A/N: thanks for the great reviews! keep 'em coming! :D


A Chill Goes Through Her Veins

"I heard that, ya know."

Kate Beckett took her eyes off the road for a moment to glance at Rick Castle, seated beside her. "Heard what?"

"You said 'us.' You told Wyler he lied to 'us,' not to 'me.'"

Kate looked determinedly out the windshield at the traffic in front of her and said nothing.

"It's the first time you've done that," he said, pretending to be nonchalant and looking pseudo-absentmindedly out the window.

"Oh, is it? I hadn't noticed." Lies. All lies. She cursed inwardly.

"Yep."

They rode the rest of the way in silence, until they reached the precinct. Kate parked and made to get out of the car, but was stopped by a hand on her arm. She turned to see Rick looking at her and smiling. Well, not really smiling. But he had that look in his eyes that told her he was smiling on the inside – the one where they looked all warm and twinkly, and had the cutest little laugh lines around them… Shut up, Kate.

"I really like being an 'us' with you," he said quietly.

Before she could even begin to pick her jaw up off the ground to formulate a response, he was getting out of the car. She swallowed hard and followed silently.

Always Buy Retail

When Rick Castle imagined what the scenario surrounding is own death would be, he'd come to the conclusion that dying at gunpoint wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. God knows he'd made enough enemies throughout his life. And honestly, it'd be a rather fitting end, given his career. So he'd long ago decided that he wouldn't mind dying this way. If nothing else, it'd make one hell of a story.

But when he actually did find himself staring down the barrel of a gun, he certainly wasn't prepared for the first and only thought that raced through his mind: Beckett.

He grabbed her just in the nick of time. Bullets whizzed through the air as they fell behind the couch, impacting the wall behind where her head had been mere milliseconds earlier. Looking back on that moment, Rick always found himself smiling at the irony. She'd landed on top of him, the length of her body pressed against his, their faces so close he'd have to go cross-eyed just to look at her. It wasn't exactly how he'd pictured his first intimate moment with Kate Beckett, and he didn't even get to enjoy it. Well, he certainly enjoyed the fact that she was still alive, but was too afraid for their lives for his mind to go to its dirty place.

"Call 911!" she yelled in the direction of the bedroom, where he knew Diana Edwards was currently hiding, scared to death. She was off of him in a flash, kneeling behind the couch and firing bullets in Bailer's direction before Rick had even realized she'd grabbed her gun. He prayed that one of them would hit its mark. But more shots rang out, and Beckett's gun wasn't the culprit. Crap.

She began crawling away from him. Rick didn't even know where she was going, or what she planned to do once she got there, but he did know that he didn't want her out of his sight. So he followed her behind the island in the kitchen, blood pounding in his ears and his heart beating out of his chest. Something shattered on the counter above them, causing Beckett to cry out in surprise. He quickly sat up and shook the glass dust out of his hair.

"Give me the passport!" he heard a man yell in a thick Nigerian accent.

"Put down your weapon!" Beckett yelled. "Now!"

Another shot rang out and another glass shattered, its remnants flying from the counter and skittering away across the floor.

"Give me the passport!" the man yelled again.

Terrified, Rick looked at Beckett. She had the passport clasped in her hand, right next to her gun. Though she was breathing heavily, he could see no sign of fear in her eyes, which comforted him to no end.

"Bailer, any minute now this place is going to be crawling with cops. Don't make things worse than they are," she commanded loudly.

Rick jumped as several more shots were fired and a cascade of glass rained down on them. Beckett, however, was prepared. She spun around and fired back half blindly. Bailer shot yet again, this time hitting a candy jar. Beckett made a frustrated noise as dozens of multicolored M&Ms joined the litter of glass on the wooden floor.

Rick could've sworn his heart stopped for several seconds as Beckett fought back yet again, this time exposing her head and shoulders above the countertop in order to get a better shot. He resumed breathing again when she ducked back down, but his feeling of dread deepened as Bailer shot once more.

"Give me what I want, and I walk away!"

Ah crap. Rick knew this one all too well. He turned to Beckett. "I've written this scene about a hundred times," he said frantically. "We give him what he wants, and you know how it ends? Badly. And by 'badly,' I mean us dead."

"Just stay down," she ordered, adjusting her grip on her gun.

He could see where this was going, and didn't like it one bit. "You stay down!" he countered.

"I can't shoot him from down here!" she whispered angrily.

"Yeah, well he can't shoot you either!" he shot back desperately.

If she could tell he was worried about her, she chose to ignore it. He held his breath as she slowly inched her head up to the counter. He flinched as three more of Bailer's shots rang out, and Beckett hid herself once again.

She blew her hair out of her face. "I can't see him."

Rick heard footsteps, and quickly shushed her. "He's moving."

The footsteps stopped. "I've only got two rounds left," Beckett whispered, her voice finally becoming tinged with desperation. "I need a clean shot, I've gotta get eyes on him somehow."

His brain ground into action. Okay, sticking our heads up there is a death sentence. All we really need up there are eyes, like a periscope. Or … a camera!

He quickly dug into his pocket and retrieved his phone. Sliding it open, he activated the camera.

"What's with you and the phone?" Beckett asked incredulously. He became marginally less nervous; if she had the presence of mind to keep their dynamic normal, they were going to be fine. Hopefully.

He stuck his phone above the counter and snapped a quick picture, jerking his hand back to safety as Bailer shot yet another three bullets their way.

"I'm not playing games!"

Yeah, no shit, Sherlock! Rick showed the picture to Beckett; Bailer was hiding behind a wall. She met Rick's eyes.

