Miracle at The 12th Precinct
Chapter 10
Title: Candy Cane Christmas (A song by Darius Rucker)
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine, well, except for a couple of bad dudes I thought up in a coffee-induced haze. Santa, belongs to everyone.

Ryan silently inched his way along the outside walls towards Kris's room, adrenaline racing through his veins, heart pounding in his chest. As he glided further down the hallway he heard noises from within the rooms of other patients, but knew the best he could do for them right now would be to eliminate any potential threat. His drew his gun, looking back only briefly to ensure Castle was calling for help and had sent the young nurse away – the less innocent bystanders on the floor, the better. Castle was on the phone and the nurse appeared to be gone. He hoped Castle, contrary to popular belief, had enough sense to take cover and not decide to play cowboy, although if they got out of this alive he'd insist they get him Academy training so he'd be allowed to carry. The guy was a decent shot, and right now, that talent would have really come in handy.

Ryan hovered just outside the room next to Kris'. Both guards were gone from their posts outside Kris' door. There was a scuffle coming from inside the room. Something metal was toppled over. He heard raised voices, indicating a fight. And then silence.

He'd counted two men entering Kris' room earlier; one dressed as a doctor, the other, an orderly. They'd been talking to the guards, yet were still allowed entrance. That meant they had the proper id to get through clearance. This had all the makings of an inside job, and was probably a mob hit.

Then the yelling started up again. Ryan could make out Kris' voice as he argued with his captors. He wasn't co-operating with their plan as expected. If they'd wanted him dead, surely he'd be dead by now, yet Kris was miraculously still alive. It was dangerous to resist, and he prayed Kris went along with whatever they asked of him. Since they hadn't shot him yet, Ryan suspected this might actually be a kidnapping, and if so, they probably had someone waiting outside in a car for when they brought Kris down. It also meant Kris must have something they wanted.

There was no way Beckett and Espo would get there in time. Panic ran through him, but was then quickly replaced by calm. His mission was clear; no one was taking Santa if he had anything to say about it. With no backup, his best chance would be to take both men by surprise. He inhaled deeply. It appeared, this time; he'd be on his own.

Ryan made it undetected to the outside of Kris' door. Gun still drawn, he put his hand on the door handle, turned it ever so slightly, and gently nudged it open a bit with his shoulder. With all the commotion, neither man appeared to notice.

He saw one of the agents, unconscious, lying on the floor, and listened in as Santa continued to give the man in the doctor's uniform a hard time.

"Get in the damn wheel-chair now, old man!"

Kris tried valiantly to break free from the man's hold. "Unhand me you scoundrel!"

"Listen, you old geezer. I've had just about enough of you. Look, I've got my orders. Either you get in the chair now or you'll be sorry. Don't force me to take drastic measures."

"I will do no such thing. And you both should be ashamed of yourselves, harassing a fragile old man, such as myself. You're mothers would be horrified, and I can't say that I'd blame them."

"What the hell has my mother got to do with this?" He asked, confused. "Shut up and get in the chair!" The man's anger was quickly escalating, but Kris held on tightly to the metal frame of the bed as the man pulled at him. "Let go of the bed!" he yelled. "An easy job, they said; you'll be in and out, they said," he muttered to himself. Fake Dr. Sawyer was fast losing his patience. "Hurry up, would ya Joe! Get 'em both in the bathroom already and then help me with this character before I freakin' shoot him myself - I don't care what nobody says."

"I'm going as fast as I can damnit." The orderly yelled back, as he continued dragging the agent's large frame across the floor. "Jeeze, this guy weighs a ton."

Unbeknownst to Ryan, Kris had spotted him by the door and purposefully kept distracting the fake doctor. It was risky, but he knew the distraction would give Ryan the extra second or two needed to act.

Ryan opened the door slightly wider, his gun immediately fixed on the orderly, who looked up, dropped the agent's feet, and then went for his gun. He took aim, but Ryan was faster, firing first, hitting the man square in the chest. Luckily, the shot he'd returned as he fell to the ground veered to the right of Ryan, barely missing him.

Ryan quickly pointed his weapon at the fake doctor. "Police, freeze dirt-bag! Hands -," His mouth hung open. "Up?"

