A/N: My 60th story on this site! It goes out to NonnaSo, who asked me to write an insert for The Lives of Others showing Kate and the gang planning Castle's birthday party. I've said it already, but thanks for trusting me with your story.
To the readers: Luckily I've been working on this story for months and months and it's all complete (though it shouldn't have taken so long to write) so I can update it all pretty quickly. Fingers crossed it fits in okay with the canon of the episode. It of course goes without saying that I do not own Castle or its characters.
"Kate?" he called out from his office. He'd heard the front door open, but as yet couldn't tell whether it was his girlfriend returning from work or perhaps his mother trying to creep in late instead. He waited a few moments, smiling gently when he finally saw Kate in the limited view his improvised bookshelf-wall offered. She appeared to have removed her stiletto-heeled boots at the door and was walking through to him in just her socks – plain ones, of course – her footsteps almost silent.
"Sorry I'm so late," she said amidst a yawn, pausing at his side to peer at his laptop screen. "The boys thought they were onto a hit with a lead we chased all evening but it was a dead end." She yawned again, covering her mouth with one of her hands as her eyes slipped closed.
She'd left that morning sometime around five when a body dropped; it was gone midnight now. She looked exhausted. Working out how much caffeine she had to have consumed in order to still be standing made his head ache.
Automatically one of his arms came around her hips, thumb stroking over the bony protrusion he could still feel through her jeans until she finally drew her eyes from the flickering curser on his screen and instead seated herself sideways in his lap, resting her head against his shoulder and humming as he pressed his lips to the top of her head.
"Kate, you're tired. You should go to bed," he murmured, his voice vibrating against the shell of her ear.
She nodded, easing herself back off his lap.
"You comin'?"
He shook his head. He had a few things to get sorted. "Join you in a bit," was all he told her though, smiling as she squeezed his shoulder before wandering into the bedroom. He watched for a moment, waiting until he saw the light in the bathroom flicker as it came to life.
Sitting up straight, Castle glanced furtively in through the open bedroom door, taking note of the now closed bathroom door, before opening the internet and getting started. He was vaguely aware of Kate moving around the bedroom, putting her dirty clothes into the laundry hamper in the corner and grabbing a book to read for a while probably, while he searched, reading through all the information on a few different websites.
Belleayre Mountain, Catamount, Hunter Mountain, Pineridge, Plattekill Moutain, Windham Mountain Resort… How did New York have so many skiing locations?
It took him half an hour, but he thought he'd finally found the perfect one. Breezy Hill Inn. A homely-looking, Victorian Bed and Breakfast in the heart of the Catskill Moutains, with great access to the ski routes at Belleayre.
Reading the website for the place, he had to guess that the building was larger than first appeared. He couldn't imagine where the owners could fit a gym and steam room amongst the guest rooms and reading den and recreation room. The more he read, the more he was convinced that Kate would love it though. He could picture them there, sitting and relaxing in the reading den after a day on the slopes. It was clear in his mind, the way they'd occupy a couch in comfort. He could take his laptop and write with it resting on his knees while Kate leaned up against his side with her nose in a book. If they got fed up of skiing, they could go to the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown. He'd probably be bored; but Kate wouldn't and that was what mattered.
First he just had to convince her to take some vacation time though.
He broached the topic as he slid into bed beside her, sitting propped against the headboard with her until she reached the end of her current chapter – Patterson, he noted with a tad of jealousy.
Since meeting her, the famous woman behind Nikki Heat, the league of mystery writers he often played poker with had taken to sending her free promotional copies of their books simply because they knew it would annoy him. His possessiveness had been obvious at the poker table, even if Connelly, Patterson and Reichs couldn't see the grip he had on her thigh under the table.
"You've still got vacation days for this year, right?"
"Hmm?" It took a moment but eventually Kate placed her bookmark between the pages and closed the book before looking up at him.
"You've got vacation days, haven't you?"
