Chapter 26

On Monday, Castle was up early. Black Pawn had an early meeting they expected him to attend, and he wasn't happy about it. Kate had spent Sunday with her father, and he missed her. He and Alexis talked as they had a quick breakfast, and he left about half an hour after she did.

By the time he reached the precinct, Beckett was going stir crazy. Nothing was happening. She couldn't finish her reports until they heard from the labs, there wasn't a new case, and there was nobody sitting at her desk with her to keep her either entertained or annoyed. She had talked to Ryan and Esposito who were now distracting themselves at the computer. Then she talked to detectives on two other teams; but, other than a suggestion that gave one team a new perspective on one of their suspects, hazy though it was, most of the others seemed to be in similar holding patterns. It was odd and unsettling. The place was usually full of something to keep people busy. And to make it worse, her mind kept wandering back to the lazy afternoon she and Castle had spent in the Hamptons.

When Castle came in, it was all she could do to keep herself from throwing her arms around him and kissing him senseless. Instead, she accepted the coffee and tried not to lapse into the eye sex Ryan and Esposito always accuse them of. Her self control wasn't helped by the fact that Castle had been at a business meeting and was looking really sharp. He sat down and loosened his tie, which left her wanting to growl and help him with whatever else he might not want to be wearing; so she closed her eyes and took a sip of the coffee, pretending that's where her thoughts were.

"You want me," Castle said from behind his coffee cup, sounding very pleased with himself.

"Shut up, Castle. Precinct. There's nothing going on here, not much with anybody else, either. Most of us are bored out of our minds. Too much time for wandering thoughts…and you're looking really good this morning."

"Voluntary compliments. It must have been a long morning." He looked at her and laughed, and she opened one eye."

"Help me out here. Tell me about Paula and your meeting. That should cool the atmosphere."

"She's trying to get me to escort Natalie Rhodes to the premier of the new movie in June. I've flatly refused. Then she insisted that if I didn't accompany the star to the premiere, I should at least ask the real Nikki to go with me. I told her I'd ask you. I'm much more inclined toward that idea."

"That's a lot of the kind of attention I don't like."

"When we get ourselves worked out, you'll almost have to be there for the next ones. Might as well get acclimated. It's part of the Castle package. You should be aware of everything you're getting into.

"You're probably right. And I'm certainly not leaving you in the clutches of that personality snatcher."

"Nothing would happen. You know that, right?"

"But the press could make it look that way. No sense in leaving you there, either."

"You really hate this idea, don't you?"

"Yeah. But I love you more." Their whole conversation had taken place either looking down or from behind their coffee cups. In one of those moments when someone feels watched, Kate looked across the room, and reported, "The boys are looking at us again. I've been picking up strange vibes from them lately, and they're not giving us a hard time. Something is going on with them, and that always worries me."

"You want me to talk to them?"

"I don't know. It could turn out to be one of those things best left alone." The look on Castle's face changed, and she realized it reminded him of the day she sent him away from the hospital. "I'm sorry." She surreptitiously slipped one hand over to his thigh where it wouldn't be seen over the desk. "On second thought, that doesn't always work well. Maybe it's best to face it head on. We'll look for an opening, and ask them."

Castle reached down, took her hand in his and squeezed it briefly, acknowledging that he understood her apology. "I'll talk to them. Let me handle it. But not here."

"Are you trying to be my knight in shining armor again?"

"Is that such a terrible thing?"

"Not as often as it used to be. It's all in the timing. So, okay. This one is yours. Have a man talk."

"More progress," he said with a smile. "It's probably nothing to worry about anyway." Castle got out his phone and started a text.

"What are you doing?"

"Before I forget, I need to tell Paula I'm taking Nikki Heat to the premiere," he said with a mischievous smile. Then he finished his text to Alexis asking her to call and invite Kate to lunch that day.

About fifteen minutes later, Alexis called. "Hi, Kate. Do you have time to have lunch with me today? I know dad had a meeting. Dr. Parish wants to come, too. Girl's day lunch?"

"Hi, Alexis. Actually, he got here a little while ago. Maybe tomorrow?"

Castle mouthed, 'What?'

"Hang on." She turned to Castle and lowered her phone to her lap. "Your daughter and Lanie want to have a girl's lunch today.

"Go ahead. I'll take the boys to lunch if they don't have other plans. If they do, I might crash your party."

"Hey, Alexis. Where and what time?" She listened for another second or two and said, "Okay. See you in a little while. I'm meeting them at one, she told him."

"Be back in a minute." He walked over to Ryan's desk and said, "The ladies are getting together for lunch without me. Can I interest you in lunch…on me?"

