AN: So here's Chapter 2 everyone! Thanks for all the reviews and story alerts so far – I hope this chapter lives up to your expectations. Also, bear with me – Castle will be showing up next chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.
Kate stood at the cash register in stunned silence. Her body was still, but her mind was whirling, and her bafflement at this entire situation resulted in a totally unpredictable reaction. Usually when people (namely Lanie) confronted her about her relationship with Rick, she was able to see the emotional assault approaching and shut down her feelings on the subject immediately, as if there were a set of steel doors between herself and her emotions. She went on autopilot. And autopilot ran a regular, foreseeable course: get up, go to work, eat, sleep and see her boyfriend Josh whenever possible. Only now this stranger, Meghan, had managed to make a sneak attack. There had been no foreshadowing. And as many times as Lanie or Esposito or Ryan or Montgomery or even her own father, for heaven's sake, had told her that she and Castle would be good together, she never once recognized that she shared anything other than the strong bond of partnership with him. Only now, those steel doors were no longer in place, and try as she might to slam them shut, the floodgates had been opened. With Meghan's words came feelings she already associated with Rick: affection, warmth, and a sense of loyalty, trust, and friendship. But suddenly, there was an entirely new set of feelings to process: belonging, attachment, a deep-seated feeling of contentment. And above all, there was an odd jumble of feelings that she could not recognize, but that made heat rise in her chest and tingle down through her fingers and toes and up to her face.
"Wh…what do you mean?" Kate stuttered, trying to stay focused on the task at hand: convincing Meghan that she and Rick were not together. And there it was. Castle had abruptly become Rick in her mind in those few precious seconds. Meghan quirked her eyebrows at Kate and repeated herself, only this time she said it very slowly and with great emphasis, as if she was trying to explain something to a small child:
"You. Are. Cheating. On. Mr. Castle."
"No I'm not!" Kate blurted out, before backtracking, "Castle and I are not together."
"So you broke up?" Meghan asked, and for some reason she looked disappointed as she said it.
"No, no, no…" Kate said, trying to stay cool and collected, "he and I were never together. We've never dated." Suddenly it clicked. Meghan must read the tabloids. Kate knew that occasionally there were stories about her and Castle, accompanied by pictures of them leaving crime scenes together, or driving in the squad car. Once there had been one of him helping her out of a cab after a long day, which had resulted in much teasing at the precinct. Kate's tensed body immediately relaxed. I've overreacted, she thought, glancing at Meghan's confused expression, and decided to set her straight. "Meghan, I know that Castle and I are sometimes in the tabloids, but that stuff is all wishful thinking on the parts of diehard Nikki Heat fans. We're not dating, or secretly engaged, and I am most certainly not pregnant with his child…" Kate trailed off, realizing that her recent words had not only sent a jolt of warmth to the pit of her stomach, but had also apparently only confused Meghan further.
"What are you talking about?" Meghan asked, shrugging her shoulders. "Who's Nikki Heat? And why would you and Mr. Castle be in the tabloids?"
OK this is getting ridiculous, Kate thought, struggling to understand. If Meghan didn't know who Nikki Heat or Richard Castle were, then she had obviously not read some outrageous story about a secret relationship. Which meant that… " Meghan why did you think that Castle and I were together?' Kate asked directly, hoping for a reasonable answer.
Meghan now had the grace to look slightly embarrassed at her faux pas. " Well, I…I'm sorry about the misunderstanding Detective, but I thought it was obvious. I mean, so did the rest of the staff," Meghan said, and waved her hand at the staff members behind her, who had obviously been eavesdropping, because they all nodded vigorously.
"OK" Kate started, and shut her eyes tight in order to stay calm. "OK" she said again, "start from the beginning. What caused you to believe that Castle and I were together? I know for a fact that he never kissed me." At least not here, she thought to herself. There was no way anyone else had witnessed their undercover kiss in the alley that night.
Meghan now looked amused at Kate's worry and confusion over the matter. She chuckled aloud. "He didn't have to," she said, and grinned widely at the panic that was suddenly present in Kate's eyes. Then she decided to take pity on her. If Kate honestly didn't see what was right in front of her, then the chances of her favorite couple ever getting together were nil. "Look," Meghan said, and dropped the grin, "let's go sit down. I'm on my break anyways, and I'll explain everything."
