A/N: I stayed firmly within the Castle Universe and leaned heavily on canon in my first story 'In Death Do Us Partners' but now it's time to stretch one's wings and try something original regarding the plot. So here is the beginning of an AU version of the Caskett relationship; and while there will be some homicide case related incidents, there will also be more detail of lives outside the precinct. BTW, my thanks to: 'bingblot', 'purple satin', 'P2P', 'castlefan6', and some others for their inspiring examples of AU plots.

Disclaimer: I do not own Castle – all credit goes to Andrew Marlow and the writing team for ABC's Castle; my thanks to them for providing a foundation for this little exercise.

Chapter 1

"Castle! Watch out! You almost hit that thing . . .", came Kate's hoarse voice, almost drowned out by the roar of the engines at full throttle and the loud staccato of rain against the canopy.

"What thing?"

"That channel marker thing . . . that buoy with the red light."

"What side was it on?"

"On our right . . . I mean starboard."

"Ah good, and you don't have to be nautical with me, I'm no sailor", exclaimed Castle as he took only the smallest comfort in remembering the boating axiom that when in the channel it was the three R's: 'red – [on the] right – [when] returning; but otherwise he was terrified and returning to where, he did not know.

I'm going to get us all killed! How did I ever get myself into this mess?, he thought to himself as the boat was being tossed violently amidst the swells. They were in Bradford's boat, something Castle remembered being referred to as a Grande Tourismo 46, with the 46 meaning it was forty-six feet long. It may as well have been the Titanic it felt so darn big, and with the current situation, he felt like Captain Edward John Smith, and the resting place of the vessel by the end of the afternoon would be at the bottom of Long Island Sound.

They were pretty darn far from home port. Castle's down the beach neighbor, Bradford, had suggested a boat outing at least once during the summer and Richard and Kate had decided to take him up on the offer this time around. So, the four of them, Kate, Richard, Laura, and Bradford pulled out of the slip off of North Haven around 11:00 for a day of cruising the waterways around the extreme eastern tip of Long Island. They had passed through the gap between Orient Point and Plum Island and were heading mostly due west when both Bradford and Castle had seen the slight change in the western sky.

Bradford had always liked his beer and was usually very good at holding it so as not to call undue attention to himself, especially from the Coast Guard patrol boats, which were the nautical equivalent of police cruisers handing out citations for driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Yes, one could get a heavy fine for piloting a boat while under the influence but now Bradford was way beyond that. Richard and Kate had been on the rear deck, enjoying the sun and breeze, while inside the cabin Bradford and Laura had become involved in a marital spat, so much so that Bradford had decided to drink way more than the usual number of beers to the point of nearly passing out and becoming completely incapable of piloting the boat. Laura was not the type who could just step in and take the helm; she had only assisted her husband with only the most menial tasks while they were entering or leaving the slip and she was completely unsure how to navigate or handle the craft at the speed they were presently going and in the storm they were presently experiencing. So, the task had fallen to Richard, who only had the most meager boating experience, which was about that of Laura's – helping with little items while leaving or docking, taking the helm while the captain/owner of the vessel went to get more refreshments or to relieve himself, but that was only under the best of conditions, with no appreciable wind and calm seas. His present situation was the exact opposite leaving the inexperienced 'Captain' to a combination of things sure to lead to disaster: uncertainty as to their exact position, unfamiliarity with the channel they were now entering, swells between eight to ten feet, strong gusty winds, and torrential rain that was reducing the visibility to maybe thirty feet at best. As far as summer thunderstorms went, this was one of the bigger ones and there was no sign of it letting up any time soon. Castle remembered that if he could aim the bow to hit the swells diagonally, the pitching wouldn't be so severe, but he also had to keep to his side of the channel; nevertheless, he couldn't imagine anyone wanting to go out to open water in this kind of weather when everyone else was trying to head in as fast as possible, and that was the other problem. The channel felt like a section of the Long Island Expressway during rush hour.

Meanwhile, with the marital spat forgotten in favor of getting back to shore alive, Laura had laid her husband out on one of the benches and made a makeshift tie-down so the pitching would not cast him to the deck face first. Then she joined Richard and Kate at the helm to see if there was anything she could do.

"Yes, please . . . could you and Kate put your heads together and check the readout on the GPS against the chart? Is there any inlet or marina near us? I don't know what these channel markers mean."

After a long minute, Laura responded: "No, I don't see anything here . . . everything seems to be on the south side . . . there might be some private docks along this side, and I'm sure the owners wouldn't mind us using one given the situation. . ."

