126. Chapter 126

Chapter 126

Several times a week, Beckett would go out for lunch at various restaurants within a reasonable radius of the precinct, sometimes eating there and sometimes picking up something to take back and eat as she worked. When she went out she would wear her badge on a lanyard around her neck and make a point of spending a few minutes speaking to people in the place she chose that day.

A few days after the confrontation with Officer Patton, she was leaving the precinct on one of her lunch excursions when a woman approaching her looked at a paper in her hand, looked back, seemingly at the badge hanging on her chest, and asked, "Are you Kate Beckett?"

The older woman looked friendly and harmless, and Beckett offered her hand and answered, "I am. And who do I have the pleasure of meeting?"

"Mildred Keaton, Ms. Beckett. You helped my son out a few days ago."

"You're Jamal's mother?" she asked, and the other woman nodded.

"Do you like coffee, Ms. Beckett?"

"It's a necessity of life," she answered with a smile.

The other woman laughed and agreed, "Me, too." Then she asked, "Do you have enough time for me to buy you a cup? The place right across the street has good coffee. I don't have to work today, and I owe you a thank you."

"There's no need for you to buy my coffee, but the company would be nice. You can tell me about Jamal."

They crossed the street, placed their orders, and found a table; but neither of them spoke until after their first sips of coffee.

"I was just doing my job, Mrs. Keaton. I'm the new captain at the fifteenth precinct. I saw a situation I didn't understand and went to check on it, and I helped resolve it. It's what's expected of me."

"Well, that may be how it looks to you, but from a mother's point of view, and a fifteen year old's point of view, it looks bigger than that. I was on my way to the station hoping you'd have time to see me for a minute so I could thank you for what you did. We don't have a lot of money. Coffee here is a splurge for me. But my son is quite an artist, and he sent you a gift. It's how I knew who you were." She placed the paper she had been holding, an eight by ten pencil sketch, on the table and turned it toward Beckett. "He asked me to give you this."

Beckett lifted the drawing from the table looking awed. "He did this from memory?"

"Yes, ma'am," Mildred Keaton answered proudly. "Once he sees it, he remembers it, and he can draw it."

"This is amazing. I feel like I'm looking in a mirror." She put it back down on the table and asked, "Will you take it back to him?" There was a flash of disappointment in the other woman's eyes before Beckett continued. "Tell him I want him to sign it. That way when he's famous, I can say I have one of his early, pre-famous works. And tell him I really like it."

"That's going to make him happy," she answered with a smile that said it made her happy, too. "Is it okay if he brings it to you at the police station?"

"Just tell him to ask the desk sergeant to call me. Did he find a summer job yet?"

"Not yet, but he's still looking, and he's a determined rascal. I wish I could afford to help him do more with this talent of his. And I wish I could get us out of this neighborhood where he doesn't have to worry about the druggies around us…and somebody thinking he's one of them, like the other day. My mother had a rent controlled apartment, and we lived with her after my husband left us. When she died a couple of years ago, we could stay because we're family. We couldn't afford to live here otherwise. I clean apartments for folks with a lot more money than us, and it's easier to get to work from here than if I had to live in one of the other boroughs. When we moved in with Mama, it was a family kind of street; but the last two or three years, the wrong kind of people moved in…with drugs…" She stopped and sighed. "I worry about Jamal and his little brother. He's a good boy, and I appreciate you giving him the benefit of the doubt."

"He seemed like a good kid, but he was pretty angry."

"Sounded to me like the officer was, too."

"I offered some advice on different approaches."

"Mrs. Keaton nodded, seeming to understand what wasn't specifically stated and satisfied to leave it at that.

"I've enjoyed this, Mrs. Keaton; but I was on my way to pick up some takeout and eat lunch at my desk. I'd better grab something here and get back to work. End of the week reports wait for no man…or woman."

"I didn't mean to keep you from your work, but it was nice to meet you. Thanks for taking some time with me."

