SECRET SANTA
Rick had managed to sell the three vintage cars. He had taken a small loss on two of them; however the third had more than made up for it. They had even more money now than when they started.
Rick took Kate down to a large park. "Who do you think needs help from a secret Santa?" Rick asked.
Kate looked around, there were people everywhere. It was a little cold with no snow on the ground yet.
Kate had spotted a homeless guy. "Him?" Kate was pretty sure he needed help.
"Not bad but he is kinda obvious, …. look again." Rick challenges her.
Kate sits there next to Rick looking over everyone. There was a young couple who looked to be in love wearing coats that had seen better days, but it didn't stop them from kissing like teenagers.
There was a guy walking two dogs, both dogs looked a little on the older side and it wasn't hard to spot they both had arthritis, but the pain didn't stop them from wanting to go for a walk together.
Kate saw countless other people, some were too thin, not enough food perhaps, some got off or on buses to come or go, no money for a car, or not enough for a cab even?
"All of them." Kate ventured a guess as daunting as it sounded to her.
"Very good my young padawan, you are learning." Rick tells her smiling. "Let's start with that couple over there." And Rick gets up taking Kate with him. "Try to let them catch up with us then keep up with them without getting too close. We just want to listen to what they say." Rick tells her.
They walk for a while with these two not far away. They are right behind them as they listen to them give an address to the taxi driver.
Kate and Rick get in the next taxi and give the same address. They had heard them complaining that the hot water system in their apartment building was down again. The young woman was tired of taking cold showers, really cold showers.
Rick and Kate easily found the mechanical room and found an antiquated system that was long since past its prime. "Jack?" Rick asks him.
"There is a local plumber who will install the latest high efficiency water heaters for this entire building, he can start in two days time. He will take half now and the other half on completion." Jack tells him.
Since they are in this area they decide to stay here and walk around.
Kate walks near a pair of what looks like college students, both girls. They are worried, their lease is up soon and they haven't found anything they can afford.
Kate pulls out a paper and marker and writes something down and then purposely hands it to them.
"I'm sorry I couldn't help but over hear. Here try this place, they almost always have space." Getting a "thanks" from the girls as Kate hurries off to find Jack. She needs Jack to pre-pay a year's lease for those two.
Rick had stopped for coffee and got to overhear two couples complain that their Christmas plans had all gone up in smoke when the travel agency went under and took all their money with them.
Rick approached them and told them he knew a place that if you were willing to do a little work you could stay there for free. Air fare was part of the deal.
Rick got Jack to make the plane reservations in their names and sent them to a hotel of a friend of his who would put them to work doing small tasks for all of about two days out of the seven they would be there. It came with free food in the hotel restaurant.
Rick and Kate were back home cooking up dinner for everyone when Alexis mentioned that she knew of some teachers at school who didn't have anywhere to go for Christmas break.
With a little work that night and Alexis's help, three of those teachers, who were all single, had just won an all-expense paid trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for Christmas.
Jack had found their names and address and had a company print up the prize winnings and got them delivered to their addresses.
"Not bad for one day's work as a Secret Santa." Rick tells Kate smiling.
"Rick even at this rate we will never spend all that money." Kate was beginning to see the fun in it but they had millions to spend and they had barely made a dent in that amount.
"I know, but just think, if we invest the unused portion wisely we'll have money to be Secret Santa for years to come. Think of how many lives we will have touched in that time. How many people who will have at least a little Christmas magic at least once in their lives. All that bad money will get put to good use instead." Rick reasons with her.
Kate may be a Padawan at this, but even she caught on that they didn't have to spend all of it this year. Being a Secret Santa could have just become a new Castle tradition. One that the two of them created and did together as a couple.
Kate stroked his face. "I love you Rick." And Kate kisses him.
"We have several more days or nights at this since you are working. You ready for more tomorrow?" Rick asks already knowing the answer.
"You lead Jedi Master and I'll follow." Kate knows he loves Star Wars and she's willing to indulge him a little.
