Hello! Sorry it's taken me so long to update but I've been swamped at school (Spring Registration was on Friday and I have been adding and dropping classes left and right!) but I'm back now! So, enjoy!

Chapter Six-January (really December 31st to New Year, but w.e)

Castle was taking an impromptu nap on the couch. It was two days before he and his mother would ring out the New Year on Broadway (like they did nearly every year) and he was exhausted from playing with the many gifts that Santa Claus had brought him. Martha was in the kitchen with his newest nanny, Claudia, learning how to make some sort of exotic dish for dinner, when the phone rang, making Castle jump out of his slumber, landing on his face on the floor next to him with a groan.

Martha, thinking that her usually energetic and mischievous son was still sleeping, rushed to answer it.

"Hello?" she whispered into the receiver. She was silent for a moment as the person on the other end spoke. "Oh?" Martha said. "Really? Well, that's marvelous! Well, ahem, not for her, of course-do tell her I wish her well, would you? Mhmm…yes, that's fine. Oh, wait…the 31st? I'm not sure if I…no, I do want this part, but…Yes, I understand that…Yes, I guess I'll do it. The show is at eight, you said? Makeup by five? Very well then. Thank you. Goodbye."

She hung up the phone and leaned against the counter. "Oh, phooey," she mumbled, looking at Claudia, who said nothing in return, waiting for the actress to naturally tell her what had her in low spirits. It took her only a couple of moments. "That was my director, for the new play I'm working on? My understudy is sick with the flu so now I have to go in on New Year's Eve…however will I tell Richard?"

"You just did," a small voice said from the doorway. Castle had gotten up when he heard his mother's voice in the kitchen. He didn't know Nanny Claudia was handling the cooking and was afraid that his mother might set fire to the stove again. But when he walked into the kitchen, he saw Claudia stirring a mess of pork, beans, and peppers in a pan and his mother was whispering into her phone-or trying to, anyway. He'd heard her entire half of the conversation and had connected the dots himself; his mother was not going to be there for their annual New Year's celebration. Her words had just confirmed what he already knew.

Martha's eyes widened at the sight of her son, with his still drowsy eyes and sleep-mussed hair. He looked upset but almost as if he saw this coming, even though she never missed a holiday or a birthday since he was born. She always made sure she was there when it counted, but she didn't deny that she had broken promises for her work, and often. Castle had gotten used to hanging out with his Nannies and sitters and spending nights and even days without his mother. But this would be their first holiday apart.

Martha frowned and moved to hug her son. He didn't pull away, nor did he embrace her in return. He was stiff, trying to convey his hurt about being left alone on New Year's Eve without in turn hurting his mother.

"I'm so sorry, Richard," Martha murmured in his son's ear, "but they were going to give my part to someone else if I didn't agree. But, I'll be there on New Year's day and we'll have a day out on the town to celebrate the New Year, huh? Just you and me; I'll leave my phone at home. Does that sound okay to you?"

Castle nodded and wrapped his arms around his mother, finally embracing her and she picked him up, not wanting to let go just yet. She carried him over to the stove, where Claudia was cooking. "Wanna try some spiced pork, Sweetie?" Claudia asked, spooning some and bringing it to his lips. Castle nodded and opened his mouth, allowing Claudia to feed him what was on the spoon. As soon as the pork touched his lips, Castle's eyes widened and he spit it out on Claudia.

"Oh my!" Claudia exclaimed.

"Richard!" Martha admonished.

Castle didn't hear either of them, though-the pain on his tongue was far too great. "Water!" He croaked, wriggling out of his mother's arms, "I NEED WATER!" He ran to the sink and turned on the faucet, sticking his mouth under it and turning on the cold spray, taking in as much as he could while the cold liquid ran down the front of his shirt.

"Richard Alexander Rodgers!" Martha exclaimed, but Castle ignored her. That is, until she pulled him out from under the spray and sat him down at the counter, drying him with a paper towel. Claudia set a glass of milk down in front of him.

