A/N: This was written months ago, before any spoilers for Valkyrie came into play. I'd resisted publishing it back then, but just rediscovered it in my files and decided to post it. Basically, it's a post-Watershed fic. All the usual disclaimers apply, blah-blah.
"Katherine Houghton Beckett, will you marry me?"
Upon hearing Castle's question, Beckett's jaw dropped. Her tear-filled eyes were fixated on the ring he was holding and she made a strangled little noise in the back of her throat. Then her eyes moved to his, seeing pure, unadulterated love in their blue depths, plus fear… fear of rejection. She ran her hands through her hair, still thoroughly shocked.
"Kate?"
No response. She had gone completely rigid with shock and he had to snap her out of it.
"Kate!" Again, nothing. "Beckett!"
"Um, I… Castle…" She still didn't know what to say. "This... this must not be good for, uh, your knee, Castle," she finally managed to stammer. "Get up."
He almost laughed out loud. He was proposing to her and all she could think about was his (about completely healed but still smarting occasionally) knee? Still, he obliged her and sat back on the swing. "Now what?"
"Pinch me," she said, with a dead serious look in her eyes, shock and disbelief still evident on her face.
"Pinch you," he echoed. "You want me to pinch you. Seriously?"
She almost rolled her eyes at him. "Yes, dammit, pinch me!"
"All right, but remember, you asked for it." He reached over and pinched her butt, hard.
"OUCH!" Kate yelped, jumping a little in her seat and slapping his hand away. "Castle! We are in a playground and this was totally inappropriate!"
"Sorry," he said without a trace of regret in his voice.
"Forget it. So, I'm not dreaming."
"No, you're not. This is happening for real."
"And you are not breaking up with me."
"On the contrary… Why would you think that I was going to break up with you?"
"You just proposed to me," she mumbled instead of answering his question.
"I did."
"You proposed to me…"
"We already established that," he interrupted.
She gave him one of her famous glares. "This is not an ultimatum," she stated. "You want to marry me regardless of my decision about the job."
"I realized that I shouldn't be the one to hold you back, Kate. If you want the job, take it. I can do my own job in DC just as well as I'm doing it here in New York. Besides, I recall wanting to write a book titled Federal Heat. Special Agent Nikki Heat… it sounds just as good as Detective Nikki Heat." He winked and earned an eye roll from her.
"You would follow me to DC?"
"I'd follow you anywhere, period," he said definitively. "As your loving husband, of course," he clarified. "Or, as your fiancé, at least in the beginning."
"So this is not about keeping me in New York…"
"I thought I'd made it crystal clear. We have a lot to work through, we both have issues, but we can do it just as well while being engaged, Kate. After all, we don't have to get married tomorrow, right? The timing for this proposal could be better, but, hey, I figured now would be as good a time as any. You wanted to know where we're headed. This is it. I didn't want to scare you back then by proposing on the spot, but I think we both deserve this, Kate."
Beckett realized that he'd had the ring for some time now. She would ask him exactly how long said time was later. Now, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded letter. "Read the last part," she said, handing it to him with a trembling hand.
"Putting the job ahead of your heart is a mistake," he read aloud. "Risking our hearts is why we are alive. The last thing you want is to look back on your life and wonder… if only." He looked at her, a question written all over his face.
"The letter was from Royce," she explained. "He had it with him when he died. Lanie gave it to me. And he was right. Four years ago I would have jumped at the chance and taken the job without a second thought."
"And now?"
"Now, I have a lot more to consider, Castle. The job is a good one, but there are definite downsides to the offer. Downsides I'll have to take into account before I make up my mind about accepting it or not."
"Go on," he encouraged her.
"If I take the job, we won't be working together any more."
"Well, this is a definite downside," he agreed, getting a nod and a small smile from her.
"In turn, it means that I won't be as good at it as I am now. Not without you constantly pulling my pigtails and spinning wild and/or case-breaking theories, plus Ryan, Esposito and Lanie… even Perlmutter."
"I beg to differ. You are a fantastic investigator, Kate. I'm sure you would adapt and shine."
"There is another downside. Remember Jordan Shaw?"
"Of course I do."
"I don't want to be the type of woman who has to miss birthdays and make a lot of phone calls to the people she loves, Castle, not because of the job."
"Do you see me arguing?"
"Plus, my Dad is here… all the important people in my life are here… my home, the 12th, is here. I was interrogating a suspect today when the thought struck me. Well, it was more like an epiphany, but I got everything into proper perspective… the 12th is indeed a home to me. I cannot just up and leave."
"Same goes for me, but if, and I repeat if, you take the job, we can always try to visit as often as possible." The 'we' part did not escape her attention.
"We won't have to, Castle. I'm not taking the job."
"What?"
