AN: So... this chapter is rated M for things and stuff... don't read it if you don't like... that. That being said, um... this is the first time I've written something like this in a long time... so... yeah. Enjoy?


She was jostled awake by his squirming, and as she rose to consciousness, she began to hear his murmurings as well.

"No, Kate, no!" he breathed, "Stay with me!"

"Castle," she said softly, gently running her fingers over his jaw.

"No!" He sobbed in his sleep, crushing her to his chest, "No, no, no, no, no."

"I'm here, Castle," she tried, a little louder this time.

"Don't leave me," he whispered, his voice cracking.

"I won't leave you, Castle. I'm sorry." Tears started to stream down her face, hearing the pain in his voice.

"Wake up! Please wake up!" he cried suddenly, shaking her in his grasp.

"Castle, you wake up!" she said, raising her voice and shaking him right back, to no avail.

"I can't lose you."

"I'm right here! You won't lose me if you'd just wake up, Rick!" and with that, she pinched his side as hard as she could.

"OUCH!" he yelled, bolting upright, his eyes bursting open. She could see them swimming with tears, just as her own were, her head nestled against his chest.

"Kate," he panted, loosening his death grip on her slightly. "Sorry." He took several steadying breaths to calm his raging heart, before he finally sank back down onto the mattress, drawing her with him.

"What happened?" She rasped against him.

"Nothing, it was just a nightmare," he blew out on a long breath.

"I gathered that, Rick," she rolled her eyes, not that he could see, he was staring at the ceiling. "What happened in the nightmare?" she pressed.

"I got here too late, you had already…" he trailed off, unable to continue.

"I told you, I was past that point, Rick, I was on my way to come talk to you when you showed up." She looked up at him, hoping to catch his gaze. She wasn't disappointed. His eyes were a piercing blue, highlighted by the moonbeams glancing across her living room.

"I know, I know…" he sighed, "My subconscious is just a little overactive sometimes, you should know that by now." He pulled her tighter into his embrace again.

"I do, but I think I prefer it when your subconscious is thinking about conspiracy theories and aliens, or even in innuendo, rather than… that," she admitted, piling her head on top of her hands on his chest.

"Innuendo, hmm?" He murmured, his eyes igniting instantaneously, "I think I would rather be conscious for that…"

"So would I, I don't know how well you would have fared with sleep humping me awake," she smirked up at him, her eyes light again.

"So… is waking humping allowed, or…?" he waggled his eyebrows at her, the final traces of his dream fading from the depths of his eyes.

"Oh God, no. No, you cannot call it humping," she decreed, burying her face in her hands.

"But you called it humping!" he whined.

"Well, it would have been!" she burrowed her face into his chest, trying harder to contain her mirth.

"You're right," he said, suddenly sounding much more serious, "if I had been dreaming of something else, that's probably exactly what would have happened."

"And what exactly would you have been dreaming of for that to have happened?" She egged him on, hoping that their banter would coalesce into something more for once.

"You." She eyed him, prompting him to continue, "You, and me, and nothing between us."

"Hmmm, I would say 'In your dreams' … but that's kind of the point, isn't it?" she teased.

"Would you care to make my dreams a reality?" He waggled his eyebrows at her.

"Oh, I think I could make that happen…" she trailed off, pushing herself up off the couch, "but I think that my bed would be a much better place for such activities."

"Oh, I don't know about that, Detective, I've had plenty of dreams that didn't take place remotely near a bed." He arched an eyebrow up at her.

"Oh, Writer-Boy, don't even get me started. We'll work on those later. Let's start it off right," she grinned down at him.

"I will prove to you that there is nothing boyish about me in about fifteen seconds," he growled at her, a wolfish grin appearing on his face.

"See, that sounds the exact opposite. Only fifteen seconds, Castle?" She smirked knowingly at him.

"That was a countdown for the amount of time you had before I hauled you into the bedroom myself. Three… Two… One…" he lurched to his feet, swinging her over his shoulder as he went.

