Thanks for all the reviews on the first chapter. I am so happy so many of you guys are enjoying this. Hope to keep you entertained.
Thanks to my Beta's. Love you guys.
XOX
They were silent for awhile, both lost in their own thoughts until Kate lifted her head and looked at Castle.
"So," she started, hesitating before she continued, "What's bothering her?"
He smiled, which confused her, she didn't think it was funny at all that his daughter had reservations towards her.
"Castle?" she raised one eyebrow at him.
"Us," he simply said as if it was an explanation.
"Us?" she questioned.
Castle looked at her, moving closer, lacing their fingers together, when he was close enough.
"It hit her, you know?" He said watching her thump draw circles on the inside of his wrist.
"Actually I don't," Kate said frowning. Frankly it didn't make sense to her at all.
"Alexis knows this is different. That what I have with you is different from any other relationship I had before," he paused, trying to gauge her reaction, fearing he was saying too much. "But when you opened the door to her this morning it hit her. And for a moment she said she panicked."
"Panicked?" Kate still didn't understand,
"Yeah, she said she had this movie playing in her mind that I would build a new life without her. Since she moved out and went to College I would just move on with my life leaving her behind. She knows it's stupid. But sometimes we can't help how we feel, right? Sometimes we do stupid thing."
"You would never leave her," and there was so much gentle adoration and belief in her voice he had to look at her and saw everything she hadn't put into words yet, laid bare in her eyes. And he almost told her. Almost said the three little words again and so much more but she spoke first.
"Did she ever felt like this way with any of your other girlfriends?" She knew she was breaking their moment but she had to know and yet she didn't want to, but the words were out there now. No going back.
Castle shook his head, "No, she knows you're not like any other."
"I am not?" She still had trouble believing it or maybe she was a bit scared because she actually knew she wasn't like any other. Deep down, she knew.
"You're not and you know it," he confirmed before placing a tender kiss on her lips. "I told you. None of them were you."
She untangled their hands, bringing her arms around his neck to pull him closer, "None of them were you either." She whispered, before capturing his lips with hers, passionate and demanding, yet with a softness that he wanted to cherish for the rest of his life. He pulled her closer. His tongue running over her lips and she willingly opened her mouth to him, moaned when his hands slipped under the thin fabric of her shirt. In the end she had no idea how she had ended up in his lap, her shirt on the floor and his mouth doing forbidden things to her breasts through the fabric of her bra. God, he really was good at this. His right hand travelled south, toying with the button on her jeans, before pulling the zipper down to gain access.
"Castle," she hissed, having trouble to concentrate. "What about your mother?"
"Not coming home tonight," he grunted. Frustrated she would bring up his mother now. He slipped his hand into her panties, applying pressure with his fingers and was rewarded with her moaning his name into his ear, where she had buried her head at the side of his neck, kissing her way down to his chest, trying to get rid of his shirt.
But he ruined her plan by standing up, causing her to hold on tight, wrapping her legs around his waist, where she could feel just how aroused he was.
"Castle." She shrieked, a laugh bubbling from her lips, as she wrapped her arms tighter around his neck. "Where are you going?"
His only response was a deep growl, which turned her on in an almost embarrassing way. He didn't go far anyway, dropping her on the couch only giving her a second to glare at him before he covered her body with his.
He had pulled the comforter over their naked, sweaty bodies. She was sprawled over his chest, while his hand was running circles on her lower back.
"So Gangs took over the case?" He asked into their post-coital silence.
"Mmmh," was her only response, before placing a feather light kiss over his heart.
"Slaughter?" He asked carefully.
Kate raised her head, "Seriously, you're bringing him up right now?" She wasn't allowed to mention his mother, but he could bring up this asshole?
Castle pulled her back down, placing a soft kiss into her hair, "Sorry. That was stupid." He paused and she thought he would leave it there but he continued. "I was stupid back then."
She looked at him, her fingers running through his hair, down his face, over his lips. "We were both idiots back then. I am just glad he didn't get you killed." She smiled but he could see the truth and the fear behind her eyes.
