Title: Every Move Counts
Rating: Clearly you weren't paying attention when you clicked on the story.
Disclaimer: Castle owns my soul. ABC owns Castle, and Disney owns ABC. Therefore, Disney owns my soul. And I own nothing. Damn it.
Summary: In chess, every move you make counts. Every time you move a piece, it can have affects that you never imagined. And once you make that move… there's no going back. AU take on Season 5.
Author's Note: Okay, folks, here we go! Buckle up! This is my first long story since… well, since a long time, and it's going to be a twisted one. We've got Johanna Beckett's murder, a mysterious girl, Alexis' future and love life, plus a dash of Esplanie! And that's just the beginning! Now, two quick things you should know before you start.
One, this takes place over the summer, namely, from May to September. I like the idea of Castle and Beckett spending the entire summer making love in the Hamptons, but hey, it's how it worked out. I wanted to get this out before Season 5 but it didn't work out that way so it's AU now. Whoops.
Two, I want to allay any fears you have about my original characters. In my first Castle story, "When", I killed off an OC and everyone got mad at me (sorry). I promise you now that any major OC that I introduce will survive.
Now, without further ado, onto the story!
Blouse.
Belt.
Hands glide over chest.
Thumbs stroke thighs.
Nails dig into shoulders.
Hands grip ass.
Tongues slide together, mouths open.
Panting.
Gasping.
Hands held.
Fingers interlocked.
Thrusting.
Arching.
Sucking.
Licking.
Nipping at throats, chins, breasts, ears…
Tangled, dripping locks.
Fingers speared in hair.
Noses brush.
Whispered words.
Endearments.
Apologies.
Promises.
Thunder rolling.
Wide, wild eyes.
Biting.
Stroking.
Soundless cries.
A flash of lightning.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Warm.
Heavy.
Heavy blankets… heavy arm… heavy breathing.
Legs… she couldn't tell which legs were hers. They were tangled up with his, and the blankets were twisted around both of them like a boa constrictor.
"Mmm… Rick?" Kate tried to shift a little, her world still fuzzy.
He didn't stir.
She kicked at him lazily, but her movements only caused him to tighten his grip on her.
"Castle…" She warned him.
At the sound, his breathing rhythm changed slightly and he groaned out some words.
"Castle, I have to pee." She said.
He mumbled something, but all that she could make out was "stay".
With an exasperated sigh, Kate turned and wiggled out of his embrace. She took a moment to gaze down at her partner, a smile blooming helplessly on her face. She kissed him softly, feeling his lips tug back a little at the sensation.
Finally gathering the strength to pull away, she got up and went to deal with business. She couldn't avoid inspecting herself in the mirror. Her hair was limp and tangled in more knots than an Eagle Scout could undo, her skin was glowing and sprinkled with large hickeys, and her lips were bruised and swollen. Her inner thighs were red and scratched, and her breasts her so tender it was almost painful to touch them. Her legs ached, and she was certain that bending down (or even sitting) would be beyond her for a while.
She looked thoroughly loved.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Light.
Annoying, bothersome light, it was streaming in through the curtains, forcing itself into the room and dancing across his eyelids. Rick groaned, rolling towards the empty place formerly occupied by–
Kate?
He opened his eyes, taking in the empty bed. The flood of light streaming in morphed, becoming a flood of empty abandonment, and he collapsed further into the bed. He was tempted to think that it had all been a dream; a crazy, torturous, haunting dream that his sleep-deprived brain had thought up (he'd spent the last week up all night worried about her, and had been running on empty last night). But the rumpled sheets, the faint smell of her – cherries and arousal – and, most of all, his body's condition, all told him that it had been no dream.
She'd been here.
And now she was gone.
Various emotions shot through him, starting with disbelief and ending with despair, with a good amount of anger tainting all of them. He couldn't believe that she'd done this to him… but in a way, he could. Kate Beckett couldn't let moments of weakness alone. She had to back away from them, rescind them, cover them up.
A figure slipped into bed beside him, curling up into his side.
"I'm not going to be fit to be seen in public for at least a week. Fifteen hickeys, Castle. Fifteen. I look like I was mauled by a child with exceptionally tiny fists."
He blinked.
Kate looked at him, a little concerned at his lack of response. "Rick?" She asked softly.
He lunged for her, pinning her to the bed, his lips on hers, his tongue sliding into her mouth, stroking hers. Her hips lifted instinctually, her gasp of surprise swallowed by one or both of them.
"What was that for?" She asked when they broke apart.
His fingers continued to stroke her skin, dancing over her abdomen and sides. He couldn't stop touching her.
"I thought…" He swallowed. "I thought you'd left."
