Kate stepped out of her building's elevator and turned towards her apartment. She'd had a good evening with her dad but was glad to be home and was looking forward to a couple of mindless hours in front of the TV before crashing out for a night of well earned sleep. But as she turned the corner towards her front door and the anticipated comfort of her couch she suddenly stopped as sitting down, leaning against her door, was none other than...
"Castle?" Kate said in surprise.
The writer opened his eyes and looked up at her with a broad smile on his face. He climbed to his feet and greeted her with a customary, "Hey."
Kate stood there staring at him dumbfounded, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to get some words out. At the third attempt she managed, "W...what are you doing here?"
Castle waggled his eyebrows at her. "It's a surprise...and going by the look of shock on your face I think I succeeded!"
Kate could feel a flush of embarrassment start to climb up her neck so she turned to fish her keys out of her bag. She kept her gaze on her bag not wanting Castle to see that he'd caught her out as she took longer than necessary to 'find' her keys. But she couldn't fake her searching forever so she eventually grabbed her keys and pushed Castle out of the way so she could open her door. Without a word to the writer she stepped in and threw her bag down in its usual spot before walking over to her kitchen and grabbing a bottle of water from her fridge. She turned and was surprised to see Castle still standing in her doorway. She'd expected him to be no more than a pace or two behind her, invading her personal space as usual.
"Uh...can I come in?" Castle said, on catching her gaze.
Kate tried hard to look like she was seriously considering saying 'no' whilst all the time fighting the smile that threatened to break out on her face at his uncertainly. It was so out of character for him! She left him hanging for a full 30 seconds or so before finally nodding and waving him in.
"So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this surprise visit Castle?" she asked in her best interrogation voice. She'd used that voice to break many a hardened criminal but Castle just gave her a broad grin, immediately recognising what she was doing.
"I couldn't let your special day pass without seeing you, my dear detective," Castle said casually, his eyes alight with mischief.
Kate's breath caught in her throat. Damn, he knew! How had he found out? She'd managed to keep this particular day a secret from everyone for years; she'd even managed to get the Captain to agree to keep it from her colleagues and friends. "There's nothing special about today Castle," she said, already knowing by the look on his face that she was fighting a losing battle but not willing to give up without a fight.
"Oh, I think celebrating the anniversary of little Katherine Beckett's first breath is a very special day indeed, one that needs to be celebrated," Castle said.
Kate groaned, there was no way out of it. He knew. "How, did you find out?" She asked him in a resigned tone.
"Oh, I have my sources detective, you should know that by now."
Kate harrumphed. Yes, she'd become well aware during their partnership that Castle knew a guy in almost every walk of life and it really shouldn't come as that big of a surprise to her that out of all her friends he'd been the one to find out when her birthday was. Not even Lanie knew and God knows she'd tried to prise that information out of her on numerous occasions.
"I don't think getting another year older is much cause for celebration Castle," Kate said grumpily.
"I kinda worked that one out," Castle said. "Still just because you don't want to celebrate your birthday doesn't mean the rest of us can't." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a carefully wrapped package. "Happy Birthday Kate," he said, offering the present to her.
Kate looked at gift he was holding but made no move to take it. This was one of the reasons she hated her birthday, Kate didn't mind giving presents to others but hated receiving them simply because she never really knew how to react properly, especially as she rarely got a gift which she truly wanted. She knew that a lot of that was her own fault, she had always been such a private person that few people ever really got to know the things she loved.
"Castle...," Kate said, intending to refuse his gift. However he surprised her by reaching across and placing a finger across her lips, preventing her from completing her refusal.
"Kate," he said, his tone low but serious. "I know you don't like acknowledging your birthday - hell it's taken me almost three years to just find out when it is! But whether you like it or not I know now and I'm going to give you this gift. And you are going to accept and open if with good grace because it would be rude if you didn't and the Kate Beckett I know would never be so rude to one of her friends. Now, are you going to accept the gift...you can just nod."
Kate stared at him in frustration. She really didn't want to accept whatever he'd got for her but he'd effectively plastered her into a corner with his words and given her little choice. She continued to frown at him for a few seconds more before finally giving him one terse nod of her head. Castle removed his fingers from her lips and offered the gift to her again. Kate reluctantly took it but made no move to open it. "Castle, this had better not be anything ridiculously expensive," she said warningly.
Castle grinned back at her. "I can honestly say that it's been a long while since I gave such an inexpensive gift detective."
