Chapter 9

Castle:

I advanced towards the swings too and sat down, remembering the anger I had felt for my muse the last time we were both here. We rested in silence, thinking for one or two minutes. Beckett looked like she was lost in thought. I decided to wait for her to make the first move. Then she looked me straight in the eyes and wiped her tears away.

"You know," she said, "If Ryan and Esposito hadn't told me what you'd done after I was shot with your relentless effort to find my shooter, I don't think I'd've come to find you at your book signing that day. And now they aren't here. I'm going to miss them so much."

"Me too Kate, me too..."

She smiled at me. We stayed there, sitting on the swings for a moment, listening to the silence. Each one of us recalling everything that had happened to us in the park. Then, at the same moment, we both turned our heads to look at the other. With a simple glance, we rose to our feet and continued our journey towards the park exit and to accept again the sad truth that surrounded us. I was only thinking sat there and I was bored of remembering. Nothing was going to make me feel better, the city was ruined!

As we walked I noticed that we left footprints in the dust behind us. So I decided to have some fun with them. But, of course, I had to do this in a way that Kate wouldn't see me because, one, she wasn't in a laughing mood, and two, I know she wouldn't play with me and she would yell at me. On the other hand, playing with my footprints without getting the attention of a police detective, THAT was not easy! That was exciting! A really big challenge! I decided to try and walk in a perfectly straight line. Easy. All I had to do was to put one foot in front of the other and not be seen by Kate. And I also had to walk as fast as her so she wouldn't notice. Alexis would have loved this game. So, in memory of my sweet little girl, and for my own pleasure, I began. I had only done about ten footprints when I felt her gaze on me. I did another footprint, pretending nothing was happening, and she turned away to fix her gaze in front of us, her jaw slightly contracted. Another footstep. She stopped, blocking my progress. I lost my balance and almost felt. I was sure I was busted.

"What's wrong Kate?" I asked her as if I didn't have a clue, risking making her angry.

She shrugged her shoulders and said, in a slightly dry tone, that it was nothing. Then she continued to walk, without paying me any more attention. I continued my game since she hadn't said anything. I didn't expect it to be so easy to play without her noticing. Twelve steps. I had already taken twelve steps. I advanced placing my right food in front of my left. Nothing. The left in front of the right. Kate wasn't watching me. It was a good sign. I was like a tightrope walking stepping on a very narrow line. All I was missing was the costume... I risked a glance behind us to see how straight my line was. A smile broke over my face. I was rather proud of myself! I continued walking forward without looking where I was going and I bumped straight into Kate. This time, I was dead!

"Oh, erm ... Sorry, I ... I was looking behind to ... To see if anyone was following us."

"Castle! We are in danger of being killed and you, you are only thinking about playing a stupid game with your footprints? You believed that I didn't know what you were doing? If you don't want to make it out alive, you can go back to playing on the swings but I am going to continue!"

Castle... Our intimacy that had built up over the past few days had gone, and I realised how much I had liked it. She was really angry and I had to admit I had been silly. I gave her a little innocent smile. No matter what I answered, she was still going to be angry. She turned and continued her journey. I followed. She walked with determination and I didn't have time to mess around. I wasn't about to leave her, and I didn't want to go back to play on the swings. Anyway, I didn't want to play my game any more. Not if it caused an argument between us. If Kate was angry with me, it was not fun. I needed to somehow make her laugh. In any event we hadn't found anything to drink nor eat and we were hungry and needed to rest, Dragon or not. Without sustenance, we were going to die regardless of whether he found us.

We arrived at the end of the park; it was the exit where we were headed towards the mayor's office. There were no men in black to be seen; the perimeter appeared secure. I had caught up with Kate and slipped my hand into hers. Luckily for me, she didn't pull her hand away. She paused for two seconds to confirm the way to our destination then we headed off. So hand in hand, Kate and I left the park to venture out on the dark streets on New York. But this good sign didn't last long and Kate soon took her hand out of mine, still too annoyed at me to appreciate the contact. After a few minutes of walking, we arrived in front of the building which had been the mayor's office. It was still half upright and appeared to be habitable. Kate advanced inside and waited for me just beyond the door. I preferred to "secure the perimeter" before entering. Moreover I wondered why she was waiting for me because she had basically ignored me for the past few minutes. As I looked around, she whispered:

"I don't know which way I'm headed in here so if you could lead the way Castle ..."

