AN: I may have over indulged my spoiler-self and got a bit manic and carried away. This is not at all how I expect it to play out, but that doesn't mean I didn't want to play with it, and I'm leaving this open because there is one more - rather yummy - little spoiler that I want a run at, that is nearly done and shall be posted tomorrow :)
SUNDAY HUGS!
"Oh my god, you're proposing?" She's on her feet so fast that he can do nothing but clamber up next to her and jump back when her hand lands on his chest.
"OW!"
"You Jackass, I thought you were breaking up with me." Her hand fists in his shirt and she stares him down.
"I- what no. I-"
"You could have at least looked happy about it." She growls, but her eyes are searching his face, not as angry as she's making out. He can read it all, every inch of it written on her skin, she was terrified.
"I was showing you I was serious."
"As a heart attack clearly." She growls, "Which you almost gave me, by the way." Kate scrunches her face in annoyance, in relief maybe? And turns away from his only to stride straight back to him, her mouth open again to yell at him most likely.
He gets in first.
"Do you want to marry me?"
"I-" She flounders, her eyes dropping to the ring still held tight in his hand.
"It's a simple question. One of two answers, you can't really go wrong." He lets the ring slip into the center of his palm and balls his hand up into a fist.
"I- ah." Her face dances in a would be comical if not for the timing kind of way and he watches her inhale slowly, puffing out her lips and reaching for his hands as she steps in closer.
"I have to tell you something." Kate gulps, preparing herself to unleash something devastating on the both of them.
He nods, ready.
"I got the job. " She braces for impact, but nothing comes and she looks up, her eyes questioning.
He looks back equally confused.
"And?"
"AND!" She squeezes his hands and feels her heels sink backwards into the mud, not entirely sure if it's the ground preparing to swallow her whole or her legs about to give out.
"No, I mean, congratulations, I knew you would. But I sense a but or an and so...And-" He waits for her to go on, knowing there's more.
"And I want to take it."
He nods, "Well yeah."
"I-" She flares her nostrils, her eyes, everything in confusion, "I'm at a loss here, Castle."
"Whatever happens, whatever you decide." He repeats, squeezing her hands again, grounding her, "I meant that, Kate."
"You proposed." She blurts her eyes on his face, and her cheeks pinking up.
"I did."
"Oh my god, you proposed." The corners of her lips lift, somewhere between a smirk and smile - like she still can't believe it - and she puffs out a breath.
"And you hit me." Castle pouts, but his fingers don't stop smoothing over her own.
"Yeah, well I wasn't expecting that."
"Neither was I and you still haven't given me an answer."
"I- ehh." She looks up at him, still pink cheeked, still fighting somewhere between annoyance, relief and happiness.
"What do you want, Kate?" His eyes shine straight into hers, "That's what this comes down to, what do you want?"
"You." She answers honesty, sincerity and truth and love all bursting through the word and he smiles.
"And?" He asks again.
God, she hates and loves in equal, perfect, twisted up and delicious amounts, how well he knows her, how he reads her and misunderstands her, and gets her and how thoroughly together they have the ability to screw this up or make it magical.
Devastatingly magical, if they could just pull their heads out of their asses.
"And the job." She whispers, as if the truth of it might be too much for him to hear.
"So have both." He offers, as if it's that simple.
"It's not that easy, I'll have to move."
"Well, yeah, otherwise that's one hell of a commute."
She huffs a laugh and looks up at him from under her lashes and his face instantly smooths out, seriousness replacing light hearted tease and she's so grateful, for him, for everything they can be - everything he wants to give her.
"But your home is here, Castle, and I can't ask- "
"You're not. I did."
"What do you want?" Kate blurts again, her fingers tightening where they still hold his, the ring and a thousand questions trapped somewhere between them.
"You." He lets the word linger, lets it shine there like a beacon, lets it wash over her and overwhelm her and settle her all at once. Then he smirks, his eyes and lips lifting, as he repeats her never to be forgotten words back to her, "I just want you."
She almost snorts but turns it into a laugh, of shock of annoyance of undeniable pleasure that he could want her after everything she's put him through and her head drops forward to touch his chest, her hand landing hard on his shoulder. "Jackass." She hisses again.
"Yeah you said that."
"You proposed." She growls accusingly into his shirt as if this is all his fault, making herself pull back to look at him. Oh my god pretty much on repeat in her head because he did, he got down on one knee and just -
"You said that too." He sighs, "Still didn't answer though."
"You scared the hell out of me, Castle." She lets it go, that hold she has on the part of herself that was envisioning a life lived without him, lets the preconceived horror and grief of it flood her eyes as she looks at him.
He stares, drinks it in and holds her hands tighter, "I know the feeling." He replies quietly, his pupils darting back and forth between her eyes reading everything and mirroring it with his own pain.
It could all have all been washed away so easily.
"I'm sorry." She breathes through the words suffusing them with love and truth and sincerity, even as the image of him on one knee is already rising at the back of her mind and flooding her senses and her mouth is letting the words out again. "You proposed."
"I know!"
"I'm sorry." She says again, her hand brushing his cheek, "It's just -"
"Oh my god?"
"Yeah. You got me a ring."
He can't help but smile at the wonder in her voice. "I did."
Her head drops forwards, kinda shy, completely Kate, "Can I see it?"
"You gonna give me an answer?
"I-"
"Kate?"
"Castle."
"Not yet but soon."
"I'm not changing my name."
"Is that a yes?"
She flails on the spot, because this is huge and her brain is just not...it's just not keeping up at all and he's making jokes and pressing buttons and- "I- Just -"
"Beckett!" He almost shouts, just to shut her up, smiling this time. "Will you marry me?"
She laughs, his smirk and her own answering smile so much more how she pictured this, because she has been picturing it, wanting it, craving it for a long time, even if she wasn't sure she deserved it. And he's offering her so much more than she could have ever hoped, and arguing with her, loving her despite her flaws and yelling her name and Oh my god, he's proposing.
Again!
"Yes."
His eyes light up and she thinks her feet might leave the ground, and the ring is on her finger before she even gets a proper look at it, and his arms are around her waist and in her hair and everywhere all at once, and she's kissing him back and squeezing him tight in the park, by their swings so fast that she barely has time to register what they just did.
Because, oh my god, he proposed!
And she said YES!
