I don't know what to say. The response to the last chapter was incredible, and I'm so appreciative to all of you. Thank you. I'm sorry this was so late to be published, but I kind of went around a few times on this one, wondering if it was in character or not. I finally decided to keep it, because I think in the circumstances I've played out here, it's plausible. And I was somewhat surprised, but one reviewer (Krist0526) caught my exact thoughts on the subject before I could post it. But anyway, to make it up to you, and to thank you for your awesome response for the last chapter, this one is extra long.
Disclaimer: I own none of the Castle characters, nor anything else that is recognizable here.
In looking through their supplies, they happened on a bottle of wine, along with two glasses. Upon finding it behind a couple of boxes of crackers, he let out a low whistle and then his face broke into a big grin. "Look at what I found!" he told Kate, obviously excited like a kid in a candy store. "Now we can have a civilized dinner."
"A bottle of wine makes it more civilized?" Kate asked skeptically.
"Of course," he replied confidently.
"Whatever. I'm sure it will go wonderfully with our spinach salad and toasted cheese sandwiches," she suggested sarcastically, naming what they'd finally agreed to have for their meal.
"Of course it will, oh ye of little faith."
"So, who do you think was responsible for that?"
"The wine?" he asked with a look on his face that said 'duh'. "Beckett, are you slipping? Of course it's from my mother."
"Hey, it's not that obvious. It could be from any one of them. And with Lanie leaving me those two night-" She stopped abruptly, but belatedly, when she realized that while he knew about the origins of the green nightgown, he had no idea that there were actually two pieces of sleep attire, although sleep was definitely a euphemism for something else when the word was used to describe those two gowns. She turned back to the shelves of food and tried to appear like she had developed a sudden fascination with the boxed dry goods.
Of course, he was too quick and of course, her choice of words had him intrigued. A sly grin appeared on his face as he turned to her. "Night what, Kate?"
"Nothing," she said innocently.
"Oh, it's something, all right, or you wouldn't be trying to all of a sudden memorize the ingredient list on that box of Wheat Thins. So, Lanie left you two of something that begins with the word 'night'," he surmised out loud, tapping his chin and looking into th air. "Hmmm...could it be...a nightlight?"
"No."
"Night...crawlers?"
"Ew, I hope not."
"Night...mares?"
"Rick, that doesn't make sense."
"Well, then I can't think of what it might be." He paused, and she thought maybe he was going to take her lead and let it go. But then he snapped his fingers. "Unless it might...could it possibly be night...gowns?" She could just about hear the amusement in his voice. And then he leaned closer to her and said, "And I do believe that I only saw the one nightgown that you said Lanie packed for you. And I think I'd really like to see both. So tell me, Beckett, where is that second nightgown? In your overnight bag, perhaps?"
But then she turned to look him straight in the eye, abandoning her perusal of the Wheat Thins ingredient list.
"Touch my bag, Castle, and you are a dead man." And she strode out of the room, leaving him grinning in her wake.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Since her options for where to go were obviously very limited, she opted for the bathroom. After shutting the door, she glanced over to where her bag still sat in the bathroom. She'd just left it in a corner of the bathroom since she didn't want to be carrying clothes back and forth from the closet to the bathroom when she changed. And now she eyed the bag, thinking about Castle's comment. With a sigh, she went over to the bag and dug deep into the side and pulled out the red lace and chiffon gown that Lanie had packed for her. She held it up, thinking that her previous feeling about the gown was still dead-on: it did scream "Do me right now!"
But now that feeling wasn't so off-the-mark from thoughts that had been flitting randomly through her head since earlier that day, when they'd finally fully opened up to each other. The thought of wearing that red gown didn't make her cringe like it did when she'd first seen it in her bag; now her feelings were quite the opposite. She knew they still had work to do in the communication department, but now they'd been honest about their feelings, and the secrets were out in the open. And she told herself that it was only natural that since they'd progressed to that point, her mind would start traveling even further, specifically into red lace nightgown, 'do me' territory. Willingly, and with some amount of anticipation.
And from the sounds of it, his mind was going there too, although he had no idea about the red lace part of it.
She wondered absently if he liked red. And then she thought he must, as she remembered the red shirt he'd worn a few times in the last few weeks; it was a new color for him. But then she frowned as something hit her...the first time she'd seen him wear it, it had been when he was speed-dating the flight attendant, Jacinda. Blonde bimbo numero uno.
