A/N: So, Valkyrie was dramatic, huh? Amazing in so many ways. I'm still in shock that Andrew gave us two cliffhangers in a row, and that we now have to wait a week to find out how Castle is going to survive.

Thank yous go to hfce, htbuzz, MonicaKateBingCastle, psyrvaven, jellybean96 and the anonymous reviewer for their lovely reviews.

Also, apologies for this chapter being a bit later. I know I told one of you I would have this up on Tuesday, I just got waylaid by having to start packing all my stuff up since I'm going back to university for my second year at the end of this week. *Sigh* Anyway, I doubt any of you guys are really interested in that so I'll just shut up now.


They were in the study, the murder board Rick had created on and both of them staring at it.

"So what's our first step?"

"Talk to Henry, I guess, see if he can tell us about when Rachel disappeared," Kate said. "I gave my copy of Rachel's card to Ryan, but you've got one too right?"

"Yeah," Castle answered, standing upright from where he had been sitting on the edge of his desk and rooting around in the back pocket of his jeans. Kate watched him pull out his wallet, ignoring the cash and the credit cards and instead looking in the section he reserved for pictures. She'd seen before the one of Alexis barely three days old, snuggled in his arms, and the one of her sitting on Castle's lap on a swingset, but there were others of her from over the years that Kate had only ever glimpsed. Along with all those, Castle had one of him and Kate from a photobooth he'd dragged her into one Sunday when she didn't have to work and he'd suggested going out for the day. Behind all that, Castle knew he'd stuffed the business card; he just had to find it. "Aha!"

Kate smirked at the proud tone colouring his declaration and took the card, picking up her cell phone to dial the office number Rachel had listed only to find Castle's fingers closing around her wrist.

"I've got a better plan. Why don't we head down to the office? The address is right here." He pointed at the business card.

Kate shrugged. "Just let me get changed."


Castle was still grumbling in the elevator up to the floor that Six Degrees of Celebration occupied. "If you'd said you were dressing smart, I'd have a least put a button down shirt on."

Kate resisted the temptation to roll her eyes. It wasn't even like she was wearing a full suit. Just a plain white shirt and a tan blazer with her jeans and usual chunky-heeled boots. He was just, as usual, making a mountain out of a molehill.

"I thought you liked your Green Lantern shirt. I could lend you my Superman one, if you'd prefer-"

He cut her off with a single look. "Why would I need a shirt when I have the costume?" He ignored Kate failing in her attempt to not smile as he tugged at the cuffs of his beaten jacket.

"Would you relax?" she asked with a roll of her green eyes. "You look fine. It's not like we're even officially working." She watched out of the corner of her eye as Castle continued to fidget and squirm, alternating between zipping his jacket up and then unzipping it after checking his reflection in the metal side of the elevator.

Finally he turned to her. "What do you think? Zip done up or not?"

"Castle, if I answer, will you stop fussing." She paused, waited for him to nod and then replied, "Undone." The elevator stopped. "Now remember, we're not outwardly investigating; we're here to offer our condolences," Kate warned as they stepped out and walked straight into a reception area. At the ping of the elevator and the sound of the heavy doors grating against grooves of the floor, the receptionist looked up and watched them approach. "Hi, we're looking for Henry Wyatt."

The receptionist gave them both a dirty look that didn't go unseen by either Castle or Kate before pointing them to down the hallway on her left. "Third door on the left."

Kate nodded their thanks and stepped away, leading Castle to Henry's office. They found the door open; the young man they had come to see sat behind his desk with his head in his hands. As if sensing their presence, even though they had yet to announce it, Henry dropped his arms and lifted his head, displaying red-rimmed, bloodshot eyes.

"Hi, Henry, sorry to intrude. I'm-"

"-Richard Castle and Detective Kate Beckett," he said. "I know who you are."

Kate swallowed, taking that to mean he had most-likely seen the news reports that had named her a suspect in Rachel's murder. Rick's hold on her hand tightened, fingers squeezing hers in an effort to pass on some comfort.

"Awful mess this is." Henry shook his head wearily. "I just can't stop thinking about poor Rachel. You're going to catch the bastard that did this, aren't you?"

"You don't think I did it?" Beckett blurted.

