Author's Note: References to Knockdown and Lucky Stiff events (Ep 13 and 14, Season 3) It started with the quote, "Point taken. From now on you'll be my man-friend." from Sex and the City. It's a Valentine's Day fic for LiveJournal's Castleland community. Happy Valentine's Day! :) (Warning - not beta'ed!)
Also, this would not have happened without ignacio2012 who gave me a whole lot of constructive criticism that was spot-on.
Respectful Disclaimer: I don't own Castle, alas!
For the film premiere and worldwide release of "Heat Wave", life-size silhouettes of a naked woman with a gun flanked the entrance into the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York. The red carpet was lined with hordes of fans and starspotters, and the lights were blinding. Courtesy of Castle, Kate and her father were handed out of a stretch limo directly depositing them at the foot of the long red carpet. She took a deep breath, pasted a smile on her face, and started escorting her father down the red carpet. Barely a few feet down it, she found her arm snared by Natalie Rhodes. Jim bobbed a smile and a headshake that the blonde actress barely registered, and then shot Kate a "see you inside" look and her shy father abandoned his only daughter to the press.
She felt self-conscious, though pleasantly surprised, when Natalie linked arms with her - and then a little less "pleasantly" and a little more "surprised" when the actress stopped in front of a reporter to respond to a question. "Yes, I shadowed Detective Beckett extensively to learn her mannerisms. She was amazing! You should have seen the way she handled interrogations." The actress emphasized her words dramatically with her hands.
Compelled to put in a good word, Kate added, "She was instrumental in diffusing a difficult situation involved in our case. She was umm...very dedicated to the craft."
The bubbly reporter shoved the mic back at Natalie. "So, what was the chemistry like between playboy writer Richard Castle and homicide hottie Detective Beckett?" Avaricious eyes shot between the two women. "The movie is so about the cop-writer dynamic!"
Kate felt her insides shrivel in a cringe, and kept her best game face on while disentangling her arm from the blonde and taking a step sideways.
"It was seriously steamy. I've never seen anything like it." Natalie looked intensely at the reporter. "You should see the way he watches her." Natalie's eyes narrowed and her head dipped as she demonstrated a dramatized covert smoulder on the reporter. "They have this totally covert, unfulfilled, unrequited thing going on. He doesn't have her in real life, so he pours all this longing for her into the pages of his books. It was amazing to get to bring that to the big screen."
The reporter instantly turned wide eyes on a backpedaling Kate, along with the microphone. "Is that true?"
Years on the force meant that Kate knew an extensive number of creative swear words, many of which could spring readily to her lips. However, she'd also learned the value of a tight-lipped "No comment", and was never so relieved as when Martha swept up the red carpet past her. "Martha!" she called, hoping the air of desperation wasn't too audible. "I really must get going," she exclaimed to Natalie, drifting away and out of earshot as rapidly as possible, and latching onto Martha's arm with indecent haste.
"Hey kiddo. What a circus!" Martha shot a high-wattage smile at a camera before looking Kate up and down approvingly. "Well, now...You look just stunning." Kate was incandescent in a shimmering silver gown with a thigh-high slit.
"Thank you." Kate tried to navigate them rapidly up the red carpet and into the theatre after her father.
Rick sauntered up the red carpet moments later after signing some autographs, followed by Alexis and Ash. His breath caught for a moment as he saw Beckett - he'd recognize the stride (and the ass) anywhere. He lost the saunter for a few minutes to hurry up to her, swerving around Natalie still talking to the reporter. "Beckett! I might declare that you look amazingly beautiful as the muse for tonight's festivities, but I didn't forgot that you I would be seriously hurt if I ever called you that again."
He was in his element in the limelight. Kate knew the serious side of him, the man she could count on for backup, the man she trusted to be by her side when she needed someone - but that side was less visibly in attendance at the moment. He wore a debonaire Armani suit and unnecessary dark sunglasses, a grin on his face as he waved to the crowd and then stepped over to the security barrier to sign the ample tracks of land bared by a cute fan with a Sharpie. Kate rolled her eyes and hastened into the theatre with Alexis and Ash keeping apace with her.
Rick followed her (admiring the view of Kate from behind, especially in that clinging silver dress - too many years of stripping her in his mind had him practically salivating). He glimpsed Gina and avoided her by ducking around a pillar until he stood parallel to Kate and noted the tension in her face, accurately reading it from years of watching her. Dropping the playboy for a moment, he studied her harried expression and lowered his voice a notch, his demeanor sobering. "Beckett, anything the matter?"
