I can safely say that I will never update this fast again. I've surprised myself. The next chapter or three are going to job several days at a time. I want to get Kate back to the city and to work. I want Rick to go on the book tour. And, I have to cover the thing I haven't covered yet that was a big deal in season 4.

Thanks everyone for reading and commenting. I'm so glad so many people are enjoying the story. So many followers. It warms a writers keyboard.

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.

Rick was in the office putting the final touches on the final two chapters of the book. He stopped typing for a moment. He stood from the desk stretching out his back. As he did his mind drifted away from his story. The past two and half weeks had seen a lot of progress. Kate had finally gotten the OK from her doctor to begin running again. The first couple of days had been hard for her. She hadn't been able to get that far from the house. By the fourth day, however, she had pushed herself to half a mile. When she had gotten back, she had been really hurting. That had stopped her from pushing herself to the point of breaking from then on. Now she was up to a mile and a half, which he thought was pretty good, but she complained about. She could also get dressed by herself now. He knew it made him a bad person, but he missed helping her get dressed. Fortunately, given the change in the status of their relationship, he now got to help her take them off quite often.

Castle shook his head clear. "Focus Rick. You have to get this done. You told Gina you would have the last two chapters in before Friday." Rick sat back down at the desk and began typing. As he had told Kate, Nikki was fine. He couldn't do anything to the fictional detective when the actual one was in so much pain. Rook on the other hand, Rook had it coming. Rick still blamed himself for not getting to Kate in time, for putting her in the crosshairs in the first place. He took that guilt and dumped it firmly on his fictional alter ego. Rook took a bullet, but at least he wasn't in a coma. He also hadn't been the one to shoot Nikki's captain. That would have shattered Rook's and Nikki's relationship, which was his original plan. Gina would have never allowed it to see publication, but it would have been what he turned in. In the current version, however, Rook would recover and the relationship was a strong as ever.

"Dodged a bullet with that change." Rick shivered as the realization of what he said hit him. "Poor choice of words."

Forty minutes later, the office door opened to show a happy, tired, sweaty Kate Beckett. Rick looked up from his desk. "Hey you. How was the run?"

Kate sat down in the chair in the corner. She didn't lean back because she was going to take a shower, but she rested for a moment while she drank a bottle of water. "Better. I'm getting back to where I was."

"That's good to hear."

"Yeah. The physical for returning to work is coming up. I know that I will be able to pass it, but I would like to at least be close to the scores I had last time. Pride thing, you know."

Castle chuckled. "You, pride? You hide it so well."

She smirked at Rick. "Shut up. I'm going to take a shower. You get your final chapters off to Gina because I want to go to dinner later."

"And you don't want to talk to her on the phone again."

"What? I was polite."

"Polite, yes. Friendly, no. You know there is no reason for you to be territorial about her, right?"

Kate stood from the chair to head upstairs. "Yes, I know. But how would you feel about Josh calling here talking to me about work."

"Touché."

"And we weren't even married."

"Double touché."

"And I didn't run off with him to the Hamptons for a weekend leaving you alone for the summer…"

Castle let a smile spread across his face. "I get it. I get it. You've made your point."

Kate crossed the room, pulling Rick into a messy sweaty hug. "You know I'm just bothering you right? I don't mean anything by it."

"It's fine Kate. We are allowed to pick at one another."

"I just don't want you to think I'm taking you for granted. Especially everything you've done for me for granted."

"I know. Now go shower. You are making me sticky."

Kate huffed out a laugh, stole a final kiss, then headed for the master bathroom.

Castle headed back over to his desk and sat down and began typing once more.

"You know Rick, you are going to have to do some publicity for this new book." It wasn't Gina's fault that her voice was getting on his last nerve, he just didn't want to have this conversation right now. He shifted the phone from his left ear to his right ear.

"I know. But let's get through the final edits before you start throwing me all over the country, alright?"

"Those should be done relatively quickly. I've got half a dozen people going through it right now. I have to admit, that ending was a bit shocking, but I should have seen it coming, given everything."

"If it shocked you, then it will definitely surprise the readers, so my mission here is accomplished."

Gina could tell that she wasn't going to make any progress with the publicity talk so she decided to bow out gracefully and bring it up later. "Alright. I'll contact you back when the edits are done. Goodbye Rick."

"Goodbye, Gina."

Rick happily hit the disconnect button on his phone. He looked up as Kate entered the room.

Holy Crap, that's hot!

Kate grabbed the sides of the sheer red dress she was wearing and turned so Rick could see both the front and back. "You like?" She said with a smile on her face and sparkle in her eyes.

"You look amazing."

"Thank you. Now, you've done enough work today. It is time to take your girlfriend out for a nice dinner. So, go change."

Rick rose from the desk. "That I can do. Give me 20 minutes and we will be on the way. Where did you want to eat?"

"Surprise me."

Castle gave his best smile and left the room without a word.

"A can't believe there is a French restaurant here." Kate said as she thoroughly enjoyed her dinner.

"It's the Hamptons. There is pretty much an everything here." Castle said as he enjoyed his own dinner. He finally set down his fork. "What's on your mind Kate?"

"Why do you think there is something on my mind?"

"Because I haven't heard a thought you've had all day. You are guarding yourself. Something is bothering you."

"I don't want to ruin dinner Rick."

"Me worrying about you is ruining dinner."

Kate set her fork down and took a deep breath. "My mental and physical evaluations are coming up. When I pass them I can go back to active duty."

"Yeah."

"I'm going to have to go back to the city."

"Are you worried about it?"

"Not really. Maybe a little, but, Rick, I'm going to have to go back to my own apartment."

"I know."

"You, you aren't upset?"

Rick let out a chuckle. "Kate, we are dating. You being here has been some of the best days of my life, but I'm not crazy." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Let me rephrase. I don't expect you to move in with me when we get back to the city. Would I love it? Absolutely. Are you welcome too? More than you know. I'm I going to pressure you into it? Not a chance."

"I wasn't worried about pressure. I didn't want to hurt your feelings. I'm just trying to get back on my own two feet. I appreciate everything you've done for me, but I've got to do this to be better."

"I understand. Just don't back pedal on me."

"Don't worry about that. There will still be dating, kissing, massaging, sleepovers, and stuff."

"Stuff? Stuff? I think you just broke my writer's soul. The best you could come up with was stuff?"

"Stuff, and if you don't watch it, there won't be any 'stuff' tonight."

Rick pop a fork full of food into his mouth. "Stuff it is."