Hello, my faithful readers, and welcome to chapter 12!

Funny enough, I'm having a bit of a snow storm of my own over here in New England. Sitting in my apartment as the snow is coming down at an alarming rate. Love it though. But I was stuck in it earlier today at school while walking around, and let me tell you, it was not pleasant to be soaked and freezing haha.

How did you guys like Once Upon A Crime? I personally loved it.. I think it was actually a bit better than Linchpin tbh. There were more Casketty moments. Hell, we even got a HAND-HOLD. That BECKETT INITIATED. I bet Stana was thrilled with that ;)

Oh, and Stana replied to me on Twitter today. I pretty much flailed/fangirled for a good 2 hours. Poor Kimmiesjoy sat on skype with me as I freaked out. But it was AWESOME.

PALEYFEST in almost a WEEK! EEP!

Okies. I think I blabbed enough. Enjoy the chapter!

DISCLAIMER: no I don't own any of the Castle characters, blah blah blah. Marlowe, if you see me, hit me up! I'd love to own some of Beckett's wardrobe!

"Mmmmm," Kate hummed in appreciation of the warmth surrounding her and the blankets cocooning her into almost a swaddled position. It was bliss, and she didn't seem to be the only one happy about this little sleeping arrangement.

"Oh—morning," she drawled, slightly startled to see Castle's eyes, intent and loving, on her face. "Were you seriously watching me sleep?" she yawned, so the slightly edgy question was tampered by her not yet fully conscious state.

"Yep. It was comforting somehow. I knew you hadn't been sleeping well, and seeing you completely zonked out meant you were finally getting rest, which means—"

"I get it, Castle," she glanced at him through the haze of sleep, the touch of annoyance leaving her face completely.

He took that moment to make an audible stretch, grunting a little, then enveloping her again, pulling her close to his chest.

"The fire went out," she observed the dark ash in the fireplace near the foot of the bed.

"Actually, the electricity is back on. Came back sometime after we fell asleep I guess."

"What time is it?"

Castle shrugged a bit. "A little past ten. We didn't fall asleep till after three, so I figured you needed the rest."

"Thanks. I did. These beds are actually really comfy," she smiled, palpating the springy mattress under her hand.

"Oh, so the bed is what made you sleep well?" he asked with a knowing, sly smirk.

She rolled her eyes in response, but a grin shone through beneath the sarcastic exterior.

"Yep. But there was a large snoring noise in my ear in the middle of the night. Could there be a bear around here?"

She looked around the room playfully.

"Ha ha. I know for a fact that I don't snore. Alexis would have told me so years ago."

"Uh huh. Whatever you say, Castle."

They lay there for another few minutes, reveling in the warmth and comfort of each other. It was simply contentedness. Kate sighed and moved to sit up, but Rick grumbled and attempted to keep her where she was.

"We can't just lay in bed all day," she stated exasperated as she rolled over to face him again.

"Five more minutes," he compromised with a whine in his voice that reminded her of a six year old.

"Two."

"Three and a half."

"Fine."

He smiled into the crook of her neck and planted a kiss to her pulse point before nuzzling her with his nose again, the grin never leaving his face. She couldn't deny that it didn't feel remarkable to have his warm lips and face against her.

Okay, so he's a big man-child. But that doesn't mean he's not entirely adorable nonetheless. So she settled back into him and enjoyed the moment. Her feet were freezing, so she tucked them into his legs, the heat from both of their bodies radiating and making it much easier for her toes to defrost quicker.

It was more than three and a half minutes that they were out of bed, and Beckett knew it, but she was actually enjoying the leisure. Usually, there was no time for such rest and relaxation because her job required being on call constantly, so the change was surprisingly nice.

Castle decided to shower again, so Kate was the first to venture downstairs and into the kitchen. The first thing she did was to check the refrigerator to see whether the food had spoiled overnight. Luckily, they didn't open it after the power had gone out, resulting in preserved and edible ingredients.

Since he had primarily made the meals yesterday, she decided it was time to show him that she was actually quite an accomplished cook, despite the fact that at home, her fridge was a temple of takeout and Styrofoam. Again, with her consistently fluctuating schedule, it was merely more convenient to take out most of the time, not that she necessarily didn't want to cook.

Today, she decided to make omelets, and took out the eggs, milk, bacon, and bowl. By now, she was beginning to learn her way around the new kitchen, and the preparation went fairly smoothly.

He moseyed down the stairs to the delightful sound of crackling bacon and the strong, bitter, glorious aroma of coffee fill the air. Breathing in appreciatively, he made his way to where she was standing with her back turned, and without making a noise, enclosed his arms around her waist, leaning his chin on her left shoulder and letting out a satisfied hum.

