This chapter features the first love scene I've published. It's at the end of the chapter so if you don't like that stuff just skim past it. I've also put it in italics so it's easier to spot
This time his wait is outside his own apartment building, he watches as his younger self takes Alexis upstairs then starts walking when he sees Martha come out. He catches up after a block
"Hello Mother"
she jumps and swats him but realizes immediately that something is off
"Richard? Why do you look so much older?"
Castle motioned for her to walk and once they're in the park he answers
"well mother I look older because I am older. I came back in time from an alternate future, to save the lives of the woman I love and her mother"
he stops by a bench and sits down, she sits next to him
"and I suppose you're going to tell me who this woman is so I can meet up with her mother and play the dating game with your younger self am I right?"
Castle laughed at that
"something like that"
He pulls out his cell and shows Martha the same pic he showed Johanna
"Her name is Katherine Houghton Beckett, her mother is Johanna Beckett... a lawyer. I don't know if she'll finish law school in this time or change to criminal justice and police academy like she did in my time. But she is the woman that I would give my life for without a second thought. So what I ask is this Mother... never ever let me sleep with Merideth again, don't let me have any relationship outside of professional with Gina Cowell, and guide my crazy heart to Kate. Black Pawn will try to manufacture a playboy image for me, don't let them. Just keep me the man you raised, goofy hyperactive inquisitive yet kind loving and intelligent"
Martha looks at the photo and how happy her son looks and nods
"I can do that Richard"
she hands the phone back to him with a smile
"I love you mother"
he leans down and gives her a good hug and a kiss on the cheek
"I love you too kiddo"
he gave her a warm smile then stood up and disappeared into the trees trying to figure out what else he needs to do.
By ten pm he finds himself outside the Beckett's house, leaning against a garbage can keeping an eye out in case something unforeseen should pop up. Unbeknownst to him a teenage figure is watching him from the second floor window, her mother behind her on her bed.
"Mom how do you know he isn't some nut job? I mean you of all people..."
Johanna stops her
"Katie you just answered your own question, I'm thorough. He knows things he shouldn't know and he has pictures honey, pictures of you older than you are now"
Kate hugs herself not liking the idea that in another time her mother would be dead right now.
"and he said he loves me?"
that makes Johanna smile a bit
"yes dear and if you were to spend time with this time's Rick Castle he and I are both positive that the same thing would happen with him. Katie when he told me why he came back in time his eyes showed a broken man, a man who had lost his heart and soul. In those moments his eyes were clear windows to his soul and it was clear what he was telling me was true"
Kate chews on her lower lip a long moment before turning
"Well if he's going to stand outside like a guard dog all night I'm going to take him a coffee at least, maybe pick his brain a little"
Johanna shakes her head a bit
"you mean you may as well go pick his brain and give him a little coffee while you're at it?"
Kate shrugs getting her jacket on
"either or. Hey could you try to get a different flight for me to get back? maybe one a few days from now?"
Jo raised her eyebrow but before she could ask Kate was gone.
A few minutes later Castle watched as Kate exited the house with two steaming carry mugs of coffee and crossed the street towards him. No matter how hard he tried not to his eyes got misty and his hands shook, his voice the barest of whispers
"kate..."
Kate heard him and tipped her head as she stopped in front of him, her eyes searching his seeing just how true her Mother's words were
"So, Mom wasn't kidding you really are from the future"
Castle nods as he raises his hand and touches her cheek with those shaking fingers, the shaking stops after a moment of contact and her eyes close
"So... it's true then that the last time you saw me before this..."
Castle takes a deep breath and rests his palm against her cheek
"The last time I saw you alive you were dying in my arms, I told you that I loved you and you took your last breath. I shouldn't be telling you this but... I am anyway. Future you could tell you a few things about my ability to do as I'm told, I apparently missed that day of puppy training"
he chuckled softly and they both looked at the ground, she absently hands him one of the coffees.
"Mom said you have pictures..."
