'Javi?'

'Mere?'

'Does Castle have an army of invisible monkeys we're unaware of?'

Esposito gave Meredeth a look in the elevator. 'What?' he asked, completely baffled.

'He will have that place spic-and-span and how he will have done it since they didn't get to bed until almost five in the morning I haven't a clue. So I'm theorizing it's invisible monkeys.'

'Monmonmonmon,' Tessi gurgled.

The lift stopped and they got off on Castle's floor, where his private lobby was decorated for Lanie and Dave in purple and white. A press of the button and Beckett was there, with the adorable Carey on her hip.

'Hi hi,' he waved. 'Mama have baby.'

'Yes, we heard the news, didn't we?' Beckett cuddled Carey close. 'And do we want a boy or girl?'

'Boy.'

'Of course.' Esposito pushed Tessi's stroller inside, then unbuckled her as Meredeth kissed Beckett and Carey's cheeks in hello. He helped the little girl out of her coat before he mirrored Beckett's stance and held Tessi while they got in the door. 'Now that Dell's got Tessi, he can build up his army of soldiers to protect her.'

He looked around and had to wonder if Meredeth' hypothesis was partially accurate - the wreckage from a thirty-person party the night before had magically vanished and was replaced with long white buffet tables waiting to be loaded up with food, which they would consume with glee to cure the various stages of hangovers they all had. From the kitchen, Esposito heard Lili and voice chatting animatedly with Beckett and Meredeth while over in the living room, cozy as a bird in her nest, Lanie sat on the sectional sofa with her feet under her bottom. She sipped soft cider from a wine glass as she talked to Alexis, who sat on the floor amongst the battalion of stuffed dinosaurs Dell had spread out for himself, Carey and Rosie.

'Dell, wan' a tie-cer-tops.'

'Okay Rosie, whassa magic word?'

'Peas.'

Dell nodded, passed her the toy, then smiled when he saw his favourite person in the galazy had arrived. Dinos forgotten, he scrambled to his feet. 'My Tessi is here!'

'Wait there, little man, check this out.'

Esposito put Tessi on her feet and let her walk over to the little boy, giggling the entire way. Dell watched with excitement as she wobbled towards him and he held out his hands to her.

'What a big girl, Tessi!'

'Aw.' Feeling the kick of hormones, Lanie dabbed her pinkie at the corners of her eyes as Dell grabbed Tessi's hands and helped her sit down beside him. 'He's so sweet with her.'

'I think if he could, he'd adopt her,' Meredeth commented. She'd made a detour with Beckett to get a drink, and now settled onto the couch between her husband and the armrest. 'Every time Jenny calls, he insists on saying hello. Where is she, by the way?'

'Cam and Jenny are both on shift until six and Ryan's out with Dad picking up some sort of surprise.' From her spot on the floor looking after the little ones Alexis looked up and grinned. 'Something for the parents-to-be, he said.'

Carey, having lost his playmate to Tessi, clambered up on the couch into his mother's lap and patted her tummy. 'Mama have baby,' he declared proudly to anyone who would listen and watch him, then turned adoring eyes to his mother. 'Soon?'

'Not for a little while. In the summer time.'

'Go 'pash?'

'No, the baby can't splash in the water yet. The baby will be very little, like when Tessi was born,' Dave explained patiently. 'Do you remember how little she was?'

'She li'l.'

'Exactly.'

'Carey make sure baby suh-tays safe, like me an' Tessi,' Dell reassured Lanie and Dave with a smile so sweet it made the mom-to-be well up a little more. 'Nothin' gonna get by me.'

'Wow, between her daddy, the dog and Dell, Tessi's never going to have a date,' Alexis joked; her phone buzzed and when she saw the initials JP, she felt her heart beat quickly. 'Excuse me.'

