Just a few Christmas prompts from Tumblr.
Don't worry, I'm not leaving you all hanging with the last story! I just thought I should post these before Christmas is over!
I hope that all of you who celebrate are having a wonderful holiday period.
Mistletoe
(Set 5x09 - Secret Santa.)
The boys peered around the corner simultaneously trying to get close enough to see their targets clearly and stay out of sight themselves.
They had a clear view of the elevator, of the little surprise they had hung right in front of the doors, all they had to do was wait.
Half the bullpen was in on the bet - will they, won't they? - but given the advantage Ryan and Espo had (the knowledge of Castle and Beckett's actual secret relationship) they felt pretty confident that a friendly little 'Christmas kiss' was out of the question. The risk of outing themselves was too high. Beckett wouldn't risk giving Gates a reason to boot Castle from the precinct.
"- and I love the feeling, that sense of hope," they heard Castle say; a sign that their targets were approaching. And, sure enough, the pair stepped into view. "It's crazy, you know. On the shortest, darkest days of the year people of all faiths celebrate the light."
The boys looked at one another, rolled their eyes at their friend. He couldn't just say "I love Christmas". No, he had to make it poetic, make it beautiful. No wonder he had won Beckett over - they could see the smile on her face as she listened to him talk, absolutely enamoured. Honestly, how anybody was still in the dark about this relationship confused the boys to no end!
"Plus, who doesn't love presents?"
"There it is," Ryan whispered and Espo stifled a chuckle.
Castle glanced up, noticed the hanging ball of mistletoe directly above them. Kate's focus shifted almost immediately, searching for whatever had so quickly captured her partner's focus.
Espo looked across the bullpen, locked eyes with Karpowski and LT who stood by the breakroom door trying to look totally uninterested in whatever was about to happen. However, subtlety was not a skill Karpowski had honed and her intent focus had apparently drawn the attention of their captain.
Espo nudged his elbow into Ryan's ribs. "Gates alert," he whispered.
Ryan looked toward the captain's office, saw Gates standing at her door studying Karpowski. He watched as her gaze followed Karpowski's across the bullpen before landing on Castle and Beckett in front of the elevator.
He looked back over to Castle and Beckett, who had apparently entered the world's most intense staring competition. And... was that a smile on Beckett's face?
"Are they-?" Ryan stopped. Surely they weren't.
They all waited with bated breath, watched as their friends stood hesitating, wanting but not quite willing to take the risk. Beckett shifted her weight from one foot to the other, moving barely an inch closer, but it set the wheels in motion. Castle reached out for her - inevitably to pull her closer, to kiss her under the mistletoe - and Espo practically pushed Ryan out from their hiding place.
"Yo, Castle!" Espo called out, a desperate attempt to stop something he had never thought would actually happen.
But it was too late. Castle had so delicately cupped Beckett's face, pulled her closer and pressed a kiss to her cheek.
"Mr Castle," Gates' voice billowed across the bullpen. "What makes you think that that is appropriate behaviour for a precinct?" she demanded.
"Oh, I- th- just-" Castle stuttered and stumbled over his words, pointing to Beckett, to the mistletoe, to the various other decorations around the bullpen.
"'Tis the season?" Espo tried to defend his friend's behaviour without refocusing Gates' wrath onto himself.
"'Tis the season?," Gates repeated. "So I should just allow such tomfoolery?"
Espo looked around, all eyes on him. "Yes, Sir. I believe a certain amount of tomfoolery, as you call it, is good for morale. Especially at this time of year."
He waited, expected the scolding of a lifetime, but it never came. Gates simply smiled, like she knew something he didn't.
"In that case, I believe there is something you owe Detective Ryan."
Espo looked at Ryan, who seemed to be just as confused as he was. Karpowski walked toward them, her phone in hand, and began to play a recording from earlier in the day.
"Oh please," he heard his own voice echo through the speaker of Karpowski's phone. "You think a little bit of mistletoe is gonna make Beckett wanna kiss Castle?"
He groaned as he realised exactly where this was going.
"Sure, I'll take that bet. I'm in for 20. In fact, I'm so sure of this I'll make it 50. A hundred, even!"
"I didn't agree to a hundred bucks!" Ryan complained.
Karpowski laughed. "Oh, just you wait."
"You know what?" The recording continued. "If you win, we won't even take your money, that is how confident I am."
Ryan glared at Espo. "Dude!"
Esposito hung his head low. "It gets worse."
"If I'm wrong-" Esposito's laughter burst through the phone speaker. "I'll even kiss Ryan under the mistletoe."
"Nope," Ryan declared with a firm shake of his head.
"I was obviously joking!" Espo insisted. "And he only kissed her on the cheek!"
"A bet's a bet," Karpowski countered immediately.
"And it's good for morale, right?" Gates added with a smile.
Esposito looked over to Beckett and Castle who both looked entirely too pleased with themselves.
"You set me up," he concluded.
"Seems to me you set yourself up for this one," Beckett replied. "But maybe we can let you off the hook. Just this once."
