A/N: "Finally," I hear you say, "she updated!"
This one is intended to be a sequel to the original prompt from lutheranapriljones (chapter 7).
It had taken all day for him to renegotiate his contract with Black Pawn so that he wouldn't have to do any more book tours in the holidays – he wanted as much uninterrupted time as possible with his wife during the few weeks she had promised to always take off in the winter and summer.
But he was finally free and he had just one more stop before he could head back to the Loft and start his marathon with Kate.
Kate sighed as she checked the clock for the third time. Half four he'd said. It was already gone five o'clock and he had yet to walk through the front door.
She'd had the day booked off for weeks – the idea for them to spend the entire day just relaxing on the couch with the TV on and a good selection of Trek episodes. Heck, she'd even planned out what to wear to seduce him, stealing one of his fanboy shirts (not the one that read 'Vulcan in the Streets Klingon in the Sheets' though) that had shrunk one too many times in the wash and was now snug around her body. The sight of her in anything vaguely nerdy usually had him biting one of his knuckles.
Now she was kind of regretting the decision to forego pants though. Even if the loft did have swish underfloor heating, it didn't quite stop her legs from getting chilled.
Castle's sweatpants were always too big on her, no matter how tight she pulled the draw strings or how many times she rolled the waistband over. Still, she liked having the soft cotton billowing around her legs as the waistband slid a tad, almost caressing her hips, with every step she took back to the couch.
Checking the clock once more, Kate actually groaned out loud.
"Jesus, would you hurry up, Castle," she muttered, toying with the TV remote. Would it be so bad if she were to turn it on and just watch one episode? What else was she supposed to do while she waited for him, Beckett reasoned as her thumb ran circles around the power button. "What the Hell." Her thumb pressed down on the button before she could second guess her impulsive decision.
Still, as she grabbed the boxset from the stack of DVDs Rick had beside the TV unit, she couldn't help a furtive glance around, almost as if she suspected him of hiding in the apartment much like he did whenever he tried to rope her into a game of laser tag.
Once the familiar theme was playing loudly through the surround speakers, Kate settled herself into the couch with one of the blankets they usually had draped over the furniture.
She was halfway through This Side of Paradise when Rick's key turned in the lock and he stepped in, stopping in the doorway.
"You started without me?"
"Castle…" Kate trailed off, twisting on the sofa to face him with her forearms and chin propped up on the back of the couch. "You said half four… I've only been watching the one episode for twenty minutes…"
He frowned, clearly disappointed, before sighing and clearing the doorway. "I went to pick up some people to join us." Through the open doorway stepped Ryan and Esposito, and Kate was suddenly extremely glad she'd put on Rick's sweatpants. Had the boys seen her in just her panties there would have been no end to the razzing and the comments about Mom and Dad's boundaries and exhibitionism.
"Guys," Kate greeted, nodding at the both of them, noticing the fact that neither of them looked overly excited about joining them for the evening.
"Here's the pizza," Javi said, pushing three cardboard boxes into Castle's arms before stepping away and claiming the biggest armchair in the living room. "So what are we watching?"
"Castle dragged you over here and didn't tell you why?"
Ryan shook his head as he sat down in one of the other free seats, leaving the other half of the sofa Kate occupied for Castle to have once he finished whatever he was doing with the pizzas. When he finally appeared, he had a collection of beers precariously balanced on top of the boxes and allowed Esposito to snag a bottle before setting the pile down on the coffee table and handing one each to his wife and then Ryan.
"We have a simple cheese and tomato," Castle announced theatrically as he flipped open the lid of the top box, moving it over to enable him to get at the next box and tell them it was, "a meat feast of pepperoni, beef, chorizo and ham," leaving the final pizza as Kate's usual Mediterranean selection of olives, capers, peppers and mushrooms. "Help yourselves, guys," he instructed, already picking up a slice of pizza layered heavily with meat. "I'll just put the episode back to the start. You wouldn't want to miss a moment of Star Trek."
"Really? You dragged us over for a crappy, old sci-fi show?"
"Could be worse, Javi," Ryan reminded him. "He could be forcing us to watch that Joss Whedon show he always goes on about."
"Hey! Firefly is a misunderstood masterpiece of television. As is Star Trek for that matter, just give it a chance," Castle said as he messed around with the remote control one handed, continuing to munch away.
Kate however was extricating herself from the blanket and standing.
"Something up?" Castle asked, not looking at her.
"You forgot the dip – you'll want it for your crusts right, babe?"
"Oh yeah, I'll go-"
"-It's fine," she told him. "I'm already up." Grabbing the ranch dressing, Kate poured out what she thought would be enough into a ramekin dish and returned to the couch with it, drawing the guys' attention as she put it down on the coffee table right in front of Rick with a mumbled, "Here you go, Babe."
"There's no way that shirt is yours."
She could feel all three of them looking, reading the play on words with the two pictures of Spock – one with his fingers in the Vulcan salute, and the other with his fingers drawn as rock horns. Mistaking Esposito's derogatory tone for one of disbelief, Rick piped up in pride, "Yeah, that's mine. Great shirt, eh?"
Espo shook his head and tutted. "Do you even wear your own clothes any more?"
A/N: Let me know what you thought!
Apologies for taking forever to update this story. Anyone who follows any of the other stories I've been working on will know I was trying to finish If You See Kate (and Notches in the Bedpost) and that I'm ridiculously busy with research work for my dissertation, but I'm sure there are those of you who were unaware of this, so yeah, sorry anyway.
Thanks for reading!
P.S. If anyone's wondering, both of the shirts described in this chapter are real and available on RedBubble (not that I'm advertising or anything). Just thought I'd say in case anyone was interested. The first is Vulcan in the streets Klingon in the sheets by funkybreakand the second is Spock Rock by Creative Spectator.