This was originally chapter 1, but the flashback did not feel right, so I moved this to the end

THE WEDDING SONG

Today is a wedding day. Not just any wedding day. His wedding day.

He has looked forward to this day for many years. Four years to be more exact. The day he met his future wife, he knew immediately that this woman was it for him. He knew there would be no other. She was the one he wanted to be his wife. She is his forever.

The day they met, she grabbed his heart, ripped it out of his chest and did not even flinch. She has had power over him like a spell cast by a gypsy. Maybe that's what it was. She was not just enchanted but enchanting as well. She waved a magic wand and he was under her control. He just didn't see it happen. How could he see it? He was blind in his love for her.

Or maybe she was just a spirit. An apparition. A figment of his vivid writer imagination. Is she only a character in one of his books? Not real! She exists only in his mind. She only appears to him in his dreams or when he is writing? Was she just ink on paper? That was why she could do things to him. Make him forget all the other women in the world.

No, she is more. Much more. She is everything he ever hoped he would find in a woman. More than just in his dreams. She is a real living breathing woman. Not just his imagined character he created. She is flesh and blood, skin and skeleton. It's just when it is written that way it sounds so much like its just chemistry. Something a university professor could explain by referencing the periodic table of elements. Nowhere on that table is there an element called LOVE.

None of this explains why his heart beats faster whenever she is around.

Today is a wedding day. Not just any wedding day. Her wedding day.

For all of her adult life she wondered if this day would ever come. She dated many men during her life. Good men, bad men and everything in between. Men whose job it was to protect the less fortunate. Men whose job it was to save others. Most men just wanted her body but not her mind, or her heart. Men who were more interested in what she could do for them and never being sensitive to what they could do to meet her needs.

Sometimes she thought that she would spend her entire life as a single woman driven to be the best at her chosen profession. Never having more in her personal life than that. Always focused on her obsessions in solving heinous murders.

Then he appears. A man who seems nothing more than a playboy and womanizer. The kind of man definitely she does not want. The kind of man she does not need. She doesn't want to be another conquest. Just another "Number" in a long list of numbers

But his constant probing into her personal life. His constant presence at her work. Him following her day after day. His childlike stance, so different from the everyday reality of the crimes he helped investigate. But that childlike presence bringing some fun to an otherwise difficult job

She lets him know early on that under no circumstances will she give into his charms. She puts a wall up around her heart.

But it happens. It does not happen quickly. It happens slowly. A little at a time he breaks down her defenses. He doesn't seem to be trying to make her another in the long line of women. He actually seems to care about her. All of her. He is happy when she is happy. He is sad for her when she is sad. He hurts with her when she is hurting. He is sensitive to what are her desires. He is sensitive to her needs. He wants her dreams to become reality and will help it to happen. He is willing to put himself in harms way for her.

One day she comes to realize that his presence is helpful with her work. He is actually beneficial at her job. He becomes a target to her teasing. She lets him delve slightly into her secrets. She uses her feminine charms against him. She leaves him choking on some comment she has made. He is so easy to tease. He falls for her charms which make her fall for his

Then she finds it easier and easier to talk to him about little unimportant things, and then they talk about more important things. She comes to realize that she is now telling him some of her deepest secrets. Not deliberately. Just talking to him has become so easy.

Then one day it happens. Without conscience intent, he strikes a blow to her defenses. She did not see it coming but is something she had begun to hope would happen if everything came into focus. .Her wall collapses. It crumbles into a pile of rubble on the ground. She could not be happier. He has become everything to her. He is her friend, her companion, her confidant, her partner, her Lover.

Now she stands in a beautiful very expensive custom gown made just for her. She is waiting in the entry way of the mansion belonging to him in this ocean side community. They are surrounded by all their mutual friends and family. All are here to celebrate the love that these two have already sworn to each other.

Her father steps up to his daughter and with his own eyes glazed over

"Katie. Are you ready?"

"Yes dad. I am more than ready"

She steps out into the daylight. All those in attendance stand and turn. She sees smiles on everyone's face. She is the center of attention as it should be on your wedding day. At the alter stands her new husband and the man she wants to spend the rest of her life with. His smile dwarfs all the others in the audience.

When they arrive to where the others are waiting, their friend and judge conducting the ceremony asks the question "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?"

Her father answers proudly "Her mother and I" as he places her hand into the hand of the man waiting for his bride

Step steps up beside her groom and they both turn to face the audience for their vows.

"The judge speaks toward the audience "If anyone knows a reason that this man and this woman should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace"

Sorry BUT! Sometimes the best laid plans go astray

The local assistant police chief has decided this is the time that he needs to speak

"RICHARD CASTLE, KATHERINE BECKETT, you are both under arrest"