Author's Note: Ya know those episodes where half the scenes are flashbacks? Yeah, Caskett and the Bros LOVE those episodes. Relax while the New Yorkers have their memory playlists on shuffle. All the songs will make sense again, soon.
"Is there anything more depressing than a Castle-less Monday?"
Ryan was describing Beckett walking distractedly back to the break room for her third attempt to create something coffee-like that didn't turn her stomach. Without a new case to tackle, his boss was all too caught up in the ways that her job wasn't quite as fun without suspects, or her writer, to wrangle.
The day had started off well for Kate. She had intended to check things off her to-do list that she rarely had time for, determined to make the week a productivity windfall if she had to spend it once again without her fiancé. Her face had been a picture of professional go-getter-ness when gleaming elevator doors let her loose into the bullpen.
She greeted Ryan, already at his desk, with a formal "Good Morning, Detective," in hopes that she could set the tone of the day with more focus on 'I'm still your boss and we have work to do,' and less on, 'let's gossip about half-naked island adventures and ray guns.'
Her plan had been working like a charm until mid-morning coffee break. The literal 'bitter-taste' of a Monday without Castle was hard to swallow, but Kate eventually got back to her list of some-day-maybe tasks.
Ryan ordered in Vietnamese lunch for 2, so that kept her on her roll until mid-afternoon, though the sweet sticky sauce was a distracting reminder of how Rick liked to lick the underside of her hands sometimes when her food started to drip. The habit made her giggle embarrassingly at restaurants and at home. She was quite sure the spectacle would end up on page 6 eventually, and that's not really the image she wanted blasted to all of New York. She had a job to do. If the next door she knocked on revealed a sweaty guy offering to lick sauce off her body rather than cooperate with her canvass, Rick Castle was gonna pay through the nose.
Sadly, by 4pm her gusto was gone. Their workplace seemed to be filled with only the empty sound of clocks ticking, the sour taste of burnt coffee, and the heavy smell of the janitorial disinfectants the cleaners had used over the weekend.
\o/
"This blows!" Ryan, lost in his own thoughts of crumbling ambition for the day, stared off into space, muttering absentminded obscenities to the empty room, trying to channel the undercover glory days when he didn't need his partner to act like a legitimate tough guy.
"I'm supposed to be at a baseball game right now." As he filled out paperwork, complaining aloud filled some of the vacuum that the empty desk behind him created.
"I'm supposed to be ingesting indigestible things that only taste good with a tiny $12 beer." He dotted the 'i' of his printed name dramatically.
"I'm supposed to be bustin' on Javi for tall tales of bedroom reconnaissance." He flipped the paper over. "Not filling out barely decodable vacation request forms to change our days off in triplicate."
Ryan was more bored than bitter. "Yesss, it's nice that LT got to take his nephew to the game."
He dotted the 'i's' of his department's name with staccato flair. "Yes, it's nice that we traded up for better seats."
Kevin finished his form and started copying a duplicate version for Javier. "Cause we need to see our boys clobber Oakland in June."
After crossing the 't' of his partner's name with the showmanship of a pit percussionist, he halted at the sound of his phone's alert ringtone.
Swing and a miss!
His features turned pouty as he swiped the screen to see who scored first. "It's his gift, he can do whatever he wants with it."
Kev could be dramatic when it seemed harmless to do so, but in truth he was happy Javi was getting a chance to catch up with veteran buddies. He knew how much his service meant to him, and he sincerely hoped that a trip down memory lane would lift his best friend's spirits. It was the timing that had his knickers in a twist.
"Just a bummer to be missing Kuroda on the mound." As his phone app counted off the balls and strikes in real time, Kevin's senses longed for wide open sky, checkerboard-cut grass, a sweaty cup of lukewarm Yuengling, and the game that crawled at the perfect speed to open up conversations about the big things in life.
While Esposito watched the game vicariously, in the nostalgia of catching and throwing the ball himself, his best friend enjoyed it for the narrative, both on the field and in the stands.
For Ryan, baseball moved at the pace of a really good story, unfolding slowly, with no pressure to press down the court in perspiration. It was his Irish side that reveled in a meandering yarn, lush with detail, and insight, and the little gems of revelation that could build understanding. Trading stories with Espo, when they had a chance to really relax into them, had started their bromance in the first place.
