September 2009

"I know you like to be independent," Jim started, and Kate whirled around at the seriousness of his tone, her coffee cup halfway to her lips. "So I've been holding off on suggesting this. But… what about your mom's apartment?"

"Mom's apartment? What?"

Jim tilted his head, indicating to the deck, and she followed him out, Ramona trailing after her.

"I'm gardening," her daughter announced, tugging on the galoshes by the door and looking around with all the self-possession of an explorer surveying newly discovered land.

"Where I can see you, okay," she said, pointing at the pot plants to the side of the cabin. Ramona nodded, struggling with the watering can, and not quite making it, she dumped the water all over the grass with a proud smile before gently stroking the petals on the flowers. Kate bit her lip, watching her. Her city toddler had turned into a country girl before her eyes over the last few months. "What do you mean, Mom's apartment?" she asked again, turning back to Jim.

He sighed, looking out toward the lake and shielding his eyes from the late summer sun. "You probably don't even remember it. Your mom had an apartment in the East Village. A one bedroom, but it's a big place. Really spacious." He nodded at Ramona. "A two bedroom would be better, obviously, but the living room is really long, with some pillars, from memory, and I think you could partition it off to make a little nook for her."

"Have I ever been to this apartment?" Kate sipped her coffee - the warmth on her tongue her daily reminder of Rick - before setting the mug down on the new patio table.

"I thought so. But maybe not. I've had tenants in there for years."

"And you'd ask them to leave? For me- us?"

Jim shrugged. "I would. And I was going to. But when I went into town yesterday to get the mail I actually got notice from them. They're leaving. They're paid up to the end of this month, but they returned the key already."

"Oh…" Kate shook her head. "East Village, huh?"

"I think it would suit you, you know. Kinda… eclectic. And it's still pretty close to Tribeca. It would be easy to go between there and Gabe's place, for Ramona."

"It sounds… incredible. What kind of rent were you getting from it?"

Jim raised his hand. "Don't you worry about that. It was your mom's. It's as much yours as it is mine."

"But-"

"But nothing. It was your mom's. I don't need it. I'll get the paperwork drawn up once I'm back in the city."

"Wow." Kate closed her eyes, tears threatening. "Wow. Really?"

"Really."

"Thank you."

Jim nodded. "The keys are with the estate agent. I'll let them know you'll pick them up when you're back in the city next week."

"Aren't you coming back with us?"

Jim shook his head. "I think another week or so out here… see the summer out. See how I handle the silence on my own."

"Are you sure?"

Jim chuckled. "Maybe I'm just sick of painting and I don't want to help you do your new apartment." He paused, his studied gaze over the water somehow calculated. "Maybe I just want to give your friend Rick something to do. See what he's like at painting."

"I love painting!" Rick enthused, and Kate raised her eyebrows.

"Really? You've painted before? Walls?"

"I'll have you know that… no. Okay. Not so much walls, as set pieces. I've painted many a set piece in my early life, mostly for my mother in her various productions."

Kate closed her eyes, biting back her laughter. A few flying visits to the city so that Gabe could see Ramona hadn't lent themselves to nearly enough coffee dates with Rick. But close to daily - okay, daily - calls and text messages combined with the sheer amount of backbreaking work she'd undertaken had made the summer rush by, but being back in the city was nothing short of amazing. And right. It felt right. Rick had folded her into his arms when she'd shown up at his loft, swinging her around until Ramona demanded he swing her too.

Now Ramona was upstairs with Alexis while they sat at his counter, the picture of civility, carefully not touching one another.

"So… when did you get back?"

"We got in this morning. My dad's got an apartment in Chelsea. We're staying there for the next week-"

"You could have stayed here," he offered.

Kate nodded. "Thank you. But… this is okay. My dad wanted to help. Tomorrow morning I'm taking Ramona back to daycare, and then going to check out the apartment in the Village." She laughed. "From what my dad says, it's in pretty rough shape, but it can't be worse than the cabin."

"And you fixed that up pretty well, by the sounds of it?"

"It's great. Here, I have some pictures on my cell-" She reached into her pocket, flicking the gallery open. "Look."