Henry surveyed her for a moment. "Rachel liked you, you know. When she came back from that first meeting with you, all she could talk about was you. She said you were ten times smarter and more respected than Nikki Heat ever could be." At Rick's look of surprise, he continued, "Yeah, she was a fan. It was why she was planning your wedding. Joan wanted to take it herself, but Rachel begged for days. I had to stay up all night with her creating the presentation that convinced Joan she was good enough to handle your wedding."

Speechless, Kate sank into one of the two chairs positioned in front of the desk and turned to Rick.

"You mind answering some questions?" he asked for her, squeezing Kate's hand again.

"I don't know what more I can do to help – I already told the other detectives everything I know."

"If you could just tell us again, that would be really helpful," Kate said, having found her voice again. "

Reluctantly nodding, Henry looked to Kate and Rick. "What do you want to know?"

"When was the last time you saw Rachel?"

Henry didn't have to think before he answered. "Friday last week. She said she was having one of her old friends from college visit that weekend and she'd see me on Monday if she made it out of bed. I joked that I'd have a stack of double espressos lined up for her. She winked and left."

"So she didn't come to work after her weekend off?" Castle clarified.

"No, she only had those two days booked off and was missing all week afterwards. At first I just thought she was too hungover to come in – she liked going clubbing at the weekends –but then she didn't come in on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and then she… her body was found on Friday." Kate and Castle didn't miss Henry's pause or grimace as he was forced to say body. His voice was almost a whisper as he said, "I just assumed she was ill and couldn't be bothered to call in."

"Did you notice anything unusual before she disappeared?"

"People you didn't know hanging around the office? Rachel take any unexplained phone calls? See people who weren't clients? Mention any trouble with an old boyfriend?" Rick suggested.

"No. She seemed fine – busy and struggling with her dad's diagnosis, but fine."

"Her father's ill?"

"About a month ago, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Rachel had him moved into a home where he could be cared for. She felt awful for it, but she couldn't cope with it – this job is more than fulltime. The work goes home with you. That's why she was living in his apartment – packing up his stuff, so she could sell the place."

Kate nodded, unsure what to say. She'd known Rachel, but she was discovering she hadn't really known her at all. It was hard to reconcile the image of Rachel Henry was painting with the effervescent blonde who had introduced herself in Starbucks.

"What about this friend? Do you know her name?" she asked finally, locking eyes with Rick and hoping he understood the signal to get his writer's notebook out.

"Sorry," Henry shook his head. "But she might be in Rachel's diary – she used to sync it with the system here at the office." Kate and Rick waited whilst he searched through the computer. "Violet Little."

"Great, thanks," Kate replied, while Castle jotted down the name. "Hopefully she'll know something." She stood up, and led Castle back towards the office door.

"Oh, before I forget," Henry called, standing and rifling through the cluttered desk, opening and closing drawers, "somewhere around here, are those colour samples Rachel was going to give you, Detective Beckett. Got them!"

As Kate's hand closed around the thin strips of paper grouped together by a treasury tag, she found a lump in her throat. "Thank you," she murmured.


Back at the flat, Kate and Rick were updating their murder board, creating a timeline for Rachel's case.

"She was missing at least five days and nobody noticed," Castle lamented, shaking his head in a mixture of disbelief and sorrow. "How does that even happen?"

"We find Violet Little and maybe we'll find out."

Castle turned to nod his agreement, frowning in confusion as he watched Kate drag her phone out of her pocket and search through the contacts. "What are you doing?"

"Well we've got to find out where Violet is somehow. And I don't know about you, but I don't have access to the databases we need. Given that I've been wrongly broadcasted as a suspect in her murder, I doubt the bank is going to send me her credit information, do you?"

"And you think Esposito and Ryan will tell you where she is? Let me introduce you to Man's Best Friend, the internet." Kate narrowed her eyes, but sat back as Castle brought up Twitter and typed into the search bar Violet Little, bringing up too many results and, of the ones that Beckett could see, none of which seemed likely.

Kate scoffed. "If that's the best you can do, I'll get back to calling in a favour from Ryan-"

"Ah ta pa na," he said, making sounds rather than words. "I'm not done yet." As if making his point, he held up Rachel's business card. "Read out her Twitter handle to me."

" 6DegreesWeddingsRachel."

Castle typed in the name and clicked the link onto Rachel's account as soon as it had loaded. "Now we just see who's following her and who she's following," he mumbled, opening both links in separate tabs.

"How do you know Violet's even going to be following her? You don't even know whether she uses Twitter."

