As I started writing this chapter, a thought occurred to me and I had to go back and check the last chapter of this story to make sure. And when I saw it, I couldn't believe that the last two words of Chapter 27, "For now," actually became somewhat of the theme for Season 4, during "Rise". Now, I know the circumstances were totally different, but I thought that was just a little freaky. I even posted something about it after the show in the post episode discussion on the main fan site, and I didn't even make the connection then. Cool coincidence!

I make some, uh, mechanical assumptions in this chapter. All of it is purely from my imagination. So if you are mechanically inclined or have experience in this particular subject and it's utterly ridiculous, please just suspend reality in favor of plot advancement.

Note: at the end of the first section break, I've put a french word in there; it's not a typo.

Lastly, a belated welcome to .Kate, who read-and reviewed-every single chapter of first 'The Plan' and then 'Blizzard' in the last few weeks. And thanks to so many of you wonderful people who take the time to leave me wonderful notes in your reviews or PMs...Liv Wilder, Amybf19, Little Lizzie Zentara, Tazman10, FanficwriterGHC, Mark C, SilverStella, BlueJay, Castellum, Beetlebug, Steve1961, Stargwynn, I'm Widget, Ariel119, MyNameIsJeffNImLost, Tango Mike Charlie, Music Marauder, Bella Paige, Teelduo...and tons of other people who I know I've missed. I hope you keep reading. :)

Disclaimers: the usual. See previous chapters.


"So, are you comfortable?" Castle quickly glanced at Kate in the back seat before returning his eyes to the road once again.

"That's seven," Alexis immediately whispered to Kate, even before Kate could formulate a response to his question. The two younger ladies were once again sitting in the back of Castle's large SUV

"Perfectly fine, Castle," Kate replied with a slightly annoyed edge to her tone.

"What's seven?" Castle asked, obviously having heard his daughter's whisper.

"The number of times," Alexis told him, "that you've asked Kate about her leg since we left The Hamptons."

Even though the conversation was about her, Kate just let Alexis handle it. Alexis is the one who noticed it in the first place-that her dad kept asking about Kate's ankle. Being the wordsmith that he was, he found new and creative ways of asking her the same question over and over again, with his latest count now being up to seven. And they'd barely been on the road for half an hour.

"I'll have you know, missy," Rick told his daughter in a haughty tone, "that I said absolutely nothing in my question about her leg. Nothing whatsoever. So there."

"Come on, Dad. I know you well enough to know exactly what you meant. And Kate does too. Grams could probably even figure it out, if she wasn't listening to Beethoven and trying to conduct the invisible orchestra on your hood." Martha was paying them no attention; she had her headphones in and was actively-very actively-listening to what appeared to be a very lively classical composition where she sat in the front seat, moving her body and waving her arms around like she was the conductor for the New York Symphony. Luckily the front seat was wide enough so she didn't run the risk of 'conducting' Rick into an accident as he drove.

"So anyway, Kate, are you comfortable?" He never gave up, did he?

Kate smiled as she said "Why, yes Castle, I am perfectly comfortable. There are enough pillows surrounding my leg to dam up the Hudson, and the heated seat is warming my bottom quite nicely." And as she mentioned her bottom, she thought better of it and added, "Not a word, Castle. Kid on board." Alexis mouthed 'thank you' at her.

"Why, Detective, can I just say that I'm happy that you're comfortable? And if anyone wants to note, I made absolutely no mention of your injured lower body appendage in that statement either."

"Duly noted, Castle," Kate said, giving a brief eyeroll toward Alexis, who just nodded in response. And they settled back into their seats, and Kate once again began speaking French with Alexis, just as they had several days ago on the way to the vacation house.

And, almost as predicted, approximately eight minutes later, Castle said "So, Kate...is everything feeling okay? Not hungry or anything, are you?"

