Chapter 5

Rick spent most of the night awake with Kate lying peacefully beside him. It wasn't that he couldn't sleep; after all, she'd helped him expend nearly every ounce of energy he'd had, and in most magnificent fashion. It was his anticipation of morning that had him so charged. He knew what he wanted, and, yes, he'd known and wanted it for a long time, but their talk and her words of the previous night had only served to bolster his resolve and to inspire daring.

It certainly hadn't been his plan; that, he hadn't yet formulated, but when he looked down at his watch just past 5AM, he knew exactly what he had to do. Kate stirred when he slid free of their sleeping bag but didn't wake, so he kissed her on the cheek, pulled on a fresh t-shirt and some shorts from his backpack, and climbed from the tent.

The pre-dawn light was but a faint glow in the sky, and the ground was soft from the rain beneath his feet as he stepped out into the clearing, the other two tents still with the early hour. "Castle?" he heard just above a whisper, but distinct in the morning hush, and though he looked around, in the darkness, he couldn't tell where it'd come from. "What are you doing up?" came another voice, and suddenly Kevin and Jenny came into view, bags in hand.

"Me? What about you two? It's barely morning."

The three gathered at the picnic table, away from their sleeping friends. "We're always up this early," Kevin told him. "You know how things are at the precinct, Castle, with schedules and everything. Sometimes this is the only time we have to spend together in a day."

"Not all of us get to work beside our loves every day, Rick," Jenny said, wrapping herself around Kevin's waist from behind. "I have to take him when I can get him."

"I get it, and I'm a very lucky man. This I know."

"So, what's up? You couldn't sleep?" Kevin asked.

Rick was going to send a text from the road a bit later on and hadn't anticipated seeing anyone from the group before he left. "Nope, couldn't sleep," he answered with exaggerated nonchalance. "Since I was up, I figured I'd go ahead and run over to the grocery store to get food and stuff for today," he told them, and that was true. That was part of the reason he was leaving, but it wasn't the important one, the one that had his heartbeat quickened.

"Well, I can come with you and-"

Rick interrupted him mid-sentence, Kevin's participation an impossibility. "No, Ryan, I'll be fine, thanks. You stay here and do whatever it was you two were going to do, and I'll be back shortly."

"Okay, but don't buy coffee. We have a bunch here. We're going to try to get the wet fire pit going to see if we can actually drink any of it. Text me if you end up needing help."

"Thanks, I'll do that," Rick said, moving off for the car. "Back in a bit." He knew he'd be longer than that, though.

xxxx

"Did you try texting him again?" Lanie asked, noticing her eye on Rick's still-empty parking space.

Kate swallowed down the last sip of coffee in her third cup. "No, when I talked to him he said he was on his way back."

"He probably got out of his car in the park somewhere and is busy spinning around in some field like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music," Lanie teased. "It's like he's suddenly become Mr. National Geographic or something."

Kate smiled because it was true. "You're probably right," she said. "So, did you go easy on Javi last night?"

"What fun would that be?" Kate nodded as though she expected nothing less. "But I definitely wasn't hearing any complaints."

"Yeah, well, I'm sure no one heard much of anything, thanks to the storm," Kate said both jokingly and thankfully, calling up her own tent fun with Rick. "I'm glad you guys are back in a good place."

"We always seem to be something. That's about all I know."

Kate pushed off the top of the picnic table and onto the bench beside her. "Do you guys ever talk about future stuff or, I mean, has that been a discussion you've had?" Lanie turned and met her eye because it was clear there was something behind the question. "What? What's that look for?"

"Has that been a discussion you've had? You're the one who's so in love that little hearts shoot from your eyes whenever you see the man."

Kate's cheeks instantly flushed pink. "Shut up, Lanie. They do not."

"But you are in love, Kate, and so is he, and I just can't understand why, after all this time, the two of you are still dragging your feet. Wouldn't it be nice if we all had all the damn time in the world?"

Kevin and Jenny's laughter suddenly erupted from behind them as the two stepped back into the campsite with Javi in tow, who held a coffee cup in one hand and a roll of toilet paper in the other. "My partner really needs to work on his balance," Kevin called out tauntingly. "He hasn't quite mastered the squat."

"Shut your mouth, Poison Ivy Boy," Javi hissed as Kevin lifted his leg to scratch at his ankle.

"I'm very glad to be back here with you girls and this," Jenny told Kate and Lanie, reaching for the coffee pot. "Heckle and Jeckle can't stop bickering for two seconds and the day just started."

"Now you know how I feel," Kate said, holding her cup out for another shot.

"Castle's not back yet?" Kevin asked, still busy scratching until he earned a reprimand from Jenny. "Fine, I'm going, I'm going," he groaned.

"Calamine lotion," she announced as he sulked off. "Luckily we remembered to bring the kit with us."

"Wuss," Javi whispered. "So, where's Cas-" A car horn sounded before he could finish his question, and Rick pulled back in behind them. "What did he do, go brew the damn beer himself?"

