Thank you all so much for your support and encouragement. I posted the first chapter of this story on July 11, 2016, so it's almost the first anniversary of "This Changes Everything." I didn't know when I started that I'd still be writing a year later, with so much more story to tell, but these characters mean so much to me, and are so inspiring to me, and so are all of you. The interest and enthusiasm for this story came completely unexpectedly to me, but it is so, so greatly appreciated, more than I could ever adequately tell you. This is really my love letter to Castle the show and the characters unlike any others I've ever seen, that have moved and inspired me in ways no other show and characters ever have or ever could. So to all the readers, reviewers, and followers, all the Castle fans and Caskett shippers who read this story, thank you for taking this journey, for trusting me with these characters we love so much and so well, and I hope you keep taking as much enjoyment from reading this story as I do from writing it.

Also, the identity of the mystery man at the end of the last chapter will be revealed in the next chapter.


Kate was concerned when she got the text from Lanie with just an address followed by the appeal to "Meet me here ASAP, and come alone!" Rick assured Kate he had everything under control with Lily, and Kate went rushing out the door, wondering what was going on, and not feeling encouraged when Lanie sent another text, which Kate read at a stoplight, that said, "URGENT. HURRY!"

Which is why Kate was more than a little puzzled when the address proved to be a bridal shop in Tribeca. When Kate walked in the door, she immediately spotted Lanie in a far corner, pacing and looking like she was about to jump out of her skin. "Lanie?" Kate said as she hurried across the shop to meet Lanie.

"Kate! Thank God you're here!" Lanie exclaimed, grabbing Kate in a hug that was part relief, part desperation.

"This is the urgent situation?" Kate asked.

"Yes!" Lanie exclaimed. When she was shushed by a little old lady with a snow-white beehive of hair piled on her head like a jumbo paper cone of cotton candy at a fair, with glasses on a chain that were sliding down her nose, she said in a frazzled tone of voice, "I'm sorry, but I'm having a crisis here! You've worked here since time began—I'm sure I'm not the first bride in crisis you've seen, am I?"

The little old lady 'hmmph'ed before turning and stalking to the back of the store, out of sight of Lanie and Kate, who were the only customers in the store at the moment. "I'm getting married in seven weeks, and I don't have a dress yet, and you don't have a dress yet! And my mother wants me to wear something that would make me look like Princess Diana. When I reminded her how Princess Diana's marriage ended up, she actually said that didn't matter, look at how beautiful her wedding dress was!" Lanie put a hand to her head. "She wants to take me wedding dress shopping this afternoon, so we have to find me a dress right now so I can tell her I've already got one. I considered lying that I had a dress, but she'd demand to see me in it. So we're not leaving here until I have a dress, and if we can find a dress for you at the same time, so much the better."

"Okay," Kate said, "now that I know you're not dying and the wedding's not off, I'm relieved. I wish I had some advice for you."

"Please, you hit the in-law jackpot with Martha. Alan must really love me to sign on for the insanity of having my mother for his mother-in-law," Lanie reflected. "You and Castle don't mind having us around for most of your future holidays, do you? Alan's parents live closer than mine, so we'll be able to see them all the time. And it's not so much my dad. Oh, sure, he's having those 'my little girl is getting married' moments, but he's just so much more...well...sane about it than my mother. And my dad likes Alan. I think my mother is still making up her mind about him, which is ridiculous. Alan is an incredible, amazing man. So I think the less exposure to my mother, the better it will be in the long run for my marriage." Then Lanie got a thunderstruck look on her face.

"What is it?" Kate asked.

"I just referred to my marriage, Kate," Lanie said, sounding awed. "My marriage."

Kate smiled, knowing exactly how Lanie felt. "Wait until the first time someone refers to you as Alan's wife, or refers to Alan as your husband," she said. "And the first time Alan calls you his wife...the first time you call yourself his wife...the first time you call Alan your husband."