She nodded, a slight crease forming between her eyebrows as she tried to figure out why he wanted to know. "Is this about your birthday? Because, I've already booked those ten days off so we can go to Bora Bora-"
"-I know," he replied, cutting her off before she could start to rant at him. "It's not about that. I just think you could do with a few days off, a chance to get out of the city for a bit and do something completely unrelated to murder." She opened her mouth, but he barrelled on through in the hopes of stopping her imminent complaint. "I've already found the perfect place!"
"So it's not the Hamptons?"
"Nope, gonna take you some place special, Kate. Someplace I've not been with anyone else."
"You sound pretty confident you can get me to agree to this," she pointed out, smirking with one eyebrow quirked at him.
"Oh, I can. I've got plenty of ways to convince you, should the need arise," he said, voice dipping as he allowed a finger to tease the slither of skin showing between her shorts and shirt. He waited until Kate shifted, inching into more of a recline, before he withdrew his hand and continued, "But I'm pretty sure the place alone is gonna sell it to you."
Huffing at him, Kate crossed her arms. Ultimately, her desire to know what exactly he was planning won out, however.
"Let's just say you're gonna have to get some snow boots and a fleece and a ski jacket."
By the end of the week, they were on their way out of the city in a rented Ford SUV that was a lot more practical for the two and a half hour journey and snow they had ahead of them.
They had barely made it twenty minutes on the interstate though when Castle declared, "I feel a coffee pit stop coming on."
Rolling her eyes, Kate replied, "We've only been driving for thirty five minutes."
He shrugged. "Don't tell me you're not wishing we could have made up a thermos before we left."
Unfortunately he had her there. Getting up at half six, the two of them had been more concerned about making sure none of their bags got left behind than sitting down to enjoy a full breakfast and taking the time to prepare food and drinks for the journey.
"Fine," she relented. "We can make a stop, but we're getting it to go."
Truth be told, Kate enjoyed the chance to stretch her legs. The slight chill in the air woke her up from the drowsy state the early morning drive had begun to put her in, but it was the shot of caffeine that allowed her to smile at Castle's ridiculous levels of enthusiasm again.
"Come on, Beckett, it's out first vacation together," he said. "It's exciting!"
"I thought our first holiday was in the Hamptons."
"That was our first weekend away together," he corrected as he stirred more sugar into his fudge-flavoured mocha before pocketing the empty sachets. "And it was at my house, so that definitely doesn't count as a vacation."
"Whatever, we're only going skiing, Castle."
"Just skiing? I'll have you know, Kate, that there is no such thing as just skiing. You've yet to see my slalom run or my tricks."
"You? Tricks?" she questioned, quirking one of her eyebrows.
"Yep. What can I say? I'm almost a pro skier," he boasted, blinking his eyes at her innocently over his polystyrene cup as he leaned back against the car and sipped.
"So how come I've never heard about this?"
"I could fill a book with things you don't know about me, Detective. Contrary to popular belief, Cosmo Magazine or whatever other women's magazines that run those 'everything you need to know about Richard Castle' pieces, do make things up."
"Are you implying I read those because I'd like to ask whether you've ever even seen one of those trashy magazines in my possession," Kate replied pointedly.
"Absolutely not. I know you get all your info from my website, a much more reliable source."
Shaking her head, Kate nudged him with her shoulder, almost sloshing her latte down her hand. It was worth it for the almost chastened look on his face though.
"You do know clearing out your search history and cookies doesn't completely wipe your computer, right?"
"Yes, Castle, I am a detective," she began, rolling her eyes and then freezing. "Richard Castle if you've been snooping through my laptop, they won't find your body," she threatened, turning on him with a pointed finger and a glare that would make a tiger cower.
"I would never- Ahh!" Castle exclaimed as her finger and thumb twisted his ear harshly. "It was one time, I swear, and I didn't find anything!" He soothed his reddening ear while pouting at her. "I just wanted to find out if you had an account on my fansite."