Kate grunted in disbelief but, with his eyes looking at her imploringly she couldn't think of any more delaying tactics so she slipped one nail under a corner and gently pulled up the tape which had been holding the wrapping in place. She then moved to the other end and repeated the action.
"Oh come on Kate," Castle said with a slight whine in his voice. "You're supposed to tear the wrapping off so you can get to you present as quickly as possible!"
Kate rolled her eyes; it came as no surprise to her that Castle would still rip wrapping paper of gifts as if he was an excited child at Christmas. She stilled her hands on his present and looked up at him. "If you want me to open this then you'll let me do it my way," she said in a dangerous tone.
Castle looked at her for a long moment before throwing his hands up in mock defeat. "Fine, fine," he said, "do it your way detective, just open the gift already!"
Kate glowered at him for a few more seconds before pulling the last of the tape from the wrapping and sliding Castle's gift out. Her voice caught as she saw what he'd brought her. In her hands was a simple but elegant picture frame which contained a photo of her, Castle, the boys, Lanie and the Captain. She recognised the picture immediately as one they'd had taken at the Old Haunt shortly after Castle had acquired the bar, the red bottle of prohibition whiskey clearly visible in one of Castle's hands. Resting in the corner of the frame was a simple yet ornate credit card sized card. Kate gently picked it up and recognised Castle's handwriting immediately. She felt tears come to her eyes as she read his brief message.
'To my work wife, from your partner and our work family. Happy Birthday x'
Kate looked up at Castle and smiled at him before swiping the moisture from her eyes. "Thank you Rick," she said, her voice thick with emotion.
"I take it you like it then?" Castle asked, a trace of uncertainty in his voice. Kate didn't answer but stepped forward and embraced the writer. He stiffened as her arms went around his waist but after a few seconds he relaxed and she felt his arms wrap around her shoulders and hug her back. After a few moments she heard, and felt, him say quietly, "I'll take that as a yes then," his voice laced with emotion.
Kate stayed in Castle's embrace for a few more seconds, just enjoying the feel of his arms around her and the smell of his cologne before composing herself enough to step back. As his arms fell away from her shoulders she poked him hard in the chest, "Yes, I like your gift ok. But don't you dare think that this means you can give me presents on future birthdays and I swear if you tell anyone at the precinct about this I will shoot you!"
Castle simply smiled broadly back at her as she absentmindedly rubbed her index finger gently over his name on the card.
Castle left her apartment an hour or so later, after they'd shared a glass of wine and he'd wheedled some stories out of her about previous birthdays. Kate hadn't told anyone those stories, but it wasn't the first time that Castle had managed to get things out of her which she'd never shared before and she had a sinking feeling that it wouldn't be the last. After he'd left she'd washed up their glasses and mindlessly tidied her apartment a bit before finally allowing herself to reach over and pick up Castle's gift from where it sat on her table.
Kate looked again at the smiling faces of her boys and couldn't help but note the slightly possessive way Lanie had her arm around Espo. She studiously ignored the fact that her own arm was around Castle in the picture, after all her other arm was around the Captain's shoulders so it really didn't mean anything. She picked up Castle's card and read his words again. Such a simple gift and just a few simple words but Castle had always been able to captivate her with his words and this time was no different. It reminded her of his dedications in the Nikki Heat books; short, sweet but incredibly powerful. She knew those words off by heart and frequently repeated them to herself whenever she was feeling low or she was stuck on a particularly difficult case and felt the need to inspire herself to keep going. She knew that the words on this card would now be forever added to that internal list as Castle had once again found a way to engrave his words on her soul.
Kate stood up and walked into her bedroom and over to her dresser. She didn't believe in clutter and her dresser only held two items on its top; a picture of her parents, smiling and happy taken a few weeks before her mother's murder, and a simple wooden jewellery box in which she kept all of the things most precious to her. She moved the picture and the box so that she could add the picture of her work family, arranging the items so that she could easily see both pictures from her bed. She then lifted the lid on her box and took out the top layer containing her everyday jewellery. She removed her dad's watch and placed it in its usual place before lifting the necklace holding her mum's ring from around her neck and placing it gently beside the watch. She then placed Castle's card so that it leant against the back of the velvet lined box, angled up so that she would see his words every time she looked inside.
After one last long look Kate gently closed the lid, her eyes once again moist with unshed tears. She still hated her birthday, she always would, but she knew that for once she'd look back on a birthday and be grateful for what the day had brought.