Not Mine, Never Mine, Usual Disclaimers.
A/N: I was sitting in a lecture that and this popped into my head, so I wrote it down so that there was room in my head for learning things.
The first time Castle had heard the shot, he had told Beckett, bared his heart and soul and told her that he loved her. The world had stopped in that moment, waiting for her response, a response that had never come. The world had rushed sharply back into motion, speeding along, in retribution for the short moment of stillness. Kate had survived but castle still felt like there was something that had died in that moment.
The second time he heard the shot, it was nothing more than a car backfiring in the quiet hours of the afternoon. Beckett had stilled slightly beside him and the world had slowed, they were back in that moment, when the gun had first fired.
'I love you too.'
Four words that had been robbed of their chance to be spoken. Four words that were what had died that day. Four words that fixed the world. The world began in motion again, slowly this time, like it was trying to make up for the time lost when is sped by the last time. Four words and everything was like it should have been.
Even when things were bad, all he had to do was close his eyes and listen to the faint echo in his mind of four words that were all he needed to hear.