Woah dudes. So So So sorry for the longs wait. This aweful life thing got in the way and I didn't get a chance to sit down and DO this.
Thanks to Hemily for helping through my little speedbump- I wouldn't have cranked out this chapter without your help.
Sorry for any typo's, I tried to get them all.

Now if you will forgive me, I would love it if you read this chapter (at long last)

Somethings and Nothings

Kate was struck by a heavy wave of déjà vu when she woke the next morning.

Again, she felt the soft, worn leather of Castle's couch beneath her, and the equally soft cotton of his shirt behind her. He was actually spooning her. The couch was not a spacious one, but it was large enough, she concluded. This time she did not mind him proximity. Despite her feelings the night before, she felt herself relieved to see both their clothes intact. "You gotta stop falling asleep on my couch," she heard Castle behind her. It was low and mumble-y, as he was obviously just greeting not only her but consciousness. She smiled to herself, relieved to find he couldn't see it, and wondered how he knew she was up. Then she wondered how long her had been hanging there, between sleep and wake, watching her though lidded lashes like he did. Again, she was smiling.

"Well you have to stop seducing me," she shot back, in an equally groggy tone. Upon feeling the rumble of a laugh beginning low in his chest, she rolled over so she was facing him, taking some of his blue button up in her small hands and burying her face in his solid chest. Again, the low rumble that coupled his silent snicker.

"I didn't even have to break out the hard liquor," he joked back.

"Castle, I think we both know that if I didn't want to be here, I wouldn't be," she told him, smiling up at him. He smiled warmly back.

Marcus sat in the interrogation room. After he had revised his alibi, from 'home alone' to out drinking with some buddies, Kate raked the underbelly of the city trying to disprove it. Luck, as it happened, was on her side today. She strolled into the interrogation room, coolly, in a manner most women can attempt but only she could perfect, Castle hot on her heels. "Mr. Marcus," she began, dropping the case file onto the metal table with a heavy thunk. The room, cleverly designed for intimidation, reverberated the sound, bouncing off of all four walls before dying.

"I thought we were past this, Kate," he said slyly. If he was angry at her before, he had gotten over it now. When she sat, she could see Castle's fist tighten, and she touched his foot with hers, so lightly and discretely he might of missed it.

"That's Detective Beckett, to you," Castle told him, equally as cool. He did not want a rerun of yesterday's episode. He couldn't see her like that again. Marcus just looked at him oddly before returning his undivided attention to Beckett.

"Where were you Saturday night, Marcus?" she asked, ice in her voice. It wasn't even his that made her so angry, although he wasn't exactly alleviating the situation. She just hated being lied to. She hated all the man power she had to waste on every one he told her. She wanted the truth. Marcus, for reasons Kate would never understand, grinned a little, sinking down into his chair in terrible posture.

"I already told you that," he told her, in a matter-of-fact way that only pissed her off even more,

"Yeah, Marcus. You were home alone, you were at the bar, you were in bed. You can't be at all of these places, Marcus," she could hear her voice elevating. "I know you weren't at the bar." She stood up, frustrated. "Seems like the one person you forgot to bribe was the relief bartender, cause he didn't recognize your ugly face."

Marcus didn't seem to know what to think of this. He just kind of stared at her, speech escaping him. It was Kate then who felt Castle's foot on hers, just a light, gentle nudge to remind her that he was there. Almost instantaneously, her demeanor softened and her shoulders relaxed a hair. It wasn't until minutes later when Marcus finally regained the ability to speak, letting out a brief sardonic laugh. "You're a bitch," he told her.

"Thanks for the memo," she shot back. "This one- he's original," she told Castle in a loud whisper, as if Marcus wasn't there. In her periphery, she saw his jaw clench and that muscle by his temple twitch. Castle seemed amused by the situation.

"Witty," Castle said, turning to Marcus. "You're sharp," Beckett and Castle shared a laugh and Marcus got even angrier at the joke they seemed to share. There laughter was cut short by the sound of metal on cement as Marcus stood, pushing the chair out abruptly. "I think we hurt his feelings," Castle whispered to Beckett, not looking away from the livid man. Kate merely shrugged, standing herself.

"I'm hungry," she said.

"I could go for a bite," Castle followed her lead, opening the door for her. "You'll be here when we get back?" he asked Marcus, shutting the door on his face, red with anger, before he could answer.

Once out of the interrogation room, Kate dropped herself into her desk chair. "We're not going out to eat?" Castle asked, confused.

"No," Kate replied, as if it were a stupid question coming from a toddler.

"But I'm hungry!" he pouted.

