Merry Christmas
Chapter 13
Kate had totally enjoyed all the sex. The men that had held her, forced her to do things, and raped her never entered her mind. She had even really enjoyed having Rick lift her up in the shower so she could wrap her legs around him as he plunged himself deep inside her. They hadn't used a condom that time, but she was willing to take at least some risks. Besides the risk was small. Most of his sperm were now all dried out inside the discarded condoms.
Now they were both naked, back in her bedroom, and getting dressed. She wanted to make sure he saw her. That he saw that she wasn't a sixteen-year-old child any longer. She was a grown woman. She definitely wasn't a flat chested fifteen-year-old even if her breasts hadn't gotten quite as big as she had hoped for.
"Hook my bra for me, please." Kate turned her back to him and held her bra in place. She could feel him hook her bra, then he was wrapping his arms around her, pulling her into him, and his hands wandering up until they were on her breasts. She placed her hands on his. She was a little sore and wasn't really interested in more sex, but they were definitely going to do this again before she had to go back. Kate hummed softly as he held her. She loved him more than she had words for.
"I didn't hurt you, did I?" Rick questioned her.
"No." Kate released his hands, turned in place, and lifted her arms up around his neck. "No. I know you would never do that. I trust you. So what do we do next? I still have several hours and I'm going to stay awake for all twenty-four of them." She wasn't sleeping any of them away. It might take her a year to get back there again.
"I was thinking Alexis is next. She's actually been counting the days till you were here." Even he almost couldn't believe it.
"That's sweet. I want to spend time with her, too. And talk to Lucy and Victor. I want to ride Prancer and eat in the cafeteria where I had my birthday party. Oh, and go see Alex and I don't know. There's so much to do." Kate looked up at him. "And I want to make love to you again before I have to leave"
"I think you've used up all your Christmas presents already. But I'll see what I can come up with. I am Santa, after all."
"Yes, you are." Kate raised up on her toes so she could kiss him. She most definitely believed in Santa Claus again.
oOo
Kate was in the clothes she had brought in her bag and left her fancy new dress behind. She was dressed far more casually and could ride Prancer like this.
"This is your space?" He was taking her to Alexis who was likely still asleep. She was going get to wake her up and spend some time with her. But she had never been there before. Not in his room or apartment or whatever he called it.
It was amazing. His Christmas tree was bigger and taller than hers. He had a lighted village under it along with a Christmas train going around the tree and through the village. It even had people, benches, trees, railroad crossings, and.… Then she heard a choo choo sound.
That had her looking up and she saw yet another train putting out smoke come out of a tunnel high up on the wall and proceeded to work it's way around the room. It went through fake tunnel then went across an amazing bridge to get to the other side.
He had Christmas lights, garland and, and… "This is amazing! We're using your bed next time," Kate told him since she wanted to see his room.
"Alexis is through that door there." Rick gestured to it. "I have a little work to do so you two are on your own. You know how to get around."
Kate kissed him first and went into Alexis's bedroom. She saw that Alexis had her own Christmas tree, her own small village under it, and her own Christmas train that was working its way around her room silently. Her Christmas lights were off but there was enough light to see her, her sleigh bed and Christmas comforter, and green sheets.
There were toys and stuffed animals everywhere. It was perfect for a little girl who had Santa for a father. Kate moved to sit on the bed and smiled at her clutching a monkey tight to her.
"Must be her favorite. Alexis?" Kate ran a finger down her exposed arm. "Alexis, time to wake up." Kate leaned down and kissed her cheek.
Her eyes were still closed. "Mommy?" Alexis barely even whispered. That had Kate sitting up straight. She hadn't really thought about that. If some day Rick or Santa ever did propose and they got married, did that make her mommy?
She was eighteen and she loved Alexis but was she mommy? Undaunted she leaned down to kiss her cheek again. "Alexis." And watched her eyes start to flutter open.
"Kate?" She was still half asleep.
"Hi. Are you ready to get up, take a bath, get dressed, and spend some time with me?" Kate asked her. "I've come a long ways to see you."
