Hey guys! I promise I'm not abandoning Down the Rabbit Hole. I put it on a small pause to write this.
This is a Christmas present for AllyLobster on Tumblr. I had a great time being your Secret Santa this year, and I hope you enjoy the Easter Eggs I planted in this.
Please let me know what you think!
The smell of the pine Christmas tree permeated the loft.
Kate Beckett breathed it in as she sat on the couch.
She traced a finger along a faded stretch mark on her stomach and smiled. When they had first appeared during her pregnancy she had been upset. Castle had come home from a meeting with his publishers to find her sitting on the edge of the bathtub, her head held in her hands, sobbing. To this day she still attributed that to her pregnancy hormones.
It had taken him a while to get her to admit what was wrong, but when he finally did, he bent down and kissed the small pink lines on her rounded stomach and told her how beautiful they were. How he loved them because they were a sign that there was a baby growing in her. Their baby.
She knew now that he was right. It had all been worth it to have the sweet boy sleeping upstairs. The thoughtful boy who shared his special stuffed Pooh Bear with the little kid who fell and scraped his knee on the playground. The charming little boy who convinced his big sister to let him help her make peanut butter cups for her friends Christmas party and ended up covering the entire kitchen in peanut butter and his entire face in chocolate.
Yes, that little boy was worth every single stretch mark, every minute of morning sickness, and every hour of labor.
And she was ready to do it all over again.
"What are you doing up?" she shifted on the couch to watch as her husband made his way across the room by the light of the Christmas tree.
"Couldn't sleep."
He came to a stop at the end of the couch and bent to kiss the top of her head. "You should come to bed."
She glanced at the clock. "5:30, James will be up soon. Why don't you join me?"
He smiled against her head, and then pulled the afghan off the back of the couch before settling in next to her and covering them with it. She rested her head on his chest and together they watched the Christmas lights sparkle in the dark.
Sure enough, it was only about fifteen minutes later that the four-year-old came bounding down the stairs. He had Alexis's hand in one of his and his stuffed Pooh Bear in the other. Martha trailed down behind them.
By the time he reached the tree, the little boy was nearly vibrating with excitement. When he noticed his parents sitting on the couch, he threw himself onto their laps. "Mommy, Daddy, Santa came!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah, he did, Bud," said Kate as she ran a hand through is sleep mused curls.
Martha and Alexis made their way to the couch as well. Alexis curled into her father's side. "I'm sorry for all the times I woke you up this early on Christmas as a kid," she said with a yawn.
He chuckled, and pressed a kiss into her hair. "It was worth it, seeing you that excited," he said looking over at James who had made his way back to the tree and was looking for a present with his name on it.
He surprised everyone by placing it on the coffee table and making his way back to the tree.
"Don't you want to open your present, Buddy?" asked Castle.
"Yeah!" said James, who was back underneath the tree looking for another present. "But I want everyone to open their presents at the same time." He pulled a rather haphazardly wrapped gift and jumped over to where Martha was sitting on the couch. "This one's from me, Gram. I wrapped it myself!" he said with a proud smile.
Castle could feel his daughter and wife smiling against his chest as James went about giving the rest of them their presents.
Once James finished, he grabbed his gift from the coffee table and wedged himself onto the couch between his sister and his grandmother
"Ready guys? Let's count to three!" he said bouncing in his seat.
Together everyone counted, and together everyone ripped in to the wrapping paper.
James gasped when he caught a glimpse of the stack of 1-2-3 Read-With-Me Winnie the Pooh stories. Last year he had received The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh and it had sparked his Pooh faze. Upstairs, his room was covered with Pooh paraphernalia including the giant floor puzzle of Tigger and Rabbit that he had done once and never taken apart.
He was soon out of his seat and jumping up and down in front of his dad. "Daddy, Daddy, Santa knows you're teaching me to read!" His enthusiasm was adorable, and Castle couldn't help but laugh gleefully as he said, "Yeah, Bud, he must know."
Half an hour later, most of the presents had been opened. Among them there were the leopard print fuzzy socks that Martha had already donned and the stuffed golden retriever puppy that sat on Alexis's lap. She had wanted a dog for a while, but the apartment she was currently living in had a strict 'no pets' policy.
They were all cuddled up on the couch when Kate pointed out that there was one last present left under the tree that didn't have a to/from tag on it.
"Who is it for?" asked James as he went to retrieve it.
"It's for the three of you, from us," said Castle as he wrapped and arm around Beckett's shoulder.
"Can I open it?"
"Have at it, James," said Alexis.
He ripped into the paper and revealed a small cardboard box.
"A box, how thoughtful," Alexis joked.
Castle rolled his eyes and said to James, "Just open the box."
It took him a while to get through the tape, but once he got one side open, a DVD slid out.
All three of them looked over at Castle and Beckett.
"Well," Martha prompted, "What's on it?"
"Lets find out!" Castle said. He took the DVD from James's hand and put it in the player. He came back to couch and grabbed the remote. As soon as he turned on the TV and pressed play a grainy, black and white picture popped up on the screen and a loud whooshing sound filled the room.
"That's the heartbeat," said Kate.
Everyone knew that Beckett was pregnant; she was four months along by now.
"Oh, Darlings, this is wonderful!" said Martha with tears in her eyes. She thought back to the first time she had seen Richard on a screen she had cried then too.
Suddenly, another whooshing started up. As soon as it did, Castle picked up where Beckett left her sentence dangling, "And that's the other heartbeat."
Martha and Alexis both gasped, but it was Alexis who regained her voice first, "Twins?"
Castle and Beckett nodded, twin grins on their faces.
It took James a little longer to figure out what the two noises meant.
"Two babies in Mommy's tummy?" he questioned.
"Mmmhmm."
"Two brothers or sisters?"
He looked a little pensive; everyone could see cogs turning in his head.
"We're going to need more Pooh Bears."