A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed the first chapter, I'm responding to those tonight which is WAY late, sorry! But I'm in my first summer at a new job and first semester back at college. My time is not my own!

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Chapter 2: ep 2x24 A Deadly Game alt ending.

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"...and we ended up talking for hours," Gina smiled up a him. Castle smiled back, warmly, but something was niggling at the back of his mind. Beckett was not herself where she stood a few short feet away; she was radiating discomfort.

"Just like old times," Gina continued, wrapping her hands around Castle's bicep to snuggle in a little closer. Castle smiled at her again before he turned his full attention back to Beckett. Beckett, who was too stiff for the casual conversation, and who was holding her beer too tightly to her chest. Castle gave his head a tiny shake to clear it. Beckett had made it clear in the past that she didn't like when he pried into her emotions, so he took a deep breath and asked a safer question.

"So, I'm sorry, you were telling me something?"

"Yeah, I wanted to say... have a great summer." Beckett's face contorted a little, lips forced into smile territory while her eyebrows frowned at him.

Castle bobbed his head, strangling down the need to know what was wrong. "You, too. And like I said, it's been really, really great."

Beckett smiled blankly at him, distant eyes staring at his forehead before looking off across the bullpen. Castle had just a moment to wonder if something could have happened to upset her in the few minutes he was celebrating with the Captain, Laney, and the boys before Gina was squeezing his arm and nodding toward the exit. Beckett's murmured, "Yeah," was almost lost to him as he glanced down at his ex-wife and wondered what the summer together might have in store for them. Not so very long ago their relationship had been filled with snarky dislike, but maybe this time together would go differently. Castle studiously ignored the part of his brain that scoffed at the notion, and gathered himself to leave.

He reached out and shook Beckett's hand, even though it felt a little awkward and too formal for the moment. He couldn't really hug her with Gina hanging off of his arm. The blonde at his side was ready to leave, so he waggled his eyebrows at Beckett, waved goodbye to the group in the office, and they turned as a couple and walked toward the elevator, arms resting comfortably around each others' waist.

Gina was chatting about the summer to come and the chapters he owed her and how many hours he might have to spend writing each day when they made it to their cars, parked side by side in the garage. He tossed his jacket into the passenger seat of his own vehicle, and realized he'd left his iPad in the precinct. Great.

"Hey, I've got to run back upstairs. Do you want to head over to the loft and I'll pick you up there in a few?"

Gina nodded, gave him a quick peck on the lips, and he made his way back up to the precinct. When the elevator doors opened he strode forward quickly, picking up his forgotten iPad from Beckett's desk with a tiny fist pump of victory. He was halfway back to the elevator when he saw Esposito scowling at him from his desk. The force of the look slowed him to a stop, and he glanced over his shoulder to see if Espo might actually be glaring at someone behind him, because after all, what had he possibly done in the last five minutes to deserve that?

What he saw was Beckett, leaning on a desk in front of the whiteboard, looking absolutely devastated. Her head was hanging while she stared at the floor, her hands planted on her knees, and her shoulders suspiciously shaking. Castle felt his heart in his throat, and an overwhelming need to make her stop crying. Because that's what was happening. Beckett was crying.

"Beckett? What's wrong?"

She jumped up like she'd been shot. "Castle what are you doing here?" She sounded angry, but she wasn't looking at him. Acting on instinct, Castle reached out a hand to wipe away the tears on her face, and she jerked to the side, smacking away his hand. Castle froze, hands held out to the side, eyes soft with worry.

"Please tell me what's wrong."

"I... No."

"Why not?"

"Because you're with her now," Beckett growled, lowering her head to hide behind her hair again.

Castle's jaw dropped. Ignoring her protests, he grabbed a firm hold of her wrist and strode to the break room, dragging her behind him. Once there, he flipped the lock on the door and yanked the blinds shut. He turned around in time to see Beckett drop heavily into a chair and bury her face in her hands, fingers tugging anxiously at the loose strands of hair around her face.

"Castle, I think you should just go," she said hoarsely.

"Not happening," he replied, and cautiously moved to sit across from her. When she didn't move away, he allowed himself to relax a little. He dragged a hand over his face and looked closely at her, finding himself at a loss. What do you say to that? After a long awkward silence, Kate pulled her hair back from her face and turned her red-rimmed eyes toward him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit you."

"I'm not worried about that. Barely felt it."

"You're worried about the other thing."

Castle sighed, unsure. "I'm worried about you, crying in the precinct," he said, fingers twitching as he again restrained himself from reaching out to her.

"Yeah," she mumbled. "I thought you'd gone." As if that were some sort of an explanation.

They fell into silence again. It was there, sitting silently in the uncomfortable break room chair while Beckett sniffled and sighed next to him that something suddenly clicked for Castle. The way Beckett had been looking at him before Gina had arrived, the way she'd said, "I've had a really good time," and the way she had looked so disappointed when Gina walked up and wrapped herself around him. How she'd flinched when Gina said, "I don't bite... much."

"Oh," he said aloud. "Oh, no. Oh, Kate. I didn't realize. I didn't know. I didn't think you wanted... uh. I didn't think you wanted anything... more. I mean, I would never have... um. You know. Gina."

