Hello readers! This was an unexpected chapter, but it has been one I've absolutely enjoyed writing. I highly recommend listening to the song 'And Then He Kissed Me' by the Crystals either before or during the reading of this chapter (if you search for the song on Youtube, type 'the crystals then he kissed me' in the search bar, click on the first video that is listed in the search results), because it really puts everything in context. As always leave your love in review form !

When Esposito got home after the first day in court for the Simone Greer pre-trial proceedings, he was greeted with the smell of something delicious and the sound of mumbling from the living room.

'But if I do that, then what will they fight about here? That's the million dollar question.'

Furrowing his brow, he toed off his shoes and wandered in to find the coffee table had been shoved out of the way to make room for larges sheet of chart paper filled with quotations and stick figures and rudimentary floor plans all in different coloured markers. She was resting on her knees, tapping a Sharpie against her palm as she stared intensely at the pages before her.

'Hey, Mere, how was-'

'Shhh!' She flapped a hand at him without looking up, then drew brackets around a bulleted list, made a few notations and added directional arrows to move whatever it was. With a sigh, she thew the marker down, and as she rocked back, Esposito saw the smudges of fatigue under her eyes. She lifted her eyelids and gave him a tired smile. 'Hey baby.'

'Hi.' He walked the long way around the couch, crouched down behind her to see the chart papers from her perspective and put his hands on her shoulders in a light massage. 'You look stressed.'

'Nothing earth shattering, at least in this realm of reality. In the fictional one I've created for Tabitha and Tonio, I'm in hell.' Frustrated, she raked her fingers through her hair. 'I've tried everything I usually do for writer's block. I did my dance cardio, played internet backgammon, I've got soup on the simmer, even took all my DVD's off the shelf, reordered them and then put them all back the way I had the first time.'

'Well, here's a thought. Take a break away from this and we'll eat, and you'll have the house to yourself when I head out to Castle's poker night.'

'Oh that's right. I don't have anything made for you to take with, but-'

'Hey, hey.' Esposito wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pulling her in for a hug and onto her bottom. 'I don't want you thinking that because you work mostly from home, you should be the little fifties housewife. I don't think that in the slightest. Your work is just as vital to you as mine is to me. Come on.'

He pulled her to her feet, walked with her into the kitchen and nudged her into a chair. 'Now, what exactly is this?' he asked, sniffing the contents of the stock-pot simmering on the stove.

'Sweet potato and chicken soup.'

'And what stage is it at?'

'The vegetables are simmering in stock and the sweet potatoes are in the oven.' Her head felt so heavy, she just wanted to curl into a ball and sleep for a day or two. 'Not much to do but wait another ten minutes.'

'Okay then.' Leaving the stove as it was, lest he breathe on it the wrong way and it went to shit, Esposito instead went to the liquor cabinet and pulled out a bottle of spiced rum and two glasses. He fixed them each a drink and nudged hers toward her on the table. 'So what has you all knotted up?'

'I'm trying to figure out when Tonio, my dirty-cop-turned-mole, should tell Meredeth he's found out that Little Sister's death was actually an ordered hit by Sonny Chiba. And no matter where I put it, it just doesn't feel right. It's not flowing, it's like cut and paste.'

'Why did Sonny Chiba want Little Sister dead?'

'Because Little Sister was one of his junior lieutenants sent to get close to Lady Hawk so she could try and learn her real identity. Only once Little Sister learned who Lady Hawk really was, she couldn't bring herself to turn over the information to Sonny, so Sonny orchestrated the warehouse kidnapping and had her killed.'

'And Tabitha-slash-Lady Hawk didn't know this?'

'No, she didn't.'

'All due respect, since you're the writer,Tabitha is a mega-computer brain. How would she not know about this already?'

'Grief makes people do strange things. Little Sister was Lady Hawk's first real friend in the city, so her death is something that she isn't interested in digging up.'

