A/N: Find the Happy Endings quote! Yay!
Kate and Gus drove Castle to the airport two days later. And when they dropped him on the curb of the JetBlue terminal at JFK and Beckett got out to see him off, Gus tried in vain to look out the window from the front seat, but he was still a little too short. They heard his muffled, high pitched barking from inside the car, and when they turned to look, all they could see was his little wet nose, smearing along the bottom of the window.
"He's missing out on all the action," Castle said, chuckling as the nose disappeared, then reappeared a few seconds later in the back window.
Kate smiled, watching his nose bob along the bottom of the window, and said, "He probably misses you already."
"Well, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Castle smirked at her and she raised an eyebrow. "What are you implying? That I miss you already?"
"I don't know," he answered, wrapping and arm around her waist and pulling her closer. "Do you?"
Her eyes trailed down to his lips and she said, distractedly, "You're gonna miss your flight."
"Yeah, I should go," he agreed, sounding equally distracted.
But invisible magnets were drawing their faces together, despite what their words were saying. They kissed, but eventually he really did have to go, so they said their goodbyes and he picked up his suitcase and took a step closer to the car, tapping lightly on the window and looking down at Gus.
"You take care of her, Gus. You're the man of the house while I'm away. ya hear?"
For some reason, he had an old west accent when he said it and it made her roll her eyes and laugh.
Castle turned to her with a grin and said, "I showed him how to use the coffee maker, but he strikes me as a little on the irresponsible side, so don't be too disappointed if you don't have a hot cup of joe waiting for you when you wake up."
"I think I'll be fine, Castle."
"Well then, I will see you in three weeks, fair lady."
He kissed her one more time before disappearing inside, and she and Gus cleared out for the rest of the cars that were honking at them to get moving.
"It's just you and me now, kiddo," she said, turning to glance at the little dog who was sitting in Castle's usual seat. His ribs were quivering, and his nose twitching as he held it up to sniff the air. He let out one last huff of breath and turned to look at her. She thought he looked pensive; maybe even a little sad.
"It's ok, Gus," she said, reaching over to smooth one finger under his small chin. "He's coming back. It's just three short weeks. Don't be sad."
Gus blinked at her, then yawned and lay down on the seat, and she sighed, knowing that she was really telling that to herself.
He called her every night, as long as the time difference didn't make it too late. But when he was on the west coast and didn't get back to his hotel until eleven, he would just text her an Until 12 days from now, Detective or a short Miss you. Night. She almost always texted back, too. Which nearly made him stop, to keep from waking her up, but she'd sent him a frowny face the next morning, when he hadn't.
He liked to keep her apprised of his time away from her, by intermittently texting her pictures of mundane trivialities, like his breakfast, or the line at a book signing, or the top of his foot, where he'd tripped and scratched in on the corner of the bedframe. But she enjoyed it. They were ridiculous and made her roll her eyes more often than not, but it let her know that he was thinking of her. And it's not like it was anything new, because he did that even when they were together. Like when he sent her pictures of the view out the window, from his side of her cruiser. Or a picture of the dinner he'd just made, letting her know it was ready. Or the couple of times when he lagged behind her as she brought him up to speed on a case and when she said, "Castle, pay attention. What are you doing back there?" he'd sent her a picture of her own ass.
It was just him. And in return, she would send him a picture of her hand, playing tug-of-war with a piece of rope and Gus's mouth. Or her lone cup of coffee, sitting beside the keyboard on her desk. Or herself, cuddled up with Gus cradled in her arm like a baby, and Frozen Heat open in her lap.
She discovered that Gus liked sleeping on his back, in her arms, one of his paws sticking up in the air, and it made her laughed every time he dropped his head limply over her arm and licked at the air, one of his back legs twitching involuntarily.
"He's so funny, Castle," she said, one night while they were talking on the phone. "When I get home from work, he wags his tail so hard that he can't even walk straight."
Castle didn't really have anything to say. He just sat grinning into his phone and poking the stiff, hotel pillow beside him. He missed them. Granted, he'd only known Gus for two days, but dogs were easy to fall in love with.
"Castle?" she asked, sounding worried. "You ok? You're quite tonight."
"Sorry, I was just picturing you naked."
Kate laughed. "Well as soon as you get home, we'll have a nice roll in the hay and then maybe you'll be able to focus on any of the things I have to say that aren't sex-related."
"No, I'm totally paying attention. You said something about Gus not walking straight. Does he have misshapen hind legs or something? Do we need to get him checked out?"
She laughed again. "Funny man." Then after a beat, she said, "How was your day?"
"Oh you know, same old, same old. 'Castle, sign my boob.' 'Hug my adorable kid.' 'Here, have this free present.' Drudgery, really."
"Hard knock life, huh?" she asked, chuckling and shaking her head.
"I do it for the children."
She rolled her eyes and groaned, "Oh, jeez."
This time he laughed. "So… how are you doing?"
"I'm in the throes of depression without you. Barely scraping by," she said, over-dramatically.
"I knew it!"
"No. Actually, the guys have been almost uncomfortably caring about this whole thing, like we broke up or something. They make sure to invite me out with them almost every night, which I guess is sweet, in an awkward sort of way."
"Do you go?"
"Lanie and I hit the Old Haunt with them last week, but mostly I just come home and play with Gus."
"Lucky bastard."
"Only five more days, Castle."
"You mean five millennia?"
When she didn't say anything in reply, he was about to keep whining, but then she started talking.
"Gus. Leave that alone. No, no." There was a pause and then, "Good boy! Come here, babe."
"Hey!" Castle protested. "All you ever call me is Castle. How come he gets all the pet names?"
A laugh reverberated through the phone and she said, "Um, maybe because he is a pet?"
"You make a flimsy case, Kate."
"What are you even talking about?"
