Chapter 10

Christmas comes and goes. As does New Year's. They speak to each other on the phone, but they are both too busy to see each other very often. But now Kate is very nervous. Rick is coming by the precinct to pick her up for their first date.

At first, the plan was for him to pick her up at her place, but she and the boys got a break in their case and she had to interrogate the new suspect they'd brought in. So she texted him the address of the precinct and told him to come and get her here. Luckily, she'd realized in the morning that this might be a possibility and had taken her dress with her to work.

And here she is, getting ready for her first date with Richard Castle in the precinct locker room. She gives herself another once-over in the mirror and decides that it'll have to do. Rick has seen her at her worst, so she knows it won't matter for him if her hair or make-up is not perfect.

Her phone buzzes with a text from Rick, telling her that he's in the lift coming up to the homicide floor. She takes a deep breath and makes her way back down the stairs and into the bullpen. As she tries to slip by Ryan and Espo, they look up.

"Hot date tonight, boss?" Espo teases.

"Yeah, should we be giving the talk to someone?" Ryan asks.

"Nope. I think you guys have scared him enough already. He knows not to mess with you two," she smiles, deciding to ignore Espo's comment. It does make her feel a little better, though and calms her nerves a little bit.

She looks up as she hears the ding of the elevator arriving to their floor. The guys say something else, probably teasing her some more, but she's not paying attention to them anymore. Because Rick's coming around the corner. And the way he smiles at her when he sees her makes her heart flutter.

"Hey, you," he says as he reaches her and kisses her cheek in greeting as she moves in for a hug. He smells like he's just out of the shower, mixed with some Christmassy musk that causes a warm feeling in her belly. Like coming home.

"So this is finally happening?" Espo asks as he leans back in his chair, observing the scene before him.

Kate leans back and turns in Rick's embrace a little, without letting go of him. She actually forgot the boys were there. How is it possible that he has that effect on her already?

"What is that supposed to mean?" she asks, trying to regain her composure. She's not really succeeding, though.

"Nothing, just that it's about time, Kate," Espo tells her with a wink. "Do you know how desperate that man was when you were gone?"

She can feel Rick's hand tighten slightly on her hip. She looks up at the man next to her and smiles. "Yeah, I do."

"Good," Espo grins and gives Rick a fist bump in a brotherly fashion before saying, "Castle, just take her with you and let us work in peace without making us nauseous."

Kate laughed and stuck her tongue out at him. "Come on, Rick," she says as she pulls him along to the elevators.

"So… What are we going to do?" she asks as they wait for the lift to arrive.

"Low-key dinner. Then I thought we could maybe take a walk?" he says and then looks at her from the corner of his eye. He looks just as nervous as she feels.

"Sounds perfect," she smiles.

The elevator arrives and they get in, waving to Ryan and Esposito, who are trying to be discreet with their spying.

"Now, when we get to the restaurant, don't judge it by the way it looks. It looks terrible, but the food is the best in the city," he says as they walk the couple of blocks to the Indian restaurant where he's taking her.

"That's quite the statement.," she says. "I guess I'll just have to take your word for it." The cold January wind is biting her cheeks and she shivers. Rick pulls her closer to him and tries to block the wind for her. It keeps changing directions, though, so it doesn't help much, but she's glad to sink into his warm body and forget about the rest of the world for a second.

"Here it is," Rick murmurs into her ear and she looks up. They are standing in front of a cafeteria, or at least that's what it looks like. The restaurant is divided into two spaces. On the right is the entrance with a takeout bar and on the left a space with four or five tables with wobbly chairs in front of them. The entire place was lit with florescent lights, making the white walls even whiter and the grey linoleum on the floor looking a little grubby.

"You take me to the nicest places," she teases him.

"Just you wait," he grins.

They go in and he asks for a table for two. The man behind the takeout bar is quick in his response and leads them through a door – though she doubts it can be called a door, maybe just an opening in the wall – to the left side of the restaurant. "Sit, sit," the man says. "I will bring your menus, yes?" With that he disappears again through the hole in the wall.

Before they have to chance to start any kind of conversation, the man returns with two menus, which are two laminated pieces of paper. He hands them to them and disappears again without a word.

"Alright, so the service isn't as good as Le Bernardin, but I used to come here very often before I became a writer. It's been around for a long time, and hasn't ever changed."

"You used to come here before you were a writer?" she asks.

"Yeah, and before I met Meredith. In fact, I have only ever eaten here with Alexis. I knew Meredith would never eat in a place like this and it's not really a spot to make a great first impression, so you're the first person I've taken here, besides Alexis."

"Wow," she shyly smiles up at him. "Thank you, Rick."

"Have you chosen your food yet?" the waiter asks suddenly and Kate realizes that they haven't even looked at the menus.

