Well here it is: the long awaited summer project i've been talking about. I think it's gonna be a fun one! A new chapter every week. Hope you guys enjoy!

Disclamor: they are not mine. I just borrow them sometimes.

An Artic Front had made its way across the country, and had finally reached the East Coast two nights ago dumping about six inches of snow in its path. Manhattan had turned into a tundra– the temperature not going above thirty – for the past three days.

If things had gone according to plan, they would be sitting on a beach in sunny Florida: a romantic week away, leaving the kids with their grandparents; no worries, just time for them to relax and be together. But because of work obligations and a sickness that's been terrorizing their house for the past two weeks, their trip was canceled. Postponed, really; he still wants to get to Florida this year, come hell or high water.

So here he is: pulling out of his kids' pre-school parking lot, on his way to work, when he should be squishing his toes in soft, warm beach sand. Even with the heat turned all the way up, the cold still manages to seep in.

God he hates January.

Traffic on the roads is a nightmare; almost always is. Stop and go as far as he can see. Those flashing signs the city puts out for roadwork dot the streets, evenly spaced out, warning travelers of the icy road conditions and to 'dive with caution.'

He sighs, runs a hand over his face as he misses yet another light. When it changes and they start to move at a decent speed for the weather outside, he thanks the holy being that blessed the people in front of him with the ability to drive. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long and a minute later he's slamming on his breaks and watching as the guy two cars ahead of him narrowly misses rear-ending the car in front of him.

"Come on!" he shouts, slamming his hands into the steering wheel.

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"Hey girl," Lanie acknowledges, watching as her friend enters the morgue, and unties the belt on her jacket. "Feeling any better?"

"A little," Kate replies, her voice froggy, her nose Rudolph red. She had ended up with the cold that's been going around their house a few days ago and is still feeling it's effects.

"Mhmm," Lanie murmurs, seeing right through the façade her friend put up. Kate throws the medical examiner a look that says 'I am too sick to deal with this today, just get on with it.'

"Anyway," Lanie continues. "I ran some tests, and this wasn't a homicide."

"How do you know?" Kate asks, her voice squeaking at the end.

"Your guy had AIDS. He died of pneumonia two days ago. I'm guessing whoever found him didn't know and thought someone had murdered him after seeing the blood he coughed up on his blankets."

"You mean-"Kate starts, looking up as her friend smiles and nods.

"Yup: we can all go home early," Lanie says, walking over to her desk and starting to collect her things.

"Oh thank god," Kate sighs, sniffling. She waits for Lanie to finish before following her friend down the hall and to the elevator. The two ride to the parking garage, the heels of their boots echoing off the concrete.

"I'm gonna call the boys, let them know what's up," Kate says.

"Okay," Lanie nods. "And if you talk to him, remind Javi I'm picking up the girls today. Don't want him thinking he has to pick them up, when I already did and freaking out when they aren't there."

"I will, don't worry," Kate replies. "Give the girls a hug for me," she finishes, turning left as her friend goes right, each to their separate cars. She unlocks the door, and slides in, starting the engine the second she gets a chance. Somehow, the parking garage inside is at least ten degrees colder than the air outside. Once she starts feeling hot air coming from the vents, Kate starts moving, going up the ramp and out onto the street before calling Ryan and Esposito. She fills them in on what Lanie had said, and reminds Javier that his wife is collecting their daughters from their babysitter's. And as there is only a few hours left in their workday, and they hadn't caught an actual case yet, Kate sends them home early.

She turns onto the highway, and the drive home that normally takes her nearly an hour to make every other day of the week, only take her twenty minutes. As she turns into their neighborhood, she chuckles to herself, liking this 'coming home in the middle of the day' thing. She passes by school busses dropping off their kids, mostly middle and high school as the elementary schools aren't out for another hour. Kate sees one girl in particular, who sets off down the road after getting off the bus. She's with two other girls and is talking and laughing with them. The girl has long black hair, and glasses; she walks with her head down, eyes trained at her feet. Her navy blue backpack is rounded out past her body; it looks heavy, probably carrying a set of textbooks that weigh five ponds on their own. At the next intersection, the group of friends separates: two of the girls going right, while the third, the one with the glasses, continues heading straight. Kate watches as long as she can, but soon passes the girl.

