The first soft rays of sunlight were just beginning to seep around the edges of the burgundy colored curtains covering the window directly over her bed. Kate Beckett shifted just slightly, afraid if she moved more than that she might wake the bed's other occupant. She watched the dust particles floating in the air and snuggled further into the solid chest resting firmly against her back. The hand around her waist tightened as the body behind her readjusted to a more comfortable position and a sigh of contentment escape his lips causing his warm breath to brush across her sensitive ear.

The sound of thunder rumbled somewhere off in the distance and she noticed for the first time the chill on the air that the rain brought with it. It raised a rash of goosebumps over her skin. Before she had a chance to snag the blankets and pull them tighter around her, the hand at her waist came up and did it for her.

"Morning," Rick whispered in a raspy, sleepy voice.

"Morning," she answered through a shivered caused by him placing a soft kiss to her shoulder.

His hand went back to her waist and he used it to pull her closer. She willingly obliged and tilted her head enough to give him better access to the her neck which he was attempting to nuzzle.

"How did you sleep?" she asked.

"Best night I've had in years," he purred in her ear before bringing the lobe into his mouth and sucking on it gently.

She shivered again and arched her back into him.

The rain was just starting to splatter in large, fat drop against the window and the sound drew her in. "It's raining," she commented unnecessarily.

"Sounds like," he replied, turning her in his arms so he could get to her lips. "You know what that means?"

"What?" she sighed dreamily as she tangled her fingers in the hair at the nap of his neck.

"It's a perfect day to spend in bed," he answered before finding her lips again.

She almost didn't hear the chirping of his phone from the chair where he'd left his pants the night before. It wasn't until he pulled his mouth from her breast and raised his eyes in its direction that she took note.

"I should get that," he sighed.

She nodded in agreement, drop her arms from his shoulder and watched as he padded barefoot over to the chair. Then she rolled to her side away from him to give him some privacy.

It was an unnecessary gesture. A moment later she heard him answer, then he left the room quietly closing the door behind him.

When he didn't return for a time, Kate stretched, got up and found a robe. Slipping into it, she secured it around her waist in a tight knot and headed off to find him.

He was in the kitchen fiddling with her coffee maker and scowling at it in contempt.

"I thought we were spending the day in bed," she commented as she came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"We are," he answered not at all stunned by her sudden appearance. He must have heard her coming. She'd have to work harder to sneak up on him. "I just thought coffee might be good."

"Anything wrong?" she asked, pulling back after laying a kiss to his bare shoulder blade. He'd grabbed his pants along with his phone, but hadn't bothered with his shirt.

"No, no, Alexis just wanted to make sure I was alright. After my disappearing act yesterday, she was worried when I didn't come home last night."

"We should have called her. I'm sorry we made her worry."

He turned from the coffeemaker and pulled her into his arms. "All was forgiven when I told her where I was," he smiled down at her.

Kate immediately felt her body tense involuntarily. She quickly tried to hide the reaction, but she wasn't swift enough for him.

"What?" he asked, suddenly concerned. "Should I not have told her? I'm sorry. I just didn't think about it. Alexis and I tell each other everything."

"No, it's fine. I understand. Of course you told her." She waved off his concern.

"I should have talked to you first. I never imagined that you might not want everyone to know about us yet."

"It's fine, really," she repeated.

"You're not sure you want to tell everyone about us?" he said with infliction that made it sound more like a question than a statement.

She pulled out of his arms and moved to the island in the middle of the kitchen. Once she was settled on one of the bar stools, she looked up at him and forced a smile. "I hadn't really thought about having to tell everyone about us."

He stepped back propping himself against the cabinet behind him and crossed his arms over his chest. "Having to tell them? Like it's something unpleasant. You make it sound like a dentist appointment, Kate."

She got to her feet quickly. "I didn't mean it like that. This isn't about you or us, even. You know how I feel about keeping my private life private."

"I wasn't planning on taking out an ad in the New York Times. I just didn't think it would be a big deal for my daughter and our friends to know."

"But if we tell them, everyone will know," she answered, lamely.

"I'm sorry. I guess I'm just a little confused. I want to go out to the balcony and shout about us at the top of my lungs. I'm having trouble with the fact that apparently you'd prefer it if I was your dirty little secret," he replied.

"You aren't my dirty little secret, Castle. That isn't what I'm saying."

"What you're saying makes me think you regret what happened last night. That you're ashamed of us."

She went to him and put her arms around his shoulders. "I'm not ashamed of you. And I absolutely don't regret last night. Not a minute of it, but have you thought about my new boss. We know nothing about them. Montgomery might have been fine with us being together and working together. But we don't know the first thing about this new guy."

