I'm sorry to those who are waiting for an update on FATEal attraction(seriously folks. Could you help me out with a better title here?). I have part of it written, but I've been having writers block, so I decided to accept a challege to try to get my back on track. I'll be posting up an update as soon as I can. In the mean time, heres the first drabble.

Spoilers: Zilch.

Prompt: A Bridge Too Far

Rating: K

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. If I did, they'd already be married and having little loverspats and baby Castles right about now. No dieing Kae! NEVER dieing Kate OR Castle!

Author's Notes: After a figured out the prompt was an idiom meaning an act of overreaching, I had the perfect idea.

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Richard Castle peered down at the hunched form of Kate Beckett. He had been standing here for a total of 23 minutes and she still hadn't acknowledged his presence. In fact, he believed she didn't even know he was there at all. This didn't surprise him in the slightest though, the time being 3:42 a.m., a normal Beckett working time, where as she would be fully engrossed in whatever paperwork she was doing.

Sometimes he couldn't believe she could wake up in the morning and actually think straight. It was unbelievable! The woman got maybe four hours of sleep, yet was right on the dot every morning for work and fresh as ever. She truly was extraordinary. Yet, he knew she needed her rest more than anyone and he didn't want her falling asleep on the job or snapping under the pressure, or worse, taking a bullet because of slow reflexes, so he chose to announce his presence.

"Kate." His voice was quiet; she would have missed it if they weren't the only two people left at the station. She certainly didn't miss the use of her first name, nor the heavy concern lacing his voice. Her body jerked up and she whipped around to face a grimacing Castle.

"You need to go home and rest." His eyebrows caved inward and he looked like he was ready to carry her out of there. This made her aggravated, already heated from the stress of the paperwork.

"Not until these stacks of paperwork are done, Rick." She dawdled on his name, drawing out as much sarcasm as she could muster on the single word. She was slightly surprised when he swallowed and his gaze flickered away from hers for a moment, an unreadable expression on his face, but it disappeared quickly and the concern was back when he locked their gazes once again.

"Beckett, you've been here since 6 a.m. You're stressed, tired, hungry-it's no doubt you haven't eaten all day-and you need to go home. Please, Kate." He looked so sad and overwhelmed that she just had to sigh and admit to herself he was right. She had definitely gone a bridge to far. It was ridiculous the amount of work she had gotten done and she did need some rest. "You can even walk out of here by yourself." He added with a slight smirk. "That way there's no funny business."

She rolled her eyes at him and he thought she was going to make him beg more, but to his surprise, she stood and grabbed her coat, stalking past him towards the elevator.

"That's it?" He called out in a shocked tone. Beckett smirked and turned around to face him once more.

"Sometimes I do listen to you, Castle." She said, her smirk widening at his shocked expression.

"Rarely!" He exclaimed and she just laughed as she summoned the elevator and headed home for some much needed rest.