This story takes place someone in the distant future. It's really just meant to be a little one-shot, but I suppose, with enough requests, I might be convinced to extend the story a bit. I have no idea how this plot bunny was conceived, but it sure was a persistent little guy. Wouldn't let me rest until I typed the whole thing out late last night. But anyways, I hope you enjoy. ;)
DISCLAIMER: If I owned Castle, you wouldn't be watching.
It was approaching the early evening hours now, and the day had been excruciatingly slow. Detective Kate Beckett sat back in her chair and took a moment to survey the impressive stack of paperwork that she'd tackled for the day. Her team was off rotation for the moment, and apparently homicide in Manhattan had decided to take a break too. It had been three long, hot summer days since a body had dropped, and truth be told, Kate was getting antsy just sitting at her desk for hours on end. If the incessant tapping noise of a pen against Esposito's desk and the loud sighs coming from Ryan were any indication, the boys were feeling it too. She was mind numbingly bored. But she knew one person who could fix that.
Letting out a groan, she pushed the manila folder she had been flipping through to the side and lowered her forehead against the cool surface of her desk. Paperwork was exhausting, more so to her than tracking down witnesses or chasing after suspects. It was silly, but she could only stand the monotony for so long. And Castle, well…Castle was busy with his own papers. He'd been asked to assist with writing the Naked Heat screenplay and had been quite ecstatic about being called upon for his expertise. After the success of Heat Wave, critically and in the box office, the likelihood of a sequel getting cleared had been a no brainer. Kate was happy for him, but that didn't mean she couldn't miss him around the precinct too. Admitting to missing her partner's creepy stares while she did paperwork, even if only in her head, couldn't be a good sign. She must really be going crazy.
She moved to rest her chin on her overlapping fingers, palms resting flat against the wood. Her eyes subconsciously flickered towards the elevator doors as if staring at them hard enough would make them open to reveal the man she couldn't get off of her mind. He'd been acting odd lately, and it was more than the usual Castle weirdness she'd grown accustomed to over the years. It was almost like he was nervous or something. She couldn't quite place her finger on it, but it certainly read like anxiety.
Kate had just seen him yesterday night after work for a quiet dinner of Chinese takeout at the loft to wind down after a tedious day of hand-cramping desk duty, and while she was there, he hadn't been able to stop fidgeting. She'd asked him questions about the screenplay and about the phone conference he'd had that morning with Black Pawn about extending the Nikki Heat series due to popular demand. They were questions that should have sparked his interest, but he'd answered them half-heartedly, distractedly, and all the while hadn't been able to maintain eye contact, gaze dropping down to her hands which, at the moment, had probably been grasping a carryout box of fried rice.
She was so lost in thought that she didn't hear the familiar sound of the elevator arriving at the homicide floor, doors opening to reveal none other than the man himself, Richard Castle. Kate closed her eyes for a minute or two, thoughts swirling around in her head. She tried to push them out, to focus on something else for a bit. She instead began to listen to her surroundings intently. The tapping from Esposito had ceased, and now Ryan had moved from sighing to whistling. She took in the general buzz coming from the other homicide detectives; the walking and scratching of pencils on paper and squeaking of chairs being swiveled was nothing new. Suddenly, her ears perked up at the sound of footsteps nearing her desk before coming to a halt. She'd know those footsteps anywhere. Kate lifted her head from her folded hands and came face to face with a familiar to-go coffee cup. Her glance moved from the cup to the man standing before her desk with a heartwarming grin that lit her insides ablaze.
"Hey," the author greeted, teetering from one foot to the other, as if waiting for an invitation. Kate obliged and gestured towards the unoccupied chair alongside her desk, his chair. He eagerly took the seat, setting a coffee cup of his own down lightly.
"Hey, yourself," she answered with a smile of her own. All of a sudden, she felt self-conscious. Did she look as tired as she felt? Were there visible bags under her eyes or lines in her forehead from her previous resting position? She awkwardly ran a hand through her tousled hair, smile faltering a bit. "Aren't you supposed to be working on some big screenplay?" She sent him a playful jab and he was all too happy to return it.
