A/N: Please see the bottom of this chapter for an important note regarding the future of this story.


Chapter Nine

This, Castle decided early in the morning after the bachelorette party as he lie awake staring at the ceiling, was the final straw. Kate was not getting married. Kate was not going to Cairo. No matter what it cost him, no matter what it took he was going to stop the wedding. The stakes had risen and it was time Castle upped his game. Thus, he pulled out his secret weapon.

William did not like baseball. Castle knew this, he was not sure Kate did, but he knew of one way to make it abundantly clear: by taking them to a Mets' game.

For Kate, Mets' games were lifeblood. Castle would never forget the pure joy written all over her face when she first sat in his field box seats between third base and home plate. Evidently, game attendance in her youth had been in the outfield or once on the upper levels nearer to first base, but never once had she had seats that good. He doubted children were happier on Christmas morning than Kate was at that exact moment. Each subsequent time she used his season tickets, whether with him or with her father, she seemed to retain the same amount of joy.

Inviting William to a Mets' game would surely show Kate just how wrong they were for each other. He would undoubtedly be miserable. Better yet, she would see him being miserable and they would realize they simply weren't meant to be together.

Castle's plan for William's annihilation was complicated at best. First, he needed to set the scene correctly and make sure it wasn't too obvious he was simply setting William up to be miserable. He could have just given his pair of season tickets to them, but where was the fun in that? He needed to be there to witness whatever transpired (and nudge it along if need be). When the boys heard of his plans, they wanted to go as well. Figuring they'd make a party of it, Castle invited Kate's father to the Tuesday night game, but he was unable to attend due to a prior commitment.

In his search for five tickets, Castle originally considered selling his two and purchasing five in a row elsewhere in the stadium, but he saw the three seats almost immediately behind his were available and snatched them up without second thought. This, he decided, was kismet; he, Kevin and Javier would literally have front row seats to William and Kate breaking up. It was going to be great!

Castle's golden plans began to tarnish slightly when they arrived at the ballpark to discover the humidity level rivaled that of tropical rainforests. Castle jested, "At least it isn't raining."

"Don't think that would make a difference; I'm already soaked," Kevin commented as he mopped his brow with the sleeve of his t-shirt.

Despite the fact that sweat rolled down the back of his shirt and into the waist band of his khaki shorts, Castle could not be angry about the weather. The game was not going to be rained out, which was a positive. Plus, it appeared William did not own a pair of shorts. Or, at least, had not brought one with him, and thus was sweating the most of all of them. Perfect.

While everyone took their seats, Kate insisted the first round of beers was on her; this would be her last Mets game for a while and she wanted to start the celebration off right. As far as he was aware, Castle was the only one who knew she would be spending the fall (and possibly even the spring) in Egypt. She had requested his confidentiality in the matter and, though he wasn't entirely sure why, he agreed. As far as Kevin and Javier knew, she was spending the fall semester in England.

Despite the first inning being rather dull with the Mets getting three strikes off three hits and their opponents for the night, the Nationals, doing the same, the second inning began to pick up. Plus, a light breeze began to skirt through the crowd and while it did not entirely change the humidity level, it did make everyone feel better.

At the top of the third, Castle took everyone's dinner order. Much to his surprise, William volunteered to help him with the load. They climbed their way up to the concessions area at Citi Field in silence. Once elbowing their way through the tightly packed space, Castle asked William, who had previously been unsure of what he wanted to eat, "What are ya thinkin'? What looks good I mean?"

"Truthfully? None of it."

Castle briefly scrunched his nose. Ballpark food wasn't gourmet, he'd admit to that, but there were some legitimate eateries. Not everything was over-cooked hotdogs and nachos with abnormally colored cheese of questionable origin. "Burger? Taco? Sausage?" Castle listed the various options he thought might appeal to the Brit. Ultimately, he agreed to a duplicate of Kate's order: a Shakeburger from the Shake Shack; however the expression on his face made it seem as though he'd been tricked into eating lunch in the elementary school cafeteria on "tuna surprise" day.

"Are you at least enjoying the game?" Castle asked as they made their way back to the seats, each of them loaded down with bags of food.

