Author's Note: Apologies for not posting this last week on schedule but RL got in the way of finishing this chapter up in time. I hope this makes up for the longer-than-usual wait!
Accidentally in Love
Chapter 50
Kate finished one piece of the pile of paperwork she needed to get done this afternoon and tried not to think that if Castle were here, he'd likely have already made a fresh cup of coffee just the way she liked it, since Castle appeared to have developed a sense of whenever her energy started to flag and provided coffee accordingly.
But since Castle was not here, she had to make her own coffee. Well, getting up and stretching her legs a little wasn't a bad thing, she told herself bracingly. And really, it was beyond ridiculous how distracting Castle's absence had become.
She'd managed to get through hundreds of work days without Castle and it was absolutely absurd, irrational, and stupid to have his absence now impinging on her consciousness so much. (Oh just admit it, Kate, a voice in her mind spoke up, you miss him.)
Fine, yes, she missed him. It was still ridiculous though.
It had barely been a month since Castle had started shadowing her at work (as he put it) or playacting at being a cop (as she tended to put it, to tease him) but even so, in that month's time, he'd made himself… useful. He made things more fun with his trademark humor but even aside from that, he'd proven that he was observant and while some of (okay, most of) his theories tended to the outlandish, if not outright insane, he was also smart, had a knack for spotting possible connections because of his out-of-the-box thinking. It was something cops had to struggle against the longer they served in the force, the trap of only seeing what they expected to see, the commonplace, run-of-the-mill crimes. Castle might have a penchant for crazy conspiracy theories but his storytelling tendencies meant that he was good at putting all the seemingly disparate pieces of evidence together to form a story.
And Kate was sure that at least part of the reason for Castle's easy acceptance into the precinct was that he had proven to be helpful. Cops were not always the most welcoming of civilian help but for the most part, they were results-oriented and once Castle had proven himself, had accepted him. Also helped by Castle's ease with people, his hail-fellow-well-met joviality, allowing him to fall in with the humor and camaraderie.
Plus there was the espresso machine that he'd insisted on buying for the precinct his second day of shadowing her, insisting it was a necessity and the least he could do for welcoming him into the precinct. And anyone who saved them from having to drink the toxic sludge otherwise known as their coffee was going to win himself fans. Even Captain Montgomery had limited himself to a perfunctory objection about the appearance of impropriety, not as if he really meant it but more to cross off the box, and hadn't been behind in taking advantage of the machine.
As for Kate, well, she really was getting spoiled, having what amounted to her own personal barista since Castle had taken his coffee-making duties on her behalf seriously, she thought, not for the first time, as she pressed the buttons on the espresso machine, startling and flinching back as the machine emitted a sharp hiss of hot air, nearly singeing her fingers.
"It's hard having to make your own coffee, isn't it?"
Kate turned to see that Esposito, the detective who had come over from the 54th to join her and Hassan's team early this year, had entered the break room.
"Speaking of which, where is your boy this afternoon anyway?"
"He had a meeting with his publisher. And shut up," she added belatedly. "I can make my own coffee just fine, thanks."
Esposito scoffed. "Sure you can, Beckett, but why would you ever need to with Writer Boy around all the time?"
"He's not around all the time." He wasn't. "And anyway, he's going to be around less once Alexis's school year ends." While Alexis was in school, it was easier for Castle to spend his days shadowing her, especially as he had arranged for Alexis to go over to her friend Paige's house after school, allowing Castle to stick around until the end of Kate's normal shift, although he then had to leave in order to have dinner with Alexis, even on evenings when Kate herself got called to a crime scene or was otherwise working. The start of Alexis's summer vacation would necessarily change that and limit Castle's availability.
Esposito's expression softened just a smidge at the mention of Alexis's name before he sternly controlled his features into stoicism while Kate hid a smile. Esposito was a former military sniper and he liked to pretend to be a complete hard-ass but Alexis had won him over pretty much the moment she'd met him. Alexis had not spent much time in the precinct, for obvious reasons, but she had stopped by to visit a couple times with Castle. And one time about a week ago, when she, Castle, and Kate had been scheduled to have dinner and then watch a movie together only for Kate's paperwork to take longer than expected, Alexis had read in the break room—or rather, that had been the plan except Alexis had, instead, found herself to be quite a center of attention, chatting happily with Castle and Esposito and a few other cops who just happened to stop by. "Yeah, how is the kid doing?" he asked with a poor imitation of indifference.
