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Rick and Kate stopped for coffee before leaving the city. Rick was surprised to hear Kate order decaf. "Decaf?" he asked her while they waited for their coffees.
"I'm hoping my caffeine intake is going to be limited soon," she replied. "I figured I might as well start getting used to it."
Rick looked at Kate, in awe of her all over again. Coffee was serious business to Kate Beckett; he had learned that long ago. The fact that she was willing to start forgoing caffeine in her coffee before they even started trying to get pregnant was yet another measure of how amazing she was.
"Excuse me," Rick said to the barista. "I'd like to change my order. I want the same thing, but in decaf, please."
The barista grumbled under his breath but duly changed the order.
"You didn't have to do that," Kate told Rick.
"You go decaf, I go decaf," Rick replied. "Besides, we both know if I kept drinking regular coffee while you were drinking decaf for months on end, there would come a point where you would be twisting my earlobe, if not another part of my body that would cause more pain, because you wanted the caffeine but knew you couldn't have it and wouldn't drink even a small amount. So it's half supportive husband, half self-preservation on my part."
She smiled at him, a full wattage smile that made his heart beat faster, and he found himself hoping that their future daughter (he was already convinced their first baby would be a girl) had Kate's smile. He absolutely wanted a mini-Beckett running around.
"Just a few more weeks," Kate said, trying not to sound as anxious as she felt about getting the medical all-clear. As cliched as it was, she understood now, in a way she hadn't before, how making love after coming so close to death was an affirmation of life. She wanted that affirmation of life. She wanted to be as close to her husband as it was humanly possible to be. And she wanted to get started on making a baby with him.
Honestly, she just wanted Rick, in every possible way.
"Operation BBC," Rick said so only she could hear him.
Before Kate could come up with a reply to that, the barista called their names. They paid for their coffees and headed back outside, to the car. After they had each had a couple of experimental sips, Rick said,"This is going to take some getting used to." He had managed to conceal his distaste for the decaf coffee, but it was definitely not what he, or Kate, was used to drinking.
"Yeah," Kate said, trying not to grimace and just barely succeeding. "But it'll be worth it." Kate slipped her sunglasses back on. She was dressed casually, in a lavender-colored v-neck t-shirt and light blue denim shorts. Rick was in khaki cargo shorts and a navy blue crewneck t-shirt. He pulled his own sunglasses from his shirt pocket and slid them on. Then he started the car and they were on their way, escaping bumper-to-bumper traffic by leaving so early, and it wasn't long before they were out of the city and traffic was even thinner. Kate pushed her sunglasses up on top of her head since the sun was now behind them, and Rick removed his own sunglasses and put them back in his shirt pocket a couple of minutes later for the same reason.
They sipped at their decaf coffees on the drive, and talked over the things they would need to pick up at the grocery store when they got to town. Kate scribbled a list on a napkin. The air conditioning was pouring out cool air since the temperature was in the upper 90s, and after Kate took the last sip of her coffee she reached over to turn on the radio.
She recognized the song immediately and hummed along with the radio, then turned to meet Rick's glance with a big smile. "I haven't heard this song in forever!" she exclaimed.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Led Zeppelin," she replied.
"I only really know 'Stairway to Heaven,'" he admitted.
"Everybody knows 'Stairway to Heaven,'" Kate said. "This is 'Thank You.'"
Then she began to sing along with the radio.
"And so today my world, it smiles
Your hand in mine, we walk the miles"
Kate reached over and put her hand on top of Rick's right hand on the steering wheel. He glanced at her again, seeing both the joy and the love all over her face as she sang, looking right at him, and wishing he knew the words so he could sing along with her.
"Thanks to you, it will be done
For you to me are the only one
Happiness, no more be sad...happiness, I'm glad
If the sun refused to shine
I would still be loving you
Mountains crumble to the sea
There will still be you and me"
The song concluded with a slow instrumental fadeout. Kate leaned her head back against the headrest, squeezed the top of Rick's hand, and when she took her hand off of his, he caught hold of it and brushed a kiss across the back of her hand as they shared a loving look.
Two minutes later, they entered town, and Rick turned off the main street to go to the grocery store. They stocked up on everything for the long weekend, and after paying for their purchases and loading everything into the car, they left the grocery store.
When they were back on the main drag, Kate suddenly said, "Oh! Can you stop over there?" and gestured to a boutique that she'd been to a few times on previous visits to the Hamptons.
Rick swung the car into a parking spot right in front of the boutique. "Did you forget something at home?" he asked.
"Sort of," Kate said, not quite meeting his gaze. He shut off the ignition and Kate nearly vaulted from the car, proof that her physical therapy was working out very well. Rick got out of the car and followed Kate into the boutique, but she was nowhere in sight when he entered. Something was obviously going on with her, but he honestly didn't know what it was.
He pulled out his phone and found a text from Alexis, letting him know that she'd be taking the train up the next morning, and she'd text him again with her arrival time. He returned her text, then opened iTunes and downloaded Led Zeppelin's "Thank You" to his phone. He didn't have any other messages to return and was about to settle himself into a chair and start a game of Angry Birds 2 on his phone when Kate emerged from the back, where the fitting rooms were, carrying a navy blue garment of some sort over her arm. He wasn't close enough to see exactly what it was. She quickly paid for her purchase, accepted the paper shopping bag with handles that the sales clerk handed her, and pulled up short when she saw Rick waiting for her near the entrance and exit doors.
"Got what you need?" he asked.
"Yeah," she replied.
"Any other stops we need to make?" he asked.
"No," she said. "We'd better get to the house before those steaks thaw. Javi and Kevin are definitely expecting steaks on the Fourth."
Rick held the door for her, and they got back in the car and were soon at the house. Kate left her purchase in the car while she and Rick carried in the groceries and put them away.
