A/N: Hello everybody! Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year! I am so sorry I have been away for so long. I have had a very busy year and have had things come up unexpectedly. But here I am writing a new story for Christmas. This story is for my friends: LittleLizzieZentara, EvaKAlways, and Natalie Elizabeth… Merry Christmas ladies! Thank you for being my friends. ENJOY!
New York, Here We Come
Detective Kate Beckett, better known recently as Detective Kate Beckett-Castle, walks into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. As the aroma of the coffee fills the air, Kate gets an idea. As she grabs two coffee mugs out of the cupboard, her husband, best-selling Mystery novelist Richard Castle walks into the kitchen.
"Ah, good morning wife." Castle walks over to his wife and kisses her on the cheek.
Kate smiles as he kisses her. "Good morning, Babe." She pours both of them a cup of coffee.
While she's pouring the coffee Castle can see something is on her mind. "Kate? What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I'm just thinking about something."
Without hesitation, "baby Castle?"
Kate is taken aback and almost drops the coffee pot. "What?! No! Castle we just got married a few months ago. I'm not ready for a baby."
"Right. I'm sorry." Castle takes a sip of his coffee. "So, what are you thinking about?"
Kate takes a sip of her own coffee. "Do you remember my 3 friends I told you about, the ones I met online through a Richard Castle fan page?"
Castle takes another sip of his coffee and raises one of his eyebrows. "Yeeesss?"
"I told you about them. They're my three closest friends from that group. The four of us are from all over the world. One lives on the west coast, one lives in the UK, one lives in Australia, and I obviously live here in New York."
"Ah, yes. I remember now." He takes another sip of his coffee. "So, what about them?"
Kate walks around the kitchen island to take a seat next to her husband. "Well, the four of us have discussed taking a trip together. So, I was thinking the three of them could come here. I could give them a tour of the city, they can meet the man that got the four of us to become friends, and maybe spend some time at the house in the Hamptons."
"You were going to ask for permission if you could use the house in the Hamptons, weren't you?"
Kate looks down at her coffee mug. "Yes."
"Kate we're married now. That house is yours now, too. You don't need to ask for permission, anymore, to stay there."
She leans over to Castle to give him a kiss on the lips. "Thanks, Babe."
"Always." Castle is about to take a sip of his coffee when he notices his cup is empty. He gets up from the bar stool and walks over to the coffee pot to refill his cup. "When were you thinking of having them come here?"
"I'm not sure. The idea just came to me, so I need to run it by them and see what they say. Who knows, they may want to do something else, or go somewhere else. However, if they d decide to meet here, I was thinking in maybe a year and a half, maybe closer to two years. It'll give everyone a chance to save up."
"Well, whenever you all decide to meet, if it ends up being here, let me know. I'll book the four of you a suite, like the one we stayed in while we were in LA."
"With the lounge in the middle, like a common area and the two rooms on opposite ends with King-sized beds?"
"Yes. Like that. But don't tell them. I'd like it to be a surprise."
Kate chuckles. "Ok, Babe. Whatever you say." She kisses him again. "Thank you. That's a really sweet gesture."
Later that day, Kate takes a coffee break to send an email to her friends. She sends the email letting them all know she would like to have a video conference via Skype to discuss her idea and anything other travel plans any of them might have. After sending the email, she gets back to the paperwork that is sitting on her desk.
A little while later, she gets a notification saying she has a new email. She quickly checks to see who it's from and sees it's from her friend Audrey. Kate nods her head in acknowledgment that Audrey has received and read the email. Kate will read the email a little later, when she has gotten more work done.
Kate gets up from her desk a few minutes later to take a bathroom break. When she returns to her desk, she sees she has received a new email from her friend Addy. As Kate is about to open one of the emails from her friends, she receives another email, this time from her friend Beth. All of her friends have seen, read and responded to her email. Now, it's time to read their responses. After reading the emails from her friends she gets back to her work.
At the end of the day, she packs up all of her things, and shuts down her computer. As she walks toward the elevator, she takes her phone of her pocket to call Castle. "Hey, Babe. I need to use your office tonight. I'll pick up some dinner on my way home." She gets into the elevator. "I'll see you soon. I love you."
Later that night, Kate sits down at Castle's desk and turns on his computer. Once the computer has been booted up, she logs onto Skype. She is the first one of her friends logged on. While she waits for the others, she goes out into the kitchen to make herself a cup of decaf coffee.
As she walks across the threshold of Castle's office, she hears someone calling her on Skype. She quickly closes the door behind her and rushes as best as she can to the computer, without spilling the coffee. She manages to answer the call before it stops ringing. It takes a few seconds for Aubrey to appear on the screen. Once Audrey can be seen and heard, Kate answers. "Hi Audrey."