"Not particularly. I suppose I'll never be as big of a baseball fan as Kate."

"Well, that would be difficult," Castle said with a laugh. "Are you a fan of any sports?"

William shook his head. "No, I never have been. My family enjoys polo; my brother's played for many years but I'm allergic to horses."

"So no polo for you." Castle concluded.


Forty minutes later, after they'd filled their bellies with food that was greasy and satisfying in all the best ways, the atmosphere had cooled significantly. The humidity was still near the maximum, but with the temperature itself dropping, the air became more tolerable. Just as Castle was beginning to wonder if his plan had backfired completely, he heard Kate say, "What? Of course we're staying to the end."

Hearing the irritation in her tone caused Castle to nearly leap from his seat with joy. He roughly elbowed Javier, who sat beside him. When he received a glare, he frantically pointed his finger at the near-boiling-point couple seated in front of them. Javier's brow wrinkled with confusion, so Castle curled his fingers into claws and bared his teeth as though he was growling. Then, he pointed again. Bizarre as it was, his miming worked and, after nudging Kevin, the trio leaned in to listen closer to the discussion taking place.

"…Well, I'm sorry if you're not enjoying it, but this is something I love."

"I just don't understand the appeal; it's so silly and boring."

"I'm not saying you have to love it as much as I do, but can you please try not to be completely miserable?"

"I-" William stopped abruptly when, from the corner of his eye, he caught the sight behind him: three grown men listening like schoolgirls. When they realized William was on to them, the trio leaned back in their seats casually and pretended to be fascinated with the events on the field. Unfortunately for them, no action was happening as the next batter had yet to take his place.

"Perhaps we should continue this discussion in private?" William suggested.

Kate glanced back behind her and, though every one of them avoided her eye contact, she knew they had been listening. Silently, she stood and followed her fiancé up the steps, away from her nosy friends.

Once they were out of earshot, Castle hissed to his seatmates, "They're fighting! They're fighting over him hating baseball!" Really, he should have been ashamed over his gleeful tone, but he wasn't; he was too excited.

"Looks like you called this one, bro; good job," Javier said, leaning back further in his seat.

"Hate to be the voice of reason, but just because they had a disagreement does not mean they're breaking up," Kevin said wisely.

"No, I know." Castle promised. "I didn't expect them to breakup at this exact moment. The point of this was to create even more underlying reasons why they're not good for each other. That way-aaayyy Kate!" Castle changed the course of his speech quickly when the brunette returned to her seat—alone.

When she acknowledged him with nothing more than a grumble, he couldn't help but ask, "Did you and William have a fight?"

She glanced at him over her shoulder. "I wouldn't call it a fight. We…we agreed we need to be more respectful and tolerate each other's different interest, but that may not always mean participating in each other's interests."

Castle arched an eyebrow. "Meaning?"

"Meaning I don't think William will be coming to too many more Mets games."

Castle nodded briefly. "So he left, then?"

"What? No," she responded quickly. "He's in the bathroom."

With an exhale, Castle leaned back in his seat. Well…that hadn't gone as planned. Then again, he mused, the conclusion to their disagreement was very rational—very rational. This was bound to come up again at a later time. The seeds had definitely been planted, but maybe they were not as rooted as he hoped.

"Rick?"

Castle was pulled from his thoughts when the Brit returned. Instead of sitting next to Kate, he stood in front of his seat, facing the trio of men in the upper row. At the sound of his name, the writer looked up.

"It's been brought to my attention that I've been ungrateful and I apologize for that. All the noise and music plus this bloody heat has given me a headache and I've forgotten myself. You've been nothing but kind and generous to us over the past two weeks and I am grateful for everything you've done."

"O-Oh," Castle stammered; he had not been expecting such an elegant apology. "Well, sure. No problem. Anything for Kate…and Kate's fiancé." He added with a forced smile.

Well damn, he thought to himself once William had taken his seat. He wanted to hate William. He needed to hate William. So why was William being so damn nice? That made him so much more difficult to hate. If William continued to be this nice and Castle continued to hate him in spite of it that made him a dick, but he wasn't supposed to be the dick; William was!

