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Cynthia had dropped Jamie off at the precinct and the little girl had spent the past 15 minutes circling the bullpen and getting the attention of every officer around. Royce finally was the one to break, picking her up to carry her into the break room so she could reach into the cookie jar that was placed on the counter.

"Royce, I told you not to give her cookies," Kate sighed, walking in from the dressing rooms in a dark blue summer dress, her sun glasses holding the hair out of her face.

"Come on, Beckett. Just one, one cookie can't hurt," he looked at her with innocent eyes.

"Well it's one from you and one from Miller and then one from LT and …," she was cut off.

"And one from Montgomery," the deep voice of her Captain stated amused behind her, causing Kate to swirl around.

"Sir," she gasped in surprise as she watched her boss reach for another cookie to hand it over to her daughter who was still chewing on the one Royce had given her, leaving cookie crumbles all over his collar. Which suited him just right in Beckett's opinion. The little girl reached happily for the offered treat, beaming from ear to ear at the men in front of her. Men who were some of New York's toughest men, used to deal with the lowest of New York's society still they all had been turned into big softies by a little girl with chocolate smeared all over her face.

"You've got to be careful, Beckett," Montgomery winked at her. "She's a charmer. Before you know it you have boys lining up in front of your door step trying to sweep her away."

If Montgomery hadn't been her Captain she would have given him a major eye roll, knowing better than to do so she just huffed and reached for her daughter in Royce arms, "Come on Baby Bird, let's get out of here before they give you any other ideas or a sugar rush." She mumbled, placing Jamie on her hip before grabbing her backpack. She heard the men chuckle behind her as she made her way out of the break room and towards the exit.

"Have fun Beckett," Royce called after her and raised his hand to wave, "You too, Jamie." And the girl lifted her hand still holding the cookie Montgomery had given her, waving back happily.

Rick was giddy, excited, nervous and a million other things all at once as he sat on a bench at the Billy Johnson playground in Central Park, waiting. His foot tapping a rhythm against he wasn't aware of against the ground. He had arrived early, of course, in fact he had left the loft right after Martha had picked up Alexis for an all-girls shopping trip. He had the whole afternoon cleared before he would pick Alexis up to take her to the movies to see Stuart Little 2.

His eyes were constantly darting around the playground afraid he would miss Kate and Jamie's arrival while he held on tightly to the two cups of coffee he was holding in his hands. And then he saw them, Kate in a dark blue dress, sunglasses shielding her eyes and Jamie, walking next to her, holding her mom's hand, bouncing happily form one foot to another.

He stood up, approaching them hesitantly until they finally met in the middle of the playground.

"Hi," he smiled nervously at Kate, glancing down at Jamie, who had moved closer to her mom, holding on tightly to one of her legs, studying the man in front of her with big eyes.

"Hey Rick," Kate nodded and an awkward silence fell between them, neither of them sure what to say or do until Rick finally set into motion crouching down next to Jamie to watch Kate follow suit. She pulled Jamie into her side and Rick couldn't help but feel a stab of hurt at her protective gesture. What did she think he would do? But he managed to keep his face clear from his emotions, reminding himself it was all new for her as well.

"I'm Rick," he smiled broadly at the girl, who moved even closer to her mother, shying away from the stranger.

"Rick's a friend of mommy's. Do you remember him? You met him a couple of days ago." Kate tried to coax Jamie out of her shell, knowing her daughter was normally very shy around strangers and needed time to trust new people in her life. A character trait she had adapted from her mother, Kate assumed.

Jamie studied the man in front of her carefully till her face suddenly lit up, "Uh-uh," she mimicked Rick's imitation of an Orang-Utan from the day they'd first met.

Rick chuckled, "That's right. That was me."

Jamie's eyes lit up with a small smile on her lips before she looked at her mom.

"Rick wants to play with us today, is that alright?" Kate looked at Rick who had a hopeful expression on his face as he glanced quickly at Kate with questioning eyes. She nodded, giving him permission to say what was on his mind.

"I'm really good in the sandbox," he offered, pointing to the one behind them. "I've had years of practice."

"What do you say Baby Bird, do you want to go to the sand box with Rick?"

Jamie looked at her mother with big eyes, "Mommy coming?" She asked, glancing once more at the man in front of her, uncertainty shining in her eyes.

