"Come on, let me treat you to a little vacation. Just enjoy it, Castle." Kate Beckett told her part-time lover, part-time crime solving buddy as the two of them zipped through mountain roads in a rented SUV. Small blots of snow showered down on the trees and scenery around them. A smug looking Kate drove their vehicle while Castle tinkered with an iPod plugged into a radio converter. The thing just wouldn't seem to work though.
"How do people live with this Neanderthal-like technology?" Castle pouted as he gave up and tossed the converter into a side compartment. He turned the static emitting from the radio off and then addressed Kate's comments. "I promise to enjoy it… As long as you actually tell me where we're going? I packed half my house getting ready because I didn't know if we were doing the beach or the slopes. You've got to clue me in, Kate."
"Where's the fun in that?" was all Kate offered him, eyes on the road. "We'll be there soon. So, snow. You need clothes for snow."
"I can see that now." Castle said sarcastically as he gestured to the frosted trees surrounding them. Kate only smiled.
The couple made a few more sharp turns before finally arriving at a private driveway in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. Kate got out and unlocked the rusted gate with a key she'd had stowed away in her pocket. She then got back in and drove through, whistling the tune to a Christmas carol all the while. Castle fixed her with a questioning look, an eyebrow partially raised to add dramatic affect. He wasn't an idiot. He knew this was probably her father's cabin. But still, Kate had never mentioned that the place was out in prime horror film countryside.
"This is how terrible films start, you know." Castle remarked as the driveway lilted up a hillside through steep turns and jagged, rock-edged cliff sides that looked as though they might start raining boulders at any given moment.
"Oh yeah, Castle, you finally figured it out. You've annoyed me too much and now I'm bringing you into the woods to kill you." Kate laughed at her own sarcasm and fiddled with the steering wheel as she pulled up in front of a small log cabin beside a sprawling meadow that now looked like an ice frosted cake. A single elk stood to the right, staring at the vehicle with some certain level of disdain. To the other side of the cabin, more hills reached upward and onward to things Castle didn't particularly want to venture out toward.
"Fine, joke now, see if I save you when the ax murderer shows up." Castle scoffed at her.
"Yes, because my gun is no match for an ax." Kate retorted as she killed the engine. Their banter could probably go on for the entire trip if they let it, but Kate had other plans. So, she opened the door to the driver's side and gave Castle a "come hither" gesture. The freezing cold air assaulted them both as they stepped out on the crunching snow. No one had been there in a while, aside from the occasional snow plow which her father had called ahead of time so they would be able to use the cabin. Everything looked fresh and still, like a painting. Beckett left perfect little footsteps in her wake as she started toward the cabin. Castle scowled behind her, having worn dress shoes, not knowing he'd need boots.
"Cheer up, we can cozy up by the fire soon." Kate told him. She unlocked the door and pushed it open before turning back to grab her suitcase. Castle did the same, walking in her footsteps where she'd already packed down the snow.
"I can think of a few things to do beside the fire." Castle grinned as he stepped into the cabin for the first time.
The entire place was somewhat picturesque in a modest way. There was a woodstove fireplace with various old, outworn boots sitting beside it. Castle even spotted a little pair of pink ones that might have belonged to Kate as a child. There was one main room set out before them which combined a kitchen and living room. Pictures littered the walls, creating a collage of the Beckett family during their prime. Jim and Johanna's wedding photos were hung at the center of the main wall space. Castle was suddenly quite touched that Kate had been willing to share this with him. He couldn't help reflect back to when she'd been shot. He thought of her words, her saying that she'd stayed up at her father's cabin to heal. Perhaps she wasn't just healing physically, but emotionally too. Maybe she came there to feel her family's presence around her.
Castle dropped his small array of suitcases beside the little four-seat kitchen table and progressed forward to explore the cabin a bit more. There were two bedrooms. One had a master bed and a little space heater plugged into the wall. The other had a canopy bed for a child. The child's room was covered in dust and looked un-lived in. There was a bathroom with an old fashioned tub and a fogged over mirror. And, at the end of the hall, a tiny stairway created a narrow path upward. Maybe it led to an attic.
"Make yourself at home, I'll set up the fire so we can warm the place up." Kate called to him from the kitchen. She had somehow managed to lug in some firewood from the hutch outside while Castle had toured the cabin. He smiled and pulled all of their things into the room to place inside a towering wardrobe.