"Alexis is great. She aced her latest math test."
"Tell the kid I said good job. She must have gotten all the brains in the family," Espo jibed.
"I'm telling Castle you said that."
"Go ahead. I can take him."
Kate laughed at that. Castle would pout but it was true. "He's a pretty good shot, you know," she said, since Castle was not around to preen. (Another surprising thing she'd learned about her boyfriend in the last month.)
"Still not as good as me," Espo retorted immediately. "When does the kid's school get out?"
"School ends in a week, which is why I'll be leaving early on Friday to go to her school's Open House. Alexis is going to be reading aloud her essay that got the highest score in her class." And Castle had only narrowly escaped bursting with the pride of knowing Alexis had inherited his talent for writing, as he put it. He'd been grinning like a Cheshire cat about it for almost a week after Alexis had told them.
A small smile, almost a smirk, escaped Espo and she narrowed her eyes at him. "What?"
"Nothing. It's just, listening to you, all proud and stuff about your little girl, just like a mom, and then to think of you as Beckett, kicking down doors and taking names."
By now, Kate's heart didn't react quite so much to being referred to as Alexis's mom because, well, it was true, for all intents and purposes. It was what she wanted to be, what she was still trying every day to be. "It's called muli-tasking," she quipped. "You might give it a try sometime."
He scoffed. "I'll leave the playing-house with rugrats underfoot to you and Castle. Now, stop hogging the coffee machine."
She duly took her coffee—in the mug that Alexis had painted for her more than a year ago now—and returned to her desk.
Her desk was still primarily a utilitarian space but now, alongside the row of elephants that her mom had also kept on her desk at work, was a picture of herself and Castle, on either side of Alexis, who was in the middle, that had been taken by Martha on Alexis's 10th birthday last fall. Alexis was beaming and wearing the tiara that Castle referred to as the Birthday Crown, an accessory that he insisted everyone wear on their birthday—which, yes, included Kate on her last birthday (although she had threatened Castle with dismemberment if he ever shared any pictures of her wearing the tiara) and also included Castle himself on his birthday just months ago.
As always, the sight of the picture made her smile, a little flare of warmth going off in her chest. Her family. Her home, since she was happiest when she was with them.
And not for the first time in the last weeks, it occurred to her that maybe, it was time to talk to Castle about giving up her apartment and moving into the loft, for real. She still had her apartment, some niggling little sense of caution or fear or something not quite allowing her to give it up entirely—and in fairness, Castle had not pushed or even specifically asked her to move in. She didn't spend much time in her apartment anymore, just brief stops to retrieve some item of clothing or random keepsake. She could probably count on her two hands the number of nights she had actually spent in her apartment in the last six months or so.
Aside from that, she spent her time at the loft, with Castle and Alexis. With her work schedule, she necessarily missed dinner with them a couple times a week but she always tried to get to the loft by 9:30 so she could at least say goodnight to Alexis and she didn't volunteer to work overtime or weekend shifts when it wasn't necessary. Captain Montgomery no longer felt it necessary to force her to take a day off here and there. She had a life outside of work and she liked it, loved it.
She was happy and now, she no longer found herself expecting, or wondering, when the other shoe would drop, as it were. She was still afraid that life, the world, things outside of their control, would happen and devastate her—after what had happened to her mom, the things she saw at work every day, she was all too conscious of how quickly things could change. But she had stopped expecting that things within their control would break them up, that her relationship with Castle would not last, would founder on the rocks of her issues.
She believed in their relationship, in them. She still thought it was amazing but somehow, they fit, this relationship that really made very little sense on paper worked. He was a multimillionaire celebrity and she was a publicity-averse, no-nonsense cop but for all their differences, they fit.