Kate stroked her hand through Jamie's curls, "Yes, mommy is coming too."

Both adults stood up and Rick suddenly remembered the coffee he had brought for Kate and which he was still holding in his hands, "I brought you coffee," he said a bit stupidly as he handed it over.

Kate looked from the coffee in front of her to Rick, a small smile around her lips when she took it, their fingers touching, "Thank you." She mumbled, her eyes locking with his, she really loved coffee.

"You're welcome," he replied, his smile suddenly turning shy as they stood there, staring at each other until Jamie pulled at Kate's hand, causing her to break eye contact with Rick and look down at her daughter.

"Sandbox mommy." Jamie whined, pulling her mother towards the object of desire.

"Sandbox, yeah," Kate shook her head to regain focus before she followed the tug of her daughter's hand.

It was awkward, there was no other way to describe the situation with Jamie sitting shyly in one corner of the sandbox, while Rick and Kate set on the wood edge watching her. Rick had tried to get Jamie to play with him, but so far Jamie had only shook her head and Kate didn't want to push her daughter to interact with Rick if she wasn't ready or didn't want to. Rick on the other hand was so afraid to do something wrong and screw things up he hardly dared to move by now. It was not going well and he knew it was stupid of him to hope Jamie would welcome him with open arms, he was a stranger to her.

And once more he realized Kate had been right, when she'd demanded to take things slow. Neither Kate nor him were setting the pace here, only Jamie.

But there had to be a way to get Jamie's attention, to spark her interest and so he finally left Kate at the brink of the sandbox and positioned himself right in the middle of it, feeling Kate's assessing eyes on his back. They hadn't exchanged much more than pleasantries in the past 15 minutes and even that had felt artificial. He was relieved to escape from the silence surrounding them, being able to concentrate on something else instead. He just didn't know how to start a conversation with Kate that didn't lead to things that were off topic for now, especially with Jamie present. So he reached for one of the shovels Kate had brought in her backpack and started digging.

He didn't have a plan at first but then he quickly started to pile up sand in front of him, digging little canyons around his formation and grabbing for some branches that had been lying next to the sandbox. Out of the corner of his eyes he noticed that Jamie had stopped playing with her sand molds and was now curiously observing what Rick was doing.

Rick smiled at himself, was working. Turning around to look at Jamie and let her see his smile.

"Would you like to help me?" He asked, holding the shovel out to her. "We could build another mountain and add a waterfall," he suggested and his heart skipped a beat as his daughter moved closer to him, obviously intrigued by his offer.

Kate saw her daughter's eyes lighting up with a spark when Rick asked her to help. She had watched with interest how Jamie had shot shy glances into his direction ever since he had sat up camp in the middle of his sand empire. And while she had obviously wanted to be part of the fun Rick apparently was having, she had been too shy to ask.

Now Jamie crawled over to Rick and dropped down at his side, pointing at one of the canyons, "Real water?" she asked and then pointed at one of the sprinklers behind them. This time it was Rick's face which lit up at the suggestion.

"That is a very good idea. Do you think your mommy will bring us some water?" He leant into Jamie as if sharing a secret with her, though he spoke loud enough for Kate to hear.

Jamie immediately turned around, looking expectantly at her mother, "Mommy, water?" She held up the small bucket that had been in Kate's backpack as well. "Please," she added with a blink of her eyes.

Kate huffed and got up, obviously all it took to compromise her daughter was to build the Grand Canyon into a sandbox, interesting. Rick tried to hide his chuckle, noticing that Kate wasn't too fond to have been degraded to be their domestique as he liked to call it. Jamie handed the bucket over and Kate turned to walk over to the sprinkler as Rick raised his hand for Jamie to high-five. "Good job," he grinned down at her and the girl eagerly nodded her head in reply.

"I heard that," Kate called over her shoulder, causing Rick to scrunch his face.

"Ooops," he got out and was delighted to hear Jamie giggle in return.

"Ooops," she imitated him, scrunching her face as well, looking like a mini-version of him.

And that was it, the ice had melted.

Kate watched them from one of the benches, cooling off in the shadows the trees provided, while Rick and Jamie giggled in the sandbox, totally lost in their construction project. She had left them to it after she had carried the third bucket of water over to them, deciding they could do without her for awhile. She had been unsure how to react to see Rick with Jamie, had feared she would feel jealous or that it would be hard for her to see the two of them together. And a small part of her had been strangely satisfied when Jamie hadn't warmed up to him right away.

