Archive of Our Own ^beta

Disclaimer: Story is mine, characters are not they belong to abc.
Spoilers: Episode 3x12 Poof! You're Dead

It was unusual for Kate Beckett to be woken up by someone other than work. It was for this reason that it took her a moment to realize that the person on the phone was her father.

“Dad?”

“Yeah, sorry, did I wake you, honey?”

“Uh, yeah, um, what time is it?” she asked squinting at her alarm clock, sleep still in her eyes.

“A little past seven. I wanted to make sure I caught you before you went in to work.”

“Something wrong?”

“No, nothing like that. I was going through the attic and I found something of yours. Thought you might like it.”

“What is it?”

“Uh-uh, I want to see your reaction when I give it to you. Meet me at the diner for breakfast?”

“Umm, make it a quick cup of coffee, we have an open case at the moment and I really should get to work.”

When she met him at the diner he pulled the object from the bench seat beside him. He placed the item from her childhood on the tabletop and for a few moments Kate just stared at it in disbelief.

“Oh my gosh! My treasure box!” Beckett ran her fingers lovingly over the top of the box. It was an old shoebox she had covered with stickers and glitter and pasted on pictures. She used to keep all of her treasured pictures and trinkets in it when she was little. She had thought it had been lost years ago. A part of her really wanted to open it right then and there, the other part of was afraid to open it yet, afraid of the damage the years might have taken; it had been in the attic with the extreme temperatures and creepy critters after all. The waitress made the decision for her by bringing the coffee so Beckett had to move the box to make room for the cup.

“Thanks for bringing this to me, Dad,” she told him with a genuine smile.

“You’re welcome. So, how’s work going?”

“Okay, I guess. Nothing too strange lately.”

“How’s Castle?” her father asked with a mischievous smile.

“Castle…well, he’s Castle. What is that look for?”

“Kate, I’m your father. I know that look in your eyes. What’s more is that for once it’s for a good one. You keep denying there’s anything between you two but I think there is, and if there isn’t there should be. You two are good together.”

“Dad, it’s just…it’s-”

“Complicated, yeah, I know.”

“Can we talk about something else?”

“Sure, honey,” her father said then proceeded to make small-talk about little things of less importance. After about ten minutes when the coffee was gone they hugged and said good-bye. She thanked him again.

When Beckett got to the precinct Castle, Ryan and Esposito hadn’t gotten in yet. They had all had a late night of investigating. Sitting at her desk she took a deep breath and lifted the lid off of the shoebox. A collection of stickers in a handmade sticker book was on top. As she sifted through the contents there was also a few baseball cards, some magazine clippings of New Kids On The Block, The Bangles, Paula Abdul, Madonna and Donny Osmond. There were a few costume necklaces and a handful of friendship bracelets. At the bottom of the box she found a plastic “diamond” ring, the kind that if you looked at it the right way through one of the facets you could see a hidden picture or word. Beckett held the ring close to her eye to see the picture of a red rose. Memories of the day she had been given the ring came back to her.


 

“So what do you think we should get your grandfather for his birthday, Katie?” Johanna Beckett asked her young daughter. Katie Beckett shrugged her small shoulders, overwhelmed by everything in Drake’s Magic Shop. “You want to help mommy find something?” Katie nodded her head enthusiastically, her hair falling forward into her face. She pushed away the wayward curls then smiled up at her mother, showing a gap where her front tooth had fallen out a week prior. As they looked around the shop a pair of new patrons walked into the magic shop.

“I just want to find another good luck charm to take with me to my next audition. We can’t stay too long. Try not to touch everything,” a beautiful red-haired woman that carried herself with a certain air of importance said to her son. The boy had a look of nearly uncontained excitement to be in the shop. He looked to be thirteen, that age when toys were still cool and voices were still squeaky every now and again. In spite of his mother’s warning he started playing with random things on shelves and then with a kaleidoscope.

“Richard Alexander, what did I say about touching things?”

“Sorry, Mother,” the brown haired boy apologized looking momentarily abashed, his excitement returned quite rapidly, however, “but this stuff is so cool!”

His excitement was so extreme, even after getting in trouble, that it made Katie giggle. It was then that he looked over and saw her and he smiled at her. Katie twirled a lock of her hair and tried to not be distracted by him again so she could help her mom, but it wasn’t easy.

“What about a magic wand?” Johanna asked.

“No, grandfather gots one already.”

“He ‘has one already’,” Johanna corrected. “Okay, what about a top hat?”

“Mm,” Katie scrunched her little nose as she shook her head, “he has a good one he got last Christmas, remember, Mommy?”

“Oh, that’s right. Hmm…” Johanna went back to looking around the shop.

“What about a new cape, Mommy?” Katie said pointing to the clothing rack.

