Wednesday, December 25th
Kate wakes with a start, heart hammering against the birdcage of her ribs and both her children peering down at her where they sit astride her chest. Right, so that's why she can't suck in a deep breath. Tipping them off of her so they sprawl between her body and Castle's, Kate sits up and laughs at the two of them, apparently mute with excitement.
"Good morning, guys. What's going on?"
"It's Christmas!" Bea whisper-yells, and apparently this is the thing that rouses her father, because Castle splutters up through the surface of sleep and rubs at his eyes, cracks one open. Kate drops a kiss to his cheek, the dark scattering of stubble like snow in negative, and rubs her palm between his shoulder blades to try and wake him a little more gently.
"Sorry, Daddy." Bea whispers, curling up on her father's chest like a kitten. Next to her in the sheets, Jack almost vibrates with excitement and clutches at his mother's hand.
Rick, to his credit, seems to already be wide awake and he pushes back the sheets to step out of bed. The floor must be cold because he hisses and hops over to his slippers, shoves them on and reaches for a sweatshirt too.
"Mommy, up, up." Jack says, shoving at her non-too-gently in an attempt to get her out of bed. Alright, fine. Kate shrugs her way into her robe and finds her slippers half-under the bed, shoves them on too.
"I'm up. Okay Daddy, go start coffee, the kids and I will wake up Papa and Grams."
Castle comes in to kiss her, morning-breath and all, and the kids scowl and tug at the leg of her pyjama pants. Laughing, Kate scoops them both up and heads for the living room, Castle following close behind. At the foot of the stairs she sets them both down and ushers them ahead of her, turning back to press a last kiss to her husband's mouth.
"Merry Christmas."
"You too, Kate." He grins, and then there's a crash from upstairs and Kate takes the flight two at a time to try and save her father and mother-in-law from too much of a brutal awakening. It seems that the noise was just Bea knocking over her toy box in her haste to find her favourite stuffed animal of the moment, and both of the grandparents' doors are still firmly closed.
"Gram first." Kate whispers to the kids, opens Martha's door slowly. Castle's mother needs a little more time to make herself presentable, but Kate's father will be ready to go as soon as they wake him, so at least this way Martha gets a little more time for herself.
The kids charge for their grandmother's bed and climb up onto it before Kate can direct them otherwise, so she presses her fingers to her mouth to quell the laughter and leans back against the doorframe to watch the scene unfold.
To her credit, Martha opens her arms to the kids and brings them both in for a hug with no trace of annoyance at the rude awakening, her graceful hands carding through Bea's hair. "Good morning, darlings. Katherine, please tell me my son is making coffee."
"He is, yeah. Let me go wake my dad and then we'll do stockings, if that's okay?"
"Sounds wonderful, darling." Martha says, sitting up further against the headboard and stretching her fingers. The arthritis plagues her in the mornings, more than she'd like to admit to, Kate's sure.
No matter. She handles it well enough, and Kate doesn't doubt that if her crazy children get to be too much then Martha will send them back her way. "Be nice with Grams, guys. I'm gonna go wake up Papa."
Slipping from the room, Kate heads across the hall and knocks softly on Jack's bedroom door. Her father took her son's bed and Jackson bunked on Bea's floor last night; Kate and Rick were both surprised that the kids got to sleep at all with each other there as a playmate.
Kate finds her father already awake, but that's not really a surprise. He's always been an early riser; it's undoubtedly where she gets it from. "Hey, sorry about the noise."
"Don't be ridiculous, Katie." He shakes his head at her and steps out of bed, pulls on his robe. "It's nice to have a full house for Christmas again."
"Good to have you here, Dad." She murmurs, drawing her father in for a hug.
He laughs and breaks away from her after a moment, shakes his head. "Don't get maudlin, Katie-bug. I know you miss her. But look how amazing your kids are, hmm? Focus on them."
"Sorry." Kate laughs, swallowing back the clog of emotion in her throat and heading for the door. The kids and Martha are waiting in the hallway, and when Bea sees her mother she clamours to be picked up. Lifting her baby girl into her arms, Kate breathes in the sleepy scent of her and heads for the stairs, the rest of her family warm and close at her back.
Castle meets them at the foot of the stairs and hands a coffee each to Jim and Martha, herds the kids towards the couch. "You guys go sit with Papa and Gram and wait two seconds while Mommy and I get coffee, okay?"
"Okay, Daddy. Hurry." Bea implores, snagging her brother's hand and hurrying over to the couch with him. Kate follows her husband into the kitchen and takes the coffee he offers her, and then the embrace as well.
"You are so amazing, Kate Castle." He breathes against her temple, his palm soothing where it rests between her shoulder blades. "Look at this beautiful family we made."
Kate settles one arm at Rick's waist and slips her fingers in between the waistband of his pyjama pants and the lovely warmth of his skin, her coffee mug cradled between their bodies. "You're pretty amazing yourself, Castle."
"I wish I could kiss you. But alas, the impatient children await." He laughs against her cheek and nudges her towards the living room and the expectant, joyful faces of their children.
