Beta: digitaldesigner
Pairing: Castle/Beckett
Rating: PG
Summary: When Castle and Beckett have an argument over a case, will it affect their Christmas plans? Sequel to Dinner Plans.
Disclaimer: If it looks or sounds like something from Castle, I don't own it.
Spoilers: None
A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed Dinner Plans and encouraged me to write a sequel. I hope you enjoy this one as well. Merry Christmas!
David Beckett rubbed his tired eyes as he prepared to grade the last class set of final exams. When the phone rang he decided that even if it was a telemarketer he was going to talk to them, just so he could get a tiny reprieve.
"Hello?"
"David, Darling, how are you this fine evening?" If he had a hard time placing the voice, the greeting definitely helped.
"Martha? To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"I wish I could say this was a social call, but really it is somewhat of an emergency. It seems we have two very stubborn children."
"Well, I don't know about Rick, but Katie's been stubborn all her life. What's the emergency?"
"Believe me, she has met her match in the pigheaded department. The emergency is that they've had some sort of a fight and it's a week before Christmas."
David still didn't understand where this was going. "And you think this will put them on the naughty list?" He thought back to his conversation with his daughter yesterday. She hadn't said what was bothering her, so he'd assumed it was something having to do with a case and she couldn't talk about it.
"No," Martha's voice pulled him from his thoughts. "I'm afraid that they won't make up in time for Christmas dinner. I haven't seen my son so happy as when your daughter told him the two of you were coming over for Thanksgiving since he brought Alexis home from the hospital."
He couldn't argue with that. Katie may have been able to hide it better, but she had been happy that night. "What can we do, though? I mean, short of locking them in a room and hoping they don't kill each other. We can't force them to make up."
"If they really didn't want to, I would say you're right, but clearly they're just waiting for the other to apologize first."
He had a feeling this was going to sound like a bad sitcom, but he had to ask. "So, what's the plan?"
"I thought you'd never ask..."
Sipping on the still steamy hot chocolate, Beckett curled more snugly into her warm blanket on her couch as she watched Jimmy Stewart running through the snow covered streets of his town, shouting and just generally being happy to be alive. When her phone rang she almost didn't answer it until she saw who it was.
"Hey, Dad. I thought you were doing nothing but grading papers today."
"I was, but then I realized it was a week before Christmas."
"I've already bought presents for pretty much everyone, Dad; you just need to shop for me and grandma."
"I know, sweetie, that wasn't my point. I just realized that I don't know what our plans are for this year."
Briefly, she thought about Castle's invitation to come over for Christmas dinner at his house, but her thoughts quickly turned to the venom of the past week and knew that even if she wanted to, the invitation was probably off the table. "I thought I might come up there this year. Get away from the city for awhile."
"Actually, I had a friend invite us to spend Christmas with her and her family," her dad said, after a brief pause. "I haven't accepted yet, because I thought you might have already made plans with Mr. Prose..."
Beckett barely held back a sigh, the teasing from her dad had been kicked up a notch since Thanksgiving. "No, Dad, no plans have been made."
"Great! It's settled then. Don't forget to pack warmly."
"Dad, who's -- " but he'd already hung up, " -- the friend?" she finished to the dial tone.
Beckett refused to look up when she saw Castle walk into the precinct. It was her last day here before her vacation started and she didn't particularly want to leave on the note of having a huge fight where, quite possibly, the writer didn't make it out alive.
Castle appeared to have other ideas, as he sat down in his usual chair besides her desk and stared at her until she broke.
"What?" she snapped, meeting his gaze for the first time.
"Why didn't you tell me you were going out of town tomorrow?"
She couldn't believe him. This past week, if he wasn't ignoring her then he was fighting with her, and he expected her to share personal information? "It was none of your business."
He went to say something before changing his mind and simply saying, "Fine."
"Fine," she returned, standing up and walking away.
Maybe the captain would let her leave early. There were no cases pending and she had more than enough vacation time.
David was just zipping up his suitcase when he heard the front door open.
"Dad!" Katie's voice called from the first floor.
"Up here, Katie," he answered, and heard her begin to climb the stairs in response. He turned when she approached the door. She looked distracted. "Hey, I thought you wouldn't be here until tomorrow morning."
"I decided to get an early start."
"Because you missed your old man so much?"
That coaxed a smile out of her. "Something like that."
He studied her for a moment before deciding not to ask. "I was just about to head to the store to get snacks for the road. You want to come with me and make sure I get something that could be mistaken for healthy?"