Turning down her street, Kate sighs wistfully. Come fall, it will be her kids getting off the school bus to finish the walk home, talking about their day with their siblings, or gossiping with friends as they make plans to finish their homework as fast as they can so they can get outside to play as fast as possible. Finally she pulls into her driveway, and hits the garage door opener clipped to the sun visor above her head.

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"Kate? Kate, it's three o'clock," She wakes up, pushing a mass of hair out of her face, feeling the static buzzing in her hand that had fallen asleep. She wiggles her fingers, trying to get the feeling to go away, still lying on her side, looking at her husband.

"Oh god," she sighs. "I was only going to close my eyes for a minute."

When she had arrived home, which to her felt only like a few minute ago but was really two, almost three hours, she had said hello to Rick, grabbed some water and gone to bed, making a deal with herself to only sleep for just a minute.

"Yes I know," Rick chuckles. "I came up to check on you and you were dead to the world."

"And you didn't think to wake me up?"

"Well you had been up all last night and then got up early this morning and we've all be sick lately, I thought you could use it."

"Thanks," she says, pushing the covers back and standing. She kisses Rick's cheek before heading into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Kate cleans herself up: removing the eyeliner that magically moved from her eyelid to the corner of her mouth, and quickly throws her hair up into a pony tail to get it off her face. When she comes out, Castle is gone, and the winter darkness is starting to set in, tossing shadows across the room. As a little girl, this sight would have scared her and she would have run from the dark room into the light of the hallway lest the shadow monster get her. She forgoes putting her heeled boots back on and instead ties on sneakers before leaving to pick up her kids from school.

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Both pre-k classes are sitting out in the hallway wait to be picked up when Kate arrives. It's the same scene every weekday, the same organized chaos. Thirty four, five, and six year olds generate a lot of noise, especially when confined to suck a small space. They are not sitting in a straight line either: groups of friends are sitting together, various kid sitting in front of their friends make tiny hills in the line. Kate nearly trips over one boy who is lying out in the middle of the hallway lost in a game of pretend with his friends. She steps over the child, and listens as he gets scolded by his teacher.

All five of her kids have spotted her by now and are jumping up and gathering their coats and backpacks. Kate signs them out on the clipboards for their respective classes, the five kids are divided three and two between the two classes (Miyana, Finn, and Austin in one, and Danielle and Liam in the other), and accepts five hugs and calls of 'hi, mommy.' The kids call good bye to friends and teacher as they head out, and Kate makes them stop and put on their coats before they step outside.

Finally everyone is buckled into the car, and Kate is being blasted with stories about her kids' day.

"And mommy," Finn begins. "we played with instruments in music class today and there was this one where we got to bang it on the ground and it made a noise if it was bigger or smaller."

"Really?" Kate replies, pulling into traffic.

"Yeah and I played a purple one that was really little and it made a high sound like this," Finn finishes, her voice hitting a high octave on the end.

"Well I'm glad you had fun," Kate says looking at her daughter through the rearview mirror and sharing a smile with the child.

They make the rounds dropping Danielle off at cheerleading practice and Austin and Liam off at indoor soccer practice. Kate and the other two girls wait on the bleachers watching their brothers go through practice and a scrimmage game before leaving to pick up their sister.

Danielle was very excited to show off the back hand spring she had been working on getting. She stood at the top of a slanted mat, a coach behind her with a hand on the small of her back. Dani squats down and then pushes off and flips. She lands on her feet on the other side, a wide smiles covering her face. She runs to Kate with arms wide and crashes into her mom in a hug.

Kate breaks the hug and takes her daughter's face in her hands, "I am so proud of you," she smiles at Danielle, hers not coming close to the smile still crossing her daughter's face. "Come on, let's go home and tell Daddy all about it." They grab Dani's bag out of her locker and Kate sends the girl into the bathroom to change and ten minutes they are all on their way home.