Beckett offered her hand again when she stood. "This was a nice break. I'm glad to have met you." With a playful smile, she added, "And tell Jamal I'll look forward to my signed portrait." After picking up a salad and some crackers, as well as another cup of coffee, she smiled and lifted the hand with the coffee in Mrs. Keaton's direction as a goodbye when she left.

After getting out of school that afternoon, Jamal went to the fifteenth to deliver a signed pencil sketch of the woman he could now identify as Captain Beckett. The desk sergeant assigned an officer to escort him to the captain's office and wait to escort him back down, but the officer was friendly and carried on an easy conversation with him…a far cry from his last police encounter. Beckett's door was open, and he knocked on the door frame, waiting until she looked up, and said, "Mama told me not to keep you from working, but I signed your picture and brought it."

"Thank you, Jamal. A gift wasn't necessary, but I do appreciate it. You have a lot of talent. I'm pretty sure my husband will have this framed soon. He's a writer, his mother is an actress, and he appreciates creative talent in just about any form. He's going to be just as impressed as I am."

"I'm glad you like it," he answered, looking pleased. "I'll go find Officer Chappell and let you get back to work. Thanks again for your help, Captain Beckett."

When Jamal came in and explained to the desk sergeant why he was there, the sergeant had asked to see the sketch and was very complimentary; and as Jamal was leaving, he waved at the sergeant. Sergeant Wesley was sitting with his chin propped on one hand, his elbow propped on the desktop, and he called out good naturedly, "Hey, Kid, you think you could do anything with this ugly mug of mine?" Then he folded his hands under his chin, striking a silly pose and batting his eyelashes.

Before he left, Jamal grinned and answered, "Maybe I'll try."

"I don't know if you'd want to see that last pose preserved for posterity," Officer Chappell teased.

Sergeant Wesley chuckled and agreed that he was probably right.

xxxxx

Memorial Day weekend seemed to take forever to arrive, but Friday finally arrived, and Castle came to pick Beckett up at the precinct at five.

"Are you ready?" he asked when he walked into his wife's office. "Anything you have to do before we go?"

"Reports are in, someone here is covering the precinct for the weekend, and Captain Gates even agreed to cover for me in case of dire emergency. She said her mother-in-law would be here for the long weekend, so they would be in town; and she said she'd be glad to stand in for me for anything that would get her out of the house. She's mentioned Ray's mother before, and it made me so glad to have Martha. Her mother-in-law is a big fan of your books, by the way."

"Castle grinned. "Maybe we can help her out a little bit. You know, I was going to take you for a leisurely dinner and wait until the worst of the rush hour traffic is over before we leave town. If she's that anxious to stay away from home, Gates will probably still be at work for a while. Maybe we could meet her for dinner somewhere. She can have Ray and her mother-in-law meet us there, and we can take her mother-in-law a signed book…and she can meet 'the real Nikki Heat'." We'll let her know the captain agreed because she thought Ray's mom might like it. I'll pay lots of attention to her, and let Gates relax a little bit, at least for dinner."

"That sounds like a great idea. Do you have a place in mind?"

"I have a reservation at Arturo's for the two of us. I'll see if he can make it for five."

"Call Arturo's first before I call Gates."

Calls were made, the dinner was arranged as a surprise for Shirley Gates, and they all met at Arturo's. Captain Gates met her husband at the door when he brought his mother in, and they walked to their table together.

"Somebody is already sitting there," Shirley said when Gates pointed out their table.

"Those are friends of mine. I wanted you to meet them."

"So we're having dinner with strangers?" the elder Mrs. Gates asked, sounding annoyed.

"If you don't want to have dinner with them after you've met them, we can ask for another table," Gates said appeasingly.

"Fine," her mother in-law huffed and followed her.

"Mom, give Vicky a chance. You might even enjoy these folks. We do," Mr. Gates encouraged.

When the other family returned to the table, Castle stood, and Captain Gates said. "Shirley, I'd like you to meet Captain Kate Beckett and her husband, Richard Castle. They invited us to join them for dinner tonight."

