A/N: After several suggestions to add more to this one shot I decided to give you all what you want. Here is another chapter. Hope you all like this one too and tell me what you think please. Thank you for taking your time to read and review it for me.
She was warm and safe. Safe? When did that happen she hadn't felt safe since...well since she had taken a bullet to the heart. The sun beamed in from the window, sun wait when did the sun come up? I slept all night, she said to herself. This had been the first time in a long time that she had slept all night without waking up to some god awful form of a nightmare. Thump, thump, she heard the steady reassuring rythm of a heartbeat; only it wasn't her heart she was hearing.
Beckett yawned and slowly started waking from her peaceful slumber. When she opened her eyes she found that her head was resting on Castle's chest; well that explains the heartbeat she thought to herself. Her body stired as she struggled to sit up a bit. The first movements of her body made Castle tense against her. She noticed this; as well as the horrible pounding of her head right now due to last nights drinking activites.
Kate looked up to be met with his alluring blue eyes stairing into her own. "Good morning. How is the head?" He asked her.
"Hurts like hell." She admitted.
"Well that's what tends to happen when you down an enitre bottle of vodka alone." Castle said.
"Right." Kate said sadly.
The tension in the room was almost unbareable. Neither one of the partners were really sure what to say to the other. After a few minuets Kate shot up out of the bed and rushed towards the bathroom. Ten seconds later Castle was hot on her trail. He knew after the amount she had chosen to drink last night that she was going to have hell to pay for it this morning; and he was right. He paused, and leaned up against the door frame of the bathroom.
"Go away." She mumbled.
"No." He said.
"Please Castle, you don't need to see this." She all but begged.
Castle pushed himself of the door frame and made his way fully into the bathroom. He stood behind her and gathered her hair in his hands, "I have had a pregnet wife before and a baby; this is nothing I haven't seen." He explained to her.
After Kate was sure that she didn't have anything left to throw up; she sat back and rested her back against the tub. "Remind me to never drink again." She grumbled.
"How about you get you a nice hot shower, and I will make us something to eat. Plus I have just the cure for that hangover missy." He said.
"I can't move." She whined.
"You Dectective Beckett are absouletly adroable when you whine." He said as he pulled her to her feet. Kate stood up cautiously testing her balance and her stomach. She backed up and leaned herself against the sink. Castle pulled the shower curtain back and turned the water on for her. When he was satisfied with the water he turned his attention to Kate.
"Now are you going to get in or am I going to have undress you as well; because I would be more then happy to help."
"I am sure you would." She said with a smile.
"I will be in the kitchen if you need me." He said before shutting the door and leaving her to get herself cleaned up.
Kate sighed and shreded her clothes as she climbed into the warm water of the shower. She stood with her back to the wall as she let hot water wash away some of the hangover. She closed her eyes as she remebered what it felt like this morning waking up in Castle's arms. She loved the way his heart was beating steady, she loved the feel of his arm wrapped around her waist, she loved it all. She sighed, great this is just what I need right now she said to herself. The realzation that she was in love with him hit her finally.
Twenty minuets later she was showered and dressed; and making her way to the kitchen. "Hey here drink this." Castle said sliding a glass of nasty looking gunk in her direction.
Castle turned around and the sight of her nearly knocked the air from his lungs. She had her still wet hair down, she wore a simple pair of jeans and a blank tank top. He knew she didnt't have to work today; but still. Kate leaned arcoss the table and grabbed the glass. Castle watched her closely. His eyes were automatically drawn to the scar the rested in the center of her chest. Kate sat back down on her side of the table. "What the hell is this?" She asked.
She noticed Castle was not paying no attention to her, she tried to catch his eyes; then all of a sudden she knew what he was doing. She looked down at her chest and self-continuosly pulled her shirt up to cover it. Castle reached over the table and took her by the wrist. "Don't. Don't be ashamed of it." He said letting go of her hand.
"I am sure not proud of it." She said sadly.
"You should be. Not many people can say they were strong enough to withstand a bullet to the heart; but you were and you have the scar to prove it." He said.
"Scars." She corrected.
Castle arched his eyebrow at her in a confused manner. "When I flaltlined they had to cut me to let the blood out of my lungs it was drowning me. So I have surigcal scar to go with the bullet wound." Kate said. Kate leaned back in the chair she was sitting and grabbed the bottom of her shirt. She pulled it all the way up to reveal her scar to Castle.
"We all have scars Kate, that is nothing to be ashamed of. Insted of looking at is as weekness look at is as strenght. Let it show you how far you have come, the challenges you have faced; don't let it destroy you let it drive you." He explained.
"That is easy to say when you are not the one carrying around the scar. Everyday when I look at myself in the mirror that is all I see. It reminds me of how failed." She admitted.
"Then you need a new mirror. Because when I look at you I don't see that at all." He replied.
Kate crossed her arms over her chest and bit her bottom lip. She hesitated for a moment, then deicded she needed to know. "Tell me Castle, what do you see then?" She questioned.
Castle was terrffied to tell her what he saw; but he knew that now more then ever she needed to hear it, she needed to know. Gathering every bit of courage that he currently possessed he said, "Everything. I see everything when I look at you. I see this stuborn woman who dosen't stop at anything to acheive what she wants. You are fearless, you are driven and your unstopable. You build these walls around you not to keep others out; but to keep yourself in. Because you're afraid that if you let them down for one second someone is going to get inside and change your life forever; and you don't know if you are ready for that or not. I see my partner, my best friend, and..." He paused.
Kate leaned foward on the table; she was waiting, praying that he would say what she thought he would say. "That you what?" She asked.
"That I love." He whispeared.
Kate reached her hand acorss the table and took his. "I have been waiting for you say that." She replied.
"You love me?" He asked.
"Of course I do. Why do you think I called you? I turst you Castle more then I have ever trusted anyone; and that scares me."
"Don't be scared. I am here I am always going to be here Kate, no matter what." He explained.
"What happens next?" Kate questioned.
"Well I would really like to kiss you now." He said.
"I would like that too." She said.