During lunch, Rick noticed that the interactions between Kate and her mother were becoming more and more natural, going back to normal. He was happy for her, she finally seemed to accept the presence of her mother back in her life. Their life.

Once they were done eating, Johanna and Jim pushed the couple and their daughter to the garden, saying that they would join them when the put the dishes away.

"They are really cute together." Johanna said to her husband, looking through the kitchen window.

"She's really happy with him, that's for sure." Jim said, seeing the couple pretend to chase Emily around. The poor child was crawling as fast as she could, laughing all along. "Rick is really good for her. You should have seen her when he first started to follow her, I could have sworn she would kill him." he laughed picturing his daughter whining about her immature partner.

"I feel so bad having missed all of that!" Johanna sighed. "When I had to leave, Katie had had some boyfriends of course, but nothing serious. I missed my daughter's wedding, the birth of my first grandchild … I missed almost her whole life Jim. When I left she was a teenager and now she's a mother and a wife!"

"It's not your fault Jo. And you know, you could always ask them how everything went. I know for a fact that Rick loves to tell this story. And with Kate here you're sure to have the real version, not the overly romantic one he likes to tell everyone." Jim laughed.

"He's really something else, isn't he?"

"Oh he is. He is just what our Katie needed."

Outside, Emily had stopped crawling around and was now playing on the grass with some of her toys, her parents looking at her.

"How are you feeling?" Rick asked, pulling his wife close.

"Good. I think I'm finally realizing that she is here, you know. Maybe it's just knowing where she had been all these years. I don't now. But it's good to finally have a complete family. Before, I had her and not you. Then I had you and not her. Now I finally have both of you and a beautiful daughter. I honestly couldn't hope for anything more. I have absolutely everything I need." Kate said, smiling at him.

Before she had time to react, Rick was kissing her passionately. Too passionately considering they were in her parents' garden and shes knew that her mother must be spying form the kitchen window. She always had. But Kate didn't care for once. She was happy with Rick and she wanted her mother to know it. They separated when the need for oxygen forced them to, only to get back at it, Kate pulling him closer. Of course they had to be interrupted by her parents. Strangely enough, it felt normal though.

"Come on lovebirds, come here and talk to me about your story. I want to know everything." Johanna called them, waving their wedding album.

They walked hand in hand to the table where Jim had placed the cups of coffee and sat in a way to be able to look after their daughter who was playing with the grass.

"So, how long have you two been married?" Johanna asked, smiling at the couple.

"Two years, one month and thirteen days." Rick answered immediately.

"Wow, that's precise." Johanna laughed. "And how did everything start between the two of you?"

"Well he started following me at work about four years ago." Kate said, smiling at the memory. " You know, he writes murder books and we had a victim who disappeared exactly the way he had written it in one of his novels. So I went to find him and brought him in for questioning and well … he never left after that. He managed to convince my Captain that he needed to do research and so he had to follow me. Needless to say that I did not like the idea, let alone being forced to have him with me all the time. He was so annoying! He just couldn't stop talking, he was always touching things. He even stole evidence to investigate on his own more than once, just to make me feel stupid."

"Hey, it was not to make you feel or look stupid at all!" Rick interjected. "You just didn't give credit to anything I was saying, I needed you to know that I was not there just to annoy you, that I could be useful too."

"Yeah well ... I did nit get that. At the beginning at least."

"And how long did it take you to get closer?" Johanna asked.

"We gt closer progressively I guess. I didn't really see it coming. We started dating about two years ago." Kate said.

"What? Wait, you started dating AND got married two years ago?" Johanna said, clearly confused.

"Yes. We started dating at the end of June, I proposed at Christmas and we got married on April 20th." Rick answered.

"Why was it so quick?"

"Well, we didn't want to wait any more and waste more time. Waiting another year or two would not have changed anything so why wait?" Kate explained. "A lot of people were surprised, but we don't regret it. We'll never regret it." she continued, taking Rick's hand.

"As long as you're happy, that's all that matters." Johanna smiled. "So Rick, how did you propose?"

Kate couldn't help but laugh. Her mother was definitely still the same. Always wanting to know everything about everything. But this was a good story and you could see it in his eyes that Rick loved to tell it.

