Since Meredeth wasn't sleeping very long these days, it didn't surprise Esposito that both she and Tessi were up to have breakfast with him at six in the morning. Meredeth made chocolate-chip pancakes for them, with fresh juice for herself and Tessi and coffee for him. The fact she was still making him something to eat before work when she was three months pregnant with twins and looking after a two year old reminded him there really was nothing this woman wouldn't do for him or their family.

'Yum-yum, Daddy,' Tessi said when Meredeth set the plate of bite-sized bits of pancake in front of her. 'Yum yum dakes.'

'I know you like your pancakes, princess,' Esposito smiled at her, digging into his own short-stack. 'Mami's are the best.'

'Babies yum-yum too?'

'Yes, the babies are hungry and want pancakes too,' Meredeth agreed. She'd made them with whole wheat flour and added in a little of the chocolate whey powder to give her the extra boost she needed. 'And guess what, tonight we're going out for Chinese food when Daddy's home from work. The babies love Chinese food.'

'Noo-nells and shicken?'

'And lots of veggies.'

Esposito smiled - they were going to the Lotus Room on a recommendation from Ryan; Tessi loved the long thin noodles and Meredeth like it because it meant she could enjoy a nice meal out while still taking care of her diet. He glanced at his watch and swallowed down his food. 'I gotta run, we have to get on Judge Leipner for the warrant before start of business hours so we can knock it down as soon as the banks and phone companies open this morning. Gimme one for good luck.'

Meredeth leaned over and gave him a kiss as he patted her growing stomach. 'Call if you want me and Tessi to meet you or if you're coming here first.'

'You got it. Love you.'

'Love you too.'

'And I love my Princess Tessi,' he added, smacking his lips on Tessi's brow.

'Love Daddy too.'

'Thanks babies.'

Esposito snagged his to-go cup of coffee and was out the door, arriving at Ryan's place in Clinton about ten minutes later; being so early, they avoided much of the traffic. When he met his partner outside his new place - it was slowly becoming less strange to think of it that way - he could only shake his head. Ryan definitely had the look of a new and bedraggled dad.

'Morning, partner,' he said cheerily but cautiously.

'Why are you so fuckin' perky?' was the snarled response as Ryan slumped into his seat and they headed to the precinct. 'Meredeth give you wake-up sex or something?'

'Rough night after you got home, huh?'

Ryan scrubbed a hand over his face. 'When I got home, it was my turn to give Mallory a bottle, and Dell was having nightmares so he refused to go back to sleep and since Mallory was up too, she thinks because Dell's there it's play time so she wasn't going to sleep either. I didn't pass out until almost three and snicker all you want, bro,' he said when Esposito chuckled lightly. 'You're going to have three kids by Christmas, two of whom will be newborns.'

'Fair point, but for now how about we pretend to be cops for a day and get crackin' on MacNamara's financial data?'

'Yes, thank you, anything to take my mind off the fact Dell and Mal are still in bed with Jenn.'

The bank warrants came through promptly because they were there early before shift and by nine am had enough to get in touch with the credit card companies as well as going back and talking to the people at Weston Figg, more specifically his supervisor Paul Prescott who seemed equal parts devastated by the loss and anxious to avoid any conversation of MacNamara having an office fling or other sordid liaison.

As Esposito set up the murder-board, sipping his coffee, he studied the information they had and tried to think outside the box like Castle. He couldn't help but feeling like something in Canton's version didn't add up. Not that he suspected Canton of lying, since he seemed like a working chump himself, but something, some little Tic-Tac sized comment was just making him grit his teeth as to why he couldn't figure it out.

'Hey.' Ryan hung up his phone, came over to the board to pick up the red marker. 'Shane's report confirms time of death between eight and ten, but he also said that the victim had Tenormin in his system, it's a beta blocker prescribed as an anti-anxiety medication. Now what would a working man with financial security and a happy home life need with anti-anxiety meds?'

'Canton mentioned the big presentation to the Melbourne company, and Prescott confirmed it for us, that would be a huge coup for MacNamara's career to launch an international ad campaign. Maybe he was starting to freak about that?'

'Yeah, could be.' Esposito pointed to the information they'd gleaned from Canton. 'The caretaker said he was preparing for a nine-am press conference in Melbourne right?'

'Sure.'

'So if he's in the office on a Sunday night at eight pm, Melbourne's sixteen hours ahead of us, that would make it Monday at lunch time, give or take a few minutes.'

'Canton didn't know the date specifically...but Prescott did, said they were preparing for it for Wednesday at five-pm Eastern Standard.' Ryan popped up off his desk, tapped the board under the photo of Prescott. 'He said the presentation had been finalized on Friday so what would MacNamara have been doing in his down-town office on a Sunday night?'

'We talked to the wife and she knew about his work on the presentation, and didn't think it was weird when he said he had to work a few hours on Sunday night for it, since he'd been locked in his home office for most of Sunday anyways.' Esposito scratched the back of his neck. 'It's looking less like a sex crime and more like a work related crime.

