A/N: GUYS GUYS GUYS! Check out the AWESOME cover art dtrekker made for this fic! She's so super talented! Also, this chapter is for CB, whose nagging makes me feel loved :-)

"I challenge you to a battle of wits." -Man in Black

"For the Princess? To the death? I accept!" -Vizzini

-The Princess Bride

Jim's cell phone ringing broke the cozy spell that had wound its way around the group gathered by the fire. Castle had been keeping them entertained with slightly embellished versions of some of the more amusing predicaments he had been in since he had been consulting with the 12th. Somehow, Kate managed to come off sounding like a superhero in all of them, and the boys as loveable minions. What made it more entertaining was Kate's constant correction, often completely interrupting the flow of the tale he was weaving.

It was the phone that broke the cozy atmosphere.

There was really only signal in one corner of the kitchen, and even that could be sporadic on occasion. Jim tended to keep his phone on charge there so that if anyone urgently needed to get hold of him, they could do so. Castle and Jo kept up their conversation as Jim excused himself to answer it- Kate seemed content to simply listen at this point, curled into Castle's shoulder- and none of them really paid much attention to the phone call until Jim cleared his throat.

"Jo? Phone for you. Agent Andrew Johnson of the FBI," he said, his mouth in a tight line reminiscent of his daughter when her suspect alibied out. Jo stood and moved to the kitchen, and Jim came back to the armchair he had been sitting in, but didn't relax into it the way he had been sitting earlier.

The tense silence meant they were all able to hear Johanna's side of the conversation quite clearly.

"Andy! This is a surprise!" her voice was warm, vivacious, and, to be honest, more than a little bit relieved. "It's been going great here... yes. Yes, just like I'd imagined... Well, it's been an adjustment for all of us, but I am hopeful... Tomorrow? Oh, I wish I could. I'm at our family's cabin... You have my scrapbook?! I can't believe I left that behind... Oh, I see. Yes... well, I could give you the address if you like. It's only a couple of hours out, not too far away... Around lunch time? We'll look forward to it. I'm excited about you meeting my daughter..."

Jim seemed to slump as she gave out their address, her voice alight with excitement as she exchanged farewells and ended the call. She turned to them, beaming with joy.

"That was Andy- the Special Agent in Charge of the investigation, and just about the only friend I had these past few years. I left something at the office, apparently, and he's in New York until tomorrow afternoon, so he wanted to drop it by. I told him to come out here for lunch," she flopped into her chair, smiling.

Kate and Castle exchanged a look. Johanna hadn't noticed Jim's frown. Kate cleared her throat. "It'll be good to meet him," she said politely.

Jim stood suddenly, his entire body tense, and he headed to the front door, grabbing his coat off the hook, shrugging it on.

"Jim? Where are you going? It's getting dark out," Johanna asked, puzzled. Jim paused, his hand on the door handle.

"I need some air," he said briefly. Johanna was out of her seat in a flash.

"What's wrong? What did I do?" she pushed. He turned blazing eyes to face her.

"You want to know? I'll tell you. I wanted this weekend to be about our family being together again, Jo. I wanted for the three of us to get to know one another again, to move forward. To give you and Katie a chance to spend some quality time together and maybe even work things out. I wanted Rick to be here so we could both get to know him better, now that he's a fixture in Katie's life. I wanted us to be a family again. And now you're inviting your buddy Andy out here, the man who took you from us in the first place! And you're all smiley and happy, and you're so looking forward to him meeting your daughter. Not a word about your husband. Does he even know you were married, Jo? Do you remember me at all when you're laughing with him- the poor sap who drank himself into oblivion while you were out saving the world with Andy?"

"I'm sorry?!" Johanna sputtered, furious now, too. "Jim, I told you already- there was nothing between Andy and I. Not on my end, anyway. He's my friend. I told you that. He's been the only real support I've had these past few years. I'm not dropping him just because I moved home- not when he's been the only one in my corner all this time."

"The only one in your corner?" Jim repeated, shaking his head in disbelief. "Jo, the only reason for that is because he took you from us. We were in your corner. We are your family. It wasn't his place."

"He saved my life! All our lives!" she cried.

"If he knew that you were next on the list, I'm sure he could have done something about it before it came down to faking your death," he challenged her, before a new thought occurred to him. "How well did you know him before you went away?"

She looked down, avoiding his eyes suddenly. "We were friends," she ground out.

He looked at her sadly. "You never even said his name to me, Jo. Not once. If it was all so innocent, why would you hide a friendship from your husband?"

