Author's Note: Thanks for the input, guys. We'll see where it goes!

OOOOOOOOOO

"What's wrong sweetheart?"

Alexis sighed and looked over at her grandmother.

"Dad hasn't called yet."

Martha smiled, and took hold of her granddaughter's chin.

"He's probably getting settled in."

Alexis gave her a knowing look, and Martha shrugged.

"Or he could be a bit distracted and forgot."

The young woman smirked.

"I'll be lucky if he calls at all this week," she pointed out. "He's with Detective Beckett, after all."

"He loves you," Martha reminded her. "Nothing is more important to him – or to me."

She was long past the time when she was insecure and needed such reassurances. And very used to putting up with her father's somewhat erratic behavior. But she did smile at the reminder, well aware that when everyone else was shouting for her father's attention at an event all she ever needed to do was simply make a gesture or a comment, and he was there for her.

"I know. Besides, I like Detective Beckett."

"He invited you to go with them."

"I know."

"You said you didn't want to go."

She rolled her eyes, smiling.

"I know."

"He'll call when he has a chance," Martha assured her. "It just might not be today, is all."

Or tomorrow, for that matter.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

"Any luck?"

Castle shook his head, looking down at the ruined cell phone in his hand. It had been in his pocket when they'd crashed, but the dunking had done more damage than the crash. He tried it before Beckett woke up, and when it hadn't worked then, he'd set it by the fire hoping that it just needed to be dried out. Now he'd been fiddling with it for the last few minutes as they'd sat and waited for their clothes to dry, but it wasn't looking good.

"It's dead."

He tossed it into the yellow case; dead or not there were a lot of pictures on there he didn't want to lose. The memory card was probably still intact, after all.

"Now you don't have my number."

He glanced over at her, realized she was teasing him, and managed a slight smile.

"I have it memorized."

"Smart ass."

He shook himself out of the blanket and draped it over her shoulders to join the other one and hauled himself to his feet, moving stiffly. His shoes – as well as hers – had been placed close to the fire to dry, and he slipped into his. With thousand dollar loafers and only a pair of boxers, he was hardly Daniel Boone, but it didn't matter. It wasn't that difficult a chore to gather wood, after all. There was a lot of dead stuff littering the area.

"Want help?"

"You're not really dressed for it," he pointed out.

"And you are?"

He looked down at himself.

"I run around in my underwear all the time. What about you?"

Good point. She'd help when their clothes were dry.

He smirked and turned back to what he was doing, walking slowly and stiffly and occasionally looking out over the lake as he gathered up some of the larger branches.

"Watch out for bears," she told him, wrapping the emergency blanket a little tighter when a slight breeze kicked up.

He looked over his shoulder at her.

"Cute."

She smiled, innocently. She wasn't Daniel Boone any more than he was, but she'd read somewhere that fire would keep wild animals away, so she wasn't all that concerned, really.

As she watched, he brought several armloads of wood over and started breaking them up into more manageable pieces. She wondered where he was getting the energy – especially since she felt worn out and hadn't even been doing anything. After about an hour, he had a huge stack, and had managed to scratch himself in several other places.

"Take a break, Castle," she told him, getting up and walking over to check on their clothes. They were dry enough now, although they definitely smelled like smoke. "You're going to be really stiff later if you're not careful."

"Yeah."

She handed him his clothes and pointedly waited for him to turn around again so she could get dressed. He grinned, rolled his eyes and turned around to give her her privacy.

"So where do you think we are?" she asked him as she dressed. He slipped off his shoes so he could get dressed, too.

"Pennsylvania."

She snorted.

"I knew that much. You had more time to look at the map, though. Any idea where we might be?"

"Allegheny forest," he answered without much time for consideration. She decided he'd already been pondering the very same question. "It's the biggest green area on the map, so that'd be my guess."

She'd thought they were in the big green area, too. Which had looked isolated on the map, but was even more so in real life, apparently.

Dressed and feeling much better for being covered up, she pulled on her shoes, glad that she had decided to wear flats and not sandals.

"Okay."

Taking that as permission to turn around, he peeked over his shoulder to confirm she was dressed and then headed back for the log where she'd left the two emergency blankets.

"If they heard my Mayday they'd have started looking for us by now. That means that the emergency beacon probably isn't working."

"Why? Because they'd have found us by now?"

"Right. We're not that far from civilization, after all."

Not by plane, anyway. On foot they'd be walking for days – even weeks, depending on where they were. Presuming they didn't get lost and go in circles. It wasn't really an option.

"Maybe it's working, but they didn't get the Mayday? Any way of knowing for sure?"

"Only by looking at it."

They both turned and looked out over the lake to where the plane had vanished.

"Not really an option."

"No."

They stood silently side by side for a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts as the sun started to sink lower onto the horizon. Finally she nudged his side, remembering at the last minute the bruising he had there and turning it into more of a caress. He turned to her and she had a close up look at his bruised and cut face, as well as his troubled expression. Beckett wondered why he looked so guilty. He couldn't be blaming himself for them crashing, could he? It definitely wasn't his fault.

"We'll feel better if we eat," she told him. "Come on, I'll make you dinner."