Kate left everyone else and headed for the car, meeting Rick as he stepped out with a smile. "Detective, will there ever be a morning I don't marvel at how beautiful you look when you wake up? I'll give you a hint," he said, closing the door behind him. "The answer is no." He leaned in and she came for the kiss.

"What took you so long?"

"I'm sorry, there was a, I had a, um, traffic," he sputtered. "I love it when you miss me, by the way."

Kate gave him the sideways look he rightfully deserved. "To be honest, Castle, it wasn't so much you we were waiting for as it was breakfast. Got any muffins back there?"

Rick threw his hands over his heart as though she'd wounded him with her words. "This after the incredible gifts I gave you last night."

She pushed in for his ear. "You opened a few, too, as I recall. Pop the trunk, Castle."

He reached into one of his pockets and pressed the necessary button on his fob, the other holding the very reason for his lengthy morning absence. "That's why I got you the everything bagel, Detective," he said, joining her behind the car.

"More like lunch now, isn't it, bro?" Javi gibed, stepping up to help.

"The man who has to shit in the woods is mocking me," Rick quipped, walking past him with a restocked cooler.

"Really nice, Castle," he huffed as Kate slipped by him with a grin.

xxxx

They all ate a late breakfast together, but split up afterwards when the men seemed less than enthusiastic about visiting the Nature Center on the park's grounds. Instead, they opted to stay behind with Kevin's old radio they hoped might pick up the afternoon baseball game, and with the goofy sports equipment Rick had bought for the weekend, namely a spongy football that whistled and glowed in the dark and some sort of Star Wars bowling set that couldn't possibly work outdoors.

The ladies returned several hours later, having impressively hiked the Green Trail out of and the Blue Trail back into camp, with a stop at the Center in between. The humidity was still vicious despite the previous night's storm, and they were all huddled around the beer cooler like it was a fire on a cold night.

"So, you guys tossed a toy around all afternoon for exercise," Lanie said with a distinct air of ridicule.

Rick and Javi both turned to Kevin, who could only shrug. "Not all afternoon," Javi began, looking to Kevin to complete the picture.

"I sort of lost the ball in the woods," Kevin confessed.

"And we sure as hell weren't going into the poison ivy after it."

Jenny rubbed Kevin's back in support. "We'll buy you another one, Rick."

"Please don't," Kate insisted. "If it wasn't this, I'm sure he would've found another way to get himself hurt. Look at his leg from last night."

Everyone looked down at Rick's ugly scrape. "Excuse me, but this injury is the result of pure heroism, thank you very much. I didn't see you running around in the rain trying to save all our stuff, Detective."

"That's because I'm not an idiot, Castle. Were the graham crackers really that important? Didn't you spend, like, three hours at the grocery store this morning, anyway?"

"You know what, I think you need to cool off," he told her, reaching into the cooler for a handful of ice and dropping it down the back of her shirt.

Kate jumped backwards with the shock of the cold and twisted all around until she was able to shake the ice to the ground. Soon they were all dipping into the cooler and chasing each other down, until there was little ammunition left for attack.

"Hold it," Lanie said. "This girl is tired and ready to sit and the next person to hit me with an ice cube gets a swift kick."

"Roger that," Javi said, tossing away the weapon he was about to wield. "We do actually have more ice for the beer, right?"

Rick nodded, somewhat out of breath. "The other cooler's full in the trunk, and I'm with Lanie. Let's sit." He'd emptied his pockets into his backpack when Kate had left for her hike, but his hand instinctively went to it as he bent for the log behind him. "There are some cards on the table over there if anyone wants to play."

"That's definitely more my speed right now," Lanie said, nudging Javi to go grab the deck.

Kate was sitting next to Rick and he set his hand on her leg. "Sunset stroll later, just you and me?" he said softly so as not to draw the attention of the group.

She nodded and kissed his lips, and the butterflies inside him took off.

xxxx

"Would anyone mind if I stole my lovely detective away for a quick walk while dinner preparations get started?" Rick asked as Jenny and Kevin tended to the evening's fire. "We won't be long." With no objections, save for a wisecrack from Javi about Rick's earlier disappearing act, he excused himself to their tent to change his shirt, or so he told her and which he then had to do, and he tucked the pouch back into one of his pockets.

"Don't get caught making out, lovebirds," Lanie warned with a waggle of her finger. "You'll scar that ranger boy for life."

Kate looked back over her shoulder and shushed her as Rick led her towards the trailhead down to the lake. "I'll just take you behind a tree," she told him once they were out of earshot. "He'll never see a thing."

"God, I love you," he said excitedly.

"I love you, too, and as surprised as I am to be saying this, Castle, I've had a really fun time this weekend. I'm actually kind of glad you dragged us all out here."

"There's that 'dragged' word again," he said, "though, I suppose the words around it have improved, which I'm happy about. Maybe we can come out here by ourselves at some point and try it again. I mean, when we can go swimming without ending up in park prison."