Kate snuggled up beside the fire on a cozy loveseat, draped in a plaid flannel blanket, while Castle worked on dinner. He had told her he would make them both spaghetti since she had made the fire for them. She let her thoughts wander as she relaxed, thinking of all the times she had come there in her past. She'd not yet shared this place with anyone aside from her family. It had just felt wrong before, as if no one would understand this part of her life. It belonged to her and her dad and the memory of her mother. It belonged to everything she had left behind when she'd become a cop. And now, with Castle in the kitchen humming a show tune and making them dinner, she felt a future for herself rising out of the ashes, solidifying into something she knew she truly wanted. Every time she closed her eyes and imagined her life, she saw only him. As long as he was there, she could always find a way to be happy.
"You've got to be kidding me." Castle's voice broke Kate out of her daydreaming and she glanced backward at him as he fiddled with his cell phone in one hand while stirring a pot of sauce with the other.
"What's the matter?" Kate asked him, thinking maybe he'd spilled hot sauce down the front of him or something.
"There's no signal." Castle told her, a shocked expression taking over. "Zero bars!" He proclaimed, as if this might make his point.
"Oh yeah, this is a technology free zone. No cell service, no wifi, to cable, no TV, nothing. We've got plenty of books and board games if you're interested though." Kate clued him in on life in the cabin. The closest thing they had to technology were the electric outlets and lights.
"Wait, no cable? Nothing? But, what if there's an emergency? Do you have a land line?" Castle asked her, sounding genuinely worried.
"There's an old radio up in the attic that can signal the nearest ranger's station. Other than that, we don't have much." Kate shrugged, used to these conditions since her childhood.
"What if Alexis is in the hospital? Or my mother has some kind of dramatic breakdown?" Castle questioned her, as if she'd done him wrong by not installing phone lines ahead of time.
"Look, I told Alexis that we'd be out of range. I left her the emergency line for the ranger's station, in case they really need us. Otherwise, just let your anxiety go. We're here to break away from everything else. It's just us." Kate told him, her voice calm. While she could have very easily transitioned to an annoyance, she just couldn't allow herself to do so. It was charming that he was worried about his family. But what was even more charming, was the look on his face as it softened into that gentle expression. He had heard her. He knew it was just them. He knew things would be okay.
The fire crackled as the two lovers snuggled up together on the loveseat. Kate was sprawled with her back to the arm of the seat and her legs over Castle's. Castle inclined to lean closer to Kate, as if some force of nature was magnetically tugging him with each passing second. All was quiet, all was calm. They sipped cocoa from rounded mugs. Neither was too crowded by invading thoughts. It was as if everything had frozen and they were floating through time in their own little bubble. They were content. Nothing could ruin the serenity of their state. That is, until the storm outside started to pick up. First, the light bulbs shuttered, dimming and then brightening once more. Then, they slipped into an eerie brownish glow. The glow emanated all around the couple and then flickered out entirely. Castle and Beckett sat for a moment, sort of shocked, as the only light they were given came from the smoldering fire before them.
"Does this happen a lot?" Castle inquired, looking at Kate curiously.
"Only when the weather takes a turn for the worst." Kate murmured, not wanting to leave the warmth of their current spot, but knowing that they'd be plunged into pitch black the moment the fire died. "We have lanterns and candles. They're shelved up in the attic. I could go get them…" Kate let her words drift at the end. Castle picked up on the cue.
"I could do it. Ya know, if you want." He offered, straightening up in his seat. Kate smiled at him, a silent "thank you" that he could feel in his gut. He started to shift and Kate pulled her legs to her chest so he could move. He set his cocoa down on an end table and Kate reached for his hand gently as he started away. She let her fingertips graze over the inside of his wrist and he moved toward the stairs and then let go. He lit up at her touch, feeling the warmth and underlying feelings swell inside of him. When he glanced back at her, he found the slightest smile dancing on her lips in the shadows of the fire.
Castle started up the narrow stairwell that led into the attic with confidence, at first. That confidence rapidly began to dwindle as the steps plunged into pitch black inside a screeching door that clung to its hinges, as if forbidding Castle to progress any further. He shrugged off the general eeriness of the moment, reminding himself that he couldn't let his writer's imagination play any stupid tricks on him. It was an attic, after all, and not a life threatening situation. He'd had too many real adrenaline rushes to even begin to compare this experience. This was more of an inconvenience than anything else. He secretly told himself that he'd definitely invest in a few spare flashlights to leave around the Beckett cabin from here on in.