She slid the phone across the counter and he reached for it, his hand brushing against hers, and she froze as they touched, squeezing her eyes shut for a second as the damn broke. She twisted in her seat, slamming her mouth into his, moaning as he responded; his hands were in her hair, his tongue in her mouth, and standing, his thigh fit between her legs, pressing insistently as she gasped, returning the kiss.

She wrapped her arms around him, letting her hands scorch over his t-shirt and under, breathing a sigh into his mouth as she touched his skin, shifting forward to close the already non-existent gap between them.

"Kate," he managed, his hand moving from her hair to claim her waist, and he nudged his thumb under her shirt, skimming her waist and dropping his mouth to her throat, peppering kisses from her collarbone to her jaw-

"Mommy?"

She whirled around, leaping back from Rick, her eyes wide. "Sweetie?"

"What are you doing?" Ramona took the stairs one at a time, Alexis behind her, the teenager's expression horrified.

"Sorry!" Alexis mouthed, and Kate shook her head.

"Sorry, Pumpkin." Rick laughed. "We were just looking at pictures of the cabin," he said to Ramona.

"I garden at the cabin!" she exclaimed, jumping from the last step and running over. "Show me pictures!"

"Yes. Well." Kate sat back on the stool, resting her hand on Rick's thigh for a moment before pulling Ramona up into her lap and reaching for her cell. "Why don't we all look at the pictures?"

"Wow!" Kate spun around, her jaw dropping as she took in the apartment. "Wow!"

Castle beamed, watching the smile on her face as she came alive in the space.

"This is… fabulous."

"I can't believe your dad had this place the whole time and you never knew!"

She shrugged, striding through the living room and running a hand along one of the pillars toward the end of the long space. "I lived in the dorms, and then when I was a grad student I lived with friends. Dad said he'd always figured on me living here, but by the time I finished studying, Ramona was on the way, and, well, we weren't talking much anymore."

"Because you were pregnant?" His eyes narrowed, and she shook her head.

"No. No, definitely not. Because he was drinking, and I- I wasn't very understanding."

Kate dropped her gaze. "I… shut him out. I wanted to help him, but… I could barely look after myself, and I had a baby on the way, and…"

"You did your best," Rick promised her, crossing the room and pulling her into his arms.

"Hmmm," she murmured while nodding, her hair brushing against his chin. "He's been properly sober for six months now."

"I'm glad," he said, pressing a kiss to her forehead, and then another to her mouth before stepping back, his eyes darting around the room. "So… you're going to partition this off?" He indicated the space behind the pillars.

"Yeah… I think that will work. I can fit a twin bed there, and those skylight windows are something else." She took his hand, walking a couple of steps through the open doorway. "And… I guess this is my bedroom."

He swallowed, stepping over the threshold after her. "Well, Beckett. Do you usually invite men into your bedroom this early in a relationship?"

She bit her lip and stared at him, before dropping his hand as she crossed the room, opening the door opposite. She turned back to him, her eyes sparkling. "I don't usually invite men into my bedroom or my bathroom… but look at this!"

He peeked over her shoulder, nodding. Impressive. The tub was centered in the room, but the space was so big that it wasn't impractical. The window ledges were deep, and the tiling old-fashioned but in good shape. The windows were shielded by scalloped wooden shades, adding to the sense of romance and privacy.

"This is… amazing, Kate."

"I know." She whirled around, a smile playing on her lips. "My… where Gabe and I lived- I always hated that apartment. It was so cold- white and clean lines everywhere. But this is perfect." Her eyes shone and he inhaled, closing his as he contrasted this Kate with the woman he'd met in April. He'd missed her all summer, and so many times had picked up his car keys before putting them back down and settling for calling her or sending a message as he'd forced himself to respect the boundaries she'd put in place.

Knowing, now, that her father was beating his own demons, he was doubly glad he'd had the strength to give her the space she'd needed.

"You okay?" she asked, nudging into his side, and he nodded.

"I'm good," he assured her, taking her hand and tugging her back into the bedroom. "Should we check out the kitchen? And then figure out what we need to paint?"

"Ugh, Rick, you got paint in my hair!" She narrowed her eyes at him as she pulled the strands through her fingertips. Damn him.

