Operation: Santa's Elves

Chapter One

(Hoodie)

"Magazine Pouch?" Edward asks.

"Check," Ty replies.

"ECD?"

"Check." Tyler pats the trusty taser secured to his duty belt.

"Baton?"

"Check."

"Cuffs?"

"Check."

".40 caliber pistol."

"Ch—dammit, where's my gun?"

Ty walks around the station, patting his belt from front to back, his brow wrinkled in confusion. Chuckling, Edward pours himself a cup of joe and chats with a couple of inmates he's known his whole life. He checks in on old Waylon, who's drying out in the drunk tank. Edward and Ty caught him and one of his buddies taking turns pushing each other in an abandoned buggy in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot last night around midnight.

Detective Jessica Stanley leans back at her desk, propping her feet up and disrupting a stack of papers. "Where'd you hide Ty's gun, Edward?"

"In that box of donuts you brought in this morning."

"Jesus Christ. You guys act like a couple of kids instead of thirty-year-old men."

"Serves him right," Edward says with a snort. "Got a noise complaint last night and we went to bust up a party thrown by some underage kids. Ty pulls up, I climb out, and he leaves my ass there. Turns on the siren before he leaves. Kids come running and screaming out of the house, half naked, drunk, and nearly trampling me. Left me there for a good hour before he picked me up. Besides, the gun's not loaded."

"Do the two of you take anything seriously?" Jessica blows the steam off her own cup of coffee and takes a long sip.

"Not typically, but today … today we take things seriously." Edward grins, his eyes lighting up with happiness. "Because today is Operation: Santa's Elves."

Jessica nearly chokes on the mouthful of coffee. She coughs, sputtering and covering her mouth with one hand. "Operation: Santa's Elves? What's that? The two of you breaking up some kind of underground candy cane ring?"

"Very funny." Edward leans on Jessica's desk, a smile on his lips as he crosses his arms over his impressive chest. "Operation: Santa's Elves is something Ty and I came up with a couple of years ago. We buy gifts for kids who would otherwise not get much of anything for Christmas."

Jessica, who's new to the department and the small town of Forks, Washington, raises her eyebrows, gazing at Edward in an entirely different light. Since moving to town, she'd viewed him and his buddy Ty as two guys who never take life too seriously, always worried about pulling one over on each other more than anything else, or so she thought.

A cynic at heart, she's not entirely convinced of the authenticity of his words. "So who pays for these gifts? The tax payers?"

"No way," Edward says with a frown. "I save up all year to donate. Most of the other cops in the department do the same."

"And you do this on the department's time?"

"Usually during our lunch break, or after hours on our free time."

Jessica removes her feet from the desk, swallowing the rare knot of emotion in her throat. "That's really … sweet, Edward."

Edward's eyes go a little wild at the sight of the uptight detective biting her lip and staring up at him. He clears his throat, tosses his empty coffee cup in the trash, and backs away from the desk.

"Welp, guess I ought to help Ty find his gun. Got to grab some gifts during lunch for a Miss …" Edward pulls a slip of paper from the breast pocket of his uniform. "For a Miss Bethany Swan."

Jessica opens her mouth, but the only thing that comes out is a startled scream. A shot rings out in the building, followed by a low curse.

"Edward!" Ty hollers. "You summabitch!"

Edward grins and shrugs at Jessica's startled eyes, the blood draining from her face. "Hey, I thought it was unloaded."

Guess who's back? Back again. JonesnInDaHood's back. Tell a friend.

This is Hoodie here. *waves* We've decided to write a Christmas drabble because we miss the shit out of y'all! Not sure about update dates, but our goal is to have all the chapters posted by the end of December. *crosses fingers* This story is inspired by a video we found on Facebook showing a couple of cops delivering gifts to a well-deserving family at Christmastime. It touched our hearts and hopefully this story will touch yours as well.

Jonesn is up next. Can't wait to see what that fanfic h00r comes up with. :D