A/N: So I'm going to try to go back to at-least-weekly updating. And even though it's after midnight, I haven't gone to bed yet, so by my rules it's still Monday. So I haven't passed my deadline yet. :)

Fair warning, this chapter might be a bit of an emotional roller coaster. Hope you like it though! :)

It took her a second to get her bearings. She looked around blankly, her eyes still bleary with sleep. As soon as she saw the empty bed beside her, she realized what had happened. She'd fallen asleep here. In the wrong bed. In Castle's bed.

Her first thought was to get up and move back to her own side of the room as quietly as possible, so that she didn't wake him. Maybe, if she was lucky, he'd fallen asleep around the same time that she had, and as long as she was back in her own bed by morning, he wouldn't have to know about her embarrassing little mistake.

But as soon as she started getting up slowly, trying to put her plan into action, she realized that something didn't quite feel right. Castle's back was to her, but his shoulders weren't rising and falling with the slow, heavy rhythm of someone who was asleep. When she sat up, she expected him to stir, but he didn't. If anything, it seemed that he got even more still. Almost as if he was holding his breath.

She didn't move, and after a long moment she finally heard him let out a long, steady stream of air. He had been holding his breath. But why?

"Hey," she whispered.

He didn't react. He held perfectly still, his breathing irregular and far too shallow for someone who was truly asleep. She knew he'd heard her, but he was ignoring her. Why was he ignoring her?

She weighed her options. He obviously knew she was here, but it would be so easy to return to her bed without another word about it. Come morning, maybe he'd say something about her falling asleep beside him, maybe he'd even mock her a little… but then it would be over, and that would be that. And the way he was acting now, she got the impression that if she did just go back to her own bed now, he'd never say another word about it.

She couldn't explain why, but for some reason she didn't feel like she should do that. Her gut told her that something was wrong. She just wasn't sure what it was yet.

"Castle," she said, still in a soft voice, but now above a whisper. She placed her hand on his shoulder gently, but firmly. "Come on, I know you're awake. What's going on? You okay?"

He nodded, but didn't turn over or say anything.

"Okay, I'm gonna need more than that."

"I'm fine," he muttered. "Go to bed."

But he wasn't. Nothing about his voice sounded right, and it wasn't just because he was tired. He didn't sound like Castle. "Rick, come on," she said again, very gently. "Look at me."

After a moment's hesitation, he rolled over, half-sat up, and met her eyes. His were red and swollen, and as soon as she met them she looked away again, uncomfortable. She didn't know what she'd been expecting, but this wasn't it. "What's wrong?" she finally managed to ask, a little awkwardly.

"It's the middle of the night," he said in the same odd, nasal voice. "Go to bed. We'll talk in the morning. I'm fine."

She sighed. "I know you're not."

"Okay, then remember how you said that if I needed space I just had to say so? I need space. Goodnight."

At first, she accepted that. She went back to her own bed and closed her eyes, trying to go back to sleep. But tired as she was, as she absorbed the silence, she couldn't stop picturing Castle's swollen, tearstained face. And it didn't feel right.

"Castle, I can't do this," she finally said, sitting up. "Look, I know I said I'd give you space, but I care about you, and if I know you're upset I can't just… be okay with that. If you really need to be alone I can go somewhere else and try to find another place to stay, but if I stay here you've gotta let me help."

"It's three in the morning," he said again in that voice that sounded nothing like his. "Where would you go? No. Stay here. Get some sleep."

"Not 'til you do. In the meantime, talk to me. What's going on?"

"Nothing. I was just… thinking."

"So what were you thinking about?"

"You know."

She frowned. "No, I really don't think I do."

"Everything. Alexis."

"Specifically?"

He sighed. "She's eighteen now," he started, somewhat reluctantly. "She's an adult. She's gonna be going to college next year. I knew that, I've been expecting it, but now—"

Kate frowned. "What 'now'? What's different?"

"I just know she's gonna do so great in college. She'll have a new place to live, new friends, new classes, new teachers, a new kind of freedom…"

"I'm don't doubt that. She's a smart girl, I'm sure she'll love it."

"But what if she loves it so much that… she doesn't want to leave? She won't have any obligation to come home now. I mean, sure, maybe she'll come home over the summer and Christmas, but in between… she won't have to. Maybe we'll talk on the phone once a week or Skype every once in awhile, but nothing is ever going to be like it was. Our apartment is never going to be her home, not the way it's always been."

"But that's always been a possibility. None of that is new."

"I know, but before… I knew she wouldn't. Alexis is my daughter, but… she's really my best friend. We do things together, we talk about everything. I thought she'd come home just to spend time with me."

"She will."

"How can you be so sure? She left, didn't she? She left New York, she left me, she left school, to go off and find—" His voice had started to shake, so he cut off, took a deep breath, and continued. "To find her real father. Where does that leave us? Where does that leave me? Nowhere good."

"Rick," she sighed, "Alexis loves you. Not because it was biologically predetermined that she had to love you, but because you're her father and you're her best friend. She didn't mean to hurt you by leaving. She was just confused, and I think she still is. But she'll go through what she needs to go through, she'll figure out how she's gonna deal with it, and everything will go back to normal between you."

