Title: Rock Foundation

Disclaimer: I do not own the Castle characters or their story lines. I just borrow them for fun.

Summary: A Sequel of sorts for my one-shot Rock Solid. Kate and Rick deal with the aftermath of Knockdown and move forward with their lives, learning to balance their partnership with their budding relationship.

Author's note: This chapter will answer a number of your questions. It was a fun chapter to write (don't judge me for that once you've finished it) and I'm very excited for you to read it. So excited in fact, that you're getting two chapters in one day. CRAZY!

Chapter V:

"The…" Kate stammered. "The tabloid?"

"Yeah!" Josh fished around in the front pocket of his suitcase. "I picked up a paper from yesterday at the airport." He pulled out a crumpled copy of the Ledger. "And I see this picture of the two of you out book shopping. So I figure you've been undercover or something, that you'd just laugh it off when I got back. But obviously, I was wrong," he gestured to the empty pizza box, ice cream and wine glasses on the couch next to the very confused Richard Castle.

"We were just watching a movie," Kate told him, running her fingers through her hair to try to make it more presentable. "We fell asleep. Nothing's going on, Josh."

"Right," he scoffed, turning on the lights. Both Kate and Rick squinted. "And you're sharing a blanket on the same couch because?"

"We fell asleep!" Kate sighed, walking over to begin cleaning up their trash. "We were watching Chicago. It's been a long week, Josh. We were tired."

"Then why does he look so awake?" Josh asked, pointing at Rick. "If I'd woken you up, you wouldn't have had a gun, and he wouldn't look like he'd just seen a ghost."

"Believe me," Rick piped up as he stood and folded the blanket. "I look much worse on a normal morning." Kate turned away from them to hide her smile.

"Then why the gun?" Josh asked as he considered them.

"As I said, it's been a long week. I'm a little on edge," Kate replied as she took the glasses from Rick and put them in the sink.

"On edge enough to not remember that you gave me a key?" Josh asked skeptically.

"Josh, don't. You never want to talk about work, so don't start now. It was a tough case, and I'm…we're both still a little jumpy. It'll pass."

"Why should he be jumpy? He's just your shadow!" Josh exclaimed as he watched them moving around in sync. The sight unnerved him.

"He's my partner, Josh. He was just as involved in this case as I was."

"That's not what you told me when we started dating," Josh replied hotly. "You said he was just some writer who followed you around and annoyed you."

"Well, that's true. I do annoy her on a daily, sometimes minutely basis," Rick piped up from the rack of DVDs, where he was putting away the movies.

"You stay out of this, Writer Boy," Josh snapped.

"Hey!" Kate exclaimed. "Castle hasn't done anything wrong here. You were supposed to come back tomorrow…or later today. I was planning on meeting you at the airport."

"I hopped an earlier flight to surprise you. I didn't expect to find you cozying up with your partner on the couch, or else I wouldn't have bothered!" Josh exclaimed. "If you'd known I was coming, would you still have had this little movie night? Or would you have hid it?"

"We watched movies, Josh!" Kate barked. "He's my friend, my best friend. He's my partner! We spend all of every day together."

"So why do you need to have him here at night then? Don't get enough of him during the day?" Josh snarled.

"Hey now," Rick put in, not liking Josh's tone at all. "There's nothing going on between Beckett and me."

"Seriously, why are you still here?" Josh turned on him. "This doesn't concern you."

"The hell it doesn't," Kate broke in. She and Rick shared a look. "Josh, if you have such a problem with seeing Castle here, then you can leave. He was here for a movie night. I'm not going to kick him out because you're being an ass. If he wants to leave, he can."

"Well?" Josh turned to Rick. "You heard her. Get lost."

"That's not what I heard at all," Rick replied as he leaned against the counter. "You have selective hearing now? I thought you were a 'writer' and it was your job to catch every word?"

"Which is exactly why I'm still here. I'll leave when I feel like you're not going to do something stupid."

Josh deflated a bit and glanced at Kate. "I'd never, ever, do something to hurt her," he said sincerely, before he looked back over at Rick. "If that's what you're worried about, you can back off. I'd never raise a hand against her."

"That's good to know," Rick said seriously.

"Also," Josh looked between them, noting the staring contest the other two seemed to be having. "Kate's a cop. A good cop. I don't think she needs you here to protect her."

Kate whipped around and glared at Josh. "If he hadn't been there a few days ago, I'd be dead. I don't need him to fight my battles for me, but hell, Josh. He saved my life. He's saved my life a few times, actually."