She left, all eyes on her retreating form as she booked it into her dad's office, her voice low and murmuring. Esposito arched an eyebrow and watched as she twisted her finger around a long lock of red hair. The hitch in his chest he'd felt was all too familiar; he'd felt the same thing when Lili had shown up on his doorstep, equal parts irritated and devastated because she was convinced Cam was going to dump her after blurting out she was a virgin while they'd been fooling around at Cam's apartment. True, it had been an overshare, but she was Lili and he was protective of her, just like with Meredeth, Tessi, and the other women in his life. He hadn't realized that until he saw the look on Alexis' face she was now one of those women as well.

He held onto his thoughts, though, as he saw the front door swing open and Castle and Ryan walked in carrying a flat white box end-to-end. 'We got it,' Castle told him when he went to rise and offer assistance. '

'What is that, Castle?' Lanie asked on a laugh, then men setting it down near the end of the buffet table.

'A present, for after dinner. No peeking.' He wagged his finger at her comically, then draped a dark sheet over it; where he'd gotten the sheet from was anyone's guess. 'But if the two-headed monster can give me a hand in the kitchen, that'd be great.'

'Okay.'

When the trio of men went into the kitchen, Castle rounded on them both. 'I need help,' he hissed. 'Kate is getting really irritated about Valentine's day always being such a big deal to me so I need some ideas on making it romantic but subtle.'

'That's it? I thought for sure you wanted advice on burying a body since Alexis and that French boyfriend started doing the nasty,' Ryan commented casually.

'No,' was Castle' automatic response. 'There's no way Alexis is doing...that.'

'She's what, twenty-one now? It's surprising she's waited that long, statistically speaking,' Esposito commented, thinking of the way he'd seen Alexis' look change when her phone peeped at her. 'Granted I'm not one to talk but still...what, did that not cross your mind?'

'No, it didn't,' Castle replied genuinely, 'and while you two might like to mock me, I'll have you know that everyone thinks your son and daughter are already childhood sweethearts.'

'That's just teasing, Castle,' Ryan said on a laugh, 'not at all the same thing that your daughter probably isn't a-'

'Hey guys, you want an extra pair of hands over here?' Alexis glided up, smooth as cream and eyes twinkling, and it made Esposito wonder how Castle, one of the most observant people he knew - cop or otherwise - could be so blinded to it.

'I think we're good here, honey.'

As Alexis sashayed off and Castle went back to food preparation, Ryan and Esposito exchanged glances. Seriously, how could he not see it. 'Castle, come on,' Ryan tried. 'How can you not see it?'

'What?'

'Step back, look at her like a writer.' Esposito jutted his chin towards where Alexis had sat down in a chair near Meredeth and Lili, who'd appeared from upstairs having changed Rosie's diaper. 'If you saw that young woman across the room at a party, talking like that with other women we know have very healthy and intimate relationships with their significant others, what would be your automatic response be?'

'They're trading war stories about men, like...' Castle felt the blood leave his head as he watched his daughter's body language, the way she gestured and held herself around these women, all married and all but one who'd had a baby. 'No. No, no, no. Oh, come on, that is so mean!'

'Boys, if you can't play nicely, you won't get dessert.'

Beckett, having come into the kitchen to refill Lanie's cider, teased her husband and his friends, then caught the look on Castle's face. 'Rich, what is it?'

He turned to her, looking like he'd seen the Devil incarnate. 'Lex is...is...doing it with that French guy,' he hissed, and felt his gut twist painfully when Beckett gulped.

'How do you know about that,' she hissed, accusation in every syllable. 'Have you been eavesdropping on her?'

'These two said so.' Castle didn't hesitate a second to sell out his friends to his wife, pointing at them like a big brother blaming the smashed lamp on little brothers. His fears were not assuaged in the slightest when Beckett rounded the island and hugged her husband. 'What, it's true?'

'She's a young woman in love. Of course she's going to be intimate with JP.' Beckett left out the part where she and Alexis had sat up the entire night after the deed had been done on Skype, chatting in great detail about the entire experience from birth control to other more personal details that would send Castle into the psych ward if he knew his only daughter was experiencing them.

'I need a drink,' Castle said weakly. 'A very, very, big drink.'


R&R&Enjoy.