"KATE!" She was awake now and struggled to get out from under her covers so she could wrap herself around Kate. Then Kate heard sniffling, Alexis was crying. "I love you," Alexis whispered to her.
"I love you, too, sweetie." Kate held her tight to her and wished for a little more time. "Let's get you clean and changed then we can go find something to do together," Kate said but didn't relinquish her hold of her so they could do that.
"Okay," Alexis answered softly but didn't let go of Kate.
oOo
It took time but finally Alexis was clean, dry, and dressed and outside with Kate holding her hand. "So what's first? Breakfast? Reindeer, maybe?" Kate questioned her.
"Reindeer! Daddy says Prancer has been talking about you ever since you left." Alexis pulled Kate toward the transit wall so they could go there.
oOo
Victor had a willing Prancer and Cupid ready for both of them in no time. He still reminded both of them what would happen if they let Kate or Alexis fall off.
"Don't listen to him, Prancer. We're doing twists this time and maybe even a loop." Kate was willing to risk it.
Meanwhile as they were having fun. "Santa?" Lucy was at Rick's desk as he was cleaning up the after Christmas stuff that he didn't need any longer.
"What's on your mind, Lucy? Kate's here and said she wanted to see you." Rick stopped and looked at her.
"I want to talk to her, too. However…" It was now or never. She took a step up to his desk and set a small box on it. It was a box Rick had never seen before.
It was a small wooden box that had hand carved symbols on all sides. "What's this?" Rick picked it up and looked it over. It had a tree on one side, snowflakes on another, a snowman on yet another. His eyes stopped when he found one that had what he took to be Santa holding the hand of a woman. That had happened at an edge with Santa on one side and the woman on another
"I give, what is it?" He thought he was supposed to be able to know everything, but this box escaped his knowledge.
"Open it, Santa. You have to want to open it." Even she couldn't open it. It wasn't meant for her. It was meant for Santa.
"I have to want to open it?" That was a bit cryptic.
"Use your heart and your love for one special person and open it." That was the catch. Lucy was hoping he picked the right person and she didn't mean Alexis.
Rick raised both eyebrows and looked for how he would open it. "Use my heart." He didn't really see that the box could be open. It looked like a solid box to him.
At first it refused to open. Lucy tried again. "Your love, Santa, who do you love?"
This time the box did open and inside hidden in cloth was a ring. A very ornate and obviously handcrafted ring. Unlike most rings it didn't have a stone in it. No diamond, no ruby, or other gem.
Rick slowly took it out of the box and looked at it. It was clearly hand-carved all the way around it. "It's lovely. …But what is it?" It looked a little small for him. It might go on a pinky finger.
"It's an engagement ring, Santa," Lucy told him. "It's an heirloom made by the very first Santa. He presented it to his love and she was made Mrs. Claus. Every Mrs. Claus since then has worn that ring. It is a part of this place.
"The Santa previous to you was alone and wanted to stay that way. He was a nice man, but he really didn't understand this place. He liked kids but didn't want to have any of his own.
"You are Santa now and you love children. You have Alexis but what you need is a Mrs. Claus. She can make this place glow."
"How do you know so much, Lucy? Even you aren't that old. No elf here is." Even elves had to die some day.
"No, but every Santa has had a Lucy. My predecessor taught me everything she knew. How to be an elf, how to serve Santa, how to help guide him in his job. Help him BE Santa.
"Kate could make this place amazing, Santa. All you have to do is love her and propose to her. …I'm sorry, Santa, but it's the only way Kate can stay here forever and not just one day. Even her idea of sending a Dear Santa letter asking to stay here forever will break the rules. Rules the very first Santa put into place and can't be broken.
"You love her. You got the box to open. This is the only way, Santa, even if there is one tiny catch." Even if Rick was willing there was a tiny problem.
"Which is?" Since he had no knowledge of any of this.
"You two must marry on Christmas Eve." Lucy gave him her best please don't be upset with me. It wasn't her idea.
"We've already had Christmas Eve. The next one is a year from now. …OH!" Now Rick got it. Kate had to go home after her twenty-four hours and she couldn't technically come back till next Christmas Day. But if he wanted to marry her he had to do it on Christmas Eve here at the North Pole.
