Thank you to everyone who's reading and reviewing. I hope you continue to enjoy the adventure.
The new kitchen at the Beckett-Castle loft was completed by week's end, much to Alexis's relief. Although the counters, sink, refrigerator and cooktop remained the same, everything else was brand-new: the cabinets were now maple, and the new hardwood floor was tongue and groove Southern pine, a light, unstained wood that looked rustic; the new dishwasher, while it did have an interior light, did not have a window in it and was stainless steel, and the new double oven was ivory in color.
Ryan and Esposito solved the case they and Lanie were called out on after two days and came back to the hospital to tell Beckett and Castle all about it. Unspoken but nonetheless acknowledged was the fact that it was the first of many cases that the boys would be working without Mom and Dad, a fact that the four of them would each have to take the time to get used to in their own way.
Beckett and Castle dove into physical therapy (and in Castle's case, respiratory therapy as well), with a vengeance. After three days in ICU, they were moved to the stepdown unit, where they continued to share a room, and kept working hard at their respective therapies. Their first morning in their new room, where they were both thrilled to learn they were now held to regular visiting hours as opposed to ICU where visitors could come and go at any time of the day or night, after the nurses and doctor had left, Kate got out of bed, slowly but surely. Rick watched with no small amount of concern as she crossed the few feet from her bed to his, and then climbed into his bed, settling herself next to him with a grin.
Rick grinned back, cupping her cheek in his palm. "Very impressive," he said.
"Well, the right motivation is key," she replied, sliding her arms around his neck before going in for a slow, sweet kiss.
When the need for oxygen forced them to break the kiss, Rick rested his forehead against Kate's. "What you do to me, Kate Beckett," he said softly, breathlessly.
"Not everything I'd like to be doing to you right now," Kate replied just as softly and breathlessly, "but as soon as we're medically cleared, I'm gonna do things to you that make page 105 look like Dr. Seuss." She ran her hands up and down the length of his back.
Rick groaned, half frustration, half anticipation. "Will you do the thing with the ice cubes?" he asked.
"If you want," Kate replied, pulling back just enough to look at him, so he could see the naughty twinkle in her eyes.
"Oh, I want," he said emphatically. "I definitely want."
Kate bit her bottom lip, then said hopefully, "And after we're medically cleared, we can officially get started on-"
"Operation BBC," Rick pronounced with sparkling eyes of his own.
"British Broadcasting Corporation?" Kate asked, frowning slightly.
Rick looked over at the door to make sure no one was near enough to hear them before he corrected Kate in a stage whisper. "Baby Beckett-Castle."
Kate looked both happy and relieved at the same time. "Yes," she said just as emphatically as Rick had said he wanted her to do the thing with ice cubes a moment before. "But I don't want to tell any of our family or friends until it's a done deal. I don't want any pressure, or any 'helpful hints,' or to have to worry about Martha interrupting any moments, or my dad giving you that 'I know what you're doing with my daughter, and I don't like it' look, or Alexis feeling awkward, and I love Lanie and the boys, but I don't want them to know about our sex life. Let them keep their speculations. Why mess with a system that's worked for years?"
Rick grew serious. "I totally agree. This is nobody's business but ours." He laced the fingers of one hand through one of Kate's hand, and brushed an errant strand of hair off her face with his other hand. "This is us, and the only word I can think of to describe making a baby with you is 'sacred.' They will all be a huge part of our future child's life, but not yet."
Kate smiled, then leaned forward and kissed Rick. He had just deepened the kiss when an amused voice from the doorway said, "Is that what they're calling respiratory therapy nowadays, Castle?"
Rick and Kate stopped kissing and looked to see the very amused Lanie standing in the doorway. "It's much better than what they're making me do in actual respiratory therapy," Rick retorted.
Lanie had just taken a seat beside the bed Rick and Kate were sharing when Janine, the respiratory therapist, walked into the room. "Speak of the devil and she will appear," Rick muttered.
