A Cold Winter's Night, Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original characters or places.

Brendan Finney stood, looking around in amazement, as Bosco stood with his arms crossed, grumbling under his breath. They were in a huge building. There were Elves working on toys of all sorts as far as you could see. And Simon had gone to find Santa, or so he claimed.

"Wow!" Brendan commented. "How cool is this?"

Bosco just shot him an annoyed look.

"Ho Ho Ho, amazing isn't it?" A man in a red suit with a fluffy white beard bellowed, causing Brendan to jump.

"You're……" Brendan pointed at the man, not quite finding the words to speak.

"Nicholas Claus, the Sixth." The man introduced himself, holding a hand out for Brendan to shake. "But you can call me Santa….hehe." He chuckled. "It's good to see you, Brendan….and Maurice." Santa added, glancing over at Bosco.

He was about to step over to him and offer him a hand until he saw the look on Bosco's face.

Bosco stood, arms crossed, a scowl on his face. He bounced every so slightly on the balls of his feet, biting the inside of his cheek in an effort to control his anger. 'First I wake up dressed like a circus freak and now this bozo thinks I'm gonna believe he's Santa…hmph.'

"Hello, Maurice. It's been a long time." Santa said quietly.

Bosco smirked, then his expression turned more serious. "Listen, you jag-OOW!" Bosco yelped, as Finney elbowed him hard in the ribs.

"Bosco, it's Santa. You can't say that to…"

Bosco stepped closer, until he was right in Brendan's face. "FINNEY! HE'S NOT SANTA. SANTA DOESN'T EXIST!" He shouted. "OWWWW!"

Bosco rubbed his arm briskly, glaring back at the supposed Santa.

"If I'm not real, Maurice, then why.."

"THAT'S IT!" Bosco screamed, throwing his arms out to his sides for emphasis. "THE NEXT PERSON THAT PINCHES ME, ELBOWS ME, OR IN ANY WAY LAYS EVEN A FINGER ON ME, IS GOING TO JAIL!" His blue eyes flicked back and forth wildly from Santa to Finney to Simon as he shouted, his face almost as red as his suit. "DO YOU HEAR ME? J.A.I.L! FOR ASSAULTING A POLICE OFFICER! AND I DON'T CARE WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE!" He clinched his fists together until his knuckles were white.

Santa, Simon, and Finney just looked at each other, then Santa looked Bosco up and down. Slowly a grin began to form on his lips as he took in the sight of the little man before him, red faced, brown curls frazzled, wearing a red cap and red Elf suit, and….hehehe….yellow tights, screaming about them assaulting a police officer. Santa began to chuckle from deep in his belly and soon Simon and Finney joined in.

Bosco was beside himself. "You think this is funny? Huh! What? The joke's on Maurice. HA HA HA! FUNNY! Ok, does that make you HAPPY? EVERYBODY HAPPY? EVERYBODY HAVING FUN? CAUSE I'M JUST ROLLING HERE!" Bosco turned, pacing back and forth, shaking his head and muttering to himself, still clinching his fists.

"Maurice" Santa said quietly.

"Don't call me that!" Bosco snapped.

"Whatever happened to that sweet little boy that I knew?" Santa asked.

"He turned into the Grinch." Finney interjected.

"Shut up, Finney!" Bosco growled, shoving Brendan. He'd had all of this he was going to take.

"Don't push me." Finney gave Bosco a little shove in return.

And one shove precipitated another until finally the two were on the floor in a ball of arms and legs, kicking, punching, yelling….

Santa looked at Simon and rolled his eyes. "Boys…..Maurice…Brendan…stop….STOP THAT!" He shouted, as his hat was knocked off his head when he tried to separate the two.

Finally grabbing each by their collars, he managed to pull them apart and to their feet, huffing from the effort. "Stop that, I said. What's gotten into you two?"

Brendan suddenly took another swing at Bosco, but missed as Santa jerked him back. "BRENDAN!"

