I found this on my hard drive. Obviously I started it before Watershed. So clearly I don't own Castle as I've been on demanding episodes this evening.
"What are you doing?" He can see her blinking at him sleepily from the doorway over the top of his laptop even as his fingers continue to fly across the keyboard.
"Writing." He responds not really focusing on her.
"I can see that." She walks to the office leaning against the desk. "Why are you writing at three in the morning?" He can hear the irritation in her voice at being woken, to be fair she hardly ever wakes up when he gets up to write.
"Because I felt the need to write." He doesn't really feel the need to justify it. Waking up in the middle of the night to write is what he does.
But she doesn't argue, just picks up the small elephant she'd added when she moved in. "So what is Nikki doing now?"
"It's not Nikki." He says, fingers still clicking away.
"It's not Nikki?" She's glaring at him now trying to figure out where he's going with this.
He just shrugs. "I don't have anything for Nikki right now."
Setting the elephant down, "So what are you writing?" She leans over trying to get a glimpse of the words on the screen.
"Something." He tilts the screen forward out of her line of sight.
Huffing she leans back, "Care to share with the class?"
"In a minute."
"I'm a little slow since it's 4 in the morning but did you just tell me that you're going to share." He never shares.
"Yeah," He nods emphatically, before waving at the computer, "if you ever let me finish."
"Should I go make coffee." She stands stretching, there's no way that she's going to go back to sleep, and she's definitely not following his line of thought at the moment.
"Go make coffee." He waves her away, eyes glued to the screen.
"Um, but when it's done I'm coming back?" She clarifies standing off the desk watching him trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
"You'll never get it read it if you don't go make the coffee." He tells her without even looking up.
"I'm going. I'm going." She pads out of the office towards the kitchen choosing not to think about it.
"It's done." He calls to her from the doorway to the living room.
"It's done?" she comes back to him, clutching two cups of coffee.
"You're still sleepy. You're repeating things." He presses a kiss to her forehead taking the second cup from her.
"Yes, well it's still dark and I woke up without coffee." She mutters leaning into him.
"You want to read it?" He asks, his body is humming with excitement.
"Are you actually going to let me?"
"Yes. It's not for publishing."
"You woke up in the middle of the night to write something that's not for publishing?" She does not have the energy to figure this out right now.
"I'm a writer. I needed to write, it's not constrained by time. Are you ready to read it?" He leans back to get a look at her face.
"Am I going to like it?" She takes a pull of coffee hoping the caffeine will go straight to her brain.
"Yeah, I think you're going to like it." He produces a couple of printed pages.
"You printed it."
"For posterity's sake."
"For posterity." She can feel her forehead wrinkle in confusion, "What did you write Castle?"
"Go read," He hands it to her, with another kiss to her forehead, "I'll make some breakfast." He told her strolling way towards the kitchen leaving her to collapse in the nearest armchair, coffee and pages in hand.
She standing at the breakfast bar coffee cup and papers in hand, and she's not even sure how she got there. His back is to her though as he cracks eggs into a bowl completely obvious the fact that she'd finished. "Castle." She gasps.
"Yeah..." He wipes his hands, turning to her. A hesitant smile breaking across his face, as he rounds the counter to her, "Yeah."
"Yes." She's nodding emphatically, setting everything down and flinging herself into his arms "Yes. Of course. This is what woke you up in the middle of the night?"
"What can I say you inspire me." He whispers into her hair, "You have since day one."
"Well I guess I should get too used to it," she smiles into his neck.
"Oh I have something else for you." He keeps one are wrapped around her, the other reaching into his pj pocket, pulling out a small black velvet box. Holding it open palmed for her.
She laughs at him, "Have you been sleeping with that in your pocket?"
"No, you would have noticed that." She can feel his eyes on her.
"So why do you have it now?" she's grinning up at him now, watching him get flustered.
"Well I had a plan but then you woke up so I had to adjust the plan."
There's a long moment where they're both quiet. "Castle," she prompts.
"Yes... Oh right," he pops the box open, revealing the stunning ring.
"It's beautiful." She offers her left hand up to him and he slides it on.
"You're beautiful." His thumb skates over her knuckles, leaning into kiss her.
"Take me back to bed Castle." She whispers against his lips.
On the morning of the ceremony Alexis is doing the tiny little buttons on the back of the dress over the zipper when there's a knock at the door. It's Martha clutching wrapped box. Inside is the bound book the love letter that he wrote to in the middle of the night when he couldn't wait any longer to ask.
Were you one of the girls that made it into the promo?
Babyrose