Detective Kate Beckett wasn't quite sure how it had happened, nor was she certain of why it happened. All she cared about though, all that really matter was that it happened at all.

Somehow she'd become...happy, she realized, studying her murder board. It was the end of a rainy day in late May and all she had on her mind was going home to her husband and her son, and that thought filled her with the greatest joy she'd felt all day. Castle had called her around lunch time, informing her that her dad, his mother, Alexis and Shane would be at the loft for dinner that night, so he was going to make spaghetti and meatballs, one of RJ's favourites. The thought of it, being cozy in the loft with her family with a nice glass of wine while the thunder rolled above their heads and lightening split the sky, of possibly losing power and telling RJ stories by candlelight was the perfect balm after a day with a case that was full of nothing but dead ends. The only carrot that was keeping her from totally losing it was the knowledge that she would see those faces with big smiles as she came through the door.

Sighing with resignation, Beckett decided enough was enough, she needed a fresh brain and fresh eyes to start with in the morning, after a night of comfort food, cuddling with her son and then cuddling with her husband in a much more grown-up way. Hell, maybe, depending on the population at the loft, if RJ was occupied by his sister and her fiance, she could convince her husband to come upstairs and take a shower with her.

And why was her brain going to such sexual places in a heartbeat this week, she wondered as she checked the files she would need in the morning. Weird, weird, weird. Maybe it was too much time around Javier Esposito, with his angst about still not having made a fourth baby with Meredeth that had her in such a frame of mind.

'You're awfully deep in thought, might I suggest a tow-rope so you don't get lost?'

Beckett glanced up at Ryan's friendly comment, gave him a light smile. 'Just thinking about spaghetti and meatballs.'

'Ah, Papa Beckett's popping by for a meal tonight? Castle usually makes spaghetti and meatballs when your dad stops in for a visit,' he replied off of her questioning expression. 'Full house or just Jim?'

'Gang's all here tonight. Alexis, Shane, Martha, Dad and the three of us.'

'So I guess there would be no hope of you bringing leftovers?'

Beckett laughed, powered down her computer. 'Between RJ and Shane it's a wonder we have a dining room table after that kind of a meal.'

'Dell and Marsh-Mally are the same around Chinese food. I've actually seen them rock-paper-scissors over the final egg roll.'

'Naww, Marsh-Mally?' She teased the Irish cop, making him blush red as the tie he wore while they headed for the elevator. 'I do believe you're going all soft-n-squishy on us, Detective Ryan.'

'This from the woman who still won't admit she cries like a little girl when she watches Lilo and Stitch,' Ryan retorted and grinned when Beckett's eyes narrowed at him.

'It was allergy season.'

'In November?'

'Winter allergies.'

'Not biting on that hook, Kate.'

'Wait, you let your kids have Chinese food?' Beckett looked at him as they walked into their level of the parking garage, and Ryan nodded.

'The deal is whatever amount of fried crap they eat they have to match it in vegetables.'

'Good trick. See ya in the am.'

Beckett slipped into her vehicle, navigated her way south and east to home. It had been a task to be able to think of the loft as her home after being so proud of her independence for so long, yet once she'd moved in, she felt like it had been wasted energy to stress over the move in the first place. It wasn't that she was giving up her independence as a grown woman, but that she was gaining the possibilities inherent with her relationship with Castle.

Now here they were, nearly four years married with a gorgeous daughter and son - Beckett never thought of Alexis as a stepdaughter, nor did she really process it that Shane was only seventeen months younger than herself and engaged to the beautiful redhead, or that Alexis could often be mistaken for RJ's mother in public. All she saw when she looked at them were her children and the man who would be her son-in-law in fourteen months time.

God wasn't that a kick in the ass, Beckett mused with a giggle as she stepped off the lift and fit her key in the lock. Alexis was going to be a married woman in little more than a year. It seemed like just a few short months that she and Shane had been together, when the reality was they'd been together two and a half years.

With the smile of reminiscing on her face, she walked into the loft and the fantasy of having her husband in the shower before dinner was ready evaporated like smoke in a wind tunnel when she saw that everyone was there - Jim Beckett was in the kitchen rolling ground beef into meatballs while Martha supervised with a glass of red wine in hand, and in the living room, Alexis and Shane were playing Go Fish with RJ.

'Do you have any...turtles?'

'No tuh-tells, Alessis. Go fish.'

'Well isn't this the cozy picture?' Beckett said to the room at large and everyone looked up, greeting her cheerfully. RJ, of course, could always be counted on, and he instantly forgot his card game in favour of his mother.

'Mama! You home safe!' He threw his arms around her legs in a python-squeeze of a hug, then looked up at her. 'Cash baddies today?'

'I'm working on it, my little prince.'

'Moosh?'

'Of course.' Beckett crouched to eye level and gave RJ a big noisy kiss. 'How's that?'

'Wonnaful,' RJ replied, and pecked his mother's cheek. 'One fo' you too.'

'There's that wicked Castle charm,' Jim said, shaking his head as RJ dragged his mother by the wrist towards the kitchen. 'RJ, I think you need to do a little tidying up before you get talking with your mama.'

'O-kay, Poppy.' With only a little resignation, RJ wandered back over to Shane and Alexis, told them he was done and he neatly tidied his cards back into the pile.

Beckett smiled at him, then gave Castle a smile that was far less innocent. 'Hey you,' she said, and she could see her husband's radar going off as she did. 'How was your day?'

'Better now that you're home. You hungry?'

'Famished.'

'Good.' Castle leaned over gave her a short kiss, then a longer one which had RJ groaning.

'Mama, ew, why mooshin' ?'

'Trust me big guy,' Beckett chuckled, turning to see Alexis with her brother in her arms, and the little man was making one hell of a grossed-out face. 'You'll understand in a little bit.'

'You want a little sister, don't you?' Jim teased his grandson. 'Kissing's part of how that happens, my man.'

'Ew! Ew, ew, ew!'

'Again.' Now it was Alexis who was laughing. 'You'll understand in a few years.'

Dinner proved to be a very high-spirited affair, as everyone seemed to have a story to tell - Alexis was having fun torturing RJ with stories about her cadaver labs in medical school while Shane took a similar approach with Jim and Martha while detailing the particulars of a rather gruesome murder. Castle had leaped in at various intervals to try and steer the conversation away from the gloriously gory and Beckett had indulged in a small glass of wine as she watched it all.

Now, after Jim and Martha, and Alexis and Shane had left for the evening and RJ was tucked into bed, Beckett was flaked out on the couch in front of the fireplace with Castle bringing her a glass of wine she waved off.

'Thanks, but no thanks. Not in the mood for the fermented stuff.'

'Okay, more for me.'

'Why would you want to do that when we're going to do it in a little bit?' Beckett asked conversationally, loving how Castle spluttered and choked on his sip of wine.

'Man, you've been wanting it a lot lately.'

'Well...' She reached over, picked up his hand. 'Remember that conversation we had back in January, about trying for another one?'

'Yeah.'

'Let's do it.'

Castle blinked at her. 'Come again?'

'I think we're ready for another baby, I think we should start trying again.' Beckett pursed her lips to try and hide her triumphant grin at the change of his expression from baffled to eager in a nanosecond. 'I haven't...it hasn't been the same since Alexis moved in with Shane, and it's made me miss her, and that makes me think of wanting another baby for ourselves.'

'Seriously? You think we're ready for another one?'

'To start trying anyways. You still feel like a glass of wine?'

'Right now, I feel like a glass of you.'