Castle had always been grateful to have this place. It was one of his first real purchases after his second book became a best seller, and being able to retreat out to the peace and quiet of Southampton was often the only thing that could help him get over a particularly bad bout with writer's block.

Now, though, in the midst of all this insanity and chaos, he was even more grateful to be able to share this part of his life with his friends when they needed it the most. Castle watched Beckett as she enjoyed a moment of peace at the other end of the porch. Not wanting to disturb her, Castle sat next to Ryan, handing the other man a cold beer, which Ryan accepted gratefully. "How's she doing?" asked Castle.

"A little better, I think. She said that now that she can finally think clearly she wanted some time to process all this."

"Part of me wonders what it would be like to have her senses..."

"It's incredible, Castle. She's letting me read her mind so I can have a chance to see the sunset through her eyes. Hey, you wanna try it?"

Castle's eyes widened in surprise. "You can do that?"

"Won't know until I give it a shot," Ryan shrugged. He turned to look at Beckett, who gave a wordless nod of consent. Ryan closed his eyes, taking a brief moment to focus on the images he was getting from Beckett, then gently placed his hand over Castle's wrist to help him in his attempt to manage the double connection.

The image that came to Castle's mind took his breath away. It felt like taking the highest of high definition and cranking it up to an entirely new level of clarity. Between the sky's vibrant streaks of red, orange, blue and purple and the sea's riotous swirls of blue and green water...Castle gently slipped his hand out from underneath Ryan's, allowing him to wipe the tears from his eyes as the image receded from the front of his vision to a memory he was sure he never wanted to forget.

Ryan sipped his beer slowly, savoring the images he was getting from Beckett's mind and the chance to finally unwind. "It was kinda nice to get a chance to share that with somebody, Castle."

"She was in so much pain earlier. I'm glad she's finally able to enjoy something out of all of this." Turning to the younger man, Castle added, "Hey, you must not be feeling too bad yourself, if you can pull off something like this."

"All credit for that needs to go to your daughter. When she was talking Beckett through that dial trick I paid attention. Worked just as well for me - might have even been a little easier since I can throw everything into one dial." Ryan's face broke into a gentle, teasing smile. "First time I've been able to get your crazy thoughts out of my head all day."

Castle couldn't help but chuckle at that comment. He knew how often he wished *he* didn't have to deal with what was going through his mind, so he could only imagine what it was like for a first-time visitor. "Thank you for your help with Alexis, by the way," said Castle. "I don't know how well that conversation would have gone if you hadn't..."

"It's totally okay, Castle," Ryan interrupted. "She would have probably found out anyway, so it was good to just get it out in the open now. Besides, don't forget I'm married, Castle. I know what it's like to need to confide in someone outside of the job..." Ryan's voice trailed off as he thought about the one person, who, in the midst of all this madness, had completely slipped his mind. "Oh God, Jenny! What the hell am I going to tell her-?"

"For now, nothing," replied Castle calmly. "Give her a call and tell her I invited you and Esposito away for a guy's weekend of beer drinking, watching sports-whatever you want to tell her. When you get home, though...she's your wife. Tell her as much as you think she needs to know."

Nodding, Ryan got up to find a phone and call his wife. After Ryan went inside, Castle crossed the porch to sit next to his girlfriend, putting his arm around her as she curled up beside him. "Feeling better, Kate?"

Kate nodded, and Rick swore he could feel her smile even if he wasn't looking down to see it. "When the sun started to set, I tried playing with the dials the way Alexis talked me through. I was able to turn up my sight and turn down my hearing just enough to stop hearing what was going on inside the house and focus on the waves. But Ryan told me that you got to feel a bit of that?"

"Yeah," Castle replied, a little speechless even at the memory of it. "Kate, what you see...that was amazing..."

"*Alexis* was the amazing one today, Rick. *I* still have trouble believing that all this is actually happening to us, and not only did she take all of it in stride, she found a way to help me deal with it. I'm in her debt for that."

"I'm sorry that I-"

Kate stopped Rick before he was able to chastise himself as she was sure he had been doing to that point. "Rick, we've *all* been faced with the craziest things today. It's completely understandable to have trouble dealing with it. *Completely.* Unless you're an expert in biofeedback and I didn't know about it, then there was nothing you could have done."

Sufficiently chastised, Rick agreed, "Yeah, I know how scared I was when that glass of water appeared in my hand...and I was the one who at least *believed* in magic..."

"I think the fact that I've been dealing with something that's explainable and just magnified has made it a little easier to swallow. And to be honest I was just so uncomfortable that I haven't had much of a chance to think about it. Talk to me when I start seeing ghosts and you might get a completely different response," Beckett replied nervously.

It was then that Castle remembered something he hoped Kate would find amusing. "You know, all of this is on my bucket list."

