A/N: So, about the episode last night. There are no words. That was definitely one of my favorites of all time. Feel free to chat with me about it via messages - I love hearing other opinions on it!
Disclaimer: Nope, I could not have come up with something as fantastic as Kick the Ballistics was. Not even if I tried really, really hard.
Kate sat on the edge of the bed, a towel wrapped around her torso and her hair dripping down her back. Despite the tub last night, she needed the curling steam of a shower to calm her nerves today. Her knees were drawn up to her chest, a bottle of deep blue nail polish squeezed between them as she ran the brush over her toenails.
"Sweetie, you really need to start getting ready."
She didn't look up as Lanie waltzed into the bedroom. "Shush." She capped the bottle, setting it on the bedside table and picking up her phone. Castle hadn't texted in a while; the last one was him arriving at the Central Park Boathouse, meeting up with Ryan and Esposito.
Lanie went to Kate's closet, pulling out the garment bag and draping it onto the bed. "You wearing this to the boathouse or are you going in that ensemble?" she asked, gesturing to the fluffy chocolate-brown towel currently wrapped around her friend's body.
"Didn't I tell you to shush, Lanie. Don't make me regret assigning you as maid of honor." Kate wiggled her toes, drying the polish before she stepped off the bed. "And I'm not wearing my dress until I get to Central Park. The paparazzi don't need to be tweeting Castle that before he can see me in it in real life." She blinked at Lanie, who was in jeans and a sweater. "What about you?"
"Changing at the boathouse."
"So no complaining about me wearing my pajamas on the taxi ride, okay?" Kate picked up her pajamas and headed into the bathroom to change. "Did Maddie say she was meeting us there?"
Lanie leaned against the closed door, tapping out a rhythm on the wood. "Texted an hour ago saying she'd be there."
Kate emerged in a pair of sweatpants and an FDNY t-shirt, her hair still loose around her shoulders. She held a bag of make-up, her curling iron, and a bag of bobby pins. "And Alexis?"
"In the living room, reading. Everyone's ready to go except you."
"I'll be ready in ten minutes," she muttered, pulling out one of her larger purses and tossing the make-up and hair items into it. "Go sit with Alexis before Perlmutter needs to work on you."
"Ten minutes, girl!" Lanie said, closing the bedroom door behind her.
Kate sighed, running a hand through her hair. She was feeling fine until Castle left the loft with a kiss goodbye. Since then, she felt a little like she was on a roller-coaster that wasn't slowing down. The coffee she had been inhaling certainly wasn't helping her calm down. With a deep breath, she re-checked the things in her bag before adding her badge and gun, just out of habit. She hoped she wouldn't need either during the course of the day, but it never hurt to be prepared.
Castle had laughed at her when she mentioned the old wedding adage: something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. She believed his exact words were, "Really, Kate?" with an accompanying raised brow.
But Kate had ignored his mockery and begun thinking of what to use to fulfill the adage. Old was easy. Kate walked over to the jewelry box on the bureau, running her hand over her parents' faces on the top. "Mom, this is one of those moments when I wish you were here more than usual." Kate had tried not to dwell on the fact that her mother wouldn't be with her to button up her dress or do her hair or cry when Kate said her vows. Kate nibbled her lower lip as she opened the box and took out the necklace and watch.
She had her old.
Her new was in a different jewelry box. She had gone out to a department store and found a long strand of pearls with a fake diamond brooch that called her name. She had bought it without a second thought.
Martha was bringing the borrowed to the boathouse. She had shown up a week ago with her own box of costume jewelry, insisting that Kate borrow one of her hair combs for the event.
As Kate placed the jewelry into one of the inside pockets of the purse, she wiggled her toes, admiring the navy blue polish that was her blue. Subtle and nearly invisible, since her heels were peep-toes.
Slinging the purse over one shoulder, Kate dug out the shoe box from her closet, tucked it under her arm, and hooked the garment bag on her forefinger. Lanie jumped up when Kate came out of the study, taking the shoe box from her.
"Let's go! So much to do and no time!" Lanie squealed, grabbing her own garment bag and tote bag and running toward the door.
Alexis was calmer. She placed a bookmark in the novel and set it aside, giving Kate a wide smile. "Need a hand?"
"Lanie's got that under control. You have everything?"
The girl picked up her own bags. "Everything."
They took the elevator down together where Eduardo was reading the morning paper. "Big day, Miss Beckett. You sure you've got the right one?"
Kate smiled at the man, nodding. "I think I'll keep him."
Castle had insisted on the towncar for the day, telling her to splurge a little. So the three of them crammed into the back of the typical black car for the ride to Central Park.
They had commandeered two of the small rooms in the boathouse as "green rooms," as Martha had put it. And, of course, the men got the smaller of the two, which gave Castle minimal space to pace in. Since Kate and her bridesmaids had arrived, he was forced back into the room after pacing the length of the dining hall for the last hour.
"Is the great Richard Castle actually worried?" Esposito asked from the chair he had tipped back on the hind legs. With practiced ease, he gave Ryan a light punch on the shoulder without upsetting his balance. "See that, Ryan? He's nervous!"
