"I wasn't planning on it but I think I'd like to." she answers with peck on the lips.

"Okay, good." he answers, now leering at her "Got anything in particular you'd like to do to pass the time?" he asks wiggling his eye-brows.

She slowly pulls him down so his lips are almost touching hers and whispers "As a matter of fact, I do!" and then rolls him onto the floor with a quick flip.

"Oooof!" he lets out as he lands on his back with her on top of him smiling. "Detective Beckett! Are you trying to take advantage of me?" he mock protests.

"I'm so sorry! No! No I wasn't." she quickly answers apologetically and gets up off of him on the floor.

"No no no! Don't leave!" he panics only to see her standing over him and smirking.

"Gotcha!" she says with a little fist pump.

Rolling over, knocking her legs out from under her and then catching her as she falls squealing like a little girl, he breathes in her face "You sure do."

The two are canoodle on the floor like silly teenagers when Kate suddenly sits back on her heels "Rick..." she's biting her lip again and looking worried.

"What's up Kate?" he asks sitting up with her now.

"Would you mind..." she starts to say.

"No I wouldn't." he interrupts.

"You don't even know what I was going to ask!" She says firmly with her hands on her hips.

"Actually, I think I do but I don't care what you were going to ask, the answer is yes, whatever the question." he says smiling.

She stares into those blue eyes and just smiles back at him. She puts her hand on his cheek "Remind me how I got you again?" she asks warmly.

"I called my friend the mayor and had him order your boss to order it despite your loud and vehement objections." he smirks at her.

"Oh yeah. Now I remember." she says. "That damn Roy." she finishes with a slight wink.

"Anyway... Back to the situation at hand, you were going to ask me if I'd help you write that letter and get those envelopes into tomorrow's mail." he says smiling and stretching out on the floor.

"How?" she sits staring at him "What the? How the hell could you have guessed that?"

"Because my dear Ms Beckett, you're not the only observant one in this relationship." he smirks at her as he gets up off the floor and offers her his hand.

"Well Mr Castle you're just full of surprises aren't you."

"Only when properly motivated." he says with a sly look on his face. "Why don't you get us refills of that wine while I get prepared and we'll compose that letter right now."

"You're on Mister Writer-Man!" she giggles walking over to get the glasses and, seeing him turn towards his desk, she swats him on his backside and scoots out of the room laughing. Little does she realize, he'd do anything to hear that laugh from her for the rest of his life.

He grabs his laptop and he sits on the couch waiting for her to return. He fires up his word processor and gets ready to compose with his muse. He hears her call out from the other room. "Do you think I should worry about using my own address or phone number with these people?"

"What do you mean?" he calls back to her only to be surprised by her walking in carrying the glasses.

"Well, I don't know who these people are and in the interest of safety, would it be smart of me to use the 12th's address instead of my home?" she asks hesitantly.

"We'll use my lawyer's address. I just have to call Dewey to let him know what we're doing. As for the phone number, we'll use his too, his office can connect the contact to you directly without releasing your phone number." he says smugly.

"Have you got an answer for everything?" she asks sliding onto the couch next to him.

"Everything but one." he answers confidently.

"What's that?" she asks nonchalantly unawares of his pending answer.

"You, Katherine Beckett, you." he says softly kissing the side of her head as she pauses with her wine halfway to her mouth, blushing a little and smiling.

"Come on writer man, you're wasting time, let's get this done." she announces.

"In a hurry?"

"Yes." she replies with a wink.

"Okay, what would you like to say?" he asks flexing his fingers over the keyboard like a pianist preparing for a concert.

"Why don't just I trust your judgement on this?" Kate answers while she pulls her feet up under her and leans on Rick's shoulder.

"Well! This confirms what I've always thought."

"Ahhhh... What's that?" she asks taking a sip of her wine.

"You my lovely detective, think I have judgement! Ha! Gotcha!" he crows with childish glee as he starts his fingers flying over the keyboard.

"Child!" she murmurs as she waits for him to finish.

"Ta-da!" he announces suddenly.

"Really? That fast?" she asks as she struggles to sit up and look at his screen.

"Yeah, sorry it took so long. I had to write it twice."

