AN: My absence has been much longer than anticipated. Apologies, folks. If you're still with me, thank you. Special thanks to leanaplumz for thinking that my updates are worth the wait. That's very reassuring and to be honest, I wasn't sure that they were. :o/ Also, special thanks to I'm Widget for your enthusiasm. Please know that I will never abandon a story—I hope you find that it's still a worthwhile read. Imhereforthestory and Mark C, I love your reviews/comments. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave them.

This one's a little different.

Chapter 15

"Richard Castle."

His face brightened at the sound of her voice. "Lucianne! How are you?" He turned from display of colorful bon bons that had caught his attention when he'd entered the small bakery to see the elderly woman making her way towards him from the swinging doors that lead to the back.

"It's good to see you. New face this year, eh?" Her eyes sparkled with mischief and he was reminded of the conspiratorial look that Kate had had on her face after he'd seen the two women chatting at the karaoke event.

He beamed. "Yes. New face." He didn't really have another explanation for her. Couldn't rightly tell her, 'Yes, and I'm in love with her and hope that she becomes a permanent fixture at these events over the coming years'.

Even if it was true.

"I saw you two talking the other night. Conspiring against me, are you?" He flashed her a grin. Luci had been like a mother and grandmother to him at the same time. She owned and ran the bakery as well as the small café that was attached. When he reached her, Castle gathered her up in a bear hug.

Luci squeezed his forearm and turned towards the bakery counter. "Is this what you were looking for?" She brought up a tray for his perusal and awaited his verdict.

Castle scanned the tray with a finger, not touching, but checking each piece. "This is perfect. I know it was an unusual request," he looked up at her and smiled. "Thank you for humoring me."

Luci tutted and shook her head. "For all you do for the people here every year? I would have done far more had you allowed it."

"No one owes me anything, it;s my gift" he said as he pulled out his wallet and passed her some cash. "And I'm paying you for this too."

"Did you come alone? I thought Alexis usually comes with you."

"No, Mother stopped in at the Butcher. We needed a few things for tomorrow night. Alexis is back at the cabin with Kate, but I'm sure you'll see her—if not both of them—soon." He winked at her and was taken aback by the tenderness on his old friend's face. "What?"

"She's a good one, Rick. I can tell. You hold on to her." She carefully packaged the contents of the tray and handed it to him.

He nodded thoughtfully. "I plan on it."

When they entered the cabin Alexis was still in the kitchen surrounded by piles of sorted gingerbread cookies. He stilled his movements just inside the door. Kate was walking, he assumed, towards the bedroom. Martha expertly gathered his bags in her free hand and continued around his body. His eyes perused the lines of her body as she approached him slowly. He thought she was going to hug him; her arms reaching around him, but not in an embrace. She closed the door behind him and he took the opportunity to return the favor, wrapping his own arms around her and pulling her tight against him.

Cheeky thing. His heart flip flopped as her eyes moved from his lips, up his face, past his eyes and forehead until they stilled momentarily just above his head. The smile that grew was instantaneous.

She was becoming predicable. He really should institute a year round mistletoe tradition back in New York. Castle noticed Alexis still milling about in the kitchen, Martha having joined her. This was the perfect time for his unveiling of a particularly interesting piece of trivia that he'd been holding on to for quite some time now.

He cleared his throat to be sure he had everyone's attention. His arms held Kate hostage, albeit a willing hostage.

"Did you know that the name for mistletoe comes from the fact that mistletoe tends to spring forth from bird droppings that have fallen on trees, the seeds having passed through the digestive tract of the birds. At the time the plant was given its name, people didn't know anything about that, but had observed that the mistletoe seemed to spring into existence from bird droppings on trees, thus 'mistle' or 'missel' which basically meant 'dung' and 'toe' which came from the Anglo Saxon 'tan', meaning 'twig'. Mistletoe is basically another way of saying 'poop twig'. Not only is mistletoe a poop twig, but most varieties of this plant are partial parasites, being unable to sustain themselves on their own photosynthesis, so they tend to leach what they need from the particular tree on which they are growing. So essentially..." There was a dramatic pause. "... the mistletoe tradition is a tradition of kissing under a poop twig." He'd been absolutely floored when he'd found that particular piece of information. Imagine: hundreds of thousands or more people world wide considered mistletoe to be one of the most romantic of holiday traditions. He wondered if they'd think it so magical if they knew the origins of the plant.