Ryan looked up from twisting his cufflinks into place, shrugging. "Yeah. I was nervous on my wedding day, too. Plus, I knew my bride didn't have the option of shooting my head off. He doesn't have the same certainty. We all know Beckett has a gun and the skills to take off important bits of him."
Castle shoved his hands into his pockets, slipping his pinky through the simple wedding band he had been worrying. "I'm not nervous." When he finally looked up from the ground and saw the stares of incredulity coming from the two, he sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Fine. I'm nervous. But she really wouldn't shoot at me, would she?"
Esposito kicked his feet off the card table, sending a few of the poker chips under the chairs. "Depends. What's the wedding band look like?"
"That's what you think she's concerned about?" he yelled, his eyes darting to Ryan. "Was Jenny?"
"Jenny works in fashion. Of course she was all over the ring." Ryan watched as Castle's eyes bugged out a little, then got up, patting him on the shoulder. "But, lucky for you, Beckett isn't Jenny. Let's see it and we can decide if you should be running for the hills, for whatever good that would do you."
Castle glanced at his watch, calculating the time until the ceremony. He hoped that the boys would lose interest, but when he looked up, Esposito had his hand held out, waiting. "Seriously? You're going to inspect it?"
"It'll calm you down," Esposito suggested. "You need approval before you can put it on our girl."
Faced with the logic of the first part of the statement, Castle pulled both of the rings from his pocket and dropped them carefully into Esposito's hand, muttering, "She's not your girl."
"Oh, she's totally our girl. She was our girl before she was your girl," Ryan said, shouldering Castle out of the way so he could look at the rings.
There was silence that had Castle turning to pace again. The two detectives were looking at the white gold bands like they were evidence in an investigation. He wouldn't be surprised if they pulled out gloves and baggies to run further tests on them before the ceremony.
"So?"
Esposito turned back to Castle, Ryan at his shoulder. Their faces were emotionless, like they were facing down a suspect in the box. Then Esposito nodded. "You did fine, Castle."
He felt his body deflate with relief as the detectives handed back the rings and he stashed them back in his pocket. "Good."
"Still, you hurt our girl, no one will find your body." Ryan paused, jabbing a finger in Castle's direction. "Ever."
"Understood."
Even on her wedding day, Kate was still in charge. She had refused Castle's offers to get someone to do her hair and make-up, insisting that she had done it for the majority of her life and that she could do it today as well. So she had a strand of hair wrapped around the curling iron as she sat, still in her pajamas, in one of the chairs someone had dragged in from the dining room.
Lanie was still worrying like a mother hen, something Kate didn't understand since Lanie hadn't ever done the wedding thing and really had no idea what she was doing. Alexis was out of the room to get the flowers and Lanie had finally decided to go check with Esposito about security, leaving Kate with Maddie, who had been dropped off a few minutes ago.
Since the murder at Maddie's restaurant, the two had reconnected. It seemed natural for Kate to invite her old high school friend to her wedding, insisting that she put on one of the bridesmaid dresses. The pretty blonde had shown up in that dress, her hair straightened from its normal curls, carrying her heels as she navigated her way through the boathouse.
"Kate, let me do that," Maddie said, getting up from her own chair and moving toward her friend.
Kate let her hair fall off the curling iron, waving the curler at Maddie. "No. Listen, I just need to do something normal for right now or I'll go crazy." She combed out another section of hair, twisting it around the barrel quickly, and leaning her elbow on the arm of the chair.
"Hey," Maddie said quietly, moving her chair so she was facing Kate. "Are you nervous just because it's your wedding day or are you nervous because you don't think he's the one?"
Kate's face was a mixture of shock and amusement. She shook her head carefully, patting Maddie's knee. "The first one. I've never been more sure of a thing in my life."
"Okay. Just making sure."
She flashed Maddie a smile just as Hurricane Lanie re-entered. "I found something for you, Kate," Lanie managed to get out before pulling the curling iron from Kate's hand and replacing it with a small white box with a deep blue ribbon tied into a bow.
"What is this, Lanie?" Kate asked, her eyes flickering from the box up to her friend.
It was Maddie that nudged Kate's knee. "Just open it!"
Kate muttered to herself as she pulled the ribbon off. "This had better not be Castle's doing or…" She trailed off when she took the top off, a little white notecard fluttering to the floor. Nestled in the cotton in the bottom of the box was a pair of pearl earrings, tiny square sapphires at the bottom. "Oh."
"Well aren't those pretty?" Maddie said, plucking the box from Kate's hand.
The two girls were busy looking at the earrings as Kate leaned over and picked up the notecard. She smiled when she flipped it over and found it to be one of her business cards that she gave to witnesses with her number at the precinct on it. She wondered how long he had been carrying it around. But on the blank side was his nearly-illegible scrawl.
I know you have your new and blue already, but who couldn't use a little extra luck.
