Say I am Wonderful.
« Say I'm wonderful. »Castle suggested playfully.
Kate Beckett rolled her eyes.
« Granted. You are wonderful. »
Then she casually turned to the screen of her computer, analyzing the slow results on ID-ing their vic. Ryan and Esposito exchanged puzzled looks ; Castle looked thunderstruck. The phone rang.
« Beckett ?...Oh, OK. I'll be right down. »
Kate hang up.
« Lanie found something. »
Castle didn't move. Kate looked at him, slightly puzzled.
« All right. You check out IDs then ? »
No answer. Castle looked up just to see her disappear as the doors to the elevator were closing. He stood up. Ryan chuckled. Castle turned around.
« You heard that ? »
Esposito smiled.
« She said it.
-You sound...surprised, bro ? » Ryan asked with fake puzzlement.
Castle turned to him.
« Really...You want to play like this ? OK. It's Beckett we're discussing here. Kate Beckett.
-Yes and ?
-Remember ? Not the sharer ? Your own words, detective Ryan. »
Ryan smiled whole-heartedly and had a knowing glance at his partner. Castle whined.
« Not again.
-You were so played, bro ! » Esposito exclaimed.
Meanwhile, Kate was down the morgue to see what Lanie had in store for her. Dr Parish smiled to welcome her friend and stopped in midst.
« Where's Writer monkey ? »
Kate rolled her eyes.
«Up there with the guys. Now that I think of it, he didn't seem so focused.
-Focused ? Kate !
-Not that he usually is.
-Kate...
-What ?
-What happened ?
-I don't know, she protested. One moment, Castle was being...well, Castle and the next...I might have said he had some unknown part of the sky falling on his head. Not that it's possible.
-You know, he really has an influence on you.
-OK. Lanie, what have you got ?
Lanie describes what she's found. »
« Kate, did you just admit he had an influence on you ?
-What ? He has. »
Lanie smiled knowingly.
« Did you tell him anything ?
-No, he was just having this new lead on the case. Which seems to be confirmed by what you just found, actually. »
Kate bit her lip.
« Oh...I'll never see the end of it.
-What ?
-I may have said that he was wonderful.
-What ?
-He asked me. » she protested.
Lanie's eyebrows went sky high.
« Girl, you're whipped.
-I'm so in trouble. »
Lanie's expression turned into a happy grin.
« Good. It serves you right. And it's not that bad.
-Oh, shut uuup ! »
Lanie just couldn't help that huge grin she was to be having throughout the whole evening.
xxxxxxxxx
Castle approached her. She turned around.
« OK. Lanie was so wrong. » she sighed.
He was smiling knowingly. And obviously...He knew. He came closer, as she didn't move. He pulled her in his embrace, holding her waist. Kate raised an eyebrow expectantly.
« Is there something on your mind, Castle ? »
She knew in asking that she was done.
« What you said earlier...
-Hm ?
-Had me thinking.
-Right.
-Did you mean it ? »
Kate looked at him straight in the eyes. No way she could claim lying later...
« Yes. But wonderful doesn't cover it. Amazing is better. »
Kate felt weird in winning with words. That was so much Castle's weapon of choice. She found herself smiling.
« Obviously, I can't use extraordinary. »
She only needed a short pause to be sure they both knew why and she carried on her glorious surrender speech.
« But I would go for writer extraordinaire. »
He was speechless, gaping at her. Never had surrender looked and felt so much like victory. Kate bit her lip.
« Castle ? »
He just couldn't find a way to...
« Kate, I... »
He was desperately seeking something else to say, something not as cheesy or as sappy as all the sentences he had in mind, but nothing else came to him. Kate was so not going to let him get away with that...No way she would...but actually...
« Rick ? »
Kate was feeling growingly concerned by his silence. Granted, she had been stupid to say he was wonderful in the first place and go with the flow afterwards as well as trust her instinct, but a quiet Castle was bad news.
« Rick ? »
He suddenly pinned her back to the wall.
« Are you surrendering to my charms all of a sudden, Kate ? »
That was more like him, she thought in a second of relief. He was grinning, suddenly more sure of the future than ever before. Kate willed herself to serenity.
« What if I am, Castle ? » she retorted.
He had absolutely never heard that carefree tone in her voice. The woman he wanted so bad was welcoming him with quite open arms.