Rick had given her a bagel with cream cheese, coffee to-go and a 'please come back to bed with me' kiss at the door and drove into work. Rick didn't want to leave Kate out of helping with the Secret Santa duties so he arranged to come into the office during lunch with Alexis.
"MOM!" As Alexis runs across the floor to land in Kate's lap just as she turns her chair. "Dad said you are coming to lunch with us." Alexis was all excited.
"Only on one condition." Kate tells her. "Did you feed and water Sparky this morning? And take him outside." Kate was going even if she didn't, but it was good to get Alexis used to taking care of her dog.
"Yes mom." Alexis knew she had so was still happy.
"Then let's go." Kate tells her putting her down and pulling out her weapon and shield.
They were walking past a shop that sold refurbished HD TV's at what looked to Kate like pretty good prices, which got her thinking. "I want to stop in here first." Kate tells them.
While looking around. "What are we looking for?" Rick is wondering.
"I know men love their toys and our TV is only 50", so I was thinking of getting something bigger." Kate tells him. Problem was all of the TV's in here were smaller than the one they already had.
Rick was grinning wide. He didn't even have to pester Kate about getting a bigger TV, she was already willing. "How about if I do some research on projection TV's. One entire wall could be our TV." Rick was pushing her limits and he knew it, but still ….
"RICK?" Kate was willing to go bigger, say 60", but something closer to 120" or more was a bit much.
Rick was about to counter when a news cast about a local puppy mill being raided and the local animal shelter now had 60+ dogs to take care of.
"They are going to need a lot of dog food for 60+ dogs." Rick speculated quietly mostly to himself.
Kate however had heard every word. "Jack, how about a 15' U-Haul filled with dog food and someone to build a Tuff-Shed to put all that food in?" Kate asked him.
"Scanning, …. Food ordered, truck and driver also ordered, …. two people to bring and put together the Tuff-Shed also ordered." Jack tells them.
"And the padawan becomes a Jedi Master." Rick comments and kisses Kate for her Secret Santa spirit.
And two days later an anonymous donor with a 15' U-Haul filled with dog food, Science Diet, Natural Balance, Blue Buffalo and Wellness in 15 and 30 pound bags shows up with another truck with a Tuff-Shed to construct, right behind it, in about 2 hours time shows up at the local animal shelter.
After dropping off Kate back at the precinct after lunch, Rick and Alexis went to a local toy store and went on a buying spree. Rick picked out things for boys and Alexis picked out things for girls. And they shoved everything into big huge burlap bags and put them in the back of the Range Rover they had used to drive to lunch with Kate.
Then over to a Fire Station that had a big empty box in a 'Toy's for Tot's' drive and emptied their bags into the now filled box and drove off to another toy store and did it all over again.
Rick and Alexis were headed home, however their GPS unit was showing that the route home using the Freeway presently had a 24 minute delay and had automatically given them a different route to take.
Problem was just outside of downtown they got stuck in a traffic jam that had just started, and they were right up front.
Seems a family owned restaurant/diner had a kitchen fire and there were 5 fire trucks, one being a ladder truck, lots of police cruisers blocking the road, as well as a couple of ambulances.
With nowhere to go and nothing to do Rick and Alexis got out and watched the firemen do their job.
"Mr. Castle?" A uniform officer steps up to him. Rick recognized his face but just couldn't put a name to it. Jack probably could but the officer was standing too close for Jack to speak.
"What happened?" Rick asks still working on his name. Wait uniforms usually have a name tag.
"It's just a little kitchen fire; however the smoke damage is the worst of it. The dining area is likely to be a complete loss." Officer Simmons tells him.
"Insurance?" Rick asks.
"They have some, but there seemed to be some grumbling about the deductible. This might ruin them." Officer Simmons tells him. "We should be able to get you out of here in about half an hour. I'll see if I can get this Engine moved so you and the others can go around."
"Thanks Simmons." Rick offers his hand.
Simmons takes it. "Tell detective Beckett I said hi." And he walks off to see about moving the fire engine.
"Deductible huh. …. Jack?" Rick asks him.
