Winter Dream (Bernard the Elf x Reader)

Chapter 18- Curtis' Solution

The next day I found myself waking toward my Dad's room, nervously fidgeting with a strand of my hair. I hadn't spoken to him since we told him about the Mrs. Clause, but I wanted to check in on him. And bring cookies. Obviously. I mean, he was Santa after all.

I knocked on the door.

"Come in." I heard him call from inside.

I peeked my head in and slightly waved. "Hey, Dad."

Dad glanced up at me from a document of some kind, his glasses resting on his nose. "Hi, sweetie." He said, trying to plaster a smile on his face.

I slowly walked over to him and kissed him on the cheek. "How are you?"

Dad rubbed his temple. "I've been better."

"I brought cookies." I offered, holding up a small box of assorted cookies.

He chuckled a bit and took a cookie. "What would I do without you?"

I shrugged. "You probably wouldn't be Santa Claus..."

Dad grinned ever so slightly.

"So...what are you going to do?" I asked.

"I don't know." He took a bite of the cookie. "I can't leave the North Pole this close to Christmas, but I also gotta go south to find a wife and help Charlie."

I thought about it for a moment. "Well, you can't be in two places at once..."

Suddenly, the door flew open and Curtis jumped in the room, shamelessly interrupting Dad and my conversation. "What if you can be in two places at once?!"

Dad stood up. "How long were you standing outside my door eavesdropping?"

The elf shook his head. "That's not important. What is important, however, is the fact that I've found a solution!"

:-:-:-:-:

In less than fifteen minutes Curtis, Bernard, Santa, and I were in the mechanic room of the workshop, in front of a massive cylinder-shaped machine. Bernard and I exchanged a worried glance as we stared at the machine.

"Okay, everyone, can I get the room for a minute?" Cutis called to the elves who were busily working. "Thank you. Can I just...one minute. Take a cocoa break." He said, shooing them out of the room. "Have a nice long break. Relax everyone."

Once the last of the elves left the room, Curtis shut the door, so we'd have the space to ourselves. "Curtis, what's going on?" I asked.

"I want to show Santa some improvements on the pantograph."

"We don't have time for this!" Bernard exclaimed. "We need an actual solution!"

Curtis ignored his comment and approached Dad. "Walk with me. I've tripled the R.A.M. and reconfigured the circuitry."

Dad examined the pantograph. "I see you've externalized the power source to make better use of the electromagnetic energy." He commented.

"No, it's just there 'cause it looks really cool." Curtis corrected.

I giggled.

"Yeah, it does," Dad said with a laugh. "Wait a minute...you tripled the R.A.M.? I see where this is going. I am not getting in that machine."

"Besides," Bernard piped up. "Creating a copy of Santa won't solve our problems."

"The Santa would be a toy," I said. "The elves will figure it out in less than an hour."

"But this will be a special toy!" Curtis spoke.

Dad sighed and looked to be getting annoyed by the whole thing. "Why is that?"