Hello everyone! Hope you loved that season 3 premiere as much as me! It was a great way to welcome everyone back! This chapter does a significant time leap forward - 1 month - because I want to make sure the pace doesn't flag since it is going to be a very ass-end heavy fic. After all, the final chapters are going to be the wedding day and everything that entails. Pass the word, share the love!

'Did Mere leave us any snacks?'

'Oh, she always keeps ice cream in the freezer.'

'Anything non-dairy? Milk is making me nauseous these days.'

'She made caramel popcorn before she left on Friday.' Esposito gave the duo in his living room the fish-eye before he opened the cupboard to find the tasty treats; some how he'd ended up with Castle and his sister at the townhouse on the Sunday night of the Golden Globes. He was ready to kick them both out, as he'd hoped to use the night off from work and from people to get down to a task very important to him - composing his vows. He knew it was seven months until the wedding and yet he felt like he'd proposed to Meredeth, blinked twice and they were hosting Christmas dinner for their friends. He knew he'd need a head start to make them sound just right.

Then he'd gotten the ranting phone call from Lili on his way home from the precinct gym about not wanting any of his friends' support for his fiancee while she made her first televised awards show appearance. Esposito had nearly pointed out that she would be on screen for all of two minutes and probably wouldn't be featured on the red carpet, as she was simply a presenter with no nomination. But Lili was clearly in the middle of a hormonal hissy-fit and having seen what the girl could do when enraged - the nasty showdown with Valencia in Stuyvesant Memorial immediately springing to mind - he told her it was fine, she could come over and watch with him. Since he knew he was going to need a buffer, he called in a marker from Castle, who'd shown up within fifteen minutes of hanging up the phone

Now they were in his living room, Lili drinking fruit juice with club soda and Castle a double bourbon, studying the screen with measured patience while Esposito had popped in the earbuds of his iPod; he'd downloaded some of Meredeth's favourite poetry to see if it inspired anything. He was closing his eyes and concentrating on the words when he felt something hit him in the back of the head. Looking at the counter, he saw it was a popcorn seed, whipped at him by his sister.

'Okay,' he said, yanking out his earbuds, 'are you fourteen or thirty-four, Lucita? I've got a lot to do which doesn't include getting assaulted with snack food.'

'Your precious treasure is on screen, not that you seem to care.'

Esposito wanted to snarl but he couldn't, not when he saw Meredeth in a beautiful violet ballgown, diamonds sparkling at her ears and wrist as she was interviewed by someone from E! News.

You look fabulous tonight who are you wearing?

This dress was done by Margha Van Valken, a custom tailor in New York, the shoes are of course Jimmy Choos and a very lovely local shop donated this ice, with the exception of this one. This is from my Javi.

It's just gorgeous. So many of your Twitter followers are so excited to see you tonight, are there any people you're hoping with win?

I'm hoping that Space Cowboy and The Big Bang Theory clean up. Neither series has won here before so that would be really nice.

Thanks for stopping by.

'She looks good,' Castle commented, munching on a carrot before passing the fresh vegetables to Lili. 'Hopefully the critics will be kind, well, as kind as they can be when they shred someone they think doesn't belong at an awards ceremony.'

This time, Esposito didn't fight the eye-roll. 'Enjoy the show, I've got wedding stuff to work on.'

With that, he turned his iPod back on and wandered into the kitchen. He'd snagged himself a beer and was listening to something by Ezra Pound when he glanced up and saw Castle wander into the kitchen. He paused the recording, tossed the personal music player on the counter. 'Now what?'

'Are you getting cold feet?'

The question hit Esposito like a bare-knuckle punch. 'What?'

'It's perfectly natural to get freaked, man,' Castle reassured him as his friend handed snagged a beer from the fridge while he worked his way through his bourbon. 'I had more than a few panic attacks before I married the Evil Merideth.'

'I'm not bailing and it's insulting you'd think that.'

