His heart is racing a million miles a minute. He can't control the unsteady breath whisping past dry lips and a swollen tongue. He has to shove his clammy hands into the pocket of his tux to keep from reaching out to her. Because there is nothing he wants to do more, than to pull her into his arms and never let her go.
She's absolutely breathtaking, all decked out in soft white and old lace.
"What do you think?" She asks, she's ethereal, everyone can see it and yet when the question slips past her lips he can so easily hear the anxiety, the worry that he might be the one person not to think so. His throat closes and he has to gulp for air. He can remember feeling this way only a handful of times in his life. He has to smile because she's the cause of so many of those moments.
He watches her tug at the dark curl that has been strategically pulled from her messy up-do and he realizes that he still hasn't answered her.
"You look," but his tongue ties him up, because he doesn't know how to properly describe to her, just how stunning she is. "You look like your mother did," because she does, she looks so much like her mother. He can even make out pieces of her dress that belonged to the older garment.
Her eyes fill with unshed tears, and he knows he's said the right thing. So often he says the wrong thing.
"I can't believe today is here already," his voice is coarse with emotion as he approaches her. His thumb dips into the corner of her eye to catch the tear before it can affect her make-up and earn him an ear tug. So very like her mother.
"Daddy," she shook her head teasingly. He'd been a wreck on Alexis' wedding day but he'd had Sophie to hold onto, he'd still had one baby girl, now she was leaving him too. Where was Kate when he needed her?
"She went to find Javi; he wanted to see me before the ceremony. I think he's going to give me the speech again," she reads his mind just like Kate and laughter bubbles in Rick's chest. He could hardly believe where his life had carried him. One minute he'd been a single dad, a famous writer searching for inspiration and here he was marrying off his daughter to his best friend's son.
"Have you seen Nico?" Rick's heart tightens; he watches the look of excited pleasure pass over his daughters face at the sound of her fiancé's name. It had been like that for him with Kate; just the mention of her had caused him to smile.
"Not since yesterday, I know it's silly but I want the first time he sees me to be walking down that aisle with you and mom."
"It's not silly at all." Rick smiles, Kate, so not the one to follow tradition, had wanted the same thing on their wedding day. He'd been too impatient though and he'd snuck in to see her minutes before the ceremony had begun.
Just then the door opens and Javier Esposito's head pops around it. "Mi Dios you look beautiful Sophie," He sighs and Rick steps back. Nico and Sophie had a turbulent friendship growing up, one moment they were best friends causing mayhem in the precinct with Nico's twin sister Naya and Ryan and Jenny's eldest daughter Keela, and then there were times where they'd find them just tearing each other a new one. If he's remembering it right when Sophie left for Cambridge they weren't speaking at all. It shouldn't have surprised any of them when they'd found out that the young couple was secretly sleeping together.
Everyone had been quite happy about it really, Rick and Kate had known Nico his entire life, they knew he was a good man and in a couple years he would make Detective just like his father, there wasn't anyone better for their daughter. Esposito on the other hand, had been furious, not because he didn't love Sophie, but because he did love her.
"You look pretty good yourself Javi," Sophie smiled and Esposito brought a hand to his chest as if in pain but smiled back at her.
His voice cracked as he began, the emotion dripping from his lips, "I love you Chica, you've been like a daughter to me since the moment your dad let me hold you."
"Javi," Sophie's hand came out to take his. He cleared his throat to let her know he wanted to just get it out. "I know I've said it before but I just wanted to make sure you know, I don't care that he's my only son, if the boy does anything to hurt you I'll kill him." Rick and Sophie laughed, Esposito's face remained stoic.
"Javi," Sophie's hand tightened, "Your son is the best man I have ever met; he is the kindest most honest and brave man. I trust him with every fiber of my being." She couldn't keep the smile or the tears from her eyes.
"You mean next to us right?" Rick cleared his throat, adjusted the cuffs on his jacket and they all laughed just as the door opened a second time.
"What are you two doing in here, get out there" Alexis' deep blue eyes bore into Rick and Esposito's. Then she turned a happy smile on her younger sister.
"Ready little sister?" Alexis' eyes couldn't contain their happiness.
"Ready, big sister" Neither could Sophie's.
Rick's heart hammered in his chest for the millionth time that day as he watched his two girls interact. They'd been so far apart in age. Alexis away so often while Sophie was growing up and yet they'd become best friends.
"I'm coming in and there better not be a tear on anyone's face, I can't handle anymore crying today!" Everyone laughed as the door opened and a bundle of red curls came hurtling into Rick's legs, followed by the owner of the statement, his wife. Kate's smile radiant as she entered the room.
"You guys should see Nico, he was crying!" everyone in the room laughing at the shock and excitement evident in the flower girl's face.
"Come on Claire," Alexis slipped her hand into her daughter's and pulled her from the room. "We'll see you guys out there," she smiled again giving Kate's wrist a small squeeze as she passed.
"All these girls, how did I ever get so lucky," Rick bounced back on his heels, a big grin stretching across his face as his wife and daughter gave him matching eye rolls.
"Are Naya and Grace out there?" Sophie slipped her hand into her mothers. Her father was right, other than Nico and her own little brother James, who really wasn't all that little any more, it was definitely a girls club.
"They are," Kate smiled. "Whenever you're ready sweetheart,"
"I have never been more ready," Sophie smiled and slipped her other hand into her dads.
From the moment she'd opened his first book, Richard Castle had been causing all kinds of feelings within her. Just admitting she loved him had nearly killed her; literally.
Then he had married her, and gotten her pregnant…twice. He'd put her through the ringer, on so many different occasions; yet staring at her daughter, her daughter with Richard Castle, witnessing the love and elation in the young woman's eyes as she married the love of her life. It's a high like she has never felt before, so different than experiencing her own wedding, or the moment the doctor placed the tiny pink body, wailing and screaming onto her chest.
Not for the first or last time, she wishes her own mother where there. She wishes that her mother got to see this day, that she got to see Kate and Rick's day. Because Kate knows that the way Nico is looking at Sophie, is exactly the way Rick looks at her.
She hears a sniffle to her left and then another to her right and her eyes connect with Lanie's, their husbands are a mess and neither woman can keep the smile from her face.
When the justice of the peace pronounces them man and wife and tells Nico to kiss his bride, it's all they can do to keep from jumping out of their seats with happiness. Alexis' teenage daughter Grace is catcalling as Nico slips a little tongue into the kiss and Kate catches the wink he shares with his father right after.
Kate is so incredibly happy in this moment she doesn't want it to ever end. She can't believe that there was a time in her life when she'd honestly considered not letting Castle in. She should call Dr. Burke; she needs to thank him again.
"Come on Grandma, picture time!" Claire has her little hand digging into Kate's arm and she can see that everyone is filing out of the ceremony hall but Rick, in his haste and excitement has not forgotten to wait for her.
"Go on Angel, we'll be there in a second." Rick's voice is so tender Kate can't help the little skip in her heart beat. He's been doing this to her since before they even met, causing her heart to bounce around in her chest.
Rick grabs her hand and tries to pull her forwards but she stops him. His face so familiar in its expressions and laugh lines, he gives her one of those 'Beckett' looks she hasn't seen in a while and she feels more of that nostalgia that's been so carelessly floating around today.
"I love you," she says, and there isn't an ounce of uncertainty or fear hidden in the words, it isn't laced with passion or excitement it's just fact. Just completely and utterly True.