Disclaimer: Don't own.
A/N: I have no idea what the level of French is in the US, so it's a basic grammar lecture. Oh well. This fic is dedicated to madsthenerdygirl.
Kate was watching CNN when her phone rang. A picture of Rick with Royal was flashing at her as her phone played 'I'm too sexy'.
"When the heck did you change my ringtone Castle?" she snarled.
"Good afternoon to you too, Beckett. Yesterday, when you were getting yelled at by our favorite captain." Kate rolled her eyes.
"Whaddaya want, Castle?" the detective asked.
"Alexis is having difficulties with her French, and you know French, right? So I was wondering if you'd be convinced to help her by inviting you over for dinner tonight."
"I'd help her anyway, Castle. But dinner sounds nice. When should I be at the loft?" she asked, smiling.
"Six-thirty okay for you?"
"Sure, I'll be there."
"Thanks, Kate."
"Don't mention it." She hung up.
Looking at her attire, she decided she needed a shower and a change of clothes. They took down a killer in the park today. When they closed in on him, he'd started running, so eventually Kate had caught him by tackling him. It had been hell for her hair though. She stripped and turned the spray on. Waiting for the water to warm up, Kate looked at her reflection in the mirror. She'd lost weight. A lot of weight. She could see her ribs poking out and could see the outline of her hipbones. Tracing the scars under her breasts and on her abdomen she observed her body's reaction.
Since the shooting she hadn't been able to…God, she didn't even want to think about it. She was frustrated alright, but the release never…came.
She stepped under the comforting spray and watched the dirt leave her skin. Kate grabbed her favorite magnolia-scented shampoo. She spread the substance through her curls and gently massaged her scalp. After a while she let the water remove the sand from her hair. Then she applied conditioner. Letting it set in, she lathered her entire body with shower cream and let the water cascade on her tired muscles.
Ten minutes later she was drying off, carefully touching the scars. The warmth made them pull. As she bent over to dry her left calf the scar on her right side was stretched. She winced in pain.
Entering her bedroom Kate went to her closet. She slipped into a comfortable pair of panties and a T-shirt bra. They were gentle on her skin, so she'd been wearing them a lot lately. She grabbed a dark green turtleneck and a charcoal grey pair of slacks and put them on.
So now what. She had almost an hour left. She'd go watch French TV, to revive her French. Kate switched the TV to the right channel and the annoying tune of the TV5Monde news sounded throughout her apartment.
"Bonjourmesdamesetmessieurs…" a blond woman with an exaggerated smile on her face greeted the audience. Oh yeah. They spoke French quite fast on TV5. She switched to another channel. It was JAG, dubbed in French. Why the heck not.
At 6:31 Kate entered the loft.
"Ah! Kate! Welcome!" Martha said, enveloping her in a hug. Kate hugged her back, staying in the comforting warmth just a little longer than necessary.
"Beckett! Glad you could make it," Rick called from the kitchen. Martha took Kate's coat and ushered her towards her son.
"Richard! Pour the girl a glass of wine, dear."
Rick was standing in front of the stove.
"Just one second…" He stirred a red sauce and threw some onion in the pan. Then he turned around and poured Kate a glass of Merlot. The dark red liquid swirled marvelously and the tears looked beautiful in the crystal glass.
"Thanks." Kate took a sip and the light bitterness left a wonderful taste on her tongue.
A while later Martha, Alexis, Rick and Kate were enjoying Rick's spaghetti Bolognese.
"Castle, this is heavenly," Kate said, closing her eyes as she savored the taste. She could distinguish tomatoes, onions, carrots and so much more. This was a lot better than her average dinners. Those usually consisted of either throwing take-out leftovers into the microwave or a sandwich with whatever she could find.
"Dad, detective Beckett's right. This tastes so good."
"I agree Richard." Rick's cheeks turned a slight shade of pink.
"Anything for my three favorite women."
An hour later Alexis and Kate were sitting at the bar in the kitchen.
"So if you're just talking about the pas, you use the passé composé, but if you're describing a situation or if you want to say how you felt at that moment, you use the imparfait."
"So…if I wanted to say I went to France and the weather was nice?" Alexis asked.
"Je suis allée en France et il faisait beau."
"But how do I know whether to use être or avoir in the passé composé?" Alexis asked the brunette.
