Hey guys… I guess some major apologies are in order… I realize that I have not updated in a really, really long time, and, all I can say is, I'm sorry. Between school and other life stuff getting in the way (read: taking over my life), I just haven't had the time/motivation to update this story. Which is really no excuse, but it's the only thing I can say if I'm going to be honest with you guys. But I finally finished typing this chapter up, and hopefully it was well worth the wait! Again, please accept my apologies, and enjoy this chapter! I'll see you down at the bottom!
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Mrs. Bennett awoke to find Jack gently shaking her. "Mom," he called softly. "You awake?"
"Jack?" she mumbled incoherently. "What is it? Is something wrong?"
"No," he answered. "But I need you to get up."
"What time is it?" Mrs. Bennett asked, fumbling for her alarm clock. School had let out for Christmas break just the day before and she'd been planning on sleeping in.
"Not too early," Jack responded, purposefully turning the clock away from her. "Come on, please just get up. I've got a surprise for you!"
"Can't it wait?" Mrs. Bennett complained with a sleepy yawn.
"Nope," Jack responded. Suddenly Mrs. Bennett felt something cold and wet hitting her cheek.
"Jack!" she cried disapprovingly, bolting upright. "What have I told you about making it snow in the house?"
"Sorry," Jack apologized with a not so apologetic smile as he stopped the wintry precipitation. "But I needed to make sure that you were awake." He started heading for the door. "Make sure to dress warmly—we're going on a little trip."
Mrs. Bennett didn't have the energy to argue, so she finally managed to haul herself out of bed and get dressed in a pair of her goo jeans and a black sweater with little cardinals embroidered on it. Once she was out in the hall, she was surprised to find that Jamie and Sophie were already dressed and ready to go. From the way they were both bouncing with excitement, she guessed that Jack must have told them where they were going. But he absolutely refused to give her even a hint until they were all bundled up in their coats and heading out the door.
"Really, Jack, if you wanted us to go somewhere, you could have given me a little more warning," Mrs. Bennett was saying as she stepped outside into the chill winter morning, only to cut herself short when she caught sight of the bright red sleigh and the reindeer on the lawn.
"Good morning!" the driver boomed cheerfully, waving to them.
"North!" Mrs. Bennett gasped, her cheeks pink with pleasure. "What are you doing here? I thought you were getting ready for Christmas!"
"I am," North agreed, getting down from the sleigh to greet her properly. "But today I'm on a special mission to bring some Christmas cheer to a very deserving family."
"Oh really?" Mrs. Bennett raised a questioning eyebrow, not missing the glances being exchanged by the others.
"Today," North finally answered after taking a moment to allow the excitement to build up, "we are going to recreate your best Christmas ever!"
"We're what?" Mrs. Bennett gasped.
"Yep!" Jack grinned. "We're taking you to New York City, and we're going to do everything you told us about."
For a moment Mrs. Bennett looked like she was going to actually start crying she was so happy, but Jack wasn't going to stand for that. Instead, he and North helped her and Jamie and Sophie into the sleigh, making sure that everyone was well bundled under layers of blankets for the journey ahead.
"Now we're waiting for just one more person," Jack said, scanning the skies, and then his bright blue eyes lit up as he caught sight of a little green dot coming into view.
"Good morning!" Tooth greeted everyone as she landed next to Jack in the back. She had a little aqua colored, bead-trimmed wrap around her shoulders, and seemed to be practically glowing as Jack took her hand in his.
"Oh, so this is why you couldn't tell me where you were taking Tooth on your date!" Mrs. Bennett grinned as the realization hit her. "But you two don't mind spending your first date on a family trip?"
"Oh, we really don't mind," Tooth answered, snuggling up closer to her boyfriend.
"We're calling it a double date," Jack added, looking slightly pink about the cheeks.
"Is everyone ready to go?" North called before Mrs. Bennett could raise any more questions.
"Yes!" everyone chorused.
