1 - Snow
Kate awakened in her luxurious comfortable bed, unconsciously snuggling up next to her husband as he continued to sleep, small snuffling sounds escaping his mouth periodically - which he swore was because he was getting a cold as Richard Castle 'does not snore'. She began to raise her hand out from under the covers to caress his stubble covered cheek, but instantly retracted her arm back under as the cold from the outside hit her flesh. The low temperature only made her want to stay in bed all day, lazing around in her partner's arms, legs intertwined as they shared whispers.
However, this wasn't the plan for another member of the family.
Shouts from upstairs caused both Rick and Kate to bolt up suddenly with wide eyes. They stumbled out of bed, incredibly thankful that they had decided to redress themselves after last night's activities as they quickly hurried through the cold loft, their bare feet hitting against the hard floor as they ran up the stairs.
Kate made it through the door first, Rick hot on her heels, as they surveyed the scene before them.
"Mama! Dada!" Their fourteen month old daughter Verity exclaimed, her eyes never leaving the window that was to the left of her pink and white cot, blankets wrapping around her socked feet as she jumped up and down on the mattress, little fingers gripping tightly onto the rail.
"Hello, baby girl." Kate sighed with relief, glad that the commotion wasn't bad news, as she walked over to the cot, gently placing her hands under her daughter's arms and lifting her up onto her chest, the baby instantly wrapping her limbs securely around her Mother, "What's gotten you so excited, then?"
Verity wriggled in Kate's arms in order to focus her gaze once again on the window, her chubby finger pointing forwards.
The two parents glanced over at the glass, their mouths opening slightly at the weather outside.
Small white flecks fell steadily from the clouds, all of the usually dark coloured ground completely covered in perfect snow, without a single footprint or tyre track laid in it yet. The tree branches drooped slightly, icicles dangling down precariously. There was no life to be seen; no animals, nor people, as if the whole of New York had stood still to appreciate the blissful scene that awaited them that winter morning.
"That's snow, Vivi." Rick explained, moving closer to his girls, "It's what happens when it rains whilst it's cold."
The girl's widened hazel eyes never strayed, much to the amusement of the two adults.
"It's pretty, isn't it?" The father asked in a calm voice, a small smile transfixed onto his face as the baby nodded slowly in awe.
"White." The girl whispered, making Kate chuckle.
"Yeah, it's white. Good girl." She praised, smoothing out her daughter's reckless brown curls, the braid she had made before she put Verity to bed now non-existent.
Their baby raised her hands, making grabbing motions towards the window.
"You want to play with it?" Castle asked, trying to interpret the thoughts of the one year old.
"Play?" She responded with curiosity.
"Play. You can play in the snow." He reiterated, Kate nodding next to him.
Verity's mouth opened with a gasp, as if she suddenly understood her Dad's idea.
"Play! Play!" She cheered, her arms flapping around as her legs kicked in excitement.
"Thanks for that." Kate attempted to deadpan seriously, but merriment was laced in her voice.
"What?" Rick replied innocently.
"It's not even six am, and you've just got her excited about going outside."
Castle opened his mouth to apologise, but no words came, so halted on a sweet smile, making his wife roll her eyes at him.
"Come on then, Vivi, let's get some food, then we can play." Kate said happily as she used her unoccupied hand to pick up her girl's favourite toy, Bun-Bun the Rabbit, as the family made their way down to the kitchen together.
"Told you this was a good investment." Rick pronounced proudly as he dressed Verity, trying to keeping her upright in her yellow bumblebee high chair as she wriggled around, making small noises of discontent at the fabric being wrapped around her.
"What was a good-" Kate began to ask as she walked into the room with a bag of her baby's necessities for the day out, but she stopped in her tracks as she caught sight of her husband and daughter.
She was covered by a fuzzy brown reindeer onesie, complete with matching boots and mittens, topped off with a hood that had two stitched-on antlers on either side, one of which Verity was trying to grab and chew on. Around her neck was a light blue scarf, scattered with white crochet snowflakes and silver glitter, most of the tassels at the hem already gone after the extraneous use of the item over the past few cold months.
A large grin made its way onto Kate's face as she approached her daughter, who was still tugging at the fabric antler, trying to get it into her view.
"Well, you look nice and cosy, baby." She cooed, pulling up Verity's socks and boots as they were already slipping off due to all the movement her baby had done in protest of being dressed.
"As do you, Mommy." Rick added, looking over at his wife, dressed in a thick black trench coat that fell down to her upper thighs, the hem rubbing against her matching black trousers that covered her light brown boots, the outfit completed with the red knitted scarf Alexis had gifted her with last Christmas wrapped tightly around her neck, her hair hoisted up into a high ponytail, which was a wise decision as Verity was already trying to grasp at her mother's brown locks as she placed the baby into her large stroller, shoving the bag on the tray underneath.
"Can't quite say the same for you, Daddy." Kate quipped, glancing judgingly at Rick's attire as he pulled a light grey beanie hat onto his head; navy blue jeans paired with a maroon coloured jumper.
He shrugged with a smirk, "The cold never bothered me anyway."
Kate hummed with a sceptic look, "Okay, well, remember that when you're freezing outside." She stated with a slight attitude in her words.
"I'll be fine," He assured her, "Besides…" He walked over to his wife to whisper to her, the warm, coffee scented breath tickling her ear lobe, "I'm sure you can warm me up later."
The fourteen month old glanced upwards at her parents, her lower lip poking out into a pout, "Dada, shhh! Play time!" She exclaimed, crossing her arms in a way that made her resemble her mother.