It wasn't always easy. There were certainly times when they struck the wrong sort of sparks off of each other rather than the right kind. Times when her stock of patience, never limitless to begin with, had worn down from the stress of work and made her lose patience with Castle's exuberance and tendency to silliness and she snapped at him. Other times when he got too lost in his own head, stuck in his fictional worlds, and wasn't entirely present when she wanted him to be. They'd already had one fight stemming from his fame when she had reacted badly to some of the flurry of speculative gossip about her when their relationship had been publicized and he had appeared to shrug off her concerns, which had struck a match to her already kindling temper, and things had escalated from there.
But they worked through it and always ended up gravitating back together after they had a time-out, as Castle phrased it, retreating to their own spaces. And more importantly, Kate thought she had kept her promise never to involve Alexis in any of their arguments and they certainly tried never to argue when Alexis was around.
He made her happy and she hoped—no, she knew that by some miracle, she made him happy too. It was in his smile when he saw her, in the light in his eyes, in his voice. And of course, he told her so on a fairly regular basis.
She checked her phone, a little surprised to see that Castle had not texted her with an update on how his meeting at Black Pawn had gone, although she supposed the meeting could still be going on. Castle and Black Pawn were trying to iron out the plans for the release of Heat Wave, the first Nikki Heat book. Black Pawn wanted to give Nikki the full red-carpet treatment with a big, glitzy launch party, a round of publicity interviews on TV and various public events for Castle, and had pushed for a personal interview (or two) with Kate herself as the inspiration for Nikki but Castle had pushed back on the interview with Kate, refusing on her behalf, and was trying to negotiate down on the publicity he would do because he didn't want to spend so many evenings out, away from Alexis. Kate assumed they would end up compromising in the middle but as she knew by now, Paula, Castle's agent, was very pushy when it came to PR, even if it admittedly served her well in her job, so it was possible the meeting was going longer than Castle had expected. She could easily picture him looking increasingly bored and fidgety and suppressed a smile at the mental image.
Speaking of boredom, it was time for her to get back to her paperwork, she accepted with a little sigh of resignation, forcing herself to concentrate on the mundanities of paperwork.
She got through the rest of her shift without either a call about a new body dropping or—more disappointingly—a text from Castle. Unless his meeting at Black Pawn had really gone insanely long, he had to be done by now. She was starting to wonder if something else was up with him. But even as she wondered it, as she cleared off her desk for the night and turned off her computer, she heard her phone chime and checked it to see the expected text from Castle.
It was about time.
She opened the message app to read the text.
Come and find me, cupcake.
That brat. What was he up to now? She rolled her eyes a little but knew it was belied by the smile tugging on her lips.
He didn't normally use ridiculous endearments but occasionally, he got a kick out of calling her "cupcake," because he liked the reference to their first meeting, that he liked to call the luckiest accident of his life (or the best reason for a ruined jacket), and she allowed it because he only used the endearment in private. She reserved the right to shoot him if he ever used it in public but between the two of them, she could allow it and, well, he was cute with that beguiling, teasing smile of his curling his lips whenever he called her "cupcake."
And today, she guessed that the word was serving double duty, as a clue to where he was. It was the sort of double meaning, play on words Castle would enjoy. So yes, she was reasonably sure she knew exactly where he was. At their bakery.
She sent him a text to let him know she was on her way and then set out to find him.
As she'd expected, so it proved.
She made it to their bakery—yes, she had relented and started thinking of it as their bakery the way he did since he'd made a point of returning to it for cupcakes on special occasions like her birthday, the one-year anniversary of her making detective, their first anniversary, the first day he had started shadowing her at work—in good time.
Unlike what he'd done for their first date, he had not cleared out the entire space but there was a sign on the door saying the bakery was "closed for a private event," and he was waiting to open the door for her.
"Beckett, you found me," he greeted her, giving her a quick kiss.
"I am a detective, you know." She smirked at him. "How'd your meeting go?"
He made a small face. "Fine. There is going to be a launch party for Heat Wave; sorry, they were adamant about that and to be fair, since I do think this is going to be the start of a new series and it's my first book after ending the Storm series, I think it's unavoidable. And I'll need to do a round of publicity, Good Morning America, the Tonight Show, that sort of thing, and they tacked on a few more book signings."
"Sounds like you'll be busy."
He pulled a beleaguered face. "I know, it's a hard life."
She patted his shoulder in mock commiseration. "Poor baby."
"You're mocking me when I've planned a surprise for you?" he pouted.
