Kate knew Castle was following her, but she didn't slow down. She stalked two blocks in the direction they had come from before slowing her pace and actually paying attention to where she was at. The loft wasn't too far away. She could go get her bike and go home, or she could stay and finish.

What would everyone say if she didn't finish her story? She couldn't just come out and tell everyone she left because Castle had practically begged her to take a break, then walked off with some other woman when she refused him. It was all a little bit ridiculous now that she thought about it. She couldn't even come up with any other excuse that would make sense if Castle told everyone she went home, or something to tell him when he wondered why she was mad enough to leave.

….

Kate made it to the loft a good ten minutes before Castle, only to find the door locked. She sat down in the hallway next to the door and leaned against the wall. Now she was beginning to feel a little embarrassed for leaving the restaurant. What would she say when he got here?

She dragged her phone out of her pocket and contemplated calling Lanie. She always seemed to have good advice for moments like these. The only problem was that if she just up and told Lanie what she did and how she was feeling, she would have to admit to how she was feeling.

Just as she slipped her phone back into her pocket, the elevator dinged and Castle stepped out. He walked straight to her and looked down at her for a minute before sitting down next to her against the wall. He nervously looked over at her and looked like he couldn't really think of what to say now.

"Hey."

"Hey," Kate answered back quietly.

"You came back here," Castle stated more to himself than anything. He thought he had ruined everything, that she was just going to go home and forget about all of this. He still didn't understand why taking a break was such a crime, but it was a bit of a jackass move to leave her there with the old lady when he was supposed to be out to lunch with her. Walking off arm in arm with Ra—oh. That was it wasn't it.

"I have a story to finish, Castle. I'm not leaving you yet," she said with her cop face so that she wasn't showing any particular emotion.

"Right," he said and stood back up. He would have to think of something to make this right.

He helped her up and put his key in the door to unlock it. Stepping inside they both wandered into his office. Kate saw her notebook and pen sitting in her seat from earlier and picked them up. Castle just watched warily as she fingered through the pages with writing on them.

"You said you have typewriters and stuff, right. Can I use one?" she asked absentmindedly, looking through her notes from earlier.

"Yea," he answered breaking through all of the thoughts whirling around in his head. "No problem. You don't just want to use a computer?"

Well she was thinking about doing that until she remembered he said he had some old typewriters. There was just something about an old-fashioned typewriter was kind of appealing. "I've just never actually used one before."

He nodded and disappeared out his office door, returning a few minutes later with a big typewriter in his hands. It was a little bit bigger than she'd actually expected and apparently a little bit heavier too if the way he set it onto the desk was any indication.

When he stepped away from the desk she took his chair and scooted up. However, she didn't even think about the fact that she was sitting at Richard Castle's desk, in his office, and using one of his typewriters to write something. It was finally time to get started.

Kate thought maybe she should make a title page or something, so she set the paper at the center. She placed her hands on the keys and typed out the title and her full name, Katherine Beckett. She then realized how much different it was then just typing with a computer keyboard. The keys were at different levels and her fingers didn't just flow to make easy sentences like they usually did.

She just pulled out the finished title page and went on to the next one. She stared at the keys and the blank paper, and then went back to her notes. She knew exactly what place she wanted to open her story at, but how to put it into words on the paper was the problem. Dammit. Where to start?

Focusing on the characters she had made up earlier that day wasn't as simple when she had more things running through her mind. How could you write about two people falling in love when your own love life was crap at the moment? Just staring at her hands she got lost in thought about everything that had happened just earlier in the day.

"Okay, that's it," she said with frustration covering her face. "I knew we shouldn't have taken that stupid break when we did. Now look, I don't even know what to write. I can't even get it started."

Castle looked up at her from his seat across the room when she spoke. She wasn't the only one thinking about what had happened earlier.

"Hmmm?"

Kate's frustration grew again and she lifted her hands from the keys and rested her forehead against them. "I told you this would happen. If I started right away when it was all fresh in my mind, I wouldn't have this problem."