"For the last time, Castle, I don't have an account on your fansite-"
"-Lies, Beckett. How else did you know that Nikki would be naked on the cover of Heat Wave before I showed you it?"
"I told you," Beckett mutters, "I checked out your website out of professional curiosity. That doesn't mean I made an account."
"You sound so convincing," he deadpanned. "Come on, Kate, it's been five years. Just put me out of my misery and tell me."
"Why? So you can stalk this non-existent account?"
"Maybe I just have professional curiosity too," he replied, making her smirk at him.
Shaking her head, she stepped away from the car and downed the cooling dregs of her latte. "We should get back on the road. You comin', Castle? Or am I going to have to vacation without you?"
The two of them sat and stared for a moment, breathing and taking it all in. The Inn was even better in person than it looked in the few pictures Rick had scrolled through online. In the pale spring sky, the dark grey slate tiling the roof looking vibrant in comparison and bringing the maroon painted rims flaring to life.
"Awesome, right?"
Kate just grinned at him for a moment before closing her fingers around the door handle and pushing it open.
The childlike enthusiasm on her face as she stepped out and breathed in the fresh, gas-emission free air warmed his heart, made it flutter against his ribcage so much that for a moment he forgot that he should be climbing out of the car and getting the bags before Kate could decide that she didn't need him to be a knight in shining armour and do everything for her and instead he stared. So often Kate was wrapped in professionalism, and it was only really with him that she joked about.
It was the click of Kate shutting the door that had him unclipping his seat belt and tumbling out his own side of the car. They reached the trunk at the same time but, having none of it, Rick was quick to grab Kate by the waist and lift her a couple of inches off the ground and spin before putting her feet back on the ground behind him.
"I got it," he told her.
She had to admit though that seeing Castle walking up the stairs with the muscles in his arms straining into cords as he carried their two holdalls, with skis slung diagonally through the handles. It didn't help that he was puffing his chest out too, pulling the front of his plaid shirt tight across his torso and give her all sorts of inappropriate thoughts about lumberjacks.
"Okay, here we are," he said despite the fact that she'd been stood outside their room, leaning against the wall and watching his careful progress while she waited. He set down the bags and dug the key out of his pocket with show, grinning toothily at her all the while. He held the door wide for her, then stooped to grab the bags again and follow her in.
She took it in slowly, keeping a steady pace as she moved into the room even though it wasn't all that big, nothing like the suite he'd got them in LA. Even the master bedroom at his house in the Hamptons was bigger, but the room they'd been allocated was still well-decorated, with a strong cabin-like warmth. The lower half of each wall was panelled in a dark, cherry-wood and there was some kind of cinnamon scent in the air that made him think of nights in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa.
Setting their bags down, he stopped only to shut their door before crossing the room and taking a seat on the edge of the double bed before lying down and patting the space beside him invitingly. He was looking at the moulding on the ceiling when she joined him.
"I did good right?" Castle asked, twisting his head to look at her sprawled out on her back beside him.
Her smile bloomed in an instant as she her hand landed on his thigh, rubbing up and down the denim. "Yeah, you did good, Castle."
He woke early in the morning, pushing the mop of messy curls out of Kate's face so he could pepper every inch of her smooth skin in kisses that had her unconsciously curling her lips into a smile before her eyes blinked open.
"Let's go," he exclaimed, flinging back the downy comforter and letting in cool air. When Kate curled up more, twisting onto her sides he added, "The snow awaits, Beckett."
"It'll still be there in an hour's time," Kate countered. She couldn't quite help finding his enthusiasm endearing however as he ignored her point and swung his legs out of the bed, stretching for a moment before crossing to the closet and grabbing the few hangers bearing his base layers and thick ski pants. Sighing, she pushed herself up and out of the bed, accepting her own clothes from him with as little eye rolling as she could manage. "Just going to shower."