Castle gave her a sceptic look. "She's what, twenty four? Trust me, she'll have one. Everybody has a Twitter account."

"I don't," Kate pointed out, crossing her arms in emphasis.

Castle was oddly silent. Too quiet considering she'd been expecting him to make some kind of quip about how ridiculous it was for her to not use any kind of social media.

Kate exhaled heavily through her nose. "You made me a Twitter account, didn't you? And, I bet you've been tweeting on my behalf, haven't you?" He didn't deny it and she groaned, just imaging the things he could have said, probably replying to his own tweets and boosting his own ego whilst he was at it. Just guessing the kind of thing he was likely to have put in her bio was bad enough. "Show me," she commanded, already reaching round him to requisition his laptop because she knew he would refuse. When his hands fought off hers, she tweaked his ear, but conceded that he was right when he said she'd have to look later because at that moment in time Rachel's Twitter account, or rather the possible account of Violet Little, was more important.

"There's a Violet," Kate murmured into his ear, her finger hovering millimetres from the screen of his laptop.

Castle opened the link to JustViolet's page and skim-read the bio underneath her picture. "Yep, looks like this is her. Says right here that her name's Violet Little and look, she follows the Yale Alumni account, just like Rachel."

"And this helps us find her, how exactly?"

"Patience, Detective," he muttered as he began trawling through Violet's recent tweets. "Well according to the location of these tweets, she's still in Manhattan. Got it, she's staying at the Hilton Garden Inn at Times Square." When he held his fingers up, Kate begrudgingly 'fed the birds'.

"Let's go."

"Wait, let me change this time please." Without waiting for an answer, Castle left his fiancée in his study and moved into his bedroom, able to hear Kate cursing his metrosexual ways. "Shut up, you love it really!" he yelled to her. "You'd never find a better dressed man than me."


"What room number is Violet Little in?"

"I'm sorry, we can't give out that infor-" Kate flashed her badge at the receptionist, feeling impatient and hoping the frustration played across her face. "Room 209."

Kate spun on her heel and walked to the elevators, her powerful strides drawing the eyes of every man in the atrium regardless of whether they were with wives or girlfriends, and a few women too, Castle noticed. He didn't miss the leers and lingering eyes of a group of guys waiting beside the other elevator. For a moment he felt the quick burn of jealousy, the emotion simmering within him until Kate rolled her eyes and shot him a small smile as they waited for the elevator to arrive at their floor.

Kate knocked on the door for room 209. After a few moments with not a sound to be heard from the room, and Castle would know because he had his ear pressed right up against the wood, she pounded her knuckles against it five more times and called out, "Violet? NYPD, open up!"

When the door suddenly opened, Castle almost fell right into Violet Little, whose name it turned out was not at all befitting of her stature.

"I swear I didn't do it," was the first thing that came out of her mouth. "I didn't kill Rachel."

"That makes two of us then," Kate replied. "Why don't you just tell us what happened last weekend?"

"Sure, I can do that." Violet stepped aside and let Rick and Kate into the hotel room, shutting the door and moving past them where they awkwardly stood waiting for her. "You want something from the minibar?" she offered, pointing them to occupy the sofa in her room.

Kate shook her head, but Castle took her up on the offer and accepted a chilled bottle of Coke. When the three of them were settled in seats, Kate asked, "So, what happened with Rachel this weekend?"

"Okay, I know it looks bad. I hit Rachel, I fully admit that, but it was a tiny argument – we had them all the time – and I left the club and came here instead of going back to Rachel's apartment."

"What were you arguing about?" Castle asked after taking a sip of his drink. "Start at the beginning."

"Okay, so she met me at the station that Friday as soon as she finished work."

"Do you remember what time that was?" Kate queried, looking to verify Henry's account of the last time he had seen Rachel.

"About five fifty, something like that," Violet shrugged.

"Okay, then what?"

"We went back to her apartment to drop my bag off, grab a bite to eat and get ready to go out. Rachel had promised me a night out at her favourite club – Sugarland-"

"-Isn't that a gay nightclub?" Castle interrupted, receiving a annoyed look from Beckett.

Violet nodded. "Yeah, Rachel liked it because she hardly ever got bothered by guys and there was less risk of getting drugged."

"So you went to Sugarland, what happened then?"