"On one condition," Gates said. "No more nonsense bets on my time."
"Yes, Sir," they all agreed.
Once almost everyone had cleared out and only the skeleton staff pulling the holiday shift remained, Beckett made her way to Espo's desk and sat on the edge.
"You know that when Karpowski and LT came to me with that, I couldn't say no, right?" she asked as he filled out the last of his paperwork from their case. "They'd already gotten Gates involved."
"I get it," he assured her. "I shouldn't have run my mouth like that, anyway. That was just asking for trouble."
Beckett laughed; he wasn't wrong. After looking over her shoulder to make sure they were still practically alone, she continued.
"I appreciate that you stood up to Gates, tried to pull the focus from us."
Espo looked up from his paperwork and gave her his most sincere smile.
"I've got your back, Beckett. Whether it's on the street fighting criminals or in the precinct taking heat from Gates, I got you. And I know you got me, too."
"I do," she confirmed. "Thank you."
The Announcement
Christmas 2023
Rick flopped down on the couch beside his wife, leant his head back against the soft cushions and closed his eyes.
"I don't think I'm going to make it to bed tonight," he mumbled. "Don't think I could pull myself off this couch even if it were on fire."
Kate laughed - just one short huff of air through her nose, she was too exhausted for anything more than that.
"If I have some sort of brain malfunction and offer to host Christmas Dinner next year, would you please be kind enough to remind me of this moment?"
"Happily." Kate leant against Rick's side, rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, taking a moment to soak up the silence.
After a minute, she spoke again. "It was nice, though."
"Good to have Alexis home again," Rick added.
Kate hummed in agreement. "And Sam's family is wonderful."
Alexis had married her boyfriend of two years, Samuel Morrison, in April and moved across the state just a few months later. She was just a few hours away - and made an effort to call her brothers and sister every night before bed - but the distance had been a big change for all of them to adjust to. Having her and Sam home for a few days was better than any gift they could have asked for.
In order to make the most of the few days they had been given, Rick had offered to host a joint Christmas dinner. Rick, Kate, Lilly, Reece and Jake were joined by Martha in the earlier hours of the day, soon followed by Jim. Alexis and Sam arrived later in the afternoon, bringing Sam's family (his parents, his sister and her husband, and their two kids) with them. It was a beautiful (albeit exhausting) blending of families - the first since the wedding - and even though Rick felt like he could probably sleep for a week after the day's festivities, he didn't actually regret a single thing and he would do it all again in a heartbeat.
"She picked a good one," he said sincerely.
"Thank you, Sir."
Rick and Kate peeled their eyes open and turned to look over the back of the couch. Sam and Alexis stood at the bottom of the stairs, hand-in-hand with bright smiles on their faces.
"The boys are fast asleep," Alexis informed them. "Lilly is finishing one more chapter of the book Jim got her but she has promised to turn the light off and go to sleep as soon as she does."
"So I'll sneak back up in about ten minutes to see how many chapters she's actually read," Sam laughed.
"Reminds me of someone else at that age," Rick said pointedly, looking at his eldest daughter.
"Thank you for putting them to bed." Kate pulled herself to her feet and walked toward the kitchen. "Do either of you want a tea or coffee? There's plenty of cocoa left."
"No thanks," Alexis answered on behalf of them both. "We were going to head back to the hotel, actually. We just wanted to give you both your gift first."
She looked at Sam and nodded, signalling for him to retrieve the gift from where she had hidden it in the office.
Rick rose from the couch. "You didn't have to get us a gift."
"I know you had to sacrifice some of your decorations to make room for everyone today," she said as she moved closer to her father. "Notably the tree. Kate mentioned that you were going to get a smaller one, but couldn't find one you liked."
"I may have been unnecessarily picky," Rick confessed.
"We found one that we thought you might like," Sam said as he stepped out of the office and placed a small flocked tree in the centre of the living room.
The tree was 4ft tall, adorned with bright white twinkle lights, gold ribbons and transparent baubles. As Kate and Rick both moved closer to inspect their gift, they realised that each bauble had a photograph inside of it.
"How did you manage to sneak this in without us seeing?" Kate asked.
"Lilly was more than happy to provide a distraction for me," Alexis said with a smirk.
Kate smiled. "Of course she was."
Rick drifted around the tree, studying each image carefully. It seemed that they were all from Christmases passed: he and Kate in front of the tree on their first Christmas together; Alexis at the ice rink as a child; Lilly, Jake and Reece's first Christmas photos; even Sam's first Christmas with the family. Each new photograph tugged at his heart-strings, brought tears to his eyes. He missed his girl; but he was eternally grateful that she was with someone who nurtured her softer sides, her thoughtful, kind heart.
Kate gasped. He looked up and met her sparkling, tear-filled eyes over the top of the tree. The smile that peeked out from behind the cover of her hand was more than enough to tell him he needed to see whatever it was that had caught her so off-guard. He hurried around the tree to stand by his wife's side.
