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Once Upon a Crime

"Okay, spill."

"Spill what?"

"Katherine Beckett," Lanie scolded. "You've had that ring on your finger for almost a month and I still haven't heard a proper story about the proposal."

"I told you..."

Lanie held up her hand. "Nuh uh. 'We were in bed and he already had the ring' doesn't count."

"It's true," Kate protested.

"I have no doubt. He's probably had the ring for ages, and you two seem to spend plenty of time in bed. But I want to hear the rest of it."

Kate sighed, hopped up on a clean table. Lanie leaned against one nearby, facing her friend, eyeing her as though she dare not omit a single detail.

(Kate fully intended to gloss over what happened after the proposal. Until almost three in the morning. Because there were some things Lanie really didn't need to know about Richard Castle.)

"Remember the journal I told you about?"

"He wrote you a proposal?" Lanie squealed.

Kate rolled her eyes. "Do you want to hear the story or not?"

"Sorry."

"We came to the letter he wrote right after Ryan's wedding, except it wasn't so much about their wedding. It was more a hypothetical scenario."

"He wrote your wedding?" Lanie exclaimed, appearing as though she was trying very hard not to jump up and down.

"Basically."

"And then what?"

"We got caught up in talking about it and it just... happened."

Lanie held up a hand. "Hold on, what's that supposed to mean, 'it just happened'? Obviously he had to ask you somehow."

"Not exactly," Kate said slyly, a smile splitting her face.

"So what, he just silently pulled out a ring?"

Kate shook her head.

"Girlfriend, I could guess all day, but it'd be faster if you just tell me."

"I don't know, this is kind of entertaining."

"Kate."

She looked down, heat flushing her cheeks. The minute she admitted how the proposal really happened, she was never going to hear the end of it. Ever. Because it may have been mutual, but she'd basically proposed to Richard Castle.

"I sort of did the asking."

Lanie shot off the table, actually squealed, hands flying up to cover her mouth. "You what?"

"I kind of asked him."

"How?"

"We were talking about this hypothetical wedding and we both agreed it was what we wanted someday. And it just – really, Lanie, it just happened."

"Girl, you proposed to Richard Castle!"

Kate sighed. She'd certainly predicted that outcome. "Kind of, yeah."

"Damn, I was expecting a good story, but I wasn't expecting that good of one!"

Kate laughed nervously. "Yeah, well, I don't think either of us was expecting it either."

"So what did he say?" Lanie asked curiously.

"Before or after he started tearing up?" Kate asked teasingly. Every time he made fun of her for being the one to propose, she simply reminded him that he'd had more tears in his eyes than she did. And every time, it shut him up.

"He cried?"

"Little bit," she admitted with a grin. "But so did I."

"So when's the wedding?"

Kate shrugged. "No idea yet. But he already kind of planned out everything else so perfectly."

"That man and his words."

"Yeah," Kate agreed, though her mind was no longer engaged in the conversation. Lanie couldn't tell if she was thinking about their wedding or Castle's words or simply the man in general, but given the blissful smile on her face, she opted to remain silent and allow Kate to have this moment.

(Last night)

The bedroom was dark, just the lamp on Kate's side of the bed illuminating the room. Both of them were curled beneath the blankets, him wrapped around her from behind as they read his letter. Below them, the city nightlife was in full swing, the lights and sounds out in abundance, but here in their bed they noticed none of it.

Dear Kate,

Thank you for coming with me tonight, for comforting me as my mother took my childhood and warped into some alternate reality in which she was supermom and I was a terrible son. I always knew she had a propensity for over dramatization, but until today I didn't realize just how much I'd underestimated those tendencies.

Hopefully you know better than to believe everything she said. I have a feeling you caught on, though, given the way you took my hand (and didn't let go until the very end of the 'performance'). So thank you, for comforting me and making me feel at least a little bit better about my childhood.

By the way, I can't wait for the day we can hold hands for no reason other than because we want to. When I can lace my fingers with yours and lead you off to our own happily ever after.

Speaking of happily ever after, after this case, I'm a little creeped out by the whole fairy tale subculture. I know it's no stranger than any others but the murders kind of put a damper on it for me. I'm never ever allowing anyone I know to dress up as Cinderella or Snow White or Sleeping Beauty for Halloween. Or any other occasion, for that matter. Never. The magic has been completely ruined.

But just because that magic is gone, it doesn't mean there's not still magic in this world. I remember last year, when you said you don't believe in fate or magic or anything of the sort. Beginning that day, I made it my mission to help you believe again. I knew it wouldn't be easy, given all you've been through, and it was clear from what you said this week about happy endings only happening in fairy tales that you're not there yet. But I'm not giving up. I'll persevere for as long as it takes. If anyone deserves magic and a happy ending, it's you, Kate.

And I hope I can be the one to help you learn to believe again.

Love,

Rick

"Kate?" Lanie called softly, dragging her friend out of her mind.

"Hmmm? Sorry," she managed as she became aware of her surroundings once again. Had she been daydreaming about Castle's letter in front of her friend?

"Are we a little distracted?"

"No," Kate blatantly denied, shaking her head.

Lanie raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"Fine, maybe a bit," she admitted on a sigh.

"Fun night last night?"

Kate shrugged, aiming for nonchalance, because she had no intention of explaining to Lanie the extents to which Castle had gone to make last night 'magical.' But she had to admit he'd succeeded. Flickering candles, warm massage oil, his hands and lips and naked skin surrounding her, everywhere at once. Just thinking about it was flooding her face with heat.

"I'll take your blush as a yes," Lanie replied sassily.

"Fine," Kate relented. "Maybe."

"You want to try that again and make it seem a little more convincing?"

"Not really."

Lanie raised an eyebrow again, smugness written all over her face.

"I gotta get back to work," Kate offered by way of explanation, stood and began making her way out of the morgue.

"Right," the ME drawled.

"I do."

"Mmhmm."

She crossed to the swinging door, pushed it open. "I have paperwork to do."

"You also have Castle to do, and I know the two of you well enough to know that you're gonna toss aside the paperwork and head home to have some wild crazy..."

"Shut up!" Kate called over her shoulder as she headed down the hallway, out of range of the rest of Lanie's words, though she knew enough to know exactly how Lanie had been planning to finish that sentence.

She stepped into the elevator, a smile on her face as she thought of the various ways Lanie's suggestion could play out, and by the time she arrived back at the bullpen, her mind was resolutely made up.

The paperwork could wait until tomorrow morning.

Thoughts?