A/N: Original opening scene of Chapter 9 (Big News). This entire one-shot was way, way too long. It sort of ran away from me. This is is the first of many scenes/parts of scenes that didn't make it into that chapter. Anything in bold appeared in the final edit - except for the Author's Notes, obviously.

She knew something was off the moment he walked through the door. First of all, his meetings never ran this long. Secondly, he normally liked to make an entrance. This evening, he slipped quietly through the door with none of his usual swagger.

"Hey," she greeted him, putting her book down and rising to swing her arms arms around his neck.

"Hey,"he replied vacantly.

"Long meeting?"

"Mm," he grunted, burying his face into the nape of her neck, smelling her hair.

Unable to suppress a smile at the way his lips felt against her skin, she nevertheless pressed him further.

"Castle."

"Mm."

"What happened?'

He emerged and sighed wearily, sitting down on the couch. "Big news."

This didn't sound good.

She sat next to him, bracing herself for whatever he needed to tell her.

"Black Pawn wants me to do a Worldwide book tour."

She narrowed her eyebrows. "Ok." She stared at him, waiting for the catch.

"They really want to go all out for the last Nikki Heat. Hit every continent. As many interviews, book signings, readings, panel discussions, you name it, as possible."

She still didn't get what the problem was. "Is it gonna conflict with the wedding?"

"No."

"Honeymoon?"

"No."

"Then why - " Sudden realisation hit her and she thought she might know why he was so sullen. "How long?" she asked, mildly afraid of the answer.

He took a deep breath. "Three months."

Her eyes widened. "Three months?" she echoed.

He nodded solemnly.

"Well... what did you say."

"I said, 'Absolutely not. This isn't the right time for me take three months out of my life to sell a book that sells itself. It's a Nikki HeatNovel," I told them. "It's a Richard Castle novel," I told them. 'It's the last one in the series. It doesn't need the publicity.'"

"What did they say?"

"Not much. They just brought out this contract I signed agreeing to partake in any and all promotional activities related to books published by Black Pawn at the discretion of said publishers. I called my attorney afterwards. He said he'd go over my contract in the morning but it doesn't look good."

She nodded slowly, digesting the information. "When?" she asked finally.

"Next month."

She felt as if she'd been kicked in the gut. "Next month?! That's way too short notice. Can they even do that?"

"Apparently, they can."

She took a deep breath. "Wow," she said softly. "I wish I could go with you but even if I wasn't saving my Vacation Days for the honeymoon, I don't have nearly enough to cover three months."

He gave a small smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I know."

She suddenly turned her head, lost in thought, before turning back to him."Every continent?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Even Antarctica?"

This time, the smile did reach his eyes. "Especially Antarctica. I'm very big with the penguins."

She rolled her eyes. Then, something occurred to her. "Hey, does this mean we should put off apartment hunting?"

"I think so. We'll also have to put our wedding plans on hold 'til I get back."

"Why would we have to do that?"

"Because I won't be here to plan with you."

"Sounds good to me."

"Hey, just because I won't be here doesn't give you the right to just take over. It's my wedding, too."

"But you've already had two weddings. This is the only one I'm gonna get. I should be able to choose what kind I want."

"Ok, fine, you can keep planning without me. But I'm still not getting married in the woods."

"Yeah, well, I'm still not getting married on top of the Empire State Building."

"Well, then, I challenge you to find a happy medium."

"I accept your challenge."

They shook on it, smiling, before the light mood wore off.

Beckett sighed, leaning into his shoulder. "Three months," she said again.

"Three months," he confirmed.

There was a pause.

"Ok," she said finally. "We can handle three months."

"Oh, yeah, totally," said Castle.

"We'll have phone calls." said Beckett.

"Texts."

"Letters."

"E-mails."

"Skype."

"Tweets."

She almost laughed before looking up at him, her eyes searching his determined gaze. "We can do this."

"We can totally do this," he agreed