"This was such a nice evening", smiled Rick Castle, softly squeezing the hand of his fiancée Kate Beckett.

"Yes, you´re right", Kate agreed as they left the table they had been seated and put their cloaks on. "It is definitely worthy for a repetition!"

"I am so glad you had this idea!", Castle grinned and slung one arm around her shoulders as they left the restaurant. "A wonderful broadway musical, cocktails and a 5-star dinner... I am asking myself what will follow!"

Kate laughed and laid her head on his shoulder as they slowly walked down the street. She took a small moment to think about the next thing to say. She had promised Alexis to keep Rick away from his own apartment long enough so the young woman could have a quite evening with her new boyfriend. Kate had been a bit worried about Alexis and wondered why she kept her new boyfriend a secret, but she also trusted the intelligent girl to know what she was doing. Thinking about the distraction plan closely she came to the conclusion that both couples shouldn´t be interrupted.

"Well...", she muttered, stopped and grabbed his cloak to pull him to her. "I thought we could... have a nice night... candles... a bath..."

She gave him a short, tempting kiss and she could literally see how a switch was turned over in his head – of course, Castle was a man.

"W-well... you know, I... I´ll grab a cab for us...", he stuttered and waved to the street were a cab was coming near them just in this moment. They driver stopped and Castle opened the back door for Kate who got in, immediately followed by the writer. Kate smiled as he took her hand, but was on alert mode within seconds as Rick gave the driver his own address.

"Hey... how about... my place? I mean, we should not disturb Martha..."

"Don´t worry, she is in our house in the Hamptons to prepare for a new play. We have the whole loft for ourself!"

Kate tried to figure out what to do, to keep him away from his loft, but then she already felt how Rick pulled her into a close embrace. As he buried his face in her neck she tried to fumble for her mobile phone to alarm Alexis that they were on their way, but just as she wanted to type, he started to kiss her. It was a little awkward for Kate to be in this situation: on one hand, she loved Rick and of course loved to love him, but on the other hand she cursed him for his behaviour right now as she still had in mind that Alexis was at the loft thinking that they would not return until the hour Alexis and Kate had determined. She could just hope that a miracle would happen so that Alexis and her mysterious boyfriend had left when they arrived.

Alexis put the dishes they had been using down on the kitchen counter as she felt two strong arms wrapping around her body. She smiled and leant back against the warm male body the arms belonged to and listened to his voice as he whispered:"You´re a great cook. I did not have such a good dinner for months!"

"You were a good assistant!", Alexis answered and turned around to look into his beautiful eyes. He leaned down to kiss her and once again she felt like her feet lost the contact to the floor. She crossed her arms behind his neck to get some support as she felt her knees go weak. A few years ago, having her first boyfriend, she had believed that those feelings only existed in fairytales, but now she had been proved the opposite. Butterflies were more than real and she felt like she had swallowed millions of them.

"You´re beautiful, Alexis..."

His hands did glide through her long, red hair which she wore curly for this evening, then searched their way down to her shoulders over her spine.

"I love you...", was the only thing that she was able to get out of her mouth before he covered hers with his once again. She grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him to the couch where she immediately started to unbutton the fabric. He gently pushed her into a laid position and helped her to take his shirt off, then they worked on her top.

"I am so happy we can have a quite evening... Work really had me in its chains... But I am going to pay you every single second back that we missed!", he murmured while kissing her nap. They rose up into a sitting position, Alexis being situated on his lap.

"Stop talking then, honey..."

"As you wish, mylady!"

She giggled, working her way down his biceps and enjoyed the shivers his actions did send down her body. Every inch of her skin prickled from the sensation and a small moan left her mouth as his teeth pulled the strap of her bra over her shoulder, when a loud call of astonishment blared through the living room.

"ALEXIS! Oh my god, what..."

Rick Castle stormed forward and pulled the man away from his half naked daughter.

"GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER!"

He punched the man, blinded by angry concern about Alexis. Seconds later he felt Kate´s hands gripping his upper arms and both of his girls shouting:"Stop it!"

Alexis appeared in front of him, totally shocked. "Dad! What are you doing?! Honey, are you okay?!"

Kate pulled her fiancée a few steps backwards while Alexis leant down to the man that had covered his right eye with one hand, covering nearly his whole face. She helped him up and glared to her dad who wasn´t able to understand the situation in its whole complexity.

