Last Christmas

"Are you guys almost done getting ready?" Kate asks as she knocks in the door to their room. They are both getting ready for their first Christmas school dance as freshmen and it's starting in about forty minutes. They'll have to leave soon if they don't want to be late.

"Mom, could you help me with my bowtie?" Reece opens the door and hands her the tie, annoyed that he couldn't do it himself but tired of dealing with it.

"Of course," she smiles, coming in closer and lifting the collar of his dress shirt so she can fit the tie around his neck. It takes her about ten seconds to hook it into place and flip down his collar again. "There. You look really handsome."

"Thanks, Mom." He pulls a bit at the material around his neck, not used to it yet.

"Where's Jake?"

"Still in there. He says he doesn't want to go anymore."

"What? How come?"

Reece only shrugs in answer and starts walking towards the stairs. Kate knocks on the door again to let Jake know she's coming in. "Jake?"

He's sitting on his bed with his head in his hands, his tie laid out beside him but at least he's dressed. "Hey, what's going on?" she asks softly, sitting crossed legged on the floor in front of him.

"Nothing, I just don't want to go," he mumbles against his hands still covering his face.

"Since when? You seemed so excited about this up until just now," she prods, hoping to get him to talk, explain what's really going on.

"Maybe that's because up until now, I thought Julie was going to go with me."

Ah, there it is. "And now she's not?"

"Mom, I don't want to talk about it." He flops onto his back on the bed and then turns away from her, doing his best to shut her out.

"Okay," she sighs, pats his knee and starts to get up from the floor. "But just so you know, sometimes it's good to get a woman's opinion on these things. I'm going to drive your brother to the dance but your Dad and Lily are still downstairs if you need anything." She walks over to the door slowly, betting on the fact that he'll change his mind about talking to her. She's just about to close the door when she hears his voice muffled into his pillow.

"What was that?"

"She told me she changed her mind. That she doesn't want to go to the dance with the class clown. There. I said it," he huffs, clearly upset and still turned away from her. But this is good. In fact, she's pretty sure she can work with this.

"But she had said yes to you before?" Kate inquires, just to make sure she's got all the facts straight and Jake nods. She walks back into his room and takes a seat at the edge of the bed, waits a few seconds before she continues. "Did you know that your Dad asked me out before we were together and I said no?"

"Really?" he turns his body slightly towards hers, ready to listen now, more than he was thirty seconds ago.

"Mhm," she hums. "He was kind of a clown himself," Kate grins thinking back to the early days of their partnership, how reckless and ridiculous he was, how he couldn't take anything seriously. "I thought he would hurt me, that he wouldn't be serious about us. And I think part of me was also afraid of what everyone else would think, how they might treat me differently if they knew I was with him."

Being a cop was always serious and when Castle first started shadowing her, she was always afraid people might stop respecting her.

"It was never that I didn't want to be with him, but I was scared." She doesn't think she's every really said this to anybody, ever told her side of the story in those first years of their partnership. She was always too busy denying that anything was happening between them or that she wanted anything to happen. But now, years later she knows she wanted him, even from the beginning she was at least attracted to him. Had she not thought he would hurt her or damage her reputation as a cop, she may have given into the attraction sooner.

"I didn't know that." Jake admits and she can see the wheels turning in his head, the parallels he's drawing to his own situation. "Do you think I still have a chance, then?"

Kate thinks before answering. "I can't say that for sure, and remember, it took a long time for me to trust your Dad. We both had a lot of work to do on ourselves before we tried anything. But if Julie's first answer was yes, then I think you might have a chance to win her back."

"But how?" Jake sits up his bed, desperate for her to give him all the answers.

"Well, first off, you can start by actually showing up to this dance. She may not be there as your date but maybe you can ask her for one dance?" His eyes light up at the thought and Kate is starting to think that this girl Julie might actually be something special if she already has her son wrapped around her little finger.

He jumps up from the bed and moves to stand in front of her. "Can you help me with my tie?" Kate smiles and picks up the short tie they had bought for this event from the bed, wrapping it around his neck and adjusting it when she pulls down his collar.

"Mom, we're going to be late!" She hears Reece call from downstairs and she shakes her head despite the grin that stretches across her lips.

"You ready?" She asks Jake when she stands form the bed and he nods already heading for the door to join his brother downstairs.

"Yeah, thanks Mom," he adds, a little sheepish, though really, he has nothing to be ashamed about.

"Any time, kiddo."