Summary: Prompt; Person B trying to storm out in the middle of an argument with Person A, but they end up slamming straight into a glass door. Early Season 6 insert.
(Let's pretend the door between the bedroom and office is glass because, let's be honest, it might as well be.)
After getting dressed into a baggy red sports jersey and black yoga pants for bed, Kate hunched over on the bedroom floor, quickly folding the day's old work clothes and placing them into the black duffel bag she was using to transfer her belongings from her apartment to Castle's. As she stood back up, she heard footsteps approaching, indicating that her fiancé was leaving the ensuite bathroom. Before she could turn around, she felt him behind her, his large palms reaching around her small frame.
"Y'know, most of your stuff is here now." Castle stated as he gently stroked her stomach, making her unconsciously lean back, her head resting against his chest as her slim fingers danced over his.
Kate wasn't sure of the correct response to his comment, so she answered with a noncommittal hum, which prompted her partner to continue.
"And we are engaged." He added, whispering against her neck then placing a gentle kiss underneath her jawline.
"I've had a long day at the precinct and it's almost midnight. I'm too tired for subtext decoding." She mused, her eyes fluttering shut at the mention of the time.
"Move in with me."
The four words made her snap forwards with a shocked look donning her face as she spun around to face him, her eyebrows creased.
"What?"
"I know you're tired, but I think you can decode that one." He smirked, but the smile soon dropped when her slight scowl stayed across her features, "What? You don't want to?"
She shook her head before speaking, gathering her thoughts before she spewed them out, "It's not that. But I just don't think we're ready."
It was now Rick's turn to look confused, "'Ready'? Kate, we've been dating for over a year, known each other for five. I work with you every day, you spend almost every night here, and when you're not here, I'm there at your place. There's a ring on your finger. You're a part of the family now." He explained in a serious voice.
Kate self-consciously ran her hand through her brunette locks, her face now neutral, attempting to show no reaction, "Look, Castle, I'm tired, can we-"
"And you said 'we're' not ready?" He continued, wanting to push the subject before it was inevitably brushed under the rug, "You mean you, don't you?" He deadpanned, as Kate's mouth drew open at his bluntness.
"Yes, I mean me. I'm not ready. Can you accept that?" She answered back, her voice raising in volume as she continued to shut herself out.
"You know what? No, I can't." Kate shifted her gaze to the side, biting the inside of her cheek as he spoke, "Talk to me, Kate." Castle appealed in a softer voice, reaching out for her, but she took a small step back, drawing a loud sigh from him, "You never talk to me."
"Because I find it hard!" She replied, throwing her arms out in front of her with her palms splayed out, making him take a step back himself.
"Well, you shouldn't, it's just me! You can tell me anything!" He exclaimed with an exasperated tone.
Beckett rolled her eyes, crossing her arms once again, "But I can't tell you 'no'?"
"You can tell me 'no' if you tell me why!"
Kate bit her lower lip in thought as he huffed out a loud breath, his face now slightly reddened. She racked her brain for an appropriate answer to give, but it seemed to be all jumbled, riddled with thoughts of the past.
After a few moments, Rick saw that Kate wasn't going to explain, so he shook his head in defeat, his jaw clenching.
"Are you not really in this?" He asked, "After I've put up with you for this long?"
Kate scoffed, "'Put up with me?'" She repeated in accusation, making Rick sigh loudly.
"No, I didn't mean it like-" He began to say, but she cut him off abruptly.
Her voice raised once more, "I'm sorry that the last five years have been such a struggle for you, that I've been such a nuisance!"
"God, Kate, that's not-" He attempted to butt in, but she interjected once again.
"I thought you understood! I thought you were willing to wait for me!" She shouted, her hands reaching up to harshly rub her eyes, wiping away unshed tears that were forming.
"I've done my waiting, for God's sake! It should be easy now!" He rebutted.
"You just expected everything to be sunshine and rainbows after we fucked?" Kate replied; the vulgarity she had used only made Rick more frustrated, feeling as if she was belittling their relationship.
