A/N - Just a short story I decided to write around Kate's secret coming out in 47 second's episode, Castle's murder board secret will also come to light later in this story. This will only be a 3-4 chapter story. I'm still writing my other story Into The Woods as well. On another note anyone else out there feeling a bit let down with 'The Limey' episode? It just seems things are going backwards at the moment between Beckett and Castle.

Disclaimer - I don't own Castle, in fact I own nothing, literally nothing!

Updated 17/04/12 - Correction of a few spelling mistakes.


"I really don't know whats changed, he just seems to be acting so distant around me lately" Kate poured them both another glass of Merlot, there appeared to be just enough red liquid remaining in the bottle to fill both glasses.

"His attitude towards me, Javier and Ryan seems to be unchanged, from what I've seen he has looked a bit different of late, I figured that the bombing case had just taken it's toll on him though" Lanie paused as she took a sip from her newly topped up glass. As her eyes scanned the kitchen counter, she couldn't help but notice the other two empty bottles that stood there. Her friend was clearly in need of her support tonight.

"I just don't understand why he's backed off so much all of the sudden. I thought we'd been getting closer, making progress" Kate looked toward Lanie as she spoke, hoping that her friends wisdom on matters of the heart could help her.

Seeing the pleading look for help that Kate was giving her sent a pain to Lanie's heart, this only gave her an added determination to help solve the puzzle of the Beckett/Castle relationship saga. This time round she was going to have to play the role of the detective, so taking in a breath she began "Ok, lets get to the bottom of this then, somethings clearly got Castle upset, and as your the one he's giving the cold shoulder to, I think it would be safe to assume its something you've done"

Lanie paused for a second to allow Kate to take in that last part before she continued her inquest.

"He's already waited four years for you, so to just stop waiting now doesn't make any sense to me. Can you think of anything that you've done that he could be mad about?" Laine watched as Kate tipped her head back looking up at the celling while trying to recall anything that might have happened.

"I don't think so, I haven't done anything I can think of" She'd thought hard about it, but came up with nothing,

"Well you did shut him out of your life last summer" As soon as the words were out of her mouth Lanie closed her eyes regretting her comment immediately. The filter between her brain and mouth had just let it slip out, Kate was surely feeling bad enough without her adding remarks like this. An apology was certainly in order. "I'm sorry that was uncalled for"

"Its ok...I probably deserved that, pushing Castle away in the summer wasn't a good thing to do, it's about time I faced that truth" Lanie's words had initially stunned her, but she knew that it was about time she accepted that she was wrong about how she handled things in the months after her shooting.

"Anyway before Castle came back to the precinct we had a talk, I explained some things to him and though he'd been mad at the time he seemed ok afterwards. Within a couple of cases we were back to normal, probably even closer than before. And he's never brought it up again, so I doubt it's because of that" By now the contents of Kate's glass had been reduced to half full as she'd been drowning her sorrows.

"Alright, so now we can rule out him being mad about the summer, so exactly when did you notice him acting strange toward you?" Lanie questioned cautiously, keeping her voice soft to try and keep Kate relaxed.

"A few weeks ago" Kate said weakly

"Around the time of the bombing case" Lanie confirmed

"Actually now I think about it, it wasn't around the time of that case, it was during it" Given the intensity of the case Kate had never really thought back to that day until now.

"During it? You both seemed normal when you were checking up on me in the morgue" Lanie cast her mind back trying to remember anything out of the ordinary between the 'couple' when she spoke to them.

"I know he seemed fine then at the start of the case, but later on when we were interrogating Liane West he seemed, different, saying things during the interrogation almost to himself rather than to the suspect" Kate thought back trying to remember his exact words, something about being cowardly was all she could remember. Before she could think on it too much Lanie interrupted.

"Now we're getting somewhere, so did you two argue about anything in the time since seeing me and interrogating the Liane West?" Lanie felt they making good progress.

"No, nothing" Kate thought back and honestly didn't remember them arguing or fighting about anything.

"Well there must have been something to trigger his change in attitude" Lanie once again studied Kate for a reaction. After seeing Kate shake her head slightly to indicate no other ideas she pressed on further.

"Ok, well at least we have a time frame from when he was 'normal' to when he started acting strangely, we just need to recreate exactly what you did during that window. Why don't you tell me what you remember" More confidence was filling Lanie's voice with each question she now asked, something that Kate also picked up on.

"I thought you were a medical examiner, not a detective" She threw Lanie a half smile, secretly impressed with her questioning skills and the way she was conducting her 'investigation'.

"Well I've picked up a lot from you over the years" She was relieved to see even a small smile on Kate's face.

"Now getting back on track, what do you remember?"

"Ok, let me think, I was at my desk and Castle came over bringing me a coffee, he said he'd been thinking about the victims and opportunities, but Ryan interrupted before he finished" Kate sighed still wondering what it was that he'd been wanting to say

"I swear he has the worst timing possible" Lanie made a mental note to have words with Ryan next time she saw him.

"Anyway after that we followed a few more leads on the case and he seemed fine the whole day, Gate's gave him a stack of interview files to review and that was the last I saw of him for the day" Kate was sounding a little better than before now that she was concentrating on trying to work out what the catalyst for Castle's change in persona had been.

