Hang on to your hats, fan-fic fans! This takes place mostly at Comic-Con and is WAY meta! Also had to give a little shout-out to my 2 favourite Heroes from the Kring-verse!

'How many do you think are out there, three four hundred?'

'Oh at least that.'

'No.'

'Seriously, you want to take a look?'

Meredeth peeked out from behind the dark green curtains as she felt her stomach do flip-flops. Kristof was right, the room was jammed. People from all walks of life, fanboys and girls of all shapes sizes and ages were jammed into Auditorium C for the Comic-Con panel Robina had so hastily arranged for the miniseries. She thought she'd seen a tonne when she and Kristof had done the autograph signing with Morgan Myers and his crew, making it a Lady Hawk/Black Beast double billing. But there was easily double the number from that here today.

Comic-Con had been, needless to say, a whirlwind. She'd been as much a gushing fangirl herself meeting people from The Big Bang Theory and J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot; they'd all wanted her Jane Hancock as much as she'd wanted theirs. She'd even snapped a photo with Joss Whedon, who only snickered when she said she'd met and become friends with Richard Castle, which she immediately posted to her Twitter with the tweet Look who I ran into! My inner Firefly fan is clutching her pearls! Yet despite all the attention, she was still going back to her hotel room at night alone, missing hearing Arturo's tags jingle as he followed her into bed. And of course, missing Esposito.

She'd known she'd miss him, but she hadn't realized how much she'd loved just the act of sleeping with him. Her big, bad, bullet-wound surviving superhero cop was a snuggly sleeper, who always liked to have some part of himself touching her while they dozed. More often than not, she'd fallen asleep with his arms around her. Because she was in a room on her own, as Robina's son TJ had flown out with her, Meredeth had arranged the extra pillows on the bed so that she bumped up against something solid when she rolled in the night. If he wasn't there, she'd make do with the illusion he was.

'You want a drink before we go up there?'

Meredeth turned and gulped a little when she saw Milo Ventimiglia standing behind her, also looking out through the curtain. They'd worked together now almost two months on the miniseries and still every time she saw him, she immediately wanted to call him Peter Petrelli. 'I think they're going to eat us alive, then auction our bones off on eBay.'

'Relax, it's fine. These things, they are just excited to be here and see their favourite writers and producers and actors. And trust me, this is the place where someone like you can shine. Give them your brains...no pun intended,' he added when she giggled.

'It'd only be a pun if it was from Mister Quinto.'

'That's very true.' Milo checked his watch. 'Hey, did you bring anymore of those brownies?'

'You and my boyfriend, man, you two should meet. Trade choco-holic support group stories.'

'Hey everyone.' Robina walked up, Mila Chaka and Laura Harper behind her, both in the Comic-Con hipster finest and sipping from what Meredeth saw were Lady Hawk-logo emblazoned aluminum water bottles. 'Mere, I've got yours here,' she added offering Meredeth a water bottle when she saw where her favourite client was looking. 'You ready?'

'As I'll ever be.'

The moderator made the introductions and as they walked on stage, Meredeth immediately whipped out her video camera to begin recording while she used her iPhone to take some pictures. Because of the immeasurably blinding light radiating from the stage lights, she could barely see beyond the panel table which was a huge comfort to her. Now she understand a little more what her Javi must have felt when he got up on stage with her during her interview.

'Before we begin,' the moderator started, 'I'd just like to say, our illustrious writer, Miss Coleman, finally made it out here to San Diego, she was supposed to be here for the eighteen for the previews and got here half way through the night-screening of the new Black Beast series. She and I were talking over dinner with the rest of the group two nights ago, to go over a little what we wanted to talk about today, and I learned the reason she was delayed in arriving at Comic-Con was because she was on her way to the airport to come out here, when she got a phone-call. One of her best friends had gone into labour and had a little boy on the night of the seventeenth. So from all of us here at Comic-Con, we'd like to say congratulations to Jenny and Kevin Ryan of New York City, on the birth of Thomas Delaney Ryan, born July seventeenth, weighing six pounds and thirteen ounces.'

Meredeth grinned proudly as the auditorium filled with applause; she knew the new parents would geek out over the shout-out from Comic-Con, and it would be something Dell would have for himself as well. Comfortable now that she had the audience somewhat more on her side, the panel began with the moderator asking questions for the first half.

'Meredeth, my question is directed at you.'

'Of course.'

The moderator cleared his throat. 'A lot of writers are involved in the casting process as a consultant when their work is being adapted, so my question is three-fold. First part, when you were working on the adaptation with Bonnie and Mark, or when you're writing , is there a particular voice in your head that you think of when creating a character? Second part, who was the most surprising casting choice for you, and third part, what character has been your favourite to watch come to life?'

'Oh boy, that's a lot of parts.' Meredeth laughed, and the crowd laughed with her. 'When I'm doing the writing for the story itself, for the graphic novel, I wouldn't say there was really a 'role-cast' voice to any particular character, except for one.' She paused, took a sip of water, and it suddenly hit her that she was sitting beside Milo as she'd reveal this. 'I'm a huge fan of Zach Quinto's and I was watching season two of Heroes which is very Sylar-centric, and it was on the time when I was working on Book Four, Open Your Eyes, so as I was drafting and developing the character of Marcel, I felt him to be a very Sylar-esque character, someone who wants to prove he's special and more than willing to crack a few heads to do it.'

She dragged her hand through her hair. Milo was right it seemed, this was a lot easier to do than she thought. 'As far as casting surprises, I was astonished when this fine fellow-' she patted Milo's shoulder next to her '-was cast as Andrews, for the simple reason I didn't think he'd be available, what with filming Dallas, Lieutenant Eve in L.A. and us being a New York production. Oh, and Milo, I want my plate back,' she added, much to the delight of the fangirls in the audience.

