Just a small story, to honour tomorrow's return of Castle. Enjoy.

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

"So he did the deed before he took a dive..." Beckett said sardonically, moving to walk away. Castle smirked.

"Was he with one of my ex-wives because, this, probably an under-reaction..." he said and Lanie snorted into her lapel. Beckett bit her bottom lip, trying her best not to laugh. That was the thing about Castle, he was always able to make her laugh. Even when she didn't want to.

"Come on Castle, let's go see if you're right." she said quickly, letting her face break into a smile when he couldn't see her. She stepped through the front door with her head down, him following behind her.

"I know you're smiling up there." he said and damn it, she could hear the bastard grinning. She smiled again. He was good, she had to give him that.

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She could see where he was coming from, she could understand that he held honesty in high regard but she couldn't do that to Ryan. But then in the back of her mind, she wondered if she wouldn't want to know if she was in his position.

That was why she had blurted out that sentence about them getting married, not that he'd even been phased by that statement. Oh no. He'd latched onto that 'all' comment and now she was in an argument about their 'numbers'.

"Men," she said with a grin and walked away from him. He raised an eyebrow and followed after her.

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

Castle sat down next to her in the break room, sighing as he did, pushing a cup of coffee her way. She smiled and said a quiet thanks as he did.

"What a case, huh?" he offered as he picked up his own cup. She nodded and mirrored his movement.

"Oh yeah." she wheezed, stretching her legs under the table, careful not to brush off of him. Castle was quiet for a moment, thinking back to their earlier conversation with Ryan. He'd taken it rather well, went home to meet Jenny and talk it through with her. Esposito had gotten a text an hour later saying everything was good and that he'd see them on Sunday.

"I'm glad they worked it out." Castle said carefully, not wanting to get back into that conversation.

"You're just glad you still have a party to go to on Sunday!" Beckett grinned back at him and he smirked.

"So are you." he replied quickly and she looked away. Once again he had called her up. She looked back at him and nodded.

"Yeah, I am actually. It'll be nice to have the gang altogether for a happy occasion." she said and he snorted.

"Jeez, it's been a while since you were at a wedding hasn't it? And you clearly weren't at either of mine!"

"You know, I was full sure my name was on the guest list but when I went up they wouldn't let me in." she joked, raising her eyebrows at him and he gave her a look of horror.

"You're kidding me? I knew I should have hired better planners, would have saved me some grief. One appearance from you would have called the whole thing off..." he trailed off purposely because she was looking at him with a sweet smile on her face. He returned it with one of his own before taking another sip of his coffee.

"So..." he started, "Now that my date has ditched me to go out with some hockey player, why don't we go together on Sunday?" he said in that confident tone he had but there was a small hint of nervousness. Beckett smirked.

"I'm the back-up Castle? Way to make a girl feel special..."

He looked at her, not sure how he was supposed to answer that. Technically speaking Alexis had put dibs on his plus one months ago, and Beckett would have known that.

"You know I was going to ask you to come with me anyway right?" he said quickly. She looked at him and he continued, nodding his head, "Yeah. I mean we were both going anyway, there's a pretty high chance that Ryan put all of us at the same table so the three of us could easily have gone together. Or, I could have grounded Alexis tonight and whisked you off on Sunday. This of course, was assuming you had beaten off all of the eager parties vying for your plus one."

She knew he had come up with that answer right there, on the spot - she had no doubt of it. The same way that she had no doubt the sentiment and everything he'd said was perfectly honest and true. She smirked back at him.

"The eager parties were few Castle, and I would have said no to them anyway"

"Why?"

"Because I was hoping that my partner was going to step up to the plate." she emphasised the word partner and he nodded his head.

"Just point me to the plate." he said smartly and she took another sip of her coffee. Would she do it now? Yeah, why not. She reached and tore two scraps of paper out of a magazine in front of her and handed one to him. He looked at it, puzzled, and even more so when she handed him her spare pen.

"I want your number." she said simply and recognition washed over his face. He fought back a sly smirk as he picked up the pen, quickly scribbling something on the page and placing his hand over it. She did the same.

"You want to swap or...just turn over on three?" She couldn't believe that he sounded nervous. She would have thought that this was like all of his birthdays coming at once. She shrugged.

"Just turn over."

He nodded and counted to three. They both turned over and removed their hands. Their eyes widened simultaneously and at the exact same moment they exclaimed loudly to each other,

"Seven?"

"Eleven?"

CASTLE CASTLE CASTLE

There's probably one more chapter in this. Review would make my day…