Castle 1. Chapter 1

**The Season Comes Round Again**

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own it, and they're way more evil than me

**AN:** This is a direct sequel to last years Spirit of the Season. You you can find the companion piece, from Castle's point of view, under the account of my writing partner, CuffedBunnies.

_For CB, who always jumps on these roller coasters with me, just because. _

* * *

Day 1: Surprises

December 4, 2013

* * *

Kate Beckett was thankful for the short work day as she prepared to leave shortly after 4:30. Sure, she had to come in early, but it'd been light, no body, mostly paperwork. She'd been scheduled to be off, but she had to swap the day for the following one in order to meet prior commitments. Castle had, somewhat surprisingly, come in with her. Although he had been doing that a bit more over this past year, even on these kinds of light days, she still had been surprised by his willingness to come in simply for paperwork.

His reasoning had been that if she was to be stuck at Black Pawn all day tomorrow, primarily without him, the least he could do was keep her company at the 12th today. She was far from complaining, she thought as she fingered the note in her hands trying to decide exactly where to put it. Today had given her the perfect opportunity to start – or restart – their little holiday tradition.

She had to admit, this was the first time in a long time she's felt so excited at the prospect of a new holiday season. Oh, Castle and made last year's holiday season wonderful for both of them. But, come this time last year, she hadn't seen it coming. Hadn't known to anticipate such joy. It had still been such a very foreign concept to her back then.

This year was different. This year she knew what was possible. Possible again. And this year, she was determined to be a part of making it happen. And maybe it was the success from his birthday party last April, but just the thought of making this work was giving her more of a rush than she'd had in any prior holiday season. So, she propped the note against his iPad while he was in the bathroom, then slipped on her coat and before she headed for the elevator.

* * *

She had secretly made the reservations for dinner on his phone, since he had the app already. And making them in his name might make the request for a window seat that much more likely to achieve, given the high likelihood of crowds. She wasn't proud to admit she wasn't above using Castle's name, but it was for him, a gift that hopefully could be reminiscent of the one he had given her the year before. Nothing so extravagant, but she wanted to kick off the event – This game that he it started last year – in a memorable way, something fun unique, and reminiscent Of what has come before. And so she had set reservations without hesitation.

Now all she had to do was wait. She had taken a page from his own book, and called the car service. She checked in advance, been lucky enough to get Max as a driver. He wouldn't question the odd plans, but would appreciate her symmetry in planning the evening. She chose the same drop spot at the Hilton, and waited out front despite the cold. Her cell phone beeped with an incoming text message. She pulled it from pocket with a grin.

Beckett I've been abducted! It read.

She rolled her eyes even though he wasn't there to see, and laughed. Such a drama queen, her fiancé. Her heartbeat picked up at the thought. Six months since the day at the swings, and she still hadn't gotten over that feeling. She hoped she never would.

Poor thing, she sent How will I find you? Do you have any clues?

She snickers again when the next text comes in. No! Which is completely unfair.

I think you do, she sent.

At least mine was descriptive, surprise? That could be anything. Even through the medium of texting, she could practically hear the frustrated whine in his voice.

She took just the smallest amount of pity on him. Start at the beginning, she sent back. This is your last clue until you arrive.

She didn't get an answer back to that one, and wondered if it was because he was sulking, or because he was close.

Five minutes passed, and then she saw the dark town car pulling into the curved drop off area. She stepped Up as soon as she recognized Max as he exited the vehicle. "Evening Max," she called.

He turned a good-natured grin her way as he came around to open Castle's door. "Evening Ms. Beckett. Turning a few tables I see?"

"Seems only fair," she tossed off easily. As Max open the door Castle stepped out, Kate found herself rocking up on her toes, nearly bouncing with excitement. It was such a very Castle gesture, and it caught her off guard. Apparently he was rubbing off on her. She bit her lip and looked away, hoping he hadn't seen it. Not quite in the mood for that level of ribbing tonight.

He's stepped from the car and his eyes found hers immediately. "I'm having the oddest sense of déjà vu," he said dryly. "Only seems backwards, somehow."

She played along, feigning thoughtful innocence. "Hmm... I can't imagine why." She bit her lip nervously and flashed her eyes back to his.

He laughed, but stepped over to Max, now back behind the wheel said a few words and passed him a tip. Then he met her on the sidewalk. "Well, I know you're up to something – Max just told me he'd see us in about three hours. Where to, Detective?"

She held out her hand, and he took it. They moved easily enough, being at a slight advantage over last year's crush because of the earlier hour. Because they were moving, she said nothing as she led him straight around to the side entrance of Rockefeller Center.

"The gym?" Castle asked. "Some sort of subtle hint, Beckett?"

She let out a breathless laugh at that, hadn't even thought of it. "No, not at all. Most convenient entrance," she promised as she made her way quickly to the elevator pulling him along with her fingers wrapped around his.

"That's a relief," he said. "I was really hoping you weren't going to try to be one of those bridezilla types."

She shot him what she hope passed for a stern look, though she wasn't sure she could manage much beyond adoring excitement tonight, if she were honest with herself. "Quit while you're ahead there, partner."

She must've halfway managed - or he was playing it up - because He offered a quick "yes ma'am," as the elevator doors opened, and she took the lead again, bringing him along behind her.

They threaded their way through the small cafe in front, and she guided them toward the host stand near the bar. She was grateful that she'd found directions to the place during her research. It would have been much less fun to tease him with if she'd had to stop and find her bearings.

She gave his name at the podium, and saw his eyebrows raise. The girl looked from one of them to the other, and Kate noticed a bit of that telltale fluster that she knows means she's a bit of a fan. Nothing is said however, and a professional mask slips quickly over the young woman's face.

A year ago, Kate might have felt a sickening surge of panic in a moment like this. Instead, she now felt a small wave of pity that felt like kinship. She wonders if she really kept it all off her face that night she approached him at the book launch. Probably not. He'd had her number within minutes in that interrogation room, though she was still loathe to admit it. And grateful as hell. But she won't be saying that either.

They were seated at the window, one with exactly the view she'd hoped for, and the girl departed. Kate watched her go, and then made a decision.

When their waiter arrived, they ordered their meals - she vegetable risotto, he the scallops - and Kate offhandedly requested a few cocktail napkins from the bar. The young man left retrieve them, she dug a pen out of her clutch.

When he returned with them and then left to put in their orders, she took a long sip of her water then handed Castle one of the napkins and the pen. "Sign that," she said quietly.

Castle gave her an odd look. "Pardon?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "Come on Castle, don't tell me you can't recognize fangirls unless they're throwing themselves at you. The hostess. You're gonna make her night. Probably the whole week."

He looked past her toward the direction of the small stand near the bar. "Oh, I noticed I just didn't think. I mean, I know you're not wild about drawing attention, and I usually don't make a big production of it if we're -"

"It's not a production, it's a cocktail napkin. Sign it. Make the girl's day. Besides, it's almost Christmas." She raised an eyebrow and challenge, and he quickly bent over the table to scrawl his name on the small white square.

"Kathrine Beckett, I never," she heard him matter under his breath as she reached out and picked up the newly autographed paper square. The corner of her mouth turned up in response, but she said nothing.

When the waiter returned to fill their water glasses, she carefully handed him the small napkin. "Excuse me," she said, "could you make sure that the young lady at the hostess stand gets this?"

The young man look down at the object in his hand, and then back and Kate. "Oh, certainly. Marcy?" He looks down at the autograph again. "Oh, she's gonna flip. I mean – yes ma'am, of course."

Kate's smile widened as she watched him walk away, and then turned her eyes back to Castle. To her surprise, he was looking at her as though she had just delivered him a Christmas present. "What?" She asked, looking down and she tucked her hair behind her ear and looked away, somewhat defensively.

"Nothing. It's just, it's kind of fun watching you play Santa Claus."

She smiled at that, offered a somewhat shy shrug of dismissal. "Well, you know," she said. But she doubted that he did, because really she didn't either. It just, it seemed like the thing to do.

He cleared his throat. "Amazing view, I see why you picked it."

She smiled more broadly at that. "Well, it's not the VIP section or anything, but it seemed like good place to begin." She cast her eyes out the window at the large, soon to be glittering Christmas tree and the increasingly busy rink beneath.

"Are you kidding? This is awesome. I don't think I've ever been back here, what made you think of it?"

She shrugged. "I was looking for something that felt right, that held a memory of last year, but made it different, too. I looked around online a little, made reservations."

"It's amazing. You're amazing," he said quietly.

She turned her eyes out the window so he wouldn't see the flush rising on her cheeks. Their food came then, and they settled in to enjoying the food and the view below. When the time came for dessert, Castle begged off. When she raised a eyebrow in question, he shrugged. "There's a Ben & Jerry's in here, thought that might be fun."

"Sounds like a plan," she agreed. Castle and ice cream were always an interesting combination, she had discovered.

There was a minor scuffle over the check when it came, Castle insisting that the pleasure of her surprise was more than enough. But she glared in refusal - this was her night, her treat.

"Fine," Castle relented. "But, I'm buying dessert."

She sighed, but agreed. The ice cream stop was his idea, anyway, she reasoned with herself. As they made their way out, they received a somewhat breathless "Thank you for coming," from Marcy that made Kate bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. The girl was clearly now a fan for life, if she hadn't been already. Kate knew the feeling.

* * *

When they reached the Ben and Jerry's, Castle sent her in search of a table in the nearby seating area while he ordered at the shop, which earned him a frown from her, and the slightest trace of suspicion, too. There was something of a glint in Castle's eye that made her more nervous then she was willing to contemplate too deeply. But what ever it was, he was up to something.

When he approached her at the table she'd secured near the edge of the open seating area, she gaped at him. "Richard Castle, what did you do?" she asked. But it was a rediculous question. She should have known. She really should have known.

"I figured we could share," he said glibly.

She should hit him. "With half the city? There have to be 15 scoops of ice cream in that thing." It was in a bucket, basically. A bucket of ice cream. She really should hit him.

"Twenty, actually. And cookies and brownies and bananas and - well, everything, really."

"Castle," she sighed. "Why on earth -"

"'cause I could, and it looked like fun. Besides, I got there just before closing, so they got to use up a lot of bits and pieces."

Of course. "Oh, why the hell not? Though, we won't come close to finishing it, and it's still going to take forever to work off."

He passed her a spoon that seemed entirely too small for the insane concoction, and she chose an area and started digging. "Sure," he said, as he took a bite of his own, "but that's going to be half the fun, Beckett. Working it off."

The flash in his eyes made her blood run hot. Damn him. She stuck her foot out, fully intending to kick him. But her foot seemed intent on working itself out of her shoe and along his leg, almost of it's own volition. She steadfastly focused on her ice cream which was better than it had any right to be.

"Oh my god, Beckett," he exclaimed suddenly, his voice trapped somewhere between bedroom voice and an excited little boy. "You have to try this scoop over here. I think it has potato chip pieces in it!"

She groaned. He was going to be the death of her, and the season was only just beginning. God, she was having fun.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Season Comes Round Again**

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own it, and they're way more evil than me

**AN:** This is a direct sequel to last years Spirit of the Season. You you can find the companion piece, from Castle's point of view, under the account of my writing partner, CuffedBunnies.

_For CB, as always._

* * *

Day 2: Sharing

December 5, 2013

* * *

She was extremely grateful they had called it an early night last night when the alarm rang that morning. She showered and dressed and made the coffee before she even attempted waking Castle. She was due to spend the day setting up the first of the angel tree adoptions at Black Pawn.

It had been Castle's idea to begin with, something of an expansion of one little project that she had shared with him last year. After he had reached out contacts to ensure that the unadopted children would receive presents last year, he had floated the idea to her some months back about asking Black Pawn to host a tree. There weren't enough in the city as far as she was concerned, any idea was an excellent one. She didn't know what he had done to get the clearance necessary from his employer, but she was more than willing to help out with the set up and other arrangements. And so she had found herself agreeing to volunteer today, along with his editor, Martina, to man the adoption table in the publisher's building, in order to get the ball rolling. Their intent was to work it together, but Castle ended up behind schedule on his current novel, and deemed it a bad idea to make his presence known in the building under the circumstances. So he had pressed his favorite copy editor into service in his place.

