Geez, this one about killed me! (Both from how long I spent working on it, and the sheer amount of fluff) I'm sure there are plenty more stories that are fluffier than this, but this is pretty dang fluffy.

This one is for caitlind14 from tumblr!

I DO NOT OWN CASTLE.

"I've got some bad news... There is a special cable that's busted. The dang thing is supposed to be unbreakable, but apparently not. And since it's not supposed to break, we don't have any spare ones lying around. It's gonna take a while to get a new one, it being Christmas and all."

"Gus... I swear to god that if this is another one of your tricks, I will kill you and no one will ever be able to find all of you." Beckett stood there glaring at the intercom speaker as if she was glaring at Gus himself.

"N-N-No, it's not me, I swear! I-I-I-I'm going to go try and get a hold of somebody with a cable, I'll let ya know as soon as I hear anything. Bye!" Castle could easily imagine the short man fleeing away from the elevator shaft and after a look at Beckett, wished he could do the same.

She was standing with her feet shoulder width apart, arms crossed over her chest, and a scowl on her face. Classic signs that she was extremely pissed off at someone or something.

Wisely, he decided to let her calm down for a while and took a seat with his back against the back wall of the elevator.

She spent another few minutes just glaring at the intercom before she plopped down a few feet from Castle.

"Bet you regret staying until I left now, don't you?" She spoke up after a few minutes of silence, but was looking ahead and not at him.

"Nah, there are worse people to be trapped in an elevator with." He gave a little half shrug and smiled at her, but his smiled dropped when he noticed she was fidgeting. "Are you okay? I know you don't really want to be in here with me but, it can't be that bad."

"As annoying as you are, it's not that."

"Oh?"

She considered not telling him, but he was looking at her with that curious look he gets and she knew that he would get it out of her one way or another, so she opted to get it over with.

"I just don't...Really like being in small places for long amounts of time..."

It took him a few seconds to realize what she meant but when he did, he broke out into a teasing smile.

"The great Detective Beckett is claustrophobic?"

"Not funny, Castle."

She was getting even more restless and he knew from his past experiences with Alexis, when she was little, that if he didn't distract her, she could end up having a full blown panic attack.

So he started talking. About everything and anything. About Alexis and Ashley. About his mother and how she managed to drive him insane with her off the wall antics. And even about somethings he had planned for Nikki Heat.

He wasn't sure how long they had talked but she had stopped fidgeting, so that was a good sign.

They had just finished discussing how Nikki would go about getting herself free if she was tied up and hanging upside down, when Beckett suddenly remembered something.

"Didn't you say your reason for being here tonight was to leave me a present? Are you going to give it to me, or not?"

"Oh yeah. I was going to give it to you later when we got to my place but, I guess I might as well give it to you now." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small rectangular box and held it out for her to take.

Knowing Castle, it could be anything so she took it with caution and carefully untied the ribbon and opened the lid, half expecting something to jump out of it.

Thankfully, the only thing in the box was a thin, but sturdy looking, silver necklace chain. Beckett carefully lifted the chain out of the box, and held it up with a questioning glance towards Castle.

"It's a chain to keep your mother's ring on. I noticed that you had stopped wearing it and Ryan said that the chain you had it on before, broke during a case during the summer and you nearly lost the ring. I also noticed that you tried wearing it on a different chain a while back but you kept subconsciously checking if it was there, and that's what gave me the idea for your present. I had it custom made out of a lightweight titanium, and then silver plated. So this one is definitely not going to break."

That he cared enough and paid that much attention to her, even while they were dating other people, really pulled at her heart strings. Beckett coughed to clear her suddenly blocked throat and thanked him before reaching into her pocket to pull out the ring.

Lately she had just been leaving it home when she went to work, but today was Christmas and she just couldn't bring herself to leave it at home so she had kept it in her pocket most of the day.

The chain was just long enough so that the ring would hang below most shirt necklines, but short enough so that it wouldn't be able to slip over her head.

Becket picked up the chain and carefully slipped the ring onto it before handing the necklace to Castle, sweeping her hair to one side, and turning her back to him, silently asking him to put it on her.

Not wanting her to change her mind, he quickly scooted closer to her and hung the necklace around her neck, securely clasping it in the back. His fingers lingered on her skin for a few seconds longer than was absolutely necessary, but he pulled them back as soon as she moved to pull her hair back into place.

