A/N: Sorry, sorry, sorry for the delay in posting this chapter. I hate it when authors leave me hanging. I got busy with Christmas and then I frankly just kinda got unmotivated in writing and stalled out. Next time (if there IS a next time haha) I will make sure I have a nice cushion built up before I start posting! Just a few more chapters left in this one ...

December 24, 2011

The persistent knocking on her door dragged Kate from her Castle-filled dreams, and she pulled the pillow over her head in a fit of defiance. When the buzzing of her phone joined the fray, she groaned a resigned sigh and sat up in bed, the covers bunched loosely around her. She reached for the offending noise-maker and rubbed her hand over her face as she answered the call with a groggy yawn. "Whaddya want, Castle?"

"Good Christmas Eve morning to you, too, Kate."

She smiled. "Good morning, Rick."

"It's Christmas Eve, Kate! The sun is shining, the forecast calls for snow, and gift opening commences in 24 hours. Why are you still in bed?"

Stretching, she wiggled her toes beneath the blankets and leaned back against the headboard. "How do you know I'm still in bed?"

"One – because you have that incredibly sexy," his voice dipped lower, "voice that tells me you just woke up. Two – I've been knocking on your door for like twenty minutes and you didn't answer. So either you've got someone else in there with you – please say no – or you've been deep in dreamland."

She laughed huskily and pursed her lips in an unsuccessful attempt to stifle the wide grin that erupted at (quite simply) how cute he sounded in her ear. "Hmmm… Maybe I've been waiting for you."

Silence answered her, and she could almost see the comical contortions that desire would stretch across his face. "You going to open the door?" he growled through the phone. She felt a small thrill of heat shiver through her core, and boldness surged in her spirit.

"You still got that key that you stole from my dad?"

"I did not steal the key. He gave it to me and –"

"Castle."

"Yes?"

"You could use the key."

"The key I did not – oh!" She heard him rustling in his coat, his voice muffled as he told her he'd be right there. Then – nothing. Staring at the phone in bemusement, Kate glanced down at her red flannel pajamas with snowman dancing playfully all over. Not the sexiest thing she could have worn to bed … but then again she had been alone last night. After the impromptu party at the Old Haunt, she and Castle had parted ways with a very sweet kiss, a few gentle caresses, and the promise of tomorrow.

And now… it was tomorrow.

"Hi."

Her still-sleepy gaze swept his body as he stood casually in her bedroom doorway, taking in the French-blue long-sleeved shirt and faded denim jeans that set off his eyes and muscles quite nicely. Quite nicely. She stretched again and sighed, but neither had anything to do with sleep.

"Hi."

Rick's eyes lit up at the sultry timbre to her voice, and he shoved away from the doorjamb to hold out a cup of coffee. She accepted it eagerly and drew her legs up, nodding to indicate he could sit in the space she'd just created. Sipping the hot beverage, she watched him over the lid, her forehead scrunching at the amusement on his face. Her hand shot out and grabbed his ear, ignoring his laughed protest and twisting the cartilage until he raised his hands in surrender.

"What did I do?" he asked, still giggling uncontrollably.

"You were laughing at my pajamas!"

"I wasn't!" At her glare, he stole a kiss, despite the grip she still had on his ear. "Okay… maybe a little. They're cute."

Releasing him, she allowed him another kiss and laughed quietly when he crawled over her body and settled against her. "You are so sexy," he breathed, tracing her jaw with slow, wet kisses.

"In my snowman pajamas?"

"In whatever you're wearing – or," his eyes gleamed, "whatever you're not wearing."

"You want to help me test that theory?" She arched an eyebrow and sat her coffee on the bedside table, waiting expectantly for him to react.

He … ahem … rose to the challenge. No words (at least no coherent ones) were spoken for a very long time. As they tried to regulate their breathing, still basking the delicious afterglow, Kate smiled against his heaving chest and pressed her lips lightly to his salty skin. Rick ducked his chin to absorb the sight of her bare body sprawled atop his, and his heart swelled with the reminder that she was his.

"Kate," he murmured as his head fell back to the pillow, his voice hushed with the reverence of the moment, his fingers stroking loosely through her hair. "I'm so in love with you."

"How long?" she asked sleepily.

"How long will I be in love with you? Um… I've got 'forever' booked. Does that work for you?"

She hid her pleased smile with a string of lazy kisses along his collar bone. "I meant… how long have you been in love with me. When did you know?"

"Ohhhhhhhh," he teased, playfully tugging the fistful of hair he had claimed. Thinking for a moment, he shrugged. "I don't know, actually. I mean – I started falling the minute you walked into that book premiere. I suspected that I was a goner for the better part of that first year. I knew I had enough of my heart invested in you to be insanely jealous of Schlemming."

"Demming," Kate corrected in a wry voice.

"Potayto, potahto," Castle retorted dismissively, a mischievous grin dimpling his cheek. "I knew without a doubt that you were the one I wanted to grow old with after you nearly died in my arms in that blasted freezer." He grazed her temple with a sloppy kiss and hesitated a few seconds before forcing himself to ask, "What about you?"

"When did I fall in love with you?"

At his mute nod, she drew her lip between her teeth and avoided the question by tracing absentminded patterns through the thin patches of hair that frosted his chest. He gave her the space she needed and tried not to hold his breath as he waited for her to answer. Finally, she spoke – and stole his heart all over again with her vulnerability. "That May – when you said it was our last case together. I knew then. I knew I'd fallen in love with you. I couldn't imagine my life without you in it. It really shook me up." She paused and felt tears lodge behind her eyes. "Do you remember when I dragged you out of your going-away party to talk to you?"

"Yeah. Of course." He hurriedly searched the recesses of his memory bank, pulling up that particular situation and wincing when he recalled how it ended. "Oh. Yeah. Gina."

Kate gave a sad smile, and he felt the twitching of her lips against his skin. He left her hair to trail an apologetic hand down her spine and whispered a kiss to her still-damp forehead. "Yeah. The thing is, Castle, I'd broken up with Tom right before that. I was going to go with you – to the Hamptons."

His heart clenched until he thought it might break into painful shards. "Oh Kate," he moaned hoarsely. "I'm so sorry." Burying his face in her hair, he inhaled her scent and rolled to his side, taking her with him. Nausea broiled in his throat at all the time they'd wasted because he'd been trying to run away from how she'd hurt him. He brushed her tresses away from her face and kissed the top of her nose before meeting her eyes with an anguished look. "No wonder you pushed me away after you were shot."

"Yeah, well." She shrugged, but he could still detect a hint of sorrow behind her gaze. "I'm not pushing you away anymore."

"And I'm glad. Very glad. But I wish I could go back in time and do something – anything – to undo the idiotic, moronic choices I made back then."

Nestling closer to him, she drew him into a desperate kiss and rested her forehead against his. "Make me forget?"

"I can do that."

And he did.