After this week's angst I wanted to publish some fluff. Before today, I had marked 'Together' as complete. There are other chapters that I had written but never posted because I didn't know if people were still interested.

Disclaimer: Anything you recognise isn't mine.

Chapter 12 – Grandpa

The day when Alexis first introduced her family to Jake she had been incredibly nervous, she had relationships in the past but this one was different. She knew it was special and she's pretty sure her dad and Kate knew that too because of their reactions when she talked about Jake.

She brought him around for Sunday lunch at the madhouse. It was full on, meeting her three crazy younger siblings as well as her father and Kate. Not to mention her crazy grams, Jim was there also but was somewhat normal in comparison. It was just a big thing for Jake to take on. Jake was an only child whose parents had been married for 35 years. Meeting them was simple, all be it awkward at times when she was grilled on her plans and when she wanted to have children.

The dinner was a success in the end, Jake enjoyed it and hadn't been interrogated too much by her father. Jake loved all of her siblings, Tom enjoyed playing with Jake as they pushed his toy cars around the floor and built things with Lego. Castle had been especially impressed when Jake told him that he had read his books before he had even met Alexis, congratulating him on his excellent taste. Kate was just pleased for Alexis having found someone. Even more so that he had no criminal record.

The day that Jake came to visit Castle to ask him if he could marry his daughter, he had mixed emotions. He was glad that she had found someone that took the effort to be traditional enough to ask her father permission but also sad as he knew that his pumpkin had grown into a magnificent woman that he was immensely proud of.

When Alexis told them the next weekend that she was engaged, Castle acted as if it was a complete shock for his sake and that of his future son in law. His eldest was fiercely independent so by no means needed her father's permission to marry someone. It was nice to keep with tradition though.

Kate was amazed when Alexis asked her to go try on wedding dresses, usually it was the mother so Kate had expected Meredith to waltz in for a while then disappear back to LA. At least Meredith was coming to the wedding. Even so, when Alexis told her that she trusted Kate most to help her choose the dress that she would get married in astounded her. It took a lot of searching online and numerous shops before they found the perfect gown, Martha came with them to the shops but avoided anything online as she was still convinced nothing good came of the internet. When Alexis walked out of the dressing room the whole room seemed to stop. Every girl has their dress and this was Alexis'.

Alexis and Jake had an idyllic summer wedding which in the end turned out to be much like what her father and stepmother had planned in May 2014. When Castle first saw his daughter all dressed up for her wedding he was speechless. She looked stunning, in a way that he had ever seen before. She had truly grown up.

It was almost a year to the day since Alexis had married when she came to Sunday dinner with Jake to tell her father that he was going to be a grandfather. His eldest was going to be a mother, he still felt way too young to be a grandfather especially when is youngest hadn't even started proper school. Regardless of that fact, he was incredibly happy for his daughter who had found a man that treated her well.

When Jake called them six months later to tell them Alexis had given birth to a healthy baby boy both newbie grandparents were overjoyed. Even though Kate wasn't technically the child's grandmother she would be more of a grandmother than the biological one who still resided in LA. They hoped that the Sunday dinners would continue in the future and that the baby would like playing with its aunties and uncle who actually weren't that much older than him.

As a family they went to visit the baby who was a day old. Kate sat on the chair by the back door with her kids either sat on her legs or stood in front. This allowed Castle to spend a few minutes with Alexis and his grandson. Soon enough he brought the baby over to Kate who held him securely in her arms which allowed the three kids to look at the baby safely. She'd be mortified if someone dropped any baby. Her children were fascinated with their nephew, especially her girls as Charlotte didn't remember when Amelia was born and Amelia had never been so close to a newborn. Alexis, Rick, and Jake looked on at the five of them with Jake taking a picture as he had done when Rick first held his grandson.

Grandpa Rick, it would take a while for him to get used to that.