoying themselves a lot! It had been nice to just be with each other, and of course that's when they got the news.
Santa's family had come up, which was fine. They had been expecting something like that to happen, though Santa never confirmed it with them. Carol's parents had come too, which was…unexpected, but not surprising. Santa had assured them that they had taken measures to prevent the couple from finding out about the North Pole being, well, the North Pole. Not that it would have done much. When someone stays at the North Pole long enough, even if it's cloaked, they would always end up knowing exactly where they were. Inherent magic and all that.
That all would've been fine on its own. But on top of that, Jack Frost had finally been seen at the Pole too! After causing his usual trouble, with a side of attempted upstagement of Santa Claus, the Council had called an emergency session, hosted at the Workshop. And instead of punishing Jack, Santa had managed to convince the Council to have Jack stay in Elfsburg for "community service" to make up for what he had done. Santa thought the man deserved another chance. You know, for the billionth time, given that by Bernard's count, this was like, the third or fourth or tenth second chance he had given the man!
Maybe it all would've been fine! Maybe it would've worked out! But Jack knew exactly what to do to disrupt literally everything in day to day operations. And giving the sprite free reign of the Workshop with Curtis in charge, Santa's family AND in-laws around, and, not to mention, a new baby on the way?! A recipe for disaster if there ever was one!
And disaster had occurred, all right.
Somehow, Jack had managed to become Santa.
Though nobody remembered the timeline, everyone had suddenly felt a little perturbed out of the blue on Christmas Eve. Even he and Elle had felt it! They had blinked and suddenly, something felt...wrong. Off. And then the letter arrived, detailing the chaos Jack had caused and what he had done, according to Santa himself, in order to become Santa.
Nobody but Jack and Scott seemed to remember. And Scott didn't even have the full story; he only knew because he had seen it. Aside from that, the Legend had no clue what had transpired up until the moment he had appeared in the very wrong timeline. Carol was none the wiser; nor were the Millers, or Charlie, or any of the other elves Scott had professed to seeing there with his own two eyes. Bernard himself didn't even remember!
Silver bells. Had he even been there?
Steering himself away from that existential train of thought, he stopped his angry march and thought of where he wanted to go. Choosing to take the long way down, giving himself some time to cool off and compose himself, Bernard pictured the outskirts of Elfsburg, just by the Dome, before disappearing in a shower of golden sparks.
He reappeared surrounded by white, fluffy snow, green trees rustling together in the distance as the wind blew through the needles. He set off down the trail, the Dome's brilliant colours dancing above him, reflecting around him like water in the light. Far below him, nestled between the snowy hills and dales stood Elfsburg, the Workshop lit up in the distance. He took the twirling path down, passing the drifts and the hills, marvelling at the natural beauty of the trails as he passed a fresh, lone snowman sparkling just off the path down. The colours in the ice arced and glowed above him, the northern lights dancing—
He stopped short.
Snowman? Nobody came out here to build snowmen.
He turned back around, closing the distance between him and the snowman and sizing it up. It was very well done. Magically so, even. It was the perfect snowman, one you'd see in a poorly made Hallmark movie. He squinted at the head, the coal eyes glinting blue in the Dome's light.
"Gotchya, Frost." His hands were already a-glow as he brought them together, aiming for the base of the snowman.
"No no no wait—!"
Recognition dawned just a little too late. His eyes widened in shock as the small blast of golden sparks flew down, the magic hitting its mark square between the middle and base snowballs. Powdered snow and gold sparks flew about, the twigs flying off into the wind as a person was thrown into the snow. A shower of fluffy white dust intermingled with the sparks, blowing up and getting lost in the colours above them as she (she?!) fell down.
"—wrong Frost."
"Silver bells. Jacqueline?!"
She groaned in the snowbank, popping up and holding her head. "Hi B-Man. OW."
Bernard rushed over the drifts (losing his footing a couple of times), making his way to the sprite as she waved her hand, the snow sliding off of her. She sat in the pile of snow that had once served as her snowman disguise, squinting around in confusion, completely disoriented. Stopping by her side, he offered her a hand.
