Chapter 11

Awaking to the sound of rain pattering against her bedroom window, Kate rolled her head to the side, yawned, and realized that her father was still in bed. Equal parts surprised and confused she grabbed for her phone, which was plugged into the charger and resting on the nightstand, and saw it was just before seven. Despite the hour, she actually felt extremely well rested and didn't notice any discomfort on her left side, which may have been a first for that summer.

Not wanting to waste the feeling, she pushed herself from bed, grabbed the yoga mat rolled up in the corner, and slipped into the hall. After a brief stop in the bathroom, she quietly made her way downstairs and realized she was the first one in the house awake. Thanks to the rain, she couldn't do her walk in the pool or in the yard that morning, but she could still do her stretches. Then, she thought on a whim, maybe she would make breakfast for everyone.

Kate rolled the mat out in the space between the dining and sitting areas and went through her stretching routine. When she was about three quarters of the way done, she started the coffee machine so it would be ready once she'd finished all she needed to do. After her last stretch, she rolled up the mat, turned around and almost ran directly into Rick, who had made his way downstairs wearing boxers and nothing else. He appeared a bit surprised to see her which, combined with the messy status of his hair, made her want to laugh. It also helped distract her from staring too intently at his state of undress.

"Um, hi," he said a bit dumbly.

"Hi," she echoed.

"You're up early."

"Yeah, I woke up feeling good, so I thought I'd get a jump start on the day. I started the coffee and then I figured I'd make some pancakes for breakfast for anyone who wants them."

His eyes widened. "Oh, um, oh. Wow that's really nice of you. I, um." He glanced down at himself and then back up at her. "I was going to start the coffee but perhaps I should put on some clothes."

"Probably a good idea."

He gave her an awkward thumbs up before turning and walking back towards the stairs. She watched him go, chuckling slightly to herself, then went into the kitchen and pulled two mugs from the cabinet. She filled hers but left Castle's in case he didn't return for several minutes; she didn't want his coffee to be cold. She sipped hers gingerly and then made her way through the kitchen making sure she had enough supplies to make pancakes for everyone. And, more importantly, making sure she remembered how to make pancakes.

When Castle returned to the kitchen, he was wearing a red t-shirt with The Flash's logo on it and khaki cargo shorts. He smiled, thanked her for the coffee, and then poured some into the mug she left. "Do you need any help with the pancakes?"

"I think I'm okay, actually. I've been watching you work in this kitchen for almost two months, so I think I've got it down." She continued to collect ingredients but then noticed a peculiar look on his face and said, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing just…it really is about two months since we got here. That's crazy!"

She laughed. "I know. Somedays that seems like ages and others not nearly enough."

He hummed. "Agreed. Anyway, getting back to today: according to the weather it's pretty much going to be a washout so maybe we can find some fun group activities to do inside. Like games or something?"

She shrugged as she began to measure out the dry ingredients needed for breakfast. "Sure. I'd be into that."

"Great. Let me see what ideas I can cook up with you cook up breakfast." He winked at her, which made her laugh, and then took his coffee mug into the other room.

For the prior two weeks, as she felt better both physically and emotionally thanks to therapy, Kate had joined the rest of her housemates for breakfast and dinner. Typically, they all did their own things for lunch, though sometimes a few of them ate together, but breakfast and especially dinner were their shared meals. Kate's father had never been a big "breakfast person" by his own admission, preferring to have only coffee and perhaps a piece of fruit in the middle of the morning. He did sit with them as they ate and talked and sometimes listened to the morning news, though more often than not it just felt too overwhelming to hear about how many hundreds of people had died in the New York area the day before.

Before her injury, Kate's eating habits varied quite wildly thanks to how she'd adapted to cop life of eating when she was hungry and not on any set schedule. If she had been woken from sleep in the wee hours thanks to a body dropping, she usually was eating something between six and seven a.m., after she'd returned to her desk to write up her crime scene report. If she didn't need to be at her desk until nine, she usually started with coffee and then, like her father, had fruit or a pastry mid-morning. During her recovery time, when she needed to fuel her body so it would continue healing, had probably been the most consistent she'd eaten breakfast since childhood, and she learned that maybe that wasn't necessarily a bad thing since it prevented her from making poorer choices later on in the day. Then again, sometimes the poor choices were the fun ones.

As she poured batter and flipped pancakes that morning, Kate thought more than once that she had probably overtaken a bit more work than she realized; she didn't think she'd made breakfast for more than two people since college, but she made it work—and definitely earned her small stack of pancakes by the time she was done.

