12-24-2017, 12:50 PM
“Kids, it’s time for Santa!” Monroe called out to his kids and to the Schade-Burkhardts.
“Aren’t we a little old for Santa, dad?” Freddy asked. “This has been a hard year for us. We know you love Christmas, but really, Santa?”
“I know it was hard to discover that you’re wesen, but now it’s time to get the best part of being a wesen!” Monroe answered his son with the biggest smile the kids had ever seen. “As you have figured out, all the fairy tales people tell their kids are real in one way or another, and we wesen are part of those stories, and Santa is no exception! Old Saint Nick was one of us, a gefrienberenger, to be exact, and they have been keeping up the tradition ever since. The gefrienberengers like the cold and stay way up at the North Pole most of the year, but once a year they migrate south at the Winter Solstice, when it gets cold enough for them to be comfortable in the temperate zone, and they celebrate by giving presents to all of the wesen children who just went through their first woge that year. Since you all had your first woge this year, we notified the gefrienberengers and one is coming to deliver each of you a special gift this year, one you’ll always remember and cherish because it came from the real Santa Claus!” There was a knock at the door. “He’s here! It’s Santa!”
“Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!” The man that entered looked like Santa Claus, but it was clear this was no costume. Wesen were usually kind of scary, but the gefrienberenger was cute and jolly, like a giant ball of white cotton stuffed in a fuzzy red robe with a matching hat. The kids couldn’t help but smile, he seemed to exude Christmas spirit. As he looked at each of the children, he got a bit of a shock when he made eye contact with Kelly. “Oh, I’ve heard about you. I’ve seen your eyes, now le me see your arm.” Kelly showed his arm, woged into zauberbiest form. “That’s a very special woge, and it deserves a very special gift.” He reached into his sack and pulled out a copper bracer with a scale pattern mesh. He helped Kelly put it on, it was just a size or two too big. “Almost perfect, but you’ll grow into it, I promise.” He winked as he reached into his sack and pulled out two wrapped boxes and handed them to Julie and Freddy. “Here’s something special for two very special kids.”
Julie opened her gift, it was a tea set, a teapot with five matching cups, all clearly handmade. “I can’t wait to make tea with this. And five cups, so I can share with my brother, sister, boyfriend and best friend.”
Freddy opened his next, it was a cuckoo clock. There was a witch and wizard that took turns stirring a cauldron while two foxes and a wolf chased each other around the cauldron. “That’s us isn’t it?”
“Ho ho ho, yes it is!” Santa replied. “I made it just for you just like each of the presents I brought for you. Genuine gefrienberenger craft!”
“What about me?” Theresa asked. “You didn’t give me anything.”
“Oh, I didn’t forget you.” Santa replied. “I got something very special for you.” He handed her a small oddly shaped present wrapped in paper with a bow.
Theresa ripped her gift open, only to be dismayed and disgusted with what she found inside. “A lump of coal? Are you saying I made the naughty list?” She was so mad she woged and threw the lump of coal against the far wall.
“And I think you just proved why you might have made the naughty list young lady!” Rosalee said. “That was not nice at all!”
“I think you should go and pick that up.” Santa said. “And take a closer look when you do.”
Theresa pouted and refused to move from her chair.
“You heard Santa.” Monroe said. “Go pick up your coal.”
With a groan, Theresa got up and stomped over to the wall and picked up the coal. As she did, she noticed a shiny glint from inside the black rock. She rubbed at it a little more and more of the gem showed through. “Is this what I think it is?”
“It’s a diamond.” Diana said showing her own diamond necklace. “Santa did the same thing to me when I was little.”
Santa joined the two girls. “Never forget about hidden treasures, that the brightest gems can hide in the darkest places and the best things can come out of the worst.”
Seven years later…
“Deck the halls with boughs of holly…” Julie sang as she decorated the house for Christmas. She had really inherited her father’s Christmas spirit.
“Fa la la la la la la la.” Kelly completed the lyric. He didn’t always feel as excited about the holidays as she did, but he loved her enough to play along. Decorating for the holidays was more than just a tree, there was also an elaborate train set, wreaths, garland, bells, balls, and enough lights to be visible from space. “Are you sure this isn’t a bit much this year?”
