A/N: Apologies for the slight delay in updating this story. I was busy packing and moving into my house for university, and there are nine of us living in it so everything's just been quite hectic for a few days and things are quite distracting, especially since I'm trying to appear somewhat sociable... It literally took me four days to finish this chapter.


It was hardly surprising that in the absence of being able to work on Rachel's case, Kate and Rick were able to get most of their wedding planning done in record time (all at the same time as moving all of her stuff from her apartment), though it still felt like they had a mountain to climb.

The offer to move in with him had felt out of the blue to Kate. Although she still had all her furniture in her own apartment and the warmer half of her wardrobe she reserved for New York's cold winters, much of her stuff had slowly migrated into Rick's bedroom and study the longer she was there. It hadn't really occurred to her that it was odd they were getting married and yet she still hadn't officially moved in with him because in her mind they did live together.

"Kate, we're going to be late for the cake tasting!" Castle whined, checking his watch again. Muttering to himself, he said, "It's like standing vigil waiting for her."

After standing beside the front door for another ten minutes, Castle exhaled in a puff and abandoned his 'vigil' to actively seek Kate out, expecting to find her still doing her makeup or hair or something. He thought she'd at least be dressed, but instead she was kneeling in his wardrobe, still just wearing a t-shirt and underwear. Although he appreciated the view and what the underwear did to Kate's ass, Castle had to laugh at the image.

"Shut up," came Kate's reply. "I can't find my beige jeans or those red canvas sneakers." She sat back on her haunches, looking at him over her shoulder with disappointment. "I think they must be back at my apartment."

"Well we could always just move them here. Everything else has gotta come some time," he laughed, the sound fading as he realised Kate had frozen with her lips popped open into an 'o'.

"C-Castle, are you asking me to move in with you?"

He shrugged, not getting what the big deal was. "Well, yeah, it makes sense, doesn't it?"

"That's not why you're asking though, right?"

"You live here anyway. Mi casa es su casa and all, remember?. Casa de Castle has been your home for a while now, Kate."

She nodded. "I'm still keeping my apartment as an investment though," she cautioned. "I'll rent it out or something."

"Kate, we're moving into together not drafting a business contract. You can do whatever you want with your apartment and what's in it. I don't care as long as you're here and you're happy."

The only hiccup in their wedding plans came one afternoon as they were sat around the table, making seating charts, each table named after a crime fighting duo (at Castle's insistence, after Kate shot-down his proposal for each table to be named after a character from his books).

"Have you decided who's going to be your Best Man yet?"

Castle laid down his pen and leaned back from the table. "No. You know I wouldn't have this problem if you hadn't stolen my prime candidate to be one of your bridesmaids."

"You would have asked Alexis to be your Best Man?"

"Yeah," he replied, smiling softly. "She was only a flower girl for Gina, you know. I wished then that I'd thought to have her be my Best Man. She was only six, but she would have looked adorable in a tuxedo. Still would."

"But what about your bachelor party? Wouldn't you have wanted Espo and Ry to organise that anyway?"

"Are you kidding? Alexis would organize something great – the world's biggest laser tag competition, or an entire weekend paintballing."

"Well, we could always share her," Kate offered, feeling guilty even though she had had no idea that Castle had wanted to ask Alexis to stand at his side at the altar.

He shook his head. "She's happy being your bridesmaid. I'll probably just ask Javi and Kev to both be Best Men, divide up duties between them or something." He shrugged, aware that Kate was still looking doubtfully at him.

"I don't min-"

"Well, I do mind, okay?" He maintained eye contact until she nodded minutely. "So, Demming and Karpowski on the Starsky and Hutch table with Perlmutter-"

"-Castle," Kate interrupted, holding up a piece of paper with his writing on and squinting at it. "Does this table say Charlie's Angels?"

"They fight crime," he said, immediately taking a defensive tone.

"Yes, but the crucial part is that there are three of them not two. Let's just make this table Poirot and Hastings."

"But Hastings wasn't Poirot's only partner or sidekick! He's like the James Bond of crime; he gets around with those partners."

"Who then?" Kate asked, already crossing through Charlie's Angels with her pen. "Dupin and Anonymous? Scully and Mulder? Hoag and Lulu?"

