The moment she sees the familiar build of his shoulders and the distinct flash of red hair at his side, her heart rate picks up, relief and excitement combining to flood through her bloodstream. The crowd at JFK isn't bad, nothing overwhelming, but Beckett still weaves her way through the sea of people until there are no longer any obstacles left between her and the family she was almost at risk of losing.

Castle senses her before she can reach them, his eyes flashing at the sight of her and his arms opening just in time for her to run into him.

"Hey," he chuckles, enveloping her in an embrace that has her releasing her first deep breath since he left for London.

"Hey," she breathes, burying her face in his shoulder for just a second, inhaling the comforting scent of his aftershave and appreciating the reassuring breadth of his chest crushed against hers.

Watching him get on a plane and fly out of the country had been far more difficult than she could have ever anticipated. He'd gone to these sorts of events before, gone on book tours that kept him away for weeks, sometimes months, but after he had disappeared on their original wedding day, after a summer spent fruitlessly searching for him... letting him go had become a struggle. And he had known that, recognized it the second he informed her about the Sherlock Holmes Society meet, and had even offered to turn down the invitation despite how excited the honor to speak at the event had made him.

"Come with me," he had coaxed, tugging her into his lap that evening, swaying them back and forth in his office chair while the email glared at her from his laptop screen. "We can go to the society meet together and then do some touristy stuff. It'll be fun."

"Yeah," she had sighed, resting her head to the juncture between his neck and shoulder. "But I don't have the vacation days, babe."

His frown had deepened at the reminder, the recollection of how all of those precious days had been used up, and Rick had shut his laptop, slid a hand between her knees while he pondered for a solution that didn't exist. "Then I won't go. Simple."

"No, Castle, you're going. It'll be fine, I'll be fine," she had sworn, lifting her head to smear her lips to the bone of his jaw, abrading her lips on the prickles of stubble there. He hadn't necessarily believed her, she hadn't necessarily believed herself, but she had helped him pack, drove him to the airport with Alexis, and kissed him goodbye on Monday morning with a strained smile and tightening chest.

Never has Kate Beckett been the type to cling, to worry over a man like she's worried over him, but losing the love of your life for two months can elicit a form of attachment syndrome that he understands all too well.

"Told you I'd bring him back safe and sound," Alexis grins from over Castle's shoulder and Kate releases her husband to extend an arm to her stepdaughter, hooking her arm around Alexis's neck and pecking a kiss to her cheek.

Alexis had volunteered to go along with Castle to London for various reasons, but the main cause being to look after her father like she had in Montreal a few months ago, to ensure that he remained safe despite the supposedly eradicated threat that had taken him away from them in the first place.

"He'll be okay," Alexis had whispered when Kate had hugged her goodbye in the airport only a few days ago. "Promise."

"I knew I could count on you," Kate murmurs with a smile before pulling away, accepting the hand Castle brushes against her knuckles and following his lead towards baggage claim.

"The flight back was okay, right?"

"Oh, so much better," Castle informs her, squeezing the fingers laced in his. "No murderers on board this time around, no case to work-"

"And Dad took a sleeping pill two hours in, so that made things a lot easier as well," Alexis quips as they reach the baggage carousel, her blue eyes bright and shimmering with amusement while she scans the merry-go-round of luggage.

"There was no need to share that," Castle mutters, finding his suitcase first and snagging it from the metal wheel.

"Alexis FaceTimed me during the last hour of your flight, Castle. I already knew," Beckett smirks, nudging his shoulder when he groans.

"Don't get me wrong, I love all the bonding that's going on between you two lately, but ganging up on me will never be acceptable."

Alexis plucks her navy suitcase from the carousel, extracts the handle so she can roll the large bag along after her, winking over her shoulder as she walks on ahead of them. "Too late."

"I don't know whether to be proud or devastated," he sighs, mimicking Alexis and dragging his suitcase along after him.

Kate hums a laugh at his side, leaning in close to press her lips to his cheek, but he turns his head before she can drift away, captures her mouth in a quick but affirming kiss that has the butterflies that claimed permanent residence of her insides long ago rioting, tickling her stomach and sweeping along the bones of her ribcage.

"Missed you," he sighs, dusting a kiss to her temple before straightening up and quickening their pace to catch up with Alexis near the airport exit.