Julie shook her head. “I’m worried it’s not enough! How will Santa find our house if it’s not clearly marked?”
Kelly laughed and kissed Julie goodbye as he headed out to work. “I’m pretty sure every gefrienberenger from here to the north pole can see our house, I assure you we made the nice list again this year.”
“Are you sure?” Julie teased. “I’m sure we’ve been a little naughty, and maybe we can push a little further.”
Kelly smiled and kissed her one last time before heading out the door. “That offer sounds tempting, but I really need to get to work, so hold that thought until I get home okay?”
Julie sighed. “You’re right, I need to get to work too. Tis the season for peppermint and nutmeg so the spice shop is hopping.”
Kelly drove off to the precinct hoping for a normal, uneventful day, but his experience was that this would not be likely. There’s always crime, and it seemed like whenever wesen were involved, he’d catch the case, and holidays seemed to bring out the most bizarre. As he walked in, he was greeted by his first case of the day.
“Burkhardt, there’s someone here who demands to see you.” The receptionist said. “He’s waiting at your desk. He wouldn’t say what it was about just that he needed you.”
“Thanks, I’ll take it from here.” Kelly had a feeling he knew what was coming, suspicious of wesen before he even saw who it was. He went to his desk to see a young man waiting for him. The man seemed entirely unremarkable and quite timid, just sitting in the chair waiting for the detective to arrive. “Hello, I’m Detective Burkhardt, I hear you have business with me.”
“Thank you for seeing me.” The man rose and shook Kelly’s hand. “My name is Rudy and I need to report a missing person.”
“And I take it there is something special about this missing person that you need me in particular?” Kelly said, knowing full well where this was likely going and just wanted to get there fast.
“Yes, it’s Doctor Hermey.” Rudy replied.
“My dentist?” Kelly asked. “Wait, that’s right, you’re the dental hygienist, sorry I did recognize you without your scrubs and everything. What happened to doctor Hermey?”
“I don’t know.” Rudy answered. “He didn’t show up to work and I had to cancel his appointments. But this never happens, especially not this time of year, he always stays on schedule during the holidays.” Rudy got so upset he woged, his eyes got big, his ears got larger, and his skin changed color slightly, and small antlers seemed to protrude from his head, but strangest of all was his nose actually turning red and glowing.
“You’re indole gentile.” Kelly said recognizing the type of wesen. “But why is your nose red?”
Rudy covered his nose desperately. “That is a bit unusual, but every now and then one of us is born with this condition, rare bioluminescence like gluenvolk, but completely unrelated. Indole gentile are generally nice people, but they don’t like the attention this draws, so I got ostracized. Fortunately, Doctor Hermey took me in, he’s got a real soft spot for young wesen, especially the misfits. He’s a gefrienberenger, one of the few who has decided to live south of the tundra. You two first met when he gave you your first wesen Christmas.”
Kelly stopped in his tracks. “Wait, do you mean Doctor Hermey is my Santa Claus?”
Rudy nodded. “Yes, he’s the Santa for the whole Portland area, which means if we don’t find him before Christmas, it’s going to ruin the holiday for all the young wesen children who woged for the first time this year.”
Kelly nodded. “Okay, I’m on the case. Let’s go to the office and see if we can find any clues there.”
They went to the dentist office and checked for clues, but nothing seemed to come up. Kelly had an idea and called Freddy to join them. Freddy had a better sense of smell as a blutbad and sniffed around for clues. “I think I found something, and this doesn’t look good.” Freddy held up some hair that he found in the back of Doctor Hermey’s office. “Some of it is gefrienberenger, but I’m afraid most of it is wendigo.”
“Wendigo?” Kelly was surprised. “What would a wendigo want with a gefrienberenger?”
Freddy shrugged. “Cannibals probably make the naughty list, and they don’t get the coal with diamonds inside.”
“Freddy, can you follow their scent to wherever they went?” Kelly asked.
Freddy shook his head. “It’s been too long since they left, I can’t pick up their scent from here. But if you can narrow down the search parameters of where they went, I can zero in on them there.”
