TWO

"Good morning, everyone! I hope that-"

"Sweet! Donuts!"

Castle chuckled when his friend Detective Kevin Ryan pulled the bakery box from his hands. By the time Ryan had found a flat surface for the box and pulled it open, several of his vulture-like coworkers had descended upon the box as well making Castle glad that he had asked for his extra special purchase to be bagged separately. From the pocket of his coat, he pulled a folded wax paper bag and placed it on the desk of his partner. "Bear claw?"

Her slender fingers curled around the package, and she smiled as he sat in the chair beside her desk that had become his unofficial seat in the Twelfth Precinct. "Thank you, but you know you don't have to bring in this many treats."

He shrugged one shoulder. "I don't bring them that often. Besides, I was stopping in for a little mid-morning snack myself, so I thought why not?"

"Isn't before ten a.m. a bit early for a 'mid-morning' snack?"

"Perhaps, but I ate extra early today—Alexis was too nervous to finish her breakfast because she has a science exam this morning. Oh! But check this out!" From his pocket he produced his phone and pulled up his camera roll before displaying the most recent picture taken to his partner. "Her teacher showed me this when I dropped her off. Apparently, Alexis and one of her classmates have been working on this diorama. Isn't it great?"

"Very impressive and I hope she does well on her test."

"Thanks."

They sat in a companionable silence for a few minutes while Beckett took a few bites of her bear claw. Castle noticed that the chaos around the bakery box had died down, so he decided to move it into the breakroom, where the last two donuts could be eaten by anyone on the floor. Then, when he returned to Beckett's desk he asked, "So what's on today's docket?"

She picked up a file folder from her desk and pushed it his way. "I got a call last night about a case from last year—still open."

His brow furrowed. He didn't recall an open case from when they worked together the prior year; nearly all the cases they worked together on had been solved. He picked up the folder and flipped it open in his lap. "Madeline Brandt?" He read the name of the victim with a question in his voice as he didn't remember it.

"Javi and Kevin started working the case while we were finishing up a different one. Then you left—I think it might have been when you took Alexis to the Hamptons for two weeks? Anyway, I tried to work with them on it but…it was just a mass of dead ends."

He nodded. "Well, I'd be happy to go through it again with you."

"Thanks Castle. Hey, um, are you going to stick around until lunch?"

He shrugged. "Don't see why not. Why?"

She shook her head. "No reason. Just thought we could grab a bite together. Wanted to run something by you."

His curiosity piqued; he tilted his head to the side. "Not case related?"

"No, not case related—we can talk about it later. Okay?"

"Okay." He agreed, though remained skeptical. There was something off about the tone of her voice that concerned him, but when she took the file from his hands and picked up a black dry-erase marker, he knew it was time to get down to business and focus on the details of the case at hand.

"I might have something," Castle said after he'd reviewed the victim's bank records for over an hour. "It could be nothing, but maybe not."

"Yeah? Well, I definitely have nothing, so I'll take anything at this point."

Castle slid closer to his partner and pushed Madeline's debit card statement records into the space between them. "Every Wednesday and Saturday morning Madeline made a purchase at Corner Coffee and the charge is $7.15. Every time. Until the three weeks before her death. Then, Wednesdays at the same, but Saturday's charge goes up to $15.08 once and $16.30 twice."

"So…she changed or order?"

"Her order more than doubled."

"So…she's paying for someone else." Beckett concluded.

"Right. For three Saturdays in a row, she had breakfast with someone. The same someone? We don't know, but it's a change in the pattern."

Kate scanned her eyes over the charges he had highlighted and then turned back to him, her expression showing disappointment. "You're right, it could be something, but it's been nearly eight months since these charges were made. I'm not sure anyone in that coffee shop will remember what would have happened on those days."

He shrugged. "We don't know until we ask. C'mon—it's almost time for lunch anyway."

"Yeah, okay."

"What's wrong?" he asked at her disappointed tone.

She shrugged. "Just wish we'd picked up on this when we first investigated."

"See, this is why you need to have me work every case with you," he said with a cheeky smile, hoping to lift the frustrated expression on her face. All he got was an eyeroll and a slight smirk, but he still took it as a win.