Gratefully, she took it, Bernard pulling her up as she waved away the remainder of the snow coating her nearly as white dress, brown hair an absolute mess.
"Jacqueline! You should've said something!"
"I did!"
"A little too late, kid. Don't you think?"
"I mean, maybe a bit, but also, you looked a little angry and I wasn't sure how well you would react to a snowman suddenly yelling" —she cupped her hands around her mouth— "hey B-Man, wait up! Especially given that we're probably both here for the same reason."
Bernard looked thoughtful. "You've got a point. Sorry about all that."
She waved away the apology, straightening her bodice and smoothing out her skirt. "Don't worry about it B-Man."
"What are you doing all the way out here?"
"Oh, you know. Shenanigans. Nonsense. The usual. Aren't you and Elle supposed to be on vacation right now? Last postcard the kid sent me was from New York. Looked like you were having a grand old time!"
"Oh, we were! Until we got the news, that is."
It was silent for a moment, neither of the fae moving. Bernard hadn't expected to run into anyone on the outskirts of Elfsburg, and of all the people and magical beings that he could've run into, Jacqueline was not at all who he had expected. No, not this specific winter sprite. If the white dress and thawed hair were anything to go by, along with her demeanour today and how disoriented she looked, Bernard put two and two together fairly easily. He felt the anger rise in his chest once more, angry on her behalf now, too.
"I suppose you know what happened, then?"
Bernard blinked. He frowned, trying his best to gauge what exactly she knew. "I know that Jack Frost froze some of Santa's family members, and locked them in a cupboard with their daughter Lucy, who's probably more than a little scarred for life now. I also know that somehow, Jack managed to find a Clause that allowed him to replace Santa. Only Santa can activate it, so not only did Jack manage to find it, but I can only assume he also managed to trick the man into using it, and then stole his position right out from under him! The report we got didn't have many details. Apparently, nobody actually remembers it; they only know about it because Santa saw the tail end of it. For everyone else, it was the slightest shift. But it was enough to shake everyone down in Elfsburg up. It even got to Elle and I! One minute, everything was fine; the next, we blinked, and suddenly everything was slightly different, and not in a good way. That was more than enough to tell us that something bad had happened."
Jacqueline shivered. "Yeah. It got bad."
"You were there?" He straightened, surprised. "You remember?!"
"Yeah dude. I literally just got back from there. Jack Frost became Santa; that meant someone had to become Jack Frost and, well. Y'know. It is my job."
"That would fall on your shoulders, wouldn't it?"
"Regrettably." She sighed. "I still had—" she closed her eyes briefly and pinched the bridge of her nose. "—have my connection with him, which is why I still remember the full thing, I think. It was exhausting. And worse, nobody believed me when I told them that he wasn't supposed to be Santa!" She practically yelled that bit, throwing her hands up. "They all thought I was losing it, you know, over stressed, maybe a bit traumatized, that sort of thing. They probably weren't WRONG but I definitely did not appreciate it."
She huffed, crossing her arms and turning away. "You…" she glanced over her shoulder, tilting her head at the elf. Her face softened. "You don't remember?"
If Bernard had thought she was a bit off her game before, he was thoroughly convinced now. She looked absolutely distraught.
"No. Sorry, kid. I've got nothing. But if I was there, I hope that I believed you. And that you came to me to tell me about it."
She smiled. "You did. And I did." Her cheek twitched; the soft smile was doing its best to not become a smirk. "And we were badass, B-Man."
Bernard smiled back. The silence flit between them, both fae gazing up at the Dome. He felt bad for his friend; he didn't want to leave her hanging like this. But he also had business to attend to, and couldn't leave that hanging either.
"You gonna be okay?"
"Hmm? Oh! Yeah! Good question! I don't know, actually," she hugged herself, biting her lip. "Sorry, I'll stop loitering eventually. You can go on ahead, I'm sure you have a ton of stuff to do."
