It's still bright, warm, and sunny in Crestfield as Beckett steps out of her Impala and onto the sidewalk outside the coffee shop. She always heard that the northwest was always gloomy, always raining and cloudy. But Crestfield is remarkably temperate, especially for it being mid-March. A part of her is still adjusting to life in a small town, not having to watch for foot traffic as she steps out of her car, not having to anticipate traffic, deal with the smells, the rodents and the vermin. There was so much of just living in Manhattan that she realizes she doesn't have to deal with anymore.

And as the days have started to go by, it's started to grow on her like Kudzu. She's still living out of a half-unpacked suitcase in a Holiday Inn on the outskirts of town, right next to the on-ramp of a major free-way leading toward Corvallis, still has made no attempt to settle down here in town, is still getting stone-walled by the man she loves, her only reason for being here, but the climate and the air and the feeling as she steps out onto the sidewalk alone is enough to make the small smile that perks up the corners of her lips feel natural.

Taking in a large breath and pushing the strand of hair blowing in her face behind her ear, she looks up through the glass doors and sees Beth and Barbra, the two short-haired blondes, both standing at the tablet they use for a register, seeming as if they're arguing over something to themselves. The shop isn't all that crowded, as it usually is with the time Beckett times her visits. They're both always nice to her. Almost to the point of being a bit off-putting, but it's probably just her.

Beckett steps up the stone steps and pulls open the door, sending a friendly smile to the two women behind the counter as she reaches for her wallet. The two look up to her with a bit of a stunned silence, as if they're both looking at a stranger. Being a detective, former one anyway, she catches the air in the shop quickly.

Beckett looks between the two as Barbra gives her a forced smile and moves over to the other end of the counter to start her usual order. "Hey, Beth," Beckett says with a small smile and steps up to the register.

Beth looks over to her under the veil of her short blonde hair. "Hey... Kate," she says almost nervously.

She pulls out her wallet and flicks her eyes between the two women, eyeing them to read to the situation. She can see Barbra stare at her over the top of the espresso machine, only looking down for a second when she sees she's been caught. When Barbra starts heating the milk for her order, Beckett looks back over to Beth, who's just finished punching in her usual order.

"Something wrong?" She finally asks after pulling out a twenty from her wallet.

"Hmm?" Beth hums, trying to feign as if Beckett didn't catch the looks. When she meets her eyes, Beckett raises her brow, keeping her smile in place to avoid sending the situation downward. "Oh," she says, waving at her, "no, it's nothing." She smiles.

Beckett nods, deciding in the moment that if it was important, she'd either catch onto it or they'd tell her. Beth and Barbra have always seemed the type to be upfront about things, at least from a customer-provider standpoint. Beckett looks down to the floor as she pushes her wallet back down into her back pocket. "Hope you don't mind breaking a twenty," she says with a smile as she goes to hand her the money.

Once Beckett looks back up, she catches Beth lifting the top half of a magazine off the counter in front of her, and looking over to her as if she's inspecting her. The moment Beckett looks up, Beth sets the magazine down and grabs the cash as nonchalantly as she can, failing miserably. "Yes, not at all." She says the wrong words.

Beckett gives her a moment and waits her out, wanting to catch her mind in the middle of a task before it has time to come up with a lie, waiting for her to open the register and to start counting out her change. When she sees Beth grab a ten, she swoops in. "You know, Beth, I was a detective, right?"

It seems to work as Beth jerks her hand in the wrong direction, making her coins scatter onto the floor. With a nervous chuckle, Beth smiles as she goes down to pick up the change. "I-I'm..." she pants, "I'm sorry."

Beckett glances over the counter and takes a quick look at the magazine she was trying to not get caught looking at, but only has time to catch sight of a picture of Castle taking up a full half a page, clad in a tan flannel shirt, jeans, and sunglasses, a green reusable grocery bag in one hand, the grey t-shirt he has on underneath blowing against the wind to outline the definitive lines of his muscles. Her brow pinches in a stomach-churning curiosity, and she only has a few seconds to correct herself before Beth makes it back up to the counter.