Some days, Castle found himself shocked by how much effort he put into making Kate Beckett smile. Because some days he did put a shocking amount of effort into making her smile—not just once, either, but multiple times over their time together. Each upturn curl of her lips sent his heart soaring and had his stomach doing a little flip. She simply had a hold on him that he couldn't explain and had practically ever since they met.

A little over a year prior Castle was a man bored with his job and frustrated with his life. He'd decided to kill off the main character from his novels who had brought him literary notoriety and success in the form of millions of dollars. Writing Derrick Storm had felt like a chore for at least a year, but learning of his wife's latest affair was what really had sent Castle spiraling into the depths of "What does it all matter anymore?" He still found joy in his daughter—she truly was the light of his existence—but in every other aspect of his life he just felt…stuck. Then, during the launch party for the final book featuring Storm, a new spark was lit inside his chest by a catalyst named Detective Kate Beckett-Symon, or simply, "Beckett."

Unbeknownst to Castle until that moment, someone was recreating the murders he described in his early works. First, Hell Hath No Fury, then Flowers for Your Grave. The savvy detective happened to be a fan of his works and thus noticed the similarities between real life crimes and their fictional counterparts. Equal parts horrified and fascinated, Castle had requested to help solve the case, and over the next several days he'd built up quite a rapport with the young detective. She was whip smart with a take-no-shit attitude when it was necessary, but with a warm, open heart when it came to victim's families. Simply put, he was more intrigued by the mystery behind her eyes than he had been in anything in quite some time. So, once one killer was brought to justice, he'd requested to shadow her as a means of "doing research" for a new book series. After some arm-twisting, she agreed, and thus their partnership was formed.

When they first started working together, Castle genuinely did not have any expectations as to where their partnership would go. He saw it as a learning experience that would hopefully get him out of his rut and he certainly wasn't mad about spending some time around an interesting, not to mention incredibly attractive, woman. What he had not anticipated was just how blown away he was by her extraordinary traits and, though it took some time due to her closed-off nature, just how deeply they would bond. That bond being wonderful, yet somewhat problematic due to the unfortunate factor that they were both married to spouses who had occasional streaks of jealousy.

"So, are you thinking somewhere specific for lunch? I think we'll be near Remy's?"

"Nah," she said. "Too loud. Let's see if this place we're going has sandwiches we can grab. Then maybe we can go sit on a bench somewhere and talk."

He shrugged. "Works for me. Lead the way, detective."

After taking another half-hearted bite of her sandwich, Kate put the mediocre pastrami on rye back in its wrapper and folded over the edges of the paper, thinking maybe she'd eat a bit more of it after she lifted the anvil from her shoulders with the conversation she was about to have with her partner. Then maybe her appetite would return, and she wouldn't break out in a cold sweat every two to three minutes, or however often she met his kind gaze and the knife in her gut twisted.

"So, um, that thing I wanted to talk about…"

Castle licked some mustard from the end of his thumb and twisted on the bench so that he faced her. "I'm all ears."

Her lips twitched into a half smile. God, she hated this. She hated having to do this to him. He was such a kind, sweet man. He didn't deserve this, but despite what Grant insisted it was her business. Castle was one of her closest friends she couldn't see him several times a week knowing something so terrible that he did not. Besides, she knew with one hundred percent certainty that if the situation was reversed, she would want to know. Knowing was always better than being in the dark.

"Last night Grant and I went out to dinner for our anniversary. We-"

"Wait, anniversary? Why didn't you say something? Congratulations! How many years?"

"Uh, six."

"Six! Wow! I—I didn't realize you guys had been together that long."

"Well…he's my love match…" she said slowly as this was a fact that Castle was already aware of.

"No, sorry—I mean, I didn't know you guys had been married that long. I didn't know you got married before you entered the police academy." He clarified.

"Just after I graduated the police academy, actually. We honeymooned before I started as an officer in training."

Castle nodded. "I see. Sorry I derailed your story. You went to dinner…"

"Right, we were at dinner and Meredith was there."

The writer blinked. "Where?"

