Okay, so this is my first attempt at a fanfiction. Ever. I was sitting at home watching Boom! today, and I was inspired to write this. It takes place right after Agent Shaw kicks Beckett off of the Scott Dunn case. I know it's a typical story, and it's probably been done somewhere before, but please give it a chance. Review it! Let me know what you think! Okay, I'll stop boring you and let you read the story. Enjoy!


Kate rubbed her eyes and turned on her side. Squinting, she glanced at the clock. 8:52, the blinking green lights read.

Shit, she thought desperately. I'm so late.

Her heart racing, she jumped out of her bed, only to topple onto the floor. Her legs hurt, and there were scratches and cuts all over her body. Then she realized that the room she was in was not her own. The house she was in was not her own.

She pulled herself back up onto the bed and called out for the one person she thought could help her. "Castle?"

The tall, handsome frame of her partner came barrelling into the room, his eyes alight with worry. "Kate? What's wrong?" he asked, his voice strained and tired.

Kate stared around the room, then up at him. She thought for a moment, then said, "I don't know. I just…needed someone."

Rick's eyes softened and he sat down next to his friend and partner. He put his arm around her shoulder and hugged her. He was surprised when she didn't flinch away. "I get it. Your apartment blew up and the guy who did it is after you. Agent Shaw kicked you off the case. You had nowhere to go and that scared you. But…" he turned her head towards his, as she had looked away, and continued. "I'm here. Alexis is here. My whole family loves you, and you're welcome here as long as you like."

Kate sighed. "It isn't that. I don't care that this guy is after me. I don't care that Agent Shaw kicked me off the case because like I said last night, I would have done the same. I'm just so worried. Not for my safety, but for everyone else's. I don't want anyone else to get hurt because of me. That woman, Gloria, was killed because I lived, and until this guy is caught there will be repeats of that. It's all my fault," she said desperately. She seemed close to tears.

"Detective Beckett?"

Kate and Rick both looked up, startled by the sudden appearance of a redheaded girl in the doorway. Kate was the first to speak. "Alexis!" she said, her mask of 'everything-is-going-to-be-fine' sliding on again. "Seriously, you can call me Kate. I don't mind."

Alexis smiled. "Okay. How are you doing?" The teenage girl sat down on the bed on Kate's other side. "I heard about your place…"

Kate sighed. "It's just a case. This guy's…crazy," she said, choosing her words carefully so as not to upset the girl or her father, "and we just need to find him. Then it'll all be over."

"You know I don't mind you here. Neither does Grandma. And," she said, whispering into the detective's ear so her father wouldn't hear her, "I can assure you that dad doesn't either."

With that, Alexis stood, winking at Kate, and walked out the room.

"What did she say?" asked Castle, his twelve-year-old mind returning.

Kate smiled and raised her eyes to his. "Not a chance, Castle." She smiled, biting her lower lip. "Not a chance in hell."


"Kate!"

The detective turned slightly, as much as her position would let her, to see who was talking. Her eyes met those of Martha, Castle's mother. "Martha!" she exclaimed, a smile lighting up her face. "I…I can totally explain this. My place-"

"Is ashes, I know!" The actress sat down opposite Kate on the couch. "Don't worry, dear. You can stay here as long as you like. It's no trouble."

Kate furrowed her brow, about to ask why she was giving her permission to stay, when Castle came stumbling down the stairs. He'd gone back to sleep after their little exchange, and he'd apparently just woken up again.

"Ka-" His gaze whipped over to his mother, a look of confusion spanning his features. His mother opened her mouth to speak, but quickly thought better of it and walked away.

He looked at his partner, still sitting on the couch, laughing now. "What did she say to you?"

"Oh, nothing really, she just gave me permission to stay here." Kate raised a quizzical eyebrow.

Castle sighed. "Trust me," he said, "I have no idea."

Kate laughed. "I'm going to go take a shower. My gun's going to be on the counter, so don't get any ideas."

Hearing Castle chuckle, she tried to stand, only to fall on the floor for a second time. She groaned and threw her hands up in the air. "I just can't win here!"

Castle laughed lightly and sat down next to her. "It's okay," he said. "I'll help." He pulled her close to him, hugging her torso to his chest, and swung her legs up. Soon, he was carrying her up the stairs.

He placed her on her bed and propped her up. "You won't be able to take a shower if you can't stand. So for now, just rest. I'll get you some painkillers." He started out the door, but turned. "I'm also going down to the precinct. I was there at the explosion; I saw what happened and who was there. I might be able to point out anyone suspicious." With that, the room was empty.

Kate rested her head on the wall and sighed. She tried to shake everything out in her mind, to line it up and make it all make sense, but it was impossible. The case, the victims, everything…it just didn't add up. After a half an hour of thinking and re-thinking, she had to remind herself that she was off the case. Once a cop, always a cop, she thought.

Rolling over onto her side, she decided to try and get some sleep. She was drifting off when she realized that, after almost an hour, Castle hadn't returned with her medicine. Slight worry started tugging at her mind, but the detective forced it out and tried to think realistically.

She looked over at the door, which was closed firmly. It was a good five metres from the bed, and she knew her legs wouldn't hold her up, but she had to try and walk downstairs.

Kate swung her legs over the side of the bed and gasped from the sharp pain it caused her. She held the bedside table firmly as she tried to hold herself up. Struggling, and holding onto everything she could reach, she finally made it to the door and turned the handle.

Making her way downstairs slowly, she tried to force the pain out of her mind. Anything but pain, she thought. Puppies. Butterflies. Bombs. Explosions. Cyclonite. Damn.

The detective reached the landing at the bottom of the stairs and gently eased her feet onto the floor. She slid over to the couch to sit down—until she realized that it was already taken.

Castle was fast asleep, his blue and white "YOU SHOULD BE WRITING" screensaver flashing across his laptop. The TV was on, playing an old episode of Bones. There were two little blue pills and a glass of water on the table next to him, untouched. Kate smiled and eased herself down next to the sleeping author.

She studied his features, looking for a sign of awareness, of anything other than peaceful slumber. She found nothing. Castle's chest was rising and falling slowly, his eyes closed softly and his mouth forming a taught line. His hair was tousled, as though he'd run his hands through it. Kate's heart melted at the sight.

What the hell is happening to me, she thought. She was sitting on a couch, in her friend's apartment, watching him sleep. The very same friend who make sexual comments and jokes about her almost every day. The very same friend who brought her a coffee and a bear claw every morning in hopes of a smile. The very same friend who had busted down a door and rushed to her rescue in her enflamed apartment and then welcomed her into his home when she had nowhere else to go.

Kate had been fighting her feelings for years. Ever since the writer had started shadowing her like a five year old, she'd been fighting. Fighting every part of her brain that screamed for her to give in to her lust and trying to listen only to the parts that whispered he wasn't good for her. She was trying her hardest to let him go, to stop thinking about his face, his touch, at night. She was trying to forget how he made her feel, but it was impossible.

She was slowly falling in love with him.