Chapter Ten

Castle couldn't stop grinning. It wasn't just the excitement of being thrown into the water by someone practically half his size, though that had to go on his list of top ten coolest things ever. Nor was it the fact that he had been holding Kate in a position that was far more fantasy than he cared to admit, though that found a spot on the list as well. It was that look on her face as he asked if they could do it again.

The light danced in her eyes as she gave him a mesmerizing smile. It wasn't the tight little smirk as she tried to avoid laughing at one of his jokes that were in decidedly poor taste at a crime scene or the morgue. It wasn't the teasing grin she got when Ryan or Esposito bested him in a duel of words. It wasn't even the heartfelt or grateful smiles he had seen a handful of time and locked away in his memory banks for safe keeping. This one was new.

He didn't know how to classify it in terms of Beckett, so he linked this one to Kate and only Kate. Her teeth were dazzling, slightly parted from the sheer width of her grin and he could see a hint of pink tongue hiding behind them. This smile was one for the record book and he instantly found himself addicted to the carefree, almost innocence of that expression on her face. He knew it was going to be his new goal to put that smile on her face again and again until he got tired of seeing it or went blind from the radiance. He was fairly certain that the second would happen long before the first ever did.

Having been unsuccessful in his attempt to best the detective, he gave her a small bow to concede his defeat before traipsing off, heavy pants dripping as he walked.

Back near the horses, there was a hunting blind set up, the camouflage pattern allowed it to blend in and not disrupt the natural beauty, but provided a semi-private area for changing along the tree line. He grabbed his swim trunks from the saddle bag and popped into the small space to change.

Castle almost fell right through the side as he struggled with jeans that seemed to stick to him as he peeled them off. Fortunately, he regained his balance in time to stay upright and managed to squeeze out of the wet denim. The shirt was a far simpler task and soon he was able to slip into his board shorts. Adjusting the black shorts proved difficult on his wet skin. Soon enough, however, he tied them tightly, slung low on his hips and hanging nearly to his knees.

He headed back towards the three ladies, his wet clothes in one hand, a small canvas bag in the other with towels thrown over his shoulder.

He went about laying out his clothes on an out cropping of rock from the cliff face, somewhere they would catch the sun and hopefully dry enough to get back on for the ride back, he set to work digging through the bag. He caught Kate watching him, somewhat warily from the large bolder where she was apparently going to dry her wet shirt as she wore it.

He smiled as he approached, digging through the bag. He let his gaze drift back to Alexis and Lizzie as he held up goggles. When his daughter motioned that she wanted them, he tossed her two sets and then reached back in for the final pairs.

Dangling them from his fingers he approached Kate and sat casually on the edge of the rock beside her. "You have to get in to see what's down there." he informed her.

She graced him with a look that made him laugh because she obviously thought he was crazy. "That water has to be about two degrees, and I think I can see just fine from up here."

"It's not even close to that cold." he protested.

"Hey, Dad!" Alexis called and he looked up to see his daughter grinning at him as she treaded water right beside where the creak fell from above. He could see she was getting splashed along the back of her head from that position, but she didn't seem to mind. "No one ate Wallace." she informed him and then her head was back underwater again.

"Wallace?" Kate asked, looking him over with a raised eyebrow.

"He's the mascot." Castle informed her and watched the quirk of her lips as she tilted her head in a question. "If you want to meet the mascot." he told her, dangling the goggles again, "You have to brave the water."

She seemed to put a lot of thought into the point, looking carefully between the water and the goggles, back to the girls laughing in cold water and then to him. If he wasn't mistaken, her gaze hesitated on him a moment, not his face or eyes, but his shirtless self. He felt the urge to adjust his position to one that was more proud, but fought it as he simply waited her out.

With a soft grumble of frustration, she reached out and swiped them from his hand, "Fine." she replied, her tone sarcastic, but her smile a direct contrast to her not sounding happy with the thought.

He didn't have a response to that, because before he could contemplate one she had started to pull her shirt over her head. He seemed to lose focus on the happenings around him as he watched the fabric inch up as if in slow motion, carefully exposing her hidden swimwear.

He'd been hoping for a bikini, but wouldn't be complaining anytime soon about the way her tankini molded to her body. Her shoulders were bare to her collar bone where the tapered straps of her top cut up her chest to tie behind her neck, breast encased in deep chocolate fabric that hugged the swell of them. Sky blue flowers, outlined in bold white, litter the dark canvass of the top that flared out beneath the swell of her breast to the top edge of her jeans.

He didn't know if he'd ever be able to swallow again from the way his mouth dried as he tried, but failed, to pull his eyes off each newly exposed inch of skin. She had to know this was pure torture, but she didn't even look up at him as she unfastened her jeans.

She stooped to lay her shirt carefully over the far edge of the boulder to continue drying before she pulled her jeans off. Her pants were flung to the rock beside her shirt with far less care revealing matching boy shorts with a rope of blue and white twined together for the belt.

