A/N: Only re-read through this a couple times, mistakes and speculation are mine, characters are not. Was supposed to be an 8x01 post-ep but ended up being a speculative 8x02 post-ep. Enjoy!

PARTNERS

"Good night, Alexis." Kate bid her step-daughter – it still felt weird to say that – good night with a hug, and took a deep breath before heading through Castle's office to the bedroom. She winced when she crossed the threshold. Not from the stitches in her abdomen, although the two-day-old wound hurt; it was the sight of her husband that stung the most.

Castle was mad. Really mad. He'd barely said a word on their way home from the precinct, and he simply kissed Alexis good night before retreating to the bedroom. So Kate had explained everything to Alexis, leaving nothing out. She helped find you, Beckett. She deserves to know, Castle had said at her hesitation to divulge too much. But Alexis had listened, asked questions, and although she still didn't like that Kate had lied, she'd said she understood. And the two of them had made peace before Alexis went upstairs for the night.

Now, paused just inside the door, Kate instinctively pressed a hand to the wound on her stomach. She didn't miss the tightening in Castle's jaw when he saw her; his eyes followed her from his perch at the headboard, but as she got ready for bed he said nothing. Kate moved slowly, going through her nighttime routine, part of her dreading the conversation that needed to happen. But finally, she couldn't delay any more. She stood at her side of the bed, hands tucked into the pockets of her robe, and met Castle's steely gaze.

"I'm sorry, Rick," she began, her fingers clenched, her voice strong.

"You lied to me," Castle replied, a repeat of his words earlier, but his time angry instead of disbelieving. "I thought we were past that. I thought you were past that."

Kate barely flinched. "I will always do what I feel is right to protect the ones I love," she shot back. "I'm sorry for what I did but I'm not sorry for my motives."

"Your motives?" Castle climbed off the bed, facing her from the other side. "Dammit, Kate. When I find your bracelet in a pile of blood, your blood, what do you think I'll do, sit around and twiddle my thumbs, wait for you to come home? No, I'm going to try and find you." His voice was getting louder, almost of its own volition. "If you wanted to protect me, you should have told me what the hell was going on!"

"Like that would have stopped you?!" Kate yelled, arms crossed. "I just needed you to stay out of it, Castle! But no, you kept fucking going, as usual. You say you trust me, but do you really?"

Castle's jaw dropped. "Do I trust—of course I do! But it goes both ways. We're married, Kate. Partners in crime and in life. Or did you forget that?" He raked a hand through his hair. "But no, you lie to me, to my face, go off and get shot—" His voice broke on the word.

Oh.

Kate froze when she saw his shoulders slump. She made her way to his side and put a tentative hand between his shoulder blades, felt the shaky exhale beneath her palm. "I'm okay, Rick," she said softly, barely a whisper. "It was just a graze. You saw it, it just bled like a bitch."

Castle managed a chuckle at that. He'd stood by Kate's side as Lanie restitched the wound and changed the bandage, and Kate was right. It was only a graze, no more than a few inches long, but still. His wife had been shot and he'd been practically helpless. "Shot is shot, Kate," he rasped out. "Fuck, when I saw your clothes, your blood, all I could think of was that day in the cemetery."

"God, Castle," she whispered, dropping her forehead to his shoulder as she slowly rubbed his back. Her free hand made its way under his t-shirt, and she pressed her fingers against his own scar. "I'm sorry."

Castle turned his head and captured her mouth with his, swallowing her muttered words. He deepened the kiss almost immediately, his tongue slicking against hers in apology. He gripped her hips, felt as much as heard her moans, but when he started to turn her towards the bed she pulled away. He forced open his eyes to look at her in question.

Kate simply nudged him to sit on the bed, kissing briefly before taking his hands in hers. "Look at me, Castle," she commanded her voice soft yet firm.

Castle forced his gaze from her body to her eyes, and saw nothing but love. "I love you," he blurted out.

Kate slightly lifted the corners of her mouth in response. "I love you too, so very much." She lifted the hem of her shirt, slowly, until she was pulling it over her head. She winced as the movement tugged at her stitches; she was going to have to be careful if she didn't want to reopen her wound. She pulled off the bandage and took Castle's right hand, pressed his fingers against the spot. She gasped lightly at the touch, but refused to pull away. "See?" she whispered, her hand falling to her side. "Just a graze."

Castle stared for a few moments as if to burn in the memory the fact that it was not life-threatening. Finally he lifted his other hand to bracket Kate's waist, his touch light as he brushed the sides of her breasts before circling her back, pulling her down to him.

"Together," Castle murmured against her lips. "We face everything together."

Kate pushed on Rick's shoulders, encouraging him to scoot back on the bed, and she climbed up to bracket his thighs with her knees. The movement stirred a memory: they mirrored almost exactly the night he had come back from Paris after rescuing Alexis over two years prior. Please don't do anything like that again without me, she'd pleaded, and he'd smiled at her and agreed, had reinforced it later that night in this very bedroom. They'd promised and vowed to be partners, and while she'd never apologize for the reason she'd shut him out, she also promised herself that she wouldn't do it again.

A/N 2: I have the beginnings of a potential part 2, so I'm leaving this as "in progress" for now. Thanks for reading!