Christmas Train Chapter 9, a castle fanfic

Christmas Train

Chapter 9

January 1st

"You're certain he owns one of these suits?" Shrom didn't have a problem arresting him in the name of interplanetary law when he would really like to just kill him and keep the suit for himself. He just wanted to be sure.

"Absolutely positive." Kate had seen him wearing it. He was dead and had had a big hole in him at the time, but yes, it was Will.

They stopped outside of Will's cabin and Shrom knocked while his wife held her weapon in the palm of her hand. Just in case.

Will opened the door and was shocked to see who it was. He looked from Shrom to Vile, to Rick then Kate. "What do you want!?" His hatred of Kate flared. No one dumped him. He would dump her after he was elected president but not before.

Shrom didn't explain; he simply grabbed him, pulled him out into the hallway, and next to his wife who shoved her weapon into his stomach. "Move a fraction and you die," she informed him coolly. Will watched as Shrom went into his cabin without his consent.

"What the hell is going on?" He was going to make sure all four of these people paid for this after this trip. Provided that all of them lived to leave this train. Since none of them answered his question he was left standing there, fuming while he waited. It was obvious to him that the blue-skinned guy that had entered his cabin was in charge.

"You do know having weapons on this train is forbidden and you can be punished for this," Will snarled.

"What weapon?" Vile replied sweetly and pushed it further into his gut, reinforcing her point. Bracken growled at this outrage. He wasn't used to be treated like this. He was a US Senator and completely enjoyed the power that that gave him.

"You four are going to spend a lot of time in prison. You should have stuck with me, Kate. You'll be an old maid before you get out." He was thinking that killing her might be too good for her. Letting her get old in prison might be better.

Kate really wanted to rip into him and tell that ass what she thought of him. However, she'd been with him for far too long and that was grating on her something fierce. What she saw in him baffled her. It was like she'd been a different person before.

"This has gone on long enough. What is it you four think I've done?" He hadn't as yet done anything, except for do some research and scouting out his first person on the train.

Luckily for the three of them Shrom showed up and he was holding something. "This," he stated matter-of-factly.

For the first time in a really long time Bracken was worried. Still he needed to take control of this situation. "I've never seen that before in my life." He would worry about how to get it back after he cleared his name.

"Being in possession of this suit means life in prison and I did find it in your cabin," Shrom said unwavering, countering his statement.

"It was planted by someone. I have enemies, after all." He actually did have enemies and he was there to get rid of three of them. "You planted it in my cabin. I just don't know how or why."

"This train is filled with cameras. They'll show that none of us have ever been anywhere near your cabin. It belongs to you, Will, and you know it. It's yours, all yours," Kate contended. She had spent hour upon hour watching videos generated by all those cameras.

"You still can't prove it belongs to me," Will blustered since he had a lot of the very best lawyers at his disposal.

"We're in space in FTL. Your Earth lawyers have no jurisdiction here. The rules that govern this train out here are different. You're under arrest for possession of an assassin suit." Shrom pulled out his own weapon and pointed it at him. "Let's go."

They had no trouble finding any of the train's ranking officers. But this was a train; they didn't have a jail or need for one. They really didn't have a way to detain Bracken. Will was practically gloating at that point.

Kate quickly offered a solution. "We can lock him in your cabin and you can have his cabin. Surely we can lock his cabin door and keep him from getting out."

Will turned to look at his former girlfriend. If the glares he was throwing at her could kill, she would be vaporized instantly.

"Maybe we can give him enough food and water for twelve days, a pail to pee and poop in, and leave him there until we get back," Kate suggested since it sounded simply evil to her. He would get his just desserts for being a murderer.

Shrom and Vile stared at Kate. "I like your girlfriend, Pink Skin." Shrom was impressed with her. Her idea was positively evil and was perfect for this guy.

"Our cabin it is! GO!" Vile jabbed her weapon into him to get him moving. "We need food, water, and a couple pails." Vile was onboard with this plan. She, like her husband, was now more impressed with Kate. She was perfect for Castle.

"YOU CANNOT DO THIS! I'M A UNITED STATES SENATOR!" Will screamed when Shrom threw the empty buckets at him inside their old room after taking their suitcases out.

"Yes, we can." Shrom slid the door closed and his wife got to work using her weapon to seal his door closed on all sides. She had already sealed the door inside his room that lead to the Jack and Jill bathroom that was shared with the cabin next door.

The train officials had watched it all. While they weren't happy with it all, they didn't see where they had much choice. Those two were armed counter to regulations. They would file a formal protest later.

"How are we going to get him out after we return?" The official was pretty sure they had nothing to unseal the door.

"We'll cut him out or simply blow the door off." Shrom shrugged. It would be no big deal.

