Thank you guys so much for the great response to chapter one! I hope you enjoy chapter two!
Kate Beckett woke the next morning with a crick in her neck, though she was so warm and comfortable otherwise that she was hardly inclined to move. Opening her eyes, she encountered a moment of shock when she realized that she was not, in fact, in her own bed. Rather, she was staring at the expanse of Castle's living room. She sat up, turning to find that Castle was already awake, looking at her.
He smiled. "Good morning, sleeping beauty."
"What time is it?" she mumbled, still not fully awake.
"It's about eight. Alexis and mother won't be down for a while. Alexis is a teenager, despite her good decision-making skills, and mother… who knows when she'll get up? She sleeps like the dead."
"Good. I can sleep longer," she replied, stretching out on the couch, so that her head rested in Castle's lap. She closed her eyes and sighed, trying to get back to sleep.
Castle began fiddling with her hair, running his fingers through it gently. It felt fantastic, and Kate was content to let him play with her hair all day, if that was what he wanted to do. After a while, his movements changed, and Kate realized that he was braiding it, though beyond that, she couldn't specify. When he was done, she pulled her hairband off her wrist, handing it to him before he could undo all his work.
Castle took it from her, surprised, not having realized that she was still awake. When he was finished tying it off, she stood up, making her way over to a mirror to look at it.
"Castle, how did you do this? I can't even do something like this!"
"I'm a single father. I know my way around a braid," he reminded her, smiling. He wrapped his arms around her as she admired the braid in the mirror.
"Castle, I think we should talk about this at some point today." She met his eyes in the mirror. "I just… I'm serious about this. I don't want to rush into it head first and have it fall apart because we can't communicate."
"I don't either," he stated. "Why don't we go sit down again, and we can talk about this now."
Kate nodded, and followed him back to the couch.
"So, what's got you worried?" He asked, pulling her sideways to lean into his shoulder again.
"I don't know. I just think we should talk about whether or not we're going to go public with this. Stuff like that."
"Kate, I know you're a pretty private person. We can keep this completely off the radar, if you want to." He kissed the top of her head, and then remarked, "If we do that, though, I will need to talk to Paula. She can usually keep the press out of things well, but after a while, something's going to leak."
"I don't think we need to keep it all to ourselves. Obviously we're going to have to tell Alexis and Martha. Lanie and the boys will find out eventually. But we will need to keep it quiet at work, or Gates will take you off the team. Officially, you're not a cop, so it's allowed, but as soon as it becomes a distraction, you're gone."
"Wow. You've really thought about this, haven't you? Have you been looking through the rule book, Kate?" He teased, grinning at her.
"Shut up," she scolded him, slapping him half-heartedly on the arm.
"How about this: We do have to tell Alexis and mother, probably today. But I was thinking that it would be fun to see how long it takes Lanie and the guys to figure it out on their own."
Kate laughed. "Of course that's what you were thinking."
"Is that a yes?"
She thought for a moment. "Fine. It's a yes. Now what are we doing about the press?"
"We could always let them guess, as well," Castle suggested.
"Maybe we keep it under wraps just for the first few months, and then we'll have Paula let it out slowly?"
Castle nodded. "That sounds good to me. I'll call Paula this afternoon."
"And I'll talk to Alexis if you'll talk to Martha. I'd like to tell her by myself, if that's alright with you."
"Are you sure?"
Kate nodded. "Trust me, Castle. I have no misconceptions about how I've treated you in the past. I'd like to see if she'll hear my side of things."
Castle nodded, and pulled her closer. "So. We're decided then?"
Kate nodded, and leaned back.
"Was there anything else you wanted to talk about today?" Upon receiving her denial, he asked, "So, since there's no one around… does this mean I get a good morning kiss?"
She leaned closer to him, wrapping her arms around his neck, before whispering in his ear, "Show me where the coffee maker is, and then we'll talk."
Castle practically raced to the kitchen, pointed at the state-of-the-art coffee maker on the counter, and proceeded to pull bags of at least five different types of coffee from the cabinet. Kate took her time, inspecting the labels of each and every one carefully.
Impatient, Castle pointed to one, and said, "That's the one I use when I bring you coffee from home."
"I think that I'd like some of that, then, thank you."
Castle stepped slightly closer, putting his arms around her waist and drawing her closer. He leaned in slowly and deliberately, and so was shocked when Kate pulled away, pulling her ringing phone from her back pocket.
"Sorry, Castle. Your good morning kiss is going to have to wait for a few minutes." She grinned at him, and answered her phone. "Hey, Lanie. What's up?"
She missed the response, because Rick was whispering in her other ear, quite indignantly. "You postponed our morning kiss to talk to Lanie? You, Katherine Beckett, are a tease."
"Lanie, my new man has just called me a tease. Would you believe that?" She asked, faking her own indignation.
"Judging from your voice?" Lanie replied. "Yes."
Kate huffed.
"And why haven't I met this new man of yours? Hell, girl, why haven't I heard about this new man of yours?"
"I've been busy," Kate defended.
"Obviously, if you're still with him at eight-thirty in the morning."
"Lanie!" Kate protested.
"So when do I get to meet him?"
Kate sighed. "I'm considering letting him come to the precinct on Monday. I'll come down to the morgue to see you."
"You'll consider letting me come on Monday? Why, Detective Beckett, I'm quite frankly hurt!"
"Oh, be quiet," she said, shushing him.
"Kate, did you even hear what I just said?" Lanie was asking when she turned her attention back to her phone.
"Sorry, no. What was that?"
"I said that I expect all the details on Monday. Everything."
"Okay. I'll talk to you later though. Coffee's done, and I did promise him a good morning kiss before you interrupted. See you on Monday, Lanie."
She clicked off her phone, and turned to face Rick. "Now… Where were we?"
I hope you guys liked this chapter!
I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to finish and post Chapter 3, so bear with me...
Thanks for Reading!
~Erin
