Castle nods. "Ready." Kate grabs a jacket he hasn't seen before from the back of the couch, and he helps her into it, using the opportunity to let his hand linger on her shoulder. "Kate?"
"Mmm?"
"Just wondering- exactly how many jackets do you own?"
She throws her head back, a genuine laugh that has him chuckling too. "You're cataloguing my jackets now?"
That was fun.
"Best. First date. Ever!" Castle declares as he walks her up the stairs to her apartment.
Kate can only nod in agreement. It turns out Castle knows how to show a girl a good time- dinner at a new restaurant, drinks at a nearby bar afterward. It's not that he did anything so special, she knows- but the little things add up. Flowers, opening car doors. She spends so much of her time fighting to be seen in the NYPD. Being treated like a woman on a date? Something she kind of loves.
The cab ride home, however, had been agony, beside one another but unable to do anything, the driver constantly flicking his eyes into the rear view mirror and glaring at them with mistrust. "He probably knows who you are- wants his book signed-" Kate had joked, lying through her teeth- this cab driver did not enjoy having amorous couples in his car.
"Next time we're taking the car service," he'd promised her, his breath on her throat making her shiver as he traced indelicate lines on her thigh- higher and higher and all she wanted to do was get back to her place and get the hell out of this cab and take him upstairs and- she'd squeezed her eyes shut tightly, images of what she wanted to do imprinted on her eyelids.
They've reached her door. "So." She raises her eyebrows at him. "You wanna come in? Just for a drink?"
"Just for a drink," he agrees, and Kate grins, unlocking the door. It's beyond her how they even made it up the stairs. She opens the door, flicks on the lamp. It's not too bright, but she can see Castle's eyes, dark. The moment she's got the door shut she closes the gap between them, pushing Castle back against the door. "So tell me, Beckett," he whispers, before she can press her mouth to his. "Do you kiss on the first date?"
She raises an eyebrow. "What, Castle- you won't respect me in the morning if I do?"
"Oh- I can promise you- I'll respect you. But- just wondering what the ground rules are-"
"Castle-" She pauses. "How can I put this delicately? Rick, you've seen me naked."
"It was pretty delicate," he agrees with a chuckle. His hands have found their way into her hair, and she's still leaning into him, pressing him against the door, when he leans back towards her, and kisses her. Oh god. Kate never wants this to end. His hands move to the small of her back, and he turns them around- suddenly she's the one being pressed into the door, his leg nudging between her legs, and oh god- if this can never stop, Kate thinks she can die happy.
The night light from the city is filtering its way through the lightly covered windows, spilling a soft orange glow into Kate's room. Against the front door? Rick feels his cheeks warm at the memory and he looks at the sleeping woman lying beside him. They'd barely made it into the apartment, and he's blown away by how right this all feels. Stupid cab driver, he'd thought, but in hindsight, not doing it in a taxi is probably for the best, since Kate probably needs to not be arrested for public indecency, given she works for the NYPD.
Now, they've made it into her bed, by way of the door and the shower, and Beckett passed out the moment her head hit the pillow. He strokes her hair, twisting it through his fingers. Usually, he's a good sleeper. He'd had to fight to train himself to get up to Alexis when she was a baby, and now Alexis is older, he's usually the one dead to world. But he can't stop staring. Kate is- extraordinary. Raw and compassionate, beautiful and funny. Rick knows he's given to flights of fancy, to romance- he falls in love at the drop of a hat, then he turns a corner, and it's done. This, though, feels different. More real. More raw. Heavier, as though in loving Beckett- although God knows, he won't use the word love in front of her, not yet- there's a new weight, even to his own self.
And the way she loved his daughter, looking after Alexis without a second thought- Rick knows, intellectually, that he's only known Kate a matter of weeks- but her utter compassion and kindness has blown him away. He's not looking for a mother figure for Alexis, but trusting Kate with his daughter feels right. Hell, he'd followed Sophia around for a year, spent six months in the woman's bed, and Alexis hadn't met the Agent, not even once. He's grateful that his mother had winked at him before he'd left tonight, with the whispered assurance that she would stay the whole night in the loft with Alexis, if he was "otherwise occupied" and unable to make it home- "but you can explain your walk of shame to your daughter," she'd told him.
It wouldn't be a walk of shame, as far as Rick was concerned. He drifts off, well past the edge of consciousness, if not in a deep sleep. Beside him, Kate snuffles and gasps, and he closes his hand around her shoulder. Unconsciously, Kate burrows into him, her breathing becoming jagged and she cries out- it's unintelligible, but she's having a nightmare, and he wriggles closer to her, enveloping her slight frame automatically.