She widened her eyes at him in feigned surprise. "You haven't said anything about planning a surprise." Not that she hadn't already guessed that from the moment he sent the text.
"You're a detective. I thought you'd pick up on it," he tossed back.
She suppressed the laugh that was bubbling up inside her. "So what's my surprise?"
"Well, first, I wanted to give you this." He turned and picked up a flat, white rectangular box from a table behind him, handing it to her.
She lifted the lid off to see a stack of paper, bound along one margin, and on the front, in plain typeset, the words "Heat Wave by Richard Castle." "It's finished now?" She knew he'd been working on the edits lately.
"It's finished. This is the final draft, the one that's going to be sent to the printers in the next couple days. I had them print off a copy to give to you."
She had read the first draft, as he'd promised she could, and they had wrangled over his taking out or changing some minor things but since then, she hadn't been involved, had let him take care of the edits from Gina without any further input from her. She smiled at him. "Thanks, Castle."
He returned her smile with a somewhat odd one of his own, shifting a little. "I wanted you to see the dedication."
She lifted the title page to find the typed dedication. To the extraordinary KB—you make everything possible. And underneath that, he had written With my love, always, Rick.
Oh, this man… And was he about to… Butterflies were forming in her chest at the suspicion. The way he had reserved their bakery again just for them, his strangely ill-at-ease demeanor combined with the light in his eyes…
But she didn't comment, would let him proceed with his plan, so all she said was, "It's perfect. Thank you."
"I'm glad and now, why don't you sit down and pick a cupcake? What kind would you like?" He gestured to the display case and the neat row of cupcakes, one of every variety the bakery made.
"Chocolate with vanilla frosting."
"Coming right up but first, you have to close your eyes."
Yeah, he was definitely up to something. Her sweet, silly, and not at all subtle man.
She obediently closed her eyes. "Okay, they're closed."
She heard some quiet noises and then after a minute, he said, "Okay, open your eyes."
She did, her eyes finding him first, sitting on the chair opposite hers—not down on one knee—and then to the table, with a small pot of pansies in her favorite shade of purple and her chosen cupcake with—she felt herself deflating a little—nothing else on it.
Okay, maybe not what she had thought… hoped. (At least, not today, not yet. She still believed they would get there.)
She tried to control her expression but when her eyes made it back to his face, his eyes were dancing, a small smirk threatening to escape. "You look a little disappointed, were you expecting something else?"
The brat.
She narrowed her eyes at him a little but before she could respond, he was sliding out of his chair and, yes, onto one knee and whatever words she'd been about to say evaporated into nothing, turned into a small gasp instead.
He slid his hand into his pocket and when it emerged, his fingers were holding a ring. A beautiful ring with a diamond that caught the rays of the sun coming in through the windows making it sparkle like a living thing.
"I wasn't about to put this on the frosting. That's terribly unsanitary," he said with mock concern.
A strange sound that was a combination of a laugh and a sob escaped her and she lifted a hand to press her fingertips to her mouth. But that did nothing to quell the riot of happy butterflies in her chest.
Oh oh oh, he was… he really was proposing. And for all that she had hoped—dreamed—about this for months now, it didn't make the actual impact of the moment any less now that it was really here.
"Kate," he began and now his expression was entirely serious, even a little—was he nervous? He was. There was a hint of tension in the set of his shoulders, in the set of his lips. "The moment we met, my life became extraordinary. You are the most challenging, inspiring, frustrating, amazing person I have ever met and I love you. I want to raise my daughter with you and go to work with you and laugh with you and most of all, I want to spend the rest of my life trying to make you as happy as you make me." He paused and now a faint smile flickered around his lips as he finished, "Katherine Houghton Beckett, will you marry me?"
She blinked to fight back the stupid tears pricking at the back of her eyes, had to swallow hard to get rid of the lump of emotion in her throat. Only Castle could make her want to laugh and cry—and feel so in love—all at the same time. "Yes." The word emerged as something of a strangled croak and she had to swallow again before she managed, more clearly, "Of course, yes, I'll marry you."
He surged to his feet while she half-fell, half-jumped out of her seat and he caught her in his arms and kissed her, long and hard, until she was almost dizzy with it, or maybe she was just dizzy from the rush of love and happiness. Because she loved him and she was going to marry him.
