A/N: This will have to do you until Tuesday. Amanda's in from Rice and she and I have a lot to catch up on. US – happy T-day. The rest of you, peace.

Okay, this is fluffy and historical but sets the characters' backgrounds in order to deliver the coup de grace to fluff in the next couple chapters. Got several done but am waiting for them to age properly.

OM

Some people bear three kinds of trouble - the ones they've had, the ones they have, and the ones they expect to have.
H.G.Wells

Kate shrieked when he threw her over his shoulder and walked out of the gym. Every few steps his palm connected with her buttocks and soon they were warm and tingly.

"Okay, Rick, I'm sorry. Please put me down. I'll be good, I promise."

"Oh, you'll be good, I can guarantee that. I have an old fraternity paddle upstairs someplace and…"

Chapter14

He didn't use the fraternity paddle. There was no need. He'd carried her up to their room, ignoring Alexis' embarrassed laughter, and, as the saying goes, 'had his way with her'.

Afterwards, in the comfort of sexual afterglow, he'd apologized for hurting her, promising never, ever, to lay a hand on her in anger. He'd been so loving and gentle with her when they'd made love that she felt he'd been apologizing even while driving her to new heights of pleasure. It was only after she'd orgasmed twice that she flipped him over and had her way with him.

When he finally slept after showering, she lay in his arms watching the light from the bathroom sparkle off her engagement ring.

She was as happy as she'd ever been in her entire life. She only wished that her mom could have met the man she was going to marry someday. She wondered if 'someday' would ever come for her. Kate looked over at him and put her hands on both sides of his face and pulled him into a kiss designed to wake him. She needed another booster shot of Castle love.

"Kate…what's wrong, baby? Talk to me, Kate."

She shook her head and kissed him hungrily. She couldn't talk to him, not about this. She couldn't let him see the tears that she was shedding for both of them. She was terribly afraid that 'someday' would never come.

He pushed himself away from her and he saw the tear tracks glistening in the faint light.

"Oh, Kate, tell me what's wrong. I can't fix it if I don't know what's wrong."

She buried her face in his shoulder and cried, unable to form words and unable to say what she wanted to say. She loved him so much and she didn't know if what they had would be enough for him.

She finally fell asleep but Rick lay there holding her, watching her sleep, measuring each breath and memorizing the complex planes and contours of her face. He loved her so much but he was afraid that what they had wouldn't be enough for her.

He was still awake when she awoke, stretched and then kissed him 'good morning'. She could see that he hadn't slept and the guilt welled up in her and she couldn't handle it and the sight of his bloodshot eyes looking at her with such wonder. Kate got up and mumbled that 'she'd make coffee' and went to the bathroom and then grabbed her robe and walked down into the kitchen.

While the coffee brewed, she scrambled some eggs, popped a few strips of 'special bacon' into the microwave and toasted a bagel that they'd share.

Finally, when everything was done, she placed their coffee cups, plates and jam on a tray and carried it up to their room. She used her hip to bump the door open and she was surprised to see him almost dressed.

"Hey, buster, back in bed with you, now! I've slaved over a hot stove and you will eat breakfast in bed with me, so lose the clothes, Castle." She kicked the bedroom door shut with a foot and watched, wide-eyed, when he stared into her eyes and ever so slowly peeled off his t-shirt, unbuckled his jeans and eased them down off his hips and then 'dropped his drawers' into a pile and got back into their bed.

"Oh, to hell with breakfast." She put the tray on the dresser and jumped on him, peppering his face with kisses while he laughed and tried to get her naked.

Microwaves were a wonderful things. They finally dressed and nuked breakfast. It wasn't half bad.

The Christmas holidays were both carefree and strained. Rick was on his best behavior as were Martha and Alexis but Kate just couldn't seem to relax. Not that she was nervous rather it was because she kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. In her experience, good times didn't last. And she seemed to be waiting for it all to end.

Finally, in fit of frustration, Martha dragged Kate out of the loft for a 'Spa Day' at Riglio's the Wednesday before Christmas. She was going to give Kate a gift certificate for '3 Days of Pampering' and figured it was as good a time as any to do her duty as future mother-in-law and mother of the prospective groom and introduce her to the joys of being pampered. And talk.

She and Jim Beckett had been plotting. He'd told her about her mother's death and the pall it had cast over almost all their holidays. Johanna Beckett had loved all the holidays and so many of their memories had been of her enjoyment and zest for any holiday at all.

Christmas had been the most difficult with Thanksgiving a close second. Johanna and Kate had spent days in the kitchen cooking, baking, laughing and just enjoying life and each other.

All that had ended one night when Jim and Kate had returned from a dinner Johanna had missed to find a police cruiser in the driveway and several detectives who sadly informed them of Johanna's death.

They both agreed that life for Kate would be so much richer and fuller if she could just embrace the memories of her mother instead of keeping them bottled up and under wraps as if they would evaporate if exposed.

