Disclaimer: They're not mine. I'm only borrowing them for the summer. Andrew Marlowe is doing a spectacular job. Way better than I could ever do.


And All The Mornings Ever After

Chapter 55 – Guns 'n Roses

"I need to make a stop on the way home," said Kate, as they walked out of her building, carrying her black holdall towards Castle's car.

"Care to give me a clue?" asked Castle, unlocking the doors and stowing the bag in the trunk, before getting in the driver's side.

"Grand Street, between Baxter and Mulberry," said Kate, sliding in the opposite side from him, her lip tugged between her teeth, still as quiet as she'd been since Gates had left, after summoning them to the Twelfth tomorrow morning.

Castle started the engine but didn't pull away from the curb, just let it idle while Kate stared out the passenger side window, one hand raked through her hair, holding it back off her face.

She finally broke the silence.

"I'm out of ammunition," she said, still not looking at him.

"But…the box I saw you take out of the safe?"

"Practice rounds. WWB. Fine for punching paper at the range, but not for…"

She trailed off, hating the thought of even bringing this up with him, let alone to Castle's front door and right into the heart of his family home.

"Kate," sighed Castle, cutting the engine. "No secrets," he gently reminded, the shine of her referring to his loft as home tarnished just a little bit by having to address the issue of their personal safety. "What do you need?"

"Just…some 9mm rounds. There's a couple brands I would prefer," she said, removing her gun from its carry case and turning it over in her hands.

"Such as?" asked Castle, staring down at the oddly nicknamed, he thought, 'Baby Glock'.

"You really want me to…?"

Castle shook his head, realizing that he really didn't need to hear the detail she was having to consider – which rounds went through what more efficiently – skin, bone, clothing, Kevlar.

"I'm not even gonna ask why," said Castle, as Kate turned to face him. "But this place on Grand Street, they'll have what you need?"

"Yes. Speer are NYPD issue, 124-grain, nothing special, but effective if we ever need to…"

Need to, god, need to what? Kill somebody? In his home? With his daughter sleeping upstairs?

Castle was spiraling, the implications of what they'd had to deal with today coming home to roost. Someone had been inside Kate's apartment, and only luck and his daughter's interference actually had kept Kate in his bed and by his side…well, maybe something stronger than luck, something else that began with L, he hoped. But what if she'd been at her home instead of with him? And had they expected to find her there? Clean-up all of this mess that was not her fault, but kept tangling her up in its nasty, evil web regardless?

He needed to breathe and calm down before she saw what this was doing to him. Before she tried to step away, believing it to be for the best.

"Kate. Please? Stop," he said, silencing her with a hand to her arm. "I understand why, love. But I don't want to hear it, or think about it, or ever have the need for you to use it. So I will drive you there, and I'll even come in with you, if that's what you want. But then we put the gun in the safe at home, and we don't talk about it anymore. Understand?"

"Rick, this is just a tool," said Kate trying to soothe him, turning it over again in her hands to show him. "It's a hunk of plastic Polymer. And it has no magical powers. Javi taught me that. The day he forced me to handle the rifle that shot me, he made me see that that's all this is - a tool. And if I can protect us, and protect your family from whatever it is that's out there, trying to mess with our lives, then I'm going to make damn sure I'm properly prepared to do that. Okay?"

"I wish you didn't have to."

"Me too. But wishing won't make it so. Having two clips loaded with the best ammunition is what's gonna help, and it'll make me feel a damn sight better about things until we can be sure this is over."


Kate felt too conspicuous, pulling up to Geronimo's Guns and Ammo on Grand Street in a bright red Ferrari with her famous boyfriend by her side. Anyone with a cellphone camera and a mind to could sell this one to Page Six for a pretty penny. So she asked him to park around the corner in Baxter Street, and then tossed Castle a Yankees cap from the holdall in the trunk for him to wear.

"This'll ruin my hair," he complained, turning the navy baseball cap in his hands.

"We're going into a gun shop, Rick. Stop behaving like a little girl, or you can stay in the car," said Kate, walking towards the dark green storefront and leaving him behind.

The outline of a large revolver hung down below the store's sign, advertising the trade within. Kate pressed the buzzer to gain access, and a wrinkled, weather-beaten face appeared behind the grill on the door to let them in.

"Can I help you folks with something?" asked Chuck, the owner it turned out, as Castle scanned the glass cases full of handguns, his eyes a little wider than normal, something of the 'kid in a candy store about him'.