Kate leaned in towards him a little as she slowly threaded through the theatre lobby. "Natalie was talking to a reporter about our 'chemistry'."
Alexis piped in cheerily from beside them, "Really? What was she saying?"
Kate looked at the bright-eyed teen and her equally fascinated boyfriend (it suddenly occurred to her that she had no idea what Alexis told Ash about her...them...not that there was a 'them' to talk about) and actually blushed. She was 'spared' an answer by Martha, who drew even with the quartet in time to hear the question, and commented blithely, "You mean the chemistry that's so obvious that the only people who haven't really admitted it yet are you two?"
Beckett and Castle both shot her a look and the diva gave them a broad smirk before she sauntered off in her floor-length red sequined dress to flirt with a Hollywood director and old flame. Alexis hastily interjected with, "She may have had a few drinks before leaving the house..." Torn between wanting to stay and watch her father's ever-fascinating dynamic with someone she admired, and the thought of minimizing her boyfriend's exposure to her father, she opted for the better part of valor and turned to go. "Ash, let's go find our seats."
Castle watched them, glad of the distraction. "I don't even want to think about what I was doing with girls in a theatre at his age," he muttered under his breath, glad to make Beckett smile briefly.
"You can compare notes with my father on that, though where he went is is a mystery to me. He escaped the paparazzi gauntlet earlier. I should find him."
Castle looked glanced around and then dipped his head to peer at her over the obnoxious sunglasses he was wearing. "Where's Doctor Motorcycle Boy?"
She lifted a bare shoulder in a shrug. (Only literal years of practice let him not follow the neckline to her breasts at that movement.)
He knew the look on her face, the tight jaw, the slight purse to her lips. In a conversational deja vu moment that left him with the uncomfortable recollection of being on the wrong end of an interrogation with her, he lowered his voice to softly exclaim, "You broke up?"
She changed the subject. "Did I just see Gina out there?"
"Yeah, she's courting some new author so I made sure she had tickets. Least I could do. You broke up with Motorcycle Boy?"
"Man, Castle...he's a...oh, never mind." She glared at him as he stared at her with wide-eyes. He was clearly about to say something as Paula sauntered up to them.
"Hello, Detective! Are you excited about seeing yourself on the big screen?" Paula lowered her voice conspiratorially. "A lot of fans are really looking forward to the scene - you know - the one on page 105. That first kiss, when Jameson and you...I mean Heat...are doing those tequila shots ." She fanned her to imply the steam. "The promo pics in the trailer are all over the fan boards. And Rick's writing has only gotten better. I've got the latest edits for 'Heat Rises' and there are scenes in there that sent me straight into a cold shower." Paula smiled coyly, which put Beckett in mind of a shiny shark. Fortunately, Paula was shortly diverted by a very attractive looking reporter. "Ooh, Ian promised me a positive movie review if I ...ahem...spent some personal time with him. The things I do for you, Richard." She batted Castle's arm playfully and then headed off, leaving Beckett and Castle standing there awkwardly.
"Beckett...Kate." He ran through the words in his head. I'm sorry to hear that would be too much of a stretch (lie), so he went with the simple truth of his concern reaching out to cup her elbow supportively. "Endings can be rough. You okay?"
She looked at him, silence between them for a moment. "Yeah. I think I am." Half the time he was maddening, and then there were the times when he was maddeningly adorable - the times she most felt like she needed to put her guard up. This was one of them. Big blue eyes, clearly worried about her, looked down at her. She smiled abruptly, as something Ryan once said popped into her head. He really is ruggedly handsome. Sometimes the ways that he was quietly amazing took her off guard.
The quirk of her lips, a sure sign of private amusement, drove him nuts - in part because it made him focus on her lips. "What?"
"Nothing..." she said airily, yanking his chain just a little. "I really should find my father. Thanks though." Beckett glided off abruptly, leaving Castle standing there and still reeling from the news about Josh.
"Still pining, I see..." Gina commented from behind his left shoulder as he watched Beckett head into the theatre. "Does she even know?" The smile on her beautiful face was slightly mocking, her poise cool. "Congratulations, Rick...On the movie, of course. It's a great launch for the next book."
"Thanks, Gina." He gave her a sincere, if mildly distracted smile.
