April 2009

Kate slid her wedding ring off and set it down next to the tea cup beside her computer before reaching across her desk for the hand lotion. She flipped the cap open, squirting the cream into her hands and rubbing it in, sighing as she worked it into her nails. The office air-conditioning was hell on her skin.

She twisted around in her chair to gaze across the hall, through the office opposite hers, and out the window. Working part time sure didn't get you a corner suite, or even an office with a view. No, she was resigned to her windowless office, as well as to sharing the minuscule space with the one other woman in the firm who also worked part time. But she still wasn't used to pushing her office-mate's paperwork off her desk each Monday morning.

The latest intern walked past, wobbling on her sky high heels as she carried a couple of coffee cups down the corridor - destined for one of the partners or senior associates, no doubt - and it was on the tip of her tongue to call after the girl, offer the unsolicited advice that she get the hell out of here before the corporate world ate her alive.

She bit down on the words before they could make it out of her mouth. Who was she to be telling someone they would never last in corporate law? Besides, some people loved it. Gabe seemed to thrive on it, approaching each new matter like he was preparing to go into combat.

Gabe. Their fight this morning had been so stupid; another example of their inability to communicate. Discussion about whether she should work an extra day - Kate was vehemently opposed, and Gabe was convinced that if she took 'control' of her career, she'd be much happier - had devolved into a stony silence which had seen Ramona throwing uncertain looks between her parents.

She shook her head, swinging her chair back to the screen, and rolled her shoulders; the claim that the chair was ergonomically sound was ludicrous. And she didn't need an extra day here, what she needed was a job where she could move about. A job where she wasn't tied to a desk. A job where - she glanced at the unfinished powerpoint on the screen in disgust - she could actually make a difference instead of playing with meaningless numbers, one big company's data, takeover offers, and bids interchangeable for the next.

She cleared her throat and shifted again. Now she sounded like Rick Castle, claiming she was destined for something greater.

She sighed, reaching for her phone, and scrolling through her contact list, her finger hovering for just a second before she punched down on the name, her eyes closing as she brought the handset to her ear.

"Katie?"

"Hey, Dad," she replied. "How are you doing?"

"Oh. Uh, not bad. How are you?"

"I'm good."

She stared across the desk at the pictures of Ramona that were tacked up. Thank goodness for her daughter. Of course, her three year old had spent all of ten minutes alone with her grandfather her whole life, and Kate shuddered. This wasn't what she wanted. Not for Ramona, and not for her father. And not for herself.

"Yeah, I'm good," she repeated, the lie bitter in her mouth. "I just wondered if you'd like to come round for dinner tomorrow? An early one maybe? Or lunch?" Lunch would be good; even if he was drinking before midday how bad could he be?

"Sure." Jim's voice shook, his uncertainty apparent in the way he drew the word out, and Kate gnawed on her lip, swallowing hard as she fought the tears that were threatening. Why did she do this to herself? Keep pushing? She blinked. It was too late to take the invitation back now.

It was too late for a lot of things.

Kate jerked her head up, her eyes snapping open, and she blinked. Falling asleep at her desk wasn't okay, and she twisted around to see if anyone in the nearby offices or cubicles had noticed.

Across from her, the door was closed, and she could see her colleague gesturing at the phone in front of him, his voice breaking past the barrier of the closed glass door as he shouted on speaker phone. Otherwise, though, the office looked deserted from this angle, and Kate stood up, stretching before reaching down to lock her screen. She needed to get out of here, get some air. And, even if the work was soul sucking, there was an advantage to employment that was judged on billable hours. As long as she kept her phone on, she could take as long a lunch as she wanted.

She pulled her purse from the desk drawer, slinging it over her shoulder and slipping out of her office. "I have some errands to run," she called across to her secretary, keeping her voice low, and Rosie glanced up, nodding before turning back to her own screen.

She could feel the weight on her shoulders lessening as she stepped into the elevator and by the time she found herself on the ground floor she was breathing more deeply, every gulp of air making its way into her lungs. By the time she crossed the lobby and exited through the revolving door onto the street she could feel the corner of her lips tug up, and she pulled her light jacket close around her, lengthening her stride until she reached the intersection.

She took her cell from her purse as she waited for the lights to change, but they flipped to green and she shoved it back into her pocket, letting herself be swept along with the surge of pedestrians hurrying around the financial district on their lunch hour. Everybody wanted to go somewhere, and Kate let herself slow her stride until she was no longer in time with the crowd around her, but ambling along at her own pace.