At each suggestion, Castle shook his head, making excuses like, "We've already got a human/dog partnership," or "They solved paranormal cases, not crimes."

"Spade and Archer? Addison and Hayes?" Kate found herself running out of ideas. "Clouseau and Fong?" She didn't even like the Pink Panther films, but the detective and his manservant were the only names that popped into her head.

"What about that TV show that Alexis and her friends liked? What was it called? Fringe?"

"You just threw out The X Files because they didn't solve conventional crimes," she pointed out.

"And?"

"Fringe is exactly the same, Castle. It's about fringe science, alternate universes and has three main characters not two, which is what started this whole damn problem in the first place. We should have finished all of this by now and instead we're still arguing over what names to give the stupid tables." Kate threw her pen down and pushed her chair away from the table, her frustration carrying her further than she had originally intended as she stood up and dumped the cold dregs of her coffee in the sink. "I'm going to go for a run," she muttered, leaving Castle sat at the table as she stormed into the bedroom, pulled her t-shirt over her head and threw it with all her might into the washing basket. Castle was hovering in the doorway, trying to decide whether to talk to Kate or to let her to work out her aggression first. Although Kate could feel his presence behind her, she ignored him and pulled out her sports bra, technical t-shirt and running shoes.

"I'll take my phone and be back later," she said as she turned and found him still standing in the doorway, blocking her exit.

His lips were pressed together in displeasure, but he nodded anyway and stepped out of the way, knowing it would be easier for them to talk once she had had time to cool down. He also knew that the big issue was in fact not that he couldn't decide which crime fighting duos to use as names for their tables or that they were behind with the planning; but that it had been two weeks and Rachel's case was still unsolved and likely to be closed and left as a cold case.

Just as Kate reached for the handle on the front door, it twisted away from her fingers and the door began swinging towards her, Alexis on the other side with her cell phone tucked between her shoulder and ear.

"Oh, sorry, Kate!" she exclaimed. "I had no idea you were there." Kate waved her off, but Alexis' attention had already been reclaimed by whoever she was on the phone with. "I just got back. No, she's going for a run, by the looks of things-" Kate frowned, wondering who she was talking to. Before she knew it, Alexis was holding her cell phone out to her. "Lanie wants to talk you."

"What is it Lanie? Can't it wait, because I'm just about to head out for a run?"

"Girl, what has that man done now?"

"It's nothing, Lanie," Kate sighed, as she bent down and adjusted the fit of one of her sneakers.

"Don't you lie to me, Kate Beckett. I know you. You only work out when you're frustrated about something, so what has he done?"

"I'm fine, just need to go out and exercise – I'm going stir-crazy being in the loft all week. Look I'll talk to you later. The wine will be on me."

"Okay," Lanie replied, not sounding at all convinced by Kate's excuses. "Pass me back to my lovely intern then."

Kate nodded, assuming that Alexis and Lanie were arranging her next shifts, so that she could avoid having to work under Perlmutter, the Medical Examiner as kind to Alexis as he was Castle. Even though she could only hear one half of the conversation as she pushed the earbuds of her iPod headphones into her ears before pressing play on her playlist of fast-paced workout songs, it was enough to rouse her suspicions.

"No, I can keep that quiet. Yeah, I'll talk to Grams tonight when she gets back from teaching her mime class."


Kate staggered through the front door while Rick was tossing stir-fried vegetables in satay sauce and Alexis set the table.

"Kate, are you okay? How far did you run?"

"I'm fine," she wheezed. "It's just been a while since I ran 10k."

Abandoning the stove, Castle let his feet take him to his fiancée. "Are you sure? You want me to run you a bath, help relax your muscles?"

Kate shook her head. "A shower's fine." With a quick kiss pressed to his jaw, Kate toed off her running shoes and carried them in her hand, dropping them by the wardrobe before going into the ensuite bathroom.

The beating of the shower on her weary muscles was soothing in a strange sort of way, and when she came out of the shower and wrapped a thick towel about her body, she felt more relaxed than she had in days. Any and all tension that had been coiled in the lines of her muscles was gone, stretched out by the run or dissipated by the warmth of Castle's shower.

"Kate, dinner's ready!" Alexis called, dragging her from her thoughts.