Highly underestimating the older gentleman, the fake doctor had reached for Kris as he made a play for his own gun. This would be his first mistake; he never saw it coming. Kris had grabbed the wooden cane he kept by side of the bed and began to beat the guy with it repeatedly. He swung that cane 'round like it was a baseball bat, he was DiMaggio, and they were headed to the Series. The gun was knocked from the man's hand and flew clear across the room where Ryan ran over to retrieve it. Kris kept right on swinging.

Bleeding, dizzy, and unable to get away, the fake doctor frantically attempted to shield his face and head from the beating. "Get this crazy old man off me!" He shouted to Ryan for help, which would be his second error in judgment, because Ryan was as shocked as he was and at first, stood motionless, unsure of what to do. A few more solid swings, and apparently one too many hits to the head later, fake Doctor Sawyer passed out and then crumbled to the floor. Either he'd have a helluva headache in the morning, or he'd just been bludgeoned to death by Santa Claus.

Santa watched him fall and had the decency to look slightly remorseful, probably because those last two shots were just for fun. Ryan ran over and checked for signs of a pulse. "It's okay. He's still alive." he assured Kris.

Kris gripped his cane tightly as he worked to calm his breathing.

"How about we just put this …," Ryan suggested, gently unclenching the cane from Kris' grasp, "right over here for safe-keeping." He leaned it up against the wall.

"I'm going to need a bigger naughty list," Santa said, shaking his head.

"Ain't that the truth." Ryan grinned.

As Kris stood by, Ryan hauled the fake doctor up from the floor, leaned him over the bed face first, and then cuffed him. Then he pulled the wheelchair over, folded the man into it, and maneuvered it back away from the bed.

He took a good long look at Kris. "Are you really okay, Santa?" To his eye, Kris looked pale and was breathing slightly heavy, but otherwise appeared to be unharmed. Ryan wouldn't truly be satisfied though until they could have a physician check him out.

"Who me?" Kris grinned, bringing the twinkle back into his eyes. He could see Ryan was concerned. He patted him on the shoulder. "Oh, I'll be fine, son. Don't you worry about me."

Kris looked over with disgust at the cuffed man in the wheelchair. "This ne'er-do-well, however, I imagine will be in need of medical assistance."

Ryan smiled at him. "No kidding. Thanks for the assist, by the way. You got some nice shots in there, Santa. Play much ball, do you?"

Kris chuckled. "Well, I couldn't very well stand by and do nothing, now could I? And truth be told, yes, I have dabbled in the sport a time or two." Ryan looked surprised. "What can I say...it's a very long off-season, and in my line of work it's important to stay fit, you know."

Ryan gave him a sly look. "Yes, Santa, I know. It is important to stay active, but seriously, I also know you probably could have done one of your little disappearing acts like you did earlier this morning. Instead, you stayed to help."

"Whatever do you mean, son?" he replied, feigning innocence. "I'm just happy I was able to be of service."

But Ryan was not to be fooled. "Uh, huh. This discussion is so not over. Rest assured, we will be talking more about this later."

"You really should go check on the agents now, son." Santa said, quickly changing the subject. "Both men were seriously compromised, I'm afraid. The orderly hit the first agent on the back of the head with the barrel of his gun, knocking him out, and then when the second agent entered there was a scuffle before they did the same to him, poor man. Then, that one over there," He pointed to the fake doctor in the wheelchair. "Injected them both with something. I do hope they'll be alright-"

Suddenly, the door burst open with a vengeance, slamming against the wall. Ryan pushed Kris down onto the ground, and reached for his gun aiming it at their intruder who had something blocking his face. "Get down!" Ryan shouted.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" He yelled, showing his face.

Ryan did a double-take, and then breathed a sigh of relief. It was Castle; IV pole in one hand, metal bed pan in the other, presumably to be used as weapon and shield. He was ready to rumble.

"Are you guys okay? I heard shots!" He looked around, taking in the bodies on the floor and the handcuffed man slumped over in the wheelchair. "What the hell happened?" He asked, pushing the IV pole to the side. He wasn't quite sure what to do with the bed pan.

"Yeah, Castle, we're fine." Ryan said, helping Kris up off the floor.

His heart still pounding, Kris simply nodded back and gave a small wave. "We had a bit of trouble."

Ryan stared at Castle, shaking his head. "Just curious, but what exactly did you think those would do?"

