A/N: Thank you to everyone who has been reading, reviewing and alerting this story and for being patient with me. I truly appreciate it - you are great!

This chapter has a bit of everything - Caskett fluff and Lizzy and flahsbacks. It's much lighter and a lot less crazy than the last chapter. The crazy stalker woman is not in this one, although, she will be returning sometime in the future.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Marlowe, I'm still not over 'Always'. Thank you for creating a perfect show.

Chapter 49 – Dance me to the end of love

The sun was rapidly sliding in behind the horizon, beneath the curtain of ocean waters; the sky painted in hues of pink and orange while the late afternoon rays of light cut through the gathering clouds. It was a perfect summer's evening, the ideal weather for Labour Day weekend.

"Ah, don't you just love the Hamptons?" Rick turned to his wife with a large smile before closing the trunk of their SUV.

Kate grinned as she let Lizzy wriggle down onto the ground; the little girl immediately scampering off while her parents followed closely behind, bags in hand.

"That and long weekends," Kate said, bumping his shoulder with hers and curling a hand around his bicep.

"Oh, careful , Sweet Pea." Rick laughed and protectively grabbed a hold of his baby girl's arm as she attempted to unsteadily climb the few steps leading up to the front door. The little girl squealed and babbled, trying to break out of her father's hold.

She was a stubborn little thing.

The fifteen-month old was by now walking everywhere; quick, determined little steps with her chest puffed out and arms swinging like she was on a mission. However, she didn't like it when her mother or father attempted to assist her, already showing a wilful independence.

"Back-chatting already, huh?" Kate commented dryly.

"Like mother, like daughter," Rick muttered as he unlocked the front door of their beach house.

Kate rolled her eyes, her mouth twitching. "I heard that, Castle." She scooped their daughter up.

"Still true."

"Yeah, yeah." She turned towards her husband, a sly smile splitting her lips. "Don't forget that I was quite the rebel too." Her brow furrowed in mock concentration. "And as I can recall, you were quite the hell-raiser as well. Ergo. . ."

The cocky grin quickly fell off his face. "Don't say things like that to me, Kate. I'm the father of two daughters."

The lanky brunette laughed at his solemn expression, Lizzy still bouncing in her arms. "Well, don't worry, Castle, Alexis turned out fine and this one-" she nodded towards their daughter before letting her down. "-will probably take after her sensible mother."

He dropped the bags in the foyer before approaching them. "Oh, really? The one who bought a Harley soft-tail and who dated a grunge rocker?" He grinned, but then quickly sobered. "Wait. That's not a good thing."

Kate smirked, her eyes sparkling. "Don't forget – he also smelled like cigarettes."

"Oh, God, no." He was by now picturing his little girl – age sixteen – partying with some rocker old enough to buy alcohol.

Damn writer's imagination.

"Don't worry, Castle, I'm a cop. I can run background checks-"

"And you have a gun."

She laughed, trekking behind their fast-moving daughter. "And I have a gun."

"I'm still buying a shotgun, though. Just in case," he said, his expression serious, his eyes a little frantic. Kate glanced at her husband and burst out laughing, the sound of her amusement ringing throughout the house.

She stepped closer to him and stroked his cheek. "Oh honey, that's sweet and adorable." She wound her arms around his neck. "But why don't you stop thinking about what a difficult teenager our daughter might be – God forbid – and start thinking about what you want to do now." A sly smile curved her lips. "Or what bikini you would like to see me in."

His wide eyes snapped to hers, his jaw growing a little slack. "The red one," he answered immediately, a little breathless.

So easy.

Kate grinned and pressed a kiss to his mouth. "Red one it is then." She stepped away from him and went after Lizzy, who was butt-up underneath the coffee table. She had a thing for crawling underneath tables.

"Come on, Sweet Pea, let's get your swimsuit on." She threw her husband a dirty, salacious grin. "Daddy wants to go swimming."

Rick groaned and dropped his head, his mind flooded with images of his wife in a tiny red bikini.

"You're killing me here, Kate!"

She only returned a throaty, delighted and completely evil laugh.

He would never, ever win this game. He didn't mind, though, because every time he lost, it felt like winning.

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He quietly closed the break room door and watched her for a moment. She was so very sexy in her tight, dark skinny jeans, four-inch stilettos and white button-up shirt.

She turned towards him and smiled, her whole face lighting up. "Oh, hey."

"Hey," he said quietly, leaning against the wall, still staring at her. In those tight, figure-hugging jeans.

He swallowed thickly and started to recite baseball scores in his head.

Rick Castle had a major problem: his wife (wife!) was way too hot for her own good and it was painfully, rousingly distracting most of the time. It wouldn't be a problem if they were still on their honeymoon, but, alas, all good things had to come to an end. Unfortunately, it also seemed that Rick's control over his libido had also come to an end. He was like a sixteen year old boy again. With a wife who could this thing with ice cubes.