She straightened her shoulders, looked at him directly. "You know we weren't in a good place after Katie left for college," she deflected, but he simply raised his eyebrows, waited for her to answer. She set her jaw, glared at him, but he didn't back down. "Fine," she finally spat out. "He asked me out. Are you happy? I told him no. That even though we were having problems, I was still in love with you. I'd always be in love with you. He respected that."

Jim closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, they were full of pain. "Sure, Jo. That's why he orchestrated everything so he could have you to himself."

The fight seemed to drain out of her suddenly. She stepped into him, reached out and placed a hand on his arm. "I was always faithful, Jim. I promise you. And whatever Andy's feelings for me are- or were- he never loved me as much as he loved his job. He knew it, and I knew it. I only ever wanted to come back to you."

He looked into her eyes for a long moment, reading truth in their depths, and finally nodded. "I don't know that I believe or trust him, Jo, but I believe you're telling the truth- as far as you're concerned, anyway," he reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder.

She reached up and covered his hand with her own. "Will you meet him tomorrow?" she asked hopefully.

He sighed, thought for a long moment, and finally nodded. "I don't promise to be buddies with him," he warned.

She smiled her mega-watt smile. "I'm not asking you to. Just- try to be a little open minded?"

He bent down and kissed her on the forehead. "If I must," he groused, but there was a twinkle in his eye.

Castle insisted on helping Johanna cook, leaving Kate alone with her father in front of the fire.

"You going to be ok, Dad?" she asked him quietly. He looked across at her, his mouth lifting into an almost smile.

"I will be," he said quietly, then clarified quickly. "Don't get me wrong. I'm thrilled as hell that she's alive and here. It's just... it's a big adjustment, I guess. And maybe I'm not as ok with some of it as I thought I was."

She smiled at him. "Tell me about it," she said. "Believe it or not, as much as I hate seeing you and Mom fight, I was actually relieved when you reacted the way you did."

"Yeah?" he prompted when it seemed like she wasn't going to say more.

Kate pulled a corner of her lip into her mouth, hesitating before finally choosing to speak. "I thought I was the only one having issues with it all. And all three of us have been changed so much by the last fourteen years, seeing you slip back into a relationship with her like it's the easiest thing in the world... I know I haven't handled her return gracefully, but I was starting to wonder if I was being melodramatic or something."

"Your mother and I both know you need time to process, Katie," he said gently. "You haven't changed that much. Still my little girl."

"Not that little any more, I'm afraid," she reminded him. "Police Detective, remember? Badge? Gun? Ring any bells?"

"Even when you're eighty, you'll still be my baby girl," he replied with an affectionate smile. She rolled her eyes. "What about you, Katie? Will you and your Mom be ok?" he asked gently.

Kate lifted her eyes to glance over to the pair working in the kitchen. Castle had paused in the middle of what he was doing, gesturing wildly, and Johanna was laughing. The corners of Kate's mouth twitched upwards.

"We will be," she said.

The evening was spent quietly playing board games, Kate and Castle going up against Jim and Johanna, and each team winning one. If conversation was occasionally stilted, no one called attention to it, and Castle, in particular, was at his most charming, and saved the social day.

Jim was the first to break up the party. "I'm heading to bed. I want to be up fairly early to go fishing."

Castle lifted his eyebrows. "Fishing? The lake isn't frozen?" he asked in surprise.

"Oh, it is. Ever been ice fishing, Rick? You'd be welcome to join me," Jim invited enthusiastically. Johanna and Kate both groaned loudly.

"Jim, no!" Johanna pleaded, while at the same time, Kate gripped Castle's arm.

"Plead the fifth, Castle! Quick!" she said with mock concern.

Jim ignored his girls and stared hopefully at Castle, who sighed. Apparently he couldn't say no to any of the Beckett clan.

"Sure, why not?" he agreed. Jim lit up like a Christmas tree, while Johanna threw her head back dramatically and Kate whimpered "Nooo!" into his shoulder, both of them struggling to conceal their grins.

"Great! I'm planning on heading out at 5:30am- can you be up?" Jim asked happily.

Kate laughed at Castle's quickly masked expression of horror. "Don't say we didn't warn you," she teased.

"We can have a hot brunch when you come back in- and with any luck we can have some fresh fish with it," Johanna suggested. Castle nodded glumly.

Jim's eyes twinkled. "See you bright and early, Rick," he said a little too cheerfully. He held out his hand to help Kate up, so he could give her an affectionate hug. "Night, Bug. Don't keep him up too late- he has an early start," he teased.

"I'll see you in there," Johanna said, watching her husband and daughter embracing with envy. She hadn't hugged her daughter in so long, she almost ached with it- but knew not to force the issue. Kate would come around much more quickly if left to do so on her own.