Milo grinned back at her; they'd been having this little Tweet war for almost a month. 'Like I said, the only way I'm giving it back is if it gets refilled with those yummy vegan brownies. You know the drill.'

'Getting back to the moderator's question, part three, hands down, my favourite to watch come to life was Miss Amaranth. Laura Harper just knocked it out of the park, because when I met her, she was this sweet, unassuming, book nerd, and I know she's laughing at me from the other end of the table-'

'-No, it's true, I am, I read all the time and not just scripts, everything,' Laura added from her place on the panel.

'And then when we were in the studios, she lets it fly, she just goes every which way but loose. I particularly liked the scene where she's grilling Tabitha over why Andrews has been asking for her at the office.'

Meredeth sipped her water, as her microphone was muted by the sound engineers, and took the opportunity to take some more photos. By the time they got through the rest of the panel, it was time to move on to the audience questions. There were some directed at Kristof, others at herself for spoilers for the sixth book, but most were for the actors on what drew them to the role and what kind of comics they liked, allowing Meredeth to really sit back and enjoy herself. Finally the moderator drew the discussion to a close.

'Well, on behalf of Comic-Con, and the lovely people from this production, I want to thank you for being here, I think we have time for one last question. The gentleman at the back.'

Meredeth sipped more water, shook her head; of course the die-hards could always be counted upon for one last kick at the spoiler can.

Then she heard it. The last question.

'Yes, Miss Coleman, I was wondering if you had any dinner plans this evening?'

All professional pretense was gone as she heard Esposito's voice loud and clear on the speakers, and pressed her hands to her mouth in unadulterated delight. 'Not that I can think of, why do you ask?'

'Then perhaps we order room service in your hotel suite.'

The entire auditorium wolf-whistled and applauded, as the panel turned to look at Meredeth; they knew she had a boyfriend but none of them had met Esposito, nor heard what he sounded like. Playing it for the maximum effect, Meredeth picked up her microphone, got up from the table and walked down so she was standing on the floor in front of the stage. 'Depends. Come on up here, let me see what you look like.'

Biting her lip, she grinned as he walked up up the center aisle - no swaggered was closer to the truth. He knew he was about to look like the biggest stud in the room, and for her money, he was. When he walked up to her, she was expecting a hot kiss, maybe a little tongue action. She wasn't prepared for the way he took her in his arms, and dipping her back, planted one on her that nearly steam-cured the leather in her sandals.

Esposito brought her back up right, flicked his fingertip over her nose. 'Hey gorgeous.'

'Hey yourself, handsome.' She cleared her throat, spoke to the audience. 'Yes, this is my boyfriend and no that wasn't planned.'

Up at the podium, the moderator laughed. 'Actually it was, we just didn't tell Meredeth. Take care and enjoy the rest of your afternoon.'

As the group began to filter offstage, Meredeth dragged him through the curtain with her, then planted a kiss on him herself. 'Oh, my god, Javi! What are you doing here!'

'I wanted to surprise you, so I came a day early. I bumped into Robina before you guys went on stage and she told the moderator to let me be the last person to ask a question to the panel.'

'Is Lex with you?'

'Yeah, she's out in the autograph line for Space Cowboy. She wants to ask Joss Whedon if her father really was his inspiration for Captain Hammer in Doctor Horrible.'

'Wouldn't be surprised if he was.' Meredeth gave him a squeeze. 'I've still got some press stuff to do here, so were you serious about room service?'

'Absolutely. We can always meet with people for drinks after, if that's the case.'

'After what?'

Esposito wriggled his eyebrows. 'I brought some selections from the toy box.'

Meredeth stroked the arch of her foot over Esposito leg. They'd made it to the bed of their hotel room, although just barely, and they had indeed ordered room service. Very romantic room service which they'd put to good use, along with the few things he'd packed in her suitcase from the little white box that stayed under the bed.

'I knew that doing chocolate-tasting again would be fun, but really? Blindfolded fruit tasting was a hell of a lot of fun too.'

'I personally liked making you a bra out of whipped cream and decorating it with suggestively-placed berries.'

'I did too.'

'I know.' Esposito ran his hand up her thigh, before slipping out of her to dispose of the condom - they'd decided to go back to using them after he'd gotten off his pain medication - then resumed his position of stretching out on top of her. 'I could tell by the way you kept saying 'yes' over and over again,' he murmured, cruising his lips along her jaw line.

'So glad Lex has her own room.'

'Yeah, it wouldn't have been right for her to walk in on us doing that.'

'Scar the kid for life.'

'Girl probably lives with foam-rubber ear plugs since Beckett's living with Castle now. There's a couple that's rarely quiet.'

'Oh?' Meredeth cocked her head to the side. 'And we know this how?'

Esposito wrinkled his nose, propped his head on his hand. ' I got to Castle's place early one week for cards night, and I was about to knock when I could hear them...you know, doing their thing...through the door.'

'Really?'

'Mm-hmmm. Went back down to street level, got myself a coffee from the place across the street, went back up and they were still going at it.'

Meredeth couldn't resist. 'Guess it really was poke 'er night, wasn't it?' She got a light thump on the head for her bad joke. 'Is that why you don't like the song Poker Face?'

'No. I hated that song way before that night. You hungry?'

'Famished.'

'Why don't we shower and get dressed, and have dinner out, you and me and Lex? The hostess at the desk told me about this great seafood place a couple of blocks from here, right on the water.'

'Sounds divine. Hey,' she pinned him to the bed, gave him a long, slow kiss. 'I love you, Javi.'

'Love you too, Mere.'

As she went into the bathroom, Esposito found his phone on the bedside table and added a little note in the notepad function - wedding dinner - seafood buffet?

R&R&Enjoy.