Thanks a lot to everyone who favorited/alerted and so on, and an extra thanks to those who took the time to review! New chapter for Arise should be up soon enough, as soon as I'll be done with school madness for the last time.

The 12th precinct was unusually quiet as Castle walked out of the elevator that morning. People were scattered around but the normally casual atmosphere was gone. Instead was a sense of dread and the writer could have swear he saw pitiful grins on two police officers already.

"Bro, good you're here." Castle was startled by Esposito hissing in his ear, the man had come out of nowhere. "What'd you do?"

"What? What do you mean, I didn't do anything." Confused, Castle walked over to Beckett's desk, aware that Esposito and now Ryan were right behind him. The detective was nowhere to be seen and, by the look on his friends' faces, it was a good thing. "What's going on?" He asked and smiled, noticing the coffee waiting for him on the table, but frowned at the number '68' written on it. He was sure today was going to be coffee number sixty-nine.

"What's going on?" Ryan mimicked Castle, his eyes wide. "Beckett's been on a rampage ever since getting here this morning. Gate's a freaking picnic comparing to her."

Castle looked around the bullpen, not understanding what could have happened to get the detective in such a foul mood. "She was fine last night so it must have had happened after she left."

Esposito quirked an eyebrow and closed in on the author. "Last night?"

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Esposito. She came over for dinner because Alexis needed help with her French homework."

"Right."

Castle rolled his eyes and was about to argue back when a young officer rushed through the bullpen, looking scared. "She's coming," he hissed and practically ran for cover.

Everyone scrambled to their places and faked being busy with work as Beckett came in, her heels clicking sharply on the floor. She passed Esposito and Ryan to get to her desk and slumped in her chair, opening a thick file in front of her. "Don't you guys have Thompson's wife financials to go over?"

"It came back negative. Nothing unusual on any of her accounts for the last few months." Esposito answered quickly, his eyes on Castle.

Beckett didn't even glance at her team, her eyes glued to a cell phone detailed history bill. "Check again and if it comes back negative again, go over her sister's, brother's aunt's, neighbor, her cat's, anything, until you find something."

'Do something.' Ryan and Esposito mouthed to Castle as they walked away with a glare, obeying to the order just because they were unwilling to risk their boss' wrath again.

Castle thought for a short moment, not exactly knowing how to approach the subject. "Hey, Detective."

"Hey, Castle." Kate distractedly answered him, but she didn't grace him of her usual smile or other pleasantries. It wouldn't have been necessarily been odd just a year ago, but it definitely was now. Whether she realized it or not, they had grown closer since that night where Beckett had brought him his first coffee. She had begun opening more to him, mostly about little things, but still. She was also spending more time than ever at his loft to either help Alexis with homework, or to have movie nights with them.

The detective sometimes talked of her progress with her physical therapy, or random events that had happen to her in high school. She had shown him her book collection; had invited him over to dinner a few times. She had even fallen asleep twice against him during movie nights.

Things had been improving so much that Castle had expected a relapse and tense moments where she would close up and tell him off but, surprisingly, none of that had happened yet. Until today anyway, but it wasn't like her to take her crabby mood out on the whole precinct.

"Beckett? Kate?" Castle had to repeat her name a few times before she sighed heavily, and, with extreme caution, closed the file she had been staring at for the past ten minutes. When she finally looked at him Castle almost changed his mind. Her eyes were angry but, the man noted, deeply upset as well. If he might have walked away to give her space while she worked out on her frustration, he wasn't going to let her when the woman he loved was in so much pain. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Bull."

"Castle, just don't," Beckett warned him and the edge in her voice confirmed to the man the fact that there was something really wrong.

Acting fast so Kate couldn't react, or at least he hoped, Castle grabbed the woman's hand and hauled her off her feet and dragged her to the break room under the shocked stares of Esposito, Ryan and several other cops present in the bullpen.

Kate was so surprised when Castle had yanked her over to the break room that she didn't even think of yelling, or making him stop. There were two cops in the room when they entered and one look at the couple made them run outside. Castle turned around, closed the door, shut the blinds down and unceremoniously pushed the detective to the uncomfortable couch in the corner, his hand on her lower back to prevent her from backing out. "Sit."

"Castle-"

"I said sit." Kate glared angrily but Castle shot her a stern look he must've had picked up from her whenever she was in the interrogation room. It was the glare she reserved to the suspects that really annoyed her.

Kate finally sat with a huff, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at the far end wall. He was the one who had decided to make a scene by forcing her into the break room in front of everyone, but she was not about to spill her heart out just because she was supposed to. The worst thing was that she wanted to, she really did. But a sleepless night and a crappy morning had changed her mind.

Castle watched her a few moments to see if she would calm down enough to openly talk about what was bothering her but after five minutes of staring, he knew they'd be spending the whole day trapped in there for nothing if he didn't do something.

The writer sat next to her and, when he decided that it was safe to move closer without having to fear being shot, begun moving closer, one inch at the time. When he got close enough to the cop he tentatively took her hand and, if she stiffened, she didn't pull away.