She didn't bite his head off, which in all honesty he'd been a little concerned about. Her eyes softened.
"I couldn't… I can't, leave you." She whispered. Her throat constricted, and she smiled waveringly.
"Good, because I'm not letting you." He brushed his lips against hers before sitting up. "Alexis won't be back until Monday morning and Mother's in the Hamptons,"
"You told me before, remember? The movie marathon?" Kate teased.
"Yes, well, anyway, we have the place to ourselves." Rick continued. "So I'm making pancakes."
He stood up, and promptly collapsed back into the bed. His legs just wouldn't hold him. Kate giggled (Kate Beckett giggled!) and he looked up at her ruefully.
"Guess I'm not the only one affected." She winked.
Clearly, an entire night spent making love to Kate had turned his legs into jelly.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Beckett stood over the stove, waiting to flip the pancakes. It was Monday morning, and she was reveling in the feeling of not having to get up at five a.m. A part of her already knew that she'd be back on the force someday, somehow, but for now she was enjoying the idea of sleeping in and making a leisurely breakfast.
Castle sidled up behind her, wrapping his arms around her. "The shower felt too big without you." He whispered, his open mouth caressing her jaw and neck.
Oh. Oh. Why she hadn't let him do this to her years ago, she didn't know.
"It was the only way you'd actually use the shampoo as it was intended." She quipped, flipping the pancakes.
He realized what she was wearing, and frowned. "Are you going to wear all of my dress shirts, Kate? Not that it isn't extremely hot but I'm going to have to be able to concentrate at some point and if all I can think about is that you wore the same shirts that I'm now wearing, I'm not going to–"
Castle's good-natured tirade was cut short by Beckett turning and using her teeth to tug on his bottom lip. She hummed appreciatively.
"What was I saying?" He asked.
"Nothing important." She assured him.
He had just hoisted her up onto the kitchen counter, her legs around his waist, when there was the sound of the key in the lock. There was only time for Beckett to slide off the counter (and Castle) and fix her shirt when the door opened and Alexis stumbled in.
It was like those comedies where Person A catches Person B and C in the act. They all stood there, frozen, eyes wide. Even though both her father and Beckett were decently dressed (well, if boxer shorts and a t-shirt, and a borrowed dress shirt and panties were considered "decent"), there could be no doubt as to what had been going on in Alexis' absence.
One, two, three seconds passed. And then…
"Thank God!"
In a blur of red hair, Alexis sprinted across the loft and barreled into both of them, hugging the couple with all of her might. Surprised but pleased, they responded, hugging her back. The girl pulled back, her face split in half with the force of her grin.
"Pumpkin, we didn't…"
Alexis shot him a glare. "No apologizing. We've all been waiting forever for this to happen, and while I am horrified at the thought of what you two have been up to alone in here all weekend, I'm honestly relieved. Do you have any idea how stressful this has been for me?"
Castle and Beckett looked at each other. "Uh…"
"It's been nothing short of aggravating, and with college to prepare for the last thing I need is more stress. So, I am going to leave…" Alexis started backing out the door. "And you two are going to have a lovely morning to yourselves, okay? Okay! Bye!"
With a cheery wave and a thumbs up, the girl vanished through the front door.
"Well, that was surreal." Castle said.
:::::::::::::::::::::::
Alexis might have caught them in the act – or about to get into the act – but Martha didn't really walk in on or discover anything. She just seemed to, well, know. It cleared up a lot of potential awkwardness, because both Beckett and Castle had been kind of dreading the conversation they'd have to have with her, but it was a little surprising. While it was better than having to explain everything and deal with the woman's dramatics, it was, well… disconcerting, so to speak, that they were found out so easily.
They could only hope the folks down at the precinct didn't have what Martha dubbed a "mother's instinct".
One definitely good thing came out of Martha's knowing, however – she insisted that the two of them take over the Hamptons house for two weeks.
"I'll be just fine, darlings! The social situation has become perfectly dreadful, anyway – the worst family politics have been going on lately… something about a betrayal and fraud and someone claiming to be someone else's daughter and it was really this other girl the entire time and… well, the gossip was fun for two days but I'm just tired of everybody glaring at each other. Goodness knows I get enough drama onstage! You two have some fun. Go! Be lovers! Go skinny-dipping in the ocean or something!"
And so they went.
It was lovely. Beckett had known the house would be spacious, and lovely, and with a great view, but no daydreams or Internet searching (she was a detective, for crying out loud…) could properly prepare her for when she saw it the first time.
It was large, and gleaming white, of course, she'd been expecting that, but Beckett never understood the appeal of it until she was there. The sand, and the smell of the beach and the wood of the house, and the way the sun hit it… and it just sat there, looking to fresh and clean and inviting, and Beckett couldn't help but think,
This is what houses in Heaven must look like.
