Dave fidgeted a little in the elevator, unsure of what to think. He was going to poker night with Lanie's friends - a night that had been postponed after the shootout with the Picasso killer that had left Esposito shot and Ryan seriously injured. He'd visited not only because he knew it would mean a lot to Lanie but also because he liked the detective. He met the enigmatic Meredeth and after a fifteen minute conversation with the writer, Dave could tell why Esposito was so gone over her and how she had wormed her way into Lanie's heart.

And now it was Dave's turn to make friends as well. Shouldering his bag, as he hadn't had time to change at Saint Vincent's he stepped off the lift and knocked on Castle's door. The man himself greeted him with a friendly smile and open beer.

'David, you made it! Come on in.'

He stepped back in welcome and Dave tried very very hard not to be dazzled. It helped seeing Ryan and Esposito in the kitchen, though it was a little startling to see one with a sling and one with a cast. The other man at the table he didn't recognize, a wiry blond man who fiddled with a decorative lacquered bamboo cane propped up on the side of the table.

'You remember Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito, of course, and this fine fellow is Cameron George, Esposito's brother-in-law. This is Lanie's guy Dave Robbins.'

'Nice to meet you,' Cam said, nodded briskly at the new addition. 'What's your house?'

'Oh, ah, Saint Vincent's, my partner Jayla and I are the MBC first responders.'

'Cool. I'm a triage nurse over at George Washington Memorial.'

'The bathroom's back there, why don't you go get changed?' Castle offered, pointing to the door under the stairs.

He changed into his jeans and a t-shirt, and when sat down at the table dressed and feeling like a civilian again, Esposito passed him a beer.

'Any more Mexican food for lunch, Dave?' He grinned, pleased when the man just shook his head. 'Just screwing with ya. Truth be told, Lanie's been pretty tight-lipped about you, so be prepared for Twenty-Questions.'

'Yeah, if you're gonna hang with us, you have to know we're a nosy bunch being in each others pockets so much with work and that,' Ryan added.

They were true to their word, as over the course of the Texas Hold'Em game Dave found he was actually using their intrigue with him as bargaining chips to add to the pot. On his downswings, they learned amongst other things he was of Italian extraction, he'd graduated from NYU with a bachelors degree in biochem and that while he loathed most forms of sugary candy, he was a sucker for Jelly Bellies. Fortunately his luck turned and he began to pocket some cash, which he knew would make them wonder if he'd played possum with them just so they could grease a little of his life story out of him. When he cleaned up on a hand with a lovely trio of queens, Ryan shook his head.

'Another one to beat me at cards,' he grumbled good-naturedly. 'You musta been a sharp back in...where is it you were from again?'

'Santa Fe, well Albany first, then Santa Fe and now here for the last two years, almost.'

'Why'd you move back?' Castle asked, shuffling the deck.

Dave scratched the back of his neck. It was somehow more difficult to tell the men who were Lanie's friends than Lanie herself; he knew she'd already talked about it with her girlfriends because he knew that's what women did. 'It's, umm, well...'

'Did you kill someone?' Cam inquired.

'No. It was my wife, Hannah, she was the one who died. She was in a collision with an eighteen wheeler and the guys who I worked with responded,' he explained, knowing he had their attention full well. There were probably harder juries in the world to face, but these men who were essentially Lanie's brothers had to rank in the top five.

Once done, none of them said anything right away until Esposito leaned forward. 'Does Lanie know about it?'

'Of course, I told her on our first date.'

Ryan whistled, sipped his beer. 'That's brave, man.'

'It's Lanie. She's worth the risk.'

'You love her,' Esposito stated, smiling at the idea of Lanie in love. It was like when he'd heard Cam say the big L to Lili for the first time. 'You are in love with our Lanie.'

'Of course I am.'

His simple words had Castle looking at the other men who appeared to share his thoughts. 'Have you told her how you feel?'

'No. I feel it, I know I do, but...it's too soon, we haven't even been together two months. It took me about five to just ask her out to dinner.'

'Are you scared she won't say it back?' Esposito leaned forward. 'You gotta be willing to take that chance and tell her.'