"Time for your session, Mr. Castle!" Janine greeted him, not batting an eye at the fact that he and Kate were in the same bed. So many of the hospital staff had found them in the same bed together that it was just accepted all the way around by now.
Alexis and Martha had brought Rick and Kate actual clothes the day before, so Rick was in lightweight sweatpants and a t-shirt, while Kate was in yoga pants and one of Rick's t-shirts, since his shirts were larger than hers and therefore less likely to aggravate her still-healing ribs and her still-tender abdomen. "I shall return," Rick said once he was out of bed, bending down to give Kate a kiss goodbye.
"I'll be here waiting," she told him. "Go do your respiratory therapy. I want to be the only thing taking your breath away by summer's end."
"You've been taking my breath away for years, Kate. That'll never change," he replied before he followed Janine out of the room for his next exercise in torture, Kate smiling after him.
When they were alone, Kate looked at Lanie, who was smirking at her. "It's Castle's fault I've become this sappy," she said defensively, but the smile still on her face significantly lessened any harsh tone in her words.
Lanie's smirk turned into a genuine smile. "And we're all grateful to him for that, Kate," she said seriously. After a beat, she said, "The boys solved that case."
Kate nodded. "Yeah, they came by yesterday and told Castle and me." She smiled wistfully. "It was weird not being involved in this one."
"We missed you, that's for sure," Lanie said.
"It's gonna take some getting used to, for all of us," Kate replied. "But I know this is the right move to make."
"Speaking of making moves, and you and Castle, do you remember Alan Masters?" Lanie asked then.
"Alan Masters," Kate repeated. The name sounded familiar. "Wait a minute...I do remember him. He's the guy that wouldn't die, right?"
"Yeah," Lanie said, "and thank God he didn't die. He and I are dating. We have been since you closed his case."
"That's terrific, Lanie!" Kate exclaimed, genuinely happy for her friend. "I know that Castle and I met Alan in an official capacity, but that was several weeks ago. As soon as we're out of the hospital and back home, the four of us have to get together and have dinner."
"I was hoping you'd say that," Lanie said.
"You're my best friend. I have to make sure Alan's treating you right. Just because I'm leaving the force doesn't mean I can't still kick his ass if I have to," Kate said.
Lanie looked at Kate seriously, somewhat nervously. "He's definitely treating me right, Kate. No ass kicking will be required. And I want you to meet him...Castle too."She paused again, then said, "It's serious, Kate."
"And that's a bad thing?" Kate asked.
Lanie shook her head. "No, it's not bad at all," she said. "In fact, it's just the opposite. Alan… He's been my rock these past couple of weeks. He knows you're my best friend, and that Castle is my friend too, and he's been so supportive and understanding. He's really been there for me. Before the last couple of weeks, I knew I had never felt this way about anyone before, but now..."
"Now?" Kate said encouragingly, but also curiously.
"Now… Alan… He and I... He's..." Lanie trailed off, trying to figure out how to put it into words, how to make Kate understand what she, Lanie, felt. "Kate, Alan is my Castle," she finally said.
Kate was shocked but happy. "Really?" she said.
"Yeah," Lanie replied with an awed smile.
"Lanie, that's wonderful!" Kate exclaimed. "Well, it's wonderful if you're Alan's Beckett," she added after a moment, a question in her tone of voice and her eyes.
"I am," Lanie said with certainty. "I'm really in love with him, Kate, and he's really in love with me. It just slipped out last night. We weren't even doing anything special. We were brushing our teeth, and I was washing my face, and we were talking about what we'd be doing today. Standing there in my bathroom, all of a sudden I just couldn't wait another second, so I told him, 'Alan, I love you,' and he looked surprised for a second, but then he looked really, really happy and said, 'That's good, because I love you too, Lanie.' We were in my bathroom, Kate, and that's the first time we said 'I love you' to each other! But nothing ever felt more right, or more real." Kate saw now that Lanie was glowing, and the glow intensified the more she talked about Alan. "He makes me laugh. He makes me happy. He makes the good and the bad things in my life better, and the tough things easier. He gets me, Kate. He completely gets me, warts and all, and he loves me, and I love him!"