\o/
On their first day together, Detective Ryan was sure that Detective Esposito was ready to eat him for breakfast. The way he fidgeted with his pencil, and smoothed his hair, and spoke first to the Captain, every tiny habit seemed to rub his new partner the wrong way.
"Are you always this high strung?" Esposito asked, after Ryan pushed the elevator button for the third time.
"I'm not high strung!" Kevin was immediately embarrassed that his voice could still squeak like an adolescent when he was nervous. He was trying to show his new partner that he could hold his own, that he was a real cop, even if he looked too young to drink.
"Uh-huh." Espo clearly remained unconvinced.
Kev wasn't entirely thrilled with some of Javi's habits either. "Are you always this pleasant?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You do realize that you've scowled at least 5 times in the last 5 minutes. Aren't you ever just happy?"
"I'm happy!" Javi protested. Kevin didn't realize that sometimes Javier found it difficult to relax around new people. All he could see was Espo's facial expression, which had defaulted to something resembling 'intimidate-the-suspect.'
"Then, what's with the face?"
Ryan learned the hard way that his new partner preferred to resolve some discussions with nonverbal cues, when Espo stood toe to toe with him for a stare down.
"This IS my happy face."
Luckily, Kevin was a pro at diffusing tension. As they rode down the elevator, he knew better than to smile knowingly at Javier's instinctual attempts to claim alpha dog status. He kept his eyes straight ahead and waited for his moment.
\o/
Fate smiled on him when they both signed up for the precinct's volunteer day with the K-9 unit's outreach program, which awarded a half a day off and nose bleed seats at Yankee Stadium.
Ryan arranged his scorecard, pencil and refreshments in a specific order that had him adjusting himself for the first ten minutes after they found their seats. Meanwhile, Espo chewed his snacks with overactive jaw muscles and barely hid his annoyance behind dark sunglasses. But during the long game, the little Irishmen lured the elusive Latino into sharing all kinds of personal information. And Kevin was so enthralled to hear stories of the senior detective's past, he'd barely left his seat for 14 frames, scoring a horrendous sunburn for his loyalty.
Taking in their first game together was a long golden afternoon with a very different tone than the one Javier shared with Kai-Rhee, but the alliance born was even stronger. Even if they appeared to contrast each other like sunrise and sunset, Kevin easily pegged a dozen commonalities that criss-crossed their experience. At the end of the day, Esposito had relaxed his guard, but still appeared unsold on the pairing. Ryan, on the other hand, went home a hopeful homicide detective.
Before switching departments, Kevin was sure he wanted to catch killers more than cartels. All his morality lined up to cheerlead that move. Clearly if he wanted the best, then he wanted to work for Beckett. His only hesitation was about being assigned to a partner that he'd never met.
Kevin's painful sunblock fail and Javier's embarrassing outline of raccoon-like eyes triggered in each other rounds of merciless teasing in the bullpen the next day, proving all his hesitation needless. It was clear they had something. Obviously, he'd made the right move from Narcotics to Homicide.
\o/
Just like Beckett, Ryan didn't want to admit to himself that work kinda sucked without his partner there. All day Monday, Kev & Kate were putting on brave independent fronts, but the idea of a whole week without Latin Heat or Hamptons Heat to provide thermodynamics looked bleak.
"Hihhhh!" A forlorn sigh escaped from Kev's lips as he rested one chiseled cheekbone onto the heel of his hand. Baby blue eyes stared dejectedly through Captain Gate's closed door, following leads of a tangential stream of consciousness.
When Beckett crossed in front of his desk, she stopped in her tracks to stare in the same direction, looking for a clue that explained her teammate's confounded expression.
Kev shared guilelessly, "Without Castle and Espo to fill the air with dueling aftershaves, the bullpen smells tragically antiseptic. Don't you think?"
"Ummmm…" Beckett sipped her latest caffeinated experiment to buy her time. She struggled to pull on a face that wouldn't betray embarrassment for Kevin's candor. "...Never really thought about it."
Kate's statement was patently false. She had often indulged her olfactory senses in the years when having eye sex with Castle was too dangerous a proposition. But a white lie to protect her employee's already paper thin dignity was obviously in order.