“Wendigos like caves, right?” Kelly deduced. “They will probably be in a cave somewhere. Let’s check the mountains.”
Kelly set up a search grid for the mountains around Portland and got all of his friends and family to help. Unfortunately, even with everyone searching high and low in the mountains they found no sign of Doctor Hermey or his captor.
“This not good.” Rudy said. “We’re running out of time. It’s almost Christmas and if we don’t find Doctor Hermey in time he won’t be able to get to all the kids on his list.”
Then the answer hit Kelly. “Wait, is there actually a list? I mean naughty and nice like in the song?”
“Of course.” Rudy replied. “Each year I help Doctor Hermey put it together. We get a list of all the nice kids who deserve presents and check it twice to remove the naughty children and put them on a list of kids we make a lower priority and give coal to them if we have time.”
“You really do that?” Kelly asked.
“The duty of the gefrienberenger is to reward wesen kids for good behavior despite their urges.” Rudy explained. “Those that give in get on the naughty list, so they know they have a year to shape up. But some kids just never learn their lesson and stay on the naughty list and never get their nice wesen gift.”
“And just how many have stayed on naughty list?” Kelly asked.
Rudy woged again. “Oh my, I should have realized it before when you said it was a wendigo. There was one, Cornelius Bumble. When he first woged, he killed some people, giving into his urges. We tried to help him reform, but in his teens, he got so scary, we took him off the list entirely, we were afraid to even go near him to give him coal.”
Kelly rushed to his computer and searched for Cornelius Bumble. “I’ve got an address. Let’s go.”
They hurried to the house listed in the system. Kelly rang the doorbell and knocked. A bearded man in a flannel shirt answered the door. “Who are you and what do you want?”
Kelly flashed his badge. “I’m Detective Burkhardt, are you Cornelius Bumble?” The man nodded. “I’m investigating the disappearance of Doctor Hermey. You came up as a person of interest, I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
The man woged into a wendigo, and as soon as he saw Kelly’s eyes, he had the usual reaction. “Grimm!”
Kelly raised his hand and woged. “And Zauberbiest. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Now will you tell us what you know about Doctor Hermey?”
Cornelius roared and attacked Kelly. Kelly fought back and was much better prepared for the fight. After a few rounds of hand to hand, Kelly threw Cornelius against the wall. Cornelius got up and tried to make another move on Kelly, but Freddy intervened and woged in front of Cornelius. “That’s right I’m like you, a wesen with a killer instinct. But I’m also friends with Kelly, which proves two points, one that we don’t have to give in to our urge to kill, and two that the Burkhardts are different from the Grimms we think we know. We don’t want to fight with you, we just want Doctor Hermey back.”
Cornelius calmed down and reverted his woge, and then surprisingly he started to cry. “I just wanted a present from Santa, but all I got was lousy coal.”
“What exactly did you do to get on the naughty list?” Kelly asked.
Cornelius was slow to answer. “I killed. But I only did it for food, I’m just so hungry. I really didn’t mean to, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t help it.”
“I know the feeling.” Freddy replied. “But it may not be too late. Is Doctor Hermey okay?”
Cornelius slowly rose and led them to a room in the back of the house. Inside was Doctor Hermey, safe and sound, crafting an odd selection of toys from wood and cloth. He turned to look at his visitors. “Kelly Burkhardt? Freddy Calvert? Rudy!” He jumped up and hugged his friend as soon as he saw him.
“Doctor Hermey!” Rudy said. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”
“Yes, I’m fine.” Doctor Hermey said. “Cornelius just wanted his due. I listened, and it seems we may have misjudged him. He was a victim of bullying and his crimes were more or less justifiable.”
“Stop.” Kelly said. “I have to arrest him for abduction, and if we want him to have any chance of getting off easy, I can’t know about anymore crimes.”
Cornelius looked very upset about the arrest and woged, though he took no action.
Freddy looked back at Cornelius. “Remember, he’s a Grimm. He could kill you, but he believes in handing wesen over to the justice system if he can, so if I were you, I’d put the fangs away and cooperate.”
