Note: You guys are great! Your reviews make me laugh, and smile! I had yesterday and today off of work, so I figured, why not write more? This is quickly becoming one of my favorite things to do, mostly because of your encouragement. Thanks for the reviews and continued reading and support! I found this quote today and figured, since you all seem to love reading as much as me, I might as well share it. "Life is like a novel. It's filled with suspense. You have no idea what is going to happen until you turn the page." – Sidney Sheldon

Maybe Marlowe will share Castle with me. Ok, probably not, but a girl can dream, right?

Chapter 7.

Kate felt the sunlight hit her through the curtains and rolled over to be spooned by her fiancé. She saw her clock blinking, Wedding Countdown: 30 Days Until You Are Mrs. Rick Castle! Time was flying by. They were getting married in the New York Public Library, she had a dress, he had a tuxedo, they had chosen a cake, but there was still so much to do. The last couple of days had been a blur of getting her boxes of things sent from D.C., unpacking, and practicing their baby making skills. Definitely not a bad way to spend a couple days, not bad at all, she smiled to herself. Kate felt Rick's arm tighten around her stomach and she breathed out a sigh of contentment, taking in the moment of extreme comfort. He pressed his nose into the back of her neck and Kate turned around in greeting, giving him a long kiss.

"Good morning, handsome," she told him when she finally pulled away.

"Morning," he said sleepily, hugging her to him. "I could really get used to our lazy mornings."

"Ha, me too. As much as I miss going into work, it is pretty nice to be able to cuddle with you in the mornings." Kate was about to speak again when the door came open and Martha came in carrying a tray of breakfast. Kate let out a slight squeak and pulled the covers up over her, even though she was currently wearing Rick's oldest Batman t-shirt.

"Oh Darling, don't worry about me. I'm just bringing you two breakfast before I'm off to another class!"

"Mother, haven't we talked about this?" Rick asked, annoyed with how quickly she seemed to have forgotten her promise to knock.

"You needn't worry, Richard. As I told you before, there's nothing going on in here I haven't seen or done myself."

"Cuz that makes it better," Rick muttered to Kate who let out a small laugh.

With that, Pi burst into the room, thankfully fully clothed this time. "Hey Mr. C, almost Mrs. C! Do you want a smoothie with your breakfast? Al said you probably wouldn't but I had to come check to make sure. Didn't want to be rude!"

Rick turned to Kate who was still half hidden under the covers. "He didn't want to be rude?" he asked her quietly in disbelief before turning back to Pi. "No, Pi, we're good, but thanks. I'm pretty sure we had the knocking talk with you too…"

"Well, yea, Mr. C, but the door was open, so I figured, why not?"

With that, Alexis too made her way into their now extremely crowded bedroom. "What's everyone doing?" she asked looking around.

"I was bringing these two kids breakfast," Martha explained. "And Pi was checking to see if they wanted smoothies."

"Yes," Rick said, annoyed. "Everyone has decided to make themselves quite comfortable."

"Well, Dad, when you get a sec, can you guys come out to the living room? Pi and I want to talk to you about something."

"Sure, Pumpkin," Rick told her, giving his mother and Pi a look that clearly said, get out.

When they had all filed out of the room, Rick got up to close and lock the door. "You would think I would have learned to lock the door," he told Kate, shaking his head.

"Well, at least they didn't come in while we were practicing," Kate responded, a glint in her eye.

"If they would have been a minute or two later, they probably would have," Rick pouted.

Kate laughed. "We have plenty of time for that. We really should get some more planning done today. According to my nifty little clock, we only have 30 days to go! Plus we need to get dressed so we can see what Alexis and Pi want to talk to us about."

"Yeah. I wonder what this is about," Rick said, sitting down and shoveling eggs into his mouth.

Kate took a sip of her coffee before helping herself to some of the eggs. "I guess we have to get dressed and find out."

Rick was very much in his head as they moved with ease around each other, so familiar with where the other was moving. Kate knew that even though they had minutes to go before finding out what Alexis had to say that her fiancé was working himself up. She laid a hand on his shoulder as she made her way to the bathroom to put on her make up. "It's going to be fine, Rick. There's no use worrying until you know what they are going to say."

"What if she's…pregnant? Or…God, Kate."

"Rick. Stop. It won't be anything like that." She really hoped not. She was new to this whole mom thing, and she didn't know if she could handle helping Alexis and Rick through something like that right now. Kate swiped some mascara on her lashes and pulled Rick towards the door. "Let's see what this is about."

