OK so i have had to do a little time travel for the next few chapters to work, I hope it makes sense (kate will explain in a minute) bare with me please, there is method to my madness, and quite a lot of madness in my method!
(thank you to anyone reading, your messages and alerts make my day very smiley)
Again for she who was gifted to the world on xmas eve, and gifted to me through FF. another pre birthday pressie (cos see, im cheap!)
Disclaimer: i own nothing!
The saying 'time flies when you're having fun' had never been truer for her than in those two weeks before Christmas.
Two glorious weeks of them, of living life and learning about each other, and it was amazing how much they hadn't known.
She knew now, when he was sleeping, his fingers would sometimes move like he was typing, or playing the piano, subtle little twitches that she caught herself thinking about at odd moments, like in the middle of an interrogation when he, sitting next to her, would drum on the table, she would watch his finger tips tap the desk one at a time.
A smile would try to force itself onto her lips, she would bite it back, swallow and carry on, storing away the vision of his drumming fingers for when they got home.
She knew he sung in the shower, loudly, louder still if she joined him. She knew the quaver and tone of his voice as it rung through the bathroom and bedroom, knew what notes he could hit pitch perfect and what ones had her scrunching her eyes as he vocally massacred them.
She knew their voice melded well together. One high ,one low. One deep and rich and mellow, she had asked him to sing to her in the bedroom, remembers him laughing as he sung lines of his own books to her, she hadn't found it funny. About 20 words in she had fallen on him unable to stand it any longer as waves of crushing desire seemed determined to take over her body.
She knew he would sing-song a good morning to her on days he expected her to be grumpy.
Three days in a row last week, in the middle of a nightmare case, Gates on her back, paperwork mounting and every suspect with an alibi, he had appeared, coffee in hand.
There was nothing unusual in that, but every night when he took her home, he would pull her to bed and hold her, mumbling words of encouragement and determination, the utter gut-wrenching belief he had in her.
He whispered it into her skin every night, and every morning the coffee he brought her would hold some reminder, a word or phrase he had spoken, a subtle prompt that would sustain her through the day.
YGT on one cup. You got this!
That said, they were still them, and they could never, would never be them without the bickering, she had threatened to shoot him only that morning.
She thought of the days he would ply her with more sugar in her coffee, puppy-dog eyes and the need for 'extra kisses'.
She knew he loved to call her angel almost as much as she loved to hear it, almost.
They fell into a routine, date night every other night, case or not, even if it was a slice of pizza and a rushed kiss, crashing into bed at hers or his, and if separately they spoke on the phone, ensuring the last voice they heard before falling asleep was each others.
Their love wasn't a distraction, as she once feared it would be, it was a strength, a bonus. It was a little, low down burn, that would roar to life and fade away again, tucked deep inside her that she took wherever she went.
It was the thing she hadn't known she was missing until it was always with her.
Now, Christmas eve was here and she sat at his kitchen counter desperately begging his daughter for some clue as to what she should buy him.
"You left it a little late don't you think?" Alexis asked sliding a mug (her official 'Castle loft' mug) of coffee towards her.
Kate groaned "Yeah, I figured I'd have a brain wave and voila gift idea."
Alexis laughed at her phrasing wondering if Kate realised she sounded like her dad "No such luck?"
She shook her head, catching sight of the twisted, white gold, charm bracelet hanging from the girls wrist, a tiny silver bell dangling from it, tinkling gently every time she moved.
"You like it?" Kate asked pointing, "He wasn't sure you would."
Buying her a bell had been a threat, a joke to stop her interrupting them when they were...Kate felt a warm flush at her cheeks and dragged her mind away from the dangerous areas it was playing in whilst talking to his daughter.
"I love it!" Alexis said shaking it so tiny peels rang around her "I like that no one knows what the bell means but Dad and me…and…and you" she said looking up smiling. She watched the older woman with curiosity wondering if she understood the significance of them being alone in the kitchen, her father pushing them to spend time together, actively encouraging a bond in a way he never had before.
Kate nodded, eyes tight as she sighed. "I've got to go shopping I'll never hear the end of it if I don't buy him something 'our first Christmas together'.
She air quoted the words, mimicking Castles voice as she did, they both laughed, it was a phrase they had been hearing a lot of in the last few days.
"You could make it up to him…next year?" Alexis lifted her head again, giving Kate an appraising look. Would she be here next year? Did she want to be?
Kate stood, sighing again before making her way to the sink, she dropped her mug in and turned towards the girl. She closed the distance between them, sensing some need for reassurance. She leant over her shoulder and hugging her from behind with one arm, she squeezed tight, feeling his daughter inhale in surprise before her arm lifted and her hand fell over Kates.