While Kate had never met her, Castle spoke well of her, and Kate was more than willing to work with her to get the job done, so she had taken the day off and compensated with yesterday's shift.

"Castle," she said, leaning over the bed carefully. "You wanted me to wake you before I left this morning, remember?"

She received a noncommittal hum in response. "I made coffee," she continued. "It's right here." Another hum. "Castle, I need to go, and you need to write, remember?"

"Yeah," he muttered.

Well, that was something of an improvement. "Okay, I gotta take off or I'll be late. You going to come pick me up like we planned?" That way they could get a start on their own angel shopping list right after she was done. That was the plan at least.

"Hm, um. Yeah. Have fun with Martina. But not too much fun, don't want her to steal you."

Kate laughed lightly. Well, that was new information. Half-asleep Castle was pretty entertaining, at times. "Noted. Just try to get some writing done, okay? You don't want Gina after you again."

She got a muffled reply which she chose to believe Was intended to be "yes ma'am," though it could've just as easily been "yes, mom." She rolled her eyes one last time and headed for the door.

She spotted the tree and table set up almost as soon as she walked in to the building where Black Pawn's offices were housed. She knew that was that her favorite volunteer from her usual stop down at the Manhattan Mall had stopped in the day before, to help get the tree set up. Well it wasn't necessarily advertised and open to the public like the one at the mall was. The idea was to give the publisher's employees, as well as anyone who might choose to who had business in the building, an opportunity to participate.

Kate had been so very touched in Castle's consideration of the idea, given that he had essentially picked up her pet project and used his unique abilities and situation to help make a bigger impact, without actually taking over anything that she had been doing for so long. He had taken something that had been her baby, and made it not his but theirs, in his own way. So she was more than willing to take the time to volunteer. To step into his world a little bit in the process.

Her mind was so occupied by the concept, as she stepped up to the table, she was not thinking about the woman behind the table who is bent over a box beside her. Not closely enough to think anything amiss. So she stepped up to greet Martina, who would be her work partner for the day.

"Hi, I'm Kate. Sorry it took me a few extra mommets to get here this morning, small delay getting out the door."

"Oh it's no problem," the blonde woman said she righted herself to a sitting position for the first time since Kate approached the table, "I'm well familiar with that particular problem, believe me."

Kate's mouth fell open in a slight O of surprise, and her cheeks burned red. "I...Gina?"

Gina quirked her mouth in a wry smile, then offered, "Sorry, we were having an absolute nightmare with one of our authors, and Martina had to lock herself in to try to get some edits turned around before we had to close out our list for the year. Since my plate was fairly clear today, I volunteered to step in."

For a moment, Kate's mouth worked but no sound came out. Then she tried a different tack. "I meant, earlier, I wasn't, we weren't...oh, screw it." She turned her back on the other woman and ran her hands through her hair.

"Oh, god. No, I didn't mean that either!" Gina offered quickly. "I meant, writing or well, sleeping, but actually sleeping, and - Damn if this didn't get awkward fast."

Kate had to laugh at that, even if things were getting more absurd by the moment. She covered her face with her hands and nodded. "Little bit."

"Listen, if this is a bad idea, I can leave, or you and Martina can reschedule, or..."

Kate studied Gina looking for a bluff. She had plenty of experience with suspects who were working an angle, deflecting, mining, or just plain testing her to see what she would do. Surprisingly, she wasn't getting that off of Gina Cowell.

"No, you know what? It's fine. Because this needs to be done, and it really shouldn't wait. Give people enough time to do the necessary shopping and get things back on time so that the distribution goes well. I don't necessarily have that much experience with this side of the project, but I know that the timing can be very important, from everything one of the coordinators told me when we set this up."

Gina nodded. "Okay, Well they had everything pretty well set up by the time I got here, just told us to put out the sign-up sheets. We should start seeing people when everyone breaks for lunch. It should go well, I think Richard primed the pump a little with some of the staff after our meeting last week."

Kate nodded, trying to shake off the awkward feeling and get down to business. She came around the table and sat down in the other chair. "Castle has a very effective charm offensive," she offered lightly, "when he puts it to good use."

"Mmm...and when he doesn't, there are usually consequences. Or a cleaning bill. Once an explosion," Gina offered lightly.

"An explosion?" Kate couldn't help herself, that got her attention.

Gina laughed. "Well, I wasn't there – I've only had the account from Martha, and you know how that could be. But, apparently he talked Alexis into letting him deep fry a turkey one Thanksgiving, shortly after our divorce? It seems one of his eyebrows was a casualty."

Oh, yes she had heard the story. She chuckled, anyway. "Alexis recounts it similarly, actually," she replied.

"Well, there's a source I can trust then, isn't it? Where that girl gets her good sense – I don't know."

Kate bit her lip to keep from saying something she shouldn't. It wasn't that she didn't often tease Castle similarly, she did. They all did, heck, it was a line he often brought out himself. But somehow, coming from his second ex-wife, it seemed like something she ought to be defending.

"Richard tells me this is your personal project?" Gina asked, clearly trying to redirect the conversation another way when she realized it had stalled.

Kate nodded, but got to her feet. She busied herself by adjusting the small paper angels around the tree a bit. She concentrated on making sure that angels with close numbers were near each other. Having recently learned that like numbers often indicated family groups.

"I've been adopting angels for years," she offered. "I took Castle shopping with me last year, let him play along. He'd been trying the entire week to get me into the Christmas spirit, and it seemed only fair to turn the tables. "It was fun actually, but when he realized that so many of the kids either didn't get adopted, or that there weren't enough trees for people to realize that this was an option, he decided he wanted to do something bigger this year."

"I see. That sounds about right. I'm surprised he didn't come down and join you?" She phrased it like a question, and Kate tucked her hair behind her ear before she made her way back to her seat. "I think he said something about having a couple of chapters to get done."

"And he wanted them done before he walked in here, is that it? Smart boy," Gina said. "There's not a writer on my list that isn't a procrastinator, and yet, Richard has always managed to be the worst of them. And the best."

She hated to admit it, but her curiosity was piqued. She had been expecting it to be an all out insult. Something snarky from his ex-wife. But then, it hadn't been like that even with Meredith, she recalls now. Castle was remarkably amicable with both of his ex-wives, and obviously he would have to be, she reasoned, to still be working with Gina. Even after their failed second attempt.

The thought of that second attempt made her stomach twist uncomfortably. She didn't like to think about it, and the best of her knowledge, Castle still doesn't know how badly that went. Doesn't know that she had intended to go with him that summer weekend. But there's something interesting about this side of Castle's life, she realized. The fact that he works with this woman, has an entirely separate working relationship with her, than the one that he's always had with Kate. And, truthfully as a fan of the the writer, she's more than a little bit interested in this side of his work, as well.

When she looked up the from the table, she saw the blonde woman watching her, sizing her up. "You can ask, you know, I don't think it's going to get any more awkward than it already has."

Kate found herself blushing again. She hated that she'd been so easy to read in the situation. But she was caught off guard by Gina's appearance, and yes, there was a part of her that wanted to know the history that the publisher had with the writer that was now Kate's fiancÈ. But she tried that route, with Meredith, and it hadn't gone well, really, leaving her more nervous and anxious than satisfied. And wondering if she shouldn't have talked Castle first.

"I, don't exactly know what to - I wasn't prepared for this," she admitted. "At least with Meredith –"

Gina reached out, in a way that Kate thinks is more flexible than anything, trapping her right hand beneath hers on the table. "Oh God, I'm sorry. He subjected you to Meredith already?" She made it sound like having her teeth drilled without anesthesia, and Kate smiled nervously before she pulled it together. Enough.

"It was nothing. She dropped in for a few days at the start of the year. Alexis had mono, had to cancel a trip. It just happened to coincide with when my apartment was being fumigated, and apparently she had thought to stay at the loft, so things got - interesting. We had dinner, was all."

Gina clicked her tongue, as if an sympathy. "Well, you must be good, if you could put up with her for an evening. I never managed to make it entirely through a gathering without wanting to claw her eyes out, and that was with her 12-year-old daughter at the table. I swear, it's like that woman has had her brain replaced by a copy of Us Weekly."

Now that was a description Kate had never considered. And yet, somehow it was apt. Though, Kate knew enough to suspect that Meredith was a lot smarter than she let on. And a great deal more manipulative. She said nothing, not necessarily sure where her ground was. She'd stepped somehow, awkwardly, into this club of ex-wives, as the future wife and it's honestly everything she's ever wanted to avoid about her relationship with Castle.

She was surprised when Gina tried again. "Listen, I know you have no reason to like me. Richard may be as blind as all as three mice at times, but I'm not. I knew enough to know I walked into something a few years back, but at the time I wasn't inclined to care all that much. That might not seem right, but it's honest."

Kate looked at her then. "You don't have to -"

"No, actually I should. Because there are certain things Richard is always going to be too much of a gentleman tell you. And this is probably one of them. I – for me, it was more business than it should have been. I was in my early to mid 20s, trying to work my way up. And I had the hottest writer in the house on my list. And I knew it. He was nice, friendlier than everyone thought he was, much more interesting. Different from the image, you know?"

Kate nodded, because she did know, and she couldn't help herself. Now that the woman started her story, she wanted to hear the end of it.

"But I was the 27-year-old new girl with the the company, he just happened to end up with the hottest ticket in the business on MY list. He'd previously been working with a mentor of mine, and when he retired, he divvied up his clients. Everyone thought he was nuts, him handing our biggest client to me. But it was my big shot, and he knew it.

When it started out, we just always had to be at the same place. Meetings, press events. And as it turned out, Richard absolutely hated when his publicists insisted that he maintain a rotating string of dates for these things."

Kate's eyebrows rose. This was new information. When Gina noticed she laughed.

"Oh now, don't get me wrong, at least some of the reputation was legitimate, at least in the beginning. But the bad boy routine sold, so it was in everyone's best interest to maintain it. And, as Alexis got older, It drove Richard absolutely crazy. He didn't like the idea of his daughter seeing him with a different woman in the tabloids every week or two. So we started going to the events together. We liked each other, and soon we were the media's power couple. It was fantastic for his image, and his image was great for my image.

"Getting married seemed logical, and I certainly wasn't objecting. He's genuinely is a good man. But, I liked the attention, liked what it was doing for his career and in turn mine. And Rick – well he wanted to be home with Alexis. He wanted to lock himself away with his laptop. After a while, we realized it wasn't either one of us had signed on for. We picked away at each other until it all fell apart.

"And then, I think we came to the point again or we thought 'hey why not, better than nothing,' and tried again. Hell, it was always good, it just was never great. But, of course it all went the way did before. We ended up picking away at each other again. Because I think they forgot for a while, good enough never is."

Kate nodded slowly. She didn't know what to say exactly, but she understood. It had been a bit like that with Josh. He was fine. They were fine. But that was all it ever was. With Castle, she never knew what was coming next, but it was always more than she expected. She always felt like the best version of herself with him.

There was a sudden beep, and Kate reached for her phone, but it must have been Gina's. She took the moment to fire off a quick text to Castle.

"Major meeting just broke for lunch," Gina said, gesturing to her phone. I think we're about to get hit by half the building," she gestured to her own phone in her hand.

Kate smiled, greatful for the distraction of doing her job. "Showtime," she said.

* * *

Three hours later, they had adopted out more angels than Kate had ever thought possible. After the lunch time rush, they got a steady trickle of everyone from the president of the company to several assistants. Gina was taking a restroom break while Kate filled in the newly empty spaces on the tree with new Angel tags. She heard the approaching footsteps behind her. "Hi," she started to greet the new arrival as she hung the last one on it's branch.

"Hi," Castle's voice came, startling her.

"Castle!" she turned to him, coming around to the front of the table to kiss his cheek in greeting. "What are you doing here, I wasn't expecting you for," she checked her dad's watch to verify, "another hour, at least."

