CASTLEBECKETTCASKETT

*Chapter Two - During*

They poured into the loft as the sun was rising over New York City, each ray of sunshine casting shadows as they hit the skyscrapers, casting mirrored rays as windows were hit. Castle tried to shush the giggling group, but couldn't manage the act without giggling himself. Kate shut the door behind her; though she tried to do it softly, the door all but slammed shut, causing another round of giggles to erupt from the group.

"Shhhhh!" Lanie put a finger to her lips. "It's really late; we don't wanna wake 'Lexis."

"It's so late it's early, chica," Esposito chuckled, walking towards the living room. He didn't see the couch in the early morning light and ran into the offending item, tumbling over before landing heavily on the polished wooden floor. "Ow."

"Dude, there's a couch there," Ryan giggled again, pointing and laughing at his partner. "It's so big, how could you not see it?"

"Just don't kick over the umbrella stand," Castle warned over his shoulder, walking towards the kitchen.

"What umbrella stand?" Kate asked, turning to look at him. Lanie stumbled against the wall, taking a few steps along it to guide her drunken body.

A sudden crash pulled Castle's attention back to the front door; Lanie had just kicked over the umbrella stand.

The drunken detectives couldn't help but burst out laughing, full-scale this time, at their friends' misfortune; Ryan was even bent over double at the sight.

A light switched on suddenly, bathing all of them in brightness; Martha appeared at the bottom of the stairs, Alexis not far behind her. "What in the world is going on down here?" she looked at the state of the five of them, spread out across the loft's spacious floor, and shook her head. "Richard, it's after five in the morning; are you only just coming home now?"

Rick dropped his head to his chest slightly; the copious amounts of alcohol in his system making him act like a child again. "Maybe. We've been at the Old Haunt since eleven-ish," he trailed off.

Martha shook her head. "Richard, just because you own that bar does not mean you should abuse your privileges as proprietor and allow yourself and your friends to drink all night!"

Kate smiled and shook her head, opening her arms to walk towards the other two women in Rick's life. "Morning Lexie! Wanna join us for a pancake breakfast? I'm cooking!"

Alexis stared at Kate like she'd grown a second head. "Kate, are you drunk?" she asked in disbelief.

Kate shrugged. "Maybe a little…" she held her fingertips a tiny bit apart, but not really apart at all. "Okay, so maybe a lot. But pancakes always help."

"Kate, it's five AM! I have school today!"

Lanie shrugged. "Girl, take a load off and spend some time with us drunkies; we'll even let you make fun of us, and when we pass out on the floor, you can take blackmail photos."

"Yeah, I'm sure they'll come in handy at Castle and Beckett's wedding," Ryan teased; he had given up trying to stand and was now sitting cross-legged on the floor.

"But I thought Kate was dating Doctor Motorcycle Boy, or whatever you called him," Martha asked. She had stepped down off the stairs and was standing in front of them.

"Not any more!" Rick sang out from the kitchen. "She dumped him, then came and kissed me!"

"Actually, he dumped me, and then you kissed me, Writer Boy!"

"Writer Man, and pooh pooh to you," he stuck his tongue out at her, before promptly dropping a frypan onto the wooden floor. "Whoops!"

Alexis shook her head and waltzed into the kitchen. "Dad, get out," she pointed in the direction of the living room. "You and the 'drunkies' stay over there and out of my way until there are enough waffles and pancakes made to feed us all. Grams, you watch over them," she added as a second thought. No one wanted her grandmother anywhere near the kitchen if they planned on living another day, even with a hangover from hell.

Martha ushered the five of them onto the couches in front of the television; Kate was on top of Rick in the armchair, and Ryan, Esposito and Lanie on the actual couch. Lanie was sitting mostly on top of Javier, leaving Ryan as the only single one there.

"That reminds me, where did Jenny go?" Lanie asked, wondering why her man's partner was all alone.

"She left just after midnight; has to work early tomorrow… uh, I mean, today," Kevin scratched his head.

"What business do you lot have drinking yourselves stupid mid-week?" Martha chastised them, slapping her son's head with a pillow dramatically.

"We were waiting for Kate to show up," Esposito tried to defend themselves. "If she came earlier, it wouldn't have been nearly as bad!"

"Yeah Kate, it's all your fault," Rick poked her in the side, making her squeal. "Making us wait for you, in a bar with free liquor; bad things were bad to happen."

"That's it!" Martha threw her hands up in the air. "I'm separating you two!"

Kate and Rick pouted, turning their bottom lips over childishly. "But we don't wanna sit apart," the supposedly mature adult in Kate whined; excessive amounts of alcohol turning her into a whiny child.

"Too bad. Up, you're moving to the kitchen," Martha shooed the brunette forcefully, almost kicking her son to make sure he didn't move to follow his partner. "Richard Alexander, if you move from that seat, so help me god…" she trailed off, staring down her son as she walked off.

Kate grumbled the whole way to the other end of the loft, falling into one of the barstools at the kitchen bench, opposite Alexis. "Hi Lexie, your G-Ma separated me from your old man," Kate greeted the teen childishly.

"Suck it up, princess," she had no sympathy for the detective. "That's what happens when you drink way too much and then come home to interrupt our sleep, so suffer the consequences like a good girl."

Kate pouted, jutting out her bottom lip in protest, but dropped her chin onto a hand anyway. "I don't like you early in the morning, you're mean."

Alexis shook her head, smiling despite herself, and tried not to laugh at the childish antics of the so-called mature adults in the loft. "Don't piss off the girl making you hangover pancakes," she chastised, slapping Kate's hand away from the fruit bowl.

"Meanie," Kate grumbled at the teen. "You're no fun."

"And you're drunk, so I guess we both don't like each other at the moment," Alexis snapped with a smile. Kate, and by default everyone else, was really starting to get on her nerves; at the rate they were behaving, she would be having a bad day at school. The only upside was the drunks surrounding her would have a worse day once they woke up with hangovers.

Strangely enough, that thought put a smile on her face.