While they ate, they talked about the weather and Castle began throwing out ideas for them to pass the time that day since going outside wasn't really an option. They had been lucky to that point in summer; it had not rained that much and if it did, it was only during the morning or afternoon, not both. That was one of their first days that was a complete washout. After discussing it, they agreed for everyone to have a few hours to themselves to clean up and get ready, but then reconvene around eleven so they could play a group game.

Before the group parted, Kate checked to see if anyone would be using the laundry room, but no one was, so she threw in a load of her and her father's clothing and then busied herself cleaning up the kitchen while she waited to move the load from the washer to the dryer. Since for so many weeks she hadn't been able to assist in chores at all, now that she was able to move around and, more importantly, free of nearly all of her movement restrictions she felt compelled to pitch in as much as she could.

Promptly at eleven the quartet gathered in the sitting area where Castle, as their self-appointed activities coordinator, stood in front of the seating area and clapped his hands together. "Okay, team, are we ready for a rainy day of fun?"

"Team?" Kate repeated, brow arched.

His shoulders sunk slightly and he confessed, "Yeah, I didn't think that sounded right. Group? Squad? Gang?"

"Just get to the game, Castle," Kate said with a slight eyeroll.

Grinning, Castle rubbed his hands together as though he were about to announce a devious plan. "Ah yes, the game—the game of all challenging games!" From behind the couch he pulled out a box and held it up high enough for everyone to see. Immediately his mother and daughter groaned.

"Well, I'm out, kiddo," Martha announced, pushing herself up from the couch and walking out of the seating area. "I'm going to pour myself an adult beverage and then I'll watch from a safe distance."

"I didn't realize Scrabble was a contact sport," Jim joked.

Martha looked at him pointedly. "With my son, it's war."

"Suit yourself, Mother. Is everyone else in?" Castle asked. The group all mumbled out agreements and Castle excitedly walked to the center of the seating area and began to set the board up on the coffee table. "Alexis? Will you be my scorekeeper?"

"Sure, Dad."

Since Kate had heard Castle boasting about his Scrabble skills for several years, she had expected him to play well, but he more or less dominated from the first round. Alexis, clearly used to keeping her father on her toes, also played well. Kate came in last and blamed it on an abysmal group of letters that resulted in her having no vowels three rounds in a row. Thanks to the aggressive play of the Castle father-daughter team, their game was over very quickly with Castle the clear winner. Since it went so fast, he suggested they play three games back-to-back and everyone agreed.

During the second game, Castle had the misfortune of pulling an "X" when they all chose letters to see who would play first. This meant he went fourth. Kate wasn't sure if this early loss shook his confidence or, like her first round, he just had a miserable group of letters to work with. Either way, he played poorly and ended up in third place, bested by both Alexis and her father, who ended up in first but only by three points.

When a school friend called her, Alexis decided to sit out the third game so she could chat. Kate took over as scorekeeper. Though she remained in last place, the score was much tighter during that round. As they were getting down to their last rounds of tiles, Kate began to notice Castle looking rather anxious and wondered if he was looking for a way to play a word with a high point score. Before his next turn, though, Jim shocked them all by using all seven of his letters and an "S" already on the board to form the word "crossings." While Jim smiled demurely at the play, Kate and Castle's jaws dropped and Martha punched the air in a cheer.

"Ho-ho! Finally, a worthy adversary for my son!"

"Would you believe I haven't played scrabble in probably ten or so years," Jim said with a light chuckle.

Meanwhile, Castle continued to stare at his tiles with disbelief. "I can't believe I lost."

"You didn't lose yet, Castle. It's your turn and you still have tiles to play."

He curled his lip with annoyance. "First, I was waiting to use that "S" and second…the best word I could play was only five letters."

"Well come up with something else," Kate said positively. Ultimately, he did, but the point value paled in comparison to what Jim had gained, so her father ended up winning their three-game challenge. Kate found this particularly amusing as he had never really been very competitive during games they played together during her childhood; yet, he had bested someone who had never been shy about boasting over his word knowledge.

Though it took him several minutes to recover, Castle ultimately shook Jim's hand in congratulated him on his win before suggesting they grab some food and move on to his next plan: movie watching.

"Did you pick the movie or is that up for a vote?" Kate asked as she gathered up letters and returned them to the Scrabble box.

"I have made what I feel is an excellent film choice." Castle left them hanging for a moment while he went to the cabinet beneath the TV and retrieved a DVD box. He held it up proudly and Alexis, now off the phone, groaned.

"Twenty-eight Days Later, Dad?"

"Yes. It's relevant."

"It's depressing," she retorted. "I don't want to watch that."

The writer frowned. "I thought it might be good for research."