"How can you know that?"

"Because I know you. And I know her. Not as well as I know you, but I know she cares about you. When she first came to see me, she was so upset. And do you know why? Do you know what she was more worried about than anything else? Telling you. She knew that you had no idea, and she knew that you'd take it hard. She didn't want to do that to you. She even asked if we could just keep it between the two of us. She was the first person to say that out loud. I'd thought of it before that, but it was never really an option. We couldn't lie to you, neither one of us. And I think she knew that when she asked, but she just so badly wanted to avoid hurting you. That's why I told you, because she didn't think she could. I promise you, none of this is going to change her opinion of you. If anything, it'll end up bringing you closer."

"I couldn't do this without you," he murmured, finally beginning to sound sleepy.

"I wouldn't want you to try," she whispered.

"Kate?"

"Hmm?"

"I…" He trailed off and was silent for a long moment. "Never mind."

She frowned. "No, what?"

"Nothing. It wasn't important."

"It doesn't matter, just tell me."

But he was silent, and when she looked over she saw that he was once again lying with his back toward her, pretending to be asleep. She settled down into her own pillow with a shallow sigh, wondering what he'd wanted to tell her and knowing that she'd probably never find out. When Castle decided not to reveal something, he could be very stubborn.

Before long she heard his breathing become even, and she knew that he had finally fallen asleep. Soon after, she did as well.

She was confused by the brightness of the light streaming in around the curtain when she woke up, so she glanced at the clock on the dresser. 12:16, it read. She frowned. It didn't make sense that it was just after midnight… had she really slept until after noon?

She looked to Castle's bed, and he was still in it, sound asleep. She knew that neither one of them had been getting enough sleep lately, and they'd been up late the night before, but to sleep in past noon? She couldn't remember the last time she'd done that. Something always woke her, be it work or the birds outside her window or simply routine.

She got out of bed quietly, not wanting to wake Castle. Although it was late, they didn't have anything else to do today, and she figured that sleeping would be better for him than agonizing about where his daughter was. She took a pair of jeans and a simple blue t-shirt out of the small duffel bag that Castle had bought her and went into the bathroom to change. Then she slipped her room key into her pocket and went to the lobby to get a couple of coffees.

By the time she got back to the room, Castle was sitting up and the bedside lamp was turned on. She sat down on the side of the bed, close to where she'd been the night before, and handed him one of the coffees. "Morning, sleepyhead," she said teasingly, not mentioning that she'd only gotten up a few minutes ago.

"Morning," he mumbled groggily, taking the coffee. "Thanks."

"No problem."

Both drank their coffee, neither saying anything until Kate's was at least half gone.

"Thanks for talking me down last night," he finally said. "I was probably being unreasonable, but what you said really helped."

She shrugged. "Oh, don't worry about it. That's why I'm here."

"Yeah, well. Thanks for being here."

She raised her eyebrows. "We did this already."

"I know. But I can't say it enough."

"You already have. More than enough."

He held eye contact with her for a second longer than seemed natural, a strange expression on his face, but didn't say anything and turned his attention back to his coffee.

She finished hers first and set the cardboard cup down on the end table beside the bed.

"Where do you think she is now?" Castle asked, still cradling his coffee cup.

Kate let her hand rest on his shoulder. "I don't know, but I think it's better not to think about it."

"I can't help it."

She nodded. "I know."

He finished his coffee and looked at her again in that strange way that he had a minute ago. It was like he was looking into her eyes, but seeing something far beyond the green-brown of her irises. In turn, she looked into the clear pools of blue that were studying her so intensely, and somehow they seemed to grow. She didn't even realize that it was because they were coming closer until she felt his coffee-scented breath on her cheek.

Even if she'd had time to say something, she didn't know what it would be. But his lips met hers before she could form a word, and while she was a little mystified, her lips knew exactly what was going on, and they seemed more than willing to follow Rick's lead.

He pulled away almost as quickly as he'd started and became fascinated by the bedspread. "Um, sorry," he murmured.

She took the hand that wasn't already on his shoulder and pushed its fingertips lightly against his jaw, coaxing his head to turn and look at her once more. "Don't be."

The hand that had been on his shoulder slid down to his back, and this time she closed the gap between him, leading her lips to his, which now felt like familiar territory. She tasted the coffee on his tongue, heard his heartbeat, and felt the heat of his breath on her chin, her neck. And it all seemed perfectly natural until she realized that this changed everything.

She pulled away, her breathing a little heavier than normal, and quickly got up from the bed. "I'm, uh, gonna go grab us some food," she decided hastily. "Are you hungry? I'm hungry. So… you get dressed, and I'll, um, be right back."

She took the keys to the rental car from the nightstand, checked that her room key was still in her pocket, and left the room without another glance at the befuddled Castle.

A/N: Believe it or not, I actually had a worse-than-that cliffhanger in mind for the end of this chapter. But it didn't work out that way when I actually wrote it. Oh well. I think this is still plenty cliffhanger-y. :)

Reviews are nice. Let me know what you thought! And as always, thanks for reading!