NOTE: I do not own anything, anyone.

Chapter 1 The Day After

1.1

Richard Alexander Rodgers was dreaming.

He had done enough research to understand what was happening in this dream. And as usual, he absorbed as much detail as he could in case the dream lead to something more, perhaps another best seller.

He was running from something. He wasn't sure whether it was from someone or an angry mob.

But he was scared and exhilarated at the same time because he realized he was no longer running away, rather towards something, someone he wanted.

His journey ended at a familiar setting. There were two swings and one was occupied. And even with their back turned, Richard knew who it was. She always did turn up in his dreams but he remembered he was angry with her and now she was waiting for him.

It was quiet, so quiet. Richard wasn't sure what to do. He had reached his destination and he was paralysed with indecision.

The figure on the swing turned around and Richard Edgar Castle caught his breath.

"Hi Rick"

Castle knew that if Beckett ever used his first name, it was serious.

Her eyes, always so expressive had a hint of humour but mostly sadness.

"Hi Kate, I see you're at our special place"

"It's not special Rick, it's just a place we're familiar with, the place where we talked and listened

and told each other how we felt"

"We don't do that enough do we?"

It started to rain heavily

Castle again felt his heart quicken and Beckett looked even more beauitful, more vulnerable than ever.

"I'm so sorry Castle"

"Sorry for what?"

"For everything, you were there for me and I just dismissed you, I know I hurt you and I hope

you'll forgive me"

Suddenly a helter skelter of images flew around him and Beckett. A hopeful date they were going to have, his dramatic severing of their partnership and their friendship and their understanding of each other. And the final act of Beckett knocking on his door, soaking wet, a hopeful and accepting look on her face.

LAST NIGHT?

Castle was fighting hard to remember and then Kate Beckett smiled. THE smile that he had come to love and work hard to see everytime he saw her. And then she was gone. He struggled against the dream, then fear took over. He knew something happened last night, but was it real? Castle was afraid, most dreams turned to fear but as with all things, Castle had to find out what happened.

What did wake Castle was the smell of bacon and eggs. With remnants of the dream disappearing and the fear evaporating, Castle slowly opened his eyes and was aware he was on one side of his King size bed, instead of occupying the whole bed as he had been for a long time.

With a sense of anticipation, mixed with joy and still with some fear (Was it a dream? Maybe it's Alexis cooking breakfast?) Castle slowly got out of bed and opened his bedroom door.

And then his world changed for the better.

Beckett was wearing a shirt of his, the thing nearly went down to her knees. She had the sexy bed head he had always pictured Nikki Heat would have and by all that was commonly holy, she was cooking bacon and eggs.

He watched her for few more seconds, the "I'm thinking and I'm impatient" furrowed brow she always had when she was deep in thought was prominent. That expression always made him smile. He did not know how a woman could look so sexy wearing a shirt too big for them, with tousled hair and concentrating on cooking bacon and eggs.

Castle was lost in thought for a moment, thinking of everything that had happened in the last 4 years.

A chance meeting because of a murder, their combative partnership in pursuit of villains and the shadow of Beckett's mother's murder. A shadow that nearly destroyed everything they had built up and nearly killed Beckett. With all the fun, there had been danger and near death experiences.

Castle was hoping the next chapter in their lives would be bit less dark and more fun.

Castle was right, Beckett was deep in thought.

It was sinking in. She was no longer a Cop. Ever since her mother's murder she had wanted justice for her death. If people asked her about relationships, she would argue she couldn't maintain serious relationships because solving her mother's murder had always been the most important thing in her life.

Then something changed that, or rather someone changed her unwavering pursuit of that cause.

A smattering of lyrics came to her from a song she had heard earlier in the week

"I like to keep some things to myself/I've been a fool and I've been blind/I can never leave the past behind"

Those words encapsulated what her life was about since her mother's murder. Her death had destroyed her hopes and dreams and when justice eluded those responsible for her murder, the search for justice was the driving force in her life. The will to wake up and face another day, to catch murderers, she could face that world because the bastards who had her mother killed were still out there.

But things change. Whether you try and change things or it finds you by fate.

Sometimes she was guilty of forgetting there were people in her life that loved her and cared about her. One was her Father and the other was Richard Castle.

Her cop instinct (now ex cop she thought) told her someone was watching her. She looked up and saw the man that had always been there for her for the last four years.