Chuck eyed the writer for a minute, the man's grizzled face a map of contours and crags, picked out in the greenish glow of the store's florescent strip lighting, lending him a distinctly unhealthy air. He wore a red and white plaid shirt, battered jeans that had seen long service, and a pair of heavy-duty leather boots with the fronts scuffed through to the protective steel toecaps.

There was a tattoo on his weathered neck; a Confederate Flag, Kate realized, though the detail was rather distorted by the creases and wrinkles of his tan skin.

She looked over her shoulder, checked up on her partner for a brief second as if he were a mischievous child she had to keep an eye on. Castle's fingers trailed across the front of a glass case, the tips steaming up the surface, leaving fleeting impressions behind as he studied the hardwear beneath, that same green glow illuminating his face like a ghost. Then she made her way straight to the register.

Chuck joined her on the other side of the counter, and she looked down at his hands. One set of scarred knuckles bore the letters for the word Smith, while the other spelt out Wesson in the dark blue ink of a homemade tattoo. Yeah, there was no doubting the business this guy was in.

"I need four boxes of Speer Gold Dot. 9mm, 124 grain hollow point," said Kate, all business. "You've got those in stock I take it?"

She wanted in and out, fast. No small talk, no unnecessary questions, just bag, pay and leave.

"Sure do. You law enforcement?" he asked, eyeing Kate doubtfully - the skirt, the white shirt, the black ballet flats, chestnut curls tumbling in soft, feminine waves across her shoulders. Too classy to be a cop, he thought, and too darn pretty. But there was just something commanding about her, a no nonsense quality that had him believing otherwise.

"Here's my I.D.," she said, ignoring the question, handing the man her driver's license and Pistol Permit. Adding, "Off-duty," by way of explanation for not presenting her badge when he waited for an answer with one straggly, wildly over-grown eyebrow raised.

The man unlocked the cabinet under the glass-topped counter and slid out a wooden drawer, withdrawing four black boxes of twenty rounds, and placed them on the counter in front of her.

"Anything else I can help you with today? Powder solvent or lube, cleaning patches?"

"No. That'll be all," said Kate, reaching for her wallet as Castle joined her at her side.

"That'll be $96.10 please. You be needing a bag for that?"

Castle tried to slide his credit card across the counter to the man, but Kate batted his hand away gently, handing the man five twenty dollar bills instead.

"Here. I have cash," said Castle, hurrying to pull a couple of fifties from his wallet and trying to press them into her hand.

"Rick, I've got this. Please?" she said firmly, pushing the money back at him.

The last thing they needed was a stupid lovers quarrel over money in front of this guy or a credit card paper trail. She wished Castle would pick up on her need to do this as quickly and quietly as possible, without her having to spell it out for him, so they could just blend back onto the street and be instantly forgotten.

A flicker of recognition seemed to flit across the man's eyes when he handed over her change, and Kate braced herself for 'Aren't you that crime writer guy, the one who follows the hot detective around?' But the light in the man's eyes dimmed again, and they managed to escape without being recognized.


"Well, that was a first for me," said Castle jovially, once they were safely back inside the car, his mood obviously improved by, what, ogling handguns?

Kate looked quizzical.

"Shopping for ammo with my girlfriend. Got to be worth a scene for Nikki and Rook, don't you think?" he suggested, trying to ease some of the earlier tension he felt mostly responsible for.

"And I'm sure you'll have Nikki wear some ridiculously sexy thigh holster over tight leather pants and a pair of spike-heeled, knee length, black boots in your version."

"I'm liking your art direction, Beckett," said Castle approvingly. "We may have to discuss this in more detail later. Maybe role-play it a little, you know. Workshop it for authenticity sake. But right now, is there anything else you need? Anywhere else you'd like to stop? Like a florist maybe or the drug store?" asked Castle hopefully, as he fired up the Ferrari.

Because his girl had a gun, and that was a fact, but she was still his girl, and a little something frivolous in their lives – like a bunch of flowers for example - wouldn't hurt now and again.

"No," Kate shook her head gently. "Let's just go home, Castle."

A/N: This chapter was for fbobs, because he asked so nicely and he's a fountain of knowledge on all things gun related. Fitch, I hope I did you proud. Next chapter's for the fluffy bunnies among you, and it's almost ready to post too. ;) Only four more Mondays guys! Liv