"Finished early, emailed the new chapters to Gina, and saw your text. I called Martina to make sure she got the email too, and asked her if you guys were doing okay. She told me that she got stuck in a commitment, and I realized you must be stuck here alone. I figured that was what the text was about, so I caught a cab."

"Oh," she bit her lip, shook her head. "Not what the text was about."

Castle pulled out his phone, and she watched as he pulled up the text. "It isn't?"

Kate shook her head. "Nope."

"What does it mean, then? 'Sharing' isn't all that descriptive, Beckett."

She spun toward the tree. "Thought you could help me pick. I mean, it's always been my little list, but I was thinking. Really, it's about to be our list. I mean, if it's my imaginary little Christmas family, and we're going to be – well – I thought you might want to help pick out this year, that's all."

Castle looked at her for a long moment, and she found herself wondering exactly what he was thinking. But then, he smiled brightly. "I'd be glad. Honored, actually."

"Good. I was hoping."

He gestured to his phone. "So, this is my note, then?"

She smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Yeah," she said.

Castle grinned and wrapped his hands together. "Awesome," said, as he made his way toward the tree. "So, two from each age group, boy and a girl each, right?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I have these two so far," she said, showing him the two she had pulled already.

"Great," he said looking carefully over the tree. "Let's see," he pulled down one before he turned back to her. "So, how have you been managing by yourself?"

"Oh," she said, "I wasn't. Someone volunteered to fill In for Martina but -"

"I was in the bathroom," Gina cutting smoothly.

Castle spun around quickly from where he was standing to face his ex-wife. Kate could see his jaw drop.

"Gina," he said, but then he trailed off, seemingly at a loss for words.

"How's the writing going?" the blonde woman asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Check your email," Castle replied.

Gina pulled her phone from her pocket, and made a few quick taps on the screen "Three chapters, and here I thought we'd agreed on two," she said.

Castle shrugged. "That's always how these have gone, you know that."

Gina murmured an apparent agreement and Kate. "It's true, you know. One moment I had laid a full on threat at him if he didn't have three chapters to me in the next few days, and two days later I had six. Full manuscript inside of the week. That was Heat Wave."

Kate's eyebrows shot up, and she turned to look at Castle, impressed.

He answered her look with a shrug. "You didn't think the entire inspiration thing was a lie, did you?"

She tossed a off a grin in feigned disinterest. "Well," she said, drawing it out for effect,"Maybe not the entire thing."

"Mean, Beckett," he groused.

"You'll live. Now help me pick the rest, you big baby," she said with a shake of her head.

Castle turned his attention back to the tree.

"This are good pages," Gina said suddenly, and Kate turned to see the publisher studying her phone intently. "Did you send these to Martina, too?"

"Of course," Castle said, setting another tag on the pile they were building on the table. "Speaking of, what happened to her?"

"Time sensitive emergency assignment, and I had a clear calendar," Gina said with a shrug.

Kate busied herself with recording their adoptions in the record binder, staying out of it.

"Number six," Castle said. "No seniors in this batch, but we can check with Lissette if you want. See if she has any."

Kate nodded, surveying and writing down the last of their choices. Then she scanned the tree one last time. "Oh, Castle, we have to add this one, she wants chapter books."

"Oh, another trip to the children's section? I'm in."

She pulled it down, added it to the others, and recorded it.

"That's an impressive list," Gina said over Kate's shoulder."

"She can be pretty impressive," Castle said back.

Kate turned to him, eyes wide and miming a "cut it out," gesture.

Gina took a deep breath, pushing her phone back in her pocket. "You know, Richard, we've worked together a long time. I've seen your work at it's best, and worst. I've seen your crappy, messy first drafts, your struggling, half hearted rewrites. And I've seen how good it can be when you get it right. And I'm pretty sure this is the best you've ever done."

Kate looked the other woman in the eyes, then over to Castle as he considered her words.

"I'm glad you liked the pages," Castle said slowly, as if he wasn't quite following.

Gina smiled ruefully. "Not what I meant," she said, sliding her eyes to Kate. "Listen, why don't you two take off, I can finish up here for now, and it looks like the two of you have some things to do," she gestured to the pile on the table.

They made quick goodbyes, heading to the curb, where Castle hailed a cab. "So, that was awkward," he offered as she settled in.

Kate shrugged. "At first, but it got better after the beginning, really. We did a little sharing, too."

"We'll, whatever she told you you should probably take with a grain of salt," Castle said slowly.

She hummed, considering it. "You think? I was thinking it was interesting. Of your ex-wives, I never thought Gina would be the one I liked, but I can see why the two of you would work well together." She paused for a beat. "On the books, I mean."

Castle stared at her for a long moment before he answered. "Yeah? Well, I think I've always worked better with you. On everything."

She leaned across the back seat of the cab it claim his lips with her own. "Damn right," she said happily.


	3. Chapter 3

**The Season Comes Round Again**

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own it, and they're way more evil than me

**AN:** This is a direct sequel to last years Spirit of the Season. You you can find the companion piece, from Castle's point of view, under the account of my writing partner, CuffedBunnies.

_For CB, as always._

* * *

Day 3: Blizzard

December 6, 2013

* * *

December 6: blizzard  
When she got back to her desk from wrapping her latest notes on their current case, she found a sticky note stuck to her computer screen. One word. "Blizzard?" She muttered to herself. She'd seen the weather reports and –

"Castle called," Ryan cut into her thoughts. "Seemed pretty insistent that you get that, and on paper. Don't know why. Everybody knows it's coming. But you better get out of here, or you're going to be stuck.

"Already gone," she said as she slipped on her coat. She should've known. Her partner was getting in on the act. Oh well, it was only fair. After all, she done the same to him last year as well. She smiled as she hit the button for the elevator and made her way downstairs.

The first thing she noticed as she stepped out the front door of the precinct was the bite of the winter cold. And that was unusual. Certainly it was often cold within the confines of New York City in winter, but usually whichever of her armada of coats she had chosen for the day would more than do the job. Today, the approaching storm was making short work of her defenses.

She shivered reflexively, even as she reached into her pocket to retrieve her phone as it began to ring. "Hey, Castle," she said as she brought thr phone to her ear.

"How'd you know it was me?" he asked with a laugh.

"I looked at the screen."

His voice came through the line so clearly, she could practically see the look of dismissal on his face. "You did not. You picked up so fast, there is no way you looked at the screen. The only time you check the number on your phone, Beckett, is when you are deciding whether or not to pick up, and you picked up really -"

"All right, all right. I didn't look at my phone."

"Then how did you know it was me," he asked again, with just enough wheedling in his voice to make her roll her eyes.

"Of course I knew that it was you. I just walked out the door, I got maybe six inches toward the street, and my phone rang. You are the only person I know who would be watching the clock for the end if my shift and then calculate -"

"Wow, I am busted, huh?"

"Pretty much," she returned as she began her walk to where she had parked her cruiser on the street. "Weather's coming in," she said conversationally. "Going to be ugly. At least as bad as the weather reports are saying. Trying to get over to my old place before people start realizing it and the traffic chokes off the steets. Plus, I got your note."

"Don't go there."

She stopped walking. "Castle," she started, her tone indulgent. "We're in for over a foot of snow by morning. It's like a blizzard made of a hurricane that's coming in, I really don't need to be standing on the sidewalk in front of the twelfth when it hits."

"It's a Snowicane, Beckett."

She chuckled at his exuberance. "Yeah, it is. And I'm not inclined to get snowed in at the precinct when I have the weekend off. I'll end up drafted to the emergency services detail in like five minutes here."

"Still, Beckett. Mother has decided to throw some kind of blizzard party at the studio, so she's there for the duration. Alexis is at her place. Don't go back to your old place. Come to the loft."

She drew a breath off icy air, considering it. In truth, she had no real desire to go back to her too cold, too empty apartment and wait for the power to go out. She hadn't been there in ages, had been staying at his place. Had basically moved in. But she didn't know the condition of the place, and should make sure everything would be okay with the pipes. Things like that.

When she didn't reply immediately, Castle's voice came over the line again. "Kate," he said slowly, all trace of his earlier exuberance gone, replaced with something low and rich. "Come get snowed in with me."

It slid through her, warming her blood from the inside out, warding of the chill in ways that her coat never could have. She turned away from her car, headed over to hail a cab. "Yeah," she breathed out. "Yeah, I'm on my way."

* * *

The cab had made it halfway to his place before she realized she should call and ask him if she should bring anything with her. She wasn't worried about bringing clothing or toiletries for herself, because nearly everything valuable had migrated its way to the loft over the last several months, so, she felt confident to make do with whatever he had on hand. But when she quizzed him on his supplies in a quick text, his reply was simply, "I got marshmallows."

With a shake of her head she called in and ordered two pizzas from their favorite local pizza place. When she directed the cab to the pizza place, she considered walking the two short blocks to his loft, but because of the cold she asked the driver to wait while she picked up the pizzas.

Once she was back in the cab she texted him to let him know she'd be up in about five minutes, and that she was bringing dinner. By the time she got up to his place, he was standing waiting for the open doorway.

"You didn't have to," he started.

She shrugged. "I know, I just didn't want to eat nothing but marshmallows for three days if the power went out. I figured pizza would be one of those things that was decent even if it got cold."

He blinked in surprise, then grinned. "First of all, I love the way you think. I'm crazy about your lovely, devious mind." He relieved her of the pizza boxes and ushered her inside. "And second of all, I had no intention of letting you starve, Beckett." He leaned in to press a quick kiss in her hair as she passed, and she swatted at him playfully.

"It's a couple of pizzas, Castle. There's nothing particularly devious about it. And," she said snagging his hand as soon as he put the pizzas down, "if you're going to kiss me, then kiss me."

She drew him back to her and pulled him in for a proper kiss. "You get any good writing done?" She asked, as they finally broke apart.

He shrugged. "Well, I think so. Won't really know until the editors get a good look at it. Somewhere around the third draft of the latest chapters right now, so this where it really starts to get interesting."

Interest prickled through her like a ripple of static electricity. This is one of the unexpected side effects of dating her partner. She found herself the unexpected recipient of random insights into his writing process. And whether they talked about it or not, she was still of a fan of his work, still invested enough to realize the amazingly rare gift that it was.

"Is that usually difficult?" She asked, as he pulled her further into the loft. But whatever his answer was, she missed it. Because as she was shrugging her way out of her coat, she caught sight of his living room.

"Castle," she choked out on a laugh, "what on Earth –"

He'd...she couldn't quite believe it...converted the entire living room, and most of the adjacent dining area into a giant blanket fort.

"Cool right?" Castle said. "There's an entire area over here, with the black comforters, with an air mattress, And then this area over here has the later comforters and sheets so we can use the projector. I've got battery packs for that. And then I left it open over by the fireplace, and that way we'll have the ability to run it for light and heat if we have to."

She could see how pleased he was with himself, all of his grand emergency blizzard plans. "Wow, Castle. This is really something," she said. And she knew that her adoration for this ridiculous man was creeping into her voice. Couple of years ago, that would've annoyed her. Now it's just the way things work, it seemed. Though she tries not to let it show too often, knowing it would go straight Castle's head. Still – this was the full-scale display of his inner child, and she kind of loved it. "And you have marshmallows, too," she added with a little laugh.

"Not just marshmallows, Beckett," he said, in a voice that she knew well, one that carried a 'get with it' message under the words. "A full-scale array of options for s'mores, look."

She looked. And in fact, he had covered Most of his kitchen counter space with graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate. Also peanut butter, what looked to be a couple different flavors of jelly, cookies, candy, and a few other things she hadn't even considered when it came to s'mores.

"You make s'mores like you make cookies," she observed.

Castle eyes went as round as saucers. "Oh, actually? I got that stuff too, if the power stays on or for when we get it back."

She shook her head, knowing she's smiling anyway. Of course he did. That was just part of what made him Castle. She sighed, "Okay, so pizza?"

He nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, and movies. I've got a whole Christmas based selection. He gestured to a stack of DVDs. She saw a Muppet Christmas Carol, which they had watched last year, The Polar Express, which made her warm inside with rememberence, Scrooged - because, who doesn't love Bill Murray and his towel gifting habits? - some horrendous looking 60's B-grade sci-fi monstrosity about Santa on Mars, and - she sucked in a breath and turned her eyes to his.

"Thought you'd like that," he said. Soft, but pleased with himself. "I saw it and immediately thought of you. I knew we had to have it. It's the new one, the TV special. It's a little under half an hour, but there is a commentary and stuff."

She turned it over in her hands, stared at the digitally animated girl with read hair beneath the title that read, "Yes Virginia," and felt tears prick at her eyes.

She remembered how terrifying it had been, standing in front of that school waiting for him. Committing to this, really. Letting him know exactly how it was he had changed her over time, or at least reawakened a part of her she had never expected to see again. How he had brought love and magic, and yes, Christmas back into her life.

She cleared her throat, trying to pull it together. "Really sappy there, Castle."

She felt him step up behind her, draw his arms around her waist. "Yeah," he said softly against her hair, "but it's for you, so..."

She smiled again, trust him to make it even sappier. Okay, enough. She stepped out of his embrace and dropped to her knees. "So, are you going be joining me in this monstrosity, or not?" she asked, even as she ducked through the entrance to his rather impressive blanket fort.

"Of course," he answered. She could hear him moving behind her.

"Good. Don't forget the supplies then," she said dryly.

"Right," He said, "pizza. And Marshmellows!"

* * *

"Castle, I swear if I have to watch something this bad, you better be over here watching it with me," she groused. Of course he decided this is the perfect moment to go and make this s'mores, leaving her stuck watching Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, by herself. Pure 1960s cheese. Exactly what she would have expected him to slip into their holiday viewing. It crossed her mind to tell him that if he kept on like this he would lose 3 turns, but she remembered Virginia and held her peace.

A few minutes later, he climbed back toward her through the tunnel blankets coming from over by the fireplace and settled in next to her, holding out a plate of treats. "It's just round one," he said, "but we've got classic, black forest, and Elvis."

"Elvis?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"Sure, same marshmallow, but you swap out a miniature Reese's peanut butter cup for the chocolate, and add a slice of banana," he explained, handing her one.

She bit into the gooey convection, peanut butter and marshmallow oozing out of the sides. "Good," she said, though it sounded like "Goo!" Which was also a fairly accurate description.

Castle laughed. "You have some chocolate," he leaned over and swiped at the her bottom lip with his tumb, "right there," he said.

She raised an eyebrow him as she reached out and stole the chocolate from his thumb with her tongue. "Thanks," she said with a small smile.

Castle stared at her for a long moment, and she had the distinct impression they might not actually finish the movie. "You're to kill me one of these days," he said. "You know that, don't you?"

"Sure, but it's going to be fun."

He groaned but pulled away, which surprised her. He seem to notice when she didn't say anything for a long moment, and turned back to look at her.

"Not yet, Beckett. I've got something planned for after movie hour, and if we start that, we'll never get to it."

She ducked her head so that he couldn't see that she was dangerously close to blushing. She wasn't usually quite like this, but the prospect of being alone with him here only, the world locked outside was quite tempting. The snow started a short while ago, and it seemed to dampen even the noise of the city outside. That probably had more to do with folks getting off the roads because of the impending storm, but the effect was the same.

"Fine Castle, have it your way," she said with a roll of her eyes. "My turn to make the s'mores, anyway. Your turn to watch the Martians." She climbed over him, ducking through the tunnels of blankets, making our way toward the fireplace. She got to the end just as the lights flickered out.

"Think we just lost power," she called back.

"No worries, I've got three battery backups for the DVD player in here. And plenty of blankets, so I don't think we'll have any trouble staying warm."

Yeah she wasn't thinking they were going to have any trouble keeping one another warm, either. But, if Castle had something he was aiming out, she wasn't going to bring that particular subject up again. She dug her way through the pile of s'mores ingredients for the fireplace, trying to see if she could find a few crazy concoctions of her own. Castle wasn't the only one who could come up with snacks to raise eyebrows, she thought.

#

They spent the next couple of hours watching movies on the projection player, and trying to one up each other with bizarre s'more combinations. When at last the movies had finished, Castle reached out for her hand.

"Okay," he said, tipping his head down the opposite tunnel toward the part of the fort made with darker blankets. "Come on, this way. I want to show you something." He had that little boy excitement about him that you come to love, the one that always made her curious, and just a little nervous.

"Okay," she said, wiping the last of the sticky marshmallow goo from her fingers.

They made their way toward the darker part of the fort, and Castle motion for her to make herself comfortable. It wasn't hard, he was pretty good at this blanket fort stuff, she thought with a laugh. Wondered how many times he done it over the years. Probably often with Alexis, now that she thought about it. She opened her mouth ask him about it, when suddenly the little area they were in seemed to light up from every angle.

"What –" she started to ask before she acclimated to the change, and realized what it was. "Stars?" She asked.

She could see Castle's answering smile in the low-level darkness. "Pretty cool, Ha? It's like our very own private planetarium."

It was actually pretty amazing, she had to admit. This wasn't like those cheap ones the people bought their kids, either. This was a serious projector, and she could see the array of stars and constellations on the ceiling of the blanket fort, and along all four sides. Trust Castle never to do anything small, she thought. But yes, she had to admit this was pretty cool. If not your standard hang out in the blizzard with your boyfriend activity.

"Amazing," she said softly, pleased when she watched him light up with it.

"I knew you'd like it, because you're amazing," he said.

That struck her almost immediately, and she realized something. He invited her over to play. She thought again that he must've done this many times before, probably with his daughter. And now it occurred to ask. "You seem to be something of a pro at this," she said, somewhat uncertainly.

She heard the ruffle of his clothing against the blankets, as he shrugged in the semi darkness. "oh, you know. Used to be a lot of fun when Alexis was little. Now she just thinks I need to grow up."

Kate frowned. She knew that the two of them had been going through some growing pains lately, but that seemed a bit much even to her. She reached out and took his hand in the darkness. "Nah, Your inner child is a lot more fun than he is annoying, Castle. Don't ever change."

"Thanks," he said after a long moment. "I know it's probably not exactly what you had in mind when I invited you over here," he admitted softly.

He sounded so dejected when he said it, that it made her hurt a little. "No," she said softly. "This is better."

She laid back from the blankets, glancing up at the surrounding starlike lights. For a long moment there was nothing, and then he was over, partially blocking her view. "Of course," he said slowly, "The best part is we can play like grownups too."

A slow grin spread across her face, as she leaned up to meet his kiss. "Thought you'd never ask."


	4. Chapter 4

**The Season Comes Round Again**

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own it, and they're way more evil than me

**AN:** This is a direct sequel to last years Spirit of the Season. You you can find the companion piece, from Castle's point of view, under the account of my writing partner, CuffedBunnies.

_For CB, who has the patience of a saint. Thank you._

* * *

Day 4: Marshmallow World

December 7, 2013

* * *

Kate woke to the buzzing of her phone, and a knock at the door. A very insistent knock, at that. She rolled over gingerly on the air mattress Castle had set up for the night in their giant blanket fort. "Castle," she said shaking him gently wake. "Wake up, there's someone at the door."

She felt slightly ridiculous having to wake him for a knock at the door, she essentially had fully moved in at this point, only keeping the apartment for practical reasons now. If she continued to hang onto it until after they were married, it would stay rent controlled as long as it stayed within the family. And once they married, his family would effectively be hers under the law. She'd been thinking of it as possibly a better situation for Alexis (and by extension Pi, perhaps) – or Martha, should his mother decided that she wanted her own space after they were married. Not that she would even begin to think of kicking the older woman out of her home, obviously.

Besides the fact that that would feel wrong, Kate had grown to love Martha Rogers particular style. Flamboyant she may be, but it's been such a very long time since she's had someone maternal in her life. And just the thought still made tears rise in her throat, but she pushed it aside.

There was another round of knocking, and Kate shook him again. "Castle," she said, almost hissing now. "Someone's here, wake up."

"What?" He came awake with a jerk.

"There someone at the door," she said for the third time. "Oh, and my phone," she said, remembering as it beeped and vibrated again. Oh a text message, That's why it had escaped her mind in the moment. Not the repeated ring of a call, just a repeated reminder for an uncollected text message.

She scooped up her phone while Castle stumbled his feet. "Okay," he said. "I'm up,"

Kate bit back a reply as she checked her phone for the apparent message. She looked down at it and blinked now in surprise. "Marshmallow world?" she said, confused. It read like one of Castle's messages, but he had been sleeping. Who on earth could've sent this?

She stumbled out from the remains of their giant living room fort just in time to hear Castle exclaim "Alexis?"

In the somewhat blinding confusion, it read to Kate like an answer to her own question. And checking the number attached to her text message, she realized that it was. It took her brain another few seconds to catch up. More muddled from sleep than it usually was, she thought. Get it together Kate.

Alexis's voice came through the loft then, "I saw the power was back on in most of the neighborhood, so I thought maybe I could come over and we could – " there was a long pause. "Oh my God, I woke you guys. I'm so sorry. We were up early and I didn't even think –"

Kate heard Castle quickly insisting that it was all right, that they were up. But her eyes swept over the kitchen area of the loft, seeing the flashing clocks for the first time, indicating that the power was indeed back on. When her eyes finally settled on the two Castle's in the doorway, she saw Alexis looking hesitantly her way.

"No, yeah. Alexis it's fine. We're up." She waved her phone in the air of it. "Just got your message."

"If you're sure," Alexis said uncertainly. Then she seemed to look past Kate into the living room for the first time. "Oh my God, Dad, what did you do?"

"We got snowed in," Castle said by way of explanation.

"Dad," Alexis said with a little eyeroll. And it was affectionate, but it made something slightly defensive rise up in Kate anyway.

She moved up to stand next to Castle, reached out to run her hand down his back as she smiled and his daughter. "I don't think I've ever had that much fun in a blackout," she said.

She saw the young redhead's eyes widen slightly, and she wondered briefly just what the girl thought she might have meant. But she didn't say a thing more, so Kate added, "Although, I admit it wasn't exactly a fan of Santa Claus versus the Martians, but the indoor planetarium trick was really neat."

"Oh, you did stars for Kate?" Alexis asked, sounding more enthusiastic than she had. Something she particularly liked, Kate thought. Maybe the girl wasn't too grown up for her dad after all.

"Go have a shower Castle. We'll clean up here, and I'll see if I can get breakfast going," she said, already moving to start the coffee.

"Thought we were gonna do cookies," he said. "That could be breakfast. This one time when I was in Ireland, they only had chocolate chip cookies on the breakfast menu at the hotel, so it's a real thing," Castle tried.

"No," both women said in unison.

But even as Castle headed for the shower with a petulant "No fun," Kate thought she might have an idea that came pretty close.

* * *

"I think that's the last of the blankets," Alexis called over her shoulder to Kate as she shut the door to the closet.

Kate looked up as she poured the last of the batter into the pan. "Great Alexis, thank you. Sorry, I got a little caught up here. I didn't mean to leave you with the bulk of the cleanup."

The redhead waved her off. "No, it's cool. I'm used to the after effects of Dad's adventures anyway. Plus, I know he always likes your magic cooking skills. I think he's dying to see your cookie dough tricks in action this year."

Kate laughed. "Think I've got one to beat the cookies this year." She waved her hand at her creation as she reached for the bag of chocolate chips on the counter.

Alexis walked over to join her, and stared. "Is that a giant -"

"Yep." Kate grinned back. "Wait til you see the syrup." She gestured to the topping ingredients on the counter.

"Dad's going to lose his mind," the girl offered with a breathless little laugh.

"That's the general idea," Kate offered.

"How can I help?" Alexis asked.

Kate thought for a moment. "I'm on this. But, um, bacon?"

