Eight

"Uh, Beckett?"

Kate grunted at the sound of her partner, Esposito, approaching. She glanced up only briefly from the coffee she was pouring to see him hovering a few feet away just inside the door. "What's up?"

"Have you read the Post's celebrity column yet today?"

She laughed out a, "No. Why?" Kate could count on one hand the times she'd voluntarily read the celebrity column in the prior decade. She had, on a few additional occasions, read a specific article when the writer stuck his tablet under her nose and requested that she do so, but otherwise she had little interest in reading about what the upper echelon of Elites were up to those days.

"You're probably going to want to look at this."

Kate glanced over at the tablet her partner held out for her and gasped immediately upon seeing the headline, Castle Relationship Shocker! Kate abandoned her coffee mug on the counter and quickly snatched the tablet so she could read the article that—god help her—probably involved her name.

Famed Elite mystery writer Richard Castle has confirmed exclusively to Page Six that he is in a relationship with Normal-born NYPD Detective Kate Beckett. Castle, who has written nearly two dozen novels, began shadowing the detective nearly four years ago to research his newest character, Nikki Heat. Since then, rumors have been flying about the couple romantic status. After they were spotted looking very cozy at a charity event last month, it seemed the will-they-or-won't-they darlings had finally made a commitment. We reached out to Castle's publicist only to receive a return phone call from the man himself.

"Yes, Kate and I are dating and we're very happy, thank you," he said as a statement. When asked whether or not he viewed the fact that Beckett is Normal-born as a future issue between them he said, "Of course not, because I love her."

On that point, only time will tell.

"Unbelievable!" Kate grumbled before stalking out of the breakroom and stomping her way towards the writer, who sat at his usual position in the chair beside her desk. "Castle!"

The writer jumped at her scolding tone so much that he nearly dropped his phone onto the ground. He scrambled around to try and catch it before it fell while asking, "What? What happened? You were gone three minutes!"

"This happened!" she said, flinging out her arm holding the tablet. "You gave Page Six an interview!? I cannot believe you did this. I never asked you to do this!"

The writer spluttered for a moment as he stood and tucked his phone into his jacket pocket. "Wa—no—no I didn't give them an interview… They've been harassing Paula and she's been complaining to me so I called them back and gave them an honest answer."

She dropped the tablet down onto her desk a bit harder than she should have. "Why didn't you just take out a billboard instead!?"

"Well this was much easier than that…"

"Castle! Why didn't you ask me before you did this? Or let me know after you'd done it?"

"I…was hoping you wouldn't see it?" he offered as more of a question than anything else, his upper lip curling into a cringe. Too infuriated to speak, Kate merely growled in response.

The writer held up his hands defensively. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry. Paula just called me to complain again—she really has been getting bombarded since we were photographed leaving that charity thing together—and she was putting me on edge so I made what was, admittedly, a rash decision. I should have told you—asked you!" He corrected quickly when her eyes flared wide. "But, honey, isn't it time people know? It's been four months and we're so happy. Is there really something so wrong about people knowing how happy we are?"

Kate pressed her lips together tightly and gave her head a quick shake. She couldn't really argue with him on that point. The prior four months had been the happiest of her life. The transition she and Castle made from friendly partners to lovers had been absolutely seamless. While the beginning had been filled with some animosity from his daughter, Alexis had eventually come around. Kate knew the girl would never be fully supportive of her father's choice, but she had promised not to be adverse to it and to spend more time trying to understand Normals in exchange for her father allowing her to finish out her high school tenure at her Elite private school. As for everyone else: Martha was thrilled, Ryan wouldn't stop inviting them to couples double-date events, and Esposito insisted he didn't care as long as they didn't make out in the squad room, though he later causally mentioned to her how nice it was to see her happy.

The detective truly did not mind if others outside their tight-knit circle of close friends and family knew the reason for her happiness, but it was not that simple. "It's not as much that I'm mad people know we're a couple now, but now we have to face the fallout from all of this."

The writer reached out and skimmed his hands down her arms until he could squeeze her wrists reassuringly. "It's going to be fine."

"Is it?" she asked somewhat rhetorically, but before he could answer, Ryan walked up to them and asked, "You ready Castle?" The writer had already agreed to go and interview a suspect who happened to be an Elite. Though he was very helpful due to his observational skills and outside-the-box thinking, Kate's team found the writer most useful when it came to dealing with Elites who they feared would not only look down upon them as police but as Normals as well.

