An authors note...As much as I would have liked, I just wasn't able to fit in any Hanukkah celebrations to this arc. Sorry:( But I hope this little piece of Christmas in July will suffice.

Disclaimer-Glee is the property of FOX, the creators and the writers.

Beauty and the Geek

It was the first day of winter break, and only two days before Christmas. Excitement was high, but the need to get everything accomplished, even greater. So when the doorbell rang in the middle of the day, Alicia, currently elbow deep in cookie dough, called out for someone to answer it.

"Uh, Mom?" she heard Andy's voice call out moment later. "You might wanna come here."

Only mildly annoyed, Alicia let out a small sigh as she walked over to the sink to wash her hands, before heading to the front door. What she found when she arrived, made her gasp.

"Delivery for Arthur Abrams."

"What in the world?"

That caught the attention of the three left in the kitchen and they came rushing out just as the delivery man was pushing the cart carrying the large package, into the house. "That ramp out there sure came in handy today," he quipped, handing a clipboard to Alicia, to sign. She smiled weakly at his joke as she triple checked the shipping labels, before penning her signature. "Thanks," the man nodded, smiling. "Have a nice day. Merry Christmas."

"What is it?" Abbey was the first to ask, awestruck by the massive cardboard box sitting in the entry way.

"I'm not sure, Sweetheart," Alicia replied, inspecting the labels further. "But I sure wish your father would warn me before sending his work packages to the house."

"Mom? I don't think this is for Dad," Andy interjected, sounding stunned himself. Four sets of imploring eyes immediately fell upon him. "Unless his firm needs a piece of rehabilitative equipment, from overseas."

Alicia moved to his side, and sure enough, in addition to the red stamp marked fragile that peppered the rest of the box, there were big bold letters identifying the only other possible recipient.

Suddenly, all attention turned to Artie. "What?" he asked defensively, "I didn't order anything."

"No, but someone did," Alicia retorted, still trying to process the situation. "I guess the only way to figure out this mystery, is to open the box."

"No Mommy wait, you can't," Abbey shouted, just as her mother stepped forward.

Startled, Alicia turned to regard her daughter. "Why not, Sweetheart?"

"It says 'do not open until December twenty fifth'," she instructed, reading the message directly off her side of the box. "That must mean it's a Christmas present." And then it clicked and there was a loud gasp followed by a squeal. "Wait no, you have to open it right now."

"But you just told me not to."

"I know, but that's before I realized what is was," Abbey continued rambling. "This is Artie's Christmas present. The one I asked Santa for. It just has to be. I knew he'd bring it. I bet he had to send it in the mail because it was too big to deliver on Christmas Eve..."

"Abbigayle Hope, what in the world are you going on about?"

"This is the Christmas present I asked Santa to bring for Artie," the little girl gasped in reply. Quinn shot Andy a guarded look, while Artie tried to swallow the lump of emotion building in his throat, and Alicia just looked on, bewildered. "Mommy, you have to open it now...Please!"

Enlisting the help of Andy and a box cutter from Art's tool box, Alicia shrugged and got right down to work. I no time the box was removed and the contents finally revealed; a task that elicited a few gasps from the onlookers. There was a strangled, "Oh my" and a squawk of delight from Abbey.

"I don't understand," Mrs. Abrams mumbled in disbelief. "Abbey, how on earth is this possible?"

"When I was writing out my Christmas list, I asked Santa to bring Artie his own Re-walk so he wouldn't have to wait to borrow the one from the center," she began to explain.

Artie noticed the slightly conspiratorial looks Quinn and Andy, were giving one another, but couldn't really bother to care since he was still trying to wrap his head around how his nine year old sister got her hands on piece of medical equipment that cost tens of thousands of dollars, and wasn't even available in the country at the moment.

"Sweetheart, that was so thoughtful of you," Alicia answered in response, "but I'm not sure this is a gift Santa would be able to bring."

"Of course he did," Abbey insisted, beaming. "Who else would bring it?"

Valid point, but one that didn't ease Alicia's conscience any. She looked over at the older kids for some sort of assistance in the matter, but found they were as perplexed as she.

"Maybe I should call the center," Artie voiced his thought. "Someone there might know something."

"Nobody's going to know anything, Artie," Abbey intoned determinately. "This didn't come from the center, it came from Santa."

"What came from Santa?" Art's questioning voice echoed through the dining room as he was entering the entryway. "Whoa."

"Isn't it great, Daddy?" Abbey squealed in askance, "Artie got his own Re-walk for Christmas."

"That is great, Princess," Art replied once he was over his initial shock. He then turned to his wife. "Where...I mean, how...?"

