This is going to be a little long, so bear with me. Or feel free to skip it entirely.

1. Thank you all for sticking with me while I was off adventuring for the last 10 days.

2. The last chapter put me over 1,000 reviews, which just amazes me. I haven't had a chance to respond to them since I've been out of town, so this will have to suffice this time. Thank you so much to all of you for being so wonderful!

3. While I was gone, my fic Without a Doubt won the Castle Fan Awards in the Best Non-Romance/General category. Thank you so much to everyone who voted for it! This fandom is wonderful!

And now, on to the chapter...

Poof, You're Dead

"What time do you have to go in today?"

She shrugged against him, released a breath against his chest. "Nine unless there's a case. Otherwise it's just paperwork all day."

"Exciting."

"Totally," she deadpanned. "Though after this last week, I'm kind of hoping for a dull day. I think we all could use the break."

"Yeah," he agreed, though he'd been largely absent from the precinct in light of Nikki Heat related commitments.

However, the majority of the meetings were now finished, as well as final edits, so beginning today, he'd be able to spend more time at the precinct again.

Castle glanced at the clock over her shoulder. "It's early still. Want to keep going?"

She nodded, smiled, loving that he was enjoying reading this as much as she was. Castle smiled against her lips, pulled away with a slight twinkle in his eyes, pure happiness radiating from his features. She would've rolled her eyes at him for how sappy and smitten he could be but here, wrapped up in bed together on a lazy morning, she felt exactly the same.

So instead, she stole a sweet kiss, allowed her body to melt into his as they continued on to the next letter.

Dear Kate,

Thank you for tonight; for taking me to dinner and taking my mind off of everything and not pressing for details. You never asked and I never confirmed it, but I think you know I broke up with Gina. Things had been rocky for a while, and this last case with the murdered magician really sealed the deal for me.

We'd been fighting about how bland our relationship was, how we weren't really in love even though we just pretended to be. I'll probably always care for Gina; we were married once after all. But what we had this time around wasn't love. It was just plain and boring. I don't want that. I want magic. I didn't have that with her.

For me, magic is spending my days with you. It's when the elevator doors open every morning and I see your face. It's when you smile at me, radiant and gorgeous. It's when we're working together, finishing each other's sentences to solve a case. It's what I felt tonight when you took me out to dinner, laughed and talked and almost made me forget I'd just broken up with someone.

Even now, I shouldn't feel so relieved about that fact, but I am because I no longer have to pretend I'm in love with someone else when I have such strong feelings for you. Now I can put my energy into showing you and telling you that I think we could be great together. Magical, even.

I know you claim not to believe in such things... well, mark my words, Kate Beckett. One of these days, I'm going to prove you wrong. I'll hold you in my arms and show you that magic does exist. That it is real, not just the result of misdirection and smoke and mirrors.

And then, if you're still not convinced, maybe I can show you my own version of the ice cube trick.

-Castle

Kate fell silent as she finished, wrapped up in thought, her mind miles away from their bed and Castle's warm arms.

"You okay?" he asked, concerned.

She nodded, emerged from her trance at his voice. "Yeah, just thinking."

"About?" Castle prompted.

"Just... something my dad said a while back."

"When you two went out for lunch?"

Kate nodded. "Yeah. He was asking about you, of course. I kinda freaked myself out and he talked me down."

"Freaked out about what?"

She shrugged, raised honest eyes to his. "Us. Everything was going so well and I was so happy and it just wasn't right, you know? I kept waiting for something to go wrong because I didn't think it could last the way things were."

She paused to take a breath and Castle spoke up. "What did he tell you?"

"That it could last, because that's what he'd had with my mom. That they argued and fought at times but the happiness never faded." She smiled up at him, kissed him softly. "Like with us. And it's just so surreal. I think I even told him it almost felt magical at times."

"But you don't believe in magic."

She smiled wider, eyes sparkling. "I know."

Castle cupped her jaw, drew her in for a sweet kiss. "It can last, Kate," he affirmed. "I believe that. We're going to fight and cry and scream and want to strangle each other at times, but it'll always be worth it."

"I know. Now, at least. At the time I was just overwhelmed."

Castle nodded in understanding because he still felt that too sometimes, nights that he laid awake wondering when the universe was going to throw yet another obstacle in their way in the form of crazy snipers or random accidents, because their time together sometimes seemed like it'd been one outrageous event after another.

"But you believe it now?" he asked, just to be sure.

Kate replied without hesitation. "Yes."

He smiled, lifted his lips to hers. She met him in the kiss, fiery and full of love and promise, and he reached out to wrap his arms around her, hold her close, slow things down. But Kate was having none of it as she reached down to move journal out of the way, all the while her tongue eagerly exploring his mouth, lips tracing over his jaw and neck and chest. She rose above him, pressed him back into the pillows with the weight of her body above his.

"Not that I'm complaining, but what are you doing?" Castle panted, caught off guard by her sudden heat and urgency.

She kissed him deeply, rested one hand on his chest, directly over his heart.

Her response was simple but said everything he needed to know.

"Making magic."

Thoughts?