Chapter 21: Not Staying
Kate sits down by Castle at the kitchen counter and waits for him to finish up his phone conversation. He places his hand on her cast. "Alright, Mother. I'll talk to you later."
"What did she want?" she asks when he hangs up the phone.
He reaches out to tuck a strand of damp hair behind her ear, "She is going with Chet to see his family for Thanksgiving, which leaves me and Alexis. Have you talked to your dad yet?"
"No."
"Well… you could invite him for Thanksgiving. It'll only be the four of us. And I'm sure you should be worried about whether or not he approves of me more than whether or not he approves of Alexis."
"True. After all, I don't know anyone who doesn't like your daughter," Kate smiles. "Speaking of Alexis, when is she coming back?"
He looks at the clock, "Couple hours. She's going to cook dinner. So you had better not leave or you'll disappoint her."
"Seriously, Castle, I need to go home. You don't have to worry. We caught both of the bad guys. And I'm not going to ignore you; we'll go out for another date Tuesday or Wednesday or… whatever day you like as long as I don't have to work late on a case."
"But… Kate, please."
"I'll stay for dinner, but then I have to go. I have to work tomorrow so I need to rest. I'll give you a call in the morning if we have a case; Montgomery might make me stay in the precinct though because of my arm."
"There's nothing I can do to stop you, is there?" She shakes her head. "Even if I get on my knees and beg you to stay?" Another head shake. "Even if I make Alexis beg you to stay?"
"Rick, I'm not staying the night. Not for a little while."
"But you'll come over and spend time with us?"
"Sometimes. But I have a job to do, and you have a daughter to spend time with."
"We can all spend time together."
"If Alexis doesn't mind. Just tell me when your next movie night or game night or whatever you two do together is and I'll try to come over if she wants to include me."
Rick stands up and walks from the room. She remains seated at the counter, not sure what to say to him to make this easier for him. Just as she is about to go after him, he comes back into the kitchen. "I want you to have this," he slides something across the counter to her.
Upon seeing that it is a key, she takes a deep breath and slowly exhales. "I can't move in with you, Rick. Not yet," she says quietly.
"I'm not asking you to move in right now. I just want you to know that you're welcome here at all times."
"Shouldn't you ask Alexis before doing this?" Kate hesitates as she reaches out for the key.
"I talked to her yesterday when you were out with Lanie. She is fine with it."
"Castle…"
"I just want you to be comfortable. You can come over whenever you want if you want to talk, whether it be about something personal or a case. Or if you just need to be with someone else you can come over. Whatever you want, Kate."
"Does this mean you expect me to give you a key to my place?"
He shakes his head, "Only if you want to. But I am perfectly okay with knocking on your door at three in the morning if I want to talk to you."
"Good. Then I'll just ignore you."
"I cannot be ignored, Kate," he smiles at her.
"Want to bet?"
"No. That would be as cruel as making me think that you wanted me dead."
"Good," she kisses him. "Ignoring you would be very hard to do."
"Because I'm so annoying or because you like me?" When she pretends to think about that, he kisses her again.
She gently pushes him back when he tries to deepen the kiss. "Not right now or we won't get anything done before your daughter gets home. Go shower. I'll call my dad."
"Kate," he pouts.
She pulls out her phone and shows him that she was going to ignore him for the time being. After she puts the phone to her ear, he gets up and heads to his bedroom. "Hey, Dad."
CB
"Hey," Alexis says timidly from the doorway of the guest room.
Kate turns and smiles at the teenager, "How was your trip? I thought your dad said we still had a few hours until you got back."
"Good. We decided to leave right after breakfast."
"Your dad's in the shower. Actually he's been in there for a while. Probably staring at the mirror and telling himself how handsome he is."
"Yeah, I heard the water. I didn't see you so I thought maybe you were…"
The detective quickly shakes her head, "No."
"You're leaving aren't you?" Alexis nods towards the suitcase that Kate had been packing. "Did he do something?"