Alexis looked at Kate, Kate looked at Alexis. Then Alexis muttered, "Huit," and just shook her head.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

They pulled as close to Kate's building as they could, which actually wasn't terribly close. There were the normal cars that were always parked at random intervals on the street, but now there were more, and the cars that were there were almost bumper-to-bumper. And of course, because of the blizzard, the cars that were there had been plowed in, and in some cases, one could barely tell that it was actually a car under the big mound of snow lining the street. About a block down, past another cross street, Castle found a section of curb that was free, with free being a very relative term. It was free of cars, yes, but the snow that had been on the cars was still very much there, and was now laying in mounds and large chunks in the road and on the sidewalk. Luckily, Rick had his SUV with its four wheel drive, so he was able to maneuver into the spot despite all of the snow, albeit at somewhat of an awkward angle.

Martha was no longer with them; she'd asked to be dropped off earlier at a theater where she was meeting a friend, saying she would take a cab home.

He put the vehicle in park and turned back to look at Kate. "Really, Beckett, look at this! This is the closest I can get to your place. You're going to be sore and exhausted before you even get to the door, and I don't want to risk carrying you out here, not when I could slip and I could hurt you more when we'd both go down."

"Castle," she protested, "it'll be fine."

"Kate, come on, look at the street up there, the one you have to cross. The melted water and slush isn't even draining properly."

"It never does there," she acknowledged, confirming the storm drain that always seemed to be perpetually clogged or something, resulting in a huge backup of water collecting at that corner whenever there was any sort of precipitation.

"So? See? You already have to go down the street and it's all wet and it might be icy. And you have to hobble on it in crutches, Kate. But before you can get to your block, you either have to go through that wading pool of icy slush at the corner, or you have to go halfway down that other block to go around it. Come on, Kate," he implored, "just spend a few days at the loft. By then, you'll have been to the doctor, you can maybe put weight on your foot again. I can even take you to work."

Alexis had been observing the conversation, and she could see Kate's hesitance, although she really didn't understand it. Nor was she used to it; most women would have jumped at an invitation from her dad to stay with them. Not to mention trying to jump him at the first possible chance. Then, at that thought, she inwardly cringed; her mind was rebelling and letting her think those really wrong thoughts about her dad again. She inwardly gave herself a slap to get that thought out of her head. When she got her mind back on the topic at hand, she could see how, despite her dad's very convincing and valid arguments, Kate just did not want to give in, even though his proposal made a lot of sense. So she decided to try to help him-and Kate-out a bit.

"You know, Detecti-Kate, he does have a point. I mean, it still is pretty ridiculous out there. You know Manhattan...when it snows like this, there's just no place for it to go. Look at the snow right outside the car. I mean, I don't even want to walk through that and I have two good feet. You've already been staying with us...what's another day or two? It's just a different address. Plus we do have an underground garage, so no snooowwww..." she trailed off, extending the last point about the snow, because it was a big point, given the conditions outside.

Kate looked at Alexis, trying to be careful not to give her a scary 'Beckett-glare'. "I appreciate the offer, Alexis, but really, things will be fine. In fact they'll probably have a lot of this cleaned up by tomorrow anyway. It may be a bit tricky getting back to my apartment, but that's just for now. I'm sure everything will be fine very soon." She shrugged into her jacket, which had been off in the warm car. "So...let's do this. Castle, can you carry my bag?"

"Kate," he said, ignoring her question. "Come on. Even Alexis can see the impracticality of this, and she's not even legally old enough to vote."

"Castle," she said, giving him the steely glare that she didn't give Alexis, "either you grab my bag, or I will. But I'm getting out of the car now." And she opened the door, bracing when the cold blast of winter air came in contact with her. If she'd been looking at Rick, she would have seen him give his daughter an 'oh, brother' look, shake his head in resignation, and hop out of the car to get her bag out of the back. By the time he'd gotten the bag, she was standing on one foot outside the car, her crutches implanted in a half-foot of snow, and she was trying to figure out the best way to get through the rest of the snow that still littered the immediate vicinity. When he saw her predicament, he reached out his foot and used the inside of it to push snow away in an attempt to clear a rudimentary path for her.