"It's not really that uncommon, you know." Castle would've suggested taking another break until inspiration struck, but for some odd reason that didn't seem like a good idea. "You just have to clear your mind and focus on what you want to happen."

"Well maybe my mind's a little too full at the moment to do just that," she huffed.

Castle didn't really know what to say. He knew what was probably on her mind, but he couldn't just come out and say it. That would lead into other things that he just didn't want to get into, not at the moment anyway.

"Um … Well, do you wanna talk about it?" he asked, his words escaping with his voice sounding more nervous than he had hoped it would.

Kate thought about it for a minute before saying anything. She should've seen this coming. She couldn't just come back to the loft and continue the day like nothing had happened, no matter how much she wanted to.

"I was just thinking about this story Edna told me about when she was younger. She liked this guy for a long time, and they were best friends. She never told him about how she felt, so he was going to take another girl to the dance. It was this girl from school that she hated. So one night she just plucked up the courage and went to his house and kissed him."

"Wow, that's a pretty good story," Castle said. He hadn't expected the conversation to go to this.

"Yea, I thought so. They ended up going to the dance together. Then they got married and stayed together ever since," she said, smiling lightly at the story, glad she thought of something to say instead of what was actually on her mind.

"I could see her doing that. Edna, I mean. She seemed like a woman who liked to be in control of the situation," Castle let out on a laugh.

"Yea, I guess she just didn't want to see Arnold with anybody else."

The thought of that shook Castle a little bit. He didn't know if it was supposed to have more meaning behind it or if she was actually talking about Edna and Arnold. "Well, maybe he just didn't know she wanted him as anything more than a friend. Maybe she should've told him sooner."

Kate lifted her eyebrows and met his eyes. "Well maybe it wasn't the right time. Maybe every time she tried, he was walking away with another girl on his arm."

"Well maybe he wouldn't be if she wasn't so clear about them just being friends," he said waving a hand in the air in suggestion.

Now her look was more heated and her voice was a little higher. "Well maybe –"

She was cut off once again by the click of his office door. Both of them turned to find Alexis Castle standing in the doorway, fidgeting and awkwardly aware that she had walked into something.

"Hi guys."

"What's up, pumpkin?" Castle piped up to break the awkward air.

"Nothing really, I just got home from school. I was wondering if I could stay over at Paige's house tonight."

"Yea that's fine. Have fun," he said kissing her on the cheek before she left the room.

After Alexis was on her way, he looked back at Kate who was getting up from her seat at his desk. "Maybe I should just go home, Castle. I can't write anyways. I'll come back again tomorrow or something."

She headed towards the living room to find her sweater from earlier that morning before he stopped her. It might've been arguing, but every time they finally got around to anything it always got interrupted.

"You don't have to do that. Look, I'm sorry about earlier. I really shouldn't have left you in that restaurant. We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but I can help you get your mind off of it. I did happen to write an entire Nikki Heat book with plenty of distractions."

She put her sweater back on the couch and sighed. "Okay, tell me then. What should I do?"

"Well first of all, I was serious about the break. You really shouldn't do it all in one shot. It'll give you more time to think about the depth and the plot, and what things you might want to include about your characters."

"A break, huh? And what should we do on this break?" she asked, giving in.

"I think I have an idea, one I got from Rachel actually," Castle said dragging her across the front room into the kitchen.

"From Rachel?" Kate asked, with her smile faltering a little bit.

"Yea, she said she was going to do this with her grandma and it was something you might like."

"You guys talked about something I might like?"

"Yea, we talked about you for a while actually."

And here we have chapter 8. I'm actually glad I'm done with it, so the predicament is at its end. I can go back to the lightness of before, if lightness is a word lol. Man it's been such an insane week, I don't even know how I found time to sit down and write the chapter at all. But I can't keep everyone waiting for too long. I hope everyone liked it. With the whole arguing bit I had them use subtext with Edna's story. I didn't know if that was a good idea or not but I stuck with it in the end. Thanks guys, I'll be sure to get more up when I can.