So this is it! This is the last snapshot of Esposito and Meredeth's courtship! But not to worry, for you see, there is a BRAND NEW FIC with its first two chapters up and running for our favourite non-slash, non-Lanie-Sposito-ship couple. This has been one of my favourites to write and I'd like to take a second to explain the reason behind calling the chapters 'Click' - I see each of these chapters as snapshots taken from something akin to a digital photo file, and writing the fic was like creating a photo-album of memories of their courtship. As this is the last chapter, I thought calling it Click and Save felt appropriate to bring things to a close. I opted not to put 'Fin' at the end, because we all know, it's not the end. I know where I want this to 'end' in the Crumbs-verse and we're nowhere even close to that. So buckle up, because we're moving on to the next chapter of the Mere-Sposito relationship! Also, once again, big huge thumbs-up shout out to Ariel119 for being my quasi beta-reader and unshakably faithful follower, to I'm Widget for their LOL reviews, and to everyone who's read and reviewed!

On her last evening in Japan, Meredeth sat sipping green tea in a little restaurant across the street from her hotel. She would miss the tea, but then, what was tea compared to the man who would make her tea that was waiting for her back in the Big Apple? God how she ached for him. She'd been focused on her work during the day and having Alexis traveling with her for two weeks had been delightful, like backpacking with a younger sister. They'd gone to Shinto temples, eaten Japanese street food, they'd gone to karaoke and even gotten a little daffy on sake together one night at a sushi bar. But at night, she'd lay awake and realize she'd' become one of those Lily Aldrin and Marshall Eriksen couples, the kind who didn't like going to sleep without the knowledge that their significant other was close by.

'You are very quiet, Merry-san.'

'I'm sorry, Shiori-san, I'm just deep in thought.' Meredeth smiled at Shiori, her personal guide and translator the Festival committee had assigned to her. She was a small slip of a woman - she'd have to look up to stare Lili in the face - with huge brown eyes and a murmur of a voice. Despite being a cultural ambassador to one of the Festival's three international guests, it hadn't taken long for her inner manga fan to surface. Appropriately enough, when Shiori had asked what Alexis and Meredeth's names meant, the two New Yorkers learned their book-festival guide's name translated to 'bookmark'.

'I can tell. You have talked as fast as the bullet-train every other night. You are sad to be leaving?'

'A little.' It was true. Meredeth was sad to be leaving such a beautiful city; there was a reason, she'd discovered, that the Festival had booked her to stay there - she was treated the way Americans treated movie stars. Every morning, Shiori had shown her the papers and translated the articles featuring her photograph. The positive attention had been overwhelming at times but also immensely fun. 'Mostly, I'm just thinking of my boyfriend. I've missed him so much.'

'Yes, your Ho-vee,' she said, and Meredeth had to bite back a laugh at Shiori's pronunciation. 'He is an honourable man?'

'Very much so. He's a police officer, he investigates murders.'

'An essential occupation, as is yours.'

Meredeth blushed a little; it was something Shiori had been saying the entire time they'd worked together and it was only now, on their last night together that she found the courage to ask the question that had been in her mind since the first time she'd heard it. 'You keep saying that, Shiori.'

'But it's true. You are familiar with a Mister Jonathan Larson, he was also a New Yorker and playwright?'

'Of course,' Meredeth said with a small smile. Every musical theatre fan worth her Playbill-salt knew the name of the tragic Rent scribe. 'He was a brilliant man, very insightful.'

'I am also a fan of his. I saw the National Theatre Company perform his play in Tokyo and Kyoto. There was one line from it that always resonated with me.'

'Which one?'

'At the end of the first act, the character, Mark, he says 'the opposite of war isn't peace, it's creation'. It stayed with me from the first time I heard it. It's why I got involved with the Festival. War is violent, and destructive, and we celebrate artistic creation. Your books, your creations, honor Ho-vee-san's work in a way you probably never thought of.'

Meredeth couldn't resist the giggle this time. 'His name his pronounced Hah-vee, Shirori-san.'

'Oh.' Shirori sipped her tea, smiled politely. 'He is Korean?'