"Yeah, me too. Me too." They shared one of these moments, lost in each others eyes, before the significance threatened to become too much and she let her head drop back onto his chest.
"And no, it wasn't Slaughter."
He sighed, "Good. I don't like him near you or anyone else I love or care about."
She heard him, knew what he meant and he was sure she would make a smart remark about his tendency to be jealous about any man getting near her, but to his surprise she didn't. She just wrapped her arms around him a bit tighter, smiling when he did the same and drifted of to sleep.
XOX
She woke alone, freezing. Wrapping the comforter around her slim form she got up and padded through the living room in search of him and found him behind his desk, writing.
For a moment she just watched him. His brows furrowed, his eyes slightly squinted, totally focused on the story he was creating, oblivious to the rest of the world. She loved that about him as well. How lost he could get writing a story, creating a mystery, bringing the characters and the plot alive. Just as lost as she got when she read them.
She approached him with a smile, spread her arms around him from behind, engulfing him in the comforter she had wrapped around herself, her naked form pressing into his shoulders, her head coming to rest on top of his.
"Hey," he murmured, his eyes never leaving the words he was writing.
"How long have you been up?" She asked, glancing at the clock which read 4:20am.
"An hour or so," he replied absentmindedly.
"Don't leave me alone too long," she whispered, kissing the top of his head, before disappearing into his bedroom and climbing under the covers.
Twenty minutes later she felt his side of the bed shift, not fully awake she scooted closer to his warmth, snuggling into his side and his yet again naked chest. Satisfied he had lost the shirt he pulled on while writing, Kate sighed in contentment, felt his arm pulling her close and drifted off again.
XOX
"Another gang shooting?" Beckett asked, walking over to Esposito and Ryan who were watching Detective Ranston take over just another one of their crime scenes.
"Yepp," Ryan flipped open his notepad, "Samuel Rodriguez, age 23, member of the Kings."
Beckett looked over to the lifeless body of yet another dead gang member, the young man's face was smashed into the sidewalk, a huge pool of blood surrounding him, drenching his baggy pants and shirt.
"Did they smash his head before or after they shot him?" Castle asked, handing Beckett her coffee.
"Lanie can't say until she gets him to the morgue," Esposito stated, watching his ex-girlfriend finishing her on scene examination.
"Sorry to take another one from you," Detective Ronston shrugged when he joined the team on the sidewalk, "At least this time I was here early enough to spare you the paperwork."
"Any idea who did this?" Beckett asked, ignoring the unfaithful apology.
"Right now, I'd say Westies. But you never know." He walked off again, talking to a member of the CSU team and Beckett took it as their hint to go.
"Come on guys, nothing left for us to do."
"Isn't this quite far off their normal habitat?" Castle asked, sitting next to Beckett in her new Dodge.
"What do you mean?" Beckett asked glancing quickly at him, before returning her attention back to the street.
"I mean this is not the kind of neighborhood you would expect two gang shootings in a row to take place," he gestured towards the line of expensive apartment buildings they were passing to emphasize his point.
"So?" She was not really focused, he could tell as much.
"It's an odd sock. Doesn't fit the story."
"Well it's not our odd sock to find," she finally answered, eyes still on the road.
"True, Mitch Buchannon will have to do that." Castle grinned, waiting for her reaction.
"Huh?" She glanced over.
"You know," Castle cleared his throat and started singing, "One morning in June some twenty years ago. I was born a rich man's son."
She rolled her eyes, "Seriously? David Hasselhoff?"
"Hey," he raised one hand in defence, "That man sang down the Berlin Wall."
She snorted, "Sure he did."
"And Germans love him."
"U-huh. I think that is a myth."
"Beckett," he said shocked. "It's not a myth. It's the truth."
"Whatever," she dismissed it and immediately regretted it, when she saw his sad face. "But I'll admit Detective Ranston has a slight resemblance with The Hoff."
And there it was, that beaming, little boy smile, she loved so much, spreading all over his face.
"Don't." She suddenly said.
"What?" He said innocently.
"Don't sing Crazy for you."
