So this is sort of a sequel to Polaroid, but you don't need to read that to know what's happening here. What is happening here is mindless, self indulgent fluff. And a hell of a lot of it. I honestly didn't think I had this much sappiness in me. But apparently I do.

I want to say a humongosauruslygigantic thank you to callsignbuzz for being the most amazing Beta everrrrrr. Because I be not so good with the little commas and whutnot.

Disclaimer: Don't own them. Simply using for my own fluffy purposes.

It had just gone nine thirty on a Friday night, and as Kate surveyed her kingdom, a sense of pride flooded her body and made her smile. It wasn't the bull pen or even the interrogation room. It was her living room and it was immaculate. That fact and that fact alone made her grin.

If she looked back at her life a mere four years ago, not only would she have never ever cleaned to the point of spotlessness. If she had, she'd have checked into Bellevue immediately. But a lot of things had changed in just four short years and her domestic abilities had certainly levelled up quite a bit. Kate was a dab hand with a mop now, even if she did say so herself.

Also, she had learned about the importance of separating colours and whites when putting a load of washing.

She had never been incompetent when it came to chores, she just had a whole lot of other, more important, things to do. Like catching murderers. Besides, a quick vacuum now and then did the job just fine.

But then suddenly her life had been flipped on its face and she found herself caring a great deal about things that never seemed that important before.

Like buying groceries every week. Healthy ones; like lettuce and apples. Not ones which contained more saturated fat than they weighed.

Throwing out expired food before it grew its own colony of mould was an important lesson to learn too.

Sighing happily, she made her way to the kitchen and was thankful to find a half bottle of wine sitting in the door shelf. Grabbing a glass from a high cupboard, she poured herself a generous sidled along to the living room and sank into the couch, making sure not to spill her wine as she tucked her feet up underneath her.

She barely had two sips before her phone rang.

Muttering curses, Kate placed her wine back down and scrabbled to find the source of the annoying ringtone. Rooting around behind the couch cushions, she triumphantly pulled her cell phone out. Seeing who was calling, she rolled her eyes and pressed answer.

"What do you want husband of mine?"

Rick Castle laughed, "Just checking in to see how my wife is doing."

"Your wife was enjoying a glass of wine and some silence before you interrupted."

"Ooh. Sorry then. I'll leave you to it then, Mrs Castle."

"Oh no you don't get off that easy, Mr Castle. How was the meeting?"

Rick sighed, "Meetings. I swear if someone had told me that writing a series of highly successful novels included four hour long meetings with no coffee in one day…"

"You'd be forced to get a real job?" Kate supplied.

"Hey! No taking the piss out of the multi award winning writer!"

"Speaking of multi award winning writer, when's he getting home?"

"Soon. Why? Missing me?"

Kate jokingly scoffed, "You wish. I was constantly harangued by a certain four year old wondering where her daddy was all day."

Rick laughed again, "She get to sleep alright tonight?"

Four year old Cassidy Johanna Castle shared her mother's stubbornness and refused to have a nightlight. Her fear of the dark however had sent her running into her parents' bedroom on more than one occasion. It took more than ample persuasion to get her back to her own bed. Being the daughter of a detective and a crime novelist, even if it was Richard Castle, bribery and promises of chocolate didn't usually work.

Kate was silent for a moment, listening for any sign that her daughter was awake. "Well she's still asleep. For now."

There was some chattering in the background before Rick spoke. "Uh, hey I've got to dash. Paula's making me go for a drink with this new author. I'm gonna make my excuses and leave early though."

"It's not the next Alex Conrad is it?" Kate asked teasingly. The once declared 'Next Richard Castle' had made a surprisingly successful name for himself by switching to writing bodice ripping romance novels of all things.

"Don't even joke about that. Muffins went to waste because of him. Muffins Kate. Muffins."

"You are insufferable."

"And that's why you love me." There was a slight pause and Kate heard someone yelling in the background. Rick lowered his voice to a whisper "Uh…I've really got to go…"

"Go on you. Go drink and schmooze while I sit here all on my lonesome."

Rick felt bad. The meetings were bad enough but having to put a smile on and listen to boring stories when he'd rather be at home curled up with his wife was worse. He was so going to have a talk with Paula about springing these things on him.

When he didn't answer Kate let out a short laugh, "Rick. I was joking. Good lord where's the nine year old on a sugar rush that I married?"

"He, uh, grew up?" Although she said she was joking, he was afraid she really was annoyed.

"Nice try. Next time with a bit more feeling. Now go have some fun. I love you."

"I love you too."

Kate smirked as she hung up. All this time and she could still wind him up. God he was so easy. She curled back up onto the couch and sipped her wine. She might not get to spend the evening with her husband but right now life was good. An evening of quiet relaxation was just what Kate Castle needed.