"All right then," North took the reins in his hand, and then turned to Mrs. Bennett. "Would you like to do the honors?" he asked her, a merry twinkle in his eyes.
"Oh, could I?" Mrs. Bennett beamed as North nodded his permission. "On Dasher! On Dancer! On Prancer and Vixen!" she started.
"On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!" Jamie and Sophie chimed in for the second part and as the words died away into the crisp winter air, the reindeer stared running and, with a slight lurch, they were off.
Mrs. Bennett let out a tiny squeak of excitement as the ground dropped away below them, and, looking pleased by her child-like enthusiasm, North laughed jollily and put his arm around her shoulders. And, even though the air was nippy as they flew through the early morning dusk, Mrs. Bennett felt a warm glow the entire way.
The city seemed to just be waking up and the sun was just peaking over Lady Liberty's crown on the horizon as the merry little party came swooping in for a landing in the little alley behind the FAO Schwarz building.
"They know how to stay out of sight when they need to," North explained as he helped Mrs. Bennett down from the sleigh. "And they'll come when I call them if they're needed."
Mrs. Bennett nodded wordlessly, and he frowned in slight concern. "Are you all right?" he asked. "You did not speak the whole way here. Is something the matter?"
"Oh, North, it's not because I'm upset," she hurried to reassure him. "I'm just too happy for words right now! This is one of the sweetest things that anyone has ever done for me."
"Hey, love birds!" Jack called jokingly to them from further up the alley where the others already were. "You'd better bet moving or us young whippersnappers are going to leave you behind!"
North laughed and offered Mrs. Bennett his arm. "Shall we?"
"Yes," Mrs. Bennett agreed, accepting it.
"Then we're off to have the best Christmas ever!" North announced grandly in his big, booming voice, as if wanting the whole city to know that they were there and ready to celebrate the season.
The FAO Schwarz building was amazing to look at from the outside, but inside it was like a child's wonderland. The only place Mrs. Bennett had ever seen more toys in one place was in the storerooms of the North Pole.
"It's just like I remembered it," she sighed happily, and then added with a smile, "Well, almost." She pointed to a display of some high tech toy that was supposed to be one of the best sellers this season.
North smiled wryly at that. "Yes, I find myself having to visit many a toy store to find out what exactly children are playing with nowadays," he told her. Then he leaned in and added in a low voice, "Although, to be honest, I prefer the old fashioned ones myself."
"As do I," Mrs. Bennett agreed decidedly.
They spent a good hour in the store, admiring all of the Christmas decorations and the wide variety of playthings on display. When they realized that North had a following of a good dozen or more children, however, they realized that it would probably be best to leave before he became too conspicuous.
Following that, they made their way to the zoo where they spent a very pleasant morning visiting the animals. Mrs. Bennett was surprised to find that North actually spoke the language of a good many of the creatures—something had had learned years ago, apparently, from an old wizard friend of his—and the children had a glorious time learning how to communicate with the creatures. By the end of the morning, Jamie could hold an extended conversation with at least five different species, and Sophie, surprising everyone, was almost fluent in ten. Mrs. Bennett was a slower learner, but she at least learned how to say hello to a good number.
After spending a morning talking to animals, Mrs. Bennett wasn't sure that any of them would actually feel like eating hot dogs, but fortunately North located a vendor selling vegetarian ones and that settled that.