The adults laughed loudly at their daughter's behaviour, relishing in the fact that she was such a mix of the two of them.
"You heard the girl, it's play time." Kate commented, emitting a squeal from both father and daughter.
The family just walked out of the door before they heard the small gasp of the youngest ring through the air, making the doorman behind them chuckle.
"Her first snow day, huh?" The worker with greying hair commented with a smile as his eyes wandered over the little girl's frame. The two adults confirmed his statement with absent nods, their attention fully focused on their daughter.
Together, they walked at a steady pace, the inches of snow making it slightly harder for Kate to push the stroller along, failing to keep up with her husband as he ran circles around her, his child-like tendencies emerging.
They soon arrived at a small local playground that usually had a green, grassy field surrounding the area, but it was instead covered in untouched snow. Kate almost felt guilty for ruining the perfect scene, but she knew the other two members of the family that were present wouldn't mind.
Rick crouched down in front of the stroller, making Verity's face light up as her bright green eyes connected with his blue ones. She reached her hands out to attempt to grab her Dad's cheeks, making him chuckle heartily.
"Ready, sweetheart?" He asked in a gentle voice, clasping his arms around the girl as he lifted her with caution from her seat after unbuckling the belts that were situated around her middle, "Your first time with snow."
He stayed close to the ground as he placed his daughter onto the snow, Kate only inches behind him as she watched intently for the child's reaction.
Verity's light pink lips pursed in confusion for a few short seconds, before she burst into tears, the sound of the sobs seeming infinitely louder in the silent environment. Castle's face dropped as the girl began to throw around her clenched fists, Kate obviously noting that this wasn't the reaction he had expected. He quickly swooped the baby back into his arms, cradling her close to his chest to offer her comfort, which successfully managed to calm her down, though small tears still occasionally ran down her pink cheeks.
"What's wrong, Vivi?" Rick asked, his hand stroking up and down the girl's right arm as her hand grasped tightly onto the collar of his sweater.
Her mouth opened and closed repeatedly, a tell-tale sign that she was trying to speak, so both the parents leaned in closer to her.
"Come on, baby girl, you can say it." Kate urged.
"Co... Cold." The girl stammered finally, causing the parents to laugh, despite the cranky face their daughter was displaying in protest.
"Yeah, I'm afraid snow is cold, munchkin." Rick responded. As he continued to explain the weather to Verity, Kate scurried over to the buggie, pulling out an Ariel themed blanket that was once Alexis'.
"Okay, Verity, let's see if this makes it better." Beckett laid the blanket down onto the ground where Castle had placed the baby down on earlier, smoothing it out even though she knew it was going to get messed up in a matter of minutes anyway.
Rick leaned down again and sat the girl on top of the comfortable blanket, recognising that the fact that she didn't cry on impact meant that Kate's plan was working so far.
The girl used her mitten covered hands to grasp a small amount of snow, her face showing her amazement at the texture and how it fell apart so easily. Verity repeated this motion multiple times, until a loud laugh bubbled up, her little arms waving around in delight.
"That's better." Rick concluded, taking his phone out of his pocket with his gloved hands as he opened up the camera app (thanks to the touchscreen friendly gloves Ryan had given him a few Christmases ago), smiling at the picture of his happy baby girl that looked back at him on the screen.
With an 'oomph', Kate sat down on the blanket to join her daughter, who again was placing her hands in the snow, clapping her two palms together and watching it fall back down to the ground. Rick followed her and sat on the other side of Verity, still capturing sneaky photos when his girls weren't looking as they played together.
Suddenly, he felt a hit on his chest.
He glanced down at the middle of his sweater that now had an almost perfectly imprinted circle of snow on it, curtesy of a snowball thrown by his wife, who looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Stop looking at your phone and play with us." She scolded, but the smile plastered on her face contradicted the tone of her voice.
With expert speed, Rick conjured up his own snowball, hitting his wife square on her back, causing her to gasp loudly.
"You know better than to start a snowball fight with me, Mrs. Castle." He quipped with a smirk.
"You're on, Mr Beckett."
The two stood up in front of their baby, who was giggling at the antics of her parents, mesmerizingly watching the white balls of snow flying through the air.
Rick crouched down to pick up Verity, placing a hand underneath her bottom, putting her in a seated position as her back collided with his chest, squeals coming out of the girl's little mouth as he ran around the field with a firm grip on her.
"That's not fair! You can't use our daughter as a shield!" Kate argued, ducking to dodge the snowball that her husband had managed to shoot at her that was dangerously close to her face, even though he was throwing with his left hand.
Her remark didn't need an answer from him as the snowball that hit him directly on his nose was sufficient enough.
After multiple hours of playing together, the three trudged home, Kate pushing along an empty stroller as Verity walked hand in hand with her father, happily stomping on the piles of snow under her feet as they made their journey.
The same doorman from earlier was still outside their building, and he laughed inwardly as he took in the appearances of the family.
All of them had wet, straggly hair, covered in small flakes of snow, their cheeks were all a matching shade of bright pink due to the cold (though the man's looked slightly redder, probably since he decided to forgo a coat), the tired parents breathing out large puffs of air that became visible due to the low temperature as the girl still managed to bounce along between them.
"I take it she had a good first snow day?" He quipped as he held open the door for the family.
The matching grins on all three faces aptly answered his question.
And to thank you for reading, I give you an awful Christmas cracker joke;
Q: What's the difference between snowmen and snowladies?
A: Snowballs.
(Yes, my seven year old cousin did get this joke in her cracker last Christmas. Yes, we had to explain it to her.)
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Lou xo