Thanksgiving, in their weird and loving extended family, was always a tricky animal, as it was the one holiday when they didn't make formal plans to get together. This year was no exception - Ryan and Honey-Milk were spending it with her family, Lanie and Dave had flown to California to visit Lanie's father since they'd already celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving in October with Dave's family, and Meredeth and Esposito were taking the train down to Florida to visit Terrance.

Not that it mattered much to Castle and Beckett anyways, as they were completely preoccupied with their own family: Alexis was returning to New York and when she left after New Years this time, they would be able to drive less than two hours to her new school. They'd already had her books and things shipped home and were currently being stored in Castle's office, but that was just until Alexis was home herself to sort out what she'd need to take with her and what would stay in her room at the loft.

But that was planning for another day, right now, he was just excited to see his girl, so much so that as he scurried around the loft while waiting for Beckett to finish dressing RJ to meet them his mother could only roll her eyes.

'Richard, relax, you're going to give yourself a hernia or a spasm or something.'

'Just remember, baste the turkey every forty-five minutes, and that doesn't mean adding white wine, Mother,' he said, patting himself all over. 'Keys, keys, where did I put my keys?'

'In the dish by the door where they always are after you come in from gallivanting around with the detectives.' Martha shook her head. Her son was such a scatterbrain when he was over-excited. 'Breathe, kiddo, it's not like your hyperventilating will make the plane get here any faster.'

'Exactly,' Beckett agreed as she helped RJ walk down the stairs. 'On top of which, Alexis will have her hands full with Shane crashing after being on the plane, she doesn't need to look after you too.'

'Sacky,' RJ added, trying to imitate his mother's words. He dutifully went over to his little wooden footstool by the apartment door, sat down and stuck out his foot. 'Boos, Mumum?'

'Yes, we'll get your boots on.' Beckett turned her wary eye to her husband. 'Why don't you go downstairs and get the car warmed up?'

'Yeah, yeah, good idea.'

Castle kissed his mother, then grabbed his keys as he headed out the door; because he was gone, he couldn't see Beckett or Martha shaking their head at him.

'Maybe I should slip a sedative into his latte,' Beckett mused as she helped RJ with his boots. 'What do you think?'

'No.' RJ shook his head. 'Daddy silly.'

'You're right, he's just being silly. Come on, better go make sure he doesn't get into any more trouble.'

The arrivals gate at an airport was, in Beckett's mind, one of the most hopeful places in the world. Rare was the time when you saw someone utterly unhappy and miserable at the arrivals gate; everyone was just happy to see their loved one returned from wherever it was they had gone. She tried to say as much to her husband but he was off in his own little world, so Beckett passed the time by reading to RJ and telling him all about airplanes.

'Less pane soon?' he asked, bouncing his beloved bunny up and down on his lap.

Beckett scanned the board, saw that Alexis and Shane's flight was marked as 'delayed' and she nodded. 'Yes, my little prince, Alexis will be here soon.'

'Wan' Less.'

'I know, RJ, you've been reminding me since Hallowe'en,' she said in a good-natured grouse under her breath as they continued to wait.

When an hour had passed and they'd still seen Alexis and Shane's flight marked as delayed while other flights came and went. Impatience turned to concern, which turned into worry as they waited even longer. When she saw another couple pointing to the same flight number and waiting with just as much worry, Beckett tugged on her husband's arm.

'What's going on? Why is their flight so late?'

'I don't know,' he murmured, lost in his mind and concocting all sorts of implausible scenarios that would cause a flight delay for so long. 'Maybe I should go and find someone, see if there's a delayed flights information booth.'

Castle turned to leave, but Beckett grabbed his arm, pointed to the opening doors. 'Wait, wait, there they are,' she said in a voice so relieved she was nearly weeping.

He turned back and sure enough, there was Alexis and Shane, dragging their suitcases with them and both looking like the devil himself had slapped them around a little bit. When Alexis spotted her family waiting in the sea of faces, she looped her arm through Shane's, steered him towards her parents; once she reached them, she let go of her suitcase and threw them both into a hammerlock.

'Oh, I am so glad to see you guys, were both are!' she cried as she began to weep exhausted tears.

'What the hell happened that took you so long?' Beckett looked from Alexis to Shane.

'We'll talk about it in the car. Right now I want some fresh air.'

Since both of them looked absolutely shipwrecked, Castle and Beckett gave them their breathing room as they walked out of the airport to the parking tower where the late November wind whipped some colour back into their cheeks. When they'd buckled RJ in and Shane and Alexis were also strapped into the spacious backseat of the Lincoln hybrid, Beckett turned around from the front seat. 'Feel like talking now?'

'It started last night,' Shane began, 'they'd gotten a bad storm of freezing rain last night and the salt wasn't working fast enough on the runways at Orly, and the plane we were supposed to be on was T-boned by another plane that couldn't slow down.

'Oh my god, was anyone hurt?' Castle asked.

'Only the the pilot of the other plane, not our plane, he's in the hospital but he's going to be fine. Anyways, they knew they had to find a plane so the only one that was free in the hangar was a hundred and fifty seats smaller than the one the airline originally chartered,' the pathologist explained, 'which means that they basically had to have a lottery to figure out who was getting on the plane and who wasn't.'

'It was like something out of Schindler's List or Hotel Rwanda,' Alexis added.

'And then, because it was a smaller plane and the weather was shitty getting out of Orly, we had to stop in Iceland to refuel for two hours,' Shane finished. 'And you all know I'm not a good flier to begin with so this is doing nothing to help my state of mind.'

'My poor guy,' Alexis crooned, resting her head on his shoulder, then kissed his cheek as she murmured in his ear, 'I'll kiss it better later.'

'You couldn't have called us to tell us before hand?' Beckett asked as they negotiated their way over the bridge back into Manhattan.

'No, we were on the other side of the security when it happened, no cellphones allowed and the only payphones were all the way at the opposite end of our gate.' Shane let out a shaky breath, held Alexis' hand tightly in his. 'We couldn't risk getting out of line and possibly losing our spot.'

'Well the important thing is, you're here safe and sound now,' Castle told them, smiling a relieved smile in the review mirror. 'And that young man beside Shane has been waiting for that moment since Hallowe'en.'

'Home.' RJ grinned, showing off even more adorable white teeth to his big sister and her man. 'Less home.'

R&R&Enjoy.