He was never going to look at ice cubes quite the same again.

Kate turned her attention back to the espresso machine, utterly oblivious to her husband's rather pervy attentions.

"So, Espo and Ryan canvassed the area for witnesses and-" A spoon fell to the ground and she bent down to pick it up. Yeah - painfully, rousingly distracting. "-they found a potential witness. They're bringing her in now." She was still completely unaware at how he was staring at her.

In three long strides he was right beside her, his expression a little dark and his pupils dilated. He looked like a predator about ready to pounce on his prey.

"Kate, what are you trying to do to me?"

She whipped her head towards him, stunned and incredulous and thoroughly confused.

"Excuse me?"

He moved closer, backing her up against the counter. "You heard me."

Her gaze jumped from his eyes to his mouth, lingering there for a few seconds, her eyes growing dark and stormy.

"W-what are you talking about?"

He gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes, pushing her even further back against the counter.

"Why are you wearing these pants?" Rick growled into her ear, his hand ghosting over the outside of her thigh. "Or this blouse?" He moved his hand up to finger a few of the buttons. "Or these shoes, Kate?" He pressed an open-mouth kiss just below her ear, tasting her skin. Kate shuddered and instinctively grabbed a fistful of his shirt.

Oh man, if anyone caught them now.

"W-what do you mean?" She stuttered, her voice shaky and hoarse.

Ah, he had her now.

He grinned against the skin of her cheek, scraping his teeth against the strong line of her jaw. He could feel her shiver right into his bones.

"It's to drive me completely crazy, isn't it?" She sucked in a breath, her hips canting forward out of their own volition.

"Don't flatter yourself, Castle," she shot back, but it was nothing more than a breathless huff.

He aggressively slammed his pelvis against hers, making her gasp. "Oh, really?" His hands moved to her hips; his grip possessive, hard and bruising. "What about the lacy red bra and matching panties you're wearing?" He hovered over her mouth, his lips like mist on her hers.

"I watched you get dressed this morning, Kate." He skimmed his lips over hers, ever-so-softly. "And you know how I feel about sexy lingerie. What it does to me." His face was inches from hers, his expression thundering with arousal. "Especially when you're in it."

Kate's mouth slowly curved into a cunning, feline smile that sent every last drop of his blood rushing south.

"Oh, I think I know just how you feel." She slammed her hips into his and rotated them quickly, catching him by surprise. She always managed to do that. Rick grunted and dropped his head forward, his face buried in her hair.

She gently nibbled on his earlobe and laved it with her tongue. "And to answer your question – yes, it is to drive you completely crazy." She placed a few soft kisses against his jaw, a hand on his other cheek. "You wanna know why?" She whispered and he immediately drew back to meet her gaze.

"No," he answered gruffly.

Her mouth quirked, but instead of finding lust and heat and sex, he suddenly found tenderness and affection instead. Her lips slid open into an exultant mile and she gently touched his face, caressing the strong line of his jaw with her fingers.

"Because you drive me completely crazy, Rick." She shrugged, her smile now morphing into a cute, shy curl of the lips. "I'm just returning the favour."

He laughed, a low rumble of amusement. "Well then, Detective, by all means do continue." He moved in again to brush one, two kisses against her mouth. "Isn't there a deserted supply closet here somewhere?" Rick murmured, half-teasing and completely serious.

She laughed and pulled back. "You can have me when we get home, Writer Boy." His face fell immediately. She patted his cheek and eventually moved out of his arms. "But until then, we have a murder to solve."

He let out a heavy sigh. "Spoilsport."

She paused at the break room door, tossing him a smug smirk.

"Oh and Castle? You know how I like my coffee."

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She wanted to do some reading. She really did, but by now, the book was just lying open against her thighs, totally forgotten.

The reason?

Her completely distracting husband. Luckily, the sunglasses provided the perfect cover for shamelessly checking him out.

The play of muscle under the tanned skin of his shoulders; the solid, hard shape of his arms; his broad, firm chest-

"I know you're checking me out, perv."

Kate startled at his voice and let out a surprised laugh. "What?"

Rick turned his attention to his wife, a large, knowing smirk unfolding over his features, amusement flooding his eyes. He was busy building sandcastles with his little girl who was just happy just to sit by and grab fists full of sand and occasionally fling it around with cackles and kicks of delight. She was wearing a red-and-white polka dot one-piece swimsuit, complete with ruffles. She was also dressed in a large sunhat, a pair of pink sunglasses and smeared white with sun block.

He gestured towards the book. "You haven't turned a page in five minutes."