Following lunch, they made their way to Macy's, singing Christmas carols the whole way. They arrived after five rousing choruses of "Silver Bells" and entered the store with great anticipation. The line to see "Santa" was, of course, quite long, and North offered to take the children to see him as Mrs. Bennett told him that she still had a bit of shopping to do for Christmas and, besides which, she really couldn't see going to visit a stand in now that she knew the real one and he was certainly much handsomer than any actor could be. Sophie went with North to go see the Santa since, as North told them, it was only right to go support someone who was working in his place to bring Christmas joy to so many. Jack elected to go with Jamie to check out the toy department since Jamie didn't really feel like seeing a Santa replacement either, and Tooth went with Mrs. Bennett since this was her first time going shopping in a department store. They had a glorious time, and Mrs. Bennett not only found presents for Fredrick and Carol, but a gorgeous sash in a peacock feather pattern that she told Tooth was her early Christmas gift to her. Once they were finished, they went to find Jack and Sophie, whom they eventually located in the very back of the toy department, of all things, building a snowman. Fortunately they'd chosen to do it in a window display filled with fake snow so that it didn't look terribly out of place, but Mrs. Bennett hurried them out of there before anyone could notice. Heading back to the place where the "Santa" meet and greet was supposed to be taking place, however, they realized that Jack's little snow-capade was nothing compared to the uproar that North was causing. Mrs. Bennett stopped stock-still, her mouth wide open with shock as she took in the scene. Poor North was almost being mobbed by hundreds of little kids. Sophie could barely be seen clinging to his leg like a lifeline, looking somewhat terrified by the whole thing.
"Oh no…" Tooth gasped, putting a hand to her mouth. "They must have figured out that he was the real Santa!"
"Hoo boy." Jack shook his head. "It's going to take hours for him to get free the way things are going. He's too nice to tell anyone 'no', even if he is getting half torn apart."
"Unless…" Jamie looked up at Jack. "They had some other famous mythological figure to get their attention."
"What, me?" Jack looked down at him as if he were crazy. "You know that practically no one believes in me outside of this family, right?"
"They might," Jamie responded, "if it started snowing inside."
Jack's eyes lit up slightly as he considered this. "You know, that might actually work," he said, a slow grin spreading across his face.
"It's worth a try," Tooth told him, giving his shoulder an encouraging squeeze. "I'd volunteer to do it, but I think that would cause more confusion than anything—the Tooth Fairy doesn't make as much sense showing up at Christmas time as the Spirit of Ice and Snow."
"Are you sure that you could handle all of the sudden attention?" Mrs. Bennett asked, feeling somewhat protective of her eldest son.
"Trust me, I've been waiting for something like this for years!" Jack answered enthusiastically. Once the decision had been made, it took only moments to finalize the plan.
"Ready to be believed in?" Jamie asked, getting ready to play his part.
"Oh yeah!" Jack agreed, forming a snowball and tossing it up into the air. Instantly it broke into a thousand glittering pieces, creating a light but beautiful snowfall.
"Hey, look!" Jamie called as loudly as he could, trying to attract the attention of as many people as possible. "It's Jack Frost!"
Almost instantly a few hundred pairs of eyes turned to look where Jamie was pointing, and for probably the first time ever, Jack got to know what it was like to have a whole crowd of people believing in him—and it felt wonderful.
While Jack had everyone otherwise occupied, Mrs. Bennett was able to take advantage of the momentary distraction to get North and Sophie and start pulling them towards the exit.
"Thank you," he told her gratefully as they made their escape. "I did not realize that my presence would cause such a mess, otherwise I would not have taken Sophie. I am so sorry—this was supposed to be your special day, but I seem to have caused much trouble instead…"
"No, it's fine," Mrs. Bennett quickly reassured him. "I'm just glad that you're okay. I think it was sweet that you were willing to spend time with all of those kids, and there was no harm done. If anything, Jack seems to be having a great time with this."
At the mention of her eldest son, the spirit of ice and Tooth came flying out the front door, holding Jamie between them.
"That…was…awesome!" Jack cried enthusiastically. "Oh wow, talk about a rush!"
"You certainly got out of there fast," Mrs. Bennett observed, taking Jamie from him.
"Yeah, store security showed up," Jack answered with a slight shrug. "I guess that they must have believe in me at least a tiny bit considering they could see me, but they thought I was pulling some sort of prank and told me to believe before they called the cops. But you should have seen their faces when I flew out of there. It was priceless!"