But now, seeing how much fun they had together a new feeling settled in, relief maybe, she wasn't sure. Jamie had been glued to Rick's side from the minute he had been able to coax her out of her corner of the box and he had been nothing but wonderful, fun and attentive and Kate could tell Jamie already had a crush on Rick. Kate had watched her daughter giggle at the faces Rick pulled for her and how Jamie had watched in awe as he had built her one mountain after another, added tunnels and bridges with an expertise that had surprised Kate. Of course he had a daughter, another daughter, but somehow she had never pictured him to get down and dirty in a sandbox. She had to bite down on her lip to hide the smile that threatened to escape at the thought. But this looked right, Jamie and Rick looked right together.

She was pulled out of her thoughts, by an enthusiastic shriek of her daughter and her little hands waving at her to come over, "Mommy!"

Standing up she walked over to join them, curious what had elicited such an exclamation of joy from Jamie, "What is it, Sweetie?" Kate asked as she set down next to her, noticing that her daughter was covered in sand and mud, making a mental note to get her under the shower once they got home.

"Rick built castle," Jamie stated happily, clapping her hands together and Kate couldn't stop the bubble of laughter escaping her lips.

"A castle, - Castle? Really?" She looked at him, amusement dancing in her eyes and he just shrugged, smirking back.

"Well, how could I not?" He asked, mesmerized by the first true smile he saw on her face, the first one she didn't even try to hide from him. And what he saw took his breath away, she was stunning. Of course he had noticed her good looks before, how could he not. She truly was a beautiful woman, but that smile changed her in a way he hadn't thought possible.

"Come on," Kate finally said after they all had marvelled at the castle for a bit longer. She had to admit it looked amazing, with its towers and bridges, he had even added moat, filled with water, of course. And glancing at him Kate noticed that his jeans didn't look much better than Jamie's clothes, muddy knees and sand stains everywhere. He certainly hadn't promised too much when he had talked about his sandbox skills.

Getting up, Kate brushed the sand from her dress before she turned to the two muddy people still sitting in the sandbox, "Let's get some ice cream."

"Yay, ice cream!" Jamie shrieked and was already out of the sandbox, while Rick still sat in the middle of it, looking a bit like a giant baby.

Kate started to follow her daughter, the girl already hurriedly running towards the ice cream vendor.

When she realized that Rick wasn't following them, she stopped and turned around, raising a questioning brow at him she asked, "You coming, Castle?"

They sat side by side on the park bench, Jamie in the middle of them, all eating their ice cream and Rick couldn't help but think how domestic it was. At least if he disregarded the fact that mom and dad weren't really talking. But sitting here in the sun it almost felt normal and he could forget about the long way, still ahead of them.

All too early for his liking they needed to part, but he had plans with Alexis and even if he wanted to stay, he needed to go home. He had barely seen Alexis in the past two days and he missed her.

Again they stood awkwardly in front of each other and Rick decided to bid his goodbye first with the Beckett woman whose heart he had hopefully already won over today. Crouching down in front of Jamie again, he was happy to notice that this time, Kate didn't follow his movements.

"I had a lot of fun with you today, Jamie." He said and ruffled her hair. "I hope you had too."

Jamie nodded eagerly, spreading her arms wide, causing Rick to laugh, "This much?" He asked, remembering Jamie doing the same gesture in front of the precinct when Kate had picked her up and asked if her daughter had missed her.

Again Jamie nodded, "Yes, Rick is much fun."

He bowed his head, "Thank you, M'lady." He said and then got up again to look at big Beckett. Not that kind of big, of course.

The hesitant look on her face had returned, yet he believed she seemed to be more open and relaxed than before, "Thanks Kate."

She nodded, "She had a lot of fun, Castle."

He let out a single laugh, before asking, "So it's Castle from now on?"

"I guess," she shrugged.

"So, we'll talk?" He asked, hoping she would understand he was actually asking for a new play date.

"Let me check my schedule and I'll give you a call," she nodded, understanding.

"Great," he smiled, leaning down once more. "Bye Jamie," he winked at her. "Hope to see you soon."

"Bye Rick," Jamie smiled broadly at him, waving as he took a step back.

"Bye Kate," he smiled and with a light bounce to his steps he walked away.

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