Disclaimer: I don't own Castle or any recognizable characters. This story is for entertainment purposes only. If anyone wants to archive elsewhere, please ask.

Arrested Development

Rick Castle calmly announced that he was going to spend the summer with his ex-wife, Gina, at his home in the Hamptons. After that he'd turned to walk off with an arm around said ex-wife.

Kate Beckett watched them go with a sinking heart. She couldn't resist calling out a tentative, "See you in the fall?"

The writer half-turned to give her a quick smile and answered with, "See you in the fall."

Watching him go, Kate couldn't believe that she'd thought he had changed. When she first met Richard Castle, she'd believed the stories of him being a playboy with a different woman every week. After working with him for a year and a half, she saw him with different eyes: as a father, son, wanna-be detective and friend. Now just when the detective was ready to admit that she wanted to explore the possibility of a deeper relationship than just friends; he leaves with another woman for the place that less than a week ago, he'd invited her to go to with him.

Glancing at the conference room, Kate saw her co-workers looking at her with shocked sympathy. Thinking about Castle waltzing out of the precinct with another woman in his arm after what Kate had done for him, when she broke things off with Tom Demming, finally brought Kate's anger to the forefront. Heading for the stairs, she heard the door open behind her and from the two sets of footsteps figured that Esposito and Ryan were following her.

Taking the stairs as quickly as she could, the female detective reached the ground floor right before the elevator dinged to signal its arrival. As the doors opened, Kate was only marginally grateful to see that Castle was no longer arm-in-arm with Gina. Without even a glance toward the stairs, the couple exiting the elevator turned toward the front doors of the station. Steeling herself, she stated, "Richard Castle!" The startled look on Rick's face as he turned toward her was priceless, but she continued, "You are under arrest!"

Gina frowned at her, while asking, "On what charges, detective?"

With a cold glance at the blonde, Kate answered, "Robbery."

The blonde publisher scoffed, "Robbery? That's ridiculous. He's been working with you for a year and a half, has been so busy following you that he let his writing go and is now behind on the deadline for his next book, which could cost him his publishing contract with Black Pawn."

"Really, Gina," Kate stated, while cuffing her 'partner', much to the amusement of her fellow detectives, who had followed her. "I think that you need to leave right now and go home."

"Now wait just a minute, Detective Beckett," Gina was livid, glaring at the homicide detective. Neither woman noticed the smirk beginning to cross the writer's face, as he listened to their verbal battle. "If you think that I'm just going to stand aside and let you ruin Richard's career, then you've got another think coming."

As Kate glared at Gina, Esposito nudged Ryan's arm and motioned to Castle, who was clearly enjoying the two women's argument besides being unusually quiet. Ryan murmured to his partner, "Well, this is something we didn't think of. Beckett's, actually, arresting him." Their attention was brought back to the group, by Kate's next statement.

"No, Gina, I believe you're the one who needs to think things over. You might want to rethink your opinion that Castle would lose his contract with Black Pawn, just for being a little late with a deadline. If you think I'm ruining Castle's career by him shadowing me, then you don't know him very well. He's been writing, I'm sure, or you wouldn't have agreed to let him have the summer to finish the book." Pausing for a quick breath, while quelling her overwhelming emotions over the argument with Castle's ex-wife, Kate continued, "Now, go home and Rick will call you sometime and let you know what's going on."

With that said, the detective took the writer's arm and led him toward the elevator. Esposito and Ryan met them there, having noticed that Kate was wrapping up her exchange with the publisher. Ryan had pressed the button to call the car and the doors opened just as Kate reached the other detectives with Castle in tow. Entering the elevator, they turned and noticed that Gina was still watching them with a shocked look on her face as the doors closed and the car headed up to the precinct.

Gina watched as Kate steered Rick to the elevator and they entered the car with the two male detectives. She noticed a smirk on the writer's face and, as the doors closed, a similar look crossed the female detective's lips when she met the publisher's eyes. With a sigh, she turned back toward the doors of the station. As she went, Gina decided that when Kate let Rick call her she'd let him know that he needed to finish the book in the next month or there'd be hell to pay because it was her butt on the line, also, with the missed deadline.

With the elevator moving back toward their floor, Kate glanced sideways at Rick, noticing that, even though, she'd never read him his 'Miranda rights', the writer was being uncharacteristically quiet. As they reached the homicide floor, Kate gave Castle a shove out of the car and then another small push toward an empty interrogation room. Esposito and Ryan watched them disappear through the door, before heading back to the conference room to tell Lanie and the Captain what happened.

Entering the empty room, Rick turned toward Kate and opened his mouth for a question, only to pause as he received a quelling look from the detective. Beckett pushed the writer toward a chair and started pacing the room trying to figure out what she wanted to say. Some of her earlier anger had abated with having Castle away from Gina and now Kate wasn't exactly sure how to proceed.

Glancing at Castle and noticing that he was still standing beside the table, Kate asked, "Castle, why don't you sit down?"

