On Thursday morning Kate woke to find Ricks face looking down on her as she slowly opened her eyes.
"Are you watching me sleep?" she asked.
Rick responded with a grin.
"It's kinda creepy."
"Not from where I am," Rick said leaning down to kiss her. "You're absolutely beautiful, and so peaceful when you're sleeping."
Kate couldn't stop the smile from gracing her lips. No matter how creepy the staring may have been, she couldn't hide that fact that she thought he was kind of adorable.
"Well Rick, since we are both awake, I do believe we have some pancakes to make," Kate said pulling down the blankets, sitting up and moving her feet to the side of the bed.
Rick was quick to respond and reached over to her side and pulled her back down. "I'm sure the pancakes can wait, wouldn't you rather stay here a little longer?" he said pinning Kate to the bed with his body.
As good as staying in bed sounded, Kate did have to go into work and she wanted to get some time with Alexis. She pecked at Rick's lips before completely stunning him as she used her self defence training to flip him back onto his back and then continued to roll off the bed and ran for the door.
Rick was quick off the bed and had soon caught up with Kate grabbing her around the waist from behind and he lifted her into his chest and started pulling her back into the room.
Kate let out a girlish scream which was then followed by laughter. "Rick, put me down," she laughed.
"Nope," he said making his way back towards his room.
They heard Alexis before they saw her coming down the stairs.
"Dad? Kate?" she called, she could hear them laughing but wasn't really sure what the two adults were up to. "Dad, what are you doing to Kate?"
Rick let Kate down so her feet touched the floor but kept his hands around her stomach and leant in so his chin was on her shoulder.
"Nothing pumpkin, I just didn't want Kate to start breakfast without me."
Kate turned her face to look at him and raised her eyebrows, "Really Castle? Is that what you were doing?"
Rick quickly pecked Kate's lips and nodded. "Uh huh," he said.
"Well, I guess we should go get breakfast started since Alexis is up."
Kate tried to get away from Rick's hands but he wasn't letting her go. Instead he followed right behind her walking with his chest to her back.
"You know, I can't make pancakes if you are crowding me like that," she said as they got to the kitchen.
"I know, but I'm worried that if I let you go, you're going to leave here and work is going to take you away from me."
It wasn't until Rick said it that he realised that's what he was actually feeling. It didn't matter how much was said the previous day, it didn't matter that Kate chose to leave Blythe before going back to the station for an interrogation, there was still a little voice in his head that doubted her ability to put work aside to and make room for him and his family.
Kate turned in his arms and lifted her hands to either side of his face. "Rick, I promise you, I'm not going to let that happen. I do have to go to work today, but I wont let it take me away from you completely." She kissed him and then added with a smile, "You're my ballerina man. What kind of partner would I be if I left you on your own?"
Alexis looked at the two adults in front of her and had never felt more confused in her life. "Dad? You're a ballet dancer?"
"Yep," Rick responded without even turning to look at his daughter. He just kept gazing into Kate's eyes, looking for anything that looked like doubt or uncertainty but, he saw none. Either she was very good at hiding what was really going on in her mind or she really wasn't wanting to run again.
"Ballet? My dad does ballet?" Alexis said to no one in particular. "This I have to see."
It was Kate that dropped the gaze between herself and Rick first and looked towards Alexis. "Sorry Alexis, it was just something your dad said to me yesterday. There's really no ballet dancing going on." She paused and looked at Rick again. "Well, at least I don't think there is."
Now it was Ricks turn to laugh. "I've never done ballet in my life. But for you Kate, I would learn. But how about we get started on breakfast first."
Kate and Blythe managed to solve their case and unfortunately had found nothing more than Johanna's name in the file to link the two murders together. Kate was disappointed because she had hoped to put her mothers case to rest, but she also knew it wouldn't be her last chance. When the time was right something would come up again, and as long as she knew she had Castle, she would get through it.
She'd gone to visit Lanie in the morgue during the afternoon, collecting more copies of some of her reports for the police files. While there, they organised dinner and drinks after work. Lanie had asked a couple of times about Castle in their brief time together and so Kate promised she would invite him, but couldn't guarantee he'd be able to join them.
A little later in the afternoon Kate did try to invite Rick but unfortunately, with his mother out all evening, and his usual sitter busy with plans of their own, he had to stay home with Alexis. Kate suggested her father could watch her for the evening, but then remembered he had a session with his counsellor that evening and she wasn't sure how long those sessions ran for. In the end she knew Lanie was just going to have to wait for another time to meet Rick.
Kate arrived at their chosen drinking spot just after 6pm and immediately spotted Lanie sitting at the bar.
