Title: I Take My Chances

WC: ~4500

Rating: T

Summary: "Caution doesn't have a prayer in that moment. There's only hope, and it's native to him anyway. Faith and optimism when it comes to the few in his life he holds dear. And he does . . . she is . . ."

A/N: This begins during The Double Down (2 x 02) and skims over parts of seasons 2-6, then picks up ( Read more... )

Title: Where Do I Begin?

WC: ~4400

Summary: "Kate Beckett has made an honest man of him. She's made him a liar."

A/N: If you're not familiar with this series, I began it a cuople of years ago on the heels of a story I wrote just after Secret Santa aired. The conceit is that Castle has accumulated gifts he never gave to Beckett over the years. ( Read more... )

Title: Material Witness-River

WC: ~2300, this chapter, 4700 Total

Rating: T

Summary: She shakes her head, ignoring him mostly. Caught up, because she loves this, too. The unexpected rhythm to this. The way he’s still doling out these things more than a year on. The way he knows she loves presents, though she’d never say it in a million years.

( Read more... )

Title: Material Witness-River

WC: ~2400, this chapter

Rating: T

Summary: “He doesn’t know why he’s sitting on the floor with his back against the bed and the ancient past scattered around him. Nostalgia, he supposes. The thought tugs his eyelids closed and he thinks of her wide smile. He things of warm red wool, snug under her chin, lending hardly ( Read more... )

Title: A Case of You

WC: ~2100

Rating: T

Summary: "It's another gift. Stories she's letting herself tell for the first time, and he's grateful she wants to tell him. He's grateful that after too much time and all their wrong turns, she gives her words willingly."

A/N: This is a bit confusing, and I apologize. It's both the second part of Chapter 13, "A ( Read more... )

Title: Ferret Calm, Ferret Bright, Ch. 3

WC: ~1600 this chapter, 4000 total

Rating: T

Summary: "Kevin and Jenny's place is wall-to-wall cheer and slightly tipsy people. Castle tries to see it for what it is: A neat, welcoming space all dressed up for the holidays. Their last hurrah with friends before the baby arrives. He tries to see that, but he's ( Read more... )

Title: Things That Scare Me

WC: ~5500

Rating: T

Summary: "It's the fact that she never had a Monkey Bunkey or a pink bunny, but she knows that they matter. She knows how they matter and he needs her for that."

Episode: Little Girl Lost (1 x 09).

A/N: Nothing much to say about this. A long-ago comment by BerkieLynn's inspired this series, and I figured I ( Read more... )

Title: A Taste of Honey

WC: ~6600

Rating: T

Summary: "She forgets herself every once in a while, and that feels like a miracle. It's taken weeks for even that much, and he's hungry for it already. He really, really likes when she forgets herself and gives him something. A gesture or a name or the face she makes at the thought of black coffee."

Episodes ( Read more... )

Title: Perpetual

WC: ~5400

Rating: T

Summary: "He's not the one who should be trying to make this ok."

Episodes: Poof! You're dead (3 x12), Reality Star Struck (5 x 14), Watershed (5 x 24)

A/N: This one took a strange turn and ended up more or less entirely from Kate's perspective. I think this is Brain's way of tricking me into telling post-Watershed ( Read more... )

Title: Picture Book

WC: ~7200

Summary: "Because it's a great picture. Because he remembers that thank you every time he looks at it. Because he can hear her voice and feel her arm through his and the hills and valleys of her spine under his palm when they danced. Because he has a lot of pictures of her, but only one of them."

Spoilers: 1 x 07 (Home is ( Read more... )