Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.
Character(s): He & him, he & him, and her & she
Pairing: He/Her, He/Her
Status: Complete
Genre: Angst
Rating: K
Author's Note: (Lots of run-ons, sorry!) Who's point of view is this?

A Woman Like That

He knew that it wasn't going to last. Not from the start, of course, because if he did he wouldn't have invested everything he had in it. And by everything, he meant his heart. There was never a time when he should have thought otherwise. He should have been smart enough to realize all the obvious signs that it wasn't going to work out. He was always hanging around, watching them. Watching her. Or for another example, he should have known that he really should have never tried to get something started with her after he had to ask "is there something going on between the two of you?" Because seriously, does that question ever lead to a good place or in a good direction? He should have known. After all, he's watched enough television shows in which whenever a person asks that question someone gets their heart broken and more times than not it's the person who asked that in the first place. But he didn't, and so he kind of got what he deserved. His heart broken; it shattered into tons of microscopic pieces that it wasn't going to be easy to reconstruct. And that wasn't going to be reconstructed anytime soon.

Still, there wasn't a way in which he couldn't have fallen for her. She was perfect. Amazing. Extraordinary. He'd only wish he had told her that. Maybe that was why she dumped him. Though he really doubted it. She never did give him an actual reason about it ending, however; just a roundabout answer. It wasn't that he didn't know why either. She dumped him for him. And yet, months later, he walks by a newspaper stand expecting to see him with her, but instead it's him with another woman. Briefly he wonders if she got her heart broken like he did. And he knows no doubt she probably did. In any other situation, with any other woman who dumped him for another man, who in turn broke her heart, he would say that she got what she deserved.

But he can't.

(He wishes he could.)

But he can't.

Because, deep down, he still loves her. Because with a woman like that, it isn't ever easy to get over. As he walks into that coffee shop beside the one with the newspaper stand (the place where he occasionally sees him), he wonders if he knows what he's missing. But he obviously doesn't. Because, if he does, he's an idiot and he needs to be locked up in a mental institution. Because he'll give anything to even have just one more day with her, and he could have forever with her. Why couldn't, just this once, the person who asked the question get the happy ending? But then, as he starts talking to this blonde who he occasionally sees at the precinct, he realizes that maybe she does belong with him. And maybe he'll get his happy ending one day as well. Maybe he'll be old and gray and he'll tell his grandchildren about the beautiful brunette detective who stole his heart away.

And, maybe she'll get her happy ending too. Because, in this moment, he's still hopelessly in love with her. Even if to be happy she has to be with another man, he wants her to. Because after all the hurt and pain in her life that she's experienced and managed to live through, she deserves her happily ever after. As he talks to the blonde, Meagan, he considers that maybe, just maybe, there's another woman like that out there, and maybe he'll get a chance with her.