Hey Everybody, I know it's been a ridiculously long time since I updated, but I'm back. The end of the school year was hectic. I have been crazy busy and had a lot going on. I actually like this chapter a lot. Even if it reminded how much I think about this show and these characters. It might be unhealthy lol. Thanks to everyone who has stuck with me and everyone just joining. Thanks so much for reading. And a very big thank you to LadyAilith for messaging me and caring about this story. I dedicate this chapter to you :)
It was nearly 6 pm, when they left the precinct with Rick promising to pick her up about 8. He had managed to get last minute reservations at Daniel on the upper East Side. The food and atmosphere were perfect. Kate couldn't remember ever being this excited for a date. Especially after working on a Saturday after a long week. Normally, the last thing she wanted to do was get all dressed up and go out. Now, all she could think about was what she was going wear as that decision was yet to be finalized.
It was 8 on the dot when Castle knocked on her door. He was nervous, like sweaty teenage boy nervous. He's Richard freaking Castle. He does not get nervous for a date. He does not make his mother and Alexis verify that he looks good and fix his hair seven times before he leaves the loft. But tonight was different. Tonight he was finally taking Kate Beckett out on a real date. When she opened the door, all thoughts left his head. She was gorgeous. Kate was wearing a beautiful purple dress with a high slit in it. He was completely dazed at the slight. He snapped back to focus when she chuckled.
"What?" He asked with a small smile expecting to be told to pick his jaw up off the floor.
"We match." she said. Castle was wearing a black suit with a crisp white shirt and purple silk tie.
He tore his eyes off her and looked down at himself, actually forgetting what he was wearing. "Yeah, I guess we do." He laughed.
"I didn't tell you I was wearing purple."
"No... um I guess we're just in sync." He shrugged.
"Let's go, Rick." She said grabbing her purse and they headed out.
Dinner went perfectly. It felt nothing like a first date. They were so comfortable together. The conversation ranged from Alexis, to their current case, to books, to Castle trying to convince her to go to Comic Con with him this summer. For the first time in a long everything felt right to Kate. When they were done eating the headed over to the lounge and bar room. There was soft jazz music playing, plenty of tables, and a small dance floor. Rick headed over to the bar to get them some drinks, and Kate got them a table.
"This place really is fantastic, Rick. Dinner was amazing."
"Yeah, this is one of my favorite restaurants in the city."
"I'm so glad we finally did this."
"Oh Kate, you have no idea how happy I am."
"I think I might." She said with a smile. He leaned over and stole a soft, slow kiss.
"Do you want to dance?" Rick asked desperate to hold her close.
She nodded, and they got up linking hands. "Remember the first time we danced?" Kate asked as they swayed to the music.
"Of course, how could I forget? It was amazing. And that red dress. God, Kate. But I still want to know where you kept your badge." He laughed softly.
"Keep wondering, Mr. White Whale."
"Oh now that's not even funny." Rick said twirling her out and back in.
"I thought it was." Kate was grinning ear to ear.
He gave a light kiss and pulled her in tight against him. They danced close for a while. Each giving the other subtle, longing touches and letting hand start to roam as time went on.
"Want to get out of here?" He asked gently in her ear.
"Let's go."
They headed out to the foyer of the restaurant, and Rick called his driver to come get them. He considered taking the Ferrari, but Daniel had a huge wine selection plus the bar room so he didn't want to be concerned with driving.
"My place or yours?" He asked when the car pulled up only a minute or two after he called.
"Are Martha and Alexis home?"
"It's Saturday night so my mother would never be home at this hour, and Alexis is staying at Paige's tonight."
"Ok, well yours then." She replied with a smile. Kate loved her apartment, but his had such a homey feel. She was happy there, not that she was planning on telling him that exactly. Castle told the driver, and they cuddled up on the back seat. By the time they got to the loft, it was taking way too much self control to keep their hands off each other.