'Then talk to me.'

Esposito dragged a hand over his face, then two. 'Meredeth and I are doing our own vows, and-'

'Since you had the night free, you were going to work on them. But that was before the frightening pregnant version of Lili showed up in your living room and now you want us both gone so you can work in peace and watch Meredeth present her award on your own time.'

'That's about it.'

Castle swirled the ice in his glass, drank. 'Javier, I'm sure whatever you come up with will work just fine.'

'I don't want 'just fine'. 'Just fine' is when you go out for a steak and you asked for medium but you get medium rare instead. This is my wedding vow to Meredeth. I have to say the exact right words because right after proposing to her, it's the most important speech I'll give in my life.'

'Aside from the 'where do babies come from' chat.' Castle shuddered as he remembered that exact conversation with his own child. 'That one you're never prepared for, no matter what you do.'

'I'm serious, man! Meredeth's a professional writer, she can whip this stuff up on a moment's notice.'

'You think because she's skilled with words it'll be easier for her to tell you how much she loves you?'

Esposito ran his hand over his head, drank. 'I didn't say that, I said it's easier for her to come up with words. I have no words at all.' He was frustrated with himself; he knew he was such a cliche, a man who couldn't express himself in words what the love of his life meant to him. 'I don't know where to start.'

Castle didn't reply at first; he'd gone the traditional route with his first marriage and played the 'repeat after me' game with the minister and his second Vegas one, he'd been surprised he'd been allowed to get married at all with that amount of alcohol in his system. He finished off his drink and rattled the ice cubes around in the glass.

'Okay let's try it from a different perspective. Have you chosen your ceremonial music yet?'

'In a manner of speaking. Being married at Bethesda Terrace, we can't have any music from musicians or a stereo or anything like that so Carol Thornton's going to sing Seasons of Love instead of doing a third reading at the ceremony. And we've chosen our song.'

'Oh?'

'Yeah, and laugh all you want, but we went through nearly two hundred cheesy love songs before we picked it out.' Esposito went to the fridge to get a beer for Castle. 'We're going with For You I Will.'

'I like that one.'

'Yeah? You're not busting my balls?'

'No, I think it suits you two. It's like a promise, that you mean so much to the other there isn't anything you wouldn't do for them. And I've seen that with you guys, especially back in April when you got shot. Somehow, and I don't know how, that girl didn't cry until she knew you were okay.'

Love glowed brightly in Esposito's heart. 'Seriously?'

'Yeah. Only after you were out of the woods and safely in your room did she come undone, and then spent every waking minute at your side until we had to all but tear her away.'

'I told Ryan to make sure she didn't get sick. I knew I was going to need her when I was home.'

'You do the same for her, like when she was sick on her birthday and we'd just finished surveillance, you came home and made her soup. Or that time we had a barbecue here, Dave put liquid soap in the dish-washer, she was losing her mind on him so to break up the argument you told her how sexy she is when she's pissed off so she'd calm down.'

'She still doesn't let Dave anywhere near dirty dishes after that one.'

'After you're married, will you keep doing those things for her?'

'Of course,' Esposito replied without hesitation.

'Then that's what you say to her.'

'Hey, are you two Y-chromosomes done with the grunting and scratching? Your pal from Doctor Horrible is presenting an award!' Lili bellowed from the living room. 'And can you bring me a fresh glass of ice? All my cubes have melted.'

'I'll go. I've dealt with a pregnant woman's demands before and you've got some writing to do.' Castle hopped off his chair, taking the Lili-monster her requested ice and leaving Esposito in peace.

He picked his iPod back up, scrolled through his playlists until he came across the one he'd created for potential wedding songs and found the song he and Meredeth had decided upon. As the singer's smooth voice floated into his ears and Castle's little kick in the creativity ass, he opened to the fresh page of his draft book - a little gift 'from one writer to another' as Meredeth called it - and began to compose his vows.

R&R&Enjoy.