With a wide, nervous smile, Beth hands her the change, leaving Beckett to put three dollars and the coins into the tip jar. Another thick wall of silence falls over the three of them as Barbra makes as little noise as she prepares the second item on Beckett's usual order. Another minute or so goes by before Beth sits back in the stool and pulls the magazine up to her face, trying not to get noticed as she flicks her eyes from the page and back to her.

Beckett looks up to Beth again, raising her brow in question and smiling again. "Interesting article?" Beckett challenges her finally.

Beth smiles nervously and shakes her head, looking back down to the page again. "Oh, just..." she draws out, "mindless gossip."

Beckett nods, mostly agreeing. "Well, you seem awfully concerned over a supermarket tabloid, Beth." Beckett challenges again. "And you're trying pretty hard to make it seem like I'm not supposed to notice you keep staring at me."

"Oh, it's nothing," Beth says, waving her hand at her in a wise motion. "It's just a wild coincidence, that's all." She shrugs her shoulders.

"What's a wild coincidence?" She asks in a softer, more curious tone.

"Do you know Richard Castle?" Barbra seems to spit out impatiently from behind the espresso machine.

"Barbra!" Beth seethes, while Beckett's body is frozen in place, having whipped her eyes around to her. "I thought we agreed we wouldn't bring it up!" Beth angrily mutters through clenched teeth as she storms over to her sister. After a moment, Beth forces a smile over to her, raising her hand and pushing her sister a foot or two. Beckett can't make out what they're saying after that, but she's quick to lean over the register and take a closer look at the magazine, reading the headline in the top left-hand corner. What caused the writer to disappear and where he is now REVEALED! The last word is underlined.

Beth looking between her and the magazine, them asking if she knows him... it only takes a second for Beckett's intuition to piece things together. They wrote about her.

She hardens herself as Beth starts to make her way back around the counter to the register. "So sorry about that, Kate."

As off-putting as it is to hear people call her Kate, she forces a smile and gives her a dismissive nod. "It's okay," she lies, "and um..." she swallows and looks back up to Barbra, "no, I don't know who that is." She blatantly lies.

She can see Beth give her a nod, "Really?" She asks in a small, frightened voice. Beckett gives her another dismissive smile. "Because," she chuckles and reaches for the magazine, flopping it open to a page near the beginning, "it's just, well..." she says, showing her the article in the magazine, "you look just like... well..."

The first thing she sees is a picture of her in her dress uniform... from Montgomery's funeral. That was right before she was shot. The story made national headlines. The picture is shown in a small square on the next page after the picture of him along the left side. They dug... and they found out about them. "Hmm..." she hums, trying to act like it's not tearing her apart and looks back down, digging out her phone from her front pocket.

"I mean," Beth chuckles again, taking the magazine back and starting to skim through it, "a police detective, working in New York, shadowed by Richard Castle for his mystery novels, initials 'KB'," the dedications... she falls in love with him more and more every time she reads them. "Richard Castle living in town... you... well, it's just coincidence."

"Right," Beckett says, not looking up from checking her email.

"It uh..." Beth nervously chuckles again, "it even says she quit the NYPD because she got some of his money somehow... well, allegedly, it says."

It's with that that Beckett snaps. "I never cared about that."

Once it leaves her mouth, looking at the wide-eyed look she's receiving from Beth, she knows her secrets out... probably to the whole town.

Beckett just nods to herself and tries to harden herself, trying not to think of just how many people think she's just another gold-digging tramp that seduced and bedded him for what she could get out of it. She loved him for him. Up until now, her knowing that was all that really mattered. "I never cared about any of that." She tells them, not feeling confident. "Only him."

Expecting to get bombarded with questions, Beckett looks back down to the blank screen of her phone for a second, shoring up her armor as best she can. "Um..." Barbra says from the side, "here you go."

With a forced smile, Beckett grabs the cups from her and leaves.