"What, these?" he defended. He'd thought he'd been pretty resourceful. Ryan, on the other hand, seemed unimpressed. "Hey! They were all I could find. Look around the place; it's not exactly an armory." There was a moment of silence as they each did just that. "Despite the fact that it appears everyone, except me and Santa brought our own gun today," he said, amending his previous statement.

"They really need to let you carry," Ryan sighed.

"I know, right."

Santa came to Rick's defense. "Now Kevin, Ricky meant well. You mustn't tease." He then addressed them both. "You boys were both very brave to come rushing to my defense, facing danger as you did. I'm so very proud." Kevin and Rick stood basking in the glory of the compliment.

"Hey, you should lie down." Ryan told Kris, who couldn't agree more. All the excitement was a little more than he was used to.

Once they had him safely in bed, Kris seemed to relax. "I'm just going to rest my eyes for a bit, if you boys don't mind." He said, sounding weary.

"Of course, Kris. We'll be right here." Castle assured him.

"Beckett and Javi on the way?" Ryan asked.

"Yes, they'll be here any minute."

"Give me a hand, would you?" Ryan said, moving to where the agent and orderly were both lying on the floor. He checked the agent's pulse first. He was still alive, but out cold. Together they moved the orderly's body over and Ryan felt for a pulse. "Nothing. See if the other agent's alright." Ryan said, prying the gun from the dead man's hand. Castle nodded and then rushed off to examine the agent who'd been stuffed in the bathroom.

"Kris said they were knocked out, and then injected with something." Ryan said loud enough for Castle to hear from the other room.

"He's okay, I think, but still unconscious." Rick said, coming back out. He held up two used syringes. "Look what I found. At least we should be able to find out what they were injected with. Better get some real doctors up here though, and fast."

"You're right, but first, I need my phone back," Ryan said. Rick tossed it to him and he immediately dialed Javi. "Yeah, no we're all fine, well, except for two downed FBI agents, one unconscious mobster and another dead one. The agents were both injected with something. We're going to need some medics. Fill you in on the rest when you get here. Oh, and seal off the parking lot. I'm guessing they've got a driver waiting downstairs for them. This looks more like an attempted kidnapping to me then a hit. Yeah, go. See you in a few."

He turned to Castle. "Can you go call security? Ask them to turn the elevators back on."

"Right. You got it. Be right back." Then he ran out of the room and over to the nurses' station to use the phone.

"Are the agents okay?" Santa asked startling Ryan who thought he'd fallen asleep.

"Yeah, they're still breathing. And help is on the way, shouldn't be long."

Santa pointed to the orderly Ryan had shot. "And what about him? Is he…dead?"

"I'm afraid so."

"So much death...it's a shame it had to end this way for him. He really wasn't a bad kid; peer pressure does horrible things to young people."

Castle came back in the room. "They're turning the elevators back on. And rounding up doctors." They both turned towards the moans emanating from the man in the wheelchair. Apparently, their prisoner was coming to. "By the way, what happened to him?" Castle asked.

"Who? That guy?" Ryan replied, thumbing in the direction of fake Doctor Sawyer, before smiling widely and showing his dimples. "Don't mess with Santa...just sayin'."

"Shut the front door!" Rick laughed.

"Ricky! The language!" Santa admonished, waving a finger in the air.

"Sorry Santa. I thought you were sleeping," Rick apologized.

"You'd better listen to that old song again, Ricky. It goes, 'He knows when you are sleeping, He knows when you're awake…' - not the other way around!"

"Right. Sorry. My bad." Rick stared at their prisoner for a moment and then turned back to Ryan. "Kris really did all that?" he whispered.

"Oh, man, you should have seen him." Ryan said, pantomiming the swinging of a baseball bat. "Home Run!"

They heard a chuckle from the bed, "I've still got it, boys."

The sound of sirens in the distance grew louder and Ryan moved to the window, pulling the curtain aside. He could see the parking lot from where he stood. The cavalry had at last arrived.

XXXX

Within minutes, the hospital was swarming with police. Cops and Feds made their way onto the floor, led by Kate, Jordan and Javi, and the bevy of doctors they'd brought along with them. Javi and Ryan fist-pumped, followed by a man-hug.

"You guys alright?" Kate asked Ryan, who nodded back. "What about Kris?" She asked, pointing to the bed. She thought he looked a little pale, and immediately pulled a doctor aside and asked that he be checked right away. She looked around for Castle, but he was nowhere to be found. She'd feel better once she saw him, but for the moment, forced herself to re-focus on Ryan.

