Kate sighs contentedly and snuggles into his side. His arms wrap around her, one of them skimming up and down her bare back.
"I love it when you do that," she mumbles against his skin.
"Rub your back like this or get you to come like I –"
"Both," she interrupts him, grinning. "Definitely both."
He grins back and bends his head to place a kiss along her hairline.
"Which reminds me," Castle starts. "We should talk about our honeymoon so we can get a reservation in place."
"I thought you wanted to surprise me."
"I did. But that was before your daughter walked into our lives. Are you okay with leaving her here with my mother and Alexis while we're gone?"
She nods against his chest, her curls tickling his chin. "They seem to get along just fine."
"Good. Now next question. Are you feeling tropical beach or exploration across Europe?"
She hums. "Well you know I've always wanted to go to Paris, but do you really want to go back there after what happened with Alexis last year?"
Castle furrows his brow. "If you really want to –"
Kate kisses the corner of his jaw. "I'm fine with a tropical beach, really. We can swim with dolphins and live out of our swimsuits."
"Oh good point. Swimsuits mean less clothing to take off."
She laughs, snuggling into him closer. "Yes, exactly."
"All right, I'll pick a tropical setting to surprise you with. Check that off of our to do list."
"We still need to pick a venue. And if we don't book one fast, we're going to have to change our date."
"Well I think it all comes down to how big of a venue we need. And we won't know that until we figure out the guest list."
"So those should be our next two priorities. The flowers and caterers can wait," Kate says.
"The caterer may come with the venue."
She sighs, readjusting her position against him. "So, who are we inviting?"
"You really want to do this right now? It's after one and you have to work in the morning."
"So do you."
"No, now see I don't actually work there, I volunteer."
She snorts. "Volunteer, huh?"
"Yes, meaning that if I don't want to wake up with the first body drop of the day, I don't have to."
"You're a hell of a partner, Castle."
"I try, I try."
They had a new case and yet here she was running background checks on the license plate owners from the security tapes outside of Addison's apartment. She couldn't help it. Castle had opted not to come in with her this morning, apparently she had kept him up too late last night, and Ryan and Esposito seemed to have this new case under control. They were interrogating a suspect right now.
So she had turned back to this case, hoping to find something, anything, to propel them forward. So far, everyone has appeared clean. No felonies or arrests or even parking tickets. She enters the last license plate number into the system, already ready to close this down and go watch the boys grill their suspect. But the plate comes back without registration.
"That's odd," Kate mutters.
She pulls up a search for vehicles that have been reported stolen. No luck there either. She leans back in her chair, staring at her computer screen as her mind works through the problem. How would the car have a license but no registration?
"I think we just set a record," Ryan gloats as he and Esposito return to their desks.
"Get a confession already?" Kate asks.
"Sure did," Esposito answers. "Our suspect admitted to killing her last night."
Kate grins and shakes her head. "Don't be calling Guinness just yet. 'Last night' doesn't fit Lanie's time of death. She said our victim died three days ago."
The boys exchange a glance.
"Well maybe Lanie's wrong?" Ryan suggests.
Esposito and Kate both shoot him a look.
"When have you ever known her to be wrong?" Kate asks.
"Well, there's a first time for everything."
"Don't tell her that," Esposito mumbles.
"Go back and talk to him again," Kate tells them. "See if you can't get the real story out of him."
They grumble and head back to the interrogation room. She turns her attention back to her computer. Castle's crazy theories start circulating in her head again. Bracken's men could pull off something like this. So could Tyson. She doesn't want him to be right. She doesn't want psychopaths like them who are out to get her and her fiancé to take it out on her child. She doesn't want to believe that they were smart enough to figure out who Addison was, well who she is.
All of these cases have to be unconnected. She needs them to be. She also needs this license plate to be the lead she's been looking for.
Kate finds Addison in her room when she gets home from work.
"Do you always have to work on Saturdays?" Addison asks, without looking up from her book.
"Not every Saturday. But crime doesn't stop just because the week does."
"You're home early for you."
"Ryan and Esposito had the case under control once I reminded them of the death timeframe. They told me I could head out if I wanted to, so I did."
