She should have known better. From the moment she'd meet Richard Castle she'd known the man was trouble. He was handsome, charming, smart, funny. He'd also be married twice and linked with more page six starlets than links on the Attica perimeter fence. Driven to Distraction was a mild way to describe him.

So she'd known. She'd known that any interest he had in her was bound to be fleeting, and so she'd worked hard to dismiss any signs that perhaps he was feeling more. Denied her own attraction to his quick wit, goofball ways, and incredibly uncanny way of knowing what someone needed and giving it them. Whether that be coffee, a joke, or a heartfelt admission... and there was the truth of it. The day she'd been shot, Richard Castle knew she needed a reason to hold on, to fight to stay on this earth. Knew it sure as hell wouldn't be Josh. He KNEW...and gave her a reason, something to hope for, something to come back to. She can feel the bile rising up in her throat. "Stay with me Kate, I love you..." He always knew what to say. Watching him kissing the blonde (Of course, she would be a blonde), she hates herself for being so stupid. Castle says a lot of things in the moment - he's a writer. Only an idiot, given the life statistics of one Richard Castle, would ever let herself believe them.

She'd been the idiot.