A/N: Another late holiday post. What's new, right? It's the thought that counts, though!

Enjoy!

Rick Castle hummed to himself as he danced down the hallway. It was Valentine's day, he had scored them a babysitter at the last minute, and his wife was home earlier than they thought; things were shaping up to be a great night.

As he entered the kitchen, the last two of his kids were still at the table finishing homework, while the other three had migrated to the living room to watch tv.

"How's it coming?" He asked them.

"Almost done," Liam tells him, not looking up from his work.

"Good," Castle smiles. "What about you, Mia girl?"

"I'm almost done too. Just gotta do my reading."

"Better get it done fast, Christie is gonna be here soon." After giving his daughter a half smile and a shrug, he picks up his phone and dials the number for their favorite pizza place.

"Ready to go?" Kate asks, coming downstairs a few minutes later.

"Yeah," he answers, taking in his wife. She had heeded his advice to wear something nice but casual: a red chiffon blouse under her favorite, worn-in leather jacket, crisp, dark jeans and flat black boots that clearly put her a head shorter than him. "You look great," he smiles, kissing her lightly.

She chuckles. "Well with your secret plans, I didn't have much to go with. Are you gonna tell me what we're doing tonight, yet?"

"Nope," he smirks, "that, my dear, will remain a secret."

With a soft groan of annoyance, Kate turns for the couch. The parents watch their kids show for a few minutes (it's honestly as much as they can handle nowadays) until the doorbell rings.

"Hey, come on in," Castle says, holding open the screen door for their babysitter.

"Hey, Christie!" Kate smiles, slipping into her coat. "So pizza is on the way. I already told them they could have a pop tonight and bedtime is at 9:30." She finishes her instructions over her kids cheering about a later bedtime.

"Sounds good," Christie says, setting her coat and purse onto the stairs. She follows Rick and Kate back into the living room and watches as they give each of their kids hugs and kissed goodbye.

"Be good tonight, okay? I want a good report," Kate tells her son as she hugs him.

"I will," the boy replies. "Bye, Momma. Love you!"

"I love you too."

And a minute later they were out the door and pulling down the driveway.

[] []

"So are you gonna tell me where you're taking me?" Kate asks, as Castle follows the GPS' directions and turns left down yet another road. They had been driving for nearly fifteen minutes and her curiosity was growing by the second.

"You'll see," he tells her.

Another left.

Then a right.

She watches out the window as they drive through a neighborhood passing by homes and cars and an elementary school with a forgotten jacket hanging off a fence post.

Finally, Castle turns into the parking lot of a community park. With the mild temperatures they'd been having lately, there are more than a few people there.

"Come on," he tells her, undoing his seatbelt.

She meets him in front of the car and takes his outstretched hand. They walk to the other side of the park, past the playground where a father is helping his son do the monkey bars as his mom watches, past the bathrooms, to the baseball and softball fields and batting cages.

"This was your big plans? Playing baseball on a muddy field?" Kate asks, slightly offended.

"No, before you jump to conclusion, let me finish," he starts, holding his hands up. "I'm proposing a challenge. We get one of those batting cages over there. Whoever hits the most balls gets to pick where we eat dinner."

"Castle, it's Valentine's Day. Even if we could manage to get a reservation somewhere, the wait would be horrendous."

"Don't worry about that. I mean, unless you're scared."

The quirk of his eyebrow makes her set her jaw. She quickly accepts the challenge, striving to wipe the smug look off her husband's face.

After purchasing balls and time in the cage from the gap-toothed, pimple faced teenager manning the counter, and grabbing helmets and bats off the rack, they crunch through the gravel and piles of not quite melted snow to their spot and set their bags and wallets and phones on the metal bench.

"So, you want to go first?" Kate offers.

"No, I insist: you go first."

"Roshambo?" She asks, holding up a closed fist. He nods and does the same.

Fists slap against open palms.

One.

Two.

Three.

Rock crushes scissors; Kate wins.

She puts on her helmet, slips the token into the slot and takes her stance. She remembers everything her dad had taught her, 'keep your elbow up, Katie!', and chokes up on the bat to get a better grip.

The first pitch was not for her, but the second cracks off her bat and, had there not been a net in front of her, would have been an easy Double. The next three pitches are the same. Crack, crack, crack.

Her sixth pitch, a changeup, has her jumping out of the way as it comes close enough she can feel the wind on her cheek.

"Whoa! You alright?" Castle calls to her.

"I'm fine," she replies. She doesn't miss any of her next six pitches, and her final score is ten out of twelve.

Castle's turn comes with a lot of grunting and spinning with the extra force of his swings.

"Keep your feet planted when you swing; you won't turn so much," Kate coaches.

"The 'Peanut Gallery' is not helping," Castle grunts, hitting his next pitch.

In the end, he somehow ties with her and even hits the changeup she had missed.

