Hello everyone! So glad to see you're still loving this story! I have had the song 'Afternoon Delight' stuck in my head all day and said the hell with it, I'll figure out how to use it for my next chapter, so enjoy!

'Hi Mom, hi RJ!'

Beckett smiled as Alexis waved at them through the webcam; Beckett and RJ were have their 'tummy time' as the doctor had called it and while they were playing, Alexis had called during her dinner time in England, so Beckett had put the laptop on the coffee table to be part of the family activity. 'He's trying to figure out how to shove himself to his back, I don't think he likes being on his tummy. And he still has a little bruise on his leg from the booster shots he had.'

'Aw, poor little guy.'

'How is your clinical work going in London?'

'Good, it's still three days in the classroom, two in the clinic right now, but then after the mid-semester break, we go to half and half.'

Beckett giggled at the dreamy look in Alexis' eyes when she mentioned her break. 'You and Shane have anything special planned for that?'

'Don't know yet, we might take a little weekend trip into Paris or Amsterdam, it's like a two-hour flight and the tickets here are stupid-cheap to go city-hopping like that. Where's Dad at?'

'He's in court.'

'Oh, man, what'd he do this time?'

Beckett laughed. 'No, no, with Ryan and Esposito, they're testifying in a case from last December. They're suddenly much more curious about how you are doing now that they know about your boyfriend.'

'I think it's sweet. I've never had big brothers to look out for me and I know they're doing it out of love and concern.' Alexis heard RJ go 'blb' and grinned widely. 'Thank you RJ, see he agrees with me.'

'He also thinks peek-a-boo is the height of hilarity.'

'Okay, I have to get back to work here, but I'll talk to you soon, okay? Love you Mom, love you RJ, I'll send Dad an email soon.'

'Wait, wait.' Beckett picked RJ up, so he could look at the webcam and Beckett pointed to the image of his big sister. 'Can you say bye-bye Lex?'

'Bye-bye, RJ, you be good for Mom, okay?'

Alexis watched with pride as RJ tracked her voice and when she kept talking to him in a sweet dove-coo he wrinkled up his little nose and gave her a wide and charming little smile. The sight of it had Alexis going buttery. 'Aw, there's my little sweetheart! Bye little bro!'

'Bye-bye Lexie.' Beckett lifted his tiny wrist to wave his hand at the screen and then it went blank as Alexis ended the call, making Beckett sigh. 'We miss her a whole lot don't we? Just like Shane, though he probably misses her for different reasons. What do you think?'

RJ looked like he was considering the question, then screw up his little face into a sneeze so loud he looked around for the source, then began to whimper a little bit, thought more out of being tired than anything else. Beckett had surprised herself in being able to learn what all the different kinds of cries meant, and this one was most definitely the one that signaled it was nap time.

'Okay, my little prince, we'll get you tucked into bed.'

She went into the nursery, selected a disc for the small table top stereo. Her boy loved Billy Joel, even when he'd been a foetus - she'd put on a soothing mix on the iBump when he'd been kicking her insides around like a soccer ball, and once Piano Man came on, RJ had settled his unborn self right down. Now that he was out in the world, it was no different; at nap time, he wanted his music to fall asleep with.

Beckett selected New York State of Mind and once RJ was in his crib, his eyes were sinking shut before the song was half-done. She dimmed his nightlight and gave him a kiss, murmured she loved before slipping out quietly to head back downstairs.

She looked around the apartment and realized with a little thump it was that time of day, just for her when she could catch up on some reading, do the laundry, hell she could have her own nap if she wanted to. But first there was a little matter of pumping out to makes a few bottles for RJ since her husband had told her he wanted to give RJ his bottle that night when he got in from court. RJ was surprisingly good about bottles, unlike Dell and Kelley had been. She'd heard the stories from Honey-Milk that unless whoever was sitting for Dell had wrapped his bottle in one of her sweaters from the previous day so he could smell mom, it was a fight to the death to get him to take it.

When her task was done, Beckett put the milk into the fridge,then thought about what else she might like to do with a little free time. Of course, she knew exactly what she wanted to do, she realized and how to do it without feeling guilty. Going back up to her room she gathered up a load of towels for the washing machine, dumped them in with some Sunlight, then headed to the kitchen. A search of the freezer turned up a pint of Ben & Jerry's strawberry-lemonade fro-yo; she jammed the spoon into the container, put it on the coffee table.

'You got to play, RJ,' she murmured, picking up his blanket and soft toys and putting them in the playpen. 'Now it's Mommy's turn to chill.'

Going into the office, she dragged out the Smartboard and the accompanying tablet and scooping up some fro-yo, turn on the program.

Welcome back, Detective. What are we doing today? Court appearance, cold case, fresh body or collaborate with the FBI?

She grinned; she hadn't gotten to play the new version of Mat-Leave Mysteries yet, and this one had the addition of doing a court appearance for the stories in the first one, and since it looked to be promising, she opted to spend the day in court, just like her husband was doing.

It was where Castle found her an hour later, at just past three, when he arrived home, glued to her video game like a teenager with her eagle-ears tuned to the baby monitor and the washer and dryer tumbling away.

'Good afternoon, Detective, hard at work I see,' he said, coming up behind her to study the Smart-board. 'Who's your victim?'

'Abigail Conlin, fifteen, believed to be a runaway from a polygamist cult in Virginia found in an SRO in Alphabet City with her mouth taped shut, hands and feet bound with rope and her throat slit ear to ear,' Beckett replied around her spoon, then paused the game, set the spoon down to give him a kiss. 'Laundry's going, RJ's still asleep and I'm taking some time for me this afternoon.'

'Good. Mommy all the time burns you out.'

'How come you're home so soon?'

'Two hour recess, then back in. There's more footage from the killers' personal collection that has to be read into evidence.'

'Oh, yes, the Bloody Warhol case. You want something to eat?'

'Sure.' Castle leaned in, gave her a piping-hot kiss. 'Later.'

'Later?'

He wiggled his eyebrows and tugged on her hand towards the stairs. 'It won't be pretty but it'll be fun and satisfying.'

'Castle, we can't just have sex in the middle of the afternoon like this, what if RJ wakes up?'

'Then we'll be thankful he's not big enough to wander in and interrupt. Besides,' he added, kissing his way down her neck, 'nothing like a little afternoon delight to whet the appetite for a few hours from now.'

Beckett checked her watch, calculated. 'You've got about forty minutes, big guy, until RJ wakes up.'

'More than enough time.'

As he pulled her upstairs with him, Beckett realized this was another perk of a mommy afternoon to herself.

R&R&Enjoy.