Chapter 35
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The Parish/Esposito wedding was on a Saturday with the ceremony due to start at one o'clock sharp.
The chaos and panic started at the crack of dawn.
Kate's cellphone rang at five. Eyes still closed, she answered without bothering to look at the caller display, "Lanie, your seating chart is fine, the food will be great, and Zoey and I will not be late to the hair-and-makeup session."
"It's snowing outside!"
"It's winter."
"It can't be snowing today! I have people driving in! What if they get stuck in the middle of nowhere and nobody gets to the wedding on time and…"
Kate sat up in bed with a groan. She didn't bother interrupting Lanie's diatribe as she fumbled for her slippers in the dark and walked over to the window. Pulling the curtains open halfway – an action that caused Castle to mutter something that sounded like 'this wedding needed to be over yesterday' – Kate made a noise of disbelief.
"Lanie!" She had to practically yell into the phone in order to get Lanie's attention. "It's barely snowing outside. I don't even know if I would call them flurries. And by the time the afternoon rolls around and the temperature rises above freezing, I'm going to bet even those will go away. Have you even checked the weather channel?"
"Nat has."
"And…?"
"She told me I was crazy."
"You are." Kate pulled the curtain closed. "Now can you please let me get a couple more hours of sleep? You don't want me looking hideous in your pictures, do you?"
"I feel bad for the wedding planner," Castle said when Kate crawled back into bed.
She tossed her cellphone back onto the side table. "Well, think about it this way: in twelve hours, the alcohol will start flowing."
He pulled her close. "Does that mean you'll let me feel you up on the dance floor?" he murmured into the crook of her neck.
"You can certainly try," Kate replied teasingly.
"Is that a challenge? 'Cause you know I never pass up a good challenge."
.
By some miracle, Lanie didn't call again that morning. When Kate and Zoey arrived at Lanie's mother's house (where they would all be getting ready), Kate saw why. Natalie had confiscated Lanie's cellphone.
Kate turned around to wave goodbye at Castle; they would be meeting him later at the church. His only job was to collect Zoey at the end of the aisle after her flower girl duties.
"Hello Mrs. Parish," Kate greeted. "Are we the last ones?"
Mrs. Parish smiled, "Yes, but don't worry about it. I remember how difficult it is to get children out of the house in the morning."
Kate peered down the hallway. Zoey had already been boosted up onto the kitchen counter, surrounded by half of the females in the house. "She's going to get a lot of attention today, isn't she?"
Mrs Parish chuckled. "She is a cutie… and she also happens to be the only one in this house under the age of eighteen."
The morning went by relatively smoothly. Kate made sure that Zoey was the last to get her hair and make-up done, knowing that expecting a child to sit still so as not to mess up a delicate hair-do was ludicrous.
For once, Zoey's naturally curly hair was a blessing.
"I think we should leave it down," said Teresa, the stylist, "Your daughter's hair is lovely."
"Not when you have to comb through it," Kate replied wryly. "I considered cutting it shorter but the curls would only get tighter—"
"—Annie ringlets," Teresa supplied, "Yeah, I agree, two inches or so below her shoulders is a good length. Looser waves, more manageable."
Kate laughed. "Exactly."
Teresa ended up gathering the top half of Zoey's brown hair into a complicated knot, weaving a burgundy ribbon through some of the strands to match the bridesmaids' dresses. Zoey's own flower girl dress was ivory in colour, sleeveless with a lace bodice over matte satin and a Peter Pan collar. She couldn't stop twirling around in it once Kate got it on her at the church.
Lanie was now a bundle of nerves as last minute preparations went on all around her. They were all crowded into one of the Sunday school rooms in the basement of the church.
"Lanie," Kate said, placing a calming hand on her friend's shoulder, "Remember to breathe."
"Are you mocking me right now, Kate?" she replied, "Because now is not the time to mock me."
"Lanie, you're my best friend," Kate said.
Lanie finally looked at Kate, the sentiment having been uttered out of the blue.
Kate smiled, glad that for a second Lanie wasn't preoccupied with freaking out. "I want you to be happy and while nobody is good enough for you, I think Esposito comes pretty close."
Lanie almost started to tear. "Girl, I will kill you if you make me mess up my makeup," she said before pulling Kate into a hug. "Thanks."
"Now, is there anything I can do for you?" Kate offered.
"Actually, yeah, could you go over to the guys' room and get Javier's nephew Adrian? Then, take him and Zoey upstairs and, I don't know, remind them what to do?"
"Mhm, sure," Kate replied, "I'll stay with them."
"We'll be up as soon as my mom finishes fussing over Nat's dress," Lanie said with a roll of her eyes. "Oh, and don't give them the flower petals and ring until right before the door opens."
"I know, Lanie," Kate said dryly, having been the one who had told her that in the first place.
When Kate entered the room down the hall, she was met with whistles. "Sorry boys," she said, waving her left hand, "I'm taken."
"Beckett, what's up?" Esposito said.
"I'm here to get Adrian and take him upstairs with Zo," she replied, "Oh, and I need Lanie's ring. Nat already gave me yours."
Esposito looked expectantly at Ryan. Kate watched as Ryan's eyes widened comically.
Esposito narrowed his eyes. "Yo, don't mess with me today. Tell me you have the ring."
"I do, I do!" Ryan answered hurriedly.
Kate waited for the 'but'.
Sure enough, "But it's not here. With me. At this very second."
Esposito and Kate both groaned.