"Hey Lanie," she said, as she reached her friend. "I hope you haven't been waiting long."
"No. I took the liberty of ordering you a drink."
Lanie passed Kate a martini glass and stood up off her stool holding a drink of her own.
"Thanks Lanie," Kate said taking the drink.
"Let's go find a table."
The ladies found an empty table in the corner of the bar and sat down opposite one another.
"So girl, tell me, where is this man of yours?" Lanie asked with wide, excited eyes, hoping he was going to be there.
"Uh, sorry Lanie. He couldn't make it. He had to stay home with Alexis."
"Oh right. I forgot you said he had a daughter." She was a little disappointed. She knew she was probably a little too nosey when it came to peoples love lives, but she didn't care.
They both took a sip of their drinks before Lanie spoke up again.
"So tell me, how are things going between you two? I noticed you hadn't mentioned him much this week?"
"I don't mention him much anyway."
Lanie raised her eyebrows in disbelief.
"Do I?" Kate asked.
"Well, not on purpose I guess. But, usually if I ask about him, you at least give me something. Even though you pretend to act like you don't want to, I know you love to share about him. This week though, it was like you were so caught up in the case you didn't want to talk about him at all. If I bought him up, you'd immediately go back to the case. But then today, you went back to your old ways."
"Oh."
"So, did something happen?"
"The case happened." Kate said, getting a confused expression from Lanie and Kate knew she was going to have to explain.
Kate told Lanie everything that had happened over the week, she'd briefly explained her mothers murder and how seeing her name in the case files had affected her and how it caused her to run.
"Oh, I'm sorry sweetie. But everything is okay now?" Lanie asked.
"Yeah, Rick came and knocked some sense into me yesterday," Kate said, unable to stop the smile from growing on her face. "And I realised I couldn't do this without him."
"Oh, I can't wait to meet this guy," Lanie squealed. "Every time you talk about him, you get this cute little look on your face and you can't stop smiling. He's gotta be a good one."
"Yeah," Kate nodded. "He definitely is."
Before they were able to continue their conversation they were interrupted by a young man.
"Good evening Ladies," he said getting their attention. "May a thorn sit down amongst the roses?"
"Seriously?" Lanie said.
"That's your line?" Kate added.
The girls laughed with each other.
"Oh, c'mon. Let me join you, I have a friend over there," he said pointing to another guy sitting along at another table. "You guys are alone, we're alone, and none of us have to be."
"Uh, sorry buster, we're not alone and we're happy with our current company thank you," Lanie said.
Right at that moment Kate's phone started to ring. She pulled it out of her pocket and saw Rick's face looking back at her.
"Hey Rick," she said.
"That'd be her boyfriend," Lanie whispered to the man now starting to look a little embarrassed beside them.
Kate couldn't be sure if the man had seen the picture on her phone as she pulled it out but with the look on his face she was pretty sure he was feeling a little less confident about being able to join them.
She was on the phone for just a couple of minutes before Kate finished the call telling him she would call when she got home. When she looked back to where their unwanted guest was previously standing, he found that he was no longer there.
"Where did our friend go?" she laughed.
"Wow, you really zone out when you're talking to him?"
"Lanie!" Kate said trying to stop any more comments from being made about the relationship she was in or how it made her behave.
"Sorry." Lanie said. "I'm pretty sure our friend noticed the look on your face while you were on the phone and realised that he didn't stand a chance, so he gave up and left."
The two women stayed out talking about anything and everything, except Rick. Kate thought Lanie already knew enough and she didn't need to know more, so any time she brought him up, Kate would give her a look and Lanie would change the subject. After a few hours she was beginning to feel the weeks events weighing down on her and she was ready to collapse into bed.
"Well, what do you say we call it a night?" Kate said. "It's been fun. We should do this again."
"Yeah, we should," Lanie responded. "Next time, bring your boy along."
Once all the paperwork was finished on Friday, Kate was told to go home early and take the weekend off. Captain Montgomery knew how difficult the case had been for her and wanted to make sure she wasn't overloading herself. Kate was glad for the time off. It would allow her to spend some quality time with Rick and Alexis, and make up for earlier in the week. She was on the phone within seconds of filing the last bits of paperwork making sure Rick would be home.
Rick took longer than he expected getting groceries so when he arrived at the loft, he found Kate waiting just outside his door.
"Sorry," he said walking towards her. "I was hoping to be back before you got here."
"It's fine. I haven't been waiting long."
Rick tried to juggle his shopping bags into one hand but, had a feeling it would end disastrous with food everywhere if he continued. He knew he should have accepted the doorman's offer of help, but he was busy with someone else and Rick had just wanted to get upstairs.