"At the restaurant. I saw her walk in while we were waiting to order and—and Grant told me not to say anything, that I shouldn't get involved, but I can't not say anything because-"

"It's okay." Castle's tone was clipped, and his gaze drifted off towards the cars passing by a few hundred feet away. "You don't have to say anything, so you won't break your promise to Grant."

Kate felt the hairs at the back of her neck tingle for somehow this unexpected outcome felt worse than being the one to reveal the truth to him. "What don't I have to say, Castle?"

Turning back to her Castle said, "Bald guy. Tall—like freakishly tall."

Kate felt her face blanch, but she couldn't bring herself to confirm verbally, so she nodded instead.

"Landon Bellows is his name. He's a philanthropist of sorts—comes from money, invests in the arts. That's how Meredith met him, I assume."

"H-how do you know all this?"

"Oh, my very secretive and very, very expensive PI told me. Yeah, they've been together for a few months."

"Oh." Kate felt his words settle into her sternum. The anvil was off her shoulders, but this didn't feel much better. He just sounded so…defeated. They sat quietly for a minute before she said, "I'm sorry your wife is having an affair."

Castle popped the final bite of his sandwich into his mouth then crumpled up the paper as he said, "It's not her first," with a level of casualty that indicated he was merely reading the ingredients of his sandwich off the label instead of revealing that his marriage was broken to its core.

Her throat was too dry for her to swallow, so Kate took a sip out of her take-away coffee cup and said, "Really?"

Castle stretched his neck towards his left side then placed his balled-up sandwich wrapper on the bench between them. Resting his palms on his knees he said, "Listen, Beckett, I appreciate you telling me. You're a good friend, a good partner, and I…well, just know you don't have to worry about telling me anything in the future, because it doesn't really matter."

Her jaw dropped slightly. "H-how can it not matter? Doesn't your marriage matter?"

"Does yours?"

The words couldn't have shocked her more than if he'd dumped his water bottle over her head while saying them. His gaze was steady and there was absolutely no jest in his tone, which meant he was entirely serious and that flabbergasted her.

After a minute of silence passed between them, Castle shook his head and said, "I'm sorry; I shouldn't have-"

"No." The way her hand curled around his arm was beyond her control. She had to keep him there because she had to know what he meant. She had to know what he knew. "What did you mean by that?"

"I mean: you're in a loveless marriage too, aren't you?"

"Grant is my love match," she responded on autopilot. She had said that same statement maybe a hundred times over the course of their decade-long relationship, the words meaningless every time.

"And Kyra was mine. You know how that turned out," he stated simply.

Kate felt a rush of emotions through her entire body and her chest began to constrict. Were they about to have this conversation? A truly open, honest, no-holds-barred conversation about their love lives—a subject they had rarely, if ever, talked about before? In fact, she had never talked to anyone about that subject with true honesty—not even her best friends Maddy or Lanie. But maybe…maybe it was time. Maybe if she told Castle the truth the vice around her heart would loosen for the first time since she was nineteen years old.

Several decades before Kate's birth, a team of scientists had made an incredible discovery. By comparing the genetic material of two individuals, they could determine their romantic compatibility with a ninety-eight percent accuracy rate. The team claimed that their discovery would not only increase the happiness of the global population, but also practically eliminate the need for divorce, which by that point plagued nearly three quarters of all marriages.

Though people remained skeptical for the first few years, thousands of success stories helped to convince the masses, and the genetic sequencing of newborns was commonplace by the time Kate arrived into the world. Wanting their daughter to have every chance at life-long happiness, the Beckett's had signed Kate up for the program, which collected her DNA at birth, but did not actually search for her perfect love match until her thirteenth birthday. At that time, the match was held in an electronic vault until the younger of the two matches turned sixteen. Then, the parents of each match were sent their results, which they presumably gave to their child upon arrival.

As was expected, on Kate's sixteenth birthday her parents' received information on a boy named Grant Symon, who was not quite three years older than their daughter. Fortunately for all of them, he was also a resident of Manhattan. They passed the information along to Kate, who didn't give it much thought. Most of her friends had also received matches when they turned sixteen to varying degrees of excitement, but at that moment Kate was wrapped up in a boy who, in Kate's words, really knew how to shred a guitar. Kate's parents were less than thrilled, but they also knew better than to attempt to persuade their stubborn child into doing something she was not yet interested in doing.

