Christmas Train Chapter 8, a castle fanfic

Christmas Train

Chapter 8

January 1st

Kate woke up and when she opened her eyes she saw Castle's face right in front of her. They were lying in bed facing each other. She began to smile a soft, sweet smile. What she really wanted to do was stroke his face and maybe at least lightly kiss him. However, she feared that might wake him and she really wanted to just watch him for now. She studied his face while he slept. His five o'clock shadow was by now a little more and she found that she liked it on him. He looked even more handsome if that was even possible.

The sex last night had been breathtaking. She wasn't a virgin by any means but sex with him had been incredible. She'd learned that he didn't have her experience. She had actually had to tell him what she wanted him to do. He had dived in and had done everything she'd asked of him. He didn't have the skill while his head was between her legs like she was used to but she'd enjoyed it completely. He would get better with more practice – she knew that – and that almost had her worried.

She had also found that he climaxed quickly, but he had more than made up for that by either staying hard or getting another erection quickly. He just needed more practice and she was going to make sure he got a whole lot of experience. In fact now was as good a time as any. Since they were still naked she worked her way down a little lower then gently rolled him onto his back. He was soft but she could fix that.

He was hard when she heard him say groggily, "Kate?"

Kate took him out of her mouth. "Morning, Castle." She smiled saucily then took him back into her mouth. Once she heard him moaning she took him out of her mouth and mounted him. She lowered himself down on him and enjoyed herself.

Kate was lying on him after they had both climaxed; she loved where she was. She raised her head and looked at him. "So you're Santa." She had a lot of questions for him.

"Pretty cool, huh!" He actually loved being Santa. His eyes met hers. "You stopped believing in me."

She hid her face against his chest. "Yeah." She felt bad about it now but not then. "I'm sorry." She believed in him now, though. Then she felt something land on her; she reached to grab it so she could see what it was. It was a piece of paper from a kid's tablet and the person had used a crayon to write on it.

Deer Santa,

all I want for christmas this yeer is a baby sister. or maybe a baby brother. please, it is just me and my mom and dad.

i love you.

Katie

"This is my letter to Santa." Kate sat up and looked down at him. She was comfortable with him already and didn't care that she was naked and exposing her breasts. Besides he had paid a lot of attention to her breasts already and he had done it all on his own. She hadn't had to ask him for that.

"I keep every letter I get. I have an entire warehouse filled with letters to Santa," Rick shared.

Kate read her letter again then looked at him. "This was my last letter. I never sent another one. …I'm so sorry." She felt tears pricking her eyes.

"You asked for the one thing Santa couldn't give you. I can't give life or take life. That's a different department. I only make and deliver children's toys," he explained, stroking her hair.

"I stopped believing because I didn't get what I wanted. That and we didn't have a chimney." She felt terrible about it now.

"I lose a lot of children every year because they stop believing." Sadness shadowed his face. "At first it really hurt. It felt like they were rejecting ME. I was taking it personally. It took me a while to learn that it was just a fact of life. It still hurts, just not as much anymore."

Kate dropped her letter and leaned down so she could kiss him then sat back up. "Do many of them come to believe in you again? Like me?" Secretly she wished she was his first.

He shook his head. "No, but relatively speaking I'm still fairly new at this. But you? For this Santa, yes, you're my first." And it made him so very happy. Kate leaned down so she could kiss him again. She started to sit back up but Rick stopped her when he saw her tears. He reached to brush them from her cheek. "Crying?" He hated seeing her cry.

"I've never been this happy before. You make my heart happy." Kate used her own hand to wipe her tears from her other cheek then kissed him again. After breaking from the kiss she just laid on him and let him hold her.

"I have so many questions." Kate was full of them.

"Fire away." Rick wanted her to know everything, though he had his own question, but it could wait.

"You're Santa but you don't look like Santa except that one time at the party. So why don't you look like Santa all the time?"

Rick tried to explain. "Technically I am Santa, it's just that I usually only look like Santa one time every year. The rest of the time I look like me. I really am Richard Castle. I just also happen to be Santa Claus."

Kate nodded. She was catching on. "So you're Santa on Christmas Eve when you deliver toys to children all over the world in one night."

"Wearing the suit transforms me into looking and being Santa. I've tried to get the elves to call me Mr. C instead of Santa. It feels weird being called Santa when I don't look like or feel like him most of the time," he shrugged.

"There are elves!? Like real elves?" She pushed herself up and looked him, her eyes sparkling. She was dying to meet one.

"Of course! Who do you think makes all the toys? They're not like Lord of the Rings elves, but yes, elves. Most are about five feet tall but it varies a little. They're all amazing." He loved them, each and every one of them. He just had a special place in his heart for a select few.

"And you live in the North Pole?" Of course he lived in the North Pole. "Sorry, that was a stupid question."

Rick smiled and reached out to kiss her. "Not a stupid question. Actually we live under the North Pole. We need to stay hidden if we want everything to be normal."