'Ah.' He knew from experience what that was like; the spectre of the whole discovery that his old partner Ike Thornton was alive and looking to clear his name had threw him way off stride for a long couple of months. 'So does he tell her before or after they start knockin' nasties?'

'Well that's the trouble because both have their points, don't they? If it's before, I have a great set-up for an angry-passionate lovemaking scene. If it's after, I have a great setup for a full-blown Hurricane Tabitha scene.'

She left her glass on the table, only half-finished, as she went to the cupboard to pull out her stick blender to continue fixing her soup. 'The problem is, Tabitha has almost no reason to trust Tonio on an emotional level; he's a dirty cop who has turned evidence for Internal Affairs, and the fewer people who know about that the better chance he will make it out alive. But all Tabitha can see is that he's told one lie after another and doesn't know what to believe whenever he speaks to her, which is incredibly difficult for her because every instinct in her body wants to believe him and yet...Bottom line here is, when she goes to bed with him, the emotional investment is freakin' huge along with the very real chance of being betrayed.'

It was fascinating to watch her mind at work, he thought as he watched her add the sweet potatoes and blend the soup. Particularly, it seemed, when she was stuck on an idea she still could argue it six ways from Sunday. It was why he liked telling her about his work. The way she could take a little bit of information and work it like artist's clay never ceased to fascinate him. Even when it meant she sounded like she had multiple personalities as she dialogued out the scene while making dinner or washing her hair in the shower. But his job, too, involved filling in the blanks and erasing it when the evidence didn't match up.

'Well, sometimes over-thinking it does more harm than good. What's your gut saying?'

'He should tell her before. Tabitha is already feeling used and to have him keep that information from her after sex, it would destroy her. For a variety of reasons.'

'How would he do it?'

Meredeth twisted the blender's blade off the body, tossed it in the sink before taking out the leftover chicken and dicing it to add to the pot. 'It would be her place, when they're both off work. She's invited him over for dinner, but she's on edge because he pulls the 'we need to talk' routine. He tells her, quick, blunt, to the point, like he's giving his report to his supervising officer.'

'What's Tabitha's reaction?'

'She's upset her not with him, but with Sonny, with herself for not knowing any better and more importantly, that her whole history with Little Sister is rewritten. Tonio, instead of becoming the villain, comforts her and points out that nothing has been rewritten, as the whole reason Little Sister was killed was because she had to make a choice and she chose loyalty to Lady Hawk over Sonny. He comforts her and as hard as she tries to resist him - not physically, you understand - she just wants to be held. Cheesy as it sounds, there's a lot to be said for the supportive nature of an embrace when you're upset.'

'I'm not disagreeing with you. Why do you think I keep my arms around you a little longer when I've had a bad day?'

It was true; how long he held on to her when he got home and she was already there had become her barometer for how good or bad his day had been. Glad he was able to understand that, Meredeth picked up her cutting board of diced chicken, slid the meat into the pot and turned down the burn to half its temperature. 'Anyways, they're on her couch, and he's just holding her close, and then he gives her a kiss.'

'Not their first one?'

'No, no, that was way earlier, Kristof has already gotten that one drawn, inked and lettered. That involved them squaring off in his office until they were nose-to-nose and it ended in them kissing like they were going to swallow each other whole. This is different, still passionate because these two light sparks off each other that could blow up the Chrysler Building, but sweet, tender even. And then, well, chicka-bam.'

'Such a way with words,' Esposito laughed, finishing off his drink. He got up from the table, took out bowls and silverware from the cupboards while she stirred the soup. 'And, by the way, you just solved your problem.'

'Huh, fancy that. Guess I better give Kristof a call, let him know he doesn't need to be up the rest of the night waiting for me to make up my mind.' Shutting off the burning, she looked around, patted her pockets. 'You haven't seen my phone around, have you?'