“Good idea,” Johanna said picking out a velvet cape of the right size from the rack. She had the cashier ring it up and asked if he could box it.

“Excuse me,” the red-haired lady addressed the cashier, “I was just wondering what you might have for good-luck charms?”

“We have some horse-shoe pendants, shamrock stones and rabbit’s foot key-chains in the small item bins over there.”

“Thank you.”

“Mother?”

“Hmm?”

“Can I get something?”

“You can pick out one item, Richard, but only one.”

“Neat-o!”

Richard started looking at the small items in the bins. He held up a furry key-chain and dropped it quickly making a disgusted face and wiping his hands on his corduroys. It was then that Katie realized they were real rabbit’s feet and she couldn’t help it, she began to cry.

“Hey, why are you crying?” Richard asked as he walked to her, true concern in his voice.

“Those poor bunny rabbits! They were killed just for their feet, it doesn’t make any sense,” Katie sniffled.

“Death never really does make sense,” Richard said, a boy sounding more adult than he should and making Katie look at him confusedly. “Anyway, you’re right, I don’t get the point of rabbit’s foot key-chains either. They’re kinda creepy and how lucky can the rabbit be if it’s already dead?” Katie liked this Richard boy, he talked to her as an equal not down to her like most older kids and the adults. He sounded kind of funny too, his thoughts sort of jumbled and all over the place. “Hey, would you like to see a magic trick?” he asked her.

“Sure,” Katie said wiping her face with her hand and sniffing again.

“I can make this coin disappear, watch,” Richard said and he made the coin he pulled from his pocket vanish in front of her eyes. He made it reappear out of her ear a second later making her smile.

“My grandfather showed me how to make a rose appear out of nowhere, you wanna see?” Katie asked, thankful she had someone other than her family members to show her newest trick to. She'd always had her tissue-paper rose on her this week ever since she had learned the trick. She did the trick just as she had been taught. She laughed in delight at his awed expression.

“That is sooo cool! Can you teach me?” he asked.

“Sure, the real trick is you hafta-”

“Did you pick out something yet, Richard?” his mother asked. “I told you we couldn’t stay long today. If this lucky charm works I promise we’ll come back again.”

“I gotta go,” Richard said glumly. “Do you think if we meet again someday you can show me that trick?”

“Yeah, sure,” Katie said, sad to see her new friend go.

Richard picked something out of the bin and gave it to his mother to purchase. Katie saw her mom looking at the colourful knick-knacks and crystal balls on a shelf. Johanna looked down at her daughter.

“You ready to go?”

“I guess so,” Katie said with a pout. She held her mother’s hand as they walked out of the shop. They walked a few paces away from the shop, their progress slow from Katie dragging her feet.

“Hey! Wait!” Katie heard Richard shout from behind them. They stopped until he ran to catch up with them as his mother watched. “I have something for you,” he said to Katie. He held out his hand and in it was the one item he had picked out. He knelt down to be at her eyelevel and handed it to her. It was a plastic ring, the “stone” big and shiny. “Look inside the stone,” he told her and she did.

“Oh, it’s a rose! It’s pretty!” she said still looking into the ring’s core. “Why?” she asked looking up into his sparkling blue eyes.

“For reminding me that magic isn’t just about tricks. A little piece of magic for my little magic lady,” he told her making her giggle and blush. He kissed her on her soft cheek then left. Katie slipped the ring onto her finger then took her mother’s hand again as they walked on.

Kate Beckett smiled at the memory as she looked at the ring in her hand. How could she have forgotten about that day?

“Something amusing?” Castle asked as he walked up to Beckett’s desk and placed a coffee on it.

“A memory. The first time I ever went to Drake’s Magic Shop it was with my mom. There was a boy there and he gave me this. My dad just found it, made me remember that day, I had forgotten all about it until now.”

Castle took the ring from her and studied it. Kate watched the realization dawn on his face. “The little girl Katie, that was you?” Beckett nodded and Castle smiled. “My little magic lady,” he whispered to himself but she still heard it. “You know what this means, don’t you?” Castle said, a look of mischief on his face making his blue eyes twinkle.

“What?” confusion was written on Kate’s face.

“You still owe me a magic lesson,” Castle told her with a wink and smile.

Beckett returned the smile then opened her desk drawer and pulled out her new magician’s bouquet, as she had just given her old one to Castle a few weeks ago. She put her jacket back on and gave Castle a ‘one minute’ signal. He was nearly vibrating with childlike excitement, so much like the boy he was back in Drake’s Magic Shop.

“I can’t wait to show Alexis this after I learn it!”

“Only if you let me watch her reaction.”

“Deal.”

“Okay so the trick to this is you have to put it up in your coat sleeve like this…” Kate Beckett told him how to do the trick while he listened attentively. A promise made when they were kids finally being fulfilled.