The darkness seemed to swallow him up as he walked over creaking floorboards toward what he guessed might be a wall. He reached ahead of himself blindly and pulled out his phone to use as a light. The screen gave him the general outline of the shelf before him and Castle immediately began to stock up on needed supplies. He grabbed a handful of candles and two lanterns. There was a heavy duty flashlight there as well, so he shoved it into the pocket of his flannel pajama pants. Feeling satisfied that his mission was complete, Castle started to turn around to head back down the stairs. He looked quite comical, really, with his arms full of different light sources. At some point, he'd shoved his cell phone in his mouth, with the screen facing downward, and let the glow light up the floor at his slipper clad feet. That was when he heard the little screech sound. Castle froze. "What was that?" was all Castle could think as the screech turned into a scittering little sound. Those were feet. Tiny feet. There was something up there with him that he hadn't noticed at the start of his quest for light.
His body seemed to squirm slightly at the idea of being up there with some unnamed critter that whole time. What else was up there? Tarantulas? Scorpions? Snakes? Cabins out in the woods were like a pest controller's gold mine! And then, the screeching creature emerged from beneath an old desk and let its widened eyes stare up into the glare of the cell phone screen. The animal was a small raccoon with a bushy black and gray tail. It's little ears twitched and Castle felt that warm fuzzy feeling that came with adorable cat pictures on the internet and people walking new puppies in central park. The warm fuzzies instantly vanished when the animals eyes narrowed and it started toward him with what Castle could only describe as suspicion. Not knowing how to react, Castle stomped one of his feet to warn the animal to stay back. His arms were still full and he bolted for the stairwell. He slammed the door shut on its screaming hinges and started downstairs toward Kate, letting a huff of air out as he dropped his phone onto a couch cushion and placed the lanterns on the table.
"What was all that about? Did you drop something?" Kate asked him, looking concerned in that accusing way she always seemed to pull off seamlessly.
"You have a house guest in your attic. It might have rabies. Be careful." was all Castle said as he sat back down beside Kate on the couch and pulled her legs back over his own.
"Animals in the attic?" Kate asked, already nodding. "Typical." she remarked as if this happened all the time.
"It was kind of cute, until it started looking at me like I might be edible." Castle confessed, as if sharing war stories. Kate laughed and tossed an accent pillow at him.
The two stayed like that for hours, just cozied up by the fire. They shared stories about winters past and laughed at shared experiences. They thought of getting up and taking their conversation to the bedroom where they could do a different type of snuggling. But the mood just wasn't quite right. There was something more innocent, more endearing, about just being there together. They eventually fell asleep like that, Castle leaning over Kate's legs, her hands sifted through his hair. The fire eventually burned down to embers and the cabin grew so still that no one would guess two people were even inside. This was called the calm before the storm.
It started with a tumbling crash. Kate reacted first, sitting bolt upright, always alert to any kind of crises. Castle stirred beside her, looking groggy and confused. "Something's wrong." Kate said, her voice sounding croaky but urgent.
"What was that?" Castle asked her, hoping she had another magical "this always happens" remark up her sleeve and the knowledge of how to make it go away.
"I think some of the snow came down from the hills." Kate told him slowly, a feeling of panic rising up inside her.
"What does that mean for us?" Castle asked her, not knowing how severe the situation was. Maybe they just needed a snow shovel.
"I need to make sure we're not trapped in here." Kate told him, rising up off the loveseat and starting to pace. She slipped her feet into a pair of fluffy winter boots and moved toward the windows. She pulled back the shade and looked outside to snow piled three fourths the way up the sill. "Shit." Kate murmured and moved toward the door.
"Has this ever happened before" Castle wanted to know if they would be able to remedy this and Kate wasn't giving him much to work with.
"Only once, but never this bad." Kate said as she tried to push the door outward. The small overhang outside blocked a bit of the snow from completely preventing their escape, but Kate knew that they were going to have a hell of a time trying to get the car out of this without help. The road would need plowing again and they really needed to get to the ranger's station. "Hey Castle, how do you feel about hiking? In the snow?" Kate asked, an apologetic look on her face.
"You're kidding me, right?" Castle asked as Kate ducked into the bedroom with a lantern to dig her snow boots out of her bag.