"I won't take the job in DC. I'm perfectly happy with the one I've got here. Plus, I can't do to you and the others what Sorenson did to me when he left for Boston, even though you said you'd be willing to come with me. I won't even do the trial period with the Feds, because I don't think I can stay away from all the people I love that long."
He smiled and then immediately got serious again. "Where does that leave us?"
"We go on with our life," she answered in an almost 'duh' tone.
"No, I meant about…"
"I know what you meant, Castle. Even though I'm still scared half out of my mind, I believe now is a better time to ask me, so… ask me again."
He moved to get up from the swing.
"But be careful with your knee," she cautioned him. "I don't want to have to go through having you incapacitated like the last time."
"Maybe then I can finally be Charlie and you one of my Angels," he joked. "Although, thinking of Ryan and Esposito as Angels is kind of creepy."
"Castle!" Beckett half-scolded, half-chuckled.
"OK, here goes." He slowly, carefully, got down on one knee and offered her the ring again. "Katherine Houghton Beckett, would you like to be my wife-wife in addition to being my work wife? Will you marry me?"
"Yes," she replied. "I'm done hiding behind work. I will marry you. You are my one and done, Rick."
"And you are my third time charm, Kate." He slipped the ring on her finger and paused to admire it. She was also looking at it and then they automatically leaned closer to share their first kiss as an engaged couple. They broke the kiss when the need for air became pressing, looked at each other, smiled and kissed again.
"I love you, Rick. Always."
"Always," he confirmed, then claiming her lips for the third time.
A loud squeal, applause and cheers interrupted them. They looked towards the source of the noise and saw Lanie, Esposito and Ryan beaming happily at them. And then they were rushed by their friends, disappearing in their embraces.
"What are you guys doing here?" Castle asked. His back was beginning to hurt from the back-clapping he'd received from the boys.
"Beckett was acting weird, so we decided to follow her and find out what was going on," Ryan replied.
"Lanie gave us a heads-up on the job offer, but we had no idea you were going to propose, bro," Esposito added, nodding towards the ME, who had Beckett trapped in a bear hug. He had no chance to say anything else before his phone rang. "Esposito… got it. We're on our way."
"We have a case, Espo?" Beckett asked
"Yep."
"Not exactly the way I imagined us celebrating our engagement," she huffed, turning to Castle.
"Hey, we are Caskett. It was murder that brought us together in the first place and who says we won't wrap this up quickly and then get down to celebrating?" Castle said, feeding the birds with Ryan and Esposito.
"When the case is over, we need to have a serious talk about us," she reminded him.
"I know. We can do both, actually: celebrate and have a serious talk. Now, let's go solve a murder."
"You drive." She tossed him her keys.
"Huh?"
"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Castle."
"Can we stop for coffee on the way?"
"Funny, I was about to suggest the same thing. And, Rick? The proposal was big and intimate. Just as I like it."
Throughout the drive, Kate couldn't keep her eyes off of the engagement ring on her finger. A smile played on her lips. She almost couldn't believe it. Instead of breaking her heart into a trillion pieces, Castle had given her a gift beyond compare: a new life, a life with him. They stopped at a coffee shop, and he got them each a coffee. She took a sip and let out a small moan of pleasure at the taste. And then it came to her.
"Castle, did you talk to my Dad before proposing?"
"I did, but I avoided asking for his permission to propose to you. After all, I'd like to be alive for the wedding."
"Smart move," she chuckled.
"But I did inform him about my intentions. He wished me luck."
"He didn't sound too hopeful, I gather."
"No, but he said that if anyone could do it, it would be me. And he was right."
"If you called him before I met him today, he's gonna get an earful for not telling me."
"Frankly, I called him just after we agreed to meet at the swings."
"Huh. He's off the hook then."
-o-
"What have you got for us, Lanie?" Beckett inquired as she approached the ME, who was jotting down some notes on a clipboard. Their new crime scene was in a filthy alley not far from the river. Lanie and the boys had arrived there first because of Castle and Beckett's stop for coffee.
"Is it vanilla, or Caskett flavored?" Castle added, following his fiancée past the yellow crime scene tape.
"See for yourself," Lanie replied, pointing down an opened manhole. Sure enough, there was a body in it. Not so much a body, in fact, but a skeleton.
"The rats must have had quite a feast down there," Castle remarked.
"Yep. There is definite evidence of rodent scavenging on the bones."
"Cause of death? Or is it too early to ask?" Beckett said cautiously.
"Cause of death is fairly simple," Lanie replied. "I found evidence of a bullet hit on a clavicle. It is my considered belief that the bullet nicked the subclavian artery and he bled out."
"So, the victim is a he."
"Male, mid-thirties," Lanie confirmed for her best friend. "Hopefully, I'll know more when I get him back to the lab."
