Spoilers for "Demons"

I can see it.

Kate has a smile on her face. She's sitting in her usual seat, shoes kicked off on the floor and her legs up in the chair comfortably. Her elbow rests on the arm of the chair and her face lays in her palm. She's smiling because she's thinking back to how incredibly adorable Castle was this case. His almost childlike belief in the spirit world. She'll never admit to him that she isn't completely a skeptic. But she did have a lot of fun teasing him.

"Good morning, Kate." Dr. Burke walks in startling her out of her revere.

"Morning." She says almost dream like.

"So how was the case, did you catch the ghost?" He asks with amusement.

Kate laughs. "No. There were no ghosts, as I suspected." She shakes her head and rolls her eyes thinking of Castle again.

"So what happened?"

"It was detective Smith." She says, the smile fading from her face. The thought of another detective committing such an act. "He was in love with Melanie. She wanted to call it off with him...and apparently Smith couldn't let that happen. So he killed her. Killed Matt Benton and hid his body in the house to make it look like he killed his wife and ran off."

"So no ghosts or demons?"

"No."

"And what about Castle?"

"He still believes, although, I did tell him I'd believe in the possibility, that we were led to the conclusion by the deceased Jackson Claire. If. He admitted there was no demon."

"And did he?"

"Without hesitation."

"See, your not completely a skeptic are you?" He asks knowingly.

She smiles as if hiding a deep dark secret. "Maybe not entirely."

"But you always used to be."

"Yes. I admit, that I have always been skeptical of things like Paranormal, magic, and fate...but being around Castle? I don't know, he makes it seem so real to me. That there are possibilities for such things." She pauses, thinking to their little investigation and her teasing him about hearing a ghost. "But that doesn't mean I don't like to tease him about it." She adds after a moment.

Dr. Burke laughs. "So it was a fun case then?"

"For the most part. A lot of teasing, a lot of ghost buster references, a few from Scooby Doo. I had fun." She says nodding in agreement with herself. "Not to say murder is a laughing Matter." She then adds.

"Of course not. But Castle made it not so dark for the rest of you, right?"

"Right."

"Good, You need that." He says and she nods a little. He watches as her mind seems to go elsewhere for a moment, a smirk playing on her lips. He lets her have her moment.

Kate is thinking about the teasing in the McClarin house. How Castle is such an easy mark, which she loves. Although sometimes she thinks he just lets her thinks so. She knows she can always depend on him to be silly and make her laugh and ease up when she needs it. She's not as tense anymore. Although...She has been a whole new kind of tense since he helped get her up into that hiding place. You'd think, that when someone is lifting you up by your legs they would accidentally going to cup your ass while giving you a boost. But not this time. Oh no, he defiantly copped a feel...elsewhere and she doesn't think by accident. And she hasn't been able to keep her mind off it since. It's left her all hot and bothered. Not like that doesn't happen sometimes anyway. But this time there was actual contact.

"Kate?" Dr. Burke asks her after several minutes.

"Hmm?" She covers her mouth with curled fingers and looks his way.

"What would you say, was the theme of this case?" He asks, becoming serious.

Kate's brow furrows and she thinks deeply. "You mean aside from ghosts?" She then asks.

He nods.

She looks down at the floor again in deep thought, and then immediately thinks of Matt Benton's brother. "Demons." She answers quietly, becoming shaken. All signs of her happier demeanor when they started the session, gone.

"I am getting the sense that you don't mean paranormal demons?"

She shakes her head with a far off look in her eyes.

"Inner Demons."

No response.

"Kate? Did something else happen during this case?" He asks. But she doesn't look like she'll be giving an answer anytime soon.

Kate's mind is at her mother's crime scene. where she was when it happened, What she was doing, what she was wearing, the time... She thinks of the yellow tape and the flashing lights. The same yellow tape she sees every time she goes to her own crime scene investigations. Although sometimes Castle is able to steer her away from that scene without even knowing he helped at all.

"Kate?"

"Pete Benton said that he can remember every single detail of the night Melanie was killed. Where he was. What time it was. Who he was with. What he drank. Even the name of his server that night." She stops, her voice quivering, and looks at Dr. Burke with broken eyes. "He said... when something like that happens..." She almost chokes on the lump forming painfully in her throat. "It's burned in your brain. Every detail of the night you heard...He said he couldn't forget it even if he tried." She looks down at her hands, now clutched tightly together in her lap, and slumps her shoulders. A tear slips from her eye and forges a path down her cheek.

Dr. Burke folds his hands in front of him and watches her as she tries to gain control of herself. Her body has tense considerably, and she's shaking with the effort to beat down the sobs that desperately want to break free.

"It's things like that, that make me feel like this is not going to work." She's shaking her head.

"Therapy?"

She barely nods and wraps her arms around her knees.

"Kate, it's not uncommon to hit a rough patch. To have set backs. It's how you get through them that makes all the difference."

A sob escapes and she buries her face in her knees and lets the tears fall. She feels like a failure. Feels as though she's been doing great, heading in the right direction to a better self, a more ready Kate Beckett. But this one thing just had to show itself. She realizes that there will always be reminders. But it still gets to her in the worst possible way.

"This is not a fail." He says, as if reading her mind. "This is just something we will have to work through, like everything else."

She sniffles, lifting her head to rest her chin on her knees, and then she looks over him with a slight nod. "Okay." She says her voice building it's strength back. She wipes at her eyes and sniffles again.

"Try this... Imagine what it is your working towards."

She nods. Wanting desperately to fix herself.

"Can you see it?"

Kate closes her eyes, tightening her hold on her legs and tries to imagine. Her thoughts automatically drift to Castle. What it would be like to have all those walls come down, and to just dive in with him. She can see herself more than ready, and the look on his face when she tells him so. Soon a real smile creeps onto Kate's face. She opens her eyes and looks to Dr. Burke who has just witnessed the tip of her soon to be transformation. All she has to do, is visualize it, believe in it, and it can be hers.

"I can."


Thoughts?

I know this was mostly a fun and silly episode. but I couldn't stop thinking about the look on Kate's face after what Pete Benton said. And we all know she went to her Therapist for that one. Just the thought that everyone has those inner demons. That there are things that will sometimes remind us.

And then, my friends. There is the Law of Attraction. The idea that if you can imagine it, believe in it enough, it can be yours.

P.S. I don't know if you have noticed... but I like to put a lot of subtle metaphors in these chapters. A bit of symbolism I guess. And there were a lot in here. I hope you guys notice.