So for all you French speaking people out there, there happens to be one line in this story in French. I do not speak French AT ALL, so please don't shoot me if it is wrong - blame Google Translate!
In other news... thanks so much for all your amazing comments, you guys are truly the best!
Enjoy!
Beckett woke up to greet a chilly morning, her feet instantly felt numb with the cold.
Feeling Castle spooning her, she felt his warmth surround her however.
She curled her legs behind her, his bare legs offering much needed heat to her bare feet.
The cold sting against his legs woke him up and he moved his legs away from Beckett sleepily.
Beckett made a groan of complaint, and followed his legs back, weaseling her feet in between his legs.
He knew the game she was playing and he wasn't having a bar of it. He moved his legs back even further, so that they were hanging out of the bed.
She groaned again as she realized she was beat. With a strong buck of her hips backwards however, she pushed Castle off the mattress completely.
He fell out of the mattress, and onto the cold, wet leaves. He squealed as his bare ass was wetted by the cold leaves, and sat up quickly.
He jumped back onto the mattress and tackled Beckett. "You little witch! Push me out of bed, will ya!" She screamed with laughter as he shook and tickled her.
He grabbed her by her shirt and not knowing how light she would be, lifted her flush to him, as he rolled her off the bed and sat on top of her.
"Ah!" She squeaked. "Castle, get off me, I'm getting wet!"
"Wouldn't be the first time I've made you wet then would it... sweet cheeks?" Castle grinned.
"Sweet cheeks?" Beckett chuckled. "More like frozen cheeks - ah! I'm serious Castle, I don't have any more tops with me and I'm going to get hypothermia if I have to walk back in this."
"You really didn't bring any other tops with you?" Castle asked her in disbelief.
She shook her head, embarrassed.
Castle shrugged. "Well just wear one of mine, I've got like four dress shirts and two tees."
Beckett tried to hide her ridiculously large smile. "You're so incredibly metro."
"Yeah well, I don't know what I was thinking suggesting you were a fashion designer, when you obviously have no sense of looking good whatsoever", Castle deliberately teased her.
Beckett's mouth fell open, but she couldn't shake the smile from her lips. "You love the way I look... don't think I don't see you checking me out every chance you get."
"Yeah well, I must admit I'm quite favorable about this outfit you've got going on here, in fact I'd like to see this more often", he scanned her half-naked body.
Beckett looked down at herself totally forgetting that she was wearing no underwear, let alone pants.
"Castle!" She squealed, hitting him hard on the chest, he laughed.
She tried to get up from under him but he pinned her to his chest.
"Why would we need pants when our legs fit soooo well on each other?" He growled.
Beckett tried to say something but she faltered. Castle took the opportunity of her silence to place his mouth on hers, kissing the life out of her.
She moaned appreciatively when his tongue met with hers. As soon as she moaned, he pulled his head back, leaving her mouth open and empty.
"Shh", he whispered putting his fingers to his lips. "Do you hear something?"
"What?" Beckett said, instantly wrestling him off her to retrieve her pants, but Castle pulled her back down beside him, laughing.
Beckett gaped at him. "Castle, you bastard!"
He was still laughing as she tackled him to the ground pinning him down.
She beat him thoroughly to the ground, punching and kicking any part of him she could get to, but not with any real force.
"Help, help - dirty cop - assaulting a civilian!" Castle cried out.
Beckett gasped. "Castle - shush!"
Castle grimaced. "Sorry."
Beckett smiled at him and he soon started laughing again, she shook her head, giving into the contagious giggling. She leaned forward collapsing with laughter and falling onto him.
Tears collected in their eyes, and their cheeks flushed.
'Oh my god, oh my god, my stomach!" Castle coughed.
Suddenly, Beckett gasped. "Shhh", she hissed, listening intently.
"Oh no, I'm not falling for one of my own tricks!" Castle wagged his index finger at her.
"No, Castle, seriously, I think I hear people coming", she got off him with lightening speed and raced to put her jeans on.
"Beckett... pants!" He whispered to her fervently, as he could now hear approaching voices. She threw them at him hurriedly and he slipped his legs into them, going commando in his haste.