"Everything was fine; we were having a great time. And then her phone rang and she went outside to answer it. I told her to just ignore it and deal with whatever it was in the morning, assuming it would be something to do with her job, but she refused and left me there by myself. And when she came back, she looked really shaken. She was white as a sheet, practically shaking, but she wouldn't tell me what happened. I don't know if she saw something outside or whether it was the phone call, all I know is someone threatened her."

"Someone threatened her?"

"Yeah, that was what we argued about. She just said some guy had threatened her. I tried to get her to tell me who it was or at least what they wanted, but she refused, said they were too powerful, they'd no she'd said something and they'd kill her. I thought she was being ridiculous, making up an excuse to get me to agree to go home or something. I mean, why would anyone wanna threaten a wedding planner? It's not like she was planning the president's wedding, no offense," she added, glancing between Beckett and Castle.

"None taken," Kate replied, subtly digging her elbow into Castle's side to get him to stop looking so affronted.

"So, then she told me I was being a shit friend and I kind of lost it after that and slapped her. I left, caught a taxi and came here."

"And you didn't see Rachel after that? Didn't speak to her?"

Violet shook her head. "I tried calling her a few times, even went to her apartment because she still had my bag – it's why I'm still staying here – but there was never any answer. You don't think she was already dead, do you?"

For a moment, Kate considered sparing her feelings. "It looks like that could be the case."

"Oh God," Violet cried. "I should have just pushed my way past her stupid doorman. She died thinking I hated her!"

"Come on now," Castle murmured. "You were friends, she wouldn't have thought that. One argument wouldn't have changed that."

Violet nodded, but Castle's words didn't stop the tears from running down her cheeks. "Well, if that's everything, I think I'd like to be alone now."

"Of course. Thanks for all your help, Violet." Kate and Castle stood up and let themselves out, running straight into Esposito and Ryan.

"Hey guys," Castle greeted, smiling widely as if he was completely oblivious to the scowl spreading across Esposito's face.

"What are you doing here?" Ryan asked, looking between the two of them.

"Looking at rooms for the wedding," Castle said, not missing the defeated sigh Beckett gave or Esposito's snort at his stupid reason.

"I think you can do a little better than a honeymoon in New York at the Hilton with your money, Castle."


Castle bounced his leg, watching Esposito and Ryan talking to Gates in her office, relaying the things Violet Little had told them. Not for the first time, Kate placed her hand on his knee and squeezed, trying to calm him.

"She's going to kick me out, I know it."

"And you know that if she does, you can talk your way back in. I'm sure one interview with the press about how disappointed you are not to be helping to solve New York's homicides would be enough to have hundreds of letters, emails and phone calls from your biggest fans sent to the Police Commissioner."

"Don't forget to include yourself in that description," he joked, determined to get her to admit she was his biggest fan.

Before she could shoot him down, Gates' office door opened and their two teammates left.

"You two, in here now." It was clear from those few words that Gates was mad. As soon as Castle shut the door behind them, she asked, "What am I going to do with the two of you? I tell you you can't investigate and what do you do? You go and do it anyway. When I tell you to stay at home, I mean it. Now get out of my precinct and leave this case alone."

Defeated, Kate led the way, whilst Castle tried to rein in his jubilance at not being fired as Beckett's partner.

Outside the precinct, while they waited for a free cab they could hail, Castle was still celebrating.

"I thought for sure I was gone. She was madder than when I smashed that doll, remember?"

Beckett nodded absentmindedly. "Yeah, I remember, Castle."

"You okay?"

She sighed, "Yeah, I just really want to find Rachel's murderer. We were onto something too. I wonder who threatened her."

"You don't think it was Bracken, do you? She did say it was someone powerful."

"Castle, why would Bracken have our wedding planner killed?"

He shrugged. "To tell us he's not finished with us. To make sure we're never happy, I don't know."

"Because that's what he cares about," Beckett deadpanned as they slid into the back of a taxi. "No, we have a deal. I've held up my end; he's got no reason to not hold up his."

"He could have found out you don't really have the file."

"If he had, he'd have had me killed; not Rachel," she said in a low voice, flicking her eyes to the cab driver. "Now, given present company, maybe we should talk about something else."


Sat at the table, Beckett stared at the colour samples, comparing two different shades of red and wondering why they had different names when they looked exactly the same. She'd been leafing through the slips for thirty minutes and she still didn't have a clue what colour scheme she wanted to use. She knew Lanie was rooting for wearing a purple bridesmaid's dress and that that would mean she should get flowers to match, probably lilacs; but she couldn't stop admiring a beautiful shade of turquoise and was stuck because she didn't know what kind of flowers she would be able to get to go with that. How was she supposed to decide?