"Yup. We're all good," he replied, knowing full-well she was worried about Castle. "He's fine too Kate. And down the hall talking to one of the doctors," he assured her.

It was both a curse and a blessing that Ryan and Espo could read her so well, and it took some work to appear nonchalant. She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around - in the wrong direction, of course. He loved that silly old gag. With their current audience, she fought the urge to throw her arms around him. They'd have to wait until later for their real reunion. "Look who's late to the party," he said, smiling at her. She smiled back and then let out a sigh of relief.

"I can't leave you two unsupervised for a minute, can I?" she joked. Satisfied he was fine; this time anyway, she turned back to Ryan. "You were right, by the way. We got the guy waiting for them outside. Nice work, Detective."

"Thanks, but this was definitely a team effort."

Jordan, instructed her agents to question the staff as to what they may have seen or heard. Ryan gave her his full statement, and she agreed with him about it being an inside job; someone at the hospital supplied those men with fake ids and access to the floor. Ryan shared his thoughts on the subject and then she and Javier left to check out his theory.

Doctors and nurses stormed the room, doing their thing. Blood samples were taken from the agents. They'd be watched for concussions, but it wouldn't be clear as to what they were injected with until the lab results came back. They were both starting to come around, and other agents were attempting to take their statements, but they were still pretty out of it. Neither the police, nor the Feds, had yet to identify the dead orderly or the fake Doctor Sawyer, who, once his injuries were seen to, would be taken into custody.

Kate surveyed the room, which had been thoroughly trashed. The roll-a-way table patients used to eat their meals on was lying on the ground, apparently knocked over in a scuffle. Chairs were knocked over as well. The machines Kris had been hooked up to earlier were pushed into each other and backed up against the wall. She took in the dead body, the agents on the floor, the guy moaning from the wheelchair, Kris in the bed. It was a miracle her guys weren't harmed.

Castle joined her. "You really okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, we're all going to be fine, Kate," he assured her. "Thanks to Santa." He smiled.

"What exactly do you mean by, 'thanks to Santa'?" She asked, outwardly blasé, yet internally dying to hear his version of what had taken place. Secretly, she loved the way he put his own special spin on a story - not that she'd be sharing that little tidbit with him - ever.

They moved to the side so the medics could wheel fake Doctor Sawyer out on a gurney.

"Well, what I mean is that...," he nodded to the fake doctor with the bandaged head, multiple lacerations to the face and trouble keeping his eyes open. "…that would be entirely a product of Kris' handy-work."

"Seriously?" She said, her eyes widening.

"Seriously."

Skeptical, Kate studied Kris from afar and debated whether or not Rick's over-active imagination was working over-time again.

He could almost see the wheels turning in her pretty head. "And you do know what else this means, don't you?" Castle asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"No, I don't. But can I stop you from telling me?"

"No."

"Okay then. What does it mean?" She said, humoring him.

"Only that...," He gave her a long, sideways look and then smirked. "Santa's a bad-ass!" he shouted, high-fiving a random doctor who'd been on his way out of the room.

"Ricky!" hollered Kris' disapproving voice from the bed.

"Sorry!" He yelled back, covering his mouth with his hand.

"We should really get back to the precinct," Kate said. "We have people waiting for us."

"Sure. He'll be safe until we get back. They'll be a lot more agents watching him now. I'm gonna go find Ryan and Espo. And maybe stop at the restroom to wash my potty-mouth out with soap."

Standing there alone she couldn't help but stare at the seemingly mild-mannered little old man fast asleep in the bed, and once again marveled at his influence over her boyfriend. Kris' breathing had leveled off, his fluffy white beard rising with every breath. He looked so…sweet, so un-imposing, and yes, an awful lot like she'd envision Santa Claus – if she believed in him, that was. He must have sensed her watching because his eyes fluttered open, and he turned and smiled at her. And then he winked. She gasped, but before she had a chance to speak up, he'd already nestled deep back under the covers and had begun to snore quietly.

Whether she believed in Santa or not, even she could admit, Kris certainly was an enigma.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I'm hoping to post another chapter this weekend, so please stay tuned. The 12th Precinct's about to get very, very crowded... Thanks again for your reviews and follows! They always make my day! - Karen