This exists as a part of the Olive verse, but can be read independently (Olive is the daughter of Castle and Beckett and is sugar and spice and all things nice).
Unbetaed, so all mistakes are my own.
For Lou, who needed a pick-me-up and maybe a Castle too.
Proud owner of exactly nothing.
The loft was the kind of organised chaos that Kate had never expected to live in. Alexis had just moved back to the States, broke and completely idealistic from a stint living and working in Helsinki on a clean energy project that had its funding abruptly cut. She had come back to the nest and Kate knew that Castle was secretly delighted at having both his daughters under one roof. Martha routinely flitted in and out of the loft, visiting with both her grandchildren, generally causing chaos and leaving right before bedtime, spoiling both girls absolutely rotten, as she was wont to do.
Nights like these were increasingly becoming the norm. Being home for dinner with the family. Alexis took the reigns on bath time (Olive might love swimming, but hair washing day was a different kettle of fish entirely), Castle dashing away to his office, having finally figured out how exactly Nikki solved the case of a slippery vice president candidate's murder by a car bomb. Kate was generally left with kitchen duty.
Scrubbing pots gave Kate the mental escape she needed, giving her the chance to step out of her Super Cop persona into her Super Mom shoes. Her mind switched off as she made her way through the dishes, Castle's famous cabonara sauce all but crusted to the bottom of a pan. She broke out of her reverie when Olive's sweet little voice rang out through the apartment. "Flower gleam and glow. Let your powers shine. Make the clock reverse. Bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt. Change the fates' design. Save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine, What once was mine..."
Olive truly had inherited her grandmother's gifts. She was a complete and total drama queen (rivalled only by her father) and Martha had recently pulled Kate aside and suggested that Olive could quite seriously have a future in the entertainment industry if she so chose and investing in professional training would be an incredibly wise thing to do. Listening to Olive sing through the loft, Kate could see where Martha was coming from. Her girl had a gift. By the same token, though, Kate didn't want her growing up too fast. She turned back to the pot, resuming her rhythmic scrubbing. She and Castle would have to discuss it at some point in the future.
Dishes washed and put away, Kate's attention was piqued when she heard how deadly quiet the loft was. With three Castles under her roof, she knew silence could only mean one thing. They were up to something.
Kate walked into the living room. Nothing. She tiptoed into the study. Castle was exactly where she'd left him; hunched over his laptop, his hair in disarray as his fingers flicked frantically over the keyboard. "I promise I'm nearly done," he murmured, not even looking up to acknowledge who walked in.
Kate chuckled and smoothed out his hair. "All good, stud," she promised him, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Take your time. I'm just trying to figure out what mischief your daughters are up to."
"Check in the secret passageway," Castle told her distractedly, picking up his remote to flick to his story map and check a detail.
Kate shook her head at her husband's antics (where would you fit a secret passage way in a New York City loft?), trotting upstairs to find the girls. She walked into Alexis's room to find Olive sitting on the edge of the bed, bouncing impatiently. She was wearing a brand new pair of pyjamas, damp hair wrapped in a towel.
"I heard you singing in the tub," Kate informed her daughter, leaning against the doorframe.
"'Lexis says that if I sing while she washes my hair, it won't hurt." Olive shrugged. "I don't think it's really magic, but it's fun to pretend."
"And that's how we know Olive is half a Beckett," Alexis drawled, trotting out of the bathroom in a matching pair of pjs to her little sister.
"I can assure you with absolute certainty that Olive is definitely at least part Beckett. I do what I can to have an influence over her," Kate drawled in response. "I like your pjs."
"Thanks," Alexis replied demurely. "I can get you a pair if you want?"
Kate chuckled. Alexis was having way too much fun being the stereotypical big sister ripped from the pages of a tween novel. "I might just let that be a sisters thing," Kate replied gracefully.
"Hey Momma," Olive interjected, her bouncing abruptly ceasing as she shot Kate a charming (and somewhat toothless) grin. "Can we have a movie night tonight?"
Kate pretended to think about it. After a mind numbing day at work, curling up on the couch and falling asleep to a movie seemed perfect. "I suppose that would be alright," she sighed dramatically.
Olive cheered theatrically in response, the towel on her head untwisting and falling off. "As long as you remember that it's grown up time now," Kate reminded her, trying not to rile up her excitable daughter.
"Go take a shower, Kate," Alexis suggested. "We'll get everything set up, won't we, Olive?"
Kate had trailed her fingers over Castle's shoulder, offering an affectionate scratch to his throat, letting him know that the girls wanted to have a movie night and he should join them if he had the chance to that evening. He'd nodded, muttering that he would be out soon.
