Christmas with the Calvins

Chapter Fifty-Six

"Bernard, come down from there!" Jess woke up one morning, in early May of 2004, to the sounds of her father shouting at her husband. Still dressed in her flannel pajamas she pulled on a pair of winter boots and went outside.

"Daddy, what's going on? You're going to wake up the kids." She warned, joining him on the side of the house.

"Don't yell at me!" Scott held his hands up defensively. "That idiot husband of yours climbed on your roof to change the bulbs on some of your Christmas lights. I'm trying to get him to come back down."

"Don't worry Santa!" Bernard called down to from his spot on the roof. Jessie squinted upwards to see her husband straddling the roof, a string of lights in one hand and a pack of spare bulbs in the other. "If I fall off the roof, you can always put on my suit and become Head Elf!"

"Haha!" Scott snarled. "Very funny! Come on now, get down here before you fall and break your neck! Why don't you let me do that?"

"Dad," Jess put a hand on her father's shoulder. "He does this every year."

"What? Climbs on the roof for no reason?"

"No, not usually. But every year during the slow season he starts inventing things that have to be done around the house. Of course now we've got the new house so there's nothing wrong with it, I'm guess he's decided to change the bulbs on the lights that are less than a year old, because he's bored."

"So what? You're saying we should leave him like this?" Scott demanded gesturing up at the roof again.

"No." His daughter sighed. "I guess we can't do that, he really might hurt himself. Bernard! Get down here!"

"Fine." Bernard frowned looking like a petulant child. "I'm coming down!" He huffed before crawling across the roof towards the ladder. Scott and Jess watched from below as the Head Elf gripped the first rung of the ladder and began his descent. But there was nothing they could do as his foot slipped off the second rung and he lost his hold.

"Bernard!" His wife shrieked as he tumbled down into a snow bank. Together she and Scott rushed to his side. "Dad! Call the doctor!" Scott nodded before running off to get Dr. Hismus. Bernard wasn't moving, he wasn't making any noise either. But Jess noticed he was breathing. Thanks to the frigid air that surrounded the North Pole, she could make out the warm puffs of air as her husband exhaled weakly.

"What were you doing on the roof you idiot?" She groaned as tears began to fill up her eyes.

Everything happened so fast after that. Scott returned with Dr. Hismus and a team of medical Elves. Bernard was loaded carefully on to a stretcher and wheeled over to the sick bay in the main workshop. Carol volunteered to stay with the kids as Curtis and Scott escorted Jessica to the Sick Bay. Once there, they were told it was too soon to know the extent of Bernard's injuries. He would have to be observed for several hours before they would know anything definitive. Out of respect for privacy the doctors decided that only immediate family should be allowed to visit, which mean Curtis was kicked out.

"We'll let you know of anything changes." Scott told his number two as he walked him out of the sick bay.

"Bernard's never been sick before." Curtis frowned. "He's never so much as sneezed! He's always so careful. I don't know what we'd do if..."

"Hey," Santa put a hand of each of his elf's shoulders. "We can't afford to think like that. Curtis, you know better than anyone how important the power of belief is. You can't think about what if something bad happens."

"Sorry Santa." The number two elf looked down at his shoes in embarrassment.

"Listen, I know this isn't easy." Scott sighed. "Neither of my kids have ever been hurt this badly before either. Jess broken her leg once trying to sneak into the house after prom, but that's it. Never any concussions, car accidents, nothing. But we have to try our best to be there for Jess and Bernard. In the meantime, why don't you call a meeting of all the Department Heads and let them know what's happened?"

"Oh kay." Curtis sighed. He really didn't like leaving his best friend's side, but if the doctor wouldn't let him in, the number two elf supposed he ought to be useful somewhere else."Promise you'll tell me if anything changes?"

"Santa's honor." Scott nodded. He put a right hand over his heart to show that he truly meant it. With a fleeting glance at the doors to the Sick Bay, Curtis ran off to call for the necessary meeting. Scott stood outside of the Sick Bay for a few more minutes, trying to make sense of his jumbled thoughts. When he realized he wouldn't be making any sense out of his buzzing head, he decided to go back in and sit by his daughter's side.

Bernard laid in a medical bed with his eye closed. The elf could have just as easily been sleeping at home if it weren't for all the machines and wires he'd been hooked up to. But he was breathing on his own, Scott noticed, that was a good sign. Jess was sitting in a chair that she had pulled as close up to Bernard as the hospital furniture would allow. One of her hands was resting on top of her husband's and the other was fiddling with ringlets of brown hair they rested against his face.

"He's going to be all right isn't he, Dad?" Jess asked. She looked up at her father with watery eyes. Scott looked down at his daughter unable to speak. He wanted to comfort her, to tell her that everything was going to be alright, that Bernard would wake up any second. But the worlds got caught in his throat. He and Jessie had always had an unspoken promise that they would never lie to each other, no matter what. From the time she was a young girl it had always been the two of them against the world. As she got older she started taking care of herself more, she needed him less and less. Then she got married and Bernard became the center of her world. So how do you explain to your daughter that the center of her whole world might not wake up ever again? Scott couldn't bring himself to do it. He place a comforting hand on Jess' shoulder and tried to think of the right thing to say.

"All we can do now, is wait Jessie." He managed to choke out. For once he wished Neil or Laura were here. They would know what the right thing to do or say would be. And for a brief moment Scott did consider calling his ex-wife and have her pop up to the North Pole as soon as possible, but Laura was also a worrier. It might not help to have her nervous energy up at the Pole with so much uncertainty still lingering in the air. So he decided to wait for more information before making the long phone call to the Millers.