For JJ: Happy Birthday! You're getting older, but you'll still be sticking your tongue out like a four year old at me for every teasing comment I make. Thanks for being such a great friend and here's to many more birthdays! :)

It was Friday morning, about 9am, and Kate Castle was still sleeping. She would have probably slept till noon, but the sun was shinning in through the curtains and she could hear the sound of a phone ringing. Was she dreaming that or was that real? She opened her eyes slowly and moved one of her hands to prevent the sun from shinning into her eyes. She still heard the phone ringing and knew that the ringing was real and it wasn't a dream. She let go of Castle's pillow that she was snuggling with and grabbed her phone off of the night table. She picked up the phone and put it to her ear.

"Hello?" Her tone was sleepy and her voice sounded raspy. She wasn't sure if it was because of because she just woke up or from last night. She bit her lip at that thought and when she heard the sound of the man on the other end of the phone.

"Katherine Castle, do you have something to tell me?"

She was silent. She thought back to last night and she debated on telling her husband. "Ummm...I love you?"

"I love you too, sweetheart, but that's not what you have to tell me."

"The charges on your credit card to the cable company are by me, your mother, and Alexis for ordering every George Clooney movie on demand?"

"Closer and remind me next time I leave for a book tour to make sure I change the password for our on demand account. What you do have to tell me does involve my mother and Alexis though."

She knew he knew what they did last night and it wasn't like she did anything wrong...well she didn't. His mother was a different story. "How did you find out?"

She heard the small chuckle on the other line. "Lanie sent me a photo last night of my mother putting singles down a fireman's rip away pants." Martha was going to kill Lanie for that. Not because she was ashamed of the picture, but because it was in the hands of her son. "Did you have fun?"

Kate laid down and snuggled close to Castle's pillow. She missed him and wished this book tour would go by faster. "Not as much fun as your mother. They seemed to remember me from when I was there with you."

He laughed. "Well it's kind of hard to forgot someone as gorgeous as you."

"Or that I was with the man that used the fire extinguisher on them." She didn't have to see him to know that he was smirking on the other line.

"As much as I don't want to know, especially if the story involves my daughter and strippers, I do want to know about this night of yours."

Kate smiled softly. "Well..."

12 hours earlier...

Kate wasn't sure what to wear. This time there was no point of trying to get a stripper's attention to make Castle jealous, which worked since he had used a fire extinguisher on them. Kate figured a simple black dress would do. It wasn't low cut, but it did show a little bit of skin. Kate curled her hair and put on just a bit of makeup.

"Katherine! Lanie is here!"

When Kate heard her mother in-law's voice, she headed out of the bedroom and into the living room. "Girl, does Castle know what you're wearing?"

She gave her friend a look. "Lanie, compared to what I wore last time, this is nothing. Plus, Castle doesn't know. Not that I'm keeping it a secret."

"So he won't mind if I send him a picture of you putting singles down Hans's pants?"

Kate glared at her friend. "Don't worry, darling, I have plenty of singles in case you run out," Martha said before she headed out the door.

Alexis shook her head at her grandmother before she, Kate, and Lanie followed Martha out. Kate locked up and they headed into the elevator. "This is the bachlorette party you should have had, Kate," Lanie said as she pressed the down button for the elevator.

"I'll make sure to make it up to you when you're about to get married."

"Unless you're pregnant, dear."

Those words weren't words she was expecting from Martha. Sure, Castle and her talked about having kids a few times, but not a serious talk. More like him just telling her he'd like to have the option whether or not to have kids again and her not freaking out about the possibility of a child. When he came back from his book tour, that was one of the things that they might have to discuss in more detail. They were careful when it came to them being intimate, but she knew that sometimes things happened. If she were to have an unexpected pregnancy, she would want to feel comfortable telling her husband and not be worried that he was going to freak out.

The ding of the elevator knocked Kate out of her thoughts and she walked out of the elevator after Alexis, Martha, and Lanie had exit. They walked through the lobby and out onto the streets of New York. They saw the limo that was parked out front and Kate's eyes landed Lanie, who was smiling. "I told you, Kate, this was going to be the bachlorette party you never had." She nudged Kate into the limo before she could protest and shut the door behind them, since Martha and Alexis had already gotten into the limo while Kate was giving Lanie one of her looks.

The limo had champagne, plastic tiaras, feather boas, a sash, and straws that had... "Lanie! Are those..."

"Oh come on, Kate! You don't have to ask me what that is. Castle has one and I've known you've seen it plenty of times."

Alexis gave Lanie a look, knowing about her father's anatomy, but not wanting to hear about it or him and Kate.