"Well then where the hell is it?" Esposito asked.
"I wanted to make sure it was safe! So, I had Jenny hold onto it. She was supposed to remember to get it back to me…"
"Is Jenny here yet?" Kate asked.
Ryan had already whipped out his phone. When it was clear that Jenny wasn't picking up, Kate took hers out.
Castle answered on the third ring. "Miss me already?"
"Looks like you have a job after all, Castle," Kate said by way of reply.
"Ooo. Mission time."
"Focus, Castle."
"I am a camera."
"I need you to find Jenny. Ryan left the ring with her and she's not picking up her phone."
"Oh! I just spotted her a second ago. By the front of the church." Kate heard him shuffle through groups of people.
"Good, can you meet me at the back door? Apparently, I'm in charge of the flower girl and ring bearer today."
"Yup," he said, "I'll see you soon."
Adrian was several years older than Zoey and Kate found it adorable when he kept telling the little girl things that he had learned in school as they walked to their destination. Adrian had an older brother so it must've been quite a refreshing twist to be the one who knew everything. Most of the time, Kate suspected Zoey had no idea what Adrian was blabbering on about but she did ask, "Really?" at the right moments.
Kate was too busy watching Adrian show Zoey how he could touch his nose with his tongue that she didn't notice Castle approaching behind her.
"Hey gorgeous," he whispered against her ear.
She whirled around and smiled. "You're not so bad yourself." She placed her hands against the lapels of his jacket and said teasingly, "You know, if you're lucky, you might just get to sleep with a bridesmaid tonight."
"Oh, I don't know," he replied, wrapping his arms loosely around her waist, "My fiancée might have a problem with that."
Her voice dropped seductively. "And what do you think she would do if she found out?"
He leaned in and she could feel his smile against her lips. "Well, she does own a pair of handcuffs…"
Two seconds into their kiss and they heard, "Eww! He's going to catch her cooties!"
Zoey looked innocently at Adrian who had uttered the phrase. "What are cooties?" she asked.
"Nothing, sweetheart," Castle said, as seriously as he could manage after he and Kate had separated, "Nobody has cooties."
"No, that's not true," Adrian said loudly, pointing at Castle, "You d—"
"—Alright Adrian," Kate said, cutting him off, "I think it's almost time to start so we better get ready." She retrieved the ring from Castle. "I'll see you afterwards," she said to him.
He was just about to lean in for a quick kiss when he saw that Adrian was still staring suspiciously at them. "Maybe later," he said to Kate, chuckling.
.
When Zoey made her way down the aisle, (running out of flower petals before she had even gone halfway), Castle's eyes glistened a little bit. His mind having suddenly pictured a much older Zoey walking down the aisle at her own wedding. He wrapped his arm around Alexis' shoulder, suddenly feeling nostalgic as he realised how much sooner that day would come for his other little girl. It wasn't long before Alexis was joining him in tears, crying so much during Esposito and Lanie's vows that she had to go to the bathroom to fix her make-up after the ceremony.
In Kate's case, though, she held strong. All the way through the rings and an emotional speech made by Mrs. Parish, not a single tear was shed. But then, the father-daughter dance was announced.
By the end of the second verse, they were asking the guests to join in. As other father-daughter pairs made their way onto the dance floor, Castle turned to his right where Alexis and Zoey had been sandwiched between him and Kate at the table. "Shall we?" he asked.
Alexis raised her eyebrows in amusement. "Are you asking both of us, dad?"
"Of course!" he exclaimed, "I can't leave just one of my daughters out of the fun."
Kate chuckled. "Really?"
Castle winked. "Yeah, why not?"
He picked up Zoey, holding her in one arm while offering Alexis his other. They were quite a sight on the dance floor with Zoey's delighted giggles as she tried to balance her feet atop Castle and Alexis' shoes. Eventually, they conceded defeat and Castle held onto their hands as they twirled around and spun circles around him.
Kate, arms crossed over the back of her chair, alternatively laughed at their antics and hummed along to the music, only clueing into the significance behind their words – slow down, you're doing fine; you can't be everything you want to be before your time – the further she went.
Zoey bounced off the dance floor as the piano filtered out, halting a foot away from Kate as she said in surprise, "Mommy! Why are you crying?" She ran the rest of the way to give Kate a hug.
"They're happy tears, Zo," Kate replied, laughing a little at her own reaction to something so minor.
Seemingly satisfied with that response, Zoey released Kate and pranced over to Alexis to ask when they were going to cut the gigantic cake she had seen.
Kate looked up to see Castle smiling back down at her. "Am I a complete mess right now?" she asked, dabbing at her eyes with a napkin.
Castle shook his head, leaning down to swipe his thumb across her cheek before dropping a kiss on it.
"What?" she said when he pulled away and still had that goofy smile on his face.
When he spoke, his tone was light but no less heady: "You know that feeling you get after your first real kiss with the person you've had a crush on for the longest time and they've suddenly noticed you? That hormonal, exhilarating, I-can't-believe-this-is-happening, life won't ever be this perfect again feeling?" He paused for a beat before murmuring, "That's how you make me feel."
A/N: I apologise PROFUSELY for the distinct lack of updates - this is due in part to FFN. I think everything is backlogged because for a while I wasn't able to post and I'm only just getting alerts/reviews! Très frustrating.
Still, hope you enjoyed! The song for the father-daughter dance was Billy Joel's Vienna. One of my favourites.