Thank you to everyone for your continued support and enthusiasm for this story.
As the summer progressed, everyone looked forward to the wedding, and it was a busy time for the entire extended Castle clan.
Wedding plans were finalized in between Javier's murder cases at the 12th Precinct and Alexis's job as a paralegal and all of her studying for the rapidly approaching bar exam.
Jake rolled over from his stomach to his back for the first time five days after Reece did, and both boys continued to thrive, growing and changing every day.
In preparation for beginning her first year of preschool in the fall, Lily, who already knew her alphabet, how to count from 0 to 20, her colors, and her basic shapes, began learning how to write her name.
Jim continued to revel in his role as grandfather, and when Columbia University called him, needing an answer about whether he would be returning to the classroom for the fall semester, he informed them that he would not be coming back. After over forty years in the legal profession, Jim Beckett officially retired.
Kate continued to thrive on the City Council, where an Executive Budget Meeting on Criminal Justice Services was held in mid-June. She and Rick talked it over, and he was totally on board with her running for re-election in 2021, so they agreed that's what she would do.
As for Rick, he was batting around ideas for his next book, but he was happily busy being a husband and father first and foremost, so he wouldn't actually start writing until the fall, after the wedding.
Lanie's pregnancy progressed with continued morning sickness, worse than she'd had when she was pregnant with Will, which had Alan convinced they were having a girl, while Lanie argued that every pregnancy was different, and she insisted that they would be having another boy.
Sarah Grace was playing softball, and Nick was playing t-ball, and Kevin was a coach on both of their teams.
Without yet making an announcement, so as not to steal any thunder from Alexis and Javier's wedding, Earl and Martha quietly moved in together, at Earl's apartment, since he owned it, and they weren't the only couple whose relationship underwent a significant change.
In early July, Madison and Mark were at their apartment, and Madison had just emailed Alexis (copying Javier, Kate, Rick, and Martha, who was unofficially acting as a wedding coordinator of sorts for Alexis and Javier, making sure that everything that needed to be done on their list of wedding tasks was completed) the final menu for their rehearsal dinner, which she mentioned to Mark, who had the Yankees-Indians game on low on the TV. "Rehearsal dinner menu down, wedding reception menu to go," she said, still amazed and honored that they had decided to have Q3 cater their wedding reception, except for the wedding cake.
The game went to commercial, and Mark shut off the TV. "You ever think about coming up with a menu like that for yourself?" he asked Madison, leaning forward in his recliner.
Madison looked up from her tablet with surprise. "What?" she asked. She and Mark had never talked about marriage.
Mark got up from the recliner and sat down on the couch next to Madison. "Have you ever thought about what you'd serve at your wedding reception?" he asked.
Madison blinked. "Having a wedding reception means getting married," she replied.
He smiled. "Yes, it does," he said. He ran a hand through his hair, and his smile faded. "I'm not trying to take anything away from Alexis here. She's the bride of the summer. But you've been so energized and excited about this wedding, Maddie, all the little details of it, and working with the venue to coordinate everything food-wise, and the rehearsal dinner before that, and referring them to an excellent baker to do their wedding cake."
"I don't get to do too many weddings, but they are exciting," Madison said. "And this one's extra special because Alexis is my oldest friend's daughter, basically. Kate's even the matron of honor, in addition to the mother of the bride. So this one's a big deal for me."
"Which brings me back to my original question: do you ever think about planning a wedding for yourself? For you and me?" Mark asked.
Madison set aside her tablet. "Mark, are you proposing to me?" she asked.
Mark thought about it for the space of a few heartbeats, and then decisively said, "I am." He slid to the floor on one knee, took Madison's hand in both of his, and looked up at her. "I don't have a ring, but I want you to have what you want, so I want us to pick it out together, and we can pick out our wedding rings together while we're at it."
