Kate Beckett wasn't in a good mood. It was just before 7am and not even coffee was helping. To say she was annoyed would be an understatement. She was not only grumpy from lack of sleep, but frustrated as hell.
Why did Castle have to be so charming all the time? All she wanted to do was stay angry at his flippant remarks and unwanted attention, but after last night, she wasn't sure what she thought.
Sipping her coffee and moving back to her desk to sit and think, Kate closed her eyes and thought back to the previous evening.
It was just after eight and she'd only been home for forty minutes or so when there was a knock at the door.
"Castle?"
"Kate, hi, ummm...I brought Chinese," he said with a cheesy smile.
And wine.
"Oh, umm, come on in Castle,".
At the time Kate had been tired and hungry and didn't have the energy to roll her eyes and tell Castle to give her a break. So in he came, and eat they did.
Time passed relatively quickly in his company and before she knew it she was giggling and having a good time listening to crazy stories about Castles past.
"So Beckett, tell me, what did you get up to before you had me to brighten up your day," he said smiling.
She lowered her head and contemplated her answer. He waited as usual staring at her. Before long she realised she hadn't actually answered and so attempted to reply in a nonchalant way.
"You know, I don't actually remember all that much about before, you've been hanging around so long," she had smiled back.
"Must be all my charm distracting you from being able to remember," he was baiting her.
Tonight she wasn't going to be baited. So she smiled slyly and replied "Must be it Castle, do you always have this effect?"
He turned and looked at her but he wasn't smiling anymore.
"Normally I would have a really good comeback for that but... I think you should know that I'm not the charming womaniser to the extent that I actually do take bimbo's offers, I'm not after that."
It came out of nowhere. She hadn't known what to say. Or why he was being so straight with her, or even if he was.
"I'm not sure I believe that Castle, and I don't know why you're telling me that, but OK."
She had tried to steer the conversation away from that topic but it must not have worked. The next thing she knew Castle was back to the serious personal again.
"So then, does that mean that with you being the one and done type that you're not one to let your heart get ahead of yourself?"
His question even put subtly was flustering. He was basically asking her if she was as slutty as the character he portrayed in his Nikki Heat novels. She decided to play coy.
"That would be telling Castle," she looked away from him and picked up her glass of wine that he had supplied.
"Guess I'll just have to find out then," he smirked.
She'd been shocked at his audacity to assume that he could just worm his way into her heart. Even though deep down whether she would admit it or not he sort of already had.
"Will you let me find out Kate?" he moved closer to her on the couch.
"Castle I.."
"Rick," he interrupted.
"Rick, I'm not sure this is appropriate, w we .. we work together and this isn't us, you've never...we've never. I..," she was lost for words at his proximity, her eyes focussing on anything but him.
Where was the strong willed angry Kate Beckett persona that she'd use when things got too heated? She'd jumped ship; her brain hadn't been with her on this one.
"Sure, Kate, I get it. I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable or anything I thought that maybe... we, ah, look I'm just going to head off, go home, be at the precinct early and yeah," he stumbled towards the door embarrassed that he'd put them in a situation that he didn't have the guts to finish.
She followed him over to the door confusion etched on her face, she knew this wasn't right that she couldn't leave things like this and face an awkward day at the precinct tomorrow. He'd practically said straight out that he wasn't a womaniser and it made sense that he was trying to see how perceptive she would be.
She just needed time to think about this, was it what she wanted?
"Castle, wait," she reached out to him.
The moment was getting awkward, she didn't offer any more explanation to stop him leaving and he just stared at her, whilst she held onto his forearm.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"For what," she had whispered back.
"This," and he'd kissed her.
It was pleasant and overwhelming and wonderful. It lasted a fair while though she'd been so caught up she wouldn't have known if it went for 10 seconds or 30.
He'd eventually pulled back looked at her, and smiling simply said "tomorrow,".
She'd been dumbfounded and simply nodded repeating his sentiment; he'd quickly kissed her forehead, and walked out the door.
How had an unplanned evening of Chinese food and wine, with good conversation gotten so awkward and serious like that? She never would have thought Castle would try and get serious about them. Better yet, what would she say to him when he turned up? She didn't even want to think about it, and yet upon inspecting the clock it was already 8am and he could show up anytime now. Damn.
"Yo Beckett, you've been sitting there looking into that cup of coffee for half an hour already, getting bored or something?" Esposito grinned.
"Ah, no I just have paper work I don't want to start, because I know as soon as I do Castle will show up," she tried to say in her most annoyed tone.
"Oh well, too late for that Castle's already here," he stated matter of fact.
"He is?" she knew it sounded slightly nervous but she couldn't help the slip.
"Yeah, in the break room, been making coffee for the last twenty minutes, now I come to think about it," he quipped.
"Oh" was all she could say.
