A/N: Declaring it complete after this. Loved writing this story, overall. I hope I managed to tie everything together in a nice, neat package. If I left anything hanging, let me know in a review. :)
He tugs her into his side, smiles as he feels her lay her head down on his shoulder, feeling her run her hand up and down his back while he makes the same motion with his thumb against her side, watching her daughter waltz with her newlywed husband across the dance floor, watching their first dance as husband and wife. A father's pride, getting to see her this happy, and she does look happy.
The soft jazz song they chose fades out and the small crowd lets out a small applause. Rick starts clapping, his smile growing brighter as his daughter's eyes meet his. "The dance floor is now open to all the other married couples out there." The DJ announces.
He looks down to his wife and raises a brow, offering his hand to her. A smile spreads across her face, her bottom lips falls in between her teeth, her eyes sparkling. After a moment, her eyes glance off to the side, she takes his hand and escorts him off to the side of the large, white banquet hall, out of ear shot from everyone else. "What's the matter? Don't you want to dance?" He asks.
She lets out a breath and takes his other hand. "There's something I want to us to do first." She says, taking a step forward, only inches separating them.
He smirks and takes the opportunity to joke. "While I appreciate the sentiment and enjoy the thought very much, this is my daughter's wedding day, Beckett."
She rolls her eyes and lets her hands go limp. "Rick, I'm trying to be serious here. I've been trying to get up the nerve to ask this for weeks."
He laughs and moves a hand up her forearm. "What is it?"
She cranes her neck and grabs the sides of his tux, slowly drifting further into him. Words caught in her throat, she lets out sigh and looks up to him after a moment. "I want to renew my vows." He fights back a smile, surprised and taken back by her request. "I was afraid to ask because today is supposed to be about Alexis, but... I-I just..." She struggles for an explanation.
"Kate, you don't have to do that. You've been back for a year and we're better than ever, especially now." He says suggestively, rubbing a hand against her stomach.
"Yes," She starts emotionally, "I do, Rick. There's just some things I need to say to you that won't mean the same thing if I just said them in bed."
He smiles warmly and nods. "Alright. Let's do it." She breaths a sigh of relief and tugs on the sides of his jacket, glad he got on board. "So, I'll go tell everyone, you go get the pastor?"
She shakes her head. She looks off to the side, meeting Alexis' anxious eyes and smiles in acknowledgement. "Go dance with your daughter first. I'll go tell a few people and meet you in the back in ten minutes."
"So I get to dance with my daughter, but not my wife? Okay, I see how it is." He jokes with feigned hurt in his eyes.
She rolls her eyes again and pushes him away toward Alexis. "I love you."
He turns back toward her, "If that's all you got, I'm going to be very disappointed." She fights a smile loses and she goes off, informs a few choice mutual friends and the pastor and tells them to meet in the back room in ten minutes. She makes her way to the back room, a small space, a big wooden desk facing the door, two cushioned chairs and a small table against the wall. She makes her way inside, closing the door behind her, setting her small clutch down on the desk, starting to meander around, going over what she wants to say in her head.
The relatively small banquet in upstate New York is beautiful, in mid-spring, the weather bright, sunny with not a cloud in the sky. Her husband is pressed and clean, a sharp black tux with a deep blue tie, matching the rest of the decor, which is lucky. He looks amazing, that color brings out his eyes so well. And it matches her dress, since Alexis made her a bridesmaid. Her and Alexis have made up significantly since she got back and put her marriage back together. Since she proved that this time she's here to stay, Alexis came around quickly. Seeing her father happy again helped immensely, and she offered her a place in her wedding two months ago when they found out. That proved to her that she was here to stay, for good.
With a knock on the door, she's brought out of running through her vows, smiles and starts toward the door. "Castle, there is no way you danced with Alexis that fast. Go back, and-" She feels her words fall when she opens the door and sees who's on the other side. She forces her throat open and steels herself. "What are you doing here?" She asks in a low voice.
"This is my grand daughter's wedding." He shrugs his shoulders, hands in the pockets of an old leather jacket, stepping around her and into the room. She closes the door behind him and stands there, arms crossed. "I just wanted to see how you were doing. Make sure you were okay. Things like what happened with Rita tend to make waves."
"Yeah, we're fine." She can see past this. That's clearly not why he's here, but he's not ready to admit that he just wants to be here. "You know," She starts, garnering his attention as he meanders around the room, "when Ryan and Esposito found that warehouse Rita had us taken to, they said they received an anonymous tip about a women matching my description being taken into that address."