"On it," Alexis said, moving to the fridge. By the time Castle emerged from his office 15 minutes later, she was pulling her creation from the oven.

* * *

"Well," he said, before he'd even reached them. "This smells like heaven. What are you two up to in here?"

"It was all Kate's idea," Alexis offered quickly. "And I thought you had the market cornered on crazy breakfasts."

Kate knew the moment when he spied the pan on the counter where she had set it just a moment ago, because his hand froze half way to his coffee cup.

"Is that...a pizza pancake?! A giant chocolate chip pizza sized pancake?"

"Uh huh," Kate said. She looked up at him, barefooted as she was - And she refused to think about the fact that she actually liked being barefoot in his kitchen - and grinned.

Castle kept right on staring. Finally he seemed to find his voice again. "How are you even a real person?"

She laughed and shrugged. "Another old trick of my mom's. "If you bake the pancakes like this, they'll come out at the same time so everybody gets hot ones at once." She waited a beat, then added, "Plus, this is always a great excuse to make the peanut butter syrup."

"The what now?" Castle asked, gaping at her.

Alexis laughed. "I told you he'd lose his mind."

Kate shared a smile with her, and then a thought struck. "Are you sure this is going to be okay for you, Alexis? I mean I know that you and Pi –"

"No," Alexis offered quickly. "I mean, it's important to him, but it's more his than mine. It's fine when we eat together, but…"

Understanding dawned on Kate. "Sometimes you just need a little sugar in your life?"

Alexis nodded quickly. "And dairy… And bacon!" She punctuated the point with a quick bite. "I mean I want to be supportive but," she trailed off.

"Sometimes a girl's got to do her own thing?" Kate offered.

"Exactly." Alexis looked relieved, Kate noted.

"Hey, as long as you know that, and he does too, you're good. Besides, it goes both ways," she said, thinking of Castle and his recent writing heavy days. From the corner of her eye, she could see Castle smiling her way.

"Yeah," Alexis sighed.

Castle looked as if he was about to add something, but Kate shook her head and handed him a plate. "Eat, Castle. We have cookies to bake."

He nodded. "Yeah, I still want your cookie dough secrets."

She took the stool next to his. "I told you Castle, it's easy. You just need all the extra mixer bowls you can get your hands on, about a half dozen large zippered plastic bags, then from there it's all assembly line work."

Alexis picked up the trail of the explanation using some of the tips that she had taught her last year to use in the dorm, and they settled in to easy breakfast conversation.

Kate had the distinct impression that before long she would have a sugar high Castle on her hands. But as the warmth of the kitchen settled around them in the midst of the too quiet winter covered world outside, she found herself thinking it just might be worth it.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own it, and they're way more evil than me

**AN:** This is a direct sequel to last years Spirit of the Season. You you can find the companion piece, from Castle's point of view, under the account of my writing partner, CuffedBunnies.

**AN:** Sorry for the delay. I fell asleep before dinner, and woke up after midnight. Yikes!

_For CB, thanks for always being there, even in the middle of the night._

* * *

Day 5: Stories

December 8, 2013

* * *

The snow had finally been well and truly cleared by the time she woke in the morning. Truthfully, it'd been cleared the day before, though she knew that Castle was not at all pleased that Alexis had made her way from her place to theirs and still somewhat treacherous city landscape.

He insisted on calling for a car for her to get home last night, despite his daughter's insistence to the contrary. She also knew without asking that as soon as he knew that Max was the driver on duty, he had probably promised the younger man the bit more money to be sure that his daughter was safely walked to her door. Well she partially agreed with Alexis that his concern was a bit over-the-top, she couldn't exactly be faulted for it either. The area around Columbia was nice enough, but even she was leery of the girl getting back after dark in less than ideal conditions.

She smiled to herself as she stretched leisurely in bed. The loft still smelled of warm sugar from their baking the night before. And left her with a feeling of home, one she was still adjusting to after all of these months. But this was good, it was progress, she knew.

Suddenly she was aware of a very different scent in the air. Coffee. Well at least that explained where Castle head gotten to. Sure enough, a few moments later he rounded the bedroom door with both of their mugs in his hands.

"You're up early," she said, stretching again. There was just a little bit of whine to her voice, that she hadn't intended.

"And you slept in," he returned, something indulgent in her fiancé's tone that she didn't particularly like. She stuck her tongue out at him in retaliation. "Snowed in, remember?"

He shook his head as he set the tray of coffee down next to her. "Not anymore, thank goodness," he said. "I have plans for us today."

"Oh is that right?" she asked dryly. But even as she said it, she felt the familiar tingle run through her as she spotted the note between the two coffee cups on the tray.

Her fingers itched to snatch it, but she slid her eyes to Castle first, then back to the note before she finally reach out and grabbed it up. "Stories?" she asked, raising an eyebrow in his direction.

Castle all that announced on his toes. "Yep. Today is the New York Public Library's holiday open house. It's an event that they do every year for members and supporters. It's a family thing, lots of fun. I thought it might be nice to go and check it out, since we didn't go last year. Plus, it's a nice change of pace from being stuck indoors these last couple of days.

She didn't even bother trying to hide her smirk. "And here I thought you like being stuck in the loft with me."

She could see the backpedal written all over his face. "Oh, I do. Believe me I do. But I really think you'll enjoy this. So it's worth a little time braving this snowy world, I think."

She took a sip of her coffee and smiled. "Relax Castle, I'm just messing with you. It sounds like fun." Honestly, anything that involves Castle and books was likely to be more than a little enjoyable, if you asked her But, she wasn't sure exactly How much of that she wanted to say this morning. His ego didn't need it this early in the day.

But she could see the moment that her registered her excitement. He relaxed with it, grinning wide. Oh, that made her feel good.

"Good." He reached out and snagged his own coffee cup. After a long sip, he turned to her and said, "It starts in a couple of hours, so it's not exactly a rush, but we should probably get moving. Shower?" The raise of his eyebrow told her they might just be in for "a rush" after all. She took another long sip of her coffee, knowing she'd be abandoning it in short order.

"Absolutely," she said, as she rose to her feet. "We wouldn't want to be late."

* * *

Kate turned in the circle in the middle of the map room. This was amazing. They had events and goings-on on every floor. Here, there was a map oriented challenge, the prize for which was a book. Castle being a sucker for clues, had drawn her in immediately. They played along like kids, but it was fun.

There was a veritable circus of characters downstairs, and she swore she saw Mother Goose wandering the second floor. She'd been trying to remember if she'd ever attended this before, as a child. The event is nearly as old as she is, and she'd always loved the New York Public Library. But she had no immediate memory, and wondered if perhaps her parents were simply always busy when the event rolled around.

But she could see the appeal of the event for families almost immediately. Wondered about the years that Castle must've brought Alexis. Wondered - for just a moment - if there might be more years like that ahead. For both of them.

Her eyes searched the room for Castle, found him talking to a rather animated woman near the doorway. A man standing several feet off the woman's right watched them closely. She made her way over to the small group.

She caught a phrase of the woman's conversation, something that sounded like "... would really appreciate it," before the man hovering nearby stepped over to her.

"Miss Beckett," the man said in greeting. "Lovely to see you," he continued politely.

Something in his voice, and a little in his face to was familiar. But she couldn't place it. She tipped her head in greeting, presuming the man was someone with the membership committee, along with the woman who would doubtlessly cornered Castle. It'd been several years, but she hadn't forgotten that charity event they had attended together in their first year. She knew these sorts of events were likely to always draw people to Castle. And his money. But, she also knew that this library would always be one of his first loves, and so of course he would never mind. And neither did she, really. As long as she could stay in the shadows of it.

"My apologies for interrupting your morning, dear," the man said, kindly. "Ellen was looking for some emergency assistance, and I thought Mr. Castle might be the perfect fit."

She turned back to look at the man again. "Oh, it's all right." She paused, and then slid her eyes over her companion again, trying to remember. "Have we met?" She asked, finally giving it up.

The man smiled at her, brightly. "Oh I'm sure we've crossed paths a time or two. I'm Chris. I work in the research room. Have for years. I keep an eye on all the comings and goings through there, you know."

Something in the way that he said "coming and going" part caught Kate's attention. She could think of two very distinct comings and goings she and Castle and had through the research room of the library over the past few years. She hid a slight blush behind the fall of her hair as she looked down.

"Kate, there you are," Castle said, joining them. She watched as his eyes went from Chris to her and back again. "Oh. Have the two of youÖ met?" he asked.

"Oh, a time or two. Here and there." Chris answered before she had the chance to speak. "Excuse me, I'll leave you to it."

"That was Very strange," Kate said quietly.

"Oh? Chris has been in the research room for years, he's been invaluable to me on a number projects," Castle said.

Kate nodded, but narrowed her eyes. She had been around enough suspects to know when someone looked nervous, and she had been around Castle enough to know he was hiding something. But she let it go, for now. "What was all that about?" she asked.

"Oh, well that's going to put a small change in our afternoon, I'm afraid. Ellen works in the children's room," he said. "And apparently, the narrator for the children's holiday story hour canceled at the last moment. Snowed in. Ellen could do it herself, but she wondered maybe if I wouldn't mind – if it's alright with you – filling in?"

Her eyes widened. That hadn't been that she was expecting it all. "Really?" she asked, delight filling her at the thought. She might never admit this to him personally, but she loved listening to Castle read. He had the perfect voice for it.

"Yeah, pretty cool, huh?"

* * *

They made their way quickly to the children's room. Poor Ellen had been in a bit of a bind it seemed, and there wasn't much time before the reading hour was set to begin.

Kate was taking her bearings of the children's room, an area she had always loved, but hadn't visited in a while, just as some one called to him.

"Mr. Castle!" They both turned in the direction of the voice, and Kate saw the woman she had seen earlier headed in their direction. "I'm Ellen Rigby," she offered, shaking Kate's hand. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day, and on such short notice! I'm afraid the rather unpleasant weather this weekend has put everyone a bit upside down it seems. I'm grateful we were able to get the event underway at all."

"It's really no problem at all," Castle said, instantly smiling and squeezed Kate's hand. "I'm happy to help out."

"The children and their parents are this way. Follow me," Ellen smiled brightly, then lead them into the reading area. There were a number of children of all ages, Kate noticed. A few parents were sprinkled about, keeping an eye on the younger ones, she imagined.

Kate stepped away from Castle as they reached the area where he would be setting up. "This is your place. I'm going to find a chair."

"Okay." He didn't seem pleased with her decision, necessarily, but he leaned in for a quick kiss as they parted, and she let that be enough.

She found a seat near the back, and watched as Castle carefully selected two books from the pile next to the podium at the front of the room. From the smile on his face, she had a feeling he was quite pleased with his selections. From where she was sitting, she couldn't see the covers, but she could guess at least one of the titles.

Ellen give a short speech welcome, but Kate found herself watching Castle. She realized, she never really seen him like this before. She attended that one reading back in her first year working with him, but this is different. He wasn't necessarily going for "Richard Castle, famous mystery author" persona here. But he was different than the Castle she saw every day. As if he was trying to strike a balance between his "on stage self" and the man she knew. Perhaps even a bit of Castle, the father.

Whatever it was, he seemed to pull it together just as the librarian finished speaking. Castle smiled broadly and walked up with a slight jump in his step as he waved to the clapping audience.

"Good morning, everyone, I am so very thankful to be here this morning, so that I may read a few really awesome stories to you and your children."

Kate startled a bit when Castle suddenly dropped one of the books in his hand. She watched as he bent down to pick it up, and fumbled the other a little at the same time. Several children giggled, and their parents smiled.

Kate shifted with nervous sympathy and her seat. She knew nervous Castle when she saw him. She tried to offer her best smile of sympathy as he stood and faced the crowd again.

"And you thought this would be just a normal reading day, huh?" he joked, deflecting the emotion as always, she realized. Then, he set the books on the podium, but seemed to look around the room for moment and then changed his mind. He picked them up again, move the podium off to the side and said down on the edge of the stage with the books at his side.

