A/N: First, thanks to everyone who left a review or fav'ed / alerted this story or me. It really does give one motivation to continue! There will be one more chapter after this. I thought I could wrap it up in just 3 but its way too long, so I broke it up. The last one is just about finished too. I was having a hard time with this, so I stopped reading all Castle fic associated with the last episode because I was afraid it would influence me. I hope my ideas aren't too similar to anyone else's. Lastly, Sorry this is taking so long. The first chapters literally wrote themselves, but Lanies not here to help our dynamic duo now so they have to figure it out for themselves, and as you know, they're a little slow on the uptake.

Chapter 3

He'd left within about 10 minutes of hanging up with Lanie. He had to deal with Gin-ex first. He hadn't given her much of an explanation, just that something had come up, and he had to get back. Tonight. Now. He'd thought she might be happy, or at least relieved, given how the trip out there was an unmitigated disaster for them personally. She wasn't. Not happy. Not relieved. She was pissed. Or least she'd pretended to be – God she just loved to poke at him!

"Leaving! We just walked in the door! What do mean leaving? Richard Castle you have a book to finish! The whole point in coming out here was to get away from all the distractions at home and get some actual work done! Do you remember work? Real work? The work you get paid to do? What the hell's wrong with you?"

Holy hell! How did she get her voice to do that awful high pitched screeching thing? He'd almost forgotten about that. Hadn't heard it since before their divorce. He was sure all the dogs within a mile must be howling. He was rather surprised to find his own ears weren't bleeding.

Oh yeah, now he remembered – that was reason number 565 why they'd gotten divorced.

She was still staring at him, actually waiting for an answer. Apparently those were not rhetorical questions. He stared back.

For just a brief moment he was lost in a fantasy about murdering her right where she stood. Yes, he thought. He could do it. He'd learned a lot in his time at the 12th as a part of the best homicide team in the city, and he was pretty sure he could do the deed and get away with it. He could make it look like an accident. In real life, simple lies were the most believable. "I swear officer, she fell and hit her head. Must've been some water on the floor or something. Tragic…. Just tragic…" He could even cry a little... That'd work, right?

Even if he screwed it up, he thought Lanie would probably back him upon the forensics.

Yep.

Pretty sure she would….

Alas, he thought with a sigh, he had more important work tonight. He would allow her to live. He shook his head, took a deep breath, and focused again.

He'd told her quietly, but in no uncertain terms, that he was in no mood for her shit tonight. He had neither the time nor the energy to fight with her. He needed to go. She knew him well enough to know when he had been pushed to his limit, and although she'd tried baiting him a couple more times, she seemed to recognize that he was done. She'd asked when or if he was planning to return and he'd told her he would not be back. At least not while she was there, although he'd held his tongue and hadn't said that part out loud – he still wanted to maintain a professional relationship with her. But, no matter how things played out with Kate, he knew Gin-ex was a mistake he'd already made once and had no intention of repeating.

Before walking out the door he'd assured her that he would get his professional act together. He promised he would stop working cases until the book was complete and in her hands. A week at the most, he'd said. She'd stood at the door as he was leaving. "Richard, do you realize how important this is? I hope you know what's at stake here. I hope you know what you're doing. If you screw this up the consequences will be awfully high." "I know Gina, I know" he'd answered as he got in the car. He knew she'd been talking about his book, but he was thinking how well those words applied to something, well, someone…..else.

It was raining, but he was making decent time. The Eastbound traffic was still pretty heavy even at this late hour, with everyone headed out of town for the holiday weekend, but Westbound, the traffic heading back into the city, was moving right along. He was tired and basically just running on adrenaline. He'd been up early and had spent a full day finishing the spy game case, then had driven down to Princeton, back to the city, out to the Hamptons, and now back to the city. He estimated by the time he arrived tonight he would've spent about 9 hours driving. He let out a sigh. As much as he just wanted to get there, just wanted to see her, he had to wonder if maybe he was walking into the lion's den.

He wasn't sure what her state of mind would be and he had no idea what he would say when he got there. For all he knew she might slam the door in his face. According to Lanie's last text, Kate had gotten home about an hour ago. He was assuming that she had had as much to drink as Lanie, and was probably a little "snockered" too, as Lanie had put it. He'd had second thoughts about talking to her tonight, with a little too much alcohol on board, but in the end he decided that it might help things along. "In vino veritas" he thought – in wine there is truth. He was gambling that if he spoke to her tonight, he might have an easier time bridging the emotional walls he was sure he would encounter. On the other hand, it could completely backfire and blow up in his face. And of course, there was always the chance he'd run into Nikki Heat tonight instead of Kate Beckett, and she just might shoot him!

So here he was, walking the 4 blocks to Kate's place from the parking garage. He'd been unable to find parking on the street anywhere near her place. It was pouring now, and he was thoroughly soaked. He walked up to Kate's building and couldn't believe his luck when he was able to run in the door behind another tenant as he unlocked it and dashed in out of the rain. The guy never even looked back at him. It had saved him from having to buzz Kate and convince her over the intercom to let him up, but he had to remember to talk to her about moving to a doorman building.

His stomach was again in knots as he rode up in the elevator, pulling at his dripping wet clothes. Writer boy still had no idea what he was going to say. He'd be winging it. If she'd talk to him.

He knocked and waited.

TBC

A/N: Don't hate me for ending it here. It was the only place that made sense. Really!

By the way when I keep saying that Castle has no idea what he's gonna say to her, that's because I had no idea either. I had even less of an idea about what Kate was gonna say. That's what has been taking me so long. Trying to get those two to talk to each other is like pulling teeth! But, we're all muddling through, and chapter 4 will be ready in a jiffy.