A/N: Hey there, lovelies! :) Winter hiatus always feels like it lasts forever, doesn't it? I'm not going to lie - these last few stories were a serious struggle. Secret Santa was no problem, but since the hiatus ended? I've had basically zero inspiration. My muse has abandoned Castle and flitted over to Miracle (a movie about the 1980 "miracle on ice" Olympic hockey team. If you don't know it, YOU SHOULD) and convinced me to write a fic for that. So, between a (sort of) new fandom, four classes, an internship, a job and a thesis to research and write... wow. This was hard. But I think I did okay. I hope.

Secret Santa

"What made you change your mind?"

Dinner was long over, Alexis had long ago un-cancelled her evening plans with Max, and Martha had long ago made herself scarce. Rick had flipped off all the overhead lights in the loft and he and Kate were curled up on the couch together, kissing and sipping hot chocolate by the light of the tree. At his question, she lifted her head from his shoulder to look at him and he nearly choked at her beauty; the soft, twinkly light made her look positively ethereal.

"Change my mind?" she asked.

"To come here," he answered.

She hummed and shifted her legs across his lap. "It sucked watching you leave," she said, digging her toes into his thigh affectionately.

"And that made you decide to give up your holiday tradition?" he asked dryly.

She snickered. "Not entirely. I just… I realized I told you that your tradition should evolve, but I was letting mine hold me back."

He squeezed her knee. "What do you mean?"

"I started my tradition when I was a different person than I am now. I don't live and die by my mother's case anymore. And while I do want to honor her memory, and I do want to protect other people…" She shrugged. "I don't want that to get in the way of my own life. And besides," she said with a smile that made his heart flip in his chest, "I thought, 'I have this amazing man who wants to spend Christmas Eve with me, but I'm staying at work?'" She scrunched up her nose adorably. "What kind of priorities are those?"

He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. "Amazing, huh?"

She rolled her eyes and shook her head but was clearly battling a smile. "Don't make me take that back."

He chuckled and hugged her closer to him; she nestled her head on his shoulder again. "Never. So how hard did you have to work to find someone to cover your shift?" She groaned, and he laughed. "That bad?"

"I had to organize this complicated four-way shift trade that now has me working for Karpowski on New Year's Day," she said. "And I still owe her. Huge." A beat passed in silence before she took a deep, contented breath and whispered, "But I'm here now. So it's worth it."

He pressed a kiss to her forehead and stroked her hair back off her neck. "No regrets?"

She hummed. "None. I'd like to be there, but I'd much rather be here."

"You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear you say that," he murmured.

"Well," she said slyly, toying with the top button of his shirt, "I have something else to say that might make you pretty happy."

"Oh?"

"I got you a present."

He narrowed his eyes and shifted her so he could see her face. "That's supposed to make me happy?"

"Well, technically I got it for myself, but I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy it more than I do."

He didn't cotton on until she shot him a sultry smile that made his knees go liquid and slid out of his lap, beckoning him after her with a quirk of a finger. "Wha – you – ?"

"You gonna come unwrap your gift?" she asked innocently, turning and walking towards his bedroom with, oh god, an unholy swing in her hips.

He caught up with her in a flash, bumping her from behind and causing her to stumble into the waiting cradle of his arms. Hearing her startled breath, he worked his fingertips under the waistband of her pants and grinned when he felt lace. "Best. Christmas. Ever."

Significant Others

"Are you ready for this?"

Kate bit her lip as Castle slid a smorelette onto the plate in front of her. "Honestly… I don't know."

"Oh, come on!" he said with a pout. "It's delicious."

She eyed it dubiously. "It's marshmallows and eggs. And chocolate."

"Don't forget the graham cracker."

Her nose crinkled. "Right."

He nearly whined. "You stomach dead bodies every day! There is no way you will have any trouble with this!"

Slowly, deliberately, she picked up her fork and cut a corner of the item in question and brought it to her lips. He looked at her expectantly and she sighed. "Okay. Bottoms up," she said, and popped the bite into her mouth.

She chewed nervously. It was weird. Really weird. But the egg was plain enough that pairing it with such a sweet combination as chocolate and marshmallows wasn't exceedingly awful.

"Well?"

She swallowed. "I don't think I'll be requesting it any time soon, but it's not as horrendous as I thought it would be."

He punched the air in victory and dashed back over to the stove to whip one up for himself. "Told you so!"

She grinned and shook her head in amusement before a little voice in the back of her subconscious started whispering to her. He writes books about you. But what do you know about him?

"How often does Meredith visit?" she asked, taking another bite of her smorelette.

He shrugged. "Every couple of years. Why?"

"Does it bother you?"

"Does what bother me? That she visits, or that she visits so infrequently?" He paused. "Or, well, frequently."

She shrugged. "Both, I guess."

"At first it bothered me that she never seemed to care that we had a child together," he said, dropping marshmallows into the eggs sizzling in the pan. "First because I didn't think I could raise Alexis on my own, and then because it bothered Alexis that mommy was never around. But we each got over it, and it just sort of… became a fact of life."

"And what about now? Does it bother you that she visits?"

He chuckled. "It bothers me that she steamrolls her way into my life when she visits."