After rushing to get dressed and put her dirty clothes in the laundry hamper, Kate entered the living room to find both Rick and Alexis seated but waiting for her before they began eating.

"You didn't have to wait for me."

"Oh, we're not. Mother requested that we wait for her. She's due back any minute." The words were barely out of his mouth when the front door opened and Martha flew in, taking off her silk scarf with dramatic flair only she possessed. Her garishly turquoise snakeskin bag was dropped beside her chair as she seated herself with an exaggerated sigh.

"Gram?"

Castle was ignoring the theatrics, piling rice onto his plate before dragging the crock pot containing all of the vegetables towards him.

"Oona Marconi's debut book flopped last month so she's back to writing career-ruining reviews. My poor students have borne the brunt of this week's attack after their performance of Kindertransport."

The melodrama continued despite Kate and Alexis' reassurances that no-one would pay attention to one theatre review. Kicking Castle's shin under the table, Kate shot him a glance. The shake of his head was minute, but she just widened her eyes and inclined her head until he gave a defeated sigh. "It's true, Mother. No-one pays any attention to reviews anymore. How do you think I sell so many books?"

Throughout the meal, Kate could feel Rick's eyes lingering on her, shooting her what he apparently thought were secret glances every few seconds. His worry was so palpable, Martha was forced to call him out on it.

"For heaven's sake, Richard, whatever it is, spit it out. You're thinking so hard it's disturbing our dinner."

Again, Rick's eyes flickered to Kate, drawing her own gaze. Sighing, Kate picked up her plate and wine glass and pushed the chair back.

"Where are you going?" Rick asked.

"Somewhere we can talk."

Rick followed Kate into his study, where she had moved aside his laptop and set her plate and drink on the desk before pulling up the armchair he kept by the bookcase for when he was researching or just reading for pleasure.

"So, what's on your mind?"

"You ran out," he blurted, closing his eyes in an internal wince as he reprimanded himself for not phrasing it better. But when he opened them, Kate was just standing in front of him, nodding steadily.

"You're worried that now I live here permanently and I don't have anywhere else to escape to I'll just leave," she guessed, her heart sinking. It was her fault that he was concerned about her leaving – she hadn't exactly given him much reason to trust her in the past, not after all her secrets and the length of time it took her to let him into her heart. She sighed, wondering how she was supposed to convince him that she would always love him, always want him and never willingly leave him. "Yeah, I went for a run. But, Castle, I came back. You know that sometimes I have to work out to de-stress, but I'll always come back." Her hands were running across his shoulders and down the front of his chest.

"You wore yourself out, Kate. Surely there's a better way we can deal with things than you just going running on your own. We're getting married; we have to be in this together."

"We are in this together, Castle. I didn't go out running to avoid talking about things; I went running to blow off some steam so that I wouldn't bite your head off over the table names and make things ten times worse."

"Oh, well about that…" He trailed off as he ducked out from under Kate's hands and hurried around his desk so that he could pull open one of the drawers and take out the wad of paper containing all of their planning. "Here, I finished the seating plan." He handed her the uppermost piece of paper – an A3 piece folded in half down the middle – with twelve circular tables and one rectangular drawn on, each with an array of names. At the very top of the page, Kate read her own name and Castle's sat in the centre of the toptable that had been named Holmes and Watson after the very best crime fighting duo. On either side of them sat Martha and Jim, and then Lanie, Javi, Alexis, Ryan and Madison, all of them split between Beckett's side of the table and Castle's.

Beyond the toptable, some of their other colleagues had been placed on the Starsky and Hutch table. Rick's writer friends and the team from Black Pawn were all seated at the Poirot and Hastings table. The Turner and Hooch table was reserved for a mixture of their college friends. Distant family, cousins and aunts and uncles, were put together at the Scully and Mulder table (Castle apparently relenting on his supernatural cases argument). Kate's friends from the police academy were sitting with Castle's socialite friends at the Dupin and Anonymous table, leaving the rest of the tables (Bishop and Dunham, Brennan and Booth, Addison and Hayes, Batman and Robin, Rizzoli and Isles, Stetson and King and Holt and Steele) occupied by random acquaintances the couple had picked up over the years, either through cases, research of odd happenstances.