She turned to place her back against the wall and Castle should have moved back to a respectable distance, but he didn't. Instead he just turned his back to the wall from his position right next to her, leaving barely an inch between them.

Beckett sat there for a good few minutes just fingering the ring and necklace, getting used to it being there again, and testing the strength of the chain. Once she was through with her inspection, where she decided that it was safe enough to wear her ring on it, she spoke up.

"I guess I should have gotten you something too. I didn't think we would be seeing each other today though, so I didn't bother."

"Well, I'll just take the gift of your presence this year." He smiled and she rolled her eyes. "But next year I'll be expecting something good!"

"Oh so you think you'll still be sticking around this time next year?"

"I plan to, did you have something else in mind Detective? Planning some diabolical plot to get rid of me by next year?"

She looked away from him and to a normal person, it would just seem as if she was just looking around the elevator, but he knew her better than that and knew she didn't want to look at him while she spoke again.

"No, I just figured that by this time next year you'd be off to god knows where with Gina."

Normally he would tease her about being jealous but for once in his life, his long buried survival instincts kicked in and he realized he really needed to think about what he said next.

"I'm not leaving again. But who knows, by this time next year you'll be so busy with your life with Josh that you won't even have time to notice little old me."

She hesitated for a second but decided she might as well tell him. "You are a little hard not to notice, Castle."

"Why, thank you."

"But, you aren't going to have to worry about that happening."

Never, even under the threat of death, would she admit just how cute he looked when he was confused.

"I feel like I am missing something here, care to fill me in?"

"Maybe, maybe not." She smirked playfully at him and he started whining, dragging out her name in a horribly high pitched voice.

Seeing that his whining was having no effect, he reached for her but she anticipated that move, and shot to her feet with him following right after her.

She managed to avoid him in the small room for all of five seconds before he had her cornered.

"Now, my dear detective, what aren't you telling me?"

"Whatever do you mean?" She replied innocently, as if she really had no idea what he was talking about.

"Oh, so you want to play it that way, do you?" Eye brow raised, he looked at her for a minute before a maniacal grin spread across his face. "I think I know just how to get you to talk."

"What are you..." Beckett tried to back away, but she was already backed into the corner and had nowhere to go when his fingers descended upon her sides and tickled her mercilessly.

"Castle!...No, stop!" He ignored her pleas until she was red faced and laughing so hard that she couldn't talk anymore. Castle gave her a minute, to catch her breath, while he watched her, thinking how incredibly adorable she looked right now.

"Alright, alright. I'll tell you, happy?" He nodded his head rapidly and she just shook her head at him.

"That won't happen because..." She paused just for dramatic effect. "Because Josh and I broke up two weeks ago."

Because of the fact that it was Christmas, that he had just tickled, tickled! Beckett and came way with all his limbs in tact, and that she was single again, his brain just shut down.

Beckett wasn't exactly sure what she expected his reaction to that news would be, but it definitely wasn't the feel of warm lips on hers, which was what was happening now.

She knew she should push him away, or at least do something to discourage him, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Not after breaking up with Josh because of him.

Instead of doing what she knew she should do, she did the opposite and leaned into the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck and pouring all the feelings she had had since they met into it.

When they finally separated, Castle looked scared for his life, but Beckett just looked very happy and content.

"Merry Christmas, Castle." He looked surprised at that but when she pulled him back down for round two, he didn't question it.

Later, they would both thank fate for giving them the chance to get together on Christmas. It was certainly a Christmas neither would forget.

"Well, would ya look at that. Your plan worked out after all, and here I was thinking that ya were going to get us both killed." Gus looked away from the computer screen which had a perfect view of the happenings inside the elevator, and looked at his partner in crime who was currently leaning back in her chair with a satisfied smirk on her place.

"Of course my plan worked, it was only a matter of how long we would have to keep them locked in there. Now, why don't you make your way back down there and let them out, but walk slowly, okay? And while you are doing that, I'm going to just disappear like I was never here. Because if Beckett finds out what we did, you know what she will do to us..."

"Sure thing, I'll make sure they never find out."

Lanie smiled as she headed out of the precinct, extremely happy that all had gone according to plan.

Maybe I should pretend to be 'fate' more often.

And now you probably realized why this story is called Christmas, Elevators, and Fate. Maybe I should have just called it Christmas, Elevators, and a Meddling Lanie?

Thanks for reading! That's the end of this one. So no begging me for more chapters, okay? If you want more fluff, keep an eye out for any one shots I post this month!