Ultimately thanks to Grant's persistence, Kate did meet up with him the following year. Though some of her friends swooned over the idea that he was a college man, Kate felt nonplussed at best. He seemed nice enough, but she wasn't yet ready to settle down with her love match (she had, just a few months earlier, met a guy with an awesome motorcycle and motorcycles were decidedly more fun than fraternity mixers where most of the guests wore sweater vests.)

It wasn't until she was nineteen years old that Kate reached out to Grant. Her mother had been brutally murdered a few months prior and her father had hardly been seen sober since. She was drowning and desperate for someone—anyone—to throw her a life raft. Though Grant was busy trying to wrap up his undergraduate degree before moving on to law school, he was everything she needed in that moment: kind, understanding, helpful, and a good listener. They had been together ever since.

When it came to the subject of love, Kate felt nothing but uncertainty. Had she loved Grant back in those early days? Back when she agreed to marry him when he'd asked her just a few days after her father's funeral? She had certainly told herself that she did. After all, what wasn't there to love? Grant was kind and thoughtful. He brought her flowers "just because." He let her cry in his arms whenever she needed. He took care of her, and never pressured her to do anything she wasn't up to doing, especially during all the times when her grief felt so crushing that walking from the bed to the bathroom seemed almost more than she could take. He wanted to build a life with her—her, broken and unable to care for him in the same way that he cared for her.

By the time she stood before him in a long, white dress Kate really did believe that she loved him. In the coming years, they had many happy moments—moments when she thought they were genuine friends and not just husband and wife. But, as the years went on, those moments felt fewer and further between to the point where she wasn't sure she felt anything towards him anymore: not hurt, not anger, not intrigue, and certainly not love.

"I…I'm not sure." Was the best she could manage at that time, because was it truly a "loveless marriage" if one of the sides felt something akin to love?

"Well, whatever it is, I think it's safe for me to conclude its not perfect. It's not…happy?" he said, the last word sounding more like a question.

She let out a mirthless laugh. "I'm not sure marriages are meant to be happy all the time."

"All the time? No, that's unrealistic. Most of the time, ideally. Or, at least, enough of the time to make you want to stay. Is…is that why you stay? Because you have enough happiness?"

As she could not have come up with a definition for "enough" in that context if her life depended on it, she threw back at him, "Do you have enough happiness?"

"Yes—in Alexis."

She nodded. That made sense. Castle and his wife had a child together and that changed him. Thankfully Kate was not in that boat—not yet, and hopefully not for a very, very long time—but that made their situations quite different. "It's…it's not as simple as enough happiness. It's…it's not easy to be divorced now-a-days, you know?"

"I do," he said conclusively. "My mother."

Kate nodded, having momentarily forgotten that his mother was divorced several times over. In the entertainment industry that wasn't as frowned upon so, while Kate was sure she got some social backlash in some areas, it probably had not terribly affected her career. Working with the government, however, was a completely different story.

The scientists who had predicted a significant drop in divorces with the Love Match program they invented had been entirely correct. At the time of its inception, seventy-one percent of marriages ended in divorce. Several decades, that number was below twenty percent. With the country's population what it was, that still meant a fair number of divorces, but the concept had been once again sullied. Divorcee felt like a dirty word in most social circles, and while the NYPD could not legally refuse a divorced man or woman a promotion it remained no secret that those falling into that category were often passed over even if they qualified on merit.

That, ultimately, was what frightened Kate away from even musing about divorce. Social backlash she could handle, and she was certain her closest friends would be understanding of her choosing to put personal happiness above propriety. Losing the career she'd worked so hard for and, worse, losing the opportunity to help bring closure to families so that they wouldn't become broken and destroyed was something she could not yet bear the idea of.

After they sat quietly for a few more minutes, Castle lifted up his hand and gently placed it atop Kate's shoulder saying, "I'm sorry, Kate; truly. The loveless marriage club sucks and I wish you weren't in it."

Giving him a half smile she said, "I wish you weren't in it, either."

A/N thanks so much for reading!