Ch. 3

The outside was one thing but the inside was something else entirely.

There would be time for the tour later. Castle made his way through the first floor to their bedroom closing the door behind them.

In the course of five hours they had gone several rounds. They now lay in bed, a fire going in the bedroom fireplace. Beckett's bare leg crossed Castle's still naked torso.

"That was new," said Castle.

"You didn't mind it?"

"Are you kidding we should be more adventurous. We should do those things more often."

Beckett smiled; clearly pleased with herself and the job she and Castle had performed.

"Maybe later we can try-," Beckett said as she toyed her fingers on his bare chest.

"Oh I like that idea. We should definitely do that."

"Okay good."

Castle placed a kiss on Beckett's forehead. "Come on let's go raid the kitchen. I had a buddy of mine stock it so we wouldn't have to do the grocery shopping when we got here. Since we're out in the woods, I'm thinking hot dogs and s'mores."

"The perfect camping food," Beckett said with a smile.

Within a short time Castle had gotten a fire going in the fire pit outside near the cabin. He and Beckett took their seats on the portable polyester and steel folding chairs, each holding a wired prong that held a hotdog at the end. Their cup holders each held opened beers, Castle not wanting to pull out their recently bought wine just yet. He had bought it for a special occasion; the two of them quietly enjoying their meal without much small talk.

The only sounds were the crackling of the fire and the creek running nearby.

Beckett looked up at the sky. You sure didn't get a cloudless night like this in New York. She had never been a nature girl per say but she had never been one to underestimate the aesthetic beauty in it either. The feeling that one could get as they looked to the stars and hear the natural sounds as they remained beneath their sometimes dim, sometimes bright lights, a reminder that whatever lives they led, everything was connected, every atom, every cell, all part of a grander whole that still had yet to be fully understood.

Tonight there were no murders to worry about and if there were, they weren't Beckett's concern. They were in one of the furthest places they could be from home and while she thought of her father, her mother-in-law, and her step-daughter, she could not have been in a better place than where she was right at this very moment: sharing a simple meal of hotdogs and beer under the endless night sky with her husband whom she had been in love with for seven years.

It was their honeymoon, both in Arizona and their island resort all over again minus the solving a murder and minus a horse drawn carriage.

"It's breathtaking, Castle," she said breaking the silence.

In some odd way she felt odd using her voice, almost like the sound of it disturbed the night somehow.

"It is isn't it? I just hope they're no snakes this time."

Beckett stifled a laugh remembering the time when it had been almost like this, she had been ready to play coy with him and remove her shirt when a rattle snake had come near Castle and she had to scare it off with a bullet that pierced the ground beside it.

"So," said Castle, "how did I do on your Valentine's present?"

"Well it's not Valentine's yet but so far I'm impressed," Beckett said with a smile. Castle smiled back and the two remained silent but only for a second. "You never stop doing that do you?"

"Doing what?"

"Impressing me."

Castle reached over and took Beckett's freehand. "And I never will."

Beckett smiled back. "So what do you say wanna go back inside and finish what we started?"

"Or we could start something entirely new, maybe a little strip poker."

"Oh strip poker sounds fun but only if we revise the rules a bit, shirts off before we deal."

"I like that rule," Castle said with a large grin.

Again Beckett smiled.

The two of them cleared up their spot near the fire thoroughly in case there were any wolves or bears in the area or other animals that might try to come sniffing around for a free meal.

Once it was clean and the fire was put out the couple made their way inside.