After a moment of silence, unbearable silence, Castle asked, "So, what do you think? You want me to switch around where my socialite friends are, don't you?"

"It's fine, Castle," Kate assured him. "More than, actually. I can't believe you did all this."

"I just want to make you happy, Kate."

"And I am," she promised, maintaining eye contact until it became impossible when he pulled her into his arms and rested his head atop hers. Their food grew cold on the desk whilst she was ensconced in Castle's heat. He barely heard her murmur, "We're actually doing this, aren't we?"

Resisting the urge to make a quip about standing hugging in his office, he said instead, "Getting married? Yeah. We're halfway there, Kate."

"The time's gone so fast." She was almost wistful in tone, wondering how a month had passed them by since Rachel had announced in the middle of Starbucks that they were getting married on October fifteenth. The past two weeks, she'd hardly even been working since Gates didn't trust her not to investigate Rachel Winters' murder. Anytime she was in the precinct, she was allocated all new cases, the simple ones that weren't at all 'Beckett flavoured' so that she had less chance to find out what Esposito and Ryan knew.

"We don't have much left to do you know."

"We don't? We still haven't made favours or a gift list. We haven't chosen readings or hymns for the church, the music for the reception. And what about the honeymoon and invitations – they're not organised either."

Castle shook his head at her, all the while giving her a catlike grin. "All done."

"Done?"

He nodded. "Alexis posted all the invitations for me earlier this afternoon. I made a quick list online – not that we really need anything – and emailed Reverend Green the readings and hymns we talked about, as well as sending a few texts around to see if Ryan, King and Mother wouldn't mind reading them."

"Oh, Castle."

He tightened his hands on her waist at her grateful tone and pressed his lips to her hairline, inhaling in the scent of her beloved cherry-flavoured shampoo. "It's all taken care of, I promise. And although she won't give me the sordid details, Alexis swears that your bachelorette party is all organised-"

"-What?" she cut in sharply. "Oh, God, I never spoke to Lanie about that!" In a mad scramble, she broke free of his arms and dashed into the bedroom, seeking her cell phone. Castle followed her, watching her pull back the bedsheets and take her books off the bedside table as she searched for it. "Castle, instead of just standing there, why don't you make yourself useful and call the damn thing so I can find it."

He tried unsuccessfully not to smirk as he pulled out his phone and dialled Kate's number.

Kate didn't even exclaim as she retrieved her phone from underneath the bed – how on earth did it get there? – she just hurriedly pulled up her contacts and called Lanie, pacing as she waited for the line to connect. "Oh God, she's got a stripper, I just know it. What was she thinking – Martha and Alexis are gonna be with us?"

"Kate, Mother would probably enjoy a stripper more than Lanie," Castle chuckled, earning him an accusatory glance, a 'Not helping, Castle' look that only deepened as Kate's eyes narrowed when Lanie didn't pick up and she left a message.


Kate hadn't been able to get in contact with her Maid of Honour for a week, a week filled with dread and anxiety at the thought of being lumbered with a stripper whilst in the company of her innocent, nineteen year old soon-to-be daughter-in-law. She hadn't been informed of what Lanie's bachelorette party plans were, not even to clear a day in her calendar. Castle was at Black Pawn, rearranging his book tour for when they returned from their honeymoon (the location still unknown to Kate) and she had been called into work.

"Okay, what is it that's so urgent, guys," Kate demanded the second she saw Esposito and Ryan crowded around the monitor on his desk, squinting at a grainy CCTV image.

"This look like Rachel to you?" Esposito asked, nodding to someone behind her. With the slight wave of his hand, Kate dismissed the action and didn't see it as the warning before someone whipped a black bag over her head, much like when she had been working the so-called Linchpin case with the CIA. For a brief moment, she cursed, Not again, before thinking that the CIA were hardly likely to throw a bag over her head and kidnap her from the precinct.

"Guys?" she questioned as hands landed on her shoulders and began manoeuvring her back towards the elevator until she stubbornly dug her heels in. "What's going on?"

Whoever was trying to steer her and get her out of the precinct, pushed harder before swearing, "Damn you, Beckett, why'd you gotta be so difficult?!"

"Lanie?"

"Well, who did you think it was?" her best friend inquired, ignoring the astonished tone, as she pulled the black bag back off Kate's head and revealed herself. "Now stop acting like a petulant child and at least come out to the car before you start complaining."