She looked at him strangely for a moment, and then gave a tiny shake of her head and walked off to talk to Martha.
The lights flickered in the theatre lobby, the cue for everyone to move to their seats.
It was a really good thing the theatre was dark, hiding the blush on Kate's cheeks. The thing that kept her from covering her eyes was the fact that Castle, seated beside her, would know about it and never live it down. (That, and the fact that she was mesmerized by what was on screen.) Natalie Rhodes had a passionate commitment to her craft that was showing up all too clearly on the big screen as she held the eyes of Jake McFarlan, the ruggedly handsome actor playing Jameson Rook. The camera caught all the sensuality of Nikki as she took a tequila shot off his skin, holding his wrist as her eyes closed before offering him a shot in turn. She heard Lanie sigh beside her as the on-screen couple drew closer, and Nikki rose to straddle Jameson by candlelight. Kate suppressed a groan. No doubt Javier and Lanie were playing footsie to boot. (She tried really hard not to think of her father sitting behind her. And she definitely tried to suppress the thought that the one kiss she vividly, distinctly, unforgettably shared with Castle felt much hotter and more nakedly visceral than what Natalie and Jake were burning up the screen with. It didn't work. Jake had it wrong. She knew exactly how Rick reached for her when he wanted her because she couldn't forget it.
Castle spent the movie torn between pleased self-satisfaction of how incredible the whole thing looked, occasional artistic indignation at script and plot changes the scriptwriters clearly displayed bad judgment in making, and the repetitive thought that Kate was not seeing Josh playing its own soundtrack in the background of his mind. What he wanted, what he'd wanted for years (and it really wasn't about the books) was depicted on the ginormous screen in front of them. Nikki drawing Jameson into her apartment, letting down her barriers, letting him in.
And Kate was right next to him, close enough for him to smell her with every inhale. He leaned on the plush arm rest separating them, attempting to keep his movements casual. A wry thought popped into his head that in some ways, this felt even more juvenile than the old teenage boy trick of attempting to put an arm around a girl. He sprawled more in the theatre seat, letting his shoulder just brush against her bare one. He could feel how still she'd gone, her breathing gone just a little too measured and regular, but no response beyond that. Still, she didn't pull away...
He leaned into whisper into her ear, "Remember meeting Powell? The guy I based the Heat Wave jewel thief on?"
Her eyes half shut at the feel of his breath by her ear. Damn him. She leaned in to whisper back, her voice pitched to barely reach his ears. Turnabout was fair play, after all. "Yeah, I also remember the look on your face when he auctioned you off a date with you at a charity gala."
She turned her head to smirk at him, and found his face far, far closer to hers than she anticipated. She turned her head to look back at the screen, glancing back at him once to enjoy the expression on his face.
For the moments Kate forgot to be self-conscious, she was engrossed in the movie through to the ending that saw a rain-soaked Nikki (conveniently wearing a white blouse) drawing Jameson passionately to her. There was a bittersweetness to seeing that relationship played out on the big screen. As the lights started to come up amidst applause, she felt his eyes on her and turned to meet them.
He watched her instead of the credits, watched the play of the screen lights on her beautiful profile, wondering what she was thinking. He could almost hear her start to chide him about it being creepy but words seemed to die on her lips as she met his eyes intensely. Without even knowing what exactly he was going to say, he started with a soft, "Kate."
The movie's director turned around. "Rick, we did good, don't you think?" Rick was flashed a dazzling smile, drawn abruptly into conversation as people started to rise to head to the after party.
He felt as much as saw from the corner of his eye Kate start to get up to leave, and he half-turned to catch her hand briefly. "Beckett - see you at the afterparty?"
She nodded and then turned to move along the aisle out. He wondered if he was insane to feel hope that she'd let her fingers curl briefly around his in a squeeze he could still feel, or if it was his overactive writer's imagination at play.
The buzz at the afterparty was that movie had all the makings of a summer blockbuster.
Beckett stood with her precinct friends and her father at the swanky lounge the studio sprung for to host the festivities, conveniently not too far from where the circulating wait staff emerged from the kitchen. As a favor to Madison Queller, Castle had convinced the studio execs to use her restaurant's catering services.
Jenny was wide-eyed and taking it all in with an extremely proud Ryan beside her. ("You are damned lucky I don't make you wear ties like that", Lanie commented beneath her breath to Esposito out of Jenny's earshot, with a flicked glance to the loudly decorative tie Ryan sported with a flames motif.)