When she realized what he was doing, she looked up at him gratefully, and was actually suprised, herself, that she wasn't more annoyed. "Thanks, Castle."

Kate hobbled and the other two walked slowly beside her. As predicted by Rick, they had to go quite a ways down the cross street before they could find a section of the road that wasn't covered by the backed up water so they could cross the street. It took a considerable amount of time with her on the crutches, trying to dodge the snow and make sure neither her feet nor the crutch tips landed on any ice. Her hands hurt with every step, every time she put them down on the handles and had to bear weight on them to take the place of her injured leg. She was trying to keep her face impassive and thought she was doing a good job until Castle leaned in side of her and said "How are the hands, Kate?"

"Just fine, Castle," she said through gritted teeth. Her hands hurt like hell, but she still wasn't going to admit that to him.

Finally, they made it to her building. And then she stared at the steps that led up to the door. And with it being winter, outside, and being still wet from the snow, she knew there was no way that she'd be butt-scooting. But at least she could use the railing to help pull herself toward the door, so there was some reprieve for her hands because of that, anyway. As she was making her way up the stairs, it occurred to her that she was surprised that Castle wasn't attempting to help her. And not only that, the man wasn't saying a word. He just stood silently beside her and let her make her way slowly up the steps.

Once she got to the top of the impossibly long stoop-when did there get to be so many steps there, anyway?-she let herself in and meandered down the hall toward the elevator, with Big Castle and Little Castle flanking her but still being relatively silent, except for commenting that it felt good to be inside and out of the cold. Kate was somewhat surprised that Rick wasn't being more solicitous with trying to help her, but she figured he was taking their previous discussion to heart and was trying to let her do things herself. As she hobbled down the hall, she was so intent on looking at the floor and watching where she was stepping that she was surprised when Castle said, somewhat worriedly, "Uhhh...Kate?"

"Yeah, Castle...what?" She tried to keep the verbal grimace out of her words as she leaned on her hands for another step. She felt a hand on her shoulder, gently telling her to stop. And when she looked up, she saw it: there, in front of the only elevator in her building, was a bunch of yellow tape blocking the door, along with some orange plastic construction fencing in front of it, complete with a sign that said, "Closed for Repairs".

Once she digested what she was seeing, she exclaimed, "What the hell?"

"Uh oh..." Rick said under his breath.

"That doesn't look good," Alexis noted.

Without a word, she turned down the hall and hobbled down to a door with a brass "10" on the outside of it. She knocked, and after a full minute, the door opened to reveal a man in his fifties, wearing a flannel shirt. A smile lit his face when he saw the detective, but then it dropped from his face just as quickly when he noticed the crutches and her bandaged foot. "My goodness, Miz Beckett, what happened to you?"

"Sprained ankle," she related concisely. When she noticed the older man's glance and the two people beside her, she said, "Mr. Peterson, this is Rick Castle and his daughter, Alexis. I was out of town with them for a few days and we just got back and saw the elevator. Rick, Alexis, Mr. Peterson, my Super. So what's going on?"

He shook his head. "It was that Lipnicki kid again," he said, with barely concealed derision. "You know, there are lots of ways to raise kids, but just lettin' 'em run wild like hooligans an' passin' it off like you're lettin' 'em be creative..." he said the last word with emphasis, "well, that really ain't raisin' 'em at all. It's lettin' other people raise 'em when those little hooligans make trouble for other nice people, ya know?" He looked at Rick, who nodded sympathetically toward the man.

"Mr. Peterson, what did Noah do now?"

"Miz Lipnicki, she told the kid to go play outside in the snow. But the kid didn't want to play outside in the snow. So the kid decides to do a little of both, and he plays with the snow by bringing it inside and throwing it down the elevator shaft."

