Okay, so I decided to put this in before the girls' weekend because...well, you'll understand why in a bit.

The night there was a massive storm system rolling through New York and she was convinced there was a power outage on the way, Beckett lay in bed naked but for her panties and sprawled on Castle's chest. They couldn't even open the window to let in the breeze without the risk of letting in copious amounts of water. She puckered up her lips, kissed his smooth skin as she moved against him, hoping he would get the message. He did, evidently, as his hand stroked up her back and down, under her panties to squeeze her ass.

'Think we can do without those, he murmured and rolled so Beckett was underneath him to tug them off. He traced his fingertips up her thighs, brushed them over her, surprised to find her already damp for him. 'Feeling a little overcharged, my love?'

He kissed her, his tongue traced over her lips, then down her throat to her breasts where he paused to tease her even further, over her flattening belly, down to where she wanted him most, and he grew hard at the sound of her delighted whimpers. Rather than twisting her fingers through his hair to keep him close, he linked his own with hers and kept them anchored near her hips as they rose and fell while his tongue evoked glorious dark lightening bursts inside her body. But he stopped just short of giving her release, which had her popping up like a marionette.

'What-'

'Just trust me.'

With quickfire moves, he ranged himself over her and sank inside and Beckett's loud cry was muffled by his mouth; he paced his thrusts to be slow and deep, the grind of his hips into Beckett's making her moan lowly until he felt her tense, then shudder as the orgasm swept through her like the storm outside. When he'd followed her into that sweet euphoria, he collapsed on top of her, breath wheezing in and out.

'Rich, not that I'm complaining since I just got laid, but that was awfully quick.'

'Yeah, and with good reason.'

'What?'

Castle lifted his head, looked at her. 'Did your horniness fog your memory? Alexis and Shane are right across the hall, and I don't know about you, but I'd like to be able to face them in the morning, as would you probably.'

'Oh, God, you're right. How did I miss that?'

'I don't know, but I'm going to get the extra candles out of the kitchen in case we do lose power.'

Castle gave her one last kiss, then grabbed his robe off the back of the door, headed downstairs. He was so inside his own head laughing at Beckett he jumped a foot out of his skin when he saw Shane in his boxers standing in front of the fridge, also clearly in a post-coital good mood.

'Shane?'

The ME jumped as well, turned to see Castle there. 'Oh, hi Rick, I was just, umm...getting a drink,' he said in a rush. 'You?'

'Candles in case we lose power.' Castle paused. 'We don't need to talk about this tomorrow morning.'

'Agreed.'

The next morning, Beckett was jolted awake by a sound that made every mother go on alert - her child in distress.

'Rick, wake up.'

'Huh?'

'Castle! Something's wrong with RJ.' Beckett was already scrambling out of bed at the sound of her son's pitiful crying through the baby monitor. 'He's hurt.'

In a flash Castle was awake and pulling his boxers back on where they'd been discarded the night before. Visions of RJ with a nasty bump on his head or a limb stuck between the rails of the crib haunted him, but when he reached the nursery just steps behind his wife, he saw RJ in her arms and gumming her thumb like it was going to run away. Beckett winced only a little and looked to Castle for assistance.

'He looks fine, I don't know what would...' she trailed off when she felt the tiny pinch to the pad of her thumb. 'Oh. Oh I think I know what this is.'

'Yeah?'

Beckett eased her thumb out of RJ's mouth. 'Stick your finger in.'

Castle obliged her, thinking her a little nuts until he felt the same pinch and nodded in agreement with her. 'Our big boy is cutting his first tooth, Mom, and he is none too happy about it.'

'Should I be worried that he's crying so much?'

'No. When Alexis was teething, you'd think someone was shoving needles in her ears the way she screamed her head off. Kept our neighbours up until all hours, we even had the cops come to our door on a disturbance call.'

Beckett made a sympathetic face as RJ continued to gnaw on her finger. 'Poor girl. How did you calm her?'

'Baby Motrin, orange Popsicles and blue super-Freezies. She practically lived on 'em, and she always had a blue tongue, looked like Vampire Smurf for three weeks solid.'

'Meredeth said Tessi went through absolute hell, she suggested a dairy-free sherbet or gelato or something for him.'

'We've only got double-chocolate and pistachio. Maybe some juice on his paci?'

Castle nodded, headed down to the kitchen with RJ's soother, came across something else of use in the freezer. Taking the bag, he went back upstairs to the nursery, where he found Beckett had moved to sitting in the big comfy armchair. 'Here,' he said, setting the bag on the all-purpose counter. 'This was the other thing I tried with Alexis that worked, though she always preferred the Freezies.'

Beckett watched as Castle passed RJ half of a frozen strawberry and as the little boy began to nibble it cautiously, the cold of it had his cries subsiding into cranky whimpers. 'Oh, does that feel better, my little prince? I know, it's tough when you don't know what's going on isn't it,' she crooned to her calming child.

'Everything okay?'

Both parents glanced up to see Alexis in her summer robe and Shane standing with his hand on her shoulder, Alexis' hand covering his. 'I heard him crying and then he stopped, I wondered...' she trailed off as she saw her little brother chomping a frozen berry.

'He's okay, he's just teething,' Castle reassured her.

'Oh. Anything I can do to help?'

'Coffee,' they said in unison and Alexis nodded; she left for downstairs while Shane stayed behind.

'You want me to sit with him will you get dressed, Kate?'

'Oh, thanks, Shane.' She passed RJ to Shane, ruffled her boy's hair. 'Nice tattoo, by the way, Doctor. Didn't know you had any ink.'

He looked down at the design on his left bicep - a picture of Homer Simpson dressed as the Grim Reaper and under it the words 'vergiss nicht' - and grinned sheepishly. 'Yeah, I got that a month after I started with the OCME. Now go. Clothes, hairbrush, coffee.'

Beckett took off for her room, found shorts and a t-shirt and tied her hair back off of her face. She desperately wanted a shower but it could wait. Her son needed his mommy.

She went downstairs and nearly wept at what she saw - Alexis and Shane were making breakfast for her and Castle, omelettes and homefries and toast along with a pot of vanilla lattes.

'Hey, your man took RJ for a little walk to get him some fresh air and and to go pick up some Popsicles and Freezies. Hope your hungry.'

'This was so thoughtful, thank you.'

'It was all her,' Shane pointed at Alexis with his spatula.

Beckett glanced up at Shane and grinned. 'Marry her Shane,' she teased him; because she couldn't hear Shane's inner monologue, Beckett missed it when he silently replied, that's the plan.

R&R&Enjoy