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Christmas was the best part of the year. The best time if your name was Richard Castle, anyway. Every year just after Halloween, the scheming began, because Castle was determined to get the best present possible for everyone on his list.
It had started after Alexis found out the truth about Santa. Castle had wanted to make sure that she still had a perfect Christmas, and teaming up with her to pick out the perfect gifts was one of his favorite remaining father-daughter traditions.
This year they had really out done themselves however. Alexis suggested he should get something to commemorate his time working with the force, And he had spent an afternoon photoshopping Beckett, Ryan, Esposito and his face together inside a heart on a t-shirt.
The crowning moment of this project had been the surprise of coming into the station to find Captain Montgomery, Ryan and Esposito all wearing them and Beckett looking murderous. Not to be petty, but putting that exasperated look on Beckett's face was one of Castle's absolute favorite pastimes.
He just liked pulling her pigtails. People were easy, people normally acted in ways Castle could understand. Not Beckett though. She was different. It was harder to predict how she would react, her brilliance and her strength fascinated him. She was certainly the perfect model for a sexy and competent lady cop novel.
So the big question was what to get her for christmas. Books? Too impersonal. Something he would have appreciated, like a nice bottle of wine, just wasn't quite her style. The weekend at the spa he was getting his mother didn't seem inventive enough.
If Castle truly had his own way, he'd love to spoil her. Buying presents was just something he enjoyed. But he had means and good taste and sometimes it was hard for him to reign himself in. Presents were exciting. Christmas was exciting. Making Beckett make faces at him was exciting.
And then she'd gone and ruined all his brilliant schemes.
"It's not that I don't appreciate the gesture, I would just appreciate something a little more personal from someone I'm dating." Beckett said to Ryan, who was nodding sympathetically. Castle sauntered up and sat on the edge of her desk, presenting her with a coffee cup and making a face of mock concern.
"Did what's-his-name screw up?" Castle said, slurping his own coffee.
"What's-his-name got me a perfectly lovely Christmas present." Beckett replied.
"Let me guess, dinner and tickets to the theatre?" Castle asked.
"Um, yes actually." Beckett said, looking equal parts surprised and annoyed at his usual ability to guess things.
"Pretty standard so early in the relationship." Ryan offered but Beckett shook her head.
"It just feels like he is throwing money at me. I'd rather have something more personal. Something that would be meaningful, or that I could remember our time together by." Beckett explained.
"It is a tad impersonal." Castle remarked lightly, while he panicked slightly inside. Beckett wanted something really personal? Like what on earth did that mean? What should he get her?
"What kind of personal gift did you have in mind?" Castle asked, trying to sound coy.
"I don't know, I just want it to actually mean something. Maybe something somebody made? Something that took actual effort." Beckett said, then Esposito was walked up with a breakthrough lead on their current case and it was a race to catch the guy before he realized they were on to him.
-
Castle spent a couple of days wondering almost constantly what he could make for Beckett before he caught her turning up her collar against the wind and felt like a cartoon bulb lit up above his head.
He was totally going to knit her a scarf.
The first step to this plan was of course to learn how to knit. He read guides online and watched about a million youtube videos and went to a yarn store and let a helpful twenty-something in a rainbow knitted beanie lead him around the store explaining why the size of needles was important and which types of yarn were good for what kind of project.
He left the store with his head spinning, but a bag full of soft wool-and-something blend yarn, needles that had been described as "thick enough he wouldn't still be knitting next June" and a book that was promised to explain the process of scarf making and basic patterns to any beginner.
By the end of the night he had taken to knitting like a fish to water. He kept dropping stitches and picking them up so the scarf was absurdly lumpy, but he always went back and undid the rows when he realized it. Which of course meant by the end of the night he had about six rows completed, but he was still giddy with his own success.
The next two weeks, the only remaining weeks before Christmas in fact, were like a waking nightmare in which Castle just tried to knit frantically anytime he was at home. He would wake up from his few hours of sleep he scheduled as a knitting break with his fingers moving around ghostly needles and stitches.
Eventually he progressed to the point where a plastic bag hung from his arm, with a couple feet of thick red scarf coiled inside it, so he could knit away without worrying about it getting dirty or in his way.
His mother and Alexis thought the whole thing was adorable, something he found extremely encouraging. They would tease him about the amount of work he was putting into it, but he figured it didn't get more embarrassing than modeling a title character in a book after her.
Finally the magic day arrived. The day when Castle cast off. The scarf was, in his eyes, completely perfect. Fluffy and soft and a rich red color and long enough to wrap around your neck several times. He had made perfect little tail tassels. He wrapped the scarf in shiny snowman paper and headed into the station.
Sometimes Castle wondered what other people's lives must be like. Did they get nervous? Or doubt their own epic genius? 'Cause these weren't really problems that he had.
He practically danced up to Beckett's desk, where she was looking particularly dashing in a black knit sweater with her hair loose. Castle loved it when she wore her hair down. He dropped excitedly down into his usual seat next to her desk.
"What's up Castle, you look like a puppy that wants to be let outside." Beckett said, but she was smiling, and her words lacked bite.
"I have your Christmas present!" He said, handing it to her with a grin.
"No offense Castle but the last thing I need is more stuff-" Beckett began, then halted when she pulled the scarf from inside the wrappings. "You bought me a scarf?" she asked, confused.
When Castle looked hurt and shook his head she tried again.
"You... made me a scarf?"
"I learned to knit and everything!" Castle exclaimed. Beckett looked both touched and exasperated. Totally double rainbow.
"That's actually pretty sweet Castle." Beckett said with a smile.
"I know right!" Castle said excitedly.
Beckett wrapped the scarf around her neck just as Captain Montgomery stuck his head out of his office and called over to them.“Beckett, they’ve got a fresh one down in the park. Said it was your kind of case.”
“Thank you sir.” Beckett called back and then stood up, offering her arm to Castle. “Shall we?”
Castle grinned widely at her and linked their arms.
“Thanks Castle.”
“Merry Christmas Beckett.”