When RJ was set and certain he looked his best, he took Shane by the hand and they walked downstairs together while Beckett got her own shower. When he saw Alexis in the kitchen, also looking refreshed herself and wearing jeans and a cute pale green top that showed just a little hint of cleavage, Shane swallowed tightly. Now was not the time to be thinking naughty thoughts about how cute her ass looked in her jeans or how he prayed she'd lean over the counter just a little more to let the fabric of her top fall to give him a view of her breasts.

'Lessis!' RJ reached the bottom of the stairs and raced to his sister. 'How you doin' Lessis?'

'It's been a weird day, little bro,' she replied honestly. 'You look dapper tonight.'

'What that mean?'

'It's a synonym for sharp.'

'What a si-ma-mim?'

Alexis fought for patience. 'It's a fancy way of saying 'another word'.'

'Oh, o-kay. My Tah-rini here yet?'

'Not yet, there Valentino,' Castle chuckled as he finished arranging dishes of food on the long buffet table. 'Why don't you and your sister or you and Shane do some drawing?'

'No. No wanna. Wan' see my Tah-rini.'

'You can say that all you want but I can't speed up time and get her here for you.'

RJ's face threatened to crumple into a pout when he heard the knock on the door and his blue eyes lit with hope; he followed Alexis over to the door and though it wasn't Trini on the other side, he was just as excited when he saw Daniel, Andrea and Nessa. 'Hi-hi Daniel! Hi-hi An-dee-ah! How Nessa doin' ?'

'She's very good, she just had a little snack before we got here,' Andrea replied with a grin. New motherhood most-definitely looked good on her. 'And she's getting so big. Alexis, can you take her a moment?'

'Sure.' Alexis held out her hand for the baby-carrier and sneaked a peek under the blanket covering the baby so she wouldn't get snowed on. Nessa was indeed a looker - her eyes were a smoked slate blue and she already had pale strawberry blonde hair like her mother's and her shoulders were like a little line-backers; there was no mistaking her lineage in the slightest. 'What a little sweetheart.'

'She's such a good baby, she hardly ever cries, even when she got her two month booster shots,' Andrea said proudly. 'In fact, I think Daddy was crying more over that one than Nessa.'

'It's my duty as a daddy to protect my daughter from pain,' was all the man said and he gave Alexis a gentle smile. 'You doing better girl?'

'Yes,' Alexis replied genuinely. 'Yes I am.'

' 'Mon, Nessa, time fo' pishers!' RJ had apparently inherited his mother's patience, as he walked with Alexis over to the couch and waited politely while Alexis tok her from the carrier, put her on her shoulder. 'She a good baby.'

'She's very good, aren't you Nessa?'

Nessa blinked her eyes and squirmed a little, then clutched at Alexis' shoulder with one hand and went for her long red hair with the other, gave it a little squeeze her with long fingers. 'Yeah, that's kinda like your mommy's isn't it?'

'I can take her if you like, Lex,' Andrea offered; she was still a little bit in her selfish-phase of being a new mom that she didn't always like sharing her precious baby girl.

'No, I've got her, why don't you grab a drink or something?'

There was another knock on the door, and Alexis went with Nessa, still fascinated by her hair, to answer it. Her grin was wide when she saw four out of five Espositos on the other side; only the man of the clan was missing.

'Ola, Less!' Leo and Trini chorused, their brown eyes shining in delight as they waved, Leo shyly adding, 'Ola 'Sa.'

'Leo loves Nessa,' Tessi said importantly. 'How you to-night Ale...le...Lexis?'

'I'm good, Tessi. You're getting much better with those hard-c and k sounds.'

'Thank you. Mami?'

'Yes princess.'

'Give Ale..lexis the puh-resent.'

'She gets that bossiness from her daddy,' Meredeth laughed, leaning in to kiss Alexis' cheek. 'You feeling alright, sweetie?'

'I am. Doctor says I'm pretty much healed now since it was only three weeks but the hormones might take a little longer to level off. Where's Javi?'

'He and Ryan had to make a stop for Shane. Apparently he's putting together some kind of surprise for you?'

Alexis kept the smile on her face even as she ground her back teeth together. 'Apparently,' she echoed politely, then looked down at Nessa. 'What's my fiancee up to, huh? What's going on inside that Dutch coconut of his?'

As the baby's response was an adorably large sneeze that scared the bejesus out of poor Nessa, the baby's face clouded and she began to fuss a little bit, so Alexis passed her over to Andrea. It gave Meredeth the opportunity to put a supportive arm around the young woman and steer her towards the island where Castle had set up the bar. 'I think you could use a good stiff drink, and I've got a good recipe up my sleeve.'

'I don't think that's a good idea-'

'Don't go messin' with me, Alexis. I'm a mother of three children under the age of five and trying for number four.' Meredeth looked around at the selections and grinned. 'Kate, you knew I was coming, didn't you? I see all the fixings for double-barrel brass monkeys here.'

As Meredeth set about making her concoction, there was more knocking on the door and Alexis wondered if they shouldn't ust leave it open to let their friends in the way Meredeth and Javi did at Christmas. She answered the door and this time her face split into an even wider grin.

'Hey guys!'

'Alexis!' Dell threw his arms around Alexis' waist while Mallory did the same to the knees. 'Mama said you were in the hospital last week, and that you were going to have a baby but it got sick and didn't make it. Are you better now?'

