Just sweet fluff. Our favorite couple after Always. I own nothing, obviously. Everything belongs to ABC and Andrew Marlowe. I just thought I'd play with my imagination.

Morning After

Kate Beckett looked so peaceful. Castle didn't have the heart to wake her. She was naked and her hair was flowing around her head like an angel's halo. Her soft brown curls tumbling down the side of her face. She was sleeping for the first time in months. That was Castle's guess. But that didn't matter to him. He'd finally gotten that beautiful creature into his bed. Fierce lovemaking had taken place and he couldn't have been happier.

He thought this was a time when she was supposed to be at work. It was already 8:30 in the morning. She'd slept through the night. It was fitful, but it was sleep. She stirred slowly and her eyes opened. She tried to register where she was. When she did, she jolted slightly. She wasn't in her bed, Castle was next to her, and she was naked. She looked under the blankets, checked her arms, and turned to Castle's face. Then she smiled when she realized that what happened the previous night had not been a dream. "Good morning," Castle smiled, kissing Kate.

"Morning," Kate greeted back. "Guess last night wasn't a dream after all."

"No," Castle agreed with a smile. "And let me say this-"

"Please don't tell me I was an amazing lay," Kate quipped.

"No, I was going to say it was amazing and I'm glad it was you."

Kate cupped his face in her hands and kissed him deeply, savoring the taste of his lips. "I've fantasized about this."

"Okay, now you're ruining the moment."

"What? I have."

"I know. Is your hand on my ass in your fantasies?"

"Why?" Castle asked, suddenly remembering where he'd placed his hand.

"Just asking."

"Yes. But the point is-" Kate pulled herself on top of him, kissing him so deeply that he was becoming hot. This was morning-after sex. The sex a pair of lovers has in bed after a hot night. He moved his lips to her neck.

"Oh, Castle. That's the right spot." He groaned in approval. "Castle. Oh my God." She glanced at his alarm clock and saw the time. "Oh my God!" She panicked and pushed herself off of him. "Oh my God! I can't believe you let me sleep in so late. I have to-" She stopped as she remembered what happened the previous night.

"You have to what? Go to work?"

Kate stayed silent. She was sitting up, covering her chest with a blanket. Castle sat up and started rubbing his hand in circles on her bareback. "What's the matter? Kate. What happened? Is there more you're not telling me?"

"I… I just don't want to talk about what happened today, okay? Not today. I just want… I want to spend time with you without thinking about it." She leaned into his arms and the two of them fell back onto the pillows. "Okay?"

"Okay," he agreed. She kissed him and buried herself in his chest, savoring how warm he felt. His large arms pulled themselves around her. She closed her eyes, wishing she could fall back asleep. She wished his arms were the entire world. But she knew that was impossible.

Castle gripped her closely. He knew something was going on. He was sure one of the boys would call later, wanting to know where she was. But if all she wanted right now were his arms, she was damn well going to get them. "Are you hungry? Want some breakfast? Coffee?"

"You won't make s'morelets, will you?" Kate asked him suspiciously.

"No. I promise." She waited for him to say "scout's honor," then remembered what he said after he said that the first time. And what he did.

God, she was in love with this man.

"Come on Kate," he ordered, throwing her one of his large t-shirts and her bra and underwear. She gave him a look. "What? You're a modest woman. I assumed you wanted to be covered up."

Kate laughed. Both at how well he knows her and that the t-shirt said "NYPD Writer-Boy." She put everything on and hopped out of bed, kissing him. "Thank you, NYPD Writer-Boy." She wrapped her arms around his middle.

"You're really cuddly this morning, Kate."

"Making up for four years of space, Rick. And for keeping really tall walls around my heart."

"You can let them down now."

"I am, Rick. I am." She let go and went downstairs.

Castle followed her to his kitchenette. "So, beautiful, what can I make you for breakfast?"

Kate pondered for a moment. "Pancakes," she ordered.

"Done! But first, let me make us some coffee." He moved around the kitchen. He knew what move to make and when to make it. Kate watched him. "What?"

"There's just something so sexy about a man that can cook." She remembered what happened when he spent the night at her place and woke up to make her pancakes. This time, sex did happen. This time, she had the person she wanted. She studied his every move.

Then a phone rang. She recognized who's it was. "Are you going to get that?" Castle asked her.

"No," she answered firmly.