"Who's going to pay for the damages?" He certainly wasn't paying to repair the damage these two were making or going to make.

"You let him on this train with an assassin suit in his possession," Shrom reminded him while his wife continued sealing the door.

"You should be thinking about how you're going to be keeping your job if I was you," Kate said since she loved this plan. He was in a jail of sorts and not free to kill people.

Vile stood up and announced, "It's done."

"I'm buying, drinks are on me." Rick proclaimed. Everything had worked out perfectly. He wasn't involved in a death, something that would end him being Santa. In fact he'd stopped people from being killed. It was a win in his eyes.

"I'm in." Kate was ready to celebrate. She would celebrate with Castle alone in their cabin later.

Kate had her coffee with vanilla and Irish Whisky. Shrom and Vile had their whiskey and Rick had his Paris orange-colored drink.

Kate raised her glass. "We caught a killer!"

"We got an assassin suit out of circulation." Shrom and Vile raised their glasses. Shrom was already planning how he was going to get to keep that suit. He was thinking it might come in handy some day.

Rick raised his glass. "To Christmas." It was the one thing that mattered most to him.

"I expect to get an invitation," Vile mentioned after drinking.

"Invitation? To what?" Did she really want to see Bracken executed, if they still did that.

Shrom knew what his wife was talking about. "Your wedding, Pink Skin."

"Our what?!" Rick croaked, not believing he had heard correctly.

"I'll even hand deliver it if I can," Kate replied, straight-faced. She began laughing at the look on Castle's face. Kate knew she wasn't ready to get married yet. It was just a lot of fun to play with Castle.

Shrom had seen the look on Pink Skin's face and was willing to pile on. "We even have just the place for you two."

"Yes! Where we got married," Vile enthused. "In front of the freezing water of Baikal with the ice covered mountains of Druzby in the distance. It was beautiful!" Vile had loved her wedding.

"And then it snowed!" Shrom had loved that part of the wedding.

"It was amazing!" Vile leaned over to kiss Shrom. She loved him more than she had words for. He was perfect for her.

Kate started laughing her ass off at the look on Castle's face. It was totally priceless. Then she almost fell out of her seat when Rick glared at her.

Rick was sitting on the bed later that night while Kate was stripping off her clothes with the intent of making love to him. "That was so not funny," he commented, his voice sounding kind of off.

It left Kate in the dark for a moment. Then she walked right up to him, took his head in her hands, and bent down to kiss him. She straightened up and poker-faced said, "You're right, it wasn't funny…, it was totally hilarious." She couldn't help but grin and laugh a little..

Rick just sat there and brooded, not doing anything at all.

Finally realizing something was wrong, she asked, "You don't want to marry me? Or do you not want to marry anyone at all?" Did they not have a future together? She really saw herself being with him for the rest of her life. That meant getting married. She still wasn't sure about having children, but they could talk about that.

"Get married in the frozen waste lands?" He shook his head. "I thought getting married was supposed to be my idea. I'm supposed to ask your dad for his approval and then ask you. Not make fun of the entire event." He was still put off by it all.

It struck her right in her heart. She wasn't sure she could love him more, but suddenly she did. She stepped back up to him and leaned his head against her breasts.

"I'm sorry, Rick." It had been funny, but now it wasn't.

"A stream to stand in front of I can see. With a mountain range in the background, sure. But in the frozen wasteland? …I was thinking more about being on a beach somewhere. Then we could do it again in the North Pole so all the elves could take part in it," Rick said softly as he shared his heart.

Kate felt tears welling up. He was actually talking about getting married. And not just get married but doing it twice and where he wanted it. She couldn't love him more.

"Have you even thought about this? We're talking about you being Mrs. Claus," he said

That had her freezing in her tracks. He was right. If or when she married him she was going to be Mrs. Claus. "Won't I actually be Mrs. Castle?" After all that was his name.

"For 355 days out of the year, yes. But you'll also be Mrs. Claus and all that entails," Rick assured her. Was she truly ready to be that?

Kate continued to hold his head tight to her bare breasts. "Are you asking me, Rick?" Was this him asking her to marry him? Because if it was her answer was going to be yes. She knew that for sure.

"Your father first." He had to get past that hurdle before anything else happened. What if her dad didn't like him?

It was like she had read his mind when she murmured, "My dad's going to love you." Kate was sure of it. Actually she was pretty sure he would love anyone that she loved this much.

"What about your mom? What if she wants to hit me with a rolling pin?" Rick asked and teased her a little.

Kate rested her head on top of his. "Mom was killed when I was nineteen. The police said it was gang related. It was what got me to be a police officer. I wanted to find out who killed her." She hadn't ever talked to any of her boyfriends about it, much less Will, and yet there she was, telling Castle.