She stretched her legs out and was about to reach for the remote when a small voice piped up from behind the couch.

"Mama?"

Damn. Her evening of solo relaxation would have to wait for another evening. Kate swivelled on the couch and found a pair of bright blue eyes and a scruffy looking elephant toy staring up at her.

"Why aren't you asleep, Miss Cass?"

"Mama, Cherry had a bad dream." The elephant was held up over the four year old's head.

"Really?" Kate picked up Cass and plonked her on her lap. "Does Cherry remember what it was about?"

"No she don't 'member," Cass said, looking up at Kate with her blue eyes. She'd inherited almost all of her looks from Kate but those eyes were all Castle's. "Mama?"

"Yes?" Kate said, gently trying taming her daughters unruly brunette curls.

"Read Cherry a story?"

"Another story?" Sometimes the offspring of a writer was hard work.

"Please Mama? Cherry and me like stories. Daddy always reads me lots of stories." Damn Castle and his puppy dog eyes. Kate didn't know if a look could be passed on genetically but her daughter could muster an exact copy whenever she pleased. And Kate was powerless against it.

"Alright missy. One story. Then bed. Are you sure you…Cherry doesn't want a nightlight?"

"No." Cass shook her head emphatically. "No nigh' light. Cherry's not 'fraid, we're big girls now."

"Hmm."

Cass wriggled off her mother's lap and pointed to the bookshelf. "Cherry will choose a story!"

The four year old struck a pose identical to Castle's 'thinking pose' as she studied, or pretended to study, the titles on the lowest two shelves. Kate smiled. Her daughter may have gotten her looks, but her mannerisms, and eyes, were all Rick. Especially the dramatics.

"Found anything Cassy?"

"Hold up Mama! Cherry is thinking!"

Kate had to stifle a laugh. "Alright then bossy. I'll leave you to it."

"I got one!" Cass dragged a large book behind her back to the couch and held it up to Kate. "Read this one Mama." And with that she sat back on her mother's lap and looked up at her expectantly.

Upon inspection, the book that Cass had given her was not actually a book, but a photo album. Ever since that day; the dayKate had woken up after her shooting, and discovered Rick had stolen – he'd used the word 'borrowed' of course – her box of photo albums and brought them to the hospital, Kate had rediscovered her love of photography.

As their relationship had slowly progressed, more albums had been filled. The photos weren't taken as often as they used to be, but they still managed to capture the most important moments. A picnic in the park during fall, one of them together at the scholarship ball in her mother's name, and even one of Kate trying to smack a fan girl who'd made one too many adult propositions to Rick while getting her copy of Deadly Heat. Lanie had been particularly proud of her photo taking skills that day.

"Did you have to put her in a full nelson?" Rick said, still trying to recover from the day's events. He was glad it was sort of dark in the back of the limo so Kate couldn't see him grinning with pride.

"She was practically trying to have sex with you there and then!"

"Well who could blame her? I mean I am ruggedly handsome after all."

A Styrofoam coffee cup flew across the limo and hit him squarely on the forehead. Rick yelped.

"Good," Kate said, satisfied with his reaction. "I hope it leaves a dent."

He unclipped his seatbelt and sidled up to her, sliding an arm around her waist and kissed her cheek. "Have I ever said how hot it is when you get jealous?"

She turned to face him, her face transfixed with a glare. "You. Are. Insufferable." Kate punctuated each word with a poke to his chest.

"Ow! No jabbing!"

"Hmph." She turned away from him and suddenly found the fast moving sidewalk extremely interesting.

"Would it make it any better if I said I wasn't even interested and you're my one and done?"

"No," she said stubbornly.

"How about if I make dinner when we get home?"

"No,"

"Foot rub?" The swift banter between them hadn't changed one bit, although Rick's offers for forgiveness certainly had.

"No."

Rick paused, trying to figure out what he could use to turn her around. "What If I let you read the new chapter of Heat Falls?"

That got her. When Kate turned to face him, he pulled her into a kiss. After a minute or so she broke away grinning, "It better be a long chapter."

She hadn't been that angry. Besides, the look on the face of the woman when she realised she was being frog marched out of the bookstore by Richard Castle's wife was revenge enough.

Rick matched her grin, "You just love me for my books."

It wasn't until Kate had moved in with Rick – Alexis had gone to Stanford and was currently doing post grad work, Martha had moved out for a bit to go on tour with a rather successful theatre company - that more and more of the photos had made their way out of their plastic sleeves and up onto the walls. His loft became more and more their home, filled with the memories they had made together. Still there were some albums floating around, filled with the photos that couldn't fit onto the wall. The one that Cass had grabbed was one of them.

"Baby, this isn't a story book. It's a photo album."

