My apologies that it took me so long to update! The weekend was just crazy and then my computer crashed and I had to write the whole chapter again. ;-( Thanks again for your amazing support. All the feedback! It's just great. Hope you enjoy this.

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Thanking someone on the other end of the line, Esposito got off the phone and rolled over to Ryan's desk, making an emergency stop by grabbing for Ryan's arm.

"Geez!" Ryan exclaimed.

"You sound like a little girl," Esposito chuckled, which just earned him another glare from his partner. "Oh come on!" He boxed his partner against the shoulder and then quickly changed topics, "Okay, our dear Sheriff Johnston admitted that he left Beckett and Castle in this area." He placed a map of Sterling Forest on Ryan's desk and pointed at it.

"That's in the middle of the woods," Ryan stated. "You think they're somewhere out there?"

"No, I think they are here," he pointed at another area on the map. Ryan shot him a questioning look. "Beckett once told me that her father's cabin is at Sterling Forest. So I gave him a call and he's absolutely sure that she would have gone to the cabin."

"So you think they're still there?" Ryan said, a smirk forming on his face, "In the cabin. Alone. In the woods. What do you think they're doing?"

Esposito's grin matched Ryan's, "I don't know. Maybe something useful." He waggled his eyebrows.

"It would be about time," Ryan laughed and they high-fived just as Gates walked in.

"Detectives? Anything new about Beckett and Castle?" she asked and shot them a look.

"Yes Sir, we think they are at the cabin of Beckett's father," Ryan held up the map and pointed somewhere at the green.

"In the middle of the woods?" she blinked. Ryan and Esposito shrugged. "Okay, tell Castle's family about this. I don't want them burning up my telephone line, because they're worried."

"No Sir," Ryan and Esposito both sounded in unison.

Gates turned and started to walk away, but stopped to turn around once more, "I'm wondering what they're doing in this cabin." There was a twitch around her mouth, but before Ryan or Esposito could be sure it was gone and she disappeared into her office.

"Did she just?" Ryan stuttered, pointing at her office.

"No, that wasn't, was it?"

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What ever decision she had come to, she didn't get the chance to vocalize it, a loud crack from outside made them jump. They hurried to the window and peeked outside to see a big tree that had surrendered to the storm and fallen across the clearing.

Castle looked at her, "That could have hit us!"

She bend forward, her arm brushing his in the process and tried to get a better look, "No the trees are not big enough and too far away to hit the cabin."

"You sure?" he asked, still sounding worried.

She nodded, "Yeah!" She stepped back unsure how to proceed from here. Their moment was gone and left them somehow dangling in the air. "Breakfast?" She finally asked and hoped to maneuver them into calmer waters.

He nodded and true to his word, he didn't push. He had made his claim. The rest was up to her. And he would give her some time and space to sort things out.

So they spent the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon with chit-chat until Beckett got up to rummaged through one of the kitchen cabinets, "Do you play chess?" she asked with his back to him.

"Yes, why?" he leant forward to see what she was doing.

"Ah, here it its," she exclaimed and pulled out a chessboard. "My father and I use to play a lot whenever we are out here."

"Seems to be a father/daughter thing," he chuckled, "I use to play with Alexis. But I think I have to stop, she's getting too good."

"So what do you say? Are you in ?" she waggled her eyebrows.

"Bring it on, Detective. Bring it on!" he pushed up his sleeves and rubbed his hands together. "Any chance of this turning into strip chess?"

"Castle!" she smacked his upper arm and laid the chess board on the table, handing him his pieces and bringing hers into position, before she made her first move.

It was getting dark outside when she checkmated him for the 20th times and threw her hands in the air in a gesture of victory. "Gotcha! Again!" She laughed and despite his best effort to pout like a baby he couldn't help but join in.

"What?" he asked when he caught her looking at him.

"I haven't laughed like this in a long time," she admitted shyly.

"You should, it suits you," he replied, turning serious.

She smiled shortly before she got up to put the chess board back into the cabinet, "How's Alexis doing since her break-up?"

It took him a second to adapt to the change of topic, "You know, how it is. First love, always hard to forget. But she's gonna get over it. We all did, didn't we?" he looked at her strangely and there was something in his eyes that she couldn't place. He got up and moved over to the fire place, looking into the dancing flames, he seemed to be miles away.

"Kyra?" she asked.

He shook his head, "Meredith."

"You never told me what happened between the two of you," she said, realizing how much she had always wondered about this part of his life.

He sighed, "We were young, in love and had a wild, crazy time," he started, his eyes never leaving the flames.

"What happened?" she asked and slowly walked over to his side. The only light that was now illuminating the cabin, was the fire in front of them, the rest of their quarters was wrapped in darkness.

"Alexis happened," his face lit up, "She was so tiny. The little fingers, the little feet and the first time she looked at me …," he smiled at the memory, while her heart leaped out to him. She had always adored him for the father he was. It was a part of Richard Castle she hadn't expected when she first met him. It was one of the many things about him that had surprised her. "You know, I didn't mind her travelling, it was part of her job," he went on, "I knew that and I loved the time Alexis and I spent together."

"But?"

"You met her. She's one of a kind. For Meredith, Meredith always comes first. Don't get me wrong. I know she loves Alexis, in her own very special way and on her schedule. She loves her, but she has no idea what it means to be responsible, to take care of someone that depends on you or how to treat the people that care for you. One day she came back from one of her movie jobs and presented me the divorce papers. No warning. No, let's talk about this. When I asked her why, she said that we limited her. That she needed mental and local space in order to grow as an actress. She needed to be in L.A. not in New York. Not with us," He paused. "At first I was so mad at her, for just leaving like that, but later I realized that it had been for the best. It would never have worked out between us and it probably spared us much more heartache."

Beckett was stunned. She had never seen this side of him. Richard Castle had been hurt by a woman. It had never accured to her.

"I'm sorry," she whispered and reached for his hand.

"Don't be," he turned at her and smiled, looking at their joint hands, "It all happened for a reason."

Neither of them spoke, they just looked at each other, the fire flickering behind them, she reached up to cup his face between her hands, "Wait!" she whispered and hoped that he would understand.

The smile on his face told her that he did. He nodded into her hands, "I'll wait."