Rick went to the kitchen and prepared two glasses with champagne with strawberries. He then took them to the couch, where Kate was distracted observing him. He sighed. The sight of her lying there, beautiful, the shawl she has decorating her couch now covering her naked torso. She smiled to him, and he sat on the couch. She put her legs over him and then sat to drink, holding the shawl against her chest.

"Do you think it's going to work, lying to everybody?" Castle asked, taking a sip of his champagne.

"Not for long, I know." Kate chuckled. "Lanie put me on the corner this afternoon."

"I knew it! Did you tell her anything?"

"No. But I'm going to be honest with you, it was hard not to. I don't know. At the same time I want to enjoy this without labeling anything or telling people, I want to tell everybody."

"Me too! I mean, it's not like we're doing something wrong. Is it?" after all she was the one who decided to keep it quiet.

"No! Of course not! I love you, Castle!" her eyes sparkled, and he smiled.

"I love you too."

They remained a few minutes in silence, and she got distracted by the strawberry at the bottom of her glass. She inserted two fingers on it and slowly pulled it out, throwing it into her mouth right after.

"So" he broke the silence. "Are we going to tell everybody, then?"

She took a deep breath, and looked up as if she was thinking. Then, she took his hand and began to draw circles on his palm with her index finger.

"Ok. We're telling everybody" They both smiled, happy with that decision. It was great to be just the two of them, but they had to involve their friends and family in the happiest moment of their lives.

"but we're telling them together. Tomorrow night, at the Haunt."

"Ok. Even though I know my mother already know it. She was scary earlier tonight, telling everything. I made my best not to give it away, but she was like a psychic, incredible!"

"It's hard to fool Martha. The same happened with Lanie. That's why I think it's best to just tell. They might be sad if we take too long. After all, they are our most faithful shippers" She laughed.

He got up and went for the bowl of strawberries and the bottle of champagne on the counter, and they spent a while talking and eating and drinking. It was a soft moment, and they both loved the simplicity of it.

It was almost 2 in the morning when he tilted his head back and rubbed his hands on his eyes, demonstrating he was sleepy. She ate the last strawberry in the bowl, and then got on her feet.

"C'mon, Castle. It's time"

"Time for what?" he said, puzzled, and then yawned. She stretched her arm, asking for his hand. He took it gently.

"It's time for you to meet my room".

And they both walked towards the room.

She woke up with the buzz of her phone on the nightstand. she reached for it and could see, barely, that it was Ryan. She turned and then slid to answer.

"Beckett"

"Oh, sorry. Did I wake you?" Ryan said, worried.

"No, Ryan. It's okay. any news on the case?" She rubbed her eyes and looked at the alarm clock. it was 8:15. She didn't hear it ring at 7:00.

"Yeah. I went through his computer. He kept contact with a few people on the foruns, but 3 names caught my eye. magicgamer3, gamelord57 and gamedesigner2. One of them, gamedesigner2, got in touch with Adam outside the forum. They exchanged emails for over 2 months. I looked at the messages, and it was clear. Adam was about to hire him to help with the Marvel project. He never told anything in the messages, but they arranged to meet a few times. Guess what?"

"they met the day Adam died" She said, now fully awake and interested on what Ryan had to say.

"Bingo!"

"Have we got a name?"

"Yeah. Simon Washburne. We're bringing him in now. Do you wanna do the honors?"

Beckett grinned. "Be right there." and hung up.

She placed the phone back on the nightstand and turned on the bed to wake Castle. he had his back to her, and was deep sleeping. she gently caressed his belly and kissed the back of his neck.

"Rick? hey. wake up, will you?"

"No mom. just 10 more minutes. I won't be late, I swear" He said, still sleeping. She laughed.

"Hey, sleeping beauty. Let's go! We've got a suspect!" she was now rubbing her finger on his ear, and he slapped her hand, as if it was a bug. she then slid her hands on his sides and gropped him. He opened his eyes widely.

"Oh! wow! Good morning to you too!" he turned on his back and held her close, kissing her. She broke the kiss and hurried him.

"c'mon. we've gotta go!" Then she got out of his embrace and left the bed, going towards the bathroom.

"What? seriously? You wake me like this then you tell me we've gotta meet a suspect?"

"Life's hard, Castle"

"Yeah. I'll tell you what's hard."

"c'mon! get up! I'm going to take a shower."

"wait!" he jumped out of bed. "I'll go with you"

"No!" she extended her arm, stopping him. "Castle, we need to hurry!"

"Exactly! You need to shower. I need to shower. If we shower together, we'll save time"

"Oh yeah?" She narrowed her eyes. "Okay. but no funny bussiness"

He crossed his fingers on his lips and kissed them. "I swear."

She then smiled and turned around slowly, provocative. It was hard not to do this, even when they were late. He rushed after her, smiling, right when he heard the water running.