Finding My Way Back To You (A Castle FanFic) (ON HOLD)

The True Gift of Christmas

"A laptop! Thanks so much, Dad!" squealed Alexis.

"Always, Pumpkin, okay, Brooklyn Bridge, your turn, open your last Christmas present from your pack which is from, of course, your dad with a R.H.D.," Castle joked and directed the video camera to Brooklyn.

Brooklyn was quite disappointed at the size of her Christmas present from her father. It was just an envelope, but she tried to stay optimistic. She slowly opened her envelope.

"A lottery ticket?" Brooklyn was completely confused.

"They are announcing the winners this afternoon, why don't you check it out? You might just win," Castle smiled.

"Sure, thanks Dad," Brooklyn managed to smile. She knew the chance of winning the lottery was very slim but she knew her dad just wanted her to be happy, so she pretended that she was happy with her present.

~~~

Brooklyn was sitting in the chair next to her mother's desk in the precinct, then she heard the TV blaring out the theme for the lottery, she turned to see Ryan stepping down from a chair.

"You bought the lottery again, Uncle Kev?!"

"Hey, you never know when you might get lucky," he said.

Brooklyn sighed, took out the lottery ticket and stood in front of the TV with the other detectives who also bought the lottery.

"Hey! You bought a lottery ticket too!" Ryan said in surprise.

"Christmas present from Dad," she shrugged.

"First number, four," the host announced.

A couple of detectives groaned and went back to work, it surprised Brooklyn that the number four was the first number on her ticket as well.

"Second number is seven."

Another detective groaned in disappointment but stayed to watch.

Three more numbers later, Brooklyn was the only one left standing in front of the TV. It was giving her hope that she could win this.

"And the last number is..."

"Please be nine, please be nine," Brooklyn muttered hopefully.

"Six! The last number is six!"

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Brooklyn screamed, "I ONLY HAVE ONE NUMBER LEFT AND YOU TELL ME IT'S NOT NINE?! FUCK IT!"

Brooklyn was swearing non-stop around the precinct, she was about to throw her taser at the TV when the host spoke up.

"Oops, read it upside down," the host said, "It's nine! The last number is nine! Not six!"

Brooklyn was silent and still for a while, she looked at her lottery ticket, then looked up again.

"Uh oh," both Esposito and Ryan muttered and covered their ears.

Brooklyn screamed the loudest she could, the whole precinct, probably the whole building, heard her, but she didn't care.

"I WON THE LOTTERY!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Not even Montgomery could tell her to shut up, because she was too excited, she just won the lottery for god's sake!

"Brooklyn Courtney Beckett! Calm down! I know you just won ten million dollars, but please!" Montgomery said, still covering his ears.

"I JUST WON TEN FREAKING MILLION BUCKS!" she screamed.

She didn't even care that Montgomery called her by her old name, it proved how excited she really is.

"I gotta tell my dad! I'm going home! Tell my mom that I'm home when she gets back from ass-kicking!" Brooklyn said and ran out of the precinct.

Brooklyn rode the bus home, when she got off the bus she ran all the way back to the loft, but then she was running throught the alley (which was a shortcut) someone grabbed her arm hard.

"Let me go!" she yelled.

"Give me the lottery ticket," the person growled.

"Josh? What are you doing here?!" Brooklyn looked at the guy and recognized him as Doctor Motorcycle Boy.

"Give me the ticket," Josh said with a menacing look on his face.

"Okay! Okay..." Brooklyn said slowly and reached into her bag.

Josh held out his hand for the ticket, but instead of taking out the lottery ticket, Brooklyn took out her taser and tased the bastard.

"See you around, Josh!" Brooklyn yelled and ran home at a tremendous speed.

Brooklyn reached the apartment and slammed the door shut behind her, Castle was teaching Alexis how to operate her new laptop.

"I WON THE LOTTERY!" Brooklyn announced.

"Congratulations Brooklyn!" Alexis leapt up from the couch and hugged Brooklyn.

"Do you like it?" Castle asked with a smug grin on his face.

"I love it, Dad!" she squealed.

"Knew you would."

"How did you know the numbers?"

"Well... I know a guy who knows a guy," Castle grinned.

Just then, Brooklyn's phone rang, she saw Kate's picture lighting up on the screen and picked it up.

"MOM! I WON THE LOTTERY!" Brooklyn yelled into the phone.

~~~

"So you asked a guy to give you the ticket numbers so Brooklyn could win the lottery?" Kate asked slowly.

"Yeah," Castle replied slowly.

"Mom, you gotta admit, ten million bucks is A LOT," Brooklyn added.

"It is! But it's..."

"It's not felony theft, Mom! That guy owed Dad big time! He was just returning a favor!"

"True, but..."

"I saved his life, Kate, I might not have directly taken a bullet for that guy but I indirectly saved his life. He owed me," Castle said.

"That money is going to put me through college, Mom. Dad's rich, but college costs A LOT, this could help!"

"Plus, I missed Brooklyn's first thirteen Christmas presents, I'm just giving back all the Christmas and birthday presents I missed, see it that way Kate."

Kate paused for a while.

"Fine, but I don't want you guys spreading the news that Castle rigged the lottery so Brooklyn could win okay?"

"I didn't rig the lottery! I just asked for the numbers!"

"Fine, I don't want you guys spreading the fact that Castle asked for the lottery numbers, okay?"

"Deal."

"Agreed."

"I just won the grand prize for Christmas!" Brooklyn danced crazily around the room.

"This is actually not the grand prize," Alexis said softly.

"What is?"

"Family. We're together, celebrating Christmas as a family, that's what counts."

"Aw," Kate smiled and hugged Alexis.

"Family hug!" Castle said and grabbed Karen from her play pen and joined in the hug.

Brooklyn rolled her eyes, laughed heartily and hugged her family tightly.

And at that moment, she understood, the true gift of Christmas is family.