At the airport, she bought him a hoodie from the gift shop that was two sizes too big and had too many cliché images representing the state of California on the front.

"To distort the look of your build," she explained, drawing the hood up and over his head and disheveling the front of his hair with her fingers.

She had torn up his original plane ticket during the cab ride, purchased them both new ones that would take them to an airport in Connecticut instead of JFK in New York. According to Beckett, they would drive to the location of the safe house in New York as soon as they landed.

"You need to call your daughter," she instructed when they arrived in the correct terminal. "You have to tell her your book signing got extended for an extra couple of days."

"Lie to her?" he questioned, already hating this idea. He didn't want to do this anymore. He just wanted to go home. "Kate, I can't. I-"

Kate closed her fingers around each of his elbows, drawing him in closer, and he knew she was using her touch to influence him. And that it was working.

"She can't know, Castle. She has to think everything is fine or else she could accidentally alert Gina to what's going on," she explained in a placating tone that made him feel like a child.

"I thought Gina was gone."

"As far as we know, she is, but she could be watching. Just to be certain."

He felt the constricting vice of panic return at the thought of unwanted eyes on his daughter. He should have told her to change the locks.

"The last time we spoke," Kate started hesitantly, running her thumbs in small circles over the jutted angles of his bones. "She was suspicious of me, of my… my feelings towards you. She might think I plan to clue you into what's going on."

Castle swiped a hand across his eyes, nodding thoughtfully. "Yeah, Gina's pretty perceptive."

"And she was right."

His eyes snagged hers.

"Right about which part?" he murmured.

She sighed, squeezed his arms and held his gaze so that he could see the truth when she spoke it. "All of it, but we can't risk letting her know that," Kate pressed, no doubt trying to keep his mind from lingering too long on that small piece of her confession concerning her feelings towards him, but as if he was going to let that go anytime soon. "So use your phone to call Alexis, then dump it, and you can use mine to contact her throughout the rest of your time away."

Right, he had watched her dispose of her old phone outside of the hotel lobby and purchase a new one with cash at a convenience store she made their cabbie stop at. It eased his nerves that she at least knew what she was doing, but lying to his daughter, being away from her for an indefinite amount of time because his wife was trying to kill him… He had the threatening urge to vomit.

"You might…" Kate hesitated, shifted from foot to foot, and he slid a hand onto her waist, stilled her. "You should probably call Gina too."

"No."

"Rick-"

"I won't be able to hide it," he growled. "Like I said, Gina is smart and she'll hear it in my voice. She'll figure out that I know within seconds."

"Not if you just pretend. C'mon Castle, I saw you at your book signing the other day. You were dead tired, but it didn't show at all when you were in front of your fans," she coaxed and again, he felt the dull flare of betrayal attempting to form in the pit of his stomach.

"I really don't know how to feel about you spying on me," he grumbled as he withdrew his phone from his jacket pocket.

"Think of it as looking over you." He glanced up at her, saw the timid to form smile on her lips and he huffed a small laugh.

It was either laugh or cry.

"You my guardian angel now?" he teased, but his heart wasn't in it, and she leaned into his side, brushed a kiss to his cheek.

"Call your daughter first."

They sat down on the edge of a mostly empty row of seats in the terminal lounge, their flight still having fifteen minutes before boarding was called. He dialed Alexis's number with heavy fingers and closed his eyes as he listened to the phone ring.

"Hey Dad," his daughter answered with the usual lilt of cheeriness lacing through her voice. "How's your day going so far?"

"Fine," he replied, but the word was strangled and Kate squeezed her fingers around his knee. "But I have some news."

"Is everything okay?" Alexis asked in concern, her young voice already so serious, reminding him again of how mature his daughter was for her age. She could handle this.

"Yeah, yeah, it's not necessarily anything bad. I just won't be able to come home yet," he explained, sighing with a hint of regret, not too much, not as much as he felt. Alexis was smart too, and she knew him, almost as well as he knew himself. He had to orchestrate his tone, his answers, in a way that would convey a truth she would actually believe.

"Oh," she murmured, the disappointment evident in her response and Castle felt his heart clench. "Why?"

"Gina extended my time here, wants me to do some signings around the rest of California. All the big cities, you know?"

She sighed, sounding more irritated than alarmed now. "I guess I understand. Don't worry, Dad. Gram doesn't mind staying a few more days."

"That's extreme cause to worry," he joked and felt relief flood his chest when Alexis laughed softly.

"Don't be mean," she chided. "You'll still call every day?"

"Of course, Pumpkin," he promised her, but really, he wasn't necessarily sure. Would he be able to call her everyday? Would it be safe? Would it put his daughter at risk?

"Good. Just try to have fun, Dad. You'll be home before you know it," she assured him and he could picture the sweet smile that was probably gracing her lips.

He rubbed his fingers into the nape of his neck.

"I will. And Alexis, I love you."

