The house felt so empty in the days following Alexis' return to England. Neither Castle nor Beckett had realized just how charged the whole loft had been with her electric personality and excitement over her new love and now that it was gone, the space felt far more vacant than it should have. But it didn't stay that way for long, because Beckett had plans to fill it up again. Between Lanie, Honey-Milk, Meredeth and herself they had more than enough babies and helpers to go around so she planned a mommies and babies only night when she knew that Castle was tagging along with Ryan and Esposito for a surveillance detail on their latest case.

Since they lived the closest, Lanie arrived with Violet first and when she removed her coat, Beckett felt a pang of jealousy at the fact that Lanie was at half her baby weight already.

'You're looking so good, Lanie,' she smiled. 'Look at this one getting so big!'

Beckett set out the fruit juice she'd become addicted to during her pregnancy along with bottles of carbonated water and ginger-ale; since they were all nursing and Meredeth was actively trying for another baby again with Esposito, none of the would be hitting the hard stuff. She made a half-and-half cocktail of fizzy water and pineapple juice and realized that Lanie was watching her with some kind of anticipation. Glancing up she saw the eagle-eyed look on her friend's face and squinted at her.

'What?'

'Don't what me, you know what I'm waiting to hear about. A certain redheaded soon-to-be med student and my fellow pathologist?' Lanie drew out the words, bopping her head back and forth as she did. 'Did you have any idea about the two of them?'

'I knew there was someone, I didn't know it was him.'

'Him who?' Meredeth asked as she walked in the door with Tessi. 'Are we talking about Alexis?'

'Of course. Hi Tessi-boo, you're getting big, sweetheart,' Lanie crooned at the toddler.

'I big. Mama day-ons?'

'Yes, you can go into the living room and play with your crayons, princess.' Meredeth pointed her towards the table and Tessi wandered over, plunked herself down with her backpack. 'She's such a good girl, she's so patient.'

'Yes, you're a good mother, Tessi's an angel, now back to important things.' Lanie's eyes burned with questions. 'Do I need to get my rib-spreaders to crack that jaw, or you gonna cough it up voluntarily?'

'Cough what up? The fact that Alexis had-slash-has a hot doc making her open wide and say 'ah'?' Meredeth giggled, remembering the phrase from Lanie's favourite coffee mug. 'I thought they were so sweet at New Years, and it was rather clever the way you engineered it so they could kiss, Kate.'

'I never said I engineered anything,' Beckett scoffed, which only earned an eye-roll from Meredeth.

'Please, girl, I've been writing undercover couples and kisses since I was fifteen, I could pick up that vibe at a hundred paces.' That, and she'd seen Shane sneak into Castle' office under the pretense of 'charging his cellphone' just after Alexis had gone in to find a back-up batter for her camera. Like a pair of horny teenagers, she'd thought and had barely kept her thoughts to herself. 'More importantly, I was dying when I heard the story about what happened when the guys found out.'

'Found out what?'

They glanced over, and saw the last member of their party night was there in the form of Honey-Milk with Mallory and no Dell. 'Am I missing the good gossip?'

'Depends. Did your husband tell you about what happened on cards night with Shane Weaver?' Meredeth asked with a wide grin.

'Oh yes indeed he did.'

'Denny!' Tessi, having recognized Honey-Milk's voice, wandered in from the living room, her tiny heart searching for the young man that always seemed to accompany her. 'Dell?'

'No, sweetie, Dell's visiting his grandparents for the weekend. Sorry, darling,' she apologized when the little girl's face visibly fell.

'Tessi, why don't you work on a picture for Dell and Jenny can take that home to Dell?' Meredeth suggested, sending the girl back to her crayons with a subtle move. It worked like a charm, as Tessi parked herself at the table and began to doodle once more which left the big girls to chat. 'Now,' Meredeth continued, as she put the quesidillas she'd brought into a dish to heat in the oven. 'Let's hear more about this whole Alexis-and-Shane thing.'

'Hold that thought.' Beckett went over to the computer where she could hear the Skype ringing to alert her of an incoming call. She grinned widely. 'And speak of the devil,' she murmured, pushing the 'Talk' button-icon. 'Hi, Alexis, what's going on?'

'Not much, just got off the phone with...are you alone or are there people there?'

'Too late, Lexie-kins.' Lanie sauntered over with fresh glasses and a pitcher of the same sparkling pineapple mock-tail Beckett had made for herself. She poured drinks all around and settled into the chair so she could see Alexis on-screen. 'We all know about your new man, emphasis on the word man.'

'I know, I know,' Alexis started; Beckett could tell right away that her girl was braced for a battle, so she did the instinctive thing and jumped in.

'Hey, Lex, no one here is going to judge.'

'We're just in the mood for a little girl talk,' Meredeth piped up.

'Yeah, one lucky lady to another,' Lanie added with a warm smile. 'So how about it, girlfriend, you ready to be one of us now and share all the dirty details about Shane?'

'Oh, I don't know, I think there's a few details that might make Mom's head blow up.'

As if he could sense the possibility of awkwardness, RJ began to fuss for a snack through his baby monitor and Beckett grinned at Alexis on the webcam. 'Look at that, Lex, RJ's not even two months old and he has your back.'

'Okay, now that your mama's gone up to the nursery, spill it,' Lanie said, sipping her drink with relish once Beckett had disappeared upstairs.'

'What do you want to know?'

'First date, like first real date, not just some kind-of accidental coffee thing,' Meredeth said, holding Mallory against her chest while she napped to give Honey-Milk's arms a rest. 'Dinner, a movie, what?'

'He took me out for dinner to Spice Island, it's this cute little Thai restaurant on the Lower East Side. We talked about everything, and it just felt so easy to talk to him.' Alexis sighed and the sound had all the other women's heart fluttering happily for her. 'You know when you can just talk to someone, it doesn't feel like you have to work at it?'

'Oh yeah, it's how I met Dave,' Lanie agreed. 'What about your first kiss?'

'Third date, we were on our way to the subway after playing pool and it was snowing like a winter wonderland, then I was in his arms, and everything went all...fuzzy.'

Meredeth grinned, remembering her first one with Esposito. 'Those are the best kind. I was grinning the entire way home after Javi and I kissed.'

'Well, our next date, I went to his place for dinner and a vid, but I can't remember a damn thing about the vid,' Alexis replied, smiling widely and eliciting salacious 'ooohs' from the other women. 'Just like the first we...you know, I couldn't even think about anything but him. That never happened with JP. Anyways, I better run, I-'

'Oh, no, no, sweetness.' Lanie shook her head. 'You just admitted to all of us you're lovin' up Shane Weaver and he's quite the dreamboat, so you're going to fill us in with a lot more important details. One mos-def springs to mind.'

R&R&Enjoy.