'We need to access MacNamara's files he was working on Sunday night at the office. I'll call CSU, see where they are.'

They had to wait longer than was realistically patient for either of them, during which time they went back over the interview notes from the office workers and the data from the key-cards; as surveillance was for the whole building and not just the first fourteen floors Weston Figg used in the high-rise which meant that might not even come through until the following morning.

At his desk, Esposito slipped on his reading glasses to examine the tiny-printed data on hard copies. 'Okay, so we've got our boy MacNamara swiping three three times, once at four-twenty-two, the next time six-thirty-nine and one last time at seven-sixteen.'

'We found a ping on his credit card for a charge at Gennaro's Sandwiches in the building across from his office at six-fifty, and a call from his cell to his wife about three minutes before saying he was getting a bite to eat.'

'Right so he comes into work, does his thing for a while, gets hungry and has a sub across the street, comes back at quarter after seven and works until he's strangled with his own belt and it's made to look like a sex crime. What about Canton?'

'He started his shift at seven, and he was up to floor four by the time he took his union-sanctioned break and went to bring his pal MacNamara a cold one only to find him dead. Key cards confirm he swiped up to fourteen outside our kill-zone.'

'What about using the stairwells?' Esposito asked.

'Only stairs in this building are fire-exits. You push the door, you're going to set off an alarm. Which is both good news and bad news, because it means we'll find our mope on tape but first we have to find our mope on tape.'

'Well at this rate, it means I'll get to go home to my family and spend time with Dell and Mal.' Ryan stretched, cracked his neck as his desk phone rang. 'Ryan. Yeah. Great, send it on up. Strike that,' he told Esposito. 'CSU comp-squad has something for us.'

'Hey baby, long day?'

'It was definitely a Monday, but worth the wait,' Esposito told Meredeth, coming over to the bed to kiss her hello. It was nearly nine and he'd missed putting Tessi to sleep, but he'd checked in on her and gave her a little kiss before he'd gone into the bedroom to see his bride tucked in as well.

'You've eaten?'

'Yeah, Ryan and I had your delicious mulligatawny keeping us company while we burned out brains out with the computer files.' He began to tug off his clothes until he was down to his boxers and flopped over the end of the bed. 'I just wanted to come home to you.'

'Well I've been waiting for you,' she purred, and the sultry tone had Esposito sitting up once more. He knew that tone well and could feel the long hours of the day melting away like sugar in the rain. 'The twins are asleep too, so we have some alone time.'

She crawled over the covers to him and kissed him, deep and sweet to let him know it was about having a little fun after a long day. Her lips were warm against his and she traced the tip of her tongue over his, heard his sigh of delight.

He tumbled her back to the bed, slid one bra strap down, then the other and nipped at her soft skin as he did so. As his mouth formed a trail of hot, lingering kisses up the side of her neck, Esposito's hand flicked open the front-clasp of her bra to reveal her beautiful hormonally-enhanced breasts. Meredeth had always been a well-endowed girl and he loved the way they were shaped with the addition of the babies in her body. His hand slid up to cup one as he kissed her fully and she made a little squeak of delight when his thumb grazed her taut nipple; it was a feature of pregnancy sex he'd forgotten about - with the added hormones, even the most minimal of moves got his beautiful Meredeth very hot for him. Her hips pushed against his, making his body respond and he tugged off his boxers, then her pants so he could how wet she already was just from that one act alone.

He positioned himself carefully, pressed his arousal against her while his mouth ravaged hers and he filled his hands with her breasts, making Meredeth feel like she was on fire. Her husband, the best lover she'd had in her life, always knew just what to touch and where to make her feel like this. When his mouth moved down her body and closed over her breast, she let out a loud moan of satisfaction that had Esposito chuckling.

'Mere,' he hissed with a laugh, 'you're gonna wake Tessi up.'

'Don't care,' she sighed. 'Mami needs her sugar.'

Esposito let out another low chuckle, then shifted his body so that his hand streaked down between her thighs to test her readiness. He slipped one finger inside her, then another, drawing them in and out slowly, all the while keeping her mouth covered with his so he swallowed her pleasured moans. He let his mouth hover a whisper above hers as she began to shudder beneath him and she put her hand to his cheek. The look of pure love on her face for him, and only him, had him murmuring to her.

'Inside. I want to be inside you.'

Meredeth nodded, let her legs fall open a little more for him as he moved between them; because she was so slick already he slipped into her easily, to the hilt making that little 'oh!' escape her lips. She moved against him and in her heightened state, it was impossible to feel anything but ecstasy. Her fingers dug into his back as he moved faster inside her until his hips were pistoning against hers and she could hear his breathing growing ragged as he moaned with her. Finally when she couldn't take anymore, she found the capacity to say those four little words to her husband.

'I love you, Javi.'

'Love you too Mere.'

It was the last thing she heard before she was swept away in a tsunami of sensation.

R&R&Enjoy!