Because of the upcoming holiday weekend and because this is done (and I love it! and you!), I've decided just to go ahead and post this chapter. It's short and fun.

I hope you like it. :o)

Chapter 40 – Blimey!

Castle stopped in front of the conference room door and quickly surveyed the bullpen. The boys were at their desks, so he was sure Kate must be there, too. He grinned broadly when he saw her walk out of the captain's office. Then he remembered the body.

"Our vic?" he asked, causing her to look up at him.

Kate's eyes flitted between him, Alexis and the short man between them, unsure of whether to answer in front on this unknown party.

"Lanie ruled it a suicide at the scene. Just finished speaking with his family."

At the mention of Lanie, Alexis moved to Kate's desk. She grabbed Kate's phone, and prepped it to picture mode.

"So, you could use some cheering up?"

Kate set the file she'd been holding on her desk and walked closer to Castle and the shy looking old man in the tweed flat cap. Yeah, she was definitely curious about where he'd been and what he'd been doing.

"Yeah, I guess," Kate said, slowly and cautiously. She started to say something more, but Castle held his fingers out in front of her face in that same gesture he used when "feeding their birds." She was confused. Did he really want her to feed the birds?

She started to move her hand toward his, still watching his hand, when he twitched his fingers, and her mother's ring appeared!

It didn't even take Kate a moment to register what it was. Her hand flew to his, grabbing the ring, but she didn't stop her trajectory toward him. Her whole body was in his arms in a flash. She attacked him with such force that she almost hit her head on the doorjamb—and would have if Castle hadn't had the presence of mind to spin her away from it. Her arms were wrapped around his neck, squeezing him tightly.

Alexis sent the first picture to Lanie. Get up here, now! Dad just gave Kate a ring!

"Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" she repeated into his neck, just loud enough for him to make out what she was saying. She kissed his cheek and squeezed him harder. Then she was struggling to get out of his arms to look at him.

"Thank you!" she said again when she could see his eyes. Then she kissed his cheek and was hugging him again.

Castle had known she'd be happy. Thrilled even, but he hadn't anticipated such a…physical response, especially not in the middle of the bullpen. They'd drawn a crowd. Captain Montgomery had come out of his office upon hearing her squeal. The boys were standing next to him, and he knew there were people behind him from when he'd spun her around.

Kate pulled back again and turned to her right. The first person she saw was the captain, so she hugged him, too. Kissed his cheek for good measure. It was so shocking a display from Beckett that it took the captain a moment to register that his detective was hugging him. By that time, Beckett was pulling back beginning to realize what she'd done.

Embarrassed, she pulled back uttering, "Uh, Sorry, Sir," but then she glanced at the ring clasped between her thumb and forefinger.

"What the hell?" she grinned. "No, I'm not." She launched forward, hugging him again, only this time he was ready for it. He hugged her back, laughing with the rest of the crowd.

Over her shoulder, he told Castle, "I don't know what the hell you're doing, but keep doing it!"

Beckett laughed and turned to Ryan and Esposito, gripping them to her in a three way hug. "He found my ring," she said to no one in particular, sounding totally incredulous. She had despaired over losing it. She had given up hope of finding it almost immediately, and now here it was, clutched in her hand because of Castle.

"Who found it?" Ryan asked.

Kate's head snapped up. "Who found it?" Beckett asked, turning back to Castle.

He'd been regarding her with awe. Watching this moment play out was far sweeter than he'd imagined. He would never get over seeing Detective Kate Beckett so excited that she was literally prancing. Her tough exterior had deserted her today, in the middle of the precinct—not to tragedy, but to pure, unadulterated joy. She might kill him later, when she realized, but it would be totally worth it.

"He found it." He nodded to the short man in the tweed flat cap. The man's head only reached Castle's armpits.

"He found it?" Beckett asked looking at the man. Her excitement had addled her thought process. She found herself unable to do much more than repeat what was spoken to her.

"Ay."

"Hi."

"Detective Beckett, allow me to introduce Seamus O'Daly. Married 41 years to Eileen O'Daly, whom he met in his hometown of County Cork. They have two sons. He's a former fishmonger and lives with his son and grandson over near Nelson Park."

Castle paused and held up Kate's hand, unwrapping her fingers from around the ring. "He's also the locator of this little thing, found the same day we lost it."