Maddie's heart was pounding so hard and fast, she was sure it was going to burst out of her chest. Mark's gaze was so earnest and so full of love. "You saved me, Maddie. I never thought I'd find you. I wasn't looking, honestly. But I did find you, and whether we get married or not, I'm in this for the rest of our lives. But if you've ever thought about it, if you want to...Madison, will you marry me?"
"Yes," Madison said as tears welled in her eyes. "Yes, Mark, I will marry you." She leaned down to kiss him and lost her balance, toppling them both to the floor with Madison lying on top of Mark. Laughing, she kissed him, and he kissed her back, for a long time.
Now that the women all had their dresses, it was time for the men to get their tuxedos. Alexis and Javier had decided that the men would wear white tuxedo jackets with black pants, bow ties, and cummerbunds, and plain white tuxedo shirts with studs.
Earl and Alan were going to be ushers, so they joined Javier, Kevin, Rick, and Jim to get fitted for their tuxes.
"We have to get single-breasted jackets," Javier said as they entered the shop. "Otherwise we're gonna look like a bunch of maitre'd's."
"And plain shirts, right?" Kevin asked, visibly cringing at a tux shirt with ruffled cuffs and ruffles all down the front that was on display.
Jim also winced upon seeing the ruffled tux shirt. "Ouch. I'm getting flashbacks to Prom Night 1968," he said. "I guess we were so busy protesting, we didn't realize at the time how ridiculous we looked."
"It didn't get much better for most of the '70s," Earl agreed. "I'm embarrassed now to admit that I, at one point, owned three different ruffled tuxedo shirts: one in white, one in blue, and one in yellow."
"Powder blue?" Jim asked.
"Naturally," Earl replied.
"With a tux to match?" Jim asked.
"A bow tie, yes. A tux? I wasn't quite that bad," Earl replied.
"Every decade has its fashion and hair mistakes," Alan reflected. "I went through a mercifully brief spiked hair period in high school, trying to get Jane Sadowski to notice me. She was a big Billy Idol fan. I even dyed my hair Billy Idol blonde. I had to go to my mother's beauty salon to get my hair dyed back to its natural color, all just to end up dancing with myself."
"I had a Flock of Seagulls haircut for a while," Kevin admitted. "Too long, actually."
"I had long hair in my early college years," Rick revealed. "For about two months. Kind of a brunette Kurt Cobain before Nirvana really hit it big."
"Now I'm glad my mom and abuela insisted I keep short hair all the time," Javier reflected. He smirked at Kevin and Castle. "The pictures of you guys as teenagers and in college must be hysterical."
"Under no circumstances are you allowed to ask my mother for those pictures," Rick warned Javier.
"That's it, I'm burning my high school yearbooks," Kevin said, only half-jokingly.
At that point, the conversation was interrupted by a shop employee coming over to help them, so they got down to the business of getting fitted for their tuxes. As the groom, Javier spoke for the group when he said, "We don't want any ruffled shirts or any shirts in colors, and we don't want whatever the latest trend is. We're going strictly traditional here: white single-breasted tux jackets, white tux shirts, black pants, bow ties, and cummerbunds."
Then came the debate, not that it ended up being much of one thanks the shop clerk, over clip-on versus hand-tied bow ties. "Hand-tied is the way to go," he insisted. "After all, it's a wedding, not a prom, and none of you are teenagers."
Jim, Earl, and Kevin knew how to tie bow ties; Javier, Rick, and Alan did not. "It's easy to do," Jim said. "I'm sure we could teach the rest of you guys in just a few minutes."
"Yeah, especially since these are the kind of bow ties that are adjustable to your neck size," Kevin added.
What followed was a humorous 45 minutes of popped collars and bow tie-tying lessons.
"The left side of the tie needs to be about two inches longer than the right side as it's hanging over your neck," Earl said.
"My left or your left?" Alan asked.
"Your left," Jim said. "Now, take that longer left side, cross it over the top, and then pull it underneath along your neck." Alan and Javier caught on right away. It took Rick five tries to get that part of it right. Jim patiently coaxed Rick through it until he got right.
