Chapter 11

Kate smirked at Rick before she turned her attention to the reindeer blocking the track. There were so many of them. There seemed to be thousands upon thousands of them. Rick as well as Conductor Montgomery took in the scene before them. They were soon joined by the engineer and the fireman.

"They don't seem like they want to move." Rick observed.

"So what do we do now?" Kate asked to no one in particular.

"We could chase them away." The engineer suggested.

"Yeah not a bad idea." The fireman replied.

"That sounds like fun." Rick added with a laugh, almost as if he was ready to charge forward towards the herd.

Kate stared at the big bull reindeer who was obviously the leader of this herd. His dark benign eyes regarded her carefully.

"I don't think they'd appreciate it being chased away." Kate remarked.

"Have you got a better idea, Kate?" Rick asked.

Kate felt everyone's eyes on her. Slowly she turned away from the bull reindeer and found all the others looking at her. She turned back to the reindeer. A thought suddenly popped into her head.

"We could blow the train's whistle." She said in a low voice.

"What?" Rick said.

"We could blow the whistle." Kate said a little more loudly.

"Mmm." Conductor Montgomery mused as he stroked his chin. "That just might work."

Conductor Montgomery motioned to the engineer and the fireman to get back on to the train. The two men nodded their heads and rushed back to the cabin. Rick smiled. He bumped Kate's shoulder.

Kate looked at him.

"Not just a pretty face, huh?" He chuckled.

Kate felt her cheeks start to burn and she quickly turned her attention to the reindeer. She could not hide the smile from her face.

The steam whistle shrieked loudly piercing the silence of the night. The leader of the reindeer herd lifted his heavily antlered head into the air. The animal let out a loud bellow that resonated through the night. Lowering it head the reindeer cast a glance in the direction of the train where Rick, Kate and Conductor Montgomery were standing. With a snort the herd leader turned away and moved off the railway track. Slowly the other reindeer began to follow their leader. The railway tracks were soon cleared.

"Awesome, right?" Rick said gleefully.

Kate looked across to Rick and could not stop the smile from rising to her face as she gave him a nod of her head.

"I wonder which of them will be joining Santa's sleigh team?" Rick asked.

Kate rolled her eyes and shook her head at his remark.

"Come on you two." Conductor Montgomery announced as he turned and started walking back. "We have a schedule to keep and we have delayed long enough."

"Can I drive the train?" Rick asked, hopefully.

Conductor Montgomery stopped and looked at Rick before he cast a look up at the engineer. The engineer smiled down and shrugged his shoulders.

"Very well." Conductor Montgomery said. "But only for a little while."

"Cool!"

Rick raced to the ladder and scrambled up and into the cabin. He turned around and gave Kate a happy wave before he sat down in the engineer's seat and blew the train whistle. Kate smiled and shook her head at Rick's excitement. She followed Conductor Montgomery to the first passenger carriage.

Kate climbed up the stairs and disappeared into the carriage. Conductor Montgomery followed her and stood in the doorway. From his pocket he produced his watch and checked it.

"All aboard!" He called out loudly. "Next stop, the North Pole."

The train whistle blew loudly and then the wheels began to turn slowly as they struggled to get traction on the steel rails. The train began to move slowly but it began to pick up speed with each passing moment.

Kate moved quickly through the carriages her destination being her own seat in the last passenger carriage. Entering the dinning car she caught sight of Will sitting at one of the tables with some of his friends. Kate hurried on hoping that Will did not see her. Her hopes were dashed when Will did spot her and called out to her.

Kate ignored him and moved even faster. She did not want to speak to him let alone hang out with him, especially after what he had done to Rick. Kate did not want to have anything to do with Will any more. She left the dinning car and continued her journey.

Thankfully Will did not follow her. In the next carriage she entered Kate ran into her friends. Lanie called out for Kate to join them. Kate saw that Lanie was sitting with Javi on one side of the aisle and Kevin and Jenny were sitting on the other side. Kate declined the offer to join her friends with a shake of her head. She would have felt like the odd man out if she had joined them.

It was with a little relief when Kate reached her own seat and sat down. She turned to the window and stared out gazing at the passing scenery.

"You shouldn't have run off, Katie." Will said.

Kate was startled by Will's voice. She turned around quickly to find him standing in the aisle smirking at her. There was no warmth or humour in that smirk of his. His eyes were cold as they stared down at her.

"Go away Will." Kate said. "I don't want to talk to you."

"You think you're too good for the rest of us, eh?" Will said.

"Go away." Kate said loudly. She turned to face the window.

"Last chance, Katie." Will warned.

"I said go away and leave me alone."

Will took a step back but made no move to leave. The smirk on his face deepened.

"I'm not surprised you don't have many friends, and those you have are losers." He said.

Kate turned around sharply.

"Well you're a loser too." Will laughed. "You're a loser and so is you're dad. A loser and a drunk!" He taunted.

Kate felt as if she had been struck across the face. She stared up in shock at Will.

"A drunk and a loser." Will taunted and laughed.

Kate felt the tears welling up in her eyes but she forced herself not to cry in front of Will. She did not want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

"And you're mom deserved to die, she was a loser too."