Not the most eloquent thing he could have said, and he was not going to think about what kind of man it made him that he'd just admitted he was using Gina as backup, but Beckett needed to know. If she knew, then maybe. Well, something. Maybe she wouldn't be crying at work, and maybe Espo wouldn't be getting ready to murder him.

Beckett sniffed, and glanced up at him quickly. "You wouldn't be with Gina?"

She looked hopeful, for the first time since he'd come back through the precinct, and the pressure he'd been feeling since he'd seen her lifted. He considered her seriously, and shook his head.

"No."

"Oh, um. Good." Beckett laughed nervously.

Castle regarded her carefully, and forced his face to be neutral for his next question. "Uh, Demming?"

"Gone."

Castle had seen the two of them together yesterday, which meant she'd broken things off so that she could come try to be something more with him. Wow, he'd had no idea.

"Kate, why didn't you say something earlier?"

She shrugged, and breathed in deeply. "I was thinking about it, when you asked me to the Hamptons. And when you asked me the second time I was so tempted. But our partnership is so important to me, I didn't want to just jump in. I just needed to give it some serious thought."

Beckett reached over like she was going to squeeze his hand but stopped at the last moment and just let her hand rest near his. Castle's heart leapt at the aborted gesture, and he wiggled his fingers over so they brushed hers briefly, meeting her halfway, just to see the quirk of a smile pull at her lips. It gave him an inexplicable sensation of pleasure.

There was a giddy excitement growing in his chest that seemed inappropriate considering the woman waiting for Castle at his home, so he bit the inside of his lip hard. Hard enough to keep his face from breaking into a huge smile, and hard enough to feel the sting of tears behind his eyes, but not hard enough to keep his diaphragm from twitching when Beckett's fingertips traced the button at the cuff of his sleeve. He exhaled awkwardly, but kept his smile in check.

"Beckett?" he questioned.

She hummed a response, flicking shy eyes up to his before looking back at the fingers that had now undone the button on his sleeve and were now tugging aimlessly at the parted fabric.

"You really want to try..." he hesitated there, and watched the twitch of her lips at his silence. Bolstered by her good humor, he finished simply. "Us?"

Beckett smiled, eyes still averted, and Castle watched a pink tinge climb from the parted V of her shirt up her neck and to her ears. "I..." Beckett started, but seemed to lack the words. Castle watched her tongue flick out to lick her lips and finally, finally she was looking up and meeting his eyes. One shoulder raised in bashful acquiescence and her cool fingers were creeping under the fabric of his shirt to stroke along the skin of his wrist.

"Good," he grinned. "Me, too." Castle sat back in his chair and linked their fingers, allowing himself just a little taste of the enjoyment he hoped would be filling their time in the very near future. He watched Beckett staring at their hands, her eyes bright and her face a little dopey, fingers flexing slightly around his, and everything about her just so appealing. Castle sighed and squeezed her fingers once more before extracting his hand and, regretfully, standing up. "Good," he repeated, and though he really just wanted to whisk her out of the precinct to some dark little bar somewhere, he said what he knew he had to. "Then before anything else happens, there's something I have to go do."

He grimaced apologetically at her, hoping she would understand, and that she knew he had never meant to hurt her. Castle knew he would tell her explicitly later, when he could brush the lines on her forehead away with his fingers and his lips and whisper his apologies into her ear and her throat and her mouth.

He started to back away, but even all of his natural chivalry telling him he couldn't kiss her, not yet, Castle couldn't just leave her there. Beckett looked overwhelmed and hopeful and sad that he was leaving, and she looked beautiful and kind in her understanding and so attractive that Castle couldn't help but step closer, lightly touch her shoulder with the fingertips of one hand and press his lips to her cheek. Beckett sighed and in toward him.

"Castle, I wish I'd said something yesterday," Beckett mumbled when he pulled away.

"I know. But this," he gestured vaguely toward the elevators, and the rest of the world, and to Gina who was probably now waiting for him at the loft, "won't take me long. So, until tomorrow, Kate?"

Beckett nodded her head at him with a smile. "Good night, Castle."

Castle turned and walked out before he could find a reason to convince himself to just stay.

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Beckett finished readying her desk for the evening in a school-girl daze, not noticing the amused and knowing looks Esposito and Ryan were sending her. She didn't notice that Laney was laughing at her when she told her to "Have a good night, Kate," or that Captain Montgomery was shaking his head at her when she got lost in a daydream with her hand poised over the whiteboard, standing there for at least five minutes.

When she made it home she couldn't remember the drive there, but she could remember how she had been imagining what might have happened if Castle hadn't had to leave to break things off with Gina, and if he hadn't stopped with a quick kiss to her cheek. And if it had been later, and the precinct had been empty, and if she had just opened a few of the buttons on his shirt, and wrapped her arms around him.

She could almost feel it, and just the anticipation of what it might be like with Castle sent her for a long cold shower. She was toweling off her hair when she heard her phone ping. Her heartbeat accelerated as she reached for her phone, and a girly grin crept over her face when she read the message.

"I'll bring the coffee tomorrow morning"

She was still standing and grinning, one hand tucked under her chin, when a second text arrived, full of promise.

"And I'll get dinner and drinks tomorrow night."