"Isn't this a catch 22? Kate can't be here except on Christmas Day and that's after she sends a Dear Santa letter. But has to get married here on Christmas Eve. How is that going to work?" Rick didn't see a way out of that.
Lucy gave him a hint. "You brought Kate here before Christmas last time. She spent several months here before having to go back."
"That's because I was responding to a Dear Santa…" Rick stopped and Lucy started smiling. He had figured out how to get past the catch 22. What needed to happen for Kate and her parents to be here for a wedding on Christmas Eve.
"So what does a Mrs. Claus do?" He knew what Santa did. But just what did a Mrs. Claus do?
"Marry Kate and find out, Santa. Propose to her and find out. You love her, Alexis loves her and needs a mother, every elf here loves her. All the reindeer love her. Even Rudolph." Getting Rudolph to love anyone was no small feat. She knew that and so did Santa. "You do remember what the elves did for her at at her seventeenth birthday?"
"Yeah." He had simply to ask if they would be willing. They had done all the rest. He hadn't planned any of it. He had been kept totally out of the loop. He only knew they were doing something.
"Mrs. Claus." Lucy couldn't wait. Her predecessor had told her a lot about what could happen here with a Mrs. Claus. Santa had his magic but so did a Mrs. Claus.
oOo
Kate and Alexis were just landing and Kate was still laughing. She had been screaming as Prancer had done twists, dives, and even a loop as Kate had hung on tightly. It had been scary but a good kind of scary.
Victor helped first her then Alexis get down. Kate wrapped her arms around Prancer's neck and kissed his fur several times. Then she raised up on her toes to make sure she could reach his ear. "I love you. I love you very much."
That had Prancer snorting and grunting several times. Kate didn't understand a word but she could guess.
"That was fun!" Kate watched as Victor took the reindeer to their stalls. "Now what do we do?" She wanted to do everything before she had to leave again.
Kate turned to look for Alexis when suddenly she got hit in the back by a snowball and heard Alexis laugh at her. "Oh, I'm getting you for that!" Kate made her own snowball and hit Alexis in the chest.
Then as if on cue Kate got hit from all sides by snowballs as all the elves in the area got into the act. "Oh, it's on!" They wanted a fight? Kate was going to give them one.
oOo
Kate leapt over her snowfort that she and a number of elves had built to protect them. "CHARGE!" She had an armful of snowballs and charged the other fort where Alexis and her elves were stationed with her elves right behind her.
Rick and Lucy were still talking about how this was going to work when an out of breath elf came charging in. "Snowball fight." Huff, huff. "Reindeer barn." Huff, huff. "Kate!"
That had Rick up and wrapping his arms around Lucy and made it snow on them.
"HEY!" Santa hadn't taken him with them. It forced him, already out of breath, to run back through a transit wall to get back into the fight.
Rick and Lucy showed up and were instantly pounded with snowballs. "Oh it's on." Rick wasn't going to take this lying down and neither was Lucy. She might be the head elf and Rick's right hand man, so to speak, but she was still an elf and she was still young enough to enjoy a good snowball fight.
oOo
Dead elves littered the snow. Okay technically not dead dead, just dead tired.
Lying on their backs and making a wheel with their heads at the center were Kate, Rick, Alexis, and Lucy. They were just as dead as all the other elves. Dead tired, that was.
All of them were smiling big time. "We haven't had a snowball fight like that one since I've been here." Rick was still amazed. Half the town had somehow managed to get in on this snowball fight.
"Mommy started it, Daddy." Alexis placed all the blame on Kate.
"I beg your pardon! I did no such thing! Someone hit me in the back with a snowball. Someone named Alexis, I'm pretty sure since she laughed at me after she did it." That got Alexis to start laughing again.
Apparently only Lucy noticed that Alexis had called Kate Mommy and that Kate had responded after being called Mommy. That made her smile wide. They were one step closer to having a Mrs. Claus. The fact that the three of them didn't question it told her just how serious it had become.
oOo
Since they had all used up a lot of energy, half the town, including Kate, Rick, Alexis, and Lucy were now in the cafeteria eating a late lunch. They all needed food to recharge their batteries.