Castle can't quite seem to stop touching his wife. All through dinner – mostly leftovers, but he enjoys that almost as much as the meal itself – he kept his fingers curled around her knee. And now, curled up on the couch with the kids and watching The Polar Express, she's mostly in his lap.
Most amazing of all, though, is that she doesn't seem to mind. Sure, there have been moments where she's shaken him off, but it's only been to tend to one of the kids' toys or to pour another drink for his mother. She always comes back.
"Did you think we'd get here?" He hums against the shell of her ear, the thick curl of her hair brushing his cheek and tickling him every time she moves her head.
She shrugs, and he resigns himself to that as an answer, but then she wriggles in his lap until she can look at him, somehow managing to keep her feet still so as not to disturb the sleepy boy curled up on top of them. "I hoped. For longer than I even wanted to admit to myself."
"I'm really glad we made it." He murmurs, slipping his hands underneath her shirt to splay his fingers against her stomach. She hums in agreement and nestles back closer against him, rests her cheek to his shoulder.
Rick surveys the room, his mother regal in one of the armchairs and his daughter curled up in her grandfather's lap in the other. They'll see Alexis and her family for Boxing Day tomorrow, today was spent with Eli's parents instead.
And of course his daughter's absence is an ever-present ache, but it's okay. She's happy; she has her husband and her son and her husband's family. She's so loved, and really there's nothing more he could have wanted for her.
Castle lets his eyes slip closed and rests his mouth at his wife's cheek, thinks back on their day. The infallible excitement of his children as they unwrapped their stockings from Santa, how they showed both their mother and himself everything that they received.
It took every ounce of his mother's acting genes that he could scrape together to feign surprise every time he was reacquainted with a toy or a book or a puzzle that he bought last month. And then there was the exploration of all their new things while the grandparents fixed lunch, poor Kate enlisted into helping play with absolutely everything.
Probably her way of making up for last year, but she threw herself completely into it, poured all of her focus and her energy into the vivid imaginations of their children.
The dog lifts his head at a particularly loud part of the movie, seems to raise an eyebrow before he closes his eyes again and lies back down. Poor thing is still wearing the antlers that Bea spotted in a store last week and declared that he simply had to have, seems to have resigned himself to his new attire.
His mother stands up from her chair and heads for the kitchen, stoops low next to his ear so as not to disturb the movie with her words. "You want tea, darling?"
"That would be lovely, thank you Mother. Kate?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, thank you." His wife smiles, wide and gorgeous, and Castle has to force himself to wait for his mother to just go, already, before he can kiss her.
She gives it right back to him, careful to keep it light and a little tentative but all the same, so rich with love. "I love you so much, Kate Beckett."
Her fingers come to his cheek and she rests her forehead to his, must see all the things he can't quite find the words for written all over his face anyway. "I know, Rick. You never give me any reason to doubt. And, I love you, too."
The movie ends and Castle finds the remote to turn it off, sees that both his son and his youngest daughter are completely sacked out. Well, he can't really blame them. With the exuberance they threw into their morning he's surprised they lasted as long as they did.
"Help me put them to bed?" He asks his wife, shifts her carefully off of his lap and onto her feet before he stands to join her. Rick gathers his son up from the couch and holds him close, waits for Kate to collect their daughter from her grandfather's chest before he moves for the stairs.
Settling his son in bed, Rick pulls the sheets up and tucks them in close around him, closes the curtains to cast the room into darkness. Jack smells warm and familiar when Castle presses a careful kiss to his forehead, murmuring against the soft skin there. "I love you, Jack. So much. Merry Christmas."
Moving for the door, Rick passes his wife in the hallway as she heads back the way he came and he slips into his baby girl's room.
He kneels next to his daughter's bed and strokes a hand through her hair, kisses her cheek and murmurs softly to her. "Sleep tight, Little Bean. Daddy loves you so much."
Meeting his wife in the hallway again, Castle stops her with a touch of his fingers to her wrist and draws her in to an embrace, drops a kiss to the pale line of her scalp like a seam of moonlight amidst the darkness of her hair. "You know I understand that your job's important and you can't help but miss out on some things, but God, Kate. . .it's so good to have you here."
"I know, baby. I know." She hums to him, her fingers somehow meeting all the places he most needs her touch. Soothing and gentle and so amazing, and the gratitude clogs his throat, robs him off both words and breath. "Thank you, Castle. For never giving up on me. For knowing this was worth the battle, even when I wasn't sure. I don't know how I can ever repay you."
He swallows hard, touches two fingers to her chin so she lifts her head, and then his mouth meets hers with so much tenderness that the whole liquid length of her seems to melt against him. Breaking their kiss, he smiles down at her and swipes away the single tear that slips down her cheek, kisses its silvery path. "This is how, love. This is enough."
A/N: Thank you all so much for your kind words of praise and encouragement throughout the duration of this story. It has been truly a blessing. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, or whatever else you may celebrate. See you in the new year.