"I got no problem with free food…how about you, Ryan?"

"No problem here, either. We leaving now?"

"Fifteen minutes?"

They nodded and went back to their computer distractions, and Castle went back to Beckett.

"I'll take them to The Old Haunt."

"Easier to be in control on your own turf?" she smirked.

"Couldn't hurt," he answered good-naturedly.

Just before they all left, ballistics came in confirming that Randall Quinton's gun was the weapon used in the Sweeney killing. They had one of the two conspirators. They shared the news with Ryan and Esposito, and hoping for the report on the prints later in the day, they all left for lunch.

xxxxx

The three men shared a cab to The Old Haunt, ordered burgers, fries and soft drinks, and Castle took them down to his office. He pulled a small table away from the wall and moved chairs over to give them a comfortable place to sit.

"Great place down here, Castle," Ryan said, looking around. "Is this your man cave?"

"Kind of. It comes in handy now and then. When Meredith is in town to visit Alexis, this place sees a lot of me. Now and then I'll hide out here and write."

"Did you ever bring Beckett down here?" Esposito asked

Out of the corner of his eye, Castle caught Ryan giving Javi a little jab with his elbow. There was his opening.

"Just asking if she's seen it," Javi said to Ryan defensively.

"I saw that. What's going on with you two?" Castle motioned for them to sit down, and he sat with them. "One day you're watching us like hawks and standing at the desk ready to harass us like always, then you're still watching but not saying a word. You're beginning to worry Beckett. She's starting to think you have some nefarious plot bomb ready to drop on us when we least expect it."

"It's not like that, bro'," Esposito told him.

"We gotta tell him," Ryan said. "Time to man up."

Esposito took a long, deep breath. "Yeah. Okay, we followed you a little while back."

"Followed me?" Castle asked, immediately trying not to worry about Smith. He had been so careful about that.

"Followed you and Beckett. We noticed she was leaving closer to on time lately, and she was leaving with you. We were feeling goofy that day. I think we had some stupid idea about showing up and waving at you when you pulled out of the parking garage or something...you know…just to let you know we knew you were doing something together after work.

"Which parking garage?" Castle asked, not looking pleased.

"The one where you park, not the precinct parking."

"When was this?"

"Monday last week," Ryan answered.

They saw the set of Castle's jaw, the tension that they recognized as one of his tells when he wasn't happy.

"We saw that intense kiss next to your car. It wasn't what we expected. We felt bad about it afterward. That's not something we intended to mess with."

Castle slammed his hand on the table and stood, running his hand through his hair. "Dammit!"

"We knew you'd be mad. If it helps, you can be sure we won't do it again," Esposito told him.

"Better you than Gates…or one of those guys on Ferrell's team who can't stand that a woman is ahead of them all the time. How could I have been so stupid?"

Ryan stared at Castle as if he'd lost his mind. "Wait a minute…we're the ones spying on something that personal, and you're this mad at yourself?"

"I compromised her."

"All you did was kiss her…and, you looked smooth enough for a little envy, if it matters. It was pretty intense, but it's not like you did anything out of line," Esposito assured him.

"Kate has spent a lot of years building her professional reputation. It's harder for a woman, but she's done it; and I have nothing but respect for that. Anybody could have followed us into that garage…somebody else from the precinct, like one of Ferrell's people, who would love to post something embarrassing on all the bulletin boards or send out mass emails…some random guy with a cell phone camera, who could make a phone call to a newspaper. I know she could handle it, but I shouldn't be careless enough to put her in that position. I just couldn't…" He caught himself before he said too much. "But I did."

"Go a little easier on yourself, man. We didn't see her telling you to stop."

Castle was pacing a little and running his hand through his hair again. "I come with a lot of baggage, and publicity is big part of it. It isn't nearly like being an actor. I was there for that when Mother was at her peak. The worst of my problems comes in short stretches…around the time a new book comes out, or one of the movies. Black Pawn encourages it to sell books. We've talked about it, but Kate hasn't experienced the brunt of it yet, and I was careless. I'm supposed to take care of her."

"So you're not mad at us?" Ryan asked.

"Yes, I'm mad at you. Kate and I are finally working things out. It hasn't been easy, and we don't need stalkers keeping an eye on us; but it may be good that it happened. It should make me think first about where we are."

"Stalkers might be a little harsh, bro'," Esposito protested.

"Just don't do it again," Castle told them.

"Esposito looked at Ryan. "Dude, he's only a few years older than we are. How come, when he gets all serious, I feel like I'm talking to my Dad?"

"Must be the look. I'm fighting with myself to keep from saying 'Yes, sir.'"