"Hey, Castle?"

"Yeah?"

"I need your help with something."

He came out of his study, with a book on the Physics of Falls in his hands.

"Purple or turquoise?"

"For…"

"Just answer the question, Castle."

"How can I answer if I don't know what it's in relation to?" he complained. "Is this about the wedding?"

Kate nodded and set the samples back done on the table, sighing in frustration.

"Give me five minutes and I'll be right back to help," he promised, skidding across the floor in his socks as he hastened back into his study and hurriedly finished typing his train of thought and replaced the book he'd been using for research back onto the bookshelf. After saving the chapter, he gathered the papers he had printed before inspiration for Nikki had struck and forced him into writing. When he emerged, he found Kate staring at the samples again. "I'm back." He spread the papers out onto the table, trying to make sure everything was within reach but also completely visible, before he sat down beside her.

"What's all this?"

"Ideas," he said simply.

"Ideas?"

"Yeah, you know, themes, current trends, though I still think a murder themed wedding would be most appropriate for us. I bet we could hire Mother's actors to do a fake murder for entertainment at the reception. Instead of confetti, the guests could throw fake blood at us."

"Somehow, I don't think the Plaza would be very happy with that and I'd rather keep my dress white, thanks."

"Oh, so it is white?"

Beckett cursed internally at his ability to weasel information out of her.

"Well if that's a no on fake blood, we could always just use red as our colour scheme," he suggested, not seeming at all put out by her stamping her feet on his idea. "Red roses, red bridesmaids' dresses, red napkins…"

Appearing at the top of the stairs, Martha declared, "Oh no, red is far too overdone this season. And red roses, Richard? How unoriginal."

"Always a pleasure, mother," he muttered under his breath, earning himself a swat from Kate.

"What colour do you think then, Martha?"

"Lime green and yellow would be a fabulous combination."

Kate winced at the mental image of wedding pictures of her bridesmaids wearing yellow or lime green. Trying to be tactful, she just said, "Maybe."

As she came down the stairs, Rick noticed the heels, bright red lipstick she was wearing and the vibrant, patterned dress that had replaced the usual matching pants and jacket. "Where are you going?"

"Fishing," was all Martha said, as she checked her face in a handheld mirror before dropping it into the outside pocket of her handbag and zipping it up.

"Funny, you don't look dressed for that."

"I was invited to a lunch date by fellow thespian, Barry Bostwick. He said he was a fan of my work in The Incredible Hulk."

"Have fun," Kate told her.

"But not too much fun," Rick added, ignoring the eye roll from Kate and the flat stare from his mother. When the door shut behind her, he turned his attention back to debating themes and schemes with Beckett. "How about blue? I know you like me in blue." He gave her a salacious smirk and wiggled his eyebrows, referring to the last time he had worn his midnight blue button down – the one Kate had been so eager to get him out of, she had pulled all the buttons off when she ripped it open.

Ignoring his flirting tone, she asked, "You want to wear a blue tux?"

"Yeah, you're right. I'd look like I was out of some corny 80s movie or going to my first high school prom. I could wear a blue tie though."

"I just don't know." She was so exasperated that the words came out in the midst of a growl fuelled by her impatience and fraying temper. "Maybe we do need a wedding planner-"

"-I think you're forgetting what we've already accomplished. You've got your dress, which I'm sure is astonishingly beautiful even if you won't let me verify this fact myself, and you've got your bridesmaids. We've got a venue for the ceremony and the reception. I've gotten your father's blessing." He grinned as Kate rolled her eyes at that. "I'm whittling down the many choices for the important position of being my Best Man." Kate shook her head, knowing he was struggling to choose between Javi and Kevin, and no-one else had yet offered to take the role. "Knowing Lanie, your bachelorette party is already planned and booked."

"Yeah but the wedding is only two months away."

"We'll manage," he insisted, rubbing his thumb across the back of her hand. "You just need to relax. We'll work out the kinks along the way."

He was in the process of massaging her tense shoulders, when his cell phone rang, the vibrations carrying it across the surface of the table towards him. Paula's face looked up at him from the screen along with her name.

"Sorry, I guess I better take this." He didn't move from behind Kate as he answered, one of his hands still resting on her shoulder while the other held the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

"Richard, is Kate with you?"

