A/N: Apologies for the delay in updating. Sometimes you need to take a little break and refresh. I think it's that January blues thing. :)

Excited to see Stana attend the PCA's tonight. My fingers and toes are crossed for her, the guys and the show itself. I know she'll be elegant, graceful and charming as usual. Whatever happens she'll make us all proud.

Chapter 8 – Weighing Anchor

Previously...

When Castle suddenly reaches for her, grasping her around her waist, fingers pressing into soft curves, she squeals in surprise. He lifts her on top of him, and she is staggered by the sensation of this full body contact for the first time; how powerful and erotic it feels. Her thighs part either side of his hips, their pelvises pressed together by the weight of her body lying on top of his. She rests her elbows either side of his neck, loose curls tumbling forward to enclose them in a dark, private space, and then she kisses him for all she's worth.

She kisses him for all the times they messed up and missed out, lied and hid and kept each other waiting. She kisses him so that he can feel just how deeply she loves him, because more than anything that's the one truth she wants him to grasp and understand above all else – that he is loved by her without reserve; no caveats, no provisos, no strings from now on.

The world tips on its axis for one heart stopping, delicious, unnerving second and then settles briefly, equilibrium restored. Their lips are still fused, his weight now on top of her, pressing her into the mattress where he's just flipped them over. And it's such an amazing feeling – his body holding hers down – that she never wants it to end.

The sheets are tangled around their legs and bodies, her pillow lying somewhere north of her head, but she doesn't care. Castle's hands are still on her hips, fingers spanning her lower back, kneading at the base of her spine, the top of her buttocks. The man is talented she's quickly discovering – hands in so many different places at once that it's dizzying trying to keep up. But it's his mouth, fused hotly with hers that robs her of coherent thought. Her lips are parted, slanted wetly over Castle's, as they breath heavily through their noses. But air has become such a minor detail when there is this – Richard Castle's tongue pulsing demandingly between her open lips, overriding any and all reasoning for not doing this right now.

This situation is so emotionally charged. And they haven't talked about how sleeping together might change things - about Alexis, or work or the loss of the friendship they've both come to value, rely on and care so much about. He was hungover last Kate looked, both of them exhausted by the long night, their fight in that bar, the pitiful, painful exposition of her past. Only none of that matters now, here in this perfect moment.

Kate's grip on Castle's shoulders slips when he finally pulls back to stare at her.

"Whoa. Whoa, Kate, Kate, Kate," he chants, cupping her face, steadying her, pulling her focus back to the here and now, quieting down her sudden burning desperation.

Kate looks shocked as she stares up at him, her chest heaving now that she's free to gasp for air, sucking much needed oxygen back into her lungs. Every intake of breath brushes her already taut and over sensitized nipples against his chest, leaving her aching with want for more of him, even through two layers of cotton.

She slides one hand through his hair, cups the back of his head and attempts to draw him back down into another soul-surrendering kiss. But Castle is having none of it.

"Wha—?" she pants, freeing her other hand from its fisted grip on his t-shirt to wipe at her damp, swollen lips. "What's wrong? Are you okay? Why are you stopping?"

Castle catches the flash of panic and hurt that Kate is too slow to hide from him, and he shakes his head quickly since it's faster than finding the words straight off.

"I—I just think maybe we should slow things down."

Kate's eyes widen. "Slow down? Slow down why?"

"Why?" He laughs at her unexpected question that is really a poorly disguised objection. "Why…because…because we were supposed to be taking a nap," he says, fumbling around for any better reason and failing to find one.

"A nap?" asks Kate, her voice heavy-laden with incredulity. He might as well have said robbery - 'Because we were supposed to be planning a robbery, Beckett'.

"Yeah," grins Castle, giving in to her confused look as she lies stunned beneath him. But she's too adorable, so he kisses her again, only gently this time. It's like a new hobby, an obsession; he can't get enough of kissing her.

"We're three and some years into this, I've got you in my bed for the first time, we've been kissing like we were made to do this, Castle, I mean…wow! And you want to take a nap? Really?"

The woman does sarcasm better than anyone he's ever known, and maybe she has a point.