"How bad is it?" she asked.

He wanted to respond, but he suddenly had no idea what she was talking about. He finally managed to tear his eyes from what was likely an unwanted appreciation of the newly bared skin to look up at her. He noticed her gaze was fixed towards the base of the water fall and realized she hadn't even been talking to him.

"At first?" Alexis asked, but didn't wait for a response, "Like being punched in the gut. After a few minutes it's just perfect."

Kate nodded and he watched as she hesitated just slightly. He wondered briefly if she was going to be one of those annoying people that worked their way slowly into the water until two hours later they were finally comfortable enough to be all the way in and swim around. If so, he was going to have to push her.

To his surprise, after seeming to weight her options, she turned a small grin in his direction before focusing on the water in front of her and she jumped in. Her turn to jump had revealed that there wasn't much to the back of her suit. Where the front was modest, the back simply had a single strap that wound behind her back to tie in what looked like a simple bow that if he pulled on one end of that string, would come undone. Thoughts like that were going to kill him or get him killed if he didn't rein them in.

It wasn't a deep pool, but when Kate hit the water, she didn't land on her feet, instead he watched her intentionally flatten out and disappear fully beneath the surface of the water. The ripples of her landing disrupted his view of her beneath the water, but after a moment she stood up and gasped, obviously struck by the cold. He could see the effect that the water temperature had on her from the parts of her that were still out of the water and he had to force his eyes away to safer visions.

Castle scooped up the last pair of goggles and held them in a tight fist as he took a running jump and cannonballed into the pool almost dead center between all three of them.

Oh, damn. He had just been in there and the cold was still a shock. This time, however, it was a welcome relief. He didn't need to do anything that might make Kate uncomfortable, involuntary bodily reactions included. Besides, the last thing he needed to do was scar his daughter's psyche for life and leave her a weeping mess in some therapist's office for the next twenty years.

He slipped his goggles on and looked to her through the slight blue tint of the lenses to watch her follow his lead. From her body language and the way she was moving, he would have pinned her actions as hesitant or reluctant, bordering on humoring him, but he could see the subtle tilt of her lips that gave her away. "Let's meet Wallace." he said as he dipped his head in the mostly clear water and pushed himself to float towards the base of the falls, eyes scanning the smooth rock surfaces.

He came up for air just as Kate was approaching and had to bite back a snicker as she took the last step and faltered, falling in to her neck and quickly treading water to keep her head above the surface.

"It's really deep." she exclaimed and he noted the hint of wonder tingeing the words.

"Erosion." Alexis explained, swimming to join them from where she had been behind the waterfall.

For once, he got to see Beckett roll her eyes at someone else in exasperation. "Thanks, Alexis." she replied, good humored sarcasm tinting the words. She seemed to get her bearing fully and graced his daughter with a bright smile, "It just surprised me, that's all."

He and the two teens spent the next several minutes trying to locate Wallace as Beckett floated casually beside them before apparently building up her courage and swimming through the cascading water and then back out again. At one point she had looked beneath the surface and come up with another dazzling smile on her face. "There are a lot of fish in here." she commented.

"Yeah," Castle was the sarcastic responder this time as the teens had ventured back behind the falls in their search. "I heard something about fish living in water, but I wasn't sure if that was true."

Before Kate could do more than flick some water into his face with her palm, Lizzie was calling for them. The two teens had emerged from behind the falls and were taking turns dipping their heads into the water near the far edge. Alexis popped up and Lizzie ducked her head back into the water. "He's right down here."

"Swim along the surface, you get your feet down there and he'll move again. We'll be doing this all day." Castle explained, as he began a slow crawl towards the girls.

When Beckett arrived, they both dropped their faces into the cool creak pool and his eyes scanned for signs of Wallace. He spotted him and pointed, watching Beckett turn slightly in order to get a view. He saw her jerk in surprised and raised his head out of the water to watch as she surfaced.

"Shut the front door! Did you see the size of him?" Becket asked, her tone excited as she scrambled to get her feet under her, likely scaring away the fish. He didn't really care if they spent all day searching for him again or didn't even go looking; the look on her face was priceless.

Alexis stood beside Beckett, beaming and Castle couldn't help but think about how none of this would have happened without the two of them conspiring behind his back. He found himself smiling at them as he took in the camaraderie that he hadn't realized was so easy between the two. They made quite the sight as Alexis leaned casually into Kate and she wrapped an arm around her shoulders without seeming to even think about it.

"He's been in there since before we started coming." his daughter told the detective and Castle became a casual observer as his daughter relayed various stories about visiting the falls through the years. It was fascinating to hear her describing it to someone as they had only ever really talked about it amongst themselves.