Lanie placed the bride to be sash on Kate, along with a light up white tiara. "Lanie, don't you think that people are going to get suspicious when they see that I have a wedding band on my finger?" There was no way in hell she was taking that band off either. The only time she took her rings off was when she was working. There were a few times that she had forgotten to take it off, but most of the time she remembered. She didn't want her personal life to be known to the people that she was interrogating.

"Kate, you remember whose everyone's attention was on when you came in to question Hans. No one is going to be looking at your wedding ring."

That was true. Where they were going, eyes would not be on her. She felt her phone vibrate in her lap, through her purse, and she was stopped by Lanie's hand. She gave Lanie a look. "Lanie..."

"Nope, no conversing with the husband to be."

"He is my husband though!" And she missed him. "And knowing Castle if I don't answer, he's going to call the house phone, and since no one is going to pick up there, he's going to call you, and if you don't pick up, he's going to call Esposito, and..."

"Alright! I get it. Answer the text message."

Kate had that victory smile on her face before she fished out her phone from her purse. She read his text and smiled, trying to keep the naughty smile away. "Going to take a shower. Our phones have that waterproof case...care to join me?"

She would have loved to, but she wasn't exactly in a place where she could. "Would love to, but I'm out with your mother, daughter, and Lanie. Raincheck?" She pressed the send button and just as she was going to put her phone in her pocket, she got another text.

She smiled once again when she read his words. "I'd rather we share one in person."

"Me too, babe. Miss you."

She was such a sap sometimes when it came to him, but he made her happy and she couldn't help but be a little sappy. Her phone vibrated again and she read the last text. "Miss you too. Have fun, but not too much fun."

She smirked. "Afraid I'm going to get too drunk and steal a police horse naked?"

He immediately responded to that. "You better not. I only get to see that view. As you have said before, save a horse, ride a Castle."

She bit her lip, keeping herself from laughing and to keep the naughty smile at bay once again. "Bring home a Texas cowgirl hat because that's the only thing I'll be wearing when I ride a Castle."

She could hear the groan coming from him from his hotel room. She especially heard it when she read his response. "You're such a tease, Mrs. Castle."

She was going to respond, but Lanie took her phone out of her hands and placed it in her purse. Kate was about to say something, but Lanie cut her off. "He knows you're okay. Now it's time for us to have our fun."

She knew that her friend was right. She was being a bit rude, but everyone knew that she didn't take well to Castle being away. She didn't sleep well without him there, she worried about him, she worried about him worrying about her, and she just missed his presence. She missed knowing she would come home from work and he'd be there waiting for her, missed not seeing him first thing when she woke up, and she missed falling asleep with his arms wrapped around her. Lanie, Martha, and Alexis knew all these things, so she knew they weren't seeing as Kate ignoring them. Even if Lanie didn't take the phone away from her, when the limo stopped she was going to tell Castle that she had to go.

As much as she played it off that she wasn't as excited as Martha to be going to a male strip club, she was excited to go out and have a fun time...and it didn't hurt if seeing some male strippers was part of that fun time.

The limo stopped and Martha was the first one out of the car. Kate couldn't help but let a laugh escape her at her mother in-law's excitement. Alexis followed, then it was Kate, and lastly Lanie. They lined up at the entrance and one by one they got their hand stamped. The music was playing, there was a single stripper on stage...who was getting many singles thrown at him (both bills and women). There was another bachlorette party going on and she hoped that they didn't try and converse with her, considering she didn't have a fake wedding date in mind.

While Martha went straight to the man on stage, Lanie dragged both Kate and Alexis over to the bar. "Shots or would you like a drink to go with your party pecker? And before you even say it, Kate, yes, that's the name on the bag."

Kate put her hands up. "I wasn't going to say anything. Lets do some shots, then we'll move onto the party peckers."

"That's the spirit, girl!" Lanie ordered a round of shots for all four of them. "Mar...," she was going to yell for the older red head, but Martha had found them. "No shots for me, darlings. I did tequila once and that was it for me. I want to remember this night, unlike that one. I'll just stick to the wine."

Martha ordered a glass of her favorite red wine, while the other three girls picked up their shot glasses. They clinked their glasses together, as a cheers, before Martha drank her wine and Alexis, Lanie, and Kate consumed their shots.

Kate put the shot glass down and immediately felt the liquor rushing through her veins. Like Martha, she knew what tequila could do. She planned on getting another drink, something with tequila since she didn't want to mix, but she was going to nurse it. She wanted to have fun, but she didn't want to blackout. Not for Martha's reasoning, but because she wanted to make sure that nothing happened to any of them. It was the cop in her that made sure that she was aware of her surroundings and the people around her and the ones that she cared about.

Lanie was ordering another round of shot and Kate put her hand on Lanie's shoulder. "I'm going to get us a table. Get me...tequila and orange juice."

"Ah, a horny bull. I approve, Mrs. to be Castle."