XOX
Castle hummed it when he was alone under the shower later in the evening. Yes, it was a cheesy song and yet he hadn't managed to get rid of it all day. And after Beckett had told him she wanted to spend the evening at her place, alone, this was his opportunity to maybe hum it out of his head.
She had mumbled something about needing to do some laundry and he knew it was an excuse, but he had only pouted a bit like she would expect him to and had let her be. He knew she needed quiet nights like this, especially after all the drama with Alexis, even though it had turned out all right in the end, he knew her well enough to know it had upset her.
Sometimes he worried if it was all a bit too much for her, after all those years of closing herself up, maybe he was pushing too hard. But he wanted her here with him, with his family so badly that he tented to forget that this was all new to her.
She had told him she had never really been with anyone. Sure she had been in relationships, with men she didn't love as she had admitted one late night in bed with him, where they had made up after a fight about nothing in particular. And it had surprised him that she had actually admitted he had been right with his assumption.
She had chosen men who had been more or less unavailable because of their profession and because she didn't have to invest more than she was willing or able to. Back then she thought it was all she wanted, now she knew it was all she had been capable of, but with him she wanted more and maybe it was not him pushing too hard, maybe it was her who was putting herself under too much pressure. Whenever she doubted them, when she questioned if it could work between them, even though they came from different worlds, whenever she said she was just a cop and they didn't made sense on paper.
He had learned, with time, she was not really doubting him or them, she was doubting herself and needed him to tell her she could do this. And he would. As long as she needed his reassurance he would give it to her, because he knew she was more than capable to do this. Be with him. She proved it every day. She just needed a bit of faith sometimes. And it was all worth it when he saw that spark in her eyes which told him she was just as overwhelmed by the fact how great they actually were together as he.
He sighed, turning off the water and stepping out of the shower he grabbed a fresh towel from the rack to sling it around his waist. He didn't bother to dry off, he would just air-dry. He had turned up the heating when he got in. The December days were slowly getting colder and he wondered when the first snow would fall. And sometimes he even allowed himself to dream of white Christmas. White Christmas with Kate.
Kate was pacing her living room, restless. It hadn't hit her until much later. What he had been proposing. And she really couldn't find a better word for it. And while she always had believed she was the one and done kind of girl it scared her how much he had obviously been thinking about it. About their lives together, how clear it all was for him when even his daughter was thinking it. And she wanted it, she really did. But this was all going so damn fast.
And she really had thought she needed this, a quiet evening alone, a glass of wine, just her and her thoughts undisturbed. But now she was restless and she needed to rest and maybe stop thinking all together, for once stopping to analyze everything.
And being alone didn't do anything for her to accomplish that. And if she was honest with herself she knew exactly what she needed. In the end it all came back to him. In the end she always came back to him.
Castle walked into his bedroom, almost having a heart attack when he saw her sitting on his bed, apparently getting ready to get in it.
"Martha let me in on her way out," she shrugged apologetically even though she knew he didn't want an explanation how she got in, he had given her a key long ago, but she refused to use it unless in a case of emergency. But he was probably more interested why she was here after all.
"You said you would stay at your place tonight," Castle kind of stated the obvious.
"Changed my mind," Kate shrugged again, "Are you complaining?"
"No, definitely not complaining," he shook his head eagerly, his wet hair bouncing funnily around his forehead, making him look cute and boyish, "Just surprised." And when he finally found his ability to move he walked over to sit down next to her, his brows furrowed in concern. "Are you okay?"
She smiled at him and nodded, "Yeah, just realized I didn't want to be alone after all." And he thought that she would leave it there but to his surprise she went on, "Couldn't stop thinking and overanalyzing things."
"Things?" He questioned.
"About us," she clarified and could see him prepare to talk her out of one of her worst case scenarios.
"Kate," he started, way too serious for her liking, so she shook her head.
"It's all good now. All quiet up here," she tipped her index finger against her head. "It always helps when you're around."
He studied her for a moment, saw the truth in her smile and beamed at her, "Good," and he moved in to capture her lips in a soft kiss that quickly got more heated when she tugged at his towel.