"So there's more of this feeling to come?" Lanie asked.

"A whole lot more," Kate assured her.

Lanie finally smiled a real smile. "Wow. Kate, I'm getting married!" she exclaimed.

"And it was just last summer over the 4th of July weekend that you said you were thinking about it," Kate reminisced.

"It was, wasn't it?" Lanie mused. "I wish we could go up to the Hamptons again this year, but since the 4th is on a Tuesday, and we're already taking time off for the wedding and honeymoon-"

"Yeah, we had a blast last 4th of July, having everybody up there," Kate said. "I think it's just gonna be the immediate family this year, though. And Esposito, if he can get away. Maybe everybody can come up for Labor Day weekend. I'll run it by Rick, see what he thinks. Now, let's find you a wedding dress."

"The sooner, the better," Lanie said. She went over to a rack, Kate trailing after her, and was none too encouraged by the choices before her. Everything was too grandiose, too poofy, or too unlike Lanie. She didn't find anything she even wanted to try on.

Kate and Lanie were both staring at the same dress with equal distaste. "Are they kidding with this?" Lanie asked.

"That had to have been made in the '80s," Kate agreed. "That headpiece alone..."

"Do you know what this whole ensemble reminds me of? The wedding dresses on shows like Falcon Crest and The Colbys. Look at that thing." She shook her head. "You know, most of the actresses on those shows wore the absolute ugliest wedding dresses. My mother watched most of them, so I remember."

"Maybe we're going about this the wrong way," Kate mused. "You're getting married in the middle of August, in Manhattan, right? And the venue will be air-conditioned, but that doesn't mean you absolutely have to have a long dress."

"No, the long dress with the 900-foot train is my mother's idea and taste, not mine," Lanie said.

"Okay, so there has to be at least one dress in this shop that doesn't look like it was worn by an '80s primetime soap opera character and doesn't have a 900-foot train," Kate said, looking around the shop. "What about over there?" she asked. Lanie followed Kate's gaze to a rack of shorter formal dresses.

"This is more along the lines of what I was thinking," Lanie said as she took in the whole rack of dresses. She began flipping through them somewhat rapidly, then stopped a little more than halfway through the rack. "Oh," she breathed silently.

The dress was white, but without any ruffles or frills, no sequins or beads; just a simple white dress of satin, with a v-neck, and a lace overlay bodice, knee-length, and with short sleeves that stopped several inches above the elbow.

Lanie reached out in seeming slow motion and removed the dress from the rack. "I want to try this one," she said.

Kate nodded. "Do it," she urged.

While Lanie went to try the dress on, Kate found the dresses for bridesmaids and matrons of honor and began perusing them, looking for something in blue, since Alan and Rick would be wearing custom-tailored three-piece navy blue suits; Alan would wear a white shirt with a royal blue necktie, and Rick would wear his French blue shirt with a royal blue necktie. Kate had just found a strong possibility of a dress for herself—a dress the same length as Lanie's, but in a shade called Horizon that would match Rick and Alan's ties perfectly, with spaghetti straps, a modest v-neckline that would completely cover Kate's chest (Kate was still sensitive about the scar there from the bullet she had taken at Captain Montgomery's funeral, and even though all the attention would be focused on the bride, Kate didn't want her scar to have any chance of showing), and a pleated bodice, with a short zipper in the back, and the back of the dress started about halfway down her spine—when Lanie emerged from the dressing room with tears in her eyes.

Kate sensed Lanie standing there and looked up at her best friend, gasping at the sight of her. "Oh, Lanie," she whispered.

Lanie just nodded, her lips trembling. "This is it," she said. She did a slow spin in a circle, stopping when she faced Kate again. "This is the dress I'm going to get married in."

"It's perfect for you," Kate said. "And when Alan sees you in that, he's going to forget his own name."

"I hope not. We'll need it for the vows," Lanie said, trying to stave off tears. Then she noticed the dress Kate had one hand on. "Did you find something you like?"

