She's making pancakes by the time he manages to crawl out of bed and join her in the kitchen. Their conversation last night about their lack of sleep must have resonated with the sleep center of his brain or something because he's been out like a rock ever since. And now it's 10:30 AM. Judging by the spread of food on the table, the same affect was not present for Kate.

"How long have you been up?" he asks, sliding into one of the chairs at the table, all the while having flashbacks to when her apartment blew up.

"A while," she answers, transferring the pancakes from the griddle onto a plate.

"Did you sleep at all?"

He's watching her, looking for an answer her body language might give away that her voice will not.

"An hour. Maybe two."

She shrugs it off, bringing the plate over to the table before going back to the counter for her coffee.

"Another nightmare?"

A quick shake of her head before lifting her cup to her lips. "One more week of this decaf crap."

Is he supposed to push for an answer here? Or let her avoid his question? He'll push once, he decides. If she deflects again, he'll move on.

"I wasn't snoring was I?" Castle jokes, half-heartedly.

"Wasn't you. Chest pains."

His eyebrows furrow. "Still? I thought -"

She's shaking her head again. "Go ahead, dig in. Of course, it's so hot outside today if we just bring the food outside I doubt it'll get cold."

More deflection. So he backs off, for now, making a mental note to check in with her about her pain again later.

"How hot is hot?" he asks, spearing a pancake with his fork.

"High of 95."

"Wow yeah okay, summer is here and ready to go."

She laughs a little at that, reaching for the bowl of cantaloupe. "Heat wave rolling through this week. Then back to the 80s on Sunday."

"You know I thought you said something the other day ago about not being a weatherman but uh -"

Kate chucks a grape at him and he huffs when it lands in his syrup.

"And I told you I've been up for a while," she replies. "Plenty of time to check the weather."

The coldness of the lake is a welcome reprieve from the heat today. Castle makes it his personal mission to splash Kate every time he jumps in, since she's still sidelined and sitting out in the heat. Usually, she splashes him back with her foot when he resurfaces.

"How long until you can actually join me in here?" he calls up to her, draping his arms over the old pool noodle he found in the basement.

"One more week."

"That's the magic number isn't? One more week until you can switch back to regular coffee. One more week until you can swim. One more week until we can have sex again."

That earns him another foot splash.

"Four weeks after surgery, that's what my doctor said. As long as I feel up to it."

"So in the meantime, you just have to sit there and suffer?"

"You've splashed me enough times, I'm really not that hot."

"No, I wasn't referring to the heat," he starts with a smirk. "I meant suffering by seeing me here shirtless and not being able to do anything about it."

She splashes him again. "Man, next week can't come fast enough just so I can take your ego down a notch."

He laughs, paddling of out of her splash range with his pool noodle in tow.

"I have an idea though, if you're up for it," Castle tells her.

"What kind of idea?"

"Oh it's just this one thing, with ice cubes..."

Kate snorts. "I'm not doing that. Not today."

Castle laughs. "Get your mind out of the gutter, Beckett. This isn't a sex thing, it's a it's 95 degrees outside and you can't get in the lake thing."

Now she just looks confused. "What are you going to do? Put ice cubes down my shirt?"

He laughs again. "No just - trust me. It's going to be fun."

"You have a swimsuit top under that tank right?" Castle asks, once he has her seated at an old wooden picnic table under the shade of one of the many tall trees.

"Yes," she answers slowly. "Castle, what -"

"Okay good, take off your shirt."

She spins to look at him. "How is this not a sex thing?"

"It isn't, you'll see."

She narrows her eyes at him, but slips the tank top off over her head, and turns so her back is facing him again. She can hear him rummaging around with a bucket of what she assumes to be ice. She's trying to decide how quickly she could run away if his big idea was to simply douse her in ice water, when she feels the cool sting of an ice cube against her neck. It instantly sends a shiver down her spine.

"You don't want the details I'm sure," he starts, rubbing the ice down over her shoulder blade, "but I've found this to be an excellent way to cool off in the city when the air goes out and you're about ready to kill each other."

"Who are you trying to kill?" she asks, as he trails the ice down her arm, leaving goosebumps in its wake.

"Well no one right now, but when you live with Kyra - you know what? Never mind."

The ice cube melts away between his fingers and her wrist, and he bends to scoop another one from the bucket and repeat the path on her other shoulder and arm.

