For everyone who's been asking for some Lanie time, this one's for you!

Almost Famous

"All right, spill."

"What?"

"Spill," Lanie demanded, sliding into the booth across from her friend, coffee cup in hand. "You're glowing, Kate."

The Detective suddenly found herself fixated on the lines in the wooden table, embarrassed that Lanie could see through her that easily. "No I'm not."

Lanie rolled her eyes. "You're an awful liar. What happened last night?"

Kate fidgeted in her seat at the memory of Castle's hands and lips and other body parts and exactly what he'd done to her last night. God, he'd made her writhe and scream and beg, and Kate Beckett didn't beg. At least not until she met him.

Heat flushed her face and she knew by Lanie's smirk that there was no way she was getting out of this one.

She finally looked up, awkwardly met Lanie's eyes. "We may have gotten a bit carried away."

"Judging by how red your face is right now, I'm thinking that's the understatement of the day."

Kate dropped her head into her hands and groaned. God, she was hopeless. She was so in love that she couldn't even have coffee with her best friend without turning into a blushing mess.

"We... let's just say he was trying to channel his inner stripper."

Lanie let out a noise that was somewhere between a laugh and a gasp. "Why?"

"Uh..."

Huh. How was she supposed to explain this one? She was already flustered enough that no lie she could come up with would ever fool Lanie, which really left only one option; the truth. And while she knew Lanie would find it sweet, she wasn't sure she was ready to share. But Lanie was looking at her intently, so Kate finally relented.

"Fine, but absolutely no one else can know about this."

"Oooh, juicy."

"Lanie."

"Your secrets are safe with me, Kate. You know that."

"Okay." She nodded, took a deep breath, then launched into the story from the beginning. "Castle has this journal. He started it right after we met."

"What do you mean, started it? It's about you?"

"Basically. It's letters. To me. He wrote one after our very first case together, saying all these things he wanted to tell me but didn't feel like he could. And then it kind of became a tradition. He's written them ever since then."

"After every case?"

"So far."

"What does he write?"

Kate shrugged. "Various things. Sometimes it's about the case, sometimes it's about me, sometimes it's something about him, or just random stream of consciousness. It's...I never know what to expect."

"And he gave this to you?"

"Well, I found it accidentally. In his desk drawer. I don't even remember what I was actually looking for."

Lanie laughed. "I bet he loved that."

"He was a little freaked out." Kate smiled at the memory. "He told me what it was and said I could read it, but that some of it was gonna be really emotional."

"And you did."

"We're working on it. Reading them together."

"You guys are sickeningly sweet, you know that?"

Kate rolled her eyes.

"So this ties into last night how?"

She paused to sip her coffee, regain her composure so she wouldn't disintegrate into a blushing mess again. She hoped.

"Remember that case with the stripper who was dressed as a cop?"

"Yeah."

"Castle and I ended up going to a strip club."

"You did?" Lanie squealed. "Why am I just now hearing about this?"

Kate met her eyes shyly, silent apology for waiting three years to share this particular tale. "Undercover. But yeah."

"And obviously that's what he wrote about."

"Yeah."

"And then last night he decided to recreate it?"

Kate grinned, couldn't help herself. "Maybe."

"And he stripped for you?"

"Lanie."

"What?"

"Trust me, there are some things you're better off not knowing."

"I highly doubt that."

"Well, if you ever wanna look at him the same way again, you'll believe me on this one."

"Fine. Surface details."

"I told you already."

"You told me he stripped for you, but you've seen him naked plenty of times, so that doesn't explain why you're blushing like crazy and clearly still basking in the afterglow."

She felt her face heat up all over again, took a large gulp of coffee so she could blame it on the heat of the beverage. "I may have stripped for him, too. And we may not have slept very much."

"Now we're getting somewhere."

Kate shook her head. "Nope, sorry. That's all you get."

"Does this kind of thing happen every night?"

"No. We don't read every night and not all the entries are all like that. Some are really tough to read."

Like the first one they'd read last night, the one that forced them to relive the Triple Killer ordeal.

Lanie reached out, covered Kate's hand with her own. "I'm sorry, sweetie."

"No, no, it's good. We've come a long way, and it's good to really talk about these things, you know? We've scratched the surface before, but I never knew a lot of his side of the story."

The ME nodded, understanding how important a step this was for Kate. She was sharing things, sharing in his emotions and allowing her own to surface, and Lanie knew enough to know that no other relationship she'd been in had come even close to this level of emotional intimacy. With no other man had Kate ever allowed herself to fall in love, and to embrace it rather than run from it.

"It's making us stronger," Kate added softly, lost in thought.

"That's good."

"It is. Yeah. And it keeps things interesting."

"Like last night."

Kate narrowed her eyes. "You're still not getting any more details."

But even as she spoke, her mind was lost in memories, recalling his words from the night before.

Dear Kate,

You know, it's always been a fantasy of mine to go to a strip club with you, though I have to say this one turned out much differently than I expected. In my mind, it wouldn't be so awkward, and other guys wouldn't be hitting on you. Then again, when you're dressed like that, how can anyone not hit on you?

It's not fair, Kate, how easily you captivate people, draw them in, hold this power over them, even at a male strip club where you weren't supposed to be the center of everyone's attention.

You know, now that I think about it, you seemed pretty comfortable there. Like you'd been there before. Have you? You have, haven't you? Maybe Nikki Heat being a stripper by night isn't so far off base after all.

(By the way, the thought that you go to strip clubs...all sorts of inspiring.)

One of these days I'll convince you to let me take you to one. One where I hopefully feel a little less awkward. We'll get dressed up and spend the evening in the club and then I'll take you home with me and we can have a little show of our own.

I've been told I look very good naked.

-Castle

Oh, he did look good naked. Really good. Even when Kate was sitting in a coffee shop with her best friend, supposedly carrying on a conversation, she was still powerless to stay focused as images of her naked boyfriend swarmed through her head. And she was sure she was blushing like mad.

She should be embarrassed to be replaying certain memories in public, but she was far too relaxed and sated to care. He'd ravished her well into the night, completely worn her out. But she'd slept so well sprawled across his chest that when she'd woken this morning, all hints of tiredness had vanished.

And apparently her sense of decency had disappeared as well.

But when Lanie met her eyes and shot her a knowing grin, Kate couldn't help but smile back, not feeling even the least bit guilty.

She was so utterly smitten she couldn't hide it.

And for the first time ever, she didn't even care.

Thoughts? More Lanie time, or just Castle and Beckett?