Luckily, both were saved from further awkwardness by a dinging priority email notification in their inboxes. Each rolled their chairs into their desks to get a look.
'Oh please let it be a case!'
'Oh please let it be a case!'
The detectives selfishly prayed a New Yorker's tragic end would save them from the machinations of crime fighting low gear.
\o/
Kate read with alarm, "To emergency contacts for Richard Castle?"
Ryan asked himself under his breath, "Why am I getting a message addressed to emergency contacts for Javier Esposito?" His stomach flipped over with apprehension.
The rest of both messages was identical.
Fr: Valedictoria Evans
Dt: Monday, April 7th, 2014
Re: Notification of Non-Injury
To whom it may concern,
This is to notify the persons listed as emergency contacts, that all clients at our camp have been screened and found to have zero injuries related to the events of the weekend. You may have heard that the island housing our facilities suffered an explosion on Sunday afternoon at 13:00 hours. According to all reports, the blast originated from the opposite end of the island due to accidental equipment failure, at an offsite building.
Repair crews have already remedied the issue, and assured us that they have taken all reasonable precautions to prevent a repeated disruption.
As for the continuation of training, I am pleased to report that after a thorough examination of both our camp and the physical condition of each client, all are fit to resume work. All parties have agreed to continue the week as originally planned.
Each client has opted to remain in radio silence of their own accord. However, it is my intention to address the incomplete information you may have received late Sunday before our communications tower was routinely disabled.
Due to the unusual nature of this incident, I am willing to relay one message and one response to and from the client in order to address any further questions you may have. You may expect responses by 19:00 EST.
Sincerely,
V. Evans
\o/
What followed the worried consumption of this information was a special moment for Kevin and Kate. Both had enjoyed synchronized utterance with their respective partners on multiple occasions, but never with each other. As soon as each detective finished reading the email, they turned to each other, saying urgently and in unison:
"I'm going down there!"
"I'm going down there!"
\o/
Just before 1 pm on Sunday, Javier Esposito was perched on the upper deck of Kai-Rhee's cliffside home. His arms leaned into the railing as he rocked his upper half nervously over the edge and back again. Each time his triceps would push his torso a little farther over the edge, as if he could propel down to the boat Beckett was leaving on. And each time, his hands would grip the rail hard enough to reel himself back onto the deck.
If he could split himself in two, he'd be both places. The relative emotional safety of New York beckoned. That's where nobody pushed him too hard out of his comfort zone, because he wouldn't let them. The city was filled with devils, but they were mostly the devils he knew.
He admonished himself for worrying too much about Ryan on the streets without him. 'He's a grown ass man. I'm sure he can survive a few days without getting whacked. At least he better.'
Espo was drawn into the opportunities of the island. Here things were different. Here with Kai-Rhee, and other vets, a piece of him that had dwarfed with atrophy was allowed to come out and play. He wasn't ready to give it up yet.
He'd made a successful transition into mainstream life already. The nightmares were few and mostly manageable. And Kai-Rhee was right, he had gotten a little soft trying to fit into the mold of modern city life. It was a trade off he was willing to make for a place to land. It certainly didn't help that his team included two relatively effeminate partners.
'Thank goodness Beckett brings another boost of testosterone to our team!'
Working robbery with Ike and the other boys had been easier on Espo's pride in that regard. Those jokers were closer to the kind of unit he was used to in the army, and several of his buddies at the 54th were vets. Espo didn't need to think so hard when he ran with that crew.
Even though his homicide squad was a different kind of pack, they were more like family now than the dumb nuts in robbery had ever been. Ryan. He missed Ryan. No doubt the young Irishmen would be an uncomfortable fly on the wall with no place to fit in, if he came to the island. 'Still, there'r some things only Kev would get about what's happening for me here.'
Mostly Javier wished his best friend could see him so happy. He figured that he'd smiled more in the last 3 days, than the whole last month.
All the extra static that circulated around Espo's reaction time, as he navigated the fast-talking, high-bullshit, low-investment hipsters in city life, was cleared here. In a world of Kai-Rhee's making, he knew his first instincts were much more likely to serve him well. If Javi was quick in the city, in her world he might just be able to fly.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
As as the sonic boom rocked through him, he watched pieces of flaming debris drift over the crest of the island, standing motionless.
