Hi! Here's chapter seven. This story now officially has the most chapters I've ever written for a story and there are many more to come. Thank you all for being such amazing people.

To Wordworker: No English is not my first language, so you may find some mistakes :)


"Do you think she's going to tell the entire precinct we're together now?" Castle asked.

"No, she won't," Kate said with confidence. She knew that her friend realized that this was big and that they needed the time to get used to it.

"How can you be so sure? Lanie is very good at spreading gossip," Castle said.

"I know because we've been best friends for over ten years and she wouldn't do that to me," Kate insisted. She didn't understand why he didn't trust Lanie to keep this to herself.

"You could just call her back and ask if she couldn't tell anyone," he said.

"Castle! You're not listening to me! She won't tell anyone! What would the big issue be if she would slip up, though? Why are you so against this?" She was suddenly insecure. Maybe he was ashamed of her.

"We agreed to keep it to ourselves remember. Lanie telling Javi and Kevin about this won't do that!"

"But she won't tell them! And even if she did, would it be a big problem for you?"

"Yes! Because if Javi and Kevin know, they'll tell other people and then when we come back, the entire precinct knows!"

"You don't want people to know about this. Why? Are you ashamed of me?"

"What?" He looked confused. "No! Of course not! Where do you get that idea?"

"Well, apparently you don't want anyone to know about us, so…" She was suddenly terrified of his reaction. While she knew that he would never be ashamed of her, she couldn't shake the feeling .

"Wait," he interrupted her. "I thought we agreed not to tell anyone yet. So I assumed that we didn't want the entire precinct to know we're together when we get back to work in two weeks."

It didn't escape her attention that he still spoke of them as a unit. As partners.

"Besides, I don't think it's allowed for partners to be involved, is it?"

"Not really," she admitted. Okay, so he had a point. "But Lanie really isn't going to tell anyone, so we have nothing to worry about."

"Could you still call her, though?" he asked. He held up his hand when he saw that she was going to protest again. "I trust you when you say that she would never spill on us if she knew that we wouldn't want to, but are you sure that she knows that we want to keep it a secret for now?"

She was taken aback by his choice of words. I trust you when you say… She had to remind herself that they were in a fight – was it a fight? – and that she couldn't just start grinning like a fool at his choice of words.

"Okay, fine. I'll call her back," Kate sighed and picked up her phone again. She tapped the speed dial that was Lanie and her friend answered after two rings.

"There's no way that you're already calling me back. Girl, you have more important things to do," Lanie said.

"Yes, I agree with you, but Castle wants me to tell you that we want to keep this thing between us for a little while. So we'd rather have that you wouldn't tell anyone about this little getaway," Kate said, her voice neutral. While she spoke she was glaring at Castle, but it couldn't have been very convincing, because he returned her glare with a little smile.

"Am I on speakerphone again?" Lanie asked.

"Yes, you are."

"Then Richard Castle, you should have listened to my girl when she said that I wouldn't tell anyone without permission. And since I didn't get the 'okay, go' from you guys, my lips are sealed," Lanie said. Kate had the impression that she added just a bit more sass to her voice than she usually would have, just to spook Castle.

"Okay, Lanie, I understand. Thank you," he said. It surprised her that he didn't say anything to make himself look better towards Lanie.

"Good, now have fun you two," Lanie said, she sounded happy for them.

Kate hung up and gave him a look. "See? She knew we weren't ready for everyone to know."

"Yeah, yeah, just say I told you so," Castle said and he pretended to be hurt, but she could see that all was forgiven.

"Nah, that'd be mean," she said and she leaned back against his chest again. "So… we're going back into work in two weeks, huh?"

"Yep. And we'd rather have that Lanie kept it quiet, huh?"

"Yep," she copied him. "And you trusted me." She grinned.

"I think that something beautiful could grow out of this first fight," he mused.

"Hmm, is it a good sign to have our first fight on our first day?" she asked.

"Well, if that's the worst our fights get, I don't really mind," he said.

"Yeah, it wasn't even a real fight, was it?"

"Not really, more of a… disagreement," he said.

"Hmm," she said.

"You're not falling asleep on me again, are you? Because we can always play Chutes and Ladders or something," he chuckled.

"Not falling asleep, just getting comfortable. Besides, you already want to play Chutes and Ladders? This storm may take weeks! I don't want us to move through the board games too quickly in case we have nothing to do when we're holed up in here for two weeks."

"I think I have a better idea to spend our time than playing board games if we're holed up in here for two weeks," Castle said suggestively.

"Let's just save Chutes and Ladders for later, okay? We still have to finish that movie."

"You've hardly seen any of it, because you we're half asleep!" he whined.

"I was listening to it, it was very therapeutic," she murmured.

"Fine, it's only twenty minutes until it's done anyway," he said and he pressed play on the remote control to continue the movie. She relaxed further into him as he started stroking up and down her arm.

(…)

After the movie, he made them both a sandwich and they spent the rest of the day playing Scrabble. Kate beat him four times and let him win the fifth time out of spite. He sulked a bit during dinner, so she tried to cheer him up.