"What's that, Lanie? I don't think it was caused by rats," Castle said, pointing to a discoloration in the sternum, visible now that Lanie's assistants had lifted the bones out of the manhole and onto a gurney.
"It's bone bruising. I'd say it was perimortem."
"There are more of the same on a few of the ribs," he pointed out.
"Like he was struck repeatedly with the end of a billiards cue before being shot," Lanie agreed. "Or shot while wearing a vest," she added. "Judging by the cracks on the surface of the periosteum, I'd go for the latter."
"Huh…" Castle got a thoughtful expression on his face, walked down the alley and looked in both directions when he reached the street, before finally rejoining the two ladies, plus Ryan and Esposito, who'd just sent uniforms off to canvass for security cameras and the like. It was a long shot, but it had to be done anyway.
"What?" Kate and Lanie asked together, intrigued by his strange behavior.
"I think I know who this guy might be, the weapon used and who pulled the trigger."
"Care to share with the rest of the class?" Lanie prompted him.
"Me, Beckett's gun…"
"You killed this dude, Castle?" Ryan was incredulous.
"With Beckett's gun?" Esposito added, just as flabbergasted. Kate and Lanie were also shocked.
"Bear with me, please."
"I see a bullet fragment lodged in the scapula," Lanie said. "I'll send it to ballistics. Go on, Writer Boy."
"Writer Man," he automatically corrected her with the appropriate amount of indignation in his voice. "As I said, if I'm right, I shot this guy with Beckett's gun late last October."
"3XK," Kate said, her voice a whisper as she understood what her fiancé was talking about. "It's the Triple Killer. It's Jerry Tyson."
"Dude," Ryan and Esposito said in unison.
"So what tipped you, Castle?" Kate asked.
"What Lanie said about the vest was the clue. But I guess I got in a lucky shot just inside the vest's neckline, hitting his subclavian artery, like Lanie said. It wasn't enough to kill him outright, but he died down there from blood loss after crawling through the sewers from the river. The bridge I shot him off of is not far from here. CSU might even find his vest down there."
"Well, his DNA is on file, and so is ballistics on Beckett's piece," Esposito said.
"If the bullet matches, the DNA will be merely a formality," Ryan agreed. "But I'll still have CSU look for his vest."
-o-
"3XK? Really?" Gates asked after Kate gave her preliminary report.
"Yes sir," she said, keeping her left hand in her pocket. All that time, she'd managed to keep her boss from noticing the engagement ring on her finger, keeping it hidden in her pocket or behind papers. She wanted to put off telling her until a later time. "Castle was the first to notice the location's proximity to the river and the bridge where he shot Tyson back in October."
"Wrap this up in a bow for me, Detective. I want to know the second the ballistics report comes in. I'll sleep a lot better knowing this sonofabitch is rotting in Hell."
"Yes sir."
"And tell Castle 'good job' for me, will you?"
"Yes."
"Before I forget, what happened with the DC deal?"
"I was offered the job," Kate replied nonchalantly. "I declined to take it," she added in the same nonchalant tone. "I have more important things keeping me here in New York."
Gates just smiled knowingly. Privately, she was pleased not to have to lose her best detective to a faceless federal agency. "Then maybe you can see if you'll manage to beat my record for making Captain, Detective," she said, dismissing Beckett with a wave of her hand.
If only she knew the full facts, Kate thought, bringing her thumb to give the diamond on her ring a loving caress.
"Yo, Beckett!" Esposito yelled from across the bullpen. "Ballistics is a match to your gun!"
"CSU found the vest with more bullets embedded in it and they're sending them to Ballistics," Ryan piped up as soon as he replaced his desk phone on its cradle. "It was in a drainage pipe near the river."
Beckett turned to her Captain. "Sir, I believe this cinches it. 3XK is now a pile of bones and rat poop. DNA will undoubtedly confirm it."
"Very well, Detective," Gates said, chuckling at Beckett's colorful description of 3XK's well-deserved fate. Now, take Mr. Castle and go home."
"Yes, Captain."
"Ryan, Esposito, go home, too," Gates told the other two detectives.
"This has to be the quickest murder case we ever solved," Ryan remarked.
"Except it wasn't a murder," Kate corrected. "It was a justified homicide."
"I stand corrected, it was self defense."
"Call Lanie," Castle said. "Tell her to meet us for drinks at the Old Haunt. My treat."
"As always," Kate chuckled.
-o-
"GIRL, I'MMA SMACK YOU!" Lanie screeched suddenly, as a thought struck her like a bolt of lightning. They were sitting in their usual booth at the Old Haunt enjoying their drinks when the ME remembered something.
"What did I do now?" Kate asked, surprised by her best friend's sudden outburst.