He sat on the bed in his base layers, wishing Kate would hurry up. He'd already heard the inn's other occupants get up and head down for breakfast, all of them passing by their room with excited chatter about getting out on the slopes. He sighed and checked his watch again. He could have sworn Kate was taking ages on purpose; her usual showers didn't take half an hour.
He lost track of how long he waited, fooling around on his newest app, Bike Rivals, until he heard her calling him from the corridor.
"Breakfast?"
They ate out on the little veranda, enjoying the freshly baked bread and perfectly fluffy pancakes the inn owners had prepared in the kitchen. In the chilly air, the bacon cooled quickly, but he had no problem with wolfing it down, eagerness to get out on the snow taking over him.
He tried not to let his impatience show as he waited for Kate to attach her skis, but the slow slide back and forth of his own skis across the surface of the snow must have drawn her attention.
"Why don't you go on and grab the lift, make a start? I'll go up with you when you get back down," she suggested without looking up as she tried to force the heel of her snow boot to clip into the lock on her ski.
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I think I'm gonna tighten up the buckles on my boots anyway."
He nodded before realising she wasn't looking and verbalising his assent. Pushing on his ski poles, he slid along the ground and seated himself in the lift just before the chair got too high. The sun blinded him as he ascended the mountain side, harsh white light glinting off the snow despite the dark goggles attached to his face. But when he cleared the treetops and looked around behind him, it was a vista well worth it though as he glanced around, searching for Kate's small figure on the ground.
He pushed up the bar on the lift in advance, sliding straight out of the seat when the ground met the bottoms of his skis. The crowd of people nervously standing just in front of him were a pain, but he navigated around them, coming to a stop just at the crest of the medium-difficulty route he would be taking down the mountainside to take it all in for a moment.
When a twenty-something snowboarder shot past him though, flying two feet off the ground in some kind of jump down from one of the harder difficulty runs, he couldn't help it.
"Oh, it is on," he chuckled, repositioning his goggles before pushing off on his ski poles.
He picked up speed quickly, slaloming in and out of inept skiers until he was neck and neck with the snowboarding dude, shooting looks over at him as he flicked up the front of his board and sailed over a bump in the snow.
"Show-off."
Unfortunately for Castle, the run didn't have any obstacles he could showcase his own skills on, leaving him feeling disappointed when his opponent glided towards the base of the mountain ahead of him.
Beckett was waiting for him though, watching his progress.
"Looking good," he called, stopping just in front of her with a spray of snow.
"Castle, I look like an Eskimo," she complained, holding her arms out to display her puffy snowsuit in all its glory.
"But a very cute Eskimo, though of course, you know, they like to be called Inuits."
His arm stretched around her waist to pull her into his side where he could press his cold lips to her face, catching her just underneath the folded hem of her grey, wool-knit hat.
"Less kissing, more skiing," she mumbled after a few moments when he failed to pull back and left his lips and nose against her, stealing warmth.
Castle swung his legs on the lift, holding one of Kate's hands as he pointed out a group of school kids receiving their first skiing lesson with the other one holding all four of their poles.
When Kate saw the blue marker for the intermediate difficulty, she raised an eyebrow.
"You'll be fine on one of the advanced routes," Castle assured her, lifting the bar keeping them safe in due course and getting off ahead of her. He waited till he'd passed her poles back over before setting off, heading straight for a section of the run which looked a lot more steeply sloped.
The run was slick, leaving him feeling like he was soaring through the sky rather than sliding down a mountainside. A quick glance to his left showed Kate making steady progress down a lower incline, looking relaxed. He couldn't resist when he saw the rising snow in front of him. If he got enough air, he knew he could make that backward grab he'd seen in the Winter Olympics once.
"Kate?! You watching?!" he yelled in the approach, sticking his tongue out in concentration.
The next thing he knew he was sprawled on his back.
"Shit! Castle!" Snow showered over him as she came to a stop beside him, having cut a path across numerous other skiers who'd all slowed to watch the scene unfold. "Are you okay?"
He groaned, pushing his goggles up and closing his eyes at the dazzling sunshine flooding his senses.