Before Beckett could open her mouth to speak, though, her phone rang. She picked it up. "Beckett." A second later she hung up. "That was Lanie. I'm going to go to the morgue to see what she's got- since you are so hungry, you can go get pizza- remember the onions on my half," she said, standing and making to the elevator.

"You're sticking me on pizza runs?" he called after her, looking helpless. "You're gonna solve a murder and I'm on pizza duty?" She ignored his complaints and stepped on the elevator were she was sure he wouldn't follow her, smashing the button that was the basement floor.

Lanie needed to see her, this was the truth.
But Kate needed to see her even more.

-x-

"Hey girl," Lanie greeted without turning around, the sound of the door sliding open and closed alerting her of Beckett's presence. At Kate's silence, she did turn. "What's up?" Concern leaked in at the sight of her friend. "Sit," she commanded, nodding to the nearest vacant exam table. And so the ritual began. Lanie, her findings forgotten, sat on a table across from Kate, who was laying on one, Rasinettes in one hand and water in the other. "Start from t beginning."

"Remember that nothing that you were convinced was something? The nothing I assured you was and never would be something other than a wild figment of your imagination?" Kate asked, staring at the ceiling, almost cryptically. Well, what would have been cryptic to anyone but Lanie, who understood it just as easily as she did science and English and men.

"Ohhhh," she said, dramatically, preluding something Kate knew was coming. "You mean that something I knew was something even when you insisted oh so fervently was nothing? The something that everyone but you can see is anything but nothing?" she asked, eyebrow arched.

"Yeah," Kate sighed, counting the ceiling tiles. "That something."

"What about him?" she asked. Kate whipped her head around to give her a look, but sighed, resumed her mental tile counting, and continued.

"I like him," she said, secretly internally relieved to have dropped the complicated analogy talk.

"Well duhh," Lanie quipped back. "You're going to be a tad more specific."

"From the beginning you say?" Kate asked. Lanie, in response, threw a Rasinette at her, hitting her on the forehead. "Well we went on this fabulous non-date that I'm pretty sure was a date, and then we made out in the stairwell." At this Lanie's jaw dropped.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" she asked, interrupting.

"Do you want to hear the story or what?" Kate asked, tearing her eyes away once again to look at her. Lanie just nodded, crossing her legs Indian-style and popping another Rasinette in her mouth. "As I was saying the something is most definitely not nothing anymore and him and I are…"

"What?"

"I think that's the problem?" it was more of a question. Kate sighed, exasperatedly. "I have no idea what we are."

"Is he jerking you around, because if he is, girl, I swear-"

"No, Lanie, it's nothing like that," she was quick to assure. "He's been surprisingly…sweet…about the whole thing."

"Surprising maybe to you. You know he's earnest at heart. Under his little rich boy farce is a good man, Kate. You need to know that." Lanie loved Beckett but sometimes she could be so thick.

"I do," Kate replied, after some consideration. "I know that. It's just hard to see past it sometimes. It's me that is holding us back. Which he's being sweet about as well," there was a tinge of annoyance at the last part.

"He's being patient and understanding," Lanie concluded. "How dare he." Beckett made a face, but Lanie's point was made. She was right, too. "You know how you are," she continued, when Kate didn't provide a witty retort. "And as much as you hate to admit it, he knows how you are too. And in case you haven't noticed honey, he loves you for it."

At the L-word, Kate's head snapped in Lanie's direction.

"Yeah you heard me correctly, that card has just been played. Both of you refuse to throw it out there, so I forced the hand."

"Again, with the poker analogy?" Kate asked out loud. "And who says we're even playing a game?"

"Oh honey it's not a game, not for either of you. Doesn't make it any less interesting to watch."

"We almost had sex last night," Kate confided. At this abrupt confession Lanie nearly spit out the water she had sipped.

"You almost did what now?" she asked, bewildered.

"On his couch. But he stopped it."

"Why?" Lanie's interest was piqued.

"Something about regrets and Nick Colasanto," Kate said, dismissively.

"Oh Nick Colasanto is too cute. I just want to pick him up and put him in my pocket," Lanie gushed. "I don't see what he has to do with sex, though."

"Now there is an image," Kate let out a musical laugh. "Thank you, Lanie," she sat upright, hopping off the table and stealing a Rasinette.

"Some things are allowed to be somethings, Kate," Lanie replied, sagely. "Take him out of your nothing box."

"That was oddly wise, Lanie," Kate said.

"I would take that as a compliment if you didn't sound so surprised," Lanie shot back. Kate just waved on her way out, not looking back on her smiling friend.

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If not only to yell at me for the weeks this chapter took.
Forgiveness is thekey to happiness.

Forgiveness and marshmellows.
Mostly marshmellows.

But forgiveness is good, too.

Review.
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