"Under the North Pole." Actually that made sense to her. The entire planet could be seen using satellites. Except a lot of satellites could see underground now. So how did they hide from those?

"You have reindeer and a sleigh? Just like Santa's supposed to have?"

"Naturally. They're Comet twelve and Dasher thirteen now, though. The original reindeer are long gone, however, their children have taken their place. Even the original Rudolph left us long ago. We simply leave off the number. They feel like the originals to all of us." He had learned to love the reindeer.

"How long have you been Santa?" How old was he and if he wasn't the original Santa did that mean he was going to die?

"I've only been Santa for a few years. I replaced the old Santa and became Santa," Rick replied patiently.

Kate breathed a sigh of relief. That meant he wasn't nearly as old as she feared. "What happened to that Santa and the other Santas unless he was the original Santa Claus? How many Santas have there been?"

"He died. Fell off a roof, fell out of his sleigh, something." He shrugged. "They haven't really been overly forthcoming about how he died and he was Santa the sixth. I'm the seventh. Seven is a lucky number, right?" Rick smiled at her.

Kate smiled with him then leaned down to kiss him. She still had a lot of questions, though.

Rick asked a question this time. "What do you remember?"

"Everything! I remember both parties, the comet, the supernova, Shrom and Vile, and…Will." Then it hit her. "Will is the killer!"

That had Rick sitting up, forcing Kate to either lean back or wrap her arms around him. She chose the latter. "Your boyfriend is the killer?" He really hadn't been expecting that. Yes, Will had been on the naughty list for a long time, but not that naughty.

"EX-BOYFRIEND! EX!" She didn't even want to remember ever being involved with him. "Shrom shot and killed him. He has this suit that makes him invisible except to whoever his target is. Vile called it an assassin suit." She had never heard of one before.

Kate looked at him wide-eyed. "We need to arrest him!" She let go of Rick and started to get up off of him.

He cocked his head. "Arrest him for what, exactly?" There was a huge problem with her plan.

"For murder, of course." Surely Rick saw that. Her entire body sagged. "Except he hasn't killed anyone on this train yet." Kate put her arms back around his neck. "What do we do? He's going to kill those people and we can't let that happen. He needs to be in prison." She just didn't know what to go about that now. He had to be stopped. She needed Rick to help her.

"Where is he?" That was the first challenge.

"Probably in his room. I'm staying here this time…with you. Can we do that this time?" She wanted to be close to him the entire trip this time and make love to him every day.

"I don't want you anywhere else. Except when this trip is over, of course." He tightened his arms around her; he didn't want to lose her.

That reminded Kate of something. "Who's Lily?" She glared at him. He belonged to her now, not some other woman.

"Jealous?" Rick loved the thought of it.

"No, …yes, …maybe. Who is she?" She had never felt like this with anyone.

"Lily's an elf. There are two elves that I rely on to run the place, Fredrick and Lily." Then a thought hit him. "They're going to start wondering where I am when I don't come back on time." They were both going to bend his ear in the worst way.

"But we've started over. Haven't we?" It sure felt like they had to her.

"For us and everyone and everywhere else, yes. But the North Pole isn't affected. In about six days they're expecting the trip to end and for me to come home. We still have all twelve days left to us." Rick was never going to survive getting home late.

"Can you call them? Tell them you're going to be late? Something? Anything?" She knew they didn't have any communication capability while in FTL and they likely were in FTL already.

"I'm so dead." Rick fell back onto the bed. Lily especially was going to kill him for this.

Kate started laughing since it was just so funny. The thought that big Rick who was Santa Claus was going to be taken to task by some little five foot elf had her laughing hysterically.

"Not funny. You haven't met Lily." He was so dead.

That lead Kate to her biggest worry: what happened to them after this trip. She lived in New York City and she wasn't quitting her job. She was needed there.

She took a deep breath. "Castle…Rick, what are we going to do after this trip? I love you and don't want to lose you. But I live in New York City and I have a job. It's important to me and I'm not quitting." She didn't want to lose him but she didn't want to quit her job to keep him, either.

He sat up so he could wrap his arms around her again and have her put her arms around him as well. He thought the answer was simple. "I'm Santa."

"Not helping, Castle…, Santa." His answer wasn't the answer she needed.

"I would demonstrate but we're in FTL so I can't. I can go anywhere in an instant, Kate. You can keep your job in New York and I can come get you when you get off work. Just call me and I'll be right there to take you home." Rick thought it was simple.

"To the North Pole." Kate needed to think about that.

"You want to live somewhere else? Not with me?" His heart ached at the thought that she didn't want to stay with him.

"Can I? Live with you, that is. Will that work?" He nodded, smiling. "I'm going to live with Santa!" She kissed him soundly.

"Wait, what am I going to tell my work? They'll need an address for me. I can't tell them I live in the North Pole and work in New York." Then she had an idea. "Maybe just a Post Office Box that has a real address. Would that work?" She needed to think about it.