"I think so," Kate replied, pulling the dress off the rack.

"So go and try it on," Lanie said. "We might actually get out of here with dresses for the both of us today."

Which is exactly what they did, after only minor alterations to both dresses, thankfully performed by a younger seamstress and not the stern little old lady with the glasses on a chain and the disapproving stare.

"I'm carrying my wedding dress!" Lanie exulted when they were out on the sidewalk. "And you have your matron of honor dress. Alan and Castle are getting fitted for their suits next week. This wedding is starting to come together." Lanie paused, then said, "I'm really sorry for freaking out on you back there."

But Kate waved away the apology. "You're the bride. This is supposed to be your perfect day, and no one, not even your mother, has any right to try to take that away from you or mess it up for you."

Lanie's phone rang then. "It's Alan," she said. Kate nodded as Lanie answered. "Hi, honey! I found my wedding dress!...Now you know you are not allowed to see this dress until our wedding day….I said I found a wedding dress, not honeymoon lingerie!"

Laughing at the pure exasperation in Lanie's voice and trying not to get caught laughing by Lanie herself, Kate moved a few feet down the sidewalk and pulled out her own phone to call Rick, who answered before the first ring had finished. "What's the emergency?" he asked. "I've got Alexis, Mother and your dad all three on standby in case you need me."

"Wedding crisis," Kate replied. "But it's all taken care of. How's Lily?"

"Sleeping," Rick replied. "Speaking of this wedding, we have a party to plan for the bride and groom. Do you think they could come over for lunch or dinner today so we could start putting this thing together?"

"I'll ask Lanie," Kate said. Lanie's eyes were dancing, and she was laughing at something Alan was saying. When Kate got her attention and relayed Rick's question to her, Lanie, in turn, asked Alan, and they agreed to meet for dinner that night at the loft to plan their party.

Lanie and Kate parted, agreeing that they'd see each other later at Kate and Rick's place, and Kate returned home to Rick and Lily, while Lanie went home to hide her dress from Alan.

Kate arrived home carrying the garment bag containing her matron of honor dress to find Rick playing on the floor with Lily, who was kicking her legs and waving her arms and hands while Rick humorously narrated. He was gently peddling her legs like she was riding a bicycle. "And one, and two, and one, and two...That's it! Feel the burn! It's the Baby Jane Fonda Workout! Seriously, Sweetpea, your Gram used to have the VHS tapes."

"No leg warmers," Kate said. "My mom had those tapes too."

"Yay, Mommy's home!" Rick exclaimed, scooping Lily up before getting to his feet. "Ooh, is that a pretty dress in that garment bag, or did Lanie go the stereotypical bride route of making you wear the ugliest dress she could find?"

"I picked it out myself," Kate replied. She handed Rick the garment bag and took Lily from him, kissing the baby and then kissing Rick. "And it's a very nice dress, really. The color matches your tie. So did you and Lily have fun?"

"Of course we did," Rick replied.

"Doing the Baby Jane Fonda Workout?" Kate smirked.

"It just popped into my head, the way she was moving, and she's in that striped onesie from Ryan and Jenny, which reminded me of some of Jane Fonda's outfits in those workout videos," Rick said. "Am I allowed to look at the dress?"

"Sure," Kate said as she held Lily aloft. Lily smiled down at her mommy. Now that she was two months old, she looked to see where noises were coming from, and she watched people, especially Kate and Rick, intently, and she was a great little listener, completely fascinated whenever anyone talked to her. Rick had already predicted Lily would have an exceptional vocabulary, and probably start talking early. Lily could also differentiate between the most familiar voices in her world: Mommy, Daddy, Alexis, Gram, and Grandpa Jim. "Aunt Lanie and Uncle Alan will be coming over later, Lily, and I know we'll be talking about the wedding, but I bet you're going to be a pretty big center of attention too." Lily gurgled at this.