Cornelius reversed his woge and Kelly took everyone down to the police station to book Cornelius and take witness statements. As he was finishing up his report, Doctor Hermey and Cornelius approached him to thank him for his help. “It seems like a Christmas miracle that you saved me. But, now we have a new problem, I don’t know how I’ll deliver all the presents to all the wesen children this Christmas. At least not alone.”
Kelly knew what Doctor Hermey was getting at. “A Grimm’s work is never done. Okay, I just have to cross the ‘t’s and dot the ‘i’s on this report and I’ll round up the gang to be Santa’s little helpers.”
That Christmas Eve, Kelly, Diana, Julie, Freddy, Theresa, their parents, and all their friends including Hank Griffin, Drew Wu, Bud Wurstner and his whole family all got in on the Christmas fun and delivered presents to kids all over Portland. They were all dressed as Santa and went through the whole ritual of gift giving with each child to keep their Christmas spirit alive. Nobody enjoyed it anywhere near as much as Monroe, who already had so much Christmas spirit he was impossible to live with. After all the gifts were presented, they got together at Monroe’s house to celebrate Christmas with Doctor Hermey and Rudy. Egg nog flowed like water and all were merry as could be.
“This is the best Christmas ever!” Monroe crowed. “I get to celebrate with the real Santa and be Santa myself. Come on Hermey, one more time for old time sake.”
Hermey sighed and woged, white whiskers blooming all over his face, his body swelling and what skin remained visible turning a festive shade of red. He looked much the same as he had years ago when he visited the kids that special Christmas Eve. “Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!”
“There’s a blizzard outside.” Bud said. “We’ll never be able to get home in this snow.”
“Maybe you won’t, but I will.” Hermy said. “The cold never bothered me.”
“But how will you find your way in that whiteout?” Monroe asked.
As if on cue, Hermey turned to his best friend. “Rudolph, with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”
As he spoke those words everything seemed to go into a haze as Sant and Rudolph went off into the winter night. Monroe broke the silence. “Who wants more egg nog?”
Everyone shook their heads. Kelly answered for everyone. “I think we’ve had enough.”
“Aren’t we a little old for Santa, dad?” Freddy asked. “This has been a hard year for us. We know you love Christmas, but really, Santa?”
“I know it was hard to discover that you’re wesen, but now it’s time to get the best part of being a wesen!” Monroe answered his son with the biggest smile the kids had ever seen. “As you have figured out, all the fairy tales people tell their kids are real in one way or another, and we wesen are part of those stories, and Santa is no exception! Old Saint Nick was one of us, a gefrienberenger, to be exact, and they have been keeping up the tradition ever since. The gefrienberengers like the cold and stay way up at the North Pole most of the year, but once a year they migrate south at the Winter Solstice, when it gets cold enough for them to be comfortable in the temperate zone, and they celebrate by giving presents to all of the wesen children who just went through their first woge that year. Since you all had your first woge this year, we notified the gefrienberengers and one is coming to deliver each of you a special gift this year, one you’ll always remember and cherish because it came from the real Santa Claus!” There was a knock at the door. “He’s here! It’s Santa!”
“Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!” The man that entered looked like Santa Claus, but it was clear this was no costume. Wesen were usually kind of scary, but the gefrienberenger was cute and jolly, like a giant ball of white cotton stuffed in a fuzzy red robe with a matching hat. The kids couldn’t help but smile, he seemed to exude Christmas spirit. As he looked at each of the children, he got a bit of a shock when he made eye contact with Kelly. “Oh, I’ve heard about you. I’ve seen your eyes, now le me see your arm.” Kelly showed his arm, woged into zauberbiest form. “That’s a very special woge, and it deserves a very special gift.” He reached into his sack and pulled out a copper bracer with a scale pattern mesh. He helped Kelly put it on, it was just a size or two too big. “Almost perfect, but you’ll grow into it, I promise.” He winked as he reached into his sack and pulled out two wrapped boxes and handed them to Julie and Freddy. “Here’s something special for two very special kids.”
