Standing vigil would be in character for him, she thought. He does that kind of thing. She knew better than to open the door. After analyzing the fight in her mind, she had come to four conclusions: she loved him, and she had been running from that; he cared deeply for - maybe loved - her, and she'd pushed him away; it had been extremely difficult to swallow her desire for him; and she was acting very stupid today.

She pulled the cracked door shut before she could see whether or not he was there. If he wasn't, well, she really didn't think she could take the disappointment. If he was, she didn't trust herself to not make another stupid decision. She threw the deadbolt and was surprised at how loud it sounded. She was still on edge. She heard footsteps in the hall and grabbed her gun. Shit. Lockwood is here.

Beckett turned off her light, took cover to the side of her door. Slowly, she turned the knob; quickly, she flung the door open. She pointed her weapon at the back of the man ten feet away & shouted, "Freeze! Police!" Though, if it was Lockwood, he knew she was police. Her training had just made the words come out.

He stopped where he was and quickly raised his empty hands. The first thing she registered was that it was not Lockwood, the hair color was wrong. The second thing to register was the man's injured hand. The knuckles were bloody and slightly swollen.

Then he turned his head. Beckett dropped her hand, lowering her weapon to her side, with an exasperated but relieved sigh. "Dammit, Castle, what are you doing out here?"

He put his hands down and shrugged. "You didn't lock your door." There was still an edge to his voice, but not nearly as much as there was in hers. She looked at him like he was an idiot. He explained. "I was leaving, and I'd made it to the bottom of the stairwell. But I realized I didn't hear you lock the door."

"I could have locked it while you were in the stairwell." Her voice was gruff. She didn't know why she was picking another fight. Probably because he'd made her think Lockwood had come for her.

He didn't match her harsh tone. Somehow, he had already regained most of his calm. She always found his ability to keep calm to be endearing. He offered a half-smile and looked a little worried that his response might be the wrong thing to say. He said it anyway.

"Yeah, I thought of that. But I decided to come back and make sure. It wasn't locked, and it's a keyed lock, so I couldn't just stick my hand in and lock it for you. You… um… didn't sound like you wanted me to intrude again. So I thought I'd keep watch."

His eyes were full of compassion and concern, and she was only a little embarrassed that he'd heard her crying. She wondered if he'd heard her smash the glass and curse him. She dismissed the thought and asked, "Then why were you leaving?"

"I heard you lock the door. Why did you crack it open first?" His voice was so gentle.

She smiled. His presence and tone had settled her down. "I thought you might be out here. That would be a very Castley thing for you to do. But then I thought I was being silly." She looked down to hide her embarrassment.

"So… why the gun?" he asked, glancing at the piece still in her hand.

She headed back through the door, nodding her invitation for him to follow. She placed the weapon on the small table and locked the deadbolt behind them. "I thought you were Lockwood."

The fear she tried to mask with nonchalance still showed through. He nodded his understanding and craved to reach out and hold her. He actually made a move to touch her, a move that was interrupted by her focusing on his hand.

"What happened to your hand?" She sounded alarmed. Kate took Rick's other hand and pulled him to the kitchen for a bag of ice. Her glare finally made him confess.

"Your super has a couple of holes in the stairwell wall I'll need to pay for." He said it without any hint of apology. She could see his jaw twitch as he clinched his teeth. He wasn't as calm as she'd thought - she could see his anger still simmering beneath the surface as he decided on what to say next.

He continued, "You're wrong, you know. You're acting like an idiot. You're way too smart to be acting like this, Kate. You're not just risking with your own life, but the lives of those around you. You've got to stand down. I didn't want to come back up here. I don't want to fight with you. But you've gone way down that rabbit hole and I can't pull you out if you don't let me. And you simply don't have the right to let yourself get killed and leave us to deal with it."

She showed fight in her eyes, and fury returned to his. She could tell that it wouldn't take much to set him off again, so she swallowed the defensive words that were screaming to come out.

Castle had no intention of backing down. A stray thought of a fantasy he'd had after a previous argument flitted through his brain. A fantasy of shutting her up with a forceful kiss that shocked her into forgetting what they were fighting about. He pushed the fantasy aside and thought she was about to re-engage. But she didn't.

She seemed to deflate. She wanted to apologize for being so stupid that he thought he needed to sit in her hall and babysit her. For antagonizing him to the point of storming out & punching two holes in a plaster wall. For fighting him when he was just trying to talk some sense into her. Instead, she hung her head and said, "Yeah."

Maybe it was the weight of the pressure of this case, hell, maybe it was just his hand hurting so damned much, but he was in the mood to push it. "Yeah" wasn't good enough. Normally, it would have been. He'd made an art out of not pushing her.

"Yeah, what, Kate?" She looked up in surprise. She didn't answer.

"Yeah, you know you're being dangerous? Yeah, you're wrong? Yeah, you need my help? Yeah, what?" The surprise on her face was almost funny to him.

As she struggled to answer him, she made herself look him in the eye. She expected him to be getting angrier, instead she saw that teasing twinkle she loved. It disarmed her.

"Yeah, Rick, I need your help. We need a plan." He waited for more.

"And?"

"What do you want, Rick? An apology?"

He smiled mischievously. "Yeah."

She rolled her eyes, then looked at the floor. "Fine…. I apologize."

After a few moments of silence, she excused herself to retrieve her first aid kit. As she poured peroxide over his knuckles, he winced, and she blew on them to cool the sting. She wrapped gauze around his hand. It brought back a similar memory.

Kate was about to ask Rick if he remembered the last time she'd wrapped his hand after he'd injured it against Lockwood's face, but the look in his eye said he most certainly did. The simple act of blowing on his hand had flipped his train of thought. Their argument was gone from his eyes.

There was smug satisfaction from knowing he'd given Lockwood a concussion that night, and the hint of regret that he had restrained himself. His eyes were locked on her, entranced by how gently she touched his hand. She had thanked him for being there for her that night months ago; he had replied, "Always."

She searched his face and knew that his promise still held true.

xxx

More to come. Please review.