"What, are you jealous that I hooked her, Castle?" he grins.

The novelist stops struggling against Ryan. "What is there to be jealous about? You couldn't reel her in"

"What are you talking about? I'm marrying her!"

That makes Beckett freeze. She was trying to get her boss' attention and now she's staring at him dumfounded, the meaning of his words hitting her like a ton of bricks.

Fact is, there's only one reason why Castle's jealous of Will Sorenson. And it has nothing to do with Kyra Blaine.

"Sure you are" Castle mutters to himself, realizing his mishap, but downplaying it not-so-masterfully. Some writer.

Everyone stares after him as he turns around and simply leaves. He knows they all understood what he really meant, and he's so going to pay for that. Now, with any shred of dignity he has left, he scurries off toward his room.

Ryan is the first one to recover and runs after his boss.

Beckett's left standing in front of Sorenson digesting what just happened. Did Castle just… No. There's no way he was talking about her. He's drunk and jealous that his ex is getting married. That's it.

Is it?

One thing's for sure. She's sure as hell not going to be the one to bring it up.

"Beckett?" Ryan snaps her out of her thoughts. "You comin'?" he asks as he struggles to keep up with Castle.

She nods and jogs towards them, but not before casting Will a murderous glance. She better not see him anywhere close to her boss again. The bodyguard finally catches up to her boss and partner when they're waiting for the elevator.

The way up to the room is silent. Too silent. Castle's at the back of the elevator glaring at the floor and Beckett is beside Ryan at the front. Her thoughts are also wreaking havoc in her mind, and she desperately needs to not talk about what just happened, but she knows she won't be able to find peace by the way her partner's throwing sideway glances at her.

Once at the suite, the novelist makes a beeline for his room without uttering a single word to his security detail. Beckett also tries to escape but she's not that fast.

"What was that?" Ryan finally asks.

"What was what?" Beckett replies innocently and he scowls.

"Oh, come on. Seriously?"

"What?" she falls on the couch and he takes a seat beside her, throwing her a look. "They were both drunk and throwing a pissing contest. It was all nonsense" she shrugs noncommittally. But they both know there's more to the story.

Seeing Beckett's reluctance, Ryan decides to drop it. At least for now. He sighs and gets up. "Night"

"Night" she says before he disappears into his bedroom.

And she's once again left alone with her thoughts… She hates that. But mostly she hates the fact that Castle's words have so much power over her –though it wouldn't be the first time.

She runs a hand over her face and huffs in frustration before she gets up and turns toward her bedroom. She stares at it and envisions another sleepless night full of contradicting feelings and stupid thoughts.

One thing is for certain. There'll be no mention whatsoever about this. Ever. She just can't have that. It's hard enough for her as it is… If he even thinks about bringing it up, she'll quit the job in a heartbeat.

She cannot afford to fall for him. She just… Can't.

But she's already losing that battle. And do you know what the worst part is? She doesn't know how she feels about that.

Castle lets himself fall on the bed and runs a hand over his face.

What's going on with him?

He just practically confessed his… love? No, that doesn't sound right… His feelings for his bodyguard at the same time that he thought he was fighting over Kyra.

Beckett must be so pissed… She's going to leave them. That's it. It's over.

He knows how much his bodyguard hates it when things get personal and well… Things can't get more personal than this.

He was an ass, and if he's lucky enough and Beckett doesn't run off in the middle of the night, he's never, ever, bringing this up again.

He really likes having her around, and he's got to admit that he likes it a little too much, and if this makes her run away, he won't stop her, but he'll sure as hell hate himself for it.

It's gotten to that point in the middle of the night, where it could either be way too early or way too late and Beckett's still tossing and turning in bed. She has to admit that the thought of running off has crossed her mind more than once tonight, but she keeps finding reasons not to. And that's not helping her predicament.

She's always known that he was attracted to her since the moment he laid eyes on her, and she tried to stop him but that only ended with her liking him too.

Finally, she makes a decision. If he decides to not bring this up, she'll stay.

She can't deal with having feelings for her boss right now. She's just not ready for a relationship. At least not with him.

Despite herself, she ended up caring for him –a lot. And she's not sure she could bear them becoming something and then it failing miserably.

Deep inside of herself, she knows she couldn't bear the fact of him just considering her a fling and dumping her when he gets bored.

She's seen him on page six with a new woman every couple of weeks… That's just not for her.