Kate turned to Castle. "We'd better turn in, too," she suggested, holding her hand out to haul him gracelessly off the couch. He deliberately overbalanced once he was vertical, crashing into her and sliding his arms around her on purpose. She huffed a laugh, and he grinned as he squeezed her before standing up properly. "Oaf," she teased.

"You love me for it," he shot back, his grin widening as she ducked her head into his chest. Looking over her head, he noticed Johanna watching them wistfully. "We'll see you in the morning," he smiled.

Johanna nodded, before asking hesitantly, "Katie would you- I'd love it if you'd help me make brunch?"

Kate lifted her head from her partner's shoulder, and nodded slowly, her eyes wide, vulnerable. How many times had she longed to make brunch with her Mom these past years? "I'd like that," she said quietly.

Johanna smiled. "See you in the morning, then. Sweet dreams."

"Good night," Kate managed, taking Castle's hand and leading him out of the room, leaving Johanna staring into the embers of the fire, wondering what condition her family would be in by this time the next day.

Kate managed to drift back to sleep after Castle's muffled thumping about woke her at a ridiculously early hour, but the bed felt cold and empty without him in it. It was strange- she had never been too enthusiastic about her boyfriends staying over. Yes, she had always appreciated the affection, but she loved being able to stretch out in her own bed and have the covers all to herself. She'd always been protective of her own space. It was different with Castle though. Ok, sure, he was probably a worse blanket hog than all her previous boyfriends put together, but... everything was different with Castle, like the difference between playing house as a child and having her own apartment as a grown up. It was real.

She finally drifted awake again around 7am, mildly grumpy because of the lack of her partner- if he'd been there, she would have woken him up and given them a reason to be late for brunch. She rolled out of bed, made her way through her bathroom routine with relative speed, and headed out to the kitchen, drawn forth by the wafting smell of coffee.

Her mother was standing in the kitchen, cradling her own mug and staring out the window.

"Good morning," Kate greeted her.

Johanna glanced around with a surprised smile. "Good morning! Sleep well?"

"Until Castle got up and tried to be stealthy," Kate said with a grimace that was more for show than anything else. "He can reach a spectacular volume when he's trying to be quiet. I'm just thankful he didn't break anything."

Johanna set her mug down so that she could pour Kate a cup of coffee. Kate accepted it thankfully, cradling the mug against her sternum for several moments before taking a sip, closing her eyes in ecstasy.

When she opened them again, her mother was watching her, bemused.

"Staring's creepy, Mom. Castle does that," she complained, ducking her head. Johanna laughed.

"I'm sure you don't mind when he does it?" she phrased it as a question, tilting her head to the side as she watched her daughter blush a little.

"At first I hated him doing it. I guess it's grown on me a little. But don't tell him that!" she added hastily.

"I won't," Johanna assured her, the corners of her mouth still twitching, before hesitantly adding, "You know, I'd love to hear the story of how you two got together."

"The full version is pretty long, Mom. It took us four years." It wasn't a no.

Johanna looked at her speculatively, trying and failing to mask the hope in her voice. "While we're making brunch, then? We have plenty of time before the boys get back in."

Kate chewed on her lip, considering. Finally, she nodded. Johanna broke out into a wide smile, and for the first time since her return, Kate didn't feel her heart twist painfully. Instead, she answered with a shy smile of her own.

Pancakes, bacon, French toast, hash browns, eggs- the Beckett family brunch was a sacred tradition, and some of Kate's earliest memories had to do with helping her Mom making it. It had always been a time to connect and catch up, in spite of Johanna's busy schedule, balancing work and home life, and Kate's growing social life as she got older. Talking boys while making brunch felt normal, and Kate found herself relaxing, laughing freely with her mother as she recounted various tales of life with her shadow.

She told Johanna how she had loathed him at first, in spite of the pull of attraction that she would never, ever admit to Castle. She told her about how he had wormed his way into being her shadow, and how their relationship had shifted from writer and shadow to friends to partners to best friends to lovers. She didn't go into detail all the time, though, avoiding anything to do with Johanna's murder. It still hurt her too much to talk about it openly, and if Johanna noticed that some parts of the narrative seemed rushed, she didn't say anything.

She was just finishing her tale, both of them laughing over the awkward meet-the-parents conversation between Jim and Martha as they finished cooking, arranging it all in pans and putting it in the oven to keep warm, when Johanna glanced out the window, her face lighting up in a smile. Kate turned to see what had caught her mother's attention.

An unfamiliar SUV had just pulled up in the driveway.