A Not So Merry Christmas
An AU story which takes place sometime post series and Rick and Kate are facing a particularly melancholy Christmas because circumstances have conspired to not have the rest of the family able to attend the festivities.
All standard disclaimers apply
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CHAPTER ONE
Rick Castle came out of the bedroom and slowly shuffled toward his wife who was sipping on her morning cup of coffee. He had a frown on his face, and there were no happy crinkles around his eyes as he grabbed at the cup of coffee Kate had poured for him.
"So, no good news?" She gave him a quick buss on the cheek.
He shook his head. "No, Alexis just informed me that she and Max will be catching their plane out to San Francisco on the 23rd. It was the only flight that already hadn't been booked up."
Kate sidled up next to her grumpy husband and gave him a side hug. "I'm sorry. It just seems that the fates are working against you this year babe."
A loud sigh escaped from Castle's lips. "It's not fair. This will be the first time, since she was born, where I won't be celebrating Christmas with my little girl."
Kate stepped behind him and put her arms around him, and kissed his shoulder. "Yeah, but Alexis has been married to Max for three years now, and she's never spent Christmas with Max's family yet. You are going to have to learn how to share her from now on babe. She's a grown woman with a husband now."
Rick leaned against the island and set his coffee cup down. "It's not fair. Children shouldn't be allowed to be grownups on holidays."
Kate broke out laughing. "Now you seem to be losing it there babe."
He moved slowly toward the coat closet. "It's going to be a crappy Christmas. Alexis won't be here, Mother is in the play "A Christmas Story" in Boston during Christmas, and Jim is spending Christmas up at his cabin for some reason."
Kate had followed Rick to the coat closet by the front door. "He's taking a new lady friend that he's been seeing, Janice, up there. Apparently she's big on the whole forests and lakes scene."
Rick looked back at Kate. "She does know that the lake will be frozen and there will be a lot of snow up there. They might be stuck up there for several days."
Kate chuckled. "I kind of think both of them are hoping for that."
Castle rolled his eyes. He then opened the closet and pulled out his jacket.
"You can come with me to Black Pawn you know. You're just as important a part of this process now as I've ever been." He pulled her close and kissed her cheek. "You have every right to be there now." Kate wrinkled her nose. "And you could protect me from Gina, Paula, and all the other vultures that will be circling."
Kate laughed. "You'll be fine. You've been handling all these meetings for years, and you'll have Walter there to protect you."
"But…" He stuttered.
She put her finger on his lips. "You'll do fine. Besides, I have some edits I want to look over again, before we are ready to send them along." She placed a searing kiss on his lips. When she pulled back she grinned. "You just go and get that new contract signed so we can continue to live in this manner I've become accustomed to."
Rick ran his hand through her almost shoulder length hair. "I don't deserve you. You know that don't you?"
"Yep." She kissed him again and sent him out the door.
Kate was sitting on the couch with a stack of pages in her lap and her blue pencil in her right hand. But she was having a hard time concentrating. Even though she had been working with Rick for a few years now it still seemed wrong somehow that she would be doing this, for real.
Inevitably, since she was in one of those moods, her mind drifted back to that terrible day as it tended to do now and then. The day that was the culmination of months of some of the stupidest things she'd ever done in her life.
She had walked out on her husband thinking that it would keep him safe, while she continued to investigate something that she wasn't properly prepared to do. As it turned out, the resolution to her personal vendetta found her.
She had finally smartened up enough to bring Castle back into the fold and allow him to help her with her investigation in an uncover sort of way. What a laugh the bad guys must've had watching her floundering around thinking she was so clever.
It was sheer luck that the big shoot out in that former CIA hideout ended in their favor, and she and Castle went home thinking they had taken down the infamous Loksat.
They had taken out Loksat, but like all those sneaky underground illicit operations, there always were dangling threads that were missed. And that miss had nearly cost Rick and herself their lives.
They thought it was over, but there was still someone left to try and settle the score. They'd been ambushed in their own home. And even though she managed to kill the intruder, both Rick and herself had suffered severe gunshot wounds and were left to die, bleeding out on their own kitchen floor.
If it hadn't been for a neighbor hearing the shots from her gun, and calling the police, they wouldn't have survived.
After a lengthy stint in the hospital, and a longer one recovering at the Hampton's house. She and Rick were able to come home to the loft, with a redesigned kitchen, to face unexpected changes in their lives.
Even though the culmination of her obsessive behavior ended with a finality that allowed her to put all those demons to rest, it wasn't finished with her yet.
While she was in the hospital, all the dirty truths came out about how she had overstepped her authority in being a part of an unauthorized investigation, using NYPD resources, on a personal vendetta. It wasn't appreciated by the powers at 1PP. But being something of a popular, well-known figure that had brought the department good press for many years, her situation had to be handled judiciously. Trashing Kate Beckett in the public eye wouldn't serve any good purpose. So another avenue was taken.
