When Richard Castle first met Kate Beckett, it was at one of his book signings. The day felt long, and he'd only been at it for an hour. His back hurt from leaning over the table, and his arm and fingers ached from the constant scribble of his signature on countless book after book. not to mention how annoyed he was. And of course. He couldn't show it. Oh no, he had to throw on his fake persona and suck it up. But after each adoring fan after the other. Some more crazy and obsessed than subdued... Meeting Kate was like a breath of fresh air. She wasn't fake, like all the others. She was real. So very very real. And he was smitten. He remembers how swept away he was when he first laid eyes on her. But it wasn't just her beauty that captured him. It was her stunning green eyes. They seemed to have flecks of golden brown in them.
She didn't look like someone who would stand in line for hours. This girl no older then twenty two maybe... standing before him. She was dressed in casual clothes. Yes. He remembers. She was wearing a white blouse. One he has seen on her even now. And a pair of blue jeans. Her hair hung down in waves, framing her face. He wasn't sure what kind of person or what sort of things she should have been doing. But there she was, standing in front of him. The only word he could think of at the time, as he sat their speechless, was that she was Extraordinary.
Aside from her appearance. He noticed that, even though the line was for maybe his fifth book, she was holding his first. Not to say he hadn't been given a stack of his books to sign by his fans, the more obsessed fans. Her hands where shaking when she handed her book off to him. He could tell how nervous she was before his eyes even graced her face. But at that moment, just seeing her hands, he thought her like all the others. But she wasn't just a fan. He could tell by her demeanor, the way she clutched at his book, which was already well worn. The binding crackled in protest when he opened it. She'd certainly read it more than once. He could imagine her settling in with it at night.
He remembers vividly the look deep in her eyes. He was transfixed in those eyes, despite her outlook appearance, she seemed haunted. As if she was carrying around a great weight. No. This book meant something to her unfathomable to him. He didn't know what she was...What he did know, gazing up into those sad, yet beautiful green eyes of hers, was that she was a wounded soul.
She's just as beautiful now, as she was then. He can see the similarities and differences between the girl then, standing nervously in line. To the woman now, sitting nervously at her desk. He can see it in the lines of her face. She's less ridged, less guarded. There was a timidness about her when they first met he could almost never relate to the Kate Beckett he sees before him now. At least, it's a different kind of timidness. Then, she was scared, unsure, less confident. Kate now a days is confident, fearless, in most cases when it's not related to the matters of the heart...perhaps that is something that is the same. But even that is not all true. He senses that change in her, because in that book store, he could tell she was keeping herself from living. Call it being a writer, or just plain intuition...But these days? Kate Beckett, is trying to be more.
Castle draws his hand back, leaning into his chair. She's staring at him with a mixture of shock, and wonder. She bites her lip, frowning. He knew she would latch onto the idea that he never told her. That he remembers her.
Truth be told. He could never forget. That day at the bookstore. That girl. Had awakened something in him. Something so profound, he knew he had to find her. He had to know who this mysterious creature was.
But it's not like she was standing there in uniform. She had to have been out of the academy by then. So she was a police officer, and yet he didn't see a badge in sight. She certainly didn't come off like one... And, she hadn't given him her full name. No. Once she stepped out of that bookstore, she was a mystery he was never going to solve... But it doesn't mean he hadn't tried. He even looked for her at every other book signing after that. She never stood in another one of his lines again.
It was years later before he ever saw her again. Even though he thought a time or two, that he saw her walking down the street, or driving by in the back of a cab, or sitting at a bar he used to frequent. But each time, it was never her. Oh how is heart would rise in his chest every time he swore it was her! It was like his own little rendition of Serendipity. She was his Sarah. Always just missing her. Always one step behind or two steps forward. Never in the same place.
To this day, if anyone asks. He will swear up and down that it was fate that brought her into his book launch party. Not irony, or a coincidence. Richard Castle had always stuck to the belief that life is not just a series of meaningless accidents or coincidences. But Destiny
When Detective Kate Beckett walked into his life, it was like a parallel between having stood in line to have his first book signed. To nearly arresting him at the launch of his last book series of novels. She wasn't just Kate, the girl with the sad green eyes anymore. She was Detective Kate Beckett. The woman, with the sad green eyes. No matter how hard she tried to hide it.
"You remember me?" Kate asks now, releasing her hold on her bottom lip. Her thumb fiddling with the book jacket again. She sounds curious, yet shy. A side of her he rarely gets to see.
Still ever the mystery.
"Even after all this time. All the fans you've signed for?" She fixes him with a look. Perhaps challenging. Asking if he is just saying this to appease her.
Rick Castle stares with his bright blue eyes, into her soft green ones. "How could I forget?"
I know this is a bit shorter...but I don't want to give it all away at once. So I am spacing it out...Thoughts?
P.S. Last chapter for a while. My other story, The Head and the Heart, comes back from it's hiatus like the show does on Monday. So that Chapter should be up within a week. Along with a chapter of Follow you into the Dark...that is if your reading it...if not...please read!