Dear Santa

Author's Note:  As is obvious from the chapter number, this is a continuation of the entry I submitted last year at this time, and the year before that. You may need to find those submissions and reread them since this picks up right where they left off.

Noel's baby sister was already asleep when he got home from his first day of work. He walked into the kitchen and received a hug from Aunt Lovey. She held him close for a moment then stepped back giving him a puzzled look.

"Baby boy, if I didn't know you just walked in that door, I woulda swore in court you done been into my leftover pumpkin pie."

"Every kid that hugged me today said the same thing," Noel wondered aloud. He then related all the details of his day to his beloved friend. Ok, not every detail; he omitted the part about them checking each other out in their tights. He definitely did mention the things that he just couldn't quite understand though.

He told about the boy who had the crush on RaeRae, and his father. Lovey just nodded about the boy. She had seen that coming from the times she had been to the daycare to pick up their little girl. She didn't seem surprised by Noel's sudden knowledge that something was wrong with the boy's babysitter, either, though.

"Sometimes people just gets premonitions, honey," she told the boy. "I had one when I picked you up in the park that day. I knew that you and your sainted momma needed my help. That's why I never thought twice about helping your family out."

"You didn't help my family out," Noel countered. "You became part of it."

"You always did know just what to say to get me all mushy eyed," the woman scolded gently as she wiped her eye. She leaned over and hugged the boy, then got busy fixing him a huge plate of food.

Noel got to work the next day and was delighted to see that Nick had not changed into his elf suit yet. The two teens ogled each other as they both stripped down to their underwear. Noel thought he would pass out when he saw that Nick wore the most incredibly sexy red velvet bikini-style underwear. They somehow managed to get dressed and out to the front of the store just in time for the kids to start coming in.

The first kids to come in were accompanied by Detective Spears and his son. A nine- or ten-year-old girl came running up to him with Little Jack. They both hugged him tightly as a boy about 14 or 15 stood behind them nervously. The boy suddenly lunged forward and hugged Noel too.

"Daddy says you gave me the bestest Christmas present ever and it's not even Christmas yet," Jack gushed. "You helped Daddy rescue Sam and Synthya and now they get to be my big brother and sister."

Noel looked up to the detective, who nodded. "My wife and I are going to be applying for adoption as soon as we can. We have loved Sam since he first came to baby-sit for us a year ago. Synthya is a little doll and we all couldn't be happier, and it wouldn't have happened if it weren't for you."

"It would have happened, I'm sure," Noel denied with a blush. "If I did anything, all I did was speed things up."

"I was always a little jealous of little Jack having such great parents," Sam admitted. "Now it looks like I won't have to be anymore." He looked down at his little sister and told her and Jack to go ahead and get in the line for Santa. He looked around a little nervously, and then grabbed Noel in another hug. "You really did save our lives, dude. Just as Mr. Spears and the child services people got there, the crack factory Mom and Dad had in the basement blew up. If Mr. Spears hadn't rescued us from the fire we would have died."

"I'm glad I was able to help, Sam," Noel told the boy. He stepped back for a second and then added, "Don't worry, Sam, Jenny will not dump you just because you're going to go to a different school."

Sam looked at Noel in a mixture of shock and embarrassment. "How did you know about...."

"I don't know, I really don't know," Noel mumbled. "I still don't know how I knew to tell Detective Spears about you and your sister."

"I don't care how you knew, I'm just glad you did," Sam told him. "Thank you just doesn't seem to say it all."

"It says plenty, dude," Noel told him with a smile. "Now go be happy with your new family."

Noel suddenly was aware of Emily watching him from the doorway to the office.  She nodded for him to come over to her. When he got closer, he noticed that she was crying a little. Instantly he thought of Rachelle, and as he did, the older woman nodded.

"Lovey just called to tell me that she has had to take Rachelle to the hospital and they have admitted her," Emily said. "The doctors say she got too cold coming out yesterday and she is a bit dehydrated."

"Could I..." Noel's voice trailed off as he looked back to the growing line of children that were waiting to see Santa.

"We can handle this if you want to go to the hospital, dear," Emily told him.

"I just wondered if I could use the phone to call the hospital and check on her," Noel said. "If she isn't that sick, I can work until lunch and then go."

"Of course you can call, dear," Emily told him. "I think you will find that you don't need to, though."

"You're right," Noel wondered aloud. "Somehow I just know that she will be all right today." He looked intently at his boyfriend's grandmother. "What is going on with me? How do I know the things that I know all of a sudden?"

