A/N: thank you for all of your reviews on the last chapter! Time for Martha and Jim!


Disclaimer: (never done one before, but had a guest review complaining about Kate not being blamed for 'that' summer) I DON'T WRITE OR OWN THE SHOW, PLEASE TALK TO AWM.


The quiet chattering of the guests was interrupted by Martha tapping her spoon on the side of her glass and standing up to get everybody's attention. "Hello? Over here!" She called out. "Right," she began once all eyes were on her, "thank you. Now, it's time for more speeches - lovely ones so far from the boys and Lanie, but us oldies are going to take over now, share with you a few stories of what it was like with a young Richard and Katherine." The guests laughed and Beckett and Castle shared a worried look. Goodness knows what his mother and her father had cooked up.

Jim rose from his seat too, smiling warmly at Martha. "Yes, Martha here is quite right, we're going to give you an insight into what it was like raising these two. And let me tell you, they might look innocent but they haven't always been like that!" He said, joining in with Martha's teasing. "Oh no, my Katie has had her fair share of less than perfect moments!"

"And you can bet my Richard has had just as many of his own!" Martha added with a laugh. "Now, I'm sure many of you will know that Richard seems to have inherited his flair for the dramatic from me," a murmur of agreement from those who knew Castle the best, including Ryan, Espo and Lanie. Castle pretended to look offended and Kate laughed at him, she often wondered why he hadn't followed his mother into the acting business, he was sometimes more dramatic than Martha. "And I can assure you he has always been like this - as a child, he would often try and convince his friends at school that I would lock him in the basement when he got home from school and wouldn't let him out until the next morning." Castle had the humility to look slightly guilty at this and laughter rang through the room. "Which of course was nonsense - I'd let him out for dinner and he had the weekends off." Martha concluded.

Kate laughed. She could be wondering right now what exactly she had let herself in for, but she loved Martha, she'd always been so accepting of her even with the mistakes she'd made in the past and she was lucky to have such a wonderful relationship with her husbands mother. She smiled again at being able to say that Rick was now her husband, she really was the luckiest girl in the world.

"However," Martha continued, "it seemed he actually did have a talent for acting - his teacher once phoned to check it wasn't true." Castle shook his head at his mother for bringing this up, he had been rather dramatic as a child..

Once the laughter had died down, Jim began a story of his own. "Oh well Katie was a good kid, brilliant in fact given how much her mother and I worked when she was growing up, but the second she turned sixteen, it was as if we had a different daughter. Two days after her birthday she had her lip pierced, wore enough eyeliner to rival a panda and started staying out until goodness knows what time!" He looked over at his daughter who was smiling at the memories with a slight blush on her cheeks. He hadn't minded, not really. She never really went too far, just pushed both of her parents to the limit whenever she got the chance. "Oh and the boys!"

"Oh goodness, I have a few stories about girls that my Richard dated too!"

Castle and Beckett shot their parents warning looks. Kate should have known something like this would happen, her father and Castle's mother got on far too well for them to have given a nice speech with no embarrassment. But did her father really have to bring up her old boyfriends? Jesus, she wanted to just forget some of them ever even happened, they were more of a statement of rebellion as opposed to her actually having proper romantic feelings for them.

"Mm, well my Katie dated her fair share of young men." Her father continued. "There was the guy from that grunge band - I swear he hadn't washed his hair in at least a year." Kate shuddered at that memory, that was definitely one she'd rather forget, he'd been one of the first guys she had ever dated - she'd been sixteen at the time and convinced that she knew best. "Luckily he didn't stay around for long, Katie got bored far too quickly. And then there was the senior from her school, the one with so many piercings in his ears, lips and nose I'm surprised he didn't set off metal detectors whenever he was near them! And then there was the guy with the motorbike - I still blame him for my Katie buying a Harley as soon as she'd saved enough money!" Jim stopped and looked over to where his Katie was sat with Rick. He decided he'd teased her enough about her choice of boyfriends for now. "So, Martha, tell us more about the women your Richard dated?"

Castle looked from Jim to his mother and to Kate in panic. He couldn't be sure what his mother was going to say. "Don't worry," Kate whispered in his ear, "she can't say anything that will make me love you any less. Besides, I saw enough of them on page six!" And that was exactly what Castle was worried about - it was bad enough knowing that Kate had read half of the stories, but his mother had a whole different vantage point on it.

