Disclaimer: If I owned Castle, this would have happened and there would be way more make out scenes.
There is going to be at least one more chapter – and this 2nd chapter is also the reason for the M rating.
1
So whatever happens, whatever you decide... Katherine Houghton Beckett, will you marry me?
Kate stared at him, down on one knee, so fucking romantic, she was even sitting on a damn swing. She was almost annoyed. Well, she was annoyed. She'd had this whole speech, about how she felt awful for not including him about the job, that although it was hard for her to let people in she was determined to let him in, and that... she had been going to say yes. She had been going to tell Rick all about the job, all about what it would mean, and then about the interrogation, about realising in that interview room, when she had to run out and see him, that she had been wrong.
She had spent her entire life wanting to please someone who wasn't even alive any more. First it had been justice, solving the murder... And now it had turned into making her proud. She would have been so proud. Her father had said it and it was true. And... The job in DC had been what she thought she wanted because it would have taken her back towards the original path, to the path her mother had always wanted for her, the path she had always been going to follow, since she was a little girl.
But now she had seen that life could be so much more. She had seen so much as a homicide detective, she had met her closest friends, and she had met the man she loved. And standing in that interrogation room, tearing down yet another suspect, forcing out yet another confession, she had realised that yes, it was her home. It was where she belonged. And she wasn't going anywhere.
But damn it, Castle had beaten her to it, coming out with his own speech about how he would be with her no matter what, how he wanted more, and how he wanted... everything.
And there he was. Still there, kneeling on the ground looking up at her with those beautiful, bright eyes, full of hope but getting steadily more worried.
Several answers played through in her mind. All of them involved a future with him. Even if she said no... But why would she? She searched her mind but it was all so clear now. Looking at him, thinking about it all... There was only one answer. It was a bit sudden, maybe it was rushed, they still needed to talk, and God she was scared, but... For one thing, it would never get more romantic than this.
"Yes," she said firmly. Rick almost dropped the ring.
"Yes?" he asked, stunned. Kate laughed, tears falling of their own accord.
"Yes, Castle." She held out her shaking hand and he slid the ring on with his own shaking fingers. They stood up and he pulled her into a tight hug. He was crying too. She bit her lip. She had to say it all, while she had the courage, while it was in her head. They sat on a bench this time, too wobbly for the swings. Kate looked at her ring for most of the time she was speaking.
"I know I have to let you in," she concluded. "I want to. So... you tell me, okay?"
He put his arm around her. "Always. And you tell me, too."
"Always," Kate promised.
Please review. Now. I can always change it and have her say no...