Kate dropped her head and grinned, biting on her lower lip. She closed the paperback and unfolded her long legs, leaning forward in the chair. The movement was proving to be quite distracting to the writer. She was quite distracting.

"How do you know I'm not checking out those hunky hotties behind you?"

Rick turned around and saw a bunch of young college guys playing touch football. Yeah, they were fit. And hunky. And young.

Big deal.

He turned back to his smirking wife and crawled towards her, planting his hands on either side of the handles of the chair; effectively boxing her in.

His lips flickered upward. "Because, Mrs. Castle, you are madly in love with me. And it's me you want," he all but growled.

Kate lifted an eyebrow, her eyes still obscured by the sunglasses. She pressed a foot against his abdomen, her toes digging into the soft skin. "Oh, cocky of you, Mr. Castle," she murmured, trying, but failing to keep the smile off her lips.

"I'll show you cocky," Rick muttered and moved in to brush a kiss against her lovely mouth.

Kate pulled back, still smiling. "Easy tiger. We'll get to that later." She pushed on his shoulders and got up from her seat. "Before that, though, I want to build sandcastles with my daughter."

She sat down next to Lizzy, protected from the blazing sun by the shade of the large beach umbrella. The little girl shrieked and launched herself into her mother's lap. Kate laughed and grabbed her daughter as she fell back onto the beach towel; Lizzy now above her in the air, giggling like crazy and kicking her plump little legs.

"Hey, beautiful girl. You having fun?" Kate let the toddler drop down onto her stomach; the little girl resting against her mother's legs. Rick settled down beside his wife and daughter, watching them with a soft smile.

After a few minutes of tickling and blowing raspberries, Kate finally sat up, still cradling Lizzy against her chest. She picked up the plastic bucket and turned to Rick, her daughter now sitting with her back in the V of Kate's legs, clapping her little hands together and jabbering away.

"Did you do this a lot with Alexis too?" Her voice flowed in soft, tender tones. He smiled and slid closer to his wife, taking up the bright pink bucket and filling it with sand.

They were like two big kids playing in a sandbox.

Rick nodded and let out a chuckle. "Yeah. We came here practically every summer. It was kind of our thing, you know?" He shrugged. "Summer in the Hamptons was our favourite time of the year. Crazy illegal fireworks, camping on the beach, terrifying each other with ghost stories."

His mouth curved into a gentle smile, nostalgia sweeping over his features."She loved that."

"She still does, Rick," Kate commented softly, wrapping a hand around his forearm. He looked at her, his eyes bathed in warmth and affection with a little sadness breaking through. Lizzy waddled in between them, occasionally throwing her arms around.

He sighed and bobbed his head. "Yeah, I know."

Kate leaned in, hooking an arm around his shoulders and pressing a kiss against her husband's cheek. Their daughter quickly made her presence known by clambering all over her parents, seeking their undivided attention. Rick chuckled and scooped up his little girl, planting a smacking kiss on her cheek. She giggled and tried to squirm away from her father. After a while, he fell back still holding his daughter to his chest.

Kate laughed and stroked Lizzy's back, moving over to brush a hand through her husband's hair.

"You remember the first time you brought me here?"

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"Welcome to the Hamptons!" He gestured towards his beach house and turned towards her with a large, mega-watt smile. Kate only returned a small smile and heaved her bag out of the trunk of the car.

"Oh, I got that."

She rolled her eyes. "I can carry my own bag, Castle," the detective retorted dryly.

"Nonsense, detective. I am gladly at your service." He gave her a mock bow. "Use me however you see fit. With the emphasis on use." He grinned at her and winked as they made their way to the front door.

She only returned an enigmatic smile. "We'll see, Writer Boy. Only if you're good."

His grin turned into a smug smirk. "Oh, I'm always good. You know that by now."

Oh, so cocky. And correct.

Kate rolled her eyes, but failed to keep the smile of her face.

He opened the door of the mansion and ushered her in, dropping their bags in the foyer. Before she could protest, Rick grabbed her hand and took her on a tour of the house, chatting excitedly. He told her about the history of the house, the interesting previous owners and all of the renovations he had to make to it. Finally, they ended up on the porch in the backyard that led out on to the beach.

"Wow, it's really, really beautiful, Castle," she said in awe. He smiled, feeling a little proud for being able to help put that expression on her face.

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss against her cheek while they looked out onto the beach and infinite stretch of water ahead of them.

"Yeah. It is, isn't it? See, I told you that you'd love it." He turned to her with a quirk of his lips."You should have joined me the first time I invited you, Detective."

Kate stiffened in his arms, her eyes skittering away from his. For some stupid reason, the events of two years ago still hurt, still hung between them. She never told him about that even though they have been together for a little more than six months.