The kiss eventually dissolved as they were both smiling too widely to hold it and they broke apart. He caught her left hand in his and slid the ring onto her finger and then he kissed her again, softly this time, until it ended slowly, with them separating just enough to rest their foreheads together, smiling into each other's eyes. She was vaguely aware that they must look ridiculously besotted to any passerby but she couldn't bring herself to care.
"You said yes. You're really going to marry me," Castle blurted out and it was almost but not quite a question, as if he couldn't quite believe it.
She laughed, joy bubbling up inside her until it simply had to escape in a laugh. "Of course I'll marry you. I love you and I love Alexis."
"I love you too, Kate, so much."
She kissed him again at that and when she drew back, she was a little breathless—and giddy—but managed to say, "I was thinking, I could bring some more of my stuff over from my apartment and the next time the lease on my apartment is up, I don't have to renew it and…"
"You'll move into the loft," he finished for her, almost tripping over his words in eagerness. "Yes, that would be perfect."
"Yeah?"
"Of course. I never want you to leave."
She laughed again. "Good because you're stuck with me."
He laughed and kissed her, just a quick press of his lips against hers. "Oh, I almost forgot, we need to call your dad. I promised we'd tell him first thing."
Her dad—right, of course. God, she really wasn't thinking straight at all. "I'll call him but when did you talk to my dad?"
He laughed at her—irritating man that he was, although she couldn't muster up any actual irritation. "This afternoon. You didn't think I spent the entire afternoon at Black Pawn, did you? After my meeting was over, I called him and asked if it was okay that I stop by his office."
No wonder he hadn't contacted her after his meeting was over. He was meeting with her dad and arranging for all this. Clever and sneaky. And so like him to do this.
He widened his eyes in mock innocence. "I had to ask your dad's permission so of course I went to see him."
And he knew how much it would have meant to her dad to be asked. Oh this man. "I take it my dad said yes."
He sobered. "Yes, he did."
"My dad likes you," she told him as she pulled out her phone and called her dad.
"Jim Beckett," her dad answered, his crisp, work tone still a little reassuring to hear.
"Hi, Dad, it's me," she said, biting her lip in a futile attempt to contain her giddy grin.
"Katie! Do I take it you have some news for me?" She could hear her dad's smile in his voice.
"Yes, Dad, Castle and I are engaged." The smile she'd been trying to contain broke free and she knew she must be grinning from ear to ear.
"Oh Katie, congratulations! And to Rick too. I'm so happy for you, Katie." He paused and added, more quietly, "Your mom's happy too. Wherever she is, I know she's happy for you."
The mention of her mom served to quell her smile, not to disturb the happiness she felt, but just to make her pause, reflect. "Thanks, Dad," she told him quietly and thought, not for the first time, that she was so glad to have her dad back, so thankful that he was still sober, that their relationship had recovered from the hurt.
She and her dad didn't talk for much longer and ended the call with her dad congratulating them again and promising to meet up for their usual brunch that weekend.
"Oh, what about Alexis?" she asked as she put her phone away. "Where is she? We need to tell her too."
He grinned—well, no, he was already grinning so now he beamed, practically bursting with happiness. "Right, that reminds me, there's another question I wanted to ask you."
She wasn't sure where he was going with this but she couldn't be surprised he had yet more up his sleeve. "So ask me."
"Where do you want to have dinner? I made reservations for the two of us at La Grenouille or if you'd prefer, we can go back to the loft where my mother and Alexis are having dinner and I warned them we might join them."
La Grenouille would be delicious, of course, but it was a public place and almost inevitably, Castle would be recognized by someone and with the new, not exactly inconspicuous, ring on her finger, they'd probably attract some attention. All true but not the reason she didn't need to think before she answered, "Let's go home, Castle, and celebrate with our family." Because Alexis and Martha really were going to be part of her family for real, officially.
She was rewarded by the brightness of his smile, the sheer elation illuminating his face until she was half-surprised he wasn't actually glowing, and then he surged forward and wrapped his arms around her, lifting her clean off her feet. "You are amazing, you know that," he murmured into her ear.
