I have two thanks to give. First to the guest reviewer for both your kind words and song suggestions. I can't wait to write to them! Secondly to whoever sent my story to the castlefanfics tumblr: I love you, I love you, I love you. Had a total fangirl moment when I was scrolling through that account and saw my story had been requested to all of her followers. Thank you so much.

Anyways, here's the second half of the two-parter. Enjoy. :)


"I could use a drink right now
I've got my head in the clouds, thinking about
the second that the wheels touch down
and my feet hit the ground, I'll run to your house
Knock on the door and kiss you right on the mouth…"


It's Rick's day off of the tour and after the party last night, he feels like he deserves to sleep in, so when his phone rings and wakes him at 9:30 in the morning he groans loudly in annoyance. It's too early still. He's exhausted, physically and emotionally. He sees Paula's name on his phone and groans again.

"Paula," he answers the call, "I get a break today," he reminds her.

She ignores him and asks instead, "Did you seriously leave the party last night for sex, Ricky?"

He shoots up in bed and he feels like he's going to vomit. "What are you talking about?"

"Well there's more than a few gossip magazines and blogs that have photos of you and a pretty girl lip-locking with the knowledge that you left early, so… I'm assuming they're correct? She's cute, different than the blondes you used to fawn over, so-"

"No, no, no. Oh my god, no. Paula, you need to fix this," he interrupts her, nearly falling out of bed. He puts his phone on speaker, goes to his suitcase to find clothes.

"Fix what?" she asks. "People have wondered why you haven't been with any women lately. And by lately, I mean months, Rick. The only woman you're ever with is your detective when you're solving cases."

"I'm with Kate!" he exclaims. "That's why I haven't been with anybody else, I'm dating Kate!"

"I'm your publicist, so don't you think it would have been wise to let me know you're in a relationship so I could make an announcement?"

"We don't want it announced," he says, clearly irritated.

"Yeah, well, I could have helped keep it a secret, too. Don't get snappy with me. I'm still not sure why you were kissing someone else if you're in a relationship anyways."

"She kissed me, I pushed her away, and that's why I wanted to leave. Paula," he growls out, irritated that she's talking to him like he's a child. "Please help me."

"Okay, okay. I'll work on it. In the meantime, you might want to call your girlfriend and hope she hasn't walked past a newsstand today."

"Thanks," Rick tells her flatly, hanging up his phone. Not two minutes after he's off the phone with his publicist, his phone rings again. His mother's face flashes up at him and his eyes slam shut. If she knows, Kate knows. He's not sure if Kate's silence is a good thing or not.

"Castle," he answers.

"Richard." Just by the tone of Martha's voice, he knows she has indeed seen the articles. He sighs. "Please tell me you have a damn good explanation," she scolds him like she used to when he was a teenager and got into trouble.

"Mother, I didn't leave the party to sleep with that woman. I wouldn't do that to Kate."

"Well, Katherine doesn't seem so certain of that."

"She knows?" Rick asks, doesn't care that he sounds like a scared little boy.

"She sure does."

"How did she find out?"

"She was reading the paper earlier. There was an article there. She hasn't called you?"

"No," he says softly. "What did she say?"

"I was making coffee, looked over and saw the look on her face and asked her what was wrong. The poor girl was devastated. She handed me the paper and left. I thought she would have at least called you by now, but-"

"I'm coming home," Rick interrupts her.

"I think that's probably a smart idea, kiddo."

"I'll be back in the city as soon as I can," he says before hanging up. He texts Paula, letting her know that he's going home and to postpone the remaining two weeks of the tour and pulls out his laptop to book a flight.


Almost six hours later Rick walks through the door of Kate's apartment building. He went to the loft to drop off his bags, part of him hoping she would be there. But of course not. She hasn't called him once, hasn't texted him. She thinks he cheated on her, so of course she wouldn't hang out at his home. He reaches her door and knocks, tries to conjure up some sort of explanation, but when she swings the door open it all escapes him.

He pulls her to him, gently grabbing her face and kissing her on the mouth.