"Well, I didn't think I'd have to deal with you kissing another man ever again." He snapped, his fists clenching at his own mention of Eric Vaughn.
Kate's jaw dropped, her face briefly flickering with a look of hurt, but in an instant she switched back to anger.
"You know what? This isn't what I need." She spoke in a quiet voice, but Castle still recognised the shakiness in her voice.
Before he could reply, Kate turned away suddenly, dashing out of the room, her hands shaking by her side.
Castle let out a frustrated yet shaky sigh, pressing the heels of his palms onto his eyelids, trying to calm down as the black and green spots appeared in his vision. With a large inhale, he moved his hands and sharply began to follow his fiancée into his office with frantic pacing.
Slam!
Kate startled when she heard the noise, looking over her shoulder from the living room, waiting for any other noises to appear. When she heard a string of muffled curse words, she cautiously returned to the office.
She found Rick perching on the edge of the bed, his head tilted back with his large hands covering his face as he continued to grumble to himself. With a slow deep breath, Beckett managed to push the previous argument aside before quietly striding in.
Hearing the door open slowly, Castle lifted his head, making Beckett see his face more clearly; his nose and forehead were a shade of bright pink. She was relieved to see that there was no blood present on his features, but from his wincing she could easily see that he had injured himself quite badly.
She continued to approach him calmly, finally crouching down in front of him so they were at eye level, but Castle moved his gaze to the side of the room.
"Just go, Beckett." He remarked, albeit quietly, "It's what you were going to do."
Kate shook her head, "Not when you're like this."
He stayed silent as he threw his head back, placing a palm on his forehead once more, prompting Beckett to stand up and walk back out through the glass door, returning almost immediately with a blue ice pack.
"Here." She offered, stretching out her arm to give him the pack, though she felt uneasy when he didn't even smile in thanks, assuming that the events leading up to the current moment were still replaying in his mind.
Knowing that she owed him an honest answer, she sat down gingerly next to Castle, who continued to stare at the speckled wall, his jaw clenched as he held the freezing cold material to his head.
Beckett opened her mouth to speak, but it was his words that resonated around the room first.
"I'm sorry."
She whipped her head round to look at him with a mix of surprise and confusion in her eyes, but his gaze was still transfixed ahead of him.
"I wanted to draw you in, not push you away." He continued in a sombre tone, "I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable or hurt."
She scoffed at his last word, knowing that he was definitely hurting more than her, but let the quip die on her tongue as she spoke up, "You didn't."
His arm moved to remove the ice pack so that he could raise his eyebrows at her incredulously, making a small smile appear across her lips.
"Fine, you made me feel a little uncomfortable, but it's okay." She shrugged, fiddling with the frayed hem of her shirt as she spoke, "I hate to keep bringing up this excuse, but after my Mom, I can't get close to anyone. Not even just because of my Mom. My Dad, Royce, Montgomery. I've trusted all those people, and in the end they all let me down."
She took a deep breath, her eyes staying focused on the ground, "And I'm not saying that you'd let me down, or that I don't trust you, it just takes me a little bit longer to open up to people. But I'm getting there. Every day I wake up next to you, when I eat breakfast with Alexis and Martha, when we all watch movies together, I feel myself opening up and getting closer. I'm just not… there yet. But I'm trying. To trust you all. To love you all. Everything."
When she finished, she let out a relieving exhale, feeling as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. With hesitation, she glanced upwards, delighted to see Rick's eyes shimmering with hope and excitement and something untraceable that had been lingering there for over three years.
"I understand." He spoke, though he still seemed withdrawn.
The two remained in silence for a while.
"So, you still going to go?" Rick asked tentatively, the hand not holding the ice rubbing the back of his neck.
"No, of course not!" Kate insisted strongly, "You probably have concussion." The mention of his injury brought a small frown to his face, so she attempted to lighten the mood, "I'll be your personal nurse, here for your every whim." She teased, but a minute upturning of his lips was all she was rewarded with.
