Bored. So bored. That's where he was. His one thought. Well, alright, he was thinking about a little more than just that one word at the moment. For example, the woman next to him. He could think about her a whole lot; he had proved that to himself on a daily basis. However, when he had volunteered to accompany his muse/detective on this stakeout, he had pictured much more excitement than he was experiencing at the moment and he really hated to admit it, but he just might have run out of thoughts to think of her at the moment.
Just twenty minutes after they had parked the cruiser on the street across for the perp's apartment, he had realized that sitting in a car late at night in a relatively quiet neighborhood was, frankly, dull. So he had begun observing the beauty in the seat next to him. The way she steadfastly kept her eyes trained on their target's building. The way she would take a break from fiddling her thumbs every few minutes to re-tuck the strands of her hair behind her ear. The amazing way she was ignoring his blatant staring until she had suddenly barked a "Castle" at him without a blink. That was his cue to stop the gazing.
Then he tried to start up a conversation with her. It was all too quiet in the small cabin of the sedan, and without the car on to power the radio, he needed some auditory stimulation. The "conversation", if that's what you would call it, was completely one-sided. It was like a game to her, shooting down his questions and topics by just answering yes or no. Eventually, after covering everything from her purchases on her latest shopping trip to the weather, he simply ran out of subjects.
Feeling slightly unwelcome, he got comfortable in his seat, well, as comfortable as one could get with a spring poking them in the ass, and stared out the front windshield, becoming one with his thoughts – thoughts about her. No matter how she discouraged him, he was still always in awe with her. He revealed in her strength, her stubbornness, her compassion, the differences in the way she carried herself from when she was in interrogation and when their group would go out on a Friday night. Next his thoughts moved onto her figure, from the top of her gorgeous head of silky hair down to the tips of her toes that were usually buried in a pair of ridiculously tall high heels.
That's where he was now. He literally could not think of a part of her, physically or personality-wise, that he hadn't covered. Never had he ever thought that he would get to this point. He discreetly glanced over at her out of the corner of his eye to not attract her attention. A feeling of guilt ran through him at the fact that he had run out of observations about her. Not that she had any clue about this war he was waging with himself at the moment. Even if she did have the ability to read his mind, she was far too focused on the stakeout to sense it. He frowned and turned his gaze back out the front of the car.
That's when it happened. In the almost deafening silence of the car, she yawned. Yawned. As he turned and watched her cover up her gaping mouth with the back of her hand, he had the fleeting thought that maybe he really shouldn't be this excited about a yawn. But this was not just any yawn. It was a majorI-am-exhausted yawn.
He took her distraction with the yawn to take a really good look at her. That's when he noticed the deep blue bags under her eyes that profoundly contrasted with the paleness of her usually glowing skin. Why did I not notice this earlier? She honestly looked drained. He thought back to the day that they had just experienced. It was pretty exciting compared to other days. That, paired with the late night he knew she had the night before, he couldn't blame her for The Yawn.
After about 15 seconds of straight yawning, her jaw finally relaxed and it was over. The strength of it had caused her eyes to water up and she used the hand that had been covering her mouth to wipe at them. She looked over at him and gave him a sheepish smile, "Sorry," she muttered and then turned her tired eyes back to the building's front door.
That's when he decided to make it his mission to help her. "Are you ok?" He reached one hand out to cradle her elbow.
She gave him a confused look, "What? Why would you ask that?"
He cleared his throat and removed his hand from her. Maybe I should have approached this differently. "I, uh, I just mean you're looking pretty tired." He shrugged one shoulder.
She snorted out a laugh and rolled her eyes at him, "Wow, Castle. You sure know how to charm a girl."
He winced. Definitely should have approached this differently. He looked away from her teasing eyes and wracked his brain for a new way to be her hero and help rid her of her fatigue.
"I haven't been this tired in a long time." She interrupted his thoughts with her quiet emission. He looked back over at her and couldn't believe she was exposing just how worn-out she was all over her face.
He gave her a sympathetic look, "Can I offer you my shoulder?"
"Always the gentleman, aren't we, Castle?" she said with a small smile. "Honestly, with the way I am feeling, at any other time I would probably take you up on that offer. We are on the job, though. I need to be alert in case this guy comes out of his apartment at any point."
"Kate, if you keep this up, you won't be alert for much longer," he reasoned. "Come on, I have excellent references in both my daughter and mother on the pillow-like comfortableness of my shoulder, plus I promise I will be very attentive and wake you the moment that there might be any movement over there." He gave her his best puppy dog eyes.
Kate scrutinized him, unbelieving. That was the moment that another yawn hit.
"See? You need it, Kate. Just take half an hour and then I will stop bothering you about it." He wiggled his shoulder up and down a few times in sync with his eyebrows. "You won't regret it."
It took a beat, but suddenly she gave in, "Fine. Come here." She wrapped a hand around his bicep and tugged him closer before settling in against him and letting out a sigh in contentment. "Don't be so smug, Castle," she said at his grin. "You better let me know when 30 minutes pass, and if you don't keep your eyes on that building and your hands to yourself, I am not opposed to using my gun."
Castle smirked and tilted his body towards her to give her a better angle, "I won't let you down, Kate." It only took two minutes until he felt her body completely sag against him and a small snore was expelled from her mouth. Hero status: complete.
