Author's Notes: You guys are amazing!Thanks for all the reviews and alerts and all. My email keeps filling up with notices and it gives me warm fuzzies. Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.


Chapter 4

Kate slept through the night and only woke when the sound of the door opening startled her. Kate opened her eyes and then realized where she was. She saw Castle asleep on the chair next to her, hair mussed and softly snoring.

"Castle. Wake up. What time is it?"

"Morning time," he mumbled, rubbing his face and running his hands through his hair.

"What? I thought the doctor said he was going to call last night."

"He did. Your dad is doing well. I didn't want to wake you."

"You should have," she insisted.

"Why? The doctor doesn't want you there until this morning and I wouldn't have let you drive home last night anyway."

She tried to be mad at him but she knew that he was just concerned for her. She watched him as he stood up, rubbed his eyes, and walk over to the stairs. He picked up a bag that looked like hers. "I got this out of your car. I'm not sure if this has a change of clothes in it for you or not but I thought you might want it. If there aren't clothes here then I have some sweats you can use."

"Thanks, Castle," she said sincerely as she stood up. Suddenly, she remembered that her bra was unhooked. Castle noticed her discomfort and decided to leave her alone for a moment.

"I'll run upstairs and make sure the shower is ready for you." He checked on both his and Alexis's shower and avoided his mother's bathroom as usual. He grabbed the sweats, t-shirt, and some toiletries and carried them out of his room to find her in the hall.

"Here are the sweats and stuff. You can use either my shower or Alexis's if you want the girly scented shampoos and stuff. I would avoid Mother's bathroom," he lowered his voice. "It's scary."

"Why is it scary?" she couldn't help but ask.

"She has so much makeup, pastes, creams, and mystery bottles it looks like a laboratory," he shuddered. She smiled at him, which he returned. "It's good to see you smiling again. What would you like me to fix you for breakfast?"

"I'll just grab something when I go visit my dad."

"I'll fix you something while you are showering. I know you have to be starved. I ate late last night and I'm still hungry. How about an omelet?"

"What do you plan on putting in it?" she asked suspiciously.

"Alexis told you about the s'morelet, I guess." She shuddered and nodded her head. "How about ham and cheese?"

"That sounds great. I'll be down in a few minutes."

"Take your time," he touched her lightly on the shoulder and smiled at her before he scampered downstairs.

She took her toiletries out of her bag but left the clothes since she hadn't had the chance to wash them. Since she was there at his door, she decided to use his shower. She went on autopilot for the most part, as she normally did while in the shower, until she started to wash her hair. She was suddenly enveloped with his scent and she stopped to think about what she was doing. She was wondering about why she was letting Castle boss her around like he has been since he gave her the coffee in the waiting room. She knew that she had been out of character for her but she was worried about her dad. Maybe it would have been better to use Alexis's shower and she wouldn't have this on her mind, also.

Kate finished her shower then walked downstairs, feeling a bit nervous in his clothes. He didn't say anything when he handed her a plate with a fluffy omelet, bacon and toast on it. He then passed her a cup of coffee, knowing that would be the first thing she would reach for. He smiled slightly to himself when he saw that he was right.

"Need to toss your clothes in the wash?"

"I'll wash them when I get home," she insisted.

"That's okay. I have some shirts that need to get washed anyway. Mind if I toss them in with your stuff?"

"Sure. Just put them in a pile and I'll take care of them."

"I can do it, Kate," he said with a smile until he saw the look of determination on her face. "Unless you don't want me seeing your under things." The determination turned into a glare. He thought it would be best to not mention that he had seen the back of a rather lacy bra the night before.

"Kate, there is something that I wanted to talk to you about. Last night when the doctor was assuming I was your husband, he said something about a problem with your dad's insurance."

"Oh, no. I told him not to let the policy lapse. He doesn't have insurance?"

"I'm not sure. Once I told the doctor, we weren't married; he clammed up and wouldn't say anything else." She lowered her head, but not before he could see the despair. "I told the doctor that he should just send the bills to me."

"No. I will not let you do that."

"Kate, I have more money than I know what to do with and a large part of it is because of you and Nikki Heat."

"No, it's too much money. I shouldn't have let you pay that money to try to find out my mother's killer either but I got sucked into the case again. Had I thought rationally, I wouldn't have let you do it."

"And, I would have done it anyway," he insisted

"I can't ever pay you back. My family has some money but not enough to cover this. Not in this economy."

"I don't care, seriously. Even in this economy."

"How can you say that?"

"I don't like talking about my money; I don't really want to flaunt it. Yes, I have this great loft and nice things but I don't go flashing it around. Not anymore. I used to when I first got on the best seller list but I learned my lesson after a few too many people wanted to be friends just because of my wallet."

"I don't want your money."

"I know that Kate. That's one of the reasons I like you all at the precinct so much. Let me tell you a bit of a story. When I wrote my first book, I had a little too much fun with my check from it. Shortly after, there was nothing left. I decided to do a grown-up thing and I hired a financial advisor to help take care of the money. Since I was still young, he put most of it in high risk, high interest things and after the first few Derrick Storm books, I didn't need to write any more, not to survive. Financially, at least. I loved writing and part of me needed that release to survive."