Kate wandered out of the bathroom, hair curling around her shoulders and clad in her own (not matching) pyjamas, realising that yet again, that the loft was far too quiet and that she'd left the three Castles unsupervised. She made her way to the living room and gasped.
They'd transformed the entire room into a blanket fort.
Kate couldn't even bring herself to be anything less than amazed. This had Castle theatrics written all over it. Her daughter was receiving the richest, most inspirational childhood and it was all because her father and older sister had yet to let go of all the joy in the world.
"Daddy! No! We always have to watch Monsters University! Pick something different!" Olive whined from within the fort.
"That's because it's the best!"
Kate knew she had to intervene. She could hear that Olive was on the verge of grumpiness fuelled by being tired and she also knew that when it came to movie night, Castle could be unbearably stubborn about his choices.
"Not when you have to watch it all the time! And Johnny Worthington is a pernicious cad. I want to watch Belle." Olive sassed, clearly learning her insults from her grandmother.
"Okay, that's enough from both of you," Kate interjected mildly She flipped through the collection before grabbing a movie, placing it in the Blu-ray player. "I'm choosing."
"Why do you get to choose?" Castle and Olive whined in sync.
"Because she's the Mommy, that's why," Alexis suggested from the spot she'd picked, very comfortably settled in one of the corners of the sofa bed, neatly padding up pillows around her.
Kate caught Alexis's eye and gave her a shy smile. Alexis offered her a similar smile in response. The older of her two girls (Kate was still getting used to referring to Alexis as her daughter and suspected that Alexis felt the same way. She very rarely referred to Kate as "mom" and it caught Kate off guard and warmed her heart every. Single. Time) "Olive, come on up," Alexis invited. "I'll braid your hair."
Kate planted herself in the centre of the bed, relaxing so that she was surrounded by her makeshift little family. Castle let out a tiny whine of complaint when the film began to open. "Oh hush. Flynn Rider is charming," Kate shushed him, her elbow digging lightly into his ribcage.
Olive had seen Tangled plenty of times, but it didn't stop her from curling her little hand into Kate's as baby Rapunzel was stolen away. Kate leaned over and brushed a kiss to her cheek, privately recalling Olive's first viewing of the film and subsequent nightmares that somebody was going to steal her away.
Within seconds, Kate could see that Olive had shaken off her funk, cheerfully singing along with Rapunzel, moving so she was perched behind Alexis, running a brush through her long red hair.
Castle was not impressed when he heard a collective sigh from his girls when the (okay, yes, he was rather dashing) male lead came on screen. He certainly didn't like that his six year old was already weak at the knees for a cartoon character.
"Guys, I want a castle."
He couldn't help it. "He's not the only one," he muttered.
"What do you mean, Daddy?" Olive asked, looking over at him with wide blue eyes.
"Daddy's just teasing me," Kate interjected swiftly. "Because for a long time I wanted a Castle and now I have three."
"Your Mom is lucky like that," Castle added.
Olive just shrugged, oblivious to the teasing that was happening between her parents. "Mom, can I brush your hair now?"
The brushing of Kate's hair had been abandoned. When the movie had started getting scary, Olive had immediately retreated to the safety of the space between her parents, Alexis using her dad's back to stay upright.
"Great, now I'm the bad guy"
Olive shuddered slightly, curling closer into Kate's side. "I'm glad you're not a nasty Mommy like Mother Gothel," she whispered. "You're the best Mommy ever."
Alexis caught Kate's eye and gave her a little wink. Kate shot her a smile in return.
"You were my new dream."
"And you were mine."
Kate felt Castle's hand on her upper back, his fingers tracing up and down her spine. A Friday night spent watching a kid's movie, husband by her side, older daughter dressed in matching pjs to her slightly sleepy baby who was growing more cuddly by the second? That was a new dream all right.
"And we're living happily ever after."
"Yes, we are."
Olive let out a loud yawn as Alexis pressed stop on the movie. "I think I'm going to go to bed," she informed them softly. "Good night."
Olive was almost completely out. She was the most solid sleeper Kate had ever seen and she knew that there was no way they were getting that kid up the stairs. "Do you want to just stay here?" She whispered to Castle.
Castle tugged up the quilt that he'd placed underneath the sofa bed. "I thought you'd never ask."
This was the life that Kate had never imagined for herself. Sleeping in a blanket fort, tracing her nails over her husband's wrist, his large hand resting protectively on their child's back. It was a life she'd never dared dream for herself, but she wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
Olive twitched slightly, still not quite asleep. "Princesses are cool," she sighed sleepily. "But can I be the President instead?"
So yeah, this is what happens when I watch too many movies... Thoughts?