Disclaimer: Castle is not mine and is the sole property of Andrew Marlowe and ABC Studios. No copyright infringement is intended and I make no profit from this.

Spoilers: The pics released from 4x07 and vague mention of events from the episode summary.

A/N: Normally, I don't write for Castle very often- I'm usually quite content to simply enjoy watching the show, reading fanfics and re-blogging anything even vaguely Castle related on Tumblr. The other day, in a fun little reply to my geeking out about music in a review, Chezchuckles mentioned how great The Black Keys' Brothers album is for Castle & Beckett, specifically "Everlasting Light". Cue me- suddenly realizing it had been far too long since I last heard it and listening half a dozen times to make up for it. And then this happened. In case you were wondering, I have no idea how that particular song leads to this.


"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear." - Edmund Burke

Kate found herself knocking on his door long before she could talk herself out of it. She was still working on calming the nervous flutter of her hands at her side when someone shuffled up to the other side of the door.

The idle thought that it was too late to turn around and head home crossed her mind before she remembered the day's events that had led her to Castle's loft in the first place. She stilled, looking up expectantly when the lock turned.

...

She'd been home to change, and after the adrenalin-fueled worry of the day, she'd tried taking a bath, hoping to repair her severely damaged calm. When that failed to ease the tension that started her hands to trembling at random intervals, she'd curled up on the couch with one of his earlier novels and tried to immerse herself in the story.

'He's alright- it's alright,' she'd reminded herself, though saying it and believing it were proving to be two vastly different endeavors.

It had taken time and more than a few sessions with Doctor Burke, but at least she was honest enough with herself to admit when something wasn't working- she'd been staring at the same few lines for nearly ten minutes and was no closer to processing them than when she'd first laid eyes on the page. She -quite irrationally, she noted- needed to see him for herself, just to make sure.

Closing Storm Warning gently, she stood, grabbed her keys, and slipped out the door before she could start debating whether continuing on to her destination was a good idea.

...

The door opened abruptly and Castle stood just inside the threshold, gaping at her.

"Beckett, hi! Is everything- are you…?" He trailed off meaningfully, eyeing her as if trying to detect some heretofore unmentioned injury. It wasn't lost on her that although he'd been the one in danger today, he was currently trying to decide whether she was alright or not. After a moment, she was somewhat aware of the fact that she was doing the same to him.

"Hey, Castle. Got room for one more?" She felt a little sheepish, asking after she'd turned him down on the very same offer only two hours earlier, but he didn't seem to mind.

He swung the door open, motioning her in. "There's always room, you know that."

Her eyes dropped downwards as she grinned, like she was taking a moment to savor it before she shared the giddy, overly-relieved feeling that was finally starting to take over.

"Yeah, I guess I did."