Hey, everyone! Thanks for being patient while waiting for this story to be updated, and while I got that other new story out of my head and into the computer. I probably spoiled you all with the frequent updates last week; I even surprised myself. Anyway, more people seemed to be waiting for and asking for updates for this story, so Blizzard is what I elected to update first.

Hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: The usual...don't own anyone.

She looked at him through narrowed eyes and attempted her best Beckett-glare. He stared back at her, his gaze never breaking from hers. A challenge was issued, and accepted, with that gaze. It wasn't quite clear who was issuing the challenge, or who was accepting it. But they both knew that it was going to be interesting.

Kate spoke first, after she felt that her gaze had held his for a long enough time to help her make her point. When she spoke, her determination and resolve dripped from every word. "Oh no. I. Am. Not. Sleeping. With. You."

To her dismay, Castle seemed unfazed. "Of course you won't, at least not in the way that you mean. That's not to say that doing that wouldn't be quite memorable," he held up a hand as she shot him a glare that could have wilted sunflowers. "But Kate, I am not letting you sleep in your room tonight. The power is out, and that means the heat is out. It's already getting cold in the rest of the house, but this room has a fireplace, and therefore, heat. It makes sense."

"This house has more fireplaces than just this one."

"Sure it does. But this is the only one that makes sense." He held up one hand, extending one finger. "Sure, you could sleep with mother, but she's sick. Aside from the fact that I'm sure you really don't want to catch whatever it is that she has, do you really want to sleep with my mother?" He gave an all-body shudder and made a 'blech' face. She stifled a smile...sometimes his facial expressions were so outrageously comical, like just then. Then he held up a second finger. "Yes, there's the one downstairs in the living room, but that room has a cathedral ceiling and it's huge! You can feel the heat when you're sitting on the hearth, but there's no way for that fireplace to generate enough heat to keep that entire room warm. And you can't sleep on the hearth."

"What about the one in the three-season porch?"

He looked at her and raised one eyebrow. "Beckett. Really. You felt how cold it was in there, even hours ago, even after we started the fireplace to cook. It's a three-season porch. Winter in a blizzard is not one of those seasons."

"So by process of elimination, the fireplace in your bedroom is the only one left?" She raised one eyebrow at him

He pointed a finger at her and gave her a little smile while nodding his head. "You catch on quickly, Beckett."

"Castle. I am not sleeping in here with you. I am perfectly capable of snuggling under some blankets in my own bedroom. Or rather, uh...your other bedroom that I'm using."

He took a deep breath, and she honestly thought she'd won. But then he uttered the word "No." Her jaw dropped.

"Castle, what the hell? Do you honestly think that I'm going to just...spend the night in here with you? Are you insane?"

"No, I'm not insane. But you have a badly sprained ankle and you can hardly move around by yourself yet. So yes, I honestly do think that you're going to spend the night in here with me. Nothing has to happen...unless you want it to," he said, waggling his eyebrows. She glared at him again. "Joke, Kate, only a joke. So anyway, yes, I expect you to stay in here with me, but I can be a perfect gentleman."

"You. Right."

"Yes. Me. I can't say that I won't kiss you goodnight, but that's all. I can promise that I will not ravish your body. Well, unless you find you want me to ravish your body. And if you do, I will be more than happy to accommodate you."

"Castle."

"Kate, give up. You are staying in here. You can put a wall of pillows in between us...I don't care. But I'm not letting you sleep somewhere else. You can't even move around decently. You should have someone close to you in case you need something."

"Like someone to ravish my body?" The words were dripping with sarcasm as she rolled her eyes.

"Or someone to get you a drink of water, or some ice for your ankle, or to help you to the bathroom."

She opened her mouth, but then closed it. He had a point. Damn it, he had a point. And since he mentioned the bathroom... "Uh, Castle? About the bathroom..." God, this was humiliating; having to ask him to help her to the bathroom.

He nodded as if to say he understood, but then walked toward the adjoining bathroom without her. On the way, he picked up a chair and carried it into the bathroom, along with a candle for some light. Then he came back out and, without a word, walked over to her and picked her up to carry her to the bathroom. "Hey, why not a piggy-back ride this time?"

"I thought this would be easier. And besides, I might still have an uncontrollable urge to giddy-up, and you just don't seem to be in a giddy-up type of mood right now." When they reached the bathroom, she could see that he'd put the chair right by the commode. "For leverage and balance when you...uh...you know," he explained.

