On the Saturday of the long weekend, the forecasts lived up to the much-hyped promise of a pre-summer heat wave as the sun blazed over East Hampton Village, making the thermometers cry for mercy; even the die-hard radio weathermen were 'golly-Moses-ing' over the fact the temperature at sunrise was seventy-seven and would reach a high of eighty-nine by one pm.

As a result, the entire household of Castle's summer place agreed the best place to be was on the shore. Honey-Milk had set-up her own little station, where she was out of the sun under a large red striped umbrella, in a long loose dress that reminded Meredeth of Rocket Popsicles; as Lanie's new man Dave didn't swim, he offered to stay on shore with her while the rest took the boat out of the bay to a little swim-spot Castle knew of to beat the heat.

'Are you sure you're okay?' Ryan asked, torn between going with his friends and staying with his wife, as he loaded coolers of cold drinks into the back of the Bow Rider.

'Sweetie, I'm fine, Dave's a paramedic. If anything happens to me, he'll radio the boat and take care of me. Besides, I know you really want to go in that boat.'

'I really do.'

Meredeth watched the exchange between them, saw Ryan kiss his bride as he lay his palm against their baby before hopping over the gunwale, eager as a puppy. 'I think you must have been Davey Jones in a past life, Ry,' she commented as he helped her into the boat, then went to the bow. As Meredeth took her seat, she saw Beckett carrying a stack of towels towards the boat and immediately felt her self-confidence plummet. The very beautiful Kate Beckett could have made a fortune as a model, meaning anytime she was around, Meredeth automatically sucked in her stomach under her shirt in embarassment. It wasn't often she felt insecure about her body around these two women, but hearing Beckett talk about wearing her swimsuit the night before, and Lanie all tiny and exotic, Meredeth had suddenly felt sexy as cold mashed potatoes.

'Only Castle would take five grown adults to a place referred to as the old swimming hole at the Hamptons.'

Meredeth glanced up as Lanie bounced up, saw she was beach-dressed in an athletic blue one piece with a print of white hibiscus forming a sash descending from the left shoulder. She'd tied a flowing white scarf around her wild black curls and a matching wrap-skirt at her waist to complete the ensemble; it made Meredeth feel very unfashionable in her oversized Blackhawks t-shirt and baggy cotton shorts.

'It does sound fun.'

Lanie tipped her sunglasses down, wiggled her eyebrows. 'You got a bikini all picked out that'll make Esposito have a stroke? Maybe get you two all tangle up in the seaweed?'

'I might just stay on the boat, keep an eye on you guys while you swim.'

Lanie kept her sunglasses tipped down as she stared at Meredeth's face. She'd gone from being bubbly to deathly quiet in the time it had taken them to get from the house to the boat launch. 'Bullshit. Don't you wanna head out on the boat, cool off in the water, work on your tan?'

'Sure, I'm just not always so comfortable in a swimsuit around other people, you know? It's one thing when I hit the pool to do laps, but this kind of swimming with you and Kate-'

'Oh, that, yeah I learned a little trick. If you just remember Beckett's an alien, that little blip goes away.'

'She's an alien?' Meredeth looked again at the tall, slim brunette and for a moment envisioned an entire spaceship full of equally tall brunettes; Lanie was right, it did work. 'Well that would explain why she's wearing green.'

'Lanie, think fast!' Esposito had appeared on the dock, tossed her a swimming noodle; Meredeth felt her heart give a hiccup when she saw him. He was gorgeous, all golden and warm and toned, the blue and red boarding shorts he'd chosen making him look like he was carved out of amber.

Lanie caught the foam tube in her hand, threw it back to him when he jumped down into the bow of the boat. 'In a minute. Girl talk. Shoo.'

'In a minute,' he echoed, taking a few seconds to wrap his arms around Meredeth from behind over the smooth creamy flesh of her curved stomach he found under her shirt. 'Cannot wait to see what you've got on underneath here.'

'You don't think I'll look like a gelatinous white fish?'