"Missed you too," Kate replies, striding through the automatic doors with him, out into the cool air and midday sunlight. "Even though we talked everyday."

"Your voice in my ear and your face on a screen are not the same," he argues, releasing her hand to heft his luggage into the trunk of the cab Beckett nods to. She could have picked them up in her cruiser, but sticking his daughter in the backseat where she keeps criminals? Not an appealing option. "Especially not at night, when my daughter and I are in adjoining rooms, eliminating the opportunity for Skype sex."

She scoffs to conceal her laugh, checking to make sure Alexis is out of earshot, already sliding into the backseat of the cab. She and his daughter may be closer now, any lingering vestiges of animosity built years before finally faded and gone without a trace, but that doesn't mean she wants the girl hearing them joke about their sex life. No more than she already has, that is.

"You'll survive a few more hours," Kate chuckles as he pouts, slamming the trunk closed and slipping into the backseat next to his daughter, tugging Kate in along after him.

"Won't come soon enough."

"Mm, I wouldn't say that," she muses, pulling the door closed after her and leaning forward to give the cabbie their address just as realization dawns in Castle's widening eyes.

"Beckett," he hisses, earning a curious glance from Alexis, but Kate only grins, settles back next to her husband in the leather seat and sinks comfortably into his side.

"Welcome home, Castle."

His mother has a fabulous dinner prepared by the time they walk through the front door of the loft, a gourmet meal laid out along the length of the dining table that has his stomach growling, triggering an amused quirk of lips from his wife.

"Darlings!" Martha greets, sashaying towards them in a blur of jewel tones and diamonds, sweeping Alexis into a hug and then migrating to him and Kate, embracing the two of them together in her thin arms. "As much as Katherine and I enjoyed girl time here at the loft, both of you were so greatly missed!"

"Girl time?" Castle hums against her temple, earning an elbow to the ribs for the tease in his tone, but she's smiling and so is he, secretly thrilled beyond words to see how close she's bonded with his mother, his daughter. She's always been a part of the family, long before they were ever married, but over the last few months, he has noticed her confidence grow. No longer does she behave like a guest, like a member of the family still trying to find exactly where she belongs, where she fits – her place in their home is no longer tentative, it's wholly secured.

Alexis has already begun in regaling their adventurous flight to Heathrow, the subtle but existing flair for storytelling coming to life in her eyes as she describes the entire ordeal to his mother as they serve the food together, while Kate pours them each a glass of white wine. The recalling doesn't visibly upset her, but he senses the small ripples of tension that settle in her shoulder blades when she takes a seat beside him at the table, takes note of her fingers tightening ever so slightly around the silverware she uses to scoop a forkful of casserole from her plate while Alexis recounts the threat of what they once thought was a potential terrorist and the terrifying showdown with Debbie the flight attendant that followed.

Castle dips a hand beneath the table, covers the hard bone of her knee and circles his thumb over her patella through her jeans until the white shine of her knuckles dissipates and she offers him a grateful smile that remains in place throughout dinner and the bowls of ice cream Martha passes around for dessert.

After dinner, though, Castle is already drifting towards the bedroom, tugging Kate along with him, making claims of jet lag and over exhaustion that Beckett rolls her eyes at him for. But his mother doesn't argue and Alexis doesn't call him out on it, his daughter looking a little worn and ready for bed herself, and at last, he's alone with his wife again.

"Meet you in the bed," she hums when he walks her backwards through the office, into the welcome space of their bedroom.

Rick reluctantly releases his grip on her hips, begins unbuttoning his dress shirt while she disappears into the bathroom with the seductive grin that heats his blood still firmly in place. London was lovely and he'd had a genuinely good time throughout his short stay, but the relief of being home, ready to crawl back in his own bed with the heat of his wife at his side, has a contented sigh spilling from his lips, a familiar peace unwinding through bones. But before he can plop down on the bed, a crumpled piece of paper balancing on the edge of the nightstand catches his eye and his interest.

He hears the bathroom sink running as he retrieves the sheet of paper, notices her emerge from the en suite just as he's taking a seat on the edge of their bed and unfolding the printed words, feeling her go still the moment she sees him.