Ryan turned to Esposito contemplatively. "I'm not sure they got my character exactly down right."
"Sure, Sweet Tea, whatever you say..." Esposito grinned.
"You have to admit, she does creepy-Beckett - errr...Nikki Heat really well," Ryan said, addressing Beckett. "What'd you think of the movie?"
Beckett turned from her survey of the surrounds distractedly. "What? Oh...Yes. It was..." What does one say about a movie based on a book based 'loosely' on oneself? "...Vivid. It was very...vivid...You know, I'm pretty sure that that explosion wasn't in the book..."
Lanie busted up laughing at that. "Yeah, there were quite a few things that weren't in the book."
Castle brought over drinks, and thoughtfully brought over a non-alcoholic one for her dad. "Jim, I hope you enjoyed the movie."
"I did. It was fun with a lot of action, though no father likes to think that a movie 'loosely based' on his daughter involves... " (Castle was already cringing, with a very, very graphic flashback to the sex scene fresh in his mind.) "...an attack in her apartment."
Beckett set a soothing hand on her father's forearm. "While I won't pretend that cop is the safest job in the universe, rest assured that much of that was the figment of Castle's very overactive imagination."
Castle was still trying to keep 'sex scene' out of his brain while Kate's father was in front of him. Fortunately, Paula could be like a dose of cold water any day. She was waving to him from across the room, and he made a face. "Paula is summoning. My adoring fans await." He winked at Beckett, who rolled her eyes and then turned to her father as Castle walked off.
Her father opted to head home rather than stay long at the after party. She walked him out to the valet and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I think your mother would have found this all really...something," he said, with a last glance up at the marquee. "I'm glad I got to see this with you."
Kate laughed. "Thanks for coming out for this."
"Miss my daughter immortalized on the big screen?" He gave her a droll look as she shot him an admonishing one.
"Don't even start on that. Good night dad. Drive home safely." She kissed him affectionately on the cheek.
He paused, right before getting into the car, to add one last parting comment. "You know, Katie, back in my day, we just made mixed tapes when we liked someone." He couldn't help a grin at the expression on her face, and waved to her before she walked slowly back into the lounge.
She barely made it through the door before being maneuvered into an alcove by Lanie. "Ok. Spill. What happened with Josh?"
Kate let out a soft sigh. "We broke up."
"What happened, honey?"
Kate averted her eyes, gazing over Lanie's shoulder for a moment before looking at her friend again. "I really wanted to be totally in love with him. He's such a good man. Here's the kicker - I've dated men who just didn't get what I did for a living, the crazy hours. And he got it."
Lanie emphatically nodded. "Amen to that..." She waited for Kate's next words before prompting them with a, "But...?"
"He was wonderful about it. He really didn't mind it. Half the time, he left earlier for work than I did to do a surgery - saving lives. He's out of the country on all these projects, doing good in the world..."
Lanie's eyes narrowed. "I can't tell if you're trying to explain why you broke up or why you should be together. And I have to add that as great on paper as he is, it looked to me like he wasn't there more often than he was?"
That's when Kate's shoulders hunched a little. "I know. And it didn't feel right to be with him when I knew he wasn't the person I wanted by my side when things got rough." Her words were nearly drowned beneath the beat of the music in the background, and Lanie's sympathetic hand rested on her shoulder.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I've had a couple weeks to think about it."
Lanie shook her head and groaned. "You WILL get an ulcer one of these days with everything you keep inside you. I can't believe you just sat on it." She looked across the room to where Castle was visibly scanning it for someone between talking to people who were stepping up to congratulate him. "He's looking for you. He always does whenever you're not right there, where he can watch you." Lanie smiled. "What're you going to do about Writer Boy?"
"It's complicated."
