Back home in the loft

Castle and Beckett are in the bedroom closet unpacking more of Kate's personal items and putting them away. She is surprised at how much space Castle made for her in the giant walk-in closet not to mention the rest of the loft. Actually she had never paid much attention to this space since becoming part of the family. Officially!

They have spent several hours this morning travelling in between her old apartment, packing, and her new home transferring things in. More than once since last night she has paused and looked at her life and how it has changed.

For the better

As she started loading her clothes into hanging boxes she noticed Castle seem to get distracted. She would hand him a few of her dresses for him to hang in the carrier and he would take a little longer than expected to finish the task. After the third handful of these semi-formal attire she walked out behind him to see what was taking him so long to do a simple job of placing them into the box and move back for more

Her answer was delivered quickly as she watched him. Instead of taking the bundle of items and hanging them as a group, he takes each one separately, and after holding it up for his viewing, he then places it on the hanger bar.

It became quite evident to her that he was reliving whatever time he actually saw her wearing the item. Some dresses caused him to gaze longer than others

"Castle! If you fantasize over each one of my dresses, we never will get moved"

Her voice breaks him out of his dreams quickly

"OH! No…that…that was not what…I mean I was just making sure they didn't get wrinkled when I put them in the box"

"Sure Castle. Keep telling yourself that story" Kate snuggles up to him and whispers into his ear "After we get settled I will let you go through these and decide which ones you would like me to model for you"

She smiles at herself as she watches her husband become visibly shaken by her flirting

After the latest load they picked up at her old place for today, she has kept Rick away from one box. She made sure she was nowhere close as she packed it away. She would not let him carry it in. She has kept pushing it away from him each time he came close to where it sat on the floor. Not as in making an issue about it, but more just pushing it a little further away from him whenever he got too near

She thought she was being non chaulant about the container but he did pick up on her intentional actions in keeping the item at arm's length from him

He finally decides to try and get information by making a comment "You know Alexis was packing some of her things away the other day. Getting ready for her eventual move to college. I noticed how many boxes she had and I told her it was so sweet, what she was packing. You know medals, awards, trophies and so on. But then it became so many boxes and I reminded her that her dorm room was going to be very small and her storage space was very limited. But she said every one of these boxes was important"

Kate decides this is the perfect time to help Rick know that she understands Alexis and can be her friend "We all need our stuff Castle. I have boxes and boxes. It's comforting. Reminds me of my past"

"Your kinky past?" he comments lightly

She looks down at the box, she has kept at arm's length from Castle, then as she raises an eyebrow looks back to his eyes "I have that box too" then she pushes it a little farther away using her foot

Castle has to leave the closet to try and get oxygen to come back into his lings after that little tease. If she doesn't stop soon the moving will be getting postponed

Kate follows him out a minute later "You OK Castle?" as she snuggles up to his back, wraps her arms around his waist, and presses herself firmly into him. As usual, her touch causes him to have even more breathing problems

"I think I will be fine but it will take me a minute" He turns around and places his arms around her "Or maybe a little longer depending on how much time we have"

"Easy big guy. Your daughter is upstairs and will probably be down any minute"

"OH. Yeah"

"Besides we still need to decide what we are going to do with the rest of my stuff. I guess we can put the balance in storage"

"Kate. We will work all this out. You moving in here does not require you to lose all that you are. We will merge, move, replace. Whatever it takes. And we have plenty of time. We do not have to rush"

"True. My cousin Sofia is not coming back from Paris for another month. So we just need to have everything squared away before she gets here and moves into the apartment"

"OK Kate. Do we make another trip today or what?"

"Castle I need to go to the precinct for a few minutes before we do that"

"I thought you had today off"

"I do. But there was a couple of reports that need my signature before the DA will accept the filing. Captain Gates sent a text and asked if I could swing by and do that before it gets too late"

"Let's go love. We can do that then go get another load"

When they go down to the parking garage to get into her cruiser and drive to the station Kates notices the parking space that she has been using now has a sign on the wall directly above the front of her car marked "Reserved Mrs. Castle"

She points at the sign and has a hitch in her voice "When did you do that?"

"The building is very particular about parking places. Each one is reserved for the tenants. They just told me that the sign would be done sometime today" He looks at the wall "I guess they finished it"

Little things seem to happen each day. The kind of little things that remind her that this is no dream and it is all true. She is married to a famous writer. She now has a mother in law and a step daughter. And finally her mother's killer is behind bars. She looks at her husband as he slides into the passenger seat of her police car. 'What else can happen today?' she wonders

The trip to the precinct is quick and uneventful. During her drive her mind traveled from her meeting the mystery writer to him saving her life to all the other things he did for her and she just smiles to herself.

When they arrive she pulls her cruiser into the basement and the pair step into the elevator for the slow ride to the 4th floor. As the door closes Kate turns to Castle and pulls him in and begins a long slow kiss. He is startled as she begins but quickly he becomes a willing participant as the temperature in the elevator is obviously getting warmer. By the time the cab stops on the homicide floor neither one wants to stop

When the doors open, however, the couple has been able to return to some semblance of normal. As they start to walk toward Beckett's desk she comments "I see now how it was different here for what Natalie Rhodes wanted to do that in the elevator"

Castle stops and touches Kate's elbow "WHAT? How? "

Esposito walks up at that very moment interrupting any possible answer "Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you two were moving Beckett into the Castle loft?"

Kate responds "Gates called and needs me to review and sign some reports. Do you know where she is?" she looks in the direction of the captain's office

"I am right here detective" comes the voice of the station commander who has just walked up behind the couple "Thanks for coming in detective. The DA is having a fit over there reports. Can you look over them and sign off so we can get the DA off our backs?"

"Yes sir" Kate takes the files from Captain Gates and walks to her desk. When she opens the top file she realizes that the cases were several months ago and she is going to have to go into her computer and review her notes before signing

"Castle, this is going to take a few minutes. Will you do me a favor and go to the coffee shop and get me a latte? Please" she says in a low sexy voice "I promise I will make it worth your while" she then whispers

She chuckles under her breath as she watches him jump up and rush off to the Java Joynt for her caffeine fix

She is almost finished with her first file when the elevator bell rings and she senses the impending arrival of her husband. She has heard of married couples being able to sense the other one's presence after several years of married life but she is positive that now after only a few months she has acquired that sense when it comes to Castle or maybe she has had this form of mind meld for much longer

He arrives at her desk but no coffee appears at her arm. After a minute of silence she looks up to see him holding two cups and his face covered with a large question

"Castle! What's wrong?"

"Kate. The people who work in the coffee shop…how long have they been there?"

"Depends on which one. Val, she's the manager, has been there for as long as I have been going there. The barista that is probably there today is Andy or Toni. Why?"

"Kate. Do you remember when we went to Chandler's café there were two people there eating. They left just after we arrived?"

"Yeah. I didn't pay any attention to them why?"

"I am positive the Barista in the coffee shop was one of those customers that were at that café the day we went"

"He had his back to me. I sat down and he was behind me. When he left, I did not get a view of his face. You would have seen him, not me"

"Kate. I am positive that the Barista, Andy I think, I saw today was at Chandler's Café the day we were there"

OK. I think the next chapter will be the last. I had planned to end the story on News Year's Eve, but life got in the way