Kate's missteps along the way during her career would be ignored as long as she took a medical retirement. Kate was forced out of the NYPD. Considering she'd been significantly wounded four times, though one of those times barely slowed her down, it wasn't a hard sell to the media.
Kate took a little longer. But after discussions with her family… many discussions, she finally realized that it would be in everyone's best interest to walk away and let it inevitably fade away as time went on.
Of course, that left an antsy Kate with nothing to do.
Then the idea came that maybe this was their opportunity to start their own additions to the family. Even at a more advanced age then normal for having kids. They both liked the idea of adding additions to the Castle clan.
Castle had always wanted kids with Kate, but she was now on board with the idea.
Because of her past inconveniences of getting shot way too many times, she underwent a full physical geared toward the needs of an expectant mother.
And that's when the hammer came down.
More than one specialist in the field had said that it would be foolhardy for Kate, after what her body had gone through, to take on carrying a child to term.
Her heart was just okay. It had sustained some damage and wasn't as strong as a normal heart should be. Plus the wounds to her abdomen, and her upper chest, also represented areas of weakness that Kate would have that wouldn't be present for a normal woman.
Kate pushed, but the best she could get was, 'it's possible that she could carry a child to term, but it could be very dangerous for both the mother and the child to try'.
Kate was still considering it when Rick put his foot down. He even went and got snipped just so they wouldn't be tempted to do something that could kill Kate, and the baby. The risks were too great to take. Kate was slow to accept Castle's concern, but had finally approved of his actions. Heaven forbid that they should ever have to stop having sex.
He had also been able to soften the blow by pointing out that the direction that Alexis and Max were going, they probably would have some grandkids that they could spoil fairly soon.
When Kate pointed out that Meredith would be the actual grandmother, Rick countered with the fact that Meredith would never admit to being old enough to have grandkids. And providence also decided to intervene. Not long after Alexis was married, Meredith took up with some European count and moved to some small, never heard of country. And since they'd be the only grandparents around from Alexis' side of the family, she would gladly step up and take on the mantle of gramma Kate. Martha would continue to be just Grams.
That left them with the one dangling problem. What was Kate to do? She was not someone who could sit around on the couch eating bon bons while watching soaps on the TV. She had worked all her life and she'd need something to do. Something that would engage her mind.
Once again, Rick came to the rescue. He convinced her she should work with him, in a real sense. When he followed her, they had consistently knocked ideas back and forth with every case they had. Now they just did it for imaginary cases.
Castle would work up a bare bones concept and the two of them would toss out ideas for how Nikki and Jameson would act and react to whatever they decided to have the bad guys do. It actually became kind of fun.
Once they had enough ideas Rick would draw up a basic outline, then show that to Kate, who would make notations anywhere she saw potential problems with police procedures and such. Rick also encouraged her to suggest any ideas she had pertaining the story itself.
Then he would start outlining chapters and give them to Kate to look over and note anything she thought didn't work there, or could be better used in another spot.
She also proofed all his chapters, and made edits as she saw them with her blue pencil, then she gave it back to him to either include those edits, ignore her suggestions, or come up with his own edits for the chapter.
She would then proof it again, and if both she and he were happy with the chapter it was done.
Of course the process wasn't quite that rigid and there was a lot of back and forth before they settled on something. It took a little longer to put a book together that way but they enjoyed the working together. And because of that there was less procrastinating, and the books were more often on time.
Castle had always used an electronic murder board to outline his stories anyway, so it was a familiar way to work for Kate. They both found that it was a lot like how things used to work at the precinct.
At his last contract he was able to get Kate some credit. Right now all his books were "Richard Castle" and a 'with Katherine Castle' in a smaller type below that. Rick was determined that Kate should get her full credit for what she did for the books. Kate didn't really care about being acknowledged, she just enjoyed working with Rick.
Kate was annoyed with herself because she couldn't focus on what she was doing, so she put it aside and went into the kitchen to make herself another cup of coffee. She also hunted for one of Rick's hide outs for pastries. She was hungry.
She was enjoying her cup of coffee with the blueberry scone she found. She had gotten pretty good in guessing where he tried to hide them. Either he kept forgetting that she was a detective, or he just didn't care. Her guess was the latter.
She just finished wiping the crumbs off her face when the door opened and a surprisingly happy looking Castle came into the entry. She raised her brow as she studied his body language as he put is coat away. He had a paper folio under one arm.
"Stay right there!" Kate called out and trotted over to the confused Rick. She threw her arms around him and planted her lips over his for a long heartfelt kiss.
She pulled back with a grin on her face and pointed up at the mistletoe that she had hung from the ceiling this morning after he left.
She licked her lips as she smirked. "What's under your arm?"