Javier couldn't immediately put together what was happening. Everything seemed to be moving in a surreal collision of jamais vu, as if he was recalling a memory of the explosions of war that he should remember, except none of the details around him fit properly into his memory banks.
For a few long seconds, the cop didn't have a worry about the safety of Kai-Rhee, or Castle, or anyone that he cared about. He was dazed in a moment of displacement as he tried to figure out what and when and who he was at the moment.
It wasn't until he heard the voices of men scurrying around the beach below, shouting to each other to account for all personnel, that Espo was able to reload his timeline and realize that something was very wrong.
\o/
As the boat pulled away, Hoax and Simon continued restocking the supplies that the transport had left stacked on the dock. Both men worked silently and swiftly to stack, hoist and distribute, without more than a few words for each other. Hoax, especially, needed to readjust from the mental attitude that made him a gregarious party animal with his Miami peeps to the task-and-completion mindset.
Kai-Rhee had been correct that Simon would be an asset to their team, but Hoax still wished for a little more warmth and conversation from his counterpart. The big man couldn't explain why, but he often felt more like he was on a deserted island when Simon entered the room, than when Hoax found himself truly alone.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
The explosion sent both men to the window for visual confirmation of the the shaking ground. With the briefest nod, Simon immediately took off in the direction of the smoke.
Big man just shook his head, "And my money is safe with not a moment to spare." He made his way to the kitchen bunker to procure a small insurance policy that he could conceal inside his pocketed vest.
The ex-soldier knew he shouldn't be smiling as he slipped the piece into its discreet holster, but the rident urge defiantly snuck across his face as he said,"C'mon D-Day, show me whatchu workin' with…"
\o/
"Richard Castle, you wanna keep your name, you need to comport yourself accordingly."
Kai-Rhee already had the disdain in her voice turned up to megaphone levels as Rick tried to sneak into the mess hall late on Monday morning. The writer noticed no one was eating or drinking their usual breakfasts. Instead his five cohorts were seated facing the Master Sergeant at the far end of the hall, while Hoax, Esposito and Simon stood in a row behind them. Each of the imposing musclebound men turned their torsos to present three sets of arms all crossed in front of their chests. Castle gulped in worry that he'd inadvertently angered all those biceps when all six of their eyes joined Kai-Rhee's in a octet of harrowing glares for his tardy disruption.
When sensei noticed Rick's mouth agape but silent, she explained, "You didn't think I couldn't take it back. Did you?" She hardened her stare. "If I giveth, I can taketh away, Mr. Castle."
Rick slunk onto the nearest bench. The sound of his chosen pen name, instead of the cartoon cat he'd earned, was a crushing blow. He tried not to let it get to him, or at least to hide how effectively she had put him in his place. All the reasons he'd whimpered through his breakfasts the previous week came rushing back. 'What exactly had I expected?' His delusions that the Nermal-nator would be magically impervious to Krypton law came crashing down.
"As I was saying…"
The eyes of the group swiveled back to the orator. However, Esposito tersely pursed his lips for Castle making his NY team look bad. Obviously, Kai-Rhee had already handed out most of the punishment needed, but Espo couldn't help pouring on a little more, since that was half the fun he'd decided to stay for.
In NYC, Rick had the upper hand wired. He could get out of anything. He seemed to have almost every advantage that Javi lacked. Esposito couldn't be blamed for enjoying a brief respite from writer-boy's endless get-out-of-jail free pass.
"My contact for the neighboring compound assures me that yesterday's disturbance was a one-time occurrence caused by equipment malfunction, and that repair crews have already taken all precautions to prevent a repeat performance."
Kai-Rhee's gaze searched each set of eyes in front of her. "Under the circumstances, I completely understand if you'd like to change your plans for the week. Anyone wishing to do so can be on the shuttle ship in less than an hour. While I believe my contact is transparent about his knowledge of the incident, obviously there are more factors at play than any one person can fully grasp. I'll not pass judgement on anyone who decides to go."
Her posture straightened in respect. "Each of you has already done good work here, no shame in leaving it at that."