Embarrassed that he'd already thought of the difficulty she'd encounter being only able to use one leg, she just nodded and didn't say anything. He quietly left the bathroom, saying "Just call when you're ready," before shutting the door behind him.

She did what she needed to, and she would be forever grateful to him for having the foresight to think of the chair there. After hopping the few feet over to the sink, she washed her hands and splashed some water on her face before she called for him again.

He opened the door slowly, peeking through the small opening in the door to see if it was really okay to come in before opening it all the way. She was surprised to find that he was carrying her overnight bag and her toothbrush that she'd left in the other bathroom. "I thought you might need these. I didn't bring your toothpaste though; you can just use mine but if you don't want to then I can go back and get yours. And I thought you'd want to change into something different to sleep in. But if you've already unpacked something, I can carry you back into your room so you can get it."

Still shocked that he'd thought of that, she just stared at him. She could tell by his rambling, fast-paced dialog that he was probably a little nervous, most likely for going in her room and getting her things without asking her. "Thanks, Castle. That was really...um...nice."

He smiled and visibly relaxed a bit at her words, then he set the bag down on the counter and just stood there. "Castle? I'm going to change now...?" she prompted.

He blinked his eyes and then his mind visibly snapped into gear. "Oh, yeah, right...I'll just, uh," he stammered as he pointed toward the door, "...I'll just wait out here. Call me when you're ready."

She stood there on one foot and quickly brushed her teeth before she looked in her bag. She'd worn a sleepshirt last night, but she'd also brought a pair of pajamas along and luckily, they were still in her bag. She grabbed the pajamas and hopped on her good foot over to the chair. She took off her shirt and bra first and changed into the pajama top. Then, she assessed the pants. They had really baggy legs and a drawstring waist, so they'd be perfect over the makeshift splint that Castle had formulated. But then she looked down at the yoga pants she was wearing, and realized that they were not perfect. They were snug fitting, which meant that it would be at best trying and at worst painful to get them down over her injured ankle.

Damn. She was going to have to call Castle to help her. But first she grabbed one of the towels that was hanging up on the rack. She pulled her yoga pants down to her knees, and then took her good leg totally out of the pants before she sat back down and put the towel over her lap, tucking it under her so it didn't slide off. When she felt sufficiently covered, she called for Castle.

He peeked his head in the door a few seconds later and asked "Ready?"

"No." She took a deep breath and he could tell that she needed to say something but didn't really want to. "I never thought I'd ever be saying this to you, but I need you to help me get my pants off." She saw the look of surprise on his face, and before the devilish smile that she just knew was lurking inside of him could appear, she pointed at him threateningly and said, "Not one word, Castle, or I can guarantee that the curse of the snow bunny will come to inflict some sort of wretched punishment on you when you least expect it."

He blinked again and transformed his face into a blank mask. "So, Detective, can you tell me why it is that you need assistance with uh...undressing?" She watched him carefully and although she didn't detect any teasing quality in either his tone or by the look on his face, she did notice that a muscle in his jaw twitched a few times.

She tried to explain, "My pants are tight-"

"I noticed," he said right away.

"Castle!" she warned.

"Hey, I've carried you several times. It so happens that I've touched the pants in question. So I know they're not baggy. Duh. Sue me for noticing."

"So my pants are tight," she began again, "and I can't get them down over the splint that you made for my ankle. So can you help shimmy them off of that leg, or can you take the splint off and then redo it?"

He assessed the tight pants which were pooled around the calf on her bad leg. There was no way they would go over the splint, so he started to take off the wraps. When her leg was freed, he gently pulled the pants over the injured ankle. When the pants were off, he looked up at her face for the first time and asked her, "Are you wearing anything else?"

"Although I'm sure you'll be disappointed, I do have pajama pants," she told him, holding them up.

"Ah. Shall I?" he questioned, raising one eyebrow. At her nod, he held the calf of her bad leg up as he slipped the pant leg gently over her swollen ankle. Then she took over with her other leg. She was about to stand up when she realized he was right there.

"Turn around, Castle. I have to pull up my pants."

Now the sly smile returned before he stood up and turned around. "Afraid to let me see if you're a black or red panty girl?"

"I don't think your heart could take it. Because maybe I'm just a no panty type of girl."