"Well, I'm just glad that you're safe," Mrs. Bennett told him, deciding to let the fact that he was treating it more as a practical joke than anything go. He was happy, and that was the important thing.
They still had some time left before they had to get to what North called "the big surprise of the evening", so they decided to head for Times Square where hopefully they could avoid drawing too much attention to themselves. The plan worked beautifully—most people were either too star struck by all of the flashing lights and the bustle around them or were too occupied with their own business to notice the funny little group. Jamie and Sophie were a little bit overwhelmed at first, but absolutely loved it, and even those parties who had seen it before couldn't deny the magic of place, especially now that it was decorated for Christmas.
Dinner was a simple affair at a little pizza parlor owned by a family that North had known for quite some time, which made things easy for everyone since all of the members of the party were visible. Pierce, the chef, and his wife, Marisol, were both wonderfully friendly and made sure that everyone felt right at home. Their daughter, Madison, was quite excited not only to see North again, but also to meet Jack and Tooth for the first time. After being introduced to both of them, she turned to Mrs. Bennett with curious eyes.
"Are you Mrs. Claus?" she asked with childlike frankness. Jack, who had just taken a sip of water, almost choked on it and had to put a hand over his mouth to keep from losing it all over the table. Jamie didn't look too far behind him, so Tooth quickly grabbed them both by their ears and started dragging them, complaining, towards the door, saying that she thought that they needed some fresh air. Mrs. Bennett, for her part, wasn't exactly sure how to answer that question. Fortunately, North chose to answer for her.
"No, my child," he told Madison, ruffling her hair good naturedly. "I'm afraid that I have not had the honor of even asking for the lovely woman's hand yet."
Mrs. Bennett felt her heart speed up slightly. He wasn't going to actually propose right now, was he? But no, the rest of the meal went forward as if nothing had happened, except that Jack and Jamie both had obvious red marks on their ears and cheeks when they returned—obviously their punishment form Tooth for almost ruining the moment.
"Oh, look at the time!" North suddenly cried, looking at the clock on the wall. "We need to be leaving if we do not want to be late." There was a brief confusion as everyone hurried to find jackets and mittens and scarves, but somehow everyone managed to get themselves put together, and they were back out onto the snowy streets. Mrs. Bennett playfully pestered North the whole way, trying to find out where they were going, but he just laughed and told her to be patient. Eventually they came to a small but brightly lit theater, and Mrs. Bennett smiled, realizing that North had even gone to the extent of finding a play for all of them to go to. Then, looking up on the marquis to see what was playing, she let out a tiny gasp of disbelief.
"Oh, North!" she cried, turning to him. "How on Earth did you find a theater that was putting on Miracle on 34th Street?!"
"Well, it was not easy," North admitted. "But I wanted to make sure that it was an absolutely perfect ending to your day."
"Thank you!" Mrs. Bennett gave him a tight hug. Then she grabbed his hand and started eagerly pulling him towards the door. "Oh my gosh, this is sooo exciting! Hurry, let's go find our seats! I don't want to miss any of it!"
North laughed, complying with her wishes, and together the little group made their way into the theater.
"That was probably the best production of Miracle that I've ever seen," Mrs. Bennett sighed happily later that evening up at the North Pole. North had brought everyone to his workshop for cocoa, but after the long and exciting day only he and Mrs. Bennett were actually awake to enjoy it. Jamie and Sophie had fallen asleep during the flight and, after carrying them in, even Jack and Tooth had collapsed from exhaustion in separate chairs. But Mrs. Bennett was still full of giddy energy, and North was more than happy to sit up and talk with her.
"What was your favorite part of the play?" he asked, smiling at her over the rim of his mug.
"Oh goodness, all of it was wonderful," Mrs. Bennett laughed. "But I'd have to say the ending. I mean, how romantic was that Christmas Eve wedding?"
"Very," North agreed, nodding his approval of it.