"Boo."

"You know I knew you were coming, right?" she remarked with a smirk on her face, but leaned back into his embrace anyway.

"Yes, I know. Ninja skills."

"And don't you dare forget it. I have a gun," she joked, turning around in his arms to wind her own arms around his neck and look up at him.

He closed the distance between them, meeting her lips with his own. Although they've only kissed three times—one being an undercover kiss—it was rather natural for them both. It was a chaste kiss, or at least it started out that way; it became heated as she traced his bottom lip with her own tongue, tasting him and allowing his own tongue entrance into her mouth. His hands worked their way up to her hair, a mixture of rough and passionate with gentle and tender touches. Hers traveled down to grip his backside, not too subtly copping a feel. Ha! He knew she was an ass girl. Goosebumps erupted wherever he touched, and she was tingling head to toe with desire when she remembered where she was and what she was doing before this man walked over and frankly kissed her brain cells out of her.

"Cas—Castle. Bacon. Burning. Stove. Turn off," she murmured through open-mouthed kisses. He worked his way to her jaw, planting blazing kisses down to her neck, memorizing the spots that made her shutter. Her words got lost in the passion and were seemingly forgotten by both as he continued his frenzy on her neck, collarbone, and mouth.

"Rick," she practically whimpered, obvious resentment for having to stop him from the magic he was doing to her body with his mouth and hands.

Reluctantly, he stopped, but didn't let go of her. She put both of her hands on either side of his face, her thumbs rubbing small circles on his cheeks similar to those he was tracing on her back with his own hand. Leaning in once more, she closed her eyes and placed the chaste kiss that was supposed to occur before their little impromptu make out session onto his lips.

At that, they both stepped away and she promptly shut off the heat on the stovetop, lifting the only slightly charred bacon onto a plate with a pair of tongs. Her arm was still a bit shaky as she did so from what just happened, and she smiled to herself. Castle gave her a questioning look, wondering what she found funny, but she just shook her head at him to dismiss it.

"So," Kate began as they sat down to eat their breakfasts, "what's on the agenda today? And please say it does not involve getting stuck in another winter storm," she teased.

"Oh, come on. You know that wasn't part of the plan," he countered playfully. "I'm creative, not a weather God. But really, I'm not sure what we're doing today. The storm kinda threw me off my game."

"Mmmhm, blame the storm," she teased, taking another bite of her broccoli and cheddar omelet.

He scoffed, but doesn't say anything in return, instead filling his mouth with a bite of his own omelet.

"Has the snow finally stopped?" she asked, "I realized I haven't really looked out the window yet this morning."

"And you call yourself a detective," he teased.

She gave him a 'Beckett glare' and took a sip of her coffee in the porcelain cylinder that warmed her fingers and palms.

"Yep; earlier this morning. We have a good two feet out there now," he continued, peering out towards the closest window. "Seems to be some snow drifts though. Can barely see out the window."

"If you have already forgotten, this was my time to not be a detective. Wasn't that why we're out here?"

"True. Ooh, I have an idea of what we can do today," he exclaimed with a wide-eyed, childlike look on his face.

Beckett raised an eyebrow, but nodded.

"Alright. Let me get dressed. Where are we going? Or are we even leaving the house?" she inquired as she brought her plate to the sink and began to rinse the dishes.

"Eh, dress warmly, but you don't have to bring much at all."

She met him downstairs twenty minutes later after they had cleaned up from breakfast. Today, she had chosen a navy blue turtleneck knitted sweater paired with a pair of dark jeans. Rather being safe than sorry, she added an extra layer of long underwear underneath her jeans.

They layered up with coats, scarves, gloves, and hats to keep them nice and toasty, and headed out the door.

"Castle, I'm not going to lie. I'm nervous being out here, especially from yesterday's incident. Don't know how much time I can spend out here today, at least far away from a place we can seek shelter if needed."

He nodded and his eyes crinkled as he gave her a knowing grin.

"I know. Me neither, actually. But we're not going anywhere. We're staying ten feet from the house."

"Wait, what?" Kate's eyebrows furrowed, attempting to figure out what they had in store.

"We're making snow sculptures!"

She gave a hardy laugh and clapped her hands together, making a muted 'thump' noise due to her gloves.

"Okay. This should be interesting. Let's do it. Want to make one together first?"

"Sure. What're we going for? A walrus? A dragon? Ooh! We could make a castle, because of my name! Maybe we could make it a Harry Potter themed castle Get it? Castle—"

"How about we start with the basic, three-balled snowman?"

"What kind of snowman has three testicles?" he began.

"CASTLE. Focus."

"Right. Fine. Ordinary three-balled snowman, coming up."