"The North Pole. It's really cold there, isn't it?" She was going to turn into a Popsicle. She got cold easily. She was going to freeze to death there.

He attempted to explain it to her. "We're underground where it's a lot warmer. Most of us don't wear all that much. Now outside of our not-so-little place, yeah, it's cold. Really cold. We try to avoid it mostly."

"So how big is this place? How many elves are there?" She was thinking a simple Santa's Workshop, but he'd said something about a warehouse. He did have to have some place to put all the toys.

Rick thought about telling her but he had an idea. "You'll just have to come see when you move."

She began smiling widely. "Move in with Santa Claus." She couldn't wait and thoroughly kissed him.

"So what do we do about Will?" He hadn't killed anyone on this train so what were they going to do so that no one had to die? She kept her arms wrapped around his neck and felt his arms still around her.

That had Rick sighing. He really didn't know what to do about Bracken. "Shrom and Vile, maybe. They might have an idea." It was all he could think of.

"Yes! Wait...no. Shrom will probably kill him." She didn't want him dead. She wanted him suffering in jail till he died of old age. No one deserved to be killed.

"We won't know until we ask them," Rick countered.

"Okay, let's ask them." Kate got up off of Rick and was ready to go.

He raised an eyebrow. "You think clothes might be a good idea?" Kate was standing there in the altogether. She looked down at herself.

"Oops! Yeah, maybe after a shower," she agreed. "One at a time. How big of a shower do you have at the North Pole?" She was thinking of conserving water and showering with him.

"We'll renovate. There are a lot of elves who will be thrilled to do the work. We can make anything." His shower at home was barely bigger than this one.

Kate wrapped her arms around his neck again. "Have I told you that I love you?" She knew that she had, but she realized that she liked saying it. A lot.

"For the record, I love you, too. So very, very much." Rick gently kissed her.

They decided on food first since they had missed meals yesterday. Admittedly they had been rather busy with each other.

They were stopped before entering. "Names?"

Rick replied, "Kate Beckett and Richard Castle."

"We're together." Kate didn't want him to think that she was with Will. "May we sit with Shrom and Vile? They're friends of ours." She wanted to sit with their friends, not that they knew anything about her.

"This is going to be weird," she commented quietly as they approached both of them since they were already there.

"Think about what you did the first time you met them," Rick said just as quietly.

"This couple will be your tablemates. Someone will be by to get your drink orders soon and give you today's menu choices. Enjoy your meal." He walked back to the entrance.

"Pink Skin!" Shrom had not been expecting him here.

"Hi, Shrom, you blue-skinned devil." Rick greeted him with a grin then sat down and moved over to make room for Kate. "Shrom, Vile, this is Kate. Kate, meet Shrom and Vile. They're Andorians."

"A pleasure." Kate extended her hand and shook both of their hands.

Vile noted she was entirely comfortable with both of them unlike a number of humans on this train so far. "You've met an Andorian before."

"Just two." Kate tried to hide her smile since the two was them.

"Andorian Whiskey for me," Shrom told the gentleman that showed up to get their drink order.

"I'll have the same," Vile said.

Kate knew what she wanted but she was suddenly curious. "I will, too." She decided to risk it.

Rick had had their whiskey before but chose to join them. "Me as well." He walked away, leaving them with today's menu.

"What are you doing here, Pink Skin?" He hadn't expected to meet anyone they knew. However Rick was a pleasant surprise.

Kate jumped in before Rick could say a word. "My boyfriend suggested this trip and I jumped at it." She smiled as she watched Rick turn his head to look at her. "We're looking forward to it."

"I never knew she was such a big fan of Christmas. Big surprise." A really good surprise to be sure. "I didn't know you two celebrated Christmas." He had met both of them only once before.

"We have two weeks before we're to be reassigned so we decided on this trip. It was a way to learn more about humans and their holiday," Vile said. "I had to drag Shrom here." She turned on her husband who glared back at her.

Kate offered a reason for Shrom to agree to this trip. "Happy wife, happy life, you know!"

Vile had decided Kate was a good person. "I like you."

"You would," Shrom growled back at her.

"Ignore him, he hasn't had anything to drink today yet." Vile loved her husband but there were times.

"This train better have a lot of Andorian Whiskey, for your sake," Shrom informed her.

"I promise to never order it again and make sure no one else orders any, if I can help it." Kate elbowed Rick in the ribs.

"Me, too." He glared at Kate for doing that to him.

They ordered their food next. Kate decided she needed to get started before Will had a chance to do something. Tomorrow was his first kill if she remembered correctly. "What do you two know about an assassin suit?"

Vile stopped drinking while Shrom almost spat his out. "Why?" Shrom asked since it's very existence was bad. Both of them looked between Kate and Rick for an answer. That damn thing meant trouble to both of them. Big trouble. "What have you gotten yourself into, Pink Skin?" He was sure Rick was behind this somehow.