As for him, as of this year anyhow, it had quickly become both the most romantic and magical of Christmas traditions. He bowed his head and kissed Kate deeply. Deep, but simple. It was what she'd been asking for. A kiss. Plus his daughter was still watching. He needed to keep it PG. Kate pushed on his chest and continued on her way towards the bathroom. "Really romantic, Castle."

He grabbed her hand and tugged her back to him, dropping a kiss on her nose. "Trivia, my dear detective. Wouldn't be a Castle holiday without it." He glanced up at where his mother and daughter were standing in the kitchen. "Besides, I've been saving that one. Never had the opportune time to share it." He leaned in so that only she could hear his next words, "and you've been so enthusiastic about this tradition that I thought it appropriate to share."

Kate grumbled and tried to pull away, but he held on and could tell that she wasn't at all put out. She probably even liked it.

"I need a shower and a change of clothes after slaving away in your kitchen all morning. And for what?"

But he wasn't going to divulge that information just yet. "You'll find out soon enough, but while you're soaping up in there, be thinking about who your favorite literary characters are."

"My favorite what?" She sounded confused. As he wanted her to. It wouldn't be as much fun if she were able to anticipate things. He wanted to keep her on her toes.

"Characters. Literary. Book characters? Or authors, though really, need I ask?" He was joking, but hoped that he actually was her favorite author. Or at least in her top 5. Top 3. "Mull it over. Think of who your favorites are. Then just make sure you're ready for some fun. Everything will be ready to go when you get back out here," he assured her.

One last kiss and he spun her back around and sent her off to the shower with a pat to her rear end.

Yeah, he did that. PG-13 then. It was innocent.

"Kate?" he called as she was about to close the bedroom door.

"Yes?"

"Seven to ten."

"Seven to ten...what?"

"Characters, authors, or a combination thereof. Try to limit yourself to about ten though. And just...make it interesting." And with a bob of her head, she disappeared behind the door.

He grinned at his mother and daughter who stood awaiting his next move. "Let's get ready then, shall we?"

The water felt heavenly. Kate leaned her head back under the spray, the heat melting what little tension there was to be found out of her muscles.

Literary characters.

Hm.

She grabbed the body wash and soaped up her loofah, dragged it along each arm from fingertips to shoulder, taking care to lift her hair and get the back of her neck. She pulled it across her chest and down her torso, down one leg, up the other and finally around to her back.

Kate tried to focus her mind on characters from her past, of authors (other than her favorite) that she'd enjoyed reading as she squirted shampoo onto her palm and lathered her hair. She couldn't very well choose Nikki Heat.

She rinsed the shampoo out and applied conditioner.

It would be telling, this exercise. Wouldn't it? If she chose all strong women characters it would indicate one thing, whereas if she chose to mix things up a little it would show that her character, Kate Beckett, had many different facets.

Layers.

Like an onion.

Or a parfait.

She finished rinsing off and pulled one of Castle's ginormous fluffy towels around her before stepping out into the slightly chilled air. Making her way into the bedroom Kate mentally flipped through some of her character options as she slipped into a pair of jeans and dark green mock turtleneck.

She'd keep her choices a little eclectic. He hadn't said that the choices had to be for certain reasons, though she wouldn't just choose characters at random. There would be a concrete reason for each choice, but if Castle tried to guess her picks, he'd be wrong.

Probably.

Most likely.

She hoped.

"So ladies, are we changing things up a bit this year?" Castle was entirely too pleased with himself for having been able to successfully keep Kate in the dark about their traditions. He'd wanted to be able to maintain her sense of wonderment. For her to have a kind of childlike awe as each new piece of the Castle holiday puzzle was revealed.

Thus far he was quite please with things. He'd been able to have a front row seat to seeing Kate Beckett unwind. He was happy that he'd been able to (ok, he'd forced her hand a little-though really nobody could force Kate into doing anything that she really want to do...) coerce her into having an actual real vacation. And yeah, he'd used his daughter as the reason, but she'd seen right through that hadn't she?