Castle clears his throat and nods getting his phone out and just setting it to the beginning of the album
"just slide your finger across the screen like this"
he shows her then reluctantly takes his hand back and takes a drink of coffee, watching as that adorable little furl forms between her eyebrows as she looks through the pictures
"were we together?"
she said quietly, noting the way they're looking at each other in the photos. Castle shakes his head
"No, we kept missing our chances. When you... when you were shot you were seeing a cardiac surgeon, a real piece of shit"
he subconsciously started to rub an almost healed bruise on his jaw
"I rode with you to the hospital hoping that I was wrong, that you weren't dead and could be saved. You were pronounced dead on arrival. We were all milling around in shock when he attacked me in the waiting room. He punched me in the face then started blaming me for your death. I tried... but I was half a second too late"
She glances at him a long moment then back to the pictures
"why was I with him when it's obvious who I wanted?"
Castle cleared his throat
"in my time, you became a different person after tonight. Johanna was killed in the alley I found her in and you built a wall around yourself so that your heart wouldn't be hurt so gravely again. To put it bluntly you hid from a relationship with me in a relationship with him because you would never cheat on someone you're with so there was never a risk of us... slipping. In fact we'd had a big fight about just that two nights before you were shot, we never had a chance to make up even as friends"
he takes a slow drink of coffee, ignoring the twin tears escaping down his cheeks that Kate very much notices. She wipes them away with her fingers and watches his eyes
"and you're sure that the you of now will feel the same way were we to meet and spend time together?"
Castle nodded a few times
"Yes especially if you get to him... me... him... uh get to my younger self before he makes the mistake of dating his publisher, Gina is a bloodsucker in so many ways. My first marriage ended because I caught Merideth in bed with her director, my second marriage ended when I caught Gina in bed with another up and coming author. By the time I met you I had no true self esteem and covered it with false confidence and bullshit, you saw right through it and wasn't impressed. In fact you wanted to shoot me for the first year but we got past it"
Kate thinks a long moment before asking her next question
"in your time, what do I do for a living that I spend so much time with you?"
Castle bites his lip
"before I answer that Kate, I need to ask what you're thinking about career wise right now"
she lowers the cell phone, the vein on her forehead protruding as she thinks
"I wanted to be a lawyer like my parents but... now that I'm a semester in, it doesn't feel like the right place for me. I'm thinking about the police academy, maybe aiming for homicide detective. Let my parents defend the innocent while I track down the guilty you know?"
Castle smiles at that
"that's what you did in my time too and I shadowed you on the job for a character I loosely based on you. You were the best homicide detective in the nypd, everyone knew of you and respected you. Your funeral was the largest funeral in NYPD history, no joke. You never give up, you never back down, give hell or high water you find justice for the victims of murder and settle for nothing less than the truth"
Kate smiles a bit and nods
"That sounds like me, once I put my mind to something I don't let go"
Castle chuckles deeply
"oh don't I know it"
Kate looks down at the phone again, thinking over what she knows about the theory of time travel
"Do you know when you're going to disappear? I mean, you can't exist for much longer now that you've changed the future"
Castle shrugs
"I suppose that will happen whenever it does, if it does. I'm no expert on the matter"
Kate paused and rubbed her thumb along her lower lip
"Then, lets take a walk"
He gives her an odd look but nods and they start to walk
"Who's the red haired women in the pictures here?"
Castle glances over
"the younger one is my daughter Alexis, at this point in time she's four. She was fourteen when we met. The elder woman is my Mother Martha Rodgers"
Kate blinks a few times
"THE Martha Rodgers, as in the stage actress?"
Castle chuckled
"That would be the one. She eccentric as hell but when the times call for it she can be as serious as a heart attack and far too wise for my own safety"
Kate laughs softly finishing her coffee and tossing the paper cup in a can as they pass it
"she sounds like a character"
Castle nods finishing his and dropping it in the next can they pass
"that puts it lightly but she's a wonderful mother and grandmother, even if she thinks differently from time to time. She raised me as an unwed mother who didn't know who the father of her child was. As you can imagine the world at large didn't take that so well but it wasn't that she was... an easy woman. She was eighteen, in Miami with her acting troupe when an older gentleman walked over and made her swoon. When she woke the next morning he was gone. But she got me out of it and she said it makes the night worth it"
he shrugs a bit and Kate smiles stopping outside a holiday inn
"wait here"
she said softly then walked off before he could even ask, she returns ten minutes later and takes his hand leading him to a room. Castle swallows hard
"Kate, what are we doing?"
she stays quiet till they get into the room. She puts the room key and his phone down by the door then rests her hands on his chest
"For you, it will be what you need for the beginning of closure, for me... it will be a preview of things to come"
without another word she pushes his jacket off his shoulders and down to the floor, then her hands move to his long button down and starts unsnapping buttons. Castle's voice is quiet
"Kate are you sure?"
