It was close on five, the dreary day already darkening into gloomy evening when Castle walked in through the door. He was glad to be home, out of Black Pawn's offices, out of the rain, in to the glorious smile he was getting from his Detective who was sitting on the couch, legs stretched out, book in hand, the loft's lights lending a gentle glow to her skin, shadows rippling around her as she climbed to her feet and walked towards him. He had removed his raincoat and could do nothing but let it drop unheeded to the floor as she put her arms round his neck, pulled herself up on tip-toes and planted a searing kiss to his lips which had his eyebrows shooting up in surprise, his heartbeat doing the same and any coherent thought vanishing into thin air.

His arms wrapped around her and he pulled her up off her feet, eliciting a little squeak of surprise from her and a parting of lips and tongues as they both gasped for air, her legs coming up to lock around his waist and support herself against him.

"I take it you missed me? Or is this how you welcome anyone who walks in our home?"

She gave a breathless laugh and leant back in his arms, legs still wrapped around him. "Yes to the first and only if he's ruggedly handsome to the second!"

He started heading towards the bedroom, Kate still clinging to him like an overgrown version of five year-old Alexis. "Where are you taking me?" she enquired of him, eyebrows raised and her lip caught between her teeth.

"To the bedroom where I am going to show you how ruggedly handsome guys like me treat beautiful Detectives who jump all over them as soon as they walk in the door!"

"Oooh! Do I get to meet the plumber or is it the electrician today?" she asked in a parody of a bimbo, falsetto voice, batting eyelids and index finger placed against her cheek.

He laughed, "I need a shower, so guess it'll be the plumber .."

The shower took longer than it should have done, in fact quite a bit longer. Eventually a very satisfied bimbo/detective and plumber/writer emerged; she to get changed into yoga pants and one of his "Writers do it with their fingers" t-shirts and he into sweatpants and top.

Once they were back in the sitting room, glass of wine in hand, they settled back on the couch, Rick tucked into the corner with Kate scrunched up against him, her legs tucked underneath her.

"So what was your day lik…" they both started at the same time. Laughter accompanied the shaking of heads at how in sync they were, before she placed her index finger against his lips and told him "You first".

He kissed her finger and gently removed it, holding her hand in his. He closed his eyes, laid his head back against the couch and sighed. "Not too bad … or at least the lionesses didn't eat me alive, must have had to do with the chapters I sent in last week. There's a book signing coming up in Toronto next month, dates still to be arranged, I thought maybe you could get a couple of days off and come with me?"

She nodded, "As long as I'm not in the middle of a case and that the Captain agrees .. but only for a couple of days".

He kissed her and ran his fingers through her hair, "What about your day, how did it go?"

She sat up, pushing herself away from him for a moment and looked at him as she chewed her lip. He loved it when she did that but he also worried that one day she'd chew all the way through, so he placed a finger against the trapped lip and gently pulled it out from under her teeth. She huffed and then smiled at him.

"I got bored and then ended up in the storage room downstairs … you remember we talked about going through it and clearing things out …?"

He nodded.

"Well, anyway, I thought I'd go down and just start making a list of what was there so we could …. maybe next weekend …"

"Get it done?" He finished for her, smiling at how insecure she could be around him at times.

She smiled at him placing her hand against his chest and smoothing it down his front as she nodded. "Anyway, I wasn't prying, didn't intend to open anything, or look into draws …"

"Kate!" he interrupted her "How many times do I have to tell you that anything of mine is just as much yours as well. You don't need to ask or get permission … and if you do find anything incriminating …" he grinned at her "… just promise you'll let me explain before shooting me!"

"Stoopid!" she said, whacking him lightly on the chest. "It's not just your stuff down there Rick, or at least .. I mean .. there could be things belonging to Alexis .. or even .. god help me, Deep-Fried Twinkie!"

She laughed at the look of pain that crossed his face at the mention of Meredith. But it was true, she did not want to find things which might upset the applecart … for any of them. He nodded in understanding "There won't be anything of Meredith's there, I can assure you, and anything belonging to Alexis … she's not going to mind you seeing it Kate!"

"Well that brings me to what I did find. As I said, I wasn't prying, but I came across an open-topped box and … this was inside, on the top .." she bent over, slid her hand under the couch and pulled out the binder, handing it to Rick.

Rick's face was a picture when he recognised the object she was holding out to him. His mouth formed an o, his eyes opened wide and then his whole face changed to that of a kid's on Christmas morning … in an almost awed voice he whispered "The Monkey-Bunkey stories … I'd forgotten all about them!"

He started to open the binder, but Kate placed her hand on his, stopping him. "I started to read the first few pages, before I realised that I should not only get your permission …. but also Alexis'. You obviously wrote it for her …. And it's only right that she should say if they can be shared with someone else or not"

Castle looked at her, his hand cupping her cheek, the loving look on his face setting the butterflies off in her stomach. "I'm not used to people being so .. so considerate about our feelings … even my mother tends to barge her way through. You know that Alexis wouldn't mind at all if you were to read it right?"

"I'm hoping she won't mind. I'd love to continue reading it, but I have to get her say-so first Rick" she smiled at him, tucking herself back into his side as she lifted the binder out of his hands and set it down on the coffee table in front of them. "But you can tell me about the story …. stories?" she looked at him as he nodded "Tell me about why you wrote them and why you didn't … do anything more with them?"

"Publish them you mean?" he continued at her nod "I wrote them just for us, it was our little world, not for public consumption. The first one …" he had to think a moment "… 'Monkey-Bunkey at the Zoo' … was after one of Meredith's non-shows for Alexi's fifth birthday. She was so sad .. but trying to hide it, you know?"

Kate nodded in understanding, rubbing her hand against his chest, feeling his heartbeat through the palm of her hand and wishing she could wrap her fingers round Twinkie's throat.

"We'd been to the zoo that morning and when I saw her trying to be so brave all afternoon, waiting for her mother to appear and trying to hide her disappointment when she didn't … I just went in and quickly wrote about our day at the zoo, only I didn't want it to be too obvious, so I made it about Monkey-Bunkey". He paused, even after all these years the hurt was evident in his voice, in the slightly hunched shoulders and once again Kate silently promised herself that she would never knowingly hurt him again; like all his women, her included, had done so many times.

She wiped her eyes, cleared her throat and kissed him. "Let's get some dinner shall we? Then we can go to bed and you can tell me the rest of the story about Monkey-Bunkey's adventures"

He laughed, returned her kiss and stood up alongside her, "Ok Detective, and what can the Chef get you tonight?" wagging his eyebrows suggestively at her, the not so subtle reference to the earlier 'plumber' episode not being lost on her.