"I do have a bit of a mess to clean up. There's an elf to reprimand, ordibeings to deal with, and who KNOWS what else fell apart in our absence that I'm gonna have to get sorted after what Frost did! No offence."
"Oh, none taken, B-Man. You're always kinder to me than most people are."
"It's called friendship, Jacqueline," Bernard shot back, satisfied when the sprite laughed. "Really though, what are you doing all the way out here? Sorry if that came off as rude. That and my small rant."
"Oh, please. I'm always down to hear you rant. It's some of your best material!"
Now it was Bernard's turn to laugh. "Duly noted."
He watched as the sprite took a few steps forward. She looked thoughtful as she stopped beside him, finally answering his question.
"I woke up looking like this," she gestured to her white dress and brown hair. "I was feeling more tropical than usual as well. The hair usually thaws every night, but my clothes never do. I have my work cut out for me next laundry day," she snickered half-heatedly. Silence fell once more; she frowned deeply, looking like she was choosing her next words very carefully.
"The thing is...those tropical feelings? They weren't entirely my own. I think they bled over. I think that...I assumed that..." She looked away, taking a deep breath in. "I think they're Jack's. Bernard..." she turned back, looking right at him, eyes wide. "This is going to sound completely crazy, but…I think something thawed him."
"Thawed him? Really?"
"Really really."
"But they all said it couldn't be done. Literally everyone."
"Or so the stories say. I couldn't believe it myself, really. I thought it was crazy. I was going absolutely bonkers after waking up, and figured the best way to solve it would be to come up here and see for myself. But when I arrived..."
"Confidence ran dry?"
A nod. "I don't think I'm ready to face him just yet. Not with Frostmas so fresh. And even though the Day of Darkness was so long ago...I still don't feel ready, you know?"
Bernard felt the anger rearing up again. The Day of Darkness. The ice storm. One of the three (well, four things including the current situation) that had gotten him really, really angry. That day, Jack had started a huge ice storm in the magical continent that blocked out the afternoon sun and threw them into darkness for nearly a week. Communications were cut for even longer; the aftermath of the storm was bad. But for those who knew, the name had a whole other meaning.
And Bernard knew.
"I understand."
"Do you think you could do me a favour?"
Bernard shifted his weight from one foot to another, tilting his head. He'd listen to her. Of course he would. She'd do the same for him, any day.
"Could you tell me? Tell me if…it's true? If I'm right? Tell me if…if Jack really has thawed. Please. Tell me what happened. When you find out, that is," she added, rubbing the back of her head under all that hair.
Bernard softened. "Of course, kid. Easier done than said."
She brightened; her eyes crinkled at the corners, arms falling in relief as she smiled. "Thank you so much Bernard. I really, really appreciate it."
"Of course," he replied, slightly thrown off when she nearly toppled him over with a hug. "Don't worry about it."
He hugged her back, smiling over her shoulder. With one last squeeze for good measure, Bernard broke off, looking at her carefully. "Hang tight. I'll see you soon enough, alright? And if you need anything at all, call me. Drop Elle a line. We're here for you, kid."
"Thanks, B-Man."
Jacqueline waved as he started down towards Elfsburg proper. She dropped her arms, folding her hands in front of her skirt as she watched him march off in that funny little way of his. He waved without looking back, her fond little smile not seen by him but most certainly felt, popping off in a shower of gold sparks.
The wind blew. The space felt suddenly empty.
Jacqueline sighed. If what she suspected was true…and Bernard really did confirm her suspicions…well. Things were about to change. She couldn't fathom how, of course. How could she?
It had been so long...
Weary of the thousands of things that could possibly happen (assuming she was right about…about Jack), Jacqueline shook herself out of it and sighed.
See you soon, I hope.
Quiet plea lost in the wind, she twirled, skirt billowing out around her. In a brilliant burst of blue sparks and snowflakes, she was gone, with nothing but a faint whisper on the wind and a pile of snow with two forlorn sticks remained to tell of her presence there that day.