A/N: starting another story, I know! But this has been in my head for weeks so I had to start it! Hope you enjoy :) According to some rather rude reviewers, it goes slightly AU however I didn't think it was enough to mention. Please read A/N at end before commenting. If you don't like it, you can skip the last section that's in italics and it won't change the story :)

Javier Esposito and Kevin Ryan.

"Bro, what are you doing?" Espo asked as Ryan pulled a few sheets of paper from his inside jacket pocket.

"What? We have to do our speech in a minute, just making sure I'm prepared." Ryan replied.

"He's been up late every night since Kate and Rick asked the two of you to make a speech." Jenny said, leaning round her husband to talk to Javi.

"And Javi here is just going to wing it." Lanie added, joining the conversation. The four of them were sat at a round table, joined by Captain Gates and her husband who were currently engaged in a conversation with one of Castle's poker friends at the next table over.

"Come on dude, there's no need to look so nervous, it's just a speech." Espo told Ryan.

"Yeah, but Castle's a writer. We need to make sure we do a good job, he'll never let us forget it otherwise." Ryan said, his mind flashing back to the day Castle asked them to say a few words.

Castle arrived early that morning, leaving before Beckett and saying he had an errand to run before meeting her at the precinct. Given that she was still lazing in bed after their early morning activities, he figured he had enough time to do what he needed to do before she'd showered and dressed.

Placing doughnuts on Esposito's desk in front of the boys, he waited for their reaction. "Okay Castle, you're either planning something or making up for something. So which is it?" Espo asked, after swallowing down his first mouthful of a jam doughnut.

"What, I can't bring two of my very good friends doughnuts without having an ulterior motive?" Castle replied.

"Given that you're here even before Beckett, I'm going to go with no." Ryan said, taking a chocolate doughnut with multicoloured sprinkles.

"Okay you caught me. See, the thing is, I have something to ask the two of you."

"Spit it out, bro. Some of us actually have work to do." Espo said.

"Yes yes okay. Right, well I was wondering..if uh..if you'd like to um, be my uh, best men and say a few words at the wedding?" Castle said. He'd brought this up with Beckett weeks ago and she said she'd been thinking the same thing. The four of them were a close knit team and it only seemed right that they were both best men - he couldn't choose just one.

"Of course we will!" Ryan exclaimed, visibly excited by Castle's request. "You really didn't have to bring us doughnuts to ask us that you know, we'd have said yes anyway. Right Javi?"

Castle and Ryan both turned to look at Espo. "Er, yeah sure." He said unconvincingly.

"Look Espo, you don't have to if you don't want to, I'm not forcing you into it. But Kate and I both want you to. Both you and Ryan have been more than welcoming to me..most of the time." He added, remembering how they were with him after the summer he didn't call. "And you've let me become a part of your team with no hesitation and we want you to talk about that." Castle finished.

Esposito smiled. This guy was perfect for Beckett. He'd always felt a little protective over her and Ryan, though he knew Kate could take care of herself better than Ryan half the time, she was a complete badass. But before Castle came in, it had just been the three of them and he always felt the need to look out for Beckett - without her realising of course, she would have shot him if she knew what he was doing. And then there was Castle. He knew from day one that him and Beckett would be perfect together and tried pointing out to her once or twice but they'd got there in the end. "Of course we will, Castle, it'd be an honour. And Honeymilk here is right, the doughnuts weren't necessary. We would have said yes anyway."

The tension visibly left Castle's shoulders, he'd been so nervous!

So here they were. Castle and Beckett were now Castle and Beckett-Castle, Espo and Ryan had stood at Castle's side during the ceremony and it was almost time for the speeches.

"Ladies and gentleman, if we could please have your attention." They heard Castle call from the table next to them as he stood up. "We'd like to thank you all for coming today and sharing this special day with Kate and I." It had been a fairly small do, neither of them had huge families and they'd only invited the friends they really wanted there. "Now, as I'm sure you'll all know, Kate and I never really did anything traditionally, we did it our way. So instead of just speeches from the best man and the father of the bride, we're having a few more than that from the people who mean the most to us. So if you could please take your seats, drinks will be brought round throughout so there's no need to get up..unless you need the toilet or some-" he broke off at Kate poking him in the thigh. "Yes, well we'll start with the best men - Espostio and Ryan. Over to you boys!" He finished, taking his seat back next to his wife and taking her hand in his.

