I'm BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

I'm so sorry for the long hiatus with this story! I've already explained part of the reason in my A/N for 'Be Ok' (ie. I suck at life right now) - but also, b/c I've been finding it really difficult to switch gears from that story - and I want this story to be nothing but light fluff and cavity inducing sweetness! We all saw how Chapter 2 was far more somber than any of us wanted it to be - hopefully this one will be much more in keeping with the tone I wanted for this piece.

Be warned - if you're looking for substance - turn. away. now. There will be none of that here! :)

::insert shameless self-plug here:: If you want substance - go read 'Be Ok' - and review it of course! ;)

Alright - enough of all that.

First up:

THANK YOU OMG WOW AMAZING AND HOLY CRAP! You guys and your reviews never cease to blow me off my ass! Keep 'em coming! I love you all for each and every word - for good or for bad!

On with the tale!

disclaimer: Seriously - would Marlowe ever come up with this kooky of a storyline - of course not. That's my job. I'll give 'em back when I'm done...maybe.

Chapter 3

"I love you, and because I love you, I would sooner have you hate me for telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies" -Pietro Aretino

Kate Beckett, NYPD detective, knew what it meant to watch time crawl by. She'd been on stake outs for hours watching seemingly empty buildings in seemingly empty alleys. She'd pored over financial records and witness statements, like a needle in a haystack, until her eyes burned in her head and her mind screamed to be occupied with something else.

The last three days were something far beyond her experience. She was crawling out of her skin. Worse, given her…condition…the steely control with which she hid her innermost thoughts and emotions was sorely lacking, and she wasn't the only one paying the price.

"Nurse Ratchet! (oh yes, she was going to have to 'thank' Castle for implanting that little gem in her mind once this as all over) When do we get to leave?"

"Detective," the nurse replied calmly, somewhat worse for wear after three days with her two special patients, though smiling nonetheless, "you will be able to leave just as soon as the doctor has reviewed your's and Mr. Castle's last MRIs."

Bless that poor woman's soul, but she had the patience of a saint.

"But we want to go noooooooooow," Castle chimed in, not one to be left out of the 'fun' of haggling the poor nurse.

"Castle!" Beckett found herself barking in annoyance, "if you whine like that one more time, I'm going to go over there and twist your ear right off your head."

His eyes lighting up with childlike glee he turned to Beckett.

Game on.

"No you won't."

"Oh yes I will. Remember, I can't tell any lies. That means that everything that I say is true. Therefore res ipsa loquitur," she snarked his own Latin back at him.

"You still won't do it," he smiled knowingly, egging her on, waiting for the right moment to spring his trap.

"And what makes you say that?"

It was sad really. She'd practically waltzed right into it with all the grace of a rabbit in a hunter's snare.

"Because you love me."

He smiled.

She paled.

...at least until she flushed a deep crimson.

Taking her silence as a sign of his victory, he lay back against his pillow, smile wide and jubilant.

In spite of her embarrassment at their public antics, the last three days had taught Beckett a lot, some of it about Castle, most of it about herself. After giving in to Castle's pleading for her to keep him company in bed, it turned out that the restraints were largely unnecessary.

At least, most of the time.

Unfortunately, it did seem that the man had an unrepentant desire to streak the hallways in his birthday suit – a quirk that she found both endearing for reasons that she was at a complete loss to explain, and somehow, not at all surprising. While she was near him, she had quickly learned the signs of an impending streaking session – unfortunately for the harried nursing staff and some of the more easily shocked patients on their floor, she hadn't quite managed to catch him every time. Suffice it to say that in the last three days, there wasn't too much of Castle that she hadn't seen. And when she was completely honest with herself (the irony of that thought was not lost on her) she could admit that she liked what she saw.

But it wasn't just the physical nakedness that he revealed to her – it was the emotional nakedness that surprised her the most. She had always thought that Castle had little self-control to begin with – boy was she wrong. That man wore more masks than she could ever have imagined. What surprised her further still was that, despite his complete loss of inhibitions and impulse control, there were still certain parts of himself that he showed only to her. While the childish behaviour and petty arguments were perfectly at home in a public forum, despite the embarrassment to her and his family, any emotions of fear or sadness were kept from the nurses and shown only to her. It was amazing really – either he had more impulse control than the doctors originally thought, or else he simply never felt any urge whatsoever to reveal those thoughts and feelings to the people around him except for her. For the time being, she refused to dwell on which of those two options was likely to be the case – she really wasn't ready to deal with it yet.