Rick looked up at her. "I'm so sorry, Kate. Maybe together we can find out who did it."

"I've been content with never finding out." She was going down the rabbit hole far too often and it was killing her. She really didn't have a choice. Then suddenly she saw the hole yet again and couldn't stop herself. "Do you think your Santa magic can do something?" She really didn't want to hope but couldn't help herself. Bringing whoever killed her mom to justice meant everything to her.

"I, or we, need to get back to the North Pole. My magic is far more powerful there. It's limited here," he explained.

Suddenly Kate was willing to jump back into the rabbit hole. Maybe this time she wouldn't be doing it alone. "But you turned back time here." That sounded like powerful magic to her. Wait, what was she thinking? Real magic didn't exist. Except she had evidence that it did and Santa was the cause of it. The person she had stopped believing in years ago.

"That was easy. What we're talking about is going to require some serious magic," Rick asserted and kept looking up at her.

"Dad lives in New York City. You can ask him after our train trip," Kate urged since they were both going to be there soon.

"In a hurry to get married are we?" he teased with a smile.

"Yes, …well, no, …but maybe." She huffed a frustrated breath. "You're sure we can do this?" Kate meant find out who killed her mother.

"Get married? See Bracken end up in prison for life? Have your dad say yes? Or find out who killed your mother? What about make living in the North Pole and you working in New York work for us?" What part was she talking about?

She laughed at it all. "Yes!" This time she did mean all of it. "Marry me, Rick. I'll talk my dad into saying yes." He didn't really have to ask him. Even if it was really sweet of him.

"In the frozen wasteland or on a beach?" Rick questioned cautiously.

Kate grinned at him. "You're trying really hard to get me in a bikini, aren't you?" She was thinking he wanted her in a bikini on a beach to get married.

"I've got you naked in my arms. We could get married on the beach…naked." He smiled up at her.

"In your dreams, Christmas boy." She wasn't getting married naked. On a beach or anywhere else for that matter.

"Pity, l like you naked." He kept teasing her. "You'll look amazing naked in the North Pole."

"Now you're just being silly." Kate pushed him so that he was laying back on the bed then crawled up his body so she could kiss him.

"Make love to me, Mr. Castle." She smiled sweetly and kissed him. Then she squealed when Rick flipped them and put her on her back.

"My pleasure, Mrs. Castle." Rick put his soul into kissing her; Kate kissed him back with everything she had while she dreamed of being his wife.

January 2nd

Kate woke up and found Rick spooning her behind her. She snuggled back a little to get a little deeper into his spoon. It felt amazingly good. With Will and all of her other boyfriends or even the one night stands, she'd always hated having them spend the night. Now she didn't want to do anything else but spend time with him.

"You awake?" Rick asked softly.

Kate quietly chuckled. "No." She bit her lip to keep from laughing even louder. He was so sweet and fun.

"Then I guess we won't talk about it." He let go of her and turned onto his back.

She quickly rolled over so she could look at him. "Talk about what?" They had already talked about a lot of things. Something she thought she was terrible at. Just not with him. They had even talked about getting married and they had only known each other… She had to try using fingers to count the days what with this starting all over stuff.

"About what we're going to do for the next several days. We have an entire train trip to finish," he explained. Not that she wanted to talk.

Kate snuggled in closer and laid her hand on his chest. "I have an idea." It was brilliant. She just wasn't sure how they were going to do it.

"You have an idea?" Rick grinned and sneaked a kiss.

She swatted his chest. "I have ideas. Really good ideas." She was a little put out.

He grabbed the offending hand and kissed it. "Of course you do. So what's your idea?"

Kate wanted to swat him again but he was holding that hand and kissing it. "We could stay in our cabin, stay naked like you want me, and make love the entire time." She fluttered her lashes at him. "I bet I could outlast you." She kissed the closest exposed skin she could get her lips on.

"Sex, more sex, followed by still more sex. That's your plan, …sex? When do we eat?" It sounded interesting if not exactly practical.

"You could eat me and well…, I could give you blow jobs. We should be able to sustain each other. Come on, Santa baby, use some of your magic." She snuggled in closer.

He thought about it. "You do taste pretty good." He was willing to admit that, but how was that going to replace the need for food? Then suddenly her body began shaking. Alarmed, he raised up to look at her. She giggled, chortled, and finally laughed out loud.

"Gotcha!" Kate couldn't believe he had fallen for it. Hook, line, and sinker.

"OH, YOU!" Rick retaliated by tickling her which had her squirming all over the bed to get away from his fingers while laughing her ass off. "You want sex, sex, and still more sex, do you?" Rick rolled over on top of her and started kissing her all over. "Sex, huh?"

Kate wrapped her arms around him. "Yep, now stop talking and make love to me, Santa."