"Dad!" He was pulled from his thoughts as his daughter's hand floated before his eyes.

"Huh?" Not the most articulate of responses, but he'd been thinking of Kate and sometimes that turned his capacity for thinking or speaking to mush.

"I said that you'll just have to wait and see." Her hand dropped to his shoulder and patted him lightly. "How about you? I mean, aside from your little bag of surprises," she eyed the package from Luci, "How many did you pick this year?"

"Enough."

"Well I for one am excited to see what new characters this year brings," Martha said, joining the conversation.

"And you, Mother? Will we be seeing any new creations from you this go 'round?"

"Richard, darling, you aren't the only one who wants there to be surprises. Speaking of, it will be interesting to see what Beckett chooses."

"Mm," Castle agreed, turning as he heard the bedroom door open. "We shall soon find out, shan't we?"

"Cookies?"

"Persons. Gingerbread Persons." He held one up and made it dance before her eyes. "They're people too, Kate," he whispered.

She stifled a laugh. "Alright, persons then." She leaned in and addressed the cookie he still held in his hand, "I did not mean to offend."

"Each person has their own work station, as you can see," he gestured with his hand and sure enough there were improvised work stations set up around the room. Each was equipped with various colors of icing, sprinkles, a variety of candies, etc. Anything one might need for decorating a cookie. Or a an entire gingerbread house. The piles of gingerbread men, women, and assorted other shapes were arranged on the kitchen island. "You have your list?"

She squinted at him. "Yes. Am I to understand that I am to immortalize my chosen ones as cookies, then?"

"Create, Kate. Bring to life, represent, but not immortalize." He covered the invisible ears on the small unfinished cookie man with his thumb and forefinger and lowered his voice to a whisper, "We're going to eat them later."

The very tip of Kate's oh-so-pink tongue made an appearance, tracing the very edge of her luscious pink lips. He perked up and guided her with a hand at the small of her back towards the nearest station. "Have at it, but no peeking at anyone else's work," he warned.

Ok then. Work now, play later.

Kate watched as Castle took the small cookie sheet from his station and began piling cookies that she guessed he'd probably need for his project. Martha and Alexis, who she suspected had already taken the pieces they'd needed, were already hard at work at their stations.

"Ahem." Castle cleared his throat and pointedly shielded his tray. "No peeking."

She blushed. Ok, to work then, and she began piling up cookies on her own tray.

"Bah-ba ba ba ba ba baaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Castle turned around with tray in hand and placed it gently on the now vacant kitchen island. The ladies had all done the same, minus the sound effects, and he was a little giddy to see that all of Kate's little gingerbread people were just as decked out as the others. By the looks of it, she'd pulled out all the stops.

Good.

"Alright. To make things less complicated, we're going to just take this one person at a time rather than everyone doing one and moving to the next person. Mother, we'll start with you." He turned and addressed Kate, "The rules are: you introduce your character and then give a little explanation as to why they were one of your choices." Bringing a hand up to the side of his face he stage whispered, "We will consume later." He turned back towards Martha. "Mother?"

Martha practically glided up to the counter and picked up one of her creations. "The first person I would like you to meet is," She paused and waited for Castle to do a drum roll on his thighs, "Miss Frizzle from The Magic School Bus!" Sure enough the cookie had a frizzy red hair in an up do, a blue dress decorated with little candy and frosting planets and moons, and rounded out with a little green gummy lizard on her shoulder.

"Alright, reason for choosing her?"

"Well, for starters, her motto is: 'Take chances! Make mistakes! Get messy!' She isn't afraid of being herself, has an eclectic wardrobe, loves singing..."

"So basically, she's you," Alexis chimed in, laughing.

"All right, all right, who else?" Castle tried to bring them back to point. He glanced at Kate and winked. Ah, she was blushing much easier these days. Kate shifted to get a better look at the Miss Frizzle cookie and raised her eyebrows, impressed. Castle shrugged, his mother had gotten better at the whole decorating thing over the years, but that wasn't what this whole exercise was about. It was more about having a creative outlet. A fun holiday tradition with a little bit of a Castle twist.

Martha picked up her next cookie, a slightly rounder shape. It looked kind of like...