"Thank you, Castle." Espo said, as he and Ryan stand to begin their speech. "Right, well where do we start? We've known Castle for around six years now, ever since he wormed his way in to our department because of his friendship with the mayor." Espo sent a nod towards the mayor, who was at a few tables over. "And ever since then, we haven't been able to get rid of him."

"Unless you count the time he went to the Hamptons for the summer with one of his ex-wives." Ryan supplied helpfully. The guests laughed at that, even Beckett couldn't hide a small smile.

"Oh yeah, that was a peaceful summer." Espo said, joining in. Looking over at Castle, they could see he was starting to worry about what they were planning on saying. "But then he came back and had a bet with Beckett - if he solved the case first, he could stay."

"And if Beckett solved it first, he was to leave and never come back." Ryan finished.

"So, given that Castle is still harassing us to this day, you'd assume he solved the case first, right? Wrong." Beckett shot him a warning look. Castle still didn't know she'd known it was about counterfeiting before him.

"Technically, Beckett figured it out first." Ryan continued. "But at this point, she was so hopelessly in love with him that she couldn't bring herself to tell him she knew and have him leave forever." This elicited a chorus of 'ahh' from the guests and Beckett blushed. Castle chuckled and squeezed his wife's hand. She never had been able to stay away from him.

"So then, after he'd 'won' his way back in, we had to put up with the two of them shooting love eyeballs at each other across the precinct for almost two years before they finally got together." Espo said.

"And to be honest, the love eyeballs didn't stop then. They just got worse. Except around Captain Gates, here," Ryan said, gesturing towards his boss, "they had to tone it down then."

"Which they didn't do a very good job of, by the way." Gates added. She still couldn't believe they thought she hadn't known the whole time. The guests laughed again.

"Look, the last six years have been..interesting to say the least." Ryan said. "None of us could have predicted what would happen when Castle was brought in for questioning that day. We never would have thought in a million years that he'd base a book on Beckett - no offence or anything -" he added, looking over to Beckett. "And especially not that they'd fall in love even if it did take them forever to realise it. But what I'm trying to say is that we're happy for you. Castle, you can be a pain in the ass sometimes-" the guests laughed at that, the majority of them knew all too well how much of a pain in the ass he could be, "but you're actually pretty helpful on most of the cases and the others? Well the theories are always fun too. Beckett, you've always been a difficult one but we wouldn't have it any other way. Having known you since before Castle was around, I can safely say that I prefer you now to back then..much less scary." Beckett smiled, she knew how good an influence Castle had been on her. "So congratulations, guys. You deserve this special day more than most and I'm so glad to be able to share it with you." Picking up his glass of champagne, he raised it up waiting for the others to follow suit. "To Castle and Beckett," he said, "this is your day, enjoy it."

A murmur of "Castle and Beckett" washed over the room before Espo began his part of the speech. Glancing over at Kate, he could see she looked slightly more panicked now that it was his turn. He could still remember the day she'd cornered him in the break room about his speech.

"So uh, Castle asked you and Ryan then?" She asked, standing next to him as he made coffee.

"Yeah. Why?" He questioned, shooting her a sideways glance.

"Oh, nothing..just."

"What is it, Kate?" He asked with a smile. He knew what was worrying her but playing her along was so much more fun.

She blanched at the use of her first name. He never called her Kate. "I was just wondering..what you were uh, planning on saying?"

"Oh, so you wanna know if I'm gonna announce to everyone what happened just after we met, right?"

"Well..yeah."

"And if I told you I was going to?"

"Well then I'd need to go and tell Castle-"

"Wait, he doesn't know?"

"No, of course he doesn't know! Why, does Lanie know?"

"Why would Lanie know? We aren't even togeth-" he broke off at the look she shot him. "Whatever, no, she doesn't know." He said. "So, how come you haven't told Castle?"

"Espo, we're grown adults. He's been married twice and has a teenage daughter. We didn't exactly sit down and give each other a list of the people we've slept with."

"Not have enough paper, hey?" He teased.

"Shut up. I'm just saying that I don't think he needs to know. If you and I weren't working together now, it wouldn't even be an issue, I haven't told him about everyone I ever slept with just like I don't know about everyone he's slept with. I just..if you're gonna mention it then I'll tell him, so it's not a shock. And you uh, might wanna tell Lanie, too."