I really didn't like it when Kate called me that. Especially twice in quick succession. Her anger made her hide behind her cop persona. I was trying everything to get beyond that. And I knew behind all the bravado, she didn't want to be like that. Because she liked me and because she liked my childish side. Then, with the hope that being obedient would soften her anger, I passed by her and led the way. The elevator didn't seem to be working because there was no electricity, and I thought that the stairs would be better. I opened the door with difficulty but I managed nevertheless, under the watchful gaze of Kate. One point for Castle! Once it was opened I walked through. There was no light inside and we had to feel our way forward. It was why, carefully, I reached for Kate's hand, without saying a word. I knew if I said the wrong thing, she would take her hand back. Now, we needed to go up to the thirteenth floor. We were going to have to chance it that we could get that far. And speaking of chance, I remembered the mayor telling me that he had once counted the number of steps up to his office. He had said that it was one hundred and eighty two. And as I had not believed him, I had recounted them myself. And it turned out that he had been right. We had a lot of laughs that day. And today, the stupid game might save our lives. I explained this little anecdote to Kate, in the hope of entertaining her a little. I thought it would be easier since we were in complete darkness and couldn't see each other's faces. But she replied with the bare minimum words so I decided to keep quiet and continued to walk forward towards the stairs. In the circumstances, it was not completely unexpected. It was just that I was counting one hundred and eighty two. By a stroke of luck, I managed to stay on track and reached the door as I arrived at the last number. Second piece of luck: the stairs seemed to be useable up to our destination which suggested the room behind the mayor's office would be habitable. I struggled to push open the door, as I had done downstairs, and after a while it finally opened. It led onto a small corridor which was unlit because it was still night time outside. The windows had all shattered and there was glass coating the floor which we would have to be mindful of. At the end of the corridor was another door, or at least what remained of it, through which we could enter into Bob's office. I thought that now we could see our destination, Kate would take her hand from mine but she didn't. The atmosphere between us seemed less tense, certainly it was better than it was. We headed down the corridor, hand in hand to the door, paying careful attention to the hazards beneath our feet. Once we had arrived, I lifted the debris blocking the door which was stopping us from passing. We entered the room. There was dust everywhere and debris was strewn across the floor, but there were four walls and that was more than could be said for my apartment! The windows in there had also exploded and the shards of glass had become embedded in the dust, making it even more dangerous than the corridor. I showed my muse where the bedroom was which the mayor occasionally used and she entered first. The bedroom was also in a state; the bed was broken but we could put the mattress on the floor to sleep on. It was better than I could have hoped for.

Beckett:

I entered the bedroom first, Rick close behind me. The apartment was in very good condition compared to all of the other building we had seen whilst walking through New York. That being said, it wasn't difficult to be better than most... There was another door to a second room! I moved to check if there was anything behind it. Picking up a pointed plank of wood from the corridor to defend myself in case someone was hiding behind the door, I kicked the door shut with my foot. There wasn't anyone there. It was a bathroom. Of course we would not be able to wash because the water pipes would have been damaged. But now I knew what was behind the door and I knew that there was no Dragon, no man in black and that we were safe here. Whilst I surveyed the bathroom and made sure it was indeed safe, I sensed Rick slowly approaching behind me.

"Did you ever wonder what you would do if it were last day on Earth?" He murmured.

"...No ..." I responded after a moment's hesitation.

"Ah well I asked myself that question this morning. And the first thing I wanted to do was to have as much fun as possible before I die!"

"Interesting... And the second?" I added as I turned my face towards him.

Rick came to stand in front of me and I felt myself getting lost in the ocean blue of his eyes. He took my hand then moved a little closer, narrowing the space separating us.

"The second... I want to make the most beautiful woman in the world happy, and by some miracle she stands before me now. I love you Kate. Let me through your walls Kate, let me love you like you deserve... Unless you don't want my ego to get even bigger..."

Of course that was what I wanted! What an idea! His ego had never made me like him any less! He was moving closer and closer to me, with a look of heated desire on his face. But we were in the middle of an apocalypse, the Dragon was after us, this was frankly not a good time for this wonderful moment! At the same time, it was true that I wanted to allow our relationship to progress to the next stage if we were going to die very soon. But all this love frightened me. I wasn't ready. Not now. I needed to find a way out of this and fast. It wasn't the time for me to get emotionally attached. Not now when the Dragon was after us. Because if he died suddenly, it would be even worse than when I lost my mother. And I didn't want that, not to relive those horrible feelings of loneliness which were now steadily ebbing away thanks to him. I had to run to protect him. And to protect me too. So I quickly took my hands away from his and headed over to the bed. Rick didn't move. Then I started to try and pull the mattress off the bed on my own. He turned and watched me struggling with the furniture. In any other circumstances it would have been funny. I wanted to prove that we were going to have a comfortable bed all because of Katherine Beckett! But after about ten minutes of struggling without success, contrary to what had just happened a smile appeared on his face so I abandoned the effort and murmured:

"Please help me lift this mattress Rick..."