He didn't know how he had missed it before. Right in the very centre of the tree, in a bauble just like the others, was a tiny print out of a sonogram. The words Baby Morrison, June 2024 were printed along the bottom edge of the image.
He turned to face his daughter. Her husband stood behind her, his arms wrapped around her waist and hands rested on her belly.
Despite the flurry of thoughts swirling through Rick's mind, not a single one managed to form into words.
"I can't tell if you're happy or not," Alexis said through a nervous chuckle.
Rick nodded and rushed toward his daughter. She stepped out of her husband's embrace and into the welcoming arms of her father.
"Over the moon," he whispered into her hair as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and squeezed her tight. "Congratulations."
Christmas Decorations
(Set season 6)
Kate stared at the tangled rope of lights in her hands.
It was such a simple task, she hadn't thought twice before taking the lights from Rick's hands when he had asked for her help. But as she zoned out the Christmas-themed chaos around her and focused on the dozens of tiny bulbs in her hands... everything seemed to just hit her.
She had told Castle just last year that when she and her father finally took down the Christmas decorations after her mothers death, it was like some unspoken agreement that they were putting Christmas away forever. She had felt guilty enough last year after joining Castle and his family for dinner. But this? This felt like betrayal, like she was breaking that unspoken promise to her father.
She knew he would never begrudge her for moving on; that wasn't the issue. The issue was that she felt like she was moving on without him, that she was leaving him behind in that dark, cold and lonely cabin while she was immersed in the warmth and light of Castle's child-like wonderment.
That was what had her frozen, staring at the tangled rope of lights in her hands, unable to complete the oh-so-simple task of untangling them.
A knock on the front door yanked her abruptly from her internal spiral. She looked around, searching for Castle among the piles of boxes that contained Christmas decorations.
He popped out from behind the tree, a smile on his face.
"That'll be our special helper," he announced. "Do you mind letting him in?"
Beckett forced a smile, but was grateful for the distraction. "Sure."
She tossed the lights onto the couch, then made her way through the maze of boxes toward the front door. She pulled open the door, eyes narrowed in disbelief.
"Dad?"
Jim stood, just a little uncertain, with a plate of Johanna's famous sugar cookie bars in his hands.
"Hi, Katie," he greeted with a smile. He held the plate up slightly, displaying his efforts to his daughter. "I don't think I did them quite as good as your mother used to," he admitted quietly. "But I thought you might like something a little familiar for your new Christmas tradition."
Kate felt a hand at her lower back, then heard Castle's voice behind her.
"Thanks Jim, these look great." He reached around her and took the plate from her father. "I'll pop them over here."
As soon as her father's hands were free she wrapped her arms around him in a crushing hug. Jim wasn't fazed by her enthusiasm, though, and matched it by squeezing her back just as tight.
"I didn't know you were coming," she said softly as she finally let him go.
"Rick came to me a few days ago," Jim began to explain with a smile. "He told me all about his plan to create new family traditions that included you and that honoured your traditions, too. He wanted to make sure I understood that I am family, too. And that I am always welcome. And that he looked forward to spending time together over the holidays - but only when I was ready."
Kate smiled at her fiancé's thoughtfulness.
"Are you ready?" she asked Jim, knowing that diving back in to a Castle Family Christmas was less like diving into the deep end and more like being pushed in.
"I don't know," Jim admitted, looking around the loft. "All I know is: your mother loved this time of year. She can't be here to celebrate but I can... and I think you and I have both missed out on too much celebration."
"Me too," Kate whispered solemnly.
"So..." Jim tilted his head toward the mess of decorations. "What can I do to help?"
Kate closed the door behind them and led her father further into the loft.
"This is insanity," he commented as they weaved through the boxes.
Kate laughed and shook her head. "This isn't even half of it."
Sugar Cookies (a Christmas Decorations follow-up)
It had been 15 years, but it felt like just yesterday.
Home from school for the holidays, spending as much time as possible with her parents. Rebel-Becks would have been mortified to witness the scene - the three of them in the kitchen, her and her mother singing and dancing along to Christmas carols as her father recorded the performance on his new camcorder - but living-so-far-away-from-home-Becks had a new appreciation for her family, a new appreciation for the time they spent together.
They made the same recipe every year. As a kid she loved to help, but she stopped once she was older and 'too cool' for that. She knew that her mother was disappointed the first year, but she had never been made to feel bad about it. She was just glad that she had that final year together, that all three of them had made those memories.
And as she and her dad managed to steal a quiet moment together, she was glad that they both had that memory to hold on to, to reminisce together.
"Feliz Navidad," Jim quietly cheered as he held his sugar cookie bar up between them.
Kate smiled, tapped the corner of her bar to his as if cheering a toast.
"Merry Christmas, Dad."
They both took their first bites of the treat at the same time, sharing in the experience that she could only describe as coming home.
"Just like mum's," Kate praised.
Jim nodded. "Maybe next year we can make them together," he said, hopeful.
"I'd love that."