Kate gasped in horror as blood trickled out the corner of Castle's mouth.
"Castle, you're bleeding."
"Bit my tongue," he mumbled, wincing at how those few words contorted the said muscles. "I'm fine." He sighed and pushed himself up on his arms, and then looked around for his lost skis, spotting them lying a couple of feet away and grunting in annoyance before the sound turned into a breathless gasp of pain as he tried to bend his knee and stand, unleashing a torrent of agony. "Fuck!"
In an instant Kate was on her knees beside him, hands feathering over the knee he gripped between both hands, still half-sitting and half-lying on the snow.
"What is it? What did you do?"
Castle shook his head, biting his lip so hard the flesh turned pale and the pain of that still failed to distract him.
"Castle, talk to me."
"My knee," he gasped. "I've broken my knee."
If it weren't for the ashen quality his skin had taken on, the sheen of sweat beading on his brow and the fact that, despite having Martha as his mother, Rick wasn't an amazing actor; she'd have thought he was pulling her leg.
He lay in the back of the ambulance with his crooked arm over his eyes, attempting to block out the jolt of pain that ran up the nerves of his leg with every bump in the road. At his side, Kate held onto his free palm, worrying her lip and shooting anxious glances at the accompanying paramedic every few seconds.
They'd put a splint along his leg, but every so often she would catch his grimace. With his pants cut open so the paramedics could survey the damage, the livid bruise flaring up along his swollen flesh made her stomach churn.
As a detective, she could pride herself on often times having an iron stomach. Most crime scenes didn't make her feel physically sick, but it was Castle's knee she was looking at. If the damage was too severe, he could be stuck with a crutch or wheelchair for the rest of his life.
"Kate," Castle groaned.
"What is it, babe? Is the pain too bad?" Kate shot anxious looks at the paramedic, but the man was already checking Castle's pulse and his eyes. The tightened grip of her boyfriend's fingers around her hand had her returning her attention to him, just catching the tail of his murmured sentence.
"-ruined our holiday."
"Castle, babe, it's fine. It was just a weekend away skiing," she replied, smoothing a hand over his cheek in an attempt to reassure him. "We don't even know how bad the damage is yet."
He nodded, but couldn't help the thoughts in his head telling him that he definitely wasn't going to be walking any time soon.
Laid up in bed with his leg in traction, things couldn't seem to get any worse for Castle. They'd had the doctor in and he'd received the diagnosis: a stable vertical fracture of his patella. The prognosis was worse though – four weeks with his leg in a brace that didn't allow any movement of his knee and wheelchair for getting places. Thankfully he wouldn't need surgery, but it definitely put a stopper in their holiday plans. He was listening to Kate make the calls to cancel the trip to Bora Bora, feeling miserable as she explained his situation to the airline and then the hotel, and the insurance company, and whatever other facilities and amenities they had booked.
Hanging up after the last call, Kate exhaled loudly, scrubbing a hand through her hair. It had taken twelve phone calls and over an hour, but their holiday was officially cancelled. Drained of energy, Kate span around and took the few steps to reach Castle's bedside again.
"Hey," she whispered as she woke him up with a hand sweeping the hair off his forehead, smiling gently at his adorably confused expression. "Just finished making the calls."
He nodded, swallowing heavily and sighing.
"What's the matter?"
He just shook his head, one of his hands running up and down her wrist.
"Come on, Castle, talk to me. What is it? Do you need more pain meds?"
"No, I just want to go home, Kate," Rick finally answered, looking beatdown and miserable.
Kate scrutinised him for a moment, rubbing away the crease in his forehead and soothing a thumb over the shadows under his eyes before nodding. "Okay, I'll organise it."
A/N: Just to let you guys know, this first chapter provides the introduction to the story and was quite long; the rest of the chapters are a fair bit shorter. I hope you don't mind! I'd greatly appreciate it if you could take the time just to give me some thoughts on this.
Thanks for reading!