When the Truth Comes Out
It was around 9 pm, Kate Beckett was doing paperwork as it had been a slow day. She decided to get up to have some coffee from the machine and on her way there she saw someone exiting the elevator. That someone was Richard Castle. She looked at him with a puzzled expression. What was he doing there?
In his face? Not the usual boyish smile, or even a happy look, he looked as serious as he'd ever been around her and… Sad, maybe? Hurt? She couldn't read him. His gaze found her, and still no smile formed on his lips. Should she be afraid? He entered the room.
"Kate", he said, his tone soft, but still different, "We need to talk".
"Sure", she said in a confused tone. "Is something wrong? Are Martha and Alexis okay?".
"No, they're fine", he said, he looked at the ground and took a deep breath. "Kate, why did you lie to me?".
"What?", she said, her pulse running.
"Why did you lie to me?", he said.
She couldn't understand, how? What did he mean? Could he…? No, impossible.
"What do you mean, Castle?", she could hear her heartbeat.
"I saw you on your interrogation, about the bomb", he said. That interrogation. Of course! That was why he was acting so strangely the last days. Her blood went cold, he wasn't supposed to be there! "You told him you remember. Every second of it", he said, his tone and what he just said couldn't be more painful to her.
She opened her mouth but no words came out. She thought of how betrayed he felt, fooled. Suddenly she felt sick, why did she do this?
"Why didn't you say anything, Kate?", he said.
She shook her head, opened her mouth for only air to come out.
"Do you know how it feels like? Seeing that a person you thought you could trust lied to you about something like that?", he said, his hurt showing.
"Castle I…", she said.
"I was willing to wait, you know? Until you were ready, ready to be with me, ready for us", he said.
That was like a needle to the chest to Kate Beckett.
"Castle I…", she said.
"You what, Kate?", he said, "You know, I shouldn't have come here, all I did was screw things up".
He grabbed his coat, ready to storm out the door.
"Castle wait!", she said.
He turned around.
"The reason why I lied was…. Was because I wasn't ready, I wasn't ready to hear that from you", she said.
"You were dying, Kate, should I let you die without knowing how I felt? I panicked", he said.
"I know, Castle, I know", she said. "I needed the time to think about it, about my feelings for you", she took a deep breath, "Now I realize that I took too much time, I was worried I was going to lose what we had, as partners. Then I see, I already had because I waited so much… Lanie helped me figure that out".
He just looked at her, as in saying "go on".
"Rick, the thing is, as much as I didn't want to miss what we had as partners… I couldn't deny how I felt for you", she said, "You know, before you showed up with the blonde, I was going to tell you how I felt".
That caught him by surprise. "You were?".
"Yeah, I was working up the courage to when you two showed up on your Ferrari", she said.
That explains a lot, he thought.
"Now I see… I've waited too long, haven't I? I hurt you too much, now you'll never want to see my face again… You can walk out the door, I swear I'll try to forget you", she said thinking to herself she wasn't going to tear up.
"And would you?", he said.
"Would I what?", she said.
"Forget me", he said.
"I said I'd try, I can't guarantee that", she said, broken.
"Good", he said, "Because I wouldn't like it to happen".
That caught her by surprise.
"What do you mean?", she couldn't hide the surprise from her voice.
"I mean I'm not walking out that door to never return again", he said, "I would never be able to do such thing".
That was the moment she couldn't hide her tearing up anymore, she bit her lip.
"You really thought I was going to do that?", he said.
"After what I did, yes", she said.
"I'm not saying you didn't hurt me, because you did, but it'd hurt me more walking out the door to never return, not to be with you", he said.
"Well you don't have to do so", she said, "As much as I love what we have, I'd like to give us a try, see how it turns out, I can't wait any longer, I can't watch you slip away from me again if you can forgive me… I love you", she blushed.
"Then I won't slip away anymore unless you want me to", he said with a smile, "You're cute when you blush, did you know that?", he said with a grin.
So he did notice. She rolled her eyes, the old Castle was almost back. She was tense though, he didn't say much about what she just said, she just looked down.
"Hey, I love you too", he said as if reading her thoughts lifting her head up again, "Always", he said looking into her eyes.
The word made butterflies appear in her stomach. They kept looking into each other's eyes, smiles on their lips, their eyes glowing. He looked at her, hesitating.
"Oh, kiss me already Castle", she said. And he did, oh yeah he did.
It was more than she could hope for.
"What do you say we take this to the loft?", he said gasping.
"Couldn't agree more", she said gasping herself.
And they held hands as they walked out of the 12th precinct.
So, thoughts? Reviews make me very happy :)