"HE….HE BIT ME!" Finney shouted.

"I'LL DO MORE THAN THAT, YOU LITTLE…"

"MAURICE!" Santa shouted, shaking Bosco by his collar. "Shush!"

Brendan smirked at Bosco. "Somebody's going to find a lump of coal in their stocking on Christmas morning."

"There's plenty of coal to go around, young man." Santa warned, causing Brendan to drop his chin to avoid Santa's gaze.

"And you, Maurice.." Santa started, releasing Brendan and turning to face Bosco.

"Don't talk to me like you know me. You don't know me!" Bosco growled.

"Oh, I don't, huh? Let's see, how can I convince you that I'm Santa? Ahhh…I know.." Santa rubbed his chin as in thought, then his eyes twinkled. "Ok, Maurice. Do you remember what you got for your third Christmas?"

Bosco scowled at Santa. "I don't even remember my third Christmas. And don't think I'm going to believe that you circle the globe on Christmas Eve and deliver presents to all the good little boys and girls." Bosco said sarcastically. "Or that reindeer can fly!" he added.

Santa laughed quietly. "No, Maurice. I don't expect you to believe that. There's no way for me, even with the help of all these Elves, to cover the globe. It takes tens of thousands of helpers all over the world to get gifts to just those children in need. And we have them too. All sorts of groups, from Toys for Tots, to religious and civic groups, police stations and fire houses, and many generous individuals. It all started with my great, great, great grandfather and grew from there. I only make a few special trips each year. And you were one of those on your third Christmas." Still seeing the disbelief on Bosco's face, he continued. "Do you remember Bosco Bear?"

Bosco was momentarily stunned, but finally regained his composure. "My mom gave me Bosco Bear." He said quietly.

Finney, watching in amusement, grinned. 'Bosco Bear…Bosco with a bear…or better yet, taking his nickname from a teddy bear." He chuckled without realizing it, causing Bosco and Santa to frown at him and Simon to elbow him and shake his head.

Santa focused on Bosco again. "Well actually, she did and she didn't. That was a very tough year for the Boscorelli family. Mikey was just a baby. Your father was between jobs. And you had been in the hospital for almost two weeks with pneumonia. Your mother had no idea how she could afford to by any presents and a concerned neighbor contacted us. So we…Simon was in on this one if I'm not mistaken…" Santa said, looking at Simon who nodded in agreement. "We left a few gifts outside your door, a few days early in fact. And, if memory serves me correctly, the neighbor reported that some little boy found Bosco Bear before Christmas had a chance to get here."

Bosco swallowed hard, not knowing how this guy could know about that. Once he thought about it, he did vaguely remember being in the hospital. And he remembered finding Bosco Bear early. His mom had been stitching Boscorelli onto the bear's sweater, but Bosco found him before she was finished. And Bosco Bear became his constant companion.

Santa could see the wheels turning as Bosco chewed on the inside of his cheek. "And then there were the skateboards." Santa said with a grin. "That was the Christmas after your parents separated. You and Mikey begged for those skateboards and Santa delivered. Although, I don't think your Ma was very happy about that."

"Mikey wiped out ramping off the steps and broke his arm." Bosco replied quietly, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he remembered Rose's reaction.

"Well, boys will be boys." Santa chuckled. "How is Mikey anyway?"

Bosco's eyes shot up. "Mikey's dead" he almost whispered, then turned and stalked away.

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"Maurice" Santa called quietly. He found Bosco standing outside in the falling snow, shivering.

Bosco ignored him.

"I'm sorry about Mikey. I didn't know, but I'm sure it must be difficult. I know you were close. Why don't you come back inside? It's cold out tonight." Santa placed a hand on Bosco's shoulder, only to have it shrugged off.

"I want to go home. I don't know how we got here, but I want to go home. Now." Bosco reiterated, turning to face Santa with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Well, that's not possible, Maurice. Not just yet. You see, you're here for a reason. I need your help tonight with a few special stops."