Which reminded her…

"Nurse Ratchet!"

"Detective Beckett!" the infinitely patient nurse finally showed the first signs of cracking. Sighing in relief when the doctor finally entered the room, the nurse beat a hasty retreat and let the detective browbeat the doctor for awhile.

"It's about time, doctor! We would like to go home," her tone brooked no argument and even fewer manners.

"Kate…" Castle looked over to her, his eyes pleading. "You have to talk nice to the doctor and not piss him off if you want him to let us go," he mock whispered.

Aiming her glare in his direction she mimed yanking his ear off as he reeled away from her gesturing hands, slapping his own hands protectively over his ears.

The doctor smiled at their childish antics and decided to take pity – granted not on the two patients, but rather, on the rest of his staff. He wasn't sure how much more they could take and given that the two were on the mend with no signs of the damage being permanent, he was happy to let them go home. There was just one small catch...

"Well, Detective Beckett, Mr. Castle, I've reviewed your scans and feel that you two can be discharged from the hospital—"

"YES!" Castle's exuberant cry and fist pump cut the doctor off mid-sentence while Beckett just flopped back down on her pillows in relief.

"But—"

She shot up again – she had a sinking feeling she wasn't going to like this.

"I understand that you, Detective, live alone. Unfortunately, you will need to either have a friend stay with you, or else you will need to find a friend to stay with in order for me to release you."

"That won't be a problem doctor," Castle piped up from his bed, already moving towards her bed. "She'll be staying with me and my family."

"Well it's settled then—"

"Excuse me," she cut the two men of harshly, "I resent you two deciding my life for me, I'm not a child, I can take care of myself."

"Kate," Castle sat down beside her, taking her hand up in his, "you do realise what will happen if you decide to go home by yourself, don't you?"

Now, most people would conjure up images of sudden brain aneurysms, forgotten medications, strokes, and other such calamities. Kate Beckett knew better. She knew better because the last three days had taught her that there were worse things in life than a brain aneurysm. In her mind, she saw images of Castle, stark naked, running through the streets of Manhattan, yelling her name to the high heavens, to come and find her, his poor family chasing after him.

She dropped her head in defeat, muttering 'fine' under her breath.

She'd barely gotten the words out before she found herself being hoisted from her bed. Before she knew it, she found herself flipped upside down, ass over tea kettle, draped over Castle's shoulders and being afforded a very interesting view down the open back of his hospital gown. Between her shock and horror, she found herself extremely grateful that Lanie had brought her a set of pajama pants and t-shirts.

That did not, however, take away from the fact that she, a grown woman, and an NYPD detective, for goodness sake(!) was being carried at an alarming speed down the hospital hallways like a sack of potatoes, and by Richard-Freaking-Castle, of all people.

"Put me down, Castle!" she yelled, thumping him in the back with his fists.

"Shhhhh! We're making a break for it! Can't let them catch us!" he yelled back up gleefully.

His glee, and her embarrassment were short lived as they were both tackled to the ground only a few hundred feet from their room.

Lying in a tangled heap on the floor, it took a few minutes to figure out what happened.

"Well, well. What have we got here?" the person standing above them didn't even try to hide their amusement.

Finally pulling herself from the wreckage of limbs on the floor, Beckett found herself staring up at her best friend, her boss, her other partner and her father. The only person missing from the audience was—

"Guys…" Ryans muted voice groaned from somewhere beneath Castle's still sprawled frame, "get him off me"

Finally regaining his own bearings, Castle pushed himself into a sitting position, finally allowing the much smaller man to get free of the pile-up

"They're letting us out, Lanie!" Castle crowed triumphantly, not the least bit phased by either the failed 'kidnapping' attempt, nor by the fact that his now completely twisted hospital gown was doing a very poor job of hiding…well, anything really.

At that moment in time, just when she thought that nothing in the world could ever cause her to blush again, she sat there in the hospital hallway and prayed for the ground to open up and swallow her whole.

There you have it folks! I hope that this lived up to your hopes of mindless fluff a bit better than the last chapter.

Please let me know what you guys think. I'm really not sure how I feel about this chapter, personally. I'm not sure how well I kept them in character (all things considered). Any suggestions for future antics are also most welcome and will quite likely find their way into future chapters.

Thanks for sticking with me guys! Y'all are truly, truly AMAZING people. ^_^