"Then he's definitely your Castle," Kate said with a smile. "Now I really can't wait to properly meet him. I'm so happy for you, Lanie."
Lanie looked uncertain again then. "I'm happy too, but I'm also scared, Kate. I've never loved anyone the way I love Alan. What if I screw it up?"
"Boy, does that sound familiar," Kate said. "I think..." Kate paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. Rick was so much better with words than she would ever be, and the fact that Lanie was tacitly seeking relationship reassurance from her, Kate Beckett, of all people, made Kate determined not to give Lanie bad advice.
"Lanie, I think it's normal to feel scared when you fall in love with the right man, no matter how happy you are," Kate began. "I had so many walls up for so long with Rick, and yeah, a lot of it was because of what happened to my mom, but the rest of it was just plain terror. I never met anyone like Richard Castle before. And he made everything fun again, and fun was something I hadn't let myself have since my mom died. And Castle...he became my friend, my best friend. I mean, you're my best friend too, but-"
"No, that part I get, because I feel the same way about Alan. He's my best friend, but you, Kate, are my best girlfriend. There's a difference. One doesn't mean less than the other, but it's different, in a good way," Lanie said.
"Exactly," Kate replied. "And I think if you asked Ryan, he'd say that while Esposito is his bro and his best male friend, Jenny is his best friend. Given my track record, and how much it hurt when I lost my mom, I was terrified to be in love with Rick. I fought it and resisted it for so long. It took almost losing him and almost dying myself to realize that I would regret it a lot more if I never took the chance with him than if I kept denying how much and how deeply I really felt for him. Of course, Castle is the forever kind of man. I knew that going in, because of his commitments to his daughter and his mother. But it still surprised me in the best possible way when he asked me to marry him. As much of a mess as I was, and he still loves me and married me."
"I always said I never wanted to get married, but Alan has made me seriously rethink that position," Lanie confessed then. "Not that we've talked about marriage," she added hastily at Kate's surprised look. "But as much as I love him, Kate, I can see myself growing old with Alan. I've never been able to see myself growing old with any man until now. And I'm not in any hurry. But in another year or so...oh hell, if he asked me today, I'd say yes. I just wouldn't run out and get married right away. Am I crazy?"
"Crazy in love, from the sound of things," Kate said. "I don't really feel qualified to give relationship advice, but as your best girlfriend, Lanie, if Alan is your Castle, and you know you're his Beckett, hold on tight and don't ever let go, because it'll be the most amazing way you could spend your life, in a true partnership with the one man you love more than anything or anyone in the world, and that loves you that exact same way."
They were interrupted when the door to the room opened and Kate's physical therapist entered, pushing an empty wheelchair. "Time for your physical therapy, Kate," the physical therapist, a fiftyish woman named Emily announced.
Lanie stood up, prepared to help Kate out of bed, but Kate said, "It's okay, Lanie. I got this." She tossed the blanket back and slowly stood up, a minor grimace on her face. "No wheelchair today," she told Emily the physical therapist.
"Good for you," Emily said, pushing the wheelchair into the corner of the room and folding it up.
"Well, I'll let you get to it," Lanie said then, giving Kate a careful hug goodbye, which she returned just as carefully. "Thanks for the talk."
"That's what best girlfriends are for," Kate replied. She braced a hand on Lanie's shoulder. "Who would have thought Kate Beckett would ever be giving relationship advice?"
"Good relationship advice," Lanie amended.
"Another something we can thank Castle for," Kate said. "It's good to see you so happy, Lanie."
"Back atcha, girl," Lanie replied. "I'll see you later."
"See you later," Kate said as she left the room walking slowly behind Emily. "Okay, Emily, what are we doing today?"