And when she thought of her, she thought of that whole period of time, and the string of blondes and odd behavior. Now she knew the cause of it, but it still made her wonder. And it made her jealous. And thinking of where the two of them were now, it made her gut clench in some sort of nervous dread. She didn't want to think of past lovers or even get into that discussion with him. But the problem with Jacinda and the others was that they weren't in the past. They were so recent that they were practically current. And when she and Castle were locked in the room, one of the first things he said was that he had a date that night.
With a blonde. Just two nights ago.
She leaned heavily against the vanity and pressed her fingers to her eyes, trying to will away the images of him with the blonde-recent images-that involuntarily popped into her mind. And then there were the other thoughts, the other doubts that started to creep up. He said he loved her. And...she believed him. She did. But now, thinking about the blondes, and the dates, even knowing the reason that he'd behaved like that, she still felt...just a little bit ill. Because how could they, uh, use the red nightgown...when he may have using someone else's red nightgown just a few days ago?
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
She'd been in the bathroom for a while. He thought about starting to cook the sandwiches, but they didn't really take that long, and thought it would just be better if he waited for her. But after about fifteen minutes, he realized that he was getting pretty hungry too, and he couldn't fathom what she was doing for so long.
He went over and knocked on the door. "Kate? Are you okay? Come on, we need to eat. You know we need our...energy," he said with a grin to himself, referring to their previous, innuendo-ridden conversation.
But he wasn't prepared for what he saw when she opened the door and walked out. She met his eyes briefly as she said, "Hi...sorry," and then she stiffly walked across the room and sat down on the chair where she'd collapsed in laughter just a bit earlier. But her demeanor was anything but mirthful now. Instead, it just seemed like tension was rolling off of her.
He stared at her, all thoughts of dinner temporarily forgotten. "Kate?" he asked, only saying her name, but letting the unspoken question of "what's wrong?" come through loud and clear.
She looked up at him with big, serious eyes. And then she dove in. "We're...uh...closer now than we were. Probably more than we have been before, right?"
He walked over so he was closer to her, and perched on the edge of the bed across from her. "Yes, you could definitely say that."
"And we're being...honest, right? No secrets anymore?"
He nodded. "Of course. Except for gift giving occasions, like you said," he told her, hoping to lighten her mood a bit. But it didn't work. "What are you getting at?"
She wrung her hands together. "Okay. I'm just going to say it, or I'm going to try to. Because we're not...holding things back now." She looked at him for confirmation, and he just raised his eyebrows and nodded to her, as if to tell her to go on. "Ummm...When we were locked in here, you said you..." She swallowed, and then finished, "you had a date. That night. That would be two nights ago. And now...we're...uh...you and me..." she trailed off again, and she saw his eyes close and his head fall back slightly as he realized what she was saying. "Castle," she finished, "no matter what you might have just told me, I can't be anyone's rebound, or conquest, or one-of-many, best-you-can-do-at-the-moment girl."
He started shaking his head before she was done, seeing her turmoil, and hearing it with the somewhat direct words. "No...Kate. God, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that about having a date. I...didn't, okay? I was mad about being stuck in here with you when I thought you didn't want me or care about me, so I...I guess I tried to save face by saying that. I just thought I was going to be working on Alexis' project with her, and the next thing I knew..."
"Yeah, I remember." She felt a bit of the weight lift off of her chest at his admission, but she still needed more. "Really?" she asked. He nodded. "Well...okay." She took another breath. "That's good. But what about the other...how many women have there been in the last few weeks? Oh, no, wait. Don't answer that. I don't want to know." She pressed her fingers to her temples and shut her eyes as if to force away he thought.
"Okay."
She looked at him again. "But..." She rolled her eyes, nervous eyes, troubled eyes. "It's just...you've been dating all of these women, and if we..." she trailed off again.
When she didn't make any move to say anything else, he asked her, "Kate, what are you trying to say?"
"God, just that the thought of you screwing some blonde bimbo, or a few of them, and then turning around and telling me that you love me, and then we're talking...about...like I'm supposed to be waiting in the wings right after you roll out of bed with her... Well, it just makes me a little sick. And now that everything else is out in the open between us, I started to think about all of the 'dates' you've had and...I just...and...God, Castle, what about some diseases or something? And how can I sleep with you when you were just with someone else?" She felt so silly saying all of that, but at the same time, it was always prudent to ask those questions when thinking about broaching a more intimate relationship with someone.
He was staring at her now, a somewhat pained look on his face. "You're worried because you think I slept with...someone...else...pretty recently, and now I'm locked in this room with you and we could..." He nodded at her in an exaggerated way, like she should fill in the blanks.
"Basically."
"And...you don't like that thought?" he prompted.
