Thanks for the reviews! Please...keep 'em coming! I hope you like this chapter! Lanie should be having a nice little conniption by the end of this chapter...

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, but it sure is fun writing about them!

They pulled up to the marina and were lucky enough to find parking places next to each other. They started getting out of the cars and gathering their bags to take along on the boat, and when everyone had their gear, Rick let them down a path. "We're looking for slip number seven," he told them as he consulted a sign. "This way," he directed, turning right and walking past a small building.

They found slip number seven, and then all stood staring at the boat. Well, all except for Rick, who hadn't stopped and was going down the pier so he could climb aboard. Finally, Dave said, "No, this isn't right. Look at the size of that boat. That can't be our boat. And where's the rest of the group?"

Rick turned around. "Come on, the daylight's a-wastin'. Yes, this is our boat. And we are the group."

Joelle and Dave were standing there, staring at the huge boat, practically a yacht, with their mouths hanging open, not really knowing what to say. It was obvious they never expected this; a private charter on a boat easily twice or three times the size of any normal boat. Kate was only mildly surprised. Finally, Dave got a big smile on his face and bounded onto the boat after Rick as Joelle turned to Kate and said "But he...it's...oh, my God, it's huge. You don't look surprised."

"No, not really. Maybe a little. Rick just likes things...big."

"I guess so," she agreed, still sounding amazed.

Kate continued, "Remember, I was kidnapped onto a private plane and I've been living in a beach mansion for the last week and a half. And eating insane amounts of ice cream. This is just more of the same. I'm getting to the point where I'd be surprised if he didn't plan something extravagant."

"Wow," Joelle said simply.

"Shall we?" Kate asked, indicating for Joelle to climb aboard the boat.

"Might as well." Shaking her head with a smile, Joelle climbed aboard to find out where her husband had gone, and to explore the massive floating structure called a boat.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Their captain gave them the itinerary for the day, which, basically, was nothing specific. He gave them several options for occupying their day: deep sea fishing, of course, swimming, snorkeling, or cruising around the nearby islands. To start, they just agreed to take a leisurely cruise around the islands. If, during their cruise, the captain came across any good areas for fishing, he'd tell let them know so they could decide if they wanted to stop or not.

After they got underway and everyone applied some sunscreen and settled down in the seats on the open back part of the boat, Rick went into the galley, which he had arranged to be stocked with drinks, as well as snacks and lunch items. He yelled to the group and asked what they wanted to drink; he came back out with the requested bottles of water for the ladies, and beers for Dave and himself.

Kate stripped off her skirt and leaned back on one of the long seats, stretching her long legs out to use it like a lounge chair. Rick was mesmerized by her movements, still getting used to the new shimmery pink suit, until she caught sight of him staring and told him to wake up. To make him focus on something else besides her, she started talking about the Punking Plan, and they filled in the other couple on the latest developments (leaving out the hot tub details, of course), and discussed taking a picture of Dave and Kate that afternoon, and then sending it to Lanie. "I would so love to be a fly on the wall when she gets that picture of you and Dave, and she has to question everything she thinks is happening."

When they'd been seated for a while, just soaking up the sun and the scenery, Dave slapped his leg. "Oh, I almost forgot. Hey, Rick, give me your phone," he said as he got his own phone out of his bag.

"Should I worry?" Rick asked, but handed over his phone nonetheless, unlocking it before he did.

"With him, I'd certainly wonder if I were you," Joelle joked.

Dave took the phone and placed a call on his own phone, walking over to the other side of the boat when he did. He held his phone with one hand and pressed some buttons on Rick's phone every now and then. They could hear snippets of the conversation, but couldn't really make out anything definite over the dull sound of the boat's motor, the sound of the waves crashing against the boat, or the sound of the wind in their ears. The conversation among the other three had lulled as they all watched Dave and wondered what he was doing. Kate and Rick alternated looking at Joelle, who finally laughed and threw up her hands in surrender, saying "Hey, I may be married to the guy, but that doesn't mean he tells me what's going through his mind at any given time. And frankly, sometimes I don't really want to know."

Just then, they noticed that Dave was taking the phone away from his ear and was walking toward them, a big smile on his face. When he got close enough to Rick, he dropped Rick's phone in his lap. "Universal Domination, version four," he smugly told Rick.

Rick's mouth dropped open in surprise and he spewed out, "Are you kidding me?" He grabbed his phone and looked at it excitedly.

"Would I kid about Universal Domination?"

Rick looked pleasantly shocked as he turned to the phone and started pressing buttons. Kate and Joelle just looked at each other and shrugged, still not quite sure what was going on, even though Rick and Dave were obviously on the same wavelength.