They headed into his office just in case Martha or Alexis did come home. Well that's how they justified it to each other as they went towards his bedroom. However, they really did only make it to the office before they were on the couch on top of each other. It wasn't the best idea as the couch wasn't very big, but neither one could bring themselves to care. Things were heating up quickly until one of the them pressed into the smart board remote he had obviously left on the couch. At the small ding of it turning on Rick froze. Kate noticed his change in body language instantly and looked at him questionably.
"Sorry, I just ... I was laying on this." He said breathlessly reaching around and finding the stray remote. She looked up at the smart board, but thankfully the open file was the Frozen Heat story board. He left out a loud sigh and turned it off.
"You good?" She asked. He nodded quickly and captured her lips in his. The seemingly small incident had slowed things down considerably, but the fire was certainly still there. Castle couldn't get his mind off the fact that a very different file could have opened. That they could be yelling at each other right now, that she could have walked right out of his door. He had to tell her before they went any further. He had to, no matter what happened because of it.
" I should go." Kate said with a small smile at the sound of the front shutting. She didn't know if it was Martha or Alexis coming home, but either way it was late and she needed to get off the couch before she ended up in his bed.
"Ok." Rick replied. He never expected her to stay. It was too early in their relationship, and he had no intentions of pushing her into anything.
They strolled hand in hand to out of his office and quickly scanned the loft, but there was no one around. At the door, they kissed each other fiercely making Kate start to second guess her need to go home. Martha had obviously gone upstairs and it would be easy for them to sneak back to his office and then his room. Kate Beckett was not a woman who slept with a guy on the first date, but this wasn't just a guy. It was different, and she was sure of it. Tonight could hardly be considered their first date. They had been together for 3 weeks officially and practically 4 years before that. When they broke apart, the look on his face dramatically contradicted the look on hers.
"Can you come over tomorrow?" He asked at nearly a whisper.
"Yeah sure... Rick, what's wrong?"
"I just need to talk to you." Castle replied not meeting her eyes.
"We're talking now." She said with a small laugh.
"Kate" He was practically begging, but for what she didn't know.
"Castle, just tell me what's going on."
"I need to talk to you about something, but tonight was so perfect and I just ..."
"Don't want to ruin it." Kate finished.
He nodded solemnly.
"Rick, you're scaring me."
"Come on" He said pulling her away from his door and into his office. He gestured for her to sit at his desk and turned on the smart board.
"Please just to listen to everything I have to say before you leave. I need you to know the whole story."
"Ok."
Castle opened a file labeled "Beckett" and turned to look at her. Her face fell, and her eyes were quickly taking in all the information.
"What is this? There's new stuff on here." She couldn't read fast enough to keep up with places her mind was taking her.
"Before Montgomery went to the hangar, he sent a package to a man. Someone he trusted, ... an old friend, I don't know. This man... , he's involved in all this. He knows who's behind your mother's murder, behind everything. Montgomery trusted him to protect his family and you." Rick blurted out. He wanted to plan out what he was going to tell. He wanted to be prepared, but since he couldn't keep his poker face earlier it couldn't be put off any longer.
"Castle, I don't understand." She was in total disbelief.
"These people want to kill you, Kate. Montgomery's friend cut a deal with them. Blackmail, I think. He keeps the contents of the package quiet if they leave you alone. It's the only leverage we have." Castle paused to allowed her to speak, but Kate remained silent so Rick continued. "He called me right after you were shot. The mystery man didn't receive the package until after it happened. He knew... He knew they were going to try again so he made the deal as soon as he read what Montgomery had sent him. Then... He called me."
"Are you involved in this? Do you know who's behind this?" Beckett asked her voice no longer a whisper but strong and cold.
"No, no I don't. This guy just told me the only way he could protect you was if you stopped investigating. He needed someone to make sure you didn't keep pursuing it. But there was nothing to pursue, no leads. Ryan, Esposito, and I went through everything from your shooting. The guy's a ghost. Kate, I don't know anything." He scrambled to explain.
"But you could, I could. Castle, you say we have no leads, but you've been sitting on one for almost a year." She stood up and looked him square in the eye.