"Duh." She rolled her eyes, which were now a little shiny from the stress of the emotion of the moment. "How would you feel if you knew that I'd slept with someone and then tried to seduce you right afterwards? No, wait a minute...don't answer that." She held up a hand and shook her head. "I don't want to know."
Before she knew it, he was kneeling in front of her. "Kate." He took her hands. "If the situation were reversed, I'd probably be a jealous raving lunatic." He let that sink in for a few moments, and he knew his words had hit their mark and made an impact when he saw her eyes grow a little wider in surprise, and then he saw the slight flicker of happiness. "And I didn't sleep with her."
"Which one?" she asked tentatively, with a skeptical look on her face.
"Any of them. And there really was just the one anyway, and she's gone now. Somewhere...far away."
She looked at him for some sort of indication that he was being less than truthful. And she didn't find any. "You didn't sleep with her?" she asked, her soft words tinged with a sweet, hopeful quality. "But you...I thought..."
"I know. But I didn't. I just was still trying to reconcile myself to getting over you, I guess. And you're a pretty hard person to get over, you know, and I actually did a remarkably awful job of it. So I...I ran around a lot, and did a lot of things with her publicly, and yeah, I brought her by the station, but I guess I just didn't let myself get that far with her while I knew...that I still loved you." At that admission, she felt the tightness in her chest release just a bit. "So...I haven't been, uh, involved wth anyone in a...while, and I'm...uh...pretty clean on that other front too." Then he had a thought. "But not all clean, because when I think of whatever else you might have in that suitcase, I have to admit to having kind of a dirty mind."
She looked at him, looked at his grin, and she saw sincerity. And a little bit of lust mixed in with his cockiness. And all of it made her relax just a little bit more. "I'll just bet you do." And then she was able to give him a tentative smile of her own.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
And surprisingly, despite everything from earlier, the evening was pleasant, with the good wine. They were sitting on the floor, leaning against the bed, having a picnic much as they did before. Neither would have thought it possible, but even with all of that talking around the topic of sex, they'd been able to segue into more neutral topics of conversation, like what their captors were doing, or when they might be let out. Of course, it was possible that they were still indeed thinking about sex when talking about being released from the room, because if they weren't released, then they'd be forced to spend another night in the same bed. And with talk of I-love-yous and nightgowns and the lack of any recent romantic partners, the thought of spending another night in the same bed had taken on an entirely different meaning.
And even though the seemingly mundane conversation topics may have had less than pure thoughts attached to them in their own minds, anything that was outwardly spoken between the two of them was purely G-rated.
But with the overt electricity that was beginning to arc between them, it was apparent to both of them where they were headed, even though no direct words were uttered.
They kept on with the dance for a while, still talking about mundane, inconsequential things, although the innuendo, at which they'd always excelled, got a bit more blatant as the wine slightly lowered their inhibitions. They slowly consumed the bottle, all the while dancing around the topic that was all but hitting them in their faces.
They washed their plates in the very small bathroom sink, at first side by side, but then with him behind her, reaching his arms around her as he soaped and washed the utensils. She took advantage of his proximity to lean back against him just a bit, moving just enough to let him know that she was capable of playing that game too.
After a few teasing minutes of that, she ducked under his arm to saunter out of the bathroom, leaving him to finish what they were doing. But he found her in the closet after a few minutes, breaking into one of the chocolate bars that had been left for them. He followed her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I felt like dessert," she told him as she turned around and met the smoldering in his eyes. "I just love the way the chocolate...um, melts in my mouth." And she showed him then, breaking off a piece of the bar and placing it seductively on the tip of her tongue. She brought it slowly into her mouth until it disappeared, and then she emitted a hum of satisfaction as she tasted the sweetness of the chocolate.
As he listened to her, he really couldn't resist any longer, and he dipped his head and captured her mouth with his.
She tasted so sweet to him, and it wasn't because of the still-present taste of chocolate on her tongue. No, it was more than that. It was the feeling of finally tasting the forbidden fruit, of knowing that it was no longer forbidden.
While their lips feasted on each other, his hands grew bold, bolder than they ever had except in the wildest of his dreams, and they dipped underneath her shirt to caress the bare skin on her back. He could feel her startle, but then her hands, which had stolen around his neck at the beginning of the kiss, seemed to pull him closer. He didn't bother to stop to analyze if his impression was real or not, but he just kept on doing what he was doing, even going so far as to dip his hands under the waistband of her pants.