Besides, she's got way too much baggage that she needs to deal with before moving forward in her life.

Rules are there for a reason and she's sticking to them.

At least for now.

His bodyguard's not the only one who crosses his mind that night.

He's sure that as soon as he saw Kyra, Sorenson told her how much of an ass the novelist was and that makes him feel even worse.

At some point, his body loses the battle and finally manages to get a few hours of sleep in. The next morning he gets up to a throbbing headache. He grunts as he turns to look at the alarm clock and he has to narrow his eyes to make sense of the harsh light that's coming from it. 7:05. Ugh. Why is he up so early anyway?

He lays on his back again and sighs. He takes his hands up to his face to rub his temples and then remembers what he had to do today. He gets up and walks over to the bathroom and whe he looks at his reflection in the mirror he realizes he looks as bad as he feels, so he decides to take a shower.

Once that's done and after making sure Beckett didn't flee, Castle sneaks out of his room to apologize to Kyra.

He automatically walks to the elevator and then he realizes he doesn't really have a plan. He's not even sure why he's doing this. She wasn't even there last night, and it's not like he'll be seeing her again anytime soon.

But still he has this nagging feeling of apologizing to someone, and since he won't bring anything up with Beckett, he should at least say a last goodbye to Kyra.

He gets into the elevator and he's drawn to the lobby. He's not about to knock on the door of their room. That would only make matters worse. Maybe she's in the ballroom, making sure that everything's going according to plan for the reception. He knows it's a long shot, especially this early in the morning, but he'll go anyway. There's no harm in trying. But he has to do this quickly. Beckett's going to be pissed when she realizes he's not in the room.

But then again… Her being pissed is better than the alternative.

Something's wrong. Beckett just finished getting ready and she listens.

Nothing. That's not right…

She's gotten so used to Castle's antics that the silence is suspicious. When it's not the tapping of his computer keys, it's him spinning crazy scenarios for his scenes or making inappropriate advances at her.

Even after what happened last night, the suite shouldn't be so silent.

No. Silence is not good.

She walks out of her room to find his room and the lounge empty.

"Ryan?"

"Yeah?" he hollers from his room, where he's getting ready.

"Where's Castle?"

"I don't know. Isn't he there?"

"No…" Hell. With how things ended between him and Sorenson she can't afford having them meet again. "I'll go find him" she tells Ryan before rushing outside.

Castle just can't keep himself out of trouble, can he?

Castle finds her in the second room he searches and he stands in the doorway watching her as she examines the room. A smile tugs as his lips as he remembers how they met. They were just a couple of kids back then, young and in love.

What a great time they had.

Kyra Blaine is standing in the middle of the ballroom imagining how it's going to look like in just a few hours when it'll be filled with all the flowers and decorations for the reception and how it's going to feel when she swirls around the ballroom with her husband.

Just yesterday morning she was so sure this is what she wanted.

Just yesterday morning she knew he was the love of her life.

But then Rick came and barged into her life again. Why? What does that mean?

A soft "hey," coming from behind her pulls her out of her thoughts. She spins around to find Rick walking toward her with an apologetic look on his face.

"Hey"

"Look, I- I'm sorry about how I acted last night. I was way out of line"

She shakes her head. "It's okay" this has been weird for everybody and he's not the only one who reacted badly. Besides, her fiancé's version of the story was probably completely blown out of proportions.

"How do you feel?"

She looks up and sighs. There are so many things going on right now… "I don't know. I just…" she walks over to the dance floor, facing away from him. "I'm sure that tonight when I'm twirling around on the dance floor with my husband everything will be the way it's supposed to be"

He'll be back and New York and she can be happy with the man she loves and trusts.

He nods, a pang of nostalgia hitting him. "Do you remember the last time we danced?"

"Under the clock at Grand Central Station" she turns around to look at him. How could she forget?

"You were on your way to JFK to catch a flight to London"

"You were supposed to follow me"

"You said you needed space" and he let her go. Greatest heartache of his life. But he'd do it all over again if that's what she really wanted.

Kyra casts her eyes downward and sighs. "I didn't mean forever" she looks into his eyes again before she changes the subject. " So, you've done all of this before?" she says closing the distance between them.

"Twice"

"And each time, did you think that she was the one?"

"It seemed like the right thing to do at the time" he'd already seen the love of his life fly away once. He wasn't about to make the same mistake again.