"The Richard Castle? The writer?"

"Yes, Ma'am. That's me," Castle answered. He offered his hand, and she took it, looking flustered. Rather than shaking her hand, he bowed slightly and kissed the back of it. He was planning to take her attention away from the captain and seemed to be doing a fine job of charming the older woman completely. Victoria Gates was about to get a close up view of some shameless and excellent fan wrangling skills.

"I love your books, Mr. Castle. I'm not sure I've forgiven you for killing Derrick Storm, but I do love Nikki and Rook."

"Have a seat and join us," Castle said, pulling out the chair next to Kate for Shirley. "And you should be aware that my inspiration for Nikki is right there beside you."

Kate smiled as Castle pushed the chair gently forward for their guest of honor. Once Shirley was settled, Kate reached to shake her hand. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Gates. I'm glad you could come."

"Not that I'm complaining," Shirley Gates replied as Castle sat down in the chair on the other side of her, "but why would you want to invite us to dinner?"

"We've worked with Captain Gates for a good while now. She mentioned that you had enjoyed my books for a long time and asked if I would sign one for you. We enjoy your son and daughter-in-law, and I thought it would be nice to say thank you to a longtime reader; so here we are. We have a great deal of respect for Captain Gates. She's amazingly good at her job."

Shirley looked up at Gates and then back to Castle and said, "This is very nice of you."

"It's our pleasure. Now order whatever you want." Castle told her. Stretching his arm across the table to shake hands with the other male in the dinner party, he said, "Ray, it's been too long. We'll have to have you at the beach house again sometime this summer."

"We'd enjoy that," Ray answered. "I love that place."

Ray's arm was around his wife's shoulders, and he smiled at her as Castle turned his charm back to Shirley Gates. Castle and Kate talked to her throughout the meal and kept her entertained, giving Captain Gates and her husband time to relax and enjoy a good meal and some stretches of conversation with very few interruptions.

"Are you doing anything special for the long weekend?" Shirley asked.

"When we leave here, we're going to our beach house for the weekend," Castle answered as they finished desert. "The rest of the family is taking care of our little boy. A sort of village raising the child weekend. Would you like to see pictures?" Playing proud father, he took out his phone and scrolled through a few pictures that included Alexis and JD.

"You have a beautiful family, and your little boy is as handsome as his father. I can see that both of you are proud of all of them. Thank you for dinner, Mr. Castle," Shirley said. "I hope we didn't slow your weekend down too much."

"We were planning to wait until the worst of the traffic had eased, anyway. We could sit here and enjoy the good company or sit in backed up traffic for a couple of hours. This was the much more pleasant choice."

Kate reached down beside her chair, picked up a shopping bag from a bookstore, and handed it to Castle, who took a pen from the bag along with the book. He opened the book and wrote "Shirley, it was a pleasure to meet you. We hope you enjoyed the dinner and the company as much as we did." He signed his name, and handed her the book.

She smiled and handed the book to Kate, asking if she would sign it, too; and Castle handed his wife the pen. Kate added, "We enjoyed meeting you, Shirley," and signed her name as well…Kate Beckett Castle.

"You don't hyphenate it?"

"No. It's Beckett for work but legally Castle. "I like being Mrs. Castle."

The server came with the check for Castle to sign and returned his card, then everyone stood to leave. Castle stopped to thank Arturo for the last minute accommodations to the original reservation, and all of them left the restaurant."

"You really arranged all of this for Victoria?" Shirley asked.

"And for you…but she was the reason for it, yes. It started with the signed book; but when I suggested dinner, she thought you'd enjoy the surprise. So we arranged it."

"I did, and thank you. The ladies in my book club will be so jealous," she added delightedly.

"Well, have Captain Gates send me their names," and I'll send you signed copies of the next book for all of them."

"Really?"

"Absolutely."

"Thank you so much."