Julie opened her gift, it was a tea set, a teapot with five matching cups, all clearly handmade. “I can’t wait to make tea with this. And five cups, so I can share with my brother, sister, boyfriend and best friend.”
Freddy opened his next, it was a cuckoo clock. There was a witch and wizard that took turns stirring a cauldron while two foxes and a wolf chased each other around the cauldron. “That’s us isn’t it?”
“Ho ho ho, yes it is!” Santa replied. “I made it just for you just like each of the presents I brought for you. Genuine gefrienberenger craft!”
“What about me?” Theresa asked. “You didn’t give me anything.”
“Oh, I didn’t forget you.” Santa replied. “I got something very special for you.” He handed her a small oddly shaped present wrapped in paper with a bow.
Theresa ripped her gift open, only to be dismayed and disgusted with what she found inside. “A lump of coal? Are you saying I made the naughty list?” She was so mad she woged and threw the lump of coal against the far wall.
“And I think you just proved why you might have made the naughty list young lady!” Rosalee said. “That was not nice at all!”
“I think you should go and pick that up.” Santa said. “And take a closer look when you do.”
Theresa pouted and refused to move from her chair.
“You heard Santa.” Monroe said. “Go pick up your coal.”
With a groan, Theresa got up and stomped over to the wall and picked up the coal. As she did, she noticed a shiny glint from inside the black rock. She rubbed at it a little more and more of the gem showed through. “Is this what I think it is?”
“It’s a diamond.” Diana said showing her own diamond necklace. “Santa did the same thing to me when I was little.”
Santa joined the two girls. “Never forget about hidden treasures, that the brightest gems can hide in the darkest places and the best things can come out of the worst.”
Seven years later…
“Deck the halls with boughs of holly…” Julie sang as she decorated the house for Christmas. She had really inherited her father’s Christmas spirit.
“Fa la la la la la la la.” Kelly completed the lyric. He didn’t always feel as excited about the holidays as she did, but he loved her enough to play along. Decorating for the holidays was more than just a tree, there was also an elaborate train set, wreaths, garland, bells, balls, and enough lights to be visible from space. “Are you sure this isn’t a bit much this year?”
Julie shook her head. “I’m worried it’s not enough! How will Santa find our house if it’s not clearly marked?”
Kelly laughed and kissed Julie goodbye as he headed out to work. “I’m pretty sure every gefrienberenger from here to the north pole can see our house, I assure you we made the nice list again this year.”
“Are you sure?” Julie teased. “I’m sure we’ve been a little naughty, and maybe we can push a little further.”
Kelly smiled and kissed her one last time before heading out the door. “That offer sounds tempting, but I really need to get to work, so hold that thought until I get home okay?”
Julie sighed. “You’re right, I need to get to work too. Tis the season for peppermint and nutmeg so the spice shop is hopping.”
Kelly drove off to the precinct hoping for a normal, uneventful day, but his experience was that this would not be likely. There’s always crime, and it seemed like whenever wesen were involved, he’d catch the case, and holidays seemed to bring out the most bizarre. As he walked in, he was greeted by his first case of the day.
“Burkhardt, there’s someone here who demands to see you.” The receptionist said. “He’s waiting at your desk. He wouldn’t say what it was about just that he needed you.”
“Thanks, I’ll take it from here.” Kelly had a feeling he knew what was coming, suspicious of wesen before he even saw who it was. He went to his desk to see a young man waiting for him. The man seemed entirely unremarkable and quite timid, just sitting in the chair waiting for the detective to arrive. “Hello, I’m Detective Burkhardt, I hear you have business with me.”
“Thank you for seeing me.” The man rose and shook Kelly’s hand. “My name is Rudy and I need to report a missing person.”
“And I take it there is something special about this missing person that you need me in particular?” Kelly said, knowing full well where this was likely going and just wanted to get there fast.
“Yes, it’s Doctor Hermey.” Rudy replied.
“My dentist?” Kelly asked. “Wait, that’s right, you’re the dental hygienist, sorry I did recognize you without your scrubs and everything. What happened to doctor Hermey?”