"Well, there is a tradition in the Castle household for Christmas: you have to deserve your presents." Rick explained, excited to introduce someone new to his tradition. "So we were in the Hamptons and we were ready to go hunting and ..."

"Hunting?" Johanna asked.

"The famous Castle Christmas Present Hunt mom." Kate laughed.

"Yeah, so, we were getting ready to go hunting but Alexis got sick. Probably something she ate. Anyway. She knew what I had planned for Kate so she insisted we went without her, but your daughter, stubborn as she is, refused to leave her side. When my mother arrived, I finally managed to get her out of the house and gave her the treasure map. Being the awesome detective that she is, she found all the clues I had left around the house. When she came back to the house for the last one, I was waiting for her, on one knee, in front of the Christmas tree."

"Oh, that's so sweet!" Johanna said, a large smile on her face.

"Yeah, I thought so too." Kate smiled. "It was the best Christmas ever. Ad really unexpected too. We hadn't talked about marriage at all. But when I saw him there, with an open ring box in his hands, it all became very clear. This was what I wanted more than anything else." she continued, kissing him lovingly.

"And you got married four months later? Wasn't that too short to plan everything?" Johanna asked.

"We didn't want a big wedding so the preparations were pretty quick. All we needed was his tux and my dress." Kate explained. "Martha and Alexis were wonderful wedding planners. They took care of everything while I was at work. They were really great. They even helped me find my dress." Kate smiled at the memory of dress shopping.

"It was really beautiful Katie." Johanna said, looking at the wedding photos in the album. "You were really handsome too Richard."

"Thanks. But I don't think anyone would have noticed if I had been wearing shorts and flips flops." he laughed. "She was so gorgeous, people couldn't take their eyes off her. And she looked so happy!"

" Of course I was happy, it was our wedding day." Kate said, smiling at him.

"Well, it's not always the case. I've been married twice before," he told Johanna, "but your daughter is the last one, I swear." he added when he realized how it must have sounded. "Anyway, none of my ex-wives looked really happy on their wedding days. Meredith spent her time complaining about how fat she was and telling everyone it was my fault if she didn't look good on her bid day. She was pregnant with Alexis for crying out loud, she was not fat! When I married Gina, I felt mote like a guest than the groom. She was completely ignoring me. It was all business for her. With Kate, it was completely different. It was real. She was the one that everyone was looking at – which is perfectly understandable – but she was there with me. With my family and our friends. She did not threatened anyone with their lives when the musicians had to cancel the day before because half of them were sick. She did not turn into a monster when the reception started. She simply enjoyed her day."

"Our day." Kate corrected.

"You two are so cute!" Johanna said, tears gathering in her eyes. I feel so bad having missed all of that. I can't believe I missed my Katie's wedding."

"You did not miss it mom. You were there with us." Kate said, turning the pages of the album.

She stopped when she reached the group and family pictures. Johanna froze when she saw that she was indeed on all the pictures. On each of them, Jim was carrying a frame with her picture in it.

"It was Rick's idea. A way to have you with us on our big day." Kate smiled.

Johanna left her chair and went to hug Rick really tight, surprising him.

"Thank you so much for taking care of my little girl." she whispered in his ear.

"The pleasure's all mine." he simply answered.

O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O

"He is very good with her." Johanna said to Kate, looking at Rick playing with Emily, both of them rolling around in the grass.

"He is the best." Kate smiled. "And he is the one doing the laundry next time."

Johanna looked at her daughter. She was watching her husband and her daughter play together and she looked happy. Really happy. Johanna had never seen the expression she had in her eyes before.

"You really love him." Johanna stated, still looking at Kate.

"Yes, I do. He's the best, mom. My one and done. I'm never letting him go. Ever. It took me a long time to find him, but it was so worth it." she smiled. "You know, he was supposed to leave for a three-week book tour this week, but he managed to push it back to stay with me. He said he wouldn't let me alone with everything that's going on."

"Well, he certainly sounds like the perfect man." Johanna said, picking up Emily who had crawled to her.

"He is. And he is mine." Kate said, getting up from her chair and going to kiss him.

So, what do you think?

I'd love to hear from you guys !