They had just passed the border between Connecticut and Massachusetts, and Beckett had long ago given into the fact that her dad wasn't going to tell where they were going. However, given that he had created a Christmas playlist (something she was a little surprised he could do) that she estimated to be about 6 hours long and, according to him, allowed for traffic time, her guess was Vermont.
I don't want a lot for Christmas
There's just one thing I need
Beckett quickly jabbed the next button on her father's iPod.
"Hey, no skipping songs!" her dad protested.
"Just that one, Dad. It's so overplayed."
She thought she'd sounded convincing, but judging by his look she'd missed the mark. "There are only about 10 Christmas songs, no matter how many variations you find; they're all overplayed."
"Yes, well, there's only one rendition of this, so it's more so than the others."
He paused, and she hoped that would be the end of it. "You ever going to tell me what happened, Katie?"
"Nothing happened."
He snorted a laugh, but kept his eyes on the road. "Right, that's why you're angry at Mariah Carey."
"I'm not angry at anyone."
He shrugged, seemingly willing to let it go for now. "So, sweetie, how's Will doing?"
Of all the questions she expected... "Will?"
"You remember him... Mr. Hardly Ever Smiles."
Beckett couldn't quite stop her laugh. Her dad had given odd nicknames to all her boyfriends, starting with her first date when she was 11, Bobby Williams. If memory served, his nickname had been Dead Meat; she supposed Will had gotten off easy.
"No, I remember him, I'm just surprised you're asking about him. I haven't seen Will since -- "
"It's about your mother."
"Since...? Don't leave me hanging here, Katie."
Beckett shook her head, trying to clear away the thought. "Since he got out of the hospital."
Her father nodded in understanding. She'd talked to him a lot over the summer, though she hadn't said a word about what was actually bothering her. Just because her old wounds had been split open didn't mean she was going to subject her father to the same thing.
"If not Will, then who is currently chasing after my daughter's heart?"
She sighed, already knowing how this conversation would go. "There isn't anyone, Dad. My job takes up a lot of my time."
"You're far too young to be this much of a workaholic, Katie."
"My job isn't something you can do half-way," she said angrily. Why couldn't anyone see that? "I don't have time..."
"Katie... Your captain is married, Ryan has a girlfriend with horrible taste in ties, and Esposito doesn't seem to be lacking in the dates department. You want to try again?"
"That's -- "
"You know I'm proud of you, right?" her father asked, cutting her off. "I always have been, but what you do... it amazes me. But, sweetie, there's got to be more or you'll burn out."
"That's what I've got you and Lanie for."
"Your father and a ME... I take it back, how do you stand such a fast paced social life?"
A thought suddenly struck her and she looked at her dad suspiciously. "Dad, this friend of yours... She doesn't have a son or nephew or something that you're trying to set me up with, right?"
"Would I do that to you?"
When David opened the door to the suite he had to stop himself from dropping the bags in his hands. As it was he stopped short, causing Kate to run into him.
She looked up to see what had distracted him and her jaw dropped.
The place was huge, with at least two stories, a kitchen and living area immediately visible on the first. The furniture actually looked like something people would consider buying, instead of being covered with whatever pattern there was enough of to both upholster the furniture and make curtains out of like most hotels. There was also a fireplace, with a fire already burning. The windows that covered almost an entire wall looked out on the snow covered mountains and trees.
"Dad," Kate found her voice first, "what the -- "
David wondered if this is what slipping into shock felt like. "Martha, what did you do?"
"Martha?" If he wasn't so preoccupied by the room that was going to clear out his retirement fund, he would have noticed the anger creep into Kate's voice. "Please tell me you don't mean -- "
"Mother, I think your friends are -- " Castle stopped short on the stairs when he caught sight of who was standing just inside the door.
David looked between Castle and Kate, who were engaged in a very intense stare down, before decided on directing his attention towards his daughter. "Surprise?" he said, trying to force cheer into his voice.
"Oh good, you two are here," Martha greeted them brightly, walking past her son who was still frozen. "How was the drive?"
"What is going on?" Kate demanded, ignoring the question.
Martha didn't heed the tone. "Well, Sweetheart, I haven't been skiing in ages and desperately wanted to go, but I couldn't bear it if that meant our Christmas plans got cancelled. So, voila," she gestured towards the suite, "here we are." Martha barely stopped walking long enough to hook her arm with David's, dragging him back towards the stairs, chatting with him all the way, as if nothing was out of the ordinary. "Darling, you simply must join me in the hot tub upstairs. You haven't lived until you've seen me in a bathing suit. You kids can find something to entertain yourselves, right?" She didn't wait for an answer.