Josh looked at Rick, as if considering him. "Thanks," he said after a moment.

"You're welcome?" Rick replied.

"For saving her life."

"Ah, well," Rick looked over at Kate. "Always." Kate smiled. "I should probably get back; Alexis gets in at eleven, and I should try to look a little less like I've 'seen a ghost,' you know?"

"Have a nice night, Castle. Tell Alexis I say hi and welcome back," Kate told him as he gathered his things and put on his coat.

"Will do. See you Monday?"

Kate looked at Rick and then at Josh and back. "Of course. Bear claw and coffee?"

"Wouldn't be a Monday without it. See you then, Detective. Josh." He left the apartment and got into the elevator, rubbing a hand over his face as the doors closed.

Kate turned back to Josh, who looked halfway between chagrined and angry. "So that's it?" he asked.

"What?"

"Just things as usual, like this never happened?"

"Josh, we had a movie night. You saw that we went book shopping. We spend time together; it's not unusual for us. Nights when you're on shift, we usually go out for dinner or drinks or something, especially after a case," Kate sighed as she sat down on the couch.

"And you never told me this because?" he asked as he sat down next to her, leaving a sizeable distance between them.

"I wanted to avoid this situation," Kate told him honestly. "You think I don't get how this looks to you?"

"I…"

"We seriously had a movie night, Josh. We ordered pizza and had ice cream. He brought wine because that's what Castle does. We went to the bookstore on Thursday because we needed a distraction. I told you it was a hard week."

"What happened?" Josh asked, his face losing its sullen anger and giving way to a look of concern. He reached over and placed a hand on her knee.

Kate looked at his hand. This didn't feel comfortable. She didn't want to tell him about her mom. He knew that Johanna was dead, but he'd never asked how she died, and she'd never felt the need to tell him about it. Castle had simply weaseled it out of her, and she'd told him. Since then, his support was enough. She didn't need more from Josh. She didn't want more from Josh.

"It was just a tough case. Lots of bodies and it ended in a shootout. Castle took the guy down when he was aiming for me."

"That was…brave of him," Josh admitted.

"Brave and ungodly stupid. But I wouldn't be alive to have this awkward conversation with you if he hadn't done it," Kate said as she looked up at him. Josh was handsome, smart, fun, brave in his own right and kind. But it just…wasn't right.

"I'm glad you're still alive," Josh said lightly, leaning over to give her a kiss. Kate let him. There were no butterflies.

"Ha, thanks," she said when they broke apart. "Me too."

"I'd hope so," Josh laughed. They sat in silence for a minute. "Africa was amazing."

"I'm sure. How many surgeries did you do?"

"Almost a hundred," he smiled and pulled her into his arms. "We changed so many lives. It was a great trip."

"I'm glad," Kate replied. She tuned out as Josh explained all about his trip. She felt terrible, but she just didn't have it in her to be excited for him.

"Hey," he asked after about 15 minutes of storytelling. "You okay? You're awfully quiet."

Kate gave a weak laugh. "Not all of us are on Africa time, Josh. It's still 3, almost 4am for me."

"Oh, god, I'm sorry. I'm so awake!" he chuckled. "Let's get you to bed."

Kate let him lead her into her bedroom and they changed, Josh pulling out a pair of sweats he'd left there a month ago. They climbed into bed and Josh wrapped himself around her. Despite his assurances, he fell asleep rather quickly. Kate laid awake, staring at the vase of wilting flowers on her night table. Was it cruel to end things with your boyfriend of four months the day after he came back from Africa?

…

Kate woke the next morning to the feeling of someone kissing up and down her neck and hands gliding over her body. She shifted and tried to roll away, but the arms kept her pinned there, and she felt smothered.

"Josh," she mumbled.

"Oh, good. You're awake," he growled as he tied to turn her over so that she could become an active participant.

He leaned in and kissed her passionately, but Kate wasn't having it. "Josh," she pulled way. He moved back to her neck. "Hey, Josh!" That got his attention. "I'm not…I'm not in the mood right now."

The change was instantaneous. He dropped his arms and sat up. "You're not in the mood? I've been gone for a month. It's noon. I let you get a full eight hours, and you're 'not in the mood?' You're always in the mood when I get back."

"Josh," Kate sighed as she sat up. "A lot has happened since you left."