She pulls to a stop outside his house at her usual time, grabs the two cups from the cupholders, taking a tired sip of her own, and pushes open the door, hearing Sasha let out a loud bark from the yard.

She looks up and sees Sasha attached to her lead again, ears already perked up eagerly and tail wagging excitedly. The outside world forgotten for now, she smiles and lets a small bit of joy warm her as Sasha paces back and forth at the end of her lead. She got attached to the long-haired German Shepard pretty quickly over those few minutes yesterday. She couldn't help it even brought them a bit closer. As Sasha barks in anticipation of Beckett loving on her again, Beckett starts to lean back against the hood of her Impala before catching sight of something underneath the oak tree that wasn't there before.

A set of patio furniture, a set of two metal armchairs, painted green, and a small circular table.

She knows him. And when she sees the two chairs sitting nestled under the tree, Sasha waiting for her, it almost brings her eyes flooding with tears. With a watery smile, Beckett walks across the yard, smiling brightly at Sasha as she approaches her. "Hey, Sasha," she emotionally coos as she sets the cups down on the table and takes a seat in the chair closest to her car. "Hey, you," she says as Sasha jumps up into her lap.

Beckett spends a few minutes with her fingers tangled in Sasha's thick fur, Sasha loving the attention as she sits in the grass with her head lying in the crease of her legs.

"Think I'm getting through to him?" She asks her, massaging her thick ears. "Huh?"

Sasha doesn't respond aside from readjusting her head on her leg when she pulls her hand away for a second. It's another few minutes and another few sips from her coffee before Castle appears at the tree line, sporting a white sleeveless t-shirt and black gym pants, a large sweat stain on the chest of his shirt. Sasha hears him coming and immediately goes to the other end of her lead to greet him. Still out of breath, he lifts his hand up to his dog. "Yes," he pants, "I missed you too." He tells her, ruffling her ears around.

She waits with her cup sitting in her hands meagerly until he looks up to her. "Hope you don't mind." She tells him with a smile, shrugging her shoulders.

Castle sniffs and pinches the end of his nose, flicking a bead of sweat away. "No, it was uh..." he pants again, still catching his breath, "just sitting in the garage." He tells her, looking up to the garage and planting his hands on his hips. He must have really pushed himself this morning. She can still see beads of sweat running down his biceps and his neck. She's never craved him on this primal of a level before. She always found him sexy and attractive, but this is a new feeling between them. She's ogling him. "Alexis wanted a place to study that wasn't the couch and her room." He shrugs and takes the seat across the table from her, facing the house.

Sasha moves over to him, putting herself between his spread legs.

Beckett nods to herself and doesn't know how to begin. She can feel an ease in the usual tension between them. But isn't sure how delicate it is. She takes a chance and turns to look over to him, seeing he's playing with Sasha's ears. "You seem happy this morning." She points out, seeing his soft smirk playing across his mouth as he pets Sasha.

Once she points it out, Castle is quick to correct himself in front of her, pursing his lips and shaking his head, leaning forward on his knees and letting Sasha whap her tongue up his face. He decides not to respond, not thinking of anything that wouldn't give her the wrong idea.

She notices the change in his demeanor when it happens, the way his expression hardens. "So...' she begins in a tight voice, looking down to the lid of her cup, "I'm uh..." she begins hesitantly, "I'm looking for a place."

It doesn't get an answer out of him. No matter her intentions when she lied to him, bottom line, she can't seem to trust him with the truth, no matter what it's regarding.

"There are some complexes out by Corvallis... pretty affordable." She starts with some small, one-sided small talk. "Didn't really plan on moving out that far, but..." she chuckles, almost sadly, "it's better than the Holiday Inn I'm staying in now."

She eyes him for a response for a moment, but after too long of a wait, with him just sitting absentmindedly running his fingers through the fur on Sasha's neck, she nods to herself and resolves that he's not talking.

"You didn't think I'd still be here, did you?" She asks him, her tone shifting from feigned friendship to serious.

