Lightning Flashes Chapter 12

She can always tell when Alexis sleeps through the night (even when she's not there to witness it personally), because Rick comes to her entirely too chipper for his own good. Not that he's typically in a bad mood even when the girl keeps him awake, but he always knocks on Kate's door with a particular gusto when he's had a good night's sleep.

It's cute of course, but damn if it isn't also annoying as hell when she's running on just a couple of hours of sleep herself.

Still, she tries not to let it show how badly she needs him to tone it down when she pulls open the door and accepts his quick, yet firm, kiss as he barges into her apartment with the baby asleep on his chest.

"Morning," he says, coming back for another kiss, this one a little sweeter, more lingering, and Kate leans into the affection. "How'd you sleep?"

"Not as well as you did, obviously," she quips, patting his back when she pulls away. "Alexis let you sleep?"

"The whole night. And she's still out, as you can tell."

"Now you're just bragging."

Rick offers her a mug, looking completely unrepentant for his boasting. She grabs it and sucks down a long sip, exhaling when the warmth spreads to her belly.

Yeah, she'd needed that.

"Have you eaten?" he asks, touching her hip quickly before moving deeper into her apartment.

Kate follows him with an affectionate shake of her head. In a way, he's always been like this, a steamroller of caring gestures, but since the night they'd made up from their fight, he's been… more. He's made sure she understands why he puts in the effort to make sure she's okay, and why he won't let her make excuses for not taking care of herself.

Because he loves her. Not like a best friend – not solely like a best friend, anyway – and not like a brother would love his sister, he loves her.

"I was cutting fruit when you got here. Want some?"

He nods, eying her carefully. "Got any eggs? I'll make omelets, too."

A refusal is on the tip of her tongue, a reminder that he doesn't need to come over in the mornings to make sure she eats before work, but it dies away at the soft look on his face. He wants to eat with her, that's why he's here and offering to raid her fridge for breakfast foods instead of dropping off a bagel or something along with the coffee she's now drinking.

She watches him loosen the straps on the carrier and winces as the girl tenses and squirms as he eases Alexis up and away from his chest.

"Oh, give her here," she murmurs, putting her coffee aside and holding out her arms. "Since you're making yourself at home and cooking and all."

He grins.

"The bacon might be a little questionable, and I'm running low on cheddar cheese, but the eggs are still good," she says, easing Alexis onto her chest and swaying to calm her. The baby sighs, settling her head on Kate's shoulder and babbling something that might be the girl's approximation – or attempt at it, anyway – of her name.

Rick's lips skim her temple on his way into the kitchen. "I'll make it work. Go sit."

Kate allows her eyes to slip shut for a moment, savoring the touch.

"Sit, Kate," he says again, his voice gentle. He's certainly making up for his overwhelming morning enthusiasm, isn't he?

Her eyes pop open, bringing her back to earth, back to this moment in her living room with her – with Rick starting to putter around her kitchen and Alexis in her arms. A breath catches in her lungs, but she lets it out slowly. This is nothing like what she thought her life would be, but exactly what she didn't even know she wanted.

"Come on, Alexis," she murmurs instead of examining her own head too deeply, "let's watch Daddy try to figure out something for breakfast."

Rick smiles over his shoulder at them as she pulls out a chair from her tiny kitchen table and sinks onto it.

"You okay?"

Her head bobs. "Yeah, just…tired. Not all of us got a full night's sleep last night."

He offers a sympathetic look. "How late were you working?"

"Too late." Her lips lift in a wry smile. "I got in after three."

"Ouch."

"Tell me about it," she snorts, shifting Alexis against her chest. The baby's weight is warm and comforting; if she's not careful, it's going to lull her into a sleepy haze, too.

"What time do you have to go in today?" he asks, cutting through her contemplations (her attempts not to fall asleep, more accurately).

"Montgomery said not to come back before noon. I was going to go in sooner, though, so maybe I could get a jump on things."

"Following orders so well, Detective Beckett."

Kate sticks her tongue out at him.

"Trying to solve a case, Mr. Castle."

Her eyes flutter shut as he leans over and presses a kiss to her forehead.

"You do it so well, Kate, but you need to let yourself rest, too."

She pulls Alexis closer, lifting an eyebrow without opening her eyes. "Isn't that what I'm doing now?"

His lips lift against her skin. "Good point."

"Mhmm. How's my breakfast coming?" She allows her eyes to open, giving him a lopsided smile.

"Yeah, yeah. It's coming." He spins away, grabbing for a mixing bowl and opening her nearly empty carton of eggs.

"We're getting you some food this afternoon."

Kate snorts but doesn't argue. It would be pointless to tell him not to do that, or to insist that she'll get to the store on her next morning off. Instead, she just lifts her coffee to her lips and settles in to watch him cook.

If she wants to buy her groceries for the exceedingly rare times that she's in her apartment, then she'll let him.

"So hey," Rick starts a few nights later as the credits roll on the first of their John Woo double feature, "I was thinking–"

"Oh, is that what the noise was? Did it hurt?"

"Cute," he huffs, lifting his hand from the back of the couch and giving her hair a gentle tug.