"Rick, care to enlighten us?" Kate prompted.

He just responded excitedly "It's Universal Domination!", as if that explained it all.

Kate looked at Dave for help, and he said "The game that we were playing at dinner the other night? I had my buddy download the beta of the new version to Rick's phone." Rick was oblivious to them, just sitting there pushing buttons and making explosion sound effects of his own to supplement those coming from the phone. "After he arranged this little getaway, I thought he'd appreciate having the game. It was the least I could do. And they always want new beta testers who are over the age of ten."

"Sometimes I'm not totally sure of the age thing, but on behalf of him," she gestured at Rick, who had his cheeks puffed out in preparation for making a big explosion sound, "thanks." And then after another minute or two of letting Rick play, Kate reached over and grabbed the phone from Rick, telling him, "Enough for now."

"But I just got the asteroids to glow!"

"And they will live to glow again another day. But right now, let's enjoy the boat. How about if we stop and take a swim. The water seems pretty calm." She looked at Joelle and Dave, who nodded.

They anchored the boat and prepared to go for a swim when they heard a phone ring. Recognizing the ring tone, Kate looked at Rick and said "Oh, no! It's Lanie."

"Well, you weren't going to call her quite yet, but you know what to say. You were pure brilliance with Ryan. You can do it." He squeezed her shoulder and gave her a 'good luck' type of grin.

So she pulled the phone out of her bag and, taking a deep breath as she walked to the other side of the boat, answered it. "Hey, Lanie."

"Don't you 'hey Lanie' me like this is some ordinary day!"

"Why, whatever do you mean?" Kate asked her, with a hint of humor in her voice.

"I mean that it seems I need a crowbar to pry things out of you. So, how are you and your 'new man'?" Lanie put special emphasis on the words 'new man', so Kate knew that she was on the right track.

"It's, ummmm...nice." She was intentionally vague.

"Girl, that little Jeopardy text you sent me last night sounded a lot more than nice."

"Sorry, I shouldn't have sent that. We'd had some wine...got in the hot tub...you know. I was feeling a little giddy."

"I'll say. So how was it...your game of Jeopardy?"

"Lanie!" Kate exclaimed. But then decided she might as well start the ruse, so she lowered her voice and said "I'll just say that Jeopardy is my new favorite game. I was a big winner."

"I just bet you were!"

"Especially during Double Jeopardy..." she trailed off, her voice going even lower during the last part.

There was multiple second pause where Kate was certain that Lanie was decyphering her hidden meaning. As a precautionary measure for what she suspected might be coming, Kate held the phone away from her ear a bit. And it was with good reason, because after that pause, Lanie erupted in a scream followed by 'Oh. My. God!'

"Holy crap, Lanie! Tone it down! Where are you, anyway? You scream like that in a precinct and you're going to have cops swarming all over you!"

"Don't worry...empty room."

"Thank goodness."

"So I'm sitting here in the middle of a drab, empty room in the cold New York winter, and you're in a tropical paradise turning into a hot tub sex machine. Are you at least getting out in the sun a little bit, or are you spending all of your time indoors playing your new version of Jeopardy? I mean, girl, nobody is going to believe you've been in Florida if you come back pale because you spent all your time between the sheets."

"Don't worry, we're out on a boat now, in fact. And we're both even clothed. I took Ryan's advice and we're going on a little deep sea fishing excursion."

"You...fishing?"

"Hey, Ryan said it was a good 'guy thing' to do and I wanted to do something nice. New relationship and everything, you know."

"Ha! You could probably just sit in a chair and he'd be happy if he could stare at you." She paused for a moment. "So, really, how is everything going? Seriously? I know it must have been a shock for you, how you came to be down there and everything. Not that I don't think it was a good thing all in all, but I could see how you might be stressed about it."

Kate just laughed. "Don't worry, Lanie. Castle and I are okay with what happened. It was unorthodox, and I was mad at first, but I came around. And I can honestly say now that it's all just so great. You should see everything! Yes, we are getting out in the sun, quite a bit, actually. And you can tell Ryan that I took his advice. Hey, let me send you a picture of us when we get off the phone. Then you can see my tan and my man. And when we get back to New York, let's plan something, all of us."

"Definitely! Us working stiffs back here need to hear all about this vacation of yours."

"We'll do something next week. Why don't we just go to the Old Haunt on Monday night?"

"Sure. I'll tell Jav-uh, Esposito and Ryan, and I'll see if the Captain can come." Lanie instantly regretted her slip, hoping that Kate didn't pick up on her unusual familiarity with Esposito by starting to call him by his first name.