"Yeah…" he answered, shooting a look at Kate to find her already watching him.

"Can you put me on speaker phone please?"

"Okay," he replied, noticing Kate's quizzical glance and lifting his eyebrows in response to show that he was none the wiser about what was going on. After pulling the phone away from his ear a moment to switch the speaker on, he said, "You're on."

"I've managed to get word to the media that you aren't suspects in Rachel Winters' murder, and retractions were printed this morning. I don't know if you saw the news this morning either. WNBC made a formal apology to you both. Now what we really need is to get your faces out there, in the public eye to show that you're above all this gossip and put people's fears to rest. Therefore I've arranged for you both to attend the premiere of Naked Heat tonight. I trust that those plans are okay with you both? You ought to have already been planning to go, Richard, it was just a difficulty trying to work your book tour in around your wedding."

Rick met Kate's eyes before answering, "I think that's fine, Paula."

"Great, I'll need to meet with you beforehand to discuss the red carpet and coach you through what to do and what not to say. Expect me at say… six o'clock."


"Kate, are you done yet?" Castle called, waiting outside his own closed bedroom door.

"Just give me five more minutes," Kate yelled, hearing his bored footsteps pacing outside. She was just pushing a stud into her left ear, not bothering to look in the mirror, when she heard the door knob start to turn. "Castle."

"Just one look?"

"I thought you liked surprises, Castle."

"Okay, if I can't look, can't you describe it to me?" he requested, almost begging. "Hey, that's an idea. Why don't you just describe your wedding dress to me? Then I can stop looking for it."

"I never made you start looking," she pointed out, straightening her dress, her fingers sliding easily over the satin, and adjusting the strapless top before taking a final inspection to make sure her bra wasn't peeking out. "You can stop anytime, the sooner the better actually. It's not like you're going to find it, so you might as well just give up."

"Is that a challenge I hear?"

Beckett gave an exasperated sigh and wrenched the bedroom door open. All her irritation disappeared, however, at the widening of Castle's eyes as they roved over her body, lingering far longer than necessary on her long legs and her boobs, both accentuated by the mid-thigh cut of the dress and the low neckline.

"Castle? My eyes are up here, remember?"

He didn't even look abashed as he finally looked her in the face. But then again, neither did she look displeased by his actions. In fact, he seemed to mirror her, an unbelievably wide, happy smile dominating his face.

"You look far too gorgeous. I don't think I should let you leave the loft."

"Paula wouldn't be very happy with that, would she?"

"Screw Paula," he muttered, watching her lips press together as she held her amusement back. "God, you look good in dark green." He groaned at the horribly pleasant tightening in his suit trousers.

"Later, Castle," she promised, patting his chest as she squeezed past him and silently thanking Lanie for convincing her to buy the dress a month or two ago.

"You wore green on purpose, didn't you? Because you know that's my favourite colour, right?" he called after her.

"I thought red was your favourite."

"Changed my mind," he said under his breath, remembering the first time he had really looked into Kate Beckett's eyes and decided that that particular shade was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, even if he knew that hazel eyes only looked green because of the mixture of yellow and brown tones. When Kate wore green though, the colour seemed to come alive in her eyes too. It always reminded him of the first rays of dawn bathing a forest, the sunlight streaming through the leaves on a tree and turning them a lucent pale green.

Castle followed Kate out to the living room, well aware that he was still sporting a dopey grin and that his eyes had focused on Kate's butt as she walked in front of him.

"Richard, darling, make sure you close your mouth on the red carpet. You wouldn't want a picture of your drooling making it onto Page Six now, would you?"

Kate smirked, and used a finger to push Castle's jaws shut herself. After that, she toyed with his sloppily tied bowtie and soothed the lapels of his suit, unable to keep her hands off him when he was dressed so handsomely.

"You both look marvellous," Martha complimented when Kate finally dropped her hands and allowed Castle to catch one in his. "We'll be watching." She nodded towards the TV, where she and Alexis already had the news coverage of the red carpet playing.

"We'll see you later," Rick replied.

"Have fun!" Alexis exclaimed just before they left.

Kate couldn't help the flutter of her heart as Castle helped her into the limousine they were using instead of his usual town car service. It was all so different from what she was used to, and she felt the stab of nerves alongside her butterflies. What if she tripped in her heels on the red carpet? That would be ironic, wouldn't it? Chasing down criminals in them every day without ever landing flat on her face, only to lose it the second she was put in front of a camera.