"Scanning, …. WOW, their deductible is rather high. He may be right, this might ruin them." Jack tells him.
"They are going to need a cleaning crew and a contractor who knows restaurants to take this place apart and put it back together." Rick is thinking.
"Scanning, ….. There is a crew that has just finished building a restaurant on the other side of town. Their business is willing to do renovations." Jack tells him.
"Excellent, contact someone and have a representative over here as soon as possible. And get an architect out here too. They may want to change the décor now that theirs is ruined. Make sure everything is paid for; put it in a trust or escrow of some type. I'm guessing 3 or 4 million should get them what they want.
It's not like they are building a whole new building." Rick tells him.
It actually took almost an hour before the fire truck was moved. However Rick got to see someone from the looks of his truck, a general contractor show up before he left. Rick was smiling as he got around the moved fire truck. Restoration was already underway.
Rick had made a late lunch for himself, Alexis and Martha and was sitting at his computer typing away on his next book when his cell phone rang. Noticing the caller he answered it. "Steve, good to hear from you."
"Richard I have good news, the response from Black Pawn is in my office, I was wondering when you had time to go over it with me." His lawyer asks him.
"I could meet you for lunch tomorrow, would that work?" Rick asks him.
"I'll have food in the conference room waiting for us." Steve accepts the date and time.
"Anything I should know before hand? Like do I need to bring a gun to use on Gina with?" Rick was still mad at her.
He can hear Steve laughing on the other end of the phone. "No, nothing like that. I'll see you tomorrow at noon then." And Steve ends the call.
"Richard there is something on TV that you might be interested in." Jack tells him.
The TV downstairs was a bit of a distance and if what Jack wanted him to see was already on and was short he might miss it. So he used his laptop to go to a local channel instead. This way he didn't have to leave his nice new and clean office space.
Yea, he liked the new one better than that dungeon of an office he had in the apartment downtown.
Rick caught the tail end of a new story about how the local food bank's shelves were a little bare. The bad economy the last few years had hit them pretty hard and their shelves were a lot emptier than they were this time last year.
Plus all those people after the Hurricane Sandy ripped their homes to pieces needed them now too.
"Jack?" Rick asks him.
"Already on it." Jack assures him.
"After Sandy there was a fire on the boardwalk was there not, Jack?" Rick thinks his memory is correct.
"Parts of the boardwalk were destroyed. Some businesses had only just recovered from Sandy when the fire hit. The city is still debating on how to repair the damages to the boardwalk." Jack confirms.
"I'll leave the businesses to fend for themselves for now, but let's see if we can get the boardwalk repaired shall we?" Rick asks of him.
"I will start on that as soon as I'm done with the local food bank." Jack tells him.
"Kate and I are going to have to find a way to thank you two for all of this. We couldn't have done it without you." Rick tells him.
Two days later a 15' U-Haul showed up at the food bank with cases of canned and dry food. Canned vegetables, canned beans, canned Chef boyardee for the kids, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, pasta, minute rice, Campbell's chili in a bowl, toothpaste, tooth brushes, throw away diapers, baby formula, baby food, toilet paper, laundry detergent, cans of spam, taco shells, Pace Picante sauce, hamburger helper, feminine products, paper towels, cotton balls and a few other things.
Along with a sudden upsurge from the general public their shelves were filled in less than a week.
"While we're at it Jack, let's see if we can get a truck load of frozen turkeys to them this year also." Rick asks him.
"Money has been sent to the city for the sole purpose of repairing the boardwalk through a contractor of our choosing who will be paid directly. Avoiding any sticky fingers in the government." Jack informs him.
Rick sighs. "We really do need better politicians then these crooks." Rick tells himself. And goes back to typing.
Kate meanwhile is sitting at her desk doing paperwork and trying to get her antiquated computer to give her something. The stupid thing still ran using Windows XP, two or three operating systems behind the times.
Kate looks around to make sure no one is near or looking her way. "Jill is it stretching things if we get the entire precinct new computers using Secret Santa? The only one who will know is me and I would know anyway." Kate asks.