'I know how she feels about me.' Dave paused, unsure of how ho-yay his next sentence would seem. 'It's been almost three years since Hannah died, and Lanie's the first actual girlfriend I've had since her death, because she's the first one not to run away from my emotional baggage. We didn't even have sex for over a month because...' He trailed off, knowing he'd reached the point of too much information.

Instead, Esposito reached over, tapped his bottled soft-drink against Dave's beer bottle. 'It's all good man, you gotta go with what's right for you and your lady. Meredeth and I waited, and both of us know it was the right thing to do. Then you have Castle and Ryan who waited less than a week.'

'Hell, Lili and I waited until our wedding night,' Cam chipped in as he rose from his chair, and to Dave's surprise, took the lacquered cane to help his uneven gait as he headed for the downstairs men's room. The moment the door was closed, Dave looked back and scanned the others' faces.

'What happened to him?'

'He took some shrapnel to the knee during his third tour,' Castle said in a low, calm voice. 'They honourably discharged him, and he's been going through PT but the doctors said he's got that limp and his whole leg rather than an amputation and a prosthetic.'

'Ah. How does Lili, is it, how does she handle it?'

'Some days I don't honestly know,' Esposito said sincerely. 'But every relationship faces its tests in its own time.'

'Like you and Meredeth have with you being such a priss over your arm?' Ryan chided his partner teasingly.

'Hey, you got some road rash to your face and a broken arm. I was shot, remember?'

'Children, children,' Castle said in his best teacher-knows-best voice. 'Why don't we just play some cards? Then we can hear more about this turtle that Dave bought his girlfriend.'


Because he was on nights the next day, and Lanie was on the swing shift, Dave took the subway with Cam back to the West Village; he'd discovered that their apartment was just a couple of blocks from Lanie's place.

'Does Ryan always get that cranky whenever you play cards?'

'Oh yeah. For an Irishman, he certainly doesn't live up to the hype,' Cam chuckled as they approached their diverging blocks. They stopped on the corner and Cam held out his cane-free hand, bumped knuckles with Dave. 'You seem alright, bro, and don't let those guys get to you about the Lanie and the L-word thing. It'll happen in its time.'

'You seem pretty wise on this subject.'

Cam tugged on his ear. 'Yeah, well...remember when I said my wife and I waited until we were married? It's because she was a virgin and wanted the first time she made love with someone to be her wedding night. The point is, something that big and important to you, you do it on your terms, not because someone else says it's time.'

'Thanks man.'

'Alright, I better head off before Lili sends out the rescue dogs for the peg-leg. See ya soon, man.'

'See ya.' Dave watched the man walk down the street towards Sixth Avenue before he turned towards Lanie's building and had her buzz him up.

When he knocked on her door, she answered in her bathrobe, hair damp and braided. 'Hey sweetie,' she greeted him with a warm kiss. 'How was poker night with the guys.'

'Good. I really like them, especially Ryan and Esposito. They're fun.'

'They're a package deal when we're on the job. I call them Ry-Sposito, my favourite two-headed monster.'

'That's clever, I gotta use that one next poker game. Oh, and I'm sure you already got the invite but we get to go up to Castle's for Memorial Day on Friday if we're interested.' Dave toed off his shoes, began unbutton his shirt as he made his way to Lanie's shower. 'You feel like it? I want to, I'd like to meet Meredeth and Jenny and Honey-Milk.'

'Jenny and Honey-Milk are the same person, it's a nickname we gave her,' Lanie giggled, then felt her head go light when Dave was down to his boxers by the time he was in her tiny bathroom. 'You need a towel, there, hot stuff?'

'Actually,' he leaned over to turn on the water, the looked back at her, 'I wouldn't mind some company.'

'I just had a bath,' she started, then felt her brain fizz when he kissed her.

'Nothing like being dirty when you just got clean.'


After they'd finished their shower together, which Lanie admitted had been steamy in more ways than one, they were stretched out together on her bed and since Dave had already fallen asleep, Lanie took the time to brush her hands over his thick black hair.

'You're so sweet,' she murmured, 'and I love you.'


R&R&Enjoy!