Jim worried that she would go into one of her depressed 'funks' and ruin the Castles' Christmas while Martha, no stranger to loss and depression, worried about the strain on a the couples' fledgling relationship.

So they hatched their plot. Jim would bring family photo albums when he came down to spend the holidays at the loft, under the pretext of showing Rick 'naked baby pictures', hoping that sharing her mother with the Castles' would avoid her holiday 'funk'.

Martha would take Kate out and offer 'full disclosure' of her son's history, hoping that Kate would see what damage she might do to the couples' relationship if she let herself fall into depression.

Riglio's Day Spa

The last thing Kate wanted or needed was to spend a day with Martha in an exercise she found both wasteful and extravagant. She also desperately wanted to avoid any conversation regarding marriage. She loved Rick more than she ever thought possible but she still had one final task to achieve before she could even consider marriage.

She remembered his impassioned defense of her job when her father had asked him about her putting her life on the line – 'I can't think of a nobler calling than what she does. I know it's trite sounding, but she speaks for those who can't.'

There was one person for whom she had yet to speak for and until that was done, her long term plans were on hold. Rick hadn't pushed for a date. He accepted their engagement as enough for now. They both had commitments to others.

She was so proud of him and accepted his future travel obligations. Rick's first novel, HeatWave, was going to be turned into a movie with shooting to begin in the Spring and he had extensive commitments to that project.

That bought her time. The question was, would it be enough?

Martha started in on her the second they were lying on massage tables being pounded and poked and pulled and pushed. When she started speaking softly, Kate had to strain to hear what was being said even though she dreaded hearing the questions she knew Martha wanted to ask.

"Kate, now that you and Richard are engaged, I was wondering if I might bend your ear for a few moments?"

"Sure. Ask away." She anticipated questions. What she heard was totally unexpected.

"My son is far from perfect, as I'm sure you've already figured out. He's stubborn, petulant, and can be incredibly truculent at the most inconvenient times but…he's my son and I love him very much."

Kate waited until the older woman continued. She agreed with her. Rick was stubborn.

"When he came to me the day after he graduated from high school with his enlistment papers, I was furious with him. After my last marriage broke up, I received a tidy settlement in lieu of alimony and I had plans for Richard to attend college but my son had grown up while I was busy with my career and various husbands. He had plans of his own."

There was a pause in conversation while Martha's masseuse pummeled away at a particularly stubborn knot of muscle but then she continued.

"After days of bitter arguments, I finally signed the damned papers. He used logic while I used motherly love, concern and guilt. Oh, yes, guilt. I told him that I needed him for emotional support so soon after my divorce. It took him just minutes to dissect my position and he gave me an ultimatum: sign or he'd leave and get a job somewhere and wait until he was eighteen and didn't need 'Mommy's signature'."

"I didn't see him for nearly three years but he wrote me the most beautiful letters describing what he was doing, all lies to comfort me, and then one day I got a call from him asking me if 'he could come home for a while'. Well, of course I said 'yes' but home was an apartment in Utah where I was shooting a movie but he came anyway."

"He wasn't the boy I'd sent off to the Army. He was a man and he was haunted by dreams and memories that he refused to share with anyone. He cried out in his sleep, spoke softly to someone he loved, and once or twice he screamed out a name and always woke up."

'Alexaya. He probably screamed out her name just as he had during the battle with the White Serbs. He couldn't tell his mother. He wouldn't share the horror with anyone.'

"He stayed with me for almost the entire film shoot and then one day walked in and said he'd been accepted at a college and would be leaving in the morning. I was so proud of him and he told me he had a purpose and a new-found talent he intended to exploit and he left the next morning."

"Somehow during all his Army time, he'd enrolled in correspondence courses and entered school as a junior. He worked so hard and got excellent grades and then in his senior year he met Kyra Blaine and they moved in together. His first novel was being edited for publication and he asked Kyra to marry him. They were engaged until she broke it off after his second book was in edit and ran off to England. She told him that she needed time and so she left him."

Kate sat up, clearly interested. He'd been engaged before? Well, of course but she thought Meredith was the first girl…

"He was heartbroken and not even the publication of his second novel to rave reviews seemed of any comfort. He was very depressed - until he met her and God forgive me, Kate, but I was the one who introduced her to him. She had a minor part in a movie I was in and, well, it was 'sex at first sight' and they lived together and she got pregnant and he married her."

"You mean Meredith, right?"

"I can't bring myself to even say her name. The witch! After the accident, things fell apart. She'd been sleeping around – Hollywood is a small town, darling, and one hears things – but I saw her with a producer and I told Richard but he wouldn't believe me. He refused to believe it right up until she filed for divorce and left him and Alexis for the producer."

"The BITCH!" Kate put her hands to her mouth, horribly embarrassed to have lost control. Her mother always told her that 'ladies do not curse in public'.