"You looking for me to answer that honestly?" He snides.

"Castle," she shakes her head, her voice shaking, but resembling an emotional chuckle when he hits her ears, "I don't know how long it will take to convince you that I really loved you but I'll be here until it happens."

All Castle does is nod, mostly to himself, and waits her out for a moment. It's another minute of complete silence, nothing but the water splashing against the shore of the lake in the distance, before Sasha moves over to Beckett and lays her head down on her thigh. She smiles to herself and starts to pet her ears again. "I'm happy out here, Beckett." He says matter-of-factly.

She looks up to him, seeing his looking toward her out of the corner of his eye. "I'm glad," she says, as if he was expecting her to answer differently. "I like it out here too, Castle."

Castle grits his teeth and grimaces, shaking his head before he turns to look toward the woods. She's not getting it. It's probably his fault, at least some of it. He doesn't want to be direct with her and just say it. Maybe a part of him wants to see how long he can test himself against her before snapping, see how thick and fool-proof his defenses have become over these nine months. On a hard sigh, he shakes his head again, "Argyle street."

Beckett looks back over to him after taking a break from obviously carefully studying him. "Argyle street?" She parrots back.

"Three miles up,' he says, looking down the street heading back into town and pointing, "hang a left for another five miles, turn right... sixth house on the right."

Beckett shakes her head to herself, trying to fill in the blanks. "What?" She breathes, a smile betraying the tenseness of the situation.

"You plan on staying?" He shoots over to her, raising his brow at her. "There's a house on Argyle Street that's for rent." He tells her plainly. "Three bedroom, two and a half bath, full kitchen... one car garage."

She's fighting her face-engulfing smile as best she can, but knows she's losing. "You really want me living that close?" She jokes with him, her voice low and husky.

"This is Oregon, Beckett." He rolls his eyes. "It's not like you can take the subway here."

She chuckles, "Still," she shrugs, "just feels weird. I mean, I was weird enough leasing a car with your money, Castle. I can't imagine how weird it's going to feel renting a house with it."

"Yeah, well," he sighs as he pushes up on his knees and stands up, "you weren't even supposed to know about it, so-" he tries to end the conversation, quickly patting Sasha on the back to get her attention.

"Wait," Beckett says, standing up to go after him, "what?"

Castle, in no mood to deal with her nagging it out of him, stops and turns around. "You think I didn't know how you'd react when I had them send you that check?" He says to her. "Telling you about the royalty payments was a last resort, Beckett. And I told you already, none of it is my money. If it makes you feel any less weird, you're actually taking money away from Gina. It'd make me sleep better at night." He jokes and starts to lean down to unhook Sasha from her lead.

She tries to piece together his words as quickly as she can before Sasha is unhooked from her lead. "Last resort?" She asks herself. "Wait, who else did you call?" She panics as he's standing back up from attending to his dog.

"The mayor," he says in a hard, angry tone. Her throat closes. "Since you said the NYPD was on a budget freeze, I called him to see if a donation was enough to get you back on the force."

He knows. The mayor has to know about her being blacklisted. He knows everything. He's going to keep pressing her. He's going to know everything.

Castle just sighs and shakes his head. "Imagine my surprise when he told me that there wasn't one." He says in a sad voice. "So, I don't know why it's that much of a shock... finding out that you lied to me about trying to get back on the NYPD." Beckett feels her lungs being squeezed. "What, did you think I'd think less of you or something?"

When he rhetorically asks her that question, she feels her brow pinch.

"I've always known you never trusted me with the truth, Kate, but... I don't know why you thought I'd think less of you for not taking an opening at the NYPD when they had one and going after me instead." He shrugs his shoulders.

She's not sure if the pain in her chest is fear or her heart shattering into pieces.

"Bottom line is you just couldn't tell me the truth. Surprises never end." He says and leans down, unhooks Sasha from her lead, and corrals her into the house.


A/N: I was going to add another character into the story, but it would have cut into the next chapter. Someone to balance things out more. Can you guess who it is? ;)