Score one for Richard Castle.

"Like a band-aid, remember?" he gently reminded her as his thumb stroked lazy circles on her hand. "The faster it's out, the faster we can deal with it."

Castle knew it was coming when the young woman's shoulders sagged and her eyes searched aimlessly for another point to focus on. "My dad met someone."

Of all the things he had imagined and feared, the prospect of Jim Beckett having a new person in his life was not something he had thought of. "Oh."

"Yeah. Oh," Beckett agreed. "He, he came home last night after I left your place and told me he had to talk to me about something."

"Was she with him?"

"God, no. It was bad enough as it was."

"You didn't take it well."

Incredulous sienna eyes stared him down and a watery chuckle escaped her lips before she could take it back. "Wow, good deduction, Sherlock."

"Kate..."

"I know, okay? I know how ridiculous this is," she admitted with a roll of eyes, her previous frustration now directed at herself. "I just..."

"I just miss my mom so much, and I know he's never been happy since she died and I want him to be happy, but..."

"You want him to be happy with her, not anyone else," Castle finished for her, saddened as she slumped even further into the couch, took off her shoes and brought her knees to her chest to hide her face in them.

"I'm horrible," she mumbled against her knees and she crossed her arms over them to create a human shield against the world and herself. The rest of what she said was lost as her voice lowered so Castle waited patiently for about five seconds before gently nudging her with his knee. When it didn't work the man, in a bold if not suicidal move, brought his hand between her shoulder blades and ran small circles down her back.

Castle silently counted the seconds in his head before Kate realized what he was doing. By the time he reached ten, he had to bite back a smile.

When he reached twenty, the man was so giddy he was beginning to have trouble controlling his hand and had to struggle to keep it as calm and slow as he could.

When thirty echoed in his head, Castle was practically jumping up and down in his mind.

Castle frowned when he reached seventy-three because, as happy as he was, something wasn't normal. That was when he heard the slow and steady breathing coming from his friend. She had fallen asleep.

Cursing himself as well as feeling a little too proud of himself for having such a magic touch on the detective, Castle watched her with concerned features. He couldn't let her sleep in that position or she'd be in too much pain later because of the way she was putting weight on her side.

Thankful that he was sitting on her right side Castle, extremely slowly and carefully stood up and, while keeping his left arm against Beckett to keep her steady, used his right hand to turn her around. He then sat back and gently lowered her on his lap until her head rested on his thigh.

Castle held his breath as Kate moved and he braced himself to be shot in case she woke up but, to his greatest pleasure, the exhausted woman only uncurled her legs halfway on the couch and brought her hand to her face to hide from the fluorescent lights.

When he was sure she was still sleeping the writer pulled his phone out of his pocket and speed dialed Esposito. "Hey man. Yes, I'm still alive, who do you think I am? Listen, can you manage to keep anyone to come in the break room, Kate's sleeping. Esposito? Hello?"

Glaring at the phone in confusion, Castle stiffened when the break room door was silently opened two seconds later, Esposito and Ryan's heads peeking inside. Both stared in shock at the sight of their boss sleeping on Castle's lap, but they all had smiles on their faces. "Whoa."

Esposito shared a look with Castle and nodded, relieved that his friend was resting and that hell hadn't broke loose in the room. "You got it, bro. Gates' gone for the day anyway so it won't be a problem."

The Latino detective pulled back from the door, but not before shoving his cell phone in the room to take a picture of the two. "Blackmail."

"Show that to anyone and you're a dead man. I will let her hunt you down." Castle smirked.

Esposito and Ryan laughed quietly, agreeing. "No worries bro, it's for Lanie." And with that they were gone and the break room door closed. A piece of paper was scotch taped to the door seconds later and Castle knew they wouldn't be disturbed.

Inside the bullpen, Esposito was smiling and walking around the desks, his hand outstretched and gathering quite a few bills. By the time he was back to his desk Ryan was staring at him. "How did you know?"

"I didn't know anything, bro. But the way Beckett's been acting lately, I knew she wouldn't bite his head off. Not anymore." Esposito shot a knowing look to Ryan, proving that he knew more than he was letting him on. "Besides, the other bet is taking forever so I took my chances with that one."

Ryan frowned in annoyance, but just because he had lost the bet. He was sure Beckett would have been out the door in minutes, but clearly it wasn't going to be happening anytime soon. "Yeah. Come on, let's finish clearing those files before she wakes up, maybe that'll help if she can't find anything to smack us with."

Castle looked up from his phone when Kate stirred almost two hours later. Not moving and going back to the game on his phone, it took the man several seconds before curiosity got the best of him and peeked down at the detective, thinking she had gone back to sleep.

Surprised and a little shocked to see that she was awake, her eyes open and yet, still on his lap. "Stop it."

The soft, familiar mumbling shook in out of his reverie and he dropped his phone next to him, his eyes riveted on Beckett. "What?"

"You're over thinking. That's my job to freak out about everything, not yours," Kate reminded him and yet, she hadn't moved from her spot. They stayed in silence for a while, both lost in their own thoughts. "It's not about me, isn't it?"