"Kate," he whispers into her ear, half waking, rhythmically stroking her back, wanting her to wake. "Wake up, Kate." She cries out again, and the terror in her voice shocks him fully awake with its ferocity. "Kate, Kate-"
Her eyes fly open, and she struggles against him, before she really sees him and stills. "Castle?"
"Shhh, I'm here, I'm here." He can feel her heart pounding in her chest.
"Oh-" she moans, "I was dreaming-"
"I could tell. Wanna talk about it?"
She shakes her head, squeezing her eyes shut as she rests her head on his broad chest. "My Mom? Me? My Dad. I don't know what this one was about. I have a lot of nightmares." She shakes her head again, and he thinks he feels a dampness on his chest.
"You have a lot of nightmares?" He sounds surprised, but he doesn't know why he should be- she carries a lot of ghosts with her. "Why didn't I know this?" He wonders what is in the box beneath her bed- he'd seen the top page, he knows it's her Mom's case- but he doesn't know why it's here. Surely she's not supposed to have access to it? He wants to ask, but in a moment of rare restraint, he holds himself back. It's not the time.
"I guess I never had one when I stayed over with you." She lets out a sounds that might be a laugh, and he clings to the sound, to the idea that the gravity of the moment has lessened somewhat. "I mean- and this might come as a surprise to you- but we don't actually know each other that well-"
He shakes his head. "Not true, Beckett," but he whispers it into her hair, kind of hopes she can't hear him. "Do you think- I mean, do you feel safer, when you stay with me? How often do you have them, anyway?"
She shrugs. "No. I mean, yes, I feel safe with you. I do. It's not every night. It's just dumb luck. Some nights I'm fine."
"Kate- if I'm not with you- and you have a nightmare? You can call me. Any time of night. You know that, right?"
"And what- you'll answer on your crappy green phone?"
"Stop knocking the phone, Kate. You know I love that thing." 'And you' is the silent add on to that sentence that he keeps to himself.
Kate wakes in the morning before Castle, and pads out to her kitchen to start the coffee maker. The landscape hasn't changed since he arrived yesterday morning, so there's nothing but coffee in the apartment, but she figures that's still a good start. She makes two cups and takes a book from the bookshelf, heading back into the bedroom, popping one of the cups on the table beside Castle before curling back into bed.
Last night- she can't believe she had another nightmare. She's beyond sick of them. But the way Rick had held her- that was new. She can't remember Royce ever even waking up to her cries. And of course, apart from Royce, she hasn't exactly made it a habit to spend the whole night with anyone. She opens the pages of yet another favourite, and settles down, devouring the first chapter, before Rick stirs beside her.
"What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing, Castle? I'm reading."
"My stuff?" The glee in his voice is like a trigger- she rolls her eyes and huffs.
"I do own other books, you know."
He nods. "I saw. Frankly, the amount of Patterson you own is obscene."
"Castle- I own, like, two Pattersons. Maybe three." Okay, so she's read them all, and she owns five or six, but she knows some are at her Dad's place, so Castle doesn't need to know the details. What can she say. Alex Cross is nearly as addictive as Derrick Storm.
"Exactly. Obscene. Nobody needs to own that many."
"Shut up and drink your coffee-"
"Oh! You made me coffee-" he reaches for it, and stops with dismay when the cup reaches his lips. "Beckett- this is cold! You're cheating on me with Patterson, and you made me cold coffee-"
Kate purses her lips. "Really, Castle? Cheating on you? And I promise you, that coffee was hot, and if you weren't such a heavy sleeper, you could have had it when it was still warm."
Rick wrinkles his nose. "What's the time, Beckett?"
Kate has the good grace to blush. "Seven thirty."
"On a Sunday?" Rick squeaks at her, indignation rich in his voice.
"What? You were here at an ungodly hour yesterday morning-"
"Yes, but Beckett- yesterday I had a mission."
"Well maybe you should have a mission now," she replies, her smile negating the impatient tone.
"Maybe our mission right now should be sleeping-" She puts her book down, and snuggles back under the covers, her hands finding his bare skin as she pulls him towards her. "Or- okay- maybe some other kind of mission…" His voice trails off as she kisses his neck, and he responds, his arms wrapping around her and his hands dipping below the covers, ready to divest her of her sleep shirt.
A/N: readers and reviewers (and followers and favouriters)- thank you. Especially a shout out to Kristy, for the 250th review- and I think she maybe was my first reviewer as well! x
