For Angie, who asked me to write her a birthday fic based on the song "Show Me the Way" by the Cranberries. If you listen to the song, it's actually incredibly fitting for the timeline we're currently on in the show. But since Angie is spoiler-free (I don't know how she does it), this is completely removed from current canon. Takes place in the future.
Happy Birthday, Angie!
She's nowhere to be found when he strolls into the precinct, two coffees in hand. He'd stayed up late last night writing, so when she received the call about the body drop this morning, she ruffled his hair and pressed a kiss to his cheek, murmuring that she'd call him later after she got to the precinct.
He sets the steaming cup on her desk, shifts his eyes to Ryan and Esposito who are huddled behind Ryan's computer. "Where's Kate?" he asks.
The boys shrug. "She was here a few minutes ago," Ryan offers, eyes remaining on the screen. Castle swears he hears the faint pinging of the new video game Esposito bought a few weeks ago, but he tears his eyes away from the duo in search of his girlfriend.
Girlfriend.
He wonders if he'll ever get used to the sound of it, if he'll ever get used to the way a delicious thrill travels down his back, the way his insides spasm in happiness.
"Hey handsome," she says softly as she brushes past him, the pads of her fingers tripping gently, quickly across his waist, for his eyes only. He smiles as she wraps her fingers around her coffee cup, a vision in a soft purple sweater, her hair twisted in a ponytail. She takes a long sip, closing her eyes in ecstasy as the liquid travels down her throat.
Five years later and he's still as smitten as day one.
"Sleep well?" she murmurs, joining him again, nudging his shoulder with hers.
He smiles. "Yeah. I needed that. Thanks."
She squeezes his fingers gently, a loving gesture in a precinct full of ribbing cops. He yearns to pull her into him and kiss her lips, her cheeks, her fluttering eyelids—everything. Her eyes seem to sparkle a little extra today and it sends his stomach flipping. He wants to play, wants to be a part of whatever she's keeping close to her.
But there's time for that later and he'll readily admit that he's dying for a good murder today.
"Interesting case?" he asks, his eyes slipping from hers to rest on the murder board.
She hums. "I'd say so."
His eyes skirt over the whiteboard, confused. The board looks untouched, the same facts scattered across the surface as a few days ago. A case they already solved. She usually dismantles it after a close, but they'd both been so exhausted that night.
"Kate?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.
"On the other side."
He feels her eyes on him as he flips the board gently, revealing the new case. His breath catches in his throat, chokes a little as he stares into her photo.
"Breathe, Castle. Look at the rest of it," she breathes gently into his ear, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek.
"Double homicide?" he squeaks. His picture is displayed next to hers; he recognizes it from the book jacket of his latest novel.
"Keep moving," she prods softly, her eyes glancing over the rest of the board in hopes that he'll follow.
"Suspects," he murmurs, lifting his hand to trail down a list of names of those closest to him. Alexis. His mother. Ryan and Esposito. Lanie. Montgomery, even. His breath catches when he realizes her father and mother are on the list along with the men she's dated since she's known him. Gina and Meredith, too.
In the corner, he finds a receipt with her coffee order printed on it, the words "x 100" scrawled across it in her handwriting.
There's a letter taped beneath the receipt that he doesn't recognize. It looks to be a few pages long, but the last page is the only one he sees. He squints, makes out a red circle around the words "if only".
A faded movie ticket for their viewing of "Forbidden Planet" at the Angelika. He can't believe she's kept it.
Screen shot of the first Nikki Heat book.
A copy of the page he'd signed for her at their first encounter together, before he knew who she was, back in her elusive fangirl days.
Crumpled up fortunes from their numerous Chinese take-out dinners.
Notes he's slipped her over the years under her coffee cups. The first ones were simple gestures, reminding her to eat, to go home and get a full night's rest when they hit a dead end. They've evolved over the years; now they're mostly love notes, poems and dedications to her.
He shivers as his eyes land on a copy of the arrest warrant of her mother's killer, obtained only a year earlier. A wallet size picture of her sniper is there, too, but it's lost in the sea of them. He wonders if it's intentional.
"It's not everything," she says, breaking him out of his trance.
"It's wonderful," he breathes.
"But?"
"I don't understand. All of these people, all of these things…killed us?" he asks, forehead scrunched in confusion as he steps back to take the board in further.
"Not exactly." She pauses. "There's a reason why you're the creative mastermind in this relationship," she jokes. He turns his head to look at her, cocking his head.
She hesitates, tugging her lip between her bottom teeth as she takes a step closer to the white board. Her fingers start on the same path that his just left, taking their sweet time.
"This…" she swallows hard, "is everything responsible for the death of you, for the death of me. As separate beings." She takes a deep breath. "But it's everything responsible for bringing us together." Her fingers stop their descent to slip over a photo all the way in the bottom corner that he missed.
It's a casket.
But.
Oh.
Castle and Beckett.
Caskett.
She huffs an anxious laugh, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "It seemed like a good idea at the time. I wanted—" She shakes her head. "I wanted to show you, you know?"
She shuffles toward him, places her palms against his cheeks. "You've spent so much of our time together showing me the things I couldn't see, what I didn't want to see." His breath catches in his throat as her thumb slips under his eye to curl over his ear. "You showed me the way through the dark when I didn't know how to get to the light."
She leans further into him, resting her lips against his. "So now I'm showing you," she murmurs. And then, with the shake of her head, "or trying to, anyway." She melds her mouth gently to his, and oh, he wants to stay here forever.
"Marry me, Castle," she whispers, brushing her lips against his.
"God, yes," he breathes, slipping his hands through her hair. She lets go of his lips gently, her face igniting in a smile.
"Seriously?"
He huffs a laugh. "A proposal like that? How can I say no?" He pauses, grinning because Kate Beckett wants to marry him. "Though it wouldn't have killed you to get down on one knee, you know."
Finis.
Thoughts?