His mother, despite the horse he'd gotten for her, had only come up twice in all the years they had been coming here, but up until now, she was the only one they had reminisced about this time together with. He was suddenly aware that he and Kate would have this together now, too. The thought with a visual of her casually sharing space with his daughter in this setting had his already hyperactive imagination going into overdrive.

Attempting to clear his mind before he got ahead of himself again as he was so often doing these past few days, Castle dunked himself under the water. When he surfaced, he caught sight of Lizzie swimming off behind the falls.

Figuring a conversation with the teen was safer than staying here and letting his mind run away with him, Castle dove in and swam through the cascading water. The pressure against his back pushed him lower beneath the surface with a pounding staccato rhythm that always surprised him. The falls always looked like it fell in a smooth sheet of water, but being beneath it he could feel the subtle breaks in the flow.

He popped up on the other side of the falls and pulled himself up on the rock ledge to sit beside Lizzie, their feet dangling in the water, swirling through as a delicate mist from the falls coated their already wet skin in a manner entirely chilling. "Hey." he greeted, pulling his goggles up to his forehead and smiling at the girl.

"Hey." she responded casually.

"How've you been? It feels like forever since I saw you last."

"It's been less than a year." she reminded him with a laugh. "Things are good, though. School's been crazy and I'm freaking out a little about college."

"Yeah," he commiserated, "I bet it's not all too easy on your dad either."

To his surprise, she laughed, "Are you kidding? He's waving college brochures under my nose every two minutes." She replied with heavy sarcasm, but he could see the softness in her eyes.

Castle couldn't wrap his brain around that. He was absolutely dreading the moment when he'd have to send his daughter off to college. He didn't have a chance to ask her about it as Beckett and Alexis made their way around to join them. They both grabbed onto the rocky wall to help keep them afloat.

"Hey, Lexi," Lizzie called out to her over the roar of the falls, "Is your dad seriously not pushing a bunch of college brochures on you?"

Alexis scoffed at that, "No way. He'd rather I stayed in high school a few more years."

"Hmm." Lizzie responded, still apparently processing the differences for a moment. She didn't seem to come to any conclusions and just shrugged before kicking the water with her feet to splash Alexis across the face. His daughter sputtered with mock indignation as Lizzie stood on the small ledge before jumping through the falls to get away from Alexis' retaliation.

It didn't pass Castle's notice that she had taken on a waterfall to avoid a much smaller splash, and he laughed as Alexis dove beneath the surface to follow her. The sound of their splashing and laughter drifted through the rumble of the water falling as Kate pulled herself up to take the seat Lizzie had vacated and lifted her goggles to her forehead to match his.

While he'd been sharing it with Lizzie, he hadn't noticed exactly how narrow the ledge was. Now that Kate had taken the spot, he could feel the edge of her thigh against the dark grey Celtic cross emblazoned on the side of his shorts, could feel her bare shoulder against his, the contact warming despite the chill of the mist.

"What was that about?" she asked casually.

"Huh?" he had been distracted by a sudden memory of the first time he had been up here with John and the girls. It was the first time he'd heard Lizzie's sweet little laugh. "Oh, apparently John's been cramming college brochures down her throat."

Kate smiled, looking through the delicate spray from the waterfall as if she could see the teens, though all they could make out was a blur of colors on the other side. "That makes sense."

He wouldn't have been able to stop himself from gaping at her if he'd wanted to. "On what planet?"

She turned her head to look him in the eyes with something akin to sympathy in her features. He missed it at first as he was distracted by the angry looking red marks around her eyes where the goggles had been a little too tightly pressed against her. "I bet there was a point when he didn't think he'd be able to send her to college. I'd put money on the colleges he's 'cramming down her throat'" she quoted him with heavy sarcasm, but then her tone dropped as she gave a little shrug, "being some of the finest in the country."

He considered it a moment, but any response he might have felt wrong. It was either too serious and risked them venturing further into this uncharted territory they seemed to carefully be exploring, or was just another joke to escape that seriousness.

Sure, it was a coward's escape, but in that moment he would take the coward's way out in order to stave off his desire to feel more of her against him. It was an act that would likely end the amicability of this mini-vacation. He wasn't ready or willing to risk any of this on his impulsive tendencies. So, instead of addressing her comment directly, he simply said, "Let's grab some lunch." as he slid off the rock ledge into the water.

x.x.x

A/N: This place with the waterfall is based on an actual location in Northern Idaho that I went to several years ago. I wish I was still on good terms with my ex, because then I could make him tell me where the heck it was exactly so I could go back. Until I find it on my own again, I have my memories and now I have this story to put those memories into.

Sorry for the delay, hopefully I'll get a lot of work in on this over the weekend, but I do have an epilogue to finish for my other story.

Review that made my day: Peachy-x-, Because there is really nothing cooler than that! I didn't mind your rambling one bit, because it made me supremely proud that I could unwittingly remind you of such a sweet childhood memory. Thank you for sharing it with me.

Thanks to everyone for reading.