She laughed. "She does have a way of taking over, doesn't she?"

He added chocolate to the pan and grinned. "Does she ever. But no, she has the right to see her daughter, so I've just gotta suck it up for a few days when the time comes that she decides to be motherly." Growing contemplative, he turned to look at her. "You know that's why I let her stay here, right? Because she's Alexis's mom? It wasn't because of… well, anything else." He gave her a pointed look. "I think you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I know," she said with a smile. "I think I get it. I've never dated anyone with a kid before, so exes that are also mothers are kind of a foreign concept."

He smiled understandingly. "Unfortunately you're never completely rid of them."

"I've realized that," she said with a nod.

"So you're okay with Meredith's craziness being a rare but regular part of life?"

She chuckled. "As long as she sleeps at a hotel, yes."

He grinned and turned back to his cooking, yelping slightly as he saw it beginning to singe. She couldn't help but laugh as she watched him hurry to save it, feeling immeasurably lighter. See? One slight prod in the right direction and he was telling her things about himself.

This wasn't going to be so hard at all.

Baby steps.

Under the Influence

Joey was pissed.

Oh man, he was so pissed.

How the hell had he managed to mess up his escape the night before and end up handcuffed to a stupid chair in a stupid police station? He rattled the cuffs against the armrest in agitation. This sucked.

He looked around. Nobody was even paying attention to him. Esposito and the hot detective and that writer guy had shut themselves in a room to look through his juvie record, and he didn't have a clue where the other guy had gone. Didn't really care, to be honest.

He sighed, reaching out and snagged the autographed baseball Esposito had on his desk. He couldn't make out the signature (even if he could, he wasn't much into baseball so he wouldn't know the name anyway), but he was sure it was worth something somewhere. Now if he could just get out of here…

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

It was the other cop. He plunked a soda down onto the desk next to him and sank into his own desk chair, eyeing him knowingly.

Joey played innocent. "Do what?"

The cop – Ryan, was it? – chuckled. "I'm not as dumb as I look, man. Put the ball down."

Joey rolled his eyes. "At least you know you look dumb." But he grudgingly returned the ball to its home.

Ryan raised his eyebrows. "Did you mean for that to offend me? Because I work with Esposito. I get five comments like that every day before ten in the morning."

Joey scowled and slouched back in the chair. "You trying to bribe me, bro?" he asked, mustering up as much rudeness as possible and nodding to the can of soda. "'Cause I ain't tellin' you jack."

Ryan shook his head. "Nope. Not trying to bribe you."

"Than what's it for?"

He shrugged. "Trying to be nice."

Joey raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Why not?"

"Because I'm just some low-life, criminal kid you need to help you solve a murder," he said moodily.

Ryan paused and looked at him for a moment. "Not everyone is just trying to use you for something, Joey," he said. He stood up, patting Joey on the shoulder before disappearing into the break room.

Joey blinked and, after a moment's hesitation, popped the can open.

Death Gone Crazy

"So, are you going to talk to me about whatever's bothering you?"

Rick blinked and glanced sideways at Kate as her Crown Vic rolled to a stop at a red light. "What?"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not stupid, Castle."

"I never said you were."

"So don't feed me such ridiculous lies," she shot back, giving him a small smile. "I'm here to help."

Well, crap. She was right, wasn't she? He heaved a sigh, conceding defeat, and slouched lower in his seat. "It's Alexis."

"Ya know, the fact that she was at the precinct just now kind of gave that part away."

He groaned. "Ugh, you're annoying."

"Okay, I'm sorry," she said with a chuckle, that light musical sound that he loved so much. "Continue."

"She has a vlog."

"I kind of already know that too."

"I just – it's – she's an adult!" he spluttered. "What do I do?"

Kate's brow furrowed adorably as she hit the gas, accelerating through the intersection. "I'm going to need some more details."

"She won't listen to me anymore."

"Did she ever?"

He pouted. "Once upon a time."

"What are you so worried about?"

"People!" he cried. "Scary, scary people that could find her online and—"

"Castle, calm down," she said soothingly. "This is Alexis we're talking about. She's not stupid."

"I know, but—"

"Is she giving out her address in her vlog?"

He paused. "Well, no."

"Credit card information?"

"Not that I know of."

"Social security number?"

He made a face. "Okay, okay, I see your point."

"You told me she said she went to Rockefeller Center. That's a big place, Castle. Everybody in New York goes to Rockefeller Center. If she mentioned some hole-in-the-wall café, there might be more cause for concern. Maybe."

"Fine," he sighed. "You're right."

She smiled understandingly at him. "Seriously. I know we deal with murderers and psychopaths all the time, but the vast majority of people go their entire lives without running into one. Though," she added thoughtfully, "you're her father, which means she grew up with one, so…"

He laughed grudgingly. "I know, I know, I'm being ridiculous."

She shook her head and let go of the steering wheel with her right hand, sliding it instead into his. "No. What you're being is a great dad."

Letting out a sigh, Rick smiled to himself. Maybe he could learn to handle a grown-up daughter after all.

A/N: Fingers crossed I managed to entertain you a little bit! Thoughts?