A glance around confirmed she'd been traveling north, and she stopped in her tracks, tilting her head to the side and biting her lip. She was in Tribeca now, a couple of blocks away from Ramona's daycare. The impulse to call her secretary, inform her she wouldn't be coming back in this afternoon surged, and she swallowed, the idea sliding back down. But why? She could swing by the daycare, collect Ramona; they could spend the rest of the day feeding the ducks in the park, or they go and get the new shoes she so desperately needed.

A pedestrian behind her jostled into her and she took a step forward to get out of his path, turning as she did so, the cafe from last week coming into her line of sight.

Oh.

She brought her thumb to her mouth as she stared at the entrance. From here she could see it was packed inside. If she picked Ramona up right now, she'd be interrupting rest time - that would do no one any favors - so if she stopped in here… Surely, even if it was crowded, she could squeeze onto the communal table, have some lunch, and decide whether or not to play hooky for the rest of the day.

"Hi! Are you eating in or getting something to go?" The waitress who approached her was all smiles without any of the attitude of last week's waiter, and Kate smiled back.

"Eating in," she replied.

"Take a seat at the back there, that little table's just opened up." She pointed Kate toward the table she'd shared with Rick last time, and Kate grinned, biting down on her lip and nodding.

"Thanks." She weaved her way past the line at the counter, sitting down in the same seat she'd chosen last time. This time, though, she couldn't see the door for the throng of people, and she leaned her head back, finding she didn't really care. Instead of feeling enclosed and ready to run, the anonymity of the crowd felt like a safety net.

"A vanilla latte and a chicken wrap, please," she requested when the waitress came back to take her order. So she wouldn't be able to sleep. At least when she was tossing and turning tonight she'd be able to blame the caffeine. It wasn't like she slept properly anyway; she may as well enjoy the buzz that came from a cup of coffee while she took an hour of respite from her day.

She leaned back in her chair, watching the swell of people around her. Was Rick holed up in the sister cafe in midtown, observing the crowds there, making notes on his laptop? Was he sipping his own coffee, working on his next novel? Or was he at the Twelfth Precinct again, helping the detectives there, spending his day making a difference in someone's life?

The waitress set the vanilla latte down on the table. "Your food won't be long," she promised with a warm smile, and Kate nodded at her, pulling her cell from her pocket and bringing up her contact list. She scrolled through, her finger hovering - she'd saved his number the moment she'd hung up from his call - before she flipped the cell shut, running her finger tip around the edge before opening it again, pressing his name and bringing the phone to her ear before she could change her mind.

"Rick Castle."

"Hey, Rick. It's Kate. From last week. I'm… how are you?"

"Kate." His voice was warm, and she smiled. Yeah. Okay. She should have done this a week ago. "I'm good. How are you?"

"Yeah, I'm good, too." She bit her lip, and glanced up, nodding at the waitress who slid a plate onto the table in front of her. "Listen. About last week. I wanted to apologize. I shouldn't have stormed out. That wasn't fair."

"No. No, I'm sorry. I pushed. I didn't think, and I got overexcited, and I pushed."

"Yeah, but I shouldn't have snapped." She shrugged. "Anyway, I just called to say sorry, and now I've done that, so I should let you get back to whatever you're doing."

He chuckled. "I wasn't really doing anything. Just about to go make some lunch."

"Oh. Me too." She bent her head down, letting her hair fall across her face. "I mean, I was just about to have lunch. I'm at that place we went to last week."

"Really?" He sounded delighted, and she grinned.

"Yeah. This time I'm actually gonna finish the chicken wrap."

He laughed.

"If you're- do you want to join me? If you have time? If it's not too far away, I mean? If you're not doing anything- you don't have to. I mean-"

"Kate." His voice broke across her rambling. "I'd love to. But do you have time to wait for me to get there? You don't have to go back to work this afternoon."

She laughed. "I think I'm playing hooky," she confided.

"Then I'll see you soon."

Her business shirt and dress pants were in sharp contrast with everyone else in the cafe. Yet she fit. She looked like she'd fit in anywhere. He stood in the doorway of the cafe for a second, gazing across the crowd before someone bumped into him and he stepped forward across the threshold, weaving his way across the room and sliding into the seat he'd had last time.

"Hey."

"Hi." She smiled at him, her eyes lidded and shy as she peeked out from beneath the sheet of hair that had fallen across her face, and he clenched his fists, stopping the instinct to sweep it out of the way.