"Basically you use avoir. But if a verb expresses movement: partir, venir, aller, and don't forget naître and mourir, you use être," Kate explained.
"So…" Alexis wrote something down.
Je suis né en 1993.
"Like that?"
"Yep. But don't forget, you're a girl. And since we're using être, you add an E for feminine and an S for plural. You don't do that if you're using avoir. So could you try: The girls went to Paris?"
Les filles sont allées à Paris.
"Great! Now a harder one: Rick and Martha went to England."
Rick et Martha sont allé"Huh? But do I add an E or not?" Alexis asked, suddenly stopping. Kate smiled.
"Since there's a guy there, you don't add an E. Even if you were talking about 99 girls and one guy, you don't add the E."
Rick et Martha sont allés en Angleterre.
"Wonderful!"
They tried a few more sentences.
"I think I get it now. Thanks, detective Beckett," Alexis said, giving Kate a hug. Kate shook her head and told her: "Once more Alexis, call me Kate." Alexis nodded.
"Okay…Kate."
Later that evening Alexis had gone to bed and Martha was on her way to a party. She'd yelled: "Don't wait for me, I'll be back tomorrow morning. I'm staying at George's!" Then, accompanied by a lot of noise she'd exited the loft. Kate and Rick were sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee.
"Thanks, Kate." She looked up at him. She had her legs tucked under her and was leaning against one of the huge pillows.
"For what?" she asked.
"For helping Alexis. And by the way, the way French leaves your mouth…it's amazing." She swatted his arm and smiled. Feeling bold, she said: "Pas de quoi. Alors, tu aimes le français mais tu ne le parles pas. Moi, j'aime ce fait là. Maintenant j'ai une possibilité de gagner ton cœur. Je peux dire ce que je voudrais."
Rick smiled.
"Je n'ai jamais dit que je ne parle pas français," he said.
"What?"
"Kate, do I really have to translate that for you? Alright. I never said I didn't speak French. I'm just a disaster when it comes to French grammar. But Kate, you've already won my heart," he stated, moving towards her.
"Et tu as déjà gagné le mien," Kate admitted, almost closing the distance between them.
"Rick?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm scared. I don't want to mess this up."
"So am I. Scared as hell. Do you want to stop?"
"No," she said, finally closing the distance, pressing her lips against his. His hands found the small of her back and gently pulled her against him. Their kiss stayed sweet and relaxed. Rick lay back and broke the connection of their lips. Kate turned around in his arms, resting her head on his muscular chest.
"Do you want to watch a movie?" he asked.
"Nah, I'm good."
He kissed the top of her head and stated: "This feels so great, having you in my arms."
"I know."
Rick began massaging Kate's shoulders. She relaxed in his arms and let out a soft sigh. She whispered: "Thank you." He just smiled and continued. After a while Kate's eyes started drooping.
She yawned.
"I should go home."
"There's no way I'm letting you drive home like this," Rick said, motioning for her to get up. When they were both standing, Rick led her into his bedroom. He got an old shirt out and handed it to Kate, along with a pair of boxers.
"Go ahead and use the bathroom. I'll be in the guest bathroom upstairs, taking a shower." Kate looked at Rick, bewildered.
He left the room, leaving her by herself. Kate took the clothes into the adjacent bathroom. She was standing in front of the sink, trying to comprehend what had just happened when Rick knocked on the door.
"Kate? Can I come in? I need something." Kate cleared her throat.
"Yeah, sure." He entered and grabbed his toothbrush and some bottles out of the shower. He exchanged them for a new, packaged toothbrush and two purple bottles.
"Feel free to take a shower. I'll be back in about 20 minutes." Rick left the room again. Kate felt unsure, almost overwhelmed. Shrugging it off she turned the shower on. It might be her second shower of the day, but why not?
Fifteen minutes later Kate had showered and was drying her body off with an extremely fluffy dark red towel. She was tired, which meant her scars were pulling even worse than they normally did. As she was drying her hair she made a wrong move. Tears sprang to her eyes and she let out a soft wail. Kate continued drying off, but stretched the same scar again. Fuck. That hurt. The tears slowly started flowing and she collapsed onto the cold tiles. She didn't care anymore, it just hurt.
"Kate?"
She tried to answer, but the pain was just excruciating.
"Kate? I'm coming in."