Before either Maddie or Lanie could turn around, Kate tucked the note into the pocket of her sweatpants, swallowing back tears that threatened to ruin her make-up. The man could be annoying as hell, then completely turn around and do something unbelievably sweet. Never a dull moment.
"Oh my god!" Lanie squealed, pushing the earring box into Maddie's hand and running to Kate. "We need to get dressed!"
"I can dress myself, Lanie!" Kate protested as her friend grabbed up the garment bags and pulled her into the side room.
Lanie shook her head at Maddie before closing the door to the room. "Not the point, sweetie. It's my job."
Not five minutes later, the room was crowded again. Alexis had returned with the flowers. Maddie was live-tweeting from the corner. Martha had swept in, complimented everyone's dresses, and neatly arranged her diamond and silver filigree hair comb into Kate's loose brown curls and giving the woman a kiss on the cheek before exiting. Kate had swatted Lanie's hands away from adjusting the fall of her dress after the photographer showed up to take a few pictures. She had dug her mother's necklace and her father's watch from her purse after fixing Castle's present in her ears, leaving the pearl strand in the pocket.
"Katie?"
She spun around, the lace of the short train of the dress fanning out not seconds after Lanie had fixed it. "Dad."
He had gathered her up in a hug before she could finish the single word. "You look so beautiful, Katie," he whispered into her hair.
Everyone had quieted, even Maddie's non-stop fingers over the keyboard of her phone. The focus was on the duo just inside the doorway of the room, but neither Jim nor Kate felt their gazes. Time had slowed for the Becketts.
"God, you are so beautiful. Just like your mother." Jim felt his daughter's arms tighten around his shoulders, her head burying deeper into his neck. "She'd be so happy for you. She is happy for you."
"Thanks, Dad." Kate pulled back from the hug a little, just enough to look up into her father's eyes. "Actually, I'm glad you're here." She reached over to the table and picked up the necklace and watch, holding them out to him. "Could you do the honors?"
In the hushed room, Jim took the watch, turning it over in his hands. "Katie, this seems out of place at your wedding. Do you really want it in all the pictures and-"
Kate stilled his hands. "Yes. I want it in all the pictures and out there for everyone to see. It's part of me, just like you are part of me. And I don't care if it doesn't match lace or anything else."
"Okay then," Jim said with a light laugh. He fixed his old watch around Kate's wrist. When Kate let the necklace slide into his hand, Jim paused. He ran a finger over the little blue stone set in the silver. Their eyes met as Jim swallowed. Then, he smiled. "Well? You going to turn around so I can put this on?"
She spun around, lifting her hair out of his way. "Careful of the dress."
He gave her a little shove, drawing a smile from her. He was picturing her back at junior prom, hissing the same concern at him when Johanna had gone to clip a necklace onto their daughter. "Don't you worry about your dress," he said, clicking the clasp into place.
Kate reached up, pressing the ring into her chest. She had found a shorter chain so it was visible, not hiding in the vee of her dress. She liked it without the pearl strand she had bought; it gave her mother a place of honor at the wedding she'd never be around to see.
Jim checked his own watch by lifting Kate's arm up. "Looks like it's time. You ready?"
"Yeah, Dad. I'm ready."
"Good," Lanie butted in, handing Kate the bouquet. "Let's get going." The petite woman hustled out of the room, going a million miles a minute.
Maddie followed, giving Kate a quick hug.
Alexis paused, shifting her own bundle of flowers as she searched for the words. "You make him so happy, Kate. And I can tell he makes you happy. Just remember that when he drives you up a wall. Which he will do because it's my father we're talking about."
Kate let go of her father's arm to gather Alexis up in a hug, making sure to not crush either of their bouquets. "Thanks, Alexis. For sharing him with me."
"Gives me someone to pawn him off on when I can't handle him."
The walk from their little room wasn't long or painstaking. Kate could hear the strains of the solo violist, the sound as warm as the afternoon sun on her arms. Just before they rounded the corner to where the groom could see them, Jim tugged Kate to a stop.
"You will always be my little girl, Katie," he muttered softly, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
With a final hug, Kate whispered against her father's shoulder, "I know, Dad. Thank you for sharing me with him."
"He's the only one I'm willing to share you with. Now, before I start crying, can I go give you away?" he asked, offering his arm.
Kate slipped her fingers into her father's elbow. "I love you."
"Same goes for you."
When they took the few steps to reach the aisle, Jim had the joy of watching his daughter's face light up when she saw the man at the end of the aisle and was pleased to see that Castle's expression was a mirror. Yes, he thought, she picked the right one.
A/N: So, what did we all think? I want honest opinions, including critiques. The next chapter is not going to be the ceremony - I don't feel I could do it justice and I don't want to write it just to have written their ceremony. We'll be jumping right to the reception for Chapter Three.
I'll post photos of the wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses on tumblr and add a link to the post on my profile page if you want to see what I picture Kate and her girls in.
I'm in classes and meetings all day. The only one I care about is my theatre class at 4pm. Want to entertain me between 12:30pm and then with your reviews? Cause that would be fantastic. And I'd love you for it (which I do anyway, but I'd love you more).