That's All It Takes
Ch. 7: A Changed Man
A/N: Sorry this is a little on the shorter side. I'll post again in a couple days (rather than wait a week) to make up for it! Just as a heads up, these short little injections do have a point, I promise! Thanks and Enjoy!
Richard Castle was quite familiar with the word danger; it lurked around every street corner and inside everyone associated with a murder case. He wasn't ignorant (contrast to what some believed); he knew there were risks when he started shadowing Detective Kate Beckett. Sure, he didn't know what he was getting himself into at first, but he wouldn't take back any of his time at the twelfth precinct for the world. All the speeding bullets, burning buildings, and psychotic criminals couldn't keep him away from the people who had become his good friends—his family. That's what they were; they were some sort of family away from home. If anything, all of this gave him a new reason to wake up each day, a new perspective on life.
He was a changed man; he wasn't the womanizing, carefree guy he was three years ago. He had done some growing up and discovered a side to him that had been hidden underneath this alter ego he no longer wished to be. He would always have some aspects of a kid inside of him because that's part of who the real Richard Castle is: a man who will always enjoy a good sword fight or round of laser tag. The new ego simply expanded on the old, and he was a better man and father because of it. He was now capable of love; capable of loving someone, and not just anyone either.
There was one person to thank for all of this: She was strong and independent. Kick ass and sexy. Funny. Driven. Beautiful. She was a daughter. A detective. A friend. A partner. There weren't enough words in the dictionary to describe her.
There was one person to thank for all of this, and there she was standing on the other side of the warehouse with a gun aimed at her head.