She gave a lingering look to the youngest men: Cannon, Kreuger and Fitz. Hoax recognized the gesture as the closest thing to 'mothering' that the Master Sergeant ever needed to express.
"For anyone who'd like to stay, I'll see you on the beach for our run in 5."
\o/
This time when the men met their trainers on the hard sand for a quick stretch before they started to jog, a new look of respect passed between each of them. Risk, greater than the possibility of ridicule, had been introduced to their excursion. Castle and the other clients were already giving themselves kudos for bravery they hadn't even shown yet. Even though most of them wouldn't have thought to trump up such a decision in their real lives, living in the shadow of their decorated trainers, the gestalt of 'bravery' had taken on a life of it's own.
When all six clients had assembled, Simon and Hoax ran ahead. Kai-Rhee and Esposito followed close behind, side by side. The four of them, illustrated in eastern sunlight, struck Castle as a moving picture of human strength. It wasn't just the glossy curves of shoulders and calf muscles pulling away in a tight formation. There was something else about it, something invisible to the naked eye that seemed to capture all four of them, and punch them up to larger than life.
Castle mulled it over.
'Perhaps, it's a result of Kai-Rhee's leadership?'
Rick had always marveled at the valor of soldiers who risked themselves for a greater directive, one they could rarely grasp from their vantage point on the front lines. In that moment, though, he gained a greater understanding of the complementary urge to join in lockstep with fellow enlisted, no matter the cost. He, like the three men running on her flanks, would most likely follow Kai-Rhee anywhere, if a life depended on it.
It wasn't the same feeling that made him press his luck to save Beckett, or prove himself to her. Those feats of derring-do were born of fear, and faith, and reckless wagers that fate favored those in love.
Castle saw the force field that surrounded Kai-Rhee and the trained professionals running down the beach not as a two-way street. It was an all-way street, some sort of threshold that they needed to cross all together. And he felt privileged to find himself drawn in to some small part of that.
Rick judged from the faces of all the clients, that the net of allegiance had trawled the whole group beyond rationality, with barely a lofty ideal to unite them.
With that kind of banner flying overhead, the writer mused that anything stupid enough to stir something up would be ill-advised to challenge them. If the synergy of their New York foursome was any indication of the power of strength in numbers, Castle deemed invincibility was the potential for the 10 in Kai-Rhee's outfit.
As they jogged over the familiar path, Castle took the prompt to fancy himself an author of war stories, and started inventing heroic deeds involving bridges over the River Kwai for himself and his compatriots.
He breathed the new air of determination to regain his rightful namesake. Nothing so diverting as a jaunt through the imagination to make Richard Castle's world come to life and boost his ambition.
Castle was a millionaire long before he ever made the New York Times best seller list. Words, and sweet beautiful images, robust with character, and plunging action made him richer than his royalties ever would.
\o/
"Having trouble sitting still?" Ryan asked.
Unlike her Friday trip with Javier, The flight from JFK to Miami International Airport on Monday night was less than restful for Detective Kate Beckett. Ryan was trying to be a helpful travel companion by giving her the aisle seat, but all it did was give Kate one less obstacle to incessant pacing. She'd made the trip to the restroom enough times to give the flight attendant the idea that something was going on for her medically.
As Beckett returned to her seat for the sixth time, the attendant arrived at their row to ask, "Are we expecting?"
Not realizing that the question was directed to her, Kate instinctively looked to Kevin as if all questions of a baby-related manner must be deferred to their rightful owner.
The stewardess took that to mean something else entirely.
"Oh, are you two keeping it a secret? Don't worry I won't let on, but I'm not sure your bladder will be so discreet." She leaned in towards Kate, "Just let me know if you need something. And the airsick bags are right here." She patted the seat back pocket.
By the time she finished, Beckett's confusion was trading itself for embarrassment, not for Ryan's promotion to polygamous stud, but more for Castle's boisterous attempts to plant a seed over the weekend. 'Someday I might be answering this question in earnest.'
Kevin Ryan turned part chameleon as his face shifted from green to yellow to red, before it landed on purple. Aside from being his boss, the logistics involved in bedding Beckett, even without her stilettos, was enough to scare the pants off the young detective. Pun unintended.