"Come on, Castle! You get to pick the next game!" she said.

"Strip poker?" he asked hopefully.

"Not yet," she said and her reply made him perk right up. The prospect of playing strip poker with her in the near future was enough to make him forget about losing with Scrabble.

"Fine, maybe next time," he said and he winked at her. "Gina texted me that she still wants my next chapter by Friday, so I'd better start writing anyway."

"Okay, I'll clean this up and curl up on the couch with a book or something," she said. To his surprise she didn't seem hurt at all that he needed to spend some time on Naked Heat. It made him fall for her just a bit more that she took all of this in stride.

"Are you sure?" he asked even though he knew what her answer was going to be.

"Yeah, of course. You need to finish your book, so I can entertain myself for a while," she said.

"Thank you," he said with a warm smile and a soft kiss that seemed to catch her by surprise. He didn't even try to hide the skip in his step as he made his way to his office. That he could now just kiss her when he wanted was still so new that his heart beat a little erratically every time he did it. And he hoped that that feeling never went away.

The words started flowing from his fingers as soon as he had opened the document that contained his manuscript. He was lost in the world of Nikki Heat until he had reached an end in a lead that Nikki and Rook were following up on. Only then he looked up from his screen. He was met by an alluring sight. Kate had curled up on the couch in his office with a book, he couldn't see the cover. The book lay forgotten in her lap, her eyes were closed and her head was leaning against the back cushion. It didn't look very comfortable, so he decided to wake her up.

"Hey sleepy," he murmured as he caressed her cheek with his thumb. She startled awake and looked at him with wide eyes.

"I didn't fall asleep again, did I?" she asked.

"You did," he chuckled. "Is this something we need to talk about?"

"What do you mean?" she said confused.

"Well, you fell asleep last night, this morning and just now. Are you okay? You're not sick, are you?" He hadn't thought about it before he'd asked her about it, but now he was starting to get concerned.

"No, Castle. I'm not sick, just a little tired. I guess my body is just catching up on some of the sleep I missed these couple of weeks," she explained.

"What Ryan and Espo didn't send you home?"

"They did, but I didn't listen. And they don't drag me home, unlike some people I know," she said with an accusatory look.

"You were working thirty hours straight! You needed sleep and dragging you home was the only way to get you to sleep," he defended himself.

"I know, Castle. Thanks for that, by the way. I guess I don't look after myself very well."

"You're only figuring that out now?" he said with a smirk.

"Shut up," she said and she sighed, touched her forehead with her hand.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked again.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, but it didn't sound convincing.

"Kate," he chastised.

"Just tired," she murmured.

"Okay, then let's go to bed," he said and slowly helped her up. She leaned heavily on him as they stumbled up the stairs. He was getting more and more concerned with her wellbeing, but there was nothing he could do as long as she didn't tell him what was wrong.

They made it to the bed and he slowly sat her down. "Wait here," he whispered and he disappeared back out the door, only to return a few minutes later with her suitcase in one hand and her toiletries in the other.

"I hope you don't mind staying here tonight," he said with a shy smile. "Because my bed is more comfortable than the one in the guestroom and if you're going to sleep for a good long while, you better be comfortable." He didn't think she'd protest much, given that they'd slept in the same bed the night before too, but she could be stubborn sometimes. He shouldn't have worried because all she did was smile gratefully at him.

He helped her up and supported her on her way to the bathroom. He handed her her toiletries and left her alone for a minute, closing the door quietly behind him. While he waited, he changed into T-shirt and took off his pants. He hesitated about putting on some shorts for her benefit, but he didn't think she'd mind.

After a while of waiting for her to exit the bathroom, he knocked on the door. "Kate?" he asked quietly. When he didn't get an answer, he carefully opened the door. What he found made him smile affectionately at his new girlfriend. She stood in front of the mirror and was looking at herself with a slight frown. "Kate?" he said again, making her jump.

"Castle!" she exclaimed. "What're you doing here?"

"You didn't answer me, so I came to check on you. What are you doing?" he asked.

She suddenly blushed. "I – Nothing," she said and after shooting herself a disapproving look in the mirror, she tried to slid past him towards the bedroom. He was too fast for her, though, and grabbed her by her arms, pulled her into him.

"Woah, woah, that look wasn't nothing," Castle said a little confused. "Talk to me."

"It's nothing, Castle," she said, avoiding his gaze and obviously trying to hide her eyes.

"Kate," he urged with a sigh and she finally looked up at him. Her eyes were bloodshot and the circles were more prominent. She'd been hiding them well with her make-up and since she'd fallen asleep last night with her make-up on, this was the first time he saw her without it.

"I just look like crap, okay. This was probably not how you imagined our first night as couple would go," she murmured.

"Okay, first, you do not look like crap," he said soothingly, "and second, no it's not, but all that matters to me now is that you get some rest." He cupped her cheek and traced the circle under her eye with his thumb. He felt her lean into his touch as her eyes slipped shut. "Go to bed, I'll be there in a minute." With a soft kiss against her hair, he sent her back to bed.


Thoughts?