"Kate," Rick called out as he moved through the crowd of people towards the laughing brunette. He was fed up and he wasn't going to just sit around and watch as Kate flirted and acted like someone he didn't particularly like around this new man who neither of them knew. "Kate," he said again, his voice snapper as she turned her attention away from Will and smiled at him, Will's arms still wrapped around her body from where they'd been dancing. "I'm going home," he stated before turning away and began to move towards the exit, the brunette quickly unravelling herself from Will's arms before she followed him.

"Rick," she shouted, attempting desperately to be heard over the loud music as Rick got closer to the door. Reaching out after a few more steps, Kate grabbed hold of his arm, stopping him from moving away before he turned to face her. "Don't leave yet," she begged, the writer surprised that she was even saying that. She hadn't noticed him for the most of the evening because she was so enthralled by the FBI agent who she'd been wrapped around two seconds ago. "It's still early."

"I didn't come out tonight to watch you make an idiot of yourself," he said simply, her eyebrows rising as he did up his jacket and began to move away again. "I'm going home Kate, make your own way back when you're ready," he declared before walking away again as she remained perfectly still. She wasn't going to let him say that and leave without explaining himself first! Following the writer out of the building, Kate quickly grabbed hold of his arm again, slowly becoming exhausted by the extreme exercise she was doing. She wasn't used to walking, dancing and running all in one evening and it was starting to become too much for her.

"You can't say that Rick and walk away from me," she declared as he stared at her, taking in how angry she looked.

"I can't believe you don't even see how stupid you're being. You're not nineteen years old Kate," he responded before laughing. "You've been throwing yourself at him all evening like a desperate teenager whose excited because he has a badge. You don't even know the man," he argued as she remained silent. "You look desperate and it's embarrassing to watch."

"I'm just having some fun with new people. What did you expect? For me to be only your friend?" she responded, clearly angry by his comments.

"I expected you to act nice to the friends you already have Kate. I brought you out to dinner, I wanted to spend time with you and you just disappeared with the first man who showed interest in you," he shouted quickly, both of them knowing they were starting to draw attention from the people around them. "You're a beautiful woman Kate, do you really think he's interest in getting to know you?" he stated.

"What do you care? It's my life," she declared.

"Yes but look at you, you're flinging yourself at the first man who offers you a drink and a dance. You deserve someone who wants to get to know how amazing you are, you don't need someone in your life who just wants a quick fuck and then leaves you," Rick shouted, breathing out in relief when his car service appeared.

"And what? You want to be this amazing guy in my life? Do you think that because you've been around and have done things to help me that I'm going to want to be with you out of gratitude? Do you think that's what you deserve that? Do you see me as some sort of prize for your behaviour?" she hollered at him, the two of them falling silent as any sense of happiness disappeared from his face. "Rick," she said quietly, immediately regretting what she'd blurted out.

"Come home when you're ready," he declared before looking at the waiting driver. "Can you give her your card please so she can call when she wants to come back? If she wants to come back," he asked quickly, the younger man nodding before he dug out his business card and passed it to the brunette.

"Rick," Kate said quietly.

"I will see you back at the apartment, I'm not talking about this now," Rick said quickly before climbing into the vehicle and shutting the door, not even looking back as Kate stood on the pavement in her tight black dress, unable to stop herself from staring at the vehicle. "Wait," Rick ordered the driver before he undid his window and looked up at the brunette. "You're worth more than one night Kate and I would never just want you for that. You're extraordinary Kate Beckett, I just wish you could see that," he declared before the car pulled away.

XXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Why are you leaving so early? You could come back to mine for a coffee," Will stated as he followed Kate out of the busy building, watching as she type a number into the cell phone she was clinging onto. "Come on Kate, we were having fun. What did he say to upset you?" he asked, grabbing her arm gently as she shook her head and spoke into the phone, asking to be collected before she put it down and turned to face him.

"Will," she said quietly as a large smile covered his face. "I'm going home," she declared, a smile of relief appearing on her face when the car that had taken Rick away reappeared in front of her. Opening the door, Kate climbed into the vehicle before turning to face the man she'd spent most of the evening with who was staring at her from the pavement. Waiting for him to ask for her phone number or to see her again, Kate shook her head before shutting the door and asking the drive off, leaving Will behind on the pavement. Shutting her eyes, Kate quickly ran her fingers through her hair before shaking her head at how stupid she'd been. Will clearly wasn't interested in her, he was interested in having sex with her and then disappearing and she'd had a fight with her only friend over a stupid man! Sitting in complete silence for the journey, Kate quickly glanced up at Rick's building before thanking the driver and climbing out. "You can do it Kate," she said confidently. She could do this! She could talk to Rick about everything he'd said, including those last words before he had disappeared and left her. Walking inside, she quickly approached the elevator before the doors opened and took her up towards his apartment. Stepping out of the metal box, Kate groaned outside the door at the realisation that she didn't have a key to the apartment.

"Darling," a voice called out behind her, Kate turning quickly in the direction to see Martha walking towards her with a large smile covering her face. "Where's Richard?" the redhead questioned, observing the absence of her son, noticing immediately when Kate glanced down the floor, almost ashamed with herself. "What's wrong?" Martha asked, her hand resting on Kate's arm as the brunette shook her head and immediately found herself being pulled into the security of Martha's arms. "Why don't we go inside and talk?"

"Because I'm not ready to admit that Rick was right about everything," she blurted out, clearly upset as Martha sighed and moved away to unlock the front door.