Cass blinked at her mom. "What's that?"

"It's for storing pictures. Like the frames we have on the walls but in a book." Kate opened the album slowly, "See?"

"Look! It's Uncle Kev and Aunty Jenny! Wow Mama, her dress is pretty."

"It's their wedding day." Kate smiled at the memory, gently touching the photo. It was one of her and Rick's first 'proper' events together. Both the ceremony and reception had been beautiful and although Kate had adamantly denied it, she's shed a tear or two during the vows.

"Are you crying?" Rick whispered from next to her.

Kate gave sniff and an indignant glare. "No." Crap. Thank Maybelline for waterproof mascara. If she hadn't sniffed he never would have known.

Rick looked at her face carefully, "You are."

"Shut it." She hissed.

"You are truly a hopeless romantic aren't you?"

"I said shut it Rick."

Rick shut it. For about two seconds. "Want a tissue?"

"Castle!"

More silence.

"Do you, Kevin Ryan take Jenny O'Malley to be your lawful wedded wife for as long as you both shall live?"

"I do."

That did it. Kate made a half assed attempt to wipe her cheek. Damn.

Rick slipped his hand into hers and squeezed. "I love you and all your hopeless romanticness. And your hotness in that dress." He moved closer so his lips were inches away from her ear, "And your hotness out of it too."

Kate let out a small laugh as Jenny repeated the priest's words and said 'I do.'

As Kate was lost in remembrance, Cass wriggled a little and flipped over a couple of pages, already moving on, "It's me and Daddy, Mama! The day we made cookies!"

Just thinking about that day snapped Kate out of her reverie and almost made her cringe involuntarily. The picture was in the photo album and not on the walls for a reason.

Flour. Everywhere.

Everywhere.

"Right Cassy Cat. Mom's gone so it's just you and me. Big Castle and mini - mini Castle. What do you want to do today?" Even after eighteen or so years, Rick fell into his 'Mr. Mom' role with surprising ease. He was happy enough to let Cass decide what she wanted to do because she wasn't big enough just yet to play laser tag and the one time he's shown her how to use his helicopter it had whirlybirded right out an open window. It was nice of the delivery guy it hit to return it.

The three year old grew serious for a second, "Cookies."

"Cookies?"

Cass looked up at her father, "Daddy. I want to make cookies."

"Cookies? Are you sure?" He swept her up and placed her on his hip. "We could go to the park, or the playground, or go see…"

"Daddy," Cass said, with as much patience as her three year old self could muster, placed her little hands on Rick's cheeks. "I want to make cookies. Cookies please." She looked so much like Kate at that moment.

"Uh...Cookies it is then!"

"Yay! Can Cherry help?"

A three year old, a writer and an elephant making cookies in the kitchen. Almost sounded like the start of a joke. "Of course."

Fifteen minutes later all the ingredients needed for chocolate chip cookies were neatly lined up on the counter with the recipe book nearby.

"Are you ready little chef?"

Cass nodded eagerly, her paper chef's hat falling down off her head. "Ready Daddy!"

Things started surprisingly smoothly. Rick helped Cass break two eggs into a bowl, measure the milk and mix in the vanilla essence. Cass stirred vigorously perched on her kiddy ladder while he melted butter in the microwave.

"Now we put in the dry ingredients."

"Flour?"

"Flour."

They'd put in the sugar and baking powder and were about to measure out the flour when the phone rang. Rick looked around for a hand towel. When he found none he wiped them on his apron. His very masculine apron, thank you very much.

"I…uh…go play while I get this okay Cass?"

"But Daddy! Flour! Cookies!"

"I'll get this and we'll get right back to cookie time okay?"

Cass huffed, a perfect Kate huff, "Fine. Come Cherry."

Rick dashed to grab the phone before whoever it was on the other end hung up, "Hello?"

"Dad?"

"Alexis! Hi!" Rick had almost forgotten their weekly chat. Sometimes they Skyped but that usually ended in Cass hogging the screen for an hour, showing Alexis her numerous drawings.

"You sound out of breath…is this a bad time?"

"No, no just making cookies with Cass and Cherry."

"Oh! Chocolate chip?"

"You know it. So how's the post grad life?"

"Really good. We've started to do some research with the neuro-imaging machines. We're looking at the responses of a single neuron to lines in its receptive field." Alexis easily completed her Bachelors in Science majoring in Psychology and was now branching off into neuro-psychology post grad research.

"I'm going to pretend to understand that. How's Ashley?"

Alexis laughed. As far away from home as she was, it was still good to have some connection to her home. "He's good too. He got an internship at Lawrence Livermore National Lab's Hydrogen Fuel division. It's super exclusive and he's really excited. How's Kate?"

"She's good too. Working today, but we're trying to get to the Hamptons for a week or so next month. We could use the time off."