"Okay," Kevin said, "now pull it nice and tight. Not so tight that it cuts off your oxygen, but snug enough that it won't move."
"Like this?" Rick asked, holding both ends of his bow tie up.
"Just like that," Jim assured him.
"Now, take the part of the tie that's in your right hand and lay it on your right shoulder," Kevin directed.
Javier's tie fell off his shoulder three times before he finally got it right. "If clip-ons wouldn't make us all look like we were teenagers, I'd say just go with those," he muttered. He gave a quick smile of triumph when the tie finally stayed on his right shoulder.
"Take your right pointer finger and center it under your chin," Earl directed the men next. After they had all done that, he continued, "Now, take the material of the tie that's in your left hand—your left hand, not my left—and fold it over the top."
Looking in the mirror as he did so, and battling the left-is-right/right-is-left confusion the mirror was causing, Rick exclaimed, "It looks like a bow!"
"We're gonna get this," Alan said. "What do we do next?"
"Next you take the part of the tie that's on your right shoulder off of your right shoulder," Jim instructed. When Rick, Javier, and Alan had done so, Jim continued, "Now pull it to the center and drop it right down the middle."
"It kind of looks an elephant's head now," Alan remarked.
"Good analogy," Kevin approved. "So, consider the horizontal part of the tie to be the elephant's ears. Take the ears of that elephant and pinch 'em together over the top of the trunk," the guys all did so, "and this is where the skill comes in. You've created this little hole in the back of the tie's front now."
"Back of the tie's front?" Rick muttered, hating the phrasing because it was inconsistent with English language rules but knowing what Kevin meant.
"You're gonna take the widest part of the elephant's trunk, the part of the tie that's hanging straight down," Kevin continued, "grab it in the middle, swing it counterclockwise, and push it halfway through that hole in the back."
More fumbling ensued as Javier, Rick, and Alan followed Kevin's instructions. When they all finally got it right, Kevin went on, "Once you get it halfway through, you let it go, and now you have a really sloppy-looking bow tie, but we're gonna fix that in a minute here."
"How?" Rick asked.
"You now have a loop on the front left," Kevin continued, "and a loop in the back on the right, and that's gonna be how you tighten the knot. But the trick is, you've got the tail in the back, and you cannot pull it all the way through the hole we looked at. You pull it out instead, and then slide the tail back just a little bit so it doesn't pull through."
The guys followed Kevin's instructions. "Pull it out again, and keep pulling and tightening. Every time you pull, the knot gets a little bit tighter, and the tie gets a little bit straighter."
"But the knot won't be perfect," Earl added. "A perfect knot is the sign of a clip-on bow tie. And there's something about the slight asymmetry that looks perfect in its own way."
"And there you go," Kevin concluded. "One hand-tied bow tie. All that's left is to fold your collar down and pop the bow tie over the top. And then, at the end of the knot, in case anyone doubts that you actually have a hand-tied bow tie, pull on the right side, and it'll come untied just like that..." He snapped his fingers before illustrating with his own bow tie. "...and then leave the ends draped over your neck."
"Well, at least we'll have time to practice," Rick reflected.
"You'll get it, Rick," Jim assured him.
"This isn't as bad as I thought it would be," Javier said.
"Every man should know how to tie a bow tie," Earl said.
Since the wedding was in the middle of August, the men unanimously agreed not to get wool jackets, deciding on the single-breasted white jacket with a shawl collar and a single button closure in a polyester-rayon blend.
"I gotta say, this is way better than those Elvis jumpsuits," Javier said, inspecting himself in the mirror once he was completely outfitted in his tuxedo.
"Absolutely," Kevin agreed, nudging in next to Javi at the mirror as he straightened the lapels of his jacket.
"Speaking of the bachelor party," Rick said then, and Javi and Kevin both turned to look at him and knew that he was speaking as the father of the bride now.