Kate grins at his feigned offense, resting her cheek on his shoulder and pulling her legs higher onto the couch.

"Anyway," he drawls, "I was thinking that since I've finished my book and it's in my editor's hands now, maybe one night when you're not on a case or working in general, I could ask my mother to watch Alexis and we could go out?"

It takes a moment for his words – and more importantly, the invitation behind the casual suggestion – to sink in.

"Like… on a date?"

He chuckles. His hand lands in her hair again, fingers sifting through the strands and moving up toward the base of her neck where he begins to rub soothing circles against her scalp. "Uh huh. We haven't exactly had one… not an official one anyway."

Kate allows her head to loll forward, giving him better access to her hair and the back of her head. Her eyelids lower at the gentleness, the care in his touch, and she feels herself start to drift.

"Kate?"

"Mmm, wha?"

His hand stills, drawing a whine from her lips. Why is he stopping?

"We haven't had a real official date yet, you know," he says. His thumb sweeps along her hairline.

"Mhmm, and you wanna? We can go somewhere nice for dinner, take the opportunity to eat without highchairs and needing to cut food into tiny pieces."

Kate snickers, licking her lips. "There's a place that opened up near me a little while ago that has live music on Saturday nights. Every week it's a new genre, apparently; we could see who's playing next weekend? It always looks packed, so getting in to eat might not work, but we could probably go for a drink and listen to the music."

She twists back to face him to be sure he heard her, finding him watching her with a soft smile.

"That sounds great," he agrees.

Her teeth drag over her lower lip. "Yeah?" she asks.

"Yeah," he assures. His head dips closer to hers, his lips landing on the corner of her mouth, encouraging her to release her lip from between her teeth and pucker in return. "Saturday, you said?"

"Uh huh. I'm on late shift on Friday, so I have all day Saturday and part of Sunday off…"

Her – god, what is she even going to call him? – hums against her mouth. "Perfect," he rumbles. "I'll make a dinner reservation, then."

"Kay," she agrees, feeling the flutter in her belly grow. They're going on a date. A real, honest to god date. Not two friends just going out for a night, not an outing with Alexis, not even a 'help me, I need someone to come to this thing.' No, they're going on a date.

Taking a deep breath, she twists under his hand, sinking deeper into his side and encouraging him to continue rubbing her head as they start the next movie.

"How did Alexis do tonight?" she asks, all of thirty-five minutes into their dinner, spearing a piece of lettuce with her fork. "With your mom, I mean."

Rick smiles. "She was great. Happy to see her, happy to dance around the living room and play with Mother's bracelets. She's gotten better with regular sitters, too; not that I've left her with many, but the last one said she was just a little fussy once or twice and then she settled down. Nothing like it was months ago."

"That's good."

He nods. "It makes it easier not to end up riddled with guilt every time."

A soft chuckle escapes her mouth. He's making light of his own empathy, but she's seen how much it hurts him when Alexis is sad or in pain.

"You were doing fine with her, Rick. Don't doubt that."

His chin lowers at the praise; even in the warm golden light in the dining room, she can see his cheeks darken.

After a moment, he clears his throat and looks up. "Makes you want me, right?"

Kate barks a laugh. Reaching for her wine and taking a slow sip, she allows her eyes to sweep over his face and down his neck.

"Well, it certainly doesn't hurt anything," she murmurs, nudging his foot under the table. "Plus, you clean up pretty nice, too."

Rick makes a show of looking her up and down. It's no doubt meant as a silly action, but she sees the hungry glint behind his gaze as well and squirms in her seat. They're supposed to go to the place by her apartment after they eat to hear some music, but if he keeps looking at her like that, they will be going straight home.

Hell, they might even be leaving before they have dinner if he keeps it up, which would be a shame because the restaurant Rick chose is beautiful and the plates of food that she can see passing their table look absolutely divine.

"Stop looking at me like that, Castle," she says, though it's not nearly as firm as she was hoping it would be, given the circumstances. "I want to eat dinner."

His laughter somehow both calms her and fans the warmth in her belly. How he does this shit to her, she'll never, ever know.

"Don't worry, Beckett," he assures, reaching out to catch her hand and squeeze her fingers. "We've got all night; dinner can come first this time."

He looks entirely too proud of himself when she shivers and grips her fork a little tighter.

"I hate you."

He grins, swiping his thumb over the ridges of her knuckles. "Mmm, no you don't."

She sighs, tightening her grip on his hand. "No," she admits – grudgingly, no less. "No, I don't. Against my better judgement, I might even love you a little bit."

Rick smiles, lifting her hand to his lips. Her eyes slip shut at the touch and when they slide open again, he's watching her with an intensity she's slowly growing used to being directed at her. "I know you do, Kate. I love you, too."

Miraculously, they make it through their meal and through the first few songs of an up-and-coming artist's jazz set before the zing of his smile and the warmth of his palm on her thigh grows too distracting. She drags him back to her apartment after that, pulling him toward her bedroom as soon as he closes and locks the door behind them.

Thanks for reading! Just a couple of chapters to go! I'll be posting them every Tuesday so that the final one can coincide with the anniversary of the first chapter.