"And what about the next day?" Lanie once more prompted Kate to continue.

"Well I didn't see him for most of the morning, I don't think he got till the precinct till late afternoon and th.." She was cut off by Lanie who appeared to be in deep thought.

"Wait a minute..." Lanie was now starting to remember something herself.

"What?" Kate's instincts told her that whatever Lanie was about to remember might be the key.

"Well I met Javier for lunch that day and I'm sure he told me that Castle had been in the precinct that morning but then practically stormed out about 5 minutes later quoting personal business or something" Lanie was kicking herself for not having remembered that sooner.

"Come to think of it I remember Esposito saying he'd been there too, I noticed the coffee Castle had left on my desk after I was done interrogating Robert Lop...oh god!" The interrogation with Lopez came flooding back to her, the words she'd said 'I remember ever second of it'. Suddenly she was finding it very hard to breath as the pain in her chest grew stronger.

Lanie was full of concern as she saw her friends face turn white as a ghost.

"Whats wrong girl?" She leant forward placing her hand on Kate's shoulder to try and comfort her.

"He must have been in the observation room, he heard me!" Tears were now starting to flow down Kate's cheeks.

As worried as Lanie was for her friend, she was also very confused. "I don't understand, you were interrogating a suspect, what could he have heard during that to get him mad?"

"Lopez tried to tell me he didn't remember anything due to trauma, I wasn't having it so I told him he didn't get to play that card because I was shot and remembered every second of it!" Kate could barely speak, nor could she control the stream of water now running from her eyes as she sobbed into her hands.

"Sweetie, I know this is hard for you but I still don't understand, theres something else isn't there?" Lanie had never seen Kate in this state before, Kate had never really spoke to her about her shooting before so she didn't get why admitting she remembered it was having this effect on her. That was until Kate's revelation.

"When I was on the ground Castle told me he loved me" Her voice was so quiet and muffled by the sound of her sniffing back her tears that the sentence was barely audible.

Lanie was in complete shock at this, Castle had told Kate he loved her, Kate presumably had never told Castle she knew, and now Castle had found out that she'd known all along and not said anything, no wonder he was pissed. Lanie would stand by Kate and support her, but she could now understand why Castle was avoiding Kate, and couldn't help but wonder how hurt he must be over all this.

"No I never said anything" Kate clarified, while taking a deep breath before letting Lanie know the worst part.

"It gets worse, I didn't just not tell him that I remembered, I point blank lied to him a few times about it" The water works started up again as she thought about Castle and what her lies had done to him, to them.

"I've been so stupid, thats why he's pushed me away, he hates me for lying to him, its my fault!" Kate buried her face back into her arms on the counter, weeping into them once more. She only remembered crying this much back when she was mourning the loss of her mother.

Lanie took a few moments to collect her own thoughts, she'd found out a lot of new information over the last half hour and needed to make sense of it if she was going to help fix things between her two friends.

"Look girl, I don't think he hates you" Lanie wasn't just saying that to comfort Kate, but had actually come to a logical conclusion.

"What do you mean?" Kate raised her head and looked at Lanie, her eyes now puffed up and red from the tears.

"We'll he probably is mad at you for lying to him, which to be fair I'd say he's entitled to be for a little bit"

"How does that help?" Weather he hated her or was mad at her, surely that was the same thing wasn't it?

"What I mean is he might be mad at you, but I think he probably thinks the reason that you never told him you remembered is because he thinks you don't feel the same way about him" Lanie had hit the nail on the head, now she just needed to make sure Kate realized this.

"But I do feel the same way! I love him Lanie!" The second she admitted out loud how she felt about Castle it felt like a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Straight away she was feeling a little better just for having said it out loud for once.

"I know you love him, hell half the precinct knows, but the one person who doesn't know is Castle! You need to talk to him, you need to tell HIM!" Lane really emphasized that last word.

"But what if it's to late? What if he doesn't want to see me again?" Kate's mind began running through the worst case scenarios, what if Castle walked away from the precinct for good, away from her? She'd not just loose her partner and her friend, but so much more.

"Trust me it's not to late, but I wouldn't leave it any longer!" She tried to reassure Kate once more.

"I won't, I'll head over to see him now. I'm not going to loose him!" Kate's voice now seemed to have the confidence of her usual self back in it.

"Good, now freshen up, I'll phone a cab to take you over there" Lanie couldn't have been happier, by this time tomorrow her two friends would finally be together after far too many years of waiting. And if they weren't then she'd have to lock them in a room and bang their heads together until they came to their senses.

Kate got up and headed for the bathroom to freshen up, as she reached the door she spun and called back to Lanie.

"Hey Lanie"

"Yeah?" The M.E looked up from the phone she was punching the numbers for the cab company into.

"Thanks" Kate smiled toward Lanie, she couldn't find the words right now to tell Lanie just how grateful she was for her help and advice, she truly was her best friend.

"Glad I could help, now go get ready!" Lanie just waved her back to go and get ready. As Kate disappeared into the other room Lanie just chuckled to herself as she thought 'for two of the most intelligent and observant people I know, those two are complete idiots when it comes to each other'.