"I was hoping you might know something about this," she replied, even more distraught than before. "It came about a half hour ago, addressed to Artie, but no return name on the shipping label or packing slip."

"No clue," was Art's response, inspecting the paperwork just as Alicia had done minutes before, "but I suppose I could make some calls; see if anyone knows where this came from."

"I know where it came from," Abbey pipped in eagerly. "It came from Santa."

Art's expression turned skeptical at best. "Sweetheart, I don't think this is something Santa can just bring to anyone..."

"But he did, I swear, " she cut in with another attempt at an explanation. "I asked Santa to bring Artie his own Re-walk and new crutches...red, his favorite color...and that's exactly what he got."

A sympathetic shadow covered Art's face as he knelt down beside his daughter. "It was Santa," she whispered insistently, tears beginning to fill her eyes at a rapid rate. She blinked them away and glanced around to see everyone else looking at her in much the same way. "Why doesn't anyone believe me?" she cried before running up the stairs to her bedroom.

...

Artie made sure to give Abbey some space, especially after she turned away both their mother and Quinn, when they knocked on her door; but only long enough for the battery pack to charge and his Re-walk to be ready for him. Now standing at the bottom of the stairs, Quinn beside him; he was just about to engage the button that would aid him in climbing the steps, when there was a soft click from above.

"I was just about to come up and get you," he stated, smiling up at her.

Abbey tried to return the gesture, but fell short. "Mommy told me to be downstairs for dinner by six."

Artie glanced at the Grandfather clock to his left. "It's 5:42."

"I know," Abbey whispered as she slowly headed down the stairs.

A brief smile flashed across Artie's face when he realized the telltale whir of the Re-walk's motor must have alerted her that he was near. He waited until she got closer to the bottom, before speaking again. "Listen Abbs, I'm really sorry for how we all acted earlier. It was wrong of us to not um...to misunderstand what you were trying to tell us," he explained, though he wasn't sure he was even his own message was coming across clearly.

"That's okay, I understand," she replied, still sounding dejected. "I'm just a stupid little girl who still believes in Santa Clause."

Evidently it hadn't.

Artie's chest constricted painfully as he remembered the hurtful words Andy spoke to Abbey the year before. He was just about to refute that, when the doorbell rang.

"That must be Puck," Quinn muttered from behind Artie.

Grateful for the distraction, he asked his sister, "You wanna give me a hand answering that?"

Abbey nodded dutifully, and waited for Artie to finish the arduous task of shifting around, before following him to the door.

"Hi Noah," she greeted once their guest was in view.

"Hey Rugrat," the tough jock replied affectionately. "You ready to bake some cookies? Abbey nodded as she moved to the side to let him in. "Wha...," the words died in his mouth as Noah stood face to face with none other than Artie Abrams.

There was a soft chuckle, followed by a spirited smirk. "It's that machine I was telling you guys about at school," Artie explained, pressing the button on his wrist and taking a few steps forward. "The Re-walk."

"It's Artie's Christmas present," Abbey supplied happily.

"How the hell did you afford that thing?" Noah queried, failing to regard the youngest occupant in the room.

"We didn't buy it," Art answered, appearing from the kitchen with Caroline perched safely on his hip and Alicia at his side. "In fact, we're not entirely sure where it came from."

"It came for me this afternoon," Artie added, "no return address or anything."

Puck turned as skeptical as everyone did before. "So if no one you know bought it for you, then who...?"

"Santa brought it," a timid little voice called out from bellow.

"Santa?" his tone sounded just as dubious.

"Santa," Alicia stated confidently, the sparkle immediately returning to her sweet daughter's eyes.

"Santa," Artie confirmed, and there was now a beaming smile to match.

Quinn inched closer to her boyfriend. "A real Christmas miracle," she mused, pressing a kiss on his cheek from behind.

Artie smiled back at her before taking a few more steps forward.

Noah quickly replaced the look of awe on his face with his usual smirk of indifference. "Yeah sure, whatever. All I know is that meal is smelling pretty miraculous to me right now," he quipped, breezing past everyone to accept Caroline from Art. After a second, Puck threw his head over his shoulder to ask, "You comin' Tiny Tim?"

Artie laughed in spite of himself, and in spite of the gasp of disapproval that came from his mother. He flashed Alicia an apologetic grin, though it came off as more amused than critical. He knew Noah was just teasing playfully, and deep down, so did Alicia.

Watching the entire exchange from atop the second floor landing, Andy Abrams smiled satisfactorily to himself before bounding down the stairs to join his family for dinner.

...

ANx2...and that my lovelies, is my take on A Very Glee Christmas. Hope you enjoyed it!