Beckett gathered up the luggage she'd let drop when she'd entered the suite. She saw Castle approach her, but didn't say anything.
"Let me help you with those," he said, tugging on one of her bags.
She was tempted to snap at him, but his words held none of the animosity of late, so instead she just shook her head. "It's okay, I've got it."
"You know, you don't have to do everything on your own."
Well, that didn't take long. "I am perfectly capable of carrying my own bags." She pulled on the one he still had a hand on so that he lost his grip on it. She walked past him towards the stairs, but felt him follow close behind.
"No one said you weren't."
She stopped at the top of the stairs, taking in the long hallway with five doors, two on each side and one at the end.
"That one's yours," Castle said, pointing to the furthest away on the right side.
"Thank you," she acknowledged grudgingly, and continued on.
"No problem."
Opening the door with her foot, she dumped her luggage on the queen sized bed in the middle of the room. She turned around to see Castle leaning against the doorframe.
"I got here in one piece, you can go hit on snow bunnies or whatever it was you were doing before I got here."
"Can we talk now?"
After a five and a half hour drive, Beckett just didn't have the energy for this. "Castle, we're stuck here for five days with each other, can't we just -- "
"Ignore it? Yeah, in case you haven't noticed, Detective, that hasn't been working."
"What's there to talk about? You interfered with an investigation, you blew my cover, and a killer almost went free." She kept her tone level, but ice clung to each syllable.
He stood straighter, and walked towards her, eyes snapping. "How about we talk about you putting yourself in unnecessary danger? Putting yourself in a situation that was daring a killer to come after you. How about we talk about you trying to get yourself killed?"
"It's my job!"
"It's not your job to die!"
They were both breathing raggedly, and had somehow ended up inches away from each other. Vaguely she wondered why he always made her forget about the concept of personal space.
"Katie?" Beckett jumped away from Castle, looking in the direction of her dad's voice. Her dad wore an expression somewhere between suspicion and concern. "Is everything okay?"
Clearing her throat, Beckett glanced quickly at Castle before returning her attention to her dad. "Yeah, no problem. Can I get the car keys? I think I left some stuff down there."
Grabbing the keys, she retreated from the room, hoping the weight that had settled in the pit of her stomach would stay behind.
"So..." David started, looking at the younger man in front of him, "that probably could have gone better."
"That was better," Castle admitted sitting down on the bed.
"Kate is a lot like her mother," David said as casually as possible. Johanna's memory no longer crippled him, but he still had to struggle through the phantom limb feeling whenever he thought of her.
Castle looked like he didn't quite know what to say to that, but asked, "How so?"
"In a lot of ways. She's got Johanna's eyes, her work ethic, her compassion. The one feature I wish she hadn't inherited, however, is that she always thinks she needs to be the strongest person in the room." He paused trying to judge the other man's reaction, but the writer remained silent. "Before Johanna left her practice to teach, she would get these really tough cases. She'd come home and I would know one had gotten to her, but she would never talk about it. We would get into a lot of arguments about that. I couldn't understand why she wouldn't let me help her."
"What'd you do?"
"I stopped asking about the cases."
Castle looked incredulous. "You just gave up?"
"Did I say that? No. I stopped asking her about the cases themselves, that wasn't what she needed." Staring unseeingly, David concentrated on the image of Johanna his mind brought forth. "One day she came home with the most haunted look in her eyes, and I started to ask. She must of known I was going to because I saw her tense even further. So, instead I walked to her and pulled her into my arms, holding her as tightly as I could. I think we stood there for twenty minutes, but it was the first time in a long time that I could remember her crying. It was the most vulnerable she'd let me see her up to that point. That incident proved to me that she didn't need me to try and solve the problem for her, she just needed to know that I was there."
There was a brief stretch of silence, before Castle asked, "Okay, but what does that have to do with me?"
Sighing, David shook his head. "You know, Katie told me you were smart, but I'm really not seeing it."
"So, have you heard from Alexis?" Beckett asked, trying to find a safe topic as the four of them sat down to dinner.
If Castle was surprised she'd been the first to break the silence between them, he didn't show it. "Practically every hour, on the hour. She texts to let me know she's still in the country and asks when she can come home."
"I still can't believe you let her go," Martha grumbled, taking a sip of her wine.
"Mother, Meredith barely sees Alexis throughout the year." Martha scoffed, making it plain who she blamed for that. "When she get's back we'll have a family celebration that the Hallmark channel will covet."
"I don't think it's unreasonable to want to see one's only grandchild at Christmas," Martha defended before turning to David. "Don't you agree?"