"Here," she said, "drink this." Castle grabbed the glass and began chugging from it, sighing in relief as the burn went away. He put the glass back down and let out a large burp. Martha sighed and rubbed her temple with one hand.

"What ever am I going to do with you?" she wondered aloud.

Castle smiled up at her, cheekily. "Sell me to a circus?" he asked, sounding genuinely excited.

Martha laughed. "Richard, dear, look around yourself; we live in a circus!"

CASTLECASTLECASTLECASTLE

New Year's Eve came and Martha arranged for Richard to be watched by the Beckett's, who were hosting Kevin, Javier, and Lanie, as well as their parents in their own annual tradition. The adults all bought hats and noisemakers for the children and wine and champagne for themselves and the children were bought pizza and stayed in Kate's room where they could watch New Year's Rockin' Eve on the television, as well as see the ball drop from her window.

Kate had an array of board games for them to all play as they watched and they welcomed Castle immediately, settling him between herself and Javi, while they played Scrabble.

Kate and Castle, being the two best readers, dominated the game where Lanie and the boys used simpler words for lower scores. Soon, the three had dropped out and were now watching Kate and Castle, who were head to head, scores tied evenly, each with only three tiles left.

It was Kate's turn.

Her eyes scanned the board for the fifth time, searching for somewhere to place her last pieces and end the game, finally, but she was having no luck. Finally, she just took the T and H she had and added them to the word, 'MA' that Lanie had made on her last turn, to spell 'MATH', where the H also met with the A in Castle's 'AARVARK' (how he learned that word was a mystery to Kate).

"Okay, so that's nine points, plus five for spelling out 'HA' and there's a triple letter score under the H which means that it's 12 for each one, so that's really thirty points, altogether…" Kate smiled up at her friends, who were all looking at her, dumbfounded. "What? I like math." She turned to Castle. "Beat that!"

Castle smiled and added an M to the words 'ICE' and 'IT', making them 'MICE' and 'MIT'.

"Mitt has TWO T's in it; nice try." Kate said.

Castle grinned and held up his T, adding it to the end of 'MIT' and also over the O of Javi's 'OWL'.

MICE earned him 8 points. MITT earned him 12, because it was a double-word score. And TO earned him 2. He was now 8 points behind Kate, but he had a plan.

Kate's last letter was a Q and there were no open U's, but she knew that putting it next to an I counted as a word from playing with her father. She quickly found one and gained 11 points.

"Go ahead, Castle," she said, "let's see if you can get a higher score and win. You're only 19 points behind me." She grinned at him, challengingly.

Castle smiled back and nonchalantly placing his X between the E at the end of Kevin's 'SMILE' and Javier's 'AM' to make 'EXAM'. The worst part was that the X fell upon another double-word score, making the cumulative score for the word 26 points. Kate's jaw dropped and Castle grinned, cockily at her.

"I win," he stated, calmly.

Kate narrowed her eyes at him. "Best two out of three?" she asked.

Castle glanced at the clock; they still had two hours until the ball dropped. "You're on."

CASTLECASTLECASTLECASTLE

Kevin, Lanie, and Javi watched with bated breaths as their friends went head to head in their last Scrabble match, each of them having already won a game and now each on their last tiles. They were tied again and it was Castle's turn. He was looking frantically for a space to make the best of his 5 point K, but couldn't find anywhere to put it. The only place he could find was in front of 'IT' but that would make it only 7 points. Surely Kate would beat that. Then he saw it; YAKS.

His K would make the word 'KYAKS' which was perfect, and it was a triple-word score! He looked up at Kate with a cocky grin and saw her fidgeting and frowning at her last piece, obviously distressed. Castle immediately deflated; she must not have had a good piece. He felt guilty for some reason and found himself placing the K in front of 'IT', spelling 'KIT' for the 7 points.

Kate's brow rose and she bit her lip, her eyes scanning the board. Suddenly, she smiled and put the C in her hat in front of 'AT', spelling 'CAT' over a double-letter score, giving her 10 points. She jumped to her feet, cheering. "I win!" Lanie and Javi clapped, while Kevin dozed on the floor a few feet away; it was nearly midnight and he'd fallen asleep sometime during Kate and Castle's second game.