Lanie usually saved all her most dubious expressions for Castle's alien abduction and time traveling theories, but this time, the full force of it was turned on Kate. After a moment, she just shook her head and then looked around at the crowded lounge, stars and starlets mingling with media and the New York seen-and-be-seen crowd. "Javier doesn't talk about that night...the night that he came home with lacerations across his anterior larynx and wrists, suffering hypothermia. I called the paramedics on duty that night and found out what happened to him, to Ryan." Kate looked over at her friend with concern, and Lanie looked back somberly. "I didn't choose someone in a safe line of work - and neither did Castle. I get some peace with by making the most of the time I get with him." Lanie was on a roll as she leaned in. "What are you waiting for? What kind of proof do you want, Miss All-About-the-Evidence? Castle has written three best-selling novels based on you, we're at the premiere of this year's summer blockbuster because of the character he's based on you, he punched his fist bloody to save your life, and he wakes up at bizarre hours in the middle of the night to show up at crime scenes when it's not really his job. May I also remind you that because of him, a significant chunk of one of my paychecks and half the force's went into that scholarship he set up in your mother's name? That he also hosted a very, very high profile gala fundraiser for? I also remember him talking on and on about your mother's dedication to truth at that gala, which to your everlasting embarrassment and no end of funny for me, was just his excuse to talk about YOUR dedication to truth and justice."
She took in the mildly overloaded look on Kate's face, but couldn't resist one last salvo. "Think about it...Really think about it, instead of avoiding thinking about it. Otherwise you really will have an ulcer." Lanie smiled at her and then tipped her head towards Esposito. "I, on the other hand, can advocate a fantastic method for stress relief and exercise that involves another mighty fine detective."
Kate mock-winced. "Esposito's like a brother... " She caught Lanie into a brief, but tight, hug before they parted. "Thanks, Lanie."
Castle walked up to her moments later. "Dance with me?" He took her long consideration of him as assent and pulled her onto the dancefloor. They found their rhythm almost instantaneously, and he dared to let his arms slide around her waist. The hands she rested on his shoulders were tentative at first before surrendering more weight to him, and his eyes drifted close as he leaned his face into her hair. She was actually in his arms for a moment and sexy as hell in the ways she moved. He shifted in tune with the beat of the music, partly to torture himself whenever he brushed up against her and partly so he wasn't just holding her on the dance floor. He lowered his head a couple inches towards her ear, pleased when he felt her shiver just a little when he murmured, "Kate."
That mild precursor to full-blown panic was making her nerves jangle, because when one has spent the better part of a couple years trying to keep someone out on the pretext that they would hurt you, those walls don't come down just because there's a ridiculously high number of reasons for them to do so that outweigh the fear-based reasons to not. "What're we doing?"
He went for the obvious (and safe). "Dancing."
She wasn't above stepping on his toe, and smiled a little when he yelped a soft "Apples!" in her ear.
They danced in silence for a few moments longer, before he asked, "How about partnering?"
"We're already partners." The simple fact of that statement still left him grateful, and stunned.
He was quiet for a moment. "I was going to say, Detective, that in some ways, it seems like we're partners in all the ways the matter. The big ones. I'd trust you with my life, and with Alexis." He drew back enough to take the terrifying action of looking into her eyes and holding them. "But here's what I really want, Kate. I want the little ways too...like taking you to the museum on your days off, eating those amazing breakfasts you liked to make on Sunday mornings with your mother, listen to you play your guitar."
She couldn't help a smile at the last, and bit her lower lip - a movement that made him want to do the nibbling. "Rick." She stopped, unsure what to say next. He was the one with all the words.
That she wasn't running, or pushing him away, was enough. He let his lips brush against her temple. "Just think about it. We can talk more later."
She nodded slowly, agreeing. "Okay." They fell back into silence, letting the music carry them through the rest of the song while he held her just a little more tightly against him. It was easy, in sync, effortless. When the song ended, he smiled. "I'm supposed to schmooze with the producers so Paula can angle for more creative input from me over the next script. Save another dance for me."
"Sure, Castle." Bemused and a little befuddled, she walked away from him.
Feeling alone in the midst of the crowd without him, which she didn't want to examine overly closely, Kate headed to the bar for a cocktail. Montgomery was happily chatting with the Commissioner and the Mayor, Ryan was dancing with Jenny, and Lanie's excuse that she needed to step outside to "cool off" with Esposito fooled no one. As she stood there waiting for the bartender's attention, she was surprised when a husky voice sounded near her ears. "May I buy you a drink?"
She turned her head to see Jake McFarlan looking at her, admiration in his blue eyes. Tall and even more ruggedly handsome than on screen, he smiled at her. "Natalie pointed you out to me as the inspiration for Nikki Heat. I had to come over and introduce myself."
She gave him a somewhat awkward smile in return, and held out her hand. "Beckett. Kate Beckett." She wondered if he'd actually introduce himself, instead of just holding her hand between his.