She pushes him away and Rick feels his heart shatter. Her eyes are glistening with unshed tears and he did that to her. How is he supposed to fix this?

"Kate," he says her name around the lump in his throat. She hasn't looked at him like this, like she doesn't trust him, can't stand to be near him, since the first year they worked together when he dug into her mother's case. Only this time it hurts him more, because he loves her. He'll never forgive himself if he ruined this. The best thing that's ever happened to him. "Please listen to me. Please."

She steps aside and lets him into her home, shutting the door and leaning against it. She still hasn't spoken to him and it scares him. He would rather her scream and yell and fight with him than stand there with that resigned look on her face like she's already made up her mind about their fate.

"I love you," he says. Her eyes slip shut and she lowers her head. He takes a slow step closer, just needs to be near her. "All of those articles are wrong. Paula has been working all day to set them straight. I would never, ever cheat on you. You mean the world to me, Kate. I wouldn't throw this away like that."

"Was the picture wrong, too? Did you not kiss someone else?" she asks, raising her head and crossing her arms.

He sighs, has to be brutally honest with her now. "No."

"And leaving the party early, were the articles wrong about that?"

Rick shakes his head no, running his fingers through his hair. "She kissed me, not the other way around. At first I thought she was you, when she put her hand on my waist. And she acted like you, and then she kissed me… but I pushed her away, Kate. I did. I left the party to get away from her and everything else. I was going to tell you when I got home. I wasn't going to hide it from you."

"Well, you hid from me all day, didn't you?" she accuses.

"I didn't want to discuss it on the phone. I came home two weeks early to talk about it with you in person. I'm so sorry."

"Sorry doesn't fix everything," she tells him.

He opens and closes his mouth, doesn't really know what to say to that, because she's right. He can apologize hundreds of times, but that won't take away the betrayal she must be feeling, won't make her forget the photo of he and Alison.

"I know you're mad at me," he says softly. "You have every right to be. I had too much to drink, and she just came up and made a move, caught me off guard, and I'm so sorry that you found out the way you did. I swear to you, Kate, I was going to tell you when I got back from the tour. I wasn't hiding anything from you, the press just made up their own version of the story before I could tell you my version. Don't you trust me?"

She sighs, runs her hands through her already tousled hair, and he knows she's been doing that all day. "I do trust you, Rick," she says quietly. "It's just hard being here alone while you're gone for a whole month at parties all across the country where countless numbers of adoring fans want you to sign their chests, or more."

"You know I would rather be here with you," he tells her. Her eyes meet his and he sees the tears in them. "Kate, you know that, right? I have to go out and promote the book as part of my contract. But I would rather be here in New York waking up to you, catching killers, and going home with you. The parties, the fans, none of that compares."

"Are you leaving again? To finish the tour?"

"I have to," he says apologetically.

"Can I come?" she asks, looking at him with hopeful eyes.

"You want to? What about the press? I thought you wanted to keep this between us."

"Rick, I would rather go with you and let the world you're mine than keep this between us and worry about other women trying to seduce you."

For the first time all day, he smiles. He goes to her, pulling her into a tight hug. He kisses the top of her head, letting out a sigh of relief. "Of course you can come," he tells her. "I wanted you to come when I left the first time."

She pulls back and smiles softly, eyes still glistening with unshed tears. Rick kisses her softly. "I love you so much," he whispers against her mouth. "Thank you."

"For what?" she asks.

"For trusting me enough to listen to my side of the story. For not breaking up with me."

"It'll take a lot more than gossip articles to drive me away," she says with a toothy grin on her face. He kisses the tip of her nose, pulling her in for a another hug, can't get enough of Kate Beckett. God, he loves this woman.


"This 747 can't go fast enough, fast enough
Every minute is wasting time
She gets a little bit closer to saying goodbye."
Lady Antebellum / 747


I highly encourage everybody to check out the songs I use for these ficlets. They're all my favorites and so good. Thanks for reading! I hope to update as soon as I can!