Disclaimer: The only part of Castle that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

A/N Oops! This was supposed to the second in a two-part Hanukkah-Christmas arc. Instead, it's the second in a three-part one. I blame it on that little chatterbox, Eliot. Part three will follow soon.

Monday was the last night of Hanukkah, and Mom came home at lunchtime so we could give Sarah her big present. The one before this was the map and I think she was getting suspicious but Dad said, "Can't have you wandering around in a fog trying to find the Eiffel Tower if you ever escape from us and get to Paris, Sarah." After that I don't think she guessed.

When Mom came in Sarah and Dad were trying to get Abby and Otis to stop screaming. They are getting teeth which everyone says hurts them but what it really hurts is my ears. You can't believe how loud they are. I bet Santa can hear them at the North Pole. The reindeer are probably going crazy! When they're hollering like that I think I'm allowed to call them the hellions. Mom said, "Bonjour, mes enfants." That means "Good day, my children," which sounds a lot better in French. I think it's really sort of the same as, "Hi, kiddos." Anyway, the hellions cheered up when they saw Mom and she and Sarah got them into their cribs and they fell asleep.

"Peace at last, huh, Eliot?"

"Yeah, Dad."

"Here come Sarah and Mom. Why don't you get the present from its hiding place."

I ran to where it was, behind Mom's big pillow of the Union Jack. That's the flag for the United Kingdom which is very near to France and has the same colors. The plane ticket and the paper about the hotel room were inside a skinny box and wrapped up in blue white and red. The grownups were sitting at the table and Scrapple was under it and I climbed up in my chair next to Sarah and handed her the box.

"Eight!"

"Oh, Eliot, what's this? My number eight present? Wow. Should I open it?"

"Yeah."

She untied the bow, but before she took the paper off she said, "I've been wondering about this French theme with the beret and the map and the eclairs and everything." She picked up the box and shook it next to her ear. "I can't guess what's in here, but maybe a scarf? Every woman in France knows how to wear a scarf and be incredibly chic. Or maybe it's a gift certificate for a scarf-tying class so I can learn to do that?"

I told you Sarah was funny. I don't think there are classes for that.

"You're on the right track," Mom said.

You should have seen Sarah when she took the top off the box. She cried! I never knew Sarah could cry. She kept hugging and thanking us. Finally she said, "This is way too much."

"No, it's not," Dad said. "Our kids can be way too much, though. You've earned every bit of this."

"Bon voyage!" Mom said. That means "have a good trip." It's amazing how much better a lot of things sound in French. I want Mom to teach me. But right then it was time for her to go back to work and Dad and I went to the planetarium where you can see stars inside that are really outside. Sarah stayed home with the twins. I hope she had some ear muffs. Maybe we should have given her some for Hanukkah.

That night Docky came to supper and we gave him his present. "Eliot picked it out, Sidney," Mom said.

"Totally his idea," Dad said.

"Well, then," Docky leaned over to me, "I bet I'm going to love it." He did! He put the gloves on right away. "Ooooh, Eliot. These are a thousand times better than the ones I have to wear at work all the time. And they have cashmere lining like my coat, so they'll be really warm, too. Thank you."

After that Mom and Dad went to get coffee and dessert, a pastry called rugelach which you should eat if you haven't. It's been Docky's favorite since he was a little boy. While Mom and Dad were in the kitchen I told him that I had a big idea of what I want to give Mom and Dad for Christmas. I can't do it by myself, though, so I asked if he could help me and could we have longer FaceTime the next day and he said sure. I whispered into his ear, "I wrote a book."

"Wow!" he whispered back.

The next night I got to talk to him for a long time and I used the computer in Dad's office so nobody could hear what we were saying which would wreck the surprise. I wrote the book in my head since I don't know how to write on paper yet.

"Can you type this for me, please, Docky?"

"That's my plan, Eliot. You ready to go?"

"Yup. Here it comes. The title is It Happened on Broome Street. Because I like the Dr. Seuss book And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street and Mulberry Street is right around the corner from where we live on Broome Street."

"Excellent title, Eliot."

"Thanks, Docky. And next it should say 'by Eliot Beckett-Castle' and underneath 'copyright 2018.' Dad showed me how all books have copyright, with a C inside a circle, and a year in them that shows you that the author wrote the book himself or herself and what year. I'm the author himself and it is 2018."

"That's right. Okay, now we're ready for the story."

"At the top of the page it should say 'Chapter One' because there will be more than one chapter. And then the story begins 'Once upon a time.' Do you think that's a good idea?"

"Some of the greatest stories in the world begin like that, so yes."

"Okay. 'Once upon a time there was a man named Richard Castle.' There still is a man called Richard Castle, Docky, is it okay to say was?"

"Definitely. You can write 'was'."

" 'Once upon a time there was a man named Richard Castle. He didn't have a father, but he had a mother with red hair who was a great actress named Martha Rodgers and she brought him up all by herself. When Richard Castle grew up he started to write books and he also had a daughter, Alexis. Alexis had red hair like her grandmother. She had a mother but her mother lived in California so her father brought her up by himself. He was a great father so he must have learned that from his mother.' Am I going too fast, Docky?"

"Not at all. If you do, I'll ask you to slow down."

" 'Richard Castle wrote a lot of mystery books about Derrick Storm. He was not a real person, just in books. Richard Castle imagined him. Derrick was a private eye, not eye like in your face, but eye standing for investigator. After a while Richard Castle got tired of writing about Derrick Storm and he killed him. Don't worry, he is not a murderer! He just had him die in a book, not real life.' Do you think this is good so far?"

