A little bit of Castle Christmas fluff. Hope you all have a lovely Christmas :)

Disclaimer - The people that own Castle are the people that own Castle. I am not one of those people.

Opening her eyes, Kate Castle blinked against the early morning sun and felt herself melt into the soft silky sheets.

'Mommy's awake,' Rick whispered, his attention trained on the wiggling mass resting on his chest, 'And I think she likes your hat EJ.'

Edgar James Castle grumbled softly, the week old baby still asleep on his father's chest. Resting on his head was a bright red, and insanely fluffy, Santa hat.

'Where did you get that?' Kate reached out and stroked her fingers down her son's back, 'It's adorable.'

'It was my idea,' Kate started at Alexis' voice, the young woman sat between their legs in a set of Christmassy pyjamas and her own large Santa hat, 'Sorry Kate.'

'You've been taking ninja classes from Javi again, haven't you?' Kate rolled onto her side and poked her tongue out at her stepdaughter.

'I've decided to pack in the degree and become a ninja,' Alexis smirked, a gentle giggle accompanying her words, 'I saw that hat and just knew I had to buy it for him. I almost died from the cuteness when Dad put it on him.'

'First Christmas Kate,' Rick's voice broadcast the awe he felt as he watched his son's back rise and fall, the glances to his daughter telling both her and Kate that he was remembering similar moments with Alexis when she was a baby, 'This is the special one. This is the one that stays with you for the rest of your life.'

'You were sitting by the time Christmas came about,' Rick looked up at his daughter, 'We had you dressed in a little red outfit with a hat just like this one. Well. You were at first, but you hated the hat. Every time we put it on your head you growled and threw it on the floor.'

'Oh dear,' Alexis giggled, a brightly tipped finger tapped her hat, 'Looks like I grew out of that.'

'The next year you howled the place down when we tried to take the hat from you,' Rick winced, 'I think you wore it for about five days straight.'

'Mom made me wear dresses,' Kate grimaced, 'every Christmas for the first nine years of my life I had to wear a stupid dress. God... I was such a tomboy back then.'

'I'm very glad you found your girlie side,' Rick grinned cheekily, the groan from Alexis telling him he was being an embarrassing Dad again.

'Ugh,' Alexis rolled her eyes and carefully slipped off the bed, 'I think it's time for me to go make sure Grams hasn't found the unopened wine already.'

The room fell into silence once Alexis had padded through into the kitchen, both Rick and Kate watching EJ sleep. The sound of Kate sighing heavily pulled Rick to his wife, the sight of her wiping away tears causing him to worry.

'I'm okay Rick,' Kate didn't look up from their son, 'I'm just wallowing in my stupidity. I fought this. I fought you... And EJ. I was so goddamn stupid.'

'We're here Kate,' Rick cupped his palm over EJ's back and shifted his body carefully, slipping his arm around Kate's body, 'we're here. Married with the cutest baby ever. How we got here isn't important right now. We are here and I cannot be any happier than I was laying here with you two sleeping and my daughter sat taking utterly adorable photos of us all.'

'I'm still sorry Rick,' Kate sighed, then groaned, 'Alexis was taking photos?'

'Oh yeah,' Rick smirked, 'Just you wait and see how amazing they were. She's got a gift with a camera.'

A noise that churned both adult's stomachs sounded in the room, it combining with EJ sighing and probably the worst stench ever experienced.

'No way,' Kate shook her head at the pleading look from her husband, 'You agreed to doing diaper duty today in return for me wearing that hat,' Kate's finger jerked at the glaringly tacky elf hat that sat on the nearby dresser. Burying her face in the pillow, Kate groaned, 'How? How can something so cute be so stinky?'

'The way of the universe,' Rick held onto his son tightly as he shuffled out of the bed, 'Balance to the force and all that... Oh God, this is a bad one.'

Kate sniggered at the horror on Rick's face, the silent plea sent her way before he disappeared into the bathroom. Reaching over to her bedside table, Kate picked up the cherry spray and gave a couple of squirts over her head.

'OH MY GOD!' Rick squealed loudly, 'EJ! What the hell did you do?'

Kate was still giggling five minutes later when a traumatised Rick and a now wide awake Edgar James appeared back in the room.

'Merry Christmas Kate,' Rick handed their son over, the smell of baking reaching his nose as Kate started feeding EJ, 'That's a far better smell to experience.'

'Merry Christmas EJ,' Kate cooed at her son, his wide eyes staring up at her while the sounds of Rick getting scolded by Alexis for touching the cookies filled the loft.