The girl nods and closes her book, looking up at Kate.
"Ready for that talk?" she asks, coming into the room to join her on her bed.
Addison nods and places her book on her nightstand. Kate smoothes down the duvet cover, waiting for her to start talking, but she doesn't.
"So, what'd you want to talk about?"
"I umm," she stammers, staring down at her lap. "What was it like when you got shot?"
Kate blanches. This was not what she had been expecting.
"Why do you want to talk about that?"
"Because I wasn't there when it happened."
Kate goes silent looking for the words to say.
"Look," Addison starts. "It's just that I don't know you, not really, and I want to. And talking with Alexis yesterday, I don't know it just made me realize that there was a lot I missed by not growing up with you."
"So you want to get to know me, by hearing about my shooting?"
"I know it's weird, okay? Humor me."
"You know when you said you wanted to talk about heavy stuff, I thought you meant sex."
Addison rolls her eyes. "Please, I'm 14. I've already suffered through enough Human Growth and Development classes."
Kate laughs, rubbing at the back of her neck. "So what do you want to hear then? The full story? Or well, what I remember of it?"
The girl nods. "I want to know what it would have been like if I was there."
She sighs, her hand already flying up to rub at her scar. "We were at my captain's funeral. You would have been 10 or 11, probably staying with my dad. I was giving his eulogy when I felt this sharp pain in my chest and Castle tackled me to the ground. I guess he saw it coming or something and tried to save me. It didn't work. He was trying to get me to stay with him, to keep my eyes open. He told me that he loved me. He had never said that before. I was dating someone else."
"Had you guys ever been together?"
Kate shakes her head. "We'd been partners and I suppose friends for three years, nothing more. The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital with my doctor boyfriend at my side. Honestly, if you want to know what it would have been like for you, talk to Castle. I was unconscious. He was the one worrying himself sick in the waiting room. Well anyway, when Castle came in, I lied to him and told him that I didn't remember anything because I didn't know how to deal with his words."
"Did you love him? Castle, not your boyfriend."
"I didn't know. I was attracted to him. His books helped me get through my mother's murder. But did I love him?"
"Well clearly it all worked out," Addison says, gesturing to her engagement ring.
She laughs. "That it did. It was a long and bumpy road, but we made it here."
"But you were okay, after the shooting?"
She shakes her head again, her thumb pressing into her scar. "The bullet went through my heart, so I had to do a lot of physical therapy to get my strength back. And I started seeing a therapist because I had developed really bad PTSD."
"What's that?"
"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I'd hear a loud noise and nearly jump out of my skin because I thought someone was shooting at me again. I couldn't sleep because my mind was just wrecked with nightmares. Nightmares about getting shot, about Castle getting shot, about Castle dying…"
"You cared about him."
She nods. "I just kept thinking about how he tried to stop it. How if he had been any earlier, he might have taken the bullet for me. I never would have forgiven myself for that."
"You're not the one who pulled the trigger."
"No, but I'm the one who brought him into this world of violence, of this mess that is my mother's murder case."
"Wait, you got shot because of your mother's case?"
Kate had been staring off at the wall for the majority of the conversation, but at that question, she finally turns her head to look at Addison.
"Yes."
"What if something happens to you because of my parents' case?"
"It won't."
"You don't know that."
"Addie, I'm not going to let anything bad happen to me. I got shot and I survived. My apartment blew up with me in it and I survived. My car got pushed into the Hudson with me and Castle in it and we both survived. I'm indestructible."
Addison looks down at her lap again. "You say that, but you got shot because of your mother's case and you still haven't solved it. My parents were brutally murdered and the guy is still out there. And then there's that flashdrive that got you all worked up. It sounds like a lot of people want to hurt you."
Kate reaches over and rubs her back. "I won't lie to you. There are a lot of people who want to hurt me. But I'm not going to let them. I'm not going to go down without a fight."
"I can't lose you too," Addison says softly. "You're all I have left."
Kate pulls her into her arms as she starts crying. And then it hits her that this is the first time she's hugged her daughter, the first time she's held her even, and she starts crying too.
"I'm not going anywhere, kid. I'm gonna stay right here."