"I'm still waiting for a grandchild that I can be mad about not seeing," David glanced significantly at Beckett and she did her best to suppress the blush that wanted to creep across her features.
"Dad," her voice held a warning that she was certain he would ignore.
"Yes, dear?"
She made sure not to glance at anyone but her father. "I'm not even dating anyone right now; maybe you could cut me a little slack on the delay in procreation?"
Martha patted David's hand supportively. "It's okay; we can share Alexis."
"Mother, I had no idea you were starting a rent-a-grandchild business."
Beckett hid a smile at his comment into her cup as she took a sip of water. Castle saw it however, and sent her a conspiratorial grin. Neither of them noticed the wink Martha sent in David's direction.
"Silver bells, silver bells
It's Christmas time in the city
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring
Soon it will be Christmas day"
"I didn't know you could sing."
Beckett's head snapped up from the book she'd been reading while curled up on the couch. She hadn't even realized she'd been softly singing along with the music playing in the background.
"There's a lot of things you don't know about me, Castle."
"One of those things being why you're down here in the middle of the night. You know Santa doesn't come until everyone is snug in their beds, right?"
Beckett pulled her knees up to give him space to sit down, cradling her worn copy of a Christmas Carol in an unconsciously protective gesture. "Just an old tradition." He didn't say anything. She hated when he asked questions without actually asking them. For some reason it was harder to brush him off. "When I was little I would sneak to the living room to watch the tree and wait for Santa. I would read a Christmas Carol and drink the hot chocolate that my parents just happened to leave there. I don't think I figured out that they knew what I was doing until I was 9. I never made it that late, and would fall asleep on the couch and wake up in my bed."
Castle looked at her contemplatively for a moment. "You were reading Dickens by yourself when you were in elementary school?"
She shrugged. "For a few years there I had a picture book version, but yeah I eventually upgraded to the real thing."
He picked up her mug of hot chocolate and sipped it, mildly surprised when she didn't protest. Handing it back to her, he asked, "Why do you still wait up?"
"Maybe I just don't like the idea of an old guy breaking and entering every year."
"The way you embrace your inner-child is just astounding."
"I think you have enough childish behavior for both of us."
"No doubt."
They sat in companionable silence for a little while.
"I didn't follow you into that club because I thought you couldn't take care of yourself," Castle said, finally broaching the subject they'd been avoiding since their fight.
Her spine went rigid in response, but she forced herself to relax. "I know."
"I hated the idea of you using yourself as bait."
"I know that, too." Before she could talk herself out of it, she leaned forward and laid her hand over his. "But, Castle, it was the best plan we had, and I had back-up. You need to trust me to know which risks to take." She could see the conflict in his eyes that was buried to the casual observer, so she pushed on. "You think it doesn't scare me when you do something reckless? When you go chasing after an armed suspect, or sit down to taunt mobsters?"
"Careful, Detective, I might start to think you care about me."
On instinct, she began to pull her hand away from him, but he caught her wrist. When he was sure she wasn't pulling away further, he loosened his grip, lightly rubbing his thumb back and forth. He felt her pulse jump under his digit. Simultaneously, he pulled her closer and leaned forward himself, but he stopped short of brushing his lips against here, needing it to be her choice. Beckett drew a shaky breath, and closed the distance between them.
The first touch was so tentative that they might not have noticed the contact if not for the electricity that surged through both of them. Their lips met again, more sure this time.
A creak on the staircase had both of them springing apart, like caught teenagers.
"Don't mind me, kids," Martha said good naturedly, reaching the bottom of the stairs, a twinkle as bright as the lights on the tree visible in her eyes. "I just came down to get something to drink."
They watched as she disappeared just as quickly as she had appeared. Castle shook his head ruefully, chuckling softly. He was more relieved than he cared to admit that Beckett looked amused and not embarrassed.
Pulling her right hand to his lips, he placed a kiss there and saw something flicker in her gaze. He tilted his head slightly and raised an eyebrow. "How important is it to your tradition that you be asleep before you get carried off to bed?"
She considered him for a moment. "Not that impor- Castle!" Before she'd even finished her sentence he'd swept her up in a move that was far too practiced for her comfort. "Put me down."
"I will, eventually. Now stop squirming or I'll drop you."
"I'm going to kick your ass."
"Promises, promises."
She rolled her eyes, but wasn't completely successful in squashing her smile. When they reached the top of the stairs she took him by surprise by leaning up and softly touching her lips to his cheek.
"Merry Christmas, Castle."
"Merry Christmas, Beckett."
The End