He scowled at something over his shoulder and sighed before turning his eyes back to hers. "Alright, we'll keep this between us. I'll talk to Alexis. She won't say anything if I ask her not to and neither will I. I promise."

Kate nodded. "I know. I trust both of you and this is just temporary, just until we can feel the new boss out and see what kind of a guy he is."

"And if he isn't the kind of guy that will be okay with us being together?" he asked, quirking his eyebrows.

"We'll deal with that when we have to," she answered. "Now, can we please go back the part where we were spending the day in bed?"


An unmitigated disaster was what it was. Victoria 'Iron' Gates, not only would not approve of Kate and Castle being together personally, she didn't even like them working together. Kate sat at her desk, back in the twelfth precinct and should have been glad to home. That was the feeling she was expecting after being gone so long. She'd been waiting impatiently for this day for weeks now. But the new boss brought with her not only a dark cloud about the fate of the man she called a partner, but the sorrow she felt for a lost friend.

She didn't realize how badly she was going to miss Roy Montgomery until she had to come here and sit in this chair knowing all the while that he wasn't in the office where he was supposed to be watching over them all like their own personal Guardian Angel.

She looked over to find Ryan and Esposito at their own desks tossing a neon yellow Koosh ball back and forth. They had already had their time to deal with the grief and almost overwhelming feeling of lose. Things looked almost normal in their section of the squad room.

Castle was still in the office with Gates. She didn't know what they were discussing but every once in a while a voice would thunder loud enough to be hard around the closed door. Usually it was a female voice.

She jumped when the door to the office opened unexpectedly and Castle came out without his usual grin plastered to his face. He strode to his chair beside his desk and flopped down into it with an uncharacteristically brooding sigh.

Kate watched interestedly as Gates appeared at her door for a moment, looked around at them, then closed the door a little harder than was necessary.

She gave it a minute before readjusting herself in her chest and quirking her eyebrows up in Castle's direction. "Well?" she prompted when he didn't come forth with anything to say.

"Well, what? She hates me."

"Is she kicking you out?" Kate asked, and suddenly Ryan and Esposito where standing right behind her. One of them had their hand on the back of her chair, though she didn't know which it was.

"Not because she doesn't want to. I had to make a call." He mustered a smile, though it looked forced and didn't reach his eyes. "I'm not going anywhere. Not as long as I have anything to say about it. I'll just lay low for now until she warms up to me. Everyone warms up to me eventually."

"Normally, I'd agree with you, Castle. But that is one tough cookie," Ryan replied and shifted letting her know it was him with his hand on her chair.

"She's not so bad," Kate offered. "I'm sure we'll find a way to make things work with her."

Castle nodded. "No, she's not bad. She's just very by-the-book. So we'll have to be the same. Anyone got a book so I can catch up?"

"You do alright," Kate assured him. "I wouldn't want anyone else watching my back."

He perked up at that, just like she'd hoped he would. "I'm flattered."

"You should be," she replied.

Catching up took most of her day. She and Castle had eaten lunch at her desk while they went over all the new active case files. And he stayed by her side, reading along with her, fetching coffee. The only exception had been the hour that morning she'd spent at the range re-certifying for her weapon and the hour she'd spent at the shrink's passing her psych evaluation.

No one bothered them as they sat there at her desk, heads huddled together, reacquainting themselves with each other as much as with the work at hand. It always took a minute to ease back into a steady ebb and flow of a partnership. Although, truth be told, they had done their own form of ebbing and flowing the night before. But this was work and work was different.

When they finally left for the night, it was separately as if an unspoken agreement had been set between them. This was how it had to be, private life private, professional life separate. She had already considered calling the whole private life thing off. It wouldn't be possible for them to continue working together if Gates knew the extent of their relationship.

They both knew it. Yet Kate couldn't even begin to imagine how to start that conversation much less how to go about having it. It was absurd. They had crossed a line, a line there would never be any coming back from. Things had been shared, said that could never be taken back and truthfully, she didn't want to.

She didn't regret a moment of the night they'd shared together, or the day and night that followed it. Memories had been made, images, cherished snippets of times had been burned into her soul that she would hold on to until the day she died. He had changed her, fundamentally and permanently. He was a part of her now. No, there would never be a way to go back now. That bridge had burned in a glorious two day marathon of passion that left it in ashes.

Even now, as she made her way to her car and got in readying herself for the drive through downtown traffic, all she could think about was whether he would be waiting for her when she got home or whether she would need to go to him, but either way, she'd already decided, they would be together.