Figuring that he must be as tired as she was, she let his silence linger on, slowly standing up and pulling on his hand to coerce him into doing the same.
"Come on, let's go to bed." She whispered, guiding him slowly to the left side of the mattress before walking around to her side.
He laid down, resting his head on the pillow as he felt Kate swiftly enter the bed, bringing the covers over the two of them. He stayed on his back, abandoning the now warm ice pack on his bed side table and stared up at the blank ceiling, blinking rapidly to try and dispel the disturbances in his vision; the white flecks moving from side to side.
Kate bit her lip and cautiously shuffled closer to him, placing her shoulder on his chest and curling her legs over his, her fingers rhythmically stroking against his bicep, in an attempt to show her sympathy non-verbally.
After a couple of minutes had passed, she let her fingers rest, thinking that Castle had drifted off into sleep before her (as usual) but soon his voice arose through the quiet night.
"I'm sorry that you feel these past few years were a waste." He whispered, a small shake lacing around his words.
Kate thought back to the conversation that took place earlier that night, but her mind drew a blank, "What? I never said that."
Without a pause, Rick spoke once again, "Well you must think they were if you're calling off the engagement."
"What!?" Kate spluttered, her head whipping up from his chest in order to look clearly into his eyes, which now seemed as full of confusion as hers.
"That's what you said." He explained quietly, though the words had less certainty behind them now.
"I didn't say that." She replied quickly.
His eyebrows creased, making small wrinkles appear on his now significantly less reddened forehead, "You said 'this isn't what I need'."
Kate let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding in, "I meant the arguing, the accusations, the shouting weren't what I needed. Not-" Not you.
"I thought you meant-" I wasn't what you needed. "I thought you were breaking up with me!" He exclaimed, his voice full of relief and joy, his eyes shining in the dim light.
At that, she can't help the chuckle that escapes her lips, "Ah, payback for the proposal." She quipped, making Rick laugh back as he began to run his fingers over her waist, the small touches tickling her mercilessly, making her squirm on the mattress, her legs flailing under the covers.
Once they'd settled down from their small fit of giggles, she looked up at her fiancé to see his eyes planted firmly on her lips.
"Yes."
The word brings him out of his reverie, his gaze snapping back up to her hazel orbs, "What?"
"Yes, you can kiss me." She smiled, but he still seemed apprehensive.
"You're not going to castrate me?" He asked with a small teasing lilt, though Kate could see the slight worry.
"Why would I do that?" She delivered back, "It would ruin my plan for make-up sex."
As soon as the words leave her lips, he's on them, and she can feel that he's still smiling, making her chuckle as his tongue met hers with gentle caresses that eventually lulled them into slumber.
He felt incredibly groggy as he awoke in the morning, unsurprisingly. He haphazardly whipped his right arm out from the warmth of the covers to slap his alarm, but then realised that the beeping isn't what interrupted his sleep.
It was laughter.
Castle slowly opened one eye with a squint, the sight of the two redheads doubled over both filling him with happiness and dread.
"What's up?" He asked reluctantly, seeing out of the corner of his eye that his partner was slowly rousing out of her sleep too.
"Oh, Richard," Martha began, clearing her throat to dispel the last remnants of laughter bubbling up, "I was going to bring you and Katherine some coffee since I was up early for this audition."
"So?" He replied with a mumble whilst running a hand through his messy hair.
"Dad," Alexis interjected, "There's an imprint of the outline of your face on the door." She laughs, using her pointer finger to trace out the shape.
When he heard Kate's laughter joining in, he knew he was never going to live this down. Though from the gentle stroking of his upper thigh from underneath the covers, he knew his day is going to take a turn for the better soon.
If you're wondering why I chose such a cliché title, just imagine Castle walking straight into a glass door in slow motion while 'I came in like a wrecking baaaall' plays in the background. Yeah, that's why.
Thanks for reading!
Lou xo