Four Drabbles from "Castle"
Author's Note: All four of these drabbles are in the "Castle" fandom and were written for the Not-So-Bleak-Midwinter Event at day_by_drabble. Yes, I'm a bit late in posting them. Only the first one is AU; the rest are missing moments from various episodes. Fellow "Castle" fans, enjoy! :)
1.
Title: Confession
Prompt: Clearly I remember/ From the windows they were watching/ While we froze down below/ When the future's architecture/ By a carnival of idiots on show/ You'd better lie low/ If you love me, won't you let me know? "Violet Hill" by Coldplay
Characters & Pairings: Castle/Beckett
Genre: Romance
Rating & Warnings: PG, follows immediately from episode 4.14 "The Blue Butterfly". Now AU
Word Count: 270
Summary: Castle has a confession to make.
As soon as Becket and Castle left Joe and Vera's apartment, Castle decided he couldn't wait even one more second. "Kate?"
"Yes, Castle?" Kate smiled at him.
"I have a confession to make."
"You stole H.G. Wells' time machine from that steampunk club, discovered the elusive time ripple, traveled back to 1947 and actually were the one to kill the Scofields?"
Castle laughed. "No, but that would be very cool. The time traveling part, not the murder part, I mean." Why was this so difficult? He should have told her when they were alone in the basement of the Pennybaker. She'd caught his Freudian slip, and rather than admitting it, he'd covered it up like an idiot. That would have been a far more romantic location than the hallway of a random apartment building.
Kate was still smiling. "Just tell me, Rick."
Kate's use of his first name gave Castle courage. "In the basement of the Pennybaker, I did say your name. You were right. I was casting the two of us as Joe and Vera."
"I sort of figured that out. I am a detective."
Castle chuckled nervously. "Not one of my more poetic moments."
"Was there anything else?"
She was giving him an opening! "Yes. Kate, I want what Joe and Vera have."
"What's that?" Kate whispered.
"You. I want us to have a life together, four kids, seven grandkids, two great-grandkids, maybe more."
"Does Alexis count as one of the four children, or do you want four more children?"
Castle laughed. "Whatever you want. I love you, Kate, and I want us to be together."
"Always?"
"Always."
2.
Title: Like a Stone
Prompt: "In the Bleak Midwinter" by Christina Rosetti
Characters & Pairings: Kate/Josh, unrequited Rick/Kate, Martha/Chet, Ashley/Alexis
Rating & Warnings: PG-13
Word Count: 250
Summary: Rick has a disappointing evening.
"You can leave if you want to, Castle. I'm just going to finish up the paperwork, and I'll be going, too."
"Okay, if you're sure."
Kate looked up and smiled. "This won't take long. Go ahead."
"Goodnight, then."
"Goodnight."
Rick left Kate's desk, and entered the empty break room. He made himself a cappuccino, took out his cell phone and called home.
After a few rings Alexis answered. "Hi Sweetie," Rick began. "I thought I'd bring home dinner and we could watch a movie tonight?"
"That'd be great, Dad, but can I have a rain check? Ashley just got here, and we're going out, if that's okay? Gran's already out with Chet."
"Of course. You and Ashley have fun . . . but not too much fun!" Rick teased.
Alexis giggled. "Right, Dad."
Rick sighed. "Great," he muttered, "My mom and daughter both have more of a social life than I do." He returned to the bull pen, thinking he and Kate could have a friendly dinner together to celebrate finishing the case, but she was already gone. "She wasn't kidding about the paperwork not taking very long." Castle grabbed his coat which he had left on the chair by Kate's desk and headed home.
When he opened the door to the precinct, Castle saw that it had started snowing. The flakes glittered in the circles of light from the street lamps. The street lamps also illuminated two people kissing passionately-Kate and Josh.
Castle sighed and headed home alone.
3.
Title: Refrigerator Ponderings
Prompt: Not-So-Bleak Midwinter prompt #21 (the quote used in the drabble)
Characters & Pairings: Castle, Alexis, Martha
Genre: Gen
Rating & Warnings: PG, missing moment from episode 3.1
Word Count: 100 (woot! ;) )
Summary: Castle ponders one of the great mysteries of life.