"Nothing wild, Castle, I promise," Kevin assured him. "We're thinking a video game marathon, actually. We haven't had one of those in ages."
"Alexis said that Beckett and Martha have been talking about a shower for her, and she's okay with that, but we're thinking we might have some kind of party for everybody too," Javier said. He looked to Alan then. "Like when we all went to Coney Island before you and Lanie got married. But it wouldn't be Coney Island. It depends on if we can take the time for a party. Alexis is getting freaked out about the bar exam the closer it gets."
"I'm sure she'll do just fine," Jim said.
"Could you mention that to her the next time you two talk?" Javier asked.
"I'll be glad to," Jim replied. He had no doubts at all that Alexis would pass the bar on her first try.
"How about we send the ladies a picture?" Earl asked then.
Rick shifted his gaze to Earl knowingly. "Mother asked you to get a picture, didn't she?" he inquired.
"She did," Earl admitted.
"Well, there's nothing that says the bride can't see the groom in his tuxedo before the wedding," Javier said. "Let's get the tailor to take a picture of all of us and we can send the picture to all the ladies."
So that's what they did.
Later on, when each man had returned to his mate, they got a variety of reactions.
Jenny told Kevin it looked like an audition for the next James Bond movie, and he was the best-looking one.
Lanie jumped Alan's bones as soon as Will was asleep for the night.
Martha told Earl he was devastatingly handsome. He mused that he'd have to buy a white dinner jacket if that's how she felt, an idea she was totally on board with.
Alexis thought Javier looked amazing, then asked if he was really okay with a white tux jacket instead of a black jacket. He assured her that he was, and before he could say anything to her about what Jim had said about the bar exam, she resumed studying for the bar exam.
Rick was still practicing with his bow tie and a regular dress shirt when Kate came in after settling the fussy Jake. She had assured Jim that he looked very handsome, and thanked him for showing Rick and Javi how to hand tie bow ties, along with Kevin and Earl.
Rick was grimacing in the mirror as he tried to push the widest part of the tie halfway through the hole, the way Ryan had demonstrated at the tux shop earlier.
Kate stole up behind him and put her hands on his shoulders, turning him around to face her. "You know," she said as she gently moved his hands off the tie, then smoothed the fabric of the tie and began to push and pull the fabric into place and make it into a properly tied bow tie, "I noticed shortly after we met that you rarely wear a tie unless it's an absolutely-have-to kind of occasion."
"I can tie a Windsor knot on a regular necktie," Rick said. "And this is definitely an absolutely-have-to occasion."
"I know," Kate replied, making one last gentle pull and then smoothing the fabric of the tie before turning Rick back towards the mirror and resting her chin on his shoulder so they were both looking at his reflection in the mirror. "But bow ties are something else entirely."
"Are they ever," Rick murmured. "You're really good at tying them. You're really good at a lot of things. Especially loving me and our kids."
Kate smiled as he turned to face her again and wrapped his arms around her. "I didn't fully realize how much I could love until you," she told him as her arms went around his neck. "I hope Alexis and Javi are as happy as we are. And that they communicate better than we did for a long time."
"Every parent wants their kids to learn from their mistakes," Rick replied, tucking Kate's hair behind her ears. "Alexis has definitely learned from mine...ours. And so have we."
"So how are you really doing with all this wedding stuff?" Kate asked seriously.
"I want Alexis to be as happy with Esposito as I am with you," Rick replied honestly. "And I hope they don't make us grandparents right away."
Kate chuckled. "I don't think you have to worry about that," she assured him. "Alexis is going to establish herself in her career first. It'll be a few years yet."
"Part of me can't believe she's getting married in six weeks," Rick reflected.
"I know," Kate said. "But I promise, I'll be there to hold you together at the wedding. And long after."
"For the time of our lives," Rick said.
"For the time of our lives," Kate echoed before kissing him.
