A 00Carter Christmas
Part 4 of 9
It
had been a long night. The first light
of morning was peeking over the horizon when the agents of Himitsu Takana
finally boarded their private plane to take off. They chased the sun all the way back to
Nevada, where the sky was as pink as peppermint.
“I
can’t believe it’s Christmas morning,” said Nick, as he stepped off the plane
and set foot on the dusty ground. To
his disappointment, the snow left over from the freak snowstorm had melted. Nevada never felt very Christmas-y, but he
supposed it was more similar to where Jesus was born than somewhere with
evergreens and snow. That thought
cheered him up some as he followed K and the others into their sprawling
headquarters.
The
remaining members of the agency were waiting to greet them inside, gathered
around a gigantic Christmas tree. “Merry
Christmas!” they cried, and everyone ran to embrace one another, exclaiming
over how lucky it was that they’d made it back in time to celebrate the holiday
together.
Nick
made sure to spend a little quality time with each of his ladies over the
course of the day, but it was Red whom he’d promised himself to, and so, when
the festivities had died down, he slipped away to her chambers. In her bedroom, which was lit only by the
flickering candles of her menorah, he found her posed seductively on her bed in
a sleek negligee. “Merry Christmas,
Nick,” she murmured, as he dropped the stuffed dolphin he had brought her,
stripped off shirt, and climbed on top of her.
“Happy
Hanukkah, Julianne,” he whispered, nuzzling her neck.
“Hanukkah’s
been over for nine days,” she said, “but I do have a gift for you.”
He
looked down at her. “This isn’t it?”
She
smiled an impish smile and slipped her hand underneath one of her pillows,
pulling out a small package. “This is
part of it.”
He
unwrapped the present and wrinkled his nose.
“A dreidel?”
Her
smile grew. “Not just any dreidel. Look closely.”
He
took a second look at the little top and saw that, instead of indecipherable
Hebrew letters, each side was inscribed with a set of directions… for different
sex acts. Nick grinned, warmth spreading
through his body. He could tell by Red
Jewel’s bright pink cheeks that she was feeling just as warm. “Dreidel,
dreidel, dreidel… with dreidel I shall play!” he sang with excitement,
leaning in for a kiss.
It
was nearly midnight when Nick finally staggered back to his own dorm, exhausted
and sore. He hadn’t slept properly in at
least thirty-six hours and was eager to go to bed. But just as he was starting to drift off, he
heard something that made him sit bolt upright again.
I finally
relaxed as I lay in my bed,
With visions of
Red’s “Christmas gift” in my head,
Until I heard
bells and a laugh like a boom,
That caused me
to run halfway across my room,
Would you
believe when I looked out my window that night,
That I got to
see Santa before he drove out of sight?
He gave me a
smile and a wave of his hand,
“Try harder this
year to be good, my young man,
Right now,
though, go to sleep! Celebrate your good plan!
I’m very
impressed that you knew such a trick,
But I’m mostly
quite grateful! Merry Christmas, dear Nick!”
Nick
shook his head as he watched Santa’s sleigh getting smaller and smaller as it
soared off into the sky. Did that really just happen? he
wondered. He knew if he told anyone the
next morning, they would say he had just been dreaming.
But
as for 00Carter…
He
believed.
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