"Excellent fight, Santa," an elf who had participated told them on the way out after eating.
"It was glorious!" Rick answered.
"It was EPIC!" Kate countered since she had never had a snowball fight like that one.
"And we have Kate to thank for it." Rick backed up his daughter's claim that Kate had started it.
"You want another one, Mister, you just keep talking like that. Alexis started it. Didn't you?" Kate looked at Alexis who smiled and shook her head.
Kate upped the ante on this verbal fight. "Who's on the naughty list now, Santa?"
"Oops." Alexis shrank a little since she knew she had. And it had been a blast!
Rick defended his daughter. "You are!"
"WHAT! You take that back." She had worked long and hard to get off his naughty list.
Rick looked at Kate. "Make me."
"You just wait, Mister," Kate replied. Tonight might be more sex, this time in his bedroom, but there was going to be a lot more going on than just sex.
"I look forward to it." Rick smiled at her and listened to Kate growl back at him.
Rick had to check in with Frederick and make sure everyone was ready for the one week vacation that technically should have already started, but Kate was there so it was delayed by one day.
Lucy had sent Alexis to Victor so she could help him with the reindeer even if he didn't need her help. Kate was escorted to Lucy's office where she made hot chocolate and cookies for Santa. Now she was making both for the two of them.
Kate was sitting there sipping her hot chocolate and humming at the taste. "How are you and Santa getting along?" Lucy knew Santa loved her since he had gotten the box to open for him. The magic of it knew he loved Kate.
"Pretty good, I think. He told me he loves me." She wasn't going to tell Lucy that they had made love most of last night and that she had plans for even more tonight before she had to leave.
"He loves you, trust me, he loves you. There's one last thing and this is something you and your parents need to do before next Christmas. Do it immediately after you go back or wait till December, it doesn't matter."
Lucy began to explain it to Kate. "To marry Santa you need to do it on Christmas Eve and do it here at the North Pole."
"I guess I can send him a Dear Santa letter and ask for that date." It was the best Kate could think of.
Lucy kept explaining. "That won't work. You're here because you chose Christmas Day. The only day you or anyone else can be at the North Pole and not be elves."
"How do I do that?" If she had to be here Christmas Eve to marry him but could only be here the day after she was never going to get to marry him.
"That's why we need your parents' help. Your parents sent a Dear Santa letter asking for you for Christmas. Santa went and got you as part of that letter. So you can be here other than just on Christmas Day.
"You need to write a Dear Santa letter asking for Christmas Eve for your mother. She in turn writes a letter for her husband. He in turn writes a letter for you. It's kind of skirting the rules but there isn't any rule against it. It should work.
"You marry Santa on Christmas Eve and you stay here as Mrs. Claus. Your parents have to go back that night before Christmas Day. It's how the Dear Santa letters work." Lucy and even Santa couldn't change that.
"So I get to stay here forever if it works and I marry Santa?" Kate was following and watched Lucy nod. "But he hasn't asked me yet. Can I ask him?" She knew women didn't do that. It just wasn't proper. It was just so much was at stake here.
Kate watched Lucy shake her head. "It has to be Santa. He's the one with the power and all the magic. He has to be willing to share his power and magic with his Mrs. Claus. So he has to be the one to ask."
Kate sighed and bit her cookie. "Does that mean I'll have magic? Like Santa does?" Could she make it snow and go where she wanted to go?
"A Mrs. Claus will gain the magic that Santa can't do. That magic is reserved for Mrs. Claus. What that is I can't say. Not that I don't want to. …Rules." Even Lucy had them.
"Rules. Santa tells me that a lot." Kate had about had it with this place's rules.
"Then change them when you become Mrs. Claus." Lucy gave her an idea as to just what she could do with Santa's approval, of course. It would take both of them to change the rules.
"Mrs. Claus. Katherine Claus." Kate tried it on for size. "Now I just have to get him to propose to me." Kate had no idea how she was going to get him to do that.