As if sensing her unease, Castle poured her a glass of champagne and inched closer to her side. They were quiet on the journey to Ziegfeld Theatre. The silence filled with anxieties was only broken by sparse comments on what they expected from the movie.

"Did I tell you they've already greenlit Heat Rises?"

Kate shook her head and responded, "That's great. I'm sure Natalie will be pleased, though if I end up getting a request from that Nathan Fillion guy asking for an interview so he can find out what it's like to get shot, I'm saying no. I don't think I could cope with another actor hanging around."

Rick chuckled.

"Think they'll let you write the script this time?"

He shrugged. Despite petitioning twice to be allowed to do the screenplay for the Nikki Heat films, the producers had yet to take him up on the offer.

When they arrived at the theatre, Castle was first out of the car, stepping out with a wave to the fans gathered on either side of the red carpet before turning back and gentlemanly helping Kate through and elegant exit. The flashes started as soon as her first foot touched the ground, the rest of her not even visible; just her perfect legs that were obviously enough to inspire a frenzy.

As they made their way down the red carpet, occasional stops for Rick to sign books and even a few Heat Wave DVDs, Kate found herself beginning to acclimatise and relax into Rick's hold on her waist.

"Richard," a greying reporter shouted, calling them over to his microphone and camera. "How are you, man?"

"We're great, aren't we, Kate?"

Kate nodded and smiled as she met his beaming eyes.

"How are the wedding plans coming along?"

"Obviously we've suffered a setback, and are deeply upset by Rachel's loss, but we're getting there." Rick was careful to keep his tone sombre, as instructed by Paula earlier that evening.

"Is there a date yet?"

"October fifteenth," Rick answered with a sharp nod.

"You both look amazing tonight? Who are you both wearing?"

"Armani."

"J. Mendel," Kate said afterwards.

"What a stunning pair you make. Well, we've all read the book, Rick, any word on whether the film is going to be just as good?"

Rick gave an easy laugh. "There were no set visits this time around so I'm afraid I'm just as much in the dark as you are, Simon."

"How about any teasers for Rook and Nikki's next adventure then? Have you started working on it yet? Is there are wedding in the works?"

"I've got some ideas in the pipeline, but it's still a little early to be handing out hints. Kate's continuing to be an inspiration," he said, squeezing his fiancée's side as he mentioned her name and watched a blush rise to her cheeks, "so who knows what could happen."

"Thanks, Rick. It's always a pleasure. I hope you enjoy the movie."

Rick and Kate both shook hands with Simon Gray and continued up the red carpet, looking over their shoulders as the fans' raucous screams announced the arrival of Natalie Rhodes. It was another twenty minutes before she caught up to them outside the movie theatre.

"Hey guys," she greeted. "Kate, you look fantastic!"

"Thanks, Natalie, you too. How are you?"

"Oh, I'm great, out of rehab for good this time." Natalie waved her hand, letting it be known that her drug addiction was water under the bridge. "More importantly you two finally got your act together! Can't say I don't regret not being able to complete my research, Rick," she added with a saucy wink, "but you look good together."

Rick was dumbstruck as Natalie left them and entered the theatre.

"Did I imagine that? Because I swear that sorta stuff only ever used to happen in my head." he finally managed to ask.


"It's still weird," Beckett decided in the limo ride back to the loft as she leaned against Castle.

"What is?"

"Watching Natalie do me." She wrinkled her nose. "I don't like it."

"Well, you know she doesn't do you completely. She doesn't kiss like you-" At that, Kate's eyes flashed with jealousy. She hated thinking about Natalie Rhodes thrusting her tongue down Rick's mouth in the precinct, and had already been reminded about that once that evening.

Claiming him, Kate grabbed Rick's tie and used it to pull his lips to her, smirking as he groaned and pulled her to straddle him.

The driver chuckled as the screen between him and his passengers went up. It was always the same with celebrities. They never remembered that whilst the screen prevented him from seeing what they were up to, it was far from soundproof and he could still hear Kate gasping, "Castle! Oh, God, Castle!" as he marked her neck with his teeth and lips.


A/N: Okay, so I finally finished this chapter at gone midnight, after spending all afternoon and evening writing. I hope you guys appreciate that! Let me know what you think of the chapter!