He moved slowly to stand on the same side of the bed as me without dropping his gaze. Then he helped me pick up the mattress. He picked up his side at the same time as I did and we both stepped back a bit as we stretched up. And just as I was finding my balance, I tripped and fell forward onto the mattress. As I fell Castle threw out his arms and tried to catch me. And in a few seconds we were both on the mattress, him on top of me, in a rather compromising position. He met my gaze with ocean blue eyes. We stayed there for a few minutes. I was unable to stop looking at him. I could see in his eyes all the feelings which were running through me and could tell that my desires were reciprocated! Then he kissed me tenderly on the lips. I felt a heat rise within me. He ran his hand through my hair and continued to kiss me. The gesture made me shiver. I had made him understand that it was not the right moment, that I wan't ready but he took charge. And this time, a part of me wanted to stay there with him, so much. And the other part wanted to escape once more. But the desire in me was getting more and more powerful. I couldn't keep fighting my feelings. So I returned his kiss and I dived into this with all my love. Rick moved his other hand down my chest, drawing more shivers from me, and paralysing me completely. He affected me as much mentally as physically: I wasn't capable of producing two coherent thoughts after that. He broke the kiss then pushed himself off me a little to take a breath. He couldn't stop now! Not now! Encouraged by my desire, I moved my hands to the back of his head and pulled him to me. We kissed again. He moved his hand under my t-shirt which started another wave of pleasure within me. And then if I was not yearning enough, he removed his lips from mine to start kissing my neck, moving further and further down making me groan as he went.

Castle:

I had hardly time to catch my breath before Kate pulled me back to her lips. She couldn't seem to get enough of me. And it was true to say, now that I had started, I couldn't get enough of her either. I had become completely dependent on her. I pulled my lips away and decided to play with her a little bit and began kissing her neck. The desire grew more and more in me as my body heated up. My breathing was ragged. Hers also, a sign that I was pleasing her. Then to increase her desire, I moved my hand under her t-shirt and stroked her skin, making small, circular movements, up towards her breasts. She arched herself into my touch and to my great surprise decided to play with me too. Her hands stroked my back, getting lower and lower. And at the moment when I least expected it, she pushed them into my trousers and squeezed my ass, causing me to moan. I moved back up to her face to capture her lips once more. But I didn't have the time to kiss her before she rolled us over and I was suddenly on my back, Kate on all fours above me. Very sexy! I felt like I was realising one of my fantasies. Once she was settled on top, she offered me the kiss I had been looking for moments before. Wanting to always go further, my tongue grazed her lower lip, asked for access to her mouth. She accepted and our tongues began their furious battle in our mouths. When our lungs began to burn, we separated to take a breath. Kate took the opportunity to unbutton my shirt. I lifted off her t-shirt. Normally I would have torn it from her in my eagerness to discover more of her body. But here we had not chance of replacing it. And as I didn't want her to be naked when she met the Dragon, I decided on the gentle method. As soon as I'd finished, Kate recovered my lips with hers. She had also finished with my shirt and was running her hands over my chest. Hot. I was very hot. My body temperature just kept increasing. She moved down to my trousers, and me to hers. I unbuttoned the front and rolled us onto our sides to make it easier to undress. She pulled off my shirt as quickly as possible. Then with an expert hand, I took off her bra. A few minutes later, we were completely naked.

"Now Rick!" She said, as she pulled me to her.

No more playing, no more torture. We were joined for the first time. It felt like I was exploding inside. As if all the desire within me that I had held back for four years was suddenly released. The moment was magic. I had been through so much with this woman. But this time here was totally different to everything that had come before. Almost unreal, like everything else that had happened to us in the past few days. However I could feel it and touch it and it all seemed to be real! I pinched myself to be sure this was real. And the pain that I felt proved I was not dreaming. I was finally here with the woman who was the love of my life.

After we made love for the first time, we stayed wrapped in each other's arms. Our tiredness from the last few days caught up with us and we fell asleep almost immediately.

A smile played on both our faces. We were so happy to be together in that final, physical act, to have been able to demonstrate our love. I fell into a dream, which consisted, of course, of Kate and me together.

Beckett:

We had finally done it. The first time was amazing. He smiled at me. I returned his grin and we kissed tenderly. Then I snuggled closed to him, happy to be there together. I was finally with the man whom I'd love for a very long time. But we had not slept for a very long time either and our physical exertion had exhausted me. I rested my head on Rick's chest and closed my eyes. Then, in spite of my desire to stay awake and enjoy this moment of togetherness, I let myself be carried off towards the land of sleep, too tired even to suggest one of us keep guard in case the Dragon comes to look for us.

I was awakened by a strange sound and because a something moved below my head. I opened my eyes quickly and sat up, on the defensive, ready to attack my aggressor. But the place was empty and accidentally, I had woken my partner with my sudden movements who had been sleeping beside me. He smiled at me as I lay back down beside me then he asked:

"Hey modern day Eve! Sleep well? I am sorry but I don't have an apple to give you …"

"Very funny Rick! Yes I slept well. I'm sorry I woke you, I thought I heard something. And you? Sleep well?