"Cooling you off any?" he asks, his lips against her ear.

She hums in agreement, letting her eyes slip closed at the sensation of his touch. The next cube trails down the length of her spine and curves over her left hip.

"You're wrong," she murmurs, as the ice slips over her thigh. "This is 100 percent a sex thing."

"It didn't start out that way," he confesses as the third cube melts against her skin. "But I'd forgotten how hard it is to keep my hands off of you."

A fourth cube, circling over her right hip bone, dipping beneath the fabric of the bottom half of her swimsuit. Her hips jerk to meet the ice, to meet his hand.

"When this one melts, it's your turn," she tells him.

He grumbles in protest, sliding the cube up her stomach and chest, avoiding her scar, and letting it melt in the crook of her neck.

"Come on, you have to be hot too."

She gets up and digs an ice cube out of the bucket and drags it across his back, instinctively chasing the trail with her lips.

"Now who's making it a sex thing?" he grunts.

She laughs, draping her arms over his shoulders from behind and letting the ice melt against one of his pectorals.

"Sorry, habit," Kate says with a small laugh.

"Habit? Do you use ice in bed a lot?"

"No, no, not a lot."

"But you have before?"

"Do you want me to go back to the part where Kyra came up and I let it go?"

"Ahem, right okay, carry on."

"That's what I thought."

She unwraps herself from his shoulders and moves back to her spot on the bench, dragging the bucket of ice with her to place in between them.

"Are you setting up a barrier to keep yourself from jumping me now?" he teases.

"No, I just have other plans for it."

"Oh yeah? And what are those?"

"You sure you want to know?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

"Well, if you insist."

She lifts the bucket and dumps the remaining ice water on his head before tossing the bucket to the side and sprinting away.

"That was completely rude and totally uncalled for," Castle yells after her as he chases her down the hill.

He easily catches up to her, as her stamina still hasn't fully returned, and gently tackles her to the ground, pressing his icy cold skin against hers. She squirms under him, laughing as the cold water from his hair drips onto her chest. He pins her arms above her head, and bends to kiss her, even the skin of lips being a cool contrast to the summer heat. Her legs move to wrap around his waist, pressing him even closer to her. His hips rock against her once before he stops himself and focuses all of his energy on the kiss. His icy skin is warming against hers, and she just wants more of him, wants her body and her health to be okay with taking more of him. She needs -

"Shit, ow."

Castle stops what he's doing instantly, as she mutters the words against his lips. "Did I do something? Are you okay?"

"Not you. I think there's a rock, digging into my back."

He rolls off of her and she sits up, turning to find the rock she must have rolled onto as they shifted in the grass.

"There's a little scrape," he tells her, running his index finger over the small red mark on her lower back. "I could get you some ice for that."

"Nice try, Castle, but you will not be dumping ice water on me today."

"Oh, I already have my revenge planned for next week. You better watch your back, Beckett."

"I thought your job was to watch it for me?"

He laughs as he stands and extends his hands to help her up as well. "Most of the time, that is my job, yes. But seeing as how we're on vacation, I deserve a day off."

"Just remember who you're messing with here, Castle. I'm not that easily surprised."

"Oh we'll see about that," he teases, linking his arm through hers and leading her back to the house. "But for now, I will settle for a glass of lemonade as an apology for that uncalled for cold shower."

She lingers in the doorway to the house, watching him try to dry off his hair with his beach towel.

"Hey, Castle?"

He lets the towel fall over his shoulders as he looks to her expectantly.

"The chest pains, last night, not about the surgery. I'm healing fine."

"Then -"

"I think it was anxiety. Got it in my head that any minute someone was going to burst through the front door and try to finish me off. Umm, hopefully we won't need it, but my backup piece is in the nightstand by my side of the bed."

"I shouldn't have put that thought in your head last night, I'm sorry."

She shakes her head. "You didn't. It's been there. I'll uh - I'll go get that lemonade now. It's just you asked this morning and -"

"You don't need to explain yourself to me, Kate. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay."

She nods once. "I think -" She takes a deep breath and nods again. "I think I'm getting there."

AN: I want to apologize for taking over two months to update. If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that I took the MCAT and applied for medical school this summer, so I've spent the majority of it studying and writing application essays. It's out of my hands now as everything is being reviewed, which means I have my free time back for the moment and I'm trying to get back into the swing of writing. If you're still with me, thank you for your patience. ~Emily