"And what about you, Detective? It looked to me like you were getting pretty comfy there." Castle gestured down to the cleared stretch of desk space where she'd just been relaxing.
She rolled her eyes at him in a lighthearted manner. "It's been a long day. Such a long day, that I might even admit to having missed you." His eyes lit up like twinkle lights on a Christmas tree. "A bit. Missed you a bit."
"You just admitted to missing me watching you do paperwork for an entire day. No take backs," he teased. "But I thought as much. About you having a long day, that is. I know how much you dislike the desk stuff. " Off her tired nod, he continued. "So, I come bearing your caffeinated beverage of choice. Thought you might need the pick-me-up. "
"Thanks, Rick. That's really sweet of you," she spoke sincerely, grabbing for the tall cup and almost missing her partner's sharp intake of air as her right hand lifted it up from the wood surface.
He swallowed hard as she raised the cup ever so slowly to herself, pausing when she reached collarbone level to give him a curious once-over. In retrospect, she should have noticed that the cup weighed about the same as any he'd brought to the precinct for her before, but lacked the usual sloshing of liquid inside. She was too busy watching him and his odd reaction to her going for a sip. Kate raised the paper cup to her lips and tilted it back, eyebrows furrowing as she tasted nothing but the black, plastic lid. She tipped it back some more, but didn't feel any of the expected warmth hitting her lips.
"Rick," she frowned in confusion, shaking the takeaway cup, "There's nothing in here."
He put on a cool and collected façade, faking a look of skepticism, she could tell. "Nothing in there?"
She raised an eyebrow daringly. "You heard me. There's no coffee. My cup's empty, Castle. Is this some kind of practical joke?" By this time, they'd caught the attention of the other two detectives on their team who had abandoned the manila file folders and were now watching with unguarded curiosity.
"You're sure there's nothing in there?" She sent him a glare that had him waving his hands defensively. "Beckett, you're the detective. Detect. You wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions while investigating a case, would you?"
Kate rolled her eyes again, but jiggled the cup once more, readied herself in case of it turning out to be some sort of prank, and then popped open the lid to peer inside. But nothing could have prepared her for what she saw at the bottom. It took a while for her to catch her breath before she could attempt any sort of response.
"Castle," she breathed out heavily, tone bordering on hysterical. "C-Castle, Rick." He merely nodded and then gripped the arms of his chair, ready to move.
Inside coffee cup sat a velvety black jewelry box, a small square with an opened lid, and inside the box there was nestled the most important, most terrifying, and most exhilarating piece of jewelry she'd ever laid eyes on. It was a ring. But not just any ring. The hoop was made of untarnished white gold that came together in the middle to support a beautiful, sparkling diamond. Perhaps though, Kate supposed, the sparkling was also due to the tears that had managed to well up in her eyes in the last millisecond or two. The gem was certainly expensive looking, but was cut modestly so as to practical for work. Inside the band there was a single word inscribed; it was a word that had come to define their relationship ever since he'd uttered it years ago. Always.
Yes, it was unmistakably an engagement ring.
Kate watched dazedly through bleary eyes as Castle arose from his chair only to drop back down onto one knee in front of her. "May I?" he asked gently, masking any nervousness from before. She nodded and handed him the cup from which he plucked the little black box. He cleared his throat and took her hand tenderly in his.
"Katherine Beckett," her partner began, and she could barely believe her eyes. There he was, kneeling before her with a ring in one hand and her fingers grasped in the other. "When I first started shadowing you here at the 12th nearly seven years ago, do you know what I thought about you?"
She briefly looked away from him to assess their surroundings. All of the homicide detectives had stopped their work to form a semicircle around the area of her desk. Esposito and Ryan were at the forefront with a teary-eyed Lanie who sent her a quick wink. Lanie…now, how did she get up here so fast? She came to the quick realization that her medical examiner friend had been in on the whole thing, and made note to kill her for it. Later. There was Karpowski, Johnson, Velasquez, and dozens of other detectives and uniforms. Even the captain was watching from her office doorway. If Beckett wasn't mistaken, "Iron" Gates might have even been smiling. Kate locked eyes with Castle again - he had such gorgeous blue eyes - and nodded for him to continue. She already knew what he was going to say. It was a conversation from so long ago, but she could remember it like it was just yesterday.