Alexis' eyes widened and Castle's mouth dropped open before he said, "Whoa, I didn't see that one coming."

Kate, who was used to Noah Lipnicki's stunts, closed her eyes when she asked, "How much damage this time?"

"'This time?' You mean this kid has broken an elevator before?" Rick said with something akin to awe in his voice. Kate just held up a hand to silence him so Mr. Peterson could finish talking.

"Nah, first time for the elevator," the super responded to Rick. "One time it was the hall carpeting on three, and another time it was the washing machine, and then there was that smell-"

"Mr. Peterson? How long before the elevator shaft is cleaned or...whatever?" Kate prompted.

"Cleanin' it ain't the problem. He dumped a fair amount of snow down there before Big Ted caught him red-handed." The older man gave her a giddy smile when he announced that.

"Big Ted caught him?" Kate asked, astonished. "I'd like to see his mother get him out of this one."

"Who's Big Ted?" Alexis asked.

"I'll give you the story later. All of the stories. So anyway, how bad is the damage?" Kate asked, trying to get back to the point.

"Like I said, it isn't so much clean up. It's the electrical damage from the water. Kid got some solid pieces down through the opening, we think they splattered up onto some of the wiring. Shorted it out. We had the repair guys here, but none of the usual stuff fixed it. They think it might need all new wiring."

"Oh, no." Kate didn't know much about elevator repairs, but 'all new wiring' didn't sound good.

"Yeah. So it's gonna be at least a few days. But between you 'n me, if they gotta rewire the thing, it's gonna be longer than that." Then the man's eyes trailed down to her crutches, and to her bum leg, as he thought about the prospects of her negotiating three flights of stairs on crutches. "Oh, my, Miz Beckett."

The same thought was going through her head. "Yeah. You said it. Well, thank you, Mr. Peterson."

"Is there anything I can do?" the man asked.

"No, I'll just have to figure out the best way to use stairs, I guess. But tell me something...please tell me that you filed a police report for vandalism? Especially since Big Ted caught Noah this time?"

"Sure thing, you bet I did, Miz Beckett," he told her with a very satisfied smile.

"Do you remember the name of the officer you spoke with? I'd like to follow up with him or her to make sure this doesn't fall through the cracks. It's time that family stopped getting away with things like this."

"Sure, it was an Officer Carstairs, down where you work."

"Thank you, Mr. Peterson."

The older man shut the door and Kate started silently crutching her way toward the stairs. Finally, Rick could take it no more. "Kate, you heard your Super. The elevator is out of commission. You can't stay here. Come back to the loft with us," he implored, and Alexis nodded in agreement behind him.

"It's fine, Castle. I'll just have to plan for a little more time to use the stairs, that's all."

"Kate..." he protested.

"It's fine, Castle," she reiterated in a tense voice, and against his better judgement, he shut his mouth, not wanting to create a scene in her building, in front of his daughter.

It took them almost fifteen minutes to climb the three flights of stairs to her floor. Nobody spoke a word the entire time. Between the stairs and what had to be very sore hands from leaning on the crutches, Rick could see her getting more and more frustrated the closer they got to her apartment. Finally, she got to her door and after she unlocked it, crutched in and collapsed on her couch.

But Rick was totally unprepared when she looked up at him, and asked, "So, Castle, is that offer of the use of your spare bedroom still open?"

She knew it was the last thing he expected her to say, but after struggling to use the stairs to just get to her apartment, she knew there was no way she'd be able to live here, alone, with no elevator access for the foreseeable future.

Even though it went against her grain to ask, she had to admit that the grin on Rick's face once he processed her words was just downright charming. "Of course, Detective," he agreed readily.

"Well then, I suppose I should pack some other clothes then," she acknowledged. "Castle? Are you up for a piggy back ride? It is still today, and I did win the pancake bet after all." Then she threw a dirty look at her crutches, which she had discarded toward the other end of the couch. "And I hate those damn crutches!" she finished with venom in her voice.