"Pack up the bed roll", Beckett commanded him.
"Uh... shit!" Castle swore.
"What?" Beckett said, frightened.
"We broke the string last night."
"So?" Beckett shook her head, and held her hands out, not knowing what the problem was.
"How am I going to tie it up?" He asked, anxiously.
Her answer was not given however, because at that moment, the group of the rest of the campers came into view.
"Ah, Tony, Maria... top of the morning to ya!" The annoying young counselor greeted them.
"You guys didn't happen to hear some strange noises last night did you? Grunting and such like - was pretty sure it was coming from over this direction." The second counselor asked them.
Beckett flushed scarlet, Castle cleared his throat. "Probably an opossum."
"Naw, I think it were a wild boar - we got some big ol' nasty suckers in our woods back home", a southern man's voice came.
The group had started shifting. The young counselor moved around to where Beckett stood, and bent down about 5 feet from her.
"Well, I'm pretty sure no wild boar was wearing these", he said, amused.
Dangling from his finger was Castle's discarded underwear.
Beckett's eyes widened, horrified. Castle took the underwear from the man with an embarrassed smile.
Beckett's humiliation was furthered when the Southerner pointed at her shirt. "You two been for an early morning swim? That shirt is soaked right through."
Beckett's mouth opened indignantly, and she folded her arms over her breasts, covering them from prying eyes.
"Hey... pal, you checking out my wife?" Castle stepped in front of the man and poked him in the chest.
"N-no sir, of course not, it's just pretty rude of a feller not to point out when a lady might be in need of a fresh shirt."
"Hey! It's even more rude of a "Feller" to point out to a gentleman that his wife's shirt is soaked through... like he's looking at her... intently." He narrowed his eyes at the man, stepping intimidatingly close to him.
"OK, OK, break it up guys, come on, let's all keep the peace here alright?" The young counselor stepped between them. "Mr. Bexhill, we'll leave you and your wife to dress yourselves properly. You can meet the rest of us up ahead?"
Castle nodded. "Yeah, sure." His eyes stayed locked on the Southerner.
"Come on Bill!" His wife said; embarrassed, dragging him away by his sleeve.
The group migrated away slowly, still staring back at Castle and Beckett, some doing a better job at hiding their laughter than others.
When they had disappeared over a rise in the track, Beckett let out a cry. "Oh my god, that was the most embarrassing moment of my life!"
Castle raised his eyebrows. "Really? Wouldn't even make my top 10."
Beckett snorted. "For someone who talks so much, there is still so much about the man that is a mystery."
Castle laughed. "Yeah well, believe me, where that particular list is concerned you probably don't want to know."
Beckett smiled, shaking her head. "How did I end up with someone like you?"
Castle grinned, strolling toward her. "You've "ended up" with me have you? Meaning no plans to ignore this whole thing ever happened when we get back to normality?"
She took his hands in hers. "You know what Rick. When we're together like this, honestly, it feels like this is normality, and that the precinct, the books... are all fiction."
Castle squinted, still grinning. "Well, the books are actually fiction, but..."
"Castle..." Beckett rolled her eyes.
He pursed his lips. "Sorry", he apologized, nodding for her to continue.
"This is just so natural for us. I mean, for the past four years I've been totally shutting off from any feelings I had for you because I was afraid that it might ruin our flow, our banter, and most importantly our friendship. But when I'm with you, I feel like I'm with my best friend, my partner and my lover all at once... it should be so confusing, but it's actually really simple", she shrugged.
Castle smiled at her with so much love. Picking up her hands, bringing them to his lips one at a time, he placed a tender kiss on each of them."I feel the same. And hey, I'm sorry about before, I know how you feel about me trying to protect you."
Kate shook her head. "Oh, please, that great slobbering buffoon? One more comment and he's the one that would've needed protecting."
Castle grimaced. "Oooh, careful Maria, your Beckett is showing."
Beckett laughed.
"Come on you absolutely beautiful woman, you. Let's find you a shirt to wear huh? Blue is your best color I think..."
"Oh man, you don't even know how much of a boulevardier you sound sometimes do you?