"The women wanting you to sign their boobs probably didn't hurt either."

"Can't say that it did," he said with his charming smile as he continued his breakfast. "But I only did that between marriages. Back to the money- I never worried about the stock market or anything because even if I lost a lot, I knew that I would be okay. I had enough aside to live modestly and put Alexis in the best colleges, and that was all that was important to me. I also knew that I had another Derrick Storm in the wings at any time."

"But you got bored with Storm."

"Yes, a couple of years ago, I was getting burned out and I told my advisor to switch my things to long term, safe investments. I couldn't assume anymore that I would have any more novels so I thought that I should be careful. Shortly after that the market started tanking. In short, I got lucky. And then I met you and came up with Nikki Heat. And you know how well those are going."

"How can I ever repay you?"

"You don't need to," he said surprising himself a bit at not making a sex joke but knowing somehow that this was definitely not the time for that. "I told you, I am happy to help you. What's the point of having the money if I can't use it for things that I need it for?"

"But you don't need to help my dad out."

"Yes, I do. He's your dad and you are one of my best friends. I'll do anything to help you, anything you need. You just need to ask."

"Thank you, Rick."

"I'm going to go hop in the shower. I'll leave the shirts that I want to toss in the wash on the foot of the bed, if you don't mind tossing them in with your stuff. The laundry room is right back there," he pointed to a door at the back of the kitchen. "You should be able to find all the soap and everything you need there."

Rick gave her a quick pat on the back before he went upstairs. He knew that she probably wanted a little time to herself to do some thinking. He was thinking about her as well. Soon, he was finished and they were both dressed in casual clothes. As soon as they got to the hospital, Dr. Regan and Dr. Sandburg, the neurosurgeon, let Kate in to see her father. Rick stayed outside of his room.

"Dr. Regan, a moment please."

"I can't tell you anything, Mr. Castle. Not without permission. I only told you last night because I wasn't able to get a hold of Ms. Beckett."

"I understand that. That's no problem. To whom do I talk to about billing?"

"I can tell you but they probably won't be any help to you either. We take the HIPPA laws very seriously here."

"Doctor," Kate suddenly interrupted as she left the room alone. "Can I have the name of the person who takes care of the billing and stuff?"

"Are you sure, Kate?" Rick asked.

"Yes. You're my partner and it just makes sense to give you permission to know, I'll just tell you anyway."

"Okay, Ms. Beckett. I'll get those forms ready for you. We verified that your dad's insurance policy did lapse about a month ago. We are a county hospital so if you can't afford it, we will still treat him but until then how did you want to handle the billing?"

"Send the bills directly to me and I'll have a check for you," she looked up at Rick. "My friend is going to be helping me out a bit."

"Very well. Since we have all that out of the way, your dad is doing a lot better than we expected him to be doing at this time. He will be on some heavy duty pain meds still but he will be awake soon."

"He is a recovering alcoholic, if that makes any difference. Just about 7 years sober now."

"We can have a counselor come and talk to him about drug addiction. Sometimes with injuries like his and an addictive personality, it can cause problems. If you know about the possibility from the beginning, there is a less likely chance of that occurring though. If you two will excuse me, I'll get the forms that you need to fill out."

"Why don't you just have the bills sent to me?" Rick asked after the doctor left.

"And trust that the billing people aren't seeing that you are paying a huge medical bill for my father. You know that would get out to the tabloids."

"True. I'll have mother write you the checks or whatever way you would prefer."

"Ms. Beckett," said Dr. Sandburg as he walked out of the hospital room. "Your dad is doing remarkably well. We will probably start to taper off on the sedation drugs this evening and wake him up fully in the morning. I'll see you in the afternoon, I have some other patients to see."

"That's great news. Thank you, Dr. Sandburg," she said as she turned to Rick surprising him by giving him a hug. "My dad's going to be okay."

"I told you so," he said as he absently ran his hand up and down her spine.

"I don't believe you did," she smiled at him. "I still don't know how I will ever thank you."

"That hug was good thanks," he smiled at her as he wondered what suddenly went through her mind.

Kate knew that there was no way that she could ever repay him the money that he was going to be shelling out long term for her dad's medical bills. Not monetarily at least. She reached up and tightening up one arm that was around his neck, went to kiss him. Rick turned just slightly at the last moment so the kiss landed on his cheek instead. Her eyes flew open in shock. He could read that emotion in her eyes followed quickly by embarrassment. He looked around and pulled her into an alcove down the hall a bit.

"Katherine Beckett, look at me," he began. When she refused he lightly cupped her face in his hands bringing her eyes to meet his. "When you kiss me, and I mean really kiss me, I want to see passion, love or even just lust in your eyes. Not gratitude."

She flushed slightly, knowing that he realized why she went to kiss him. He didn't say anything; he just pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her.