Authors Note: Well I am so glad everyone liked this story, your wonderful reviews were the encouragement I needed to continue with it. So I hope it makes you all happy. I'll admit I was a bit nervous about posting it so thank you very much. Also a very big thank you to Little Lizzie Zentara who has been almost like my own private cheerleader since I started writing again. Your reviews make my day. Now on with the story.
Warning to any Josh lovers out there, you might not like this chapter or the next one. Haa haaa haa haa haa 'Josh lovers' I crack myself up sometimes
Ain't No Mountain High Enough
By
Natalie Elizabeth
Castle groaned as he heard a musical jingle.
Cell phones should be banned, especially while someone was sleeping. Rolling onto his side, Castle fell off the mattress and crawled on his hands and knees to the end of the bed. As he rounded the corner of the bed the music stoped. Hanging his head down, Castle groaned. He made an attempt to crawl backwards when the music started up again. Making his way to the jacket on the floor, where the music was coming from, Castle picked it up and began shaking it. It was primitive act but he was too tired to care. The phone dropped to ground and Castle snatched it up answering it.
"Hello."
"Who the hell is this?"
Castle leaned up against the end of the bed. He so didn't need some moron trying to sell him something. At least, not this early in the morning. Or afternoon. Or night. Or whatever the time was.
"Hey buddy, you called me."
"Who the hell is this and why do you have Kate's phone?"
Kate's phone? Castle pulled the phone back from his ear to look at the phone in his hand. With three phone holders in his house hold, along with phone companies constantly wanting to upgrade and therefore change phones frequently, he had simply picked up the phone not realising who it actually belonged to. He then looked at the screen.
"Hey Josh, how's it going? It's Richard Castle."
"Rick! Why are you answering Kate's phone?"
Castle used his feet to push himself up slightly so he could crane his head around to look at the body still sleeping on his bed.
"Ahh, Kate's asleep, and I don't really want to wake her. Is it important?"
"If she's asleep, then why is she even at the precinct? I thought even you would have had the common sense to make her go home. Why are the two of you even there? I thought you had a few days off."
"We do, and we are not at the precinct. We are at my place," Castle rubbed a hand over his face. He didn't really want to be dealing with Dr. Motorcycle Boy right now .
"What? Kate's asleep at your place? Wake Kate. I want to speak to her. NOW."
Castle pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers. There was no way he was waking Kate. They had spent two hours sitting on the couch before he had felt her body go heavy. He had gotten a glimpse of the time earlier, when he had pulled the phone back to see whose phone he had answered. She'd had four hours sleep, max. Dr. Motorcycle boy would just have to wait until Kate woke up. After all, he hadn't even asked how she was; he was more worried about where she was.
"Look, Josh. After all the excitement we went through, she wasn't able to fall asleep that easily. She finally crashed a few hours ago. So unless it's really important, I am not going to wake her up."
Castle sat there waiting for Josh to reply.
"Josh?"
Castle looked at the phone. Damn, what was it with people hanging up on him?
Castle rubbed his hands over his face. He needed coffee. As much as he would love to get back into his bed, he knew sleep was futile now. Making his way into the kitchen, Castle set his coffee machine to start brewing. Placing his hands on the counter, he leaned back and stretched his body. As he righted himself, a thought entered his head. Beckett was in his bed. The bed he had just left. He looked towards the couch where they had spent two hours before that holding each other. Well ok, he had been holding her. But she had definitely leaned back and snuggled into him. She had been the one to ask him to hold her. Ok, so she had told him not to make a big deal about it. But how could he not? Beckett had asked him to hold her, to touch her. Castle started doing the moon walk in his socked feet. He spun and then began dancing around his kitchen, in true Castle style. He then began to sing quietly.
"I held Beeeecccccccccckett. She let me hooooooooooooooooooold her. We spent the night togeeeeeeeeeetherrrrrr. Whoooaa."
Castle's socked foot slipped out from under him. His arms flailed wildly trying to grab hold of something. He grabbed the top of a chair, but gravity wasn't working in his favour, as both Castle and the chair came tumbling to the floor. Castle lay there with the chair across his chest. He could see the front page headline appear before his eyes.
'Award winning author escapes death three times only to be killed in household accident.'