"But it wasn't, was it?"

Castle shakes his head.

"Some girls would think what happened this weekend is a sign"

"Hmm" he nods. "What do you think?"

She thinks for a second and then decides to avoid the question. "You know how Will and I met?"

The novelist shakes his head.

"A little over a year ago… I came back from London, and since I didn't want to go back to New York I came here. Next thing I know, I'm at a bar and a stranger's telling me everything about his heartbreak and at some point I shared mine too"

His eyes cast downward. If only he'd known… He wouldn't have let her suffer.

"Granted that his was way recent than mine, but it was still as fresh in my memory"

Still as painful, he hears in his mind.

"Finally one thing led to another and the heartbreak turned into happiness" a smile lights her features at the memory, and he can't help but mirror it when he finally looks up.

Suddenly he turns serious again. "Does he really make you happy?"

"Yes" she nods, convinced. "He does"

He looks deep into her eyes and finds that she's telling the truth, and he's glad.

Beckett finally finds her boss, but when he sees his and Kyra's interaction she decides to stay at the door.

"Hell of a day" behind her, Sorenson walks towards her.

"Yeah" she lowers her gaze, before turning to face him.

"Could it be the universe giving us the chance to get closure before us taking the next step?" he says softly.

She looks at him perplexed by the positive approach, before smiling. "Sounds like something Castle would say" he could've gone with The universe is telling us maybe this is a bad idea, but he was hopeful instead.

Not the realistic-bordering-on-bleak Will Sorenson she used to know. He really has changed.

"You like him" Will tilts his head to the side.

"No," she replies immediately. She so doesn't want to go down that road. But she does give him honesty, "I just, um… I don't know. I think he's interesting"

"So you're not…?"

"Together? No" she shakes her head.

"Oh" he nods. The way Castle was acting made him think that maybe they were more than just bodyguard and Principal.

They see Kyra and Castle laugh.

"He's quite a guy" Sorenson has to give it to him. He might be jealous type, but he's seen the way Beckett looks at the novelist and he knows she saves that look for people she really cares about. "If he only knew how a big a fan you really are"

"Yeah, well, he's not going to know" that wouldn't help her situation. At all.

"You never told him how you stood in line for an hour just to get your book signed?" he smiles softly and she looks at him slightly amused at the fact that he remembers. Suddenly, he turns serious again. "How his novels got you through your mother's death?" he's not really surprised. Beckett's hardly the kind of woman who opens up easily, but with the way they talk about each other…

"Is there anything you don't remember?"

"Not when it comes to you" he says honestly and she has to look away.

Finally, they all say their final goodbyes and Castle and Beckett wish the happy couple the best, before walking back to the elevator.

"We met in college. We were together nearly three years" she shared her story; he might as well do the same.

For a second, she doesn't say anything. He didn't mention what happened last night… That means that she probably won't need to start looking for a new job anytime soon. And she's glad. "I didn't ask" she easily goes back to her professional ways. It's not her place to ask about his personal business.

"Yes. You were not-asking very loudly" he smirks.

"She's different from your ex-wives" she looks at him, tilting her head to the side in wonder, letting herself off the hook for now. That was one thing about Kyra Blaine that never really fit in their story. How had she ended up with him?

"What do you mean?"

"She's real" she pauses, knowing she's going into dangerous territory again. "I didn't think you went for real"

He doesn't say anything, and that worries her. He's never been so serious and silent with her before, except when he talks about his daughter.

"Tough breakup?" she supplies quietly.

The elevator dings and he really doesn't want to get into the details of the greatest mistake he's ever made. "It was a long time ago"

She nods and walks behind him toward the suite.

His bodyguard may think that the reason for his silence is the heartache that leaving Kyra left him with, and in part she's right, but that's not all that's turning his world upside down right now.

Something just dawned on him, and he's not sure what to do with that.

After leaving Kyra, he vowed to never go down without a fight. That's part of the reason he has two failed marriages behind him. But yesterday night, he was ready to let Beckett go if she was no longer comfortable even though her leaving would probably destroy him again.

Now he's sure of something. He's not letting go before they have a chance to be a thing. He'll be patient. And he'll be careful. He'll do anything he has to in order to at least get the chance to see who the real Kate Beckett is.

He needs to be careful. He already let one amazing woman walk out on him. He can't make that mistake again.

AN: Again, thank you so much for your continued support!