His expression remains unwavered from the same steely-eyed look. "The phone I gave Richard was programmed to send out a distress signal to me if he were to activate the explosive. Once I got it, I called in your location." He tries to explain.
"The precinct is fifteen minutes out from the warehouse we were in, and from the time the explosive went off to when they came was only a few minutes at most. That's not it."
He looks away for a moment. "I was having Richard trailed. Once I got the address, I called the NYPD. Then-"
"You heard what he said about you. That's why you had the NYPD sent in, and you didn't go in yourself. You heard him say he didn't want you in his life." She concludes.
By the hang of defeat in his head, she knows she got it right. "I was monitoring the situation from a block away. I didn't know Richard had himself captured on purpose to get close to Rita. I called the NYPD once I was sure Rita was actually there."
"You didn't go in yourself because you didn't want to take the chance Rita would actually manage to kill you." She finishes what he doesn't want to admit. He shakes his head for a brief second before that steely-eyed look returns. Her mind floats back to that admission he made just a week after their kidnapping, laying in bed, admitting part of him hurt saying what he said. "You know he didn't mean what he said. He was just playing Rita."
"That doesn't mean he wasn't right." She closes her mouth at that, watching as he cranes his head down and turns toward the window. "You were almost killed because of me, because of the connection you have with me. Richard's daughter was kidnapped because of someone she'd never met. It's better for my son's family that I stay away. I don't want my next grand child to go through what Alexis went through."
Her breath catches and she puts a hand over her stomach. "You know?" He turns slowly meanders toward her again, nodding. She thinks she knows what he's doing here, but won't admit it. "What are you really doing here?"
He seems to self-defeat himself and shake his head. "I just wanted to tell Richard..." He struggles on his words.
"I'll tell him." She finishes for him, knowing what he wants said, but is either too proud, too scared, or just isn't his place anymore. Castle's father nods thankfully and goes to leave without another word. But Kate speaks up right as he passes her. "It's a boy."
He stops with his hand on the knob, looking back at her.
"We're having a boy. I just found out yesterday. I'm telling him today."
He smiles softly, the same way his son does when something surprises him and lifts his spirits. He nods and opens the door, quickly exiting and is down the hall and out of sight. She smiles to herself, knowing he probably means, or at least tired to mean well. Beckett closes the door again and remembers what she's doing here, and slowly paces toward the center of the room, thinking of her husband and what she wants to say. It's just a few minutes more that she hears the door open and Castle peak his head in. "You ready?" He asks, an anxious smile on his face.
"Yeah." She says, a similar smile breaking across her features. He enters the room, followed by Esposito, Ryan, Jenny, Martha, Lanie, the pastor, and much to her surprise, Alexis and her new husband. She looks over to Alexis as everyone takes a place around the room. "Alexis, you didn't have to come here. Go enjoy your wedding."
Alexis smiles, watching as her father takes Beckett's hands. She shrugs, "This is enjoying my wedding."
Beckett smiles even brighter and looks back toward her husband, who's beaming at her. She looks toward the pastor, excitement starting to show in her nerves. "Do you have the vows already written?"
She looks over, the air in her lungs feeling cold. "Yeah."
"Richard?"
Castle smirks and nods. "I got something."
"Well, Kathrine, we'll start with you."
Kate looks in the eyes of her husband and smiles, squeezing his hands briefly for strength. Once Rick's smile softens and he squeezes her hands back, the words start flowing effortlessly. "Four years ago, I made a promise. A promise that I would love you, stay beside you, be your partner and weather whatever storm comes our way together. And while I made that promise with every intention of keeping it, it's also a promise I know I will never fully forgive myself for going back on. That's why I'm here today to make you a new promise, to both you... and our son."
Rick's eyes light up and a surprised smile starts creeping across his face. He mouths 'really?', and she nods, trying to stop smiling so she can continue.
"I promise to love you with all my heart, Richard Castle, that I will never leave you side, that I will be your partner, no matter what comes our way... always."
Kate blinks away the tears she feels starting to burn her eyes as the pastor looks over to Castle. But Castle, still being overtaken by Kate's news, just shakes his head and let's his smile overtake him, pulling her in by the hands. "I love you."
She laughs, wraps her arms around his neck and presses her lips onto his, not really making an effort to kiss each other over their face splitting smiles. "That's all you got?" She says against his lips.
"That's all I need."