I of course don't own The Santa Clause or any of the characters. Disney does.

Part 1

"The printer in the Naughty and Nice center is eating the paper…again," Curtis informed Bernard with a frown. Bernard turned from the railing he had been standing in front of to look out over part of the workshop.

Bernard sighed. This had to be the third time in a week and fifth time that month. They really needed to look into getting a new printer. There were too many kids to write the list by hand anymore and he wouldn't heap that torture upon anyone, even during the worst of his moods.

"They can't get it to stop. They can't print anything out and we need that list done by the end of the week so Santa can start checking it," Curtis's forehead creased in worry.

"Uh, Bernard, one of the conveyor belts in the workshop won't run properly," an elf spoke up from behind Bernard. Turning to face the elf while at the same time resisting the urge to groan, Bernard found himself looking down at Larry.

"Alright Larry, which one?"

"The one for the teddy bears." Larry kept his distance from Bernard. He could tell he wasn't in the greatest of moods and the last thing he wanted was to get stuck in the crossfire during one of Bernard's moods. Had had already experienced that one too many times. To be fair to Bernard though, even though he could be moody at times, it was rare for him to full out yell at any of the elves, except for Curtis. He was usually the one to bear the brunt of Bernard's anger.

"Wait, why did they send you?" Bernard asked confused. Larry usually worked in the stables, not the workshop.

"I came to let you know that Comet is sick and the conveyor belt stopped when I was walking past. I figured I might as well be the one to deliver both sets of bad news."

"Can't one of the mechanics take a look at the conveyor belt?"

"We couldn't get a hold of any of them."

"Ugh," Bernard put his head in his hands for a moment. Then dropping his hands from his face he turned back around to address Curtis.

"I'll go take care of the conveyor belt then I'll head to the stables. You go fix the printer." Before Curtis could even open his mouth to agree or protest Bernard stalked off in the direction of the teddy bear assembly area.

"Okay, boss," Curtis made a face at the back of Bernard's retreating figure. Curtis turned and noticed Larry still standing there. "Don't you have somewhere you need to be? Isn't time for the reindeer's lunch?"

"Yeah, I guess so, boss," Larry smirked. He turned away and soon disappeared into the crowd of hardworking elves.

"What's the problem here?" Bernard asked as he walked up to the motionless conveyor belt full of teddy bears. All the elves standing around it turned to look at him. He stood with his hands on his hips waiting for an elf to answer him. A few seconds ticked by before any of them replied.

"The conveyor belt stopped," a small female elf with bouncy blonde curls stated the obvious.

"Then the engine started smoking," the elf boy standing beside her added.

"So we turned it off," the girl elf finished.

All the elves stood silently watching Bernard as he started inspecting the conveyor belt. Walking the length of the conveyor belt, he noticed a string of garland hanging off the side that disappeared into the area where the gears and engine were housed. He walked over to the controls to make sure that the conveyor belt was completely shut off before squatting down to open the wooden door that gave him full access to the gears and engine. "The garland jammed it," he informed the elves as he poked around the gears. "And holy jingle bells that is that some strong garland," he mumbled to himself.

"The printer is on a blitz," Curtis stopped beside Bernard, huffing and puffing loudly.

"Did you shut it down?" Bernard stood back up.

A look of surprise crossed Curtis's face. "No, didn't think of it."

Bernard looked at him incredulously. "You didn't think of it? How could you not-" Bernard took a deep breath, "you know what, just never mind. Fix the conveyor belt instead and I'll take care of the printer," Bernard pushed passed Curtis and took off at a run in the direction of the naughty and nice center.

Curtis bent down to look in at the gears. "Garland?" he pushed his glasses back up his nose and looked over at the elves currently working in the teddy bear department. They had all huddled into a group. They all watched him with the same curiosity they had watched Bernard with. "Whose idea was it to hang garland off of the conveyor belt?"

Every elf pointed at someone standing beside them, some even pointed at the elves on both sides of them. Curtis glanced back at the garland caught in the gears. "How am I supposed to get it out of there?"

Bernard plopped down onto his couch and slid his feet out of his shoes. One thing he had learned over the years of working as Arch Elf was that when something went wrong, so did everything else. It was a small fact that his feet and stress levels did not appreciate, ever. He wiggled his toes; it felt good to be out of his shoes and off of his feet. Stretching his legs out, he propped his feet up on his coffee table.

Days like these made him wonder why he had ever accepted the position of Arch Elf in the first place. Back then the promotion had come as a shock to him, one he hadn't seen coming. Of course he also hadn't been expecting the previous Arch Elf to completely fall off his rocker and then turn to dust once he had finally lost his Christmas spirit.

Things had been much different when he had first become Head Elf. No one was even dreaming of the electronic technology of the modern age yet. The toys were simple and fairly easy to make, instead of video games and computers it was dolls and hoops. Not long after his promotion to Head Elf he got to see the ball craze kick off after a few imaginative and very inventive elves managed to make their idea come to life. He didn't care what anyone down south believed, the North Pole was the true, original home of the ball.

Closing his eyes, he flopped down onto his back. He rested his head against his right arm and let his left arm drape across the top of the pillow. His colorfully painted ceiling greeted his tired gaze. The previous Head Elf had it painted to look like the northern lights, a reminder that they lived in the North Pole even though they didn't live on the surface. In Bernard's opinion it hadn't been a bad choice; after all he didn't get to actually see the Northern lights very often.

He glanced over at the gold and highly ornate clock hanging on his wall, it read 5:23.

Right now, the elves finished with work for the day would be out playing. Around this time there was always a group of elves out playing tinsel football. Out on the edge of the pole there would be snowboarding and sled riding races and somewhere in Elfsburg there would be a snowball fight going on. And if he remembered correctly, the Elfsburg theater was putting on a play sometime within the next two hours.

He'd miss out on all of it. For the second night in a row he planned on just staying in his house for the night. Sitting home alone while wallowing in self-misery might not be the best idea, but it was all he felt like doing.

"This sort of thing is probably what helped lead the previous arch elf into bouts of insanity," Bernard paused, "I need to quit talking to myself when I'm alone."

"Bernard, are you there?" Santa's voice crackled out of Bernard's watch.

He lifted the watch up to his mouth. "Yeah, Santa, I'm here. What do you need?"

"Do you think you could come down here for a bit? I could use some help."

Bernard rolled his eyes. "Santa, I'm an elf. I take care of the problems at the North Pole, and well, seeing as you're not at the North Pole right now…"

"Please Bernard. I'll make it worth your while." When Bernard didn't answer right away Santa gave it another try. "As your boss I order you to come down here."

Resisting a groan once again, Bernard gave in. "Fine." He knew that if he didn't go down, Santa would find a way to make him regret it later, probably in the form of constant guilt trips.