Disclaimer: not mine.

Chapter 10

Of fights and phone calls

Rick sat in his bed finishing the last few bites of his BBQ pork sandwich, and Mac & cheese. He loved BBQ, but because he lived in an apartment it meant he couldn't have a grill. It was times like this that he thought about his house in the Hampton's. There he had a huge BBQ pit. As well as a fire pit and an out door clay pot fireplace. The thought of, "Maybe I'm a pyromaniac" entered into his head. "No", he thought "I'm no arson, I just like watching things burn… okay maybe I am a Pyro." He still wanted to go out to his summer house. 'Maybe I'll take Jordan and the girls out there some time in the next month or two.' he thought.

The door to his room opened and Kate stuck her head in. "Oh I didn't know you were having dinner. I'll come back…" she started to say but he cut her off.

"Non-sense, I'm done." He said as he popped the last bite of his sandwich in to his mouth. And wiped his hands on his wet wipe. "Come on in, I promise not to yell at you and call you names." He said as he tossed his trash in the garbage can, and sat up in bed. He looked up and saw Kate standing by the door uncomfortably. "Come on in, take your coat off, stay awhile." He said with a laugh. She pulled a chair up to the side of his bed and took off her long black rain coat to reveal a short black cocktail dress. "You didn't have to get all dolled up for me you know? But I must say you clean up nicely." He said as he whistled at her and winked.

"This is not for you, it's for Tom. I promised to come over tonight. I'm thinking of taking him out for drinks at a club." She said as she sat down in her chair. She handed him a bag.

"What's this?" He asked while looking through the bag. He pulled out a big piece of raspberry cheesecake, and a plastic fork.

"Dessert, and a peace offering?" She said a little unsure.

"I except, but only if I can share it with you as part of my apology to you. I'm sorry Kate, really sorry. For the things I said, and the way I acted, and for calling you a badge bunny." He said as he pushed the cake back towards her and picked up a plastic fork from the pile of plastic ware he had on the table next to his bed.

"I accept, and may I complement you on your collection of takeout cutlery." She said with a laugh.

"Why thank you. I'm quite proud myself. I've had every meal delivered to me from the second day till now. I love this honor system." He said.

"Yes, I can see you have a good grasp on it. Who told you about it?" She asked as she took a bite of cake.

"Ryan, he told me all about it. He said I could ask my partner for anything and they had to bring it to me. I was going to request you bring me dinner in a sexy little red dress, but I must say cheese cake in a little black dress is just as nice." He said. She blushed at that comment.

"Castle! You were going to humiliate me like that?" She asked in shock.

"Yeah, but then Jordan came in and she told me I had to apologize for my behavior. I thought about what she said and I have to agree with her, I was out of line. I really am sorry Kate." He said with a sad face.

"And I'm sorry too. I was so mad at you that night, I wanted to kick your ass so bad, I went to Tom's apartment and I ranted and raved, but then I got the call from Ryan. He told me you were shot, and the first thing that came to me was I called you a bastard. I called you a bastard and you got shot. I thought you were going to die and the last thing I said to you was probably the worst thing I could have said… I thought you were going to die and I called you a …" Kate trailed off as she started to sob. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed out big gut wrenching sobs. Rick swung his legs off the bed and stood on unsteady feet he took the two steps to get to her side and took a knee. He hugged her to his shoulder and rocked her.

"It's okay Kate, I'm okay. I lived and you got to tell me you were sorry. Come on Kate, it's okay." He said softly to her.

"No it's not okay. I'm so sorry for everything. I'm sorry for calling you a bastard. I'm sorry for being a total bitch to you that day, hell I'm sorry for being a total bitch to you that whole week. I'm sorry for not congratulating you on becoming an agent. I'm sorry… I'm sorry it took me seeing you with another woman to realize that I had feelings for…" She trailed off.

Rick's head shot up and he pulled back a little bit. "What?" He asked.

"I um, nothing." she said as she tried to play it off.

"No you said it took you seeing me with another woman to realize that you had feelings for me. That's what you were going to say wasn't it?" He asked as he stood up and walked over to his bed.