After they were seated Kate mentally prepared herself for what she was about to hear. She was aware of the irony of the circumstances. She'd managed to avoid this conversation with her best friend (whom she saw basically everyday) for the last two and a half years, only to be suddenly assailed by a complete stranger.
"Alright." Meghan said. "So you are either blind or you don't want to see what everyone else sees." Kate frowned at this impudent woman. How dare she? They barely knew each other. Then again, Kate thought, you just asked her to explain. Give it a chance. Meghan hadn't spoken in a rude tone of voice; in fact, she seemed smugly amused with the situation. When Kate didn't respond, Meghan continued. "I can tell that you're a matter of fact woman. You're a detective after all, and from the hours that you come here to eat, I can tell you live for the job. So, I am going to lay this out for you, nice and neat. You need evidence right?" Meghan paused for confirmation. Kate nodded.
"Yes, evidence would be a plus." Kate smiled and leaned back in her seat. This will be good, she thought, and smirked. She was a homicide detective with the best solve rate in New York City. Not much slipped past her agile mind and clever eye. If this woman thought she had evidence, Kate was happy to be amused by her crazy theories. She still had half an hour before work.
"OK." Meghan stated, and her voice was sharp. She could tell that Kate was underestimating her skills of observation. But Meghan had been a waitress for twenty years. 'People watching' was a skill she had been honing since she had first begun. She was rarely wrong about people. I will make this woman see what she's missing, Meghan promised herself. "Alright, here we go. Fact one: Mr. Castle is rarely further than an arm's reach away from you. That may seem like an insignificant detail, but to me it indicates that he cares deeply for you – he's there to ensure that you are safe, well, and happy at all times. Fact two: No matter how many people are in a room, how loud the decibel level is, or how many other things are going on around him, Mr. Castle always listens to what you are saying first. In other words, he not only cares for your physical well-being, but also your emotional and mental well-being. Fact three: Body language. Mr. Castle listens and speaks to you purely through body language, which says to me that he is deeply in tune with your thoughts and feelings, and that he knows you well enough to interpret without a translator. Fact four: Mr. Castle finds ways of making physical contact with you. When he hands you the salt, for example, his fingers linger under yours for those few extra moments. When you get up to leave, he is there holding your coat. When he opens a door for you, he stands halfway in so that you have to brush past him. And lastly, fact five: he literally revolves around you. When you move, so does he. His body and mind are tuned to one channel at all times – yours.
Kate swallowed thickly. Meghan was making an excellent case. She was suddenly remembering the moment two days ago when Rick had handed her a file she'd needed and run his index finger over her palm during the handoff. She was remembering yesterday, when they'd been standing at the murder board, and she'd thought of something to add to the timeline. He'd turned to her at the exact moment she'd turned to him. She had lost her train of thought and flushed when the moment was suspended for far too long, then abruptly tried to make a joke out of it by asking if he was telepathic. She was suddenly realizing that Meghan was right. Rick was incredibly in tune with her. It had happened so slowly over time that she no longer noticed when he anticipated her needs or finished her sentences.
"I'm not finished," Meghan said, and interrupted Kate's thoughts.
"You're not?" Kate wondered. What else could there possibly be? Kate thought, suddenly hoping that Meghan had not witnessed an extended gaze or intimate 'Always' between her and Rick. That was private.
"I'm not." Meghan responded, and made eye contact with Kate to make sure she was paying attention before she continued. "Everything I just said, all that evidence that points to an intimate relationship between the two of you? Well, it applies to you as well."
"What do you mean?" Kate asked, and was suddenly unsure that she wanted to know the answer at all.
"I mean that it works both ways," Meghan pointed out. "You know, vice versa and all that. You revolve around each other. It's not a one-way street. The biggest reason that caused me to assume that the two of you were together was because you were so obviously in love with each other."
Kate gasped, then had to grapple with her focus, taking deep breaths to avoid hyperventilation. Love?