Magical

Chapter 38

    Things had finally settled down at the Pole.
    Santa and Carol took their parental leaves to be able to take care of Buddy. Bernard continued to work on his house with some help from Bud and a few of the elves. Jack, now reformed, had become a complete gentleman, helping out wherever he could.
    A few weeks after the Escape Clause fiasco, Carol's parents decided to return home, promising for the upteenth time that they wouldn't tell anyone of what had happened or that Santa Claus and all the rest were real. And, luckily enough, they kept that promise.
    As for Rose and Bernard, they were closer than ever. With the house fixed up for the anticipated arrival of the twins, Bernard and Rose felt ready to return to work, feeling assured that everything was fine.
    With Jack's help, Rose hardly felt sick anymore which made things much easier for the woman who was now 6 months into her pregnancy. Bernard, being the doting husband he was, didn't want his wife working while she was pregnant but she assured him she'd take off for maternity leave in one more month since he seemed so worried about her. He agreed on the condition that she took it easy and didn't do any heavy lifting.
    So Rose continued to work mostly as she did before, doing odd little jobs here and there while Bernard focused on being Head Elf once more. At lunchtime, Rose would catch Bernard in his office and they'd go down to the kitchen for something to eat. They'd spend an hour there then return to work. After work, she'd fetch him from his office yet again and they'd trek back to their house to enjoy a comfy night together, snuggling in bliss.
    Bernard hadn't worked all hours of the night since the day he'd married Rose and he hadn't started doing so until after the in-laws left but he'd tried his hardest not to, only doing so when it seemed more work was needed then he had time to finish during the day.
    One day, the pair headed to work together as usual. Bernard started overseeing the work and left to do some paperwork before noon. Rose scurried about, doing odds and ends when she started feeling weird. Shaking it off as exhaustion coupled with her pregnancy, Rose continued working.
     At one point, Rose found herself bent over in pain. That's when someone came running up, calling her name. She looked up to see Judy rubbing her back.
    "Are you sure you're ok, Rose?"
    She took a deep breath. "I'm fine. Just a little tired."
    "Go take a break and rest. Overworking yourself will do you no good, least of all those babies."
    Rose nodded to her friend. "I'll go see if Bernard is ready for lunch. I'm starved."
    With that, she turned and made her way to Bernard's office. She knocked on the door. Immediately, it was opened by her husband.
    "Hey, Snowflake." He greeted with a loving smile.
    "B, I'm starved! Can we go get lunch?"
    Bernard chuckled before responding, "Of course. Anything for you."
    He walked over to his wife and gave her a loving kiss. Then, taking her hand, he lead her to the kitchen. Within minutes, they were eating. Rose had started to feel a bit better while eating and listening to her husband talk to her about whatever came to his mind.
   That feeling, unfortunately, didn't last as she was suddenly hit with a strong pain in her chest. She bent over in pain and her husband immediately jumped to his feet.
   "Snowflake!" He shouted. "Someone get Dr. Histmus!!"
    With that, the elves started running around like crazy. Dr. Histmus was called and Bernard loaded his wife up to take her to the elfirmary. Dr. Histmus took Rose into the room to get a look at her. After a thorough investigation, he came out with bad news.
    "Bernard, I'm sorry to say there's a complication with the pregnancy."
    "HOW?!" He shouted before calming himself. "How so?!"
    Dr. Histmus sighed. "Did you know her heart was frozen?"
    Bernard nodded. "Yes. Jack Frost froze her heart as part of a plot. I thought I unfroze it though?"
    "Technically yes you did. However, even though true love can break any curse, his spell was particularly powerful and a small bit of ice remains in her heart."
    "Wouldn't him changing stop it?"
    "For some reason, even though his spells were reversed after Jack Frost unfroze, this one, again, was very powerful. And because of the small bit of ice remaining, it is possible she may not live...or the children either."
    "How do we remove it?"
    "That I do not know, Bernard."
    Bernard turned and punched the nearest wall. "I JUST GOT MY WIFE BACK AND NOW I MIGHT JUST LOSE HER AND YOU'RE TELLING ME THERE'S NOTHING I, OR ANYONE ELSE, CAN DO?! WHAT KIND OF SICK JOKE IS THIS?!"
    "I'm sorry, Bernard. There's nothing I can do right now."
    That was around the time that Santa arrived. "What's happened?"
    Bernard couldn't even speak as tears poured down his face. Without thinking, he just up and left, running home and collapsing on his bed.
    He just got everything back. Now, was he about to lose it all again?
                         * * * * *
    Santa called the Council of Legendary Figures the moment he got the message. All of them looked saddened by the news.
    "Mother Nature, there has to be something we can do."
    "Our powers don't work on other legendary figures, Santa. None of us can do anything."
    "Jack?"
    Jack Frost looked sad. "I'm so sorry, Santa. I really messed up. Not only can I not do this because of the rules, I don't know that I could even if she weren't one of us. My powers have been unpredictable ever since the change. I'm still trying to relearn how to use them." The whole group seemed ready to lose hope. "Wait a minute!" Jack suddenly shouted. Everyone turned in his direction. "Maybe there's someone who can help. When you needed a way to stop the other me, Lucy melted my heart. Perhaps she could do the same for her sister."
    Santa snapped his fingers. "That's it!" With that, he opened his office door and shouted to Judy, "Get me the Millers on the phone! We've got an emergency here! Code red, people!!"