"How'd you—?"

"When his grandson came home from school, he helped him post a found ad on Craigslist. I've had a search alert set up for a while now. He left a message at home, Alexis called and here we are."

Kate focused all of her attention on the bashful man in front of her. "Thank you. Just…thank you. You have no idea what this means to me. I don't know how to thank you."

Kate suddenly thought of the reward and how was she ever going to pay Castle back? $10,000! Her eyes flew to meet his. Castle understood immediately.

"He wouldn't accept the reward," Castle whispered in her ear. "I finally got him to accept a thousand to help his grandson out with school expenses, but he wouldn't agree to more. I knew you wouldn't believe me, so I convinced him to come down here with me. He's an incredibly interesting man—great stories, but stubborn."

Kate turned to the man. "Please, would you accept the same from me?"

"Nigh, yer a lovely lass. 'Tis enough ta see yer smile."

"At least, let me take you to lunch? Do something for you?"

The man didn't answer her. Instead he looked at Castle. "Yer gerl's right deadly, lad. Ay kin see why yer smitten. Wouldja mind eef Ay ausk 'er fer a wee pòg?"

Castle laughed and shook his head. Kate looked at Castle in wonder. The gentleman's accent was so thick; on top of this, he was quiet and talking directly to Rick, not her. She had no idea what he'd said.

Castle, not wanting to embarrass the man, whispered in Kate's ear again. "He'd like a kiss." Kate's eyes widened in surprise, and Castle felt her arm tense a bit. "A peck on the cheek will do. We don't want to give him a heart attack!"

Kate looked at the gentleman, who'd removed his hat and was twisting it in his hands. She leaned down a little and draped her arms around his frail shoulders. She kissed his cheek as she did so, and thanked him again.

The older man blushed furiously, but patted her hand and said, "Bless yer 'art. Ay bes be a'goween now. Me boy's a'waiteen, an I doan wan ta be a'keepin' ya from yer werk. Ay'm gladjya fown djyer reeng."

Kate looked at Rick again. She'd caught most of it, but not all of it.

"His son is holding a cab downstairs. He's glad you found your ring."

"At least let me give you cab fare?"

"Taken care of." Castle assured her.

Kate pulled out her card. "If there's ever anything I can do for you, please call me. Anything."

"Ay. Tanks missy." He kissed the back of Kate's hand. He turned to Castle to shake his hand. "T'was a pleasure, Sur. Take car'a yer gerl 'ere." He turned and shuffled toward the elevator.

Kate watched him transfixed for a moment. Then she grabbed Castle's hand, and started dragging him in the same direction. He thought for a moment they were going to get on the elevator and ride down with the man and paused his feet there, but Kate kept going, still with her hands clasped around his arm. She pushed open the stairwell door, drew them through it, and impatiently pushed it closed behind them.

When the door closed, she positioned Rick in front of the skinny security window so no one could see in. He was more than tall and broad enough to block any curious onlookers' views. She leaned her forearms into him, hands at his chest, elbows digging into his abdomen. Then suddenly, her energy escaped out of her hands and she started quickly slapping his chest, one hand after the other, shaking her head back and forth like a wet dog, until Castle began to shrink away from her.

"Ouch, geez, Beckett."

She grinned. "Ya big baby," she teased, but she stopped hitting him. She still looked like she was about to burst.

"What are we doing?"

Kate began to jump straight up and down from where she stood in front of Rick. He watched her like one would watch a bouncing ball.

"We've got to run, Castle."

"Run?"

"Run." She grabbed the rail and jumped down four or five steps. Then she jumped again, and again until she was at the landing where the steps turned back toward them, but went down to the next level.

"Kate, please stop. You're in heels. You're gonna bust your ankle."

Kate ran back up the stairs toward him.

"Castle, I think I need to go home. Go for a run."

"Got some pent-up energy, huh?"

"No," Kate replied facetiously. "How are you so calm? I mean I know it's my ring, but…you normally act like you chugged a Red Bull. I'm outta my element here."

"Well, I already did my cartwheels." Castle put his arm around a still shifty and fidgeting Beckett's shoulders. Kate leaned into him, letting her head rest on his shoulder. "And I may have girly-screamed like one of my fans on the sidewalk and scared a young girl, but no matter what Alexis says, I did not hurl her into oncoming traffic while flagging down a taxi."