He smiled as he leaned in and kissed her back. "Just my copies of the paperwork that was settled at the meeting."
She followed him over to the couch and sat down next to him. "So, did things go well enough? You seem to be in a good mood. That's not natural for you when you come back from a meeting with Gina."
"Everything went great. There was some resistance at first, but I held the line and I wound up getting everything I wanted."
Kate smirked. "My, what a fierce negotiator you've become all of a sudden. It's only been what… twenty five years?"
He stepped up and put his arm around her. "That's what I get for doing what I did for you? Sarcasm?"
Kate pulled back and looked at him with a wary expression on her face. "Rick, what did you do that I'm not going to like?"
He struck a proud pose. "I got you the proper credit you deserved." He grinned. "From now on, all Nikki Heat Books, and anything else we put out will be bannered as Richard and Katherine Castle."
Kate eyes grew large. "You didn't. No, Rick you couldn't be that stupid." She began to pace around the living room. "Your career was built on your talents, I'm just a glorified secretary helping you out. You can't lessen your gifts by watering them down by putting my name on the book cover." Kate was beginning to hyper ventilate.
He grabbed her hands. "Kate this is long overdue. My career would have died more than a decade ago had I not met you and been inspired by your strength, your intelligence, your extraordinariness." He frowned. "Is that a word?" He waved his hand. "Well no matter. Without Kate Beckett, Richard Castle would be working in a grocery store now."
Kate rolled her eyes. "Tell me you are just pranking me. That you really didn't do this."
His smile got bigger. "We are going to have to go and get our pictures shot together for the back cover on the next book. We can set that up after Christmas."
Kate's face became ashen. "You really did this? You're putting me on the book covers?"
Rick was beaming like a kid on Christmas morning, appropriate for the season. "Well, it's always on the back cover, but isn't it great!"
Kate slapped her hand over her mouth and ran toward the bathroom.
Rich stared after her. "Kate?"
Kate came back after several minutes. She had changed her top and had brushed her hair. She came over and sat next to Rick.
"Why did you do this? You are the person who rose up from virtually nothing and made yourself into a beloved writer with a god given talent. I am your wife, and I love you. I support you, I enjoy helping you, but I'm not a part of the magic you create."
Rick pulled her to him. "You are the magic, Kate. Without you in my life I'd still be wasting my time playing those stupid games for the page six articles because my 'handlers' thought that was the best way to market my books."
He shook his head. "You saved me Kate, I was done. I had no new ideas, I had nothing to say in my books. Then I met you. It was like someone opened the door to a completely different world. It wasn't just words when I told you, and the rest of the world that you were my inspiration. You were. Without you showing me that heroes actually live in the real world also, I would have fizzled out after 'Storm Fall'.
Kate shook her head violently. "I get it. You were going through a rough patch, but you would have snapped out of it before much longer. I'm happy helping out where I can. It helps me now that I don't have being a cop to occupy my days. But let's not get carried away with assigning me with any particular talents in producing the best-selling books you write."
Castle crossed his arms over his chest. "Do you know what's wrong with you?"
She rolled her eyes. "Only too well."
"You're selfish."
"I'm what?"
"You're selfish. You hide in your work, which you do exceptionally well, but refuse to allow others to celebrate you for it. The 'just doing my job' is your knee jerk reaction anytime anyone tries to thank you or compliment you for something you did. Well this is me trying to thank you for saving me."
Her brow went up. "You needed saving?" She chuckled.
"You laugh, but I'm not kidding when I say that I was one step away from the scrap heap when I was blessed to have met you. The ride we took wasn't always easy, or pleasant, but it was amazing. And one I wouldn't have traded for anything in this world."
Rick fisted his hands. "You refuse to acknowledge how special you are to the people you are close to. What I did today I did because, first of all, you deserved it. But most of all I wanted everyone to know that I would not be where I am today without you in my life."
He took his hand and palmed her cheek. "Sometimes when I'm let myself think about where I'd be without you, I get really depressed… and thankful that you are still here with me."
She leaned over and kissed him. "I have no plans on ever leaving. You're stuck with me."
He smiled. "That's good, because I'm never letting you go." He took her hand. "I know your modesty will never let you take any credit, but believe me, there probably wouldn't have been any books by Richard Castle published since Heat Wave if not for you and your insertion into my life. I just want the world to realize how important you've been to me all this time and that it's you who keeps me going."
Kate sat there in silence for several heartbeats. Finally, a tear slipped down one check. "What did I ever do to deserve you?"
He smirked. "Just lucky I guess."
She shook her head. "And just like that, the moment is ruined."
The both fell back against the couch back and laughed, until tears rolled down their faces.
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A/N: For those of you who have the DVD sets of the various seasons of Castle. I imagine the photo of Rick and Kate for the book's back covers would look something like the cover of season 8's DVD.
All Readers are Appreciated, Review if you wish.