Kate just nods and pulls his shirt open exposing his broad chest. She moans under her breath as she slides her hands over the expanse of his bare chest. He moves enough to slide his shirt to the floor, then with shaking hands he pushes her jacket off, then grabs her sweater and the tee beneath, meeting her eyes as he pulls them up. She raises her arms up then once they're free she reaches back and unclasps her bra, dropping it on the pile of clothes she takes his hand and presses it to her breast
"Rick, I'm not exactly a virgin here. I know what I'm doing, with whom and why. Just let it happen"
she closes her eyes as his hand begins to caress that breast, his thumb finding her nipple making her gasp. She waits another moment before hooking her other hand around the back of his neck and draws him down for a kiss. It's slow and methodical as he explores her tongue and mouth with the utmost care and passion.
They work together as they disrobe one another until they're laid out on the bed with him half atop her, his lips slowly working along her jaw line to a spot behind her ear that makes her arch and moan softly. His fingertips glide feather like along her skin as he makes his way down her neck, then pause at each perfect breast and squeeze ever so slightly making her writhe beneath him. A last he starts to descend her body making her whimper with pleasure, his mouth taking each taught nipple into his mouth and suckling ever so slightly, his tongue flattening over the tips and nipping each making her gasp before slowly kissing down onto her stomach and then finally he adjusts himself until he's facing her wet center, he slides two fingers inside her watching as she arches almost completely, mind ignoring everything else going on. He smiles a little then presses his tongue to her sensitive clit, his fingers thrusting slowly exploring her inner most self for her most pleasurable places. She grasps his hair with one hand, holding his head in place, her hips gently riding his fingers, her voice a whispered moan
"oh god... fuck... so good... don't stop... fuck Rick"
with her whispered words of encouragement he draws her clit into his mouth and tenderly suckles as his tongue caresses, his fingers finding that one spot inside her and focusing on thrusting into it. He can hear her breathing picking up, the pitch of her moans and words raising by the moment until she cries out his name, her back arching as far as it can off the bed yet she can still thrust wildly through her orgasm. He draws his fingers to his mouth cleaning them with a deep moan then slides up her body and kisses her oh so tenderly, their tongues twining in a languid dance for several minutes before he draws back and gazes into her eyes
"It amazes me, even now you're the most beautiful, most extraordinary woman I've ever met"
He gives her one more kiss, she can't think of anything she can say to that so she just returns the kiss with everything she has.
When their lips finally part he reaches between them and guides his erection inside her, she arches against him with a loud moan of pleasure. He can't remember ever being so hard, she can't remember ever being filled so completely like he was made to fit her. He tenderly kisses the side of her neck while she has a minute to adjust and then he starts a slow rhythm, each thrust almost pulling out then pressing as deeply as he can. She moves with him in perfect sync, her hands sliding down his back to where she can squeeze his ass, she can already feeel another orgasm building, this is like nothing she has felt before or had before and she wants to relish every passionate moment.
Her breaths are coming out in short pleasured pants as she nears her second orgasm of the night, she lets out a needy whimper as his mouth moves back to her breast, his tongue caressing that hardened nub until she crashes around him, her nails digging into his ass hard enough to draw blood as her intense orgasm robs her of her senses. He continues to thrust as she tries to catch her breath but instead ends up moaning his name, his own breathing is labored from how close he is himself but he wants so desperately for her to go off again even though he knows the night is just beginning. He speeds up a little and her moans change pitch
"oh god... you're a god on earth, pure god... you fuck me like I've never been fucked before... don't stop please don't stop"
He moans her name as he lifts his head and speeds up a little more, adding a little more power to each thrust getting a more than positive response he makes it through two more orgasms before he cries out her name and fills her, the sensation itself giving her another orgasm that blows her mind. He wraps his arms around her and rolls them so she's on top, they're still engaged at the hip but they can catch their breaths. After a few minute Kate sits up and starts rolling her hips against him, supporting herself with her hands splayed across his chest he moans deeply as he hardens inside her. She moans and almost has an orgasm from that sensation alone, but after a few thrusts her eyes roll back in her head from pleasure.