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"Oh, come on, Maurice. Where's your Christmas spirit?" Brendan teased Bosco.

"I haven't picked out toys for kids since Emily and Charlie were little." Bosco grumbled.

"Yeah, but how hard can it be? What'd Santa say? Rachel is six and Andrew is four." Brendan asked.

Bosco shook his head, as Simon unlocked the door in front of them and pushed it open. "Ok, guys. Here's your toy store. Just don't take all night."

Brendan rushed forward, as Bosco shook his head and sighed.

"Wow! Would you look at this?" Brendan was amazed, as Bosco was soon, at the many long rows of toys before them.

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"What about this?" Brendan asked, holding up a brightly colored turbo blaster water gun.

"Too messy." Bosco replied, "The Mom would hate you. What about this?" Bosco held up an army action figure.

"Sort of violent isn't it?" Brendan answered.

"As if your water gun is not...besides, it's patriotic." Bosco argued.

Moving along to the next row, Brendan picked up a toy robot that turned into an airplane. "This is cool. Wish we'd had these when I was a kid." He held it out to Bosco, who shook his head no.

"He's only four, Finney."

"He's only four, Finney." Brendan repeated mockingly, putting the toy down with an annoyed look.

Bosco moved on down the row, looking at the toys as if he were in serious thought. "WHOA! Lincoln logs! I always wanted Lincoln logs!" Squating down, he read the label, making sure there were no pieces that were too small for a four year old. "He definitely has to have these." Picking up the box, he moved it over to a small pile they had started.

"Little Susie, she eats, drinks, and wets." Finney laughed, holding the doll out to get Bosco's approval.

"Oh no! No way. I gave Emily a doll like that once. I thought Faith was going to kill me." He let out an involuntary chuckle, remembering Faith's reaction when she'd returned to work the day after Christmas. Bosco, the next time you buy Emily something that eats, drinks, pees, or poops, I'm going to kill you, so help me. And I'm going to enjoy every minute of it.

Finney watched, as Bosco was lost in his own little world for a few moments, laughing and with a genuine smile on his face for the first time in hours. Then he looked at Brendan with a little mischievous grin. "On second thought, every little girl should have a dolly that wets." Taking the doll from Finney, he added it to their pile of toys.

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"What in the world is taking them so long?" Santa asked. He had a schedule to keep and they needed to get started.

"I don't know, Santa. I told them to hurry." Simon replied.

Upon entering the toy warehouse, Santa and Simon both stopped and their mouths dropped open as Brendan, Elf suit and all, came riding by on a bicycle with training wheels attached, tooting the little horn on the handle bar.

"You'll never catch me!" He shouted over his shoulder to Bosco.

"Maurice?" Santa called out, shocked at the site of Bosco in his yellow tights on a battery operated child sized police motorcycle chasing Brendan Finney and yelling into a microphone. "POLICE! I SAID PULL IT OVER, YOU MORON!" Then as he rode passed Santa, he glanced up saying, "I always wanted to be a motorcycle cop."

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Bosco and Finney had been surprised when they left Toyland in a helicopter instead of a sleigh. Bosco was even more surprised when they drove into New York City in an SUV and actually found themselves in the 55th precinct. But he held his tongue since Santa had already told them that they weren't going home until this mission was over. He hesitated to exit the vehicle when they stopped outside of an apartment building.

"I can't bee seen like this. This is our precinct." He argued with Santa.

"Maurice, no one will ever recognize you. And if they do, they'll think that you're doing this for the police station. Come on." Santa insisted.

Bosco sighed and came out grumbling about how he'd never live this down if someone recognized him. He followed behind Santa with Finney beside him and Simon behind him, trying to hide behind Santa's big red bag whenever they passed people. Finally Santa stopped outside an apartment door and knocked.

"That's it? You just knock on the door? Whatever happened to climbing down the chimney?" Bosco asked.

"He's expecting us. Besides I don't do chimneys anymore. Too tight a squeeze, even with the low carb diet." Santa answered, just as the door began to open.