'Please, you in a bikini? That's got seven-eight all over it.'

Meredeth perked up at this, turned around to face him. 'Seven-eight, huh?'

His only response was a wink as he went to help Castle with the gas cans, making Meredeth realize how foolish she was being. How could she possibly be so down on her herself when he told her to her face that seeing her in a swimsuit would have him at full attention? On a giggle she sat back down beside Lanie, who merely gave her the wall-eye.

'You were saying, Meredeth?' she said in a teasing tone as Castle hopped in to start the motor. 'Relax, girl, this will be fun.'

Meredeth felt her nerves slide away like soap down the drain, then laughed when Castle gunned the motor to speed them up the north shore of the bay, Ryan actually yelling 'yee-hah' on the way. Meredeth closed her eyes, and felt the salty spray on her face, the warm glow of the sun on her skin. There was something so calming about being on the water, that made her feel totally Zen with nothing and no-one getting in her way. Opening them back up, she looked at the people on the boat and got a little jolt of the picture they made: Lanie looking like she was on a Caribbean cruise, Castle shirtless and wearing sunglasses as he steered the craft through the water, Kate in the seat behind him with her hair blowing wildly around her face, Ryan wrapping layers of plastic wrap around his arm cast so he could join in, and of course, her Javi, golden as honey and bent at the waist to rest his elbows on his knees. This was her little family, she thought with a grin, and self-conscious or not, she refused to let her anxiety get the better of her because in the end, these people were thrilled just to have her along for the ride and one above all the others would call her beautiful no matter what.

They made it safely up to a small cove, unmarked and uninhabited by any property. The water was shallow, roughly ten feet deep and clear enough that they could see the purely sandy bottom.

'Shouldn't we have some bang-sticks with us, in case of sharks?' Lanie asked, peering over the side of the boat. 'I'm not wussing out, but I've also seen Jaws more times than is healthy.'

Castle dropped the anchor, turned and pointed. 'See those purple floats out there?' he pointed to the two buoys floating about fifteen feet from the boat's stern. 'Those are safety-net markers. Anything bigger than a sardine tries to get through, they'll get a zap for their troubles and they won't be back for more.'

'Works for me!' Ryan peeled off his shirt, the bruises from his tackling of the Picasso Killer out the window visible on his torso; they apparently weren't troubling him anymore, as he launched himself off the wet-dock of the boat and went face-first into the water. He popped out a few seconds later, floating like a cork. 'This is great! It's like a nice warm bath! Come on in!'

'You got it, bro. Banzai!' Esposito yelled it as he did his best cannon ball into the water behind his partner; he was followed by Castle doing the same thing, who came up spitting out salt water.

'Unpleasant,' the writer groused, treading water and twisting to see the three women were still on the boat. 'Chickens!'

'That's what you think!' Beckett hollered back, tugging on the snap of her board shorts. She saw Castle's eyes pop wide as she slid them down over her hips to reveal tiny bottoms with yellow polka-dots on the fanny. 'Chicken, what?'

'You're wearing an itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny-yellow-polka-dot bikini,' he breathed, pulled her toward him for a lingering kiss when she joined him in the water.

Lanie only shook her head, untied her skirt. 'Normally, if I'm stripping for an audience, I've had a lot more alcohol and there's some kind of eighties hair-band music playing!'

'We don't need to relieve Karpowski's bachelorette right now, Doctor,' Beckett hollered as she treaded water beside her boyfriend. He looked so tasty without his shirt; she always loved being reminded that it was all Castle under his suits. 'And toss us a few noodles.'

The swim-toys hit the water seconds before Lanie did, leaving Meredeth the only one still full dressed and out of the water.

'Save the best for last, eh?' Esposito grinned as he hooked a blue noodle under his arms, like he was hanging off the edge of a pool. 'Let's see what you got, babe.'