"Castle! Put me down!" she laughed, which was a surprise. He had expected her to hit him.

*SMACK*

Oh, there was the hit he was expecting, but… the location was decidedly different. She swatted at his ass again as he walked through the door of her bedroom. It took him a moment, but he retaliated in kind, tapping her ass lightly with his free hand, but instead of letting it fall away, he left it there, rubbing it over the curve of her bottom. He stopped at the foot of her bed, swinging her down from his shoulder and plopping her in the middle of the bed.

He hovered over her for a moment, just staring at her flushed face, taking in her hazel eyes, and plump lips, and that's as far as he got, because she pulled him down on top of her, her mouth connecting with his roughly. He groaned into her mouth, finally, finally being able to feel her lips on his again after so long. Their kiss was languid and long, neither was in a hurry to get to their destination now that they both knew the other was on board with this.

Eventually they broke apart for air, and just kind of stared at each other, taking it all in.

"I love you," he whispered to her.

"I-" she swallowed back the emotion in her voice, "I love you, too."

His heart skipped a beat at that, and he vowed never to forget that moment. He bowed his head, kissing his way down her neck until he reached the V of her shirt. Quickly, he unfastened the buttons and helped her shrug out of the damn thing. After sucking on her collar bone for a few moments, he continued on his path downward until he reached his goal, her scar. He kissed it softly, once, twice, three times, before he met her eyes again. "And now, I'm going to make love to you," he smirked, tracing the edge of her bra with his tongue, before reaching around to unclasp her bra with one hand. He nudged the straps down either arm with his nose, finally brushing it away with a flick of his wrist. She shivered as his breath ran across her ribcage, raising goose bumps in its wake. Nipping his way across her torso, back up to her pert breasts, he lathed each one languorously, paying them both ample attention, before moving his mouth back up toward hers, and replacing his mouth with his hands on her breasts, massaging them and tweaking her nipples every so often. He kissed his way back up the column of her neck, his tongue twirling over the skin, tasting her, as he went. After one particularly vicious pinch of her right nipple, a groan slipped past her lips, and he was unable to stop himself from attempting to capture the sound.

His tongue demanded entrance into her mouth, and she gave it on a sigh, meeting it with her own. The battle commenced, the twirling and chasing, stroking and tasting - they were evenly matched. When they broke again for air, her mouth attached itself below his left ear, nipping and sucking at the skin there, marking him, though he didn't notice at the time. He was too busy watching his fingers trail down over her taut abs, the muscles trembling beneath his touch. She sucked in a sharp breath when his fingers dipped beneath the waistband of her jeans, teasing ever-so-slightly, but she regained her composure quickly. She wrapped a leg around his back and flipped them so he lay beneath her, his eyes glazed over slightly, obviously in awe of her.

"My turn," she grinned down at him, her fingers sliding down his chest and torso and back up again, slowly letting the buttons of his shirt slide free of their eyelets. She tugged the tails of his shirt from his pants gently, and let her fingers trail up his flat stomach and over his broad chest. Grabbing onto his collar, she pulled him up slightly so she could push the shirt down over his shoulders and arms while he attempted to shrug out of it. She sat there, astride his hips, reveling for a few moments - just taking in the view, the flat expanse of his abdomen. He was not as toned as he once was, she noted, but then again maybe that was because he hadn't had any workout partners for a while. She smirked at that, knowing that that was about to change.

"What's that smirk for?" He asked softly, not wanting to break the mood.

"I was just picturing all of the different ways we are going to have sex in the future," she said, leaning down and placing a kiss right on his sternum, then trailing her tongue down, down, down, around his belly button, and finally placing another lazy kiss right above his waistband.

"Mmmm, Kate," he groaned, "as much as I love the foreplay, I don't know if I'll be able to stand much more of it our first time." She looked up at him, his head was thrown back, but his eyes somehow found hers, and she nodded.