Beckett's eyes widened a little. "It is? Matching up with some old Chinese legend is on your bucket list?"

Rick nodded, "Actually I think the exact wording was to 'develop super power'."

That earned the hoped-for smile and a hearty chuckle from Kate. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Okay. Okay! Have a good night, honey. I'll see you on Monday night. Yeah, I love you too. Bye."

Ryan hung up the phone, looking up to find his partner drenched in sweat and the happiest he'd seen him all day. The man looked positively giddy. On a day like this, Ryan wondered if that was a good thing or a bad thing. "Javi?" asked Ryan warily. "You're in an awfully good mood."

"Bro," beamed Esposito, "I need you to come with me. There's something you have *got* to see."

Curious, Ryan followed Esposito out to the backyard. "Okay, what is it?"

Esposito got to the point right away. "Ryan, jump on the roof."

"Excuse me?"

Slowly, Esposito repeated, "Ryan, I want you to *see you* *jump* on the *roof*."

"But-but that's impossible!"

"Really?" Esposito's ear-splitting grin seemed to grow even wider as he turned to face the house, plant his feet and jump, landing squarely on the roof, two stories above Ryan's head.

Ryan thought he couldn't be left speechless by anything else today. Clearly, I was wrong. He yelled up to his partner, "How the hell did you do that?"

"Get up here," called down Esposito, "and I'll tell you!"

"Get up there," mumbled Ryan. "He wants *me* to get up *there*..." Finally deciding to trust his partner, Ryan planted his feet, bending his knees each time he counted, "One...two...three-"

...and landed squarely on the roof, right next to his partner. And he was somehow *sure* he could have jumped higher if he needed to. Ryan was having trouble believing his eyes. "What-how-?"

"When everybody scattered, I decided to go for a run to clear my head. I found this old wall at the edge of Castle's property. I climbed up the wall - the old-fashioned way-then I walked along the pieces of the wall and practically flew off the other side. It felt crazy easy, so I started playing around. Ryan, I've tried every Matrix John Woo Hong Kong karate movie wire trick I could possibly think of. Bro-they've *all* *worked*."

Ryan stared over the edge of the roof, re-validating the evidence he himself experienced. "Including jumping two stories onto a roof."

"Including jumping two stories onto a roof. That's when something hit me from that legend you found." Pointing to his partner, then to himself, Esposito explained, "Warrior priest...warrior prophet. I figured if I can do it, you could do it."

"Apparently so." Just when I thought this day couldn't get any crazier...Ryan stared out at the ocean from their unusual vantage point, then turned back to his partner. "Okay, Javi, I know you didn't get me up here just for the view. What's your plan?"

The grin in Esposito's face turned slightly devilish. "Bro, how would you feel about being my sparring partner?"

Beckett and Castle made their way into the kitchen to find that Alexis and Lanie had prepared enough food to feed a small army. "Lanie told me you guys have barely eaten since yesterday," said Alexis, "so I figured you were probably hungry."

Castle sniffed the air appreciatively. "It does smell really good, honey. Thank you."

Lanie and Alexis shared a look of 'You tell them-no, you tell them!' after Castle's compliment. Finally when Lanie started rummaging around the kitchen pulling together the fixings for the chili bar, it was left to Alexis to admit, "Actually, there was an ulterior motive to having a home-cooked meal, tonight, dad." She grabbed a pen and notepad and turned to Kate. "Lanie told me you're a pretty decent cook, even if your schedule doesn't allow you much of a chance to do anything with it."

Beckett eyed the pen and paper warily. "So this is a test?"

Alexis nodded. "Use sight, smell and taste to determine all the ingredients in the chili. You don't have to be specific about the quantities - saying 'a lot' or 'a little' or other things like that would be okay. Are you up for it?"

Beckett sighed loudly. She was exhausted from having spent so much of the day in pain and had been hoping the 'practice sessions' wouldn't start until after she'd had chance to have a good night's sleep. Still, one look at the hopeful expression on Alexis' face and Beckett knew she couldn't refuse the girl anything. Grabbing then pen and notebook, Beckett relented with a sigh. "Okay, Alexis, dish up the chili."

Alexis relaxed visibly when Beckett agreed to the test over dinner, but Beckett couldn't help but notice how much her best friend relaxed as well. Feigning a wounded pride, Beckett teased her friend, "Et tu, Lanie?"

"It's for a good cause," replied Lanie with great confidence. "Javi and I have a little more control over whatever these abilities are." Holding her hands up to show her accessories, she continued, "at the very least, I can wear gloves, which I have to do 90% of the time anyway. But you, Castle and Ryan need to figure out how to control this stuff in order to stay a part of the civilized world. So the more you practice, the faster you'll get the control you need."