They began to roll the snow, packing some down and building around it to get the momentum going. Both were pink-cheeked and laughing, throwing small snowballs at each other and ducking out of the way of their impending opponent.

Once the third, smallest ball, which formed its head, was made, they placed it on top and stood back to admire their handiwork.

"It needs something," Castle contemplated.

Kate wasn't sure whether he was talking to her or more thinking out loud to himself. Either way, she went to the driveway and dug down to come back to him carrying a handful of grey pebble-like stones.

She placed them in an upward-curved line to form a nice, smiling mouth. Then, using the slightly larger stones placed them evenly down the centre of the snowman's body, making buttons.

Now having an idea, Castle ran into the house, holding one finger up at her to stay there. So she stood, trying to find some twigs for arms.

When he came back, he admired his detective, looking at the snowman with an obviously critical eye, with one arm across her stomach, her hand resting on her opposite side and her other hand tracing her lips in concentration. Her brows furrowed in concentration, and her hair draped off her shoulder in waves with speckles of white from the snow working their way in with the chestnut of the strands. The hat covered some of her head, but her pink cheeks still showed, and the puff of visible air her mouth made from the frosty air was too much for him. He stood there in his tracks, grinning like a fool, no doubt, and thinking of how lucky he was.

But Beckett soon spotted him, gave him a questioning look, and headed over to where he was.

"What's so fascinating?"

"Oh, nothing. Don't worry about it."

"So, what did you go into the house for?"

"Ooh! I grabbed some items to make him/her look more complete."

He showed her the red scarf and hat he had brought, along with the carrot and sunglasses in the other hand.

"Frosty going to the beach?" Beckett pointed to the sunglasses with a chuckle.

"Hey, you never know. They might want to work on their tan!"

"Okay, Castle," she said with a light eye roll and a smirk.

She grabbed the scarf and wound it around the plump snowperson's "neck". As she was putting the hat on its head, she asked, "So, what gender should our little snowchild be? Girl or boy?"

Rick spun her around and placed his lips on hers faster than it took her to register what was happening. For a woman with ninja skills, she was definitely surprised he was capable of doing that, but she didn't fight it. On the contrary, she enjoyed the feeling of his agile mouth on hers; his tongue drawing passionate trails mixing with her own. It quickly became heated, and she could feel her cheeks start to flush for a completely different reason than the weather. His arms pulled her flush to him, her gloved hands tugged gently in his hair. She took the carrot that was placed on their snowchild's head and stuck it between the second and third balls, evidently where the groin area would be, never breaking the kiss.

When he saw when she was doing, he laughed. "Guess I know which gender you want him to be."

Kate began making her way down along the crease of his jaw line with her mouth, only responding with an answering, "Mmmm".

She continued her exploration on his neck, doing the same thing he did to her earlier: finding the spots that make his breath catch in his chest, make him get goosebumps, and make his pulse thud in his ears.

They both became preoccupied in each other, and Kate ended up getting a bit enthusiastic when he found that spot on her neck that made her gasp. She leapt into another kiss and they began to fall off balance. Neither could right themselves, and they fell for the second time in two days. This time, however, Kate was the one that fell on him, and they began to laugh and cackle and giggle as they realized what had just happened.

They lay there, Kate hovering over him, gazing at him, and bending down to kiss him again. Her hair tickled his cheek as she leaned towards him, and her smile lit up her face. This time, it wasn't as much of a rush; she brushed her mouth against his, soft and supple and giving. It was a dance with their tongues, not fighting for dominance nor an exploration, but a vivid appreciation of each other and what they did to one another with merely their lips and tongue.

It was well over five minutes of their 'exploration' before Rick realized he was lying in cold, wet snow. Most of his mind didn't even notice; he was too entranced with the beauty spread atop him, making blood rush to body parts he hadn't had—exercised—with a woman in a while. But once he did notice, the coldness started to seep into him and he had to do something, so he sat up a little.

"As much as I'm really, thoroughly enjoying this, the snow kind of soaked through my pants and I am freezing."

Kate went into a kneeling position and stood up, offering him a hand.

"I know just a way to warm you up, writer man."

Her voice was almost a purr, and she gazed at him under her long eyelashes, pupils prominent with desire, lust and sheer love. He raised his eyebrows, and felt a jolt below the belt.

They went into the house, hand-in hand, and stripped the wet layers off each other before throwing them in the dryer.

"So, detective, what do you have in mind?"

Yes. I left you guys with a slight cliffhanger. I'll let you know if I have a rating change, but if I do, I'll just post the...er...graphic chapter on livejournal or something and give you the option of skipping it.

Have a fabulous week, and remember:

SUBSCRIPTIONS are amazing.

REVIEWS make my job easier and puts a smile on my face!