Caskett 'fic to fulfil the following tumblr prompt: 'Ryan reaches Castle in Always and then Castle gets to Beckett in time to save her (not Ryan and Gates). They talk and cute things happen'. Enjoy the 'fic!
Note – Not entirely fluff. Probably classed as Angst/Romance (very slight Angst), with a very happy (and, yes, fluffy) ending for all concerned.
Disclaimer - If I owned them, I wouldn't be writing this.
To my friends – You inspire me to write, to seek inspiration wherever I can find it. If it wasn't for all of you, I wouldn't be even half the person, half the writer, that I am these days. I owe you all so much.
Setting - AU, during Always
-Richard Castle-
His phone is on its third ring when he finally decides to answer it, swiping his finger across the screen and quickly tapping in his 4-digit code to unlock the small device, which instantly brings up the call. He impatiently taps the 'Accept' button, putting it to his ear. "Castle"
His voice is cold, emotionless. Despite the fact that he's furious with Kate for lying to him for the better part of the year, for putting her own feelings first, he won't let her die. There's a couple of seconds pause on the other side of the line before a very panicked Irishman speaks. "Castle, you have to get over here. Beckett and Esposito have gone after Maddox and they should have been back ages ago but they're not and I don't know what to do and Beckett was adamant that you weren't going to be joining them on this one but we all know you love her and even though you're angry with her you'd never forgive yourself if she died because you weren't there to watch her back and I don't want to go behind their backs and tell Gates about what's going on because that would be betraying their trust and I'm not the kind of person who would do that and I just don't know what to do…"
The information comes so quickly that Rick isn't able to make out more than five or six words. There's a deep breath in from the speaker as he draws in more air to continue whatever he was saying, a pause in which Rick sees an opportunity to get his own sentence in. "Ryan".
"Yes?"
The Irish detective seems to have calmed down a bit after his mini-rant, so Rick decides to use this opportunity to find out exactly what the hell is going on. "Firstly, run-on sentences? I know you're panicked, but that is just really bad grammar".
This gets a slight chuckle from his friend, and Rick swears that he can feel the tension the younger man feels dissipating into almost nowhere. "Noted. Anything else?"
"Yeah. Run me through what happened again? Slowly this time though".
"Beckett and Esposito have gone to look for Maddox, and they should have been back ages ago, but they're not, and I have no idea what I should do. I asked Beckett if you were going to be joining them on this one and she said that you were probably going to be busy writing and that you wouldn't want to be disturbed, but I knew that I had to call you anyway. After all, we all know that you're in love with her and, even if you're furious with her, you would never forgive yourself if she died because you weren't there to watch her back. I really didn't want to tell Gates about what's going on because that would be going behind their backs and they could get into trouble, probably even suspended, and I don't really want that to happen to them. I don't know what I'm going to do…"
The writer is already rising from his desk and reaching for his jacket. Ryan's right. Despite the fact that I'm furious with her for lying to me about whether or not she remembered, and for putting her mother's case above her own life, her own happiness, I'm her partner. She needs me. He muses. "Castle?"
Ryan's voice from the other side of the line reminds him that the Irish detective is still waiting for a response. He sighs, then nods. "You're at the Precinct, right?"
"Yeah. Beckett asked me to stay here and review traffic footage to look for any further signs of Maddox's car. Why?"
"Be out front shortly. I'll swing by and pick you up on the way to the hotel where our partners went to look for Maddox".
-Kate Beckett-
~Twenty minutes later~
How could I have been so stupid? How could I have been so fucking, goddamned, unbelievably, selfish? How could I have ever put solving my mother's case ahead of my own life, of my own personal happiness? How could I have ever gotten so caught up in my thoughts of vengeance that I let the best thing that had ever happened to me walk away without telling him that I feel the same way about him, that I love him back, that I love him with everything I have? How could I have ever hurt my partner so badly? God, I wish he was here. Then I'd tell him how much I regret wasting so long not telling him how I really felt. These thoughts, as well as a variety of thoughts that are similar to these, run through the brunette detective's mind as she clings desperately to the edge of the rooftop. Maddox is long gone by this point, knowing as he does that, the way he has soundly thrashed her, she will never have the strength to get back up onto the rooftop, but she finds herself unable to move aside from the slightest of motions. That's when she hears it. "Kate!"
It couldn't be him. He told me he was done, that he couldn't stand by and watch me die again. Why would he be here? she wonders. Not having any answers at the current time, and wanting nothing more than to possibly apologise for everything she has done to him, she does the first thing that comes to her mind. She calls his name. "Castle!"