Rick whistled low, and Kate and Lily both turned to look at him. He was inspecting Kate's matron-of-honor dress on its hanger. "You're going to upstage Lanie in this dress," he said.

Kate smiled wryly. "I doubt Alan will think so."

"He'd better not! He's getting his own wife that day. He doesn't need to be ogling my wife," Rick replied.

Kate was struck all over again by hearing Rick refer to her as his wife. She never failed to thrill to those words, especially when they came from Rick.

"You have nothing to worry about there," Kate assured him. "Alan will only have eyes for Lanie on their wedding day. I've seen her dress. She'll take his breath away."

"That's how it should be," Rick said with a nod. "I'll go and hang this up for you."

Kate and Lily both watched Rick go into the bedroom until he had disappeared from view. Kate would swear Lily sighed when Rick was out of her sight line. "Don't tell him I told you this, Lily," Kate said softly, and Lily turned her head and her attention to her mother, "although I'm pretty sure he already knows...but he's had that effect on me since a few months after we met. And he always will." When Lily smiled, Kate smiled back and then rubbed noses with her baby girl, grateful for at least the millionth time that she hadn't missed out on this life with Rick, and with Lily, and Alexis.


Lily had been bathed, fed, burped, changed, and was in one of her countless cute sleepers, this one a gift from Martha, a white sleeper that proclaimed in bold letters of alternating purple and pink "I Love the Night Life." In actuality, though, Lily was sleeping for longer stretches through the night, and Rick and Kate would be asking her pediatrician at her rapidly approaching two-month check-up when they should move her from her bassinet to her crib, since both of them had read separately, and shown the articles to each other, that the earlier a baby started sleeping alone, the better it was for the baby in the long run. She was in her swing, with her thumb in her mouth, while Kate sat on the floor beside the swing, reading Lily The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which was already one of her favorite books.

When Lanie and Alan arrived for dinner, Rick let them in, since Kate was still reading to Lily, who was almost asleep. Kate was near the end of the book, and Lily's eyelids were drooping. By the time Kate finished the last page and closed the book, Lily was asleep. She carefully, quietly got to her feet, quietly greeted Lanie and Alan, and then turned her attention to Rick, asking him, "You want to carry her to bed, babe?"

"Yeah," Rick agreed. He looked at Lanie and Alan now. "We'll just be a few minutes," he told them.

While Rick and Kate were putting Lily to bed for the night, Alan shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he said, "You know, we've never really talked about kids in anything but abstract terms."

"You're right. We haven't," Lanie said.

"It's not something I want to do right away," Alan said.

"Oh, me neither, me neither," Lanie said.

"But I could see us with a kid or two eventually," Alan said.

"How eventually?" Lanie asked.

"Well, you're the one who has to do all the hard work," he replied, "so the way I see it, that's pretty much your call."

"Really?" Lanie asked, surprised. She knew Alan was a liberated man, and very supportive of women's rights, but she hadn't known he would go so far as to leave the when of them beginning a family entirely up to her.

"Well...yes," Alan said. "You're the one who will go through all the changes and all the discomfort and then the actual physical pain of labor and childbirth. I'm not some caveman who's going to demand that you give me children, but seeing Kate and Rick with Lily these past couple of months, and the few times we've seen Kevin and Jenny with their kids...It's gotten me thinking, Lanie, and aside from marrying you, I can't think of anything that would be better than having kids with you."

Lanie just had to kiss Alan for that, so she did. When they came up for air, she said, "I definitely want at least one child. But not for a couple of years."

"Two years it is," Alan agreed, sealing the deal with another kiss.

They kissed until they heard Castle say, "Another thirty seconds and then can I spray them with a fire extinguisher, Kate?"

Lanie and Alan pulled apart, and Lanie gave Castle an arched-eyebrow look. "A fire extinguisher, Castle?" she asked.

