Fanfiction Christmas present for BURN3. I really hope you like this. It was so fun to write, though I'm not sure I did it justice. But I'll leave that up to you I guess.
This story is much easier to understand if you've seen the movie A Year Without a Santa Claus. Just sayin'.
Disclaimer: Don't own Castle or A Year Without a Santa Claus.
He watched her, sleeping and curled up on the couch, from the kitchen. He was glad she'd finally given in to sleep, allowing the dreams to pull her in. It would really help her. She'd been sick the past few days. And when he meant sick he meant hundreds of tissues, dozens of Advil bottles and an absolutely miserable Beckett. He'd shown up at the precinct this morning and had been absolutely floored by her appearance. Sure, that was a normal occurrence, but not like this. There seemed to be another woman in her chair, one that was typing with much less confidence than normal and slumping in her seat without the professionalism that his detective prided herself on. In short, she looked like hell.
He'd immediately tried to cajole her into going home with no success, at least that proved that there was still some Beckett in there. Only when she stood up in hopes of getting away from him and she almost immediately fell back down because of the dizziness did she allow him to take her home. Only he didn't take her home. He'd immediately driven to his loft, and after much protest from her he'd finally coaxed her into staying with the promise of hot chicken noodle soup and him staying out of her way.
If she hadn't been coughing and blowing her nose every few minutes it might've been the beginning of something more. But that would just have to wait. So for now it was just domestic. And he was more than happy with domesticity when it involved Kate Beckett. They'd watched A Year Without a Santa Claus together, her seeing it for the first time and him already having seen it so many times he decided to just watch her instead. And even with her red nose and sunken expression she'd still been fascinating, every time her face lit up with a joy that was almost childlike at the funny moments in the movie he wanted to pull her close to him. He'd cooked her soup as promised, scooped much needed ice cream into large bowls and raced around the loft trying to find things she'd enjoy or would make her more comfortable. He was taking care of her. And she was letting him.
And now the whirlwind was over and she was finally asleep, the only sound in the loft being the quiet hum of the TV and the spoon as it occasionally banged against the pan as he stirred their dinner. The scene before him belonged on a Christmas card. The large Christmas tree, fully decorated with a pool of presents below it, was the perfect backdrop to her sleeping form. She looked so peaceful, almost innocent. She stirred slightly and the soft but colorful glow from the Christmas tree lights flickered across her face as she snuggled deeper into the sofa. He smiled, thinking about how he'd love for this scene to play out every Christmas. Without the sickness, of course.
She started grumbling in her sleep and he noticed that her facial expression was far from peaceful now. She looked a bit like she was in pain, even a little terrified.
"No, no! Stop it!" She started yelling, thrashing around on the couch. He immediately sprang into action, sprinting over to the sofa and kneeling before her.
"Beckett?" He said, lightly patting her cheek.
"Mmmpf, stop! Ahh!" She wriggled around and he began to shake her, desperate to wake her from whatever hell she was in.
"Kate, c'mon Kate." He shook her harder, but to no avail. "Kate, wake up!" He yelled, grabbing hold of her shoulders and shaking lightly again.
"Hmm…Castle?" She looked up at him, eyes wide and full of confusion.
"Hey there, Beckett." He smiled at her, trying to tell her everything was okay and he wasn't going to let anybody hurt her. He realized how weird that sounded considering she was the cop with all of the training. But he couldn't quite bring himself to care.
"My god, that was horrible." She sank a little deeper into the couch, eyes still wide and uncertain.
"C'mere." He pulled her into a hug, which she returned after a few moments. "You're okay now. Everything's fine." He let a hand stroke her hair as his other hand began rubbing slow circles on her back. She pulled away after a while looking much less pale and a little embarrassed. He smiled down at her, just happy to be this close to her without threat of losing an appendage. "You want to talk about it?"
"Uhh, no. Not really." She looked away from him immediately, staring at the pillow as she played with the fabric of the blanket covering her.
"You sure?" She seemed to be holding back.
"Well, I was standing in this weird room, there were flames everywhere. And Esposito, Ryan and Montgomery were wearing all gold with giant red noses and big orange hair. Your mother was there too, standing behind me dressed as Mrs. Claus and flanked by elf versions of Alexis and Lanie. And all of a sudden you come out, but it wasn't really you. You were like a bigger version of the boys, only with hair that looked like flames. And as if that wasn't enough you started singing, and boy were you into it…" She trailed off and looked up at him, seemingly starting to realize how childish this nightmare sounded.
He, on the other hand, was trying to hold back his laughter. He knew exactly what she'd been describing. It was the Heat Miser's introduction scene from A Year Without a Santa Claus. Kate Beckett had a nightmare because of a children's movie. He got his laughter under control and smiled at her, thinking that this was possibly the cutest thing she'd ever done. But if she ever heard him describe her as cute, whether she was having nightmares inspired by Christmas movies or not, she'd shoot him. He wisely kept his mouth shut. He hugged her once more before getting up and making his way around the couch and back towards the kitchen. As he rounded the couch and made his way behind her he bent down so his mouth was centimeters away from her ear.
"They call me Heat Miser. Whatever I touch starts to melt in my clutch. Haha! I'm too much." He softly sang into her ear and he immediately saw her body stiffen. He ran back to the kitchen laughing as she lobbed a pillow at him.
It may be a little sad that I didn't even have to re-watch this scene in order to describe it but I can't deny that this is one of my absolute favorite Christmas movies! So much fun. But I watched it anyway, it's too awesome to pass up.
Review? Please? I'll sing the Heat Miser song for you.