"I think this is a bit better, don't you?" Kate smiled as the children nodded their agreement. She couldn't help but agree. Good, she thought. Let him be himself. She liked that far better than any version of his persona, anyway.

"Can anyone tell me what book this is?" Castle asked as he raised the first book up for all to see. She watched as Castle selected a child from the audience. A brightly excited little blonde girl.

He pointed to her, "Miss, do you know the title of this story?"

She clapped her hands over her smiling mouth and nodded, And Kate could see the girls glasses slipping slightly as her head bobbed up-and-down.

"Can you tell me?" Castle asked, and his voice was different than Kate could ever remember hearing it. But, somehow she knew that it must've been the same one he used with his daughter when she was small. She wondered if Alexis had ever been that shy.

The little girl squeaked, then looked at her mother, who nodded and gave her a little nudge. Her eyes were wide, and slowly she brought her hands down. "It's The Polar Express!" she exclaimed, then immediately clapped her hands over her mouth again. Kate couldn't help but grin. The little girl was adorable. Actually, they both were.

Castle looked at the book, then back at the girl, "Very good! Is it a good story? I haven't read it in a very long time, and you know, when you get old like me, your memory goes quick." Castle looked at the book again, "Hey, can anyone tell me what book this is?"

The kids started giggling again, and he couldn't help but laugh too. "I'm really kidding, my memory isn't that bad. But it has been a while."

Kate been her lip in a failed attempt to hide her grin. It may have been a while since he had read the book to a group of children, but her memory was instantly filled with their train trip last year. With how much he had loved it. They both did. She was still quite proud of that particular surprise. Even if last year's birthday had maybe topped it. Maybe.

Castle opened the book and read the title page, "The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg."

She watched as he read, and interacted with his audience. Sure, there had been that other reading long ago, but this is different. This was Castle with children. And, as seeing him as a father always had, it did something strange to her insides. Only this time, it felt so very different. This time, there were possibilities.

When he had finished the book, Kate watched in amusement as he played up to the children's applause.

Then, he looked at the other book, and she saw the smile that slid over his face "Here's our next story, and it's favorite, particularly because it reminds me of someone in my, um, family," he held it up and looked directly at Kate when he said, "Santa Mouse, by Michael Brown."

She flushed with it, remembering that they last year when they had gone on their first angel shopping trip, how she had sat on the floor of the bookstore reading the book for the first time as he puttered about the children's section, carefully selecting just about every major children's classic. She had fallen in love with it, but wondered how he knew. Wondered what he meant when he said it reminded him of her.

It wasn't long before the story was finished, and he stood, waving at the audience, thanking them as they clapped.

Then, as keeping him to make her way in his direction, she noticed the little blonde haired girl from before, barreling in Castle direction, hugging him with a giant smile on her face. "Thank you, Mr. Castle!" The girl exclaimed.

"You are very welcome," he smiled and patted her on the back as he looked around for her parent.

Mom was right there, and pulled her daughter away. "I apologize, Mr. Castle, all this time, and Kaylee still doesn't know a stranger."

"It's all right," he said, then got on his knees, so he was at eye level with her, "I'm glad you came to listen to me read Kaylee!" he said.

She never seemed to stop smiling. "I really, really, really liked the stories! It was really fun! Are you going to read more?"

She saw the hesitation on Castle space, even from a few feet to his right. She felt the stop of sympathy for him, the little girl was adorable, and Kate suspected even she would have a hard time telling little one no.

"I'm afraid that's all the time I have to read for today, but if the librarian lady asks me to come back again, I will do my best to be here," Castle promised.

"Okay!" Kaylee's eyes lit up and she hugged him quickly again before she ran back to her mother, "Mommy, did you hear that? Mr. Castle will come back if he's asked! We gotta make sure they ask him back!" Her mother smiled and waved as Kaylee continued to chatter on.

Kate stepped forward as he got to his feet, looped her arm around his and leaned in close. "You tell me I'm extraordinary, but sometimes, you do the most amazing things that make you extraordinary as well."

As she took in Castle's startled response, she made a note to say things like that more often. Apparently, he wasn't used to hearing them. And for all their joking about his ego, that might be true. Damn.

She thought for a moment, trying to find something to change the topic, relieve his evident embarrassment. "Hey, when you said that Santa Mouse reminded you of someone in the family, you meant me, yeah?"

He nodded, still looking a bit uneasy, though pleased. "Yeah. I mean, lonely little mouse who sees the injustice of Santa having no one to give him gifts, so he does it himself, and finds his place in the world in the process? Totally a Kate Beckett story."

Oh. Oh, that hadn't been what she was expecting. Now she finds herself stunned, on the verge of tearing up a little. She ducked her head, leaning deeper into his side, wrapping her arms around him. "Love you," she murmured in his ear. "Now, I saw the dance floor, so take me downstairs and dance with me, Castle."

He pulled back from her with a smile that rivaled that of his new young fan. "Yes, Ma'am."


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own it, and they're way more evil than me

**AN:** This is a direct sequel to last years Spirit of the Season. You you can find the companion piece, from Castle's point of view, under the account of my writing partner, CuffedBunnies.

_CB, this was your baby – so, I hope I did it justice!_

* * *

Day 6: Decoration

December 9, 2013

* * *

It had been just under a week since she started this, and she once again found her whole body humming with excitement at the impending surprise. This felt bigger than what had come before, and so she took to decorating the loft someone zealously, If only as a distraction while she waited for him to return. He had gone shopping, but he had been a couple of hours now, and she had to admit that even she was surprised at how much she had gotten done in that time.

The mantle, of course, where she'd started. She also unpacked a few larger things, hung garland, and arranged this and that wherever it seemed to feel right. It had been a long time since she'd done this, really done this, except for the somewhat small-scale job she had done on her old place last year as as a surprise for him. But she seemed to find the rhythm of it naturally, drawing on the memory of his choices last year, and some of her childhood ones as well.

She's still half way up the ladder when she heard Castle's key turn in the lock. She looked carefully back over her shoulder. He had a load in his arms, she saw, much more than the moderate list he had left with. Of course he did. She turned back toward the ladder, and slowly started to make her way down.

She didn't even bother raising an eyebrow at the grocery bags in his arms. She wrote it off as replenishing supplies - and his candy/baking stash from both their snowed in portion of the weekend, and their impromptu cookie baking session with Alexis two days before.

"You can scrape your jaw off the floor anytime now," she said as she climbed down the ladder, glancing back to take in his startled expression.

"I... I'm amazed," he said, sounding awestruck. You are like some kind of ninja. Did you know that?"

She smiled, "Seems like I have heard that before. There's still plenty left to do, but why don't you look around a bit before you help me finish?" She dropped the suggestion carefully, nerves twisting her stomach a bit. No backing out now. She hadn't been this nervous since his birthday last spring. Granted, this wasn't the same kind of grand scale surprise, but it still felt...bigger. So much bigger.

"Okay," Castle said, in a tone that she still didn't know what to make of, really. She knew that he was attached so much of his traditions, and she respected that. But, she'd made some small changes in each place that she'd worked. She'd added some of her own pieces and touches to his decorations from last year, and moved a few of his around, trying them out in different combinations, bringing herself into the space a bit.

The tree was up, as it had been since they picked it up, a couple days before the weekend snowstorm. It remained undecorated, but she'd laid out some of the ornaments for him to sort through, mostly his own more basic ones and a few of hers from her small box from her old apartment. She'd left the more fragile of hers and his in their boxes, including the ones that had been clearly constructed years go by his daughter, and her "book page" orniments from last year. They could add both later.

She'd done plenty along the walls, though. There were strings of lights, tinsel, and many different garlands she had found within his boxes of holiday dËcor. She turned to watch him as he slowly took in the room. She watched as his eyes catch on one ornament near the tree. And, oh, of course it would be that one. A wreath she'd snagged from one of her dad's boxes one weekend and taken home as her own without comment. A picture wreath she'd made her mom when she was in first grade.

Kate watched him turn it over in his hand, realizing what he had in his hands a moment later apparently. "This is you!" he said, and she got a small thrill from the way his voice cracked. She was quite certain he hadn't been expecting that.

"Yeah, well," Kate said as she walked up behind him, her arms wrapped around him and her chin rested on his shoulder. "They were in the box of decorations I opened last year. I figured you wouldn't mind if I added them with the ones you and Alexis made."

He turned and kissed her cheek. "This is so awesome," he said, and she ducked her head into his neck, suddenly a bit shy with it. And they hadn't even gotten to her hopefully subtle surprise.

He set the old wreath ornament down gently, as if it were some kind of precious thing, almost too much to see, before he moved slowly away from her to take in the candles that she had arranged out on the piano.

She cleared her throat, and he leaned back into her for a moment before he pulled her in front of him. "You have no idea how amazing this is to me," he said quietly.

"And you haven't really seen all of it yet," she said with what she hoped passed for a neutral smile. She took a slip of paper out of her pocket and pressed it into the palm of his hand.

She studied him carefully as Castle opened the paper and read it to himself, "Decoration," he read aloud. He looked back up at her and she could see - and feel - as she watched her closely. She knew it was leaking out, into her voice and her eyes. She watched the emotions and questions pass over his face.

"Okay..." He agreed readily enough, and began working his way around the loft. She watched with interest, and more than a bit of nerves.

He walked over to the piano, and she had the impression that he was treating it the way he did at a come scene, detail by detail. That made her smile, dispite her concerns. She curled her hands into fists as his eyes traced the lines of the garlands and other wall decorations before finally coming to rest on the mantle of his fireplace. She took a deep breath and waited.

He was smiling as he took in the pictures and the smaller decor changes her work had wrought, and ordinarily, this would have thrilled her. Be the icy tendrils of fear that sloshed in her blood refused to allow that moment of relief as his eyes fell on the stockings hanging from the edge of the mantle.

She watched as it hit him. Saw him stop, stare, seem to count, and then count again. And then he froze. Ice pooled in her stomach, and she waited.

But he stayed frozen where she was. Damn. Bad idea Kate. Terrible plan. What the hell had she been thinking, anyway? She cleared her throat and stepped up behind him. "Okay, maybe what I did was a bad idea," she said, the edge of her nerves crackling in her voice. "Castle, breathe!"

"I-I-okay," he choked out. Oh, this was so much worse than she had thought it would be. She needed to get this under control. Now.  
"Now, sit," she commanded in her best Detective Beckett voice, grateful that he seemed willing to comply.

He took a few steps back, then landed hard onto the couch. He seemed to be slugging for air. She knew how he felt. "Are you-?" he asked after a moment.

"No, I'm not," Kate answered, and suddenly it occurred to her where exactly this had all gone wrong, what he was thinking. How had she not seen that coming? "I just... after watching you with the kids yesterday, it really made me think about us, and our future."

"Oh, okay," he said. She let herself be hopeful now, because he didn't seem as horrified by the concept as she feared he might be from his first reaction. In fact, She could swear that he was somehow as disappointed as he was relieved by the knowledge that this was not an imminent change occurring in their lives, but a discussion of possibilities. But, oh, she could see now that he wanted it. He was no more ready for it right now than she was, but he wanted it. A family with her. He wanted it too.

Kate took his hand in hers and she squeezed it as she smiled. "My plan backfired here, and I am sorry, Castle. I didn't expect... well, I just didn't think it through. Like I said, I watched you read to the kids, and remembered about a year ago when you said you wanted the option of having more kids." She bit her lip and watched him for a few seconds before she continued, "This is me telling you that if, or when, you decide you want that option to become a reality, I'm here, and I'm all in."

Her writer stared at her, wordless for a long moment, wordless. She didn't know whether to be thrilled, or terrified at the thought of rendering him speechless. Some writer's muse she was, she thought with an uneasy smile.

But then, just as worry began to overtake her ammusment, he pulled her against him, threading his fingers through her hair and crashing his lips into hers.

She took that as a yes.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own it, and they're way more evil than me

**AN:** This is a direct sequel to last years Spirit of the Season. You you can find the companion piece, from Castle's point of view, under the account of my writing partner, CuffedBunnies.