"I´m okay...", Alexis boyfriend whispered to her and swallowed before he removed his and from his face.

"RYAN?!", Kate and Rick wondered synchronous. Rick felt like somebody had pulled the carpet away from under his feet. Despite the fact that he had never thought about catching his daughter making out with her boyfriend he had never ever dreamt about her doing that with Detective Kevin Ryan, who was one of his friends, Kates colleague and definitely to old for his 19 year old daughter.

Kate seemed to be as surprised as he was, but still she said:"I am so sorry Alexis, I..."

"You knew that they would be together this evening?!", Rick hissed, but Kate immediately intervened:"No! I mean, yes, of course I knew that she would meet her boyfriend, but I did not knew it was Ryan!"

"I am old enough to choose my boyfriends on my own!", Alexis came back to the conversation. She took the hand of the detective who was feeling more than uncomfortable in this situation.

"But don´t you think you should have chosen someone your age?!"

"Because!", Alexis screamed back and the two Castle´s suddenly looked like they would jump on each other every second. Kate had never imagined these two would ever have a loud dispute. But now they were fighting at high volume while Alexis picked up her top from the floor. They made their way through the whole living room and left Kate and Ryan unnoticed. Ryan took his shirt and slipped it on.

"Why didn´t you tell me, Ryan?", she asked him, trying to figure out when these two could have had the opportunity to fall in love...

"We... we thought we should wait a bit because... yeah, because of the age thing and so on...And also we had no idea how to tell you and now we also see why we were so afraid!"

"I think we should wait until they are finished fighting and able to talk normally!", Kate said and patted on his shoulder. She personally had no problem with Alexis being together with Kevin – Kevin was a nice gentleman and the type of man that every parent would have dreamed about as son in law and she could see how courteous he must be to Alexis.

But she also saw why Rick was disturbed – Kevin was about ten years older then Alexis and also Rick did not like it when she had secrets to hide from him, as they had always talked openly with each other. She decided to mediate between daughter and father.

"Ok, shut up, both of you!", she yelled and Alexis and Rick looked at her in surprise. "Good. Sit down and listen. You too, Ryan."

Rick sat down in the armchair right next to the couch were Alexis and Ryan took a seat, their fingers entwining. Kate remained in her standing position and pressed her hands into her hips.

"I can´t believe you two are not talking with each other like normal adults! Rick, I know you want to protect Alexis and you are used to know everything that is going on in her life, but you also have to accept that she is grown up now and a woman with... needs and feelings! And that she can love who she wants to love, even if it is Ryan!"

Rick swallowed and drove one hand through his brown hair. He knew she was right but also suspected that he shouldn´t say anything by now.

"Alexis... You are grown up and do have your own private life and so on, but you still have to remember that you dad is... your dad, you know? He was worried. Rick, do you want to say anything?"

Rick had stretched one hand into the air like he was in school to get Kate´s attention. He nodded and started to speak:"Ahm... yes... Ryan, I am sorry I punched you, it was a situation full with adrenaline..."

"It´s okay...", Ryan assured him with a crooked smile. Rick nodded once again and went on.

"Alexis... I also need to apologize for screaming at you... I..."

"You don´t have to go on, dad!", Alexis said, suddenly smiling, and leaned over to hug her father. "It´s so sweet how you act like a schoolboy... I love you, dad... but please, for the future, can you give me some more room? And can you accept Ryan?"

"I´ll try, sweetheart... I love you too! But Ryan..."

"What, Dad, I...!"

"Alexis, wait... Kevin Ryan, I do accept that you are in a relationship with my daughter, even if I will need some time to cope with the 12 years of age difference between the two of you, but if you hurt her, I will hurt you really bad!"

Alexis exhaled audibly and Kevin´s smile came again as he answered:"Okay, Castle, I´ll give my best!"

Kate sighed and closed her eyes for a few seconds. They averted the disaster and that was a moment to be happy. She heard Alexis saying that she would sleep at Ryan´s place and even through her closed eyelids she could see Ricks smirk. As Rick closed the door behind the couple and turned back to her, he said:"Kate, next time you know Alexis wants to have time on her own, just say it!"

"It was her idea to keep it secret, don´t blame me!"

"Well, at least the evening has a happy ending... or a really happy ending – I think I remember some hot detective promised me a bath..."