She buried her face in his shoulder, flinging her arms around his neck as she held on. "I love you too."
He set her down only to cup her face between his hands and give her a deep, searching kiss that effectively scattered her wits and left her blinking a little when he released her and started preparing to leave. A task he accomplished remarkably quickly since he was all but bouncing in his happiness as he packed all the cupcakes that were out into a box, including her own untouched one on the table, and retrieved a bag to deposit the box that contained the Heat Wave manuscript before placing the cupcake box on top of that, topped off by the pot of pansies.
That done, he caught her hand in his, tugging her in to kiss her cheek. "Let's go home, Kate."
She smiled at him, her heart lifting in her chest on a wave of joy. "Yes, let's."
And so they did.
Home to their family.
And if Kate had been harboring any doubts about how Alexis would feel about her dad marrying Kate, they would have been put to rest immediately because the moment they opened the door to the loft, Alexis gave a little shriek of excitement. "Did you say yes? Please say you did!" She grabbed Kate's left hand in both of hers, seeking and finding the ring, and emitted another cry of delight and threw herself at Kate. "Yes! You're going to be family now, really and truly!"
Kate laughed and hugged Alexis back, bending to press a kiss to the girl's cheek. "Of course I said yes. I love you guys, you know."
"I love you too, Kate. I wanted Dad to propose weeks ago but he kept saying he had a plan and wasn't about to ruin it."
"Oh, did he?" Kate turned her eyes to Castle, who had accepted Martha's hug and kiss on the cheek and was now watching them with soft eyes.
"I'm good with plans and see, it worked, didn't it?"
"I still think you should have asked sooner," Alexis said in mock scolding but couldn't hold the expression, giving into her grin and Kate released her to hug her dad. "Congratulations, Dad!"
Kate found herself pulled into Martha's embrace as Castle's mother also brushed a kiss on her cheek. "Congratulations, Katherine, I told my son months ago that he shouldn't let you go and I'm glad he finally decided to take my advice and make it official."
"Because naturally, Mother, this is all thanks to you," Castle added ironically.
Martha drew back to give Castle a look of theatrical surprise. "But of course it is, darling, I am the one who raised you and clearly, if Katherine is willing to put up with you, I must have done something right."
"She has a point, Castle," Kate inserted, mostly because she wanted to see the look on his face.
He pulled a look of mock dismay. "You're taking my mother's side against me already? You couldn't at least wait until after the wedding for that kind of betrayal?"
Wedding. Their wedding. Nope, the giddiness was definitely not going away.
"Darlings, we must have a toast to celebrate!" Martha interjected. "And Katherine, where is your father?"
"My dad? Oh, I think he's still at work." He had been when she had called him, at least, although she guessed he would probably be leaving soon. Her dad might not work 9 to 5 but he generally didn't stay at work through dinner anymore either.
"Well, if he's free, call him and tell him to come over for our celebration. We have plenty of food and this is about family!" Martha gave one of her characteristically expansive gestures to indicate all of them.
"I hate to say it but Mother's right, you should ask your dad to come over," Castle added.
"I'll call him." Kate slipped one arm around Alexis as the girl leaned against her side as she called her dad, extending the invitation and hearing his happiness in his voice as he agreed and said he would head right over.
Her eyes met and held Castle's gaze. "He's on his way," was all she said, the words commonplace, but she felt a flood of emotion swamp her heart at the thought, the open-heartedness with which Martha and Castle had welcomed not just her but her dad into the family. Her mom's absence still hurt—would always hurt—but being part of a family again made it easier.
"Good," Castle said, reaching out and bringing her in against him, forming a small circle with Alexis—and all the love she would ever want or need was in his eyes.
And for just a moment, she allowed herself to ignore the presence of Martha and Alexis as she rose up to kiss him, tasting his hope and his happiness and his love in his kiss. Just for a moment, though, before they were interrupted but even that was good—better than good—because this was her family and after all, she had the rest of her life to kiss him.
They were just getting started.
~The End (except for an epilogue)…~
A/N 2: I had no idea when I started this story what an epic it would turn out to be and I cannot thank all of you who have stuck with this through it all enough. Your response to this story has been amazing and kept me going, even when the story wasn't quite cooperating. Thank you.
