Author's Note: Just a little two-shot inspired by the song Distance by Christina Perri. All italicized lyrics are from the song. The lyrics just stuck with me and I had to get this out. It's slightly AU. Basically, it's as if we've gone from Headhunters to Always without Undead Again happening. I hope you guys enjoy!

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The sun is filling up the room

And I can hear you dreaming

Do you feel the way that I do right now?

I wish we would just give up

Cause the best part is falling.

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Sunlight peeks through the thinly veiled curtains in Kate's apartment casting tiny golden rays onto the couch where Castle lays sleeping, passed out from a night spent pouring over every last detail of the case. The case…her mom's case. The case she's let define her, drive her, almost take her own life.

Kate tiptoes across the hardwood floor, trying her best not to wake him. He deserves the rest. Her partner (well-more than partner-if she's being honest with herself), the man who showed up last night, forced her to eat, and refused to leave her alone. He definitely didn't need to be woken at this ungodly hour.

Kate had tried to sleep longer herself, only giving up after she tossed and turned for over an hour. Once the first hint of sunlight began to brighten her room, she kicked off the covers and padded out towards the kitchen, hoping that coffee would at least help to get rid of the dark shadows that had taken residence under her eyes.

Kate paused when she heard a small sigh escape Castle's lips as he shifted slightly on the couch. After a few seconds he stilled again, breathing steadily. As she stood gazing at him, a sudden wave of emotion swept over her. She wished so badly to reach her hand to the side of his face, to brush the bangs out of his eyes…to feel the warmth of his body at her touch. She was completely, irrevocably in love with him. The kind of love that had made her ache inside. The kind of love that left her screaming until she woke from the nightmares where it was him who took the bullet and not her. If she'd ever doubted the depths of her love for him in the past, those days were long over.

It'd been almost a year since the sniper. A year since those three words first began to haunt her both awake and in dreams. Did he mean them? At times she could not have been more sure of his love for her. The easy touches, the morning coffees, all the subtext, always.

But lately, nothing seemed to really be in sync for them. It was like a switch had been flipped. Doubt crept up slowly as he seemed to become more distant during the bombing case. Then, it hit like a freight train when he paraded Jucinda (Jacinda, Lucinda? who cares…), the stewardess, in front of her for date after date. But, when he actually left her for a new muse, doubt turned to outright pain. Maybe she'd been wrong all this time…or just too late.

He was here now though. She could tell his guard was still up but there were times she'd catch him looking at her, almost hopeful. The most beautiful glint of something in his eyes. And whatever it meant, Kate wanted more of that.

She didn't know how much more she could take. She was tired of the wall. She'd worked so hard the past year, for herself and for him. For them. She sometimes (well, a lot of times) hated herself for being such a mess. If only they could just fall together. It was supposed to be the best part. And she wanted that more than anything. She just wished she could be sure that he'd catch her. She wanted always back.

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Call it anything but love

And I will make sure to keep my distance

Say I love you, when you're not listening

And how long can we keep this up, up, up?

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Rick woke from his nightmare to something (or someone-he was too groggy to tell) softly stroking his shoulder. He realized his entire body was shaking as he struggled to open his eyes and erase the vision of her blood soaked body on the ground. He was used to the nightmares by now but that didn't make them any less unnerving. Images of Kate with not one but ten bullets piercing her ribcage, him running and tackling the sniper, beating him until his lifeless body lay before his own in the graveyard.

When he finally eased himself upward on the couch, he realized that Kate was only inches away, looking concerned. His first thought was how badly he wanted to pull her up onto the couch with him and hold her there until he was reassured they were safe.

But he forced himself to push that desire aside, remembering that if she'd really wanted him, she wouldn't have lied to him all this time.

His mother had been right though (that was a scary thought), love wasn't a switch he could just turn off. He had tried. Goodness knows how hard he'd tried in the past few weeks to turn it off. But it hadn't worked. Not taking it out on her with little digs, not living it up with the blonde stewardess, Jucinda (Jacinda? Lucinda? –Hell, he didn't even care to remember), and definitely not trying to find a new muse.

He felt so foolish thinking that not only did she not love him, he couldn't just stop loving her either. Maybe all that was left was distance, he'd thought. Then, he'd received the call from Smith and she'd been plunged straight back into her mother's case. And he just couldn't keep his distance.

He loved her. He loved her more than he could ever have imagined. What's worse was he'd almost said it again last night. He had to keep her safe and he couldn't let her do this alone. So he'd come over to the loft and forced her to eat, worked on the case side by side, the whole time wishing desperately to pull her toward him and tell her that her life was worth so much more than this.

And now here she was, looking at him like that. Her warm hand still tracing patterns along his bicep. He swallowed nervously. He didn't know how much longer he could keep this up.