Deciding that she had calmed down, since she didn't look as though she wanted to beat him, Rick answered, "Well, I would but it might be uncomfortable with my hands cuffed like this."

Realizing that she'd cuffed his hands quite snugly behind his back brought a smile to the detective's face. "Sorry, turn around and I'll take them off."

Once the cuffs were off his wrists, Rick didn't give Kate a chance to say or do anything else. Turning quickly, he caught her by the arms, pulling her close, before asking, "All right, Kate. Now what's all this with arresting me for robbery?"

Meeting his eyes, before focusing on a button on his shirt, she answered, "It was the first thing that popped in my head when Gina asked."

"And just why did you feel the need to arrest me at all? I thought that you'd be happy to get rid of me for the summer." Watching her face closely, Rick noticed the deer-in-headlights look that crossed it. When she didn't say anything, he asked quietly, "Kate?"

Squeezing her eyes shut, the detective shook her head, before mumbling, "No, Rick." Her voice trailed off as her self-protective instincts kicked in.

When nothing else was forthcoming, Castle queried, "No, what? Come on, Kate. You went to all the trouble of chasing Gina and me downstairs, only to send her on her merry way and drag me back up here. I need to know why, especially, after you turned down going with me this weekend because of your plans with Demming." Noticing that Kate was looking him in the eyes while biting her lower lip, he frowned slightly, "Speaking of which, I thought you'd have left by now, too."

Shaking her head violently to the side, Kate answered, "No." Taking a breath to calm her nerves, she continued, "I can't leave with Tom, because I broke things off with him earlier."

Raising an eyebrow, questioningly, Rick asked, "Before you came into the conference room?"

Nodding, Kate replied, "I realized why my heart almost stopped when you told me that this was our last case together. Every time you talked about going away for the summer, I felt lost. You told me that the heart wants what it wants and you were right. Rick, my heart wants you, not Tom. I was going to tell you, but…"

As her voice trailed off, Castle put a hand to her cheek, "That's what you tried to tell me, when we left the party, wasn't it? Then Gina came in, no wonder you looked like I'd kicked your puppy."

Putting her finger over his mouth, Kate smiled, "Don't worry about it."

Taking her hand in his and bringing it down to his chest, Rick said, "Okay, but can we start over from where we were before Gina came in?"

Tightening her hand around his, while wrapping the other around his neck, Kate replied, "I'd rather start from here."

Smiling, while cupping her cheek in his other hand, Rick stated, "Well, before we go any further, I need to tell you that my heart wants you, too. I upset you, when I talked about this being my last case with you guys, but it's bothered me having to witness you and Demming together, both on and off-duty. My relationship with you has been more important to me than any other in my life, except for Alexis and my mother."

With a shy smile in return, Kate said, "I'm sorry, Rick. Guess, I should have let my guard down a while back, but you know how hard it is for me to let myself go."

Pressing his thumb to her lips, before using it to caress them, he answered, "It's okay, Kate, I understand. You said that you'd rather we start from here and I'm all for that, but no more apologies. We've both made mistakes, but there's nothing more to dwell over. So how about, we go forward from now and take things as slow as we need, for you to be comfortable with me."

"If you mean comfortable in a relationship as more than friends with you, slow sounds perfect." Kate smiled in reply. "I've worked with you and spent enough time with you in the last year and a half to be pretty sure that you're going to be invested in anything we have happen between us."

Pulling her lower lip between her teeth for a second, Kate continued, "So, I've got the weekend off. Would your offer of spending it with you at your house in the Hamptons still be open?"

Laughing, Rick wrapped both arms around Kate and lifted her a couple of inches from the floor to spin her around once. While setting her back on her feet, he leaned down to capture her lips in a passionate kiss.

When he pulled back from the kiss, both of them were breathless. "I think a weekend away with you would be great, especially, if I can change my mind about taking off working cases with you and the team for the summer. You were right about my writing. I need to take off more, because I still need about five more chapters for 'Naked Heat', but, now, it shouldn't take too long to get those done and to Gina." Cupping her face in both hands, Castle looked into her eyes, "Kate, the only reasons I agreed to Gina going with me is because I needed to finish the book and I don't really like going to the Hamptons by myself. It gets too lonely. Gina knew that she was only there in her capacity as my publisher, nothing else was going to happen."

Smiling, Kate answered, "I hoped that was the case. How about we get out of here, so we can get on the road before it gets too late? It'll probably take some explaining to Lanie and the guys before we make it out of the precinct, anyway."

Getting agreement from her writer, Kate wrapped her arm around his waist. Rick gladly put an arm around the detective's shoulder, before guiding her toward the door. The writer and detective left the room happier than they'd been in the last few weeks. Both knew that there would be some tough times ahead, especially, as their relationship progressed and Kate came more into the public spotlight that came with Rick's fame as a mystery novelist, but they, also, knew that they could handle anything together.

The End