"I did not!" she said defensively.

"No your brain caught up to your mouth and you stopped yourself, but I know that's what you were going to say. So it took you till now to see me as dating material?" he asked in a hurt voice.

"No, oh don't give me those puppy dog eyes. Fine I'll admit it, after seeing you with Jordan it hit home that I might be more that a little bit jealous. I then thought about it and I realized that I might have feelings for you…" He cut her off in mid sentence.

"So let me get this straight, you have feelings for me but it took you seeing me with Jordan to figure this out? What about all the other women you saw me with?"

"I don't know. I was a little jealous of them, but I knew they wouldn't last." She said.

"Okay, new question. What about all the serious flirting I did over the years?" He asked confused.

"What serious flirting?" she asked in a lost tone.

"You know the things I did for you" he said, but she still had that lost look. "Okay how about all the times I did stuff for you like bring you coffee, or hold the door for you? Or the dedication in the book? Or how about all the bantering we do. Are you going to sit there and tell me that you never thought I was serious. You have got to be kidding me." He said in real shock.

"You were never serious! You just wanted into my pants." She shot back and instantly regretted it. She was just now realizing the size of the river De-Nile. She really must have been concentrating hard on blocking out all of his charms. Hell she was surprised she got any work done at all.

"I will admit that in the beginning I just wanted sex, but after we worked that case with the frozen woman I think I fell in love with you. When you let me in on your mom's story I just wanted to hold you. After that I did all that I could to bring your emotional walls down. To get you to see me for the guy that I am. Then Demming showed up. I let him passed because I thought you weren't ready for a relationship. I thought you would blow him off like you did me, but… then you got interested in him and then I saw you kiss him, and it felt like I got punched in the chest."

"If you were so in love with me, then why the hell did you shack up with Shaw then?" she asked in a angry voice

"What was I supposed to do Kate? Spend the rest of my life waiting for you? Sit there and watch you with your boy toy? Sit there day in and day out while you two played high school sweethearts? Wait for you to wise up? To realize that you date cops because you think there all as noble as you are, but in the end they all leave you? You know what? I had dinner with Jordan that night and she asked me why we weren't together. I told her you were with some other cop, and the look of pity she gave me shocked me. Here was a woman that just got divorced and she feels sorry for me? The next day when I saw you go to Demming's defense it hit me. I wasted my time with you. We worked almost two years together and you couldn't once say I would make a good cop. Never. I sat with Jordan twice and she handed me a badge, and told me I had an investigators mind." He said offhandedly, at this point he didn't even know where this fight was going. He just needed her to see his side of the story. Something she obviously didn't see before now.

"How the hell was I supposed to know that you wanted to be a cop?" She asked.

"How about the fact that I spent almost two years working cases with you? Or building theory with you? Or interrogating suspects with you?" He asked like he was talking to a small child.

"That was research for your books." She said.

"Kate, I have a masters degree in criminology. I've worked with the best cops and agents in the field in the name of research for ten years before I even met you. Why the hell would I need to do two years of research to write some new book? The truth is I spent the last two years following a woman that never looked at me as more than just a lackey." he said with real hurt in his voice. Maybe trying to get her to see his side of the story was a bad idea, it meant that he had to explain it to her, and that meant he had to think about it too. Something he was trying not to do at this stage in his life. He was thinking about capping off this part in his history and call it Post Kate, or PK for short.

"I never thought you were a lackey," She said, but stopped talking when he gave her a 'are you crazy' look "Okay I will admit that in the beginning you were a pain in the ass, but you showed your value to me after the first few cases." She said sincerely.

"Really? Because the best complement you ever gave me was, 'Your annoying but you make the job fun" He said in a bad impersonation of her voice.

"I've said you've done a good job before!" she said.

"Yes you did, like five times and I always felt like it was more condescending then sincere. It made me feel like I was in preschool again. "Good Job little Ricky, you colored in the lines." He said sarcastically. "I always felt like you were going to hand out gold stars next."

"I was always sincere when I said that. What do you want from me Castle? You want me to tell you that you're a good detective? Fine you're a good detective. You happy now?" She asked as she paced the room.