Try as she might Kate could not stop the tears. She could not believe Will would say something hurtful like that about her mother. She jumped to her feet. Tears were streaming down her face. She shoved a laughing Will out of the way and ran to the rear of the carriage and out of it. Will's taunting laughter echoed in her ears.

Rick entered the carriage with a big grin on his face. He was eager to tell Kate all about driving the train again. The smile vanished from his face when he saw Will at the far end of the carriage. He heard what Will had said to Kate and he had seen a sobbing Kate flee from the carriage.

Rick had never felt so angry in all of his life like he did in that moment. He was so angry that he was shaking. Without thinking he started walking towards where Will was standing. Will turned around and saw Rick's approach. Will sneered at Rick. He opened his mouth to say something to Rick but the words did not have the chance to come out of his mouth. He never saw the fist that came his way. He did feel the fist that landed squarely on his nose.

The force of the punch sent Will sprawling to the floor. There were gasps of shock from the kids who had witnessed the brief fight. Will lay on the floor not moving, his nose was at a strange angle and blood covered his face.

"If I ever hear you speak to Kate like that again, I will hurt you even worse." Rick growled as he stared at the prone Will.

Rick did not care if Will heard his warning or not. And he did not care about the looks the other kids were giving him. He stepped over the still prone Will and made his way to the observation car.

Rick pushed open the door and entered the observation car. He saw Kate sitting in a seat in the middle of the carriage, staring down at the floor, sobbing. As he slowly approached he could hear Kate snuffling back the tears.

He knew that he was intruding on her solitude but he could not help himself. He could not stop his feet from making their way to where Kate was sitting. She was crying and he didn't like the thought of her crying. He wanted to help her.

"Are you okay?" He asked gently.

Kate shook her head.

"Go away." Kate told him.

Rick knew that he could not do that. He was not going to leave her alone here, crying.

"Rick, please go away."

"I can't do that."

Cautiously he sat down beside her but leaving a little space between them but not too much. He watched her as she continued to stare down at the floor. She had stiffened when he had sat down registering his presence but did not turn to look at him. He waited for her to speak. He could wait for however long it would be.

Rick slid a little closer to her and then reached out and took hold of her hand that was resting on her knee. He closed his larger hand over her smaller one and gave it a gentle squeeze. A gesture of support, of solidarity, of comfort. He was a little surprised that Kate did not remove her hand from his.

Kate snuffled back a few more tears and turned her head. Her eyes fell upon their joined hands as they rested on her leg. She should have withdrawn her hand from his but found she did not have the strength to do that. She did not want to pull her hand away. She risked a glance in his direction and found his face covered with a look of concern.

"I want to be left alone." Kate said in a low voice.

"I can't do that." Rick replied.

"Go away, Rick."

"I'll leave you alone but not right now." Rick told her, a small smile rising to his lips. "I'm afraid you're stuck with me."

Kate looked down again at their joined hands and let out a low sigh. She did not want anyone seeing her like this. She did not want Rick seeing her crying but she realised that he was not going to leave her alone. He had said as much.

They sat in silence listening to the rhythmic rattling of the train wheels along the tracks. Rick continued to watch Kate who was staring down at the floor. He wondered if he should say something or not. He had noticed that Kate had stopped crying. That was a good thing, he thought to himself.

Rick could not help but wonder about something he had heard Will say to Kate, about her mother. His curiosity got the better of him.

"How did your mom die?" Rick asked in a low voice.

Kate stiffened at his question. She tried to pull her hand from his but Rick hold on firmly. Silent tears started to fall. In that moment Rick wanted to kick himself for making Kate cry again. He cursed his curiosity for taking control of his mouth.

"I'm sorry, you don't have to tell me." Rick told her.

Slowly Kate lifted her head to look at Rick. She snuffled back the tears.

"She was murdered." Kate whispered in a shaky voice.

A fresh wave of tears spilled forth. Rick felt his heart breaking for her. Without thinking he pulled Kate to him and wrapped his hands around her hugging tightly to his chest. He let her cry as he continued to hold her.

It had been an instinctive action pulling her into a hug. Rick's mother always dished out big hugs. When things went bad, he would get a hug from her. When things turned out good, he would get a hug from her. A scraped knee, earned a hug. An A-plus for a story he had written, earned a hug. Hugs from his mother always made him feel better and he had seen that Kate was in desperate need for a hug. So he gave her one.

He had been trying to understand why Kate did not like Christmas and did not believe in Santa Claus. Now he understood. It must be very hard for her to get into the Christmas spirit when the most important person in her life is missing, he thought to himself. He did not even want to think what it would be like for him if his mother was not there. He held Kate a little tighter and rested his chin on the top of her head, letting her cry herself out.

Hearing a noise coming from the door Rick lifted his head and found a surprised looking Lanie standing there. The surprise quickly transformed into a look of concern when she heard Kate's sobbing. She took a step towards them. Rick silently shook his head, as if to say that everything was under control. Lanie paused and nodded her head in understanding. She gave Rick a gentle smile before she turned and left the observation car.

XXXXX

Leave a review and tell me what you thought of this effort.

Con