"So it's finally happening, huh, you and Castle are getting married?" Lanie asked as she sat across from her best friend in the booth at Remy's.

"Yeah" Kate said with a smile, staring down at the ring on her left hand. It wasn't her mother's. That was now back in its place, nestled between her breasts on its chain.


She remembered how after they'd returned to the loft that night, exhausted, slightly embarrassed, and disappointed to be coming home with just the two of them, Castle had disappeared into their bedroom and emerged a moment later with a small blue box in his hand.

She had looked from his face to the box, and back up to his sparkling blue eyes in shock as he knelt down in front of her.

"Kate. I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Now, I know you have your own ring and if you would rather keep that I understand but, regardless, I wanted to do this right. Katherine Houghton Beckett, will you marry me?"

She couldn't stop the small gasp that escaped her lips when he opened the box to reveal the beautiful diamond ring inside. It was perfect. A single solitaire surrounded by other smaller diamonds set into the band so it wouldn't catch. Something that was befitting of Castle, but wasn't so big and flashy that it would make her uncomfortable either.

A minute passed, and then another as she just stared at the ring in front of her, speechless.

"Kate?" Castle asked, shifting on his knee, relieving the pressure slightly.

His voice seemed to shake her out of her own head and she blinked rapidly a couple times before bringing her eyes up to meet his once more.

"Oh, Castle. Yes, of course, yes. I love you" she breathed, unable to keep a few tears from escaping the corners of her eyes and wishing that she could launch herself into his arms. As it was, she had to wait for him to join her on the couch and replace her mother's ring with her new engagement ring, holding her hand reverently in his own as he did so before leaning forward to meet her lips in a gentle kiss.

"I wish I could take you to bed and show you just how much I love you right now" she revealed, her eyes sparkling as they broke apart for air.

"Kate, I don't need you to prove how much you love me it's all right here." He says, letting their still joined hands come to rest on her stomach and she couldn't help but grin as she felt the child within her moving under their hands as if agreeing with his father's words.


"Hello, Earth to Beckett?" Lanie waved her hand in front of the brunette's face and snapped her fingers once before finally garnering her friend's attention once again.

"I really am happy for you sweetie" the ME said smiling at her friend who was obviously besotted. Kate deserved all the happiness she could find and she knew Castle would treat her like she really was a queen.

She took notice as her best friend reached a hand below the table to rub circles into her belly that barely allowed her into the booth.

"Are you alright?" she asks, her concern registering on her face.

"Hmm?" Beckett asks, looking up at Lanie with unfocused eyes.

"Oh, uh, yeah I'm fine," she answers a second later, "just Braxton Hicks. I've been having them on and off all week now since we went to the hospital." She reveals relaxing back into her seat once more.

"Ok, if you say so." Her friend concedes dubiously, taking a sip of her milkshake.

"Have you been keeping track of how often they've been or how long they've lasted?" Lanie finally asked, when several minutes later she notices lines of tension crossing the detective's forehead.

"Mmm not really. It's been so irregular I haven't bothered." She gritted out before relaxing a few seconds later.

"Kate, I think maybe you should go to the hospital. I think this is the real thing." Lanie revealed looking at her friend with a mixture of concern and excitement.

"Lanie I've got another week to go, I really think it's just more false labor and I don't want to go sit in a hospital and have them send me home again."

The doctor understood what her friend was saying but she knew Beckett had a high threshold for pain and seeing her friend having a difficult time with these contractions meant they really would have been getting to any normal person that wasn't so hardheaded. Not to mention there couldn't have been much more than five minutes between those last two. That was close enough for the ME.

"Well either way why don't I go get us the check and we can head back to the loft?" she suggested, hoping that if her friend was indeed in labor, her writer might have better luck convincing her to go to the hospital.

With Beckett's agreement Lanie left to pay the bill and get some take-home boxes. When she returned, she found her friend standing beside the booth, standing frozen with wide eyes.

"Beckett? Kate, what's wrong?" Lanie asked, concern for her friend radiating out from her.

"Lanie I'm in labor" Kate whispered so quietly that her friend barely heard her.

"What? But I thought you just tried to tell me that it was just Braxton Hicks." The other woman argued wondering what could possibly have changed the detectives mind so quickly.

"I thought so too until my water broke."

"What? Your water broke and you didn't say anything to me?" Lanie asked, remembering to keep her voice down at the last moment. The restaurant wasn't packed but there were still other patrons there trying to enjoy their lunch.

"It just happened when I stood up. I-I didn't know." The detective answered, still looking shell-shocked. Gone was the level-headed woman of the week before who had been so amused watching her boyfriend, wow fiancé, run around in a panic. Now it was real.


A/N: Dun dun dun... So we are just about done. I'm thinking one more chapter, or possibly two, and if you're lucky I'll get the rest of this story written today and it will be up right away. I'll see what I can do for you all :)