Lanie reached across the table and grabbed Kate's left hand. "You didn't even think to show the ring to me! It should have been the first thing to do when you accepted Castle's proposal!"
"Oh, that. Well, we were busy. You were there, remember?"
"I remember, all right," Lanie scoffed. Next to her, Jenny let out a muffled squeal.
"Yes, Jenny, I proposed to Kate and she said yes," Castle confirmed. Jenny smiled and congratulated the newly engaged couple.
Castle ordered another round of drinks, plus a jumbo plate of chicken wings, club sandwiches and fries.
"The captain can kiss her plausible deniability goodbye now," Ryan remarked. "The second Beckett comes into the precinct and lets everyone see that rock on her finger, Gates is gonna have kittens."
"You know what, Ryan? I don't care about plausible deniability. Besides, if push comes to shove, Castle is still at most an unofficial consultant, volunteering his free time to be around in the 12th, therefore we haven't broken any NYPD rules. And I was careful to hide it from her today. She was glad to hear about 3XK, so why ruin it for her?"
"It's true. Plus, the waivers I've signed just mention that my intention is to do research. We are covered from every angle," Castle agreed.
"They're right. Besides, Gates won't care, bro," Esposito said. "She's only too happy to have Beckett still working for her."
"To us still being a team," Ryan toasted, raising his beer mug.
"Hear, hear," the others chorused.
-o-
"I, Kate Houghton Beckett, am officially an idiot," Beckett declared, plopping down on Castle's couch after kicking off her shoes.
"No you're not. You are extraordinary. After all, you are engaged to a ruggedly handsome, successful man."
"Am too."
"Are not!"
"Am too!"
"Explain yourself! I hope you're not having second thoughts about us."
"I… I should have known you were serious about us, Rick. After the Vaughn case, when I asked you where we were going, your answer was intended to keep me from freaking out, I understand it now, but I totally missed other hints before and after that!"
"Hints?"
"Yeah! Remember the Supernova Con, when you were concerned about being rendered infertile after firing the Thorian Blaster? I should have grasped the subtext! You want to have kids with me."
"Correct. Like your friend Maddie so eloquently put it, I want us to have little Castle babies. It took you a while, but you understand now."
"And then there was the bomb. Castle, you stayed with me to the end. That alone should have been enough, but I was stupid enough to give in to my own insecurities. All the above makes me an idiot!"
"Not any more, as you've seen the light," he reminded her, grasping her left hand gently in his, thus reminding her that she was wearing an engagement ring, before gathering her in his arms and carrying her to the bedroom. "All we have to do from now on is be open to each other, talk about everything and not keep secrets. I think what my fiancée needs right now is a nice bubble bath, wine and a good book."
"You got me Alex Conrad's latest novel?"
"Tease," he said and kissed her before setting her down on the bed. "No, I was thinking about letting you read a proof copy of my latest masterpiece." He didn't fail to notice how her eyes lit up at the prospect of being one of the very few people who got to read Castle's book before it got published.
For her part, she fully intended to reward him later that night, their first as an engaged couple.
-o-
"Castle?" Beckett mumbled, still in a post-coital bliss.
"Yeah?"
"What would we have done if last year Gates hadn't taken me back?"
"I wouldn't have given that much thought," he said dismissively.
"Without involving the Mayor," she clarified.
"Oh. In that case, I think we could have opened a private investigations business together."
"Really?"
"Yes, I think we would have been very successful in the biz. Or, I could have gently fostered the glowing embers of your obvious talent, fanning them into a literary wildfire. In fact, you could have co-authored the next Nikki Heat books with me… or branched out and written your own mystery novels."
"My talent?"
"Remember the end you came up with for Hamptons Heat?"
"Mmmm… Yes. Right now, I have another suggestion for you."
"I'm all ears."
"The fact that Nikki was soon going to become Mrs. Jameson Rook had finally sunk in. However, it still excited in ways she'd never thought possible. Her fiancé – it thrilled her to think of him and call him as such – had already enthusiastically embraced the idea of having her little niece as a ring bearer or flower girl at the wedding…"
"Wow… I'm impressed. You even found a perfect way to integrate Nikki's niece into it."
"Don't interrupt me."
"Sorry. Please, continue."
"For the moment, she was content to cuddle with him after the very lively and very private celebration of their engagement. Nothing, not even the prospect of a call that might come from the precinct about a fresh body dropping could dampen her spirits. 'I love you,' she whispered in Rook's ear before resting her head against his chest and letting the rhythmic beat of his heart lull her into a peaceful sleep."
"It's final. You, my dear Kate, could very well be Black Pawn's next Castle."
"Flattery will get you everywhere, Mr. Castle."
"I fully expect it will, future Mrs. Castle. As will serving you breakfast in bed in the morning."