"Nicholas wanted to talk to you and Nicky about this, but I think maybe you and I have a little more in common," the woman told him. "Let me take you to my office, Noel. We'll both be more comfortable there." The woman indicated a doorway that Noel knew he had never before seen in the back room of the mall store. He followed Emily through it, however, and found himself in a very comfortable kitchen that looked like something out of one of those really old Christmas ads for a cola company. "I always liked those Christmas ads myself; although they always made Nicholas look a little too jolly, if you know what I mean."

Noel looked out one of the windows and saw a landscape of snow and ice with a barn not too far away. There were reindeer wandering around outside the barn. Noel turned back to ask Emily about this and saw another woman walk into the room, a woman with very pointed ears. Noel sat down heavily on a stool at the snack bar.

"You aren't hallucinating, dear," Emily told him.

"Welcome home, Noel," the other woman told him. "I'm Martha."  Noel nodded blankly.

"It's all real, Noel," Emily said as she sat beside him. She waved her hand and a nice steaming cup of cocoa appeared on the counter in front of him. "You will probably have a lot of questions that Nicholas may have to answer, but I can answer some, too. First of all, yes, Nicholas and I are overjoyed that you and little Nicky have found each other; not that we are chomping at the bit to retire, but we have done this for a while. You see, we did tell you one little fib. Nicholas and I are not Nicky's grandparents. We are his great-great-great-grandparents."

Noel had been reaching for his cup of cocoa, but his hand dropped and he turned to look at the woman beside him. Emily nodded and motioned for him to go ahead and take the cup. He did and took a sip as she spoke again.

"The way the magic works is that Santa is Santa until a male heir is ready to take his place," Emily explained. "Nicholas and I had a son, but he insisted that he be allowed to help the children of Europe during the First World War, and he was killed when a bomb went off too near the shelter he was in." Emily wiped a tear at this point. Our only other child was a girl, and when she married, she had three girls. One of those died of influenza, one fell in love with a man who couldn't father children, and the other also had only two girls."

"So there's only been girls for four generations until Nick was born?" Noel questioned. "You have had to watch that many generations of your family...." His voice trailed away as he saw Emily crying softly. "I'm so sorry. I can't bear to watch Baby Rae now.... I would never be able to see my own child.... Wait a minute! Does this mean that Nick and I can't.... I mean, if he has to have a male heir, won't he have to...."

"No, dear, Nicky is not going to cheat on you with some girl," Emily assured him. "Nicholas took over this job from an uncle who had a male partner. Yes, there have been gay Santa's. You are proof yourself that men can be gay and still love children."

"Will I...." Noel blushed profusely as his eyes flickered briefly over the woman's blouse, before looking away to study his cup of cocoa.

"Certainly not," Emily laughed. "Uncle Albert's partner, Uncle James, was quite a dashing man," she added with a conspiratorial wink.

"Santa isn't always named Nicholas?" Noel asked.

"Oh my, no," Emily told him. "They all are professionally of course, but there's only been a few that were named Nicholas in actual fact. Before you ask, yes, Nicky is really named Nicholas after my husband."

"Emily, is there anything Nicholas can do about my sister?" Noel suddenly asked desperately.

"The way I understand it, there is a way for Santa to save one child's life during his tenure, as it were," Emily told him. "But Santa can't do that miracle alone."

"Noel, did you ever wonder where Santa's elves come from?" Martha asked. "A human becomes one of Santa's elves when they offer themselves to Santa in exchange for the life of a child. We give up our human existence so that the child may live. I gave up my life for my granddaughter Rebecca, who was dying from wounds she had received during an Indian raid. As it turns out, Emily here is my Rebecca's granddaughter."

"It's that simple?" Noel asked. "You just need someone to give up their life for the life of the child?"

"Noel, before you get your hopes up, I have to remind you that each Santa can only perform that magic one time."

"But it can be done...." Noel's face fell as the impact of what she was telling him sunk in. "Oh, Nicholas has already done it, hasn't he?" The old woman nodded sadly.

"One other thing you should know, sweetheart," Emily said softly. "You can't give up your life for hers."

"But why not?"

"You are Nicky's heart," Martha explained. "He can only become Santa because he has you to share his life with."

"It isn't fair," Noel snapped. "She's just a baby." He broke down into tears as the two old women both hugged him tightly.

A little later the door that Noel and Emily had come through opened again and Nicky walked through it. He looked nervously around the room and then saw Noel sitting by his grandmothers. He couldn't hide the question in his eyes as he looked at his boyfriend.

"You were going to tell me all this last night after work, weren't you?" Noel asked him. Nicky could only nod. "Well, I guess it's a good thing for you that I think facial hair on a guy is really hot," he added with a grin.

"You still want to be together?" Nick gasped.

"Nick, your shirt just changed colors!" Noel blurted. "It was green when you walked through the door, but it just turned red."