_For my partner_

* * *

Day 7: Holly

December 10, 2013

* * *

She's barely even surprised when she finds his note the next afternoon. This has been her effort, mostly. Or it was supposed to be. But then, hadn't she taken over his last year? More than once after she had gotten started with the first angel project. She gotten sucked into the fun of it, the chance to surprise him once in a while. So, it seemed only fair if he had done the same this year.

She finds the little card with a note in an envelope on her desk, after he'd ducked out early on the pretense of running an errand, and then picking up dinner on his way home while she finished paperwork. At the time, she had teased him about ducking out of the paperwork, even though he had been more likely to stay, lately. Now she's beginning to realize, maybe he had more of an ulterior motive than she thought. Maybe, just maybe, he was planning something. She thought ahead to some of her plans for later in the month, and smiled. She had been planning something small for this evening, but nothing major, nothing that couldn't be shifted. And if she had, well – he'd changed plans a time or two for her last year, she was sure.

She turned the envelope over in her hand, and pulled out the small card. One word. Holly. She thought for a moment, the single word taking her mind back to his mother's message last year about mistletoe. She cringed. Hopefully Castle wasn't planning some large impromptu party.

She shook her head got up from her desk, grabbing her coat and heading for the elevator. As she went she quickly texted him. "if I'm walking into an ambush at the loft, fair warning may save your life."

She's unlocking the door to her car by the time the answer comes back. "No ambush, promise. Just me."

When it came to him and surprises, that wasn't necessarily as reassuring as she would like it to be, but Kate would take it. She fired back a quick "Good." And then she slid behind The wheel, as she heard chime for an incoming text sound again.

She checked quickly. "No mistletoe, either. Unless you want some, in which case…"

She laughed a little, as she sent back, "I don't need mistletoe, just you is perfect." Sappy. He was making her sappy. But screw it. She didn't need an invitation to kiss Castle, not anymore.

But, whatever he had planned, the idea that it would be just the two of them at the loft was...reassuring. It hadn't been a particularly stressful day, but it felt long. She didn't need a bunch of people, but him? Yes, him.

* * *

Dinner was waiting, just as he'd said. Pasta from that heavenly little mom and pop place they'd discovered that makes all of the noodles fresh. They haven't been able to get enough of it, lately. They settled into it, casual and comfortable. It was one of the things about them, their relationship that had surprised her early on. How easy moments like this were between them. How they didn't really have to try for it. It was new to her, and therefore surprised her. But she realized it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise at all. They had been friends, partners for so long before this. Had shared so many of these kinds of nights. Of course it was easy. But, still.

After the dishes had been cleared away and she was nursing a glass of wine, that red that made her blood fizz and her mind hazy and reminded her that she didn't need mistletoe. At all. She smiled at the thought as he made his way from the kitchen. Made his way back to her.

"What does my note mean?" she asked, wheedling just a little. Because he commandeered a day, and it'd been over an hour now that she'd been home, and he'd plied her with good food and better wine. And she was ready, whatever it was.

"Impatient, are we?" He teased back.

"Hmm...maybe," she sipped her wine and leaned in as he came to sit beside her. Impatient for more than the note, more than the surprise, and they both knew it.

But Castle was reaching out, picking something up that he must have set just underneath his side of the sofa. "Here," he said, placing the small silver wrapped package in her hand.

She stared at it for a moment, not quite comprehending. It was early yet for Christmas gifts, and well, she had her ring. So why was he handing her something that felt suspiciously like jewelry, with that too serious look in his eyes? But she swallowed it down, remembers that there is nothing here that was meant to be frightening. She had her ring. His ring. And there had been the key, to the place in DC he had bought that they had never lived in.

She slipped her finger under the seam in the paper Need quick work of the wrapping, and tipped the box out. Then with a last look in his direction, she opened it.

A bracelet. Different than either of the two she had received over the last year. First, the friendship bracelet given her during the precinct secret Santa exchange last year, and then the one he had bought for her early last spring, a replacement for the botched Valentine's Day earrings.

Those two had been by turns simple, and a bit quirky. The earrings of course has been overly grand. This was different than all of it. Delicate, the first word that came to mind. Not fragile or more breakable, but somehow more slight.

It was a slim, gold thing, inlaid at even intervals with emerald chips for leaves and Ruby chips for berries. Holly.

"Castle," she whispered. "It's beautiful," but she still doesn't know why. Why he chose this for her, why now. Why just a bit over two weeks before Christmas.

Castle cleared his throat beside her, even as he reached out to take bracelet box and clip it around her wrist. "In hereldry, Holly symbolizes truth."

That stunned her into silence. It made her think, as that word always did, of her mother. Of everything that had happened with that case in the last few years. How much that she never could've managed without him. But this was Castle's note, his plan, and she didn't want to color that with her own thinking.

"I meant to give you this as a gift for Christmas, Because I like the symbolism of the thing, I know how much that sort thing means to you. But, then after yesterday I wanted to give it to you, So that you wouldn't. At least, I hope. I hope you know that I'm with you on that. A family with you," He said as if that might not be clear enough already.

She still felt a pang of guilt for how she screwed that up yesterday, how she startled him, without meaning to.

I know we had talked about it, a little bit. In passing, mostly offhandedly. And then a little bit more few weeks back, that one case. But it meant a lot to me, Kate, that you went to the trouble to tell me, to outright let me know what you were thinking and feeling about it. What you wanted for us. That's - Well it's never been easy for either of us and I appreciate the effort that you're making. Even if it came as a shock

"Castle, I'm the one who is grateful, because I know I have not always made this easy. And I know you said after how things were with Meredith - "

She was surprised When he cut her off, as if it were something he desperately needed to do. "Kate, believe me, I know you're not Meredith. Outside of the moment, when I can sit down and think about it, I know you really aren't. And not just because she was a dismissive mother."

Kate got the impression he'd stumbled into something he wasn't quite ready to handle, but she pushed on. "What do you mean?" she asked.

For a moment he seemed as if he might just come right out and tell her, but then, he drew back a little more. "Castle," She tried again, this time and displaying the small fine bracelet on her wrist. "Truth," she said. "Remember?"

"The truth?" He asked, sounding more agitated than she would have liked. "The truth is, I wouldn't have minded so much being Mr. mom while she went out to pursue her acting career. What I did mind was when "pursuing her acting career" included sleeping with her director in our living room."

Kate's jaw dropped. "She what?" Suddenly, her insides were churning. "Castle," she breathed, her voice raw with it. And before she could stop herself, she was wrapping herself around him and holding on.

"It was a long time ago," he said slowly. As if he were trying to soothe her, mostly failing. But she shakes her head. And that's good, because otherwise all she could think about was how much she hadn't understood until now, what all those moments, the jealous reactions really were. God.

She worried now, somewhat in the way that she had when they'd spoken about Kyra the year before. What had she done to him without meaning too? Also, what she had said after spending the day with Gina. She again was surprised to find that the publisher was one of his ex-wife that she actually liked. But mostly as she held on to him, she though about Kyra, who walked away and never came back. About the blanket fort, and how he'd seemed like a boy in a desperate search for a playmate. And now?

All she could offer was a soft, "thank you for telling me," But it didn't seem like nearly enough. "I hope you know by now, Castle...I would never -"

"I know," he said softly. And when she looked at him, He said something she hadn't expected. "The Holly has another meaning, you know? "Healer of the heart." Shakespeare used it like that."

She held on tighter. And hoped that she was living that for him, just as he had always done for her.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own it, and they're way more evil than me

**AN:** This is a direct sequel to last years Spirit of the Season. You you can find the companion piece, from Castle's point of view, under the account of my writing partner, CuffedBunnies.

_For my partner_

* * *

Day 7: glitter

December 11, 2013

* * *

She woke at 5 AM, well ahead of even her own normal early hour. But, she knew enough to know that it was more than just the impending reservations, the need to get him out of bed and early hour in order to make today's plan work.

It was the fact that she was still unsettled from last night. Oh, his gift had been lovely. And she was grateful for everything she had learned last night. But it hurt, too. It hurt to think, now that she knew, that he'd been through so much of this. So much being left behind, mistreated, so much loneliness.

He could be difficult and aggravating and he drove her crazy as much as she loved him, but at the same time, he'd always been the caretaker, the one with the enormous heart. The one who had been finding ways to look after her since long before she was even willing to tolerate his presence in her life. And it bothered her, more than a little, that they've been close for as long as they have – together as long as they have – and she didn't know.

In retrospect, that was what had bothered her so much about what Meredith had told her last year. That she realized there was quite a lot about Castle she didn't know. That he could be, despite all of his personable nature and public persona, just is closed off as she was. But, if she had known the true nature of the end of his relationship with his first wife, she would've never asked the other woman's opinion in the first place. It had, at the time, seemed like a good enough idea. A chance to hear the other side of the story, to have some idea of what went on, without having to make Castle feel as if she were judging his choices by asking. But. It turned out there was so much she hadn't known.

More than that, though, she blamed herself for contributing – she knew she had – to the damage and the loneliness. Not that she had meant to, not that she had set out to hurt him. But she had, like people often do, been thinking primarily of herself. Because Castle? He seemed fine. Always surrounded by people perfectly willing to tell him he was wonderful. All the press, all the fans. She'd been so long assuming he had what he needed, that she needed to focus more on what she needed. But she knew better now. What he had needed was something real. Someone to be there for him, just as she had needed someone to be there for her. Just as he had been.

It ate away at her a little more as she watched him sleep. But slowly, she managed to pull herself away from it. Call herself out of the dark thinking.

Focus Kate.

She had plans from them today, had set them up a while ago. Back at the beginning. And it meant she would have to wake him early, anyway. So, she might as well use the opportunity to communicate some of what she's feeling, right? She doesn't have the words for it, but maybe –

"Castle," she called softly. "Castle, wake up." She drew her fingers through his hair, a light touch until he stirred. "Mmm… Body?" he asked.

Well, after fashion.

"No, she said quietly, no call. But... Early plans, reservations."

"Huh." He was drowsy, still a little out of it. She kept up the movement of her fingers against his skin and through his hair, because it soothed her as much as it stirred him.

"But," she said, leaning over to kiss him slowly. "We have enough time for a good wake up call."

"Oh," he said, humming his approval as that particular suggestion seemed to bring wakefulness rushing in, and in a hurry.

She smiled against him as she kissed him again. Maybe, she could impart all the things swirling through her mind with her hands, since the words refused to come.

* * *

"What are we doing down here at 6:30 in the morning?" Castle asked, a little whiny with it.

They had their leisurely wake up all right, and then she had bundled him off to the shower and instructed him to get ready quickly, because, again, they had reservations. He grumbled, but not too much, considering he pulled this particular trick on her last year as well.

But now that the cab his doorman had procured for them had arrived at their destination, he was offering her a confused but curious look.

She said nothing as she exited the cab. But then she came around to meet him on his side of the vehicle, and passed him his note.

He frowned in confusion as he looked from it to her and back again. "Glitter?"

She shrugged. "It's not necessarily the best description in the world. But yeah, glisten, glitter. It works."

He turned in a slow circle, and she knew he was taking in their surroundings. They were back down at Rockefeller Center. The early dawn light hadn't yet made its way high enough to make a visible impact in the winter morning. The darkness of night still hung on around them.

"The tree glitters," he says, trying to reason it out. "But we did that, didn't we?"

"We did," she confirmed with a smile. "And and ate enough ice cream to feed half of the city besides. But that's not all that's here. Is it?"

"That glitters?" He asked. And she could tell that he was trying his best to work it out inside of his own head. That made her smile widen - she had gotten him good this time.

He turned back to her, then back to the site before him, then back to her again. "The rink," he said slowly. "The ice."

"Hmmm... It is pretty glittery, isn't it?"

"But it's early, Beckett. It's not even open yet, there's no one here."

She shrugged. "They're opening. First Skate sessions at 7:00 am by reservation. Which we have."

"We do?"

