The Hopeful Lights of Winter

Disclaimer: I still don't own it, and I am back to being a poor student with bills, so I'm even less worth suing.

AN: Castle and Beckett try to navigate the holiday season and a fake separation at the same time. A Winter Ficathon story, and a nightly thank you gift for those involved in the Possibility4Joy project.

AN2: I'm hoping that between my finals and the actual delivery for the Possibility4Joy project, you'll bear with me a bit with me on the lateness of this chapter, and as I catch up on the other missing chapters. It's definitely my goal to be back on track in a day or two.


There was something liberating about waking up the next morning and being absolutely certain of no prying eyes. Also, her husband's surprise.

He really had built everything into this little secret room his, including, thankfully, access to coffee.

She had managed to slip free without waking him, and get it going before he stirred, only for him to sit up moments later and look around in stunned puzzlement at the smell of the brewing coffee.

"Kate!" he exclaimed, his mouth hanging open just a little.

"Hey," she said softly as she poured the hot liquid into mugs for both of them.

He stared. "I...how did you, when -"

She smiled at his sleepy confusion. "I was right here next to you most of the night," she said as she brought the drinks over and came to sit next to him. "You didn't notice?"

He floundered, even as he took a coffee from her hand. "I, um,"

She laughed. "You're cute when you're sleepy, babe, but drink your coffee. We should talk about things."

He took a long swallow and seemed to shake off the fuzziness in his brain.

"What happened with yesterday? I was..." He swallowed, she thought maybe he had swallowed down whatever it was he was going to say in the process. "Concerned," he offered finally.

She shook her head. "I know. Believe me that wasn't my plan. But suddenly, we thought we had something, something we might be able to track. But it was all buried in the back channels and there was some concern that if we pushed it too far, they'd know we were looking.

In the end, I decided it wasn't worth the risk. The chance of bringing all of it down on us for a minor opportunity."

He nodded slowly. "As much as I am glad to hear that you're playing it safe, you know that you can bring me in now, right? That was the deal."

She took a deep breath. "I will. When there's something real, I will." She didn't like it, but she would.

"I'm not crazy about it. But I get it," she promises.

He holds up the phone she'd left him. "At least now we can text back-and-forth. That should be fun."

"As long as you're not worried about it. Something might be traceable, regardless."

"No way. Scrambler app is on there, that can change the number with every single call, and a couple other useful things. But overall I can change the phone out about once a week.

She raised her eyebrows at that.

"What?" He asked. I'm pretty much doing that anyway, if you think about it."

That got a laugh from her because, actually yes he did, more or less.

At least maybe this time I will have a viable trade in. If I can get someone to make the swaps for me.

She shook her head. He was enjoying this just a bit too much. But they sat and drank their morning coffee in companionable silence.

Neither of them wanted to leave the spell of that room, but they did, in the end. Beckett just hoped they could do this right and end it once and for all.