'Puerto-Rican. Javi is short for Javier.'

Shirori repeated the name, and it came out more like Ho-vee-an, shook her head. 'It's a very complex name.'

'It's Spanish.' Because she was both horny and sleep-deprived, Meredeth wasn't at all surprised her brain went to the wake-up sex she'd had with Esposito the morning of her flight to Sapporo and he'd spoken in nothing but Spanish. It had been erotic and sweet at the same time. As if just to tease her, the air was suddenly split with the sound of The Crystals. 'And speaking of which that's him.'

'Then I will excuse myself and see you tomorrow morning, bright and early.'

Shiori placed a few yen on the table, left as Meredeth picked up her phone; she smiled as she saw it wasn't a text but an actual person-to-person call.

'Hello my love.'

'Hey babe. Can't talk long, on my way to work.'

Meredeth blinked, checked her watch to do the calculation. 'So early? It's like four in the morning where you are.'

'Got called in early. Ryan's still on paternity leave until the twentieth so we're short-handed.'

'Ah. How's my puppy?'

'Lonely, missing you, and he's not the only one. Listen I gotta run, babe, just wanted to double check, you're on Japan Air flight eight-seven-fourteen at La Guardia, landing at nine-thirty?'

'You betcha. Take care of my cop.'

'You got it. Love you.'

'Love you too.'

'Good evening ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Pauls speaking, we have just been given tower clearance to make our landing approach into New York City's La Guardia International Airport. Local time and temperature is nine-thirty-three pm Eastern Standard Time and seventy-nine degrees Fahrenheit. To speed up your customs processing, please have your paperwork completed and your passport ready for inspection. The first class passengers will deplane first, followed by our platinum ticket holders, and then our economy and business ticket holders. Thank you for choosing Japan Air, we hope you've enjoyed your flight.'

Meredeth finished off the last of her Coke Zero; she'd lost count how many she'd had. She had been stuck in the limbo of flight travel and crossing the international date line made trying to figure out what the fuck time it was give her a rampaging headache. The possibility it was the caffeine she was pumping into her system that was giving her a migraine didn't occur to her in the slightest; she just wanted to be home. Rather than focusing on the fact she was stuck in a diesel-powered Greyhound bus with wings, she found things to occupy her time in her immediate circumstances.

She'd watched Tin Man on the in-flight movie selection, after which she'd caught a small cat-nap - being able to stretch out on her sleep-bunk in first class was totally worth the extra coin on her ticket price. She re-read the entirety of Chessmen of Mars, A Clockwork Orange and War of the Worlds on her iPod, downed Coke Zero like it was going to be deemed a contraband substance, chatted with all the flight attendants on their breaks about her books, and tried not to mentally will the plane to go faster to get her to La Guardia.

But that was behind her now. The minute she felt the wheels bump against solid ground underneath her feet, she nearly jumped up from her seat and yelled 'Woo-hoo!' Or she would have if she had the energy. Instead she tucked her carry-on over her shoulder, customs paperwork and passport in hand, and left her seat to trudge off the plane behind the others. As she left, one flight attendant who'd asked for her autograph, Niecia, gave her a small hug and it made her smile for a moment or two before more waiting.

Surprisingly the line at customs was short, only forty-five minutes, and Meredeth forced herself to stand upright as she approached the stern-faced customs agent. Her square Germanic face was as friendly as a shark attack as Meredeth passed her the necessary sheets and answered the standard questions.

'Was the purpose of your trip business or pleasure, ma'am?'

'Business.'

'Any tobacco, alcohol, or other items to declare?'

'No.'

'Passport, please.'

When Meredeth handed it over, the guard looked at the name, looked at her with only the slightest change of expression to show the slightest sliver in interested curiosity. 'You're the writer, aren't you?'

'When I'm not in the fugue state of international travel, yes.'

The agent said nothing for a moment, just pulled open a drawer and to Meredeth's utter amazement, pulled out a beaten-up copy of the original printing of Midnight is Crashing, opened the front cover and passed her a pen. 'If you could make this out to Grace Ingersoll, I'd appreciate it.'

