With a soft groan of protest, the Yellow Lion pilot struggled to pry his sand encrusted eyelids further apart, then slowly pushed himself upright. As he stretched the kinks out of his lower back muscles, his bleary gaze scanned the perimeter of the lounge, hoping to find a teammate who would possibly be able to answer the summons instead of him. Unfortunately, however, the only thing blinking back at him were the twinkling lights on the beautifully decorated Christmas tree the Princess had surprised her teammates with earlier that evening.

"Aw, nuts!" Grumbling under his breath, Hunk reached for the insistently beeping pager in his inner vest pocket. "Hunk, here. What’s up?" He announced gruffly.

"Oh good, I was hoping it would be you!" Pidge’s boyish tones crackled into the room.

The Big Man’s irritation fled at the sound of his best friend’s voice. "Hey little buddy, shouldn’t you be in bed? It’s pretty late you know."

"I know, but I couldn’t sleep."

Hunk yawned widely before replying. "So where are you? Your quarters?"

"No. Since I couldn’t sleep, I came down to Castle Control to do graveyard shift. Thought it would be nice to give Lance a break from it as a sort of early Christmas present."

"That’s real thoughtful of you, Pidge."

"Aw, it’s nothing, really. Besides, this way I to get to keep tabs on Santa."

Hunk’s second yawn was choked off by his astonishment. "Santa?"

Pidge rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you know- Kris Kringle...Father Christmas... the right jolly old elf- Mr. Ho Ho Ho himself."

On the other end of the transmission his brawny friend blinked rapidly. "B-but Pidge, I thought you knew that Santa...that Santa isn’t-" A sudden, amazing thought had Hunk stopping in mid-sentence.

"That Santa isn’t what?" Pidge prompted him, sounding honestly baffled.

The Yellow Lion Pilot was wide-awake now. ~Oh jeez, and here I thought he was just pretending to believe this afternoon- but he really still thinks that...~ "Well uh, that he isn’t...uh..."

"Hunk, is something wrong?" The youth’s voice was sharp with concern. "You sound kind of funny."

"Yeah, sorry, I’m still a little groggy from my nap and all that food we ate." The Big Man ran a hand over his face. "Uh, what I was trying to say was that Santa already came to see us this afternoon, remember? I don’t think he’s going to come back again this year, since he has a lot of other planets to visit."

"Oh Hunk, don’t you know anything?" Pidge’s voice held affectionate exasperation. "That wasn’t the real Santa, it was just one of his specially-trained helpers."

"It was?"

"Yes! I knew it the minute I sat on her lap that it was a woman, so it had to be one of Santa’s helpers." The youth explained. "After all, last time I checked- unless Santa decided to change gender and didn’t tell anyone- he’s definitely a guy!"

"I see. A woman eh?" Hunk let out a long, drawn breath. "If you recall, I didn’t get to sit on his, um, or her lap, so..." He shrugged with studied nonchalance, even though Pidge couldn’t see the movement.

"Oh that’s right!" Came the sheepish sounding response. "Sorry, I forgot. Actually there was one other thing about that Santa too, that told me he wasn’t authentic."

"Oh? What was that?"

"Well, he gave us gifts that were really from the Princess."

"Okay...so what’s the big deal about that?"

"Santa brings Santa stuff, not other people’s stuff." Pidge declared, then added hastily, "Don’t get me wrong though... I love and really appreciate everything Allura gave me. But Santa’s gifts are special because he can bring you something no one else can. Right?"

"Of course he can, little buddy." Hunk smiled sadly, then added carefully, "So why the emergency call? Having a problem with the scanners?"

"Not really. I‘ve already got the satellite tracking radar configured for a sleigh sized object, but I was wondering if you would mind helping me adjust one of the security telecomms so that it will stay trained on the roof and on the sky directly above it. Coran refused to show me how those controls operate. I don’t know why- he sure can really be an old fuddy-duddy sometimes."

~Heh, yeah, and probably for just this reason too.~ Hunk thought wryly. ~Now I get to be the one to try to figure out an explanation that won’t traumatize the kid.~ Aloud he replied: "Sure, I’d be happy to help you with that. Just give me a couple of minutes to get down there." ~And a couple more to think up an excuse for St. Nick being a no-show!~

To be Continued.