"Hello" a middle-eastern man answered the door eagerly. "Thank you so much for doing this. You don't know what it will mean to my children."

Bosco looked at the man more closely thinking something about him looked familiar.

"Well, I know it's been a tough few months." Santa replied. "We're glad to be able to help." Santa sat the sack he was carrying down just inside the door.

"It has been difficult." The man agreed. "But I'm almost healed." He answered, turning his head and touching a large healing scar on his left cheek with his finger.

'The man from that convenience store robbery.' Bosco realized. He remembered now. They were called to the scene of a convenience store robbery and the clerk had been shot in the face. Miraculously, he was awake and able to talk to them. When they discovered that the man had been threatened a few days before, the detectives were called in and Faith had freaked out when she saw the man. Bosco at first had not realized why. Now, he reflexively fingered the healed scar on his own cheek, realizing that the man must have reminded Faith of when he was shot.

"Hey, I know you. You are one of the cops that came to the store that day." The man suddenly said, looking straight at Bosco.

"What?" Bosco snapped out of his memory and stared in horror at the man before him. "Uh…no, you must be mistaken."

"No. I could never forget the people who helped me." The man answered, extending a hand to Bosco. "Thank you so much, Officer…."

"Ah….Officer Sullivan." Bosco replied quickly, shaking the man's hand. "Officer John Sullivan."

"Thank you, Officer Sullivan."

"Well, we had better get going." Santa interrupted. "We still have a few more stops to make."

The man thanked them all again and as they turned to go, he called out merrily to Bosco. "Oh, by the way, Officer Sullivan. I love the suit."

Bosco looked back quickly, just in time to see the man wink at him. His ears turned red; and as the others chuckled, he again began grumbling under his breath.

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"This next lady took her grandson in after he was removed from the parent's home." Santa explained, as they stood outside of another apartment.

Much to his relief, Bosco didn't recognize the elderly black woman who answered the door. "Oh, God bless you." She muttered, her hands going to her lips as she tried to contain her laughter.

While Santa carried the bag into the house and dropped it next to the scrawny Christmas tree, Bosco looked around at he small but tidy apartment. Then out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small head peaking through a doorway. Bosco recognized the boy. He and Ty had been called to a domestic disturbance a few months back. The kid's father had beaten up the mother, although she didn't want to press charges. Bosco found the boy hiding in a back room with a swollen eye and a bloody lip. It was a sad situation, but he was glad to know that at least now the kid was safe. Bosco glanced at Santa and then back at the doorway, seeing that the boy was looking at him, his eyes huge. Placing a finger to his mouth, Bosco gave him the signal to be quiet and then pointed to Santa. The little boy looked back and forth between the two and nodded, a big grin on his face.

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"These people aren't expecting us. In fact, I'm not even sure they're home yet." Santa spoke quietly as the four of them climbed up a fire escape.

Bosco and Finney each carried a red bag over their shoulder.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Bosco asked, as the four stopped outside of an apartment window. "To leave presents on the fire escape, I mean."

Santa laughed quietly. "Don't be silly, Maurice. We're not leaving them on the fire escape." Santa turned to Simon, who handed him a small tool that Bosco could have sworn was designed topick locks.

"That's….that's…"

"Don't worry, Maurice. I'm an old pro at this." Santa advised as he began to try to jimmy the lock.

Bosco grabbed his hand, pulling it down. "Wait. You can't just break into somebody's apartment. What if we get caught? I'm not going to jail. I..I can't go to jail looking like this!" Bosco exclaimed, pointing down to his Elf suit in a near panic.

"Nobody's going to jail, Maurice. Calm down. I've done this thousands of times." Santa assured him.

"Come on, Bosco. Relax man and enjoy the moment." Finney said, causing Bosco to look at him like he had grown another head.

"I'm not believing this." Bosco muttered, shaking his head and praying that they wouldn't get caught.

Soon Santa had the window open and was climbing through it.

