Chapter XXV

Manhattan, NYC

Three weeks later

Things changed between them after the bombing case, Castle realized.

For days now he'd been trying to put his finger on what exactly it was. But now that he sat in his kitchen, on a rare quiet Saturday morning, and really started to think about it, he realized that he could trace it back to that case. The bombing in Boylan Plaza.

The change was subtle, but it was there, he was convinced of it now. He'd always been good at noticing details that escaped others, but this time he'd started to doubt himself, because of course he'd asked her what was wrong. More than once.

And every time he did, she'd shrugged it off and told him it was nothing and that had been the end of the discussion.

But there was something. It was as though she'd started to build a wall between them after that case. The carefree happiness that she used to have when they were alone together and that he loved so much, wasn't there anymore. It was replaced by something else. Something distant and melancholy.

Maybe if he didn't know her as well as he did, he wouldn't have noticed.

Truth was, at first he hadn't noticed.

He'd been having too much fun shadowing her at the Twelfth, well, except for that one time when Beckett was stuck doing trial prep and she'd told him to go shadow another detective, Ethan Slaughter, who, quite frankly, was absolutely bat-shit crazy. Sure, she'd been right about it giving him a colourful new character for his books. So colourful in fact that he'd have to tone him down in fiction, 'cause no one would believe a detective like that actually existed. Had he spent any more time with Slaughter, he'd probably be dead. He'd come pretty close to it on that one case.

Might have been if Beckett hadn't dropped everything and swooped in to save his ass.

Then there'd been another case, one involving some cocky James Bond wannabe from Scotland Yard. That one had elicited their first Big Fight. Most of it stemming from the fact that he was madly jealous. He didn't like to admit it, but it was true. There was something about the way that Detective Inspector Hunt kept coming on to Kate that had made him want to punch the guy's too-perfect face. Never mind that too-perfect body that he'd sworn had turned Beckett on when they'd accidentally seen it naked.

It hadn't helped that at the end of the case, Hunt had asked Kate out for a drink. And she'd accepted!

He still cringed when he thought back to it.

"What are you doing?" he'd demanded when he'd finally been able to steal a moment alone with her at the precinct.

"I'm 'cementing our singleness'. Or wait…is it only okay when you do it? Or do you not trust me the way I trust you?"

Of course he did. Trust her. But the idea of her going out for drinks, alcohol, of all things, with Mr. Scotland Yard had left such a bitter taste in his mouth that he'd paced and brooded all night, and called her at least half a dozen times to make sure the 007-wannabe had indeed left the country and that Kate had returned to her apartment alone. Even though he'd wished that she'd come to his, as irritated as he was.

But instead, she hadn't come over at all the next five days.

Things were definitely still tense between them, even though Kate kept denying it.

He was always so hesitant to push when it came to her, because he was too afraid that it would make her run in the opposite direction. But now he had to, before things got worse.

Before he lost her.

He shivered at the thought. No, he wouldn't lose her without a fight. She was the best thing to happen to him a long, long time.

"Why so serious, kiddo?"

His mother appeared out of nowhere and flitted across the kitchen with a glass of champagne in her hand.

"It's ten o'clock, Mother." He pointed out, glancing at the glass.

"It's the weekend. I'm making a mimosa. In New York we call it brunch."

"I thought you were going for brunch with Phyllis?"

"I am, and before that I'm going to have a pre-brunch mimosa."

He chuckled. "Of course."

She leaned against the kitchen counter with the elegance of the well-practised artist that she was. "You haven't answered my question. Why do you look like the weight of the world is piled on your broad shoulders?"

"Have you noticed anything different about Kate lately?"

"Different?" She took a sip of her orange-juice-less mimosa. "Well, darling, it's hard to say, I haven't seen much of her lately. It seems like she came over much more often when you two lovebirds first hooked up. Is the spark already gone?"

"What?" He balked at the thought. "No…it's not that. I mean, does she seem different to you?"

"Different how? Is something wrong?"

He sighed. "I don't know. I mean, yes. I think there is, but I don't know what."

"I know this might sound crazy, but have you tried talking to her? Asking her?"

He made a face. "Of course I have. She says she's fine…"

"Oh dear," his mother looked alarmed. "You know when a woman says she's fine, she is most definitely not fine."

He groaned. "Mother, you're not helping. I just…I feel like our relationship. It's drifting apart."