"When you put it like that it doesn't sound so…"

"Sane? Smart? Plausible?" suggests Kate, rattling off suggestions that make it clear which of them is better at multitasking, if that were ever in doubt.

Kate suddenly moves beneath him, squirming slightly; a wicked circle of her hips that she tries to pass off as innocent, knowing full well that it's not. Far from it. And Castle might be playing serious and sensible, but his body is up to all sorts of…other things too. Things she's determined to enjoy more of.

"Kate," he warns, fingers dropping from her cheek to grip her hips and stop them moving beneath him.

"What?" she asks innocently, eyelashes fluttering and cheeks flushed as pink as her well-kissed lips.

"You know what," he laughs, his body shaking with mirth on top of her. "Stop moving and stop trying to play the innocent. It doesn't work for you. Trying to look like some kind of ingénue, when you're clearly…not. Okay! Enough, Miss Beckett," he declares, when Kate shifts her hips up against his again, making his eyes startle wide.

"Are you saying I'm too old for that role, Rick?" she asks, her tongue clicking sharply against the roof of her mouth with the utterance of his first name.

Castle's already shaking his head as she smirks at him. "I would…no, no, never too old for…for anything, Kate," he whispers, grinning down at her.

"Good. Because before we – either of us – get any older, I think we should—"

Before she can complete that thought, her cell phone rings. They both freeze and then Kate turns her head to stare at the nightstand where her iPhone is currently flashing and vibrating its way across the surface like some flashy, attention-seeking, dollar-a-dance stripper.

"You'd better get that," says Castle, quickly easing off of her onto his own side of the bed.

"No, don't—" protests Kate, reaching for him, for any part of him she can grab onto.

But it's too late. Castle is already sitting up and then he swings his feet to the floor, clears his throat, gives her a little parting wave before he heads for the bathroom to let her answer the call in private.

"Beckett!" snaps Kate, sitting up and crossing her bare legs, the phone angrily pressed to her ear. She runs a hand through her hair as she impatiently listens to the staccato voice on the other end of line.

"But, Sir—"

Kate vaguely hears the toilet flush and then the sound of water running in the en suite, while she listens to Captain Gates' rapid-fire instructions over the phone.

"Sir, I'm not supposed to be on call for another twelve hours. Have you tried one of the others? You have, right. And it's—" she pauses to listen, fingers pressed to her tender lips. "Okay, so not immediately? Right. Good. Yes, I'll be here. Anytime, Sir," she lies, making a face at the phone as she hangs up.

Castle is leaning against the bathroom doorframe when she turns around to look for him, after slamming her cell phone down on the nightstand.

"Trouble?" he asks, wincing at the force she applies to her phone.

"Stomach flu spreading through the Precinct like wildfire apparently. That or the nasty takeout the night squad insists on ordering from that cheap dive around the corner."

"The place that failed its last two Health inspections?" asks Castle, wrinkling his nose in distaste.

"The very one," she grouses, slapping her hand down on the mattress in frustration.

"Was that Gates?"

Kate nods.

"Did she call you in?"

Kate sighs, her shoulders slumping. She toys with the edge of the sheet. "No. Not yet. She was phoning to warn me that she's had to bring my on-call status forward."

"Forward? By how much?"

"Basically...I'm on-call now. A body drops in Manhattan and, as of midday, it's mine."

When Castle doesn't say anything, Kate looks up, hazarding a glance in his direction.

"Ever feel the universe is trying to tell us something?" he asks, sinking down onto the bed beside her.

"No. Oh, no. I will have none of that talk," chides Kate, switching positions on the bed so that she can face him. "Look, there are days when I'm on call and the phone never rings."

"Right," says Castle, his tone one of utter disbelief and despondency. "And when was the last time that happened?"

"It happens," insists Kate. She shakes her head and grins when he levels a serious look at her, one eyebrow raised.

"Okay, so I don't remember the last time exactly. But it just means we have to make the most of the time we do have. Anyway, it's a Saturday."

"And...what? People don't commit homicide on Saturday?"

"Shh," she laughs, pressing a finger to his lips. "Don't ruin my theory with your logic, Castle. Let's just enjoy ourselves while we can."