Taking in Kevin's expression distracted Kate from all her fears about Castle on a combustible islet. She made a hasty decision to play along.
"Thanks. I appreciate your discretion. You know how hard it is to tell anyone before you're sure this time will take."
The flight attendant quickly concurred, "Of course! My mom waited until the end of her second trimester. I don't know how she managed to struggle through so much discomfort without so much as a word of commiseration. She was made of iron. Worked up until the last hour before labor. If she hadn't started waddling, I'm not sure she would have let on at all. She hated when people made a fuss."
Their volunteer conspirator turned to Ryan, "Don't look so green, fella. Your part of the people-building process is over. She's the one who constructed a central nervous system while you enjoyed your pre-flight nap."
Just then, the only male flight attendant on board passed by with a head flick salute of deep respect for Ryan's Napoleonic conquest of the hottest, and tallest, woman on the plane.
The opened-mouth look of muted horror on Kevin's face was worth its weight in presupposed pregnancy for Beckett. She could see why Espo could remain almost cheerful during the more thankless parts of his job. Teasing Kevin Ryan was better than Nascar for diversionary sport. Her nerves were already settled enough to pull a pillow under her neck and attempt a red-eye catnap.
With her eyes shut tight, and her counterpart burying his head in a book to hide his shame, Beckett started a replay reel of the more delightful parts of her weekend reunion with Rick to ward off worry's return.
\o/
Saturday night was everything Katherine had hoped for.
Castle's cabin, modest and sparse, had been all she'd needed to feel pampered. After several failed attempts to kindle the mood, privacy (and her fiancé's full attention) was all the luxury she could ask for.
The humid night air had served as the aphrodisiac that neither of them needed by the time they rushed into the room and shut the screen door behind them. The sound of waves crashing worked better than mood music to set an intimate atmosphere. When a gust of warm breeze swept through the room, and knocked bamboo chimes against the dojo's supporting pillars, Rick seemed to swell over her with a rush of spurred desire.
Castle's newly hardened muscles were responding to more than her fingers trailing down his swollen chest and articulated abdomen.
In only a week's time, her fiance seemed to connect viscerally with the natural elements of the island. He appeared to be listening to the night and to her, more than talking, while he made his overtures to love-making. The wit-olympics of their vivid innuendos seemed out of place with both their bodies drenched in moonlight.
Even Castle's non-stop inner babble appeared to flatten into a quiet waveform of silent appreciation as he drew his hands and eyes down her body painted in moon silver. She saw his features crumble in worship of the curves of her breasts spilled over the sides of her body, echoing the half crescent in the night sky, until they reached the two made by her hips.
Silently, she traced the outline of his debonaire hair, the curve of his ear, down to the spot on his sternum that mirrored her bullet-sized scar.
'His heart brought us to this island, just like it brought us through years of separation before I could love him out loud. His heart is strong enough to hold both of us, no matter what that EKG says.'
Beckett had the habit of speaking freely to Castle in her head. Years of biting on the words she wasn't ready to say had worn that habit into her tongue, like raindrops carving a canyon, one desirous droplet at a time.
'Thank God you were strong enough to say it, brave enough to risk everything when I couldn't. I love you, Richard Edgar Castle.'
\o/
Castle didn't know his fiancé was in a plane headed his way.
After a torturous Monday regimen lost interest in abusing him, it dropped him limply into his bunk. Since his body had been made achingly useless, Rick searched his mental stronghold for some healing solace. Still sullen because he lost his claim to Nermal fame, he desperately needed a happiness treatment.
'Oh how I adore this bunk!'
Exactly one week ago, his memory had rubbed down his soul with the tiger balm of consummating lust Kate inspired on the hood of his Ferrari. Upon Lunes return, however, he had something even better. His island bed wasn't 'his' anymore. Now he thought of it as a dais belonging to his Beckett bride-to-be.
\o/
Saturday night was everything Richard had hoped for.
When all the elements conspired, the queen of his fantasies laid back on his cot, while he stood motionless, unsure where to begin. There were so many curves to appreciate, so many miles of coastline on her supine figure that seemed to stretch for eternity. Just like the first day they met, Rick dangled from the hook of her come-hither finger.
'This is for her. This is the body she created.'