For the remainder of the game, Castle sat and sulked in his seat, not wanting to make eye contact with anyone. This was his grand plan—his Hail Mary—and it failed. What the heck was he supposed to do now? Kate and William were leaving for England in five days! The wedding was in ten days! Castle was running out of time.

As they exited the park after what turned out to be an only so-so game (the Nationals had bested the Mets 6-5), they were discussing how baseball had not jumped to the top of William's favorite sports list. In fact, it probably hadn't cracked the top five.

"So William what are you gonna do if your kid wants to play little league?" Kevin asked.

"Oh I don't think that'll be a problem," William replied. "Our children won't have time for sports—they'll be focusing on academics and if they need something else—music."

Castle's ears perked at this latest opportunity for dissention. Though as far as he knew she had not been a huge sports player in her youth, Castle always knew Kate to be adamant about allowing any hypothetical future children to follow their own dreams. Her parents had encouraged her when she chose to follow a different career path than them and felt it fundamentally helped her be who she was. William's opinion seemed to differ on that front.

"No sports?" Javier asked. "What if they want to play…cricket or something?"

William shrugged. "I wouldn't forbid them from playing, but I hope they take a different interest."

Javier allowed the couple to walk ahead while he muttered to the two remaining men, "Well I know what uncle Javi is getting them for every birthday."

"Gloves, bats, and balls?" Castle asked.

"You know it." He replied before bumping his fist against Castle's.

Despite the brief hope he gained when William's opinion of their children's futures came up, that glimmer faded as they made their way to the subway. Kate walked with her arm linked through Williams, her head often resting against his shoulder when the crowd of people walking came to a near standstill. At one point, they even shared an extremely rare public kiss on the lip—the first Castle had seen from them.

Watching them, his stomach beginning to swirl, Castle felt the unpleasant sensation of guilt creeping up his spine. What was he doing? Was breaking up Kate and William the complete wrong thing to do? Or did it not only make him the worst maid of honor ever, but the worst best friend ever as well?

Only after they parted ways with the couple did Castle express this to his comrades. "Maybe…maybe I should stop all this," he concluded.

"What? Give up? No way!" Javier insisted.

"But maybe it's for the best. Maybe I'm not what she wants. I can't give her brooding intellectual discussions; I can't give her a fancy academic life in—a foreign country," he said, stopping himself just short of accidentally saying, "Cairo."

"But what if she doesn't want that?" Javier countered. "What if she wants a life here, in New York?"

Castle gave his friend a rather pitiful look. "But you saw them. She seemed so…happy." He spoke the final word as if it was poison. Above all else, he wanted Kate to be happy—truly he did, but up until that moment he fundamentally believed her ultimate happiness lie with him. Now, he wasn't so sure.

"After they had the fight, you mean," Javier pointed out. Castle's look remained skeptical. "Okay, tell me this—have you seen her laugh?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Has he made her laugh?" Javier repeated his question.

Castle thought for a moment. "No, not that I've seen."

Javier simply shrugged. "So maybe he's not what she needs." At Castle's confused expression he added, "All I know is you and Kate have been friends for a decade – there has to be a reason for that."

Javier was right and that gave Castle his final idea. Instead of breaking down William in her eyes, he needed to build himself up. He needed to shower her that he was head-and-shoulders above the rest; that he was the end-all-be-all of best friends; that he was the one she needed and absolutely couldn't live without.


A/N: After some significant thought, I have decided to end this story. Quite frankly, it just isn't fun for me to post anymore. Actually, I completely dread it, because I know the negative reviews will outweigh the positive ones and I will continue to get nasty guest reviews for the duration.

It's a shame because I like this story and I stand by how it's written, but it's become clear that a large portion of others disagree. Many people hate this version of Kate and don't see any friendship or relationship between her and Castle, but I disagree. A lot of people see hardly any similarities between this Castle & Kate and the canon versions. I'd be more inclined to agree on that front, but I would also like to remind those people that its an AU and as calling it such I can write the characters any way I see fit.

Nevertheless, a large portion of the readers and I will just have to agree to disagree.

So as not to punish those enjoying the story, I will post the remaining 7 chapters all at once on Wednesday of this week. I apologize in advance for spamming your inboxes with update notifications.

Thank you for your understanding.