"To remind us that things could get even worse? I don't think so. I'll pass too, darling," his mother said, before leaving the sitting area and going into the kitchen.

Figuring her father would probably decline to watch as well, Kate said, "I'll watch with you, Castle."

He looked at her a bit glumly and said, "Don't feel like you have to…"

She shook her head and said, "No, it's okay. A movie sounds nice on a day like today and I don't mind the subject matter."

"Great! Let's get something to eat first."

"This is okay, right?" Castle asked as he led the way up to the sitting area in his bedroom. He hadn't thought anything of it when he made the decision a few minutes earlier—his main goal had been to allow the rest of their cohabitators to use the main room of the house since they were uninterested in his movie selection. It was only as they were going up the stairs that he realized he had effectively invited Kate to be in the same space as his bed. Even if his motives were one hundred percent innocent, the last thing he wanted was for her to be uncomfortable.

"Fine," she said as she trailed along behind him.

"Great. I just didn't want to bother anyone else with our educational movie."

"Educational, Castle?" she asked, her tone indicating suspicion.

"Sure. Possibly." Okay, education probably would not be part of the equation, but he had to admit being intrigued as to how their current situation might compare with that of the movie's apocalyptic. He pushed open the double doors leading into the owner's suite and walked forward to the sitting area to put down the plate he carried with his sandwich without much thought until he heard Kate gasp behind him.

"Oh, Castle this is…wow."

He remembered then that she hadn't actually seen his bedroom during her brief tour of the house. He'd skipped it when he saw how tired she was getting, so this was her first glimpse of his space.

"Go ahead and look around while I set this up—I've got nothing to hide."

"Where's the—oh." Her voice cut off presumably when she saw him fiddling with the TV, which was set up on a rolling bar cart currently pushed towards the foot of the bed.

"Yeah, that's the only thing about this bedroom that's frustrating: the layout makes it hard to put a TV somewhere where you could see it from bed and from the sitting area, so I put it on this cart. It works, though the extension cord can be a bit annoying."

"Right."

He rolled the TV back towards the entryway and set it up facing the loveseat and chair that sat in front of the wall-mounted fireplace. Once he'd wiggled it into a position he was satisfied with, he tugged at the extension cord and plugged it into the closest wall outlet. Then he walked back towards the coffee table to grab the DVD but froze at the sight of Kate standing in front of the glass balcony doors as she looked out onto the rain-soaked beach. A wave of emotion washed through him so strongly that it took his breath away. It took him a moment to place it, but when he did he realized it was hope—that there would be a time, possibly in the not too distant future, when that bedroom would not just be his but theirs.

"This room is beautiful Castle. Very…calming."

"Well thank you but—oh!" he gasped upon realizing what was missing. "I haven't yet shown you the best part."

He scurried to his right and flipped the switch on the wall that illuminated the nautical-themed fireplace. One it illuminated she "Ahh-ed" appropriately and then he finished setting up their movie. He allowed Kate to sit on the small love seat while he sat on the chair and polished off his pastrami sandwich.

About an hour into the movie, he was feeling hungry once more and decided to surprise his companion with some of the goodies he had stashed in his room. He walked over to the shelves to the left of the fireplace, which held books and various beach-themed decor including a large metal canister that was meant to appear decorative, but also was his secret hiding spot.

"What are you doing?" she asked just before he returned to the seating area.

"Just getting some goodies," he replied before setting a box of graham crackers, a Hershey's chocolate bar, and a small Tupperware containing large marshmallows onto the coffee table.

Kate immediately laughed and gazed up with him with no small amount of surprise. "Castle. You have the makings for s'mores in your bedroom?"

He grinned childishly. "Well, there is a fire."

"Wow."

He began opening the packages and assembling their treat while absentmindedly explaining the other features of his expansive bedroom suite. "There's also a mini fridge in the walk-in closet that could fit some wine bottles. All that's in there right now is some water and a bottle of whipped cr—never mind." He quickly cut off what he was saying then turned away from her, certain his cheeks were blushing.

Shit why had he said that?! There was only one obvious reason for whipped cream in a bedroom and his can had been used for that exact purpose…though, not that he thought about it, that purpose had taken place nine months prior so that can really needed to be thrown away… Regardless, even though he and Kate were not a couple they were (hopefully) going to be a couple one day and he'd just broken one of the cardinal rules of couple-dome: talking in detail about sexual experiences with others.

As he reached for one of the long sticks he used to roast the marshmallows he heard Kate ask, "So, uh, you bring lots of women up here, huh? I bet they're all very impressed."

