A/N: Attempting a new fix using a prompt table found on LiveJournal. Fingers crossed I can get this one done. I've never actually written Castle fanfiction before so be kind.

Disclaimer: Castle etc. is not mine.

Chapter One: First Kiss

Years from now when they had been married for several years, and he was positive that they would be, they would tell this story to their children. Rather he would tell the story to their children while she would scoff at him and tell him it was no big deal. He can picture her, the angles of her face a little softer with age and those same hazel eyes surrounded by a few extra laugh lines as she hits him on the shoulder and tells their kids, a boy and a girl, that their father has embellished the story and blown it way out of proportion.

He was pulled back to the present by the sound of her voice and he looked up to see her looking back over her should at him.

"Hmm?" he asked still partway caught in his daydream.

"I said you comin'?" she said rolling her eyes in exasperation, looking way to composed in the face of what had just happened between them.

"Yeah," he nodded and winced as he stepped over the prone man lying on the street in front of them. The guy was going to have one hell of a headache when he woke up. Come to think of it Beckett would have a headache too after the way she took that guy out. He made a mental note to give her an Advil with her coffee when they got back to the precinct.

The take down was quick and brutal and they all came out with injuries, though some were only to pride. Ryan and Esposito were taken, not without argument to the hospital to get checked out and he lost track of Beckett as he was herded into the back of an ambulance to get his hand wrapped. He'd have to find an Advil for himself as his bruised knuckles ached something terrible. Punching someone in the face definitely wasn't as pain free as it looked in the movies. He'd do it all again in a heartbeat though simply if it meant she would touch him as tenderly as she did as she re-wrapped his bandage for him in the back of the ambulance.

They didn't speak about the events of the night as they drove in silence back to the station. He'd gone to bring it up but one look at her told him it probably wasn't the right time. She looked exhausted, the events of the last couple of hours certainly starting to take their toll. She had a lead into her mother's murder dangled in front of her only to have it ripped away cruelly before she could learn anything in the death of John Raglan. The man responsible for that murder had then kidnapped her partners and tortured them for information and would have killed her if it hadn't been for him.

God he had been so scared. He had seen the gun pointing at her and reacted without even thinking, without any thought for his own mortality. Lockwood had been on the ground with blood streaming from his nose before he even realised that it had been his fist that had caused that to happen.

"I'll drop you back at the loft," she said softly not taking her eyes off the road to look at him as she spoke.

"Like hell," he replied.

"There's only paperwork left to do Castle and I need some time alone," she said flicking her eyes to him briefly before looking back at the road.

"And I know what will happen if I give you space," he said looking at her knowingly even as she refused to look at him, "You don't need to be alone right now."

"How do you know what I need?" she asked although the words lacked their usual venom. He was used to her becoming defensive whenever someone got too close, it was how she coped, how she kept herself safe from getting hurt.

"Because I know you," he shrugged and decided to leave it at that. If he actually did want her to let him stay he couldn't' push her too far and he wasn't going to leave her alone, not tonight. Not when so much had happened.

She didn't reply but pressed her lips together tightly before blowing out a long, slow breath. He ached to reach over and brush the stray bit of hair that had fallen in her face behind her ear or simply take her hand and hold it in his own to comfort her physically in the way that he himself longed for but he couldn't. That wasn't the way she dealt with things. He knew how this would play out. She would get caught up in her own head, think over every possibility. If only Raglan had leant forward, if only she hadn't sent Ryan and Esposito to check out Lockwood's hotel suite, if only she hadn't let Lockwood back her into a corner than maybe things wouldn't have turned out the way that they had.

The guilt would eat at her and the only way she would feel like she could fight it would be if she worked herself to the bone to make up for what she would see as personal shortcomings.

He had learnt long ago what to fight her on. Some days when he could see the weight of a difficult case swirling in her gaze he would coerce into going home. He would invite her to the loft where his family and their light would surround her and their laughter would help lift the pain in her gaze. Other days he knew there was no sense in arguing with her so he would simply sit in his chair next to her desk and stay with her well into the night as she worked, hoping that simply his presence would help keep her head above water.

He wouldn't fight her tonight.

Her silence continued as they made their way into the precinct. While she went over to her desk he went into the break room and made her a coffee. As he waited for the machine to finish he popped a painkiller and stretched out his sore hand. His phone vibrated in his pocket and he sent a quick message to his daughter informing her that everything was alright and that he would be at the station until late. Wiping off the machine he grabbed her now steaming mug and made his way back out into the bullpen.

She was sitting now, her head in her hands and fingers rubbing at her temples. His earlier assumptions of a headache having been confirmed with that simple action. Placing her mug down gently on her desk he reached into his coat jacket and took out two more pills and placing them next to her mug. Without a word he settled in his chair and took out his phone, content to sit next to her for as long as she worked.

She didn't mention the coffee or the pill but when he next looked up the pills were gone and she held the mug in one hand while her other flicked across the page as she filled in paperwork. Her lower lip was pulled into her mouth as she bit down, a sure sign that she was in deep thought about something and his whole body suddenly felt warm at a memory from earlier that night. How right it had felt to have that same lip pressed against his own. Inspiration striking suddenly he turned back to his phone and opened the note taking app. He usually didn't like writing on the thing but the words needed to get out of his head. Before too long he had Nikki and Rook caught in a lip lock all part of a rouse to get them inside a building where Raley and Ochoa are being held captive. He is so caught up in his fictional world that he jumps out of his skin when a soft, weathered hand lands on his shoulder.

"Wha," he spins hands raised and prepared to defend himself from the unknown assailant, "Oh, sorry Rosie," his hands fall to his lap when he realises it is the nightly cleaner.

"You here late Mister Castle," she says, her eyes crinkling on a smile, "How you write books if you here so late?"

"Believe it or not women are not the only ones who can multitask," he chuckled. He'd always had a spot for the old woman who would bring them home cooked food made from old family recipes when they were stuck late working on a case.

"Time for home," she said her eyes moving to gaze over his shoulder, "She work too hard," she said before shuffling off towards the Captain's office.

Turning back around his gaze swept over her form and he smiled softly. Her head was resting in one hand, eyes closed and face relaxed. In her other hand her pen rested loosely still against the paperwork she had fallen asleep in the middle of doing. She really was beautiful, the dark lashes splayed against her angular cheekbones and soft lips parted slightly in sleep. A stray curl that had escaped her ponytail fluttered in front of her face with every deep, even breath she took and this time he couldn't stop himself from reaching forward and brushing it back behind her ear.

Tonight would definitely be one he remembered for the rest of his life. It felt like the start of something special. They had shared their first kiss, albeit as part of an undercover mission, but first kiss nonetheless and he couldn't help but think that there was more Kate Beckett in that kiss than there was drunk pretend girlfriend. He hadn't imagined the breathy moan she made or the way it was her who had gone in for more and kissed him back with an intensity he hadn't expected.