A/N: In the trend of 'all the songs make sense', there will be a song quote at the beginning of each chapter from now on. And, since I love all kinds of music, please feel free to send me any song/lyric suggestion and I'll give it a listen. It doesn't matter if it's a song from a not very known band/singer, as long as I can find it on YouTube.
That being said… well, I'll just let you read.

Dive In

I don't know why I'm scared, I've been here before
Every feeling every word, I've imagined it all
− One and Only, Adele

Chapter Two

"Hey."

A beat. Mere seconds that it was silent, but she could hear her heart beating loudly in her chest. And she felt something else. An uncomfortable weight in the pit of her stomach. Fear? No way. But… something along those lines. She felt kind of… well, nervous. Because she still, in the back of her mind somewhere, felt like she might be intruding.

"Can I come in?" She asked.

"Eh, yeah, of course. Come in." Castle opened the door further. He watched as she entered his apartment, a bit puzzled as to why she was here. He'd expected her to be with Josh all night. He mentally winced at the imaginary that followed that thought and quickly dismissed it. It didn't matter. She was here now.

"Do you want something to drink?" He offered, in an attempt to break the silence.

She looked at him, smiled, then raised the hand that was holding the bottle of wine she'd brought.

"Right." He didn't see how he could've missed that. "I'll just get glasses then." He moved to the kitchen and rummaged through a cupboard before getting out two wine glasses.

She watched him from the couch, studying his appearance. He still wore the same clothes he'd worn at the precinct before. His hair wasn't mussed either. It didn't seem like she'd interrupted his rest.

Once Castle had poured the wine in the two glasses and sat down next to her on the couch, she noted, "You weren't asleep."

Raising his eyebrow, he gave her a puzzled look. "What?"

"You said you were going home to rest, but it didn't seem like were asleep." She clarified.

No idea. She had no idea why all those words came tumbling out of her mouth. If it wouldn't make her look even more ridiculous, she'd smack herself for even mentioning it. She wasn't here to satisfy her curiosity. And even less to make things uncomfortable.

At least Castle didn't seem to mind or notice. "I couldn't really sleep." He shrugged. "A little too much on my mind, you know?"

He really did have a lot of things on his mind. And not just the 'Josh-thing'. Ever since he'd gotten home, his mind seemed to be on repeat. Replaying everything that had happened, everything he'd felt. First the time they'd spent locked up in that damn freezer. He'd seen her slowly fade out in his arms. And there wasn't a thing he could do about it. God, he had felt helpless. In that moment, he had been sure that she would be the last person to see him alive.

But they survived.

Then, later, there was the bomb. Seeing the seconds literally ticking away. He didn't think they'd be lucky enough to survive that too. But they were.

She noticed something shifting in his posture, and was curious why.

His eyes locked with hers, as if reading her mind. "We really have been lucky today."

She nodded slowly, seeing the sincerity in his eyes. "I know."

They silently stared at each other for a moment. It wasn't just sincerity she saw in his eyes. There was something else too. Something that somehow made her wish she could comfort him somehow. A little helpless, he looked. Her gaze dropped and she reached for his hand, took it in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze before repeating softly, "I know."

This, being together, sharing the silence, was just what they both needed after everything they'd been though that day. They just sat next to each other for a while, hands intertwined, before Castle broke the silence.

"I haven't told Alexis and my mother yet about today." He said.

She looked up, slightly surprised. She knew about his relationship with both his daughter. He shared a lot with them, even some of the bad things. It seemed unusual for him to keep something this big from them.

After seeing the look on her face, he continued, "I didn't tell them before, because I wasn't allowed to. But now…" He sighed. "You know, after agent Fallon left, I started thinking… This was probably not the first time something like this has happened in the past couple of years. Only we never knew about it. It could've happened hundreds of times for all we know. I just…" He shook his head lightly. "One of these times something could really go wrong."

Looking at the ground, he added softly, "I just don't want them to have to worry about these things. Or to be afraid."