"This road was a lot nicer when we had four-wheel drive and our biggest problem was a lack of radio stations." Castle grumbled as the two of them sledged through the snow in the dark, trying to stay on the path. It had been awful trying to get through the minimal climbing space at the door. Kate had gone first, Castle offering her a boost. And then, she'd shoveled the pile down a bit and Castle climbed out after her. The two were now braving the storm outside in the freezing chill, praying that more snow wouldn't come down off the hill and bury the cabin until spring.
"At least we're not locked in a freezer." Kate remarked, her optimism lost in her dark tone.
"We might as well be though. Look around us. It's a very spacious freezer." Castle told her, trying to keep up as she maneuvered through the snow like a pro.
"It's only a mile or two down the road. We'll be fine. The ranger might even have heat and electricity if we're lucky." Kate tried to make the best of the situation. She felt guilty for bringing him up to the cabin for a romantic weekend only to turn it into an undesirable snow sport spin-off. Castle caught on though. He'd been making a fuss when really, he just felt bad that he wasn't the one who had planned a trip for them. He knew Kate was doing something nice for him, but part of him still wanted, more than anything, to do things for her, to impress her.
"I bet he's got coffee too." Castle told her, catching up and grabbing one of her mitten donned hands and holding it in his own. She let him. They moved in silence for a few minutes, taking turns making fresh footprints in the snow and walking in the other's footsteps. A tree shook snow down on them as some small critter leapt from one branch to another above and the pair stopped for a moment to glance upward. That was when Kate broke the silence. She began laughing, slowly at first, and then building up to something moderately hysterical. It was as if the moment had really just set in for her. They weren't hunting murderers or solving a case. They were just two ordinary people in a snow storm going through a slight crises. And she was laughing because, if she ever had to go through anything like this in her life, she was so thankful it was with Castle. And she was actually kind of having fun. She thought of all the mishaps and mistakes that life gave people. She thought of her parents bickering over patching up the holes in the attic where the animals snuck in from. She thought of Castle grumbling about his mother hosting plays in his living room. And she imagined, somewhere down the line, all of the things they would go through together if they made their relationship thrive. Kate had no doubts. They would always be worth fighting for.
Castle stared at the woman he loved as she laughed manically, head titled back as the snow caught in her brunette tresses. At first, he didn't know how to react. There was something incredibly infectious about her though and he found himself begin to laugh too. They had to look like a pair of psych ward patients escaped from the nearest asylum, but it didn't matter. It was just them out there. "Just us." Kate's words echoed in his head. So he swept an arm out around his laughing lover's waist and pulled her in for a long, warm kiss. Their frozen noses nuzzled slightly, an unintentional movement. Kate had stopped laughing and was breathing him in. Their lips met again, a perfect collision of romance. It stole their breath away, each in turn, as mouths worked of their own accord. They released each other for air and rested foreheads against one another, eyes locked in a trance.
"Castle, I…" Kate started, trying to find the right words.
"I know." Castle told her, reaching a gloved hand up to cup her cheek. The love that swelled between them needed no words. The moment was catching up to them both. It was as if they had come into a sort of awareness that they had been in the middle of something before their little interruption. They still needed to go to the ranger's station.
"Hold your horses." A grouchy voice called out from inside the ranger's station as Kate rapped her hand against the wood like a small child who desperately wanted attention. A tall woman wearing a ranger's uniform and sipping steaming hot tea from a mug opened the door to greet them. "What can I do for you?"
"Our cabin got snowed in. We need to call in for someone to plow the road. It's a private driveway a mile or two back. Is there any chance we could use your phone or radio?" Kate asked, taking initiative. Castle couldn't help but notice the stances both woman used; two alpha females internally debating which one was in charge.
"Help yourself. There's a phone down the hall to the left. Feel free to help yourself to something warm to drink while you wait for help." The ranger told her, releasing the reigns on the station a little bit. Kate nodded a thank you and Castle offered the ranger a grin.
The two of them made their way into the station so Kate could call in help while Castle got them both a cup of coffee.
"So, what lesson did we learn?" Castle asked Kate as the two drove home from their weekend cabin adventure.
"Always let you choose the vacation?" Kate asked him, brows knit together in annoyance.
"Or at least wait until summer to use your dad's cabin." Castle laughed and held her hand over the center console in the car.
"Fine, you can plan family vacations. But I get to be in charge of emergencies." Kate told him and she let her eyes glance sideways, out the window, in slight embarrassment when she realized that she'd confessed that she wanted a family with Castle. He beamed as he looked ahead, knowing he wanted the same thing.