"Seriously?"

"Umm... yeah. Ahem... Pro-fessisonal writer? Remember?" he says with a glint in his eye, then he leans over to her and whispers "Your writer."

"You're going to make me pay for this for weeks and weeks aren't you." she smirks hugging his arm.

"No, that'd be a silly thing to do. I can milk this for months."

"Okay, sounds good. Enough of the clever banter, let's get this done before the wine takes over. What do you have?"

"We'll individually address each letter and we'll put your name and lawyer's address at the top but the body says..." he clears throat "Dear blabla. I hope this letter finds you well. I was a friend of the late Michael Royce. I recently came into possession of some of his belongings and found the enclosed, sealed and addressed envelope Mike had intended to mail. I felt it was in everyone's best interest to provide this cover letter to you and forward on to you the letter unopened. Should you ever need to contact me for any reason, I may be reached at the above address or phone number. Sincerely, Detective Katherine Beckett bla bla bla."

"Okay, so I might have to be nice to you for this after all. That's a good letter. I'm sold. Let me get the names and addresses off of his letters." she says getting up to retrieve the case and letters.


A little while later, rummaging around in the office she calls out "Okay Rick, where are you hiding your envelopes?"

"Over there, on the bottom. No, the other... Wait, don't bother, I'll get them while you check and sign these letters I just printed. Here, you can even use your new Mont-Blanc pen." he laughs standing up and passing by her running his hand across her backside.

"You just wanted an excuse to do that." she laughs.

"I always want to do that." he answers without turning.

Walking back to the desk with the envelopes in hand, he puts them down, walks behind her standing at the desk reading one of the letters. Grabs her by the hips and pushes her over in front of his chair and then into the seated position. "I don't want to hear objections. SIT!" he says firmly "I don't care if you like it, you sit in this chair."

She lets out a groan but doesn't say a word. Smiling she pulls the letters over in front of her, signs them, folds them into thirds, then using a small bit of adhesive tape, sticks them to the matching envelope of Mike's. "Hey, what do we do about postage?"

"I'll take care of that tomorrow. I'll go to the post office and send them myself and pay for the postage right then. I will also get a return-receipt for them so we know they have been delivered to their destinations. That way we know that you've done your part faithfully." he offers as he lines up the larger envelopes for her to address with the associated letter.

"While you do that I'll email Dewey and let him know what we're doing. When you're done there we'll send him a list of names so he'll know who's calling or writing, if they ever do." he says sitting down on the couch with his laptop. He can still see how uncomfortable she is in his chair out of the corner of his eye.

"Thank Dewey for me Rick." she adds.

"I will but since he's on retainer, he's already been thanked and very handsomely I might add." he answers lightly while typing away.

"That's it, the last of them has been done." she says sitting back looking at the small pile of envelopes on the desk in front of her. "I know it is silly but I wish I could do more for him than just this final act."

"Kate. You are. You just don't see it. You're keeping his memory alive and telling his stories. You're also handling things like his business card case without his family seeing it. You're also going to try and get that family memento back to them. Quite frankly dear, I think the thing that Mike would appreciate more than anything is the knowledge that you don't hold his mistake against him and that you still cared enough to fight for him." Rick explains, speaking in his serious 'dad' voice.

"Well, that's something I guess. Maybe you're right. Either way, it is what is is." she says quietly.

"Okay! I've sent my email to Dewey and I'll send him the list of names in the morning before I mail them." he says closing his laptop with a click and putting it on the couch next to him. Looking at the lovely woman across the room, he drinks in her visage for a while before getting up and offering her his hand. "Are you ready to turn in dear? You've had a busy day."

She looks up into those blue pools of love and kindness and smiles. "Yes. Yes I am." she answers taking his hand, standing up and walking around the desk. "I might need to do some exercises to get properly sleepy though, do you want to help?"

"Yippee!" he squeals. "Oh, sorry. Was that too enthusiastic?"

"Nope, just right!" she answers hitting the switch for the lights in the office, turning around and pulling him by the arms into the bedroom.


Author's note:
About the thing with his chair. See my story "Moby's last moments" I believe Kate would still have reservations about sitting in that chair.