Just at that moment, Nicholas came through the door. He was smiling proudly as he embraced Nick and held an arm out for Noel. Emily joined them in the family hug. Nick suddenly looked horrified and gasped out, "Rachelle!" In the blink of an eye, they were all standing in a hallway of the hospital. There were police officers in a nearby waiting room talking to Lovey. Noel ran to her side.

"Are you Joey Noel Cloche?" one of the officers asked. When Noel nodded, the man spoke again. "I'm sorry to tell you this at this time of year, son. The plane your parents were passengers on crashed this morning. There were no survivors." Before Noel could react to that, a nurse came into the waiting room crying.

"Are you little Rachelle's family?" Nicholas answered for them and the nurse continued. "She has taken a very bad turn. I suggest you all come quickly if you want to say goodbye."

Noel turned to Nicholas and begged, "Isn't there anything you can do?"

The old man had a handkerchief to his eyes and shook his head sadly. "I have already used my one Christmas miracle."

"Grandpa, what does it take for me to take over as.... I mean, to take over the family business?" Nick asked urgently.

"You have to find your true mate in life," the old man said as the jolly twinkle began to come back to his eyes. "You don't have to be married, just acknowledge to one another that you love one another and want to commit yourselves to one another for the rest of your lives."

Nick turned to Noel and grabbed his boyfriend's hands in his own. "Noel, I want you to know that I am not just saying this in order to help your sister. I know we only just met, but I know that you are the last Christmas present I will ever want or need. I know to the depths of my soul that I love you."

Noel looked around the room briefly gazing into the eyes of the people he loved, both old family and new. Nicholas and Emily were practically beaming at him, and he could feel that they truly cared for him as much as he had quickly come to care for them. Lovey was wiping tears and giving him a nodding motion as if to prompt him to answer.

"Baby boy, I don't know exactly what is going on here, but I knowed it is something good for you, and for that sweet baby in there," she told him. "Your sweet boy is waiting for an answer."

"But this alone won't save her," Noel whispered as tears rolled down his cheeks.  "I do love you, Nick. I know that for sure, but I just can't lose her."

"Can't nothing stop what's happening in there, Baby boy," Lovey told her beloved teen. "If there was any way I could trade places with her, I would in a heartbeat, and you would too."

"Do you really mean that?" Nick asked Lovey seriously. "Think very hard about this. Would you really give up your mortal life to save hers?"

"I would hate to leave my babies," Lovey said as she wrapped her arms around Noel and hugged him tight. "But if I knew it would save that angel's life, yes I would take her place."

Noel grasped Nick's hand in one of his and Lovey's in his other. He was crying heavily, but all could see that he was weeping with joy. "If anyone calls me Mrs. Claus, I'm going to put them on your naughty list."

Nicholas suddenly glowed with a brilliant white light. His beard and hair began to darken, and his Santa suit disappeared, replaced by a shimmery silver sweater and red pants. The light was nearly blinding, but it slowly faded as Nick began to glow instead. His face suddenly broke out into a full white beard, although his eyes showed no signs of aging at all. The familiar looking rich red velvet and white fur outfit that Nicholas had just been wearing replaced Nick's elf costume. The glow then spread to engulf Noel. He couldn't tell if he was changing outside or not, but he felt the little hints of things that he had been surprised to know in the last few days become more solid facts that he knew were not disputable. He simply knew. There was no other way to describe it.

"If'n I hadna seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't never believed it," Lovey said in a whisper. "My Baby boy done fell in love with Santa Claus." She grabbed Noel in a tight hug once more. "I'm going to miss you something fierce, Baby boy. But if there's any way to do it, I'll find some way to keep looking out after you and my sweet RaeRae."

"Oh, there's a way," Nick said happily, as he took the woman's hands in his own. "This won't hurt a bit. I'm looking forward to a long life eating more of your cooking," he added with a giggle.

A moment later, the nurse's voice echoed through the hall.  "WAIT!  You're a sick little girl, you can't just run off down the...."

"I don't feel sick," Rachelle yelled back. "I want to see Nono and Nicknick." An instant later, the blonde haired girl burst into the middle of her happily family and stopped short, staring up at Nick. "Are you still Nicknick?"

"I will always be your Nicknick, little one," he smiled down at her. "I just have a new job, and so does Noel."

The little girl's eyes now traveled up to her dear Aunt Lovey. "What happened to your ears, Aunt Lovey? They're pointy now."

"Well darling, they just needed to get a little bigger so they could hear you talking for a long time to come," the old woman said with a sniffle.

And as the family all faded from sight, Nick said with a shout, "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!" Then he leaned in close to Noel's ear and whispered, "I know I plan to have a good night ringing my Christmas bell." Noel's blush was the last thing seen of him as they all disappeared.