He watched her with anticipation, knowing she had no clue how the shyness that gripped her whenever she was outside her comfort zone made him love her all the more. Her shorts hit the deck, and when she tugged the t-shirt over her head, he was very thankful his body below his armpits was submerged, otherwise it'd have been very awkward indeed.

She'd opted for black, threaded with metallic rainbow colours and covering no more than the essentials on top; while her bottoms were a little more modest and fashioned like skin-tight board-shorts with the metallic rainbow material forming the waist-band. He'd seen women in bikinis before, but not his Meredeth, and the way she filled out the top, well, she was going to be in for a surprise when they got back to the boathouse, that was for damn sure. He could see her hands run nervously over her stomach, to her tattoo where they drummed a little. Then, she was in the water, popping up like some mystical vanilla mermaid and kicking her way over to him with her long legs. He also noted, adding to his very x-rated delight, that the salt water was buoying up her breasts, making those delicious curves float near the surface.

'Seven-eight?' she asked him in a low voice, leaning in for a kiss. His lips were warm, and salty from the water.

'And then some.'

She grinned, the same rush she got when she wore her sexy lingerie for him flowing in her veins.

'Hey, kissy-face!' The shout came from Castle. 'Ryan thinks he can hold his breath underwater longer than you!'

'Duty calls, babe.'

Meredeth giggle as she watched her boyfriend swim over, his arm apparantly giving him little trouble, to compete in a juvenile contest with his police partner. She followed them over, letting her feet drift in the water as she floated with the swim-noodle as she ranged herself with Beckett and Lanie.

'Boys and their contests, eh? Never changes.'

Beckett swirled her fingertips in the water. 'You'd think they were seven years old again,' she agreed, tipping her head back to dampen her hair.

'Speaking of seven.' Lanie lowered her voice so the boys wouldn't hear them. 'What exactly did Esposito mean when we were leaving, Mere?'

'Hmm?'

'He said you in a bikini is a seven-eight, easy.'

Meredeth snickered a little. 'I can't tell you that.'

'Oh, it's okay to pull the ol' 'not feeling well, going to lie down' bit last night, but that is too much to ask?'

'I knew no one was going to buy that.'

'We're not going to tell anyone,' Lanie pointed out. 'Beckett and I work with all three of them, and the last thing we're going to do is jeopardize professional or personal relationships. On top of which, we're your friends. You can trust us to be discreet.'

Meredeth blew out a breath. 'You know he was on pain-meds for his gun-shot wound, right? Well, one of the side-effects was the, ah...flag staying at half-mast, so to say.'

'Damn, that's rough.'

'Anyways, I didn't know that until we had a little tiff and he told me he knew he was being a complete ass to me, and as much as he wanted to have mind-blowing make-up sex, he physically couldn't do it which was the reason he was being such a jerk in the first place. So I asked him on a scale of one-to-ten, with one being a worm and ten being reinforced titanium how he felt. Now that he's mostly back to himself, he's started using it as a scale of how...in the mood he's feeling,' she finished on a small blush, waiting for either one of them to laugh. Instead, Beckett reached over and patted her hand.

'I think that's very sweet.'

'Really?'

'Yeah, it is.' Lanie lowered her legs in the water, so she was floating upright. 'Moreover, it proves we all have reason to hate a little you having such a great sex life.'

Before Meredeth could respond, Esposito popped up out of the water gasping for air, holding his hands in defeat. 'I give, you win,' he said to the surfacing Ryan, then swam over to Meredeth. Because they were underwater, he pulled her into his arms like Rhett and Scarlett and gave her a noisy kiss. 'He beat me,' he said with a mock pout.

'Poor baby. Want me to kiss it better?'

'Naturally.' His voice turned serious for a moment. 'My arm is cramping up a little; I could use a massage when we get back to the boathouse. Did you bring that coconut stuff?'

'Of course.'

'Excellent.' As he swam over to the boat, hauled himself up on the ladder, Meredeth heard the other two women snickering a little. She turned her head, them shaking theirs.

'I take it back,' Lanie said. 'Now I hate you a lot.'

R&R&Enjoy.