Kate smiled and spoke quietly, lifting her gaze to watch as Castle entered the room.
"A year of whinging and him moaning about it to everyone, do you really want to live with that?"
Alexis laughed and shook her head "Ok go, go, save us both."
Kate squeezed the girl tight again, before dropping her arm and walking towards Castle, she pulled herself on to her tip toes and kissed him with a resounding smack, making him grin as he tried to grab for her and deepen the kiss.
"Coooome hereee" he moaned as she batted away his hands and stepped around him to the front door.
"And so it begins." Alexis said from across the room, Castle turned to look at her in confusion, jumping back, as Kates laughter rang out behind him.
"I'm missing something?" he said looking between the two women.
"I'm going out" Kate said smiling at him "what time are people arriving?"
"I said six," he replies shrugging "and you're still…?"
She groans, another re-hashed conversation coming back to haunt her.
"Yes, I am still off, I have the written approval of my very grumpy Captain to have both Christmas eve and Christmas day off without being on call or anything, yes, I will be here at your…"
"Our!" he interrupts pointing at her.
She bites her lip in frustration before growling the words "our Christmas party!"
"And how did you accomplish this minor miracle oh muse of mine?" he asks his face lighting up.
She knows what he wants to hear, rolling her eyes and fighting the smile that is called out by his teasing tone, she knows, and ,damn him, she cant help but give him what he wants, when did that happen?
"By asking?" she says mocking him a little bit first, she was amazed herself when she had put in the request and it was granted.
"Try again Kate." he says leaning into her, eyes intense and focused on her mouth as she speaks
"By having no life for the last 5 years and…" she looks at him in annoyance, but they finish his convoluted, and completely insane, theory together "spending every Christmas hiding at work to avoid my undying love for you!"
"Me" he says grinning as he kisses her, his lips moving to press away the firm set of her mouth, pull her free from her annoyance at his teasing and they are just about to rock her world when he hears the tiny tinkling of a bell.
He pulls back groaning "Whose idea was it for me to have a kid again?" he lifts his head and smirks at his daughter as she pokes out her tongue and rings the bell at her wrist again.
"Ow!" he jumps back at the firm thump to his chest as Kate leans against him, her fingers finding his earlobe and pinching hard.
"Little respect Castle…I happen to love that kid."
He smiles at her, something very warm and fuzzy and possible cartoonish skips around his chest as she proclaims her love for his child.
He pulls her in tight, somewhere between a hug and a proper cuddle and laughs over her head as he sees his daughter drop her cup and fuss to clean up the mess.
He realises it must have taken her by surprise, but he is relieved to find Alexis is smiling, cheeks pink and raised, as she darts about, lifting things out of the way of the spill.
He wants to keep Kate here all day, drag her to bed and show her all the ways he loves her, but he has an agenda. He eases her back from his body and catches the questioning look on her face.
"Weren't you going somewhere?" he asks, his eyes darting quickly to his daughter as she stands wiping down a counter, he needs to talk to her.
She checks her watch "Oh, jeeze yes, I was, bye" she calls, waving her hand over her shoulder at Alexis as he pushes her towards the door
"You still haven't gotten me a gift have you?" he points at her, smirking, as he holds open the door for her "you suck at presents."
"And now, just for that, you wont get one." she winks over her shoulder at Alexis, before kissing him again, quickly, on the lips, smiling as she grabs for some keys, any keys, and she drops them into her pocket.
As the door slams shut Castle turns and runs to the counter, desperate for his daughters attention.
"Did she say what she wants for Christmas?" He asks watching her continued cleaning.
Alexis laughs "You two are as bad as each other."
"I knew she hadn't bought me anything," he says feeling triumphant, until his inner (and often outer) nine year old pipes up 'I want a present', and he's suddenly wondering if he is that much of an enigma that he has her truly stumped. The super, smarty-pants, Detective has been flummoxed by little old him, and he's back to feeling triumphant.
"Can you seriously not think of anything to get her?" Alexis asks moving around the counter and sitting next to him. "You gave her a key, couldn't you ask her to move in?"
He smiles at his daughter, warmth and some combination of pride and joy emanating from him at her words.
"We talked about it" he grins "we agreed that…what?"
Alexis raises an eyebrow "You agreed?"
"Ok fine, fine I moaned and whinged and she stated she wouldn't move in until the new year, summer latest."
Alexis rolls her eyes, she knows their dynamic well "So she's moving in in the summer right dad?"
He nods, laughs and thinks "Yeah, unless I wear her down." he was good at that, cajoling and needling her, if he asked her again when they went to bed, trapped her under him and started nibbling on her..
