Kate Beckett feels her fingers slipping slowly for every second she's hanging there. Can feel her heart beat fast and hard against her chest as she's hanging on for her life. As her eyes flicker down to the ground so deep down under her she starts to think of her partner, and all the things she didn't get to say to him. Urgh and the things she did say to him! How he'd betrayed her when he was just… protecting her. How she'd questioned her trust for him. And when he finally, finally, confirmed the feelings she had been so unsure he still felt it had been during their fight. And she hadn't said them back because she had been too tunnel visioned about it all and fuck she can't believe this is happening. She's about to fall to her death and he'll never know about her feelings.

"Castle," she whispers his name as if it's a prayer and that he can hear her.

She grunts as she tries to hold her body up, tries to keep her fingers clenching the edge of the building. God, if she'd just listened to him, if she'd not just run to her death. She did everything he told her she was about to do and failed just as miserably as he'd predicted. Maybe they could've investigated it more slowly, together, if she'd just… listened and talked instead of yelling at him and being so furious about everything. He'd been right about not telling her those months ago.

"Ah!" she screams out when her fingers slip and she's finding herself only holding on with one hand now. She's going to die.

Through the thunder in her ears she hears a faint sound of her name break through the air and so she yells his name.

"Beckett!" she hears again and she feels her fingers starting to lose grip.

"Castle! I'm here!" she yells at the top of her lungs. "Oh, god, Castle!"

"Beckett! Hang on!"

Her fingers slip and she widens her eyes. "No, Castle!"

Just as her grip slips completely and her heart skips a beat at the sudden realization he's too late she sees a hand reach out and catch hers. Before she knows it there's another pair of hands gripping at her and together the four hands help to pull her up and over the edge. When she finally feels the ground underneath her feet she's panting and looking up to search for the eyes she's been longing to look into since she fell over the edge. She feels her breath cut off when she finds them and without a thought she's lounging herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck.

"Whoa," Castle stumbles back at the sudden push her hug inflicted.

"I'm sorry," she immediately gasps into his ear.

"Ahem," a very familiar sound comes from behind her and she clenches her eyes shut. She doesn't want to pull away, if anything she wants to hug him tighter, but she forces herself to let him go in order to turn to her captain who stands there with a disappointed look.

"Detective Beckett, where did he go?" Gates asks and Kate feels herself sink.

"He got away," she tells them and she glances at her partner who looks… indecisive.

"Let's get back to my office then," Gates says and turns without a beat.

Kate looks at her coworker who most likely was the one bringing the captain up to speed, Ryan, and he's looking down at his feet as if he's ashamed of something.

"Let's go, detectives!" Gates calls out from her way towards the door and it sets them all going.

Kate and Castle end up being the last in the line and she can't help but try to hook one of her fingers with his but once their fingers touch he's pulling away.

"Castle?" she whispers and looks up at him… only to see his eyes being set straight forward.

He's not answering her, and she should probably be angry at him for that but she can't. Instead she's afraid she's already lost him, even though he came.

"Withholding evidence, lying to a superior officer?" Gates is scolding them but all Kate can think about is her partner who'd gone home instead of following them back to the precinct. "What you did dishonors this city and dishonors the badge. Not only are you off this investigation, I'm putting you both on administrative leave, effective immediately."

"Sir…" Esposito tries to say something in their defense but their captain will have nothing of it.

"Don't you 'sir' me! You don't deserve to wear the uniform. Now hand over your badges and guns," she says strictly and while Espo immediately hands his over Kate takes up her badge and looks at it. Starts to think about why she became a cop in the first place, how she failed it and almost died in the process. Almost died before being able to tell her partner she loves him too. "Detective Beckett?"

It sounds like a challenge, almost as if Gates thinks she'll try to defy her. Not anymore.

"Keep it," Kate says as she hands over her badge and then her gun. "I resign."

She's walking out of there before anyone can stop her and quickly takes a few of her things with her on her way out. Not all of it, she'll come back for the rest of it, because right now it's more important for her to clear her head and come up with a way to apologize to the man she's fallen in love with.

Kate's drenched when she's finally gotten enough courage to show up at his door. She's knocking on his door, not sure what to expect. Will he open the door? Will he shut it in her face once he sees it's her? Will he… tell her to never come back?

Footsteps come closer and she holds her breath as the door opens and reveals her partner's smile frowning when he sees it's her.

"Beckett, what do you want?" he asks in a stern voice.

"You," she says and feels herself surging forward without thought. Her hands cupping his cheeks as her lips find his only to claim them in a kiss.

The way he steps back and the way his whole body stiffens she can feel his surprise. She feels her own surprise when one of his hands is gripping her wrist and pushing her away from him. She looks up at him and at first he doesn't meet her eyes, but when he does she can tell he's trying to keep himself from hoping.

"I'm sorry, I should've listened to you, I shouldn't have gone after him. I'm sorry I lied to you, I'm…" she feels her tears welling up again, just like they had out in the rain. Only out there they had been hidden along with the water running down her cheeks, hair.

"You were hanging off a ledge, Beckett. What if we hadn't gotten there on time? What if…" he sighs and shakes his head. "I almost didn't answer his call, Kate. I knew, I just knew, it would either be about you being dead or in the hospital, dying. I can't… Kate I can't do this anymore. I already watched you die once, I'm not doing it again."

"You won't. I'm done. I resigned," she tells him and his eyes widen.

"You resigned?"

She nods. "I just want you. And if that means letting go then that's what I'll do."

His eyes almost look mad. "I didn- I didn't mean for you to resign! I didn't mean for you to stop doing your job!" he starts scolding her. "You're still the best detective I've ever seen, you're the one who gives the victims voices, you're the one who gives them justice."

"But I-" she starts but he cuts her off.

"No, you have to go back, get your badge back." He's starting to push her, as if he's trying to tell her to go and do it now. Only, she doesn't want to leave, so she stands her ground.

"No," she says and she puts her hands on his shoulders. "Not tonight, Rick. Please, not tonight."

"Why not?" he says and she sees his eyes refocusing on her.

"I almost died and all I could think about was you. How I was so blinded by my anger that I didn't even…" she sighs in frustration. She clenches her eyes, refocuses all her power to force down that damn wall inside her, to let him see her vulnerability too. "I love you."

She hears a gasp and she takes a deep breath before she dares to look up at him again. His eyes search hers and she feels her heart race, because she can't read him and what if she is too late? What if he's moved on? Without another second she feels his hands on her hips, pushing her towards the door just as his lips claim hers in a hunger she hasn't felt from him before. She feels the door against her back as she starts to kiss him back, her hands moving around his neck to pull him closer. Once they have to pull away for air their breaths mix between them, both panting.

"Say it again," he pleads and she bites her tingling lip.

"I love you," she whispers and sees his eyes light up even more.

"I love you too," he whispers back and she feels her lips pull up in a big grin before she claims his lips with hers again.

She'll take care of her work-situation tomorrow, right now she just wants to be here, with him. As close as they are right now, his lips on hers, body to body. His tongue finding hers and curling her toes. It's just perfect.

The end

Prompt sent to me by /for_katic_only on instagram. "So I was watching 4x23 yesterday because it's been 9 years and so I realized I had never read a fanfic in which Castle answers Ryan's phone call to help Beckett and is finally the on to save her on the roof."