"Come on, Mom. They have a childless weekend ahead of them. Let's let them go and enjoy it," Ray said and shook Castle's hand and thanked him. His mother waved as Ray guided her toward their car, and Captain Gates stayed briefly.

"I don't know how to thank you for this. I almost hope for an emergency so I can pay the two of you back for it. Mr. Castle, I have never seen anyone get that much pleasant conversation out of my mother-in-law…even if it did involve using every piece of fan charming you could muster up. Ray and I had a wonderful, snarkless meal for the first time ever when his mother was in the same room. So thank you both for dinner, thank you for making my mother-in-law happy for at least one evening of her visit, and thank you for making an effort to have her appreciate me. You gave it your best shot."

"Let us know how it turns out," Kate answered with a little laugh.

Castle leaned and gave Gates a kiss on the cheek and said, "Good luck. And thanks for easing Kate's mind about this weekend."

Gates nodded and answered, "Go and enjoy the rest of your weekend." She released a long, resigned sigh. "I'm going home." And she walked off to her car.

"Well, that wasn't quite what I had planned for the first evening of our weekend, but it wasn't bad," Castle said as he held the car door open for his wife.

"You were right. It was much nicer than sitting in the car in gridlock traffic. Traffic still doesn't look like a walk in the park, but it's better than it was when we got to the restaurant."

"We probably managed to move up from gridlock to just really slow, but at least it's moving. But it's okay. The company is good." He took Kate's hand and lifted it to his lips to kiss it.

"Yeah, it is," she said softly, pulling his hand to her lips to return the favor before letting it go to allow him to ease the car into the traffic.

"Radio or playlist?" he asked.

"Playlist," she answered. Taking out her iPod and scrolling through her choices, she asked, "How about our wedding reception playlist? It is an anniversary, even if it is the secret one."

"Maybe we need a playlist for that, too, Castle suggested. "We can work on that this weekend."

"Ok. This anniversary is the one that makes me all melty inside. Now is your chance for mushy and sentimental."

"I'll keep that in mind," he answered with a little smirk.

They talked, sang along with the music, and exchanged loving little touches that kept them connected as Castle drove. About thirty miles from the beach house, Kate's phone rang, and Lanie's voice sounded like she was in a panic."

"Slow down, Lanie. What's wrong," Kate asked.

"I don't know. There really isn't anything wrong…not exactly." Lanie took a deep breath and released it into a long sigh. "I'm just overwhelmed. Bradford is handling everything so calmly, and I know it's all going to be fine…" There was a pause.

"It's all going to be fine…but?" There was another pause with no answer from the ME.

"Is it okay to put you on speaker? Castle is a calming influence on me, and he's done the wedding thing more than we have. Maybe between us we can help."

"Yeah, sure. Hey, Castle."

"Hey, Lanie. What's going on?"

"Too much…wedding plans, phone calls from too many people, work. The noise in my head gets louder and louder…nerves…you name it. I'm losing my mind."

"Sounds familiar…at least for my first two weddings. Maybe a little bit with the last one. With the first two, it was worse. Those two were the ones I talked myself into thinking I wanted, and those wives were more interested in being at the center of the wedding spectacle they created than being married to me. Those were both destined to fail. When I took my vows, I had hope. I'm an optimistic guy. We weren't right for each other, though. But Kate was less interested in the wedding and more interested in us. The wedding was just the celebration. We had already made the commitment. It was just saying everything in front of the people who mattered to us. Do you feel like that about Frank…that you belong together?"

"Yeah. The wedding is as much for our mothers as it is for us, but it isn't like I didn't want it. It just grew a little bigger than I intended."

"Then stop worrying about the wedding details. Refer everybody who asks about them to Bradford and his assistants. That's what they're there for. You think about you and Frank. When you walk down the aisle, all the two of you will see is each other. When it's right, you don't just feel hope. You feel joy and peace. Then you celebrate it with your family and friends. Bradford will have all that covered. All you have to do is enjoy it…until you leave for the honeymoon.