He felt her startled gasp when his hands hit her bare bottom, but he didn't let it deter him. But he didn't bank on a similar reaction from her though. Somehow-and he wasn't quite sure how-her hands were now down around his waist, and she returned the favor of grabbing his butt when they were kissing. He didn't expect it at all, and it caused him to pull away and gape at her in shock, all the while still feeling that she hand her hands down his pants, albeit in back, and she didn't show any signs of getting them out of there. He may feel more confident about kissing her now, or showing some other other light signs of affection, but this was still all new territory for them, and some things just caught him by surprise yet. "Kate-"
"What's wrong, Castle," she asked him coyly, "you can do it to me but I can't do that to you?"
"Uh...noooo...Well...no...that's not exactly right. I..." he paused again, not wanting to say too much. But all he could think about was her hands, in his pants. He was already getting aroused, and the thought of that was just one more nail in his coffin of being totally entranced by Kate Beckett and all she was doing to him. All she could do to him. "Kate, that's..."
"Yeah, Castle, I know. I think I can...feel it, you know?"
Oh, God. He was not going to survive. If it felt like this with their clothes on, then how would it feel later, assuming they were headed where he thought they were headed, with their clothes off?
Lord, help him.
But then she was slipping away from him, heading back toward the main part of the bedroom, beckoning him to follow with the crook of her finger. And all he could do was follow blindly.
She picked up both of their still partially-full wine glasses and held his out to him. After he took it, she said, "I propose a toast." But then she didn't say anything else.
"And...? What's the toast?" he prompted.
"Let's drink to it first, and then I'll tell you."
"But how do we know what we're drinking to?"
"Faith, Castle. You have to have a little bit of faith."
"So we're drinking to faith? Faith in what?" He was getting confused.
"No, we're not drinking to faith! You have to have faith that you'll find out in good time what we're drinking to. Okay?"
"Will I find out in good time? Because...Beckett? After that, I don't know how much time, good or not, I'm really going to have left for blind faith."
"Oh, you'll find out," she said, and then smiled seductively. "Let's polish off the wine."
And they clinked their glasses together and made a toast to nothing in particular, which seemed really backwards to him, especially if toasts were for something in particular.
After they drained their glasses, she pressed him back toward the closet. "I want you to figure out what we're having for breakfast."
If she'd said that she wanted him to fly to the moon, he couldn't have been more surprised. The closet? And food? Really? "Breakfast?" was all he managed to get out.
"Yeah, you know. Food, tomorrow morning. Assuming we're still locked in here then." She looked at him and said the words like it was the most natural conclusion in the world. "So I'll be right back. I want to use the bathroom."
He headed toward the closet, still perplexed by the sudden change in plans. She still seemed...coy, he supposed, and he thought they were on the same page with...things. So why did she just order him to finish the wine and wait?
He absently looked at the slim contents of their makeshift pantry, and his mind registered the small box of pancake mix. Just add water. Well, they could certainly handle that, he thought to himself. And pancakes were-
"Castle?" he heard from the main part of the room. "I thought of what you can have for breakfast."
Heading out of the closet, he stopped short and, once again, gaped.
She stood there, outside of the bathroom door, wearing not her clothes from the day, but something entirely different.
And dangerous. For him.
And it didn't appear to be a nightlight, or even nightcrawlers. She was standing right outside the bathroom door, one hand on her hip, dressed in a red lacy nightgown. A form-fitting, almost transparent red number with a fluttery chiffon skirt that had his mouth watering and going dry at the same time.
He was surprised when he was able to somehow find his voice as he strode slowly over to where she was standing. "What...breakfast?" he asked, not entirely able to form a coherent thought after he saw what was now adorning her body. "Okay...uh...what...can I have?"
She looked at him with so much heat and lust in her gaze that he thought he just might melt into a puddle on the floor right then and there. He was just about to say something else-anything else-when she took one of her index fingers and, trailing it seductively down his face across his chest and to his waistband, answered him with the one word that he was sure would make him spontaneously combust.
"Me."
Goodness, that was long. I hope you enjoyed it, and that you didn't feel it was too much out of character. At first I did (Beckett's reaction), but then I really thought about it and I realized while she may not be freaked out about (for the most part) past lovers, she probably would be freaked out about 'recent' or even 'current' lovers, especially when their true feelings have just seen the light of day and she didn't know that status of Castle's recent 'dates'.
Again, immense thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter. I'm really, really enjoying writing this, and a lot of that is due to the wonderful feedback I get.
And if anyone has watched those sneak peeks for 'Undead Again', don't you just want to yell the title of this story at someone? I know I did. Really, I think everyone needs to just conspire against them on the real show too, and just make them talk to each other.
Now...thoughts?
ETA: Just created a new pic to go with this story for my tumblr postings. Only took me a couple of weeks, but I kind of like it. I'm xxGoogiexx if you want to check it out.