Castle finally smiled slightly. "I've been practicing the look for eighteen years," he responded, and went to answer the knock at the door. One of the waitresses had brought their lunches.

"Thanks, Miranda," he told her after she served lunch, and then she left with the tray."

As soon as the door closed, the heavy atmosphere began to dissipate. "Okay," Ryan said. "To recap: you're still mad, but you're glad it happened, and you're more mad with yourself than you are with us?"

"I think that about covers it, Kevin," Castle answered, sitting down and opening his drink.

"No wonder you and Beckett had such a hard time working things out. Figuring her out is even harder than this."

"No argument there," Castle agreed.

"Now if I can just figure Lanie out," Esposito complained. "We've known Beckett way longer than you have, and we still don't have her figured out. How did you finally get through to her?"

"More patience than I thought I had."

"We won't ask." Ryan stated. "We're leaving you alone for a while.

"Good. Because you're never going to hear most of it, anyway."

"Understood," Javi answered.

After that, they all settled into enjoying their lunches and eased back into general conversation.

xxxxx

Not long before their shift ended, the lab reports came back with a match for the prints on the envelope. With that and Quinton's confession, they had enough to implicate Brenda Hesch as planning a murder for hire. The team could go home satisfied.

xxxxx

As the week went by there were two more bodies, and with two cases, there wasn't a lot of free time. Castle and Beckett were together after work, and there was family time, but not as much as they wanted. They even ended up working through most of the weekend before a break came up in one of the cases. By the end of the following week, when everything was at a standstill until lab reports came back, everyone with any connection to the team was drained of all energy.

Leaving on Friday, Beckett asked, "Can we go back to the Hamptons tomorrow?"

"I'd like that…a lot."

"What time do you want to leave?"

"Whenever you want. We can always take a nap after we get there if you want to leave early," he said suggestively."

"Can we leave around eight?"

"Sure." He unlocked the car and opened the door for her. "Lanie has the weekend off, too, so Alexis isn't likely to miss me much. She's already announced that she intends to sleep tomorrow until she wakes up, and she's threatened the health and safety of anybody who tries to speed the process. Tomorrow night she's going out with some of her school friends. I think getting back even a little bit has been good for her. You gave her good advice."

"It's the the same thing you were going to tell her, right?"

"It is. But she asked you, and you helped her with the pros and cons. She respected that. It's the way she and I have always worked; but she's older now, and a second opinion beyond your parent never hurts. I was impressed."

"I just did what my mom always did for me."

"Then your mom will be part of our family, too…every time you give Alexis that kind of advice."

"You like seeing me get all teary eyed, don't you?"

"You're just tired. We'll go home and do something mindless that doesn't require any thought…watch a movie…fall asleep on the couch."

"The last one is looking like a probability. Maybe I should go back to the apartment."

"You didn't say go back home. You said, 'Go back to the apartment.' Is your idea of home changing?" he asked hopefully.

"Maybe."

He said nothing, just smiled a pleased smile.

xxxxx

The next morning they sat on the steps of the deck at the Hamptons house. She sat on the top step, and he sat on the step below her, leaning back against her. Her arms were across his shoulders with her hands clasped over his chest, and his arms were draped over her knees, each of them now and then moving their hands in gentle touches to whatever parts of the other were easy to reach.

"It won't be quite this peaceful in another couple of months. Still nice, but not as peaceful. Families will be back for the summer. People will be walking on the beach every day, kids with them squealing and splashing. Still nice, but not this kind of peaceful."

"Then we need to enjoy it while we can." She leaned forward and kissed his temple, and he turned his head, leaning it back against her knee so she could reach his lips.

"Have you thought about weddings?" he asked, giving her another little kiss on the lips before leaning against her and looking out at the ocean again. "Hypothetically?"

"I don't think I ever wanted one of those weddings that costs a fortune and turns into such a production that everybody is too worn out to enjoy it. I like the idea of family and work family. Do you really think we could do it quietly?"

"I'm sure of it. There are people here in the Hamptons I've done business with since Alexis was little and people in the city who would work with me to keep it from anybody they aren't sure they can trust. We could probably put it together as fast as we could make the decisions on what we want."

"It amazes me what money can accomplish."

"It's more than that, Kate. It's respect for each other. Some of those people would probably give it to us no charge if that's what I needed. But throwing money at it to make it easier never hurts." He leaned his head back to look up at her and smile, and she smiled down and kissed his forehead. He lifted his head again. "So you're sure you'd be happy with something that small?"

"I'm sure." She leaned and kissed the top of his head.

"Hypothetically…would you be happy with having it here?"

"Here would be a beautiful place."

