A.N. I am sorry my dear readers for not posting some more sooner but I have been putting this off for a while because I am too involved reading other FanFics that have been building up in my computer. I hope that this new chapter will make up for the wait and I plan on (hopefully) posting some more soon. For those who are hating Josh, I know, I do too, do not fret for he is going to be gone but I am afraid that you will just have to hang on until he does. I have a feeling it will happen soon though. I never really know though because these characters seem to have minds of their own. Happy reading!

Previously in Comfort Kiss

"Are you going to come in or do I have to drag your sorry butt out here?" I asked, trying to re instill some sense of our kind of normalcy.

"Not today." He replied.

"When then?" I asked.

"I'll let you know." He told me and then the line went dead.

The rest of the day was incredibly uneventful and boring without Castle's bubbly pick-me-up's and crazy theories that would normally make a day like this more bearable but with the way our conversation had ended, I couldn't get my mind off Castle being home, alone, left to wallow in all that self pity.

And some of it was my fault.

I had left him in his hour of need to shrink on back to my pathetic excuse for a boyfriend.

All because I was so scared of getting hurt like I did after my Mum died, that I couldn't trust myself to be truly happy again, for fear of loosing that happiness again, and falling back down into that pit.

I found myself frequently looking at his chair in hopes that he would somehow appear beside me with his trademark smile on his face and a coffee for him in one hand and for me in the other.

And every time I looked over and saw only air filling his place, I would stare at it for a little longer and then look back down at the paperwork in front of me to try and hide the hurt on my face from anyone that would see.

I forced myself to meet Josh that night, and despite my best efforts to enjoy his company, he knew that something was wrong.

"What's wrong, Kate?" He asked gently as we cuddled up on the couch, kissing my head as he wrapped his arms tighter around my stomach.

I felt bad for not wanting to tell him when he really was making an effort to get me to open up to him. But I was not going to give him a single ounce of brownie points for his erection sticking into by back as he tried to ask me what was wrong!

The difference between him and Castle was, sure, Castle flirted and made comments but when it came down to the serious moments, he knew when to act his age and be respectful.

But Josh… He was the complete opposite. He didn't really make any innuendoes and wasn't exactly flirty but he spoke with his body, and sometimes it didn't say what I wanted it to say.

Didn't know when to quit or to be appropriate.

I let out a long sigh. "Nothing." I told him.

"You sure noting's bothering you?" He asked again.

"I'm fine." I told him. If he had know me better, he would have known I was lying.

"Alright then." He replied, turning his attention back on the TV and most likely the view that he was getting down my shirt.

I didn't end up hearing from Castle for almost a week and I was beginning to worry that maybe something had happened to him and I was terrified that it was because of me that it happened. But I couldn't bring myself to go and check on him, even if it was just to make sure that he was ok and that he was dealing with living in that big loft all by himself.

I even went as far as driving to his apartment building but I never got out of my car. For some reason I was never able to bring myself to take my hands of the steering wheel. And every time, I would let out a loud sigh and drag myself away from the curb and drive back home to my lonely apartment with a man passed out in my bed, leaving me wishing so hard that he was someone else.

The person who would wait up for me no matter what time I came home and wouldn't breath heavily on my neck as he spooned me, but would mold himself around me and hold me lovingly in his arms.

I ended up sleeping on the couch that night because I couldn't stand to be next to Josh anymore with his annoying breathing on the back of my neck and his over zealous spooning with the added 'poke'.
And what annoyed me the most wasn't that I didn't get nearly enough sleep from sleeping on the old, slightly lumpy couch, but the fact that he didn't even seem to notice that I was gone and continued to sleep through the night like the dead.

With my anger as my fuel, I dragged myself off my makeshift bed and started to get myself ready for work.

When I got out of the shower and was dressed in my work clothes, I grabbed my bag, throwing my phone and keys into it and just as I reached the door, hand on the door handle, a thought crossed my mind and I walked back into by bedroom, picked up Josh's jeans that he had just thrown on the floor, and I fished through his pockets until I found the spare key I had given him and pocketed it.

When I got to the precinct that morning, Esposito immediately met me as soon as I stepped out of the elevator.

"What have you got for me Espo?" I asked. I looked over at the file in his hands and glanced at the file as he opened it to show me something.

"We've been going about this all wrong. I was going over some things when I got here and there is a few things that don't add up. So, Ryan and I have been looking over it together, to double check that we didn't miss anything, and wrote it all up on a separate board." He informed me as he walked over to the murder board and pulled out another board from behind it, revealing a list of things in two sets of handwriting. I dropped my stuff on my desk and lent up against it as I started to study what kind of secrets it held.

"How could I have missed all of this?" I sighed as I ran my hands through my hair and pushed it back.

"Ok, we're going to have to re-check all of the evidence and try and re-interview the witnesses and suspects. See if anyone slips up and says something different to what the originally told us. Ryan, you check all the people's statements and Esposito, you take the evidence. That will give you a legitimate excuse to go see Lanie." I smirked.

"Oooh! You know what…" He raised a warning finger but then changed his mind. "I'll take what I can get. Just you wait, Beckett. Your time will come."

"I'd love to see that day." I chuckled, knowing full well that Josh wouldn't come in here. He was far too busy with his own life to come into mine just to come and show me some affection.

"That day might be closer than you think." He smirked back, his teeth shining as he did. I furrowed my brow in confusion and turned my head to look in the direction his line of sight was.

There was no chance that Josh would walk through here so who could it be?

When my eyes finally settled on the figure rapidly getting closer and closer, my brain finally recognized it at Castle. And on closer inspection, his eyes were focused on me and his face was feigningly serious. I could see his hands coming up and I could feel my heart pounding in my chest as I realised what he was doing.

"Castle, what are you…" His hands were already framing my face and his mouth was over mine before I could even think about getting the rest of the question out of my mouth.

After all this time of hearing not a single word from him, he walks in here, doesn't even say a word to me, and kisses me! Right here in front of all my colleagues as if we were the only two people in the whole building!

I could feel his lips struggling against mine, trying to make them move with his. And if I were completely honest with myself, I would have admitted that I wanted to kiss him back, desperately.

But now was not the time, here was not the place and when it came down to it, I was still with Josh.

As much as I knew it was going to hurt him to get rejected by me again, I pushed him away, trying to prove a point to my coworkers that he couldn't just come in here and kiss me like that.

But when I saw the look on his face… I knew that he was seeking that connection and comfort again and I had pushed him away when he needed me most.

I could see the happiness drain from his eyes, his hands began shaking against my cheeks as they slowly returned to his sides and his smile was whipped clean away from his face and was replaced with a tight, thin line and watery eyes.

"I-I'm sorry I came down here. I-I'm so sorry, Kate." He whispered, looking at his hands as they shook, turned and fled, leaving a whole precinct full of confused detectives.

A.N. Leave me a rewiew to let me know how I'm doing.