"I thought that you were a mystery I was never going to solve. And I was right. I know that I still have so much to learn about you and that I still have enough unpeeled layers of the Beckett onion to keep me busy for the rest of my life. But I also know this; I know that I will never get tired of discovering everything that makes you, you." His voice broke in the last sentence, and he quickly worked to keep himself composed. "You told me once that you were a one-and-done kind of girl, Kate. Long ago, I came to an important realization. I want to be that one-and-done for you, and I would love for you to be mine." The unbridled emotion reflected in his orbs was the final straw that broke the camel's back so to speak, and so her dam cracked, and the tears came flooding out, not of their own volition. He couldn't help himself and relinquished her hand to run his thumb over the tracks on her cheeks. "I promised you always, Kate, and I meant it. I love you. Always andforever, if you'll have me." Kate vaguely registered stifled sniffles coming from Lanie's direction as Castle held the ring out to her. "So, Detective Beckett, will you marry me?"
She let out a little one note laugh that mingled with a sob. "Yes."
Rick's eyes were visibly watery as well, and he released an affectionate chuckle of his own. "Yes?" he asked, as though he could barely believe it or as though the word just wouldn't register.
Kate bobbed her head up and down, unable to get any other syllables out at the moment, words forsaking her. He took the ring from its protective cushion and slid it gently onto her left ring finger. Then he attacked her or maybe she pounced on him - she couldn't tell who moved first - and suddenly, she was sitting on his bended knee and kissing him soundly. The clapping and the whistles and the whoops and hollers from her fellow detectives were all a blur. And afterwards, memories of a squeeze on the shoulder from Espo, a quick hug from Ryan and blubbering one from Lanie, and a nod of approval from Captain Victoria Gates were all pretty fuzzy too. They made plans for celebratory drinks the next night at the Old Haunt, and then Castle took her home to his loft. Her home now too, she realized with a shudder of disbelief. This is all really happening.
He must have seen the thought written on her face when they burst through the doors because he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. The moment didn't last long because Martha and Alexis were waiting for them in the kitchen, and then she was being drawn into more loving embraces from her future mother-in-law and stepdaughter. It was a hard concept to wrap her head around, how much her life would change in these next few months.
As they lay in bed that night, legs tangled together and fingers entwined, he reached up to brush a loose curl of hair from her eyes and brushed a tender kiss across her temple. She trailed her fingertips across the bare expanse of his chest, drawing invisible circles and curlicues with her nails and humming in contentment.
"So," he started softly, drawing her attention from his torso to his lips, "I did tell you. It wasn't empty." She shook her head in bemusement and he continued. "So, good surprise?"
Kate struggled to feign indifference. "Eh, I don't know, Rick. I was pretty tired. Really wanted that coffee. But I guess this…" She held up her hand to get another good look at the dazzling rock. "…will just have to do."
He attempted to pout, but finally gave in to the grin at her nonchalance. "You ridiculous woman." He nuzzled her nose and pressed another brief kiss to the corner of her mouth. "I guess being my wife will just have to do to then, huh?"
For the second or third time today, she forgot how to breathe. "Your wife."
Her partner, her fiancé, hummed in approval. "That's normally how it works, yeah."
"Your wife," Kate repeated once more with conviction. She knew she was beaming like an idiot now, but couldn't find reason to care. "I guess…" her smile could turn from ecstatic to sultry in the blink of an eye. "…I'll just have to show you how much that will do."
He radiated a smile of equal luminance and right back. "Please, by all means, Mrs. Castle. Show away."
And so she did.
Awww, Castle fluff. I think we're all going to need some to prepare for the anticipated angst in Rise. I've read over this thing a trillion times now, and each time I've made a little alteration here and there. My hopes are that no spelling or grammar errors snuck their way into the final product. For some reason, I felt unusually meticulous this time around.
Thank you for reading. And please, drop me a review! Let me know what you thought. :)