Author's Note: One year ago tomorrow, I posted the first chapter of this fic. Thank you so much to everyone who has sent me ideas and shared their thoughts along the way!

This chapter goes out to Liviafan1 :)

2x13 – Sucker Punch

"I've gotten used to you pulling my pigtails. I have a hard job, Castle, and having you around makes it...a little more fun."

"Your secret's safe with me."

Kate smiles at his answer, a soft upturn of her lips, eyes wrinkling at the corners. It's adorable, and even as she occupies herself with doling out chopsticks and selecting the Thai food, he can't stop staring. Because he's still here and she's smiling at him.

He thinks she catches him staring but she doesn't say a word. He takes that as a good sign but forces himself to focus on eating before she catches him again. He's not sure she'll let it slide twice.

"You know, you didn't have to buy every type of food in the city," Kate teases, gesturing with her chopsticks.

Castle shrugs, digs into his own container of food hungrily. "Couldn't decide on just one."

She shakes her head and rolls her eyes but it's not out of annoyance as he's grown accustomed to. No, this is more. It's amusement and affection and she's suppressing a smile around her chopsticks.

Castle can't help but smile himself because he's had a thing for her since the day they met and sure, his attraction to her has changed from shallow to deeper, but until now he's never really felt that there was even a chance of it being mutual. But between her confession and her smile and her casual attire and the way she's looking up at him through her eyelashes, he's pretty sure he's slowly wearing her down.

He has a ways to go yet, but it's a start.

They eat in silence for a few minutes, indulging in the deliciousness of take-out, but it's more than just the food that makes this a nice evening. It's the company and the shy looks they keep tossing in each other's directions. It's the adorable way he struggles with the chopsticks, the way she takes a bite, a loose noodle smacking her in the chin, leaving a smudge of peanut sauce on her face.

Castle notices – of course he notices – and hands her a napkin, smirks as he watches her wipe it away. Kate Beckett is a messy eater. He'll file that factoid away for a later date.

She's done a number on the Thai food, but after running on adrenaline for most of the last two days, Kate finds that she's starving, so she reaches out, steals a piece from the container of sushi and pops it into her mouth.

And though he shouldn't, though tonight is supposed to be about her and about him apologizing, he can't help but be entranced by the way she wraps her lips around the California roll, the way her mouth works as she chews before swallowing. His eyes are drawn then to the length of her neck, the smooth skin, the elegant lines that splay out over her shoulders before sinking beneath the fabric of her shirt.

She's wearing a loose reddish number, and he's never seen her in something so casual before. Kate's never been an open book but he thinks he's gradually beginning to see past the first page. She's starting to become more comfortable around him; less annoyed, more friendly. And with every new page he reads, he finds himself more and more smitten.

When he wrote the Heat Wave dedication, he'd taken a chance in calling her extraordinary. He knew there was more to her than meets the eye, knew that there was a lot about her that he didn't know. What he also didn't realize was exactly how extraordinary she truly is.

He's in awe of her. He's falling for her.

He can't help himself.

Which is why he's secretly infinitely grateful that she's allowing him to stay. He's not ready to consider a life in which he doesn't solve crimes with her.

He'd like to consider a life in which he sees her every single day, and not necessarily always for work-related purposes.

But it's been a difficult case and she's had a rough night and now is most definitely not the time for him to pour his heart out. So he bites it back, tears his eyes away from her, and busies himself with digging into the Italian food.

Silence falls again as they munch their way through the rest of the food. She eats one more piece of sushi and then steals the container of pasta from him, at which point Castle unwraps one of the hot dogs and takes a few bites. By the time they've finished, there's an impressively small amount of food left considering it's just the two of them. But it's been a long day and he's actually not sure they ever stopped to eat lunch. It's all kind of a blur, right up to the moment when Coonan grabbed him by the collar and shoved a gun into his back.

That part isn't something he's liable to forget any time soon. Speaking of which...

"Hey, uh, I wanted to say thank you," Castle offers weakly, setting down what's left of his hot dog and wiping his hands on a napkin.

"For helping you eat all this food?" she teases, a twinkle in her eyes.

"Haha," he enunciates before pausing, shifting the tone of the conversation. "I meant for saving my life."

"Ah." She sets her food aside as well, one hand absently fiddling with her plastic fork. "No thanks needed."

He knows it's not really something they do – thanking each other for having their backs. It's an unspoken rule amongst the team, he's noticed. Silent acknowledgement and then they move on. He knows that, and he knows that she knows that he knows that.

From the softness of her features, though, he thinks she understands.

The spell breaks a few minutes later, just as he knew it eventually would. He's not ready to leave her, to allow her to go home to her empty apartment and relive the events of the day. He knows that's what he'll be doing once his family is in bed and the silence of the night descends.

But if there's one thing he's learned in the last year it's that Kate Beckett likes her space. After a day like today, she's probably craving nothing more than some peace and quiet. And if that's what she needs, he won't get in the way, despite the fact that every baser instinct is telling him to do just that.

Besides, he has a family he hasn't seen all day and he needs to head home as well. So when she begins securing lids onto containers, he doesn't try to stall.

Well, not too much.

"Heading out?" he asks rhetorically.

She nods and he can already see the heaviness in her movements, the burden of the day weighing her down. "Yeah. It's late."

"Mmmm."

She cocks her head. "You okay?"

"Me? Yeah," he replies automatically. "Just tired, I guess."

She stands, collecting the garbage. "It's been a long day," she agrees.

Castle rises too, shoves the extra hot dog and remaining sushi back into the bag. "Leftovers?" he offers when she returns from the garbage can, wiping her hands against each other.

It's in his nature to be kind, to help out, to cheer people up. She's seen it before and she can read it in his eyes now. So she shrugs, indulges him. "Sure."

He passes her the bag and she sets it aside long enough to pull on her jacket, scarf, and gloves. She locks the case files and remaining paperwork in her desk drawer and pockets her phone and keys.

"Alright, well, have a good night, I guess," he says, unsure.

Kate nods, picks up the bag of food and tosses him a genuine smile. She's beyond exhausted but infinitely grateful that he's been here, that he brought her dinner and stayed to share it with her. She needed the company more than she realized.

She's starting to think she needs him more than she realizes. But that's a thought for another day.

"Thank you for dinner, Castle."

He watches her go with a soft smile on his lips, the words she didn't say echoing in his mind.

Thank you for staying with me.

Thoughts?