"Well, we don't have a garden hose," Castle said.

Kate elbowed him in the ribs. "Okay, okay, we have a party to plan, and dinner will be ready soon. We're having lasagna. I hope that's all right."

"Sounds great," Alan said. "I'm famished."

They had just started eating when Rick said, "So, what are we thinking for the party?"

Kate added, "Yeah, have you guys given any thought to what you want to do, and when? I know that, as best man and matron of honor, technically we're supposed to plan the party, but we've been kind of busy lately."

"For the best reasons in the world," Lanie said. She looked at Alan, whose face was lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. "And we've decided on what we want to do."

"What my bride means," Alan said, "is that I got this idea, and when she saw how excited about it I am, she decided to be the best good sport in the world and go along."

"Well, I haven't been there in ages myself," Lanie retorted, "and yes, you may be more excited about it than I am, but I think we'll all have a great time."

"And where will we be having this great time?" Rick asked.

"Coney Island!" Alan exclaimed. "Luna Park! The best of both worlds: the amusement park with all the rides and games and food, and the boardwalk and the beach. They even have an arcade! Oh, the hours I spent in arcades when I was a teenager! And all the rides!"

At the mention of Coney Island, Rick, who was sitting next to Kate, instinctively reached for her hand under the table. Before he could squeeze her hand, she squeezed his hand. They exchanged a look, and Rick could see in her eyes that she would be okay with this somehow, since it obviously meant so much to Alan, and Lanie was looking enthusiastic now.

"Are you inviting Gates and her husband?" Rick asked.

Alan and Lanie exchanged a look. "I—we hadn't thought about that," Lanie admitted after a pregnant pause.

"What about Alexis and Javi?" Kate asked.

"Well, they're coming to the wedding, so yeah, we thought we'd include them in the party," Lanie said. "Really, it's not weird for us. It's not still weird for you guys, is it?"

"It was never really weird for me," Kate reflected. "And I think Rick is starting to adjust, finally."

"Yes, I am," Rick said. "Okay, so Alexis and Espo, Ryan and Jenny..."

"My sister and brother-in-law," Alan piped up. "My parents would probably be game for some of it if we wanted to ask them."

"Mine wouldn't," Lanie said, grimacing now. "Well, my dad probably would go for it, but my mother? Never. She already gave me an earful about my wedding dress. She'll probably be apoplectic when she finds out I'm not having a traditional shower, or some fancy tea party." She looked at Alan. "Do you want to ask your parents?"

"Will it cause problems if we ask mine and not yours?" he asked.

"Not if Gates is there," Rick said. "Seriously, Lanie, she could intimidate your mother with one look."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Ignore him. He just wants to see if Victoria will get sick on the Steeplechase."

"If she does, I really hope I'm not sitting in front of her," Rick said.

"We don't have to decide about the parents tonight," Alan added.

"Let's ask Gates and her husband," Lanie said decisively. "We'll revisit the question of whether or not to ask the parents, and whose parents to ask, after we've nailed down a date."

The rest of their evening, after dinner, was spent looking at the rides, games, and food available at Luna Park and Coney Island on Rick's tablet, and Rick and Alan were like a couple of little boys, compiling lists of which rides they wanted to go on, and which games they wanted to play, and the food they just had to have.

"So how do you really feel about having your combined bachelor and bachelorette parties at Luna Park and Coney Island?" Kate asked Lanie when they were in the kitchen, getting refills on their drinks, wine for Lanie and water for Kate.

"I think it's going to be a lot of fun," Lanie replied honestly. "What I do isn't who I am, but you know firsthand how grim it gets, Kate. Alan is able to take the absolute worst, most gruesome, pierce-my-armor day and make it all okay for me. I don't think anyone else would think of Coney Island for a bachelor and bachelorette party, except maybe Castle. And I really want to do this now. I haven't been to Coney Island since I was a teenager. I hope that arcade still has skeeball. I used to rule at skeeball. Besides, if Alan and Castle win everything, they'll be positively insufferable, and we can't have that."