There was another sigh. "Frank has been telling me a lot of what you just said, but you said it with writer skills. The noise in my head is better now. Once in a while I just panic."

"We owe you, Lanie. Call again if you need to," Beckett assured her.

"What she said," Castle agreed.

"I know you're in the Hamptons and kidless this weekend, so I'll try not to. Tonight I figured maybe you weren't quite there yet and I could still catch you in the car." After a moment, she added, "But I may need a girl's night sometime this week. My parents will be here on Sunday, and they'll be here…aaaall…week…long. I love 'em, but I'm gonna need a break."

"Just call, Lanie," Kate promised. "It's only a week. Then they'll go home, and you'll be away with Frank."

"Okay. Thanks for talking me down, Castle."

"Glad to help," he answered with a little chuckle.

"Enjoy your weekend."

"We intend to," Kate answered before they ended the call.

"You think we'll hear from her again this weekend?" Castle asked.

"I don't know, but I'll have to answer if she does. She's the reason we have this anniversary. I can never pay her back for that little foray into our personal business."

"We can never pay her back enough," Castle corrected. "Who knows how many times we would have missed chance after chance if she hadn't stepped in when she did?"

"We did some good work on our own after that, though. She gave us the opportunity, but we're the ones who made it work. I'm proud of us." She reached over and placed her hand on the back of Castle's neck, stroking and massaging, and trailing her hand across his shoulders during the short drive left to reach their second home.

They took their bags from the trunk of the car, and went to their bedroom. Castle left their duffel bags in the closet and went straight to the bathroom to run them a bath in the big, enticing tub. It's going to take a few minutes to fill," he told her. "I'll get the wine. You start unpacking.

They kept clothes for all seasons there year 'round, so unpacking didn't take long. They hadn't brought too much with them. Kate took stock of what was there for various activities, then she went to check on the tub. Castle returned with a bottle of red and two wine glasses, leaving all of it on a small table that he had moved within reach of the tub. They stripped out of their clothes and stepped into the tub, cuddled against one another, and let the Jacuzzi's bubbles melt away the long day and the traffic frustrations.

"Two nights and two days of completely uninterrupted time. You're all mine. I don't have to share you with the precinct, the baby boy, the rest of the family, or anybody else," Castle said softly as he nuzzled her hair.

"Maybe a few minutes with Lanie here and there, she said over her shoulder, "but I'd love to think that won't happen, either."

"But you won't call her back if we're in the middle of something really good, will you?" Castle asked, leaning to look at her and completing his question with his signature eyebrow action before kissing her neck.

"I may not be that good a friend," she answered leaning against him with a little grin. "Husband first, best friend second." There was a little pause, and she added, "This feels so good. I'm sure at some point in the next couple of days we're going to miss our little boy, but right now…this…it feels absolutely decadent." She turned to kiss him, and the kiss deepened; but they didn't take it any further right then. Instead, they chose to stick to enjoying the closeness of soft touches, sweet kisses, and occasional, varying iterations of "I love you."

When they began to feel their fingers getting pruny, they turned off the bubbles, got out, and dried each other with large, fluffy towels. Then they and fell into their bed au natural, loving each other slowly and gently before they slept.

xxxxx

The morning sun made bright streaks across the room, rousing the two lovers in the bed. Each of them took care of early morning necessities and returned to slide quickly back under the covers and settle back in sleepily.

"No alarm sounding…nobody waiting for breakfast…no job to get to…no interruptions." Kate said. She stretched like a cat and curled back against her husband.

Both of them were perfectly content to stay where they were for a while longer. They traded little kisses back and forth, rubbed each other's backs, and let their hands wander in easy touches until they drifted back into sleep.

The next time their eyes opened, they were wide awake and playful. The touches weren't nearly as innocent as the ones before they slept, and it was nearly noon before they left the bed.

As they walked into the kitchen in their robes, Castle asked, "Is there anything you want to do while we're here?"