"Okay." The smile the ocean was getting from him at that moment was one of pure joy.

The rest of the day was as relaxed as the last time they were there. Castle took her to a restaurant and a few shops that catered to the locals and introduced her to the owners. These were people he had known and enjoyed for years, and he liked the idea that they would see her and recognize her before the summer influx of new faces to remember. That summer, if everything went as he hoped, she would be a permanent part of his family. They returned to their room at the beach house and loved one another leisurely before taking that nap that had been mentioned and returning to the city late in the evening.

xxxxx

The next Sunday, Castle took Kate to dinner at a nice restaurant near Central Park. They dressed up for the evening, and he offered a carriage ride afterward. When they got into the carriage, there were flowers waiting for her.

"You planned this?"

"The whole evening. How am I doing so far?"

"So far?" she asked. "You mean there's more?"

"Maybe. Just relax. This week was as bad as the last two. We needed a break."

The driver smiled back at them. "Ready, folks?" he asked. At Castle's nod, he snapped the reins, and the horse clopped into the park, taking the carriage past the new spring colors and the statues and a fountain; and he brought him to a stop near the middle of the park.

"We're stopping here?"

"For a little while."

It was getting dark, and that part of the park was pretty unpopulated at the time.

After helping Kate down, he turned to the driver and said, "Thanks, Lou. You'll wait for us here?"

"Will do, Mr. C.," he answered touching the brim of his top hat in sort of a salute.

"Another one of your guys?"

"Did you notice he was in a less obvious location than the others? Like our seating in the restaurant? Guys I've known a while." Castle offered Kate his arm and walked with her to the grassy area she had remembered from childhood. "I think you'll find something new here. Thought you might want to try it out."

He sat down in the middle of the bench facing Kate and stretched his arm across its back behind her, and used the other hand to pull her down to join him.

"You did this, didn't you?"

"The Park Conservancy has programs that allow it; I took advantage of one."

She leaned toward him, took his face in her hands and kissed him tenderly. "Thank you. I'll bring my dad here and show him."

"I talked to him before I did this, to be sure he approved. Didn't want to overstep."

She snuggled against him, wrapping her arms around his waist under his coat and breathing in his scent, appreciating him even more than before.

He put his arms around her shoulders loosely. "We're close to some decision making, Kate. Do you need more time? Do we need to wait, or can we start now?"

"I don't need to wait anymore."

He lifted her chin to see her face and asked, "Then, Katherine Beckett, will you do me the honor of being my wife?"

"The honor would be mine, Richard Alexander Rodgers…Edgar…Castle… Whoever you are, I love you."

He pulled her close and kissed her lips, and her cheek, and her temple, and then her lips again, and then said softly near her ear, "I wasn't sure we'd ever get here. I don't know how to tell you how much I love you."

For a long moment, they sat holding one another, basking in the joy of having come so far together.

"I think you were sure for a long time. You just had to wait until I was convinced," she said against his neck.

"And you are now? You're absolutely certain this is what you want?"

"I'm still scared, but I'm absolutely certain."

He kissed her again and sat up without separating too far from her. "Then tomorrow we look at rings. Private showing. You should have something you love and can wear easily at work. I have the cover story ready. You'll need your badge," he told her mischievously.

"We're not going to start our life together with me having to do something illegal, are we?" she said with mock suspicion.

"Of course not. You wound me, Kate." His hand was at his heart again.

"Never again," she promised and channeled all her love into another kiss. "This is one of those things I wish I could run home and tell my mom. Can we go home and tell yours and Alexis?"

He smiled. "You said you want to go home and tell my family…not to the loft. I like that. And maybe we can imagine that your mother knows," he said as he took a small pen light from his coat pocket, moved a little farther away, and pointed the light at a shiny, new plaque.

Kate read the flat metal plaque on the back of the bench and pressed her hand against her mouth, feeling tears welling up. It said "In memory of Johanna Beckett." It gave the dates of her birth and death and closed saying "With love from her family."

"That's why I asked your father first. Maybe one day we can sit here and watch our child play?"

"Rick…I…I…" She stopped and shook her head in disbelief. "I think…maybe I'm beginning to imagine that."

He stood and pulled her up with him, grabbed her and swung her around in circles laughing. "Imagination is a powerful thing," he said, putting her down so her feet touched the ground again and kissing her soundly. "We'll go with imagining for now."

Kate walked over to the bench and touched the plaque and said softly, "Did you hear, Mom? I'm really happy. You'd love him." Turning back to him, she said. "Does your family know what you intended to do?"

"I told them."

"Then let's go tell them it worked," she said, taking his hand.