Disclaimer: I do not own Castle. Although a girl can dream.
A/N: I can't begin to thank all of you who have followed and reviewed my story. Again all the mistakes are mine. Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!
Rick POV
It's nine in the morning and I'm all too aware that our off day is over. Kate and I are at the precinct waiting for a phone call to inform us about a dead body. I'm settled at her desk reading the paper while she is grabbing us our coffees. On the front page was a case that we had just solved. My eyes scan the article looking for inconsistencies in the story. I'm absorbed in my reading that I don't recognize the sound of her heels clacking across the floor.
"Whatcha reading?" She asks me as she hands me a mug. She takes a sip from her own and takes a seat.
" Just reading how the NYPD took down that drug ring." I say folding the paper and passing it to her. She sets her mug on the table and takes the paper from my hands, reading over what I've just read. "Somehow one ruggedly handsome author is not credited for taking down this particular kingpin." I point to the picture of the leader of the ring.
"Somehow, I think it was best for the PR department to not put that in their statement. After all, this ruggedly handsome gentleman did manage to catch the guy after rounding the corner and tripping over a slightly elevated manhole lid." She smiles and rolls her eyes.
"A takedown is still a take down." I say petulantly. I begin flipping through the different sections. My hands hit pay dirt a moment later. I open the paper and begin reading.
"The comic section really Rick?" She eyes me dubiously.
" I only read one of them. I have to read the Peanuts comic strip. When Alexis was little, I would make breakfast, wake Alexis up and after we ate we would read the peanuts comic strip before she had to be at school." I look to her and see this wide grin stretch across her face. "I would read all of the male parts and she would read all of the female ones. She's totally a Lucy"
"I was a Peppermint Patty fan myself."
" Mine was Charlie Brown. See Beckett? Even our tastes in fictional characters are a perfect match."
"I see. So now that you have read Charlie Brown, why do you still have it in your hands? Reading your biography I presume?"
"Biography?"
"Dennis the Menace?"
"Hah… Double Hah." I say folding the paper into fourths and steal a pen out of her pen cup. " Actually, I work on the crossword puzzles." Just as I begin to focus on the puzzle, the phone rings.
"Beckett?" I watch her as she jots down all of the information. She hangs up the phone and looks to me.
"Come on Castle. We've got a murder to solve."
14 hours later and we're finishing up the paperwork for the case. Well Kate and the boys are finishing up the paperwork. I have bought Chinese for the team and am kicked back in the chair finishing off my beef with broccoli. We are gathered in the conference room with half empty food boxes that litter the middle of the table as well as the crossword puzzle that is missing the final answer. It's bugging me that I can't seem to figure it out. Kate takes a bite of her eggroll and finishes her train of thought until a voice breaks her out of her trance.
"You know what still bugs me?" Ryan asks us as he sets his pen down and reaches for his moo-shu pork. All eyes turn to him. Before he takes a bite he finishes his train of thought. " What was it that tipped you off in the first place Beckett? How did you know that she was the one who killed our vic?" He motions to Kate with his chopsticks and then digs in with passion and mumbles something unintelligible.
"Her story didn't add up. She said the last time she had talked to the victim was at eight o'clock on the phone but when she went down to the morgue to claim her sister's belongings, she knew exactly what article of clothing was missing and used it to try to steer us into a different direction."
I find the nearest napkin and write down my first reason why I love her. It was the first thing that intrigued me about her and coincidentally the first thing that made me fall in love with her. I slide the napkin towards her. She looks down at the napkin and a smirk appears across her face. I'm sure she's just read the part where I told her that her intelligence was one of the things that made her my muse.
"I thought it was because I was tall?" She asks and I know the guys are confused because we've all but ignored them completely in our own little world.
"Well who wants a stupid heroine?" I retaliate
"Ah and here I thought it was my eyes that attracted you to me." Her smile gets even bigger.
"Nope, but those are an added bonus." I tell her. "I was attracted to your beautiful mind first."
We lock eyes for what feels like an eternity. The air becomes thick with lust and I can't wait to get her home just to show her how much I love her. I hear a throat get cleared beside us.
"Yo Kev? Wanna go grab some beer and play some Madden? Mom and Dad are having a moment and it's grossing me out." Esposito remarks. We all laugh but Ryan puts on his coat and tells us goodnight. I agree that its time to go as well. Kate and I are to visit Alexis at Columbia tomorrow for lunch and a tour of the grounds.
I begin clearing off the table, discarding the empty boxes of Chinese food into the trash. When I turn back, I see Kate standing there with the folded up crossword puzzle in her hands.
"Did you figure it out?" I raise my eyebrows. Surely she's not going to answer the last piece to the puzzle that I have been working on all day.
" Invariably and forever? Six letters? Really Castle?" She asks. We begin to walk out of the conference room and into the bullpen where she grabs her bag.
"What is it?" I ask genuinely interested.
"It's always." She says as she slings her bag over her shoulder and we fall in step together as we make our way to the elevator. "The answer is always."