Chapter 7: A Surprise Visitor

You took a fall for us

Loud knocking causes her to stir. She sits up from her position on the couch, and her blanket falls off of her body. As she rubs her eyes, she thinks about who it could be. Castle was the only one that came to mind. Sure, she had told him she needed some space tonight so she could actually get a full eight hours of sleep. And yes, she had regretted that decision as soon as she got home, hence her currently sleeping on her couch. Add that to the fact the he never listened, and she was almost positive he was the culprit.

The knocking continues, and she slowly makes her way to the door. The person on the other side is definitely not the one she expected. "Josh?" she frowns at him. "What are you doing here?" He stares at her for a moment, and she realizes that she sounded angry with him. "I mean… I thought you weren't coming back until Tuesday. I was going to pick you up."

"I was. But we only had two pharmacists with us. One had to leave because of a family emergency, and the other couldn't keep up with all the doctors writing prescriptions so a few of us left early." Josh drops his suitcase inside her door and pulls her in for a hug, "I thought I'd surprise you by coming over. I didn't think you'd already be asleep. I wouldn't have come if I had known."

"It's good to see you," she forces a smile onto her face as she slowly wraps her arms around him.

"I missed you, Kate," he pulls his head back to look at her.

Kate doesn't really know what to say to this; she hadn't really missed him and doesn't want to lie. "How was your trip?" she decides to ask, feeling this is a safe topic.

"It was good. We helped a lot of people while we were there. And it was fun too. I think I'm going to go back again in the summer. You should totally join me."

"Josh, I don't know. I can't really do anything to help them. I'm only trained for emergencies."

"There would be plenty that you could help with."

She knows she should say something, but she can't bring herself to do it yet. He had just gotten back, and she couldn't break his heart right now. "Josh… I was kind of hoping to catch up on some sleep tonight. It's kind of late."

"Oh, sure. Maybe we can talk more in the morning before you go in to work. Go out to breakfast or something. I have to get up and check in with the hospital anyway."

"Yeah… okay," she says, momentarily forgetting about Castle and her promise to be at breakfast with his family.

Josh picks up his suitcase and steps further into her apartment before noticing her couch. "Why were you out here?"

"Oh, I was reading," she gestures to Castle's book laying on the table, which she had not been reading. "Fell asleep and didn't feel like moving."

"I need to take a shower, but I'll join you in bed in a bit."

They make their way back to her bedroom. Josh immediately heads to the bathroom, and she crawls into bed. It had felt so wrong to spend the previous night with Castle, but now it feels wrong to her to spend the night with her boyfriend. The boyfriend who she is going to be breaking up with soon. While she can still hear the shower water running, she decides to send Castle a text to let him know that breakfast is not going to be possible the next morning.

After sending the message, she sets her phone back on the nightstand as she waits for a response, one that might not come until morning. The shower water shuts off, and she hears the door slide open. Her phone vibrates. She really wants to know that he isn't angry with her for cancelling, but she has to pretend to be asleep. Josh had been gone for three weeks and is probably expecting her to make that up to him tonight. And she knows that it would be incredibly awkward to sleep with him when her heart is no longer in it. Although, to be honest with herself, her heart had never really been in this relationship; it had belonged to someone else since before the summer had started. So she decides pretending to be asleep would be the best way to get out of it; she hadn't been expecting him, and she had told him she was trying to catch up on sleep. Hopefully he would be sympathetic.

Josh climbs in next to her, scooting over close to her. She does her best to keep her breathing even and her eyes closed as he puts an arm around her. "Kate?" he says softly. She doesn't move. "I'm a doctor, Kate; I know you're not asleep."

She opens her eyes and turns her head toward him. "Josh, I…"

"Are you mad at me? For coming over here without calling? Or for going away? Or anything? Because things don't seem the same. What happened?"

"I'm not mad at you."

"Then what happened? Kate, you can tell me," he watches her, waiting for her to say something. She doesn't know what to say. "Did that writer do something?"

"That writer is someone I trust."

"More than me?"

She hesitates for only a second, "Yes."

"What changed? Was it just me not being here?"

"Josh, my mother was murdered… twelve years ago. They never solved her case. We found the guy who killed her last year, but someone hired him to kill her. We got a lead last week. There were a whole bunch of them involved in this conspiracy, and we're still looking for them."

"And he knew about this?" Josh asks.

"Yes. He's my friend. A good friend."

"You can still be friends. But that doesn't change us. I still don't understand what happened between us."

"Opening my mother's case made me realize something, Josh. You're a great guy, and you're going to make some woman very happy one day. But it's not me," Kate looks away from him.

"You're breaking up with me… for him, aren't you?" She nods, deciding that she might as well tell him the truth. "Do you know how many women he's been with? He's just following you around so he can get you in bed. I doubt you'll even last a month before he finds someone new."

"Don't say things like that, Josh. You don't know him."

"Kate, why are you risking everything for him? I can give you more than he can, and I won't hurt you."

"We never see each other, Josh. That's why this thing between us works. We're both too busy with our jobs to really invest ourselves in this relationship, and I don't want that anymore."

He reaches for her hands, "Then we can change things, Kate. We can get serious about this relationship, and we can make things work."

"I can't. It's not fair to you or me for us to continue this while my heart is not in it."

Josh climbs out of bed to get dressed, "I guess I should've seen this coming. You changed the moment he came back into your life. He already hurt you once, Kate, and he's going to do it again. And don't come asking me for forgiveness."

"Josh," she protests, sitting up in the bed. This definitely was not how she had wanted things to go. Before she can think of anything else to say, he has left.

A/N: Now we've gotten rid of him... Anyway, I will try to reply to reviews this time. And I will try to update Thursday but it seems like I have a lot to do this week. Thanks.