"If Richard's upset about something, he'll have locked himself away in his bedroom and he'll be pretending that he isn't miserable. We'll go in, have a talk and then you can confront my son about whatever he's gotten right," Martha explained before stepping into the apartment, Kate following silently, immediately noticing that Martha was right and Rick was nowhere to be seen.

"Richard darling, I'm home," Martha called out as Kate shut the door behind her.

"I'm writing mother," a voice immediately called from upstairs. He was clearly in the spare bedroom rather than downstairs.

"Let's go into your room," the redhead whispered, leading Kate into what had previously been Rick's study before they entered the bedroom and Martha sat down on the edge of the bed. "Now what's happened between you and Richard? You were all happy when you were left and now you're not even arriving home at the same time," the actress stated as Kate remained standing. "Darling you look exhausted, sit down."

"I…" Kate began before slowly moving to sit down beside the older woman. "I went to get drinks and this guy started talking to me. He seemed nice and he was interested in me and I just liked getting the attention from someone else who didn't know about the case and everything," she explained as Martha nodded slowly. "And I left Rick to go dancing with him. I was horrible to him Martha, I can see that now. I ignored him and I was flaunting this man around, I was flaunting my and acting like a complete desperate idiot," Kate blurted out.

"Darling you're allowed to talk to other men, how are you supposed to meet people?" Martha sighed as Kate shook her head.

"I was there with Rick and I just ignored him and now he is so angry with me. He warned me that Will only wanted to have sex with me and that I was acting like a stupid teenager and that I deserved more than an one night stand and I didn't listen, I accused him wanting to have sex with me instead," Kate explained as Martha sighed and wrapped her arms around the brunette. "I accused him of wanting me to be a prize for everything he'd done."

"Kate, my son cares about you a lot," Martha muttered as she smiled at the younger woman. "He would do anything for you and he may come across as a lady's man in the papers and to some people but he would do anything for family and you're part of that now. He only wants what's best for you," she explained as Kate shut her eyes, embarrassed by her behaviour. "Go and talk to him darling," Martha insisted as Kate remained perfectly still beside her. "It'll be worse if you leave it any longer; you'll both become angrier at yourselves and take it out on each other."

"Okay," Kate finally submitted before standing and moving towards the door.

"Don't worry darling, if you have a screaming match Alexis has gone out with friends for the night and I can always leave," Martha smiled as Kate laughed nervously and stepped out of the room before walking towards the stairs and towards where Rick was working. Knocking on the door in exhaustion, Kate breathed out as she waited for a response.

"Mother you never knock, you just barge in," Rick called from within the room as Kate smiled weakly.

"It's not Martha," she responded, not surprised when the door suddenly opened a few seconds later to reveal a pyjama dressed Rick. "Hello," she said quietly as he smiled weakly at her, moving away from the door to let her into the bedroom. Stepping quietly into the room, Kate slowly moved to sit on the edge of the bed as Rick shut the door and turned to face her, noticing the exhaustion that was covering her face as she attempted to stop herself from yawning.

"Where's Will then?" Rick asked quickly. "I'm amazed you're not with him now, seeing how close you two were when I left," he announced, his voice full of anger as she stared at him for a moment, shocked to see him behaving like this! Who did he think he was? She'd never seen him like this before.

"He wanted me to go home with him but I said no Rick," she admitted as Rick remained silent in the doorway. "Because I'm not desperate and I'm not interested in sex right now and I wanted to sort this out more than anything," she stated as he stayed completely still, making her more angry. Why wouldn't he just deal with the problem? Why wouldn't he respond? "Rick I'm trying to apologise for earlier," she blurted out, the writer looking at her as she sat on the edge of his bed. "I'm sorry for what I did, I'm sorry for abandoning you for the evening but I was trying to get on with my life and start meeting people again."

"Get on with your life or fling yourself at whatever man paid attention to you?" he asked.

"That's not fair Rick," she responded before standing up again.

"What's not fair is taking someone out dancing, someone you want to get close to and get to know better but to find yourself being abandoned by that person because she decides to dance with another man and flirt desperately," Rick explained as she stared at him for a moment. "I wanted to spend an evening with you Kate without the concern of medicine or your mom's case. I wanted to be with you tonight," he stated, clearly frustrated as she remained silent. "I wanted to be with just you Kate for one night."

"Oh," she whispered, realisation finally hitting her. "I didn't realise."

"No, you made that quite clear," Rick commented as he slowly moved towards the door, stopping when she grabbed his arm when he moved passed her.

"You said you would take me on a date when I got out of hospital," she remembered, smiling weakly at the conversation. "I didn't realise it was a date, I didn't realise that you wanted that and what I said earlier I didn't mean. I was just angry with you," she blurted out, extremely embarrassed about her earlier actions when she realised what he'd wanted. "Rick please."

"I was the one being stupid. Why would you be interested in me Kate?" he laughed to himself before moving out of her grip and disappearing out of the room, Kate sitting down on the edge of the bed before burying her face in her hands. How could she have been so blind?

I dislike this chapter but my brain decided to make it more of a filler chapter than a high drama one which I know a lot of people were expecting and the tension will continue for a while until it's dealt with. I don't want to rush them into a relationship and at times I found my brain suggesting that they get together now but I don't think they're ready for that yet in the story and I have more things I want to explore before they enter a relationship.

Anyway please review, I love hearing from you and I promise to update quicker next time as I have no more holidays planned now.