Tuesday afternoon, 4:29pm.

She had almost made it through the first of a ten-day work block – having just over half an hour left until she could leave for the evening.

She fumbled with the phone sitting on the desk in front of her. She tilted the screen, checking for any messages or missed calls. Nothing. Not that she was expecting there to be – she had been sitting here with it the whole time. She was considering making herself a coffee, when her phone 'dinged'.

Good afternoon.

She couldn't help but smile when his name lit up her screen. It sent a jolt through her body, stronger than any caffeine hit.

Good afternoon : ). She typed back immediately.

She hadn't seen or heard from Castle since she left the loft on Sunday afternoon. They had both decided that they should take a few days to think things over – a lot had happened in such a short period of time and neither one of them had been willing to take that final leap of faith just yet.

Dinner tonight? Came his speedy reply.

Sounds good. She replied before putting her phone down and turning her attention back to the computer in front of her. She opened her email again… for the hundredth time today – at this point she was just trying to fill in time.

"What's with the stupid grin?" Esposito asked. He always got a little grumpy when he didn't have a case to solve. Being stuck behind a desk was not exactly why he put on the badge.

"I'm just trying to enjoy what's left of the day." She said with a significant amount more 'pep' than usual. She knew this would annoy the detective even more than a day filled with paperwork.

Her phone lit up again. Great. My place, after work? Just let me know when you're on your way. She smiled to herself.

"Seriously – what has you so perky? Where's your usual case of Mondayitis?" he grumbled.

"It's Tuesday, Javi."

"You know what I mean." He grumbled into the coffee mug as he went to take a sip, noticing his cup was empty.

"Refill?" She asked, happy for the added motivation to get up and make herself a cup. She rose and headed to the break room, passing by Esposito and grabbing his cup on the way.

He was just placing the tray of vegetables into the oven when he heard a knock on the door. Shutting the oven door, he headed over to the entrance to let his guest in.

"Hi." She smiled when he greeted her.

The pair walked over to the kitchen, where he poured two glasses of wine and handed one to her. She thanked him politely, taking a small sip of the red wine that filled the glass.

"Shall we…" he motioned toward the couch, placing his free hand on the small of her back to encourage her to head in that general direction.

"Are Alexis and Martha home?" she asked, plopping down into the comfortable embrace of the couch, careful not to spill her beverage. Castle sat beside her, body turned in to face her, his knee touching her thigh.

"Alexis is – but she has locked herself in her room for the night. Boy troubles… I think. Or maybe it was girl troubles…? I'm not entirely sure – I just know that she does not want to talk about it, and she does not want me butting into 'her business'." He emphasised the last two words with air quotes.

"Right…" she mused, unsure if she should offer to help at all.

"She's fine." He continued, as if he could read her mind. "She would be a lot less dramatic if she wasn't. She wouldn't want to draw attention to the problem if it was something super serious. She'll talk to me when she's ready."

"That's actually very level-headed of you, Castle." She was impressed. His embrace of fatherhood had always impressed her – and she loved the moments when she was allowed close enough to witness the loving moments between the father and daughter – but Castle tended to overreact and grow overprotective of his teenage daughter. This laid-back approach was something new – new to her, anyway.

"Yeah…" he started, fluffing his own ego. "And she's already talked to her grandmother about it, and she assures me there's nothing to worry about, so..."

"There it is!" she laughed, taking another sip of wine. She leaned forward, placing the glass onto the coffee table, then leant back and hung her head back into the couch. The long day had exhausted her, despite not actually having an active case.

"Big day?" Castle asked, shuffling just the slightest bit closer so he could brush a stray lock of hair out of her face. The soft, unexpected touch of his hand on her face forced her to swallow, hard, and straighten herself up. He didn't shy away though.

"Not at all…" she leaned into his touch and placing her hands on his thigh. He placed his glass of wine on the coffee table, next to hers, so that he could take his now free hand and place it over hers.

She noted, again, how this small, intimate moment came so easy to them. She wondered why she had fought so hard against this… how much easier this possibly could have been if she had just embraced that magnetic pull that she seemed to have to him, from the very beginning.