A deep little hiccup escaped his mouth as his head whipped around of its own volition, his eyes automatically aiming downward.

"Awwww...too late Castle. Guess you'll just have to wonder," she teased him, snapping her fingers in an 'aw, shucks' type of gesture. "Now can you help me out of here?"

He made like he was going to pick her up again, and she brushed him away. "No, just help me hop. If I let you pick me up now, it's a near certainty that you're going to try to cop a feel of my ass to find out the answer to the question that's now plaguing your mind." He gave her a look with raised eyebrows, but didn't say anything to refute her hypothesis. She figured that he was so shocked that she had predicted his actions so accurately that for once, he didn't know what to say.

He helped her to the closest side of his bed, and then he went back to the bathroom. She heard the sounds of him brushing his own teeth, then he came back with the supplies for her makeshift splint, which he attached around her ankle again for some stability. He pulled back the blankets and told her to get in and lay down, and then he put two firm pillows on either side of her injured ankle before pulling the blankets back up. "The pillows will keep the weight of the blankets off your bad ankle," he explained.

She was so touched at all of the little things he was doing to try to keep her pain-free. It was a new side of the Castle she knew. A side of him that she found that she really liked. She was settling into the rich cotton sheets and thinking about his thoughtfulness and she didn't even realize that he was already settling himself into the other side of the bed. And he'd left almost a full two feet of space between them, much to her relief.

She closed her eyes and said "Night, Castle." Then she felt his hand as it found hers and gave it a little squeeze under the blankets.

"Night, Beckett. Let me know if you need another blanket."

She settled down and closed her eyes. She was relaxed, but she could tell that she wasn't particularly tired anymore. After a good ten minutes of willing herself to sleep anyway, she opened her eyes and watched the reflection of the firelight dance on the ceiling.

"Castle?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm not tired anymore. I can't sleep."

"Yeah, I'm pretty awake now too."

"Should we go back downstairs?"

"Do you really want to get out of this nice, warm bed?" he asked her.

"No. I'm pretty comfortable. I just can't fall asleep."

"Wanna talk?"

She laughed. "That is one thing that I never thought I would hear Richard Castle, playboy extraordinarire, say to a woman in his bed."

"It may just be a first," he conceded.

"But yeah, we can talk. Tell me...oh, I don't know. What was your first pet?"

He chuckled and told her about a goldfish that he got from a friend and how he kept it a secret from his mother. Until he had it in the bathtub to 'give it some exercise' and she walked into the bathroom and screamed when she saw it. "And she'd perfected the scream...believe me. She was playing a character that gets murdered and she'd been working on the scream. I had nightmares of that scream for a couple of weeks."

"And the fish?"

"Moby lived to the ripe old age of two months and four days."

And so it went on. They didn't really know how long they talked because the clocks were out, and they would have been amazed to learn that they were chatting until after three in the morning. Rick went, at one point, to get them both glasses of water. After setting the glasses down, he climbed back into the bed and shivered. "Boy, it's getting noticeably cold down in the kitchen. Brrr!" And though neither of them realized it, he laid a little bit closer to her when he resituated himself in the bed.

She thanked him for the water and raised up to take a few sips. She set her glass back down on the nightstand. And though neither of them realized it, she laid a little bit closer to him when she resituated herself in the bed.

The talking went on and on, neither one of them very tired and both of them having fun with the outrageous stories and confessions. It was all lighthearted...sometimes she would swat him, and other times he would nudge her. And without realizing it, they both continued to migrate closer to each other.

And when sleep finally took them both, that almost two feet of space that was initially between them had disappeared. Entirely disappeared. Because they were now laying side by side, with Kate's head resting against Rick's shoulder, and his face turned toward her hair. Somewhere their fingers had become entwined. And as the blizzard raged on outside, the detective and the author were snuggled together in a bed in front of a warm fire, under a mound of blankets, and peacefully content enough to fall asleep against each other.

There it is. Hope it was worth the wait. No smut...but if you want smut, I have a couple of other stories for that... :)

By the way, the thing about the bathroom...personal experience. I hurt my leg once and couldn't bend it that much, although I could put weight on it. Using the bathroom was quite interesting (in a not fun sort of way). Can't imagine what it would have been like if I wouldn't have even been able to put weight on it. Ugh. So I decided to use my experience to have Castle be overly chivalrous by putting the chair in the bathroom for her to use for support.

So...let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!