With his back still to her, he once again cursed under his breath. He had to say something in response, but what was there to say? He didn't want to lie to her, but even if he did it wouldn't work. So many of his past escapades had been splashed all over Page Six they were mostly common knowledge anyway. He wouldn't say that he was ashamed of those times because they had certainly been fun in the moment, but he also had no problem leaving them in the past. After all, most of the fun he'd had inviting dates up to his mansion was to distract himself from the pain of past heartbreak in admittedly unhealthy at times ways. Now, he was trying to be the best person he could be and looked forward to the days when there was only one woman sharing his can of bedroom whipped cream.

As he held the long stick into the fireplace, he glanced over his shoulder and said, "Well, I wouldn't say lots of women. There were some, but I can tell you with confidence that I never had any bedroom s'mores with them." He had intended his comment to show how special she was to him, but when he heard himself say the words they didn't sound quite right and that was confirmed by the flummoxed look on Kate's face.

"Calling them bedroom s'mores make them sound so dirty."

He huffed and turned his focus back to the marshmallows, so they didn't burn, "Yeah I heard it as it came out. I won't say it again." She laughed.

A minute later, he pulled their drooping sweets out of the fire and quickly placed them atop a graham cracker, then sat beside her as they assembled their s'mores. "Cheers," he said holding his up in salute to her. She did the same and then they laughed together as they ate the gooey mess.

"I think this is why you're supposed to eat them outside, not over what I assume is a several-thousand-dollar rug," Kate pointed out as she desperately tried not to drop any of the crumbs from the quickly-crumbling graham cracker.

"Where's the fun in that?" he retorted with a wink. Then, as they finished their treats, he nodded to the direction behind the bed and said, "Go rinse your hands in the bathroom if you need to."

"Thanks," she said before standing and disappearing around the other side of the bed. When she returned a minute later, she said, "My god, Castle; that tub looks amazing."

"It is, but the shower's better—it has full body massaging jets!"

"I'm jealous," she said as she curled back up on the sofa.

He opened his mouth of offer for her to use either, but then thought better of it; he'd put his foot into his mouth enough times that afternoon already.

They watched the remainder of the movie without making too many comments or moving from their seats. When it was over, Castle stood so he could remove the DVD from the player. As he did so, he heard Kate ask, "So what's your take on this whole thing going on right now? I feel like we haven't talked about it in depth too much."

He turned, flashing her a wry smile. "Well…you said you were feeling overwhelmed; I figured doomsday talk wouldn't be well received."

She nodded. "Fair enough, but let's talk about it now."

He skimmed his fingers over his jaw as he sat beside her again. "Well…it's crazy, that's for sure. I…I've been doing some research into the last pandemic—the flu in 1918. To compare and contrast that with what we've got going on now is interesting. On one hand, we obviously have vastly better medical knowledge and better medical facilities to handle large volumes of patients…but on the other hand, we're probably thousands of times more mobile now. Back then they still traveled a lot by horse. Cars existed, but they weren't widely owned by any stretch of the imagination and the ones people did have didn't travel very fast or very far. Now, we're flying to multiple continents on a single day. Obviously—that's how this thing even got to us from China."

She shook her head, a worrisome expression on her face. "It's scary because...how do you contain it?"

"That's the thing: you can't. They're talking about vaccines, and that will certainly help but…I don't know, scary as it sounds part of me wonders if this thing just needs to run its course."

Kate's brow rose. "You think that would work?"

He shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea. Certainly, the daily death tolls we're seeing out of the New York area are frightening, but if a vaccine doesn't work, or can't work on this type of virus, we may not have a choice? But thankfully we don't have to worry about that right now."

She nodded. "Right, because we're all safe here. Thanks to you."

Castle felt his cheeks blush slightly at her kind tone. Wanting to deflect the attention he gave a little shrug and said "Oh, well…"

"No, Castle." Her tone was serious as she slid closer and reached out to place her hand over his. "I know I struggled with it at first, but now that I have some clarity, I realize how much harder my recovery would have been in Manhattan, where I couldn't have even safely gone into the hallway of my building let alone outside. I can't even fathom how difficult and isolating that would have been, so thank you for letting me stay here. I know I haven't said that enough—I should have told you every day."

He flipped his hand over so he could give hers a little squeeze. "Of course, Kate; there wasn't even a question. It was just the right thing to do."

She held his gaze for another few seconds, and he wondered briefly if she was going to say something else, but she didn't. She ultimately took her hand back and said, "Well, um, thanks again for the movie. I think I'm going to go read for a little bit."

"Sure," he replied. Then, he watched her go, his mind filled with thoughts about what the coming days, and months, would bring.