'Mumum, bahs? Bahs?'

'In a minute my little prince.'

Beckett had just stepped off her treadmill after doing her run in front of the Travel channel - it feature a run program to simulate running along the beach in or a forest, whatever environment you wanted for exercising - and was reaching for her sports drink. In his swing, RJ was happy as the proverbial clam, watching her run and playing with his stuffed bunny.

'Okay, Mommy's cardio strength is improving, and she is going to be ready to chase down the bad guys in no time,' she smiled at her boy as she glugged down Gatorade and got her wind. 'Now we can get your bahs.'

She stood up, reached over to pick RJ up; when she did so and blew a raspberry on his cheek, he giggled and shoved at her with extended arms.

'Wet.'

'I know, sweetie, Mama's kind of sweaty isn't she?'

'Wet,' RJ repeated. 'Mell.'

'I smell?' At his nod, Beckett scrunched up her face in a cute mommy-is-grumpy grin. 'You're not always a basket of roses yourself, my little prince.'

Beckett plunked him down in his high-chair, and went to the fridge to get out her son's sliced strawberries as Castle jogged down the stairs in his sleep-pants. He rubbed the heel of his hand against his eye socket, trying to get the sleep out. 'Morning sleepyhead.'

'Hey. I didn't even hear you get up.'

'You had a pretty late night in the office.'

'Come here, little guy.' Castle picked RJ up out of his high-chair and took him over to the living room. 'Daddy needs to stretch his legs.'

He walked around the living room with his son, then on a whim, lowered him to the ground. 'Here, trying standing up, my little man. Hey, hey, hey, look at you!'

'What?' Beckett looked over from the kitchen and gasped excitedly at what she saw - RJ was holding onto Castle's index fingers and walking with his daddy. His gait was wobbly and he wasn't quite sure what to do with his feet, but with Castle's help he began to propel himself forward towards his mother. 'Look at you go, RJ, such a big boy.'

'Boy,' he repeated. 'Boy?'

'Yes, you're a boy, and so is Daddy and guess what, you're spending some time this morning with your Grams.'

'Dums?' RJ blinked, craned his neck to look at his dad. 'Dums?'

'Sure,' Castle laughed. 'What time you want to go?'

'I think we should get there around ten. Meredeth likes to go earlier in the day, and I don't want to interrupt her time.'

'Of course not. And I've already made sure that flowers will be sent to Meredeth and Javier this afternoon, and the card just says 'Thinking of You'.'

They arrived at the cemetery before the temperature of the day spiked too high. When they arrived at the stone, they saw the Espositos had already been there, from the pictures, the votive and the flowers left at the engraved red granite. Even seeing the words had her feeling choked up.

Constance Dakkars. Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Great-grandmother, loved and missed by all. June 19 - September 7.

'Would you like to go first?' Castle asked Beckett as she crouched to put a bouquet of black-eyed Susans by the pair of red and orange roses, and she nodded.

'Yeah.' She rose, jammed her hands in her pockets. 'Hi, Constance, it's me, Kate Castle. It's September seventh and we miss you a lot. We miss your laugh, and your anecdotes on little Meredeth, and your knowledge of the New York Mets. A lots happened since we talked last, I had a little boy with my husband, I know you remember him. Who can forget Richard Castle? Anyways, we named him Richard James after my husband and my father. I wish you were here to see him, you'd say we have a darling little pige. But I know wherever you are right now, you're with Max and Freja, and we always know how to reach you if we need someone to talk to.'

'That's was lovely,' Castle murmured as Beckett pressed a kiss to her fingers and place it on the top of the stone. 'My turn now?'

'Yeah.'

'Okay. Hey Constance, it's me, Rick Castle, and like Kate said, it's September seventh and it can't put into words how much we miss you. My mother misses you a lot, she still gets misty eyed talking about Meredeth and Javi's wedding when you two got sloshed on double martinis and red wine. We've all been looking out for Meredeth having two babies, and uh, my daughter too. You remember Alexis? She's going to medical school at Princeton to be a psychiatrist and has a new boyfriend. He's a little older, but I have a feeling you'd say as long as they're happy together and being romantic as much as possible, it's all good.'

'Castle!'

'It's true,' he said defensively, then laughed. 'Make sure you keep some of the good rooms up there on hold for us, okay Constance? We'll need them in about sixty years or so.'

Like Beckett, he stepped up and pressed a kiss to his fingers, put them on the stone, then turned around, saw Lanie and Dave with Carey and Violet there. 'Hi, guys.'

'Hey. You came after Meredeth.' Lanie said it softly, knowing that however much their friend loved their support, there were something things she wanted to face independently. 'You brought flowers?'

'They are for Meredeth's nona, she is an angel,' Carey said sombrely.

'Shell,' Violet added in her sweet little voice.

'We'll get out of your way here,' Beckett said, unlocking the wheels from RJ's pram and giving them all hugs before she and Castle left the cemetery.

Once back on the street, they found a bench to sit down on and take a breath. Going to pay respects like that was always a heart-heavy task, especially for Beckett; even if it wasn't a blood relative, they always reminded her of her mother's services and the bone-numbing anguish she'd gone through at too young an age. She sighed, leaned against her husband.

'We need some fun now,' she said softly. 'Constance wouldn't want us being all depressed. What can we do as a family that is fun?'

'I have an idea.'

'Yeah?'

'Yeah. Come on.'

Since the cemetery was close to one of the main entrances to Central Park, Castle took them in, bought three soft pretzels from a nearby vendor, two which he put into a waxed paper bag. The other he kept out until the reached the spot he knew would cheer them up.

'Here, tear this up.' He passed Beckett the pretzel, then lifted RJ out of his pram, steadied him on his feet while still hanging onto him. 'You got a few bits?'

'Yeah, here.'

Beckett handed him the hunks of torn-up bread and felt the darkness in her heart lift when she watched Castle toss them into the water, and like feathery magnets, a whole flock of ducks appeared, pecking at the bits of treat thrown in the water. She laughed as she watched the birds tussle over the bigger pieces while the little chicks were happy with the crumbs they found. Ripping up more pretzel, she passed some to Castle who pointed at the birds to RJ.

'Look, RJ, those are called duckies, can you say ducky?'

'Duddy!'

'That's good, that's very close. Here.' Castle put a little bit of pretzel into RJ's hand and helped him move closer to the water, though they still stayed a safe distance from the edge and helped him throw it into the water. 'Feed the birdies, RJ.'

R&R&Enjoy