"But there could be a case-" he tried to reason, understanding how important the job was. He, however, was not aware of her resignation.

"I said no!" she said through clenched teeth.

"Okay, okay. I won't push it." Her phone stopped ringing as he placed a cup of coffee in front of her. He even made it to her liking. "You said we're not going to talk about it today."

He was taking her wishes seriously. She felt even luckier. After hurting him so much, he was being so good to her. "I really am sorry for hurting you so much."

"Guess it takes a near death experience to realize how much you love someone."

"Yeah." She sipped her coffee. "I just wish you were there."

"Me too. I'm sorry. I just love you so much that I guess I got a little carried away."

"Would it help if I said you were right about everything?" Castle looked over at her with one of his crooked smiles. "Guess it does." Her phone started ringing again.

"Are you seriously going to ignore that?"

"Yes," Kate said. "Rick, I just don't wanna deal with anything today. I just want to be here with you, if that's possible."

"Yeah, but Alexis will be back sometime this afternoon."

"Fine. I have some ground to make up for when it comes to Alexis."

"A little heart-to-heart in her future?"

"Yeah."

Castle was mixing pancake batter. "How did you find out about s'morelets?"

"Martha."

"You spend way too much time consulting my mother."

"She can be very insightful when it comes to you." She stares into her coffee. "Sometimes she knows what she's talking about while other times I'm not so sure. The s'morelet seemed believable, though. Sounds like something you'd try."

She watched Castle make a face and giggled. "What do you like in your pancakes?" he asked her.

"Hmm… blueberries."

"Coming right up!"

She couldn't believe what was happening. She was in the apartment with the man she loved most in the world, in one of his t-shirts, drinking coffee and eating breakfast after a night of hot sex. She would have thought it was a dream if her phone didn't go off every five minutes.

"Seriously Kate. If you don't get that-"

"They'll stop!"

"Is it the boys? Gates?"

"Just leave it alone, Castle." She said his last name again to convey a message.

"Okay. But if it continues to ring, I will answer it. But I will make good on my promise and not bring it up until tomorrow."

She grunted. He took that for a "fine" and left it alone.

Her phone rang three more times. By then, Castle had set Kate's breakfast in front of her and he ran to grab her phone. He took it into his office so she couldn't hear the conversation. "Ryan?"

"Castle?" asked a confused Kevin Ryan at the other end of the phone. "Why do you have Beckett's phone? Wait… don't tell me."

"What happened? She's been acting weird all morning."

"It's bad, Castle."

"What's bad?"

"She resigned, Castle. Gates suspended her, but she took it a step further and resigned."

"What happened?"

"She went after the guy and he almost shoved her off the roof."

Castle had the image of Kate hanging off the ledge of a roof by her hands. She imagined her screaming. He sat down in his chair. "My God," he breathed. "She really did almost die."

"I know Castle. I caught her as her right hand slipped off."

"Wait… she was barely hanging on? As in if you were a second too late she would be dead?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry Castle."

"Don't be. She's here. She's with me. She's alive." He paused, wiping the visible tears in his eyes. "Thank you for being there and having her back. Even if it meant turning her in."

Ryan sounded surprised at the thank you, but he took it. "You're welcome, Castle. She's like a sister to me. How's she doing?"

"She doesn't want to talk about what happened until tomorrow."

"I assume she wants to spend the day just enjoying the fact that she survived to be with you."

He smiled. "Yeah. I love her so much."

"Dude, we all know. We've all seen the way you look at her."

Castle laughed at himself for being so obvious. "I'll take care of her. She'll be back."

"I hope so. And I hope she forgives me."

"She will come around. Eventually."

Ryan said goodbye and hung up. Castle held Kate's phone in his hand for a minute. He almost lost her. She told him she almost died, but he didn't know how. He also didn't know that one second too late she would have been on a table in the morgue instead of at his counter eating breakfast. He composed himself and left the office.

"Everything okay?" Kate asked him as he started ladling more batter into the pan.

"Just Ryan. He wanted to see how you're doing." Kate made a disgusted face. "We're gonna talk about it tomorrow, remember? Today we'll just be together."

Kate nodded, knowing that he had the knowledge of how she nearly died. Yet he still chose to keep his promise to her. "I love you."

Castle turned his face from his pan. "I love you too." He leaned forward and kissed her. "There's a lot more where that came from," he husked into her ear.

She smiled, looking forward to what happens after breakfast.