"Can't wait to read what happens next!"

" 'Richard Castle said that he had to kill Derrick Storm because he couldn't think of anything new to write about him. Millions of people loved his books and were very upset when Derrick died and some of them were mad at Richard Castle.' Docky, I have to put a footnote here. Do you know what a footnote is?"

I could see Docky smiling. "I do, Eliot, but I wonder how you know about it."

"Ernie showed me in a book. I'll tell you my footnote in a minute. That's a funny word because it sounds like you wrote a note with your foot which I didn't. But I saw a video of a man who was in an accident and couldn't use his hands anymore so he learned to write with his feet. Isn't that amazing?"

"It is. There are people who paint with their feet, too."

"There are? I'm going to ask Ernie to show me. Did you know that Ernie was in a bad accident? That's why he has those bad scars on his face. Mom and Dad told me not to stare. I tried but I guess I stared a little bit at first and Ernie told me. He was in a motorcycle crash."

"I know. That was an awful thing, and he's lucky to be alive. He was in the hospital for a long time."

"Ernie is the best imaginer of anybody I know. Even Dad. Maybe when he was in the hospital and couldn't do anything except think made him a good imaginer."

"That's a real possibility, Eliot. And it shows that good things can come out of bad things."

"Right, like when Mom arrested Dad! That's the next part of my book. Oh, except first my footnote."

"I'm ready."

"Here it is. 'The author, Eliot Beckett-Castle, hasn't read the Derrick Storm books yet because he's not allowed until he's older, but he has heard people talk about them.' That's it. I'm going back to the regular story now."

"Good."

" 'After Derrick Storm died, Richard Castle couldn't think of anything to write and he was bored, bored, bored. He did a couple of dopey things, not crimes, but he got arrested by a detective in the NYPD, the New York City Police Department. Her name was Katherine Beckett. Most people just called her by her last name because that's what cops do. Richard Castle helped Detective Beckett solve a crime so then he started following her around and helping even though he was not in the NYPD. Pretty soon he started writing books about her, but he gave her a different name, Nikki Heat, so people wouldn't know it was her.' It looked like Docky was trying not to laugh, so I asked him because this part isn't supposed to be funny.

"I'm sorry, Eliot, I was just thinking about what your parents were like then and it makes me chuckle. Keep going with your story and I'll keep typing."

"Okay. 'In the books Nikki Heat had a boy friend named Jameson Rook who was a writer. Lots of people thought that he was really Richard Castle in disguise which made Detective Beckett so mad. She also got mad because Nikki Heat was naked on the covers even though you couldn't really tell because it was just her silhouette. That's a good word for an outline of something.' You're not laughing are you?"

"No, no. I just have a tickle in my throat. I'm going to get a glass of water. Can you hold on a minute?"

"Sure. I'll wait, Docky."

He came right back and held up his water for me to see. "Ready when you are, Eliot."

" 'Richard Castle wrote lots of Nikki Heat books and still worked at the Twelfth Precinct with Detective Beckett and her friends Javier Esposito and Kevin Ryan. They had a captain, Roy Montgomery, who got shot and died.' I need to put another footnote, Docky. Can you put a 2 on it since it's the second one, please? Sorry, now you have to put a 1 on the first one."

"Easily done, Eliot. See, I'm typing it right in."

"Thanks. Here's the footnote. 'The author doesn't know why Captain Montgomery got shot, but everyone was very sad.' That's all so I'll go to the story again. 'At Captain Montgomery's funeral a bad guy shot Detective Beckett in the heart and she nearly died but she got better. She had scars but they are under her clothes so nobody knew. But you can get hurt in the heart even if you don't get shot by a bullet, and Richard Castle's heart hurt. It hurt because he loved Detective Beckett but he thought that she didn't love him.' That's the end of Chapter One. Do you think that's a good place to stop?"

"It's the perfect place. It will make the readers very eager to find out what's going to happen."

"I didn't say anything about Broome Street yet. Do you think people will be confused?"

"No, that's just called keeping them waiting. Lots of writers do that."

"Did I tell you about the pictures?"

"The pictures?"

"I would like to have pictures with the story. I know how to print them out from Dad's computer."

"Are you allowed?"

"Yes because there is a special folder that's mine where I have all my favorite photos of our family. Different people took them like Lanie when Mom and Dad weren't looking. I'm the only one who has seen all of them. Dad just hits download for me and I do the rest. A lot of the pictures will be a surprise, isn't that good?"

"I think all of this is good, Eliot. You're quite the imaginer yourself."

"But this is a true story, Docky. So I didn't really imagine it."

"Oh, you did, Eliot. You did. You put it in your own words, and I can assure you that you're a great imaginer already."

That made me really happy. Just then Dad put his head in the office. "Time for supper, Buddy. You've been talking to Docky for a long time. I bet you've worn him out."

Docky said, "Hi, Castle" and he waved. "I'm not at all tired. In fact, I'm utterly energized. But Eliot and I will return to our project tomorrow."

"You two have a project?"

"Prize, Dad."

"All right then. I love surprises. Mom, not so much."

"Castle? I guarantee you that Kate will like this surprise. Love this surprise."

"Yeah, Dad! Night, Docky."

"Good night, Eliot Beckett-Castle."