"Tough being 'Mr. Mom,' again huh Dad?" Alexis said with a light tease in her voice.

"Very funny. But I'm out of practice – it's been a lot of years since I had to chase your little butt around the house."

"Dad, you never had to chase me around. I had to chase you around remember?"

"Indeed I do."

"Daddy is that Lexis?" Cass asked excidedly as she ran into the room.

Startled, Rick almost dropped the phone, "Umm…yes?"

"LEX! HI LEX!"

"Hi Cassy!" Alexis laughed down the phone.

"Daddy, phone please." Cass held out her hand expectantly.

Rick handed her the phone and Cass climbed up onto the couch.

"Hi Lex! Me and Daddy are making cookies!"

"I heard! You gonna save some for me?"

"I'll try." Cass lowered her voice conspiratorially, "But Daddy might eat them all."

Alexis laughed, "He does like his cookies."

"When are you coming to see me and Cherry, Lexy?"

"Soon Cassy Cat. Soon."

"Kay. Here Daddy." Cass almost threw the phone at Rick who managed to catch it with one hand. A brilliant move, if someone had seen it. Cass had slid off the couch and wandered back into the kitchen with Cherry.

"One of few words that one." Rick said as he righted the phone and held it up to his ear.

"So she's all Kate then? I don't think few words run on our side Dad."

"Oh haha Miss Post Grad."

"DADDY!" Cass' small voice said surprisingly loudly from the kitchen.

Rick groaned, "Oh god. Listen Lex I've gotta run."

"She's in the kitchen alone again isn't she?"

Damn Alexis for knowing him all too well, "One time. That happened one time!"

"And today makes two. Bye Dad. I'll call you same time next week?"

"You know it. Love you."

"Love you too."

Rick had barely hung up the phone before sprinting into the kitchen. Oh god. Cass had opened the bag of flour by herself. But instead of getting it in the mixing bowl, she'd got it everywhere else. Everyhwere else. It looked like Frosty the Snowman held a rage in the kitchen.

Cass giggled and flung a handful of flour at him, "Look! It's snow Daddy!"

He was dead. So dead. Deader than dead. Deadified dead. The deadliest form of deadified dead.

"Snow!" Cass repeated, then sneezed.

Rick had wanted to clean it all up straight away but Cass insisted on finishing the cookies. Once they were safely cooling on the counter, Rick was just about to start cleaning up Cass when he heard the front door click.

"I'm home!"

"Mama!" Cass called, despite Rick making several 'shush be quiet or I'm dead' gestures that went way over the child's head, "In the kitchen! We made cookies!"

"I can smell them! I wondered what…you…guys…had….made?"

Upon entering the kitchen Kate was greeted by two very floury persons, a very floury toy elephant and a very floury kitchen.

Rick grinned sheepishly. "Um. Surprise? Want a cookie?"

Kate had been furious and horrified at the same time but seeing her husband and daughter covered in flour, proudly displaying their creations was enough to send her hunting for the camera. Kate had regretted being so blasé about the whole incident later when she had to wash the flour out of Cass' hair.

Three hours it had taken.

It was funny in a way, when Kate remembered the photo of she and her mom making jam and compared it to the cookie disaster photo. It was sort of like passing on the torch.

Except with five pounds of flour.

"I like cookies Mama." Cass said, snuggling further into her mother. She was getting tired, Kate could tell.

"I know you do. You ready for bed now?"

"No. More photos please."

Kate checked her watch. 10:30. Way past the little girl's bedtime. "A few more okay? Then we really have to go to sleep."

Cass sighed and clutched Cherry even tighter. She'd received the toy from Grandpa Jim, two days after she was born. The elephant had been with her ever since. There had been millions of other toys from friends, family and even the slightly too obsessed fan, but the elephant was by far Cass' favourite. Kate wasn't exactly sure where the name came from, but Rick had given her such a look when Cass had let the name slip one evening. Kate being Kate had chosen to ignore it. Still, wherever the name came from, it had stuck.

The upside had been that because of its name, Cass developed an intense love for cherries. Or perhaps that was more a downside because for two weeks, cherries had been the only thing Cass wanted to eat.

"Mama?" Cass said, a little sleepily.

"Yeah?"

"What's your bestest photo?"

"My…bestest?"

"Uh huh."

Wow. Tough question coming from a sleepy four year old.

Kate flicked through a couple of pages, passing birthdays, book signings and a few baby firsts.

A favourite photo. Singular. One. Out of ten or so photo albums. And that wasn't including the ones she had from her childhood. Or all the photos on the wall.

One photo.

Hmmm. Tough question indeed.

Needing a trip to the dentist yet?

Second part up soon. And I'm telling you now, it's just as fluffy.