"Great! I just can't wait for you guys to meet him. You're going to love him!"

"Meet who?" Lanie, still thinking about her verbal slip, wasn't really keeping up with Kate.

"Uh, Dave?"

"Dave who? Who's Dave?"

"Dave, Lanie! Will you stay with me here? Isn't that who we're talking about? I thought you'd want to meet him."

It took Lanie a second, but then she said dumbly "Dave? Girl, what are you talking about? Do you have heat stroke or something?" She wasn't sure why, but she was getting a bad feeling about this.

On her end of the phone, Kate quickly gave Rick a thumbs up and smiled a sly smile before getting back into character. "Earth to Lanie? Hello? Dave, the guy I met down here last week? Oh, I suppose I didn't mention his name to you before. Sorry. I told Ryan about him, kind of, and I was sure he would have said something to you."

"Well, yeah, he... Wait a minute! A guy? You met a guy?" Lanie trailed off, still confused and not really knowing exactly what to say.

"What is with you? Yes, I met a guy! We covered that last week sometime."

"Castle." Lanie supplied. Something about this was getting weird. She was going to have to find Ryan and Esposito. She left the conference room and started walking toward the homocide bullpen.

Kate continued, acting deliberately obtuse. "Yeah, I guess Castle is a guy, although he is kind of metrosexual. I'll ask him if he wants to meet us on Monday; it is his bar, after all. Sound good? Anyway, what's with the memory loss thing? You're the one who kept pumping me for details about Dave. I mean, I can hardly turn around without you texting me or calling me, asking what I did, expecting all sorts of juicy details or something."

"Yeah..."

"I know I told you about Dave...nice body, beach walks, ice water, Jeopardy... Geez, Lanie, we were just talking about him. Are you feeling all right?"

"Dave?" Lanie said again dumbly. "Ryan did mention him." But then, as the meaning of what Kate was trying to say finally fully dawned in Lanie's brain as she walked down the hall, she stopped dead in her tracks. "But we thought...YOU MEAN DAVE IS REAL? THERE IS A REAL, LIVE DAVE?" Lanie all but shouted the last words into the phone, so loudly that Kate had to hold the phone away from her ear. Rick was able to hear Lanie clearly and he had to turn around and shove his fist in his mouth to keep from bursting out laughing.

Kate, however, drew on some incredible acting ability that he never knew she had. "Geez, Lanie, gonna get me a new eardrum?" Then she put a slightly embarrassed tone in her voice as she told her friend, "Well, I know I told Ryan he was hypothetical, but I just didn't want to get into too much detail with the guys. You know how they are. Why wouldn't you think he was real? What...you think I'm 12 or something and made up a fake boyfriend? Geez. But yeah, he's very real, if you know what I mean. He has real arms, real legs, and real...other parts. And they're really nice parts." Rick whipped his head back toward her and gaped at her, half of him wanting to bust out laughing and half of him starting to get irrationally jealous over her mentioning some other guy's male parts as 'really nice'. When Kate saw him gaping at her, she was the one who had to turn away so she would be able to continue her improvisation. Kate was lucky she didn't see Joelle or Dave either; they were totally captivated listening to her side of the performance and when Dave heard the line about his 'parts', he fist pumped the air, which earned him a swat on the shoulder from his wife.

Kate made it seem like she had something going on and took the phone away from her mouth as she said, "What? Oh, okay. Give me one second." Putting her phone back by her mouth, she said "Lanie, I have to run. They're calling us now. But I'll send you that picture so you can see what Dave looks like."

Lanie was beginning to function again, and she had questions. Boy, did she have questions! As Kate finished talking about sending the picture, Lanie said to her "Nuh-uh, girl! Don't you think about getting off that phone! You're down there with Castle! You can't just go off and pick up some other guy! The hot tub...Dave? Oh, my God...Castle! Ummm...no. No, no, no! What the hell is a Dave? What the hell are you talking about?"

"Oh, don't worry, Castle's fine. He and Dave are having fun playing video games. They get along really well," Kate said offhandedly. Then she put an honest-sounding apologetic tone in her voice. "Lanie, I know we haven't talked very much, but I really have to go. Just text me...it's easier than a call down here. Sorry. See you soon!" She pushed end on the phone as Rick swept her into a grand hug and pressed his lips to hers in a loud smacking kiss as he dipped her dramatically. "That performance was worthy of an Oscar!" he gushed. "Especially for something off the cuff when she surprised you with her call!"

"God, I think at the end she was ready to get on a plane to come down here to slap me and console you because I supposedly hooked up with Dave."