"Other than more of what we just did?" she asked, squeezing his backside as he got the juice from the fridge.

"Yeah. Other than that. 'Cause there's definitely going to be more of that."

"We should go into town and find gifts for Martha and the kids."

"And your dad and Meagan. They're helping with Jamie, too."

"We're so lucky to have people willing to help like this," Kate said.

"I think it helps that we don't ask constantly." Pausing for a moment, he suggested, "Why don't we go late this afternoon and have dinner somewhere nice while we're out. No messy kitchen cleanup before bed."

"No obstructions to going to bed. That what you're thinking over there, Big Boy?"

"Um… Yeah."

Kate laughed and wrapped her arms around his waist. "We have to shower before we go anywhere. We don't exactly smell fresh."

"No, but we smell like us…like we've had fun. I kind of like smelling like us now and then, and who else is here to care?"

"You're right. Why don't we take some fruit and cheese and some of those whole wheat rolls out to the pool and have brunch there?"

"Something else I wouldn't mind smelling is coffee, he answered. I'll start that,"

When everything was ready, Castle took the tray, Kate took the coffee carafe, and they went to sit at the table near the pool. They had brunch and talked for a while before Castle pulled Kate into the shower area, drawing the curtain far enough they wouldn't be seen from the beach, and they rinsed themselves off and skinny dipped for a while.

"If we're going to do anything before dinner, we should get ourselves together and go and do it. It must be close to three by now," Castle said, but he hated to bring it up. There would be other people out there in those shops and streets distracting him from his Kate time.

"Yeah. I guess we should. But let's plan on an early dinner," she suggested.

"So we can bypass our clean kitchen and get back to our bed?"

"Or wherever else we might get up to something," she answered flirtatiously.

"Then let's get out of here so we can get back and play," he said, shrugging back into his robe after throwing hers to her.

"We really should be growing out of this 'going at it like bunnies' stage by now, shouldn't we?" she asked as they entered the back door.

Stopping in the little dining area near the door, Castle gasped, put a hand to his heart, and looking dramatically horrified, he said, "No! And I hope that never happens. Bite your tongue, Woman. We were given these wonderful body parts for a reason." He grabbed at her, and she evaded and turned and ran up the stairs with her husband close on her heels, both of them laughing.

After a shower that was much quicker than they would have preferred, they went in search of gifts for their family. Then they had dinner at a restaurant with an ocean view and stayed for a while, sipping coffee, holding hands, and talking quietly.

They were home just before dark and did indeed bypass the nearly spotless kitchen to go to bed early.

Sunday morning was almost as lazy as the day before, but they were out of bed and dressed well before noon. They debated as to whether to go to Bernie's for breakfast or to make brunch for themselves. They finally decided they couldn't grope one another at Bernie's, so it would be more fun to stay home.

After breakfast, Castle took a couple of bottles of cold water from the fridge and suggested, "We should go outside for a while." Kate accepted the bottle of water he handed her and followed him out to their bench.

"We're never getting rid of this bench, understand?" she said suddenly as they sat down.

"Yes, Ma'am," he answered with his little smirk. "Is there a story behind that statement?"

"Yeah. Ours. We had some of our first conversations about us here when we were working out being together. And I still like just sitting here with you and listening to the ocean."

"I asked you to marry me here."

"I remember." She looked up and kissed him gently. "Your sentimental self would never think of getting rid of this bench, either."

"Nope. Never. We sat here with Jamie and read books. Maybe one day we'll sit with our little girl and read books to her here, too."

Kate looked wistful. "We didn't even have to try to have Jamie. What if…"

Castle interrupted her, put his arm around her shoulders, and pulled her close. "Dream with me, Kate. This bench is where we started dreaming of being together. So far the dreams we've had sitting on this bench have come true. I think it might be magic."

"What do you want to dream about?"

"Our future. Our little boy and our little girl building sand castles on the beach over there where Alexis and I did. Probably arguing and chasing each other around, tattling on each other. I can almost see it."