"You do drink coffee!" he exclaimed, pointing at the latte in front of her and she nodded, pulling her lower lip between her teeth. "I knew it!"

"Yeah," she said at last. "Sometimes. I've had half a cup and I'm already wired." She rolled her eyes. "I'm a coffee lightweight these days."

"You used to drink it more?"

"Mmm-hmm." She picked up the cup, draining the last of it before setting it back down and pushing it away. "But I stopped when I got pregnant, and I never really took it up again."

"You have a kid?"

"Yeah. A daughter," she admitted, and he grinned. She'd already opened up to him more in the last two minutes than she had the entire time they'd sat here last week.

"What's her name?"

"Ramona. She's three."

"Such a cute age."

"Yeah. But the tantrums!" Kate's proud smile belied the complaint and Rick laughed.

"Yeah. I remember that. Alexis started her terrible twos and I don't think they finished until she was five and in school, to be honest. She was so stubborn."

"How old is she now?"

"She's fourteen. And I just found out she likes a boy named Owen." He groaned, and Kate laughed.

"Sounds like someone has a problem with her growing up," she teased.

"Just wait 'til Ramona's her age, you won't take it so lightly when it's your own daughter talking about boys." Small talk about their kids? Count him in. Kate's eyes were shining, and if talking about her daughter was going to bring her alive like this, he was all for it.

"Can I get you something?" The waitress smiled at them, her notepad out, pen at the ready.

"I finished my lunch already," Kate said. "But you go ahead."

"Was it as good as last week?" he asked, and she nodded. "Then I'll have a chicken wrap too, like my friend did. And a cappuccino. And another latte for her."

"I never drink this much coffee," she protested, and he grinned.

"Humor me," he retorted, and she rolled her eyes.

"A sugar free vanilla latte," she corrected, and their waitress nodded.

"Won't be long," she promised.

"So… playing hooky? What's that all about?"

"You weren't wrong, the other day, when you said corporate law was boring," she started, and he held his hand up to stop her.

"No. I'm sorry. I was way out of line."

"Yeah, you were." Her eyes were twinkling, and he grinned in spite of himself. "But you weren't wrong. It's not very exciting, and the presentation I was working on was sending me over the edge. So… long lunch. I'll go back I guess." Her shoulders slumped, and he frowned.

"You shouldn't. Not if it makes you that unhappy."

He regretted the words the moment they left his mouth; this was exactly how he'd pissed her off last week.

Kate just wrinkled her nose though. "Maybe." She glanced up, smiling at the waitress as the woman interrupted them again, this time with his food and their drinks, and Rick let his gaze linger as Kate pulled her cup toward herself, wrapping both her hands around it, the ghost of a smile playing on her lips as she stared into the coffee.

She brought it to her lips, her eyes half closing as she took a sip, exhaling as she put it back down on the table, her fingers intertwining around it. She didn't have her wedding band on today. Was that a deliberate move? Or were she and her husband just the kind of people for whom wearing their rings wasn't an ingrained habit?

He bit down into his own sandwich to stop himself from putting his foot in it again.

"So have you been writing?"

Coming from Kate, the words that he'd been hearing on repeat - from Gina, Paula, his mother, and even Alexis - were non-accusatory, just the innocent question of a friend over coffee, and he shook his head. "No. Not really. I'm looking for inspiration, but… I don't know."

"And nothing from your time at the Twelfth has inspired you?"

"Well, sort of. I mean, the cases are fascinating - I was at a scene yesterday where the victim had been shoved into her wall safe!"

"Huh. That's… weird."

"Yeah." Rick nodded, leaning in. "High society, obviously. And her wedding ring was missing." His eyes swept over Kate's left hand again, but she didn't flinch, her eyes shining with interest.

"And a body in a safe. Sounds like whoever committed the crime was trying to send a message." She leaned in toward him, her interest apparently piqued. "Have there been other similar crimes?"

He nodded in appreciation. Talking theory with Kate was way more fun than with the boys, who were constantly telling him to keep his crazy theories to himself. "The guys are looking into that."

"And-" Kate's next sentence was cut off when her cell phone shrilled, and she reached into her purse, frowning as she looked at the caller ID. "Hello?"

She pursed her lips as she listened to the person on the other end, her eyebrows drawing together.

"Okay. I'm on my way." She ended the call, looking up at Rick. "I'm sorry. That was Ramona's daycare. I have to go get her." She picked up her coffee again, draining the cup, and Rick did the same.