"What relationship exactly?" she questioned.

"What do you mean? I love her!"

"Yet you're still hiding that gorgeous woman from the world! You've been with her what, almost half a year now? Have you ever so much as taken her out for dinner?"

Castle was taken aback. This wasn't what he'd expected to hear. "I, uh…sure. a few weeks ago, when we drove upstate that Sunday, we stopped at this charming little inn and had lunch and…"

Martha Rodgers frowned. Unimpressed. "Not what I meant, kiddo."

"Look, you know why we have to keep our relationship under wraps. Kate's fine with it."

"Is she?" His mother finished the last of her champagne. So much for mimosas. "I know I wouldn't have gone along with that kind of ridiculous charade for more than a month." She looked pensive. "I guess this means she really does love you."

"But…."

"But?" Martha pursed her lips.

"There's a but, isn't there?"

"But you do realize you can't go on like this forever. Frankly, I'd have given you an ultimatum a long time ago."

Castle stared out into the kitchen, past his mother. She was right. She was so right. In three days he was going to launch Heat Wave, and Kate was going to be there, and there was no way he was going to pretend that the woman who inspired it all was nothing more than a colleague from the NYPD.

He grinned.

His mother wasn't impressed. "You think this is a joke?"

Castle jumped off his barstool and gave her two big kisses. One on each cheek. "No. No joke. But you gave me an idea. A crazy, brilliant idea."

"Oh Lord…dare I ask what this entails?"

His grin spread across his face. "You can ask, but I can't tell you just yet. There are half a dozen things I need to do and someone else I need to tell first."

Martha accepted the answer with a weary, lop-sided smile. "All right then, kiddo. I just hope you know what you're doing. I like that girl."

"Me too."

He called Alexis not long after talking to his mother, asking if she could meet him for a coffee downtown after she finished her morning study session at the New York Public Library.

Of course every coffee shop within a two-block radius was packed with tourists – Panera, Le Pain Quotidien, Maison Kayser, even Pret a Manger. So he did what any New Yorker with the means to do it would have done, he took his daughter to the nearest high-end hotel and ordered mochas and two desserts at their bar.

"What's the occasion, Dad?" Alexis asked after plopping down her heavy backpack full of text books on the empty seat next to her.

They were both wildly underdressed for this place, but Castle didn't care.

"I've been thinking about Kate," he told her, cutting right to the chase.

Alexis sipped her mocha and it left a whipped cream mustache above her lips. "Okay…"

"I'd like her to be a part of my, of our, future."

"Okay…"

"I think," he was oddly, unexpectedly, nervous. "There's something we need to work out first, but if we do, and I really I hope we do…I was thinking to ask her to marry me."

"Whoa!" Alexis set down her china cup with a clang.

"That is…if you're okay with it too. It's a big step and I won't take it, not yet anyway, if you're not okay with it. Because her moving in, it'll change your life too."

Alexis looked shocked, but judging from the smile on her face, it was a good shock. "Dad…I don't know what to say. I thought you guys were still keeping this a secret. That you can't tell anyone because of your research at the NYPD."

"We were…are. But we can't keep that up forever. It's not fair to either of us. Or the people that we're lying to. If I need to get my research done at another precinct, so be it."

Alexis was still grinning. "You really want to get married again?"

Her smile eased his fear that she wouldn't want this. That it would make his daughter unhappy. "I didn't think I did, until I met Kate."

"You really love her, huh?"

"I do." He finally took a sip of his own mocha, lukewarm now. "Would you be okay with it?"

"I haven't spent that much time with her, but I like her, Dad. She's been really nice to me and I like how she changed you."

He raised his brows. "Changed me?"

Her pretty face lit up. "Before she showed up, you were kinda drifting. Different parties, different girlfriends…it's like you were always looking for something and now you finally found it. You stopped looking."

He wanted to hug her. His too-smart, perceptive teenager who was always far more aware of things than he imagined. "That's a good way of saying it."

"You also started writing again," Alexis added. "I know you missed it. I figure if she can do all that, maybe you should put a ring on her finger."

He got up, because this time he really did want to give her a hug. He'd hoped she'd be on board, but this, this all-out approval, made him giddy happy. "Come here."

He pulled her into a hug after she got up.

"Does she wanna get married?" Alexis asked.

"I guess I'll find out when I ask."