"Castle."It wasn't often that he showed her this side of him. She knew the serious side, yes. The goofy side of him as well. But it wasn't often that he actually showed her his emotions like this. She placed the hand he'd let go of on his knee. It was just like she had done when she'd found him sitting next to the pool after the triple killer case. Just staring off into space. She could definitely relate to how he felt, I a way. "You shouldn't have to worry about it either."

He sighed, and gave her a half-smile. "Yeah, I know that. But it's just… my mind keeps coming up with all these different kind of scenario's. Each worse than the other."

"Well, most of those will probably never happen. And even if someone plans on doing something, there's always a whole team ready to jump in and take care of it. We worked on this case, you've seen how serious these people take their jobs. It's true that there are things that no one can predict, but most of the time, you can."

He nodded and sighed. "It's just been a long day."

With that, they closed the conversation on that particular topic, each lost in their own thoughts for a moment. Castle glanced at her, and once again the question of why she was here with him came to mind. Did she even have a specific reason? He considered that option for a moment, before dismissing it. This was Kate Beckett, after all. She must have had a reason.

"So…" he started. "… did Josh need to go to the hospital or something?" This was in no way prying, he told himself. He was simply making conversation. Polite too, since this was the first time he'd actually listened to her request not to call him dr. Motorcycle boy anymore.

She hadn't expected him to ask that. "No, he didn't. Why?"

He shrugged casually, or at least, tried to make it look like he did. "I just figured you'd want to be with him after today."

With all the thoughts she'd been having, Josh was the last person she wanted to see, but he didn't really need to know that. Now wasn't the right moment to discuss any of that anyway. "I was pretty tired." She said. "I figured I'd go to sleep early." But then I went to your apartment to see you instead, she mentally added.

He nodded, and she was grateful he left it at that. "Did you have dinner yet?" He asked her.

"Eh, no, not really." She answered honestly. Well, unless he considered a bag of skittles dinner.

"I haven't had much to eat either. I was thinking of ordering in." He gave her a questioning look, wanting her approval.

She smiled. Maybe it was because she'd had so much other things on her mind before, but she suddenly felt very hungry. "Sounds good."

He reciprocated her smile. "Okay, what are you in the mood for?" He jumped up from the couch, walked away, and came back with a stack of take-out menus. He looked through them. "Thai, Chinese, Indian…" He paused, turned his head slightly to look at a menu that was upside down in the stack and then continued. "… Italian."

"Is Italian your way of saying 'pizza'?" She asked amusedly. "Cause if so, I pick Italian."

He grinned. "Italian it is." Getting out his phone, he dialed the number on the flyer, while Beckett pointed out which pizza she wanted on the menu. Once they'd ordered, Castle suggested to watch a movie while they waited for the food to be delivered.

After some arguing, they agreed on a movie, and settled back on the couch to watch it. At some point, a delivery boy was at the door with their pizzas, and Castle went to get them. When he sat down next to her again, he ended up closer than before, and she could feel the warmth radiating off his body.

They continued to watch the movie, eating their pizza's silently, aside from a small argument that followed Castle's request to trade a slice of pizza. An argument he won. Not because of his great arguing skills, but more because she wanted him to stop pouting.

It surprised her how easily they could switch from all the seriousness of before, and dealing with the things that had happened today, to just comfortably watching a movie, bantering like nothing ever happened.
She liked that he could take her mind off of things. All traces of the nervousness and worry she'd been feeling before had evaporated, and been replaced by a comfortable warmth.

Smiling, she took another bite of her pizza. It had been a good idea to come here after all.

A/N: Hmm, so I feel like this is sort of a… well, slow chapter, but even though the title of this story is 'dive in' doesn't mean they're doing that right away. Kate has still some things left to figure out, and I might still have a 'dr. Motorcycle boy' to fly off to a faraway country…
I do think, though, it's safe to say that things will move along rather quickly within the next couple of chapters.

Anyway, you guys were awesome with the reviews the previous chapter (I swear, I was pretty blown away) so do you think you could try that again, maybe…? :)