Enraged that it ended in a tie, and that smug look was still on her husband's face, Kate calls for a best two out of three.

[] []

An hour, and twenty frozen fingers later (it may have been in the mid-60's during the day, but after sunset, the temperature dropped fast), they end up at Kate's favorite Chinese place and only have to wait a little while before the host escorts them to a table.

They order nearly everything on the menu, and when their drinks come, Castle waits for their waitress to walk away for holding up his bottle of beer.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Kate."

"Happy Valentine's Day," she smiles, clinking their glass together. She leans across the table and kisses him, murmuring her love for him against his lips.

The conversation moves from Kate's current case, a real interesting one where the body was found in a ditch behind a soccer field by a team of sixth graders and their mothers were all in a buzz over the unprofessionalism of the city parks department to have something like this happen to their children; Captain Gates was up her ass on this one.

"Damn! Wish I could have been there for that one," Castle sighs, missing going into work with Kate every day like he used too. Not that he can't, he just got out of the habit of it.

"Come to work with me tomorrow," Kate offers. "It will be like old times."

"Yeah, okay." He jumps at that chance. "Have you thought any more about the Captain's Exam?" That conversation has been going on for months. Months. Kate had said that when the kids started school and they had gotten into a good routine, she would think about doing it. That was two years ago. And he doesn't know if she's putting it off because of him or because of their family or because she's scared.

"September," she announces. "I'm doing it in September."

"Wow! Really?"

"Well, I figured if I didn't set a date and commit to it, I never would."

"You are going to ace that test, I can feel it." He smiles.

"Yeah? I'm kind of scared. Can we handle it? If I pass, I mean."

"We can handle it," he nods. "And it's okay to be scared, this is a scary thing. But be excited! This is an amazing opportunity."

She smiles, thinking for a minute. "Enough about me. How's your book coming?" sh asks, folding her hands on the table.

"It's going good," he nods. "Finally got past that chapter, so it should be done in the next month or two."

"Still think it's going to be the last?"

"Yeah, I do."

For the last eighteen months, he could feel the spark of Nikki Heat and her journey fading from his mind. It was the same way he felt before Derrick Storm ended. So he brought it up with his publisher and she told him that if that's what he felt was happening, then they were willing to end the series and move on to the next thing. But Rick Castle was going to make sure Nikki Heat would end on a high note; something big, something good, something his fans would appreciate and love as the ending.

"You're not gonna 'Game of Thrones' all of them are you? Cause after all she's been through, I don't want Nikki Heat to die in some stupid way."

"No, that wasn't my plan. But now that you mention it, I could easily rework the plot to-" he never gets to finish that sentence as Kate's foot collides with is shin.

"Ow!" He cries out right as their food arrives, and Kate has to hide her giggles while the waitress sets their plates in front of them.

The next few minutes is spent dividing up the food and fighting over the cashews in their chicken.

"You have some already, these are mine," Castle whines, smacking Kate's greedy chopsticks away with his own. "You can't have pick of the restaurant and all the cashews, there has to be compromise."

"No, those are mine," Kate says. "Everything on my side of the line is mine, everything on that side is yours," she reminds, pointing to the imaginary line of demarcation she had drawn in the food.

"Fine," he pouts.

"Here." She passes over the desired nuts. "But that's it." She swears she has six kids sometimes, and the bigger one is worse than the smaller five by a long shot.

As they dig in, their conversation goes back to Castle and his book projects, including a secret one he hasn't shared with anyone besides the kids and Kate, and eventually turns to the kids and their daughter's impending medical procedure.

"She's gonna be fine," Castle reassures his wife again.

"I know. Doesn't mean I'm still not worried."

He takes her hand and laces their fingers together, squeezing.

I love you.

He signs the check, and after collecting coats and bags, they head off for home.

[] []

After seeing the babysitter off, locking up the house for the night, and checking on their kids, Kate closes her bedroom door behind her. She takes off her jacket, tossing it over a nearby chair, and grabs Castle's Valentine's present that's been sitting on top of their dresser since they left.

"So you know how you were talking about compromise tonight at dinner?" she asks, following him into the bathroom.

"You mean when you were hogging all the cashews and had I had to fight to get some? Yeah, I remember," he says, wrapping floss around the ends of his fingers.

"You were being childish! And I wasn't hogging all of them, you had basically the same amount as me." she counter. "Anyway, I'm proposing another compromise," she holds out the wrapped box.

Castle tears through the wrapping and tosses off the lid of the jewelry box his present is hidden in. If his reaction is anything to go off of, she won't have to do much to get him to agree.

"What's the compromise," he asks, looking between his present and her.

"You get two rolls and I'll do whatever they say, but you have to get up with the kids in the morning, and make us breakfast."

"Deal!" It's a quick acceptance of the bargain, just like she knew it would be. And the heat in his kiss makes it even better.

A very happy Valentine's Day, indeed.