Meanwhile Kate had been doing her best to study the chart in search of anything that would give them an opportunity to tie up or drop anchor but trying to focus on the fine print amidst the tossing motion of the boat gave way to the inevitable bout of seasickness. She could feel lunch wanting to escape and made a valiant effort to keep things under control.

The response did not calm Castle's terror one bit and his side glance at Kate only made things worse; she looked horrible. He knew he couldn't dock the boat even on a calm day, and he didn't even know the minimum depth he needed to keep from running aground, and the last thing he wanted to do was wreck his neighbor's boat. To his relief, among the chaos of vessels, he thought he spotted a Coast Guard cruiser further up the channel.

"Kate could you and Laura get the emergency kit please?"

"Castle, what are you going to do? You know we could get fined for this", Kate managed to reply without losing her lunch.

"Yeah, I know, but it's better than sinking the boat . . . so Kate, just fire the damn flare, please." He figured that Kate, even in her condition, had experience with fire arms so the flare gun would be second nature; whereas Laura would probably be afraid to pull the trigger.

Later that Saturday evening, after the storm has passed and the sun had set, they arrived at the Montauk, Long Island Coast Guard Station with the boat intact but with damaged egos and hefty side order of embarrassment, yet grateful for the intervention from people who knew what they were doing. Nevertheless, Bradford was probably going to have some explaining to do.

"What's the demurrage", Castle asked the Coast Guard official after they had docked and safely unloaded, "because none of us can get this vessel back to home port tonight." Everyone was happy to hear that they had twenty-four hours before tie-up and towing charges were to be assessed. Castle arranged for ground transportation to get both couples to their respective destinations.

As they were waiting for the cars to arrive Richard asked Kate what she wanted to do, at the same time suggesting that a hot bath followed by some chamomile tea might be the plan for the evening and apologizing for the botched afternoon.

"I know this didn't really fit the template of a relaxing afternoon in the Hamptons, but I swear I'll make it up to you" he muttered.

"No, it didn't. Castle, I think it would be best if you take me home tonight."

"Home? . . . As in the beach house?"

"No, Manhattan . . . as in my apartment in the city", Kate replied quietly but firmly.

Kate's answer came as a shock, but he didn't argue. When the car pulled up, they got in just as the were, and asked the driver to take them into central Manhattan by the fastest route possible. Castle felt really bad about how the weekend had gone; however, his concern was now focused on Kate because she was definitely not herself and he could see she didn't feel like talking about it. She just sat in her seat looking kind of dazed. One thing he was glad to see was that after about forty-five minutes into the trip she dozed off, which was a good sign because she never dozed off in the company of strangers, so at least she trusted him to get her back home.

About twelve hours after the adventure had begun, Castle returned to the loft, saddened and confused. He didn't know why Kate had insisted on being taken to her own apartment rather than enjoy a hot bath at the loft. The place was quiet meaning that either Martha was still out or had gone to bed earlier than usual. He didn't venture upstairs to find out; rather he went to his office, but on the way there poured himself a glass of scotch, then sat down at his desk to see if he could clear his head and make sense of what all had happened. It all felt like something that might have happened in one of his Derrick Storm novels, but Derrick Storm was no more, so maybe this was all a bad dream and he'd feel better in the morning.

He knew it was late, it was a summer weekend after all, yet he didn't hesitate to call his other beach side neighbor to see if their daughter could go over to his beach house and make sure things were back in order; perishable stuff disposed of, and everything turned off, and locked up since they had left in a rush. Having taken care of that, he opened his laptop and called up the latest manuscript of his yet to be titled Nikki Heat novel. In the notepad section, where he kept his ideas, he began to write . . .

"Look Nikki, I haven't been bothering you lately, I haven't published anything with your name in it recently, I haven't been meddling in any of your homicide case files or crime scenes, and yet we seem to have a big problem between us. I mean, I can think of the things I haven't been doing so what is it that I have been doing that's got you so mad at me?" groaned Rook as he heard Nikki's terse voice answer his call. He knew it was aimed at him thanks to caller ID.

"Listen Jameson Rook, I've told you before that you just can't breeze in and out of my affairs . . . my life . . . on your schedule. I've got things to do too so I wish you'd give me a little more notice before you show up at the precinct. The Captain's had just about enough of it and that means I've had just about enough of it."

"Well, I can't necessarily control where and when my assignments take me out of town and for how long for that matter. I mean is it any different with your murder cases? You don't hear me complaining about your schedule. If you're available – great; if not, I guess I'll have to wait, or do without seeing you."

"Maybe you'll have to do without seeing me for a while. Listen I have to go. Let's talk about this later, I promise. Goodbye," Nikki concluded, and the call ended message appeared.