Photographer Kate Beckett and aspiring novelist Rick Rodgers are perfectly content in their solitary lives. But it's only after an unlikely matchmaker conspires to have them meet that they realize how extraordinary their lives could become. A Castle AU for Summer Ficathon 2016 co-written by airbefore and caffinate-me.

Forgiveness isn't something you are only granted by others. Forgiveness is something that you also have to grant to yourself. An AU starting about six months earlier than canon did, and in part a Christmas story. Please see warning in Ch1. COMPLETE.

Rick Rodgers is a struggling writer. He is working on his first novel. Trying to balance working and writing his days are pretty full. That is until his daughter comes along. In a second everything changes for worse. He needs to set his priorities straight. Can he survive? Read along and find out! Pre-series/pre-Caskett. Rated T to start, will be changed to M in later chapters.