"And then of course it was so nice how they ended up moving into their dream house at the end, where they were going to live happily ever after," Mrs. Bennett continued, still somewhat caught up in the Christmas fantasy. But what North said next quickly brought her back to reality.
"Um, Jennifer," he began carefully, obviously somewhat nervous about what he had to ask her. "Speaking of moving—there's something that I've been meaning to ask you. How would you feel about moving her, to the Pole?"
Mrs. Bennett felt her cheeks go slightly red. "Oh, North," she said, trying to think of the nicest way to say this, "as much as I appreciate that, I—it just wouldn't be right for me to move in with someone that I wasn't married to."
"Oh, no, no, no!" he quickly reassured her. "I would never ask you to do that! What I meant was, could you see yourself living here if we were married?"
"Well, yes," Mrs. Bennett agreed. "I have thought about it, and I think I could see myself living here. I mean, I think it would be a great environment for the kids to grow up in. And Jack could even live herewith us year round."
"Very true," North agreed.
"And, as much as I love Christmas, I can't think of any other place I'd rather be," Mrs. Bennett continued. "But…"
"But what?" North asked.
"Well, there is just one tiny problem," Mrs. Bennett told him.
"That being?" North raised a curious eyebrow.
"I don't recall you ever asking me anything about marriage," Mrs. Bennett responded teasingly.
"Well then," I guess now might be as good a time as any to give you this," North replied, pulling a small red velvet box out of his pocket.
"Oh, North!" Mrs. Bennett gasped, her eyes flitting between him and the tiny box.
"It might be a littler early for you to be getting your Christmas present, but I can't think of a better time to give it to you," North told her, opening it to reveal a gold ring that almost appeared to be made of tiny holly leaves with a round diamond looking every bit like a sparkling frost covered berry in the center of it. "I have never been very good with words," he told her, getting down on one knee, "but ever since I met you, my life has changed so much for the better. You have become my constant ray of sunshine, and I cannot even imagine living a life that does not have you in it. So will you, Jennifer Bennett, please consider agreeing to marry me?"
"Yes," Mrs. Bennett finally managed to get out. "Oh, North, yes! Of course I'll marry you!" She threw her arms around him in an ecstatic hug.
"You have made me the happiest man in the world!" North told her, giving her a kiss.
All of the noise was enough to wake the sleeping kids.
"Oh, gross," Jamie groaned as he saw what was going on. "Somebody wake me up when all of the mushy stuff is over!"
"Should I ask what the occasion is?" Jack asked, his eyes sparkling as if he already had a pretty good idea.
"We just got engaged!" Mrs. Bennett cried.
"No way!" Jamie perked up at the news. "You're serious? This is like the coolest thing ever! My mom's getting married to Santa Claus!"
"Congrats!" Jack grinned, looking as pleased as Jamie.
"I'm so happy for you two!" Tooth clasped her hands together excitedly.
Sophie, who was still trying to grasp what exactly what was going on, got up and toddled over to look curiously up at North. "Daddy North?" she finally said.
"Yes, I suppose I am," North chuckled, reaching down and ruffling her hair.
Later that night outside the Bennett house, after Jack had taken the younger two in, Mrs. Bennett and North lingered on the front porch for a minute, enjoying the beauty of the softly falling snow in the starry night.
"You know what?" Mrs. Bennett said, breaking the silence.
"What?" North asked, gently playing with her hair.
"This wasn't as good as my best Christmas ever."
"Oh no?"
"Nope." She leaned her head up against his shoulder and smiled. "It was better."
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OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! HE FINALLY POPPED THE QUESTION! AND SHE SAID YES! THEY'RE GETTTING MARRIED! WHOOO! (Anyone else as excited as I am about this? ;)) I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I promise, I will try my very best not to wait near as long before the next (and last) chapter for you guys! Hot cocoa brownies to all of my reviewers, and thank you guys soooo much for understanding and sticking with me through all of this! You're seriously the best readership a girl could ask for!
~Bonnie