Kate chuckled, her entire tense body shaking with her laugh. Castle brought his other hand up to her shoulder.

"You know, I know a good way to deal with pent-up energy. Got a good release for it."

"Yeah?" she asked with amusement in her voice. Castle began to rub her shoulders. Kate sighed and wrapped her arms around his waist. She lifted her head to rest her cheek on his shoulder. She adjusted slightly until she was leaned fully into his embrace.

Castle rubbed and kneaded the knots from her shoulders and the long muscles in her back. Kate grunted in satisfaction.

"My God, Kate. You're so tight."

Kate tee-heed at his unintended innuendo.

"It's like I'm Marty McFly transported to teen Beckett."

Kate shifted in his arms and pressed her body into him a little more. "I can't help it, Castle," she taunted. "It just feels so good." The hands that were clasped together behind his back were now splayed across it, softly prodding the muscles and tender tissue of his lower back.

Castle's thumbs and palms were loosening the tendons in her neck. Kate trailed her left hand around his side and up his chest.

Castle adjusted his hold on her and used his thumbs to roll her head back, so he could meet her eyes. "You need to stop," he said, the joking they'd been enjoying still evident in his eyes. But the playfulness in Kate's voice wasn't reflected in her eyes.

Kate felt warmer. She could feel his warm breath on her face. His thumbs were caressing her jaw, though he didn't seem to be aware of it. His lips were so near; his eyes so grey. Maybe she stopped breathing for a moment when her hand met the warm skin under his open collar. She felt the pulse at the base of his neck speed up. Hers was already racing.

They were drawing nearer one another and, for the moment, all Kate was focused on was feeling his lips on hers. She wanted to savor the delicious sweetness of him. She felt his arms clench around her shoulders and then the distance between them was increasing. Wait? What? Why?

Castle nodded slightly to the stairs, then she registered the noise in the stairwell. She jumped and removed her hand from the back of Castle's neck, but she didn't move away from him. Instead, she tipped her head up and kissed his cheek, very near his ear, making him wonder if the kiss he'd thought was going to happen was ever really going to happen, or if it had just been wishful thinking on his part?

Kate stayed there, arms wrapped around the man who'd come to mean everything to her. She did not want to let him go. The bliss and energy that had her bounding from person to person came crashing around her. Instead, she felt the weight of her emotions, but they were made bearable just by being with him.

Kate realized she was opening herself up to the same hurt she'd been experiencing since she was 19. More hurt. She wasn't running from it, but how does one prepare for that? How do you survive it? How do you embrace the kind of heartache that you know you can't recover from?

The person making the noise in the stairwell appeared on the landing. "It's Lanie," Castle said quietly, still holding her.

He expected Kate to move, but she stayed. Half-way up to them, Lanie realized someone was standing there. Castle grinned at her.

"Castle!" Lanie screeched. "Did you propose to my girl without me there?"

Kate spun around saying "What?"—a sentiment that was perfectly and loudly echoed by Castle.

"Lanie! No!"

"You texted me."

"No."

"Yes. I get a text saying Castle gave you a ring with a picture of you two happy and hugging and I finally get up here to find you two still hugging and you're telling me 'no'?"

"What?"

"Look." Lanie held out her phone.

"Wait. Dad? Alexis?" She looked up at Castle, who was looking over her shoulder.

"Oh, she is so grounded!"

"So you didn't propose?"

"No!"

"God, Lanie! Listen. Look!" Kate held out her hand with the ring.

"You gave her a ring? But you didn't propose?"

"Yeah, I don't think…Josh…not dating…mother's."

"He found it." Kate smiled at Castle. "I never thought…"

"So Alexis?"

"Is so dead. Castle, we are totally bringing Ashley in on this."

"And she's got four days of straight of us."

"She's not gonna know what hit her. She's goin' down."

"Like a kamikaze on crack."

Kate rolled her eyes.

"That girl made me run up five flights of stairs! She's gonna have to deal with me first!"

"Come on, Lanie," Kate said pulling open the door Castle had been blocking. "Castle will fill you in how I kissed the captain and a little 'ol Irishman."

My husband wisked me away for a romantic, do-nothing weekend last weekend and it shows!

That's not a weird way of saying I'm preggers, just HAPPY! And relaxed! And sharing the love!

Feel free to do the same…review?