Love's Looking Good on You
Summary: Kate/Rick. A series of one shots exploring their friendship, partnership and subsequent romantic relationship.
A series of one shots or songfics based around Kate and Rick's friendship, partnership and relationship, all set to songs by Lady Antebellum.
First installment is very fluffy, but along the way they'll be drama and angst, and obviously lots more romance! First part is unbeta-ed, so any mistakes are mine and it's late here so, forgive me? More to come soon. Hoping to write a lot more Castle/Beckett during the Castle hiatus. Hope you enjoy this, reviews are appreciated. And thanks again to everyone who reviewed my first Castle fic 'The Premiere', I love you guys!
1) Love's Lookin' Good On You
Love, love, love's lookin' good, good, good on you
Well can you feel it, oh everybody sees it
How your sweet smile has a way of lighting up a room
Yeah you shine like diamonds in everything you do
Oh love, love, love's lookin' good, good, good on you.
Lanie looked up from the sink where she had scrubbing her hands as Detective Kate Beckett walked into the morgue, and smiled at her friend. Kate returned the smile, her features seeming to light up as she did so. It had been a long time since Lanie had seen Kate smile so genuinely, as if she was really happy and it was infectious.
"Somebody looks cheery today." Lanie commented. It was a rare occurrence in the morgue where death and despair were so prevalent. She and her colleagues tried to keep the mood light, but sometimes the job just got them down and Kate's good mood definitely helped to lift Lanie's spirits.
"I shouldn't be," Kate admitted. "I'm here to find out how the teenage girl who was found by joggers in Central Park died."
Lanie sighed, she had hoped for some personal details from Kate about the radiance she seemed to be emanating. The pathologist had her suspicions that Kate's happiness had something to do with the bestselling author who was uncharacteristically absent. Lanie was about to question Kate as to why Castle wasn't there with her but finding justice for the murdered teenager was much higher on her list of priorities.
Kate was humming softly to herself as she made a cup of coffee. It was just a regular brew, made in her favourite but plain coffee mug, not a fancy cappuccino with syrup made in an unblemished white china cup. It was strange how quiet it seemed around the station without Castle, yet she had worked there without him for much longer. In the relative silence, Kate thought about what Lanie had said at morgue, about her looking 'cheery'. It was true, she was a lot happier these days than she had been in a long time. It seemed strange that she could attribute that happiness to a man like Castle. When he had first arrived at the precinct she had despaired of him, and not even his charm or good looks could penetrate through her annoyance. For a while she had believed that he was part of the reason for her misery but as time had passed, their relationship had developed and Kate had found herself taking a step with him that she had never thought was possible.
Her cell phone rang from the pocket of her blazer and she dug it out, pleased to see that the caller display showed that Castle was on the other end of the line. Speak of the devil, she thought to herself.
"Castle?" She still hadn't gotten used to using his first name, and she didn't want to use it around the station anyway. She worked with detectives, she didn't expect them not to notice the change in her behaviour towards Castle but she liked to keep her personal life as private as humanly possible. That was easier said than done when you were dating a world famous author, who often frequent the entertainment sections of reputable and tabloid newspapers alike.
"Hey Kate." Castle seemed not to have the same problem with first names as Beckett did. He called her Kate at every chance he got, and she liked the way he said it. She chided herself often for the teenage girl behaviour Castle often provoked in her, but working long hours solving the most horrendous of crimes made her appreciate even the smallest things in their relationship. "Alexis wants to know if you're coming to dinner tonight."
"Is that an invitation?" Kate asked, smiling in spite of herself. Another thing that made her happy, besides being with Rick, was that she had inherited his zany family as part of the package. In some of her previous relationships, this would not have been a good thing but she had been fond of the Castle family from the very first time she had met them.
"Sure, of course I'll be there. Tell her I'm looking forward to it." Yet another change in her life. Usually Kate wasn't a huge fan of socialising after work, she preferred to go home to read with a glass of wine but spending time with Rick or with the Castle family as a whole seemed so natural now. She had vowed never to change herself for a man, but with Rick things were different. They may not have exchanged those three little words yet, but Kate was convinced that it was love, for both of them.
She arrived at the Castle apartment just after seven o'clock, offering a bottle of wine and a coffee cake from the bakery around the corner from the precinct to Castle when he opened the door. He took the gifts from her and bent to kiss her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in closer, realising that she had missed him even after less than twenty four hours apart. The kiss would have gone on longer if Alexis had not then announced that dinner was ready.