"I think we can probably make that happen," she said.

They continued along the trail until they arrived at the descent to the lake. "You want to go down and sit on the beach and watch the sun?" He could see from their spot on the hill they were the only two people around, which was precisely what he'd been hoping for all day.

"It really is beautiful here, Castle," Kate said as they sat together in the sand, her body anchored between his knees, her head at rest against his chest. The waning sun was a ball of bright orange, wisps of cloud dancing around it as it passed through.

"You're beautiful," he whispered in her ear so she could feel the words. Her hand came up around the back of his neck and held him in tender acknowledgement. He took a deep breath in and released it as fingers dipped into his pocket and pulled its contents free. "There's something I've been thinking a lot about," he told her as he held it tight. "Something I've wanted to ask you."

"How mysterious," she began, until he held out his hand and she quickly understood. In that moment, his name was the only other word she could manage to get out.

"I know what my going to Paris alone must've felt like, Kate, and I never want you to think that I don't want you by my side for every minute of the rest of my life." He reached inside for the ring and tossed the pouch aside. "There is no one on this earth who has ever made me feel the way I feel when I'm with you, and I'd like to spend all the days I have left showing you how grateful I am. Katherine Beckett, I'd be honored if you'd agree to wear this ring, and every time you look at it know in your heart that you are the only forever I've ever wanted. Will you marry me?"

She wriggled free and adjusted her position to face him.

"I had it made for you. Do you like it?"

"Rick, it's perfect," she said, leaving a kiss on his lips. "And, yes, I would love to be your wife and to have you as my husband." He slid the ring onto her finger, its fit absolute, and pulled her into his arms, twisting her down onto the sand and kissing her until the setting sun bathed their bodies in shadow. "How long have you had this?" she asked. "I mean, we all know how much you suck at keeping secrets."

"Engaged less than five minutes and already giving me a hard time," he said, biting at her neck. "I went and talked with the jeweler the day after I got back. It's why I was gone so long this morning. I drove to the loft to get it."

"Wait, you drove home this morning?"

"I did, yeah. I hadn't planned on it being this weekend, but I couldn't stop thinking about it after we talked last night, and I just realized I didn't want one more day to go by, so I got up and went."

"We did a lot more than just talk," she said, tickling his lips with her own. "That's probably why I didn't know you'd gone."

"And we did more very well." He pulled back and let his eyes wander over her. "You know I've always loved you, right?"

She nodded, his hand still beneath her head in support. "You know I'll always love you, right?"

He reciprocated her silent reply and lowered his head onto her chest, laying it flat. "We should probably head back before it gets dark. I remembered the ring but not a flashlight."

"So, maybe that whole Ranger Rick title was a bit premature then, huh?"

"Maybe so," he agreed with a sigh. "Ah, a boy and his dreams." He pushed himself up and extended a hand to help her. "So, do we want to tell everyone? I know it was sudden, so if you want to wait it's fine."

"No, I think I'm okay with telling them if you are."

"I'd like to tell the whole world," he said, grabbing her around the waist.

"Worst secret keeper ever," she said, and they headed back towards the campsite.

xxxx

"Hey, perfect timing," Jenny said, noticing the pair approaching. "The kabobs are on and cooking."

"Great, perfect," Rick said, giving Kate's hand a tiny squeeze.

Javi eyed them both stealthily for a minute before speaking up. "What are those faces for?"

"I wasn't aware I was making a face, Javier, but um…" He looked at Kate and she at him and he continued with her tacit agreement. "If you were referring to what I can only imagine was the huge smile on my face, it's because the greatest love of my life has just agreed to marry me."

"Hallelujah!" Lanie exclaimed.

"Oh, Beckett, I'm so sorry, you must be crushed," Javi joked before pulling her in for a hug. "I'm just kidding. Congrats, girl. He's lucky to have you. Nice job, Castle," he said, extending a hand. "It only took you five years."

"Thanks, and how long has it taken you?" he retorted.

"Good one, Castle," Kevin said, coming in to hug them both. "I'm really happy for you guys."

"So happy," Jenny echoed.

"So, I actually bought some champagne this morning, if anyone's interested," Rick said. "I think a little toast to the happy couple is in order." He went to fetch the bottle from the trunk and returned to pop it open, pouring a celebratory sip for all. They'd all just raised their glasses when they were suddenly hit with a set of headlights and a truck pulled up, someone climbing out and making their way towards them.

"Evening, folks," said the very same park ranger they'd encountered at the lake the day before. "It looks like we might have a bit of a celebration going on here. I see some champagne, maybe, and some beer."

"Yes sir," Rick told him, again with the formality. "We've just gotten engaged."

"Engaged, how nice, congratulations, but you are aware that alcohol is not permitted in this park, correct? That's printed clearly in your information packet, just above the swimming restrictions."

"Come on, Castle," Javi groused.

"No, I don't, I didn't-"

"I'm sorry," Kevin blurted nervously for the second time in as many days, and everyone laughed.