"Castle!" calls Kate down the hall. For the first time in their years of cop and writer tag-a-long, Castle completely ignores her and keeps right on walking away.

She watches his retreating back as he walks away from her for what feels like may be the last time. Why? What happened? Why would he ignore her?

It would sure help to smooth things over if she could figure out just what she`s done to push him away. Oh, and if he would acknowledge her presence. She watches the elevators close, Castle refusing to look at her, refusing to even look up from the floor. As if the whole world has just crashed down around him and it would be futile to try and put it together again.

"Beckett" she hears, and turns to Ryan.

"We`ve got the financials on the victim. Looks like he`s recently opened a safety deposit box. Want us to check it out?"

Still contemplating what went wrong with Castle she doesn't answer right away. "Beckett. Everything alright?" Espo is standing there now looking at her, concern etched in his face. Dazed and confused is very un-Beckett like. Ignoring both of their questions for the time being she asks the boys if they noticed anything up with Castle this morning.

"He was fine when he went in to watch your interrogation. Maybe he got a call from Martha or Alexis. Ryan, he say anything to you?"

"Nope. I haven`t seen him since he went to watch. You`ve only been out of interrogation a few minutes. Can`t imagine what would have made him leave in such a hurry, but i'm sure he`ll be prepared with a 20 minute monologue in the morning to fill us in. Back to the case, Beckett you want us to check in to this deposit box?"

Kate drops into her chair and mutters only "yeah" while she stares at Castle`s empty seat. Why does she still get the feeling this is because of her?

Kate tosses bread in the toaster and takes a gulp from her coffee. She couldn`t sleep last night trying to figure out what was up with Castle. He never did return any of her calls or texts last night and now she`s anxious to make it to the precinct. She is sure he will waltz in fashionably late and hand her a coffee with a smile and apologize for hurrying off yesterday. However, the niggling doubt that things would absolutely NOT go that way kept her up late last night, hence the late start this morning and the rush to make it to the 12th.

Feeling only about half put together and still in dire need of a caffeine jolt Kate steps off the elevator and heads to her desk. Ryan and Espo are already camped out by the murder board, adding details from their trip to the bank yesterday to reveal the contents of one safety deposit box. She should be eager to hear what they found but, honestly, it`s the furthest thing from her mind at the moment. She hears the ding of the elevator and glances over her shoulder, not quite to her desk, hoping to see Castle. Shoulders slumping when she sees that it is not.

"Hurry up Castle," she mumbles under her breath.

The boys must have heard if their confused faces are anything to go by. Ryan pauses writing, marker still in the air, "Still no word from Castle?"

"No" murmurs Kate as she takes a seat.

Espo launches into the new information about the case and she tries to pay attention, she really does, but it`s not long before they notice she is glancing at the elevator every time it stops on their floor.

"Beckett, everything okay?" asks Espo, for the second time in two days.

"I'm not sure"

Castle never did come in to the precinct that day. Or the next.

He wouldn`t return her calls or texts. It`s been three days. What could she possibly have done to make the guy who makes his living with words shut completely the hell up. She racks her brain, has been the past three days, and still has no idea what the hell happened. She cant take his silence anymore and finds herself stepping out of the elevator in Castle`s building, making her way toward the front door of the loft. As she raises her hand to knock the door opens and a very exuberant Alexis Castle is charging out on her way to meet a friend. She`s surprised to see Kate. Surprised because she didn't expect to see anyone on the other side of the door, yes. But Kate can see it`s more than that.

When has Beckett ever been to the Castle loft that Rick hasn't had to beg and plead to get her there.

"Hi Kate, is everything okay?"

"I need to talk to Castle, is he busy?"

"Um...I thought he was with you," the girl stammers. "He`s not?"

"No, I haven`t seen him in three days. He left the precinct the other night after watching an interrogation. Something was wrong but I don't think he heard me call his name. Has he said anything at all?"

"That's strange. He`s left every morning like he was heading to the 12th and come back late every night claiming you`ve been working a tough case. Come to think of it, I haven`t seen him at all, just his notes on the counter in the morning" claims Alexis. Concern for her father growing in the girl`s expression.

Ok. Castle is pretending normal even at home. Something is terribly wrong. Now, where could he be?

After a moment of thought Beckett tells Alexis she will let her know when she finds out what is going on and turns back to the elevators, heading to the only real place Castle could be hiding. His office in the basement of the Haunt.

Being that it`s not even 11 a.m. the doors to the Haunt are locked up tight. She knows Castle is in there, can feel it, so she sits on the steps waiting. For Castle or the opening of the Haunt for lunch, whichever comes first.

She plays on her phone, passing the time. Takes a call from Espo about a lead they`re running down. Returns a text from Alexis.