'You doin' better?' Mallory asked, little eyes widening in concern.

'Much better.'

'That's so good to hear. Come on, we gonna go find my Tessi and we gonna have a bev-age and then I'm gonna tell you a joke to make you feel better.'

Shane watched from across the room as Alexis was inundated by the children of their friends and felt a surge of pride for her. She may have stared down a serial killer that afternoon, but in his mind watching her be around all those youngster without flinching or breaking down when she was still healing from her own lost child.

He hadn't realized until they'd been sitting together in Central Park that afternoon, and really listening to the words of the song she'd sung to him that it was as much for herself as for him. She'd needed to sit shiva for her own loss too, and Alexis being who she was had put him first before herself, because she'd determined in her mind that situation was far more dire than her own.

But she was still healing, and he hoped that his plan for her the next day would show her just how much he loved her, that she was the one who needed to be treasured just as much as she'd treasured him and made sure he'd gotten through the week as intact as possible.

When he saw Ryan and Esposito walk through the door, he gave them a subtle nod. They gave Alexis a supportive hug before coming over and getting a drink. 'Hey bro, how was the rest of your day?'

'Much calmer than the first half. You take care of those little errands?'

'Yes, you are all set to go,' Ryan replied. 'She'll be picked up at six-thirty.'

'You guys are the best. What about Lili?'

'She'll see you tomorrow at two sharp. Be punctual, she's only got forty minutes for you. Fridays are always chaos for her.' Esposito twisted the top off a bottle of beer. 'I know the captain told us all to get tanked tonight, but too much of this goes down, other things won't.'

'And we're back to our same pervy-time, same pervy channel,' Ryan sighed as his partner wandered off to find his wife. 'I swear to God, Meredeth turned him part rabbit. He was never this bad about his girlfriends before her.'

'Funny,' Shane commented. 'I was never comfortable talking about my private life with my girlfriends to my guy friends till Alexis and I hooked up and we all got a little closer.'

'Still bothers me from time to time the way we reamed you over cards that night about messing around with her.'

'I knew you guys were going to do that to me, but c'mon, you gotta admit it was a rather classic moment how you and Espo found out about us.'

Ryan had to laugh at the one. 'You're telling me. I still can't believe that happened some days, it feels too surreal. Had you guys been...you know, when you were in the shower-'

'Nope. We were just having a shower together in the vain effort of her hoping to be at the loft before me.'

'Let me ask you something, had you not been busted by us, when would you have told us your mystery girlfriend was Alexis?'

'That night,' Shane replied honestly. 'We'd talked about telling people now that her parents knew, and truthfully, the way things unfolded over cards was close to the way I'd plan to tell you about it anyways, a little payback for the teasing you gave me.'

'It's strange, when we first found out about you guys, it felt like such an odd couple, and now it's impossible to think of you two with anyone else.' Ryan sipped his own beer and grinned at him. 'You know that now you've set a wedding date that means we get to start planning your bachelor party, right?'

'It's over a year away.'

'Yeah, that might be enough time. Oh, no. This could be trouble.'

'What?'

Ryan pointed, watched as Meredeth and Alexis came over to the bartending station, began setting out little paper Dixie cups while Meredeth began pouring shots of liquor in a tall glass. 'If this lady is mixing the drinks, you better brace yourself for a very hungover fiancee tomorrow.'

The next day, Alexis woke late with a fuzzy head; she wasn't surprised that Shane was already up. She could literally smell the coffee coming from the cup on her night-stand and reached for it, sighing deeply as the delicious bitter bite hit her tongue with just a hint of cream and sugar.

'Oh that's the stuff,' she sighed in pleasure, then sat up, letting the sheets fall away from her body. She was back in her groove of little to no clothing while she slept despite the fact it was six weeks until Christmas and four to the first night of Chanukah. There was something about the feel of the sheets on her bare skin that helped her sleep better.

Of course, the hunky doctor she was hooked up with helped her sleep much better too, for more than one reason. And that more than one reason was all she could think about right now. She wanted her fiance in bed with her so badly she could almost taste it. She wanted to be naked with him, to kiss him and touch him intimately the way she'd planned to for the last week. There was a tingle at the base of her spine as she thought of how they were more than likely going to spend all of Saturday making up for that lost time.

She took another sip of coffee, glanced up when Shane walked in full dressed and grinning. 'Morning, sleepy-head. Or should I say afternoon?'

'What time is it?'

'Quarter past noon.'

Alexis glared at him. 'Why did you let me sleep so long?'

'When I tried to wake you up at nine-thirty you told me if I wanted to get laid tonight I'd learn to leave you alone while you slept.'

'I said that?'

'Verbatim.' Shane rounded the foot of the bed, gave her a sticky, lingering kiss. 'But then, you were way more in the bottle than I was since you and Meredeth got into the brass monkeys. You might want to get a shower soon, though, because you have some appointments to keep today.'

'Appointments?' As far as Alexis knew, her Friday was wide open and clear. 'What appointments?'

'You're going to Mid-Town Retreat for a few hours, and there is someone waiting there to enjoy a very girlish day of indulgence with you.'

The glare turned into a squint. 'What are you up to, Shane?'

'If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise now would it?'