Joelle laughed at Rick's exhuberance, but concurred with him. "It was pretty good. I've got to hand it to you; if I'd had to do that, I would have been stammering-no, wait, I would have been laughing my butt off and would have spoiled the whole thing! Now, I never thought I'd say this to another woman, but go sit on my husband's lap and look like you want to eat him alive so we can send that picture. Gotta strike while the iron is hot."

Joelle gestured to Dave. "Honey, take off your shirt. If we're going to do this, we have to do it right. And here, let me spray some of this oil on your chest. Some well-oiled pecs are just what this picture needs, don't you think?" she finished, addressing Kate with the last question.

"Definitely. Gotta love a set of tanned, well-oiled pecs."

Still with his arm around Kate, Rick now had a bewildered look on his face and said "Wha...What?"

She patted his own pecs and laughed. "Don't worry, Rick. I can look, but I won't touch. Well, I won't touch except for the picture." She leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek while Joelle sprayed her husband. After giving Joelle her phone to take the picture, she went to stand beside Dave.

But suddenly, standing there next to Dave, about to sit on his lap, for goodness sakes, she had a brief flash of uncertainty. But then she squashed it down. The ruse was going so well...especially considering Lanie's reaction to the bombshell she just dropped in the phone call. She couldn't chicken out now just because it felt a little weird. It was just like going undercover, and she'd done that countless times. Of course, she'd never had to pretend to be romantically involved with someone while the person she really was romatically involved with was standing right there in front of her, watching. That was definitely a new one.

Dave looked at her with a curious expression. "Come, on; I don't bite. Sit."

But she wasn't one to shy away from a challenge just because it felt a little strange. So she took a breath and eased herself down on Dave's lap. She looped her arm around Dave's shoulders and felt his hand on her shoulder, close to her neck. Then she looked up and trained her eyes on Joelle, who was aiming the phone at them, and made it a point to block out Rick, even though he was standing right next to Joelle.

"Kate, lean your head against Dave's more. Good." She put the phone down before she snapped the picture. "Dave, come on. You look like you have a swordfish shoved up your butt. Now pretend I'm wearing that little red lace thing I got for our anniversary and smile. Good. Kate, think about Rick in a little speedo and smile." Snap. "Much better. Now just hold on...I'm going to take a few so we can pick the best one. Kate, put your other arm around Dave too. Good, yeah, like that. Now smile." She looked at the picture. "Oops, Kate, I think you blinked. Try it again. Smile." Snap. "Yup, that one was better. Okay, honey? Put your arm down and around her waist and clasp both your hands together around her. Remember, keep your heads close together." Snap. "Good. Okay, that should do it. Take a look and let me know if one of those will work." She held out the phone to Kate.

Kate hopped off of Dave's lap and took the phone from Joelle, as Dave got up from the chair. Walking over to Rick, she put her free arm around his back and leaned into him as she scrolled through the pictures. She felt his arm encircle her as she looked at the pictures several times, finally deciding that the third one was probably the best. "What do you think?" she asked him, turning her face up toward him.

Looking right at her, he said simply "Sure."

"No, which one do you think is best?"

"That one is fine with me." Now he was looking off beyond her, but his arm was wrapped a little more tightly around her shoulders. She looked at him closely, and realized that he looked uncomfortable.

"Rick?" she asked softly. "Did you even look at the pictures?" Joelle and Dave were over by the railing now, looking out at the waves, and she didn't want to say anything too loudly while Rick was acting so strangely.

"Uh...no. It's OK. Just pick whatever one you want."

She looked at him, and noticed the way he was avoiding looking at the pictures, even avoiding looking at her right now, although he still had his arm around her. She could feel the sudden tension in his muscles that hadn't been there just minutes ago when he had grabbed her for the kiss after her phone call. She was beginning to have an inkling of what might be bothering him. She touched his cheek, urging his eyes to meet hers. "Rick?" she asked, questioningly. "What's wrong?"

He finally looked at her and sighed. He let go of her arm and grabbed her hand, quickly starting ot lead her over to the other side of the boat, past the corner of the main cabin and out of sight of Joelle and Dave. As they rounded the corner, he pressed her quickly up against the wall and claimed her lips in a hard kiss. He pressed his hips against hers, and with his mouth plundering hers, ran his hands up and down her sides. She responded to the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck and curling one of her hands into his hair. As he kissed her, with a lot of pent-up passion, she was reminded of one of the first kisses they'd shared, in the surf. She was now pretty certain what was the cause of his suddenly strange demeanor and actions. Soon, though, she broke free, still conscious of their friends on the other side of the boat, not far away. Although a little interlude might be tempting, now wasn't really the time or the place.