Whipping his belt from its loops, and popping the button on his pants took her a matter of seconds. She took a little bit longer pulling down the zipper, tooth by tooth - until he knocked her hands away, and kicked his way out of his pants. Clad in only his boxers now, he raised an eyebrow at her before she conceded, and they switched positions again. He swiftly yanked her skin-tight jeans off her body with a few well-placed tugs, her panties coming off right with them - he was in no-nonsense mode now.

"Protection?" He asked at her ear, his fingers traveling up her legs, bending them at the knees, and trailing up her thighs to dip into the valley between her legs. They danced at her apex for several long moments before his question registered to her.

"Shit," she breathed, becoming less and less coherent, "Uh- um… bathroom? Under the sink?" She let out, like she wasn't actually sure, and she wasn't. It had been a while, she just hoped that whatever she did have wasn't expired - or worse, flavored - that's not what they needed for their first time together.

"Alright, you stay put," he said, trailing his fingers through her wetness again, and she shook slightly at the intrusion. Padding silently to the bathroom clad in his boxers, he checked underneath the sink, spotting a black box hidden behind about ten different bottles of hair product. He shook his head at the box, MAGNUM, it declared. He flipped the box over, and found that it had never been opened, though it was well within its expiration date, and chuckled to himself. The last poor sap must have seen the box and hidden it under the sink in favor for a properly fitting size, not that he would have any problems when it came to size. He switched the light off, and paused for a moment, flipping it back on and grabbing a washcloth from the cupboard. He wet it in the sink and wrung it out - he might as well be prepared. With that, he made his way into the bedroom once again, opening the box and pulling one of the foil packets out. Stopping at the doorframe, he leaned against it to admire her nude form, propped up on the bed with some pillows.

"You coming, Castle?" she taunted from her spot in the center of the bed, which she had taken the time to turn down for their activities while he was gone.

"I certainly plan to…" he waggled his eyebrows at her, and she rolled her eyes playfully, "but you first," he promised.

He tossed the box and washcloth onto her nightstand, tugged off his boxers, and crawled up between her legs headfirst. He nudged her knees apart, draping them over his shoulders as he kissed his way up one thigh and then the other, his day-old stubble scratching slightly at the sensitive flesh, only enhancing the feeling. Finally, finally he reached his destination. His tongue slowly ran the length of her, teasing, tasting, testing, before bringing one hand around to join his mouth in the festivities. From her vantage point on the pillows, she could see everything he was doing to her, and it was hot. She panted softly as he traced over her clit with his tongue slowly, one finger finally sliding home within her and pumping slowly. Her breath hitched slightly, but evened out soon enough, just to pick back up again as it was joined by a second and then a third digit. His rhythm was steady, constant, like the roll of the tide on the ocean, or a constant melody of sixteenth notes. His tongue played a perfect countermelody, thirty-second notes bounding up and down the staff, trilling and swirling around, creating a truly beautiful sonata just for her. Suddenly his actions escalated, a long, drawn-out crescendo, and what she thought had been forte turned out to be pianissimo in comparison to his actions now, as he brought her higher and higher. He conducted the closing measures of her orgasm swiftly, ending on quite possibly the best fermata ever scored. Just when she thought she couldn't take anymore, he sucked her clit into his mouth and bit down, as sharp staccato to end the piece, with just the right amount of pressure. She cried out in surprise, her back arching, and her muscles contracting around his fingers, even as he steered her through her climax and safely back to the silence of the bedroom.

She lay there, feeling boneless and slightly out of breath for several long moments. He gently pulled his fingers from her, pulling them into his mouth one by one to clean them off. He leaned up and over her again, kissing her forehead, the tip of her nose, and finally, once her eyes fluttered open, her mouth. The passion between them was like a gas burner - the pilot light was always on, they just needed to add a little fuel, and it took off at a steady beat, heating up both of them along with anything and everything around them. Their kiss was unhurried, and though the battle waged on, neither side truly wanted to win.