Finally, the door opens. Its not Castle but at least she finally has confirmation that he is inside.

"Been down in the office the past few days" claims the bartender. She didn't catch his name and doesn't recall it from past visits, she should feel bad but that`s just not important right now. She mutters a brief "thanks" and heads down to the basement. She really needs to figure out what`s going on with her partner.

She hears absolutely nothing coming from the office to break up the silence looming in the shadowed basement, but she can see the light shining through the partially open door. Her heart lifts at the idea of seeing him, sharing his space again. She is not prepared for the sight of Richard Castle.

Hair uncombed. Face unshaven. Eyes glassy from alcohol, lack of sleep, or a combination of the two. He stares off into space. The computer is off so he`s not here to work on the book. He`s just sitting there, looking lost and hurt. Dejected.

"Castle" Beckett whispers and his head whips around in her direction.

She still sees the hurt but a raging anger is moving in quickly, replacing the hurt in his eyes with storm clouds. His jaw tightens. The muscle just above his right eye is twitching. Castle says nothing. He looks away from Kate almost as quickly as he turned to her. He flattens a crease in the leg of his pants, pants she`s almost certain he was wearing the day she saw him last. After closer inspection his shirt looks familiar and it all looks like he`s been sleeping in it. And he wont look at her. This is worse than she thought.

"Castle" Beckett says again.

"Please leave Beckett" he mutters, still looking in the corner.

She stands in the doorway, his name falling from her lips like a plea. "Castle..."

"I'm not interested Beckett. You can have your life back. I'm done following you around. It`s what you wanted anyway and now you can have it. Just leave." More forceful with each word uttered though he still won't acknowledge her, won't look at her.

Tired of tiptoeing around Kate starts to spout off but Castle stops her before she can even get started.

"I heard you loud and clear Kate. You remember everything. Fantastic. You could have told me you didn't feel the same way. It would have hurt but not as much as this. You lied to me Kate. For a whole year you lied. Well, dont worry. I wont get in your way anymore. You can have your space, your chair, your privacy, your lies, all to yourself again. I`m not doing this anymore. I'm kind of surprised you held it in this long Kate. I would think I gave you the perfect ammunition to get rid of me a year ago. Oh, wait. It was more fun for you to watch me follow you around like a love sick fool, bringing you coffee like a servant, just waiting for you to see me. To remember. But, you never forgot did you Kate. Well, I will never forget this so I guess we`re even. Tell the boys whatever you want - you`re good at that aren't you." And it wasn't a question.

He turned away, effectively dismissing her from his office, and his life.

Her mouth worked but no sound came out. Oh God. She tried again.

"Castle, please let me explain. I needed time. Time to get myself right. I needed..."

"...I don't care Kate. Not anymore. You can have all the time you need. Im done waiting. Done seeing the smirks on everyone`s faces because they know exactly why I spend so much time following you, literally chasing after you lately. Done seeing their looks of pity. Done with you. You can tell Gates she can send the final paperwork to the mayors office. He wont mind and, frankly, it would be better for me if I never have to see you again."

He pauses when he hears her gasp for air, but not for long because he just can't let her get to him this time. Can`t let her reel him back in. It has to be over. If he`s going to survive this heartbreak it truly has to be over now.

"I have a few chapters to finish on this latest Nikki Heat and then she wont be bothering you anymore either. This will be the last one. If it were not so close to the deadline I would cancel the entire contract now." He says this last part as he brushes past Beckett and heads for the stairs. If she wont leave then he will, though where he`s going now he hasn`t a clue. She`s everywhere. Oh, except the Hampton's house. Guess even lying she couldnt force herself to spend THAT kind of time with him. He thanks the universe for that one small favor as he opens the door to the sunlight he sure doesn't feel.

The car service takes him to the loft. He leaves a note for Alexis and Martha, some gibberish about heading to the Hampton's to finish the book. At least he thinks thats what he wrote. He grabs his laptop to make the story a little more convincing and heads out of the loft. He needs to get away. Maybe get rip roaring drunk. Anything. He will try anything to get out of his head and forget about Kate and his current heartache, even if only for a few hours.

A/N - This is my first stab at writing fanfic...I spent a long night at work when the internet in my home office decided to take a vacation. I love Castle and I`ve enjoyed reading tons and tons of fanfics, but it made me wonder how it would go if Castle suddenly became the hard-headed one and Kate had to do the chasing for once. I'm not sure where this story is going at this point exactly, but I am ready to try. Hopefully I dont bore you all to tears in the meantime. Since this is obviously not how things really go down, I will probably take some liberties with the timeline and the dialogue.
Thoughts and comments welcome and appreciated. Enjoy reading, even if it's not my story that`s making you smile.
Thanks

rated T - for the moment.