She nodded. "We can rent skates now, get ready, and there's coffee, coca and some kind of pastry or other in the igloo area. Then we have an hour, from 7 to 8 to skate. Then we head into work."

"That's awesome. But, what made you think of it? Last year - "

They had kept to a smaller, less popular rink, because Kate was less than comfortable. Trust Castle to remember those kinds of details. She waved her hand, indicating the rink around them.

"You said it yourself, Castle. There is virtually no one else here. It's early morning on a Wednesday. And look at the place." Just as she'd hoped it would be, it felt like magic in the early morning light, the tree rising before them, the rink spread out in front of them. Relative quiet in their always bustling city.

"It's amazing Kate. You're amazing. But, you didn't even bring your skates."

She blushed a little at that, not quite sure if the effect was the result of Castle's words, or his memory of her rather unique, bright neon purple skates. Castle had been delighted when he found them last year, had seemed to love the goofy things, almost as much as she did. But still.

"Uh, they include the rentals, and if I'd brought them with me it would have spoiled the surprise. Besides, if I had brought them with me, I would have had to bring them into work with me. And as much as I like them, and as much as I like that you love them -"

"Esposito," they finish in unison, and they both laugh.

"Come on Castle," she said after a minute, nudging him with her shoulder to get him moving. "Let's go, and we'll see if I remember all the things you tried to show me last time we did this."

Castle nods with a smile. "I think I like that plan, Detective. Lead the way."

And for the next few handfuls of minutes, the world was their own. It felt like a perfect memory, even as she was in the moment. Already it had her thinking years ahead, to a time when it might be more than just the two of them, when it might be an even more magical outing.

By the time they arrived at the 12th, their cheeks were flushed with cold, clothes and hair windswept, eyes a little too bright. But she held onto that magic feeling all day long, murder and all.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own it, and they're way more evil than me

**AN:** This is a direct sequel to last years Spirit of the Season. You you can find the companion piece, from Castle's point of view, under the account of my writing partner, CuffedBunnies.

**AN 2:** sorry for the delay. Taking care of the real life angel tree drop off. And then my car died. So...

_For CB, always_

* * *

Day 8: Stars

December 12, 2013

* * *

Kate checked over her preparations one last time to be sure everything was ready. Satisfied, she slipped back into the bed beside Castle. She had slipped out of bed to arriange tonight's activities as soon as she was sure he was asleep.

It didn't take long for her to realize however that he was talking in his sleep. Again. She got enough from the jumble of words to establish that he'd fallen into some type of Star Trek dream. She pressed her lips together, and tried again. This time, trying to use a light touch to rouse him a little, like she had yesterday morning.

"Ship doesn't need saving. But if you don't wake up, you're going to miss all the fun. And I've got hot chocolate."

Castle's less than coherent muttering continued, and he was clearly confused, caught between dream and reality. And then suddenly he was murmuring insistently about being drunk. Well, at least that narrowed the pool of episodes to two. Oh, and that scene from the movie where the straight laced therapist gets drunk on tequila. She wondered what Burke would make of that.

"Castle, Wake UP." Kate said, demanding now. "I will throw a bucket of ice on you if you don't wake up." Once the words have left her mouth, she thought perhaps that might have been a bit much. And in retrospect, this probably isn't fair. She had him up early yesterday morning skating and now she's making him get up just a couple of hours after he went to bed. The threat was effective, though.

Castle sat straight up in bed, his eyes wide open. "Apples!" he gasped, then, blinked a few times before he rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hand and looked at the clock. "Wait. What time is it?"

Kate gave him a sly smirk, then tossed set of clothing she had readied for him onto his lap. "It's time to get dressed."

Castle stared at the clock for a long time, and she could tell he wasn't quite awake, not really making the connection. And then he seemed to suddenly snap in. "Eleven thirty? We've only been asleep two hours! What is going on?"

She shook her head at him, but felt a little guilty. Yesterday's early morning, and now she was waking him in the middle of the night. But. This couldn't wait, the night couldn't be duplicated. "Get dressed, and you might find out."

For a long moment, he didn't move.

"Castle?" She asked, "Are you all right? Do you need help?"

He stayed there, staring, a moment longer, then seemed to shake himself out of it.  
"I'm fine, just... weird dreams." He picked up the pile of clothing and gestured toward the bathroom. "I'll get dressed."

"Good," she said, worried that maybe this wasn't a good idea after all. He was out of it, and the plan called for a bit of a long ride and a late night. But, he seemed to be coming back to himself, moving into action a least, so she decided to wait him out.  
There was a bit of a delay, and then he called back to her through the bathroom door, "We going out on the bike?"  
Kate smiled, glad he was finally catching on. "Yeah, I thought tonight would be kinda cool. By the way, your boots and jacket are still in here."

There was no real answer, but within a few moments she heard the water come on, figured that he was getting himself ready and set about getting the rest of her own gear together. Just as she was finishing, Castle made his way back into the bedroom. "So what is the plan tonight?" he asked

Kate smiled and took his hands in hers. Then, she carefully passed the note containing tonight's clue from her hand to his. Castle took it and folded it, reading the message with a curious expression.

"Stars?" he asked, and she could see him trying to work it over in his mind, so she waited mount again. She liked watching him work his way through the puzzles. Maybe that was what made it so much fun for the two of them to work together, she thought. Then, his expression cleared. "The meteor shower?"

She nodded and took his hands once more. "Come on, we have about an hour or so ride before we get to see it."

He followed her into the kitchen where she picked up a thermos off the counter. "Hot chocolate?" he asked.

Kate stopped and watched him for a second before she asked, "You actually heard that part?"

Castle seems to choke on his words for a moment, and she had to bite the inside of her lip to keep from laughing out loud. "Um... Was... was there more?" He asked carefully.

"I don't know," she hedged, "Did you save the ship from Wesley?" she teased.

"That, my dear, is priveleged information." He narrowed his eyes, and now it was all that Kate could do not to laugh. Really, it was kind of endearing. But, still very funny. "I really need to find a way to stop talking in my sleep." he groused.

"But it's so much fun!" She said, then burst into laughter, finally giving in "Just not as much as the time you had the squirrel with seven tails. THAT was great. I really should have recorded that conversation."

"When did-?" He shook his head. "No. No, I don't want to know. Let's just go."  
Kate knew him well enough by now, to know that he was at least taking in good spirits. But she was relieved that he wasn't going into great detail right now. They needed to get a move on.

She handed him the thermos, then grabbed their helmets and jackets out of the closet. As she opened the door, she turned toward him and asked, "You coming, Castle?"

She knew that would get him, as it always did. His answer came quick, as usual. "Right behind you."

* * *

Kate weaved in and out of traffic, intent on finding the quickest way out of the city. She felt Castle grip her tighter with every turn, and had to smile to herself. She liked The feel of going full tilt on the bike, but he wasn't used to it. They'd have to work on that. But they had time. And that made her smile even more.

Normally what she loved about a ride like this was that she didn't think. Just moved. But Castle had a way of shaking up all her usual patterns. And she had come to love that. And him.

She liked riding with him like this, liked the fact that however nervous he might have been on those turns, he never said anything, never really showed it. He trusted her, she realized. And, it's surprised her that that's surprised her. That that was somehow news. Because with all they had been through over the years, it seems so very obvious.

But really, she had been used to thinking of it the other way around. The way she had come to trust him at her back. Because that was unusual too. She had never been one who worked well directly with a partner. Ryan and Esposito, sure. But they were really each other's partners. She'd once told Montgomery she didn't like having someone else in her pocket all the time, and he had basically let her get away with that. At least, until Castle. She found herself wishing she could have told her former Captain how grateful she was for his insistence the Castle stick around. He had once made the argument that the writer was good for her, and she couldn't disagree, even then. Even when she was angry with him. But now, now she understood in a way she couldn't even imagine back then.

She came back to herself as she felt Castle pressing closer behind her. It spread a feeling of deep calm trough her. Suddenly, she knew how she would occupy her mind for the rest the ride. Because blanking out wasn't going to be an option tonight. A plan was forming in her mind, and now, all she had to do was find the right words.

* * *

It seemed like no time at all before Kate pulled off to the roadside park she had chosen for their stargazing destination. The stars were brighter here, still somewhat dimmed by the city, but the important thing was that the sky was clear.

Castle stepped off of the bike after Kate. She said, "It won't be quite like last year, but close."

"Last year, we were on our way to pick up a suspect, and we were way farther from New York than we are now." He smiled, and pulled her into his arms, "This year is much better."

Kate let herself hold on tighter, pull him in closer than she normally would. Well, no not quite. She'd always been a lot closer, a lot more physically comfortable with him and she was with others, now that she thought about it. But still, she drew in differently tonight. Trying to pull in some of that confidence and security he always seemed to have with words to herself. She was going to need it. Castle kissed the top of her head in that way that he did that she had somehow come to love, even though she had always thought those kinds of things would drive her crazy.

In a desperate attempt to clear her head so she could think, so she could speak, she stepped away to take a blanket out of one of the saddlebags.

"Come on," she said, "It'll be warmer like this."

She began to wrap the blanket around him, then he took over, twirling it over his back and around, taking her back into his arms. "I've got you in my clutches," he said sounding like a bad guy from an old cheesy cartoon. Rediculous man. She loved him.

"Do you really think I would let you take me so easily?" Kate asked, throwing his own game back at him.

"Well, you've been prett-" she thwacked him right in the middle of his chest. Cheeky brat. Oh, but she loved it. Him. Them. So much.

"Apples! Okay, bad choice of words."

"That's better," said Kate, and she reached up to cradle his face in her palms. It was reflexive, the need touch him, press the feelings into his skin with her hands. "Now, are you going to watch me or the stars?"

"That's a hard choice, and a loaded question, if you want an honest answer." He kissed her forehead, "Both are beautiful." He ran his fingers through her hair, slow and drugging. Then she saw something flash in his eyes as they met her own. He spoke low in the slight space between them. "But, this is your event... what did you have in mind?"

Kate found she was no longer thinking about the meteor shower, either. "Whatever the universe has in store for us," she said with a smile, using his words and she tried to gather her courage to find her own.

"Well, I can't argue with that," Castle said, she curled into him, reveling in the feeling of his arms tightening around her.  
But then his voice came, soft at her ear. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." But she knew if she was going to say what she planned on, this was the moment. And so she took a deep breath, and slowly pulled back. Just say it, she thought. Jump in the deep end and swim, Kate.

"When we first got together," she began, "I never knew I could love anyone like I love you. And then, it's like it keeps growing. Each day, Cas -" No. Not today. Not enough. "Rick - I love you a little more. And tonight, it seems almost overwhelming. It's like everything about us is so much bigger than just the two of us." She sighed, "That probably sounds weird-" she felt like she was spinning wheels. All these words, and was she even coming close to what she wanted to say?

"But it makes sense," he cut in. He got it, and a sense of relief washed over her. Because, she felt like there was so much more to say, and yet nothing else would come. But, it wasn't needed after all. She nodded and laid her head against him again, and his arms tightened around her like he was holding on for dear life.

Finally, she eased herself away. Looking up at him, concern and question flooded her as she saw tears in his eyes. But - oh. Good tears. Her big, goofy, tender hearted partner. She just loved him, that was all.

A slow smile spread across her face as she brushed the tears away gently. She could tease him about a lot of things, but not this. "Home?" she asked.

He nodded and kissed her. "Take me home, Kate Beckett," he whispered with a smile.

She kept her eyes on him for a long moment, trying to pour everything she was feeling out for him to see. "Then let's go."

Castle folllowed Kate to the bike, and then she turned to him and said, "You wanna drive?"

"Really?" he asked.

She cringed a little internally. She trusted him too. Time to make that clearer. "Really."

He took the front seat and helped her onto the back, and soon, they were speeding back to the city. The stars and hot chocolate had been forgotten, but it really didn't matter.

Soon, Kate settled herself closer to him, and let herself enjoy the fredom to enjoy the ride. And, she thought as she let her hands skim over his body, enjoy the company, too.


End file.

Castle, Family, Romance