"With Writer Boy?" he asked, turning away from her and standing up. "You fed me all these lines last night, and, you know, I want to believe them. But I just…Kate, come on. I've been gone for a month, and you're thinking about what's happened while I've been gone?"

"Josh, there's more to my life than this relationship you think I'm having with Castle," she sighed as she stood and grabbed a robe, tying it around herself.

"You never let work get to you," he said, looking at her and taking in her folded arms and curled shoulders. She looked different somehow.

"Josh, we decided not to talk about work about a week into our relationship. I know people die on you, and that gets to you. You don't think sometimes the cases get to me too?"

"You never mention anything," he shrugged. "I always assumed that if you needed to talk about it, you would."

Kate looked at him. It was a logical argument, but she didn't want someone who took her at face value. There was a lot she never said to her friends, and they always picked up on it. Lanie could tell what type of day she was having by how she had her hair done, for crying out loud. And Castle…Rick could look at her and know how she was in seconds.

"You can't pin this on me, Kate. If you needed to talk, you knew I was here. Don't tell me now that I haven't cared enough."

"That's not what I'm saying at all," Kate sighed. "I'm saying that while you were gone we got a case that just took it out of me, okay? I'm not blaming you for not being here so I could talk to you about it. I'm saying that sometimes people change, or things change them…"

"And you've changed, and I wasn't here so, what? I'm not good enough now? You need Writer Boy to help you stand up? I thought you were strong."

Kate simply stared at him. They'd had a few fights before, but she'd never thought he was a dirty fighter, or a vicious one. "Wow," she murmured.

His face fell. "Oh, Kate, no…" he stammered.

"No, I'm sure that's exactly what you meant," she told him tonelessly. "I'm plenty strong, Josh. But just because I never broke down in front of you, doesn't mean that I never do it, or that I never need to."

"I just wasn't good enough to share that with, right?" he said as he grabbed his sweater and put it on.

"Josh, you told me once that work should stay at work. The few times I came home like this and you happened to be here, you just watched movies with me. You never asked. I'm not saying that you should have, but when did you make me feel like you actually wanted to know?"

Josh just stared at her. "You really thought that I didn't want to hear about it, that I didn't care if you were hurting."

Kate shook her head. "I know you care, Josh. I just never got the feeling that you wanted that out of this relationship. You don't share, I don't share, and we have fun."

"Is that what this is? You want more? 'Cause Kate," he came around and put his hands on her shoulders. "I can do that. We could do real. I'm ready," he said sincerely.

She looked at him. Here he was, offering to do real with her. But she had real already. She didn't need him to be real too. She shook her head.

"Did I miss my chance?" he whispered.

She met his eyes. "Josh, it's not about chances."

"Yes it is. I was gone for a month and you went and found someone else to tell your secrets to and have that connection with, and I missed it."

He looked so sad. "You didn't miss it, Josh," Kate bit her lip. Honesty was less painful than a lie. That was what her mother had told her. "It was never there."

He took a step back. "Well then," he just looked at her.

"It's not your fault. I thought that if it wasn't about work, then we could have something good. What I do is hard, Josh. What you do is hard. I thought that if we just didn't talk about it, then it wouldn't gum us up. And it worked for a while. You obviously talked about stuff with someone else, and so did I. But you can't make anything lasting on that."

"So choose me!" he said desperately. "Tell me your stuff. I'll tell you mine. We can make it work."

"Josh, I just… Relationships take work, but that's a different kind of work."

He stared at her. "You don't want to do that work, you mean."

"Sharing isn't easy for me, Josh. There's a lot that I haven't shared with you, and some of that is stuff that I don't know if I can. And that's not fair to you. You're a fantastic guy. And you should be able to go and do 'real' with someone who can really do that with you."

"Okay," he said after a long pause. "Okay." He picked up his belt and left the room. Kate took a deep breath and followed him out.

"For what it's worth, Josh," she said as he grabbed his coat and suitcase, "I'm really sorry."

"Don't be sorry, Katie," he said as he slipped the jacket on and came to stand in front of her. "You'll find someone who you're willing to share with. I'm sorry that it's not me, but you're right. It won't work."

"Thank you," she said as they hugged.

"Have a good life, Kate Beckett. You deserve it."And then he was gone.

In place of tears there was simply a feeling of release as Kate watched the door close. She made her way back into her bedroom and started to get ready for a cleansing shower when she caught sight of the flowers. Maybe she'd already found him.