Castle pushed the chair off and for the second time that day, he found himself crawling on the ground. This must be karma coming back to bite him in the ass for gloating over the fact he had spent the night with another man's girl. He couldn't help it though; last night was the best night of his life. Ok, second best night of his life. The night Alexis was born was the first. Last night was the best night of his life that involved a woman he wasn't related to. What boggled his mind was that they didn't even have sex. He knew sex wasn't the 'be all and end all'. He had experienced some pretty bad sex in his time, also some pretty good ones too. However, some pretty great nights had started out with dinner or a gala, but had always ended with a wild night in the sack. Except last night. And technically last night was this morning. So technically this morning was the best day of his life, and the day was only just starting. He couldn't wait for what laid ahead.
Castle looked up suddenly when he heard a knock at the door. He wasn't expecting anyone, nor was he dressed to receive company. Oh well, if someone was going to come and visit at this time of morning then they would have to deal with his two day old rumpled jeans and t-shirt.
Walking over to the door Castle saw movement off to the right.
"Good morning Beckett. Coffee's brewed," he said with a smile.
She simply nodded and offered him an almost nervous smile. He would have to ask her about that later. He wondered if she was embarrassed or felt awkward about last night.
Castle opened the door with a flourish, to reveal Josh.
"Josh, hey how's it goi-" His greeting was cut short when the air was knocked out of him.
Josh had grabbed him by the front of his shirt and slammed him against the wall.
"What the hell do you think you are doing, huh? Fucking my girlfriend?!"
Castle stared wide eyed while trying to catch his breath.
"Whaaaaaa-"
Beckett ran over to the two men.
"Josh. What's going on? Josh. Let go of him."
Josh gave Castle one last shove before turning to Beckett.
"How could you do this to me? I came back for you!"
"You should have never left," Castle challenged.
Josh turned his angry glare at Castle.
"So what, you think that gives you the automatic right to fuck my girlfriend?!"
Castle frowned at him. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh come on. Do I really look that dumb to you?"
Castle merely raised his eyebrows at him, causing Josh to get even angrier.
"Shut up, ok? Just shut it."
Beckett took a step towards Josh.
"Josh, would you just calm down? And explain to me what's going on here."
"Me? Explain?Why don't you explain how long have you been having an affair with him?"
Beckett looked at Josh. Shocked. Affair! He was accusing her of having an affair with Castle! She was really getting sick of this. He had never come out and accused her of having an affair. But came to think of it, there were times when he practically interrogated her over her day's events.
"Josh, I've told you. Castle and I are just friends. Why would you think we were having an affair?"
"Gee, I don't know Kate. You wouldn't let me touch you last night. You practically threw me out of your place. When I tried to do the right thing and called to see if you're ok, I find you here. With Richard fucking Castle."
"Call? What call?"
"I called maybe 20 minutes ago and he answered. He told me what the two of you were up to."
Beckett threw a scowl at Castle. "What the hell, Castle?!"
Castle held up his hands in a surrender pose.
"I swear I didn't say anything like that. All I said was that you couldn't come to the phone as you were sleeping. That's all."
Beckett looked back at Josh for an explanation.
"Oh come on. We all know what sleeping really means,"
Castle shook his head. "Hold on a second. You think I was in the middle of making love to Kate and I stopped so I could answer her phone? What kind of moron does that?"
Josh turned his angry gaze to Beckett. "You told him that? I can't believe you told him that, Kate! That was private!"
Castle couldn't believe what he had just heard Josh admit. He looked towards Beckett to get confirmation; and the look on her face said it all.
"I didn't tell him anything, Josh. Look. Castle and I are not having an affair,"
"Then why are you here? You said you were going straight to bed last night,"
"I was- I just..." How was she supposed to tell her boyfriend that she craved being held in the arms of another man?
"She needed to talk," Castle offered, seeing the hesitant look on Becketts face.
"She could have spoken to me."
Yeah, because Josh was the kind of person who sits there and listens, Castle thought to himself. But he knew better to voice that opinion.
"Look, Josh. When I was doing research for one of my books, I spoke to people who had been through traumatic events. A lot of them found it hard to talk to anyone about it because it meant reliving the whole experience. Others said they were more comfortable talking to a stranger, like a therapist or a doctor about the whole ordeal than to their own family or the people closest to them."
"That's ridiculous." He scoffed.