"And what if the phone rings? What then?"

"Then…then we'll deal with it as and when it happens."

"Kate, this is what I was talking about earlier. How is this going to work? Tomorrow…today? We need to talk about that."

She reaches for his hand, clasps it between her own and then she looks him straight in the eye. "However we want it to. It'll work however we decide, Castle."

"O-kay," he says slowly, sounding a little unconvinced. "So...just for argument sake, Dispatch calls and you have to go to a scene. What happens then?"

"What usually happens when I get a call. We go to the crime scene."

"But do we go together or…" Castle shrugs, his face expectant, needing a serious answer from her.

"Right now, today?" asks Kate, surprising Castle when she runs her palm down over his cheek, an amused but newly tender look in her eyes. "It might be better if you showered and shaved first. The beach bum, surfer dude look is…so sexy and, if I have my way, definitely something we will be exploring more in the future. But you might not want to let the guys see you looking like this before we get a chance to…" Kate shrugs.

"There!" says Castle, pointing at her. "That shrug. What does that mean?"

"Before we get a chance to get used to this ourselves. That's all I meant."

"You're sure?" he asks, sounding skeptical, eyes a little narrowed.

"Want me to show you just how sure I am?" counters Kate, getting even closer.

"What if the phone rings?" asks Castle, eyeing Kate's cell phone with suspicion.

"Pretend it isn't even there," suggests Kate, rocking back on her heels to pick it up and shove it in her bedside cabinet. "There. Gone!" she says, slamming the top drawer closed.

Castle laughs in surprise. "You know it's not that simple. If they call you, you will have to go, Kate."

"Better get used to it then," she whispers, kneeling up on the bed to kiss him. "Because they call me a lot."

This is not going the way that she'd hoped. Castle might not be drunk anymore and his hangover might be wearing off, but he is still far from relaxed. She has long dreamt about their first time together: about just how easy and fulfilling and hot and erotic it would be once they finally admitted to one another how they felt. But this isn't that. She's having to talk him into it, persuade him, and the call from Gates hasn't helped either, since it's made them both self-conscious and tense. The whole thing has put him on-edge.

Kate releases his lips with a pop and sits back, putting a little distance between them. She needs to fix this.

"Okay. Cards on the table time," she says, after taking a deep breath.

Castle stares expectantly at her, wondering what the hell is coming now.

"This is not turning out to be as easy as I thought it would be. Not that I've exactly thought this…this now," she says, waving a hand between them, "through in any great detail."

Castle had his head cocked to one side and he's kind of wincing, as if concentrating really hard trying to understand a concept being explained to him in some complex, hard to interpret, foreign language.

Kate gets up off the bed at this point to pace, feeling better able to just spill her guts if she's on the move.

"Well, I have…kind of…imagined us, I mean. But, anyway, that's beside the point," she says, rambling on through her almost delirious exhaustion. "My point is," she sighs, pausing in her pacing to let her shoulders drop, "being 'with you-with you', if you know what I mean, was supposed to be natural. Not all...awkward and full of should we's and what if's."

"I—I'm sorry, Kate," interrupts Castle, looking pretty horrified. "If feel like this is my fault."

"It's nobody's fault," she sighs, taking another deep cleansing breath, hands pressed against her sternum, and then letting it out slowly.

"So, what do we do?" asks Castle, still looking to her for all the answers.

Kate stops to think for a second and then she abruptly leaves the bedroom.

"Kate?" yells Castle, wondering what on earth she's doing now.

He hears water running in the next room and then her head reappears around the door of the bathroom.

"I'm running a bath," she explains, giving him a wink and perky smile.

"Oh." Castle looks something close to disappointed.

"Come on," she says, waving him inside.

"Me?" he asks, pointing to himself, sounding a little panicked.

"Unless you're too shy," she teases, face still peaking around the bathroom door, until she abruptly disappears inside.

TBC... I'm not rushing this. Hope you'll bear with me. And the Fan Fiction site has been playing up the last couple of days, failing to send out story alerts etc. So in case you missed it, I did publish a post-ep one-shot for 6x11 yesterday called 'Hold Me Up'. That's why this update was a little delayed.