Can we flail? Let's flail! Valkyrie was AMAZING. I totally believe this was the best thing that the show has ever done. I'm so impressed with the show taking a risk on something and having it pay off. FOUR FOR YOU, MARLOWE.(Lady crushing on McCord SO HARD)

So.. spoilers ahead.

Clearly, I don't own it. I would have never come up with something so BRILLIANT.

thank you to Em for beta-ing for me (just like old times!) and for giving me help with the title :)

Kate felt more at ease than she had for weeks. A slight shiver thrilled up her spine as she felt Castle's fingerprints whisper along her bare side and she curled closer to him, splaying her left hand on his chest, nails gently grazing against his skin.

"You don't wear your ring at work," he commented, lifting her hand and interlocking her fingers with his.

There was no judgement in his tone, only curiosity. She turned her head to look at him. "I love my ring," she assured him, "But it gets in the way sometimes," she admitted.

"Because it's big?"

"Because it's big," Kate confirmed. "I nearly bent the setting a couple of weeks back on a training exercise. I put it on the chain straight afterwards." She moved so that she was leaning on his chest, chin resting on his sternum. "I wasn't happy about it, let me tell you that." She loved wearing his ring. The weight of it on her hand was comforting, a reminder that she was so much more than just her job. The reminder of him had been a balm to her lonely soul, especially when she lay awake at night, willing his warm, solid body to appear next to her. After that training exercise, she'd hidden in the bathroom and let a few stray tears leak down her cheeks as she took the ring off and placed it on the chain along with her mother's.

"I figured you wouldn't want your co-workers to stare at it," Castle mused, moving her hair to reach for the clasp behind her neck, unthreading her engagement ring from the chain and closing it again.

"I don't care what they think," Kate replied, holding out her hand and letting him slide the ring back onto her finger, where it belonged. "I was offered this position because of my merits. The person I'm spending the rest of my life with has nothing to do with my ability to do my job. They can stare all they like."

"You know, I could get you a smaller one," Castle offered, pulling her closer to brush his lips against hers.

"Don't you dare," Kate growled. "You proposed with this ring and it is the only one I want," she informed him, her hands gripping his shoulders as she pressed her lips against his.

Castle flipped her onto her back. "I love it when you're bossy," he murmured, hovering above her, hands planted above her shoulders. His hungry eyes roved her body. He'd been starved of her presence for six weeks and he was going to shamelessly ogle her at every opportunity he got.

His countenance darkened when he saw the violet welts on her chest. "What the hell happened?" He demanded.

Beckett closed her eyes. She'd been doing the best she could to not think about that incident; her failure to properly assess the situation and the panic that had coursed through her body as she lay on the filthy DC pavement, all too clearly reminded of lying in the grass in a cemetery in New York City, a bullet in her heart. She couldn't fight the sour taste it left in her mouth and she curled onto her side.

She felt the mattress shift as he stood up. His feet padded against her wooden floorboards and she heard the light flick on in the bathroom and him rummaging through drawers.

"Roll over, please," he requested.

Kate remained motionless.

"C'mon, sweetheart," he entreated. "Let me take care of you."

She was kidding herself if she thought she could deny him anything. She turned onto her back, exposing the pair of livid purple bruises on her chest. Between those and the scars littered on her ribcage, she knew she must look like an extra out of a B-grade horror movie.

He tutted compassionately, "They look like they hurt," he mentioned evenly. He uncapped the tube of arnica cream he'd rescued from the bathroom, warming it in his fingers before gently massaging it into the raised welts.

"Not as much as my pride," she admitted, her voice cracking slightly.

He finished tending to her bruises, but unable to stop touching her, he traced their outlines with the tips of his fingers. He pressed a kiss against both marks.

"You can't kiss them away, Castle."

"I can try," he responded. "Are you ready to tell me what happened now?"

She cleared her throat, "There was another training exercise today," she told him. "And clearly, I fucked up. I fucked up badly."