But of course, Castle wouldn't let her stew in her reverie. He grabbed her hand, pulling her away from her perch on the door of the Ferrari (they'd taken turns driving) and hauling her up the walk, bursting at the seams with his eagerness to give her the grand tour.
The grand tour had started and ended in the bedroom, and Beckett didn't even get a chance to see the rest of the house until that evening.
When she did, she found herself thinking that if she wasn't careful, she could really come to think of this as home. She could see herself in the kitchen, cooking up something for Lanie and the boys, Alexis being helpful and Castle being very unhelpful, a glass of wine on the counter for her to sip from as she went about her work. She could picture herself with a book, curled up in one of the deck chairs or the window seat, sensing Castle's presence as he tried to sneak up on her. She could imagine lounging on the couch in front of the massive fire as a summer storm raged outside, the thick, large raindrops pounding on the roof and beating the sand, whipping up the ocean into a dark, frothy potion worthy of Shakespeare's Weird Sisters. But she would be safe and warm inside, snuggled up with Castle, watching the flames dance or even lying flat on her stomach on the carpet, beating his ass at Monopoly while Alexis quietly built up a business empire of her own and ended up bankrupting them both, daintily sipping her hot chocolate the entire time and looking far too innocent. That girl could be devious when she wanted to.
Yes, Beckett could see this house as home. And instead of scaring her, as it would have a year or even a few months or weeks ago, it was wonderful. She welcomed it, embraced it with open arms and hugged it tightly to her chest. She wanted a home. She wanted a home with Castle.
And so she relaxed, soaking up the sun and letting herself tan for the first time in four years, going swimming every single day, either in his pool or the ocean that was only a two minute's walk away, and reading nearly every book in his immense library. He'd been so pleased at her reaction when he'd shown her the room, the walls completely covered in books from floor to ceiling. She'd felt like Belle when Beast showed her his library – just filled with wonder and excitement.
And the sex; she couldn't forget the sex. Actually, she wouldn't have been too surprised if she had forgotten a few sessions just because her mind had been blown to high heaven.
For the first week, it was just the two of them. They read together, went out on dates together (Castle insisted upon 'wining and dining' her and generally treating her like a queen no matter how embarrassed it made her), swam and cooked and made love together, day after day after day, and Beckett wondered what the hell she'd done to deserve something this good.
Then Alexis arrived, and it got even better. The next week was filled with baking and cooking, giggles and stories about childhood, board games galore, pranks on each other, games of tag in the surf and going to see every blockbuster that hit the local movie theater. Beckett was a little nervous but grateful that Alexis had accepted their relationship so easily, and honestly wanted to get to know the girl better no matter what her relationship with Castle was, especially now that Alexis was on her way to college in a few short months.
On the last night before they all headed back, Beckett found herself curled up with Castle on the sofa, his arm around her shoulders. She had her head on his chest and her feet tucked in, a mug of hot chocolate in her hands. Alexis was sitting on the floor, her head resting on her dad's knee, cradling her own cup of melted chocolaty goodness. Unconsciously, Beckett reached down and began to stroke the redhead's hair; it was something that her mother had done with her, and it just felt right. She didn't even think about it or realize she was doing it until Alexis spoke up.
"Kate?" Alexis said.
"Yeah, honey?" Beckett replied sleepily. Castle was out like a light, having succumbed to sleep about twenty minutes ago.
"That feels good." Alexis said, leaning more into the woman's touch. She turned her head and smiled up at the detective. "I'll admit… I was a little worried. You and Dad were having a hard time of it those past few weeks, and I was kind of afraid that it was over. But I'm…" She swallowed, and then smiled bravely. "I'm really happy."
"You know that I like you a lot, Alexis." Beckett said. "I always have. And I love you father very much, and I hope that it never comes to this but if we do break up, nothing's going to change between us. I promise you that. You ever need anything, I'm there for you."
Alexis swallowed again, her eyes shining. "That would be nice." She said. "I would like that a lot."
Beckett smiled and Alexis closed her eyes, leaning back again. Beckett continued to stroke her hair until the girl fell asleep, at which point Beckett woke up Castle and helped him carry the teen up to bed before they tumbled into their own, too sleepy to even change into pajamas.
Her sleep was dreamless that night except for the sensation of warmth surrounding her, cocooning her, and she felt more rested in the morning than she had in years.
Anyone catch the reference to another popular ABC show? I don't watch it, personally, but I've seen enough promos to figure out some parts of the plot. Anyhoo so begins my latest multi-chapter Castle story! It's been a while… let's hope I'm not rusty…