Whenever he wanted to quit, it was Kate's example that wouldn't let him. Whatever 'upgrades' he'd installed, were a result of her inspiring modeling. 'She deserves every bit of power and pleasure it can give her.'
Over their chaste extended courtship Richard Castle had demonstrated sincere friendship, support, and all the things that a modern marriage would require to remain an alliance between equals.
Sex, the final frontier of trust and intimacy, became the way he professed those promises with exponential import.
He pushed his way inside her, with trembling humility.
The woman he entered had been his Aphrodite, his Artemis, his Athena. She'd even been his Calliope and Erato for years, when he could only touch her with words. Now that his body was allowed worship at her temple, all her manifestations converged into one.
'She's my future.'
His triceps yo-yo-ed his body up and down over her form, delighted to be performing their task for such noble purpose as entering Kate. As her body rocked in response, he lost track of the repetitions. He lost track of all numbers, and all linear logic, and anything that wasn't driving him to pump more of himself into her.
Rick could always zero in on his muse, but over the course of the week, his whole body had reorganized itself with a singularity of focus that filtered down to even molecular changes. Castle's eyes didn't wander about for a novel means to leverage their enjoyment. There was only one point of entry into their lovemaking that night.
Nor was the writer hemming words around their naked forms. All he saw was Katherine luminescent in lunar light.
Like the Lady of the Night who holds the anchor of hope for seamen adrift on an ominous ocean, she was the only heavenly body to hang brightly in his sky. He loved her with more man than he knew he had inside him, even though she could make him act like a lunatic. That was nothing new.
'She's where I find the better me.'
As perspiration hugged his body like a wet suit, Rick performed the longest speechless meditation of his life, riding wave after wave of her exaltations to shore. He couldn't count the hours or the number of times her walls crashed down around him. For once, he was a man without comment. He marshaled his art mutely, like the moving meditations he'd learned in the studio, except that inside Kate he didn't need to discipline his jaw shut. He simply had no words. They'd been swept away by the riptide of her beauty exposed.
\o/
Kate remembered Castle's unspeaking shell because it startled her as it broke open.
Eventually, the only utterance the writer could verbalize came in response to her own whispered cries of "Yes!" as both their bodies sang out joy in union.
She had unknowingly uttered, "Thank You… thank you," as she slid down the other side of perspicacious thought. In her mind, she was expressing gratitude for her body's own capacity for pleasure, and the dark night to make it safe to explore those edges, just as much as her partner's fine-tuned ability to draw her into the clutch of oblivion.
In response, Rick whispered, "Always," in her ear, but it wasn't the familiar promise that struck her. It was the diaphragmatic control with which he spoke the word. It ruptured her bliss-made cocoon with its total commitment.
The sound penetrated her. Even healed her with an involuntary convulsion as proof. She'd never forget it.
\o/
Beckett knew for certain that any belabored two days of traveling to and from Krypton's Atlantic hideaway was worth the night they had spent together. For her, even more than her fiancé's trick-my-ride anatomy makeover, their separation had been a windfall because it gave stage to Castle's selfless focus on their connection.
She wondered if her writer was sending her psychic text messages from the bed they had shared. Before drifting to sleep on the plane, Kate's head filled with poetry that sounded more like something he might muse.
'What makes us work is the countless ways we roll, like waves, away from each other, before we come crashing back together in a new combination of need…
…and trust,
…and desire.'
She wasn't entirely sure which of those things was propelling her back to his side, unbidden. But it didn't matter. She needed to see him with her own eyes. Even if he turned out to be fine, and the explosion was indeed a non-malicious accident, her heart wasn't in the mood for being rational.
The plume of purple passion still aerating her every particle purveyed it's own advice on where she needed to be.
'If the universe, in its infinite wisdom, hasn't seen fit to give me a case to solve, so i can make my useful in New York, I'm going to make myself as useless as possible near the man that I love.'
\o/
For all the brave folks facing challenges that are bigger than they can shoulder in solitude. My heart is with you.
My gratitude for PM's and Reviews. It's good to know when I'm not alone.
Next up: How do Rick & Javi welcome their partners? Whose biceps win Tuesday's pull-up challenge? How does Ryan make his first island alliance?