"You guys are acting pretty suss, what's going on, he's never here this early, and you never just sit," Esposito queried.
"What's going on and who is suss, and is it juicy?" Castles voice piped up behind her causing her to jump.
"You and Beckett, you've been acting all jumpy and different," Esposito raised his eye brows in suspicion.
Castle quickly looked to Beckett and smiled and then looked back to Esposito.
"What? You think me and Beckett have a thing," he said pointing between himself and Beckett.
"Yeah Esposito when did you become such a sucker for gossip and crude observation? You been hanging out with Lanie or something?" Beckett said whilst inspected her nails then looked up at him.
"I'll be good," Esposito replied and quickly left.
She snickered as Esposito scurried away; she knew that he and Lanie were sort of dating though Lanie hadn't put a label on it.
"Good work Boss lady," Castle winked and sat down in his chair next to her.
Feeling slightly awkward that the previous evening was still in her mind, Beckett quickly righted herself to think back to paper work.
"There aren't any murders Castle, maybe you could go work on your novel or something," she looked at him out of the corner of her eye.
"I would but I'm stuck at the moment, you know, on a difficult scene," his brows furrowed.
"Oh, well I doubt you'll get much inspiration here," she sighed.
"You never know, you might let your guard down and the next scene for Nikki Heat will be well underway," he smiled at her.
"What do you mean Castle? What scene is this exactly," she questioned eyes squinting.
"ah, well, umm, it's basically Nikki and Rook dancing around their non relationship, I'm working the angle with Nikki being unsure of Rook's overall intentions and trying to figure out a way that he can prove to her that he doesn't want anyone else; ever," he looked away from her.
"Oh, well maybe he just needs to be more serious about things, you know, as a character," she answered.
"Yeah well, she can't really expect him to change, but at the same time, maybe she doesn't know him as well as she thinks she does," he said off-handedly.
"May be not, but if she doesn't know him well enough then that's a problem all on its own," she huffed.
She realised the parallels that he was drawing and again wonder if last night was just another ploy to further his novel and get her in situations and see her reactions. She decided quickly that may be last night was just more 'research'.
"Look Castle I'm busy I don't want to play these games with you right now, I have enough work cut out for me as it is," she spoke harshly.
"You're angry," he looked surprised.
"I'm not angry I just want to get on with work, you know that thing normal people do during the week," she stated sarcastically.
"Look if you think this is me being all 'read between the lines' with you, it's not. I really do have an issue with the scene. If this is you thinking I am being coy about last night than you are wrong. I won't lie, I'm attracted to you Kate, and I don't want to rush in and ruin things and make you think that I am some womaniser who doesn't do real. Because I want real, I want real; very much. You're real Kate," he says, sincerely.
She was taken aback by his frankness. She didn't expect such an honest answer especially when she was being short with him.
"I need more coffee," she stood and walked to the break room.
She was running. Castle saw it, but he knew now wasn't a time to let her stew. He followed her to the break room.
"Kate. Just hear me out, there is no way this isn't bothering you, I think that's obvious. I just hope it's bothering you because you feel something too and you want to give me a chance. I know that I'm not a cop and that I'm not what you expected, but this is real Kate," he wasn't going to let this slide, he was chasing her.
"Castle...Rick, I, I need time to think about this, it's all confusing and I don't understand myself, and I hate that, I hate being unsure, of wanting things that I shouldn't want," she replied desperately trying to hide how upset it was making her.
"Hey hey, don't start panicking," he whispered as he moved closer. "We can take it slow, I'm not asking you to drop everything and come chasing after me, I just want you to know that if you want me, I am all yours, that I don't want anyone else," he looked at her affectionately.
She took a big breath letting in out slowly and looked up at him again; she was terrified of this, of these feelings he seemed to pull out of her.
"I, umm, wow," she whispered dropping her face and looking at his chest.
"Come here," he beckoned, and she rested her head on his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her. "Don't be frightened of this, it doesn't change anything, it just means you know where we stand and I have a legitimate reason to break face if Demming tries anything," he smirks.
She snickered into his chest "macho Castle."
"I knew you'd like it," he bent down as she looked up and kissed her.
She pulled away from him then, rubbed noses and said "later."
He nodded and repeated "later," as she let her hand drop from his chest, and walked out of the break room.
He realised it was her way of saying; she accepted the feelings and the 'thing' they seemed to have going, but she needed time and he knew she'd need reassurances. He was willing to wait as long as it took for her to see how serious he was about this.
Kate hoped she could follow up on that promise later and not chicken out or remind herself of reasons she couldn't fall for Castle. She sat back down at her desk only noticing Coffee put down next to her minutes later by Castle before he squeezed her shoulder and left.
Kate smiled to herself; he could be really sweet sometimes. This is what happened every time she decided to be tough and ignore him, she ended up more involved then she'd been before.