"Oh, Dad…" She rolled her eyes. "So how are you gonna propose? Have you thought about it?"

"I thought I'd do it at the launch party for Heat Wave."

"Oh my God, Dad!" Alexis pulled out of his hug. "Are you crazy? That's in two days!" She exclaimed it so loudly that a half dozen of the bar's patrons were staring at them.

"I know," Castle admitted. "It is crazy. If all goes well tomorrow, I was kinda hoping you could help me pull it off."

I'm back in New York City, Queens to be specific.

Getting out of the gated community that imprisoned me for the last five months was super easy. I snuck out of the house at sundown, just as two of my cousins went upstairs with their paid lady friends.

It's not something I would have been able to do a couple of months ago, when they watched me more closely. But I've been staying put like a good boy, following all the rules, so they got careless.

I get a kick out of knowing that Papa will bash their empty heads for this.

Then I put on my invisibility cloak, my Mexican Worker Uniform, and pretended to be a gardener who was done for the day. I walked right past security and into freedom where a taxi was waiting for me.

He dropped me off in downtown Houston and the first thing I did was get a bunch of necessary stuff. A phone, a tablet, a change of clothes. Then I walked to the Greyhound terminal, paid for a one-way ticket with cash and I took the bus north.

Two days later I was here and the time I spent on the bus gave me time to get organized.

It's risky being back here. I know that. Not just because there's a warrant out for my arrest, but because the family's way too close here. This is Papa's territory. If I wanted to run away I'd have been smart and gone in the opposite direction, north-west to Seattle or something.

But I'm not running away. I'm coming for him.

I'm not exactly sure how I'll pull it off, but I know I'll find a way. I always do when I'm motivated.

And no one's ever motivated me more than him.

Manhattan, NYC

The next morning, he met up with Beckett at a fresh crime scene.

The boys and Lanie and a forensics team were already on site, with the site in question being an alley in a less than stellar neighbourhood.

Castle only had a few seconds alone with her before they got to the body.

"I'd love to see you tonight," he told her, walking close enough that he could speak quietly. Not that he really cared who overheard anymore. "There's some things I want to talk about. But mostly, I've missed you."

"Castle, I…"

"Please," he cut her off before she could come up with an excuse. "The Angelika is showing two John Woo films tonight - one night only. Hard Boiled and The Killer. You pick and then we'll grab Chinese take-out from Su Ming's. They're doing Peking Duck tonight. I checked."

She stopped in her tracks. "A movie? You know we can't..."

"Sure we can. I mean, unless you think Woo's too bloody…"

Her eyes lit up and there was a sudden spark in them that he hadn't seen for a while. "No. The bloodier the better."

He grinned. He figured as much. She kept reminding him why he loved her. "It's a date then."

He stared at her, unapologetically, wanting the sight of her to linger in his brain before they reached the dead body. Noticing little things that had escaped him lately. That her clothes were looser on her than they were two weeks ago. She'd lost weight. Not much, but enough to make him notice. Enough to make him want to cook hearty meals for her again. Like the carbonara that elicited those orgasmic sounds from her mouth.

"You comin', Castle?"

He was still staring. Remembering how much he loved the tiny laugh lines around her eyes when she smiled. Like now.

His mother was right. They were too old for this. Too old sneak around like teenagers.

As much as he loved this. Being part of this team and pulling up to crime scenes early in the morning, he loved her more.

Once they got to the body, that brief moment was gone. The banter, the flirting. The lightheartedness.

It was back to business, and in this case it involved a male homicide victim in his twenties, shot and left for dead inside a car in this alley. They found lock-pick tools tucked into his shoes and ID'd him shortly afterwards.

His name was Orlando Costas and, as suspected, he had priors. Breaking and entering. Burglary.

He was a thief, and it seemed like such an ordinary case at first. A guy whose criminal activities ended up pissing off the wrong person and costing him his life.

But suddenly the case blew up.

Turned out Costas broke into their late Captain Montgomery's house, and Castle then found out that Montgomery had a much closer connection to the murder of Johanna Beckett than he could have ever imagined.

And after that, everything fell apart.

A/N: Just because I don't do it often enough, a special shout-out to my proof-reader, WRTRD, who inserts and deletes an awful lot of commas every single chapter and who has yet to insert a single eye-roll emoji when correcting the same grammatical error for the 25th time. LOVE YOU!