"Definitely not," Kate agreed.

"I get it now," Lanie said. At Kate's inquiring gaze, Lanie went on. "Why you, Kate Beckett, the most commitment-phobic person I used to know, next to myself of course, were so happy and so eager to marry Castle: because when you really love someone, and you know that that someone really loves you, you don't want to be without them. You want to join your life to theirs, permanently, and build something new and wonderful together."

"I'm really happy for you, Lanie," Kate said. "Alan's a great guy, and you two are great together."

"Look at us," Lanie said. "Ten years ago, we never would have pictured ourselves here. Our younger selves would have laughed us out of the room."

"Your younger self would have laughed you out of the room. Mine would have told me off for even suggesting anything like this might have a chance of happening," Kate said. She looked over to where Rick and Alan were laughing about something on the tablet's screen, and she smiled at the sight of the two of them laughing and nudging each other.

Lanie followed Kate's gaze. "We were idiots ten years ago," she said bluntly.

"I don't know that I'd go that far," Kate mused thoughtfully. "We just hadn't found them yet."

Lily woke up then, crying loudly over the baby monitor. Kate and Rick both rushed to tend to her. Alan stood up, setting Rick's tablet on the coffee table. Lanie crossed the room until she was standing next to him. "You and Castle get everything planned out?" she asked.

"Almost," Alan replied. "If there's something else you'd rather do-"

"Nothing in the world would be as much fun as Coney Island and Luna Park with you and our friends," Lanie said, wrapping her arm around Alan's waist and leaning her head against his shoulder. "Although if Deputy Chief Gates does get sick on the Steeplechase, I hope I'm not sitting in front of her either."

Rick and Kate returned then, without Lily. "She just needed a clean diaper," Kate reported.

"Well, we should probably get going anyway," Alan said. "Thanks for dinner, and for being the greatest best man and matron-of-honor in the world and agreeing with this crazy party idea."

"It's not crazy, it's inspired," Rick replied. "I wish I'd thought of something like that before we got married." He looked at Kate.

"Well, there was the honeymoon," Kate reminded him.

"Oh yeah," Rick agreed, his mind drifting back to the memory of Kate in head-to-toe black with the corset and the boots, her gun in its holster around her hips, and… He mentally slammed on the brakes, knowing it was better not to let his mind go that far in front of Lanie and Alan.

They said their good nights, and after Lanie and Alan left, Kate and Rick locked up and then got ready for bed themselves.

When they were lying in bed in the dark, Rick said, "Are you gonna be okay with being at Coney Island for the party?" In the dim light of the room, Kate could see the genuine concern in his eyes.

"Yes," she said, looking in his eyes. "I can do this for Lanie and Alan. And you'll be there, so I know I'll be all right." She laid her head on his chest and felt him kiss the top of her head.

"I love you, Kate," Rick said in the darkness.

She never got tired of hearing him say that, and she never got tired of telling him, "I love you too, Rick," as she did now, lying in their bed in his arms, with Lily sleeping peacefully across the room from them.


That same black compact Honda Civic had been parked down the street from the 12th Precinct almost every day for the last ten days...but the only person who seemed to have taken notice of the car was Kevin Ryan. When he reached the sidewalk and spotted the car again, he'd had enough. Whoever the old guy that was always either in or near that car was, he was staking out the 12th for some reason, and Kevin decided it was time to find out who this weird stalker was.

Unobtrusively, he snapped a picture of the car's license plate with his phone, and then headed home to Jenny and the kids, making a mental note to track the license plate the next day, since he and Javi and Hastings (she still went by her maiden name at the precinct) didn't currently have a case.

As he made his way home to his family, little did Kevin know what he was about to discover about the car and the old man who spent so much time sitting in it, and the impact his discovery would have.