He moved in a little closer when he finally released her hand, freeing one of his to lightly rest on the bare small of her back as though to protect her a little from the crush at the bar. "The character is amazing. And you more than live up to it. Usually when a book is based on a real person, that person is nowhere near as beautiful as you are." He shot her the megawatt smile that kept him routinely on newsstand magazine covers.
Across the room, Martha abruptly reappeared at her son's elbow while he wrapping up his conversation with one of the movie's backers. "I do believe Kate's making quite a conquest."
Castle's attention was sharply diverted as his head flew up to glance around the room, seeking Kate out. For all that Martha loved her son, she was also thoroughly enjoying the look on his face as he exclaimed, "The guy playing me ...I mean, the character based on me...is hitting on Beckett?"
"Life imitating art imitating life?" Martha asked with an arched brow, watching her son to see what he would do.
He abruptly excused himself from the conversation and started to beeline across the room towards Beckett, though he did do a double-take when he spotted Ashley and Alexis kissing behind an enormous column. He threw a flinching glance at them, nearly tripping, before the sight of Jake leaning in to say something that made Kate laugh sent him heading back in her general direction.
A feeling that bordered in panic made him a little sick to the stomach. The problem with an overactive writer's imagination was being able to visualize multiple scenarios in rapid succession of him missing an opportunity to be with her, to really be with her, yet again. Irrational jealousy reared its ugly head. His gut clenched when he'd seen her kiss Demming in the precinct hallway and he'd hated the way Josh got to casually put his arm around her shoulders. The fact that now his own damned alter ego had his hand on Kate's waist seemed just a little much for him to bear. He made himself slow down, so he at least didn't look like he was running across the room.
Kate's laugh was a little forced - though one might think she was the actress for all that Jake clued in (or read what he expected to see). "I really appreciate the offer, but hey listen...I've got more than I can handle with Castle already following me around, and no one would get any work done at the precinct if you showed up too."
His voice dropped a pitch as he leaned even more into her personal space. "You could let me take you away from the precinct."
She backed up. The situation was ridiculous. If she hadn't entirely understood the "way too meta" comment Castle once made about Natalie Rhodes, she sure as hell did now. "I need to go...over there." She ducked behind him, leaving the befuddled actor behind as she slid free of the crowd around the bar and thought about escaping for some fresh air.
Amy from Page Six caught Castle's arm as he was heading towards the bar crush. "Richard Castle. At last!"
"Oh, hey Amy." He looked around her, losing sight of Kate and Jake for just a moment.
"Isn't this fun? Seems like just yesterday our morgue-mobile got hijacked! I hear you're still instrumental to the NYPD and solving cases. Tell me, just how long do you intend to keep shadowing Detective Beckett?"
He had all the glib answers at the ready. Paula prepped him every time he might have to cross paths with the press. But he'd found her with his eyes, holding her gaze just as she was looking back at him with Jake was nowhere to be seen, and in the relief of that, he said bluntly to Amy, "Forever. If she'll let me."
That wasn't one of the prepped answers.
Amy's eyes got big and she squealed, an unpleasantly high-pitched squeak that drew them a lot of attention. "Richard, that seems a little above and beyond a book series. Are you and Detective Beckett officially a couple?"
Kate was going to kill him, but he kept answering the questions anyway. "Not yet."
Somewhere above the dim buzzing in Kate's ears, she could hear Natalie Rhodes saying, "I totally called that when I was shadowing them. I think it'd be more impactful if he'd added a longer pause after 'forever'. He rushed the line a bit." Was that Martha applauding?
A hand literally pushed her towards Castle. "Girl, GO." It figured that the gently shoving hand was Lanie's.
She felt her legs carry her towards him. The one thing she dedicated her life to discovering was truth, and even if at this moment, it was all being spilled to the press, it was still something she recognized that compelled her.
The questions started coming at her in a barrage from other members of the press. "Kate, did you know about this? How long have you two been secretly dating? Is he your boyfriend?"
She looked at him and then beyond him. It was practically a tableau, those within earshot riveted to this scene playing out. She looked around, her detective's eye for detail taking it all in - Esposito and Ryan giving her a thumbs up, Martha WAS applauding. A part of her brain noticed the pinched look on Gina's face and the smirk on Paula's. Even Madison had emerged from the kitchen to mouth "Castle babies" at her with a huge smile on her face. Somehow with Castle, privacy always seemed to go out the window.