“I don’t know.” Rudy answered. “He didn’t show up to work and I had to cancel his appointments. But this never happens, especially not this time of year, he always stays on schedule during the holidays.” Rudy got so upset he woged, his eyes got big, his ears got larger, and his skin changed color slightly, and small antlers seemed to protrude from his head, but strangest of all was his nose actually turning red and glowing.
“You’re indole gentile.” Kelly said recognizing the type of wesen. “But why is your nose red?”
Rudy covered his nose desperately. “That is a bit unusual, but every now and then one of us is born with this condition, rare bioluminescence like gluenvolk, but completely unrelated. Indole gentile are generally nice people, but they don’t like the attention this draws, so I got ostracized. Fortunately, Doctor Hermey took me in, he’s got a real soft spot for young wesen, especially the misfits. He’s a gefrienberenger, one of the few who has decided to live south of the tundra. You two first met when he gave you your first wesen Christmas.”
Kelly stopped in his tracks. “Wait, do you mean Doctor Hermey is my Santa Claus?”
Rudy nodded. “Yes, he’s the Santa for the whole Portland area, which means if we don’t find him before Christmas, it’s going to ruin the holiday for all the young wesen children who woged for the first time this year.”
Kelly nodded. “Okay, I’m on the case. Let’s go to the office and see if we can find any clues there.”
They went to the dentist office and checked for clues, but nothing seemed to come up. Kelly had an idea and called Freddy to join them. Freddy had a better sense of smell as a blutbad and sniffed around for clues. “I think I found something, and this doesn’t look good.” Freddy held up some hair that he found in the back of Doctor Hermey’s office. “Some of it is gefrienberenger, but I’m afraid most of it is wendigo.”
“Wendigo?” Kelly was surprised. “What would a wendigo want with a gefrienberenger?”
Freddy shrugged. “Cannibals probably make the naughty list, and they don’t get the coal with diamonds inside.”
“Freddy, can you follow their scent to wherever they went?” Kelly asked.
Freddy shook his head. “It’s been too long since they left, I can’t pick up their scent from here. But if you can narrow down the search parameters of where they went, I can zero in on them there.”
“Wendigos like caves, right?” Kelly deduced. “They will probably be in a cave somewhere. Let’s check the mountains.”
Kelly set up a search grid for the mountains around Portland and got all of his friends and family to help. Unfortunately, even with everyone searching high and low in the mountains they found no sign of Doctor Hermey or his captor.
“This not good.” Rudy said. “We’re running out of time. It’s almost Christmas and if we don’t find Doctor Hermey in time he won’t be able to get to all the kids on his list.”
Then the answer hit Kelly. “Wait, is there actually a list? I mean naughty and nice like in the song?”
“Of course.” Rudy replied. “Each year I help Doctor Hermey put it together. We get a list of all the nice kids who deserve presents and check it twice to remove the naughty children and put them on a list of kids we make a lower priority and give coal to them if we have time.”
“You really do that?” Kelly asked.
“The duty of the gefrienberenger is to reward wesen kids for good behavior despite their urges.” Rudy explained. “Those that give in get on the naughty list, so they know they have a year to shape up. But some kids just never learn their lesson and stay on the naughty list and never get their nice wesen gift.”
“And just how many have stayed on naughty list?” Kelly asked.
Rudy woged again. “Oh my, I should have realized it before when you said it was a wendigo. There was one, Cornelius Bumble. When he first woged, he killed some people, giving into his urges. We tried to help him reform, but in his teens, he got so scary, we took him off the list entirely, we were afraid to even go near him to give him coal.”
Kelly rushed to his computer and searched for Cornelius Bumble. “I’ve got an address. Let’s go.”
They hurried to the house listed in the system. Kelly rang the doorbell and knocked. A bearded man in a flannel shirt answered the door. “Who are you and what do you want?”
Kelly flashed his badge. “I’m Detective Burkhardt, are you Cornelius Bumble?” The man nodded. “I’m investigating the disappearance of Doctor Hermey. You came up as a person of interest, I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
The man woged into a wendigo, and as soon as he saw Kelly’s eyes, he had the usual reaction. “Grimm!”
