Kate Beckett threw herself into her worn desk chair, completely unaware that she was being watched.

She ran a hand through her hair, untangling the curls that had twisted together during a long day compiled of chasing an unruly suspect through several dodgy alleyways before tackling him to the ground. Her elbow came to rest on the smooth wooden surface of the desk, palm cupping her chin.

Her gaze came to rest on the empty chair next to her without permission. Kate narrowed her eyes at it, giving it 'the look' despite the fact that it was an inanimate object and really didn't care how she looked at it. Oh my god, I'm going crazy.

It wasn't that she minded that he wasn't here. Of course not. That wasn't it at all. It was just that if Castle had been here today, he would have made some witty remark as she and the criminal wrestled in the alley, cracked a joke as they drove back to the precinct, handed her a cup of coffee and let his fingers linger on top of hers. But Castle wasn't here today, so none of those things had happened. She'd driven back to the precinct in silence and made herself a cup of coffee that didn't quite taste the same.

Around the same time yesterday when she'd been sitting in the same chair, he'd been sitting next to her, but last night the stupid director of the stupid Nikki Heat movie had called. Wanting to consult with him, smooth over a few rough patches in the filming. They'd only needed him for one week, a quick there-and-back trip to LA. Of course he'd offered for her to come with him, but she'd declined because the ghost of what almost happened the last time they stayed in LA together still lingered in the back of her mind somewhere.

So here she was, grumpy, lacking in caffeine, hungry and alone.

Her eyes swept back over her desk, and this time something caught her eye, the glint of something metallic. Beckett shuffled forward and there it was. Under the largest of her parade of elephants. She didn't know how she'd missed it before, but then again her mind had been in a hotel in Los Angeles with Castle.

A foil-wrapped chocolate heart roughly the size of her palm.

Kate cradled it in the palm of her hand, ducked her head, teeth closing over her bottom lip to fight off a smile that threatened to spread across her face. She peeled back the foil like unfolding the petals of a strange, crinkly flower, and just like she'd thought, resting on top of the glossy chocolate was a note in Castle's oh-so-familiar tiny script.

Missing me yet, detective? I'm willing to bet that by the time you're reading this, I'll be missing you too.

This time, biting her lip didn't have a hope of holding her smile back, and she was most definitely not blushing because of a note Richard Castle had written her. Nope. Not at all.


"Does she know that she's blushing?" Ryan asked, from where he stood by the break room window.

"Of course she does," his partner replied, "But she'd kill us if she knew that we knew that she knew."

"I know."

They lasped into silence, both with small smiles on their faces.

"I never thought they'd turn out like this, when he first walked into this precinct." Ryan said at last, "They had that chemistry, but I thought he'd leave eventually. He just kept coming back until she didn't want him to leave again."

"He did it, somehow. God knows how he managed, but he did it. He's in her heart and he's in there good."

"I'm glad he is. They're right for each other."

A longer silence stretched across them, but neither managed to move as they watched Kate fold the note in half, then half again, and slide it carefully into the pocket of her jacket. Esposito risked a glance at Ryan and their eyes met.

"Espo... are you tearing up?"

"Me? No. No, my eyes are just sweating."