"You said it. She was and still is. You know she's petitioned the court for joint custody, don't you? It's why Richard's in such a tizzy about going to California. He's afraid she'll find some legal means to take Alexis from him."

"Lexie said that her mother wanted her to 'visit' for the summer but I had no idea it had gotten this far. Poor Rick. He'll be so devastated if he loses Alexis for even a summer."

Martha smiled at Kate's use of a diminutive for Alexis. She had wondered just how close the two had grown and obviously it was a friendship rather than a 'big sis' type of relationship.

"Our lawyers are working on it. But let me continue. After the Bit – after her, he moved to New York and started churning out the books and became comfortable with the role of 'single father'. He put any social life on hold and was always there for her but he felt she was lacking a strong female role model and I was still in California although I'm hardly the role model for any little girl."

"So he married Gina?" She knew that was a natural progression for Martha's tale but she was surprised.

"No. He found Megan Sloan through the VA and soon she moved in with Richard and Alexis. Alexis adored Megan and Megan seemed to feel the same way but it was all a ruse although sometimes I'd see her looking at him the same way I see you do. She loved him, just not enough to stay. When he brought up marriage, she bailed on him, got her paper published and never looked back. The tabloids had a field day with it."

"I'm not going to bail on Rick, Martha. He's my 'one and done'. I'm just not ready to get married right away. This is all new to me and I really want to take the time to get used to it all. I want to have anything that might get between us over and done with before planning a wedding."

"I understand. He'll wait. He can be the most patient man in the world if you'll just be honest with him and don't keep secrets from him. You already know that he can be brutally honest at the least opportune times."

She nodded her head in agreement remembering the many times he'd caught her off guard with his blunt truthfulness.

She knew when Martha talked about Rick being 'patient' that she was speaking about Rick Rogers, not Rick Castle. She smiled and then had an errant thought.

"Martha, when did 'Rogers' become 'Castle'?"

"Well, I think it was, yeah, right after Kyra went to England. He changed publishers and Black Pawn thought 'Richard Rogers' was too common a name so he spent a weekend in a library and came up with 'Richard Edgar Castle' and had it changed. Black Pawn was right. The 'Castle' name boosted sales of his new books as well as those republished as 'Richard Castle writing as Richard Rogers'."

The rest of the morning was spent in comfortable conversation. She mentioned that Martha had covered all Rick's history with one glaring exception: Gina Cowell.

"Well, actually, Gina and Richard were the perfect couple from a business standpoint but personally, fire and water, or maybe fire and gasoline. They fought about anything and everything but they fought longest and hardest over Alexis."

"Oh, my. That must have been terrible for Rick." She was beginning to hate a woman she'd never met.

"Gina wanted Rick to let Alexis have a normal life and to quit sheltering her so much. She felt that Rick kept her in a cocoon instead of letting her fly free. They both agreed on York Academy, although Gina felt that Alexis needed a more 'public' education. It was Gina who asked me to recommend a professional makeup artist."

"Why did they divorce then?" She felt herself agreeing a little bit with Gina regarding Alexis and she was impressed that it was Gina, not Rick or Martha, who brought in a makeup artist to help the young woman learn makeup.

"She loved my son, without a doubt, but she loved her career and limelight more and, well, when Richard hit a dry spell and hadn't written in more than a year, she started looking for a new author to promote and ended up in bed with him. She confessed her affair but my son just couldn't get over another betrayal so soon after Megan and so she finally left him. It was hard on the entire family."

"That would account for the 4 years he hasn't dated, right?" She remembered him telling Esposito that he didn't have a 'hot date' but rather a parent-teacher conference.

Loft

Castle had dinner ready when Kate and Martha returned from the day of pampering. Kate had surprised herself and thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon. She confessed to Martha in the elevator that she'd been dreading spending time alone because she was afraid of all the questions that might be asked of her.

Martha had just laughed. "I wanted you to know just who it was you were sleeping with, Kate. I know what I need to know about you. You love my son. That's enough for me."

"Well, don't you two look nice. I'll bet heads were turning as you walked up 5th Avenue. Should I be jealous, Kate?" Rick was wearing a towel around his waist as he cooked. She made a note to buy him a 'manly' apron.

"Well, your mother did introduce me to Sergio and he seemed quite interested in me for some reason. Oh, and if he calls while I'm out, tell him Friday afternoon would be marvelous."

She saw his lips press into that thin, white line and his eyes seemed to grow darker until they were almost cobalt blue. She had seen that eye color once before and she didn't want to end up in the hallway with all her belongings thrown around her.

"I'm getting my hair done and Martha says he's just so marvelous. He and his husband own the – "

"You little minx – " He came after her with the towel all ratted up and he snapped at her butt a couple of times with no intention of actually hitting her. She screamed in mock fright and hid behind Martha.

"Don't you dare hit this poor child with that towel!" Martha wrapped an arm around Kate and they both started laughing at the look on Rick's face.

"Gotcha!"