Kelly raised his hand and woged. “And Zauberbiest. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Now will you tell us what you know about Doctor Hermey?”
Cornelius roared and attacked Kelly. Kelly fought back and was much better prepared for the fight. After a few rounds of hand to hand, Kelly threw Cornelius against the wall. Cornelius got up and tried to make another move on Kelly, but Freddy intervened and woged in front of Cornelius. “That’s right I’m like you, a wesen with a killer instinct. But I’m also friends with Kelly, which proves two points, one that we don’t have to give in to our urge to kill, and two that the Burkhardts are different from the Grimms we think we know. We don’t want to fight with you, we just want Doctor Hermey back.”
Cornelius calmed down and reverted his woge, and then surprisingly he started to cry. “I just wanted a present from Santa, but all I got was lousy coal.”
“What exactly did you do to get on the naughty list?” Kelly asked.
Cornelius was slow to answer. “I killed. But I only did it for food, I’m just so hungry. I really didn’t mean to, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t help it.”
“I know the feeling.” Freddy replied. “But it may not be too late. Is Doctor Hermey okay?”
Cornelius slowly rose and led them to a room in the back of the house. Inside was Doctor Hermey, safe and sound, crafting an odd selection of toys from wood and cloth. He turned to look at his visitors. “Kelly Burkhardt? Freddy Calvert? Rudy!” He jumped up and hugged his friend as soon as he saw him.
“Doctor Hermey!” Rudy said. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”
“Yes, I’m fine.” Doctor Hermey said. “Cornelius just wanted his due. I listened, and it seems we may have misjudged him. He was a victim of bullying and his crimes were more or less justifiable.”
“Stop.” Kelly said. “I have to arrest him for abduction, and if we want him to have any chance of getting off easy, I can’t know about anymore crimes.”
Cornelius looked very upset about the arrest and woged, though he took no action.
Freddy looked back at Cornelius. “Remember, he’s a Grimm. He could kill you, but he believes in handing wesen over to the justice system if he can, so if I were you, I’d put the fangs away and cooperate.”
Cornelius reversed his woge and Kelly took everyone down to the police station to book Cornelius and take witness statements. As he was finishing up his report, Doctor Hermey and Cornelius approached him to thank him for his help. “It seems like a Christmas miracle that you saved me. But, now we have a new problem, I don’t know how I’ll deliver all the presents to all the wesen children this Christmas. At least not alone.”
Kelly knew what Doctor Hermey was getting at. “A Grimm’s work is never done. Okay, I just have to cross the ‘t’s and dot the ‘i’s on this report and I’ll round up the gang to be Santa’s little helpers.”
That Christmas Eve, Kelly, Diana, Julie, Freddy, Theresa, their parents, and all their friends including Hank Griffin, Drew Wu, Bud Wurstner and his whole family all got in on the Christmas fun and delivered presents to kids all over Portland. They were all dressed as Santa and went through the whole ritual of gift giving with each child to keep their Christmas spirit alive. Nobody enjoyed it anywhere near as much as Monroe, who already had so much Christmas spirit he was impossible to live with. After all the gifts were presented, they got together at Monroe’s house to celebrate Christmas with Doctor Hermey and Rudy. Egg nog flowed like water and all were merry as could be.
“This is the best Christmas ever!” Monroe crowed. “I get to celebrate with the real Santa and be Santa myself. Come on Hermey, one more time for old time sake.”
Hermey sighed and woged, white whiskers blooming all over his face, his body swelling and what skin remained visible turning a festive shade of red. He looked much the same as he had years ago when he visited the kids that special Christmas Eve. “Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!”
“There’s a blizzard outside.” Bud said. “We’ll never be able to get home in this snow.”
“Maybe you won’t, but I will.” Hermy said. “The cold never bothered me.”
“But how will you find your way in that whiteout?” Monroe asked.
As if on cue, Hermey turned to his best friend. “Rudolph, with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”
As he spoke those words everything seemed to go into a haze as Sant and Rudolph went off into the winter night. Monroe broke the silence. “Who wants more egg nog?”
Everyone shook their heads. Kelly answered for everyone. “I think we’ve had enough.”