But in this, he knew her and how she felt - and it didn't take a genius to realize that the blazing intensity of the look she was aiming at him was one he knew all too well. She was going to kill him.
He swallowed. Hard. And gathered all his courage to hold out his hand to her anyway. "Let's get out of here?"
She looked at it for what seemed to him an agonizingly long moment. "Alright."
He took her hand and rushed her out before the story could hit the press waiting outside. They started to rapidly head to the curb, and he lifted his arm to hail a cab. Reporters were starting to turn cameras towards them as a few followed them out of the theatre. And then Natalie showed up behind them with Jake in tow, still looking befuddled. She hadn't spent time getting into Beckett's head for nothing, and locked the surprised actor in a passionate kiss that thoroughly distracted the waiting cameras.
The first moments in the cab were awkward after Rick gave the driver her address. He had her hand in his, unwilling to let her fingers go - and said so. "I'm not letting go."
She glanced out the back window for a moment, the marquee lights spelling out "Heat Wave" in giant lettering blazing against the lights and bustle of a New York night. She was quiet enough, impassive enough, for that panicked feeling to begin in Rick's stomach again.
And then she started to laugh, a slightly manic, bright, mirthful sound that made him join her wholeheartedly, her shoulders shaking with it, laughing until tears were in her eyes. "Castle...Rick." She just shook her head and smiled...no...grinned at him, squeezing his fingers. Whatever doubts she had, this felt right. "I'm not even sure what just happened tonight, I don't even want to think about the papers and the precinct tomorrow, but right now, I appear to be in a getaway car with you hightailing it out of Hollywood movie premiere 'loosely' based on us where you just declared your feelings for me in front of half of New York." She started laughing again. "You make me crazy."
He answered by letting go of her fingers only long enough to take her face between his palms as he'd been longing to do for months. "Admit it. You need crazy. So crazy we're sane-making." The smile and half-hearted eye roll was all the invitation he needed. It took his breath away. He brought his mouth to hers, reveling in the feeling of her responsiveness to him, her lips opening beneath his and the taste of her that he'd not been able to get out of his dreams for month. When they finally broke for air, he stared at her. "That was amazing...and this time I really do mean the kiss."
She smiled up at him as she nestled against his side with a breathless laugh, choosing to stay in the moment rather than worry about the morrow. "I know." She leaned back against the seat, and tugged him into her for more heady kisses. They were interrupted by the insistent text message buzz of her phone which she instinctively reached for out of habit. "It's Lanie." She held up her phone, which showed a shot of the two of them leaving the theatre together together amidst a blaze of lights, and the message "I hope you and Writer Boy are FINALLY getting it on."
Castle let out a huffy sound. "I resent that. It's MAN."
"Point taken. From now on you'll be my man-friend", she replied wryly, laughing anew at the excited light in his eyes.
"I'm your man-friend?"
Beckett discovered that having a more mutually satisfying and thoroughly effective way of shutting Castle up was proving to be eminently useful, especially when it meant that he used his hands more to express himself instead.
Epilogue
Martha wrapped her arm around Alexis' shoulder, misty-eyed as she squeezed her granddaughter's shoulders tightly. "He got his talent for great exits from me, kiddo."
Alexis was beaming, squeezing Ash's hand in turn, and then turned to ask teasingly, "Grams, you do realize that this means it's your responsibility to get us home in time for our curfews, right?"
Martha waived her hand airily. "Darling, with any luck, your father won't be home 'til morning."
Montgomery looked doubly happy - first at two of his favorite people finally looking like they had sense knocked into them, and second because the Mayor was handing him a Ben Franklin.
Lanie had a wide smile on her beautiful face as she finished sending the text to Kate, and tugged on Esposito's tie. "Javi, that was a good night's work."
Jenny leaned her head on Ryan's shoulder, sneaking a glance down at her engagement ring. "I love happy endings."
Ryan, his arm around her waist, squeezed her close to him. "Yeah. Me too."
Author's Post-Script: The happy ending seemed in keeping with the V-day theme, but in actuality, I think Beckett with her cherished privacy would make Castle pay a little more for such a public reveal...and dance a little more too. I might rewrite the ending to reflect that, but as it would no longer be V-Day by the time I got around to doing that, it stands for now. Happy Valentine's Day! :)