'Of course.' Meredeth signed the book, took back her passport. 'Thank you, ma'am.'

'Thank you, and welcome home Miss Coleman.'

Meredeth passed through the doors to go and claim her luggage; she knew she was falling asleep on her feet, as the couple standing next to her tapped her shoulder and asked her if her suitcase was missing. After she picked up her luggage, Meredeth toddled over to the currency stand where she changed her yen into cold hard US greenbacks. Finally, finally, after almost a full day of being in transit, she was really and truly going home.

She made it through the doors of the arrivals gate and instantly started to weep. There he was, in all his beautiful, bad-cooking, video-game and chocolate loving glory. He'd made a little sign that said 'Merry-Cherry' and was even wearing his dress uniform hat to make himself look like her chauffeur. She wheeled her suitcase down the ramp behind her, as he made his way through the crowds and caught her in a tight embrace, his lips fiercely crushing down on hers.

'You're home,' he murmured, then pulled back as he saw her eyes overflowing, brushed his thumb over the wet splotches on her face. 'What are these for?'

'I'm tired, I'm so tired, baby. I've been awake for twenty-eight hours and twenty-four of them have been spent either in an airport or on a plane,' she sniffled, taking his hand as he towed her luggage behind them. 'I'm home. I love you so damn much and I could barely sleep without you and the sharks weren't as much fun without you there either.' She was babbling and she knew it, but Meredeth didn't give a damn.

'I love you, too, Mere. But I don't know who missed you more, me or those guys.'

They'd made it out to the drop-off and pick-up curb, and Meredeth's jaw dropped open when she saw her friends standing beside a shining black limo. Castle and Beckett were both there, along with Lanie and Dave, even Ryan was there, minus Honey-Milk. Meredeth let go of his hand as Lanie rushed over to give her a big squeezing hug.

'Welcome home girlfriend!' Lanie herself swiped at a few tears as she helped Meredeth put her suitcase in the trunk of the limo. 'Your hubby wanted to throw you a welcome home party but we all thought you'd be way too tired, so Castle suggested we all meet you here in this big black boat multitask - party on the drive home.'

'It's perfect.' Meredeth turned to Castle, kissed his cheek. 'Thank you.'

'Anything for my favourite graphic novelist and her boyfriend.' Castle returned her kiss on the cheek, glad he'd remembered the F-word couldn't be used. Not yet, anyways. 'Hop in, there's a surprise in there for you.'

Too tired to question it, Meredeth slid in and was hit by the scent of baby. Look up the bench of the limo, she saw to her utter delight and surprise Honey-Milk with little Dell in a sling and suckling heroically at his mother's breast. 'Jenny! You're here too!'

'You didn't think I'd miss welcoming you home, did you?'

'It's okay for the baby?' she asked as Ryan sat beside his wife and discreetly draped a receiving blanket over her for modesty's sake as the others slid in.

'Yeah, he'd be up anyways for his first late-night snack, so long as the milk-bar goes with him, he's a happy traveling boy. You don't mind me nursing him, do you?'

'Not at all, breastfeeding is a beautiful and natural thing.'

'I think we all agree on that,' Castle commented, earning a smack in the gut from Beckett followed by a warm kiss as he reached for the bottle of red wine he knew Meredeth loved from the limo's minibar. He uncorked it, poured seven glasses, then filled an eighth with pomegranate juice for Honey-Milk. 'But it also means your title of Best Boobs at the Twelfth Precinct has been trumped, Meredeth.'

'I disagree,' Esposito piped up, taking a glass for himself and passing one to the almost-asleep Meredeth. 'You need a straw for this, champ?'

'I don't think so. But after it's finished, I may need a hand getting upstairs to bed.'

Ryan reached over, slapped his partner's shoulder. 'Hey, bro, any words to welcome your sweetheart back?'

'Yeah, what are you making for breakfast tomorrow?'

Meredeth laughed along with her friends in spite of her exhaustion, drank her wine as she felt Esposito press a little kiss on her neck as they held hands in the back of the limo. It was good to be home.

R&R&Enjoy!