"What's this?" he asks, lifting the paper to his eyes, skimming over words like 'departure' and 'arrival', but the most revealing - 'JFK to LHR airport'. He lowers the paper - the plane ticket - from his face in surprise, in favor of reading the calm but slightly embarrassed expression claiming her features. The last time he found an unknown plane ticket amongst her belongings, she had been lying to him, preparing for a flight to DC she had never planned to tell him about, but this is different. This time she had been coming to him. "You bought a plane ticket to London?"

Her lower lip is pinned between her teeth when she nods and Rick flicks his gaze back down to the purchase date, his heart clenching with realization and a good dose of anguish. She'd booked a flight the day of his disastrous international travels, sometime during the chaos of it all if the time stamp was any indication.

She had almost flown to London for him.

"Impulse buy," she shrugs, drifting from the bathroom doorway to take the paper from his hands, fold it back and place it on the nightstand. "I know it wouldn't have helped anything, but I needed… even after it was all over and I knew you were safe, I needed to see your face. I wanted to be able to assure myself that you were okay, really okay, and it wasn't until you called a few hours later-"

"That's where you were," he whispers, the excessive background noise, the sounds of intercoms and the bustling commotion of fellow passengers he remembers shrugging off then, during their first nightly phone call once he was safely holed away inside his hotel suite, striking him with clarity now. "You had been at the airport?"

Kate sighs, but nods in affirmation as she steps in between his knees, slides her arms around his neck while his loop at her waist, drawing her into a straddle over his lap. "You sounded good, tired but happy, and it was enough," she explains softly, combing her fingers through the fine hairs at the base of his skull, smoothing her thumb back and forth over the sensitive skin behind his ear. "I cancelled my ticket at the front desk and came back home."

"Kate," he murmurs, trying to hold her, to cradle her while the apologies bubble and crowd on his tongue, but she shakes her head, silences them before they can be freed as she lifts her hands to his cheeks and cradles him instead.

"No, no more apologies, Castle," she whispers, dropping her forehead to rest against his, her eyes falling shut as she seems to savor the moment. Finally at rest. "No apology necessary."

He sighs and slips a hand beneath the hem of her blouse, stealing easily beneath the flowing material to stroke up and down the getnly curved bow of her spine. She's been wearing a lot of these lately – the loose, airy material that makes her look so soft and warm. He appreciates the clothing that cling to her frame, that show off each and every wonderful asset she so proudly owns, but he's grown to love these draping blouses too, imagines her wearing them even more often the day her stomach forms a tiny bump.

Rick squeezes his eyes shut at the thought, attempts to blink away the internal slip a second later, but he's been daydreaming about starting a family with Kate Beckett a little too often lately, the image of a little boy or girl with her glowing smile and stunning features continuing to fill his mind without mercy, the amount of times talk of children has come up within the past year enough to have him wanting those conversations to become reality.

He hugs her just a little tighter.

"I would have been on the first flight out too."

"If Gates wouldn't have killed me for it, I wouldn't have even hesitated," she admits, grazing her lips along his cheekbone, and he knows that too, knows that if he hadn't sounded all right on the phone, if his voice hadn't been enough to convince her, she would have shown up on his hotel doorstep. And oh, he would have loved that, the picture of it already so clear and enticing in his mind, but the majority of his time in London was spent 'working', and if he takes her to a beautiful city, he wants to give her the time to enjoy it. Wants himself free to enjoy it right alongside her.

"As soon as you have enough time off, we're going on a vacation together."

"Oh?" she grins against his cheek, shifting to sit back in his lap, the movement sparking a well-known flare of arousal to simmer in his abdomen. "Finally going to take me on that island getaway we talked about?"

Castle smirks and pulls her down with him as he eases to his back on the bed, admiring the sight of Kate draped atop him, her eyes dancing with golden flames of anticipation. "Wherever you want, Beckett. Only one condition."

Her hips roll and the heat in his abdomen blooms, spreading hot and pleasant through his veins.

"What's that?" she murmurs, upturned lips brushing his as she speaks, her voice already husky but her gaze patient, adoration shining like a beacon through the sea of lust that consumes her eyes.

"No planes." Her laugh is already spilling into his mouth and he cranes forward to taste her smile. "We road trip."