Castle, Season 9, Ep.2- A Bright Future
Chapter 1 – All is Good
Kate Beckett-Castle turned over from a night of glorious sleep. She had slept straight thru the night without having a nightmare, or waking to use the bathroom. As her hand came down on Rick's side of their bed, it touched his sheet, now cold. She wonders where her husband has gone. She gets up and realizes she is naked.
Yes, she remembers, they had one of their playful nights. The fact she had no work that morning, made their session go well past midnight, resulting in a deep recovery sleep for her. Three times last night, she is amazed at her husband's stamina. With past boyfriends, she had never had multiple orgasms nor all night multiple sessions. With Josh it was slam bam and thank you mam, and then he went to sleep. No post coital intimacy, no pillow talk, just roll over and sleep.
Will was another story altogether. He prided himself as being good in bed, but after a few sleep in's with Will his bedside manner became predictable. Never changing or trying something new, he did the same boring routine. After a while, it failed to satisfy her, but so as not to wound his psyche, she faked it a couple times. After two years with Rick, it was still a honeymoon. She wondered now how her life would have turned out had she married either of her two ex's.
She knew neither of them were her one and done. With them, the inevitable breakups had come. With Will it was after he chose to accept the Boston job, thinking she would give up her career to be with him. She knew then that she needed to break with him, and he made it so easy. He gave her a reason to break with him. He had taken her for granted. Still, Will was surprised when she ended it with him, thinking that there were so good together, an ideal match, and that she loved him enough to follow him without question.
With Josh, it was a little more complicated. She could only admit in recent times that she had been on the rebound when she met Josh. Indirectly, breaking up with Detective Tom Demming was one reason she was on the rebound. The other and more direct reason for her rebound was her desire to be with Rick Castle. He had rejected her when she broke up with Tom to go with him to the Hamptons, but it had been so much more complicated than just a mere break up.
Rick had invited her for the Memorial Day weekend to be with him at his Hampton home. But Tom had already asked her to spend the weekend with him at the Jersey shore, and she had accepted. So she turned down Rick, not just once, but several times when Rick persisted with her.
Still, Tom had been an easy breakup. They had never slept together, so there had not been that complication. When she realized too late that she wanted to be with Rick rather than Tom, she had already committed herself to Tom. She had been attracted to Tom because he had made her feel desired and attractive. A need that she had wanted Rick to fill.
So she had settled for Tom and would have slept with him during the proposed weekend together, had it happened. But realizing she had settled for second best, rather than for the real object of her affection, Rick Castle, she acknowledged her mistake.
She had broken up with Tom to be Rick.
She was after all a one man women and did not cheat on a serious relationship.
But she was too late. Rick had replaced her with Gina, his second ex wife. Gina had accepted his invite in Kate's place.
Rick had also made it know to Kate that he would no longer be following her. She was surprised by this proclamation from Rick, but Espo had told her that being with Tom, had caused Rick to leave. She had not seen how being with Tom had hurt Rick. Maybe she had subconsciously tried to push Rick to reveal his feelings for her and it had backfired.
So after much therapy, she could now admit that she had driven Rick back to Gina. Two years of therapy with Dr. Burke, her NYPD shrink, had helped her come to this conclusion. Although at the time, she had blamed Rick for seeking out his ex wife. Back then, she had never been with Rick romantically. They had not even kissed. Still his rejection of her felt like a breakup.
How can you breakup with a man you never have been with romantically? Her actions had left her with no man in her life during that summer of Rick's departure. All that remained for her was her longing for him and regrets for her treatment of him. That was her emotional state when she met Josh.
Her inevitable breakup with Josh had been her hardest. She had genuine affection for Josh that had yet to grow into love. Had she not been shot, and near death from it, she may have never known of her love for Rick. He had held her in his arms as she bled from her sniper wound. He had willed her to live, telling her that he loved her. That was the moment Kate confirmed to herself that she did love Rick.
But she had stayed too long with Josh. He had been good for her; had been a balm for her emotional scars, and so she remained with him even as she realized she didn't love him. His long absences from her during his missions with Doctors Without Borders had exacerbated their relationship. He had been an absentee boyfriend leaving her feeling alone and neglected for most of their time together. When he gave up one of his missions to Haiti to be with her, wanting to demonstrate he was serious about them, she had thought they had a chance. And then she was shot, and Rick confessed his love for her.
Coming out of her thoughts, Kate grabbed one of her husband's shirts and put it on. She exits their bed room and finds him making breakfast.
"Hey, you're finally up. Have a busy night last night?" Rick asks her, innuendo intended.
"You should know, you were there", she fires back at him seductively.
"Oh Yeah I was, three times", he says in his smart ass manner.
"Now you're just gloating babe, stop that, it's not attractive", she responds.
"Would you allow us to gloat in bed after you have breakfast?"
She gives him her famous Kate glare and then enters his personal space and gives him a passionate kiss.
"Is this my 'thank you for last night' breakfast?"
"That and the fact I want you to have energy for our after breakfast gloating session to follow."
"You're on writer boy."
"That's 'Man', Writer Man."
"Oh don't I know it. My husband is all man."
After Breakfast
"Rick", she says, "you've turned me into an insatiable Castle fangirl. Two sessions before noon, I have never been so lascivious ."
"Can't get enough of me can you? I feel the same way about you, especially when you talk to me dirty like that, your vocabulary is so hot", he tells her.
"So we are bad for each other?"
"Oh yes, definitely, but let's continue to be bad."
She gives him a giggle and a smile that she gives to no one else but him. Then her phone rings. She was off today and was guessing it is from the station. She is annoyed that her intimate morning with her husband has been disrupted.
"Captain Castle", she answers.
"Captain, Detective Sergeant Demming, sorry to disturb you on your day off, but we have a burglary, that is now a homicide. We have a 'situation' here."
"And why is that, Sergeant?"
"Because the victim is one Marissa Hartness, fiancée of Dr. Josh Davidson", replies Tom Demming, "and he will give his testimony only to Det. Kate Beckett. I guess he doesn't know you are a Captain now and heading up the precinct as C.O."
Her demeanor goes from professional to personal, "Thank you Tom, I will be there shortly."
No need for an address, she knew it very well having spent many a night there.
"Was that Tom Demming, he's from Robbery, why is he calling you?"
"Because his case is now a homicide and the victim is the fiancée of Josh Davidson. Josh will only talk to me about it."
She sees the look of angst and hurt in her husband's face. Mentioning the name of Tom Demming in company with the name of Josh Davidson brought back sad memories to Rick. She had paraded both men in front of him back when she was with them, and that had hurt him badly. Though they were now together and married for two years, she knew the mere mention of those names brought back old feelings of rejection from him. If she could but turn back the hands of time and be with him back then. She would have avoided wounding him so badly.
"Do you want me to come along with you on this one?"
"Yes, I need you there to be my rock when I put on my Captain Castle mantra."
This is why he loved her.
Because she could be Kate just for him, when to the world she is Captain Kate Beckett-Castle, super cop. She reaches out when he alone can give her the kind of comfort and support she needs and wants.
They both got dressed and headed out to Josh's apartment.