"This is Winnie the Pooh! I chose him because he is one of the most lovable characters in children's literature." She held her hand up, to quite any comments. "You loved him when you were a little boy, Richard. Always asking me to read you A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Poohand The House at Pooh Corner," she sighed, "You were so much easier to deal with back then," she joked.

Castle raised a hand to his chest and sucked in a breath.

"Don't worry Dad, I don't think you're too difficult." Alexis sidled up to him and gave him a sympathetic side hug.

Kate laughed and he decided to milk it a little bit. Dropping his head to rest on his daughter's he sniffled, "Well it's nice to know that someone's willing to take care of me..."

"But I won't be around forever..." Alexis giggled and tried to move away, but Castle snatched her hand and was able to keep his head firmly on top of hers.

"Don't worry Castle, I'll take care of you." Kate patted him on the shoulder and took his hand. He released Alexis' hand and lifted his head to give her a look.

A long long look.

A look that said things that he couldn't very well say in front of his mother and daughter.

"Well then, shall we move on?" Apparently his mother saw through that look. Hm. He'd have to tone it down a little when they weren't in private then.

"Oh Martha, that one is beautiful!" Kate covered her mouth with her hand, a little blush rushing to her cheeks as she must not have meant to blurt that out.

"Thank you darling. This is Elizabeth Bennett from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Oh I do hope I didn't step on anyone's toes! You didn't choose her also, did you?"

Kate shook her head. Was she that transparent? "I was tempted, but no. You've done her real justice."

"Yes. She is one of the strongest female lead characters in literature, I think. Reminds me of you a little, which is why I thought—oh never mind. Next I've got Emma Woodhouse from Jane Austen's Emma. I love her bumbling matchmaking antics and slow realization that she knows how to love. I ama bit of a romantic, you know. And now, the final three..." She placed her last three in front of her, opened her mouth,

And was promptly interrupted as both her son and granddaughter said in unison, "Lady Chatterly, Lady Macbeth, and Rosalind."

"I—how did you know?"

"Grams, you do those three every year," Alexis supplied.

"They are your 'three best roles' Lady Chatterly's Lover, Macbeth, and As You Like It were three of my favorite performances," Castle said as he pitched his voice a little higher and mimicked her dramatic presentation. "I'm sorry Mother, but you really are a bit predictable. Although, you do get mad props for adding to your character list this year. I'm sure we're all very impressed." He raised his eyebrows for confirmation from the other two ladies who promptly nodded their heads even though he knew that Kate had no previous knowledge of Martha's history of creating the same gingerbread characters year after year.

"Alright, who wants to go next?"

Alexis stepped forward and unveiled her tray of characters.

Alexis had made a few more cookies than Martha had. Her tray, she revealed, also had a collection of characters from her childhood and nearly adult life. First she'd done one of her early childhood favorites: Madeline, the little girl with a lot of spirit. Next she'd pulled up a rectangular cookie that was mostly done in red frosting. It had represented all four of the main characters in Gertrude Chandler Warner's: The Boxcar Children. It sounded like a series that Castle had probably pushed because, loosely described, it was about a family of ambitious children who solved mysteries. After that she'd presented Josephine "Jo" March from Little Women, Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Frog from Frog and Toad, Joan of Arc from Mark Twain's comparatively obscure work: a fake autobiography called Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. She'd pulled out a classic in her representation of Shakespeare's Ophelia, and something lesser known in Elwin Ransom from C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy series which was comprised of Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandera, and That Hideous Strength. She'd rounded her collection up with Beverly Cleary's Ramona and the adventure-er Tintin.

Kate was quite impressed. The young lady was quite well read, and had an artistic flair as well. It made her wonder if her own choices were as well picked and thought out as she'd hoped. Castle glanced at her, his eyes asking her if she wanted to go next. A slight turn of the head let him know that she wasn't yet ready to unveil the vulnerability that was in her picks. This was their tradition. They should be the first ones to present.

Castle proudly pulled the wax paper that had been hiding his creations off with a flourish.

AN: I will update by Tuesday at the latest. I want to be able to expound upon Castle's and Kate's picks, but I really felt like I needed to post. Sorry I've left y'all hanging.

Please review. I could really use a pick-me-up.