Finally, he settled between her hips, the condom tugged on, snug around his base, that little pocket at the tip. He couldn't help but roll his eyes as his mind went back to the first time he had used a condom, the first time he had ever had sex, and he compared it to some 1960's era spaceship toy, with its antenna on the top. He shook the thought out of his head, aligning himself with her entrance, and looking back up at her for confirmation. She pushed her hips up and into his slightly, urging him on. He pushed into her slowly, feeling her muscles stretch taut, even after the warm-up session. He felt the ridges of her gliding against him, even through the latex of the condom. Eventually, he felt her muscles begin to relax again, only clenching when he failed to move, even after she had adjusted. He gritted his teeth, his eyes slamming shut, as he worked to hold it together.

"Just- wait," he panted, grabbing hold of her hips securely, "or this will be over rather quickly."

"Yeah? Well, you already got me there, so why shouldn't I return the favor?" She hummed, rotating her hips slowly in his hands.

"Not very gentlemanly to finish first, even if you did get there already. The points scored in the semifinal don't count in the championship game, Beckett," he grunted, finally getting a lid on his desire.

"God, you are so full of metaphors, it's so fucking hot," she panted, grabbing him by the hair and pulling him in for a searing kiss.

He rocked slowly into her then, pulling out nearly all of the way, and pushing right back in. She moaned at the sensation of going empty and being filled right back up. Their lips slipped apart, and her head fell back into the pillows with a dull thump. She was beyond talking now, they were both a bit beyond talking, their breathing ragged and stunted, catching when either moved just so. After one such of these movements, he let his right hand fall from her hip, working it between their bodies until he found her clit, and started rubbing circles around it. Her hips shot up into his suddenly, and he almost thought she had shattered again, but for the lack of clenching going on inside her.

"Castle!" Her breath hitched as he circled her clit again, "So close!" She panted, "So- unghhh-" she groaned. He had pinched her clit between his thumb and forefinger, but to no avail.

He grunted, dropping his head to her chest, pressing open mouthed kisses to the skin above her breast, biting gently and soothing it with his tongue. He looked up at her, pulling a nipple into his mouth and tugging on it with his teeth just as he drove his hips into her sharply and pinched her clit again, harder this time. She cried out, her back arching, a long low moan coming out of her even as he body clamped down on his, triggering his own release, and milking him thoroughly. His own sounds were muffled by the mouthful of breast he had, but it was still the hottest sound she had ever heard come out of him, and she filed it away for future contemplation.

He collapsed briefly on top of her before pulling his arms out from in between them and propping himself up on his elbows to stare down at her. Her eyes had fluttered closed with her orgasm, and she was having a tough time reopening them, so she settled for speaking softly instead. "God, Rick, why didn't we do that sooner?" she breathed out into the charged air between them.

"Mmm, I have no idea," he murmured, his lips coming down to hers in a leisurely kiss. "You're right, you called that from the very beginning, Kate. I had no idea then, and I have no idea now," he mumbled again against her cheek, nuzzling it gently.

"I can't say I'm much better off there," she let out a little laugh, effectively clenching around him again.

"Ugh, wait, I gotta- you know…" he trailed off, leaning up and off of her, easing out slowly. He tugged off the condom gently, tying the end of it and tossing it in the trash by her nightstand, and grabbed the damp washcloth. "Let's clean up a little bit, and get back to sleep, it's nearly five in the morning." He gently scrubbed the cloth over her more sensitive areas, and then quickly over his own, before discarding the towel, and pulling the blankets up over them.

"What?" He asked as her eyes settled over him, looking at him as if awed.

"That was just-" she blinked back sudden tears, "really tender, I wasn't expecting it."

"Well, now you know what to expect," he grinned, pressing a sweet kiss to her lips before tugging her into his chest again.

They both fell into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.


*Runs and hides*