"Relax, Becektt. I wasn't going to mention it. Like you said, if we didn't work together now then you wouldn't even think about it. We were young, Beckett. You were only two years into the job and I had had just transferred over and you were still obsessing over your moms case at that point. You were a mess back then and I'm sorry if I took advantage of that." He said.

"Espo, you didn't take advantage of me." He opened his mouth to reply but she stopped him. "No, listen. I'm the one that invited you out to that bar, insisted we drink more and I'm the one that invited you up to my apartment after you so chivalrously walked me home."

"Well I was hardly gonna leave you to walk home alone now, was I." He laughed.

"Yeah I was fairly drunk. But I knew what I was doing, Espo, I could have easily said no. But I didn't want to. I needed a distraction and you were there. So if anything, I took advantage of you." She said.

"Well..I'm not complaining. You're smokin' hot Beckett, Castle's a lucky guy."

She bit her lip and smiled, as a slight flush formed on her cheeks. She found it odd when Espo said things like that. They'd moved past what had happened by the next morning - he'd been gone when she woke up and when they saw each other at work, it was like the previous night had never happened - just the way they both wanted it. Neither of them regretted it, they just knew they weren't meant to be and now they were great friends.

"Well uh, thanks. I'm sure Castle would find it highly amusing if I were to tell him but I don't think I could take the teasing."

"Oh god, him and Lanie would never let us live it down!" Espo sighed.

"Too right. And um, thanks for saying yes - it means a lot to both of us to have you and Ryan involved like this." She said as she took the coffee he'd made her back out to her desk.

Shooting Beckett a reassuring smile, he took a deep breath. It wasn't that either of them were against Castle or Lanie knowing - it had been years since they'd hooked up - it's just they wouldn't be allowed to forget it. Oh no, Castle and Lanie would gang up on them and bring it up every opportunity they got. Sometimes the past is better left in the past.

"I've known Kate Beckett since about two years after she joined the force. She'll be the first to tell you she wasn't herself back then and it's been an incredible journey for her to get to where she is today. Those of you that knew her back then know how much certain events affected her, but she got through it. Skip to about six years later and along comes Castle. He was a bit of a jackass when we first met him - still can be sometimes," Castle pretended to look offended, "but we know he means well. I remember just after he came in and Beckett saying I could have him if I wanted, and I told her watching a control freak like her with something she couldn't control would be more fun than shark week. Now that she's found the love of her life and all that I'm guessing she's glad she didn't palm him off on me." He breaks off and Beckett smiles at him. "It's been a long six years since we first met Richard Castle but I'm not going to lie and say he hasn't made our job a lot more fun. We could tell from day one how good he would be for Beckett and I for one am glad he didn't leave. Our late captain, Roy Montgomery, once said that the secret to getting a relationship to work for so long is to keep showing up - which is exactly what Castle did. As one of Beckett's closest friends, it has been a hell of a ride but one I'm so glad I was on. Kate - you look beautiful today and Castle - you ever hurt her and you'll have me to answer to." Castle gulped while Kate just laughed. Raising his glass as Ryan had done, he made another toast to the newlyweds.

After their speeches, both Esposito went over to hug Castle and Beckett.

"Thank you, guys," Kate said, "those speeches were brilliant and I'll forgive you for bringing up that summer." She joked.

"Mm, thank you for that." Castle added. "But Kate's right, the speeches were great so thank you..it means a lot that you trust me with her, I know how protective you are."

"I'm not a child Castle, I don't need protecting." Kate said, rolling her eyes.

The boys gave each other knowing looks.

"Of course you don't, Kate." Castle said, leaning in to kiss the top of her head as he raised his eyebrows at Espo and Ryan. "Anyway, who's next?"

A/N: so, what did you think? And please don't all hate me for adding in the Espo and Kate scene. I don't ship Becksposito at all, but I get the feeling there's something we don't know. Obviously I could be wrong, and I tried not to write it but it wasn't happening - and as I said, it was when they were rookies so forever ago, when Kate would have been struggling with her moms case. If you're just going to leave a review saying the Beckett and Espo storyline ruined it, then please don't waste your time. I know not everyone agrees but it's my story, I'll write want I think. But that aside, let me know what you thought! And the next person will be up with their speech soon :)