As the cold of the refrigerator hit his face, and Alexis' warmth pressed into his side, Castle wondered. Why stare into the refrigerator? With his arm around his heartbroken daughter, he was the comforting "cool dad" although he'd prefer Alexis didn't date until age thirty. He wasn't hungry, and if he were, take-out menus trumped the refrigerator. As his favorite cartoonist said, "I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood." Maybe without cold weather, refrigerators were the best option.
"You are wasting electricity!" Martha scolded.
"I pay for it, I'll waste it!"
4.
Title: Waiting
Prompt: "Every mile is two in winter."
--Jacula Prudentum by George Herbert
Characters & Pairings: Kate Beckett
Rating & Warnings: PG
Word Count: 300
Summary: Why Kate waits.
When Kate finally arrived at the bookstore, the line was already around the block. Kate sighed. She had intended to arrive hours ago, but a book signing by her favorite author would not qualify as an excuse to leave work early. She'd been waiting for this book for months! Well, she guessed she could wait a little longer . . .
Kate rubbed her hands together briskly. Of course, she forgot her gloves today. Why couldn't the new book have come out in September? Now it was "Just in time to make a perfect Christmas gift!" as all the advertisements said. It was Kate's gift to herself. Her mom always started decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. Everything stayed up until Epiphany, then the Christmas things were put away, but all of the snowmen came out. Never any post-Christmas blues for Mom! She covered every flat surface in the house with cheerful snowmen.
Kate's dad put out all of the decorations, but it wasn't the same without Mom. She read Richard Castle's mysteries to keep her sanity. Others on the job thought she was crazy, solving murders all day and reading about murders at night, but they didn't understand. In the books, the cops were the good guys, and they brought the murderers, who were always the bad guys, to justice; There weren't bad cops or sympathetic murderers or justifiable homicide or unsolved cases. Not that Castle's characters were simplistic! Just that everything worked out in the end like it should. Kate wished real life was so straightforward. So she waited for books to come out, waited for time to read them, waited in line to see the man whose writing kept her going. It was far easier to wait for books than to wait to find Mom's murderer. So she waited.
1.
Title: Confession
Prompt: Clearly I remember/ From the windows they were watching/ While we froze down below/ When the future's architecture/ By a carnival of idiots on show/ You'd better lie low/ If you love me, won't you let me know? "Violet Hill" by Coldplay
Characters & Pairings: Castle/Beckett
Genre: Romance
Rating & Warnings: PG, follows immediately from episode 4.14 "The Blue Butterfly". Now AU
Word Count: 270
Summary: Castle has a confession to make.
As soon as Becket and Castle left Joe and Vera's apartment, Castle decided he couldn't wait even one more second. "Kate?"
"Yes, Castle?" Kate smiled at him.
"I have a confession to make."
"You stole H.G. Wells' time machine from that steampunk club, discovered the elusive time ripple, traveled back to 1947 and actually were the one to kill the Scofields?"
Castle laughed. "No, but that would be very cool. The time traveling part, not the murder part, I mean." Why was this so difficult? He should have told her when they were alone in the basement of the Pennybaker. She'd caught his Freudian slip, and rather than admitting it, he'd covered it up like an idiot. That would have been a far more romantic location than the hallway of a random apartment building.
Kate was still smiling. "Just tell me, Rick."
Kate's use of his first name gave Castle courage. "In the basement of the Pennybaker, I did say your name. You were right. I was casting the two of us as Joe and Vera."
"I sort of figured that out. I am a detective."
Castle chuckled nervously. "Not one of my more poetic moments."
"Was there anything else?"
She was giving him an opening! "Yes. Kate, I want what Joe and Vera have."
"What's that?" Kate whispered.
"You. I want us to have a life together, four kids, seven grandkids, two great-grandkids, maybe more."
"Does Alexis count as one of the four children, or do you want four more children?"
Castle laughed. "Whatever you want. I love you, Kate, and I want us to be together."
"Always?"
"Always."
2.