"I don't have an angle on him from down here."

"I will kill you both!" Bailer yelled.

Rick cursed silently. His eyes darted around the room in front of him as he searched his mind for something, anything, that would at least buy some time for backup to arrive. His eyes fell on the liquor cabinet in front of him, and he felt the proverbial light bulb go off above his head. It'd be risky, very risky. He ran the danger of getting shot. But no, there was a slim chance of that happening; Beckett wouldn't let it happen. He steeled himself. This may be their only chance. He'd just have to trust that she wouldn't let him down.

"Okay," he said breathlessly, scooting forward to open the door. "When we shoot, he shoots. He'll be exposed." Damn, he'd said the end result without explaining his plan. Good going, Castle. "I'll set the pick, you take him down." He removed a bottle of champagne.

"Set the pick with what?" she asked, sounding like she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

He wrestled the plastic wrapping off of the cork. "This."

"You're gonna get yourself shot!" She sounded furious.

"Not if you make your shot count." He looked up from the bottle and was surprised to see some concern in her eyes.

"Castle!" she exclaimed.

He took charge. "Just be ready."

That was all the encouragement she needed. He turned and slid himself to one end of their hiding spot, shaking the bottle to agitate it. He heard Beckett readying herself at the opposite end. This was it.

"This is your last warning."

At Bailer's words, Rick sprang into action. "NOW!" he yelled, throwing himself out into the open and sending the cork flying with a loud 'pop.' He experienced a moment of sheer terror as Bailer showed himself and pointed his gun.

But two gunshots later, Bailer was on the ground, moaning in pain. Rick felt like he'd been clubbed over the head with a frying pan, his relief was that intense. He looked over at Beckett and marveled at how normal she already was; she let her hands drop to her sides as she walked over to Bailer's prone form, kneeling down beside him and taking out her handcuffs.

Rick was giddy and weak with wasted adrenaline. "I'd say this deserves a toast," he said, lifting the bottle of champagne to his lips and relishing its bite as he took a swig. It'd been a long time since he'd needed alcohol to deal with anything.

Beckett let out a disbelieving laugh as she dragged Bailer's arms closer to her so she could cuff him. Rick held out the bottle in her direction in offering, but wasn't surprised when she turned it down. She dealt with things like this far more often than he did, and he'd eat his laptop if she hadn't already found a way to cope with it. But as a newbie, he decided that alcohol was perfectly okay. Now where were the champagne glasses in this place?

Later that day, Rick Castle came to two very important conclusions. When he slid his phone open to find a text from Beckett reading, "Just wanted to make sure you're okay," he decided with a grin that he was in this for the long haul.

And second? Screw the story. Dying at gunpoint would NOT be worth it.

Home is Where the Heart Stops

"I have a question for you, Castle," Kate Beckett said, turning to face him, file folder in hand. "What the hell?" She emphasized the last word by slapping his arm with the folder.

"Whatever do you mean?" Rick asked mock innocently. "And I'll take that," he said, plucking the folder from her hand.

She rolled her eyes. "Don't give me that crap. Where'd you learn how to shoot like that, and why the hell didn't you tell me you could?"

He chuckled and peeked into the folder, stealing a glance at the photos and making sure she didn't renege on their deal. "Marksmanship team. It was my side project in college."

"That doesn't answer my second question."

"Hm?"

"Why did you lead me to believe that you had no experience?"

He shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest and holding the folder against him. "First of all, I didn't think you'd throw down a challenge and force me to show myself."

"So you were going to just let me think that you're worse than you actually are?"

"Well, I didn't think you'd take too kindly to me being better than you at something within your area of expertise." He paused. "Wow, that sounded better in my head. I didn't mean for it to come out as so patronizing."

Kate glared at him. "I don't know what kind of women you've dealt with in the past, but I do not like laboring under false pretenses. If you're better than me, tell me." She stepped closer so they were almost nose-to-nose. "Because as much as I hate you having the upper hand, being lied to is that much worse." And with that, she turned on her heel and walked away.

Rick watched her go, a small smile playing across his lips.

Ghosts

It had been a comparatively long time since Rick Castle had gotten a woman's phone number. And it was no wonder, he mused, glancing at his cards; he'd gotten one mere days earlier, and had just returned it to its owner.

Quickly racking his memory, he couldn't think of another time in his life when he'd done that. The routine was always the same – flirt, take the girl's number, call her the next day, go out with her that evening, sleep with her that night. If things went well, he'd think about round two. But for the most part, they'd part ways and he'd never see them again. Then the cycle would start all over again.

He'd had the chance to continue it tonight. Lee Wax's card had made itself at home in his wallet, and she wasn't exactly being subtle that she'd like nothing more than a wild night with a certain somebody. But the mere thought of her made him cringe. Come on, she'd all but killed Cynthia Dern and felt absolutely no remorse for what she'd done. And what was with that lip stuffed full of collagen, anyway? It was gross, that's what it was. His eyes flicked up from his cards to glance at Kate Beckett's poker face.

Kate freaking Beckett.

Rick sighed. He couldn't lie to himself anymore; the woman was a really good influence on him. A few months ago, he would've happily hopped into bed with Lee Wax with maybe a fleeting second thought. But now? Ha! Fat chance! Now, instead of having sex with one of the slimiest human beings on the planet, he was playing cards for candy with one of the most morally upstanding. Which was better?

He looked up again and found a pair of gorgeous green eyes looking back at him. They narrowed.

"Said your prayers yet, Castle?"

He grinned. No contest.


A/N: definitely didn't think i'd write that much for Always Buy Retail, but hey :P. i forgot how much i love the first season!