Rick wiggled his eyebrows at her. "I can help you wash it out… and hey, I'd be doing you another favor- after all, you need to test your tub out too, right?"

"Really? I have paint in my hair and you're thinking about getting me out of my pants?"

He smirked, running a hand through his hair. "To be completely honest, Kate… it's not often that I'm not thinking about getting you out of your pants."

Kate felt her cheeks warm, her pulse quickening as she hid her blush, turning away to the plastic sheeting on the floor, adjusting it and dipping her roller back into the paint tray. "Well, uh-"

He chuckled, though, and she could see from the corner of her eye that he was crossing the room, closing the distance between them. He plucked the roller from her hand, dropping it back onto the tray and setting his own brush beside it. "Kate?"

She turned back to him, worrying her lower lip between her teeth.

"Kate… I-" He frowned, his brow furrowing, and she stepped toward him.

"What is this to you?" she asked, her voice softer than she'd like, and he ran a hand over his face.

"Well, uh… what is it to you?"

She lifted a shoulder, unable to put voice to any kind of definition.

"I mean… I'm not- I don't want to push. But… Kate, we talked every day over the last few months when you were upstate. We spent hours and hours on the phone. And now you're back, and all I can think is that I want to see you, but then I remember you just split up with your husband, and I don't want to be that guy."

"Which guy?" she asked, taking another step forward, her hand gripping his as she tugged him down so that they were sitting on the floor. Kate crossed her legs underneath her, the plastic crinkling as she shifted, and Rick smiled, reaching out to run a fingertip across her paint-stained jeans.

"The other guy. Or the rebound guy. This isn't just some… fling for me, Kate. I don't have the greatest track record in general. I mean, I know my name gets out there, and I'm on page six, and some of it's true, and some of it… it's just media beat up. But when Meredith cheated on me- even though our relationship was a disaster from start to finish- I swore I would never be that guy. And so, yeah. I'm…"

He trailed off, and Kate nodded, staring across the empty living room and into the kitchen. This room was nearly done, the bricks a fresh pale blue, and the pillars a sharp white, but the rest of the apartment was still tired, the plaster grubby and its paint peeling.

"I've never made this many choices before," she confessed, standing and stretching her hands high over her head. She rolled her neck as she flexed her arms behind her, walking into the kitchen. "I've spent the last decade choosing the path of least resistance. And now…" She smiled, leaning against the open door, a feeling of peace settling upon her. "I've been making choices. Good choices. Choosing to go away for the summer was really important. Not just for me, but for my dad, and Ramona."

He stood too, following her into the kitchen.

"This isn't some fling for me. It's not a one-time thing, and it's not a rebound affair. But I have to think of my daughter, and I can't rush into this-"

"I'm not trying to rush you," he promised, and Kate nodded.

"I know. You… you didn't have anything to do with the divorce- you know that, right? My marriage was over… a long time ago." She shook her head, rueful. She'd gone into it with the best of intentions, but there had never been anything there, not really.

"I know."

"But you have turned my life upside-down, so let's… I think we need to take it a day at a time."

He cleared his throat, nodding. "You know what needs to be a daily event? You know, since we're taking it all one day at a time?"

"What?"

"Coffee."

Kate grinned, gesturing to the kitchen. "Until we paint this room I can't really unpack anything," she reminded him. "So… you're not going to find a coffee machine here."

"Do you even have one?"

She shook her head. "No. Now how about you finish painting over there-" she pointed back to the half-finished wall in the living room. "And I'll start with washing the walls down in here so we can move on to this room."

Rick narrowed his eyes. "You don't have a coffee machine?"

"No. Why?"

"Why?" His tone was indignant, and she angled her head, confused.

"Why what? I don't have a lot of things. My dad's organizing a truck to bring back some of my mom's furniture for me, and there are a few things I'm taking from Gabe's, but-"

"But you need a coffee machine. I mean… you love coffee." He shook his head, his disapproval clear. "While you start cleaning in here, I'm going to go to the cafe across the street, and bring us back some lunch- and lattes."

A/N: Thank you guys for all the support last chapter... as always I appreciate it, as I do the beta read throughs from J&K! x