In Abundance

A Season 4 Thanksgiving Ficlet

She doesn't look up when he strides through the front door and into the bar, keeping her focus on the ring of condensation left on the countertop below her glass.

"Kate."

She sighs, licking her lips. Her eyes dart his way before returning to study the ice in her glass. She's not drinking her usual go-to vodka, he notes with surprise. "What're you doing here, Castle? Shouldn't you be making stuffing and gravy for your turkey? Preparing that feast you spent all week talking about?"

Rick Castle slides onto an empty stool beside his partner, giving the bartender a nod and pointing to her glass. He's not entirely sure what she's drinking, but he's joining her; he just hopes he doesn't regret it.

"What're you doing here?" he asks, twisting to face her.

Beckett heaves a largely humorless laugh. "Gates kicked me out, denied my OT. She said I didn't need to be there this year, moreover, I wasn't allowed to be there this year until my next shift, and that shift isn't tonight or tomorrow."

Castle nods, though he doesn't quite understand why that brought her to a bar instead of taking her home or to her father's, anywhere there might be a Thanksgiving gathering starting.

"Dad and I don't really do holidays anymore," she continues once he has a glass in front of him, waiting for him to take a sip of what he now knows is scotch. "He's not even in town for the holiday – fishing up at his cabin for the long weekend. And you took off early so I wasn't going to interrupt your time with your family. So I just… came here."

He licks his lips, his fingers twitching against the bar top. He wants to touch her but has a feeling that she'll pull away if he tries.

"I'm surprised Lanie didn't drag you to her place for a couple of days."

She laughs, this time a little lighter. "Lanie doesn't know. Ryan's with Jenny, obviously, and Espo is… somewhere. He wasn't exactly forthcoming – I think he doesn't want it to get back to Lanie, actually."

His lips quirk. "They're a mess."

"Tell me about it. Listening to Lanie is something else. Honestly, I'm glad for a reprieve from it."

Castle sips his scotch again, weighing his options, considering his next move. She probably wants him to go, to leave her to her solitude, but he just can't do that. She's his partner, his friend, his – well, nothing else right now, but hopefully his future, too; he's not going to leave her sitting in a bar at 5:45 in the evening, the day before Thanksgiving with nowhere to go.

"Drink up, Beckett," he says, hissing around a too-big gulp of scotch. "We have some errands to run before we go back to the loft."

His partner gawks, her brow furrowing in that cute way it has. He has to admit he enjoys when she makes that face. "What?"

He grins. "You're coming to the loft for dinner tonight – and breakfast tomorrow, and dinner again tomorrow night. So we need to go back to your place and get your stuff for you to stay over – unless you want to just borrow some of my PJs, which I wouldn't blame you, they're really comfortable – and then grab some ice cream at the store, because that's what I was out to grab before I saw you. Come on, finish up."

"Castle, I can't- you-"

"Nope," he cuts her off. "No arguments, Kate. You're getting turkey tomorrow, like it or not."

She could refuse, he knows, and there'd be nothing he could do about it. Not with the bartender eyeing them from the other end of the counter, and especially not with the gun on Beckett's hip. Not that she'd use it, but she's never been shy about reminding him that she can take him. But he has to push a little, just enough to shake her stubbornly planted feet loose.

Thanksgiving might not be a holiday she celebrates, it might not even be something she cares that much about, but he's not going to leave her out in the cold – or here in the warmth of a bar – when he can bring her home, give her some small measure of family, of himself.

"What do you say?" he adds, making it sound a little less like an order this time around. "I can make your favorite dish, if I haven't already. I might have; I've made a lot of food."

"Don't you need to clear it with Alexis and Martha first?" she asks as if he's forgotten that he'd be sharing his home and the aforementioned meals with more than just her.

He waves her off. "They're more than happy to have you. Anytime. You know that."

Yes, things had been a little dicey for a few weeks after Montgomery's death, after Beckett's shooting and silence during her recovery, but that's water under the bridge now. And if not, it will be. What better a time to connect and reconnect than Thanksgiving? It's not as formal as Christmas, it has no religious connotations like Easter, it's perfect.

Beckett swirls the scotch around in her glass, giving the ice that's leftover time to melt a little more. He can see her mind working, but he's still not sure whether she's going to turn him down (politely or not) or-

"Okay," she agrees, swallowing the last of her drink. The glass taps the bar with a solid clunk.

"Okay?" he echoes. Are his ears deceiving him? Did she just…

"Okay," she repeats, rolling her eyes a little. "Don't look so surprised. Besides, you've got the look in your eye that says I wouldn't be getting rid of you too easily, and I'm not really in the mood to explain why you skipped Thanksgiving dinner to spend the next few days squatting in Denny's Bar."

He grins, sliding from his stool and reaching for his wallet, throwing down enough money to cover both of their drinks and then some, and waiting for her to get to her feet. He holds out her coat to her, adjusting the collar once she's slipped it over her shoulders. His fingers linger a little longer than necessary, brushing the whisps of her hair away from her neck and smoothing over her skin.

She offers him a soft look when his hands retreat, offering a few words of gratitude down the bar to the bartender before moving toward the door.

"Coming, Castle?" she asks after a moment, waiting for him to catch up.

He does, his smile widening until it spills over, until she offers him a toothy grin of her own.

"Thanks," she says a few minutes later once they've closed the distance to her place a little more. Her shoulder bumps his and he feels the flirt of her fingers at his elbow through his jacket. "For inviting me."

Castle bumps back, offering her his arm. Beckett hums, linking them together at the elbow. He could tell her so much, could offer assurances that she has a place at every celebration with him, that he hopes this will be the first of many holidays they spend together, even that he'd tried to invite her before but chickened out.

"It's going to be great," he promises instead, covering her hand with his and giving her fingers a squeeze.

Beckett tugs her lip between her teeth, resting her chin against his arm. "Yeah," she agrees quietly, her words spreading warmth through him just as much as her touch is. "I think it will be."

I started this as a Fluffy Friday ficlet (you can see the inspiration picture on tumblr and in the picture for this story) but it quickly grew to something larger. I may add more, but in case I don't, I'm marking this as complete for now. Thank you all for reading. If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you have a lovely holiday, if you do not, I hope your Thursday is warm and wonderful as well.

I appreciate all of you.