AN: WHY HELLO THERE! Ahem. I have (what I hope is) good news for you. See, in honour of my 25th story on this site (my, how time has flown), I've decided to start a new stupidly fluffy multi-chapter story. It's been a while since I've done a multi-chap as I simply haven't had the time to commit to finishing something like that, but now that I'm on three months of holidays I think I can devote enough of my time to writing a good story.

So here is the first chapter of "Developments" - it's set in Season 3, post-Countdown, but goes AU from there. I'm not going to address the finale at all in this story, either. So Montgomery's sticking around.

I hope you enjoy the first glimpse!

IBYL
xo

Castle woke abruptly, panting heavily. He patted himself down quickly, taking a few deep breaths to steady himself, before reaching for his phone and tapping out a quick text to Beckett.

You up still?

He sighed, scrubbing his face with his hands. The nightmares had come thick and fast since the freezer incident two weeks ago. When he'd come into the precinct that morning after a sleepless night, Beckett pulled him aside and flat out asked him what was wrong.

"Spill, Castle. You can't hide these things from me." Beckett had turned to face him after locking the door to the conference room. He smiled at her, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Why do you look like the walking dead?"
"It's nothing." He said quietly, before sitting on one of the chairs.

"Castle, look at me." She said softly, and when he did, she smiled. "Partners." She affirmed, and he nodded.

"Nightmares. That's why I can't sleep."

"How long for?" She asked softly, taking a seat next to him.

"Since the freezer. I just… they're so vivid. I have never been more angry at my own imagination, at having my memories warped into horrors before my eyes. It hits me that it wouldn't have taken much for my nightmare to have become reality."
"So in your dreams…" She prompted, and Castle sighed.

"You die. You always die. Right in front of me, Kate." He choked out her name on a half-sob, and she clutched his hand tightly.

"You listen to me, Richard Castle. I'm not going anywhere. Hopefully your subconscious will realise that soon, but until then, every time you wake up, and you feel uncertain, I want you to text me. OK? Because I won't let you do this alone." He smiled but scoffed a little at her offer.
"Bet Josh won't like that." He murmured, and Kate sighed.
"That's not going to be a problem, Rick. He left for Haiti yesterday, and I broke it off before he went." He raised his eyebrows, and Kate smiled a little. "He only stayed because we fought. I realised I didn't want to be in a relationship like that. I wasn't happy. I need to be happy."

Castle was drawn from his thoughts by his phone chiming softly next to him.

Yeah, couldn't sleep. Call me?

He smiled and hit speed dial 2 (Alexis, of course, was number 1), smiling as he heard the familiar ringing.

"Hey, Castle."

"Why can't you sleep?" He asked, skipping his greeting.

"Same situation as you." She replied quickly.

"Nightmare?"

"A bad one. Happens sometimes." He could imagine her shrugging off her own answer and he smiled to himself.

"And here I was thinking it's just me."
"I'm here with you, Rick." She said, and he smiled at the use of his first name.

"Thanks, Kate. So how have you passed the time you've not spent sleeping, then?"
"Sitting, pacing, and rearranging my closet. Trying to wind down, but it doesn't seem to work for me." She sighed. "Any chance you'll sleep again tonight?"

"Slim to none, I'd say. It's already 2am. By the time I stop thinking about the nightmare, the sun will be coming up." He chuckled a little, almost like a defence mechanism, and was greeted by silence. "Hey, Kate? You still there?" He asked.

"Yeah, Rick, still here."

"Any chance of you sleeping again?"

"Nada."

"Come over, then." He said, smiling to himself, already excited by the mere idea.

"Seriously?"

"Why not? If we can't sleep, we may as well hang out. A movie or something, might help us wind down." Kate paused at that, before smiling to herself.

"Okay, Castle, I'll see you in a bit."
"Great! I'll see you soon." He smiled to himself before picking up his warm quilt and heading downstairs to set up camp on the couch.

He'd been sitting for a few minutes, watching the clock tick, when he heard a gentle knock on the door. Smiling at her thoughtfulness, he swung the door open, and Kate grinned.

"Hey, Castle." She murmured softly.

"Beckett, come on in." He grinned, and gestured towards the couch where she sat down and pulled the quilt over her lap before settling back into the couch. "Drink?"

"I'm alright thanks." She smiled, before patting the seat next to her with a smile.

"How are you doing? Aside from the whole not sleeping thing, of course." He stammered, and she smiled.

"Subtle, Rick. I'm fine. I'm the one who broke things off."
"Ok, I believe you." He put his hands up in a false surrender and she smiled.

"So you know what I did with my sleepless night, what did you do?"

"Nothing productive. I sat around. Didn't want to move around too much and risk waking Alexis."

"She's here?" Kate asked, surprised.

"Yeah, she is."

"Does she know you haven't been sleeping?" She asked, and once again Rick smiled at how thoughtful she was.

"Yeah, she knows. She…" He stopped briefly to gather his thoughts. "She heard me scream one night, even from the other end of the house. She came and woke me up, and we talked about it a bit. I couldn't tell her everything because parts of it were about the bomb, but she got the general idea." He shook his head sadly. "She's concerned."

"Of course she is, Rick. She's YOUR daughter." Kate said quietly. "She's always going to be kind-hearted and unfailingly generous." She looked up at Rick and saw tears in his eyes. "Hey, I'm just telling the truth."

"Thank you, Kate." He choked out, and she snuggled closer to him slightly before looking him in the eye again.

"Always." She murmured, before resting her head on his shoulder. "You picked a movie?"

"Uh… no. Knew I forgot something." He murmured, and she laughed softly.

"Well I don't know about you but I'm more than happy to just sit here. Don't know if I'll sleep though." She said, and he grinned widely.

"I'm good with sitting, Kate." He said, before taking a risk and placing a soft kiss in her hair.

She was asleep within half an hour.

Thanks for reading! Next chapter shouldn't be too far away, just playing with it now to make sure I'm happy with it. But in the meantime, review? :)