So just a cute little one-shot set sometime in the future. I think it should be simple enough to figure out the context but just let me know if you don't get it. Other than that...I have a few more one-shots that I have floating around in my head but the next month is going to be impossibly busy so I can't promise WHEN those'll come.

Anyways, here you are. Oh, and follow me on twitter vatrask

Enjoy 3

She stepped down the stairs and paused at the closed door to the bar. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath of underground air before pushing herself into 'The Old Haunt', her senses immediately bombarded by feeling of being thrust back into the nineteen forties with an almost western feel the air – it was an inexplicable blast from the past that had the all the dark, dangerous feel of a skanky motel and the taste of being right at home – in many ways, much like the owner of the bar. She spotted him across the empty bar, flipping chairs over while some old jazz music blasted through the jukebox in the corner – a tidbit he couldn't help but add when he purchased the establishment. His hair had fallen in front of his face but it couldn't hide the frustrated scowl that had been painted on his face from too many hours by himself.

He didn't do well alone.

She knew that but she'd just been so frustrated and angry and confused that she'd said things she didn't mean and stormed off without telling him where she was going. Now, hours later, she couldn't remember what the fight was even about, well she could, but all she could think about was how she'd hurt him and for once it was her turn to come crawling back to him so she could apologize for being an ass. She should do it more often but tonight she really needed to.

"Rick." She muttered, knowing he could hear her. Her breath hitched when he looked up at her, still flipping chairs and wiping tables; the sorrow and hurt in his eyes was as intense as ever.

He didn't do well alone.

Neither did she.

"Beckett what are you doing here?" She bit her tongue to keep from whining when he called her by her last name – he hadn't really done that in a long time unless he was upset with her.

"I uh…" damn it Kate, use your brain; form words. This is just Rick, nothing to fear. "I left my purse here. Earlier." She cleared her throat to hide the inflection in the last word, carefully avoiding the rest of that sentence – earlier when I stormed off after acting like a bitch.

He watched her shifting back and forth for a moment before he nodded once and returned to his flipping. "I think I put it behind the bar just give me a sec and I'll get it."

"Right," she tried to smile but it died in the tense air "okay."

The signals she had been sending to her brain, asking it to move finally reached all the way down and she followed him to the bar, the two of them standing on opposite sides as he disappeared for a moment before standing up with her small tan purse shoving it towards her. "Is that all you wanted?"

She couldn't help wincing at the harshness in his tone "Rick," she tried to start but the words wouldn't come and he cut her off anyways.

"What, Kate? What do you want now?" She muttered something into the weathered counter that he didn't quite understand "what?"

She held her breath and convinced herself to look at him, her voice stronger now – I mean, she was Kate freaking Beckett, she was not one to be intimidated or back down "dance with me." She offered her hand to him from across the counter but he just stared at it. "Please?" He took it then, granted it was hesitant but the feel of his warm, firm hand in hers filled her with a sense of reassurance. This would work.

She led him around the end of the bar and into the middle of the empty room while a familiar tune began to serenade them. She smiled at the perfection in the music the universe chose to play. This would definitely work.

"I can't give you anything but love." He didn't respond as they fell into step immediately, their muscles doing the work of pulling each other close and breathing each other in while their minds raced a mile a minute in the opposite directions. Rick was still hurting and was trying to figure out what Kate's game was; there had to be a game – she didn't just randomly ask him to dance.

"Rick?" There it was. He looked down at her expectantly only to find apprehension in her eyes like this whole situation was making her completely uncomfortable. The urge to wrap her tighter in his arms surged through him but he resisted, reminding himself that he was mad at her and it was her turn to apologize – even if she looked positively lost and unsure in that adorable puppy way. "I love you." And just like that, his resolved shattered like the glass she'd thrown earlier.

"I know." The way she relaxed into him told him that he wasn't the only one holding in a week's worth of tension. But saying 'I love you' wasn't an apology or an excuse – he'd learnt that the hard way. "But Kate," he pulled her to arm's length though they continued to sway to the music.

"And I'm sorry," she quickly added with a soft smile that lit up only half of her face. "I was wrong. About everything. I love you and I do trust you – despite what I said – but that's not going to stop me from worrying about your past and my past and what that means about our future." While he was still processing her words with a slack jaw and a bewildered expression, she tapped his jaw closed and encircled her arms tighter around his neck so she was laying her head under his chin. Breathing him in for a brief moment before she continued to sway to the soft music "you are pretty much IT for me, Rick. You are the most complicated, realest, frighteningest relationship I've ever been in."

"Frighteningest isn't a word," he mumbled, his Adams apple vibrating through the top of her head.

She smacked his chest but didn't move "shut up, I know; we're having a moment."

"Sorry," she could feel his smile creeping up, the warmth filling her chest.

"This is craziest journey I've ever been on and I knew about two years into this ride that you were probably the last guy I would be with but that doesn't make me any less scared of what this is and what we are."

His arms tightened around her waist "I thought Kate Beckett didn't get scared."

"No," she conceded "but I think Kate Castle does." He tensed against her body, pulling her close enough that she could feel his heart beat pick up.

"You're going to change your name?"

"Not for work;" she looked up at him, her eyes still tired and small but filled with a gladness that came with finally getting to a common ground "I've built a reputation around being a 'Beckett' but for everything else? I wouldn't mind being a 'Castle'."

He crushed her against him so tightly she was gasping for breath "You have no idea how much I would love that."

"I think I do." She wheezed, struggling to get out of his grasp when she was suddenly thrust to arm's length.

"Wait, you said 'probably be the last man' you still weren't sure back then?"

"Oh I was pretty sure," she smiled "but with our age difference, I figured you would die before me and I'd have to find someone to fill my lonely nights."

He just stood there gaping at her in horror "Katherine Beckett did you just call me old?"

"If the respirator fits." She laughed out loud when he blinked at her, placing a hand to his heart.

"Why I never" she found herself gasping for breath again as Rick suddenly scooped her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and began stalking towards the bar. "That's it," he declared "I'm taking you on the bar right now."

She huffed when he dropped her roughly onto the countertop, her bone immediately feeling the change in gravity "careful, wouldn't want to hurt your back." She stuck her tongue through her teeth.

"Oh you just wait Mrs. Castle; we'll see who's sore in the morning."

She felt an unfamiliar flutter in her chest at her new name. Contentment. "Hmm," she wrapped her legs around his hips pulling her as close as possible "I think I could get used to being Mrs. Castle."

"Good," he placed a chaste kiss on her lips as the lyrics to an old favourite faded into the background "because that's going to be your name for a long" kiss "long" kiss "agonizing" kiss "long" kiss "time."

She smiled. They would definitely work.