"Dad seriously you cant think of anything you want to give her?"
He turned to her and grinned widely, his eyebrows almost reaching his hairline as the many varying and naughty things he wanted to give her danced across his face.
"Ewwww no, god Dad, not that! How many times have I said I don't need, nor do I ever want, to know about that?
"Hey," he says pouting at her "we have been very good. You haven't caught us in almost…"
Alexis glares and checks the clock "Two days, eight hours and twenty minutes, yes, I remember, it is that seared into my head."
He laughs, looking at her with pride "Sometimes you're so like me with your little melodramatic rants. Anyway it's your fault, sneaking around, you should make more noise, then we would know to move or stop."
"Or you could just have…eughhh…sex in your bedroom?"
"Where's the fun in that?" he cant help laughing at the look of disgust on her face, memories of his own mother doing something similar washed over him and he smiled, passing on your trauma to the next generation was a parents prerogative, and somehow so much funnier from this side.
She lifted her arm jingling the charm bracelet "My early Christmas present from you has done no good what so ever has it?"
He reached forward and took her hand, catching the small bell between his fingers, "Wish I could claim credit." he states rolling the tiny charm back and forth, he has seen how much his daughter delights in the gift, jingling at them on purpose even when they just snuggle on the couch.
Alexis looks up confused "What do you mean?"
"Kate picked it. It's not just from me."
Alexis looked down at the gift that has suddenly taken on even more significance "Really? I mean I know she said she…loves me but…"
It just about breaks his heart to hear the wonder in her voice at the fact that Kate went to the trouble, the surprise that she is loved.
He doesn't doubt it for a moment that it was meant when it was said, Kate doesn't do false sentiment, if she means it she'll say it, when she's ready.
"Yeah," he says softly, one hand warm against hers as he lifts her chin with the other, the girl looks to him for reassurance. "I wouldn't doubt her," he smiles then "she'd probably threaten to shoot you if she found out you did."
Alexis chuckles, her thumb twisting against the charm.
"She went very Detective Beckett"he says knowing she understands the seriousness of that statement, Kate can be pliant and soft, Beckett means business. "She yelled at me," he says smiling "said you should have something pretty. Something significant."
Alexis laughs, sitting straighter in her chair absorbing the words.
"I wanted to buy you a school dinner bell, you know the old fashioned triangle ones that are huge, you could carry with you from room to room, ringing as you went. She vetoed that idea." He scrunches his face in faux annoyance as he watches his daughter laugh again.
"Kate said this," he twists the bracelet around her wrist again "would be endearing, would make the same point about the same memory without being embarrassing."
Alexis drops her head again to the bracelet nodding "Yeah it does." Her voice is catching a bit with emotion, he wants to lighten it, needs to make her feel less overwhelmed.
"You're not gonna freak out on me are you kid?" he says looking at her "…you're the stability here, without you none of the rest of us stand a chance."
She nods seriously "I know, I'm still the adult in this relationship."
He smiles and nods before he continues "Plus she said we could add charms later..for special occasions."
…
His mind flashes back to the two of them standing in the jewellery store looking at the myriad of glass containers that housed the charms ranging in prices until he sees a tiny sparkly dog, its cute, he leans closer, his mouth falling open.
"Whoa Kate that tiny dog costs $20,000 as much as I love my kid I do not want her walking around with something that expensive on her arm."
Kate rolled her eyes "Not that one genius, look," she pointed out the tiny silver bell it was just under $200 and actually rang, that was pretty cool considering how tiny it was.
She had called the assistant over and, once the tray was placed in front of her, picked the bell up jingling it 'she'll sound like Tinkerbell" she laughed "and I know it's still quite a lot for a charm even if we halve the cost…" she pointed at him "and yes we are halving the cost. I thought if we only get them for really special occasions, like look…" she pointed to another tray and a tiny graduation cap. "Then there's this…" she pointed again to a sparkly diamond 21.
"For when she turns twenty-one?" he asked quietly, stupidly, because what else would it be for? It's just…it hits him, she's planning the gifts she is going to buy his daughter for the next four years, no, judging by the free space on that bracelet and the fact she is now looking at horse shoe charms, the kind you'd give as good luck for a wedding, she's planning the gifts for a lifetime.
…
Alexis watches the memory of something important hit her father, hard, he's breathing heavy and his eyes are misted over and she smiles.
"Dad…" she says quietly watching him "I think I know what you should get her for Christmas". She smiles as he lifts his head and stares at her.
He nods then, once he has found understanding in her eyes, happiness and something like awe staring back at him, once he has his daughters reassurance, he nods.
"Yeah, yeah I think I do too."