Castle frowned and looked down at Kate, who had shifted so her head was still on the writer's lap but so she could see him as well. "What do you mean?"

Kate closed her eyes briefly before locking them with Rick's. "My dad. Him having a girlfriend or whatever she is, it's not about me. I mean I can hate it if I want to but I have to respect him and..."

"And if he's ready to have someone knew in his life, I shouldn't get in the way of that. Right?" she quietly asked, pinching Castle's thigh when he didn't answer right away. "It wasn't rhetorical, Castle, I really was asking."

"Oh."

"Stop saying 'oh'."

"Okay. Okay um...now I know I don't have the same insight on this because our past is different, and because I never really knew my father but, what I do know is that all I ever wanted for my mother was for her to be happy. It took her a long time though."

"How long?" Kate softly asked, curious if not eager to learn more about Castle's personal life, or any other family member.

Castle pondered the question longer than he would have liked, sighing when he found the answer. "I think my mother was never unhappy, but I believe the first time she's been happy, in love happy, was with Chet, even if it didn't last very long."

Kate frowned at the memory of the late man, knowing things between him and Martha had been complicated. "That's a long time to finally be happy."

Castle looked down and let his hand brush the detective's soft hazel curls away from her face so he could see her eyes better. "I know."

Kate blinked and frowned for a fraction of a second when Castle's hand initiated contact with her hair, but didn't shy away from it. She had a headache coming on and his warm fingers through her hair surprisingly made her feel better. "I don't think I want my dad to be like that for so long," she finally whispered as tears welled up in her eyes. It was bad enough that she was stuck emotionally, her father deserved better than that.

Noticing the emotional struggle Kate was going through but not acknowledging for both their sakes, Castle grinned as an idea popped in his mind. "Does he want to introduce her to you?"

"Yeah." Kate's roll of eyes was so pronounced Castle thought they were going to get stuck backwards in her skull.

"Well..."

"Well what?" Kate demanded as she regretfully pushed herself up so she was sitting next to Rick. "Care to elaborate?"

"What if we all go out together? We could go to the Old Haunt or, somewhere else," he quickly proposed when he saw her eyes narrowing dangerously at him. 'Note to self, the bar was for them only.' "Restaurant, diner, your place, even mine if you don't want her there. That way it'd be less awkward for you and them."

Castle had expected to be laughed at or even hit at the not-so-subtle mention of being Kate's date so when she smiled at him (after she was done staring as if he had grown a second head), the writer fought the urge of officially asking her on a date, just the two of them. It would come when the time was right, he forcefully reminded himself.

"Really? You would do that? Is that a good idea?"

"Of course. We'll go out on dinner in a small but great place, we'll eat, we'll talk and if she's anything but sweet and great to you, I'll let you use me to make her all jealous and crazy." Castle grinned childishly, his heart swelling in his chest when he was rewarded with a sparkling smirk from the woman he loved.

"So you'll be my sugar-daddy, and my step-mother buffer?"

Castle nodded and held a hand out as he got up, inviting the detective to do the same. "Always."

The moment was lost when Castle waggled his eyebrows at her and, at that specific moment, Kate knew she was in trouble even if she had no idea why. "What?" she mumbled as she put her shoes back on.

"Nothing. Just that there are lots of ways for a sugar-daddy to be used, and they're not all aged-related, if you know what I mean."

Kate burst out laughing even as she made a disgusted face. "Eww, that's gross, Castle."

"You're the one who made the sugar-daddy reference."

"I wasn't being serious."

"I was."

"Castle..." Kate's warning died on her lips when she opened the door and saw the note stuck to it. "What is that?"

Castle gulped and peeked outside the room but, obviously, everyone had chosen that precise moment to make themselves scarce. "Nothing."

Kate glared at the man before shoving the note in his face. "Sleeping Beckett in there, enter at your own risk?"

"That's Esposito's writing, not mine." Castle innocently omitted to inform her of the picture he had taken as well. "Come on, I'll go get us coffees. Ours must be cold by now."

"Oh. Oh, Castle I'm sorry about your coffee...so I guess that one doesn't count, huh?" Kate asked but there was a slight oddness to her tone, and Castle caught it immediately.

"Yes, yes and that's too bad. But that one didn't count anyway."

Kate glanced up to him innocently, her eyes wide and curious. "Why?"

"Don't you think I don't know what you did there," he said in a low voice and Kate tensed when the man stepped closer until he body was almost glued to hers. "Tomorrow morning I want another coffee, and this time put the real number on it. Unless you're scared of two little digits?" he teased her as his hand brushed against her lower back and ran down her hip into a place it never went before.

Castle took his hand back before Kate realized exactly what he had done and left in search of fresh coffee, but not before turning around and making out the number with his fingers, a daring smirk on his face.

Kate stood outside the break room, a stunned look on her face, blushing a deep tone of red while her hand unconsciously moving to where Castle's hand had been, a small but wicked smile crept on her face as she watched him go.