"Really Lanie, we just shared a hotel room and slept. It was nothing, he insisted."

Kate Beckett had never been the best liar out there. Especially not when Lanie Parish was the person she was lying to. She always seemed to catch her tangled up in the web and figure out the truth behind it all.

But it wasn't really a lie. She and Castle had shared a hotel room, and they had slept, but that wasn't exactly all that had happened.


8 weeks ago was when it all began. Kate Beckett had gotten the decorated white envelope in the mail. It was adorned with lace, bows and small silver beads. She had been expecting it for a bit now, but holding it in her hand made it all the more real.

You are cordially invited to celebrate the wedding of Jenny O'Malley and Kevin Ryan.

She was excited for the event. Watching Jenny and Ryan plan the wedding and everything they were putting in to it, it was going to be wonderful. Watching the lunches between the two spent at the precinct going over every little detail; it had her excited, because Kate Beckett loved weddings. And watching all that was going into this one made it all the more special. Seeing Ryan debate over his best man, only to choose Esposito and make Castle a groomsman, to the cake tasting and the long invitation list. She had watched from a distance as everything fell into place.

In the envelope she also found an RSVP card, it held a spot for her to place her name, and three simple check boxes. Will be attending, will be attending with a guest, or will not be attending, as well, instructions to return the card to the couple by January 22nd. It gave her a little over two weeks to bring the card to Ryan at the precinct. And she was sure it would take exactly that long for her to decide which box she should check exactly.

She clearly would be attending the ceremony, Kevin Ryan was part of her family, so to say, and she wouldn't miss him and Jenny getting married for the world. She still remembered the times where Castle and Esposito would tease him about the "fake" girlfriend, the scared look on Ryan's face when he was trying to decide how to propose, and the infamous precinct proposal, not so long ago.

The only difficult part would be if she would be bringing a guest. Josh was long out of the picture by now. He had been for months. After the events of last summer they had decided that clearly the relationship wasn't working and parted ways. Since the break up Kate hadn't found any interest in anyone in particular, minus the man she called one of her best friends.

Which lead her to the worst part of the situation, she was sure Castle would be bringing someone.

She'd admit that it would hurt. It would be painful to see him with another woman on his arm, his hands on someone else. But she figured that bringing a date would be a good distraction, not nearly enough of one, of that she was sure. But it might be enough to keep her thoughts away from Castle and his date as much as possible.

This was the only reason Kate Beckett disliked weddings. She never wanted to go alone and have to make small talk at the singles table, but finding a suitable date for a wedding when she focused, as much time on dating as she did, was next to impossible.

She set the wedding invitation down and thought about her options. She could ask Castle to go, play it off as a friend situation. They both had to be there. Why drag other people along when they could just go with each other and have a good night with the happy couple, Lanie and Esposito. She could bring someone else from the precinct, they would most likely know Ryan and a lot of the guests there, and she wouldn't necessarily have to worry about entertaining the entire night. Calling in a favor from an old friend was always a good one. Not that she had talked to anyone she would have a favor to call in from in years, then she would have to play the 'catch up with each other' game, and she would really rather not.

She was pulled from her thoughts at the sound of her phone ringing on the table next to the invitation.

"Beckett," she answered, already guessing who was on the phone without having to look at the caller ID.

"Beckett, I'm bored." Castle replied. She simply sighed at his whiney 'I'm bored' plea.

With Martha spending all of her time at the acting school and on the new production she was in, and Alexis off at Stanford, Beckett had known this was coming. Alexis had left a little over a week ago. A tearful goodbye between the two, and promises made to make time for a once a week phone calls. They had grown close in the past few months, of course, only after everything was hashed out between them. But that was a whole other thing in itself.

"How about we meet for lunch at Remy's in an hour?" She asked. She knew Castle had been taking Alexis leaving pretty hard in the last week, and she figured she should probably make an attempt to get out of her apartment even if it was her day off.

"Why Kate, that sounds like a lovely idea. I'll pick you up in 45." He said and she could hear the tone in his voice pick up a little bit. She smiled at this; she was glad that she could help make this adjustment a little bit easier on him.

"No need Castle, I'll meet you there. See you in an hour." And with that she hung up the phone to go and get ready for the day.

She could worry about this wedding business later, right now she needed to pull her partner out of this funk that all this change was putting him in. When she told him she had the day off she had suggested he use it to rest, and write, maybe get some household chores done. But clearly he had done none of the above. She wasn't surprised he was calling her bored. Castle was a little kid, he needed attention and social situations, and with everyone else at the loft busy with their own lives, he turned to her.

She was glad that he had called, at least it meant he wouldn't be spending his time sulking in the loft anymore, and now she could put all these wedding date thoughts out of her mind and spend the day with him.

They had become even closer in the past 6 months if that was even possible. They spent dinner's together, days off; she found the only time she wasn't with him is when they parted ways to sleep. And even than, she had found herself crashing in the guest room at the loft more than once, after an exhausting movie night.

She was happy with how close they had become. But it scared her still. Castle was one of the few people on the earth that really knew her.

What scared her most was where their relationship was heading. As they became closer, she knew they where inching towards that line. The line that once they crossed, there was no going back, the point in their relationship that would change it all.

She was eager to finally take their relationship there, she had had feelings for Richard Castle for a long time, but things always seemed to get in the way for the two of them, and she had decided that this time she wasn't going to let it. After the last year, and everything that had happened, she was finally ready to dive into it with him. But she wasn't going to rush into anything; she was going to let it play its course. It would happen when it was meant to.


Thank you to everyone who gave my first chapter a chance! As you can see this will be based on the fact that Ryan and Jenny are going to be planning a wedding this season. If you wanted to hit the blue button right down there and leave me something (nice, mean, criticism, I'm up for anything) I would be eternally grateful.

Now for a little more on the story, I have the first 10 chapters planned right now, and 3 written. I just started this last night, so I've been getting it out crazy fast. This idea popped in my head and I just had to write it, so hopefully I can have the chapters up rather quick for you guys. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and hope you are excited for the ride!

-Jenn