Castle shrugged. "You don't have to rub it in, ya know?" he said in mock anger.

Kate giggled. "Aw, come on, Castle! Don't be such a sore loser! It's only a game!"

"I know that, but do you know that?" Castle asked.

Kate laughed again. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." Castle just shook his head and turned to the TV, while Kate began to pack up the Scrabble board.

As she was picking up all the pieces she noticed the word YAKS and that it had a triple-word tile directly before it with nothing to keep it from being at least a thirty point word. She then looked over at Castle's last word. Why had he chosen to make such a small word when he could have made KYAKS for more than three times as many points, effectively beating Kate? She dismissed the notion that he might not have seen it at once; Castle's eyes never missed anything, especially not during an intense game of Scrabble.

So, then had he simply let her win? But why? She looked over at Castle, who was sitting in front of the television, watching Christina Aguilera perform in Times Square. It was five minutes to midnight.

Why would he do that? She wondered.

Before she could ask him herself, Jim Beckett opened the door with a tray of Sparkling Cider in champagne flutes for them.

"Here ya go, kids! Some cider to bring in the New Year!" He placed the tray on Kate's desk and Lanie and Javi immediately retrieved their own glasses, clinking them and giggling. Kate got her own glass and one for Castle.

"Thanks, Daddy!" she said, smiling sweetly up at him.

"No problem, Katie," Jim replied, kissing his daughter's forehead. "Three minutes left to midnight! Don't forget to come and give your old man a kiss when the New Year rings in, okay?"

Kate smiled. "Okay!" She hugged her dad and he patted her head, moving back out the door. Kate walked over to Castle and handed him a flute. "Here," she said, "it's sparkling cider. You have to wait until midnight to drink it, though."

Castle smiled in thanks. "Okay. Thanks."

Kate sat down next to him, quietly, looking around awkwardly. "You're not gonna watch it on TV, are you?"

"Watch what?" Castle asked.

"The ball drop! It's much better to look out the window; come on!" She grabbed hold of Castle's hand and pulled him to her window, where they could see snow starting to fall, softly over Manhattan. They could see Times Square from there, and the glowing New Year's Ball over all the buildings. They couldn't see anything else but they noticed when the ball started to move. They had only a minute left.

"I know you let me win," Kate said, suddenly, not looking at him.

Castle opened his mouth to deny it, but knew that she'd see right through the lie. "How?" he asked.

"You think I don't have eyes, Rick?" Kate said, grinning. She hadn't called him Rick since her birthday, but it just popped out now. "I saw YAKS and I know how easy it turns into KYAKS. I'm not stupid."

"I don't think you're stupid, I just…I didn't want to embarrass you in front of your friends. Also, I didn't think you had a good letter, so I thought I still might win." He was only half-lying; he didn't know exactly why he'd thrown the game, but he just knew that he did and he didn't regret it.

Kate smiled at him. "That's sweet," she said, "but I'm sure I would have found some way to crush you even if you had used KYAKS."

Castle snorted. "Right…whatever."

Kate nudged him with her shoulder and he nudged back. They could hear the final countdown from ten starting in the other room.

10…9…8…

"Thank you, Castle," Kate said, quietly, smiling at him.

Castle blushed at her sincere gratitude. "No problem," he replied.

7…6…5…4…

"Cheers," Kate said, lifting her glass. Castle lifted his and clinked them against each other, before taking a sip.

3…2…1…

Suddenly, Kate's lips were on his cheek, and just as suddenly, they were off and she was running off to find her parents, slapping Javi on the head as he attempted to draw on Kevin's face with a permanent marker.

Castle just stared after her, rubbing the part of his face that her lips had touched, smiling goofily.

"Happy New Year," he mumbled to himself, the smile not leaving his face as he took a sip of his cider.

Hope y'all liked this one! REVIEWS please!