Title: Like a Stone
Prompt: "In the Bleak Midwinter" by Christina Rosetti
Characters & Pairings: Kate/Josh, unrequited Rick/Kate, Martha/Chet, Ashley/Alexis
Rating & Warnings: PG-13
Word Count: 250
Summary: Rick has a disappointing evening.
"You can leave if you want to, Castle. I'm just going to finish up the paperwork, and I'll be going, too."
"Okay, if you're sure."
Kate looked up and smiled. "This won't take long. Go ahead."
"Goodnight, then."
"Goodnight."
Rick left Kate's desk, and entered the empty break room. He made himself a cappuccino, took out his cell phone and called home.
After a few rings Alexis answered. "Hi Sweetie," Rick began. "I thought I'd bring home dinner and we could watch a movie tonight?"
"That'd be great, Dad, but can I have a rain check? Ashley just got here, and we're going out, if that's okay? Gran's already out with Chet."
"Of course. You and Ashley have fun . . . but not too much fun!" Rick teased.
Alexis giggled. "Right, Dad."
Rick sighed. "Great," he muttered, "My mom and daughter both have more of a social life than I do." He returned to the bull pen, thinking he and Kate could have a friendly dinner together to celebrate finishing the case, but she was already gone. "She wasn't kidding about the paperwork not taking very long." Castle grabbed his coat which he had left on the chair by Kate's desk and headed home.
When he opened the door to the precinct, Castle saw that it had started snowing. The flakes glittered in the circles of light from the street lamps. The street lamps also illuminated two people kissing passionately-Kate and Josh.
Castle sighed and headed home alone.
3.
Title: Refrigerator Ponderings
Prompt: Not-So-Bleak Midwinter prompt #21 (the quote used in the drabble)
Characters & Pairings: Castle, Alexis, Martha
Genre: Gen
Rating & Warnings: PG, missing moment from episode 3.1
Word Count: 100 (woot! ;) )
Summary: Castle ponders one of the great mysteries of life.
As the cold of the refrigerator hit his face, and Alexis' warmth pressed into his side, Castle wondered. Why stare into the refrigerator? With his arm around his heartbroken daughter, he was the comforting "cool dad" although he'd prefer Alexis didn't date until age thirty. He wasn't hungry, and if he were, take-out menus trumped the refrigerator. As his favorite cartoonist said, "I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood." Maybe without cold weather, refrigerators were the best option.
"You are wasting electricity!" Martha scolded.
"I pay for it, I'll waste it!"
4.
Title: Waiting
Prompt: "Every mile is two in winter."
--Jacula Prudentum by George Herbert
Characters & Pairings: Kate Beckett
Rating & Warnings: PG
Word Count: 300
Summary: Why Kate waits.
When Kate finally arrived at the bookstore, the line was already around the block. Kate sighed. She had intended to arrive hours ago, but a book signing by her favorite author would not qualify as an excuse to leave work early. She'd been waiting for this book for months! Well, she guessed she could wait a little longer . . .
Kate rubbed her hands together briskly. Of course, she forgot her gloves today. Why couldn't the new book have come out in September? Now it was "Just in time to make a perfect Christmas gift!" as all the advertisements said. It was Kate's gift to herself. Her mom always started decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. Everything stayed up until Epiphany, then the Christmas things were put away, but all of the snowmen came out. Never any post-Christmas blues for Mom! She covered every flat surface in the house with cheerful snowmen.
Kate's dad put out all of the decorations, but it wasn't the same without Mom. She read Richard Castle's mysteries to keep her sanity. Others on the job thought she was crazy, solving murders all day and reading about murders at night, but they didn't understand. In the books, the cops were the good guys, and they brought the murderers, who were always the bad guys, to justice; There weren't bad cops or sympathetic murderers or justifiable homicide or unsolved cases. Not that Castle's characters were simplistic! Just that everything worked out in the end like it should. Kate wished real life was so straightforward. So she waited for books to come out, waited for time to read them, waited in line to see the man whose writing kept her going. It was far easier to wait for books than to wait to find Mom's murderer. So she waited.