"You asked Gates?!" Kate practically shrieked, jumping up from the couch, and pacing determinedly across the floor of the loft. "And you didn't think it would be a good idea to tell me?" She turned back towards him, a hard look in her eyes that, it now occurred to him, he hadn't seen directed at him in years.
"Kate, I wanted it to be a surprise," he offered tentatively, looking up at her with a guilty expression on his face that clearly read 'please don't shoot me.'
"Castle, I don't do surprises." She pursed her lips, crossing her arms across her chest as she leaned against the kitchen counter of the loft.
He smirked. "You didn't seem to mind too much when you woke up handcuffed to the –"
She cut him off with a glare.
"Sorry, sorry!" He protested. "Not a good time for jokes, I get it."
Castle began to shift uncomfortably in his seat on the couch, waiting for her to say something. He had never quite been sure how she managed to do that – even with Meredith and Gina, neither of whom were particularly easy to evade, he had always been able to laugh off their anger, deflecting it with jokes and laughter. With Kate, he felt like a little kid who'd been caught with their hand in the cookie jar one time too many.
Desperately wanting to say something, he opened his mouth, but closed it a moment later when he saw the look on her face. That was the look that said 'not now, Castle.' That was the look that he only got when he was in huge trouble.
She paced across the room from the kitchen to his study, holding up a hand to silence him as he opened his mouth again. After a moment, she returned to the living room, sitting in one of the comfy leather armchairs across the table from him. As she took in a few deep, calming breaths, he was suddenly glad for all of the yoga classes she had been taking to help herself relax. Of course, the tank tops and the tight black pants were a bonus, too.
"Castle," she began quietly, with an edge to her voice that told him she was doing her best to stay calm. "I told you last year, after everything that happened, this is my life. And this is my job. And I know that I've been working on opening up to you, but Castle, you need to respect that I can't just get up and leave whenever I want to."
Before he could speak, she added. "Don't get me wrong, it was very… sweet of you, I guess. But Castle…"
It was his turn to shush her. "No, Kate, I'm sorry. I should have known you wouldn't like to be pulled away from work without me telling you first. I just… I wanted to do something nice, and I feel like we don't get a lot of time away from the precinct. But the point is, I'm sorry, Kate." Fiddling with the hem of his shirt, he informed her quietly, "If you really don't want to go, we can find some other time." He looked up from the string that was coming unraveled on his plum-colored shirt. Pity. He loved that shirt.
As he caught her eye, Beckett sighed. Sometimes she wished she could go back to when they had first met, before she had lost the ability to withstand his puppy-dog eyes.
She closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath and remembering what Dr. Blythe had told her – that she needed to practice opening up to Castle a little bit more. She knew that if she told him no, she'd just be running away.
"No, Castle… it's fine. Just, please, a little bit more advanced notice next time."
His eyes lit up, and before she could react, he was at her side, leaning over the arm of the chair and kissing her, one hand tangled in the hair at the back of her neck, and the other at her waist. To her surprise, he was the one to pull away a moment later, leaning back and sitting on the armrest. "Really? You'll go?"
"I said I would, didn't I? And I don't exactly know how I'd explain it to Gates if I didn't."
He grinned, and hopped up off of the chair, bending over for one more kiss before racing out of the room, calling over his shoulder, "I'm going to go start packing!"