Feet pound on the hotel's metal staircase, and she can feel a sob of relief break free from her lips as his familiar voice fills her ears. "Kate!"
She can tell from the way that there's no echo to his voice that he's at the top of the staircase, and a glistening tear rolls down her cheek. He really did come back for her. "Castle! Over here!"
Feel pound against the concrete rooftop as he runs over to her, reaching her just as the last of the strength in her fingers leaves her, and her hands begin to lose their grip on the edge of the rooftop. With only seconds to go before she falls to her death, she chokes out his name one last time, the tears flowing, quickly and openly, down her face now. "Castle".
As soon as the name leaves her mouth, a pair of strong hands grip hers, and her best friend's face stares grimly down at her. "I'm here".
-Richard Castle-
She collapses into his arms practically the moment he helps her over the ridge and back onto the roof itself. "I'm so sorry, Castle. I'm so sorry" she whispers over and over again, clinging to him as if she'll never let him go.
"Where'd Maddox go?" Rick queries.
Kate shrugs, or at least does the closest thing she can considering how tightly around him her arms are wrapped, and presses her lips to his frantically. "He got away. The man who shot me got away. And you know what? I don't care about him any more. I almost died, and the thing that's bothering me the most about that is that I would never have had the chance to tell you how I feel about you. You were the only thing on my mind as I hung from that ledge, Castle. I can't believe how much time I've wasted, how selfish I've been to keep my feelings to myself instead of doing what I should have done so long ago, which is to tell you that I love you too. I can never apologize enough for making you think that I didn't. But I do, and I just want you to know that I am done putting my mother's case ahead of my own happiness" she replies.
"I love you too" he whispers, pressing his lips against hers.
This kiss is much like the kiss that they first shared in a lonely New York alleyway outside of the warehouse where Ryan and Esposito were being held over a year ago, tender and slow, yet passionate, and it takes several minutes for them to finally pull apart and stand there, grinning at each other. "I've been longing to do that for a long time, you know. Maybe later we can pick up where we left off…" Castle says simply.
"Why not now? This is a hotel, after all. Surely we can find an empty room…" Kate suggests.
She's biting her lip to keep from kissing him again, he can tell. And as much as he does want to press her up against the wall and kiss her senseless right then and there (and he does, he really does), there are still things that need to be done. "Ryan and Esposito are waiting downstairs for us. Then we're going to go back to the Precinct, fill Captain Gates in on what's happened, you are going to take some well-deserved time off (a week, perhaps), we will go to Alexis's graduation, go back to the loft, and then we can pick up where we left off. And maybe tomorrow we can get out of the city and go up to the Hamptons for a while, just the two of us".
As they slowly make their way towards the stairs, she looks up at him, smiling as she speaks. "Sounds good to me. Because now that I've had this chance to let you know how I feel about you, to tell you that you are the one person I am sure I want to spend the rest of my life with, I am not going to let you get away from me".
He freezes mid-step, looking down at the detective (his girlfriend? He's not quite sure, to be honest. It's all still so new and he's not sure if he wants to put a label to their relationship quite yet) by his side. Did she really just say that? he wonders. "I'm not letting you get away from me either, Kate. We've been through too much to lose each other now. I'll be there for you. Always".
"Always" she whispers back, before pressing her lips against his once more.
~20 hours later, at Rick's beach house in the Hamptons~
The brown-haired writer leans against the glass of the sliding door that leads from the spacious living room out onto the deck, his blue eyes watching the younger detective who stands with her back to him, hands resting on the railing of the balcony in front of her as she stares thoughtfully out at the rolling waves with captivatingly hazel eyes. He still can't believe how lucky he is, that Katherine Houghton Beckett is standing on the balcony of his beach house with him, that she has the next six days (and maybe more) off, and that his daughter and their friends (and even Captain Gates, which is hard enough to believe in itself) are accepting of their relationship. "It's rude to stare, Rick".
Her voice is quiet, yet he knows exactly what she's talking about. He chuckles. "I can't help it if my girlfriend happens to be the most perfect, extraordinary, woman that I've ever met" he replies gently, before crossing the balcony in a few quick strides to join her by the railing.
They stare out at the sun together as it slowly sinks towards the horizon, tinting the sky around it a gorgeous purplish-red in colour, and in that very moment, both the writer and his muse are content to simply bask in each other's company, exactly where they were meant to be all along.
Edited to make it a little easier to read.