"He's pretty agile for a fat old man, huh?" Finney commented quietly to Bosco.

"I heard that, Brendan." Santa replied, as he reached out the window for one of the bags.

After both bags had been deposited, Santa climbed back out the window. "There now. All done." He said, dusting his hands off.

"Good. Can we go home now?" Bosco asked, still scared to death that they would get caught on this fire escape with two of New York's finest in tights and Elf suits.

"No. We're not leaving. They should be getting home any minute." Santa replied, much to Bosco's dismay.

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It was more like twenty minutes, but finally they heard the front door creaking open. When the lights flicked on, Bosco stood slack jawed as Steven and Madeline entered with Steven carrying a sleepy little boy and Madeline holding a little girl's hand.

"I'm so sorry, Steven." She was saying, when Rachel interrupted. "LOOK! PRESENTS!"

She ran forward to the many presents that had been stacked on the coffee table since the Christmas tree had burned down.

"Look Andy!" She shouted, causing the little boy in Steven's arms to look up curiously.

"Oh, Steven! Who could have done this?" Madeline cried out.

Santa stood silently with a smile on his face watching Maurice as he watched this family. He was surprised to see a lonely tear trickled down Bosco's cheek and could have sworn he saw Maurice's heart grow two sizes in those few moments.

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"Thanks, Santa" Bosco mumbled.

"Maurice? Maurice, baby."

Bosco slowly opened his eyes, blinking a few times before focusing on Rose's worried face. He shivered slightly and pulled the blanket up closer to his chin. "Ma?"

"Oh, thank heavens. You had me so worried, Maurice." Slapping him on the arm, she added. "You're going to be the death of me yet, Maurice. When are you going to learn to stay out of trouble?" She chided, but still smiled.

"Whaaaa…..what happened?" Bosco muttered. Looking around, he realized that he was in a hospital room and remembered the lady and the bridge. "Madeline?"

"If that's the lady from the bridge, she's fine. She left her husband a few hours ago to pick up their kids." Rose replied.

"Oh. Good." Bosco said with relief.

After a few minutes of chit chat, Rose asked. "Are you up for any company? There's someone here who wants to see for himself that you're ok."

Bosco shrugged his shoulders. "Sure….I guess."

"I'll send him in." Rose answered.

A few moments after Rose exited, Brendan Finney stuck his head inside the door as if asking permission to come in.

"Hey, partner." Bosco commented and coughed slightly.

Brendan was taken back a bit. Bosco had called him many things, many that could not be repeated, but partner was never one of them.

"Hey, Bosco. How are you feeling, man?" Brendan asked quietly.

"Ok, thanks to you. That was really stupid, by the way." Bosco added.

Brendan looked at him confused. "What?"

"Coming out onto the ice like that. You should have waited for the rescue team. But….I'm glad you didn't. Thank you." Bosco said sincerely.

"You're welcome." Finney replied, stepping up next to the hospital bed. "Man, you really gave me a scare out there."

"Yeah, you're not the only one." Bosco answered.

"So, what does your doctor say? You were really out of it for a while. Longer than I was, I'm told." Brendan commented.

"I don't know. I haven't talked to him. I must have been out of it. I had some really crazy dreams." Bosco replied, remembering some crazy dream he had been having.

"So long as they didn't involve Santa and Elf suits with tights." Brendan chuckled, then stopped as he saw Bosco staring at him with wide eyes.

"Yellow tights." Bosco muttered, watching Finney's face. The room became eerily silent, as the two men stared at each other, neither knowing what to say.

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Disclaimer #2: I do not own the Grinch, Santa, Toyland, anything Elfish, any turbo toys, Lincoln Logs, Little Susie weewee, or anything else for that matter. But I hope you enjoyed as I did.

Disclaimer # 3: Toys for Tots belongs to the US Marine Corp.

Note: The Bosco Bear story can also be found in Collision Course, Chapter 74.

A Merry Christmas to all.