Stand by Me – Ben E. King

Author's Note: I wrote this while wishing I had someone like Castle to call at times like these. So, yeah, this is pretty real stuff. And I do apologize about the length of time these are taking me. I'm trying to apply to college and juggle everything at once. Life is just getting really busy at the moment. I appreciate the patience. Enjoy!

Being a well-respected detective was fantastic. Closing cases never failed to bring a certain sense of pleasure, but at the end of the day, a closed case couldn't keep you company. A closed case couldn't hold you through the night. It couldn't tell you everything would be alright when the world seemed to be crumbling down. A closed case wasn't always enough.

Kate Beckett had come to terms with that fact long ago. Despite knowing perfectly full and well that being a good detective wasn't going to fulfill every aspect of her life, Beckett sometimes broke down.

After a hard case, when all she needed was a warm embrace, the coldness of her empty apartment hit her incredibly hard and she slid to the ground in tears, clutching a couch pillow just for some form of closeness.

It even happened after a perfectly good day. Sometimes, even if she had done nothing but simple, painless paperwork all day, Kate found herself unable to keep it together at home.

Tonight was that kind of night. Her day hadn't been bad. She hadn't dealt with a particularly tough case, or witnessed a horrible crime; tonight, Kate Beckett was simply lonely.

She tried to settle into a good comedy show to forget her lack of company, but she found that seeing the happiness of the couples on television only made her feel worse.

This wasn't how she'd pictured her life as a kid.

She was supposed to be happily married by now, settled into a house, or maybe a nice, big apartment, coming homing to the man of her dreams every night.

Instead, she came home to books, her TV, and often a glass of wine. It was enough most of the time, but tonight, she longed for someone to just be there.

Her mind strayed to Castle, despite the fight she was putting up to keep him out of her thoughts. The possibility was always there. She could call Castle.

He would come, she knew. He was her friend, her partner, and he would show up at any time, no matter how late, if she only called. He could make her smile and forget her problems like no one else that she'd ever known.

With Richard Castle around, the world didn't seem quite as dark. The night didn't seem as long. The loneliness wasn't nearly as painful.

As her TV changed to the next show on the channel and a glowing couple with a newborn couple appeared on her screen, Kate couldn't find any reason not to talk to Castle. Her bitterness took control as she made a snap decision.

Before she could change her mind, the detective grabbed her cell phone, shot the writer a quick text, and took a deep breath as she tossed the phone onto the couch beside her.

Already she regretted her short message.

"It's late, I know, but you feeling a pizza and movie night?"

It was juvenile, immature, lacking any real thought, and completely stupid. Kate sat cursing herself until her phone buzzed loudly beside her. She snatched it to check the message quickly.

"I thought you'd never ask. Be right there." His text was exactly what Beckett had been expecting. It was optimistic, playful, supportive, and so very Castle.

Beckett stared at the text for a moment, torn between regretting inviting him over, and jumping with joy at the fact that he was on his way. She finally came to her senses and hurried to pop a pizza into the oven.

It seemed to Kate that only a few minutes had passed when a quiet knock roused her from the couch. Castle. Suddenly the woman realized, in horror, that she looked very, very far from presentable.

Her hair was thrown into a lazy, low ponytail, her makeup was virtually gone from the shower she'd had when she'd gotten home, and she wore a large NYPD t-shirt. But the kicker, the really terrible move, was that Kate Beckett was wearing tiny, skimpy cloth shorts.

She hadn't been thinking when she'd invited Castle over. Usually no one saw her sleep attire and she wore whatever she happened to grab from her drawer. Now, however, she was pulling at the bottom of her shorts as she walked towards the door, trying desperately to make them appear at all longer.

Her attempts must have proved unsuccessful because when she opened the door to herapartmentCastle's eyes shot straight to her legs.

"Castle," she greeted him with more volume than was truly necessary in order to draw his attention back to her eyes.

He looked up quickly, cleared his throat, and tried for a smile.

"Come in," she said, before he could utter a word. Castle, who still didn't know what was really going on at all, walked, complete with a confused expression, into the apartment. He was able to get a clear look at Beckett when she turned to pour drinks for them both.

"Kate, you look…"

"Terrible, I know," she interrupted, taking a sip from her wine glass and passing Castle a glass of his own. "You've seen me in a hospital bed though, right? No biggie." She shrugged and tried to see his face light up but instead he remained stoic.

"Beautiful," he said quietly. "I was going to say that you look beautiful."

The woman felt the breath rush away from her lungs. Beautiful. Now that was a new one. Castle had called her hot and sexy more times than she could count, but beautiful? That held a whole new level of intimacy.

And she wasn't wearing any makeup, for goodness sakes! He was lying, surely. He must have thought she needed some sort of a confidence boost. Maybe he just felt awkward about how rough she did look.

"Castle, you don't have to…"

"No. Truly… Beautiful." He interrupted her before she could even finish her sentence. His eyes stared into hers with an intensity that she could hardly handle.

"Well, thank you," she murmured, unsure of how to take his compliment.

And then, instantaneously, he was back to his usual light-hearted self. "So why the late night text? Bootie call?"

Kate tried not to smile as she dramatically rolled her eyes. "You wish, Castle," she said slyly. His smirk revealed that yes, he did indeed wish that. "Actually, I was bored, and I thought, who else is sitting around having no life on a Friday night. You came straight to mind."

"Oh!" Castle feigned pain and pressed a fist to his own chest. "I would take offense to that if it wasn't for that fantastic smell coming from your kitchen."

Kate was quickly reminded that she hadn't taken the food out of the oven. She jumped up and half-jogged into the kitchen. "Damn it," she muttered, hoping she hadn't burnt their meal.

Luckily she was able to pull the pizza out on time. It was only slightly black around the edges, but otherwise, just fine.

She divided the pizza into slices and placed two slices on separate plates. After setting a plate in front of herself and Castle, she took a seat back on the couch. With a glance up, Kate realized that Castle's eyes were fixed on her, a small smile frozen on his face.

He didn't seem to even realize that she was looking back at him. "Problem, Castle?" she snapped after a moment of his eyes piercing into her.

"Sorry," he said, shaking his head as if to clear away his thoughts. A grin quickly returned to his face. "That was adorable," he said, gesturing towards the kitchen.

Kate wrinkled her nose in confusion. "Um… What?" she asked, unable to recognize what he could possibly be amused by.

"That whole, I think the food is burning thing. It was cute." His grin widened as Beckett narrowed her eyes at him.

"Whatever you say, Writer-Boy," she muttered, taking a bite of her pizza.

"Writer-Man!" he complained before taking a bite of his food as well.

As they continued the meal, Rick seemed to do what he always did; he made her feel better. Soon Beckett found she was unable to remember why she had even been upset in the first place.

In fact, by the end of the night, loneliness was absolutely the last thing on Kate Beckett's mind.