"Maybe. But they saw it as a way of protecting the ones they love, of protecting themselves. To tell people closest to them about what happened, having them know all the gritty details, it'd just make the situation worse. These people didn't want their family to pity them, to have guilt that if only they had been there, they could have done something,"
"But I have been in near death experiences before when I was doing Doctors Without Borders. I know what it's like. I could have helped her get through this."
"That's where you're wrong, Josh. No one can know what it's like to be Beckett, to go through the experiences she has been through. To know how those events affected her and how they will dictate how she handles things in the future".
Beckett looked at Castle. She couldn't believe what he was saying. He got it. Finally, someone understood what she felt for so many years. After all those group therapy sessions with everyone spouting off about how they knew exactly how she felt. It took Richard Castle, 9-year-old-on-a-sugar-rush Castle, to understand how she felt.
"But I'm her boyfriend; she should be able to tell me anything,"
Castle shook his head. He just didn't get it. It was all about him, wasn't it? About what he wanted or needed.
"Yes, you're her boyfriend. But she has a life outside of you, you know. She doesn't have to tell you everything. I mean do you seriously want to know she picks her nose or that she likes popping zits."
"This isn't like that. This is the important stuff. If she can't tell me these sorts of things, then what kind of relationship do we really have here?"
Castle sighed.
"My mother has a saying; our lives are like plays with many different roles. Each role is important and helps the plot further along, or rather helps our lives further along. One person can play more than one role, but no person can play all the roles."
"But I'm her boyfriend," he insisted.
Castle groaned.
"You're just not getting it, are you Josh? You weren't what she needed last night. She just needed someone who would listen and not judge. Last night that role just happened to be played by me. Tomorrow maybe she would need help with trying to figure out which shoes go with her dress. She wouldn't need me or you, she would need Lanie, or one of her other friends. Or are you going to crack over that too?"
Josh seemed to think about it for a second.
"Whatever," he gave up. "Why did I even listen to you in the first place? You're just trying to cover up the fact that the two of you are having an affair!"
Oh God, were they really letting someone this dumb become a doctor?
"Why would I have to lie? Think about it, brainiac. If I were having an affair with Beckett, wouldn't it make sense that I would want the two of you to break up, so, I could have her all to myself?"
Josh frowned as he took it all in.
"Fine. Whatever. Come on, Kate. Let's go"
Josh grabbed Beckett's wrist and attempted to pull her from the room. Beckett stood firm and violently shook her wrist from his grasp.
"What do you think you're doing?" Beckett hissed, not believing that Josh had just tried to man handle her.
Josh raked a hand through his hair.
"Leaving. Come on, we can talk somewhere else."
Becketts' rage was boiling.
"Talk? Talk. Do you think I am honestly going to go with you, after all that you have just said and done?"
"Come on, Kate. I believe that the two of you are not having an affair, but I still want to talk about this."
"You barged into Castle's house, assaulted him, and then accused him of having an affair with me. Now you want to leave without making amends to either him or me. What did you think would happen, Josh? That you and I would hold hands and just go skipping down the hall? Huh?"
"You want me to apologize to him?"
"No, I want you to want to apologize, period. To know that what you did was wrong."
Kate couldn't believe the way Josh was acting. Had he always been this big of a dick?
"Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Hey, don't make me the bad guy here, Kate. You're the one who stayed at another guy's place when you're dating me."
Castle threw his hands up. "How many times do I have to say it? Nothing happened. I thought you would be happy that she had someone to help her deal with this, this time."
Josh walked up to Castle and got in his face. "I've had enough of you. I want you to shut up and to stay out of Kate's life," he said sternly.
"Pretty hard, considering we work together." Castle challenged him.
Josh laughed. "Hah! Work. You don't work there. You follow her around like a love sick puppy and I won't stand it anymore," he said in a mocking tone.
"You won't stand for it," Beckett interjected.
Josh turned surprised, almost as if he had forgotten she was there.
"He is coming between us, Kate! I don't want you seeing him anymore. Or you know what? I want you to choose."
"You're making me choose?" She couldn't believe he was putting her in this position.
"It's him, or me," Josh said folding his arms over his chest and looked at Castle smugly.
Beckett looked at the two men who stood before her. After all the things she had been through the last 24 hours. The way Josh had acted when he had come storming in. She took a deep breath.
"Him."
A smile broke out on Castles face.
Best day everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