Kate rolled her eyes before she made her way to find a table that was available. She passed by Martha, who she thought was going to make her way onto the stage any second. She sat down at a table and it had a pretty good view of the stage. She was a little surprised that no one had taken it yet.

Lanie and Alexis made her way over to her not too long after she sat down. Alexis placed Kate's drink in front of her and it looked liked her friend and her step daughter had gotten margaritas. She also noticed that Lanie had placed the straws she bought in each of their drinks. She couldn't help but laugh as she took her friend's picture. "That's going to Espo."

"Don't you dare, Beckett. What happens here, stays here."

Kate agreed to the terms and put her phone away. It was better off if the four of them were the only ones that knew what happen tonight. Kate was about to speak, before the music started getting louder and another stripper came out on stage. Even though the music was loud, she was able to hear her mother in-law screaming, "Take it off!"

All three of the women laughed before Lanie got up from her seat. "Well, I don't know about you two, but I'm joining in on the fun."

Alexis looked at Kate, "Go. I'll stay and watch our drinks. We'll switch when they next one comes out. I'd say I'd ask grams to watch our drinks, but I don't think that's going to happen until she runs out of singles."

Kate couldn't argue with her step daughter there. Kate got out of her chair and headed over to where Lanie and Martha were. She was handed some singles to her by Martha. "It's on me, kiddo."

Present day...

"I really didn't need to know that my daughter was drinking through a straw called a party pecker."

"You asked for details, Castle."

"And I got them. So if you and Lanie had a rule of what stays at the strip club, stays at the strip club, how did I get that photo?"

"I haven't finished the story yet, Mr. Castle."

He sat back in his seat. "Please, continue, Mrs. Castle." He did love calling her that and he knew that she loved it when he did.

9 hours earlier...

Lanie was drunk, Alexis was tipsy, Martha was just about out of singles, and Kate...well she was surprisingly the responsible one. If the 17 year old Kate Beckett could see her now, she'd be pissed.

"Lanie, Darling, take my picture with this one and the last singles that I have." Lanie took out her phone and took a picture of Martha sticking her last round of singles down this man's rip off pants. "Send that to Katherine, darling. I want that printed out."

Lanie clicked on the first contact that she saw that read Castle and pressed send. It wasn't to Kate Castle or even Alexis Castle that Lanie sent it to. It was Rick Castle that she had just sent that picture to.

The man that Martha placed her last few dollar bills into their pants recognized Kate. "Hey, I remember you. You were with that guy that used the fire extinguisher on us."

Kate smiled. "Yea, that's me and my husband."

"Congratulations!"

Kate laughed, not expecting to have this conversation with a stripper. "Thank you!"

Present day...

She heard laughing on the other end of the phone. "Even the male strippers knew that we had chemistry."

Kate smiled at his words. "I guess when someone uses a fire extinguisher for men to get away from the girl that they like, you hope that they end up together." She could see him smiling, even if she wasn't there with him.

"What are your plans for today?"

She sighed. "Probably make sure that Lanie is doing okay after last night. Nothing as eventual as yesterday. What about you?" She heard footsteps in the loft and the door opening, figuring that Martha was leaving...either that or she was coming home and Alexis was letting her in. Even though Martha came home last night, she wouldn't have been surprised if her mother in-law went back out. She didn't hear anyone on the other line. "Castle?" She looked at her phone and saw that they were disconnected.

She was just about to call Castle when she heard his voice coming from behind her. "I was hoping to cash in on that rain check."

Kate turned and smiled when she saw him standing there in the doorway of their bedroom and the door to the kitchen. He closed the door as she got up out of bed. She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down for a passionate kiss. Her tongue immediately parted his lips and his arms wrapped tightly around her waist. Her tongue explored every inch of his mouth before she tangled their tongues together. They both let out a moan as she felt him deepen their kiss and pull her closer to him. God, she missed kissing him and she knew he missed this too. She let their kiss continue until the need to breathe presented itself. She rested her forehead against his and she couldn't help the bright smile, that smile that was just reserved for him, grace her face. "You're home."

He returned her bright smile. "That I am, sweetheart, and I don't plan on leaving for a long time."She rubbed her nose against his before kissing him softly. "I brought you home a present."

She pulled back from him, but didn't leave his arms. "Should I be worried?"

He smirked before he unzipped his carry on bag. He pulled out a cowgirl hat and placed it on her head. "I believe someone promised me that she'd only be wearing a Texas cowgirl hat if I were to get her one. Good thing they had them at the gift shop since I was at the airport when I got your message."

She gave him one of those naughty smiles, that she knew heightened his arousal. She spoke in that seductive voice that drove him crazy. "We'll save the hat for later. Right now, it's time us to share a shower, Mr. Castle." She tossed the hat onto the bed before she tugged his hand and dragged him towards their bathroom. He couldn't help but watch her hips sway as they walked, knowing that she put an extra sway to them just for him.

