Glancing up at her, Castle just sighed and buried his face in the palms of his hands.

Taking the fact that he didn't try to push her away as a yes, Beckett sat down on the other end of the bench, making sure to keep a good amount of space between the two of their bodies, not wanting to push his limits.

"Castle, I- I can explain everything. Just please hear me out."

Again, Castle said nothing. He merely leaned back on the bench and tilted his head back, watching the display above him and the showering sparks.

Taking a deep breath, Beckett kept on going.

"Castle, I know you heard me, but it's not what it seems," she said, looking at him. "I thought you understood, Rick, that I-"

He interrupted her and said, "Understand what? That you lied to me? You heard me, Kate. If you were just dragging along, you should just go ahead and tell me, put a man out of his misery."

Taking in a shuddering breath, he sat up and looked at the detective, whose eyes were glassy with unshed tears that were threatening to spill.

"I saw you die in that ambulance, Kate. Your heart stopped, and I thought I would never see you alive then. Now, every time I close my eyes, I see you die. Everything reminded me of you, and I thought I'd never be with you again."

Tears slipped down his face, leaving wet tracks behind.

Her plan to talk things out, or at least what there was of it, shattered when she saw his tears. She had never seen him cry before- not once.

Not knowing what to do, she grasped his hand, which lay on his leg. Castle moved his hand back, scooting himself away from her.

Hurt flashed through her eyes, unsure of how she was supposed to react, but she decided to keep going as if that one little gesture did not bother her.

"I thought you understood," Kate started again. "There were a lot of things that made me doubt what you had said."

Before Castle could respond, she continued on, looking down to her lap.

"At first I thought it was a hallucination- apparently during life or death situations, it's common to make up things in your mind as a way to try to hold on, and I really thought it was the end, Rick. And then you came in nervously with that smile of yours, and I knew that what I had thought happened really did occur. You asked me if I remembered, and I -I panicked."

Her voice trembled, and shame licked at her, knowing that she could have handled that situation far better than she did.

"I was already having problems, you know, with letting people in, ever since mom died. I thought that maybe just a couple weeks of therapy, and I would be okay. Then, I would tell you."

By then, Castle had looked at her, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"T-Tell me what?"

Taking a deep breath, Beckett knew that that was it. She said the words she had rehearsed quickly, not wanting to lose the temporary courage she had built up.

"That I remembered, and I love you too."

A scary and awkward silence suddenly descended upon them, the two still trying to process what she had just said out loud.

"You do?" Castle said, a hint of a smile lifting the corners of his mouth.

"Yeah." she looked up, meeting his eyes, and let slip a small grin, matching his expression.

"So.. So we like... We love each other?" Castle asked, his voice tinged with joy, his grim demeanor gone.

Leaning forward, Kate grabbed the lapels of his jacked and gently tugged him closer as her lips touched his. The moment seemed so surreal, his lips grazing against hers as they stayed in that position for a few moments, not wanting to end the feeling of finally kissing each other.

They finally broke away, and Kate gazed up at him. "Yeah. I love you too."

:

There were still many, many things in both of their lives they needed to fix, but at that moment, what they had was all they needed