"Jack says no, that he can do it." Jill whispers to him.
"YES!" Kate pumps her hands into the air signaling a touchdown. Then quickly looks around. "Does he need Rick's approval?"
"Jack says no, just yours." Jill whispers back.
Now Kate had a decision to make. She was going to benefit from this Secret Santa but the rest of the precinct was going to get new computers.
"Jill?" Kate asks with a scrunched up face.
XPS 27 Touch
4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4770s Processor (8M Cache, up to 3.9 GHz)
Windows 8.1 Pro (64Bit) English
Slot load Blu-ray drive
NVIDIA GeForce 750M 2 GB DDR5 with TPM V1.2 and Thunderbolt
16GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz = 3 DIMMs
2TB 7200 rpm SATA 6 Gb's Hard Drive + 32 GB mSATA Solid State DriveBP
27 inch LED Backlit Touch Display with IPS/Anti Glare and Adobe RGB QHD resolution (2560x1440)
DVD XPS 2720
"Is that good?" Kate whispers. Not knowing a thing about computers.
"Jack says you will not need new computers for at least another 10 years." Jill whispers back.
Kate groans. "I don't know about this?" Kate really was torn. This was Secret Santa stuff, not buy her a new computer using blood money.
"Too late." Jill tells her. "Jack has already ordered them. They should be here the first week of next year." Jill tells her.
Next year!? Kate relaxed a bit. Next year didn't sound so bad. "Wait, first week of next year is like 2 weeks from now." Kate places her head down on her desk and stares at the desktop.
"16 days from now to be precise." Jill explains.
"Rick is so going to kill me." Kate talks to her desktop.
"Richard loves you too much to kill you, besides in the grand scheme of things it is only one computer we are talking about. The entire precinct is going to get them." Jill offers a consolation prize of sorts.
"He's still going to kill me when he finds out." Kate counters.
"Only if Jack, you or I tell him." Jill offers.
"Keeping secrets?" Kate lifts up her head. "And when he finds out he'll torture me and then kill me, twice. ….. Have Jack tell him." Kate puts her head back down on the desktop waiting for the axe to fall and cut her head off.
"Richard has responded that he will have 6 cases of Killian's Red (Irish beer) be delivered on the same day as the computers, using his money, and that he is going to kiss the Jedi Master as soon as she gets home tonight." Jill tells her.
Kate jerks her head up. Rick wasn't going to kill her after all. "How did I get so lucky?" Kate soooo loves Rick and Alexis.
Jill decides that was a rhetorical question not needing an answer.
Kate stopped at a toy store on the way home and got the workers to load her car with everything she bought, then drove to a Fire Station and got the firemen to help her unload her car and drop them into their 'Toys for Tots' box. Not knowing that Rick and Alexis had already done that twice today alone. Just at different Fire Stations.
They still had a few more days to do this before they left to go to Hawaii for Christmas. Kate was excited and anxious all at the same time just thinking about it.
Kate and her father hadn't celebrated Christmas since her mom died. It was just too painful. Now she was wondering how to get her father to come with them to Hawaii and celebrate Christmas Castle style.
Even though being a Castle herself she had no clue what that style was.
The next day at various elementary schools all across NYC there were these panel trucks that showed up and opened up their back doors and started handing out Christmas decorated mason jars. Each jar was filled with Hershey's kisses and various little cut outs. Some of the cut outs were of Santa. Others were of Rudolph, candy canes, kittens and a pair a baby fox's playing together.
There were hundreds per truck. Rick had ordered them the second he had thought up the Secret Santa project.
Then two more trucks showed up at Rockefeller Center and handed them over to every child that came anywhere near the trucks until they were all gone.
Several of the parents asked where they came from. The drivers had been instructed to answer SANTA.
In the end Kate proved correct, they had so much money they had no chance of spending it all this Christmas. Rick took everything left over and started investing it. If they were lucky they would have money to do this for years to come. Hopefully until they were both old and gray.
A new Castle tradition had been born.