"It's not him. And it's not you. I just have to go home, let things go back to normal."
"You and my dad… broke up?"
"No, your dad and I are fine. I… Well, under normal dating circumstances, I would not be spending the night after only two dates. I've been living here for over a week. Now that we have caught the bad guys, I should go home. We're still going to date. I'll come over for movie night or game night or… laser tag since that seems to be popular with you guys if you want me to. Actually, your dad invited me and my father to join you for Thanksgiving."
"So it's kind of like when Gram moved out. You'll mainly be living at your own place but you'll still come over here sometimes."
"Yeah. Kind of like that."
"You've only been here a week, and I've already gotten used to having you around," Alexis looks away from the detective, embarrassed for seeming so clingy.
Kate walks over to the teenager and envelops her in a hug. "It's okay."
The red-head puts her arms around her, returning the hug. "I don't know how I'm going to be able to leave my dad next year," she whispers.
"You'll both get through it. It will be hard at first, but you'll get used to it. He just wants you to be happy, Alexis. Of course he wants you to be close, but if the school you really like is across the country, he'll manage. And so will you."
"Thanks, Kate."
"If you ever need someone to talk to, you can always come to me." Kate looks up as Rick steps into the doorway.
He smiles, "Bonding time?"
"Dad," Alexis quickly lets go of Kate to hug her dad.
"Did you have fun? Do anything illegal?"
"Dad," she repeats with an eye roll.
"Hm… maybe I need to interfere on your bonding time more often. She's starting to pick up your bad habits."
"You just bring out the best in us, Castle," Beckett smirks before turning back around to finish packing.
"I have laundry to do. And homework. And I have to cook. I was thinking maybe an early dinner so Kate could get home."
"Sure," Rick lets his daughter walk away so she could get busy. "So… even my daughter couldn't convince you to stay?"
"Nope."
"You know I had absolutely nothing to do with that."
She eyes him for a moment before answering. "Yes."
"What do I have to do to make you stay?"
"Nothing because it's not going to happen, Rick."
"Is it because we haven't slept together?"
"No. Well, yes. That generally comes before living together."
Castle sighs. "Alright. Can you give me some sort of timeline then?"
She zips up her suitcase before turning to frown at him. "I can't predict the future, Castle. I have no idea when we're going to sleep together."
"When's the soonest you would move in with me?"
"I don't know, Castle. What's with all the questions? Do you do this to all the women you go out with?"
"Just you. Because I don't want you to leave."
She hugs him, which takes him by surprise. "I know you don't want me to go. But I want to do this the right way. Staying with you isn't right even if you are not pressuring me for more. I do like it here with you and Alexis, but it's not right."
"Well, Kate, we've never exactly had a normal relationship. I mean… I'm sure the only reason we're together is because of this crazy fan that came after you."
"So it has nothing to do with the fact that you have feelings for me?"
"Yes, I do have feelings for you. But the attack was a catalyst; it made me act on those feelings." Rick keeps his arms around her but pulls back so he can see her face. "Do you have feelings for me?"
"If I didn't, I wouldn't be here right now," she smiles and kisses him lightly on the lips. "Now… you go write or pretend to write while you sulk in your office because I'm not staying. I'm going to see if your daughter needs help with dinner."
A/N: So I still haven't gotten around to finishing this story. And I doubt it will happen soon with midterms next week and our Montreal trip for band. Maybe this weekend... Anyway, I would like to thank you all for the reviews. I'm so happy to reach the two hundred mark. And thanks to all of you who have the story on alert. For those of you who saw Monday's episode, I must say that I think I like James better than Alexander. At least it helped me explain the character names. Next week looks pretty intense, and then we meet her boyfriend the following week. Shoot... I'll be in Canada that day. Actually more likely I'll be on the bus on the way home. Well... I shall post again hopefully Sunday. I feel like I have so much to do yet I'm still sitting here doing nothing.