"We're going to need a little more time, if you don't mind," Rick smiles up at the waiter.

"Okay," the man says and walks to another table. Rick and Kate smirk at each other. This is going to be a very entertaining evening if it's up to the way the waiter is acting.

The food is the best Indian food she has ever tasted. Conversation flows easily as they languidly dip their papadums in the mango chutney.

"Hey, I've been meaning to tell you something," she says. She's been putting this off and since they're getting a little more serious now, she just has to get it off her chest.

"You have?" he says, his interest piqued.

"Yeah…" she says, looking for a starting point. "You know I got three days off after my…" She's been avoiding the word. No more. "Kidnapping… Right?"

Of course he knows, she told him.

"Yeah," he says. "But you didn't want to talk to me when you got back." She thinks her face is showing some of the shock she's feeling. "I mean, I get it. You probably just wanted to go home and just forget the whole thing ever happened. And I assumed that I was kind of linked to the entire thing, so… I understood why you didn't want to talk to me."

She doesn't know what to say, so for a minute she just stares at him. "I… I never associated you with what happened to me in that warehouse, Rick. You're the one who came up with the idea to check into properties owned by family member of the mob, so basically you're the one who found me. I could never associate you with anything bad that happened to me." She stares at him, makes sure that he understands what she's saying before she continues.

"No, I wanted to tell you that… in those three days, I didn't exactly enjoy my free time. I jumped at every sound that came for the hallway; I tried to avoid cold water, although that was a bit harder than it sounds; I had to push myself to leave my apartment, because I was terrified of something like that happening again. I just felt so helpless, you know? They press a piece of cloth to your mouth and nose and you lose consciousness. There's nothing you can do about it…"

Rick takes her hand and caresses it with his thumb.

"Okay, I'm not telling you this to make you feel sorry for me," she chuckles at the sight of his face. He's obviously tearing himself up on the inside. "And this was supposed to be a happier story, actually. No, I wanted to tell you that in those three days, I decided to start seeing my therapist, so that one day, I'd be free of these irrational fears."

"Kate," Rick interrupts her monologue, "you should know, that those fears aren't irrational. You went through trauma; it's normal to be shaken up afterwards."

She huffs. "You're starting to sound like my therapist."

He sends her a mournful smile, "Sorry."

She waves him off. "I still haven't said what I wanted to say," she laughs.

"Sorry, I won't interrupt from now on," Rick says and pretends to lock his lips and throw the key over his shoulder.

"Goof," she laughs. "No, what I wanted to say was, that even if you apparently had the idea I wanted nothing to do with you, you were one of the reasons I went to the therapist when I did." He raises his eyebrows in wonder. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I can be a little stubborn –"

"You can leave out the 'a little," he mumbles, but apologizes again for his interruption at her look.

"And I think I would have waited a lot longer – if ever – to get help if it wasn't for you," she finishes.

"Wow."

"And I want to apologize again for taking so much time before I came by. Honestly, I needed the weeks away from you to wrap my head around what had happened and…" she smiles a bit before she continues, "I probably never would've watched that Harry Potter movie with you and Alexis if I had come by earlier."

"Kate," Rick says quietly, "don't ever apologize for taking time to recover. I'm glad you came by when you did, but if you would've needed more time, that would've been fine too. I'm just happy we're here. That you're here. That you're doing well and we're going to be okay."

She bites her lip as she holds back the tears. She feels stupid for almost crying, but it's the best response he could've ever given her. "Okay," she whispers as he leans over the table to brush a kiss over her lips.

After dinner, they aimlessly roam the streets of New York without a purpose, not really focussing on where they're going and just enjoying each other's company. At least, that's what Kate thinks until she notices that Rick is leading her to Washington Square Park – the great, majestic arch rising up from between the buildings and acting as a landmark.

Kate beams up at him. She loves this park. At this time of night, the chess area and playground are empty; the area were the fountain is happily spurting water in the summer months is barren. In the distance, someone is playing the saxophone. She finds herself happily humming along to the familiar jazzy song.

"Well, it's a marvellous night for a moon dance," Castle suddenly sings softly. He holds out his hand for her to take, as he sings along with the next line of the song. "With the stars up above in your eyes. A fantabulous night to make romance, 'neath the cover of October skies."

She sends him an eye roll, but can't help but smile as she takes his hand. He pulls her closer to him into an embrace and starts to sway to the soft music echoing its way towards them.

THE END

First of all I'd like to thank all of you for staying with me on this story. Thank you for all your amazing and kind reviews, you guys are the best!

Second, I'd like to thank the amazing Sanctuaria for her beta and helping me through a couple of writer's blocks.

Third, I'd like to wish you all an amazing summer!

Au revoir!