Despite her heavy breathing, she looked at him after their kiss, and asked him, "So was that the equivalent of peeing on me to mark your territory?"

He stared at her for a minute before looking away, and then gave her a small half-smile when his eyes met hers again. He knew what she meant. "Sorry," was all he said.

Her fingers were playing with the hair at the back of his neck, and she gave him a quick little peck on the lips. "You're jealous." She didn't ask the question; she didn't need to.

"Yes. And that's a fact that I'm not terribly proud of."

"You're being stupid."

"I know."

"You know it was just for the ruse with Lanie and the guys."

"I know."

"You know Dave is married and his wife, for God's sake, was taking the picture of us!"

"I know."

"You know I love you."

"I know."

"So what was the problem then?"

He took a deep breath, not sure how to put it into words. "Despite knowing all of that, I felt...it was...watching you felt a little like it felt when I saw you kissing Demming a couple of times."

"A little? Then what got you so agitated?"

"It was only a little like that because when I was confronted with the reality of you sitting on some other guy's lap, wearing that," he glanced down to her suit, "I found that watching you just now was about a hundred times worse than it felt with Demming. And then you wouldn't look at me. And you're..." he couldn't finish his thought.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm what?"

He looked away before looking back at her, as if embarrassed. "You're mine now. You weren't then. We weren't together then."

He sounded so sweet. And so torn up, even though the whole thing was silly. She put a finger over his mouth, and he kissed it. "I wouldn't look at you just now because I had to seem happy with Dave. I couldn't act happy with Dave if I was looking at you watching me with another guy. Believe me, just posing for the picture felt weird enough for me. I couldn't add more weirdness by watching you too. Okay?"

"Okay."

"So are you going to be understanding when it's my turn?"

"What do you mean, 'your turn'?"

"When we go back and the young, nubile fangirls start passing you their numbers or asking you to sign their protruding body parts, what are you going to do when I get jealous?"

His face brightened. "You're going to get jealous?"

She swatted his arm. Leave it to him to actually want her to get jealous! Oh, that male ego of his! "What if I do? Are you going to give me a reason to be jealous?"

He got serious again, and she realized the big ego act was him messing with her for a moment. "You, my love," he said, leaning forward to peck her lips, "have nothing to worry about. Everyone else pales in comparison to you." Then to her eternal surprise, he began to sing to her in a low voice.

"Maybe millions of people go by,
but they all disappear from view.
And I Only Have Eyes For You."

And most astounding to her was that he hit every note perfectly, sung in a rich voice, albeit softly. Although the sentiment of the verse and the words weren't lost on her, her mouth still opened in a little 'o' when she heard the beautiful sounding words come out of his mouth. "You can sing!"

"Never said I couldn't." He smiled his cocky, half-smile at her.

"But the Bieber thing..."

"...would not have been nearly as memorable if I had hit the notes correctly," he interrupted.

She shook her head. "Mark my words, I will so get revenge on you for that."

"I'd expect nothing less. It's what you do best, after all."

"So...are you good? Are we good?"

"We're good. Let's go get Joelle and Dave and get some lunch. But first," he said, picking up the phone from where she had set it, "let's send the picture. The second one is the best."

"I thought you didn't look at them."

"I saw when Joelle was taking them. The second one made me feel the worst, so it's probably the most convincing picture."

"Got it." That was an interesting bit of logic, but it made a strange kind of sense. She pushed some buttons on her phone, typing a quick message. "There. Sent. Now we just have to wait for her to see the picture."

"Don't worry. I don't think it will be too long. I think all hell is about to break loose at the precinct. Now let's get some lunch, and have a drink to celebrate."

There it is: the big reveal of Dave to Lanie and the guys. Although the whole thing isn't quite over yet; the next chapter will contain some of the further reaction of Lanie and she'll be getting the guys involved. And depending on how far we get, Rick may even get a phone call himself...

Disclaimer: I have no idea if a game can be downloaded onto a phone like Dave did for Rick. But hey, I figured if you can do that with iTunes, then I'm sure a great hacker could figure out how to load it. So just try to overlook that part if you don't believe it. I just wanted someone to be able to do something for Rick that he wouldn't be able to do/buy/get for himself. And we know he'd love a game that hasn't been released yet!

I have been working on the Lanie/Kate conversation off and on for several weeks, believe it or not; writing, tweaking, adding, deleting and just generally proofing it. I've probably worked on that section more than any other single piece of this story. So can you please tell me what you think of it? Like it? Hate it? Let me know...please? I read every review (sometimes more than once) and I get a little happy feeling whenever I see an alert for a new review. Thanks in advance!

And yeah...we're down to less than two days until Knockdown! Yippee!