Martha was nowhere to be seen. She must have left already, Kate thought to herself, wondering if this was on purpose so they could have privacy for whatever conversation was to come. Alexis and Pi were sitting on the couch, heads together in quiet conversation, which stopped as soon as they heard Rick and Kate enter the room.

"Why don't you guys come join us?" Alexis asked, gesturing to the couch across from her and Pi.

Rick squeezed Kate's hand as they made their way over, sitting down across from the young couple.

"Alexis. What's going on?" Rick asked his daughter. "You're scaring me."

"Dad, it's nothing to be scared of," she smiled at Pi. "It's good news, really."

"What's up, Alexis?" Kate asked now, wishing they would hurry up and just spit it out.

Pi took Alexis' hand and she took a deep breath. "Well, you know how we talked the other day about you guys needing some privacy? Pi and I talked about everything and we decided that not only did you guys deserve some privacy, we needed some too. So, we found an apartment, signed the lease, and are moving out this weekend." She said the last part quickly, and hastened a glance across the coffee table at her father.

Rick sat there in stunned silence. "You're moving in with Pi? Alexis, what?" he stumbled across the last words, not sure exactly what he was saying.

Alexis appeared to be trying to calm herself down, nerves threatening to boil over. "You said it yourself Dad, we don't really give you guys any privacy. The loft is like grand central station half the time. I'll still come visit, and stay for holidays and things like that, but I think it's time I have my own place. Pi is part of that deal now too, Dad. Can you please try to understand?" she pleaded, shooting Kate a hopeful look, almost willing her to intervene on her behalf.

Kate looked over at the stunned Rick, and contemplated what to say, hoping she wasn't about to overstep. "Alexis, you're almost 20. We can't exactly tell you what to do anymore, but I want to make sure you have really, truly considered what you're doing. Living with anyone can be difficult," she paused and elbowed Rick, "especially someone you are dating." This didn't really make him smile, but it did seem to wake him up from his trancelike state.

"Kate's right, Alexis. I can't tell you what to do. If this is what you want, what you really want, I'm going to support you." Rick turned to Pi now. "And you remember that the almost Mrs. C used to be a cop and is very good with her gun."

Pi wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he said, "uh sure thing, Mr. C. I'll take care of Al."

"Thanks, Dad," Alexis grinned, launching herself over to envelope him in a bear hug. She turned to hug Kate too before standing up and pulling Pi with her. "We're going to go look at some furniture for our new place. We'll be back later. Maybe we can all grab dinner or something tonight?" she asked hopefully.

"Sure thing, Pumpkin," Rick told her, watching as his daughter left with her soon to be live in boyfriend.

As the door closed behind them, Kate turned to Rick. "You handled that remarkably well, babe. You okay?"

"My little girl is going to live with Mr. I-think-spelling-stifles-creativity," Rick sighed. "How did this happen?"

"Little girls grow up, Rick. It will work out. I really don't think Pi will be the guy for her. We just need to let her ride this relationship out. I hope I didn't overstep with that whole situation…" she trailed off, lifting her legs to place them in his lap.

Rick absentmindedly rubbed her leg. "No, no you didn't. You helped actually. I couldn't get my brain to connect with my mouth in order to talk."

Kate laughed. "You? Unable to talk? I thought that was weird! And nice touch with the gun angle - hopefully that will keep him in check."

He tickled the bottom of her foot, and watched her squirm, before turning serious again. "What do you think we should do?"

"About Alexis?"

"About our living situation," he glanced over at the surprised expression on her face. "I mean, I love it here, and we've been here for a while, but I want to make sure wherever we are you are comfortable, and we could be happy raising a family. If Alexis is going to move out, I don't know if this place will really be the same."

Kate hadn't ever thought of them living anywhere but the loft. She considered him for a moment before speaking. Rick just waited and watched as her mind processed this new information. "Are you sure you want to think about leaving this place, Rick?"

"I don't really know. I think we should consider it though. What if we have four more kids? This won't really be big enough." He laughed watching her face pale at this.

"F-four?" she sputtered.

"I'm teasing Kate, unless that's what you want. It's just something to think about. Do you want to raise your, I mean our kids here?"

"I love the loft as much as you do, Rick. But, if you want to look elsewhere, I'd be open to that." Kate decided to let the four kids comment go for now. They could discuss that later.

"What do you say we go at least see what's out there? Then we can make a decision on whether or not we want to move."

"I think that's fair," she leaned forward and brushed a kiss against his cheek. "It's been a crazy morning already, hasn't it?"

