Hello everyone! Thank you very much for the overwhelming response to this story! I've had some people wonder whether this is a set-up just to get things going between Castle & Beckett, and I assure you, it's not! In this branch of the Castle Universe, Ryan really did marry Honey-Milk and it will last. That being said, you will all be squee-ing with delight when we get to the chapter with the long-anticipated kiss!


Castle usually reserved Saturdays for sleeping past his alarm, ten o'clock pancakes with his girls and an hour or two of uninterrupted Halo Wars action. But not this Saturday. It was the big day, and there was too much to do. An early-morning escape was not only necessary, it was sanity-defining. He was up and out of the house with a note for Lex-zilla by eight, down to the oh-so-New-York-cliche of the Jewish barbershop for the man-works. He sent the owner's granddaughter a wink and a smile that had her lovely olive complexion going pink.

'Sosanna, lovely as always.'

'Hi Mr. Castle. My granddad's just in the back. I'll get started on your haircut.'

Castle felt Sosanna tilt the chair back, run warm water over his head as he inhaled the deep masculines scents of his favourite traditional barbershop - leather chairs, the heady smell of Gideon's old-world shaving creams, lotions and soaps, and the underlying whiff of the cigars the barber enjoyed at precisely ten and three every day. He picked up a copy of the Saturday paper - Gideon was a faithful New York Ledger reader, forever bitching when they raised the prices yet never canceled his subscription once in the forty-two years he'd run his shop - and immediately went for the Arts & Literature section, scanning to the book-sales. He grinned foolishly when he saw the blurb from Paula bubbling over about the pre-sales for the second Nikki Heat book. Wouldn't Beckett just have six fits over that?

'Alright, you schmuck, get over here and make it quick.'

Castle's grin stayed in place when he heard the unmistakable Lower East Side twang of Gideon Meyers. Despite the fact that Castle was five inches taller, sixty pounds heavier and twenty-five years younger, he always felt like the short, chubby twelve year-old he'd been when he first met Gideon. The man was skinny as one of his combs, his hair a blinding white that stood up from his head in a curly two-inch crown, and always wore tailored slacks and corduroy vest when he worked his trade. Though his demeanour was gruff and impatient, Castle knew he kept a jar of ginger-candies behind the counter for his younger customers, along with a mini-fridge of soft-drinks and a bottle of Sabra liquor for toasting an engagement or baby.

He rose from his chair and embraced Gideon tightly. 'Good to see you again.'

'Big fancy writer-man, you got no time for me anymore? You come in here for a trim and that's it?'

'Actually, I was thinking we could go a little more old school, the Meyers special.'

Gideon's thick white eyebrows nearly lifted off his face. 'Well, now, this is a surprise, Richard. Shosanna, the ginger oil, and that hippie crap you convinced me to buy.' As his girl scuttled to the supply room Gideon turned back to Castle, who'd already made himself at home in the middle chair. 'I must say, this is most definitely a surprise. Are you getting new headshots done?'

Castle sat in the chair, felt instantly more relaxed that he had all week as Gideon draped a hot towel over his face. 'No. I'm hosting a wedding reception at my house for a friend.'

'Oh, one of the policemen you mentioned on the talk show?'

'Yeah, Ryan and his girlfriend tied the knot last Saturday night. Her mother was in the hospital and they thought she wasn't going to last very long so they decided to get married so she could see her only daughter get married.'

Gideon clucked his tongue. 'That's not a reason to get married. You get married because you love each other, because of a lifetime without them is incomprehensible.'

Castle said nothing, thought of why he'd gotten married both times. The first had been his sense of adventure - wildly in lust with Meredith, and that passion had given him the most beautiful baby girl in the universe. The second had been tequila shots after a book launch party in Vegas - it really did prove that nothing good ever happened after 2 A.M. It wasn't that he was afraid of the commitment, he loved the idea of finding someone to spend his life with, he just happened to plant that flag on quicksand twice. More than anything, he wanted the third to be the charm. He knew there was a lot happening in the next years of his daughter's life that he as a man was just not equipped to understand. And lately, every time he thought about that third charm, his thoughts immediately centered on a prickly detective with Bambi eyes and come-hither voice. The one who'd given him reason to take more than one cold shower, or had him waking to a miserable empty bed.

Thankfully he had Sosanna to distract him, but not by much, when he heard her ask, 'Are you taking that pretty detective from Cosmo to this party?'

'She was already coming, I didn't think I needed to ask her again.'

'Oy vey, you are dense, Richard.' Gideon pulled back the hot towel, slapped his client's cheeks smartly. 'What my darling Sosanna means is did you ask her to the party?'

Castle tried to sit up but found Sosanna pinning his shoulders in place. 'I...we don't have that kind of relationship. I've tried a couple of times and it looks like it's not going to happen.'

'Really? Then why are you here getting hot oil, hot towel, the rest of it when you could have gone up town. The last time you were here, as I recall, was when you took her on that undercover assignment to stop the home invasions.'

'No, Zeidy, it was the week before he left to go to the Hamptons. He invited her then too. I'm a woman, Mr. Castle, we have radar about these things,' Sosanna added, off his panicked look that the tabloids had gotten hold of private information.

Castle opened his mouth, closed it as he saw Gideon draw out his stainless steel straight razors. The man could turn into a little Jewish Sweeney Todd if he wanted, so Castle played his cards smartly. 'I didn't ask her because I have a plan, and I hope to God it works.'

'Oh schemes.' Sosanna pumped a thin gold oil that smelled of pinewood into her hands and began to massage Castle's scalp. 'Do tell.'


R&R&Enjoy.