"I'll get the rest of my wrap to go," he said, signaling their waitress, and Kate shook her head.

"No. You should stay. Finish it here," she urged. "I just have to call work, let them know I really am playing hooky this afternoon." She dialed, and Rick paid the waitress, waving away Kate's attempt to push money toward him while she spoke to someone, a terse expression on her face, her voice low and defensive.

She relaxed again as she ended the call, sliding the cell into her purse and slinging it over her shoulder.

"Thanks, for lunch and the coffee," she said, her expression softening.

"You're welcome. Let me see you into a cab," Rick said, indicating for her to precede him out.

"It's right by my apartment, two blocks from here, I'll just walk."

"Okay." He fell into stride beside her. "So what happened?"

"Another kid bit her. Drew blood and everything. Her teacher said she was inconsolable." She lengthened her stride, and he matched it. "She's normally pretty easy going, but with everything that happened this morning…"

"What happened?" He shook his head. "No. None of my business. Sorry."

She shrugged. "Gabe and I had a fight this morning. It wound Ramona up a bit." She fell silent, and he nodded. Gabe. So that was her husband's name.

"I'm sorry," he said, as they rushed up the street, not trusting himself to say anything else, and she lifted a shoulder, dismissing it.

"It happens."

"Yeah, it does," he agreed, his mind flitting to some of the fights he'd had with Gina over the last few years of their marriage.

"So… this is it." She came to a stop, pointing at the building in front of them, and he nodded.

"Want me to wait for you?"

"Oh. Um- if you want? I might be a minute."

"I can wait."

"Okay." She smiled, her cheeks flushed from the brisk walk, and she disappeared inside the building.

He leaned against the cool brick while he waited, passing his cell phone from hand to hand. Kate was an enigma. She'd been nothing but warm and friendly. Cautious, when she'd mentioned her husband, and her work, but not guarded the way she had been last week. Instead, she'd been easy to talk to, and curious about his experience at the Twelfth.

"Say hi to Mommy's friend," he heard, and he turned around to see two sets of hazel eyes trained on him. "Ramona, this is Rick," she said, and the three year old smiled at him shyly before burying her face in her mother's leg. "Rick, meet Ramona."

"Hi, Ramona."

The girl made a muffled reply and Kate raised an eyebrow.

"Are you shy, baby girl?"

Ramona shook her head, turning and glancing at Rick again without meeting his eyes, and Kate chuckled.

"Is she okay?" he asked, and she nodded, pulling Ramona's sleeve up to show him an impressive bruise, tiny teeth marks still imprinted.

"Another three year old did that?"

"Mmm." She raised an eyebrow. "But you're okay now, aren't you, Sweetie?"

Ramona nodded, her hand clutching at Kate's with an iron grip.

"Quiet afternoon, then."

"I think we're going to curl up on the sofa and watch a movie. I live just over there." Kate pointed at an apartment building and he nodded, walking with her and Ramona - much more slowly, with the three year old in tow - across the road and to the front door.

"Thanks for calling me today," he said, when they reached her place and she smiled, leaning her head forward and hiding behind her hair. Why did she do that? Cloak her joy like that? Was being happy such an unexpected emotion for her that she had to push it back down?

"My pleasure." He watched as her hands drifted down to Ramona's head, her fingers tangling through the fine curls. "I should have called sooner. I really am sorry about last week."

"No. Don't be silly." He waved a hand, brushing her apology away. "I'm just glad you got to enjoy a coffee."

"The coffee, yeah… I may come to regret that second one when I can't sleep tonight."

"You can always call me," he offered, before freezing. She was a married woman, and no matter how pure his intentions were, he shouldn't have said that. But she just laughed, showing no indication she thought anything of it.

"Can I call you when I still can't sleep at two in the morning?" she asked, and he raised an eyebrow.

"I'm a writer. You don't ever have to worry about waking me at odd hours."

She smiled. "I'll keep that in mind. Well, thank you. That was… fun. The best afternoon I've had in a long time, actually."

"Mommy…" Ramona tugged at her leg, and she nodded, picking her daughter up and rubbing her back.

"I'd better go," she said at last, indicating to her front door with a tilt of her head, and he nodded, raising a hand in farewell before turning to go. Best afternoon in a long time, indeed.

A/N: Thanks K & J for the beta-goodness! Reviews and kindness to this story are warming my heart. x