"Hey Kate, my keys are in my left pocket. A little help," he suggested.
Kate reached into Ricks pocket purposely moving her hand a little too far to his right causing him to gasp. "Kate, my keys, not… that."
Kate chucked, and then took the keys out and opened the door.
The couple moved through the loft into the kitchen and started putting away the groceries together. Kate couldn't help but notice just how domestic it seemed, and how comfortable she was in Rick's home. It wasn't the first time she'd noticed it, it had been happening quite often and as frightening as it was, she also found it to be somewhat exciting.
"So, where's Alexis?" she asked as they finished putting everything away.
"She's out shopping with mother, they wont be back for another few hours."
"You mean to say, we've got the place to ourselves for a little while," she said seductively, walking towards him and trapping him against the bench with her arms and body.
Rick watched as Kate's eyes grew dark with lust and want, and she bit on her lower lip. "I guess we do," he responded reaching his hands between them and undoing the top couple of buttons on Kate's shirt. "What should we do?"
"We could eat."
Ricks finger ran gently down her chest and popped open the next button.
"We could read," Kate continued, as Rick kissed in between her breasts. "We could… mmmm…" Kate was trying her best to get words out, not wanting Rick to know just how quickly his lips affected her, but she was struggling as his mouth moved from her chest up to her neck.
"We could simply relax," she said as her body began to feel like putty in his arms, and her knees began to weaken beneath her.
When Rick knew Kate had absolutely no control over her body, he whipped them both around so that it was now she, who was trapped against the bench. He began kissing back down her chest again as he unbuttoned the rest of her shirt, then stood up and finally kissed her lips as he pushed her shirt over her shoulders and dropped it onto the kitchen floor.
"I think I know something else we could do," he said pressing his hips into her centre so she could feel just how ready he was for her.
Kate's hands moved to unbutton Rick's shirt but he pulled them away. "No Kate. Let me spoil you," he said as he lifted her by the hips and placed her on the bench.
"Not here," Kate breathily got out. "Alexis and Martha,"
"Are out," Rick finished.
"But…" Kate said, but could get no further words out as Rick stepped into the v of her legs and began running his hands over her body.
Kate's body reacted to every little movement he made, and soon she found herself lying back on the bench top while Rick's hand grazed over her stomach and down to the waistband of her jeans.
As much as Rick wanted to continue things without stopping, he knew Kate was right to be worried about Alexis and Martha, he really didn't know when they would be home so he pulled her towards him and wrapped her feet behind his back. Kate was completely lost in his control, he was sure he could do absolutely anything to her at that moment. He leant over her chest pulled her body into his and picked her up, then walked her over to the bedroom and placed her on the bed.
"Better?" he asked.
He didn't give Kate a chance to respond before he was back to lavishing her mouth and body with kisses, causing her to tremble beneath him.
A little while later as they lay naked and tangled together completely satisfied, Rick kissed Kate's temple. "That was amazing," he said. "You are amazing."
"I'm pretty sure that was all you," she said with a giggle. "I guess I should thank your mom for taking Alexis out today."
"Oh, I think I will be too."
They just lay silently for a moment seeking comfort in each other's arms.
"Rick," Kate said as she snuggled in closer on his chest. "I'm sorry that work takes up so much of my time."
"Where is that coming from?" he asked holding her close, and hearing the anxious expression in her voice.
"It's just… I wish I could spend more time with you. It's been four weeks since we came home from the Hamptons and I just feel like we haven't had much time alone."
"Kate, it's been a crazy four weeks, but it's not always going to be like this. We'll work it out."
"What if we don't? Is this going to be enough for you?"
"You are enough for me Kate."
Kate just simply lay there on his chest listening to his heart beat while Rick ran his gentle fingers up and down her back.
They lay there for a few minutes before Rick broke the silence.
"Here's a crazy idea. How about you just move in with me?"
So life is pretty gah! right about now. You know when everything is going swell and then... it's not! Yeah, well that's mine right now. But don't you worry... I'm still writing!
Did I tell you about my fingerless gloves? If not, well I have to tell you about them now.. I just bought some the other day and seriously... they are like totally the trendiest things ever! I'm bringing back the look. Singlet top with fingerless gloves! I think I look great like that, even if others laughed at me haha.
Anyways, about that chapter. I thought I needed a little bit of Lanie in there again, don't worry... she will get to meet Rick soon :) I have a plan!
Also, I seem to have gotten rather lazy when it comes to responding to reviews. I do apologize if I don't respond, it's not because i don't appreciate you, it's just that I'm extremely busy these days. Thanks to everyone for reading... now I shall get working on the next chapter!