He walked over and turned around in front of her to face away from her. "I will gladly pay my bet-losing penance, Detective. So hop aboard, and let's get this show on the road." And as he walked by Alexis, he said "Pumpkin? Can you order some Chinese? I think Beckett will need a Chinese buffet and a good bottle of wine by the time we get back to the loft."

Alexis nodded and got to work on that, while Kate whispered to Rick, "But no karaoke or smelly herbs this time, buster." He laughed and reached behind him to swat her lightly on her derriere. From her previous threat, she made like she was going to bite his ear, until he started galloping and she had to grasp his shoulders just to make sure she didn't fall off.

But when she heard his "Giddy up," she rolled her eyes and thought, 'Living with the Castles...what am I getting myself into?'


I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and the little twist that serves all of our romantic fluff needs by getting her to stay in the loft.

Can anyone tell that I know a Noah who is a general pain to be around and is constantly getting away with things? I apologize if anyone's angel is named Noah. I do know several other very nice Noahs, but that one kid...ugh.

Some of you who have read the ending a/n in 'The Plan' know that I have a 10 year old who is a big Castle fan and a Caskett shipper. 'Rise' is now on his iPod touch. So anyway, he left me a note when I got out of the shower this morning, and I had to share. It said "What if Marcus Gates from 3XK is married to Captain Victoria Gates?" OK, not likely, but I have to hand it to the kid for making the name connection. He also has an idea for an 'episode', so I told him to write up a plot synopsis and I'll write a story for it. So at some point, 'our' story may just appear on here.

Now, I implore you, if you liked the chapter, if you're one of the many people who has this fic on a story alert or me on an author alert, please leave a review.

(Plea alert following: From PMing with other authors, I know that I'm not the only one who feels that the reviews that you wonderful readers leave for us make us feel like writing more. And when we don't get many reviews, we tend to wonder where we've gone wrong. I know it's not easy to come up with something original to say, but the reviews are really the only things we have that tell us that we're on the right track and that what we write is appreciated and enjoyed. Just pick one thing and tell me what you like. And if there's something you don't like, then we want to know that too (obvious unconstructive flaming and rude comments notwithstanding). When we publish a new chapter or story, it's like sending it to a black hole. We don't know what happens to it after that...who reads it, if you like it, if you're excited to see a new chapter and drop everything to read it, or if you go 'oh, no! She wrote another chapter of that lame fic? Oh, brother!' So when you leave a review, please know that the time it takes you to type it IS very much appreciated.

I have another fic that I'm working on, and I actually have more story alerts for that fic than I have reviews, which is very surprising considering that I have 4 chapters of it up. The reviews that I get are positive and ask me to continue, and those people have said it's wonderful, but relatively speaking, there just aren't very many and it honestly makes me wonder if I should just scrap it and try something else that would appeal to a wider audience. If I'm going to spend hours writing and editing a chapter, then I want as many people as possible to enjoy it, you know? Yet people seem to keep story alerting it, so I honestly don't understand it. If you've just read 20,000 words and it's good enough that you want to read more, then please consider taking two minutes to say "Nice story. I really like how you did (XYZ)."; it helps us all become better writers. I, myself, have been bad at leaving reviews for other stories lately, but I'm really trying to change that. I don't necessarily like it when some authors hold a story hostage and say they won't post a new chapter until they get a certain number of reviews, but I'm starting to somewhat understand it, although I won't do that. We need feedback. If you like the story enough to alert it, then please, let me know what you like about it. It's motivation for me. Some people are highly internally motivated, and some people also need that external motivation, i.e., feedback. Yes, I admit, I need both to do what I feel is a decent job. So please, if you like a story, (and not just mine!), leave a review for it as a thank you to that author for writing another chapter of that story that you like, and make that author smile. And to all of you who do that already, please know that your comments are really, truly appreciated. End plea.)