"Hi Kate. How are things going?"
"Pretty good. No new cases. I just did paperwork today, so it went by kind of slow." Kate is about to say something else, when she sees another one of her friends' names appear on the screen ready to join the chat. "Hang on. Addy is ready to join us. Let me add her really quick."
"Okay, no problem."
As Kate adds Addy to the call, she sees that Beth is ready to join the call. Once Kate adds Addy, she then quickly adds Beth. Once all of them are on the screen together, they all say hi."
Kate takes a sip of her, slowly cooling, coffee. "Alright ladies. Hello. Let's get down to business. I know it's late or getting late for some of us, so I'll try and make this brief. Thank you for all responding to my email in a timely manner. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to hear back from all of you so soon, but I appreciate it. Also, I want to thank you for being available to Skype on such short notice. Which, again, I wasn't expecting, but it's pleasantly welcome."
Addy chimes in. "No worries. I just interpreted the email as urgent, so I made sure I was available tonight, just in case."
Audrey nods in agreement. "I read it as urgent, too."
"I apologize. I didn't mean to make it sound urgent." Kate apologizes for making her friends feel worried. "Anyway, I just wanted to discuss a trip we had planned a while back. We had discussed meeting at a certain place in a certain year. Well, this morning as I was making a pot of coffee, I got an idea. That is, if we are all still on board with taking a trip with all four of us."
The other three respond in choruses of: "Of course", "are you kidding, and "absolutely".
"Okay. I just wanted to make sure we were all still on board. I didn't want to assume anything. So, here is the idea I came up with." Kate takes a sip of her coffee. "What would you think of meeting me here in New York? I can give you a tour of the city, we can do any of the tourist things you'd like to, you can meet the man that made the four of us friends. Then we can end up spending a few days or a week up at our house in the Hamptons. That of course depends on how long you all want to spend here and how much time you can take off from work."
Audrey raises her hand like she's in class. "I have a question."
"Sure. What's up?"
"Where would we all stay if we met up in New York?"
"That is a good question. And believe it or not, I did think of a plan for that. As much as I would love to have you all stay here in the loft, I think it would be best if we got one or two hotel rooms for us to stay in. That way, it will feel like I'm on vacation too. That way, if we decide to stay out late, or want to get our days going early, we won't bother Castle… especially if he's trying to get any writing done."
Kate pauses to look at the boxes on the computer screen, trying to read any reactions from her friends. She takes a sip of her coffee. "So, what do you all think? If you don't like it, we can always go somewhere else. I just thought I'd run this idea by you and see what you all think."
Audrey raises her hand again. "When were you thinking of this happening?"
"I was actually thinking in maybe a year and a half, maybe two years. We can always push it back to however long you think it will take for all of us to save up and be ready to travel, no matter where we decide to go."
Addy speaks up. "I'm in. I'd love to go back to New York. I was there years ago, but I'd go again. It'll be a different experience spending it with my friends."
It's Beth's turn to say something. "Sounds good to me. It'll be fun to meet in New York. I'm in, too."
Audrey hesitates on answering. "Of course, I'd love to meet in New York, but…"
Kate cuts her off. "Audrey, it's okay. I'll help you out in any way I can. We don't have to set a time just yet. I was just thinking 2 years to give us all enough time to try and save up. I just wanted to run the idea by you. What do you say? Are you in?"
"Of course! I'm in! Let's meet in New York!"
Kate looks at the time at the bottom of the computer screen. "Okay, great! We'll meet here in New York. Times will be determined later when we can Skype again. Anyway, it's getting really late here and I should be getting to sleep. Thank you for Skyping with me to discuss this idea. We'll talk again soon."
All the ladies say their goodbyes and good nights. Once all the ladies have said their farewells, Kate logs out of Skype and shuts down Castle's computer. She finishes the last of her coffee and takes the mug to the kitchen sink. After putting her empty mug in the kitchen sink, she heads for the bedroom. She goes to the bathroom to change into her pajamas and get ready for bed. Once ready, she climbs into bed next to Castle and curls up to his side.
"Hey. How did it go?"
"It went well. They all decided to meet here. We just haven't decided on when yet."
"Great. I'm happy for all of you. Just let me know when and I'll reserve that suite for you."
Kate smiles, leans on her elbow to give him a kiss, and curls into his side even more. "Thanks, Babe."
"Always."
The End
A/N: Thank you all who have taken the time out of your day to read this story. I hope you all liked it. Thank you to my friends who got me into writing and for being the inspiration for this story. I hope you all have a safe and wonderful Holiday season! To my friends: Merry Christmas!