"Wow, impressive linguistics you've got going on lately, Detective. I must be rubbing off on you... Do you speak French?"
"Ah, Oui, monsieur, et vous étaient très certainement déteint sur moi la nuit dernière."
Castle paused for a moment, open mouthed. "That. Was. So. Hot." He drooled, catching up to her. "What did you say?"
Her laughter echoed through the open air of the forest.
...
When they got back to the base of the retreat, the campers dispersed. Castle and Beckett headed to their room. Tom and Liz were out so they went straight to their bedroom to put their things away.
Beckett couldn't help but notice how much more at ease their back-and-forth had become since they were here only yesterday.
She changed her tramping shoes for slightly dressier ones and pulled her hair out of her eyes, tying it up in a lose bun.
After Castle had a shave, he came out the bathroom, to see Beckett sitting on the edge of the bed, smiling up at him.
"What?" He grinned at her.
She shrugged. "I don't know, I just... I really like this new us."
Castle chuckled. "New us?" He stepped toward her so that her face was level with his stomach.
"Yeah", she put her hands on his hips, tugging him down to sit next to her.
"Who knew that when we finally got here this ever would be so..." She shrugged. "Good."
Castle smiled caressing her cheek with his thumb. "So many appropriate, and far more eloquent words, and yet that one is just so perfect."
He placed a gentle kiss on her lips.
Beckett sighed, it was the first kiss they had shared where there had been no pent up aggression or seething passion, All that had been in the secret message of that kiss, was love.
"Honeys, we're home!" Liz's voice, sounded from the living room.
Castle winked at Beckett in a silent promise to continue this later.
They walked out into the living room and found Tom and Liz setting down their coats. Liz shivered. "Ooh, it's cold out there today! How was your night, did you freeze out there?"
"Actually we managed to keep ourselves pretty warm", Beckett said, surprising Castle with the suggestiveness in her voice.
Liz raised her eyebrows, beaming. "Oh?"
She walked over to Beckett and linked her arm through the young detective's.
"Boys, why don't you make some coffee, this young lady and I are going to have a little girl talk", she instructed Tom and Castle.
She dragged Beckett to her and Tom's bedroom, muttering "Come on, spill." Making Beckett laugh and Castle's heart sing to hear the sound of it.
Castle turned around and froze for a second at the sight of Tom standing in the middle of the room, staring at the television, which was turned off.
Tom turned around, recognizing Castle's presence, which didn't always happen whenever they were in the same room. "I want to watch my daughter's wedding video, but all we have is a TV; no VCR player."
Castle shrugged his shoulders. "Hmm, no DVD player either."
Tom squinted at him. "What month is it today?"
Castle furrowed his brow. "It's November - same as yesterday", he tried to cover over Tom's slip-up with he chuckle, but Tom just bowed his head.
"It's my anniversary tomorrow... Liz and I will have been married for 29 years."
Castle patted him on the back. "Hey, congratulations - will we be celebrating?" He grinned.
Tom's eyes welled up. "I don't deserve her you know."
Castle hesitated, before placing a hand on Tom's shoulder and guiding him to one of the couches. "Why don't we sit down?"
Castle took the couch across from Tom and tried to think of how to start this conversation. Thankfully, Tom did that for him. "I haven't always been completely truthful with Liz. There are some things I know I really should have just come out and said to her a long time ago, but..." He paused in his speech, staring down at his knees.
"I know... it's hard", Castle said, thinking of all the things he so desperately tried to pluck up the courage to tell Beckett for so many years.
Tom nodded silently.
Castle felt a pang in his heart for the old man. "You know Liz loves you right? She'd do anything for you, anyone could see that. So, whatever it is you have to say to her, I think she'll understand. And believe me, the longer you wait, the harder it gets to tell the truth."
There was a pause, during which Castle thought Tom might be crying. He kept his head bent down.
"You're smarter than you look, kid", Tom muttered Castle's way.
Castle smiled, and Tom raised his head finally and shook his hand. "Thanks."
...
A/N: So over the next few chapters we will be delving into the case a little bit more and also seeing some more of Tom and Liz.
Until next time... :-)