"I love you too," she replied automatically, blessedly oblivious.

"That was hard," he muttered to Kate once the call had disconnected.

She slipped an arm through his, surprised him as she tilted against him and rested her cheek on the rounded edge of his shoulder.

"You're a good dad. And you're doing your best to protect her. She'd be thankful if she knew."

"I don't know if I ever want her to know. She doesn't care much for Gina, but to know the woman who's been living in our home for nearly two years is essentially a killer…" He took a shuddering breath and Kate lifted her head. He glanced to her, tried to draw strength from the understanding in her eyes. He wondered if she had been through this before, if whatever had happened to her in the past, whatever loss he imagined she must have suffered, had made her this way. "I don't want this to affect my daughter."

"You can't protect her from everything," she reasoned, and even though he knew it was the truth, he had the urge to argue. "But you can be alive for her."

He buried his head in his hands for a moment, took a deep breath, and dialed Gina's number before he could think better of it.

"Richard," she greeted, reciting his name in that clipped, sardonic tone she always used when she was annoyed with him. "Enjoying your final day on the west coast?"

"Immensely," he lied, channeling his kaleidoscope of emotions into a smooth and carefree act he knew all too well. If she could lie to his face for god knows how long about wanting him dead, he could play along just as effortlessly. "I think I may stay another day or two."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, the weather is just too good here. Among other things."

He knew he was testing boundaries, playing with fire by using a blatant insinuation, especially by the warning glance Kate shot him. Don't push too hard. But he wanted Gina to know he was enjoying his time away from her, he wanted her as furious as he felt.

"Well, I'm thrilled to hear you're having such a good time," she snapped, venomous. "But you do have responsibilities here, you know."

"You mean the next book? Don't worry, Gina. I've already gotten a few chapters done. I've found a ton of inspiration while I've been here."

He heard Gina expel a sharp breath through her nose, a distinct sign that she was fuming but attempting to keep her calm exterior.

"I have to go now," he quipped, ending the call just as Gina barked his name. "Good enough?" he asked, turning to Kate, who was watching him with a narrowed, reprimanding gaze.

"Don't poke the bear, Castle," she reprimanded, jabbing her finger into his chest for emphasis. "She's more dangerous than she seems."

He gave in and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pressed his forehead to hers as he grinned. "Good thing I have you protecting me, Agent Beckett."

She shoved his arm from around her just as their flight number was called, but he saw she was smothering a grin of her own.

"Why do you do it?"

Kate turned her gaze away from the window to see him watching her, like he had been for the entire flight. Studying her with intent concentration for three hours straight. She was already aware of what he was referring to, but she still inclined her head in inquiry.

"Undercover work. You've obviously been doing it for a while and something tells me you chose to be placed in this line of your work."

She really didn't want to talk about it, knew he could see that she didn't want to talk about it, but he still pressed on. Too insistent for the story, for her story.

"Is it the same reason why you always look so empty?"

She squared her jaw, irritation bubbling with the starting ache in her chest.

"Sometimes, Castle, there is no story. Sometimes a person just goes into my profession for the satisfaction of justice," she answered, cutting her eyes back to the blue sky and the thin streaks of clouds sailing beneath the plane.

"Oh, there's always a story, Agent Beckett."

"Shh," she hissed, smacking him on the arm. "Do you not comprehend the meaning of undercover?"

"Always a chain of events that makes everything make sense," he mused on as if she had never said a word, but still rubbing below his shoulder where her fist had connected. "Take you for example-"

"Stop it."

"Under normal circumstances, you should not be here. Most smart, good looking women become lawyers, not - owww."

Kate released his ear when the passing flight attendant shot the two of them a warning glance.

"I said stop."

"Then tell me. You owe me that much," he reasoned, demanding and pleading all at once and she glared at him in incredulous indignation.

"I owe you? I'm the one trying to save your life, but I owe you? Yeah, that makes total sense," she muttered but he stole her hand from the armrest, clasped their palms together.

"Take a chance and trust me, Kate."

"Trust you?" she whispered in exasperation, leaning closer to keep their conversation from the ears of fellow passengers. "Why would I-"

"Because you care about me." He shrugged his shoulders, like it was the simplest explanation in the world. "Just like I care about you."

"You shouldn't," she sighed, returning her gaze to the window and the midday blue sky outside. Castle had mentioned he didn't like flying very much, but she always felt safest in the air where no one could touch her. She was aware of every person on this flight, knew no one here had the intention to harm her or the man next to her.

Rick didn't speak, sat back in his seat and refrained from pushing for the information he wanted, although she knew he would try again sooner rather than later. For now, he smoothed his thumb over her knuckle, drawing slow circles over the ridge of bone, and she didn't know why she did it, what it was about him that screwed with all of her well-developed defenses, but she brought the back of his hand to her lips, deposited a kiss to his skin before dropping their hands back to the armrest.

She wished the plane would never land.