'Mami, why is everyone coming here for supper-time?'

Meredeth looked at Trini as she scooped fresh made salsa into a bowl for the taco feast they were preparing. 'Because, Trini, our coppers are working hard and this is the way we all stay sane and don't worry that things might go wrong on a hard case.'

'Daddy's the best, nothing will go wrong.'

'Trini, I sincerely hope you are right.' Meredeth had to shake her head; her youngest daughter sounded so much like her daddy when she was convinced of something. She remembered when Rosalita and Alejandro came for supper the first time, when she and Esposito had only been dating, and he'd reminded her she was an amazing chef and they would have a lovely dinner together. 'This one is a toughie, and they need all their smarts to get the bad guy to confess.'

'Girl, Mami,' Leo piped up from where he was putting out trviets for the hot dishes that would be coming out of the warming oven. 'It's a bad girl doing all this stuff.'

'I will never do anything bad like that, and neither will Tessi,' Trini declared as her sister, Max and Tortuga wandered into the kitchen, the latter having just woken up from a nap. 'Right Tessi?'

'Right what?'

'You will never ever do anything a bad girl does.'

'No, of course not,' Tessi declared, trying not to think of how devious she'd felt when she'd kissed Dell after he'd given her the plastic ring after his birthday party three years ago. That didn't count because that was Dell and they loved each other. 'I heard the older girls at school say they were being bad because they watched scary movies when their mamis and daddies weren't home or because they got to have a glass of wine at Thanksgiving. Does that count?'

'No, that's just part of growing up,' Meredeth replied; her oldest was already a cop through and through like her father. Esposito had always had a very clear cop's sense of what was right and wrong and while all their kids possessed that, Tessi had articularly taken it to heart. 'When I was ten years old, I thought I was a bad girl when my babysitter let me watch a scary movie with her on TV and I didn't get nightmares afterwards.'

'Mami! You bad girl!' Max gasped before collapsing in giggles, causing Leo to roll his eyes.

'Max Power, Mami's not a bad girl and she even has doodles on her skin, just like Shane!'

Meredeth had to laugh at that one - her children were fascinated by her tattoos, as the decorations their friends' mamis had ran to body piercings more than artwork. 'And what have I told you all?'

'Hair grows out and holes grow in but tattoos are forever,' Tessi sang, then added, 'so if we want one, we have to be at least eighteen so we can decide for ourselves if we want it.'

'Exactly.'

'But we will never do that,' Trini said in a rush; she didn't like needles when she went to the doctors so it was baffling to her why she would voluntarily let someone poke at her in the name of looking cool to others. 'New talking stuff please.'

'Mami, can we have a chef's taster taco?' Leo asked as Meredeth pulled the warming pots of shredded spicy chicken and seasoned refried beans from the oven. 'Daddy says that is how we be good hosts, so we don't look greedy in front of our guests.'

'Daddy is not wrong,' she agreed, pulled a little tray of three crunchy tacos and one softie from the oven, placed each on a small plate before setting the microwave timer. 'When that goes off, you can have your tacos.'

'Mami, I think we have everything ready.' Trini looked at the table. 'We have cheese and sour cream, packo-de-Guido-'

'Pico de gallo, Trini,' Max piped up.

'Right that stuff, and lettuce, and the meat and not-meat fillings! Now all we need are the guests!'

As if on cue, the doorbell went off and Tortuga forgot all about crumbs All it took was Meredeth using her name once to have the black puppy sitting like a good girl before she opened the door to Castle, RJ and Jojo. 'Hey guys.'

'Hi Meredeth, we brought dessert!' Jojo held up the box with pride. 'They are called coyotes!'

'Coyotas, with an A Jojo,' RJ laughed as he stepped forward to give Meredeth a hug. 'Daddy said that we are hanging here for supper tonight!'

'You are, and for dessert and movies too.'

'Hooray! Is it a real-people or a cartoon movie?'

'Better, we are watching a Muppets double feature,' Meredeth said dramatically and both of her young guests gasped with delight. 'Why don't you go see the chefs in the kitchen?'

'Okay!'

The children scampered off, leaving Castle with Meredeth. He looked at her, saw the tightness of her mouth, the worried light in her eyes. 'Hey, you doing okay?'

'Yeah, it's just...it's not like other cases,' she whispered, surprised suddenly at the tears swamping her throat. 'It's not like other cases, I mean a cop was killed. What if-'

'Mere, none of that, okay? None of that.' Castle put his hand on her shoulder, gave it a firm squeeze. Much like him, it was rare for that worried side to show through because they knew their cops could handle themselves. But every now and then there was a major case that made that worry poke its ugly little demon head through. 'We're here to have a night of tacos and movies, and enjoying the company of friends and our kids being awesome little people.'

'They are pretty awesome kids,' Meredeth agreed as she forced the tears back. 'Even if your son is trying to date my daughter.'

As if to prove the point, Trini and RJ appeared out of the kitchen holding hands with mile-wide grins. 'Mami guess what!' Trini chirped.

'What, baby?'

'RJ said we get to have our very own date night!'

Meredeth laughed; leave it to Trini to distract her from worrying about her husband. 'Your very own date right,' she repeated, and RJ nodded enthusiastically.

'Oh, yes Meredeth, just like when Mumum and Daddy go out, or Shane and Alexis! My Trini is coming over to my house and I'm making her a nice supper and we are gonna watch a movie together.'

'I see, and where will your flat-mates be?'

'Uhhh, what's that?'

'Your parents and your sister.'

'Oh, they will be there too, but it's a special night for me and Trini,' RJ reassured Meredeth.

'Did you think to ask the young lady's mother?' Castle asked him, which had RJ pausing once more.

'Uhhh...no, no I didn't. Meredeth can Trini come over for date night?'

'Well-'

'Please?'

'Tell you what,' Meredeth told them, 'if Trini's daddy says it's okay, then it's okay with me.'

'Whee! Daddy always says yes to fun things!' Trini wrapped her arms around her mother's waist. 'You're the best mami ever!'

The children scampered off, leaving Meredeth and Castle to laugh a little. 'Okay, I give, you're right.'

'Wow, so nice to hear that from a woman once in a while. Beckett always wins, because, well most of the time she's always right and the other times it's just easier to go along with it because those are the times she's usually suffering from three little letters that scare the shit out of grown men.'

'Ah, gotcha. Thanks either way though.'

'Don't worry, we're all going to get calls tonight saying they've got this crackpot bitch wrapped up and she will never breath natural air again.'

'I know we'll get that phone call too, it's a matter of the wait.' Meredeth dragged her hands through her hair, listened to the sounds of the kids in the kitchen. When there was a large clatter followed by Jojo's shrill squeal and Max's innocent little 'whoopsie', she actually thanked the higher powers looking out for her she had these angels to distract her from worrying just how far Kali Wenthram had crawled under her husband's skin.