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"Mommy!"

It was that time of day. The time a lot of parents dread: the time between snack time and dinner being ready. Everyone is tired and crabby, and picking fights with each other; ready to start the night time routine of dinner, bath, story, bed.

Rick and Kate had had to break up more than their fair share of fights, and finally decided to separate the kids and disperse the tangible tension in the house. They send Mia and Finn downstairs, and keep the boys in the living room, both with cartoons on. Danielle went up to her room, the introverted little girl needing some time by herself to decompress.

He watches over the breakfast bar as his sick wife watches Teen Titans with their sons

The gloomy winter weather and the sickness going around make the need for comfort food that much more. On tonight's menu is tuna melts and French fries, a favorite of Kate's from childhood. Surprisingly, Rick had never had the grilled sandwich before in his life; he never liked the taste of tuna. But after Kate's dad had made it for them one night about a year after they had started dating, he found that he loved it and pestered Jim for the recipe. Mr. Beckett vowed to never give away his secrets telling Rick, "some things need to stay in the family, son." Since that night, Rick has made the dinner loads of times, each time not getting the exact same flavor as when Jim has made them. But according to Kate, he had come close a time or two.

"You want to go get the kids? It's almost ready," He directs her.

"Boys, go sit down, time to eat," Kate tells her sons and the two run to their spots at the dinner table. She calls up the stairs to Danielle before doing the same at the basement door. Danielle arrives first, Finn next and Miyana brings up the rear, twirling as she walks; dancing to the music in her head, her chocolate brown hair fanning out around her, ending up partly in her face. She pushes it back, tucking it behind her ear before digging into her cut up sandwich.

"Do you want me to bring it down to you or are you going to eat at the table," Castle asks, looking over at Kate who had returned to her original place on the couch.

"I'll eat it here," she says, the day catching up to her despite her nap earlier.

"Okay." He brings a plate down to her, and smirks as she take it.

"You cut it up?" she questions, looking at the triangle shaped halves of her dinner; exactly the same as the kids.

"Figured it might be easier to eat that way," he shrugs.

"Or you thought I might spill it so you tried to lessen that from happening," she breathes out, shaking her head.

"Can I eat on the couch?" Liam pipes up, a fry in his hand.

"No," both parents answer. The preschooler groans but continues eating.

"Go eat," Kate murmurs to Castle, noticing his lack of food in hand.

"I will," he nods, looking around at her and the kids again.

"Babe, we're fine, go eat," she orders, raising an eyebrow. He relents, going to get his plate and sit down with the kids. He listens to their stories from school and Danielle reiterates her recent accomplishment to him, even thought she had already told him about it when Kate and the kids had gotten home a few hours ago. The ice in his stomach warms as he remember that the days of toddlers in food therapy who had a risk of choking as they ate, are long gone.

And aside from a spilled cup of milk: dinner and its resulting clean up continue as normal.

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With all the kids in bed, mom and dad retreat to their bedroom, deciding themselves to take an early night. He's reading when she comes in from the bathroom, rubbing lotion into her arms and hands. Kate sighs while crawling under the covers, cuddling close to her husband as he raises his arm over her head. She lays on his chest, his hand rubbing her shoulder and upper arm.

"Was this a bad idea?" He asks, the book still open in his hand, but not being read anymore.

"Was what a bad idea?"

"Thinking we could take a trip. I mean it's crazy and we've both been doing it for five years. I don't think I can subject out parents to it for a whole week."

"But that's what grandparents are for: to take the kids for some time, they are designed to handle small amounts of crazy.

"Yeah," he nods, though she's not sure he comprehended what she said.

"Tell you what: if we haven't gone to Florida by the kids' birthday, we'll come up with another plan, okay?"

"Okay," he says, meeting her eyes. By the kids' birthday. One month. A lot can change and a lot can happen in a month.