"I have no idea who this guy is. He's a voice on the phone, a shadow in a parking garage-"
"You met with him?" Beckett interjected.
"I had to, I had to protect you."
"I don't need your protection. When are you going to realize that this is my life, and I am fully capable of making my own decisions?"
"I know you are. I know. It's just..."
"Just what?" Her voice was so intense. She was no longer Kate, this was all Detective Beckett.
"This case. You put blinders on. You run into the fire and don't look back. I couldn't let you do that."
"You don't know what's best for me."
"I'm just trying to stop you from getting yourself killed." He was desperate for her to understand his point of view.
"I can take care of myself, Castle."
"I know, I know you can. And I know I should have told you all this earlier, but I was afraid. I was terrified, Kate. The first time he called me you weren't even out of the hospital yet. I couldn't talk to you. You said you needed space, and I wanted to respect that. But days turned to weeks turned to months, and I never heard from you. I had no idea how you were doing. I had no idea if you were trying to investigate on your own. All I could hope was that if I couldn't find anything maybe you couldn't either. At least if they believed you weren't looking, they would leave you alone. So true or not I let them think it."
"I didn't start looking until I came back to work. I couldn't ... I couldn't handle it before then. And then I stopped because you asked me to. You! I never thought you would betray me. After Montgomery told me he was involved, I couldn't trust anyone. He helped me, Castle. He helped me investigate. He helped find new leads, but the whole time he knew the answers. He knew every time I made a wrong move. He knew! He was more than my captain, Roy was my friend. But the truth is, his actions led to my mother's death. And I was completely clueless. How could I trust anyone because the last person I would suspect...was the person I had been looking for the past 12 years." Her resolve was failing and tears threatened to fall.
"Kate, you know he didn't order her murder. He's not the one behind this. He was just a pawn in a bigger game."
"It doesn't matter, Rick. We're all pawns in this game. All we get to decide is which side we're playing for." She paused and took a deep breath before continuing. "And you made the wrong choice." With that she turned and headed for the door.
"Kate, No. Kate, Stop. You promised you would listen to everything I had to say."
"What else is there? You were the one person in the world I thought I could trust, but you were just another person playing cover up." She didn't turn around, but at least she stayed in place, a hand on door knob.
"It's not like that. We are going to get these people, Kate. We are going to find them. It just needs time to cool down. This mystery man has everything we need to take them out. I have some ideas of how we could get to him. I just needed time to make sure you were okay so that we all get out of this alive. I never intended to let him get away this." Rick couldn't let her walk out that door. He just needed her to look at him. Surely the look in his eyes, the tears on his face would show her that he never intended to hurt her.
"When's it going to be time?" She asked weakly.
"I don't know."
"There's never going to be a safe time." Kate said as her hand fell away from the door back to her side.
"Yes, but there is going to be a time we could do it quietly."
"We wait until they think what? That I don't care anymore and then make our move. Castle, that doesn't make sense."
"It's all I've got. I love you. I love you so much. I can't lose you."
"Castle." His name barely made it out of her mouth as she turned and saw him. He was staring at his feet and swaying slightly. It was obvious he was breaking down.
"I'm sorry but that's the truth. I'm going to do whatever I can to keep you safe." Rick said looking up.
"You really think if I make a run at them they'll kill me?" Kate asked meeting his eyes.
"I'm sure of it."
"I can't wait forever. My mom deserves justice."
"She's going to get it." His voice was like steel, he really meant it.
"So we wait. We plan."
"Yeah, we wait."
Kate took a deep breath."Ok." She said with slight head nod.
"Ok?" Rick was sure he was going to lose her just a few moments ago. Kate walked towards him and put her arms around him. He quickly pulled her in close.
"I love you." Kate whispered in his ear.
"I love you too." They stood there for a long time in each other's embrace.
Thanks so much for reading. I'm going to update as soon as I can. I'm going to try to build this story back and not be unreliable. I love reviews :)