"You're almost making me see it, too. I think I can see us walking down the beach close to dark, holding their hands and finding shells. I can see Jamie teaching her about making footprints in the sand."

Castle looked at her lovingly. "You're a good dreamer. So after that we'd take them in and get them ready for bed. We'd tuck them in and then have some time for us?"

"Yeah. Sounds nice." She looked up from where her head was on his shoulder. "I know you want a girl, but suppose we have another boy?"

"Are we rebooting the dream?" he asked with a teasing smile.

"Yeah." She said mischievously.

"Okay," he answered, sounding mischievous as well. "So our two little boys are building sand castles on the beach, and one of them takes his shovel and flattens the other one's sand castle. They're still arguing and chasing each other around on the beach and tattling on each other."

Kate laughed. "No. The one flattening the sand castle would probably be the mini Beckett.

"Ooooo. Was little Katie Beckett hard to get along with?" Castle was delighted at the thought of another little Beckett story.

"I do actually remember flattening a sand castle. Dad had helped me build it. It was time to go back to the cottage we had rented, and I didn't want to go; but he said I had to. So I got mad and stomped down the sand castle and then stormed back to the house. Are you sure you still want a mini me?"

"Yeah. So far, Jamie is so much like me it's a little scary sometimes, but he's living in a different environment than I did. He seems to be picking up more of my good traits than the bad ones. We can have our mini Beckett and hope for the best. I do love the original, you know."

"You're a brave man, Mr. Castle." She settled in against his shoulder again.

"So how did your dad handle your sand castle incident?"

"He tattled on me to my mother and they ganged up on me. My mother said they completely understood that I was angry about having to come in but they wouldn't tolerate destroying things, even a sand castle, because I was angry. Then my father said I had a time out."

"Did they send you to your room?"

"Oh, no. There were things in my room to play with. There was always a time out chair where there was absolutely nothing to do. They'd set a timer for twenty minutes, which was forever for a five year old me, and put me where I couldn't reach anything to entertain myself."

"And how did little Katie respond to that?"

"The nicest word I can think of is petulant…but I'm pretty sure it doesn't nearly rise to the occasion." Castle laughed and kissed her head.

"You think you can take it?"

"Yeah. I think she'd be awesome."

"But if we do have to reboot the dream, I can still imagine walking our little boys down the beach, holding their hands and looking for shells." She was quiet for a moment before asking again softly, "But what if…"

"Shhhh. Still dreaming. We have plenty of time before your thirty-seventh birthday. We haven't even made it to the thirty-sixth. Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't."

"You're right." She looked mischievous again. "You know what else I can see?"

"What?"

"Our grandchildren growing up with our children. Alexis isn't going to wait forever to have kids just to make you feel better."

Castle tickled his wife's ribs mercilessly, saying, "That was just mean," as she squealed and wiggled to get away. When they settled down, he said, "You just talked about 'our' grandchildren. You'll be ready to call yourself a grandmother when Alexis has children? You're kind of young for that."

"Well, the babies will need a grandmother. You think Meredith is going to step up for that?"

"Excellent point. Thank you in advance." Castle thought that earned his wife a significant kiss; and since she had let him know time and time again how much she liked that, he maneuvered her into his lap and indulged himself.

Proving that his understanding was correct, Kate kissed him back just as significantly and then asked, "Not that I didn't enjoy it, mind you, but what brought that on?"

"Your willingness to be whatever my family needs…without question."

"Whatever our family needs, Rick. I married you wanting your family for my own, not your money. What's good for them is important to me, too."

"I know. And I love you for it. That's what brought on the kiss," he answered, giving her another one. The kisses gradually became more playful, and he said, "We're leaving tomorrow morning. Why don't we take a walk on the beach, do some more skinny dipping, order dinner, and spend the evening trying to make our mini Beckett."

"Sounds good, she answered, standing and holding out her hand. He took it, and they kicked off their sandals and started on their meticulously followed plan.