Bare

Part 2/5

Rated T

A/N: This is a continuation of a missing scene from the season 3 finale. Castle and company are not mine. I would have more fun with them if they were…

Previously: In the wake of the murder of Captain Montgomery and her former partner, Royce, Kate admitted that she holds people at arm's length. Castle said to stop that, silly. So she did.

The look on his face could only have been shock. She didn't blame him, really. Nothing she had said or done in the past 3 years would have suggested that she would suddenly shift her priorities so decisively. But what he didn't know is how long she had been convincing herself not to say what she had said to him tonight. The urge to wake him on the airplane back to New York from LA and just let her feelings spill out, other passengers be damned, was almost overwhelming. It took the emotional upheaval of the past 24 hours to finally tip the scales from her head to her heart. She wanted him. She wanted them. And she didn't see the logic in pushing him away anymore. Not when either of them could die tomorrow.

"I… Kate… this is… are you saying…"

"Castle, you just do not know when to shut up," she smiled just enough to let him know she was teasing.

"Can I… kiss you now?" God, he looked terrified. She wasn't sure he was breathing.

She leaned in to press her lips lightly to his. The warmth of that contact sparked a chill at the base of her neck that spread until the tips of her ears and fingers and toes were all tingling. He pulled back ever so slightly, breaking the contact, but he was still close enough that his breath was warm against her lips. She opened her eyes to see his so blue and dark and close-he was waiting for her, she realized.

She framed his face with her hands and pulled him down to her, hopefully leaving no doubt in his mind about what she wanted. He moved his lips over hers with the unhurried purpose of exploration. When she trailed her tongue across his lower lip, he let out a little moan from the back of his throat and opened to her to deepen the kiss. His hands were suddenly everywhere—her shoulders, the small of her back, the nape of her neck, tangled in her hair. And everywhere he touched turned to simmering heat. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hoped that the noise she just heard herself make sounded less desperate than it had to her ears.

God she wanted to crawl inside of him and never come out.

It was Rick that inched back the intensity, gentling his lips on her own until they finally they parted, their breathing ragged.

"Wow." He breathed it more than said it. She opened her eyes to find his still closed. When he finally did open them, he bent his forehead to hers. "Please tell me that I didn't just dream that."

She chuckled lightly.

"I hope not. Because then we're having the same dream, and I don't really want to be involved in one of your crazy sci-fi alien theories. I'd rather just keep kissing you."

She hoped her voice sounded steady; she knew the rest of her wasn't.

"God, Kate, I'm shaking." He pulled her into his chest and took a shuddering breath.

"That's ok, so am I." She could hear his heart pounding against her ear and wondered if he could hear hers doing the same.

"Is this too fast? I mean, with everything that's happened, I don't want this to be something you regret tomorrow, or a week from now, or ever, for that matter."

"Rick, three years is not too fast."

"True." She felt him let out a slow breath and loosen his hold on her slightly. "I just couldn't stand it if I screwed this up." He sounded so timid, almost defeated. "I want this to be real. I want us to be real. Not just two friends comforting each other for a night."

She pulled away and took his face in her hands again. The worry creasing his brow made her heart melt.

"What part of 'everything' are you having trouble understanding?"

Slowly a small grin spread across his lips and finally she saw the twinkle return to his eyes. He took her hands and sandwiched them between his.

"Well, OK then. How about some Chinese for dinner?"

She actually let out a real laugh.

It was like the flip of a switch. This was her Rick—the self-assured optimist with his glass half full. When exactly had he become "her Rick," again?

"You really do have the attention span of a kindergartener."

"And I'm just as adorable." He pulled her hands to his lips and kissed her fingertips. And just like that, they were back to themselves again.

He stood and walked to the kitchen where he had left his phone.

"If you're not hungry, that's fine, but we haven't eaten all day, and I'm suddenly starving."

"Sure Castle, I could eat. There are some menus in the drawer right there." She pointed to one near where he was standing.

"That's ok, I've got it covered. Chen's is your favorite, right?"

"Why am I even surprised that you know which Chinese takeout place in my neighborhood is my favorite?" She smiled slightly to herself.

"And I have their number already in my phone."

He held up one finger to shush her as he placed their order in Chinese. When he clicked off, he disappeared into her kitchen and returned with a bottle of wine.

"Not that the Scotch isn't fantastic, but this goes better with Kung Pao." He brought two glasses and her wine opener over to the coffee table along with the bottle. How did he find all that stuff so fast? The man had amazing attention to detail.

He uncorked and poured their Malbec and handed her a glass. He reached around her shoulders to pull her against his chest as he sat back. His subtle statement of "mine" was not lost on her.

He held up his glass for another toast.

"To what dreams may come."

They tapped glasses with a smile this time and each took a sip.

"Pulling out Shakespeare on me, huh, Castle?"

"Well, I was hoping you wouldn't think I was referring to that movie from the 90's." He looked into his wine glass and swirled. "This is good. Did I bring this over here?"

"Probably. But really, you doubt my literary skills? You forget I started out a literature major in college."

"I would never doubt any of your skills, Kate. I like all my body parts right where they are, thank you."

It felt so good just to lean her head against his shoulder. To forget everything else, even for a little while, and be normal. Why had she shut him out for so long? They were still them. Friends. Partners. They could still joke and talk and harass each other as much as they had last week or last year. They could just do it while drinking wine, snuggled up on her couch, waiting for Chinese food.

The downstairs buzzer sounded and shook her from her reverie. Castle had already unwound himself from her and was at the door by the time she thought to comment.

"That was fast."

When he had tipped the kid and re-bolted the door, he spun to face her and asked in his Derek Storm meets Alex Trebek murder mystery voice:

"Plates? No plates?"

"No plates. Don't want to do dishes."

While he opened paper boxes and pulled out chopsticks, she rose in search of music. She tuned her ipod to her classic rock playlist. CCR came on, and she guessed that would do.

They ate in comfortable silence. Not the awkward silence of the first date that she supposed this really was. Not the silence of complacency in a relationship gone stale, which she knew this was not. It was just the silence of knowing everything that they needed to about one another, at least for the moment. She stole his Kung Pao shrimp. He grabbed straw mushrooms from her beef with oyster sauce. In between, he made an "attack duck" aiming at her nose with his chopsticks, quacking like that stupid insurance commercial as he advanced on her. Nothing had changed. But everything had changed.

When leftovers were in the fridge and the wine was half-gone, he refilled her glass and turned to her with a serious look.

"Do you want me to stay?"

She looked at him through her lashes.

"If I keep repeating myself, I'm going to sound like a broken record. So I won't. Yes, Rick, I want you to stay. With me, in my bed, tonight, all night."