"I dreamed about you so that can only be good!" He responded as he leant up to kiss me.

Whilst we were kissing, his stomach gurgled and I realised it was that noise which had woken me up. I broke away in surprise. It had been my partner's stomach which had woken me up! Rick must have read my thoughts because he started to laugh.

"My alarm clock stomach apologises for waking you up!" He said, still laughing.

I rolled my eyes and wondered when I would ever make understand that his humour wasn't funny. But I didn't really think that. On the contrary, I was holding back a smile, and faced with Rick's grin, I could't help but laugh too. Then my stomach also gurgled. I was as famished as he was. We still not found anything to eat and it was becoming urgent. We decided to get up and go and look for some food and drink to share. We dressed quickly. Once finished, I checked to see that we had not forgotten anything. All was good.

But as we were about to leave, a man in black appeared in the doorway and pointed his gun at us. The Dragon had found us. But we were not going to let them kill us! Then very quickly, he shot at Rick. Luckily Rick had the time to anticipate the move and dodged to the side, narrowly missing the accurate shot. We dashed for the bathroom then escaped through the window that led onto the fire escape which, fortunately for us, hadn't been demolished. The man in black was chasing us. But we knew the streets of New York by heart, and we had therefore at least a chance to escape. And plus, the lack of light worked in our favour. We constantly turned street corners to try and throw our pursuer off but he was just as quick as us and it was proving difficult. After half an hour of this chase, we were getting more and more tired, the man in black included. I turned back for the umpteenth to see if our enemy was still following us and I finally saw he was no longer behind us. Rick was more tired that me because he was not used to running full pelt for such a long time. I had to take advantage of not being followed. I took Rick's hand and pulled him into a side street. We leaned against the wall, catching our breath.

"Do you believe … You believe that we … threw him off?" He whispered to me breathlessly.

I shook my head and risked looking out into the road where we we had previously been. Nobody. I turned back to Rick with a smile on my lips and indicated that there was no one there. He responded with a grin, happy that we had escaped. I liked seeing him happy. In this moment, words were not necessary. Then his gazed moved to focus on something behind me and his smile disappeared at once. Bad sign. I turned around at once and saw the man in black had finally found us. I stood beside Rick and he held my hand.

"Leave Rick along!" I said to the man in black. "If you want your vengeance, kill me but don't hurt him!"

He didn't respond but a smile appeared on his face. Rick beside me squeezed my hand tightly trying to tell me that he didn't want me to leave. The man in black took a few steps towards us and we took a few steps back. Our backs hit a fence. I turned quickly and saw that we were trapped. How could I have been so stupid as to have led us down a dead end? I inwardly cursed myself as I felt fear rise within me, and probably within my partner too. Then very quickly, taking advantage of our vulnerability, the man raised his gun and fired one shot. I shut my eyes, waiting for death. But the bullet struck Rick in the head, who crumpled beside me at once.

"NO!" I cried. "NO! NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Not him! Not Rick! Why was it always the people whom I love who got hurt? This monster had taken everything from me. He had stolen my life and plunged me into a dark path of revenge, and now, he had taken Rick too. It was not right. It wasn't. It was not possible. I was kneeling beside Rick, holding his face in my hands. His eyes were empty. It was not possible. Not him. Not when it was finally getting so good between us. The tears poured down my face. Sadness, anger, and fear filled me. I felt like I too was dead. There was nothing left inside me. Why did the world seem to conspire against me to take away everyone I had ever loved? I felt the man in black approach behind me. I had nothing left. He could finish our fight. After all, what did I have left to fight for? He could kill me if he wanted. And then I would be finally free of this horrible, post-apocalyptic world. Then I could rejoin the people whom I loved. All that I wanted was to go to heaven and see Rick. The man in black grabbed me and pulled me up, away from Rick for one last time. He pushed me against the metal fence and placed the barrel of his gun to my temple. His sunglasses totally obscured his eyes, preventing me from reading what was going on in his head. I didn't even know if the man stood before me was the Dragon or not. Ironically, his sunglasses reflected my own face, tears streaming down my cheeks, and I saw the pain I felt reflected back at me. Was it normal, to not fear death? But I was ready. Ready to be reunited with the people I loved. I shut my eyes, submitting completely to this man, but remaining alert just in case he decided not to kill me in the end. I heard him release the safety catch. This was the end. Then, in what seemed like slow motion, he pulled the trigger. I heard the noise of the shot then I felt an enormous pain in my head. It was my turn to receive a bullet. Then everything happened very quickly. The darkness was coming. The cold surrounded me. And the death which I searched for took me, allowing me to rejoin Rick and my mother and all those who had died in the apocalypse, in heaven.