Summary: 'you and i have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead' Ten years. Two partners. One car. A series of drabbles.

Disclaimer: I am one of billions of people who do not own Castle. I am one of millions of people who trust Andrew Marlowe and co. to treat my babies well. I am one of one people who is currently wishing I was curled up in bed watching the episode of Morecambe and Wise that had The Beatles on it. That last point isn't, admittedly, very important except to add that title and lyrics were written by Sir Thumbs Aloft himself.

you and i have memories

longer than the road that stretches out ahead

Year Four

[ in which Castle learns that long car trips are made more enjoyable by a grumpy detective ]

"I spy with my little eye something beginning with A "

Kate is fairly certain Alexis deserves a medal (a trophy, a statue and plaque dedicated to her) if this is how traveling with Castle for a long distance always is. Sure, it was probably fun when his daughter was young but she can't imagine how the girl has put up with hours and hours of Castle's boredom induced 'fun games'. They have to go out of state to follow up some leads on this case and her partner has made the past few hours some kind of special hell for her. At first, it had been amusing and even cute seeing his happiness when she'd joined in the games with some modicum of enthusiasm but she finds it's getting harder and harder not to throttle the writer.

"Kate? You need to guess. Clock's ticking."

She clenches the steering wheel tighter before turning swiftly on him. "Agh, just shut up, Castle!" He flinches at the exasperated tone in her voice and an eyebrow goes up, curious at the sudden outburst. She grabs a few gummy bears from the half empty packet on the dashboard and stuffs them into her mouth (classy, Kate) before she's even less tactful. Castle seems to be waiting for her to keep speaking so she swallows the candy and turns to look at him again as they wait for the traffic to stop crawling and start actually moving more than an inch every ten minutes. "Look, sorry, but maybe we could just, I don't know, take a break from the games for a little while. We've been through every damn letter about 5 times -"

"Not Q, X, Z..." he interjects, his thought coming to an abrupt halt as she glares at him. "20 Questions, then?"

"Last time we played that, you flaunted your knowledge of me and Oliver Hartman to the boys in the middle of the precinct so how about a big fat no to that one?"

"What about if I promise not to tell any of those closely guarded secrets this time?"

Sometimes Kate wished he wasn't so endearingly adorable when he pleaded with her. They'd dressed casually for the trip and Castle's hair was just so soft and flopping over his forehead in that way that made her want to run her fingers through it and...

"I'll take the silence and odd look as an affirmative. So, shall I start?"

Kate sighed and nodded. Maybe if they had a kid of their own one day (yeah, not assuming anything there, detective...) she'd be immune to the annoying aspects of the games he insisted on playing and would survive one of these trips without him giving her a headache. Or maybe not. Right now, as Castle pumped his fist into the air triumphantly, she was betting on the latter.