"See, was that so hard?" He asked with a bitter laugh.

"Um, no it wasn't. In fact I think it just now struck me that your not going to be working with us anymore." She said as she retook her seat.

"You knew it would happen eventually." He told her as he took a bite of his cake. He was way done with fighting with her.

"Yeah, I did but, well, I've gotten used to you. You know?" she said sadly.

"Yeah I guess, but on the bright side you can get a new partner now. Someone that's a real cop, and you can train them to be like me, and they can spend their time getting you coffee, and holding the door for you. You'll have a new lackey in no time at all." He said flippantly.

"That was both mean and not funny." She said with a sad look on her face.

"I thought it was hilarious. See I just don't care anymore. I've done my job, I got you out of the house. I've said I was sorry, you said you were sorry. We talked a little bit. I've fulfilled all of my promises to Jordan, and your boy toy. I'm done with the conversation." Rick said with a shrug.

"Oh, so you're only apologizing because Jordan told you to. Are you Jordan's lap dog now?" She asked angrily.

"Yep, and not only am I her lap dog, but she also knows I'm alive. It's like I'm a real boy to her and everything. Which brings us back to my first point, your going to need a new lap dog Kate. I've moved on." He said like it was obvious.

"So you do everything Jordan says? If she told you to jump off a bridge would you?" Kate asked sarcastically.

"Yep. You know what I want to know? Why are you so jealous of Jordan for? I've quite literally paraded models and actresses in front of your face just to see if you would notice. And I never got the same level of jealousy towards them, that you showed when Jordan worked with us. So I ask again why her?" He asked with curiosity, he had been trying to make her jealous for awhile now, and he wanted to know what made her tick.

"I am not jealous of her. It has nothing to do with Jordan" Kate said as she tried to back pedal.

"Yes you are. You are more effected by the fact that I'm with her then any other woman in the world. All I want to know is why." he asked as he sat up and showed interest in the conversation for the first time.

"I don't know? Why are you jealous of Tom? Lets see what you have to say about that Mr. smart ass. Why do you hate him?" she said as she paced angrily.

"Easy, he gets to take you home and I don't. I also think he's the same guy you always date and I know it's going to end badly for you. Not now but in four to six months from now. When you're living together, you'll come home early and find some other chick cop in your bed with officer pretty boy investigating her crime scene. Of course now I don't really care, but two weeks ago I did." He said flippantly, but Kate spun around and looked at him with fire in her eyes. He saw that look before, it was the look she had when they ran out of suspects. He wanted to see how far he could push her. "Now, after I leave this hospital I'm going to work with Jordan. I'm going to take her out on a few dates then I'm going to take her home, and please her in every way I can. She's got nice, strong, legs. I wonder what they'll feel like wrapped around my waist. And that rack…" He was cut off by Kate.

"Enough! Just stop it will you." She said as she got in his face.

"Then tell me. Why her? I told you why I don't like him now you tell me why you can't stand the fact that I'm going out with her" He really wanted to know now. He never got this kind of reaction out of her before.

"Fine! I'm jealous of the fact that she can replace me." She said as she looked away.

"What?" He was lost. "Replace you? How? we were never together to begin with. How is she going to replace you in a non-existent relationship?"

"She's the only woman I've seen you with that could do… whatever it is that we do. Yes I've seen you with other women but that was all physical attraction and lust. With Jordan you, you danced with her, mentally. That was our thing, and you did it with her. She's my equal. I don't like her because I know that if your with her…" she trailed off as she sat back down in her chair with a sad look on her face.

"If I'm with her, there can never be an us." He finished for her.

"yeah." She said softly.

"So that means if I wasn't with her you would be with me?" He asked. He wanted to see where she was coming from.

"Well I'm with Tom now… Plus I don't know if we would make a good couple, or not. Also I don't think I can trust you not to hurt me… I would say let's try going on some small dates first" she said.

"So, if I was single you would blow me off, and if I'm with Jordan you're going to be jealous of us?" He asked.