Castle closed the bathroom door behind them before Kate walked them over to the shower. She opened the door and turned the water on. She set it to the setting that they liked before turning her attention back to Castle. He beat her to it and kissed her passionately, just like before. Only this time, his hand had made her way to her PJ pants and slid them off of her waist. She kicked them to the side before she moved her hands, that were wrapped around him, to unbutton the buttons of his shirt. She loved his chest and she missed running her fingers up and down his chest while he was gone.

When the need to breathe became an issue, she broke the kiss and she finished taking the rest of his shirt off while he pressed nipping kisses to her neck. She tilted her head to the side, to give him better access to her neck. She moved her hands down to his pants and undid his belt before unbuttoning his jeans and unzipping his zipper. "God, I missed you babe..."

He hummed against her skin, letting her know that he missed her too. He nipped at a particular patch of skin before he pulled it into his mouth to suck hard on her skin, which had made a louder moan escape her. He made sure to mark her where her hair could cover it. He had just gotten back and he didn't want to get shot because he marked her somewhere visible. He knew she liked it when he marked her, but he also knew that she had to work tomorrow and a comment from Ryan or Esposito was something she didn't want.

He ran his tongue over the mark as she released him from his boxers and moved them down his waist. He stepped out of both his pants and his boxers, as he still kept pressing nipping kisses to her skin. He groaned against her skin when he felt her cupping him in her hand and stroking him. Her strokes where slow, but they were rough. He let the sensations run through him for a few more seconds before he stopped her hand. As much as he loved this, he wanted to be inside of her. He moved his hands to her hips and took her panties off of her. She stepped out of them and he moved his lips away from her skin to take off her shirt.

Kate opened the shower door again, but this time they stepped into the shower. He didn't waste anytime and pinned her against the title wall. He lifted her up in a way where she could wrap her legs around his waist before he captured her lips in another passionate kiss.

The first time they made love whenever he came back from a book tour, there was no teasing. They just gave into each other and got what they had been desperately craving more and more each day. However, the second round, and if they had time the third round, they usually teased each other in some way. He would tease her lips with his tongue, tease her with his fingers, she would teasingly rub herself against him, and she would do her fair share of teasing him with her tongue.

He loved the way her tongue felt when they tangled their tongues together and he wasn't about to delay that right now by teasing her. His tongue entered her mouth and explored every inch of her talented mouth before tangling their tongues together. They let out matching moans and Kate bucked her hips hard into him, letting him know that she wanted him and she wanted him now.

He smirked against her lips before he broke the kiss. "Impatient this morning, detective?"

She gave him a look that he had received many times before when he called her impatient. The smirk just grew before he aligned his body with hers and entered her. They both let out a sound of pleasure and they just looked at each other for a moment, taking it in.

They were together again, he wouldn't be leaving for another book tour anytime soon, and that this wasn't some incredible dream that they were having. "I love you," they said in unison. Kate smiled before she bucked her hips hard against his, letting him know that their moment was over and she wanted him to start moving.

It wasn't slow, but he made sure that their pace wasn't too fast or too rough where she was being pressed against the shower's wall in a way that was hurting her. Even if their want fogged their minds, they made sure that the other one wasn't in any pain or discomfort.

She had no problem keeping up with the pace; she never did. Ever since their first night together, they had been in sync with one another. They had a connection so strong that they were able to match the others movements and they knew when they were going to change the pace.

He made sure that she was supported with the wall and his other hand as he moved his hand to her left breast. He squeezed the flesh hard, making Kate let out a loud moan of pleasure, before he moved his hips faster. He tugged playfully at her nipple before he made his way over to her right breast. He paid the same attention to it, but this time he moved his hips harder against her.

"Oh god, Castle!" Her fingers were digging into his back and her legs were tightening around his waist.

He spent a few more moments playfully tugging and brushing his thumb against her nipples before he moved his hand and sneaked it in between their bodies to find her sensitive skin. He used his thumb to rub hard circles against her, knowing how crazy it drove her when he did so. He knew she was close by the way he felt her inner walls tightening around him and the ways her fingers dug into his back.

He whispered in her ear and used that seductive low tone that drove her crazy. "Let go, Kate. I'm right there with you." He moved his hips even faster and she couldn't hold back any longer.

She arched her back and closed her eyes tightly as she let go. "Castle!"

Her orgasm triggered his own and he came with her. "Kate!"

They slowed down the movement of their hips and he pressed soft kisses to her shoulder as they came down from their orgasms.

Their hips stopped in unison and Kate opened her eyes. Castle had moved his lips from her skin to catch her gaze. They gave each other a soft smile before she rested her forehead against his. They hated being apart, but they loved the welcome home.