Don't fight it, she told herself, closing the gap between their bodies and pressing her lips gently against his. His mouth was warm against hers and tasted of the subtly sweet red they had been sampling. His hand moved from atop hers, grazing her thigh and hip on its way to its final resting place on her waist. She shifted her weight, leaning into him, pressing their bodies firmly against each other. snaking her hands up his chest and under the collar of his shirt, she rested them against the exposed skin of his neck, deepening their kiss.

They were interrupted by the sound of keys rattling as they were pushed into the lock of the front door.

"You've got to be kidding me." Castle groaned, pulling himself away from Beckett's lips.

She chuckled, as she straightened herself up and pushed herself back into the corner of the couch. She wiped the corner of her mouth with her thumb, hoping it would be enough to 'fix' any possible smudging.

"Sorry darling – I forgot something!" the extraverted woman exclaimed, heading directly up the stairs, not even making eye contact with her son.

He waited, not muttering a word, until she descended the stairs again with a folder full of scripts.

"Oh, Katherine! How are you, my dear?" she only noticed the guest as she reached the bottom of the staircase.

"I'm good, thankyou Martha." She answered politely. "Big plans tonight?"

The woman sighed, "unfortunately not – just class. But alas, my students need me!" she gestured dramatically before taking her exit, slamming the door behind her.

"I am so sorry." Castle started.

"Don't be." Beckett loved Castle's family – intrusions and all. She ran her hand through his hair, brushing it back out of his face.

She could get used to these gentle touches, not having to be ashamed for wanting that connection. She lingered, long enough for him to notice there was something on her mind. He wrapped his hand around hers, again, and she embraced that warmth.

"Penny for your thoughts?" he smiled a soft, encouraging smile.

She shifted her weight, bringing her knees up to her chest – her comfort position. "I guess I just assumed you would be… I don't know… madder at me, or something." She confessed.

He inhaled, deeply. Hold. Exhale. "Honestly – I thought I would be madder, too. But… I thought about it – a lot. And I concluded, in all my wisdom, that you probably handled that situation in the best way possible. I mean, you were in a steady relationship at the time – there's the first hurdle. Plus, you had just suffered a significant loss… and on top of it all, you had been shot… straight through the heart! You were probably still coming to terms with the fact that you didn't die – and I show up expecting you to make some big, life altering decision? What a douche."

She couldn't help but giggle at his self-deprecation.

"But seriously… I don't even know what I was expecting you to do. I tried to think of what I would have done if the roles were reversed and, honestly, I can understand why your plan to buy yourself some time seemed like the best option."

"But I should have come clean a long time ago." She was still wracked with guilt.

"Another thing I thought about was what is and isn't worth my time now." He continued.

"What do you mean?"

"Trying to look at this, you know, bigger picture and all that – what is it that I want? The short answer: you. Now, is holding onto the decisions we made in a truly unprecedented moment going to help me… or is it just wasting more time? Yes, I was angry… and hurt. But I knew I wasn't going to feel that way forever – sooner or later I was going to be able to move past that hurt because holding onto it isn't worth risking a future with you."

"What if that doesn't work? What if you've just buried that anger and it's seething under the surface, waiting to burst out?" she couldn't hide her concern – she knew firsthand how swallowing your feelings can come back to bite you in the ass.

"I really believe that we have something here, Kate. So yeah, I'll take the hit if it means we can get something started here. But that's not going to happen every time… I'm not making a habit of backing down from a fight because if we're doing this, we're doing this right."

He waited for her to say something… anything. Instead, she quietly mulled over his words. He was right – if they were going to do this, they needed to do it right… and that meant they both had to learn how to compromise occasionally. They were both dominant personalities – they would have to learn to work together, give and take, instead of clashing.

"We are… doing this, right?" he asked, growing concerned by her silence.

Being brought from her thoughts and back into reality by Castle's question, she answered by leaning forward and placing a soft kiss on his cheek. "Hell yeah." She whispered with a smile.