"I didn't say that." She said defensively.

"you didn't have to, it was easy to read between the lines. I guess there's just one thing to do then… Goodbye Kate. I hope you can find happiness." he said as he laid back in his bed and looked away from her.

She was shocked, he never said goodbye. It was always until tomorrow, or some other whimsical writer's saying. He never said goodbye. She looked at him and realized that he was saying goodbye, because he meant Goodbye forever. She didn't know what to feel, she felt numb inside and out. She wanted to cry and be pissed off at the same time. She wanted to go back to the way things were, but she also knew she couldn't handle seeing him with the one woman that could take her place in his life. She looked at the door to his room and then looked back at him. She took her coat and bag off the back of the chair and walked to the door hoping that he would call her back, tell her that he was just kidding. With every step she took she knew she was walking a little bit further away from her partner, but the call never came. She stopped at the door. "Good bye Rick, I'll see you around." she said softly without turning back to look at him. She walked out of his room and got all the way to the elevator before the tears in her eyes fell down her cheeks. She pulled out her phone and called Lanie.

"Dr. Parish." Lanie answered as she packed up for the night.

"Lanie it's Kate, I need to talk to you, can you meet me somewhere?" Kate asked as she stepped off the elevator and headed out of the hospital.

"Yeah I can meet you at Remy's in about fifteen minutes. Katie girl, are you crying?" Lanie asked softly.

"Maybe." Kate hedged as she started her car and pulled out of the parking lot.

"I'll see you soon and you can tell me all about it then, okay?" Lanie said reassuringly.

"Okay." Kate said as she hung up.

In his room, Rick laid back in his bed and picked up the phone on the table next to him. He needed to talk to someone and he didn't know who to call. He sat there holding the phone until the dial tone sounded breaking him out of his thoughts. He started dialing and before he knew he was doing it he called Jordan.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Jordan, it's me Rick. Can you talk for awhile?" he asked.

"Sure, I'm at home. Why what's going on?" She asked.

"I just said goodbye to Kate, for good, and I think I need a shoulder to cry on." he said sadly.

"OH, I'm so sorry for you Rick. It's never easy to lose a partner and a friend. What can I do to help?" she asked softly.

"You can start by telling me what you're wearing right now." he said trying to make an attempt at humor.

"A black leather corset, a half cup bra, fishnet stockings with suspenders, and four inch black stiletto pumps. One of my female junior agents needed to be spanked for being a bad girl." She said in a deep sexy voice playing along.

"Oh god, tell me at least half of that was real." He said in a cracking voice.

"Nope! I'm watching TV in old FBI sweats and pink bunny slippers." she said with a laugh.

"Are they sexy pink bunny slippers at least?" he asked with a smirk.

"Oh yeah they're sexy alright, I'd even go as far as saying there down right dirty." She said in a sexy voice as she looked at her old ratty slippers. She then got serious, "All joking aside, do you want me to come their tonight?" She asked softly.

"No, I'm fine. It's no big deal." He said trying to play off the fact that he said goodbye to Kate for good. He was a man, they didn't cry about this stuff. They squared their jaw, and kept on moving forwards.

"Yes it is a big deal. You don't have to play the tuff guy for me Rick. I will be their in a half an hour, and we'll talk about it, okay?" She asked.

"Sure I guess, but can you at least wear the corset and shoes?" He asked in a begging tone.

"We'll see. I be there as soon as I can." She said as she hung up the phone.

AN: I'm sorry it took so long for me to update. I just got promoted in work and that means that I acutely had to do my job for once. It's been a long eight weeks. I don't think I had time for TV let alone writing. That being said it's good to be back, and I think I'm back for good. I was scared to sit down and start writing again, but this ended up being an easy chapter to write. It flowed out in one sitting, and I didn't make too many changes to it. I'm starting on the next chapter now. It will be focused on the talks they're going have, and the next day. I've have two ways that this story can continue on from here. 1. Kate can be manipulative and try to steel Rick back. Or 2. Lanie can call her a dumb ass and tell her to move on. If you have a preference let me know in the review of PM me. So until next time, TBH.