Part of her knew she was being ridiculous. If anyone would understand, Rick would.
When he went back outside to bring in their suitcases, Kate followed him, letting him get her suitcase, but retrieving her purse and the shopping bag from the front passenger seat of the car.
A few minutes later, they were in their bedroom, and Rick began unpacking. He was showing remarkable restraint at not asking her what was in the shopping bag, Kate mused. She bit her bottom lip, then said, "Rick?"
He closed a dresser drawer, then turned around to look at her. "Yeah?"
"You want to know what's in here," she said, holding up the shopping bag.
"Very much," he replied, "but I know you well enough to know when you need space. You'll tell me when you're ready."
Kate mused, not for the first time, how far she and Rick had come. She sat down on the edge of the bed with the shopping bag in her lap and patted the edge of the bed next to her. Rick sat down beside her. She pulled the garment out of the bag and handed it to him. He unfolded it and looked at it. "It's a swimsuit," he said.
Kate nodded. "A one-piece swimsuit," she said, emphasizing the words "one-piece."
Rick instantly understood. "Ohhhhhhh," he said, drawing out the lone syllable.
"Yyyyyyyyyyyyyeahhhhhhhhhhhh," Kate replied, drawing out her reply. "I wasn't really thinking about anything at home except getting up here, so I packed my bikini, and then I realized everybody's gonna be here this weekend, and I don't want everybody seeing my new scars. I don't want anybody to see them but you and my doctors. And when I saw the boutique, I remembered going in there with Alexis once when she was buying a swimsuit, so…." She trailed off.
Rick put his ever-strengthening arm around her shoulders and drew her against his side. She climbed into his lap instead. "I understand," he said. "I understand completely." He rested his other hand on her abdomen gently. "But your scars...all your scars," he added, letting his hand drift up to her chest for just a moment before returning to her abdomen, "are beautiful. They are the proof of how hard you fought to live, of everything you wouldn't let those scumbags take away from you, from us."
Kate hugged Rick, and he hugged her back. "Thank you," she said. "For understanding."
"Always," he said. He drew back to look at her and confessed, "Actually, I'm not crazy about everyone seeing my scars either, especially my chest tube scar. Alexis and Mother haven't seen it yet. Ryan and Esposito will do the 'cool badass scars, Castle' thing, but Alexis and Mother haven't seen my scars yet, and I don't want my scars to upset them."
Kate gave a rueful smile. "So does that mean we don't go swimming all weekend?"
"I don't know," Rick answered honestly. "Ryan mentioned something about volleyball in the pool. We could get out of playing, I'm sure."
"But that's not our style," Kate said.
"No, it isn't," Rick replied.
"Alexis and Martha have to see your scars sometime," Kate said gently. Now it was she who rested her hand on Rick's shirt, over the scar on his upper chest, then let her hand drift down to the place where Rick had a small scar from the chest tube used to reinflate his lung in the hospital. "Yours aren't as bad as mine. Mine look like someone tried to carve out a road map on my abdomen with a ten-blade, which I guess is exactly what happened. And your scars are proof that you survived everything those bastards tried to take away from us too, babe."
Rick rested his forehead against Kate's. "One step at a time, right?" he said.
"Right," she said. "We just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. It's getting better. We are getting better. That's all that really matters."
"It is," he agreed.
Kate got up from Rick's lap then and headed to her suitcase, which she had not yet begun to unpack. She opened it, rummaged through it, and when she had her bikini in her hand, she began to undress.
"Get changed," she told her husband. "Let's go for a swim."
Not needing to be told twice, Rick went to the dresser and retrieved his own swim trunks. A few minutes later, they were both changed, and pool ready. "I remember the first time I saw you in a bikini," Rick said as he tied the drawstring on his red swim trunks. "L.A. You were the hottest thing I'd ever seen. You still are."
Kate ducked her head shyly, then looked up at her husband and smiled. "You're pretty hot yourself," she said.
"So does this mean you'll still wear bikinis for me?" he asked after they had grabbed towels and sunscreen before heading outside.
"Yes, but only for you," she replied, laughing at his leer, then brushing her thumb across his lower lip at his exaggerated pout in response to her laugh.
They were standing poolside now. After careful application of sunscreen, Kate stretched up as if she were going to kiss Rick...but at the last second, she spun away from him and dove into the pool.
"I thought you were about to kiss me!" Rick exclaimed, affronted.
Kate treaded water and looked up at him, laughing. "You want your kiss, Castle? Come in here and get it," she challenged him. She took off swimming, and Rick dove in and swam after her, finally catching up to her and wrapping himself around her. She shrieked with laughter as he moved her wet hair aside to plant kiss after kiss on the back of her neck. Then she turned into his arms and kissed him long and hard, her questing tongue seeking and finding his as he deepened their kiss. He pulled her closer, their arms going around each other, their hands sliding over each other's wet bodies as they indulged in a long, hot makeout session in the pool.
Finally Kate drew back, not leaving Rick's arms, but stopping things right before they crossed a line they weren't physically ready to cross yet by order of their doctors. They were both out of breath, and it took a moment for Kate to draw in enough air to give a frustrated sigh."I wish it was three weeks from now," she said.
"Me too. But we'll get there," Rick said, brushing one fingertip down her jaw.
"We will," she said. "We'll get everywhere we want to go." He brushed his nose against hers in both affection and agreement.
"I think right about now, we could use a shower," Rick said.
"Separate showers. Separate cold showers," Kate amended. "We've been tempted enough today."
"Yeah," Rick agreed. They got out of the pool, toweled off, and went inside. Before parting to take their separate cold showers, Rick kissed Kate once more. "Start thinking about dinner," he said.
"I will," Kate replied. Then, both still smiling, they headed for their separate showers.