Finding that argument impossible to refute, Beckett dug into her chili just as Ryan and Esposito entered the kitchen drenched in sweat. Wrinkling her nose, Beckett grabbed her bowl of chili and the notebook, exiting to the porch just as the two men dished up their bowls. It wasn't until both men devoured several large bites of their meal that they realized the rest of the people in the room were staring at them. Esposito was the first to find his voice, even if it was through a mouthful of chili. "Wha? Wha we do?"

"Kate was in the middle of a test," replied Lanie, "and you don't need a hyper-sensitive sense of smell to know that you two *reek*. What were you doing? Basketball?"

Ryan and Esposito looked to each other, trying to decide who would be the one to speak. Ryan finally won out. "We, uh, we had some things to practice ourselves."

"Really?" asked Alexis. "Like what?"

You want to explain this, bro? thought Esposito, trusting that his partner would 'listening'.

Ryan looked to his partner, then decided, "Would it be ok if we wait to tell you guys until after dinner? Espo and I worked up a hell of an appetite."

The other three people in the room nodded. Lanie warned, "All right, but I *promise* I'll hold you to it."

"Deal," agreed Esposito, smiling. Neither man was going to turn down another opportunity to practice their newly discovered gift.

As the group returned to their meals, Alexis asked Ryan, "So how is your practice going, Detective Ryan? Lanie tells me that this morning you were as worried about your control as Kate has been."

"Actually, things have been going pretty well," replied Ryan. "I picked up on that dial trick you taught Beckett, which helped me bring the background thoughts to a dull roar. I have no idea how I'm going to do once I get back to the precinct, but for now..."

"You can at least be around people without all their thoughts running through your head driving you crazy," Alexis completed the thought. "You're right, that is pretty good."

"Thank you," Ryan agreed, "I think so. Still need a lot more practice, though. And I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to Lanie."

"That's okay, Ryan," Lanie chimed in, "I really don't have much idea of what I'm doing either." Holding up her left hand she added, "hence the gloves."

Alexis asked, "So you're going to wear gloves the rest of your *life*? No, I don't think so. I have a couple of ideas, and if Detective Ryan has as much control as he says he does, then we can work on them after dinner."

Beckett came in from the porch carrying an empty bowl and a heavily scribbled-in notebook. "First of all," Beckett told Lanie and Alexis, smiling warmly, "that chili was delicious. And that challenge was a pain in the neck." She handed the notebook to Alexis. "Here's your list."

Alexis studied the list carefully, smiling as she reached the end. "You missed the paprika and the oregano. But only missing two ingredients out of twenty-five is pretty good, especially for someone whose fridge is dominated by old take-out containers..."

Kate took the teasing in stride. "Hey, you gotta start somewhere..."

"Okay, it looks like everyone's done with dinner," remarked Lanie. Turning to Ryan and Esposito, she then asked, "so what were you guys practicing *before* dinner?"

Esposito was too excited to wait any longer. He confessed to the group, "We were sparring..."

"Yeah?" asked Beckett.

"On the roof."

The other members of the team looked to the guys in confusion. "Why would you be sparring on the roof?" asked Castle.

"Come and see," replied Esposito.

The guys led the group out to the backyard. Lanie, Alexis and Castle watched in awe as Ryan and Esposito jumped, kicked, twisted and flew around the roof, trying to find every way they could think of to show off their new ability to spectacular effect.

Beckett, on the other hand, surprised even herself when she felt a slight twinge of jealousy as she watched Ryan and Esposito's antics. Something in the depths of her soul told her that she could do exactly what Ryan and Esposito were doing, just as well as they were doing it. Taking in a deep breath to suppress the rational voices in her head, Beckett jumped...

...and landed squarely on the roof, narrowly missing getting kicked in the head by Esposito. The two men stopped their sparring briefly, surprised at the discovery that they were no longer alone. "Hi guys!" exclaimed Beckett, smiling. "Mind if I join you?"

Esposito was, for his part, speechless. He could barely stammer out, "What-Beckett-how?"

Ryan was starting to get really tired of hearing the 'how' question after everything that had happened over the course of the day. "Guys," he declared, "I'd like to propose a group rule #1."

"What's that, bro?" asked Esposito.

"Don't ask a question you don't really want to hear the answer to."

Alexis, unsurprisingly, took the revelation of the new ability in stride. "Guys," she called up to the group, "can Detective Ryan come down to help me with Lanie?" Castle even noticed the devious glint in his daughter's eye as she continued, "I promise I'll let the three of you work on this first thing tomorrow!"

Ryan turned to Beckett and Esposito, smiling even as he backed up toward the edge of the roof. "Well, other duties call, guys," he declared. "I'll see you later."

Beckett found it impossible not to laugh as Ryan saluted his friends before performing a backwards double-twisting somersault off the roof to land safely on his feet less than a foot away from Alexis. Beckett called down to her friend, only half-teasing, "Showoff!"

Alexis called back in response, "Yell if somebody breaks something!"