On Christmas morning, Beckett awoke to find a little present on her chest. She'd fallen asleep on her back after giving RJ his four am feeding, and blinking her eyes open saw he'd somehow gotten onto her chest where he was clutching at her pyjamas.

'Hi there, chicken-butt, how'd you get in here?'

'A little help from my friends,' Castle replied, filming it with the camera he'd gotten just for documenting Beckett's

'Do you know what today is RJ?' Beckett held her baby tight so she could sit up with him; the movement had RJ's little nails digging into her skin through the cloth of her pjs. 'It's Christmas morning, baby, why don't we go and see if Santa stopped by last night?'

'I don't know if he made it here, but he certainly had some help from a busy little secret-keeping elf.'

'No, Richard, not today. It's Christmas, let it go for twenty-four hours.'

Castle sighed but nodded his agreement. 'Okay. Now, do you want some decaf coffee or juice?'

'Coffee, if it's made. What?' she asked at his little laugh.

'Like I said, someone's been a busy little elf.'

'Oh, dear RJ, what's that sister of yours up to? Let's go find out.'

Castle opened the door for Beckett and chuckled when she sniffed the air like a bloodhound scenting the rabbit's trail. They headed downstairs to find the entire apartment in the soft morning glow and the big natural Christmas tree Alexis had chopped down with Meredeth, Esposito and Tessi in the forest twinkled with tiny lights that glittered in the flames of the fire in the hearth. There was a fresh pot of coffee and tea made, along with fresh fruit, cheese, croissants and brioche, and preserves Alexis had purchased specially for Christmas at a tea shoppe in London.

By the tree already and looking like she was ten years old was Alexis in satin blue pjs, her hair in braids as she examined the pile of loot under the tree. When she heard them on the stairs, her face split into a grin. 'Morning, Merry Christmas! Oh can I hold him?'

'Sure.'

'Yea, come here my little sweetheart,' she crooned, taking her baby brother and cradling him in her lap, showing him all the boxes. 'A lot of these are for a certain someone with the initials RJ, but I think we might need Mommy's help for opening them, won't we? Or Daddy's provided he's not filling his face.'

'Whuda puddit oufa?' Castle mumbled around a mouthful of croissant and apricot preserves.

'Look, RJ, that's what you'll turn into in forty years time. Thank goodness for Mom's genes, huh?'

'I heard that, and just remember who controls the TiVo password, missy.'

'I do.'

'Oh yeah,' he wrinkled his nose as he brought over a plate of snacks along with the camera and watched as Alexis distributed the stockings for them all while she held RJ against her chest; the baby boy clutched and flexed his fingers against her clothes while Beckett watched her kids with pride. Not wanting to lose the family moment, since none of them had really had this experience growing up, Castle flipped on the video camera to capture it. 'It is Christmas morning, it's RJ's first Christmas and here he is with big sister Lexie, wave to the people, my little dumplings.'

'Can you say hi, RJ? Wave hello.' Alexis picked up RJ's little arm, waved it at the camera. 'Say, hi Daddy! Merry Christmas!'

'And my beautiful wife,' Castle added, swinging the video camera over to Beckett, who did the time honoured female reaction of holding up a hand and turning away.

'Richard, come on, I look a mess, I haven't brushed my teeth, I'm in my sleepies and I'm barely three weeks post-partum with the belly leftovers still hanging out.'

'You've never been prettier.' It was the truth, at least for Castle, as he zoomed in on the happiness radiating from her face while she watched Alexis forgo opening her own presents in favour of 'helping' RJ open his. It wasn't often she looked that way but when she did, especially now that they had RJ in their lives, she looked like the living embodiment of pure joy.

He set the camera on the sideboard so it could record them all as they ripped into their stockings. RJ's was full of things like baby Q-tips, travel cases for wipes, little socks and mittens while the other more grown-up members of the Castle household found things like chocolate, tea, pencils and pens they liked, new magazines, and inexplicably to Beckett's utter delight, a stack of multi-coloured Post-It notes. They took a break to have some snacks and so Beckett could feed RJ once more and burp him; he was down for the count by the time they were going to open the under-the-tree presents so they decided that they would all take turns open the ones addressed to the newborn.

'Oh, Lex, this is beautiful, baby,' Castle breathed when he pulled out the gorgeous Burberry scarf from the box. 'Had some fun at Harrods, did we?'

'What can I say, it's a weakness. Mom, you next.'

Beckett opened her gift and grinned when she found a pair of Danier leather gloves with a matching wallet. 'This is beautiful, they'll come in handy taking RJ to the park.'

'I also got a bottle of the protective spray for them, but I figured putting that in your sock would be a giveaway.'

'Okay, you next, elf.' Castle rooted around and found a small box with curling ribbon on it that had him furrowing his brow. 'Secret Santa?' he read off the label.

Alexis blushed as red as the paper strewn amongst them. 'Oh that's from...a friend, Dad, I'd rather open that one privately.'

'Your call, honey.' It grated on him that Alexis was openly keeping a secret from him and Beckett and he knew it was making Beckett worry too, though she was far less vocal about it, owing to some sort of female sisterhood thing. But he was a man of his word and had promised his wife he wouldn't pry so he passed her another one, a larger one. 'This one next.'

She wasted no time in tearing into it with aplomb and felt herself get a little choked up. It was her Princeton sweater, the one her father had promised her if and when she got into medical school in the States. Two days after her brother had been born, there had been a letter delivered to the apartment congratulating her on her acceptance into the international scholarship program and like the program she'd done in England, it started a year later, so that she would have time to get more clinical practice courses completed which would help boost her course load as a first-year med student. But that was beside the point at the moment; she leaned over and gave her father a squeezing hug, followed it up with a matching one for Beckett.

'This is great, thank you so much you guys.'

'Truth be told, I got it just before they discontinued this style back in June.' Castle gave her a proud grin. 'I always knew you'd make it. And it will look great on you as you clean up all this paper while I get started on our little roasted ham and its trimmings for dinner tonight.'

Later, when RJ was in bed, her parents were in their room doing their own canoodling under the mistletoe and everyone was full of toasted ham sandwiches, Alexis sat on her bed reading the card tucked inside the mystery gift - a box of Guylian chocolates shaped like seashells - over and over with a giddy little smile on her face.

"Nine out of ten people like chocolate. The tenth person always lies." - John Q. Tullius. Enjoy the holidays and I'll see you soon. S.

R&R&Enjoy