"You just said, 'come here, babe' to the dog. Never once, have you said that to me."
"So, you want me to treat you like a dog?"
"You know what I mean."
She was still laughing at him when she said, "I have too, Castle."
"I don't recall the words ever passing your lips."
"Why is this such a big deal to you?"
He huffed dramatically and said, "I don't know. Maybe because my girlfriend only ever calls me by my last name unless she's mocking me. Have you never heard of a term of endearment?"
"Castle is my pet name for you," said retorted.
"Yeah, except for the four years where you used it interchangeably with curse words."
She had to laugh again. "Well, I'm sorry, Babe. I didn't realize you wanted to be called a pig's name."
"It's not about that specifically. It's… You know what? Never mind. Just forget it. You hate me."
"Would you relax?" she said. "You're being ridiculous."
Apparently now he was sulking because he didn't say anything.
She felt a little bad, thinking maybe she'd made fun of him just a little too fervently. She honestly hadn't realized that it bothered him when she only called him Castle. But now that he'd brought it up, she could understand where he was coming from. After all, she did like it when he whispered, "Hey, Sexy," in her ear, or grabbed her hand with a, "Let's ditch this joint, Doll Face." Hell, she'd even secretly liked it the one time he'd had the audacity to call her "Boo". But, of course she had leveled him with a glare and threatened his essential bits, because it had been at work.
Now she felt like she needed to remedy the situation.
"Sorry, Sweetie," she tried. "I didn't know it meant that much to you."
"Well," he said, like an 8-year-old who felt grudging with his forgiveness. "I might have blown it a little out of proportion."
She chuckled. "Who, you? Inconceivable!"
He grunted indignantly, then fell silent before he said, "Now, don't think you have to get too crazy with it. An occasional straying from the tried and true 'Castle' is all it'll take to make me happy."
Smiling to herself because he was ready to play again, she said, "Oh no no no, Honey Pie. You walked right into this. Now you have to deal with the consequences, my little Lily Petal."
"You know, now that I think about it… Castle's good. Great, actually. You can just stick with Castle. All the time."
She was laughing again and he'd forgotten that he was ever upset. That was his bread and butter, drawing a smile from her lips, or a laugh from her throat. She was right, he was being ridiculous about it.
When her laughter died down, he let out a contented sigh and said, "It's probably getting kind of late there, huh?"
"Umm…" She was reluctant to hang up but, it was. "Yeah, I should probably get some sleep."
"You should. And in the meantime, I'll just be here. Thinkin' about you, thinkin' about me, thinkin' about you… naked," he chanted.
"Mmmhmm." Her eye roll was almost audible. "Night, Castle."
"Goodnight, Kate."
He was about to hang up when she said, "Oh, and Castle?"
"Yeah?"
"Right now, I'm wearing nothing but your Captain America t-shirt. Sweet dreams."
Then his phone beeped as it disconnected.
The last bit of his trip passed rather uneventfully, except for the fact that his flight home, got delayed twice, and by the time he was re-scheduled to get in, at 2 am, he hated for her to have to pick him up. So he insisted that he'd take a cab and that she not worry about him.
And even though she'd said she probably wouldn't be able to sleep anyway, when he crept into her bedroom in the wee hours of the morning, she was sound asleep, her arms and legs curled around Gus's small body.
He set his bag down inside the door and made his way softly over to her, trying not to make too much noise. But he didn't get very far before Gus's head popped up and his tail started wagging and he was scrambling out of her embrace.
"Shhh," Castle tried, fruitlessly, when Gus started making little whining noises and scampering to the edge of the bed.
He reached out to pet the dog, who evaded and started licking his palm instead, all the while high-stepping all over Beckett's hair.
"Gus," Castle whispered. "Sit."
Nothing.
Castle was just reaching out to pick up the little dog, when she stirred. A moan escaped her and her body uncurled, eyes opening slowly.
"Sorry," he whispered, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Castle?" she said, drifing back to full consciousness.
"Hi."
He smiled at her as she swept her mess of bed-head out of her face.
"Hey. When do you get here?"
"Right now," he said, trying to keep Gus from wiggling out of his grasp.
He put one hand beside her head and leaned down to kiss her, while his other arm had Gus tucked between them, unintentionally close enough for the little dog to join in, lapping happily, at as much of both their faces as he could reach. Not wanting to be interrupted, Castle's arm automatically stretched out and placed the dog as far away as he could reach, without breaking their kiss. It didn't help though, because as soon as he let go, Gus came darting up between them, barking and licking and barking some more.
Finally, chagrinned, Castle let her go and sat back up.
"Stop cockblocking me, man," Castle said, rubbing his fingers into Gus's fluffy coat. "Not cool."
Kate laughed and scratched the little dog's chest. "He just wants to make sure I'm alright."
"Looks to me more like he's trying to snake my girl," Castle retorted. "I come in here and you two are all spooned up together and I can't even get a kiss in edgewise."
Now Gus was on Castle's lap, paws on his chest, trying to hop high enough to lick his face.
"No, he's just an innocent little puppy," Kate said, smiling at them.
"Innocent my ass," Castle said, picking the dog up and looking him in the face. "I see what you're trying to do, Gus. And it's not gonna work."
"Don't worry, Gus," Kate said, taking him from Castle. "He's just jealous."
"I am jealous," Castle agreed. "How am I supposed to get any welcome-home sex if this guy's trying to get all up in the middle of it?"
Kate laughed and leaned forward to peck him on the lips. "Don't worry, Castle. He has a doggy bed in the laundry room."
Edit: Upon further speculation, I realized that probably Kate's apartment doesn't have a laundry room. That's ok. Suspend your disbelief, folks. Cause I think if poor little Gus is gonna get kicked out, he at least deserves a good laundry room. amiright?