He pulled her into his lap, moving her hair and kissing the back of her neck softly. "Yes, yes it has. We still have wedding plans to make though, and now, to add to it, new homes to visit."

Kate relaxed into him and sighed. "Do we really need to do it now? I'm so comfortable right here. And it's so quiet!"

"We can think about some of the things right now. Where would you like to have the reception? All we have to do is decide, and I can make a call to get the ball rolling."

She thought for a moment. "What do you think about having it at the Old Haunt? Is that weird? Having a reception at a bar?"

Rick considered her a moment. "No, I don't think it's weird. I happen to know the owner," he smirked, causing her to laugh. "I know he would be okay closing it for the day and having different tables brought in. It wouldn't be bad at all. We will hire someone to clear out the tables, bring new ones in, get all of our place settings brought in and a dance floor. I'm liking the sound of this more and more!"

"It sounds perfect, between that and the library, I think this wedding is going to scream Caskett!" Kate told him and felt his laughter as she leaned into him. "We still have some time before we have to meet the florist, what do you say we get some practice in?" Rick didn't need to be told twice. He scooped her up and swept away into the bedroom.

The florist had taken longer than their appointment at the bakery. It seemed as though each thought Kate had regarding flowers was impractical because of the time of year they were getting married. Eventually, however, Kate decided on a combination of dark red dahlias, golden black-eyed Susans, yellow and orange calla lilies, purple trachelium and orange roses. All of these flowers would be in her bridal bouquet and various other combinations would be in the centerpieces for the tables and decorating the room in which they would be married. Rick and Kate were thrilled with the way the accents would look with their overall black and white theme.

Rick had received a text from Alexis saying she and Pi would meet them for dinner at Remy's so they were strolling around the city, killing time until they were supposed to meet.

"We just need to figure out food, bridesmaids dresses, a photographer, a videographer, gifts for the bridal party, and favors. Right? Am I forgetting anything?" Kate asked as they strolled down the street hand in hand.

"I think so. We can set up a tasting and have different caterers come to us at the Old Haunt if that sounds good. I don't think you want to have bar food at our reception, am I right?"

"You're right," she grinned, "even though I don't really care what we serve. Can we really have the caterers all come to us?"

"You bet," he told her, squeezing her hand and pulling it up to hold over his heart. "Anything you want my love."

"I can't believe how quickly this is all coming together," Kate told him as they walked in the door at Remy's, looking around for Alexis and Pi. When they didn't see them, Rick steered her to their favorite booth in the back so they could sit and wait for the others to join them.

"What do you want to do for gifts for the guys?" Kate asked, leaning into Rick's shoulder as they sat down.

"Should I get them their own laser tag vests and guns?" Rick weighed the idea as Kate shook her head at her man-child. "Come on, that would be awesome! We could have laser tag parties!"

"Are you guys ever going to grow up?" she questioned her fiancé.

"Doubtful," Rick told her. "You don't want me to grow up. You love me and my childlike qualities," he teased.

"You're right, I do."

"Knew it. I'll figure something out for them, don't worry. What are you gonna get the girls?"

"They were all admiring these necklaces at the bridal boutique, so I was thinking about getting those. That way they can wear them at the wedding and hopefully still use them later on."

"Sounds good to me. Are you going to do that with their dresses too? Let them get something they'll wear again or are you going to get them hideous dresses that will cause them to secretly hate you?"

Kate laughed. "I actually told them to go pick them by themselves. I just told them they had to be black and knee-length. I want them to be in dresses that they love and feel comfortable in. I think it will be more fun to see their individual styles played out."

"You're too kind!" Rick said as he checked his watch. Alexis and Pi were now ten minutes late. That wasn't like her.

"Why don't you call her?" Kate asked, noting Rick's concern.

"I'm sure she's fine," he assured her, looking over at the door.

Rick and Kate sat there for another twenty minutes waiting on Alexis and Pi to no avail. Rick finally decided to call Alexis and the phone went right to voicemail. "Kate, I'm starting to get worried."

"Does Pi have a phone?" Kate wondered, placing a hand over Rick's to calm him.

"No," his brow furrowed and he tried Alexis' phone again. "Still goes to voicemail."

"Maybe her phone died, Rick. We're probably worrying for nothing. Why don't we leave a note at the door here in case they come later, and head home to check if they're there."

Rick nodded silently, and allowed himself to be steered to the front of the diner.

"Thanks, Kate," he told her, hugging her to his side.

"Always," she replied simply as they headed home to look for their daughter.