Smiling to his girlfriend, the writer said, "I promise it's going to be fine." He leaned in and kissed her cheek before grabbing his jacket from the back of the chair and calling out, "I love you!" as he walked towards the elevator.

"Yeah," Kate sighed quietly, putting the cover back across the tablet and walking it to Esposito's desk, "me too…"

"You look like your day got worse after that perp punched you out."

Castle looked up when his girlfriend walked into his office and winced at the throbbing pain in his jaw. No, being slugged by the Elite accused of murder he'd gone to interview had not been fun. However, watching Ryan cuff him for assault after the blow had made him feel moderately better. Skimming his hand over the spot he knew would have a bruise by morning he said, "I'm fine, Kate."

She studied his face for a moment before concluding. "No you're not, but not because of the punch… Black Pawn?" she guessed, taking a seat in the chair across from him.

He took in a deep breath and dipped his chin. "Yep." He had taken the call no long after he'd returned home to ice his injury while Ryan took the perp in for booking. Gina had been, as predicted, gleeful as she mentioned the article in Page Six and then grilled him about how long their relationship had been going on. Of course, Castle refused to give her a straight answer as it was none of her business both as his ex-wife and publisher.

"Canceling your contract?"

"I'm on probation pending a contractual review but…I'm sure that's where this is going." He skimmed his hand over the uninjured side of his face and leaned back in his chair. Immediately after ending the call with the reporter a few days earlier Castle had wondered just how long it would take before Black Pawn was scrambling to keep their reputation intact, but he had honestly been surprised by the same-day phone call. Then again, Castle believed that Gina suspected he and Kate were romantic long before they actually were, so perhaps she'd been prepared. Nevertheless, her comment about recent events making it clear that their lawyers needed to review his contract to see if it breached the public perception and behavior clause made him sick. He hadn't murdered or assaulted anyone; he was in love, and if that was his worst crime, he couldn't be happier about it; perhaps it was time he found a publisher more in line with his own views.

"I'm sorry."

Castle shook his head as he stood and walked around so that he could crouch down beside her and assure her that he in no way was upset. "I'm not—really." He added when she gazed down at him skeptically. He was annoyed, but he would move on. In fact, he already had a plan. "I can keep writing on the side, but this actually gives me the opportunity to focus on the new project I've been thinking about for a month or so now."

"Which is?"

"Politics. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure Normals are guaranteed the same rights as Elites, even if that means I have to run for office myself." As his plan was still all inside his mind, he was probably being a bit overzealous about it, but now that Black Pawn had cut his leash, he had ample free time to work on the goals he wanted to achieve in whatever ways possible.

"Wha…are you serious?"

He smiled and nodded. "Absolutely."

Her brow knitted as she gazed down at him. "Oh, Castle…that's so sweet, really, but…but I don't know how I feel about being with a politician."

"But I won't be a greedy, crooked one." He promised with a wink. As she continued to look uncertain, he lifted up his right hand so it could skim beneath her jaw and he could brush his thumb over her cheek. "I just want to make sure that you and our future children have the best world possible to live in."

Castle had never thought once about having Normal children before Kate brought it up as something she wanted for her future. Elite reproduction was the way of the future—if one could afford to have an Elite child, which he could, but the more he thought about Normal conception, the more excited he was. They didn't need to worry about inherited diseases; as an Elite he didn't have any. They could just be happy and excited to try to conceive, just like people had done decades in the past. Then they would have a baby—hopefully more than one, though not necessarily at the same time—and live in the wonder of who that child would look more like and what they'd grow up to be. The experience was going to be incredible and he couldn't wait which was why he had to make sure the world would be ready and safe when that time came. He still worried that as a Normal born from an Elite his child would face the same struggles he did growing up, but he and Kate would make sure that child was fully loved and strong enough to bear any adversity that came their way.

Nuzzling her cheek onto his hand, Kate said, "You're wonderful, you know that?"

He shrugged playfully. "I've heard it once or twice." Then he leaned in and gave her a kiss. "I love you, Kate."

Leaning her forehead into his, she sighed out, "I love you, too. Always."

A/N: Thank you all so much for humoring me with this strange little AU universe. There is a companion fic I would call it. I thought about what this type of story might look like if it really were illegal for Elites and non-Elites to be together and so I wrote an AU of my own AU - because that's what I do with my time... ha. Still needs cleaned up a little bit but it'll be coming in the next few days.

Thanks again for reading!