"Hello, dear." Martha greeted as Kate and Castle made their way to the kitchen where Alexis was serving up one of her creations.
"Chet is out of town for the week, so mother is delighting us with her company again." Rick explained for Kate's benefit, while Alexis lovingly rolled her eyes.
After dinner and cake, Alexis whisked Kate away to her bedroom, leaving Rick to do the washing up, much to his disapproval. Kate followed the teenager up the stairs, wondering what could be so important and why whatever it was couldn't have been discussed at dinner.
"You know I proof read for Dad, and give him advice and stuff about his books," Alexis began. "Well, he just gave me the penultimate chapter of the new Nikki Heat book, and I think you should read it. Dad's not all that good at expressing his feelings, I mean, he doesn't have that problem because I'm family, but he does with women."
Kate nodded, still wondering where this was all headed. She didn't like the idea of reading Castle's work without his permission but Alexis was so insistent and Kate knew that she wouldn't have been so forceful if she didn't have a good reason.
"I've got some homework to do." Alexis said, heading over to her desk. "Take as long as you need."
Kate took the manuscript from Alexis, and settled herself on the foot of the bed to read it. A lot of it didn't make a lot of sense to Kate as she hadn't read the rest of the book, but it was when she got the scene between Nikki and Rook that Kate understood why Alexis had wanted her to see it.
Rook ripped the sleeve from his shirt, folding into a strip to make a tourniquet. Nikki bit down on her lower lip as Rook tied the material around the gash on her upper arm. The pressure on the wound felt better though and it didn't seem to be bleeding so much.
"That'll hold for now," Rook told her, not having much in the way of medical knowledge. "But we really need to get you to the Emergency Room."
"Rook..." Nikki stopped him, the hand of her good arm tugging at what was left at his shirt. "Thank you."
Rook looked a little taken a back, realising that this was first time they had been together without fighting or having sex, or both. It was making a lot of feelings hit home; ones he had tried to deny since they had met. There had always been a connection between them but to begin with Rook had believe it was purely sexual, he was now convinced that his feelings were much deeper than this. Now seemed as good as any time to tell Nikki how he felt. After all, he could have lost her in the shoot out which had fortunately only cause a deep skin wound to her left arm.
Nikki was looking at him, her eyes locked on his and she seemed to be waiting for a response from him.
"Nikki," He paused, clearing his throat. "Nikki, I...I love you."
He waited for the damage, having no idea how she would react to this. After taking a moment to process his words, Nikki's features lit up. "I love you too, Rook." She kissed him long and hungrily, but broke away a few moments into the kiss. "They're back!"She pulled him to the ground as gunshots rang out.
Kate put the manuscript down, wondering what Castle was trying to say by having Nikki and Rook fall in love already. She stared into space for so long, that Alexis asked if she was okay.
"I'm fine. Thanks for letting me read it."
Alexis just shrugged and went back to her homework, but grinned to herself when Kate left the room, closing the door with a soft click. Her father and Detective Beckett had been at the beginning stages of their relationship for too long and, as glad as she was that they were finally together, she still felt they needed a push in the right direction. Resisting the urge to go and overhear what happened between them next, Alexis turned back to her homework once more.
Kate found Castle still in the kitchen, washing dishes. She stood for a while just watching, she couldn't deny how cute and domesticated he looked doing an ordinary everyday task. Seeing that Martha had left him to it, Kate picked up a tea towel but put it down again. Rick still hadn't noticed her yet, he was too busy scrubbing a place and humming to himself.
She crept up behind him, wrapping her arms around him and pressing a light kiss to the back of his neck.
"I love you too, Rick." She whispered, mirroring Nikki Heat's words almost exactly except for one tiny syllable.
She left the apartment before Rick could say anything back, but Kate had a feeling that they would have plenty of time to talk things over. She grinned at the doorman on the way out of Castle's apartment; the smile of someone happy with how life was going for once; the smile of someone in love. Kate caught sight of herself in the mirror as she took the elevator down to the ground floor, love definitely suited her.
Hope you enjoyed! Lyrics are from 'Love's Lookin' Good on You' by Lady Antebellum. Next chapter I will probably be using 'All We'd Ever Need'. Please review on your way out! Xx