She couldn't bear the concern in his eyes, so she turned to stare out the window, cursing the single tear that slid down her cheek.

"Kate," he sighed.

"Don't, Castle," Kate cautioned him, sitting up and drawing her knees to her chest. "Don't tell me that it's okay. Don't try and make this better. If that training exercise had been real, I'd be dealing with a lot worse than a couple of bruises."

Castle didn't say a word. He moved so he sat opposite to her, grave blue eyes studying her face.

Kate rested her forehead against her knees. She'd hated feeling like such a failure in front of her workmates, the peers she was trying so desperately to impress. Her thumb traced over the engagement ring that had just found its way home on her finger. The ring put there by her one and done. Surely she could be vulnerable in front of him.

She sighed, turning her head to face him. "I don't know if I can do this, Castle."

"Do what?" He asked. He knew that he had to tread carefully and he wasn't about to let this newfound openness blow up in his face.

"All of this," she muttered, a hand thrown up in frustration. "I'm clearly nowhere near as good at my job as I thought I was. I'm drowning in case work and studying and trying to get ahead on this team. I haven't had time off in weeks, I'm living out of boxes," she huffed, her cheeks turning pink, "And I miss you like crazy," she admitted, pausing to nibble on her lower lip. "This just isn't what I thought it was going to be."

A rush of tenderness thrilled through Castle at her confession. He'd noticed that she'd become so much freer with her affection, lavishing it upon him instead of bottling it up, and he found himself revelling in each and every one of her words of love. "It is different," he agreed, "but that doesn't mean you should give up."

"I'm just a homicide detective…"

"Not anymore," he interjected. "Now you're a member of the Attorney General's investigative team."

"And I'm failing miserably," she muttered.

"You are not failing miserably," he said sharply. "You're adjusting. Adapting. You're playing in the big leagues now, Kate. That comes with growing pain."

He couldn't stand to not be touching her. He moved to lean against the headboard of the bed, drawing her to sit on his lap.

"You are extraordinary," he reminded her. "And they gave you this job based on your merits. Don't doubt your capacity to do this, Kate. You're so much bigger than New York. Don't regret not seizing this opportunity with both hands."

Kate smiled against his skin, curling close to breathe in the scent of his skin, letting his words wash over her and warm her like sunshine. Suddenly, her job didn't seem quite so insurmountable. With Castle's words of encouragement, she felt just a little bit more like the superhero he wrote her as in Nikki Heat.

"You're not sleeping, are you?"

Kate burrowed closer to him, the vibration of his chest as he spoke soothing her. "Not really," she admitted. "I've got this great big bed and no oaf in it trying to sneak onto my side."

"I wouldn't sneak onto your side if you didn't hog the blanket!"

"Excuses, excuses," Kate muttered. She'd gone without his touch for six weeks now. She wasn't ready to move from his secure embrace just yet.

"You need to sleep Kate," he mumbled in her ear.

She nodded, curling closer to him in response.

"You know that lying down will help with sleeping, right?" He asked.

She let out a whimper when he brushed his fingers lightly against the ticklish spot just near her armpit. "Beckett, lie down," he ordered.

Kate grumbled something about being bossy, but obediently lay down on her stomach, ignoring the twinge of her bruises as she got herself comfortable.

"Just relax," he crooned to her.

He began to trace his fingertips down the toned muscles of her back, gently sketching nonsense outlines against her skin. He smiled as he watched the crease on her forehead begin to relax, her breathing becoming deep and even.

"Thanks for coming to see me, babe," she sighed drowsily. "Stuff is better when you're around."

Castle smiled, her sleep heavy confession all the confirmation he needed that he'd made the right decision in buying a ticket and flying to her place without permission. He slipped into bed behind her, wrapping an arm around her waist and curling around her frame. "Good night Kate," he murmured, pressing a kiss against her shoulder blade. "I love you."

so... flail time? Lemme know what you thought!

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