See the Joy - Chapter 13
"May you never be too grown up to search the skies on Christmas Eve." —Anonymous
Thwap!
Kate winces, bracing herself for the resulting cry. When nothing comes, she lifts her shoulder in acceptance and goes back to reading the report Ryan and Esposito had sent over at the end of their shift.
Thwap!
Again, she waits. Again, all she hears is giggling and the slap of little feet on the hardwood as the kids scamper around the room. (God, she's so glad their downstairs neighbors are patient. Between Rick's antics and the children doing what probably sounds like marathon training constantly, they would have every right to complain daily, but they don't.)
Thwack!
"Mommy!"
"He hit me firs'!" Jake insists without missing a beat.
They still have a day until school officially gets out and they're already bouncing off the walls and bickering with one other. At this rate, the next week and a half is going to be fun.
"You both hit each other," Lily says before Kate can open her mouth, sounding annoyed with her brothers. "That's what playing lightsabers is about."
Kate presses her knuckles to her lips, smothering a laugh. Poor Lily, trying to reason with four-year-olds.
"Technically, Little Flower, I think it's about hitting the other lightsaber," she calls, changing a glance through the bookshelf to see the kids standing in the center of the living room, wrapping paper tubes held in front of them in a proper standoff. "Not each other."
Her daughter sighs. "It didn't hurt hi-"
Before she can finish, Reece giggles and taps his wrapping paper tube lightsaber against his sister's, then his brother's, setting off the battle once again.
"I got you, Wily! Gotcha Jakey!"
Kate snorts as they fall back into their game, all potential fouls forgotten for the time being.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but we usually wait until the paper has been taken off the roll to play lightsaber," Castle says, earning another snicker from her.
"You gonna be the one to tell them that? We'll have wrapping paper all over the living room if you do."
Her husband grins, stretching his legs. They've both been trying to get some last-minute work done before Eva wakes up from her nap and they tackle dinner, and it seems like he might be done with his already – before her and everything, which means she'd lost their bet. Damn.
Castle tilts his head. "Good point. We could try to start wrapping presents and see how far that takes us."
"And break up the final battle of Jedi vs Sith without anything to offer in return? Good luck, babe." Her lips lift. "But I will say I'm surprised you haven't joined them yet."
"Gina won't let me," he answers with a pout. "I have to wait for her to email me back with the OK before I can play."
Kate clucks her tongue mockingly. "Oh, you poor baby. Having to take a few extra minutes before playing wrapping paper lightsabers."
"You jest, Kate, but listen to how much fun they're having. We could be having fun like that, too."
Thwap!
"Mommy!" Jake this time.
She raises an eyebrow. "You were saying?"
Rick leans over, tapping the refresh button on his email. She watches his brow furrow before he taps the button again. And again.
"When did you send your chapters to Gina?" she asks, flipping the page on her report. Truthfully, she's skimming at this point, but that's better than not putting eyeballs on it at all.
"About…" He checks his watch, looking a little sheepish after a moment. "Three minutes ago."
Kate rolls her eyes. He's ridiculous. "Gina reads fast, Rick, but I'm quite certain she doesn't read that fast. Give her a little bit of time."
"But I want to go play," it comes out just shy of a whine and she shakes her head at him.
"That's what you get for procrastinating," she quips, making a show of turning the final page of Ryan and Esposito's report and closing the folder. "And now I am going to go retrieve the actually empty wrapping paper tubes I was stashing in the laundry room and see if I can get your padawans to trade before they wrinkle the paper on the ones they've got."
Her husband starts to protest her good fortune, but it's lost in a triumphant whoop as he refreshes his email again. "She signed off. That is that. I am free for the rest of the year. My next deadline is the end of the first week in January."
He jumps to his feet, clapping his hands together. "Let's go, Beckett. I'm ready for a duel."
They've just left the office – being careful not to get between Reece, Jake, and Lily's swinging wrapping paper tubes – when he stops, blinking.
"Wait, did you say stashing in the laundry room? You have a stash of wrapping paper tubes to turn into lightsabers?"
Kate grins over her shoulder at him.
"I have a few; there's not much paper on the roll these days, so I went through it pretty quickly the other day when I was wrapping. I thought we could color them, too. You know, blue, green. Maybe red if someone's feeling particularly dark side today. Options."
He scoots closer, dusting his mouth over her cheek and framing her hips with his hands. "Have I told you lately that you're perfect? A gigantic nerd, of course, and absolutely perfect."
She hums, taking one of his hands with hers and giving him a tug in the direction of the stairs, avoiding the little tornados they call their children.
"No, but I'll let you make it up to me by convincing Lily to let me have the purple saber."
Castle laughs, nuzzling her neck. "Whatever you want, Kate. Whatever you want."
Thump!
Thwack!
"Mooooommyyy."
Kate laughs. "You're fine, boys," she calls, checking over her shoulder just to be on the safe side.
Sure enough, even though they're on their butts, her boys are perfectly all right; sweaty and panting, but all right.
"Now why don't you three drop the wrapping paper, get some markers, and come sit at the table. I've got an art project for you. Then, we can have a real lightsaber fight."
Prompt: Wrapping Paper
Just wanted to make a little note that I've been allowed to count this story as part of the Castle Ficathon Winter 2023! Yay! Thank you for reading! I hope you liked this chapter.