He noticed the change in her demeanor, the way she tensed. "Kate?" He inquired softly, turning to face her.

She still didn't meet his eyes, chewing viciously on her lower lip. Before he could ask anything else, she spoke, her voice barely audible.

"I was going to say yes." She lifted her eyes, suddenly shimmering in the dusk light.

"What?"

Kate pressed her lips together. "When you asked me to the Hamptons." He nodded, brow furrowed. "Well, I was going to say yes."

He stared at her in shock. "What? I- I don't understand. You told me that you couldn't go because of Demming-"

She nodded and smiled sardonically. "Yeah, but then I broke up with him."

"You broke up with him? When?" His head was spinning.

She tried to avoid his gaze. "What does it matter, Rick? It's water under the bridge." However, the lingering traces of sadness and hurt swirling around in her eyes caught his attention.

He grabbed her hand. "Kate. Please just tell me."

She sighed and after a while answered. "I broke up with him that afternoon before your farewell party. Before you left."

His face fell. "So you broke up with him to go away with me?"

She nodded and laughed softly, her eyes stinging. "Yeah, something like that."

Rick dropped his head into his hand. "God, I can't believe this." He lifted his head, brow furrowed in confusion. "But why didn't you tell me?"

She sighed. "Because before I could tell you how I felt and that I wanted to join you, your ex-wife showed up out of nowhere."

He closed his eyes for a moment, the puzzle pieces coming together to form a horrific picture of missed chances. "And then I left with her."

Kate sighed, turning to watch the ocean again as she folded her arms. "Yeah, you left with her and didn't call for three months," she responded softly, her tone bleeding vulnerability.

"Oh, Kate." He wrapped her in a hug, cradling her to his chest. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

She shook her head. "Like I said, Castle. It's water under the bridge."

He framed her face with his hands and feathered light kisses over her cheek, eyes, nose and finally mouth.

"I'm so, so sorry," he whispered against her lips. "Kate, I-"

She placed two fingers against his mouth to silence him. "It doesn't matter anymore, Rick." Her mouth transformed into a gentle, muted smile as she wound her arms around his neck and pressed her body close to his. "I'm here now and I'm yours."

For that declaration, he kissed her like a man possessed. He cradled her head and covered her lips with his, slid his tongue along the crest of her mouth and explored the dark, delicious cave within.

Rick had his hands halfway up her shirt when Kate finally broke away, panting. "Why don't we take this inside, huh?" Her lips twisted into a devious, carnal smirk. "I have things planned for you."

He grinned, eyes twinkling. "Dirty things?"

She bit her lip and crowded him, her mouth brushing his ear. "You have no idea."

Kate took his hand and started to lead him towards the door, but he pulled her back for a moment, concerned once again.

"Kate, are you-"

She cut him off with a tender touch of her lips, her smile painting his mouth with one as well.

"I'm perfect and happy and stupidly in love with you." She tugged him towards the door. "Now come on, I want to get to the dirty things."

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"I still can't believe I didn't figure it out," Rick murmured. They were lying on the large couch in front of the fireplace. Kate was sandwiched in between her husband and daughter who by now was sleeping soundly, cradled against her mother's chest.

"Yeah, well, how were you suppose to know. I mean it's not like I made myself clear."

He sighed, weaving his hands through her hair. "Still. I should have known something was up when everyone - including the Captain - gave me a cold shoulder when I got back."

Kate craned her neck to look at him. "That was largely because you didn't call for three months."

"I was such an idiot."

She laughed softly. "We, Castle. We were such idiots. We should have just owned up to our feelings." Kate glanced down at her sleeping daughter and brushed a hand through the little girl's curly, dark hair.

"I was in love with you by then," he said softly after a few quiet moments.

"Makes two of us," Kate murmured in response. "I knew I felt something, but I didn't want to admit it."

"Makes two of us," Rick sighed and lifted his head to peer at his daughter, brushing a large hand down her small back. Kate was looking at him, affection colouring her gaze.

His eyes found hers and he smiled, bringing his hand up to caress her cheek, her jaw, the outline of her lips with his thumb.

"I love you."

He pursued her mouth with a gentle kiss; promises tattooed in the movement, in the union of their lips.

Kate smiled, her lips converting into a lovely curvature against his mouth.

"I love you too."

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C'est la vie

C'est la mort

You and me

Forevermore

Let's walk down

(Let's walk down)

Where the road, it has no end

(Road has no end)

Steal awayWhere only angels tread

A/N: Wow, this got a little sentimental at the end there, but what the heck. I hope it was enjoyable.

Please review and tell me what you think!

Title - from the beautiful Leonard Cohen song of the same name. Lyrics at the end - The Civil Wars, 'C'est la mort'.

Apologies for any grammar/spelling mistakes.