Prompt: "Post 7x10. Beckett finds out about Castle not working with her anymore and she comforts him because he is devastated?"


"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

Castle looks up from the book in his hand to find Kate watching him from the bathroom doorway. They stayed at the precinct longer than they had intended that night, but it was worth it to see her enjoying herself at the Christmas party.

"Told you," he murmurs, forcing a smile he knows doesn't reach his eyes before returning his gaze to the novel in his lap, Heat Wave. "Nothing's wrong."

Beckett huffs and comes for him on the bed, crawling across the mattress until she reaches his side.

"I saw Gates pull you aside," she reveals, curling her knees up to press against his thigh. "Did she say something?"

Rick's eyes slam shut and he know he just gave himself away, but he's already gone over that single moment with Gates so many times now, and it still hurts to think about it.

He can't believe he's been kicked out of the Twelfth. After all this time…

"I'm no longer permitted to work with the NYPD," he echoes the solemn words Gates had apologetically delivered to him mere hours ago. "No longer allowed to be your partner."

Kate goes stiff beside him and he keeps his gaze trained solely on the cover of the book that started all of this, the very beginning of their story.

"It's my own fault," he mutters, tightening his hold on the hardcover. "I never should have kept digging with the mob case, never should have-"

"Castle, you found the real killer," she cuts in, curving her palm over the tensed muscles of his forearm and squeezing lightly. "You brought a family justice, you helped put the real murderer away, and that's - that's one of the reasons I love you so much. You never give up and that's admirable."

"But what about the consequences?" he persists, finally looking up, meeting the soft hazel of her eyes. She's dressed down in her pajamas, her face clean of makeup and her hair pulled up in a messy bun, and it still amazes him, how far they've come from that first year. "I love working at the Twelfth, I love being your partner, I don't want to give that up, Kate, I-"

"Listen to me," she interrupts with a hand to his face, slender fingers splaying at his cheek, calming his rabbitting heart. "I don't know how, but we'll find a way to get you back. And if we can't, we'll still figure it out-"

"But Beckett-"

She sweeps her thumb over his lips, silencing his protest and he pouts beneath the press of her fingertip, but she continues on, determined.

"You will never stop being my partner, Rick. No matter what happens, you understand that, right?"

The weight of sadness, of grief and devastation, slowly slip from his shoulders, and Castle leans in, knocking his forehead into his wife's.

"And you should have told me sooner," she reprimands, circling her thumb at his chin now. "God, the party must have been miserable for you-"

"No," he assures her quickly, their noses clashing as he gives her a gentle shake of his head. "It wasn't miserable. Not quite as fun as I'd hoped after that sucker punch from Gates, but just seeing you dancing around, enjoying Christmas?" His lips curl into a smile at the image of it still so fresh in his mind. "There was no way I could be miserable watching that."

Kate curls her fingers at his ear while she kisses him, slow and tender, so loving and certain.

"Never enjoyed Christmas much until you came around," she admits, and he knows that, knows it's still not easy for her when winter rolls in, chilly with memories that still leave her raw and aching. She's working Christmas day, later in the afternoon, but this year is the first she did not volunteer. It's the first year she's insinuated herself into his and his family's traditions, making them part of her own.

"I love you," he manages to get out, breathless with it, and Kate nuzzles his cheek, her body huddling in close.

"Love you too, Castle," she whispers into his skin and he winds his arms around her back, hugging her to his chest.

He may no longer be her partner in crime, but he'll always be her partner in life, and as long as he is allowed to keep that title, he needs nothing more.