'Can't say I did, babe. Here, follow the ringing.' He pulled out his cell, dialed her number. From somewhere in the living room, he heard the tinny strains of a doo-wop song, watched her literally follow her ear towards the sound and pull her iPhone from under a pile of papers. She hit the button to stop it from ringing, stuffed it into her pants pocket. 'What?' she asked, when she saw his wounded look.

'Why don't I get a better ringtone on your phone?'

'What?'

Esposito pressed a few buttons and Meredeth's personalized ringtone peep-peeped out the small speakers. 'You get a Beach Boys song and I get a Diana Ross knock-off?'

'Actually it's The Crystals and that happens to be one of my favourite songs. Haven't I told you this story?' When he merely shook his head, it was her turn to nudge him into a chair as she ladled steaming, fragrant soup into bowls. 'It's a little cheesy, so brace yourself.'

'I work with Richard Castle, King of Cheesy, on a regular basis.'

'Okay, well, when I was about nine, my mother had this boyfriend and every time after he called, she started singing that song so I asked her about it. And she told me that it was playing the first time they'd danced together, at a friend's party, and the first time he'd held her in his arms and kissed her, she heard that song playing in her mind. For some reason, that really stuck with me, that a simple kiss could be so powerful. After she died, and I was in high school, all the girls around me and Chin-'

'Chin?' he interrupted.

'Yeah, Natalia Fedochinski, but no one ever called her that, she was always Chin. Anyways, whenever they'd talk about the various sexual acts they'd perform with their boyfriends or the stuff they thought was too nasty for that, and little ol' me didn't have much to contribute, Chin made me feel better by telling me the best first kiss in the world would make me sing that song. We'd nicknamed this make-believe boyfriend the Music Man, our code around those bitchy blonde girls so they'd think I was talking about a boy in a band.'

Meredeth was surprised as she felt a blush spring into her cheeks; it was the first time she'd done so with him in longer than she could remember. 'The night of our first date, when we kissed for the first time by the subway stop, after you left and I caught the metro to Yorkville, I couldn't stop singing that song the entire way home. I called Chin up and told her I'd met the Music Man; she shrieked so loudly I had to hold the phone away from my ear, and as a little yea-for-you, she gifted me that from Audiko so I could use it as your phone number's personal ring-tone.' She brought the bowls to the table, passed him one. 'Alright, go ahead, mock your big corn-pop of a girlfriend.'

'I think...' Esposito said slowly, taking her hand in his and threading their fingers together, 'you are the sweetest woman I've ever known.'

'Really?'

'Yeah. Now let's eat. I'm starving and I have a poker game to go and win soon.'

Half an hour later, when they were finished and he was putting his jacket on to leave for Castle's, Meredeth walked into the living room with her laptop and a mug of tea. She set both aside so she could go to the door and give him a kiss to send him on his way. 'You taking the metro or Cleo?'

'Cleo. I'm not drinking tonight since I'm on call tomorrow.'

'Okay. Remember, Castle likes to get yappy when he's bluffing so he can distract you.'

'I'm not going to lose all my float cash for the week on a card game.'

'That's what you said the last time.'

Esposito sent her a grin. 'And the week before that it was Ryan's turn. Maybe it'll be Beckett or Castle himself tonight.'

'A boy can dream. Gimme one for good luck,' she said to him, tapping her index finger under her lips, pouting them prettily.

He knew what she'd expect - a quick smack before he was out the door - so he decided to surprise her. Putting his hand to the small of her back, he drew her in and gently laid his lips on hers. It was slow, soft, like ice cream melting under the July sun; his tongue nudged her lips part and bumped against hers, making her sigh a happy little sound.

'I'll be in around midnight. Love you.'

'Love you too.'

Meredeth watched him jog down the eight steps to the curb, hop in the nifty little Nissan they shared and head towards Eighth Avenue. With a giggle, she closed the door Feeling in the mood for a glass of wine to go with her work for the rest of the night. As she walked back to the kitchen, under her breath she began to sing, 'Well he walked up to me and he asked me if I wanted to dance.'

R&R&Enjoy!