'Hello? Anyone home?'

Adam walked through the door of home, dropped his keys into the glass dish shaped like the Gibbs Hill lighthouse. He looked around, sniffed; the air was warm, sweet and scented lightly of lime and verbena - Lindsay's bubblebath.

'Lindsay? My little butterfly shrimp are you home?'

'In here!' was the hollered reply from the bedroom. Adam followed her voice and stopped short when he saw his bride in her underwear, holding a chandelier earring to her stomach. She switched it for holding a cheap silver costume ring there, then back to the chandelier earring once more.

'Whatcha doing, plum sauce?'

'Are you craving Chinese?'

'I had Monsoon's for lunch again today. What are you doing?' he repeated with a laugh as he tugged off his tie, unfastened the buttons of his shirt.

'Trying to decide when I get my belly jewel if I want a hoop or a dingle-dangle decoration.'

'I think they'll be smaller than that, sweetie.'

'It's just for judging what I think I want. I'm leaning towards dingle-dangle, I have horrible visions of the other getting stuck or caught on things,' Lindsay decided, then looked at her almost-hubby. 'I'm a wuss.'

'Why's that?'

'I wanna get it done to surprise you for the wedding, so the first time you saw it would be on our wedding night, but I know if you're not there holding my hand I'll need to be sedated.'

'This from the gal who knows she wants a drug free birthing plan.'

'It's different,' Lindsay tried to explain, 'and it's a girl thing.'

'Well, in the mean-time...' Adam trailed off, crossed to her. Like his almost-wife he was now in just his underwear, and stroked his fingertip up the middle of her back until he hit the clasp of her bra. He unfastened it, nudged the straps of simply faux-satin down her shoulders. 'We are almost naked and doing nothing useful with that.'

'That definitely needs to be corrected.' Lindsay let out a happy little moan of pleasure as his hands came around her belly, drifted up to cup her breasts. 'And that's a great place to start.'

'You don't think it'll be really obvious we fit in a quick one do you?'

Adam grinned, kissed Lindsay's cheek while they waited for the loft door to be answered. 'You've heard the stories from Mere and Javi about the first night he introduced her to the gang, right?'

'Actually no.'

'No lie, Javi called Castle and said that he and Meredeth were going to be late because they were in bed together, and when they got there, Castle answered the door to the two of them making out.'

'Okay, not so bad then.'

The door opened and Castle was there with Jojo hanging onto his hand. The little girl was wearing a white apron splattered with something green. Behind them, the smells of cumin, tomatoes and roasted corn called to the bride and groom like a siren song.

'Hi buh-ride! Hi gah-roo', 'mon inside! We makin' soo-pah yummy suppah fo' you!'

'Is it Mexican food Jojo?' Adam asked and Jojo flushed in her cheeks.

'Yes Misser Dee-te-tiff Adam, it Messican suppah. We haffin' an-shee-la-las an' tacos an'...an' lossa yummies! 'Mon.' Jojo dropped her father's hand and took Adam's, then looked at Lindsay. 'It okay I hol' hands?'

'Of course darling.'

'Ah-Shay no like it when Tah-rini hol' hands wit' odder boys,' Jojo explained, leading the guests into the kitchen. 'Misser Adam, you wanna juicy or guh-rown up 'tuff?'

'Oh juice is fine, sweetie,' Adam laughed, totally taken with her charm. 'Are you excited for the trip next week?'

'Mm-hmm, but my cassa-pillah Bib, he little, he 'faid. I say, it okay Bib, I here, no be 'faid. Ah-Shay!'

The little girl hollered for her brother and peeked around the island to find him staring through the window of the oven. 'Ah-Shay, where manners? Our buh-ride an' gah-roo' here!'

'I'm watching the food, Jojo,' RJ told her, then looked up at his father with a grin. 'The cheese is getting all bubbly, Daddy.'

'Excellent. Can you and your sister go get your mumum from upstairs, tell her Lindsay and Adam are here and dinner's almost ready?'

'I do it!'

Jojo wrestled off her apron and zipped to the stairs with RJ catchign up to her easily. With the children taken care of, Castle went to the fridge and pulled out a pitcher of green stuff.

'Soft margarita, Adam? Lindsay you want a real one?'

'No, thanks, I can't handle any booze this week. My nerves are way too jazzed and I'm lucky when I can keep down my breakfast.'

Castle gave her a suspicious look. 'You got company for the wedding, mama?'

'Oh God no, I just got over...that,' Lindsay blushed, 'a few days ago. I was so worried it was going to be here too late and ruin the wedding night and honeymoon.'

'Oh, yeah, that would blow.'

'Lissy! Adam! Loo' we fin' Mumum!'

Adam and Lindsay turned to see Jojo coming downstairs with Beckett; the little girl was clasping her mother's wrist and wiggling her arm to show off her capture. 'Where's RJ?'

'Bat'room. It gonna 'tink.'

'Jojo, we've talked about this, bumblebee,' Beckett reminded her daughter.

'I know, Mumum.'

Lindsay's heart melted when she saw Jojo give a little sigh and look at her in sympathy. 'Why boys 'mell, Lissy?'

'I don't know sweetie.'

'I know! It ah-cause boys say fuh-lowers fo' gils.'

'Oh, flowers are for gils?'

'Uh-hmmm.' Jojo's sea-goddess eyes were shining and serious. 'Boys say, ew no wanna 'mell like a gil. Bu' we 'mell good.'

As if to prove her point she dropped her mother's hand and came over to Lindsay, gave her an audible sniff. 'You 'mell like lemonade.'

'That's because my soap and my lotion has limes in it.'

'See? We 'mell nice. 'Mon.'

Jojo crooked her finger at Lindsay and clamber up onto her chair at the kitchen table, where she proceded to grill Lindsay for wedding details while Adam, Beckett and Castle remained in the kitchen.

'How's the case going, Adam?' Castle asked, getting out glasses for the margaritas. 'Kate's been kinda quiet on this one.'

'It's a tough one, not only because of the vic's personal life but because of where it happened too.'

'Any word on when the school is going to open again?'

'Monday. The faculty, the trustees, the parent council all want classes to resume to give the kids a sense of normalcy. The school will be closed on Thursday, though, for the funeral services so the students can all attend.'

Castle nodded, passed Adam a soft margarita. 'What about the other stuff you uncovered? The other teacher?'

'Word is she isn't denying her involvement with the student and fully expects because she's preggo she'll get out of any jail-time.'

'Is that true?'

'I had a little conversation with Ian Link and he said the woman is going to be put on house arrest and have twenty-four hour electronic monitoring until she gives birth plus six months afterwards. After that, the child passes into the care of the legal next of kin until the sentence is finished in a woman's correctional facility or until the child turns eighteen, whichever happens first.'

'Link will go for the maximum penalty for her,' Beckett said softly. 'He has no tolerance for people like Carolina Witt who abuse their authority and prey on those their supposed to protect.'

'He's a lot like Ryan that way,' Adam agreed, then shut his mouth when he saw RJ come down the stairs; he knew Beckett was trying to keep this one away from home as best as she could so her son wouldn't see how shaken the idea of schools being unsafe had made her. 'Hey there's our chef! What's on the menu tonight?'

'I put a little menu at everyone's spot,' he replied with proudly pink cheeks. 'It is being served family style which Daddy said means all the bowls on the table and we help each other with our plates.'

'And are we ready to eat?'

'Ummmm...' RJ trailed off and then grinned when he heard the oven timer. 'Yep! We are! Everyone take a spot!'