"Oh well, there are more than I can remember! There were models, air hostesses, actresses, dancers..oh so many!" Martha teased. She never would have brought this up if she hadn't spoken to Katherine beforehand, she wanted to make sure Katherine was happy with her talking about Richard's past like this but she sort of knew really that it would be fine. Truth be told, Katherine took as much pleasure in teasing Richard as her and Alexis did - with the added bonus of knowing Richard would panic every time it was brought up into conversation. "None as beautiful as you though, Katherine." She added. "He always had a woman on his arm, pretty much since he was seventeen, I couldn't keep up! He even married two of them - though I could I have told you they weren't right for him. And the day he met Katherine? Well, I knew from then that he had found his match - someone who wouldn't let him get away with anything!" Martha stopped and smiled at her son and daughter in law, she was so very happy for the both of them and it meant a lot for her to see them both this happy.

"Now, it hasn't always been easy for the two of them, oh no, they're both very stubborn and determined people and that has caused one or two problems along the way! What with Katherine being afraid to admit how she felt and Richard afraid to push too far in fear of pushing her away..definitely lead to a few miscommunication issues but they figured it out in the end."

"That they did, Martha, that they did." Jim smiled. "I'll be the first to agree that my Katie is stubborn, always has been. Even as a toddler she had to do everything her way, wouldn't even let us help her get dressed! Oh you can't even imagine how many days she spent with her shoes on the wrong feet or her t-shirt on back to front - but she wouldn't let us help her change it!" Castle laughed, that was his Kate alright - never wanting to admit she was wrong. Well, she did that a little more now, ever since she'd let her walls down and let him in.

"I know it hasn't been the easiest of rides for the two of you but you got there in the end." Martha said. "Richard - I've always been proud of you, you've made a good name for yourself and you work ever so hard. You're a brilliant father to Alexis here - doesn't mean I don't want more grandchildren though! Katherine - I know it hasn't always been easy for you but even I can see the influence my son has had on you, he adores you and I can see how much you love him and I'm so happy for you both, you make a wonderful couple and I'm so pleased you finally worked out your differences and got it together. I've seen you as the daughter I never had for many years now and I know I can never take the place of your mother but I hope you can see me as someone you can come to if you ever feel the need. I hope you both have a wonderful life together - you deserve it!" She raised her glass and toasted her son and the girl she thought of as a daughter and said "to Richard and Katherine." With the guests doing the same.

"Rick - first I have to say a huge thank you. I know Katie isn't the easiest person to be around but you've stuck with her through it all, never leaving her side unless she asked you to and being there for her when she needed someone the most. I know you never met Johanna, but I can promise you without a doubt that she would have loved you just as much as we do and she would have been happy that you were the one to win over Katie's heart." He paused, taking a deep breath, it was still hard to talk about his wife like this, especially on a day that she should have been here to enjoy too. "Katie, I love you. So much. I'm so proud of how far you've come and I know you'll be the first to admit that having Rick around has made it easier. Your mother would have been so proud of you today, you look just like her, you know.." He broke off at the tears swimming in his daughters eyes. He knew how much she was missing her mom, particularly today. "Don't cry, sweetheart, you know she's looking down on you and I'm sure she was looking down on you when you first met Rick, too and right now she'll be saying 'I told you so' - the two of you are meant to be together, Katie and you've definitely got the most wonderful, amazing man there - you're a lucky girl. Rick, you just continue to look after her the way you always have done and we'll get along just fine." He stopped, raising his glass just as Martha had done and said "to Katie and Rick."

Putting his glass down, Jim wiped the tears from his own eyes and walked over to hug his daughter. "She'd be so happy today, Katie, so happy." He whispered in her ear, feeling her squeeze him in return.

"I know, daddy, thank you." She whispered back. It had been a wonderful day, the only thing she wished was that her mother was here. They had left a seat out for her during the ceremony and she was going to visit her with Rick in the morning. It had been hard doing it without her, but she had Martha and Alexis - and most importantly she had Rick.

She switched places with her husband and moved to hug Martha. "Thank you, Martha. I know I haven't always been the best person to your son but I promise you I've never loved anyone the way I love him."

"I know you do, kiddo. And he loves you too, always has. And I meant what I said - if you need me, you know where I am."

"Thank you, Martha. He's lucky to have you, you know." Kate said.

"Oh I know." Martha said with a laugh, returning to her seat next to Alexis.

"Well, that's the parents out of the way." Rick whispered into her ear. "And it wasn't that bad, was it?"

Kate laughed. "No, I'm sure it could have gone a lot worse! But um, Alexis is up next..I think I'm more worried about that one if I'm honest.."


A/N: found this chapter pretty hard to write, one of the reasons it's fairly short - I always have trouble with Martha and I've hardly touched on Jim in any previous stories and I can ever tell if they're authentic or not so your reviews would be more than welcome, especially for this chapter!