"What would I have to complain about?" Kate asked sarcastically, not even needing to point at the black bag Lanie still held to get her point across.

Down on the street, Kate found a minivan cab waiting with Martha, Alexis and Madison all inside it. Lanie shoved Kate into the back unceremoniously before taking the front seat and instructing the driver where to go.

"I guess introductions are unnecessary," Kate muttered as she listened to Madison tell Alexis a story about one of their high school adventures.

"Oh, Kate, honey, you'll be needing this," Lanie called from the front seat, holding a garishly pink sash out to her. She didn't have to look to know that it read 'Bride' and grudgingly accepted it to put on.

"So where are we going?"

"Uh uh, you aren't getting anything out of me, Kate Beckett. I planned this bachelorette to be a surprise and it is staying that way, no matter how much you dislike that."

Kate rolled her eyes and twisted back to face Martha, Maddie and Alexis.

"Don't worry, Kate, you're going to love it," Alexis reassured her in a whisper, hoping to be quiet enough that Lanie wouldn't hear her over the purr of the engine as they navigated their way through New York City's busy streets and right out of the city via the Holland Bridge.

During the journey, Kate felt Madison's eyes on her and when she met them, it was obvious what she was thinking.

"Don't even say it, Maddie."

"What? I haven't said anything!"

"I can tell you're just dying to tell me that you told me so," Kate countered. "It's all over your face."

"Well, I did tell you that night that you'd change your mind about the so called 'bad boy.' You always do."

Over four hours later the cab pulled to a stop outside The Mirabeau Inn and Spa, a resort with grass greener than the alterations that were made to grass in movies during post-production. Lanie was the first out of the car, totally unaffected by the view since she'd seen it all online and in the brochures whilst she was booking their three day spa retreat, but Alexis, Martha, Madison and Kate all stopped and stared at the picturesque, German castle-like buildings, colourful trees and shrubbery and the beautiful lake in the centre of the complex with a beautiful blue bridge spanning between the two banks.

Although their destination was no surprise to Martha, the actress having been clued in by Alexis when Lanie had booked the spa retreat, she still said, "Excellent. I've been dying to have some treatment done for ages, but can't be doing with those poor excuses for spas in the city."

Lanie handed everyone their bags from the boot, surprising Kate since she hadn't known anything had even been organised for her or that she would even need a bag. "I'm going to go and check us in, get the keys for out cottage, why don't you guys check out the bridge?" she suggested, hiking her weekend bag over her shoulder and starting off. When she returned with their set of keys, Kate and Alexis were playing Pooh Sticks on the bridge.

"I used to love playing Pooh Sticks with my mom when I was little," Kate confided in Alexis, though everyone else could still hear her.

"Dad used to play with me in Central Park. He always took it so seriously, spending about fifteen minutes finding what he thought was going to be the perfect, winning stick."

"Sounds like Rick," Kate laughed.

"Okay, ladies, here you go," Lanie said, handing out bedroom keys for their cottage.


The five women were in the sauna after the first of their sessions with the skilled staff of the resort. Kate could still smell the strawberry-flavoured exfoliating mask that had been used on her face every time she breathed in.

"So, just to clarify, Lanie, there are no strippers hiding in the cottage."

Lanie cackled. "Unfortunately no, though I'm sure it's not too late notice for me to call someone."

Figuring it was best to call Lanie's bluff, Kate replied, "Oh, you have some contacts you never told me about?"

"I did tell you that Damian is an exotic dancer, right?"

"As in Damian, the new bartender at the Old Haunt?!"

"The very same," Lanie said with a grin. "So, should I give him a call? See if he can rustle up some friends for us?"

Kate laughed, her only excuse when she later regained her good judgment that the heat of sauna and the empty champagne flute beside her had messed around her senses. "Why not? It'll be fun."


A/N: Again, apologies for the slight delay. Thank you to those of you who have been reviewing this story. I'm glad you're enjoying it. Let me know what you think. The next chapter will include Rick's bachelor party. Obviously I've planned what's going to go down but if there's something you'd like to see happen just hit me a review and let me know since I'm more than willing to take requests as long as it fits in with the planned storyline.